40 weeks!

i can't believe i just typed that!  i am officially past my due date!  it seems little silas jack is pretty happy just hibernating.  truth be told, i am just glad he did not come on the first day of school!

i had an appointment with my midwife today and we don't think anything will happen in the next week.  you never know though!  my poor family is tired of sitting on pins and needles wondering when he will make his grand entrance.  there are so few real surprises in life and we are all a little (or a lot!) "type a" so i think it's a good thing that God is trying to stretch us by teaching us patience and reminding us that we truly are not in control!

i love being pregnant but i am at that point where i am ready to have my normal body back.  i just can't move the same way being this big and sleeping is a joke!  and to be honest, the anticipation of this natural, unmedicated birth can be a little overwhelming at times.  i know i can do it, but i also know how hard it will be and i just want that behind me.  and i can't wait to see my silas jack!

first day of school 2013-2014

today was the first day of school for everyone (but me) and we all survived.  burrito is in 4th grade and noodle is in 2nd grade this year.  i can't believe how fast the time goes by!  i am admittedly always a little emotional at the start of each year.  this year, i was more emotional the night before at meet the teacher night than i was today as i walked them to class.

noodle at his new desk in 2nd grade at meet the teacher night

burrito at his new desk in 4th grade at meet the teacher night

and of course i had to take everyone's picture this morning before we left for school, including the cutest latin teacher ever! he's so sweet to allow me to torture him in this way every year! :)

my two cuties

and then i always like to walk them to class on the first day of school.  they didn't really care for me to do that this year but i told them it was more for me than them and maybe after 6th grade i will stop! :)

standing in front of the lockers before going in to class

we celebrated surviving the first day with an ice cream trip to braum's!

these three are my biggest loves in life and it is so hard to be away from them for so long, but i am thankful to the Lord that they love our school and that they have great friends and teachers.  may the Lord teach us all new things about life and Himself this school year!

summer is over :(

well today is the first day of school for john, burrito, and noodle!  and i'm so sad that summer is over.  i say it every year, but it's just not fair to have to give up all 3 of them at the same time.  i'll post the official "first day of school" pictures tonight, but i wanted to first mention how we celebrated the last few days of summer. 

waiting for silas to show up encouraged me to cram as many fun things into last friday as possible because i just don't know when he will come and life will be turned upside down.  so we started last friday morning with a trip to the donut store!

we never do this because i am married to a health freak, so we were sure to pick a day that dad would be at work!  ha, ha!

then we tried our hands at a pinterest project.  i saw awhile back a great idea for boys...to let them take apart an old, broken appliance of some sort.  goodwill has a plethora of old appliances, vcr's and dvd players, but we were really holding out for something that didn't cost a penny.  and lo and behold, there was an old vcr sitting outside the dumpster at school that john saw and brought home.  hooray for junk! :)

so we set up shop in the driveway with an assortment of screwdrivers and the boys successfully took the whole thing apart.  it wasn't quite the most amazing thing ever that i thought it might be for them, but they enjoyed doing it and seeing all the parts inside.

then we headed out to see the new movie planes.  it is very similar to cars, which we loved, and i really appreciated this movie too because it led to some good redemptive conversation.  the story is about a plane that has the dream of racing, but he is just a crop duster so odds are against him from the very beginning.  however, with some hard work, he qualifies for the big race.  throughout the race, he consistently puts others first over his goal of coming in first place.  then at the end when he needs help, those friends step up to help him.  in a family of boys that are very competitive and in which everything is a race and competition, it was great to talk about this movie in light of the Bible and what Jesus says about how the first will be last and the last will be first.

going to the movies and sitting inside with cold air conditioning is about the only thing i can enjoy right now!  it's been over 100 degrees here in texas for days on end!

we finished up our fun friday with dinner out at our favorite place, gloria's!  we usually celebrate surviving the first week of school but with silas' impending birth, we just weren't sure we would get the chance to do that this year!

july and august fun

so this will be a huge phone picture dump.  i am just too big and pregnant to tote my good camera around these days!  we've had a lot of fun hanging near home this summer.  thanks to a huge blessing from my parents, our stay-cation has consisted mostly of trips to hawaiian falls.  they bought all of us a season pass so we have gone once a week all summer to take advantage of this blessing.  the boys and john have also enjoyed a TON of bike riding this summer, recently clocking in a 6 mile ride!  they love to bike to nearby parks, play tag and other "manly" activities, and then ride back home.  next summer, silas and i will be able to join them.  here are some other fun things we've done lately:

Late night movie to see Despicable Me 2

We thought this would be good for crazy hat day!

Free slurpees on 7/11 from 7-11

Early morning trips to the park (before it gets too hot!)  I love that they are still thrilled with going to the park!

Feeding the ducks at another local park...there were even little ducklings!

They were pretending to be in jail!

Making homemade play-doh for the first time.

Making play-doh food

Don't you love their aprons?!?!  We like to bake in them a lot! :)

i just love my little men and all the fun, simple things that we do together to make life fun!  i can't believe we are about to add another little man to the mix! and i can't believe that summer is almost over!

39 weeks

wow.  this is the longest i have ever been pregnant.  i had burrito 16 days early and noodle 8 days early, and i was convinced that this guy would follow suit and be early too.  well, he only has 4 more days to make that happen and according to my midwife at this week's appointment, it probably isn't going to happen!

 

these are terrible phone pics thanks to the lighting but oh well...i wanted to make sure we got these just in case he decided to make his appearance sooner rather than later!

and i wanted to get some pics of the boys with my belly this week for posterity sake. :)

they both told my midwife that they are "done waiting" for silas to come, so i think we are all ready and anxious to meet him.  i did pray that silas would bake up nice and big way back when we first learned of his medical issues so i guess this is just the Lord answering that prayer! :)

my body is just not built to carry this much weight all on the front end so i am feeling more and more tired.  it has been 2000 degrees outside this week and dad, who is much more fun than mom, started back to in service at school this week.  so all that to say, we are just barely making it around here.

the first day of school is next tuesday, august 13, so i am just praying, praying, praying that that is NOT the day silas decides to make his grand appearance!

4th of july

we celebrated the 4th of july at my parent's house again this year.  we love going down there for this holiday because they live outside the city limits and you can buy and shoot fireworks to your heart's content.  and believe me when i say this, those people down there are serious about their fireworks!

i grew up doing this because my parent's current house was my grandparents' house.  i have such fond memories of exploding ant hills with black cat firecrackers, eating homemade ice cream, and watching other people set off fireworks in the street.

not much has changed over the years and i am not kidding when i say that you can hear some sort of firework going off every second from dusk till whenever you go to bed.  and this is for DAYS, not just the night of the 4th.

i will say that lighting fireworks takes on a whole new meaning as a mom.  i was trying to be real cool about it all and only lost it when a lit smoke bomb rolled toward a pack of 300 firecrackers sitting on the ground right in front of us.

but you should have seen john and the boys!  they had the time of their life setting off our quaint stash of fireworks that we indulged in this year!

love these brothers and their kool-aid lips!

still pregnant...11 days and counting...

it's august 1st and we are all just waiting on this baby over here.  even burrito and noodle are getting impatient!  we are so ready and so excited to meet this new little guy and my body is D.O.N.E. being pregnant!

john starts in service at school on monday and then the boys start back to school the following tuesday, august 13.  my technical "due date" is august 12th but it would sure be more convenient if he came just a little early!  the beginning of school every year is crazy!  all the school forms, school supplies, school uniforms, meet the teacher, pickup/drop off, lunches, and being on a schedule really sends us for a loop.  john and i have to remind ourselves each year that our children are only tired from the first weeks of school and we have not committed some awful parenting fail because it gets ugly around here.

silas is still moving around but he has definitely slowed down and his movements are more twisting and turning than wild and crazy flailing like they have been in the past few months.  i'm still measuring small but that's because i AM small and he is too and he likes being all balled up inside.  his head is down and ready to go so i keep thinking any day now but we will see. 

hoping that my next post on here will be pictures of our new baby!