Stiiilllll Gestating

Well, the bun is still in the oven...4 days late so far.  This of course comes as no surprise, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's all peachy.  I was hoping I'd get lucky like my sister Amy, whose girls came on or just after their due dates.  But alas, I am following the more usual pattern of the family and going later and later...

I suppose it's working out for the best though.  Jeremy had his last day of class yesterday and just has 2 finals left to do this week, so it's nice for him to be able to focus just on that.  And my mom was supposed to come yesterday, but Southwest told her on Monday that her flight might not be able to make it because of bad weather in Chicago (where her layover was), so they were offering to let her change her flight at no additional cost for anytime in the next 14 days.  Pretty awesome!  Of course I was super sad because I've been just trying to make it until she got here and then I knew I'd have her around to keep me cheery, but it really is nice that she can just book it for whenever.  (Poor Eli cried and cried because we've been counting down the days until Grandma came. :( I felt his pain).

ANYWAY, so that's the latest.  I was happy to be at church on Sunday for our Ward Conference.  My ward choir really came together and sang awesome!  I was so pleased.  And the boys have been really fun lately.  Jeremy and Eli played hide and seek about 50 times this last weekend.  Jeremy would make him count higher and higher every time and now he can count to 100 and Connor blew us away by all of a sudden busting out numbers 1-14.  I guess he was paying attention!  It was pretty cute.  He's never counted past 2 before. :)  He keeps missing 7, but I still think it's pretty darn good.  I managed to get a video yesterday when we convinced him to do it again:

He's really becoming a great talker.  He picks up on so much, often busting out random things like, "Nice to meet you" and his most recent - calling Eli "Eli George Nowland!" when he's trying to get his attention. Haha.  It's pretty funny.

They've both also been very into books lately.  I guess since it's horrid weather all the time we've been going to the library a lot and reading a LOT of books, which is great!  When my voice gets tired, they both have fun just sitting on the couch or floor "reading" to themselves.  Eli has several of our books memorized too, and loves to read them to Connor.  Here's a cute video of Eli "reading" "The Foot Book":

So there's the news!  I'm starting to run out of ways to distract myself, but I'm working on it...oh, and I forgot to mention that Jeremy and I got to go on a date last weekend!  This seems to only happen quarterly :) so we were very excited.  My friend Mary insisted on babysitting for us so we could go out before the baby came.  We were VERY grateful and had a wonderful time.  We went to dinner at this awesome Lebanese restaurant and then went and got dessert.  It was heaven!

Baby Shower and Other Thoughts

A couple weeks ago some wonderful friends of mine threw me a baby shower.  It was so fun!  I was feeling silly to have a shower with my third, but as it got closer I was really looking forward to it and it was really fun!  I got so many cute girly things and it made me really excited to put our little girl in them!  My friend Mary hosted it and did most of the food, Sabrina did decorations and some food, and Juli and Bridget brought food too.  I felt very loved!

Here are some pictures...

Yea!  Like I said, it was so fun.  I think there were about 15 people there, and the food was delicious and it was so nice just to hang out with the ladies and have a good time.  Thank you friends!

In other news, I'm just 2 days away from my due date!  I keep going in waves of feeling ready and not.  Last week I was really ready, but then on Sunday reality started setting in and I thought it might be okay to have another week or so. :)  As exhausting as it is to be 9 months pregnant, I know it's even more so to have a newborn.  Today I feel like I really am ready though.  I've been keeping the house super clean, the gear is all out, the baby clothes are washed and put away, I got my hair cut this week, and my freezer is stocked with all sorts of homemade goods: 3 meals, 4 loaves of bread, muffins, waffles, lara bars, cookies, and a few other odds and ends (I've been busy!).  I am supposed to be directing the choir to sing in church on Sunday for Ward Conference, so I suppose it'd be good if I was there for that...and Jeremy has 2 days of school left and then 2 days of finals, but, you know, whatever. :)

Anyway, we are VERY excited to welcome our little girl into the world.  Eli asks everyday if she's coming and Jeremy gets excited every time I have a contraction, which lately is about 20 times a day!  I hope that means the time is drawing near.  We'll keep everyone posted!

Valentine's Day and Single Digits

My sweet snuggle-bugs.

Happy Valentine's Day!  As silly as this holiday is, I do like an excuse for spoiling my three guys with even more love.  Eli has been so excited all week - I'm not sure why exactly - but he keeps shouting out, "Happy Valentine's Day!"  It's been a good one so far.  I had a prenatal appointment early this morning and came home to Jeremy making delicious french toast which we ate with some fresh berries I splurged on (they were actually on sale believe it or not).  It was so tasty.  Then the boys and I went to a birthday party for one of their friends, and I've got a tasty dinner on the menu for tonight (and plans for an early bedtime for the kids!).  Should be great!

Today also marks 9 days until this baby girl's due date!  Single digits!  Of course she very well may not come for another 3 weeks, but I'm just hoping and praying it's this month at least.  I've had March in my head all along so I wouldn't be disappointed, but at the same time I'd love her to come sooner!  I've put off even thinking about things like packing a hospital bag and what not, but after talking to my mother-in-law yesterday about her crazy 1.5 hour labor with her third baby, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get a few things together. :)  

I also decided to get my cervix checked this morning.  I had declined a couple weeks ago, because I figured "what's the diff?", but I was curious, so here it is: I am dilated to a 2, 70% effaced, and at a -1 station.  That means she's movin' down and gettin' ready.  SO...would you like to make a prediction?  I'll give you a virtual high-five if you guess right. :)  I'm due February 23rd and actually feel very confident about that being an accurate due date.  Eli was induced 10 days late (9 lb. 3 oz.), Connor 1 day late (7 lbs. 8 oz.), but there will be no inductions this time unless she goes more than 2-3 weeks over (or there's some kind of emergency of course), but I really hope it doesn't come down to that. 

So - when do you think she's coming?  How long will my labor be? How big will she be?  Please be kind. :)  And have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Not much happening here...

I've been feeling like I should blog, but really, there hasn't been anything to blog about.  It's still cold, Jeremy's still in school, I'm still pregnant, the boys are still adorable, etc. etc.

I guess the most exciting thing that happened was that last Tuesday, we got a fluke super warm day in between below freezing weeks and it was over 60 degrees and we went to the zoo!  It was amazing.  It felt so good to walk around outside without being bundled and feeling totally warm and wonderful.  It was great for the kids too.  This week it's already Wednesday and we haven't left the house once...bleh.

But things should be picking up.  I have a midwife appointment today (I'm 37.5 weeks!) so that will get us out of the house and then tomorrow night some dear sweet friends of mine are giving me a baby shower. :)  I feel totally spoiled, this being my 3rd kid and all, but it should be fun.  I'm excited to see all the cute girlie things!  And to get out of the house and have some woman bonding time.

Other than that, things are just pretty normal.  I've been cooking a lot lately - trying out new recipes while I have the time and [somewhat] energy.  Just this week I've made homemade wheat thins, hummus, lara bars, oatmeal muffins, potato leek soup, ham and broccoli quinoa bites, and blondies.  Yikes!  I've been making a lot of things for the freezer too - trying to stock up and get ready!  Oh, and the crazy boys went and played in the snow again yesterday.  Our warm spell melted all the snow last week, but a couple days later it started snowing again, and it's hardly stopped since, so we had plenty of snow to play in.  I made some yummy hot chocolate to welcome them back inside when they were done. :)

 This kid has been LOVING the snow.  Not sure where that came from...

 What a good helper. :)

 Oh, and we've been getting some baby stuff out - Connor thought this looked like a good reading chair. :)

 Yum!!  I felt pretty "legit", as my brother-in-law would say, making my own crackers.  It was too fun.

So my mom comes 3 weeks from yesterday, which means I'm really hoping to have this baby 3 weeks from today!  Wouldn't that be nice? :)  We'll see what happens...