Numero 4

We are having yet another baby! Last year at this time we had one peaceful child and we are now entering into the world of having 4 kids. Wow. Life feels overwhelming but the good kind.

I am just over the halfway mark of this pregnancy and I am still in shock over the whole thing. It is going to be a baby fest over here! Every single day I tell myself- 1. to have complete faith in Heavenly Father, His plan and His timing, and 2. it is alright that our house is always messy, kids are wearing hideous mismatched clothes, I rarely get dressed before 10 am , and I would way rather stay home any day than lug all of the kids in and out of the car. We are enjoying our crazy, homebody lifestyle and I am really excited about our growing little/big fam.

Today was the second attempt at the ultrasound and we almost had to wait another 2 weeks to find out the gender. Baby is loving the breech position and making it impossible to see the goods. BUT...technician number 2 came in and announced that little number 4 is a GIRL! So foreign to me. We were convinced it was a boy since two weeks ago we could have sworn we saw a boy part but it is looking like a she and we are excited for this little gal. She will most likely be wearing Daddy's lil slugger type outfits but tomboys are the best kind of girls, right?!

So here is a picture of the boys trying their best to welcome a little sister to the family by wearing random girl clothes that I found at our house. Jude's pioneer outfit is my favorite!

Cheers to adding a little girl to the family, may she be healthy.

and easy and a really good nurser and always happy and never ever get sick and love to sleep and not mind sharing a room with a few other people and not love the color pink too much since I have a slight aversion to it. Love you girl baby.

The boys have been obsessed with climbing lately. Especially Jude

If we leave the gate down for 2 seconds they book it up the stairs. The other day we heard something in the attic and found Jude cruisin around up there.

Jude's new bestie. He seriously loves this thing.

Thanksgiving with Danny and Amanda

Uncle Danny. Jude was staring at him the whole week.

Luke was super excited about the fort Amanda and Danny bought him. He's still sleeping in it.

Thanksgiving feast.

Floooood

Where is Noah when you need him? I think that my family thought I was being dramatic when I talked to them on Wednesday but the flooding out here has been very bad and here is the proof.

The rain started coming down really hard on Wednesday which was Luke's first exciting day of preschool and it turned out to be such a bad day. It didn't ever let up. I decided to pick him up and leave the house about 50 minutes early but my neighbor came running out of her house and told me that she would take the babies since I had to get Luke. She was worried because another friend's husband had to abandon his car and wade through the water to her house to borrow a car to get his daughter from preschool. Basically it took me almost three hours to get to Luke which it would normally take 15 mins. I never made it there so one of Luke's friend's mom picked him up for me and met me. Most of the roads were blocked off and looked like rivers. Accidents everywhere, people running out of gas and leaving their cars behind, random people walking barefoot, elementary, ms and high school kids were ordered to stay out at the school until 6:30 pm, it was kind of scary.

I am the nervous nelly type of mom that hates to leave babies behind so I was pretty anxious the whole drive because I didn't even have bottles or diapers to leave with my friend. Anyway, we made it home and the basement was flooded but we are all safe and dry now and so many people had it a lot worse. So grateful for the friends that helped us out. It is still crazy out here and the rivers are still rising which is worrisome. All of these pictures are 1 to 10 minutes from our house.

The animal drowning picture is pretty sad. Two buffaloes drowned at the zoo. Luke cried when he heard about it.

SUMMER

Naughty naughty, Wyatt. Watch the hand gestures.

Sleeping at the beach

Wildwood, NJ

Trying to exercise on the trail. It is tricky to go running with 3 kiddos. 1 in the Bjorn and 2 in the stroller.

Duck pond

4th of July. Orchestra and ice cream in front of the hospital.

Mini golf on the 4th. Luke' got to choose the activity of the day.

Mt. Gretna Lake

Always a good way to end the summer... Dave's work party at the lake. The air is nice and cool, but the water is warm and you can't beat becoming bff's with a nice little Amish family of seven sitting right next to you. It only confirmed my belief of wanting to become Amish!

Please tell me that it is okay for kids to look like little orphan Annies all summer long.

Nobody ever has a matching outfit on, the babies live in onesies with the diaper ruffles always hanging out, Luke draws all over his face and I don't even notice, baths are not on a daily basis anymore, I have seen Jude eat a few dust balls and dried leaves from the floor and Luke came downstairs in boxers and a belly shirt the other day. When I told him to change he said that these were the only clean clothes that fit him.

I think that summers end will be a good thing for us. We apparently need some sort of routine.

An easier way to load the babes up and down the stairs.

I put the babies in the laundry basket one day and as I was taking this picture, Luke stormed up the stairs shouting "I have always wanted to do that and you never let me do anything fun like that!" Then he ran into my bedroom and slammed the door. The whole doorknob fell out and he was locked in the room for thirty minutes.

Oh the drama. All because of a laundry basket. Times like these make me think that I might not be cut out to be a mother to girls.

Jude steamrolling Wyatt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_TyRZVk_Is&feature=youtu.be

Jude is on the move...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxpWIcuwahM

Lately...

Boys can't get enough of their mobile.

Wyatt's thighs are extra round and it takes two people to get those things out of the Bumbo.

Jude loves to hold his little feet all day long.
One of the few minutes during the day that all three boys are calm at the same time is when we face them and read stories. Surprisingly the babies stay interested. Grandma Owen would be so proud!
Love you bro. Love you too, bro.
Trying to teach them how to hold their own. Jude is pretty good.

Two things usually happen when I have left the room for a few minutes...Jude is in a totally different spot (rolling all over the place these days) and Wyatt is covered in spit up. But they always seem to be happy.

Rub a dub dub three men in a tub. First bath together.

The twinners are now at the "station" stage. They go from one station to the next...excersaucer to floor to Bumbo to Johnny jump up, to crib etc.