Mini-Contest Time!

Ok, so everyone has been asking when and if we will find out if we are having a boy or girl. Well, we probably will find out before the baby is born, but we don't know when yet. I'll be 16 weeks along tomorrow and should find out at my next appointment (in a couple of weeks) when the ultrasound will be. Before that happens, though, I wanted to open up the polls, so to say. Just copy and paste the following into your comment, attaching your answers, of course, and I will save them. The closest to accurate on all accounts (but you must be correct on the gender) will get a surprise from me (to be determined so that I can cater to the winner but I do have some ideas). I will also save these all to look back on later. (I still have the napkin with Gabe's predictions. I thought this method might hold up a bit better!)

Oh, and for all those who have also asked if we are hoping for a girl, we both truly would be so happy either way. I think about having a boy, and I get so excited to have another. After all, I am so used to referring to my family as "my boys!" It could be fun, too, especially for Gabe, and we would have them share a room as they get bigger. Plus, most of you know that we are, yet again, trying to buy a house, and the upstairs would make an awesome room for three boys! Besides, we have the boy thing down! -Then I think about a girl, and I picture all the sweet little dresses and other girlie things, and I swoon a bit there too. So Baby, we can't wait to meet you, girl or boy, dresses or pants, dollhouses or pirates! Come on, November!

All right, so here goes. I'll give you a little background info so that it's fair (some of you know and others don't); my due date is November 14. I measured about a week behind that at my first ultrasound. I was induced about a week and a half early with both Thomas and Gabriel. Thomas weighed 5 lb 10 oz and was, if I remember correctly, 17 3/4 inches long. Gabriel weighed 6 lb 7 oz and was, I think, 20 1/2 inches long. ***blushing in embarassment about the fact that I would have to look both lengths up to be 100% certain*** Thomas was born super early in the morning (before 5 AM), and Gabe was born in the afternoon (before 5 PM). Good luck!

Gender:
Date of Birth:
Height:
Weight:

*Optional* (tie breaker) - Time of Day (pick one):
morning/afternoon/evening/night - includes early morning before 5 AM

Have fun!

***Edited to add: If you comment as anonymous, please include something in your comment to let me know who you are! (a.k.a. Aunt Sarah or Sarah from SF)

:)

Dinosaurs and Stickers, Oh My!

Look what Thomas brought home from school today! The clay dinosaurs (at the bottom) are especially cool. If you could look closely, you would also see a huge toothy smile on the pterodactyl. Looks like he didn't leave anything out! I LOVE it!

Gabe did some art of his own today too:

He found the big art box full of stickers that made it from my mom's back to me when she moved. I used to collect them and trade with my friends. I saved so many. There were still quite a few unopened packages, in fact, and you could tell which were my favorites because I would use one sheet but then leave another untouched for my album. (Once upon a time they were all arranged in albums, like photographs.) Now I'm less about saving and more about using and enjoying, so I let the boys use any and all the stickers they want, but I had to photograph a couple of my most memorably favorite sheets of stickers before they found themselves completely lost amongst all the alligators, dinosaurs, and trucks:

I thought they were so pretty!

I also found a little pouch that I had used to keep some of the loose ones in. It's hard to see in the photo, but I even labeled it with a name sticker in the upper right hand corner. It is shiny with hearts next to my name. I used those on everything (and for a while even signed my name with hearts... I suppose I was somewhat of a girlie girl-at least for a while).

I kept most of my scratch and sniff stickers inside, and they still smell overwhelmingly like their pictures! This one smelled so minty fresh!

I have to admit I slid that one back into the little pouch (all by itself) before sticking it back into the bottom of the box! Sshhh. Don't tell! (Maybe it will be rediscovered in another twenty or so years!)

Our Memorial Day Weekend

In pictures...

and video...

Hope you enjoyed the weekend too!

Happy Mother's Day!

Sorry I'm so late!

Officially Spring

Thank you for all the nice congratulations. It was hard to wait to share our news; we really can't wait to meet our newest little munchkin. I know we will be very busy, especially at first, but I think it will be good for Gabe to have a little brother or sister so close in age to play with. We are about to start looking at houses again, this time with a lot more urgency! Hopefully that sense of urgency will be the push we need to make it work out this time. I am trying to be cautiously optomistic!

As we await the arrival of our littlest bean, we keep ourselves very busy. The weather has been beautiful, so we've taken lots of neighborhood walks. Last weekend's heat wave brought out all our baseball gloves too, amongst other things. I look forward to a day when we can all play ball together. Of course it's fun to watch Gabe run around now too, but I think we might need a good fenced in yard with the house... he doesn't go quite as fast as Tommy used to (yet), but he does like to explore, so he sure keeps me going!

Our Little Bean

That's right! We're about to be a family of five! I think I'll have to stop calling Gabe "Baby Gabe" and "Peanut" (by November)!

Easter Morning

I somehow managed to accidentally delete all the photos that were on the memory card mid-Easter Egg Hunt, so some of the best from the morning were lost and I had to recreate a couple!

...Gabe is currently sleeping in a playpen in the living room (long story), and it's a good thing he was the last one to wake up because the Easter Bunny hid one of Tommy's eggs within Gabe's reach, and even though I went out to get him almost instantly, he already had two pieces of egg in his playpen and was holding out a piece of candy wrapper in one hand and the candy in the other. I think I caught him just in time!

They both loved hunting for (all 40) eggs. Of course Gabe especially loved the animal crackers too. Tommy was very sad at bed time that Easter was over, but he has lots of time for more excitement this week (Spring Break)!

I hope you enjoyed your celebrations!

Happy Easter

(If other music starts playing automatically over this song, scroll to the bottom and pause the music player.)

May you take today to reflect on and revel in the incredible beauty of God's love and gift of the Savior.