Cooking for the Future

As I mentioned, I am going to be making some meals that I can freeze this week, so that when I'm on bed rest and in the hospital and we have a baby in the NICU, we can still have healthy, home-cooked meals. I love the idea of spending a day cooking up a month's worth of meals, or places like Super Suppers, but honestly - who has a whole day to just cook?! I don't. And on days that I do make up a lot of things ahead of time (usually like prep for a party), the clean up is killer! Too many pans, too many ingredients, too small of a kitchen!

So my solution is that I make freezer-friendly recipes for dinner during the week. I cook dinner just like I normally would, except double the recipe. Then I cook half for that night and stick the other half in the freezer for the future.

Here is my menu for this week:

Monday - Sloppy Joe's (half the mix went in the freezer in a zip loc bag) and corn on the cob

Tuesday - Zucchini Baked Ziti (half went in an aluminum foil casserole dish in the freezer - actually this made enough for TWO freezer pans and one for tonight)

Wednesday - Beef and Barley Soup (half goes in a giant zip loc bag in the freezer) with Salad and Rolls

Thursday - Pizza (half the dough goes in the freezer)

Friday - Taco Soup (half goes in a zip loc bag in the freezer)

Saturday - Veggie Pasta Shells (half go in an aluminum casserole dish in the freezer)

Sunday - Steak, mashed potatoes, grilled veggies (nothing for the freezer today)

So in one week, I'll have six meals in the freezer (actually 7 with the double ziti pans). Our wonderful friends have already offered to bring meals too. And when I was on bed rest before, we usually ordered pizza once a week, and Davis (who is the breakfast cook in the family) also did things like make breakfast for dinner. So if I make freezer dinners for another week or so, we should be set for a while. Since I do all the grocery shopping and cooking normally, and Davis will have so much extra on his plate already, I will feel better knowing food is taken care of.

Because I know I could get stuck in bed any day, I am trying to take care of as many things as I can. Today I finished all the registration forms for the girls' school and dropped them along with their updated immunization records at the school office. I've bought their clothes for the fall. Their class supply lists should be posted any day (they said today, but they didn't make it) so I'll be able to get those in order too.

Phone Picture Catch Up

My reading post had phone pictures in it, and I found some others on there that showed some of the things we've been up to the past couple of weeks. It's felt really busy and hectic lately, and Friday afternoon I was having contractions every 2 minutes that had been almost constant for two days - my doctor said he was giving me ONE CHANCE to go home and take it easy, and if I came back contracting like that, he was putting me on bed rest. Yikes! I'm only 21 weeks, so we are going to work hard on taking it easy for the rest of the summer.

For the past weeks, the girls have had swim lessons every day at the end of the day (when it's 300 degrees outside!)

They got their certificates

but honestly, they didn't learn anything. They didn't learn anything last year either, so I am DONE with these expensive group lessons. I know they are so close to learning, they just need a good teacher and some one-on-one attention, so we're looking at private lessons now.

But they've had fun just going to play in the baby pool - they could go down this slide a thousand times, if I weren't dying in the heat and let them

It's been miserably hot for weeks already. So last weekend I needed the kids to run around and play INSIDE, without trashing our house. So I met a friend and her kids at the Wonder Place, a fun indoor playground.

I did make good use of my crock pot those days that we had swim lessons. The lessons were from 5:00 to 5:30, so it was 6:00 when we got home - dinnertime! And they were starving. So it was great to have dinner all ready for us when we walked in the door. Two of my staples are crock pot ravioli and lentil and barley soup.

Crock Pot Ravioli

1 bag frozen ravioli
1 jar pasta sauce (we prefer Prego Traditional)
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
1 cup water
shredded mozzarella cheese

Pour half of pasta sauce in crock pot, then add ravioli, remainder of pasta sauce, tomato sauce, and water. Cover with mozzarella cheese. Cook on low 4 to 5 hours.

Crock Pot Lentil and Barley Soup

1 cup lentils, rinsed

1/3 cup pearl barley

1 cup chopped carrot

1 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

3 1/2 cups vegetable broth

2 1/2 cups water

14 1/4 ounce can stewed tomatoes

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Add all ingredients except vinegar to crock pot and stir. Cook on low for 12 hours or on high for 6 hours. Discard bay leaf and stir in vinegar.

Because bed rest is staring me down and will come sooner or later (hopefully later!) I am making meals this week that I can double and freeze for when I can't cook. I'll share those recipes soon, because it's a great way to get two meals while only doing the work once, and in my case will help us continue to eat healthy, homemade meals when I can no longer cook (or don't want to, like when Wyatt is in the NICU).

Feelings

Last week we remembered our own angel, Violet, on her due date. It was a sad day, but I made it through, mostly because things were so busy. We've been so busy grieving our school/church situation, my sadness has been a constant vague companion. Add hormones to the mix and I just have tears beneath the surface pretty much all the time.

This morning I got an email from BabyCenter: Your Baby at One Week. It seems so odd, that we SHOULD have a newborn right now. But instead we are preparing for the arrival of a different baby - instead of a girl, a boy. Happy anticipation, mixed with fear of Wyatt's complications, mixed with sadness that we don't have Violet. Our church, which has always been a place of so much comfort to me, is no longer that place. Our school, which was a place of hope and joy for ourselves as much as our children, is gone. Most days I am so busy, and so wrapped up in the joy of my three kiddos, that things feel fine. And then when everyone else is in bed, when it's quiet and dark, those feelings that have been so close to the surface all day well up.

One of my favorite things that I learned in the Education for Ministry class that I was taking at church last year, was this prayer. I have it posted on my bathroom mirror. It settles those feelings and helps me sleep.

Lord it is night.

The night is for stillness.

Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.

What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done.

Let it be.

The night is dark.

Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you.

The night is quiet.

Let the quietness of your peace enfold us, all dear to us, and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

Let us look expectantly to a new day, new joys, new possibilities.

In your name we pray.

Amen

Summer Reading - for Beginners

Sophia was so close to really being able to read on her own when the school year ended, I wanted to make sure she kept it up and continued to improve over the summer. She knew how to read, but didn't quite have the confidence (or desire, honestly) to read BOOKS by herself. Well, sure enough, about a week after school was out, she started reading, and she's just really taken off!

Here are some things we've been doing the past couple of months and this summer to encourage and motivate her:

*New Books!! Okay, this might be for me more than her... those first readers are sooo boring after the first time, and they are cheap, so I ordered about 10 of them off Amazon. Plus Sophia's sweet teacher gave her some at the end of the year, and

*The Library!! Not only is the library a great source for new reading material, they have great programs to promote reading. We've been going to storytime at the library as our schedule permits (usually when I'm on maternity leave with someone!) since the kids were babies. Yesterday, Sophia and I went and got her her very own library card

and we signed her up for the Summer Reading Club. She tracks all the books she reads for stickers, and she also plays this BINGO game where she gets prizes for completing certain things (reading a book about Asia, writing her own story about her life, etc.) - this has been HUGELY motivating for her! They meet every Thursday morning, so I'm trying to work it into my schedule or have Davis take them when I can't. I also want her to continue to work on being responsible for things like library books. In Kindergarten, her school did a great job teaching these kids to keep track of and be responsible for their own things (library books, sunscreen, clothes, etc.) So Sophia has to keep track of her library books and take good care of them (we have a special spot for library books) or she'll lose her card.

*A reading caterpillar!! I've seen several variations on this (like making links out of construction paper instead of circles) - but what I did was use my 1.5" circle punch to make a bunch of circles out of construction paper. Every time Sophia reads a book by herself, we write the title of the book on a circle and add it to the caterpillar. We just started this week, so hopefully by the end of the summer that sucker will be LOOOONG!

*Reading to siblings!! Being able to read to Amelia and Henry has also been a great motivator for Sophia. Amelia loves it when Sophia reads to her, and it makes Sophia feel so much older. Henry isn't the greatest audience, but his board books are very easy to read and Sophia has fun reading them to him.

*Starfall.com!! This website is amazing! We have been playing on it for a couple of years, and are not at all bored with it. It has so many really well-done reading activities - movies, short stories for them to read with animations on every page, and games like sight word memory. Often when the little ones are napping/resting, Sophia will spend half an hour or so playing on Starfall.com, and there are several things I know she has mastered because of that site. It feels more fun to her than sitting with me and doing sight word flashcards, so it's an easy thing to get her to do when she's not in the mood for "learning."

*Bribery!! Okay, really, I need to be honest. Sophia was holding back on me with the reading books, I think in part because I have always read to her at night and I think she was scared I would stop. Of course I still read to her every day, but to push her over the edge and finally read a book front to back by herself, I told her I'd pay her a quarter - and it worked. That was the first book she read. She's actually not very motivated by money (she tends to give it all away, which is awesome) so she's forgotten about our quarter-for-a-book program. But it worked to get her started, so I'm including it here.

I also rewarded her with a cupcake and a Sprite after she did her testing at her new school.

Baby Wyatt Update

I am sick - I have been throwing up since about 2 a.m. last night, which is obviously not fun. But it means I get to lay in bed for a day while Davis takes the kids to his brother's, and so I have a chance to catch you up on my appointment with my new high risk OB yesterday.

Did I mentioned that we decided on a name? I don't think so... Baby Boy will be Wyatt. Phew! I can't stand not having a name for my baby, so pretty much as soon as we find out the sex (which was three whole weeks ago!) I need a name ASAP.

Speaking of gender, yesterday the ultrasound tech asked, "do you want to know what you're having?" and I said, "good thing I already know and want to know - because that is definitely a penis on that screen!" There is not even a sliver of doubt in my mind that we are having a BOY. Happiness. Henry and Wyatt will be 19 months apart - the exact same spacing as Sophia and Amelia.

He is so funny - I have had a lot of ultrasounds with him (six? seven? eight?) and for weeks now we cannot get a shot of his face. As soon as the ultrasound wand gets near his face, he either flips over and turns away, or covers his face with his hands. It's so adorable and was making me laugh yesterday. So, still no pictures of his sweet little face, but he's got a cute foot/calf

He kept streeeeetching out - and I said, "he better enjoy it while he can!" It's about to get crowded in there! He's about ten and a half inches long now. They said yesterday he weighed just over 13 ounces. He is finally moving more. For weeks now he has been totally mellow (Sophia hardly ever moved when I was pregnant with her, and now she's a spaz, so I've learned it doesn't mean anything ha!)

So, now on to all the medical stuff... this is where I talk about all the things going on inside my private parts, so feel free to skip if you're not into that sort of thing...

Although I have am starting to have contractions already (like I did with Amelia and Henry who came early), right now my cervix is long and everything looks good. Although there was definitely a blood vessel across my cervix yesterday, this doctor was not 100% convinced that it was not actually just the baby's cord down there. Wyatt's head was down on my cervix and in the way, so he wasn't clear about whether we were looking at cord or vasa previa. Not having vasa previa would be a huuuuuuuuuuuge relief (!) but we are not getting our hopes up yet - since two other doctors (a radiologist and another high risk OB) saw vasa previa at two separate earlier points in my pregnancy, it is unlikely that the cord would be hanging out in that same location this whole time. My doctor said he would not rule out vasa previa unless he did at least two more ultrasounds, but it was a glimmer of hope.

In the meantime, the plan is for me to start weekly progesterone shots this week (today - yippee) and come back in two weeks for another ultrasound. Then I will go back two weeks after that (24 weeks) for another ultrasound, and after that nonstress tests and weekly ultrasound to check the length of my cervix. If it begins to change like it did with Henry, I will go into the hospital and we will just take it day by day to determine when it's time to bring Wyatt into the world. The hope and plan is to make it to 34 weeks and do a c-section then. If by some miracle my cervix has not changed by 34 weeks, then we might even monitor it closely and wait another week or two, with 36 weeks being the latest that we would wait. Of course that would be great, but I am not really planning on that being the case, considering my history. BUT we have a fabulous, fabulous NICU and I have a friend who is a neonatologist there, and I would have zero concerns about delivering even as early as 32 weeks - Wyatt would need some breathing and eating help at that point, but his long-term risks for issues would be really small, and the risks of vasa previa rupturing if it looked like I was going into labor would just be so great.

So, really it was great news - Wyatt looks perfect, is measuring on target, he's still very much a boy, and as of right now my cervix is long and with the progesterone shots maybe we can keep it that way. I feel like I am in good hands with my new doctor and am on board with monitoring things closely and just taking it day by day. I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared - vasa previa is SCARY. There are far more horrible, tragic, really really scary and sad stories out there on the internet than anything reassuring, which is why I stopped reading anything after I read a few medical journal articles. Now it's just a matter of praying and trying to stay healthy.

So, right now I'm going to go drink a bunch of water to make sure I don't get dehydrated while I'm throwing up.

Diapers :)

Okay, I have so much to blog about, pictures just sitting on my camera waiting to be uploaded... so I'm going to completely randomly blog about DIAPERS!

Yup.

Over the past few months, we have made the switch to cloth diapers, and I am just kicking myself for not taking the plunge sooner. Even though we are using probably the most expensive cloth diapers on the market, we did the math and we will save a BUNCH of money on diapers for Henry and his baby brother (even without resale - I was shocked to discover that these diapers fetch almost full retail price used on ebay!)

We are using BumGenius Elemental All-in-One One-Size Organic diapers. At first we just bought a couple, thinking we might want to try some different types and brands of diapers. But it didn't take us long at all to fall totally in love with these and buy a full stash without trying any others - I really believe these are the perfect cloth diapers. If I were the one at home during the day and had more time (and energy), I would probably go the old school pins and plastic pants route to REALLY save money, but these are a great compromise for our busy family.

First of all, they are EASY. Other an one more load of laundry at night, there is nothing more complicated about using these than disposables. They are all one piece, so no stuffing or pinning or anything - you just slip it under baby's bum and snap up the sides. We throw dirty diapers in a zipped up wetbag (we dump solids in the toilet first, and if needed, rinse with the diaper rinser) - we are using the Weehuggers hobo wetbag, and it holds all of our diapers and has never smelled or leaked or anything (can't say the same thing about disposable diaper pails!). At the end of the day, we just turn it inside out and throw it in the washer with the load of diapers/wipes. That's it. I think it's actually less stinky than emptying out a diaper pail of disposable diapers.

Henry totally prefers these to Pampers - I'm not kidding! When we only had a couple of these, we would still use Pampers sometimes, and Henry would bring me a BumGenius or say "no no" if I put a Pampers on him. They are so soft, I am sure they are more comfortable. Being organic can't hurt either. And so cute too!

Henry has far fewer rashes now that we are using these. If we know he will be in a diaper for a long time, we use Grandma El's Diaper Cream to prevent rashes. But he's only had a couple of rashes (if he poops during his nap), compared to before, when he was getting them more frequently.

Also, he is at that age where he had started leaking out of the Pampers Cruisers at night. Since we've been using these, we have not had a single leak! For overnight, I stick a Thirsties hemp liner in the diaper to double up. During the day and naps, I don't use an insert, and we haven't had a single leak. He has even had diarrhea and some other big poops, and NO leaks. That's definitely better than disposables!

It took us a little experimenting to figure out a good wash routine, which I've gathered is normal for cloth diapering. Probably the biggest downside to these diapers is that they do take a lot of water/energy to clean (for this reason I am NOT going to claim that these are saving the earth). At first we had some problems with stains on the diapers and some odor when they came out of the wash. But once we figured out our routine (with the help of the wonderful Cotton Babies customer support folks!) we have not had any troubles - our diapers look brand new and have not smelled or had any more stains. Here's what we do:

1. A regular wash cycle on cold with no detergent or other additives,

2. A heavy duty hot wash with extra rinse - I discovered that our biggest problem was that our washer (Whirlpool Duet, which I hate) wasn't using enough water. So now during the "add a garment" phase of this cycle, I pause it and add a big pitcher of very hot water. I use Nellie's Laundry Soda, which requires only a teaspoon per load. (we tried some other detergents but they didn't work as well or gave Henry rashes).

3. Before bed, we throw them in the dryer on warm. They take a LONG time to dry - 1.5 hours. But we're sleeping, so we don't care.

4. Once a month, instead of detergent, to the hot cycle, I add 1/4 cup bleach and a couple of squirts of original (blue) Dawn dishwashing detergent, plus the extra water. It takes one more extra rinse to get the suds all out. I secretly sit there and watch the sudsy washing action through the glass of our front loader.

Like I said, all of our diapers look like new now - no stains, no smells, no rashes. And yes, that is a lot of washing/drying. But now as soon as Henry goes to bed, Davis or I throws the wetbag/diapers/wipes in the washer, then when the washer beeps, we add detergent and restart it, and before I go to bed I throw everything in the dryer. While they're washing, I just do whatever I normally do in the evenings (lately - that would be NOTHING).

At first, we continued using disposable wipes. But really, it was awkward - we had to find a place to throw them out after putting the diapers in the wetbag. So we started using cloth wipes. Now I realize, we will probably save even more money on these than on the diapers! The only wipes that didn't give my kids rashes were the Pamper's Sensitive wipes, which were $7 per pack. We went through a LOT of these!

I got a couple dozen Ragababe wipes (we tried the BumGenius, Thirsties, and some other sample wipes, and these are BY FAR our favorites!) - they are soft and just great. We used to use several wipes per dirty diaper, but we use only one cloth wipe. I think there were maybe 2 or 3 times that I used more than one wipe since switching to cloth.

Once every 3 days, I use one of my new giant mason jars to mix up 1/3 gallon distilled water with a squirt of Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild Soap and a couple of squirts of baby oil. Then I put a dozen or so wipes in the solution and slosh them around to get them all get wet. I wring them out, roll them up, and put them in a wipes warmer, where they are ready to use when we need them.

Now they just go right in the wetbag/laundry with the diapers. Preparing the wipes really isn't any trouble and takes maybe 10 minutes twice a week - all the last minute trips to the store when we ran out of diapers or wipes were much more time-consuming!

We will be renting some newborn diapers (through Itsy Bitsy Bums - GREAT company!) for the new baby until he is about 10 lbs, then he will fit into the BumGenius. So even though I still have 3 or so years of diapering left - I don't plan on ever having to buy another diaper!!! (I am sure there will be a time we buy a pack of diapers for traveling, but as long as we have access to a washer, these are easy to travel with too... and with four kids, I can't imagine traveling anywhere that doesn't have a washer ha!)

So there. Random diapering post. You're welcome.

(by the way, none of the companies in this post gave me anything or asked me to review their products, I just love their stuff!)

SIX!!

Happy Birthday to my big girl (posted over a week late)! I just can't believe I have a six year old - a first grader! I look back at pictures of her from the beginning of the school year, and she has just grown up so much. I am so proud of her!

Sophia is the best helper, and she does a million things to make my life easier all day long. I'm so glad she is my oldest. She is also me in so many ways, it is scary. I have often realized suddenly, and shockingly, that my own attitude needs adjustment and that I need to by much more mindful of my tone of voice, when I see my little mirror interacting with her siblings or baby dolls.

Sophia is finally reading, and it makes me so happy. I am (or used to be ha!) a huge reader, and I just knew once she got the hang of it, she would find joy in it too.

Sophia is so creative, I love how her mind works. We played a game for family night last week, where everyone scibbles randomly on a piece of paper for about 10 seconds, and then passes the paper to the person next to them. That person then has to take their scribble and turn it into something. We all turned zig zags into crowns or swirls into galaxies, but Sophia's drawings always came with an elaborate story. Yesterday I asked her when she came into our bed, because none of us could remember her sneaking in. She said she couldn't remember either, and probably some little trolls came and moved her. The trolls brought their little dog, which explains why the iced tea in the fridge smelled like a puppy (another mystery from that morning). We have to watch her, because sometimes she uses her imagination to scare the pants off her sister!

On the morning of her birthday, Sophia got pancakes and six pink balloons. And for dinner her favorite - spaghetti.

Her party was last Saturday and a pottery painting place called Painted Pig - we love it there, but haven't visited as often as we used to now that Henry is mobile!

This was the first time Sophia has seen some of her friends from Kindergarten, and it was so sweet to listen in on their little conversation. They said things like "I've been thinking about you."

and "I've missed you SO much!"

They had a blast!

Happy Birthday, Silly Goose!

Catching Up!

My laptop cord died two weeks ago and I just got around to sending it off to be replaced a few days ago. But I'm back online now. I had to delete the 889 items in my Google Reader. Sorry.

It has been an emotional couple of weeks. Lots of fun and summer vacation excitement. Lots to be thankful for and celebrate. A birthday. Sunshine like never before. And lots and lots of heartache and anxiety too. I am exhausted in a way I can't even put into words. I always know things are bad when all I can do by 8pm is lay down on the couch and watch a Lifetime movie - it's that needing to feel completely numb. And believe me, Lifetime movies numb and dull your brain into oblivion ha ha! I actually have some thoughts mulling around in my head that I'd love to blog about, but I feel so sensitive and raw right now, I'm not ready to put them "out there" yet. In the meantime, I'm so very, very thankful for good friends who are willing to listen and put up with my CRYING. I know it has to be hormones, because I can't remember being this weepy... ever.

So, other than crying... what HAVE we been up to? Well...

The girls have run outside in their pajamas and bare feet first thing every morning to play on the swing set before it gets too hot out.

Henry is running around like a cutie pie maniac, getting into EVERYTHING. I always say how 16 months is such a hard age, because they get into everything and don't listen AT ALL - I say that, but I forget how true it really is! But if you catch Henry with something he thinks he isn't supposed to have, he immediately hands it to you like "here, I was just picking this up to give to you!"

He has been SO funny! The Babycenter email this week said that he is trying to hard to find all the tricks to make us laugh - and they are right! His favorite trick right now is putting on other people's shoes, hats, necklaces, etc.

My friend Sarah came all the way from Kansas to visit us last week. Her hero husband is deployed to Afghanistan, and she needed some distraction - believe me, 7 kids 7 and under in a 1,300 square foot house is VERY distracting! We had the best time, though!!

I haven't even gone through, much less had time to edit, all of the 400+ pictures I downloaded off my camera today. But I will, and then I'll post more.

Also a very special girl turned SIX, which deserves a post of its own!

Memorial Day Weekend

Last weekend was so good.

Friday I spent all morning crying at Sophia's school graduation/closing, which made me so sad and gave me such a migraine that I literally went to bed around noon and didn't get back up. I love Davis for letting me do that, because I was mess and just couldn't face the rest of the day. But

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

Saturday morning the sun rose.

I got up super early and quickly packed our bags and the kids, and we headed down to Louisiana to visit my dad. We got Sophia a swing set for her birthday, so we left town while Davis assembled it (so that Sophia wouldn't see and be surprised... also I didn't want to be around that kind of language LOL!) We also just needed to get away and be distracted. The drive was great, although as we went south the temperature rose dramatically. We stopped in Lewisville, Arkansas and has some yummy Burge's

there is a playground a couple of blocks away (the only one in town), so we took our food there and I let the kids run around a little. Sophia looked at the playground and said "this place is OLD!" She was right - I looked at the equipment and just hoped that it could handle two more 40 lbs kids before rusting to pieces!

Look at my little toddler toddling around

Um, so then my camera died and I have no pictures from our visit. But I know my stepmom has some, and there were some great ones from when we went swimming at a lake, so I will get them from her and post them later. We had lots of fun, and the kids were completely exhausted at night from playing in the heat and swimming! They are Southern kids for sure, especially the girls, the 100 degree heat doesn't seem to bother them at all.

We left Monday morning, so that we could celebrate Memorial Day with Davis and let the kids play on the swing set. This was Sophia's face the minute she saw it

She said "this is the best day of my life!!!" It has already been a huge lifesaver with the girls home all day - yesterday they were just swinging and talking to each other while I cleaned the kitchen and looked out at them. That moment was one of the happiest of MY life.

Monday afternoon, we invited Davis's brother and his wife and their three kids over

and we grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and corn and just sat around - us adults in the shade, the kids running around like maniacs.

They cooled off with the Slip N Slide

and we put the kiddie pool at the bottom of the slide - that was a big hit!

I told Davis, "this is just a huge dose of HAPPY - exactly what we needed!" And it was. No one fought, no one cried, no one worried about the future or the past, everyone was just happy and at peace and enjoying the moment. I am so thankful for that.

I went to put Henry to bed at one point, and came back out to this

The girls were COVERED in mud! After everyone left, we hosed them off outside with the hose, then I rinsed them and washed them with the shower in the tub, then they took a bath, then I rinsed them with the shower again. There was mud everywhere that night - in the tub, the kitchen floor, probably still behind their ears. It made me so happy.

The next morning, we celebrated the first real official day of Summer Vacation with cinnamon rolls... except when the girls requested them, I didn't have time to make them. So we spread some butter on crescent rolls and sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar before rolling them up, baked them as usual, and served them with milk/vanilla/powdered sugar icing for dipping. Yummy!

I have TEN half gallons of milk in my fridge, because this weekend we are expecting some company - more happy, muddy, in-the-moment, chaotic fun to come!!

Sophia Has Some News to Tell You!

I had my ultrasound today, and Davis's record is in tact - he has (totally confidently) known the gender of our babies five out of five times! We are having a...

We are SO happy!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am about my little matched pair of boys, who will be spaced just slightly further apart than my girls. Although I always thought I would have three kids, I now cannot imagine my family any other way - two girls, two boys.

I told Henry, "you're going to have a little brother!" He was grinning and trying to say "brother." Then I said "you can play with your trucks together!" and Henry started furiously shaking his head ha ha ha! I'm sure he had no idea what I was talking about, but it made us laugh so hard.

In not so great news, we got confirmation today that I do in fact have vasa previa, which I have mentioned previously. It's a rotten deal, and I wasn't reassured by my OB's reaction and him repeating "this is going to be a challenge" and "you're in for a very long pregnancy" over and over again. But I am feeling at peace, and thanking God that it was caught early, which HUGELY increases our chances of everything being just fine. The biggest issue is my history of preterm labor that complicates things even more, and the perinatologist gave me about a 70% chance of going early again. So once we get to my third trimester we will constantly have to weigh the risks of having a preemie versus the risks of going into labor.

For now I am taking it one day at a time. Thankfully my second trimester comes with only a few limitations, so I can enjoy this time, knowing that there is a perfect and healthy little baby boy in my belly! He was so funny too - we could not get a single shot of his face. My ultrasound lasted almost an hour, and we got a good shot of all of his anatomy except anytime the ultrasound wand came near his face, he would turn or put his hand up so that we couldn't see his face. Love him!