Accomplishment

I have got my hospital bag 85% packed!!! So proud of myself! Now all I have to do is get those last minute things together when it is time! Now it's time to wait... patiently!

My Reflection

As the final five weeks of (most likely) my last pregnancy tick by quickly I find that I have mixed emotions! I'm happy and sad! Maybe it's just the hormones. I am thrilled to meet Aubree and finally see what she looks like. Will she have the dark curls like Anderson had, or will she be a blondie/blue eyed version of Grayson? I am so anxious to find out and to hold her! On the other hand since this is my last pregnancy, I find that I'm also a little sad! I just LOVE being pregnant! Don't get me wrong, I don't love the weight gain or the aches and pains that I'm now experiencing, but overall I just love the feeling of being pregnant. I love the fact that I can grow a baby in my body and be the one that brings that sweet baby into the world. It's just an empowering feeling. I love to feel her move inside my tummy and after having three live in there I'm still amazed at how it all works and what a gift that God has given me and Brandon. Sometimes at night I'll just lay there and watch her swim in my belly and quesiton why God chose me to give three wonderful children to. How am I this lucky? What have I done to deserve such a wonderful life? It just makes me sad that I will never have another one grow in there. But then I think of how full our family will be and what our future holds. As if we are not busy right now, we will be much busier in the coming years with school and extra activites. Our lives will be full.
And then I think about the numerous people in my life that are stuggling with infertility and I can't help but question why God won't give them another chance at giving a child or another child love. It baffles me. I pray each day that he decides to give each one of them another gift. So I can't be too sad since I know how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to have three children and I'm just so thankful that he chose me to be the mommy to Anderson, Grayson and little Aubree! I hope I can live up to his expectations!

Could He Possilby Know???

Grayson is just too smart to talk I've decided! That has to be it, since he is still not speaking.. except for some version of the word BOOM on Monday night as we watched the All Star Homerun Derby! Well, is he smart enough to know what kind of clothes he likes??? For those of you who know me well, know that I love to dress the kids up in "Fru Fru" outfits as long as they are still young enough. I am a sucker for any "Jon Jon" that I see!! Let's just say everytime I try to put one on him he pitches a FIT!!!!!! A total all out FIT!!! I guess he is trying to tell me that he doesn't want to look fancy! Thank goodness I'm finally getting a girl.. which I'm sure when she gets an opnion will want to wear anything other than fancy dress up clothes! Maybe I'll just get a doll!

My Baby Shower and Belly Pictures

Mom decided a few months ago that she wanted to throw me a small baby shower so I could celebrate the fact that I'm having a girl! I took her up on the offer and it turned out really nice! She did a great job with everything and I really appreciate all of her hard work and everyone that attended and brought a goodie for Aubree!! We got so many needed things such as diapers, wipes, pacis, clothes, bibs, towels, gift cards, bouncy seat (since the one we had with the boys has seen better days) etc.! I feel much more prepared for her arrival now. Below are some pictures from Sunday.



Anderson decided to join in on the fun and open some gifts for Aubree. He wants her to be here so bad so she can use everything. His patience is running out.


Of course all of the gifts were my favorite, but this dress that mom bought is one of my very favorites. I just had to share it! It will look SOOOOO cute on her next summer!

Some of the goodies from the shower.





On to my ever growing belly! Mom took these pictures on Monday, while I looked half way decent, so they are 33 1/2 weeks shots. I had my ob appt. today and to my suprise I only gained two pounds in the last three weeks... I WAS SO EXCITED!!! And very proud of myself. My doctor did confirm that she is head down at the moment, so I'm hoping she stays that way! At the moment her little feet are digging into my ribs. I go back in two weeks to have my group B strep test done and get checked to see if I'm making any progress. It is getting down to the wire now. Brandon and I are both starting to nest and hopefully will have the house and boys ready for when Aubree decides to make her apperance!

Aubree's Room... Finally!!!!

Her room is pretty much done! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out even though we didn't paint the walls it transformed into a very girly girl room!




We decided to not do crib bumpers this time since I took them out of the boys' beds as soon as they could roll over. I didn't think they were necessary! We made a crib skirt out of the paisley material.

My attempt at wall art!

I made her a bow holder. I saw one online that was very pricey and decided it would only take a trip to Michael's to whip one of those up. I thought it turned out really cute.

Gretchen's Baby Shower

I'm a little behind, but here are pictures from my good friend Gretchen's baby shower last Saturday. She is due on August 22nd with her first little one. They are keeping it a suprise and didn't find out what the baby is. She got lots of good stuff for baby Collum and we had a little fun comparing our bellies!!! She is all belly and I am all everything!!! :)

Doing the Happy Dance

I am three grad school hours smarter!!!! Yeah. I took my exam tonight and finished up my grad school course! I am so excited not to have that to worry about now! I have not whined in my blogging life, but in real life I have whined a lot about how much work it was. I apoligize to anyone that had to listen to me!! In retrospect, it wasn't that bad and I did learn a lot. A lot of what I wish I would have known before being a teacher for three years. It was good stimulation for my brain...which only took about 3 or 4 days to start working again! Now I can focus on getting the things done for Aubree's arrival.
While walking to class tonight to take my exam, I just had this feeling like Aubree was about to come on out and I started to panic. I can just tell my body is getting geared up for her arrival and I am no where near ready. I have tons of things done that aren't necessarily needed right away and have nothing done that IS needed right away. Her room is almost done and she has WAY lots of clothes up to 18 months! She won't be even sleeping in there to start with anyway! I don't have her carseat ready, the bouncy seat and swing need to be found in the attic and cleaned up and I don't have one diaper for her to wear...don't have bottles for when she will need one of those either. I threw away all of my avent ones, because of the whole BPA thing and still haven't decided which ones I am going to go with yet. I am not ready, but now I have a little time to get ready since I don't have my class to constantly think about. Stay tuned for pictures of Aubree's room that I will get posted once I can get all of the boy's bathroom stuff out of there (we are currently tiling the bathroom and Brandon likes to stretch projects out a little..)! The happy dance continues!