To Protect Our Liberty

It turns out we moved to a very patriotic part of Washington. The boys have come home every day this week talking about the different branches of the armed forces that they've learned about in school. They don't have school today, which is the first time we've had Veterans Day off. Cooper brought home two blue stars to write down the names of the people he knows that are serving in the military or have served in the past. Two was not enough but we squeezed them all on and they are now hanging on a bulletin board of honor in the hallway of his school.

Peter was very proud of a picture that he colored and a song he learned about the military. I asked him if he wanted me to film it and put it on the blog for our Veterans Day post, and he said yes. So now I present, Peter's musical tribute to those serving our country!

Rosie the Riveter

Last night I put together three pieces of furniture from IKEA. We now have a place to store the baby's clothes and a place to sit upstairs and hold the baby (other than a bed or a folding chair). I feel quite accomplished.

Also, I don't think I've used my upper arm muscles in a really long time. I say this because now I am sore. So sore. So sore that lifting my laptop is a bit of a trick.

But hey, at least now we're one step closer to being ready for baby sister's arrival.

Preview

It occurred to me that some of my readers (primarily of the grandparent variety) might like a sneak peek at our new girl. This is one of the 3D images we were given at the ultrasound. It's not perfect (I'm sure her skin in not actually textured that way), but it's still pretty cool. I think she bears a striking resemblance to her siblings, no? We'll see if that holds true in six (or seven or eight) weeks.

From Sea to Shining Sea

When we made sugar cookies last week I gave the kids the chance to wield the cookie cutters themselves. Cooper and Phoebe tried it out for a bit, then moved on to other activities. Peter loved using the cookie cutters. At one point in the process he decided to freestyle and started cutting out his own shapes using a table knife.

That's when he made his great discovery. Like Michelangelo seeing the sculpture within the unchiseled stone, Peter saw the shape within the dough. Behold, his great creation:

Can you tell he has a penchant for geography?

Buzzing

I think we need a serious Halloween detox over here.

The kids have been flying (I've expected to see Peter actually start to levitate) since Thursday night. Getting the kids to school on Friday morning was crazy, and not a fun zany crazy either. Sacrament Meeting on Sunday was spent keeping kids from sliding off chairs, among various other activities.

Even Phoebe has had a hard time. Yesterday during her dance class she was more engaged in flipping her hair all over the place than in dancing. That is highly unusual.

There have been a few points of light in the haze of sugar: Peter cleaned the kids' (meaning the gross one) bathroom on Saturday and Cooper had a good day at school yesterday. I'm holding to those two things, because the rest of the time has been rough.

How long until Halloween wears off?

Generations

Last night I sat down at my computer to write some long overdue emails. Before I started I thought, "Maybe I'll take a few minutes looking for a name for the baby." Peter had been urging (pestering is a more appropriate word, but rather negative) me to look up Family Search and, since family names are so important to Bryan, I figured that was a good place to start.

I had never been on Family Search before. Should I admit that? I was able to sign in with the same information that I use for lds.org. I had no idea all the information that was on there. Also, I had no idea how far back some of those lines go. I didn't really find any names that sang to me, but I did learn some interesting facts. For instance:

• Danish names are tricky to pronounce
• I have lots and lots of ancestors from England
• But if you go back far enough I have some from France
• And some from Spain
• And some from Rome
• I'm a descendant of a few famous people like
• William the Conqueror
• The King of the Visigoths
• Ferdinand the Great, King of Spain
• Henry, King of Germany
• Constantine, Emperor of Rome

That last one floored me. Granted, I'm sure he has lots of descendants by now, but even if I'm one of many, it's still kind of awesome.

That few minutes turned into an hour and a half. I can count this as family history, right?

Guess I'll need to write those emails another night...

Sugar Rush

We started our Halloween celebrations last Friday at Bryan's work party. Apparently it's the biggest party they have all year, which makes sense given who he works for. 

I'm including two pictures because I couldn't get one of both Peter and Phoebe smiling. I have no idea if Cooper was smiling due to the mask, but he was posing, so that's something. Yes, we bought all the costumes this year. A small part of me missed the wow factor of the homemade costumes, but a much bigger part was glad I didn't have to worry about them. And laziness wins out again.

The kids got SO MUCH CANDY from his work. I don't normally write about who he works for, but posting the following picture will give you a good hint. Notice how they're full sized packages? I'll also say we were very brand loyal this year in the candy we gave out.

Speaking of which, here's our bowl of candy ready for trick-or-treaters on Halloween. See what I mean about being brand loyal? The smaller candy offerings in the middle were the peanut-containing candy that Peter got; we handed it right back out, which was rather clever I think.

We also made Halloween cookies.

And ate Halloween jigglers.

And went trick or treating.

See Phoebe's choker? It didn't come with her costume. The day of Bryan's work party I pulled out some black ribbon and dug up some velcro (they were picture hangers, but velcro nonetheless) and the glue gun. That's right, I own a glue gun. I think the homemade necklace made the costume.

Because the kids had already pulled in quite the haul, we only went to the eight houses close to our house. The kids got just the right amount of candy. They enjoyed eating what they could while we watched a few Halloween cartoons on Netflix.

We'll decorate those Halloween cookies today after school. I meant for us to do it last night, but there were only so many hours in the day. And only so much sugar three children should consume in an evening.

Gourd Artists

At Peter's last two schools Halloween was a big deal. The kids got to wear costumes to school, they had parties, they got treats; it was quite the affair. At their current school, Halloween may as well not exist. Cooper did go to a pumpkin patch, but it was all in the name of Fall, not any specific holiday. I feel kind of bad that they don't get much of a celebration, so I'm trying to up my game and do more here at home.

Yesterday after playing at the park (it was early-out and, according to the weather reports, one of our last sunny days) we came home and covered our table with trash bags. A few days ago I picked up a bag of mini-pumpkins. The kids like to carve pumpkins, I do too actually, but I wasn't willing to tackle the mess and sharp knives to get three pumpkins carved. My compromise was that we could decorate these little gourds.

I pulled out some paint we were given and have never used, told the kids to go get on big pajama shirts over their clothes, and laid out our supplies. Rather than use paint brushes, we used Q-tips. The kids were thrilled that I let them paint. We do a lot of coloring with crayons and markers and pencils, but we rarely delve into paint.

I donned my apron and joined them. After we painted our pumpkins, we also each painted a Halloween picture on construction paper. Well, Phoebe's was actually more of an abstract flower. Then we got cleaned up and gathered all our Halloween themed books (we found fifteen) to read while the paint dried. The paint was pretty low-quality and cracked and flaked, but it served our purpose.

Now to see if I can carry out the Halloween fun I have planned for today...

Expidited

It turns out I'm not the only one that thought I was a bit bigger than I should have been.

I had a doctor's appointment today. Baby girl wouldn't show her face during her last ultrasound, so they did another one today. We got lots of face pictures this time, including some 3D shots. I've never had those done before. I can report that she already has chubby cheeks and fingers. And a nose like Phoebe's. And they verified that she is indeed a girl. I was kind of nervous that they would do this second ultrasound and say, "Oh, just kidding, it's a boy." That would have been really hard on Phoebe.

After reviewing the data, the doctor came in and read the findings. The baby was measuring big again, consistent with the last ultrasound. Then she told me she was changing my due date. By eleven days.

I've just jumped from the 31st week to the 33rd week. My own doctor (who I saw right after the ultrasound doctor) confirmed that I'm measuring nicely at 33 weeks. I'm glad that I wasn't crazy and overreacting about my size, but it does feel a little weird to have jumped ahead so far. I wonder if this is how time travel would feel.

One lovely perk of the change is that she is now due on my Great-Grandma's birthday, which makes me smile. And, if she's like her siblings, she might still make it all the way to her original due date.

Shock and Awe

This picture is shocking for two reasons. 

The first is that I'm 31 weeks along and I'm not sure how much more I can grow. This picture doesn't do it justice, maybe because I'm wearing a skirt? I'll have to take the next one in pants. I had to invest in the next size up in maternity clothes because what I had was no longer providing adequate coverage. I'm not quite short waisted, but almost. I'm really feeling that these days.

I'm not the only one. Sunday night during her personal prayers Phoebe asked that "baby sister will come out of mommy's tummy so her lap can get big again."

The second reason? Do you see the shirt I'm wearing? It's pink. That's right folks, I bought a pink shirt. Phoebe was thrilled. And it's one of the few from the first round of clothes that still fits.