Jem

(I stole this one from Paula)

Guess what's for dinner?

Ed was up three hours before me and out in the pouring rain in pursuit of this ugly guy. Jack was thrilled and stood by the window to watch him plucked and gutted. The rule here is if you kill it, you cook it so I'm taking the weekend off!

Today was frog and toad day at school--big excitement here! It involved wearing green, eating gummi worms, and making a frog mask.

17 weeks.

The baby is now the size of a turnip and can hear. It's ears are fully developed and are starting to stick out from it's head (not too far I hope!). I've had multiple dreams that it is a girl and I have a girl name picked out so I'm pretty sure it'll be a boy...but we'll find out in a couple weeks!

Love.

He calls her pudge and she calls him bubba and they love love love each other.

One of the things we like the best about Jack is the seriously awesome giggles he gets when he's being chased (or wrestled). It's hilarious. I was happy to hear Jem doing the exact same thing today when they were chasing each other around. I thought she was going to pass out from the happiness.

The weather was amazing and my kids were all clean and shiney so I tried to get a picture of them.

No such luck.

At least our lawn looks good!

Good Fun Merriam Catching

As most of you know, I really look forward to this time of year. My long time hunting partner (Tim) capped off a great day of turkey "catching," as my wife and sister-in-law like to call it.

Goofballs

Sadly,

Jack's the only one using the exercise ball these days!

Working on the weekend.

Jemma has two sharp pointers poking through her gums so she was a bit down and out this weekend too. She was pretty much taking the love wherever she could get it!

Ugh.

I got a stomach bug late Thursday night which really shouldn't be allowed for pregnant people, especially those who are nauseous already! The sad thing was I would have felt fine in the morning but I didn't eat anything which I somehow forgot is not a good idea while pregnant--something I remembered when I was putting Jemma in her highchair and totally blacked out and found myself on the couch with my hearing all funny, my hands numb, and seeing black spots. Ed was in a meeting and it was too much effort to drag myself to the computer to email him when he was two hours away anyway (but at least he would have felt sorry for me and that's something, right?). Sweet Jack got me a bowl of dry cereal (his cure-all) after Ava had already gotten herself ready and off to school--dressed, fed, lunch packed, hair brushed (sort of)--what would I do without them? It was night before I could actually stand upright. Ugh, what a miserable day! I recovered nicely later in the weekend by watching the entire last round of the Master's. Yes, golf. I wonder about me too.

Funny girl!

She was this hyper all day and we didn't even give her any candy!

First bite of Easter goodies!

More Easter

So handsome!

We had dinner at my parents' and some old friends joined us--we used to have Easter with them every year when I was a kid and here's Chris teaching our kids a game we used to play 25 years ago!

Table-full.

The great egg hunt.

It was too cold for me to stay out and get some head shots.

Way too windy for Jem!

Easter morning.

Ava helped me bake, set the table, and iron everything on Saturday--she's usually at school when I do this stuff now so it's fun to have her help!

Waiting for breakfast!

So

Darn

Cute!

Happy Easter!

Good Friday

looked like this:

BUT Ed had the day off so we packed up the kids and took them to the Connor Musuem to see some of these:
Ava grabbed the scavenger hunt paper and turned it into quite the learning experience:

The kids loved it but I have to say hauling our three kids across a university campus when the sleet and snow are blowing sideways probably taught more than one college student to wait a few years before having any of their own!

Fun fact:

This bird lays eggs the size of the paper one taped to it there. That's the equivalent of a 100 pound woman having a 25 pound baby.

Belly shot...14 weeks

Ah ha. I got Ava to take a picture of me and here I am at 14 weeks. (She was so concerned with getting a good belly shot that she cut off my head which I think I'll stick with for future shots--I want a record of this growing baby not the rest of me!). And speaking of growing, a box of maternity clothes arrived on my doorstep just in time. Hello number four! I remember I made it to 20 weeks before wearing maternity with Ava, 18 weeks with Jack, and maybe 15-16 with Jemma.

Our baby is now the size of a lemon and can squint, frown, and suck it's thumb. It's kidneys, liver, and spleen have started working and it even has it's very own fingerprints. I should be feeling better but I'm not which has me a bit concerned about how long this will last! Jack loves to check in on the baby and he was really worried the other day because he couldn't hear it crying through my belly button. When informed that the baby won't cry till it comes out, he wanted to know why we don't just leave it in if that's where it wants to be. I said ask me again in five months!

I've had many questions about what I think it is and I'm tempted to say it's a boy, which means it's most certainly a girl, which makes me think maybe it's a boy. This is not something I have ever gotten right so I don't bother guessing anymore. Truthfully, I would love for Jack to have a brother but this baby and Jem will be so close I would sort of like for her to have another sister and Jack is such a fantastic brother to girls that I think that would be good too. But don't worry we will find out and if you're lucky we'll tell ya! :)

Daddy surfing.

Computer work

Kamiak Butte

We took the kids hiking the other day before the rain settled in.

"Look...I'm Spiderman!"

We stopped first for lunch in the park where Jack climbed up and down this rock wall.

At the top.