We are Having a Baby!!

So.... I realized about a month ago that I never let my far away friends know that I was having a baby! And this became even more obvious when I posted a pregnancy picture on my last blog. What I am a little embarrassed about is....what where you thinking of me in the picture at the lake where I was driving the boat. I look totally prego in that picture. I guess you just figured I was gaining some weight. LOL

Anywho....Steve and I had decided that we wanted to try one more time for a girl. In all honesty, I never got to the point that I was really ready for another baby. But, Steve really wanted to try again and I figured I could handle it, so we tried and sure enough after a couple months, I was pregnant. Because I was never sure of the decision, I have had some real issues during this pregnancy. With all the other boys, as soon as the baby was out I knew I would have another, but that wasn't the case with Brandon. And in this world 5 is a LOT of kids. So, with me not being sure I was ready for this and then having to take on the comments I would get for having 5 kids I was very self conscious. Which would probably explain the lack of information on facebook. I didn't wear maternity clothes until about a month ago, and I just never really talked about the pregnancy.

Well, here are the facts. I am due Jan 22nd 2011. I am 7 months pregnant. And I am having a BOY!! Surprise Surprise.

{This was taken before the temple last Saturday morning}

Now that I really can't hide the pregnancy anymore since I am in my 3rd trimester and I have 9lbs boys, I have finally come to terms with a fifth child and am getting excited. The boys are excited too, now that the evidence is more clear that there is a baby in my stomach. I also got an ultrasound DVD that I brought home for them to watch and they thought that was pretty cool. I plan on taking them on a tour of a hospital this Sunday just to let them feel a part of it. I am getting VERY excited to have a baby again. I love, love, love my babies. They are so good and they sleep wonderfully right there in my bed with me, and they eat good and are so adorable. I have always said that kids don't get hard until they learn to talk and give you there opinions. That is when the real challenge comes. Babies are just pure joy.

I am a little concerned with my crazy schedule with another little one, but I will have to make it work. I am currently the Tiger Cub den leader for our community, and we meet every Monday night, and I am the Young Womens President at church and we meet every Wed. night. Steve is also working full time with a one hour commute to and from work and is going full time to Georgia Southern, a university in our area, and he has classes every evening. On top of that, I like the boys to do sports so we had Steven in football for the past couple of months which meets every Tues and Thurs and sometimes on Sat. I am taking the winter off for sports, but they are all asking to play in the spring. I am not sure that is possible to be at baseball for Steven, and two different soccer games for Nathan and Jacob with Brandon and baby in tow and Steve at school. I will have to figure that one out.

K, one more thing about the baby. I have no idea what to name him. I realized recently that I have named my boys in backwards alphabetical order Steven, Nathan, Jacob, and Brandon. Which would mean I should name this baby an "A" name. I just can't decide if I love any of the names we have thought of. My wise friend tells me, don't stress about about the alphabetical thing and name the baby whatever I want. Which, I do love that advice, but there are no names that I love at this point. So, if anyone wants to give me their two cents in that area, I will take it. :-)

Birthday Week

So, as you all know, I turned 34 last Wednesday. I had a great birthday and it is amazing how much more exciting birthdays are with facebook. Don't you think? Thanks for all of your birthday wishes.
The birthday celebrations started on Saturday when Steve and I were able to get two very good and fun babysitters for the boys and we headed off on our three hour drive to Columbia, SC to go to the temple. I made chicken salad and we had cheetos and grapes and had a nice drive and a nice lunch in the car. We were able to do a session together which doesn't happen as often as I would like it to, and then we headed back home. The babysitters were alive and happy, the boys were alive and happy, and Steve and I were rejuvenated and very grateful for the nice day. Cindy and Carina found the camera while we were gone and here are some of the fun shots they took:
Poor Cindy!

On Wed. Steve decided to work since he got Thursday off for Veterans day. The morning started off pretty rocky, but Steve called and sang Happy Birthday to me at least six times, so that was fun. That night I took the boys to Chick Fil A for dinner so I didn't have to cook and then headed to YW's. My wonderful YW had planned a little surprise party for me with cake and ice cream, ballons and streamers, chips and dip, and so on. It was so nice and it really made my day. So, we partied for half the time and practiced for Young Women in Excellence for the other half. It really was so nice. Then when I got home I had a clean house that Steve and the younger boys had worked on and they even made a chocolate marble cake.
Since Steve had the next day off we went to IHOP in the morning for my annual birthday breakfast. I got the chocolate pancakes and enjoyed them very much. Afterwards I went over to the salon for my friend to do my hair, I got a cut, color and highlights and she decided she wanted to see if she could make it straight. What do you think? I still can't get over Steve's reaction. He really thought he was seeing a whole new woman and was very excited about it. The boys even said when it gets curly again I won't be pretty anymore. How Rude!
{Here is a little pregnancy shot for you}

Well, Steve had class Thursday night so we still didn't go out to dinner and have birthday cake, which brings us to Friday. We made plans to drive to the city Steve works in to have a cheap game of bowling and spend some time together as a family. We haven't bowled since we moved back to the states, and we had a wonderful time! The boys loved it. Steve won of course, but not by much!
{This is Steven's friend Nash helping Jacob. He was with us and spent the night that night. He is such a wonderful boy.}
{Pizza while we bowled}


Then we came home to open gifts. Steve gave me {a sewing machine} which is exactly what I asked for and I love it!! No more sewing boy scout patches on by hand. And I hope to be able to learn a lot more than that on it too. Now just to find a place to put it.

Italicized words were added after Sarah's comment. Thanks Sarah! :-)

This is Halloween!

We had some great Halloween celebrations last week. Here are some pictures of them:

Last Sunday night we decided to carve our pumpkins. I knew we were taking a risk that they would stay looking nice for one whole week, and they didn't quite make it. It is still warm here, so the pumpkins were rotting and caving by Thursday. Oh well, we still did the tradition, but the pumpkins were in the trash can by Halloween. :-)

On Wed. was the ward trunk or treat. We had a marvelous time like always and Steve made some delicious chili to share with the ward.

{Playing games}

{and eating chili}
Friday was the Brooklet Pumpkin Parade. I love this parade. It is a very small parade where the kids from Brooklet Elementary get to march down main street with their class and they dress up as the characters in whatever book they chose that year. Brandon and I very much enjoyed it.

{Jacob's book was "Harry the Dirty Dog"}

{Nathan's class did "Play ball Amelia Bedelia"}

{This was another 4th grade class, but I love this book and they did a good job. At the beginning of the line some kids hold the poster so you know what book they read. }{Then the students dress like the characters of the book and the class has decorated a pumpkin like someone from the book that they pull along in a wagon}

{Steven's classes book}
{He was dressed as one of the rowdy brothers in the book}

Then Saturday was the big Trick or Treat day. Our community is just christian enough to announce on the news and in the paper, that we will trick or treat on Saturday so that we wouldn't be breaking the Sabbath. We were thrilled. The weather was perfect, and the boys went out for just over an hour with Steve driving them around in the car. I got to stay home alone and pass out candy. It was wonderful. :)

{Steve did this make up for Steven. Pretty cool huh?}
{Nathan the Ninja}
{Jacob}{Brandon the cowboy on his horse}


Now I am ready to get rid of those spiderwebs out front and put up some Thanksgiving decor!

Camping in the blue ridge "mountains"

We went camping as a family last weekend and had such a wonderful time. The boys and Steve took Friday off and we headed up past Atlanta to spend the weekend in the "mountains". The bumps that we saw once we got there, were far from mountains, but I guess to Georgians it is nice just to see the slight change in elevation. We got there Friday night and set up the tent just as the sun was going down, so that was a fun experience. We had grilled hamburgers for dinner at about 9:00pm and then we all cozied up in our huge three room tent that we bought last year. It is very nice having the whole family in one tent and still having plenty of room. As most of you know, Steve likes to camp in luxury, so both of us were on our own double thickness air mattress, and I slept very comfortably. The nights got just cold enough that you were cuddled in your sleeping bag and the days had beautiful weather.

On Saturday morning we woke up and made us some eggs in a frame. Then we headed to an apple orchard. There were lots of fun things for the kids to do, and then we picked some delicious apples off the trees on our way out.

{We went out to collect firewood first thing in the morning. Our fingers were really cold}

{success}
{On the jumping pillow}
{Steve and Steven decided to have a turkey leg for lunch}{Next, on to the petting zoo}

{Looking for the right apples}
{These are our apple treats. An apple fritter and apple pocket pie. Delish! This was right before Jacob got stung by a bee.}
{He got stung right there. The bee didn't leave his stinger in though, so he recovered quickly. }{Lastly a wagon ride through the orchard before we headed back to camp}

On Sunday morning we woke up and made more eggs in a frame. (of course) Then we did scripture study and a song with the boys. And then we headed out fishing. Our campsite was right next to Carter's Lake. Steve decided he wanted to rent a boat to fish from, so we were able to drive around the lake and play for four hours. Not much fishing went on. There seemed to be one problem after another, but we all had a wonderful time.
{Thank goodness for little boys}

Monday morning we packed up and headed home. Steve had a 5:00 class he had to be to.