Halloween Fun

Grace at her Kindergarten Halloween Parade. Bad pic, but had to include the kid sitting next to her.

My Cowgirl

Cheetah Girl (Grace's creation of course) We were all supposed to be cowboy/cowgirls... and I was the cow. However, only Kate ended up wearing her costume.

The king and his unruly son

Our Halloween party had to include the mysterious pumpkin juice with dry ice fog effect.

Another excuse for sugar cookies

My helper

Side note: My cute Kate was recently telling the babysitter to come to her room to see the big goose. They went upstairs and she exclaimed "There it is! Ahhhh!" They proceeded to her closet to see another "goose". We were perplexed until she said "The gooses go wuhooooooo!" Oh, Ghosts!

Towers

Try to find the repeating theme

In Jake's own words "I build my towers!"

Oldies but Goodies

Posting these pics from July when it's December is really bumming me out. I miss Summer. Here are my kids with some neighbor friends eating frozen gogurts on my favorite purchase, our kid size picnic table. Good times!

Jake dressed to the nines while directing cement truck traffic

Dressing up just for fun

 Say "cheese" means pick your nose

Or cry

Superheroes!

What started out as snowflakes turned into superhero masks

Kindergarten

Grace was so excited to start school and ride the bus. She didn't hesitate, and I didn't have time to get sappy because Kate was throwing a big fit. She wanted to ride the bus too.

Grace started gymnastics and loves it. I got her this cake to celebrate her big day. Her day was even more eventful when she lost her third tooth. It was loose so Chad tied floss around it and wanted to attach it to a door knob. Grace wasn't having that. He convinced her to keep the floss on and just play with it herself. Kate walked by, saw the floss dangling and without hesitation pulled it. So funny! Grace was pretty sad, but once she remembered the tooth fairy she cheered right up.

Welcome home Lia

August 24th, 6lbs, 12 oz, 19 in

I was induced. I got a call from the hospital at 5AM asking for us to arrive at 6. I got on the pitocin at 7:45 and had her at 2:45. I got an epidural when I was only dilated to a 2. I felt lame, but the contractions were starting to be more intense and closer than 3 minutes apart. I learned from Jake's induction that how far I'm dilated does not correlate with how hard the contractions are. Once I got the epidural they broke my water. I went from a 2 to a 10 in 2 hours. No pushing again. I'm so happy that she has arrived. She's a good baby and eats and sleeps like a healthy newborn. I'm tired, but all is well. Chad is a big help, and I love that he works from home...although I'm not sure he likes it.

Grace loves Lia and helps me out a lot. She is in afternoon kindergarten so in the morning I have all 4 at home (3 under 3). In the afternoon Grace goes to school, Jake and Kate nap, and so far Lia sleeps some too. It's heaven! Jake and Kate ignore Lia for the most part. They held her once and Lia flailed her arms around and they both whined and said she was hitting them. They love to put their head in her face and say "hi" and they love to chat with me while I feed Lia. They have adjusted well. Did I mention I have a full stock of popsicles, suckers and gum :)

2 more weeks

My doctor asked if I'd like to schedule an induction for Aug 24th. I'm due Aug 30th. I had told myself prior to this that I wanted to go into labor on my own. I did that with the girls and things went smoother and were less painful than with Jake's induced birth. However; I immediately answered "YES!" Now I know when I can finally meet this baby, and that I can be home for Grace's first day of kindergarten. I also feel like Chad and I know that these will be the last 2 weeks I will ever be pregnant again...ever. It's exciting but also bittersweet. It took us nearly 4 years of trying and the help of fertility for Grace to arrive. We had been married for 9 years and the bonus was that we traveled and built a home together. When Grace arrived we felt complete.

Kate arrived about 3 years later, with a little fertility help, and I felt so blessed to have 2 healthy girls and to have had the experience of being pregnant and seeing what a little Chad/Angie would be like. Then Jake surprised us just a few months later. I was able to tell Chad on April 1st, 2009. This was a shock for Chad, but I was so happy. After 12 years of marriage we finally conceived on our own. The fact that Jake was a boy was the icing on the cake. When he arrived 2 days after Kate turned 1, I realized our lives were completely changed and the chaos began. My body had also changed. I welcomed back fat, varicose veins, ingrown toenails, stretch marks, sagging everything. I was worn out and tired... and very happy.

The decision to brave pregnancy again was less of a decision and more of a gamble. A gamble I felt was a safe bet. We thought 3 kids was perfect. It had been a year since Jake arrived and we were starting to think how nice a future would be without diapers, interrupted sleep, veggie baby food, spit up. I was thinking how nice it would be to lose those last 10 pounds and start enjoying bike rides, tennis, hiking, dare I say free time. Then our answer came on January 1st in the form of a positive pregnancy test. Wow. Our plan to just see what happens in the next year hadn't even started. Every Mom has her own story. I never thought mine would include being pregnant 3 out of the last 4 years. I'm excited to start the next chapter but appreciate the journey.

Hope my next labor goes as well as the others. My last two were each 6-7 hours long once I arrived at the hospital. Most importantly I hope she's healthy. We are trying to decide on a name. The top choices are Leah, Claire, or Faith.