What We've been up to the past few months

October

WOW! Tomorrow is the final day of October...well, by the time I finish this post it may already be November, Where has the time gone?

The coughing epidemic of 2010 hit the household at the end of August and everyone got about a 3 week turn. Eric was the last to be hit ended up spending the past two weeks (so far) at home with us...recovering from a respiratory infection that turned to pneumonia. For the final hurrah the kids each graced us with "the 6 days of puking" One after the other each one taking a one day turn (which is much better than all at once, especially since we only have one bathroom)! We plan to start the new month in health and keep it that way! Okay, Okay..even with all that sickness, we still had some wonderful times throughout the month...the devil may try to slow us down but he will never knock us out!

At the beginning of the month Grandma and Crappaw took all of us and Aunt Sara, Uncle Will and Josie for a day out at the Woolaroc Museum. It was such a beautiful day and we really had a nice time. We went on a little one mile hike...Clayt walked the whole way and wanted to do it all by himself! We had a great picnic lunch and the kids played on the playground and visited the small petting zoo...and I think there was a speed tour through the museum Crappaw guiding so you can only imagine if you know him! I, on the other hand, held down the picnic blanket and took a little rest.


A few weeks later we met Aunt Sara, Grandma and Josie out at the pumpkin patch and picked out punkins to carve and played in all the various set ups they had for the little ones. Clayt had a blast watching the flags flap in the wind, he thought that was the best thing ever! Who needs Jupiter jumps anyway?




We had a punkin carving "meet and greet" party with Grandma and Crappaw's new neighbors. They also have 5 kids, we got to meet 3 of them at the party Emily 12, Jacob, 10 and Andrew 6, . Libby got some nice girl talk time in with Emily...who let her know that no matter if you have brothers or sisters that they WILL be annoying sometimes...the wisdom of a 12 year old :)




And we closed out the month with a Halloween Costume Party at Grandma's house since the big kids will be trick or treating with their dad this year...We had our traditional chili dinner that we usually have the night of Halloween and Grandma planned a Mummy Wrap game which everyone enjoyed, especially the babies who played in the heaps of ripped up toilet paper after the game was over. Unfortunately, Perry and Parker were unable to make it to the party because they were still feeling kinda puny and we didn't want to pass the virus along to anyone else, so they stayed home with Dad and watched the Great Pumpkin.


Libby the Candy Corn Witch, Josie the bat, Clayt wearing the "bee" costume that Perry wore at 16months...although Daddy deemed him a "yellow jacket" and *not* a bee, and Corban is wearing the clown costume that Mama wore when she was 2! For Trick Or Treating Parker dressed up as Mario Brother and Perry wore his Ostrich Rider costume from last year
Libby and I teamed up to wrap Aunt Regina up as a mummy...we came in as the runner up!

Trick-or-Treat night we stayed home and passed out candy for the first time...I think EVER! Corban and Clayt had fun running up to the door and helping mama pass out treats...they also enjoyed having a treat (watermelon sucker) of their own!

September

Eric and I went on a weekend getaway to celebrate our 4th anniversary a little early since our newest addition is due date is a little close to the actual date. We visited Hot Springs Arkansas and stayed at a neat little place called Remember When. We rented the "Romantic Creek" cabin for 2 nights and we were the very first guests! Eric treated me to a pedicure and ice cream and maple nut fudge...yum! We had a great time walking the streets of Bath House Row, and dined at the lovely Belle Arti Italian Ristorante (yes it was that fancy...and I had an amazing Spinach and Strawberry Salad with walnuts and blue cheese crumbles (I don't think I even like blue cheese, but it was incredible!) We also enjoyed having some just us down time and did a little reading while we were away...we picked up a book from the bedside table "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus by John Gray...it is just crazy how different men and women really are from one another, but how much alike we are with our own genders! While we were away, the older kids took a trip to Montana with their dad for his wedding and a quick drive through Yellowstone on the way home with their Grammie. The baby boys stayed at Grandma Douglass' house and they had a great time (and even Grandma did too)!

AUGUST

First family vacation at Green Leaf State Park. We rented a cabin , but in the 100°+ temps the AC couldn't keep up! I guess the end of August is not the best time to go camping...even in a CABIN! We still had a good time. We prepared meals each day and hung out in the cabin during naptime. The kids did some reading. Dad brought his guitar and played for us in the evening. We spent a little time wading in the water and playing at the playground. Parker was still not over his cough (the beginning of cough fest 2010)..so we headed home early to visit the pediatrician before the weekend began.

Even with all this pink we are still TEAM BLUE!

7 weeks, 15 weeks, 21 weeks and 24 weeks...evidently the color of your maternity clothes does not help predict the gender of the baby...or maybe I should have just chose Purple...it worked the first time!

Well, even though at 10 weeks along we tried out the very cool intelligender test...which tests your urine for the gender of your baby...and the results came in G.I.R.L....but the reviews were sketchy and so it was more of a "just for fun" test. But still, very encouraging....as skeptical as I tried to be!

I don't know HOW I forgot how foggy and unclear everyone's ultrasound pictures always were when I'd see them...compared to the amazing technology that my previous OB's machine's had....but alas, I got excited and payed attention to the pricing plans compared to the number of visits allotted, I scheduled with a friend at a local "ultrasound studio" and ended up a little disappointed with the quality of our first 3 visits....the forth visit ended up producing decent results, thankfully!

Our first visit was an early one, just for a peek at our little bean. We went in at 8 weeks and saw the beating heart and a bouncing little bean of a baby.

I spent all of the early pregnancy playing the baby GIRL name game. I chatted with a couple of my online friends...since Eric wouldn't indulge me much until we knew the gender for sure. I figured I could at least enjoy playing it while it lasted. Oh what fun I had playing "NO BOYS ALLOWED"!

So Eric and I showed up for our 17 week ultrasound..which I ended up being only a 16 weeks along, I suppose I got a little ahead of myself...Well, that didn't seem to matter because our proud little bean showed HIS stuff off nice and clear...I did a pretty good job holding it together, but with every reassurance from my sweetie who was trying so hard to comfort me, I found myself getting weaker and weaker and finally burst into tears when the tech left the room for a phone call. When she returned, I could not pull it together and dry it up no matter how hard I tried...and she so sweetly reminded me that this early the parts can be rather swollen, and we'd need to double check next time we came around. Yea, I've seen boy parts 4 times before, and what we saw was pretty clear. Our FIFTH BOY was on his way!

The ride home was awful, Eric in all his proud papa-ness...couldn't wait to share the news and was just BEAMING...while I tried to muffle my tears and not steal away his joy while he made the calls (which I failed miserably at). I was so angry at myself for feeling SO disappointed. Trying to figure out how I could turn it all off and go announce the great news to my mom who stayed home with the kids....just made it all the worse! We sat in the driveway for a while and I Eric even offered to take ME out for ice cream (I had threatened that I would need it, besides, it had worked for Libby last time around...but I didn't even want any; Not even my favorite Braum's single dip, brownie, hot fudge sundae with nuts and no cherry!

Then I had to get the courage up to face the embarrassment of knowing there's no way to cover up the bawling your eyes out look on my face and come in with a smile and cheerfully announce the news to my mom...and after that I had to face telling LIBBY! I knew she was probably even more hopeful for a sister! She, by the way, took the news so much better than mama...she just threw her head back and said "oh! another one!" (or something to that effect, I am after all a mommy of 5 with preggo brain, trying to recall the exact phrase said over 17 weeks ago...but I"m pretty sure that was it) We didn't even have to take her out for ice cream, what a trooper.

Well, so the name game began...and I don't think I could fathom the enormity of the list of names we would be vetoing...I think I could write a book about it! We have been at it for 17 weeks and the only name we have for this baby is ....Johnson.

I never understood not having a name picked out in stone when the baby arrived, or waiting to see the baby to give them a name...well, looks like I may be getting a lesson on it. I've resolved it might just be they way it is going to happen for this little baby boy. I'm thankful for a homebirth knowing that we won't be pressured to pick a name during a short 2 day hospital stay. At this point I'm just hoping that we can figure it out before the beginning of 2011!

Well, our 33 week ultrasound we were joined by the family...the kids, my mom and dad, Jeanette, Regina and the girls all piled into the ultrasound room. It was verified for the 3rd time that there were, indeed, boy parts. I do admit that I started to think that just maybe the first 2 ultrasounds were wrong since we were having such a hard time with this baby naming stuff. I almost convinced myself that just maybe it was a girl and that was why we just couldn't decide. Oh well, so much for a mama's intuition, when it comes to baby's gender, evidently I have NONE! We did, get some great pictures though! He already has chubby little cheeks and had fun playing with his foot and showing off his thumb sucking skills, what a cutie!




Just this week, I finally wrote in to a baby name blog to get some brainstorming help...thinking, that just maybe with a gathering of baby naming enthusiasts they could possibly come up with a list of ideas that I hadn't thought of. Well...so far, no luck...not even anything worth mentioning! At the top of the bad name ideas...was Benedict and Geoffrey, how ironic! It was even the same person who mentioned both names, in 2 different comments! In my response I made sure to include Robert and Gregory as other related names that would be vetoed on the account of my ex-husband. So much for that great idea!

So here we are, 33 weeks pregnant with a giant "are you ready to pop yet" belly to show for it, enjoying the most comfortable pregnancy yet, thank you to seeing our new chiropractor 3 times a week for the past 10 weeks. I can still stand up and get dressed and sleep comfortably...even if changing position is a bit of a struggle, either way, both instances are an amazing feat this far along in a 6th pregnancy...but I expect to enjoy it to the end!