I just have to shout it from the rooftop...

Initially, this pregnancy was supposed to be fraught with complications and our biggest goal was to make it to viability so that our baby girl had a fighting NICU chance.

We were not supposed to make it this far.

And a HUGE thank you to our Heavenly Father, for it is through the millions of answered prayers that we get to celebrate this unimaginable milestone!

...but feels like this...

Continuing to battle the 2-week sinus infection was most assuredly not the way in which I was going to celebrate our 36-weeks pregnant milestone. Nevertheless, here I am, big bellied, with my trusty box of Kleenex, can of Lysol and a determination not to let feeling miserable get in the way of acknowledging such a monumental week! 

My doctor is stunned that we've made it this far into a pregnancy and repeatedly declared, at my appointment last week, that this will be her happiest delivery of the year. She's been with us through our seven pregnancies and has to heft around my 4-inch thick folder around her office. She knows our history, our battles and our losses and has been as tense and anxious as we have these last nine months.

This week, Miss Rapunzel should be tipping the scale at around 6 pounds and measuring full length, around 20 inches. She will continue to put on around 1/2 pound per week until delivery, which could, realistically, be any time. Her favorite pastimes in the womb include hiccups and head-butting mommy's ribs. That's right, our little stinkerette is still breech! We briefly discussed the pros and cons of medically turning the baby (external cephalic version) and other methods and have ultimately decided that after all we've been through with past pregnancies and following all the obstacles we've had to overcome with this pregnancy, we're going to let Rapunzel turn on her own or schedule a c-section. We're not taking any chances!!

As you can see, I'm still referring to our bundle of pink as Rapunzel, an indication that my heartburn has quadrupled in potency and the promise that this little lady will have tons of hair at birth. Cankles are ever so stylish at 9-months, which is why I never leave home without them! And if swollen feet and ankles weren't enough, my hands resemble fat, pink sausages! Fortunately, there is no sign of pre-eclampsia! Whew! Just fat feet and fingers. Sleeping is a real challenge with a sinus infection, murderously painful hips, heartburn and a sore back, but the zombie look is rather becoming on new moms so I'm just going to embrace the dark circles and mental what-ever-ness as a precursor to the next several months of my life. My cerclage will be removed next week (*gulp*) which means that the baby could arrive any time after that.

***

You want to see the nursery, right? EVERYONE wants to see the nursery, but since it's not entirely complete, I'll give you a quick glance at how things are turning out so far...

Originally, the room was two shades of yellow (I liked to call it butter and cheese) and featured that hideous carpet I was so zealous to rip out of our living room and hallways last March:

 My mom volunteered (because she's the nicest person on the planet) to paint our nursery for us (THANK YOU MOM!!). We decided to go with neutral colored walls and chose the color 'Lyndhurst Gallery Beige' to mask the butter and cheese. Brock was anxious to help...

You can see how beautiful the walls turned out in the images below.

Pardon the mess, as you can see the nursery is incomplete!

The bedding we chose is from Pottery Barn Kids. It's called 'Scarlett" and features shades of ice pink, light red and khaki. We only purchased the crib skirt and sheets (as seen below): 

I created a mural to hang above the crib, matching the color of the bedding...

Shelving decor (in above pic and the two below)...

This mirror hung in my grandmother's house, well, for as long as I can remember, and after she had passed away my parents offered it to us. Gratefully, I snagged it and then sheepishly kept it in my walk-in-closet until I found the perfect spot for it: the nursery!

Why is it that laundry sucks, unless you're washing and folding baby clothes?

Thanks to my niece, Libby, we had eight glorious loads of hand-me-down outfits to wash and hang up and fold (and ooh and aww over).

Do you think there is enough pink in this closet?

Remember the most awful carpet on the planet, as mentioned above? Well, thanks to some elbow grease on Clarke's part, we now have new, soft, luxurious carpet (Brock's room got new carpet too!):

And finally, the light. Initially, we had the same builders-grade lighting that came with the house and let off a dingy, yellow glow. But that doesn't do for a little girl's room. She needs bling...and so we chose something befitting of a tiny, but stylin' nusery...

(I took these pictures at night...it's really quite cute by day!)

I'll update with 'the finished product' pictures when the nursery is complete!

On Monday evening, Brock surprised us when he disappeared into his bathroom and minutes later, shouted, "Mom, I just lost a tooth!" I knew he had a loose tooth, but the last time I wiggled it, it was only a "little loose," as Brock would say. So, we pulled out the tooth fairy pillowcase, tucked the tiny tooth in the pocket on the pillowcase and Brock anxiously went to bed, on time that night, in anticipation of whatever surprise the tooth fairy would leave for him. At 11:30pm, he came bounding into our room, waking us both with squeals of "The tooth fairy was here, mom!" With his four quarters in hand, I re-tucked Brock into bed and said goodnight. I imagine it took some time for him to drift back to sleep.

The next day warranted a visit to the dollar store as the shiny quarters, courtesy of the tooth fairy, were understandably burning a whole in his pocket. He chose a blue recorder and played it (mom shudders at the memory) all the way home, where it promptly broke (this is where mom smirks). Big shocker, right?

Last night, I tucked Brock into bed at 7:30pm, like usual, and decided to take advantage of a warm shower. When I got out of the shower, I heard Brock shouting from across the house. Rolling my eyes and throwing my hands up in surrender ("You're supposed to be in bed!"), I padded across the living room to where Brock was standing in his bathroom. 

"I lost another tooth!!" he sang happily.

"W-w-w-hat? Another one?" I was admittedly baffled as I was unaware that he had any other loose teeth. Yeah, bad mom moment confession.

But there it was, another pearly tooth clutched in Brock's pudgy hand. He giggled gleefully at my astonishment. "Let's call daddy!" Brock was dancing merrily around the bathroom with his tooth as I tried to recover from my shock. Daddy was at scouts. And Brock was up 45 minutes past his bedtime.

We pulled out the tooth fairy pillow again and I did my best to settle my enthused 5-year old and bid him goodnight once again. Then, I whipped out my phone and texted Clarke in a panic, "Do you have a dollar bill???" Luckily, he did. Whew! 

And just as he had done several nights before, Brock woke up in the middle of last night, bounded into our room, waving his dollar bill and announcing that the tooth fairy had visited again! I rubbed the 3am sleep out of my eyes, took my goofy, grinning, toothless child by the hand and tucked him back into bed. 

And first thing this morning, I made sure to check each and every tooth still left in Brock's mouth for any loose culprits sure to break the tooth fairy should any more fall out this week. 

....as a family of three!

Every holiday season, Clarke and I debate whether or not to buy tickets to see Trans Siberian Orchestra's Christmas concert; after all we love their Christmas albums. 

And every holiday season, we invent an excuse not to go. 

"Tickets are too expensive." 

"The concert coincides with a Christmas party."

"The concert coincides with a football game."

"Let's spend our money on Christmas gifts instead."

"One of us has to work that night."

..and the list goes on. 

But this year is different. This year, we are making NO excuses!

As our last hurrah before our baby girl arrives, we are treating our little family of three (and a half) to the afternoon matinee concert at Taco Bell Arena the day before Thanksgiving.

 And to prove it, we already purchased the tickets!

The matinee prices are NO DIFFERENT from the evening show, except that kids under 14 get in free with the purchase of an adult ticket! 

This will be Brock's very first concert. He LOVES rock music. To put his passion in perspective, he frequently requests that we turn on "Frankenstein" by Edgar Winter so that he can rock out around the house! Look it up on iTunes if you have no clue what song I'm referencing. I think he'll be awe struck by the music and the light show.

This will be an awesome start to the holiday season and a great memory for our family!

I'm not going to say that Brock is a genius, but...

...at parent teacher conference last week, his kindergarten teacher suggested that he needs a more challenging program than public school can offer. To be fair, every parent thinks that their child is unequivocally intelligent, and I'm no exception. Nevertheless, to be told that Brock is chronically bored in school because the learning comes too easily for him and that he tests beyond the level of kindergarten confirms my suspicion that my precious 5-year old is far more clever than we give him credit.
Genius.....probably not. But smart? You betcha!

His teacher thinks we need to give charter school a try before Brock is in 2nd or 3rd grade because the charter school teaches at a swifter and more challenging pace and would engage Brock's intelligence at a level that public school is unable to compete with. Now, Clarke and I are almost kicking ourselves for not switching to the charter school when we had the chance. At the same time, it just wasn't the right decision at the time. So, perhaps next year, we'll revisit the idea of charter school. For now, our junior smarty pants is going to have to chug along with the rest of the kindergartners.

At first he determined to be the world's most fierce and celebrated ninja. 

This came as no surprise to us or to anyone who knows Brock.

Then, one day, quite suddenly, Brock changed his mind about shopping for a ninja Halloween costume and announced that he was going to be Kellen Moore this year. 

(For those not in "the know," Kellen Moore is the QB for the Boise State Broncos). 

We were surprised and delighted!

Clarke and I shopped for the perfect jersey. Brock already had the socks and the football cleats.

All that was missing was the pants, the shoulder pads and the helmet.

This is where I give a very gracious shout out to Clarke's sister, April--who came to the rescue when she sent us her son's used football gear. Thanks a million, April!!

Clarke and Brock spray painted the helmet and we added the Bronco stickers and extra pads.

We also attached a face mask to the helmet, BUT it added about 10 extra pounds and was way too heavy for Brock, so we took it off and B went maskless on Halloween.

This was the perfect costume for our rough and tumble boy!

We spent Halloween with Nanay, Alison, Jamin, Travis & Libby.

Brock and Jamin could hardly contain their trick or treating excitement!

 Grrrrr....

Jamin made an awesome Ninja Turtle:

Travis was the cutest Spider man, ever!

The cousins...

The impromptu game of ring-around-the-rosie, courtesy of Travis...

 ...and we all fall down!

Libby was the most elusive (and adorable) witch! She was so crafty that she managed to outwit my lightening fast shutter speed and I wasn't able to capture as many pictures as I wanted!

Alison stepped in and helped contain Halloween's most flighty, little witch for this cute, 

mother-daughter gem:

Hope your Halloween was as fun and spooky as ours!