She's getting so big...(sniff)

Seeing these two pictures made me realize how much Willow is growing up.  She is getting so tall and thin and loosing her baby look...

 Therefore, since she is now 2 years old, and we have just around 8 weeks until the baby is born, it was time to say goodbye to the beloved binky.....  :(  (yes, mommy loves it as much as she does).

Rounding up all the binkys in the house for the big goodbye...

I was dreading the day when we would have to throw the binkys away, but decided that now that we were home from the beach, it was time.  I had big plans to do what I did with Aspen - ask her if she would want to throw it away in a really happy voice, she would say, yes, and the drama would be spared until nap or bedtime....  Yep, didn't go as planned... 

With Aspen, he was like, yeah!  Then proceeded to throw the binky away, and went on with life until naptime (and he realized that the binky wasn't coming back).  Willow, on the other hand, looked at me like I was crazy and said NO!!  Then stuck it in her mouth and chomped down.  I ended up having to pry it from her teeth, throw it in the garbage, then walk the garbage bag out to the can all while she was screaming and throwing a fit in protest.  Five days later, she is still sometimes (very) angry about the loss at bed/nap times.

Now to decide if I want to pursue potty training....  Seems like she wants to, but honestly, I don't want to.  Confession time: I hate potty training!

Back to school - 2nd grade

 We are just a week into the 2nd grade school year.  Here was Aspen's first day of school picture....he was trying to look happy....

.....but this was how he really felt about going back to school, lol

I can't blame him.  We had such a fun summer, and it went so fast.  It's hard to get back to reality and buckle down to the school schedule for all of us!  I wasn't ready for him to start school either.  I love having all my kids home, and watching them have so much fun playing together.  Now, that doesn't mean I could do the home school thing.....  I just love summer, free time and my family all together  :)

32 Weeks!

I have just 8 weeks plus a few days (if history repeats itself) before baby boy makes his appearance!  I am getting more and more excited and anxious to meet him.....especially since it's been in the 90's, and I've been hibernating inside the house all week trying to keep cool.  :)  We are no closer to choosing his name.  I thought we had narrowed it down to 3 names, but now I'm not sure.  We will probably take our list to the hospital and choose when we meet him  :)

I've been measuring 2 weeks ahead for the past couple months, so am expecting a big baby (although hopefully not too big!).  Everything else has been healthy, and up until now, my midwives have let me go 6 weeks between appointments.  It has been super nice since it's a 30 minute commute each way for a 10 minute appointment.  They've now put me on the 3 week schedule, but at least that means I'm getting close to the end  :) 

One other funny thing that I'd never remember unless I wrote it down -
Aspen has asked me multiple times if he can be in the room when his baby brother is born.  He feels like he is old enough, and really wants to be there with Daddy, lol.  Hmmm, for your own good, and future sanity, I'm gonna give you a big, fat "no" on that one, Aspen.  You'll understand when you are older....

August at the beach & a reminder to myself in the future..

We have just a week left of summer vacation, and thus a week left at the beach for the summer.  Just like last year, I've loved spending August at the beach.  Life slows down a bit, although mostly we just do normal life in a different place for a month.
I've been doing some extra cooking and food preserving for the winter and the upcoming baby this month too.  Here's what I've finished so far:

- 7 quarts & 6 pints of roasted tomato & herb marinara sauce (freezer)
- 2 batches of granola
- 8 batches of blueberry freezer jam
- cooked up pinto and black beans & made up a batch of spicy bean cakes for the freezer
- made up a batch of chicken stock to freeze

For this last week, I plan on making up a bunch of pizza sauce to freeze, and trying my hand at canning up some salsa.  I've never done that, but hopefully I can find a winning recipe  :)

I've also been slowly, very slowly been coming to grips with the fact that I have GOT to slow down and pay attention to my body.  As much as I want to, I can't do everything I want to do and operate life like I'm not 7 1/2 months pregnant.  I've been struggling with severe pelvic/lower back pain at times over the last couple months, and also just being flat out exhausted by evening.  Some of this has to do with having 3 kids to keep up with and take care of, but I think if I was honest with myself, it's more due to doing too much.  I've been cutting things back and while I'm still tired in the evenings, it's not totally painful to stand and walk.  I am a slow learner  :)

And as a reminder to myself in the future, here's what I feel like God has been showing/highlighting to me over the last week or two....

When I over schedule or overdue things, it leaves me too tired to be the parent I need to be. 

Willow's attitude has been getting out of control, and she has been ignoring us when we tell her to do things like "come" or "no".  I realized that I have been allowing myself to be a lazy mom, and have been overlooking things when I should be dealing with them because I've been either too busy or tired.  My first priority should be the kids and raising them, not cooking, my projects, cleaning, rearranging the house, or anything else that captures my time and attention. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Willow!

This summer I've been working on catching up on scrapbooking, and have been working my way through 2009, the year Willow was born.  It brings back so many memories.  It's amazing to me that my baby girl is 2 years old already. 

She was my easiest labor and delivery, and my hardest baby.  She has a larger than life attitude and can be quite stubborn, but is so much fun and brings so many smiles and laughter to our house.  We love you, Willow!

I think celebrating the 2nd birthday is one of the most fun birthdays.  It's the first birthday where they are able to really grasp the concept of "my birthday" and presents.  We celebrated Willow's birthday at our house with my side of the family, and her actual birthday at the beach with Nana and Papa.

 The traditional ice cream cake.  You might notice the candles are missing (yep, I forgot to get some)....we let her take a bite out of the cake instead  :)

 Wearing the adorable dress up clothes from Charity.

 Snuggling with Grammy and the new baby Grammy got her.

 Modeling more dress ups.  This was the year of dress up clothes and baby dolls. 

 She has lots of "help" opening the presents!

 How fun!  More dress up clothes!

Journey has just discovered one of the funnest parts of having a sister.....She gets to play with all the new toys too! 

You know it's summer when....

........you get ice cream from the ice cream truck!





August at the beach - part 1

We enjoyed spending the month of August so much at the beach last year, that we decided to make it a yearly tradition.  This year we have the house rented for a couple of days in the middle of the month, but other than that, we plan to be here at the beach.

Journey 4 1/2, Willow 23 months

The girls and I hanging out together.  I am so thankful to have two precious girls. 

  Mark and Bill have been busy cleaning up the new boat and getting it ready for fishing, and  I've barely seen Aspen since we've been at the beach.  Diana brought William and Adam down for the first 5 days we were her.  They are like the three amigos.  They are busy from morning til night playing in the forest/creek, making forts, riding bikes or on adventures with Diana.

We found a swing set right on the beach.  So much fun!

 My sweet girl.  She's been saying, "Mom, I need to snuggle with you"  a lot lately.  Not sure if she's needing extra snuggles and attention because of the coming baby or if it's just a phase, but I sure do love her!

I love having a firepit right outside.  It's easy to keep an eye on the action  :)

 I think all boys love fires...

Typical slow morning - watching a few cartoons while they wake up and wait for breakfast.

 One afternoon Diana took the boys to the beach.  The girls and I met them after naps, and despite the day being cloudy and cool, all 5 of the kids ended up swiming around in the stream.  It was a mess getting them back home, but they had a blast.  I got some pretty amazed looks as I was herding them all up to go home, lol.  Just me, big and pregnant with 5 kids....

This girl is all personality.  She keeps us laughing (and sometimes frustrates us terribly!).

 Mark's first fishing trip on the new boat was very successful - 15 tuna, 1 halibut and a blue shark too!  Once they caught the shark, he knew he had to bring it home to show the boys  :)

 We took all the kids on a boat ride.  I think out of all the kids, Journey liked it the most.  Literally, the faster and rougher it got, the more she squealed in excitement :)