Birthdays and a potential birthday :)

 Hi!  October has been a busy month for us and always will be I think! :) We started off the month with Addison, Emily, and Hailey's 7th birthdays!  They are truly getting SO big.  I just can't believe how fast time goes.  They are loving 1st grade.  Addison even says "Mom the weekends take SOOOO long.." :)  She is quite the bookworm and loves cramming ANY info into her cute brain.  She just loves learning and still loves competition and following the rules.  She is a little leader and always willing to help me with anything around the house.  She is such a light.  I love you Addison!!

 Em - Em continues to crack me up.  She is hard to explain sometimes but she has this like lower voice or sarcastic tone or something about her.  She is so matter of fact and down to earth.  She loves being comfy and playing house with her sisters.  Em also loves school and especially loves learning Spanish this year! She is such a joy and so much fun.  I love you Emily!!!

Hailey continues to be my little fashionista.  She loves her skinny jeans (impossible to get her to wear anything else) and definitely knows what she likes and doesn't like as far as clothes go.  :)  She LOVES playing school with her sisters too and continues to love to organize and carry things around the house in a million purses or backpacks.  Just the other day she said "Mom where is a good place to set up my apartment and when can I get a cell phone?"  She is growing up TOO fast.  She also loves school and is such a sweetheart.  I love you so much Hailey Grace!

 I didn't take many pics of the girls opening their presents this year but some fave 7 year old things are new outfits for their American girl dolls, acoustic guitars, new bikes, journals, the classic game Mancala, etc. etc.  :)
 
For their birthday, I went into school three separate times to celebrate each of them.  The tradition in 1st grade is that the kids draw a big poster of the birthday kid and then they spend some time raising their hands and writing what is special about the birthday kid.  Well since doing three of those all in a row would get a little tiring for 1st graders, we split it up and I went in in the morning, then before lunch, and before the end of the day. :)  It was so cute hearing what their friends said about them.

 Singing to Hailey

 After each little celebration they got to  play a few rounds of heads up 7 up.  Classic!

 Singing to Em

 Then they had their birthday party after school at a trampoline park with all the 1st grade girls.  It was CRAZY!  Ryan and I were like over stimulated by all the squeals and hyper-ness and giggles and 1st grade humor.  It was hilarious and so fun to see them interact with all of their friends.  :)

 Singing to Hailey (as Em tries to get in on blowing out Hailey's candles)

 This room was a little small for ALL the craziness! :)

Then the next weekend we celebrated Ryan's birthday which was much more low key but so nice to go out on a date! :)
And THEN...we THOUGHT baby girl was going to arrive last Thursday night!  Here's the scoop.  So I went in for my 38 week appt...

and found out I was 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced (woohoo!) Then that night around 7 I started contracting regularly like 10 minutes apart.  They weren't too painful or anything but the first time they were actually regular! So I started paying attention....they were then 7-8 minutes apart regularly until about midnight.  So we decided to go into the hospital since my Dr. said to go in if contractions were 7 minutes apart for over an hour.  So my mother in law came over to stay with the girls (THANK YOU!). When I got to the hospital, they were 5-6 minutes apart but when the nurse checked me I was still 3 cm.  So they let me just contract for 2 hours to see if any progress could be made.  My contractions went to 2-4 minutes...and then at 3 a.m. they checked me again and STILL only 3 cm!  What the world?!  So they wanted to send me home but I started to cry with the sounds of that because if I went home, how would I know when to come back?  When they were 1 minute apart and her head was out?!  I was so confused!  Plus I have this new fear of having a baby in the car like my sister in law did...and my mom specifically told me don't let them send you home (because I have a high school friend who was sent home and had her TWINS at home 2 hours later!)  EEK!  So I was freakin' out.  They let me ride out more contractions for another hour just to be sure.  And sure enough, NO change again!  So confused!  So we headed home then at 4:30 in the morning...I couldn't sleep the rest of the night because I was still contracting every 5 minutes...and then the girls were up for school.  I went back to bed around 8:30 a.m. and thankfully the contractions stopped at 10 a.m.  So now I'm just back to normal braxton hicks contractions that I've had the whole pregnancy.  And I've been very hormonal and frustrated and confused about what was going on with this baby girl!  They said they would have induced me but since I want to have a vaginal birth after a c-section, inducing isn't a great idea so I had to go home.  :(  My Dr. was out of town anyway that weekend so maybe baby is waiting for him.  I have no idea.  :) I just felt so rejected and also felt so dumb and so bad for inconveniencing my mother in law and Ryan too (he changed all his work meetings and everything thinking this was the real deal).  How in the world are you supposed to know?  I'm clueless!  When I had the girls it was so nice because I went in for my appt and the Dr. was like, you are contracting, to the hospital you go!  And then I had them 24 hours later!
I would really love to see what a normal birth is like....but we have a c section scheduled for the 30th if she hasn't arrived by then.  I am just dying to hold her in my arms and the excitement and anticipation is killing me!  This little girl has been wanted/prayed for/and waited for for over 5 years!!!!  That's a long time to wait so now that it's so close it's like a tease!!  Ahh! :)  Prayers for patience and a healthy baby, smooth delivery, and peace of mind for me would be so appreciated.  Thanks everyone!  Here's my before-I-knew-it-was-a-false-alarm pic :) Oh dear.

Meeting cute Kenton!!

Check out my adorable nephew Kenton James!!!  I was SOOO thrilled to be able to go and visit my sister and this little guy a few weeks ago!  He was supposed to only be 5 days old when I got there...but he was actually 6 weeks old!  It was torture to wait that long to get out there but it was so nice he was home from the hospital now and my sis and I could just snuggle him all day.  He really is so stinkin' cute and I LOVE seeing my little sis as a mom.  She is GREAT!!  We pretty much just sat and talked and snuggled the whole time I was there!  We managed to venture out on a few shopping trips as well..and I also got to see the rest of my fam so that was a bonus too! :) 

Here is Kenny babes snugglin' with his cousin.  It was so crazy cuz when I'd lay him on me like this, my baby girl would move and kick a bunch!  Can't wait for them to actually meet and play together!!!  

I don't think she loves him one bit.  :)  Haha!  

Cute sis even made me a little welcome sign in the guest room. :) 

 LOVE HOLDING HIM!!!  

 Boy clothes kill me!  Little suspenders! :)

Here I am at 33 weeks with my sis.  Crazy that now I'm 35 weeks and that's when Kenton was born!!

Little update on baby girl -  I am feeling great for the most part!  Sometimes I don't feel pregnant except for the fact that she is super crazy lady in my belly!  She is VERY active and will wake me up multiple times in the night already. :)  Sometimes I don't know if she's still at all the WHOLE day.  My doctor says my lining is probably really thin from being stretched out with the girls and so I do feel everything!  I LOVE feeling her move!  There really is nothing like it...and yet I wonder if she's going to be this active when she's born!  We'll see!  Guess she does have three older sisters to keep up with!  I do have quite a bit of Braxton Hicks contractions which I didn't have (or didn't know I was having) with the girls.  Usually a few every day...and then like once a week I have a "rougher" day where I have a lot of contractions in a row that don't make me feel the best and then I get anxiety thinking she's going to come or something but then they always die down.  Thankfully!  Otherwise I feel good and love being prego!  I'm trying to savor every minute!  So I'm due October 28...going to attempt a VBAC unless she's breech or humungous or late (I can't be induced).  So....I'm just so curious and excited for when and how she will arrive!  The girls' bday is the 3rd, Ryan's the 11th....and once we get through their birthdays I will be ready to go anytime! :)  I feel like the 22nd would be a great day to have her...but it will probably be any day OTHER than that day.  Haha.  :)  I just can't get over how much I love this little one already.  In some ways I feel like she is my first just because there has been a 7 year gap and because there is so much that I didn't do with that girls that I can do with her!  And we might be in trouble since I find myself saying "I could never buy THREE of those..but just ONE is fine! :)"  Uh oh! :)

The other day I started prepping the girls that it's getting closer to the end and one day they could come home from school and I won't be here because I'll be in the hospital or they'll wake up and I won't be here..etc.. As I said that, Emily got a huge smile on her face and like tears in her eyes from PURE excitement.  Like I said, this little girl is LOVED SO MUCH! 

30 week pics/1st grade/and Babymoon!

Can't keep up with posting these days so this is just a hodge podge of pics! :)

Here I am at 30 weeks (I'm 32 now)... but I had to take this pic because I remember that the pic below it was when I was 30 weeks with the triplets and the last pic I have of me being prego with them as I had them a few days later!  I definitely feel smaller this time around and I'm so thankful I'm to 32 weeks now which was the end goal for the girlies!  So excited to meet this little one!  

My babies started 1st grade already!  Time is just FLYING!  And they are looking and acting SO big!  They were so excited to go to school again and are loving it!  This year was an easier adjustment for me than last year!

My Addy girl

 Em...

 Hailey - her splint comes off tomorrow!  Woohoo!

 Then....my amazing hubby works hard for a great company that gives any employee who works there for 10 years a 2 month paid sabbatical.  Wha - what you say?!  Yeah!  We can't believe it either!  But believe me we've been thinking and planning this trip since the day he got the job! :)  (Well actually we were planning on going on a Mediterranean Cruise but then God had better plans for me to get prego instead so I'll take that!) So....we decided to go on a baby moon instead!  So..the girlies headed off to first grade and we headed off to the East Coast for a week!  Thanks SOO much to my great in-laws for their willingness to watch the girls!  Here we are on Marconi Beach in Cape Cod.  BEAUTIFUL!  Cape Cod was super relaxing and quaint and just perfect. We checked out Provincetown and drove all around the Cape...it was a great start to the trip!

 Then we headed to Boston but on our way we stopped in Plymouth to see the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock and tour a little Pilgrim museum.  It was interesting!

 And yep! It's a rock! :)

 Then we got to Boston and ate a lot of great Italian food....we also checked out Harvard which was more like a city than a college to us!  Couldn't believe all the people there and we were amazed by it all!  Here's my Harvard catch. :)

We did a Duck tour which was pretty entertaining and educational too.  :)  All over Boston...I'd recommend it if you ever go!  Saw all sorts of historical stuff!

 Top of the Hub for some A/C :) and dessert - beautiful amazing city!

 Then we took the train to New York City!  I've never been there before!  And wow!  Quite the chaos there!  Couldn't believe all the taxi's and how different my life is compared to the people who live there!  It made me appreciate my kind of chaos at home with kiddos more so than the chaos of the big city.  I definitely couldn't live there but it was really fun to visit!! Our view of Time Square from our hotel...

 We checked out Rockefeller Center and the Today Show

 We took a ferry ride out to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island...and here is a pic of the Freedom Tower...

 God Bless America!  Felt so blessed and proud to be a part of our great country!

 Ryan was pumped to see the Bull....

 and I was pumped to pose with my friend George Washington (We have the same birthday) :)

 The Freedom Tower again...this time from the Memorial site...

 One of the two pools symbolizing where the 2 trade center towers fell...

 One of the things anyone who goes to NYC should do would be to go through the new 9/11 Museum.  It is incredible all of the things they have in there and quite the amazing tribute to the people that died...we were in there for 4 hours and could have stayed even longer.  It was so interesting and just unbelievable.  You can hear phone calls of people calling their families from the plane...and you can see SOOO much stuff found in the rubble...and I can't even explain it all.  You just gotta go.  You can't take pics in most areas but they did let you take a few pics of some stuff.  This was the last tower standing from the World Trade Center so all the relatives of the deceased left notes on it and stuff...all so  unbelievable.  Highly recommend checking it out!

 We also visited the Live with Kelly and Michael show!  It was hilarious and so much fun to be at a live show!

Blake Shelton even came as a surprise guest and I'm a big fan so that was fun to hear a couple songs!! :)

Then we headed over to Central Park.  It was 91 degrees and HUMID.  But SUCH a beautiful park and I have done a record amount of walking!! :)

Then our last night we hit up the Phantom of the Opera.  Great show with a great man!  Love you Ry!!