citizenship award

eli received the citizenship award for his class a few weeks ago! here he is in front of the school being recognized.
his "award" :)
i don't know if the video will work...you kind of miss the principal announcing his name & a little at the beginning. and then at the end of it, you can see him walk across the gym :) anyway, eli's teacher wrote some very nice words about him and we were very proud of him!

afc champs!!!

headed to the superbowl!! the energy in the stadium was unbelievable! and can i just say that garcon is a doll...he was like a little boy on christmas morning with that big grin :)

30 weeks

it's always exciting for me when my OB appointments start coming every 2 weeks. this time it makes me a little sad because i know this is the last time i'll do this, but also excited that the arrival of baby girl is getting closer. i'm so anxious to see what she will look like and how her brothers will adore her. as her room starts coming together, it makes it all the more real...pink, flowers, hair bows, etc. :) anyway, i'm now measuring 3 weeks ahead which is a little concerning, but not a huge worry. dr. j will do an ultrasound at 36 weeks to measure the baby so we can get a better idea of how soon she should come. if i continue to measure that much ahead, she may do the ultrasound sooner just to make sure fluid levels are okay. i've never had a high fluid level problem, so my guess is that the baby is just BIG. my blood pressure continues to be a little high, but not high enough to get excited about (130's/high 70's). dr. j felt sorry for my VERY itchy, horrible looking belly so she gave me some atarax to try to help at night. i've not slept more than 2 hours at a time since i've been pregnant due to the frequent bathroom trips, so waking up to itch isn't that big of a deal but it would be nice not to wake up to a bleeding belly! otherwise, things are good. like i said, getting her room ready has been so fun. i've got some little things to do here and there, but it's all coming together. jerry painted her room for me which was so nice and turned out so cute! i'll post pictures once i have it all done. baby girl continues to be more active, although the little movements here have turned into jabs, rolls, and big kicks! she clearly has awake/sleep times and i love it :)
oh, and let's talk names...so here are the "winners" for the polls...macy, ansley, and mallory. Second place was really not that far behind though...hadley, julia, and audra. although it was fun to see what everyone thought, i think we may have come up with a new one that we both love :) of course, we still have time to change our minds and once we see her we may even change it again...who knows! we'll see soon enough :)

playoff win #1

and we were there! can't wait to bring back the jets and show them who's boss this time. no reserves, they're gettin' our "real" team on sunday!!

my heroes

no need to worry about this momma...i've got lots of protection!

storytime

i realize these pictures are horrible, but i was looking though a window while taking them. just HAD to capture this special moment as abram moved up to the "big boy" storytime class at the library. in this class, parents don't come in with the kids & abram instead got to go in with his big brother! i thought he would be a little hesitant, but he went right in! in fact, he said to caleb, "caleb, hold my hand" and off he went...bittersweet :) he LOVED it and was very proud.

cold days of winter

oliver has a new favorite place...

just trying to stay warm :)

28 weeks

welcome, 3rd trimester!! the homestretch is here and i'm not quite ready for it. this is when the "i can't possibly get any bigger" stage sets in and i was kind of getting used to the "comfortably pregnant" stage. well, baby girl is growing and her debut is not far off, so i must look forward to the excitement of her arrival. one of our first priorities at this point is her room. we've cleared out all of the nonsense that had gathered in her room so that we can focus on getting a fresh coat of paint on the walls, putting together a borrowed crib, decorating with pink, etc! fun, new stuff all of this girlness brings! we just ordered the valiance & quilt which will bring the daisy theme into the room...very cute & just what i always imagined if i had a baby girl. daisies are my favorite and pottery barn had exactly what i wanted! i'm so excited to get going on all of the decorating. after christmas i found some great deals on baby girl clothing necessities, so she does have a few new things to wear and some borrowed too. still a shocker to see no baseballs, trucks, blue, blue, and more blue. so...
at my appointment this week, i measured 2 weeks ahead of schedule! dr. j assured me there will be no april baby in our future. i made it clear though that we must hold off until after the first day of spring so that we will have had a baby born in every season! i think that's quite an accomplishment :) and it would be nice to have her right before the boys' spring break! anyway, my blood pressure is creeping up, but not too high. my belly looks horrible...itchy, nasty rash, ugliness...she encouraged me to use the cream i used before when i had this and gave me a little sympathy, but i'm sure it will only get worse at this point. after all, this baby girl will likely be a 9 pounder! a lady on the elevator at work, trying to be nice i'm sure, said to me, "so are you due next month?" HA!! i was a little sarcastic in my response, "uh, no, actually i have 12 weeks left!" she apologized and i assured her i was used to those kind of comments & didn't take offense since this is my 4th baby! oh well, what do you do...not a lot of control when it comes to the size of your belly/baby.
so here is the belly...

mommy's status: itchy, slowing down, but still feeling good!
baby's status: much more active, likes my right side..in fact, i hardly ever feel her anywhere else & my belly is lopsided, heartrate in the 130's, probably weighs about 3 lbs now.

update on baby names

so we're on to poll #3. the last one was a close race between mallory & julia with mallory winning by just 2 votes. i think we've settled on our favorites already, but it's still fun to see what you think. poll #3 is below baby girl's picture, so go vote :)