Yuck!

So potty training was going really well until... Seth took all the toys out of his toy box climbed in and pooped!  Fortunately he told on himself immediately, otherwise I might have told the boys to put their toys away and wouldnt that have been a mess!  I disinfected, scrubbed and bleached the heck out of the toy box which truth be told it needed anyway.   Anyway we seem to be back on the potty bandwagon, hopefully he'll be fully potty trained by October (meaning on the big potty in the bathroom)! 
Some pics from yesterday...

We were really bored in the morning so I made Evan a crown out of construction paper, he loves it!  He bumped his mouth on a chair so thats why he looks so upset and why he's eating a popcicle.

Seth has become the kid that will fall asleep anywhere.  I try to keep him up until 1pm so he and Evan can nap together but that didnt happen as you can see. 

On Thursday we started potty training Seth.  It was a long first day, he peed in his pants and on the floor everytime!  After each time he would have a time out and then we'd talk to him, we'd explain that its so much better to pee on the potty b/c he would get candy and stickers, he was not convinced easily.  However at the end of the day he actually went willingly on the potty!  The next day was a breeze, he would announce that he had to go pee, whip off all his clothes and head to his potty.  Although about 50% of the time he makes a nice little pee fountain out of the potty, we havent had any real accidents since!
Friday the boys and I made muffins together, it was our first baking experience where they got to really help.  I measured out the ingredients and they dumped it in.  It was a lot of fun and the muffins were yummy.  Then we went outside and picked one of our watermelons from the "garden".   We had it for dessert that night.  
Saturday I was very tired.  Jed even let me sleep in until 9am but I was ready for a nap by 10am.  Jed had bought a new computer armoire off of craigslist the other day and spent most of the morning putting it together.  After that was done we ventured out to a children's consignment shop.  Evan has grown some in the last two months and no longer fits in 2T shirts (he still wears 18 mos shorts b/c he's so stinking skinny!) so we've been on the hunt recently to expand his 3T/4T options.  After our shopping expedition I was even more exhausted so I did take a nap.  I woke up just in time to get ready to go out to a birthday party for a friend. 
Sunday I again slept in but I felt a lot better when I woke up. I got a ton done around the house, I finished sewing curtains for our bedroom, I made more muffins (at Jed's request), I baked a pie and I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned.   We went for a drive in the afternoon to a little area of town thats not quite so developed and wished we could buy a house with some land there.   Our dream would be to have a house on a few acres so we could have some animals, I could have a big garden, the boys would have room to ride four wheelers and/or dirt bikes (when they're older) and store our future camper and Jed's future boat.  Apparently we have a lot of "stuff" to accumulate. :)   Its just one of our many "dreams", like moving to Australia and living as beach bums. 
Monday Jed took the day off of work and we went to the zoo.   We bought the year membership b/c we figure it'll give us something to do this winter when we have a newborn.  They put in a water park area this past year so after we had looked at all the animals and were dying from heat stroke (ok I'm exaggerating a little) we took the boys to splash around.  They had a blast and the only reason we left was b/c Jed and I could no longer take the heat while sitting and watching the boys.  Today I'm struggling to get back to our regular schedule for some reason.  The house is trashed again and its really bumming me out.  I feel like no matter how much I clean with in seconds there's a new mess! GRRR!  I should be used to it by now.... :) 

Watermelon anyone?!

I dont know why he was giving it kisses, maybe he thought it would turn into a beautiful princess. :)
 
Testing the water...

Fort

P>We were bored today so to pass the time I made the boys a fort to play in.  They're going to eat lunch in there today, should be fun! 
 



This is just a random pic of 2 of my 4 favorite boys.  These two definitely love their naps! 

Welcome to the Third Trimester

Sleeping has become increasingly difficult in the last week.  At first I couldnt get comfortable in bed so I changed my sleep number (we have a select comfort bed which I highly recommend!).  Now its not so much getting comfortable as it is that my shoulders and hips burn after a couple hours of laying on them and turning over in bed is getting harder and harder.   One of the worst things about not being able to sleep at night is it gives me a lot of time to think and during pregnancy/breast feeding (must be something to do with hormones) the hypochondriac in me comes out.  I will lay in bed feeling little aches and pains through out my body and think that I'm dying.  Like a headache is a brain tumor or my backache is actually a kidney infection that I havent caught in time, its ridiculous!  I mean I've been to 3, third world countries where diseases like malaria and typhoid are common and never once worried about catching anything.   I lay in bed at night trying to rationalize with myself that I should stop worrying and go to sleep but as soon as I start to relax my mind drifts right back to my worries which then keeps me up, grrrr!   When I do finally fall asleep my dreams are super intense and I tend to either wake myself up (then of course I have to get up to go to the bathroom) or I start sleep walking or talking and wake Jed up.  Also a couple of mornings ago I woke up to my left calf muscle cramping up.  This has happened with each of my other pregnancies as well.  Fortunately this time I knew what to do so instead of laying there in agony for a good 2 to 3 minutes waiting for it to release I was able to force it to release.   My leg is still really sore and I'm nervous when I go to bed at night that I'm going to wake up to that horrible feeling again (not a good thing for the hypochondriac).  Ok so I know I'm not the most up beat person about pregnancy, its just not my thing I guess.  I also want to be completely honest on here so when I've forgotten what its really like in a couple years I will be able to look back and go, "Oh yeah, it isnt quite as romantic as its made out to be."   However the end product is so worth it!  I cant wait for this little guy to be here and I had fun this weekend doing some planning for his arrival.  We need to buy a few things, like an outfit to bring him home in (I want it to be new for him so I can put it in his memory tote) and a Pack and Play since Seth put holes in the netting of our last one.   We havent bought anything yet but I've been searching to see what I like.  I'm also considering cloth diapers so I've been doing some research.  Its cheaper than disposables and its not nearly as difficult as it used to be back when I was in them. :)  Its been a challenge trying to convince Jed to consider the idea (it grosses him out), but last night he read an article on cloth diapering and he was kind of impressed.   We'll see!  I'm also nesting really bad right now.  For the first time in my life, messes drive me crazy!  I dont think I've ever kept my house cleaner than it has been the last 2 weeks.  I wish I had the impulse to clean all the time!  I made a list of all the stuff I need to get the house organized before the baby is here, bookshelves, a buffet for our diningroom, a new pantry, a freezer and the list goes on! :)  At one point Jed and I were even discussing huge remodel plans for our house.  I think I got a little carried away. :)&

Gestational Diabetes Test

Yesterday I had an appointment with my midwife, it was my regular check up plus my diabetes test.  Obviously I've had this test 2 other times but this time wasnt quite so horrible.  Instead of the nasty sugary drink you have to down at the crack of dawn, they served me eggs, whole wheat toast, milk and orange juice.  Then instead of having to sit in a lab waiting room for an hour with 20 or more irritable strangers, I sat with my midwife and chatted about the babies she had delivered over the weekend.  Then I did a finger stick, found out that my blood sugar is normal and I went home.   I love that I walk out of every one of my appointments with my midwife, feeling more informed and confident.  I always felt so rushed with my doctor and like I was in the dark about what was going on.  Honestly they never even explained to me that my high blood pressure was high enough to be life threatening until well after I had given birth to Evan and that was only b/c I demanded to know why I couldnt have my IV taken out.  Anyway, when I got home from my doctors appointment I was greeted by my two sweet boys.  The first words out of Evan's mouth were, "Mommy, did the doctor take my baby brother out of you?  I want to play with him, please!"  It was so cute!  When I told him no, he was very disappointed, he had apparently made big plans to watch some Blue's Clues and then go swimming in the pool with his new brother.  I explained that it would be awhile before the baby was here and even then he'd be a little to small to go swimming.  Evan however is convinced that his brother will certainly want to go swimming with him as soon as he's out of my belly.  Oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it I suppose.  :)  ]]>

Where do I begin?

Well our 4th was awesome!  We had a bbq and pool party at our house with friends and family.  Just as everyone started getting into the pool a rain storm rolled in but it didnt slow anyone down.   It wasnt really lightening so we just swam in the rain and after about an hour the rain let up.  After dinner we went to the fireworks down at the river.  We sat on NTM's lawn as usual and the boys made friends with some of the other kids playing on the basketball court.  It was amazing how easy it was this year with the kids, they happily played while we chatted with friends and I only had to go wrangle them once!  Just as Jed and I were talking about how great it was with the boys it occured to us that next year we'll have a 9 month old, which means, bottles, diapers, diaper bags, extra strollers... its overwhelming just thinking about it.  Oh well, in a few more years we'll be out of the baby stage again and hopefully FOREVER! :)   I love my kids but babies are a lot of work, if they could just be born and go from a 6 lbs baby to a toddler in a few days I would probably have about 10 kids but that first 12 months is BRUTAL!  Anyway back to our 4th of July, the fireworks were great, Evan sat with Jed and loved every minute of it, while I had Seth who was terrified at the first boom.   He was curious though so while he wrapped his arms around my neck he pressed his face up against mine and watched the show, I must admit I enjoyed the snuggles. :)   We didnt get home until 11pm and our whole family was wiped out. 
The rest of our weekend was interesting.   Saturday night I had a horrible mixture of stomach cramps and Braxton Hicks contractions.   It was very painful and if the contractions had been any closer together (they were 15-20 minutes apart) I probably would have called my midwife.   I didnt get very much sleep that night.   Sunday my body seemed to go back to normal and we had a pretty good day, we went to church and then our whole family took a nap which was AWESOME!   Afterwards we went to Joann Fabrics and picked out fabric for me to make curtains for our bedroom.   I had hoped to get going on that last night but I had some cleaning up to do around the house and was too tired afterward.   Then Sunday night/this morning was a nightmare!   Our dog Ally is in heat right now so she spends most of her time in our garage and dog run.  However she tries whenever she can to break through the locked dog door and get in our house.   At around 3:30am she started ramming into the door, waking Jed and I up (fortunately I was able to fall back asleep but Jed wasnt so lucky).  After Jed got that all sorted out, Gwen, who sleeps in our room, decided it was time to start grooming herself including lots of scratching and licking which seems 100 times louder in the middle of the night.   Jed decided it was time for Gwen to take a hike so he got up, went to our bedroom door and called for Gwen.   She didnt move and after several attempts, he went over to grab her and when he touched her she peed out of nervousness.   He had to clean it up and at this point it was almost 5am (he usually gets up at 5:30 anyway) so he just decided to stay up.   I woke up at some point but was able to fall back asleep.   Then at around 6am Jed heard Seth in his room, yelling and banging around so Jed went to check it out.  He walked in to see Seth running into the closet door yelling, "No, dont get me!"   Jed was confused at first but as Seth kept slamming into the door and yelling at no one, Jed realized that Seth was still asleep.  I'm guessing he was having a nightmare about Evan chasing him or something.   So Jed went over to him to gently wake him up and when he snapped out of it Seth smiled and gave his daddy a big hug.  Jed put him back in bed and he fell back asleep.  I feel so bad for Jed right now b/c he's probably exhausted at work.  I know I'm tired and I only woke up a few times last night and was able to sleep in until 7am!  
4th of July pics

Seth and Len decided to wear matching outfits, arent they cute!?! :)  

The sun was beautiful as it set over the river so I tried to take some pictures of the boys with it in the background.  I couldnt get either one to look at the camera though. :(  

Our friends brought their dog, Gus Gus, Evan fell in love instantly! 

This picture cracks me up everytime!   We gave Evan a flag to hold onto but he got so excited when the fireworks started that he began whipping it around everywhere, whacking Jed in the face (and almost his eye) several times.  I fortunately had the camera out and ready to capture this priceless shot!   Once Jed got the flag away from Evan they had a great time.  :) 

Seth, my snuggly child... at least when he's scared. :)  

BTW, Katie you were right Church does have a UTI!  Thanks for the tip!