3 Boys + 2 Girls = Our Family

Here are some pictures from our family picture photo shoot this year.

This pregnancy is getting so close to the end!!! This week at my dr. appointment they got me on the schedule for July 7th to be induced!! Oh happy day!! So that is just 5 weeks away!! The only negative about it, we have to be at the hospital at 5:00 a.m.! I actually don't see that as a negative (since I'm the one who happily said "I'll be there!"). Jayson is not excited about it, but hey, the sooner it starts, the sooner our little baby will be here!!! I'll just make sure he has some of his favorite snacks and let him go back to sleep for a little bit in the morning and he'll be a happy camper! I get to be induced at 39 weeks because I have gestational diabetes with this pregnancy and that can make you have bigger babies. Well, since I already have a history of big babies (Dawson born at 41 weeks was 9 lbs 8 oz and Creed born at 39 weeks was 9 lbs 3 oz) my wise & sweet dr. thought it would be best to do it at 39 weeks again. Yeah! But I don't think this little girl is going to be that big. I just don't feel as big with her as I was with the boys. So we'll see what happens. It has been a real learning experience having the gestational diabetes. I've met with a dietitian and was taught how to test my blood sugar and I have to keep a food journal of everything I eat. I thought I was going to hate the food journal, but I love it. It's been really good to see what I put in my mouth all day and how that affects my blood sugar. And poking my fingers 4 times a day isn't that bad either. Dawson hates to see me do it. He's so tender hearted and hates thinking it hurts me. I try not to let him see it, but sometimes he does and he always says "don't do it mom. don't hurt your finger." But it doesn't hurt. I've done a pretty good job of keeping my blood sugar under control with just diet and so I'm not going to have to take insulin. And as soon as the baby is born, I'm done with it. I do have to make sure I take care of myself (eat healthy & exercise) forever now because I have a 50% chance of getting Type II diabetes later in life. So that's a pretty motivating reason to stay healthy. At first I was really upset that this had happened but now I've realized that it has been a blessing in my life. It has reminded me how amazing our bodies are and that I need to take better care of mine. Jayson & I figured out the other day that this month we've been married for 5 years, that's 60 months of blissful marriage! But I have been pregnant and/or nursing for 47 months of that time (not so blissful for my poor husband - he really is amazing!!)! And I have not been as active as I should be!! So that is something that I plan on changing.

Enough rambling on & on about that - I am just so excited to get little Avery here!! We can not wait to have her join our family. Creed is going to freak out to have to share me with another kid and I think Dawson will be okay and will probably help out a little bit. We are so excited to see how this little girl fits in with us. July 7th just can not come fast enough!

Last month I, Jayson, had the great idea of replacing some walls in our downstairs, and what a project that turned out to be. The first pictures are the before, and then we have some during and then after. My dad and mom came up for the weekend and helped us and even Dawson got in on the painting. If you remember before, we had wood paneling all over the walls in the family room and Creed's room. So I took some time and torn all of that off, even injured my eye in the process. We found out that we had to put new sheet rock up on four and half of the walls. Half because one of them had some water damage and we just had to tear off that part and then water-proof the wall behind it. So at that point my dad was a real big help since I have never mud and taped a wall before. There was a lot, I mean a lot of dust when we were doing that. I wasn't sure we would get that all cleaned up, but we did. After putting up the new wall we put bead board on some of the walls and then started painting. We even painted our fireplace and the shelves to the side of it. We love how it came out. I think it makes the room seem bigger and a lot cleaner. The wood paneling that was up just made the rooms seem boxy, so now it is a classy down stairs. I did take almost a week off to finish it, but the worst part was that I planned the whole thing during the end of tax season, so Megan was busy with that as well. We survived and we love our down stairs.

Dawson turned 3 this week! WOW does the time go fast or what! We had lots of fun for his birthday. We had a little birthday party the night before his actual birthday. Some cousins and friends came over and we had a SUPERHERO party! The kids came dressed as superheroes or we gave them superhero names that they could be. We had a superhero scavenger hunt and then lots of cake and ice cream. It was lots of fun.

More of the game!

The Iron Man Cake! (my sister*in*law made it for us - amazing huh!)

It was huge hit!! (sorry you have to tilt your head i forgot to turn the picture around and I'm too lazy to go back!)

Happy Birthday Dawson!

Opening up gifts! So we have to work on our manners when we get gifts. So embarrassing - he opened up one gift and if it wasn't as cool as he wanted it to be he would say "I don't like it" and move on to the next!! AHH AHH!! Next year, hopefully, he'll be better trained to just say THANK YOU! and move on. Luckily, he had lots of helpers to open presents and play with the toys!

On his birthday we had a fun day. Grandma Jeanne was here and so she played with the boys a ton and then we met up with Aunt Kendra, Reagyn, & Sawyer at McDonalds for a treat and to play on the toys for awhile. Lots of fun! Then we just had a little family party that night and Dawson opened up his gifts from Dad, Mom & Creed. He got an Iron Man toy that he rarely has put down since he got it! We recently put another bed in Dawson's room to eventually work on getting Creed to sleep in that room when the baby comes and Dawson puts the Iron Man toy in that bed when he goes to bed at night!!

Do you see the excitement on his face!! This was the reaction to getting the Iron Man toy!! This kid is crazy for Iron Man! The best part of him getting into all these superheroes is that he will call Jayson and I "super Dad" or "super Mom"! Whenever you're helping him out with something, he'll thank you by saying "Thanks Super Mom!" I just think it's the cutest thing ever! and I've decided its pretty much the equivalent of "I love you"!

Happy Birthday Super Dawson! We love you!!

Work has been extra busy lately with tax season and different responsibilities that I've taken on this year. I usually try to work early in the morning when the boys are still sleeping and in the afternoon when they take their naps. But with so much going on, I've been trying to do some while they are awake. That is when trouble happens! The picture above is what happens when Dawson finds a black permanent marker and writes all over himself and all over my less than 6 month old couch while I was on a phone call in my office. I guess I'm lucky he was still running around in a diaper so clothes weren't ruined. (now I see something positive!)

This is too funny not to share! Last night I went grocery shopping and Jayson took the boys on an adventure to Target to get some more sippy cups (we have a ton of them and yet none can ever be found). So I was just busting right along at Winco getting my groceries because I had no children with me when I got to the check out and discovered that I didn't have my wallet with me. Luckily, I didn't have to load my groceries back up again, they just kept checking me out, printed out a special receipt and told me to take the receipt to the service desk and they would hold my groceries while I went to get my money. Well, I thought to save time I'd just call Jayson and have him bring me my wallet. So that's what I did. In Jayson's rush to get the boys loaded up and to get to Winco and back home by 8 pm to watch 24, he locked the door on the way out but didn't grab keys!! and of course we don't have a "hide-a-key-thingy"outside our house. So he calls me to tell me this so I can start heading home to let them back in and to get my wallet. I start heading home, but then Jayson figures out that the window in our basement bathroom is open ( i don't know how that happened but now every day I will be checking to make sure it's locked - once we hide a key outside!) He's able to get him and both the boys in through this window and get his keys and come to my rescue at Winco!! He even missed 24 to save my day - MY HERO! Dawson thought it was super cool to go through the window. He asked Jayson if they could do it again when they got back home!

What a night!