News for August

So I haven't taken any pictures this week - very tired - COMPLETELY drained. Hopefully things will turn around this weekend.

Jeremy - As we speak he is in Houston. Thankfully it is just a day trip and I will get to see him tonight. He has been extremely busy at work lately. Lots of new business, he is really excited about that, but he has been having to put in a lot of extra hours at the office. The next 4 weeks are going to be somewhat challenging with #4 coming and him being out of town a lot. Tonight he has a friend coming over for dinner and to help with a few things around the house. I am looking forward to cooking for them and I haven't seen this friend of his in quite a while, since they no longer work together.

Me - Back in February I had started using the 50 Million Pound Challenge menus to simply make meal planning easier and to make sure that we were all getting plenty of veggies. I loved it and felt so energetic while we were following it. Ever since we went to Disney for a week, we have really blown it though. A couple of weeks ago when I was put on modified bed rest, we bought some packaged meals and quite a bit of processed snacks for the kids. It seemed like the easiest way to take care of the family while I was down. I have never resorted to feeding our family like this before. It feels so yuck to have that kind of food in my body, and I feel awful for giving that to my family to eat. On the bright side, I have only one Fire Roasted Veggie Lasagna left in the freezer. I am looking forward to going to the store this week and stocking up on real food! Hopefully the energy from the nutrients will kick in before this baby gets here.

Adyson - We were so blessed to be able to put her in private school last year. All summer I have prayed about what to do for kindergarten this year. I knew that having both kids in private school full time was not necessary at such a young age, and unfortunately the school she went to last year doesn't offer a half day or 2-3 days a week program. Public school was really the only other option for her, unless I was prepared to drive 20+ minutes away with all of the kids, which at this point I am not. I felt very uneasy about the public school situation, probably normal for any parents like us who went to private schools their entire life (except for the 1.5 years I homeschooled). God closed the public school door when I started having contractions a few Mondays ago. There were only 2 days to enroll her and they were that exact Monday and Tuesday - not possible while I am on bed rest. I am sure the school would have allowed her to enroll after the fact, but it was really important to me to be there that first day so I could get a feel for what the other students and parents were like that she was going to be around all year. After a lot of prayer and some checking around, I have come to a decision ... homeschool! Well where we live, the state actually considers homeschool a "private school." So it looks like Adyson and Landon will be getting a private school education this year and I won't have to drive in morning rush hour in order to get them there.

Landon - He is especially intrigued by my enormous belly, constantly kissing it and talking to the baby. He is convinced he can see his little sibling through my belly button. He loves feeling the baby move and often tells me that the baby is giving him high fives and such... so precious :) He is officially starting preschool this year, and loves to learn. This past week he has started something new - sleepwalking and crying. Yes, the last 3 or 4 nights he comes down around 10p and is obviously not aware he is doing it. We give him a drink and take him to bathroom, which only seems to make it worse. It is so hard to console him and makes us sad when we can't. So we take him back to bed and he seems fine then. Of course, he remembers nothing the next day. After a little research, it looks like he could just be overly tired. So tonight I am going to put him down an hour earlier to see if that helps the situation.

Hudson - Last week he finally started walking more, and now he is choosing to walk vs. crawl about 75% of the time. He is cutting all 4 of his eye teeth right now, and is requiring extra sleep. He traded rooms with Ady this week in preparation for the new baby. Previously, his crib was in the guest room, but now we have moved it to what was Ady's room. Adyson has taken over the guest room, because she has been begging for a big bed. I plan to still use it for guests and she can sleep in the twin bed in Hudson's room when we have company. On a different note, we have been giving Hud soy milk and almond butter instead of the traditional versions. It seems that between these two changes and using Noxzema on his legs, the eczema has really cleared up. I apply about 3 times a day and I am amazed at the results. I think the soy and almond change has a lot to do with it. And did you know that Noxzema was actually named after "no eczema?" Interesting, huh?

Baby 4 - Still no name yet. Any suggestions welcome! I'm doing as much as I can to take it easy. Even though it's due Sept. 19, the midwives said it is okay for it to come as early as Aug 22nd. I have contractions when I do more than a few little things at a time, so I am fully expecting for it to come early. A few weeks back, effacement was already occuring so it shouldn't take much to get my body in labor. We are hoping to be holding this new little one over labor day weekend, and it has nothing to do with "labor" day. It just looks like Jeremy may be in town for about 5 days straight over that period and we would love to have that much time together as a family before he heads back out of town.