Author Archives: Abbie

Emmie Update-37 Weeks

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When last we left our baby Emmie updates at 32 weeks the placenta was moved but the baby was frank breech.  That meant she was head up and so were her feet.  Future gymnast?  Maybe.

I didn’t post at 34 weeks because, well, it was boring.  Listened to the heartbeat, discussed options if baby doesn’t move.  Yawn.

So, this appointment was the “big one.”  Where was she?  Would we need to do an ECV?  Wait it out?  Would we have an ultrasound to see what was going on?

I’m thrilled to say, she is head down!  As of now.  She could still move because my uterus is “stretchy.”  That means I’ve had a lot of kids and I can make all sorts of room for overactive babies.

I know ya’ll are probably tired of me saying this but I am constantly thanking God for Dr. J.  Even while we were trying to figure out he started saying that since she was still spinning (and she was…she was having hiccups all over last week), that we would wait and see how she did or until I went in to labor and make the decision then .  As I said with earlier pregnancies, we always feel part of the team and decision making and we are very grateful to have a doctor who doesn’t make snap decisions and really seeks out what is best for baby and mom.

Now it’s just a wait until she’s ready.  I asked him how far over I could go past my due date and he said I wouldn’t go over.  I laughed at him.  So, he’s going to give her eviction papers ten days or so after my due date.

I’ve got things ready for her and we’re all waiting but for some reason it just doesn’t seem real that we’ll have a new little one here in just a few weeks.  I’m excited to meet her and for the kids to have a baby here but, honestly, we have a few things we need to get wrapped up (like school and a project fair) before we meet her, so I’m fine if she wants to cook for a few more weeks.

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February (and January) Randomness

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I realized that I could go to handy dandy Facebook and pull up some of the photos from my phone since they were taken with Instagram.  Some of these are from January and some from February but we’ll just pretend they are all from February okay?

 This was my nutty bar stash before the snow in January.  For some reason, I was really craving oranges and nutty bars all of January.

 One of my best friends on a night out.  We were planning a Lilla Rose event and then we stopped at Wal-mart and got distracted by the bargain bins.  Yep. We party hard.  Don’t envy us.

 These three ninjas started karate in February.  They took two lessons at the end of January to “earn” their white belt but the fun and cool thing was that they got to break a board with their foot.  They are quite fun to watch in class.  Ace is serious and very athletic.  Liam is focused (I kid you not) and the loudest and then there is Josiah.  He is all smiles as he hits targets and yells and does his version of push ups.

 Our trail adventure as mentioned in the previous post about ice.

 Malachi loves to hold the hymnal during worship.  Such a little man.

 Those are handbells and we are actually practicing (well practice was over so they were ringing them…loudly).  The Bible says to make a joyful noise.  See those smiles.

See, we did have warm days.  Sometimes all you need to play outside is a diaper, your sister’s rainboots and a wooden sword.

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From Let it Snow to Let it Ice

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Not to be outdone with our Seventh Year Snow in January, February decided to bring in ice.  Two inches of ice.  Shut down our city and our power.  We were only without power for less than a day but we knew people who were four days plus without it.  Or they would get it only for it to go out again.

Thankfully, we did not have any lasting damage.  No problems with trees snapping or hitting our roof or fence or any thing else.  We were very blessed.  And, we all learned that snow is waaay better than ice.

 Looks pretty but…

It was all ice.

 Zoe was getting icicles off the dome.

 And she also left her mark in the ice.

 Trying to de-ice the rabbit cage.

 The greenspace behind our house.  We got to listen to the sound of snapping trees for a couple of days.  Not fun to hear.

I believe the dogs loved the ice and snow more than anyone.  We had a lot of trouble trying to get them to come in when the temps went well below freezing.
So here is a re-cap of the weather that week.  
Monday:  70 degrees.  So beautiful I took the kids to a local walking and nature trail and we were sweating after a mile walk.
Tuesday:  Colder but tolerable
Wednesday:  Ice
Thursday:  Still icy
Friday:  A bit easier to travel but still icy.  Oh, and an earthquake.
Yeah, not kidding.  Mark and I were watching a video that evening at about 10 when we heard a rumbling and then the house shook.  Every nerve in me tensed up not knowing what it was (Mark was thinking helicopter…I’m thinking an attack on our local army base or something).  We ran outside and neighbors started popping out too trying to figure out what was going on.  One neighbor claimed helicopter as well but when we all looked up in the sky there was nothing but a pretty clear sky.  No sign of any aircraft.  Another neighbor was on the phone with friends who lived over an hour away and they said they felt something too.  Mark and that neighbor both agreed earthquake.  I finally relaxed a bit but ya’ll…that was the first and last earthquake I ever want to be in.  
After all of that, we are now anxiously awaiting a “real” tornado (we usually have the wind blow hard and they call it a tornado) and a massive hurricane.   Finally, all of our natural disasters will be done.  Forever.  I hope.  
This is all so freakishly weird because we live in a very mild area.  We’re about three hours from the ocean and right on the banks of a large river.  We have hot summers and lots of pollen but that is typically it.  Our winters are usually in the 40s and 50s with some 30s but I do not remember having so many 20 degree highs.  Guess we will just blame climate change…or global warming…or whatever.
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Snow Day 2014

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Yes, we were hit not only with a polar vortex (new to me phrase) at the first of the year, we were also blessed with our snow day for the next seven years (we hope).  This was a classic southern snow for us:  Here one day and gone the next.

We got about an inch and half and it was enough to play in and keep Mark home from work.  Perfect.  And a bonus was no loss of power (which we lost when the cold came through but that was only for an hour or so).

After breakfast we walked the neighborhood and the kids enjoyed sliding down a neighbors hill on a real sled.  FYI, a tote box top does not work well for sliding in one and half inches of snow.

 They were so ready to play and so ready to come back in too.  It was very cold outside.

 Our snowman!  He looks so tall…

 but really, he’s sitting on the picnic table in the back yard.  I wish I had grabbed a picture of a neighbor’s snowman.  After it was built (over six feet tall), their yard and another yard were free from snow.

Snowball fight.
Our first snow in this house.
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Randomness for December

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Yeah, I don’t know what he was doing.

 A gorgeous sunset out our front door.  Have I mentioned I love living “out in the country.*”

Ceili Rain and perhaps her future beau at a local park.  I love that I have a best friend who has kids who love my kids and they love them.  There’s a lot of love going around.

*I am aware that we live in a suberb with neighbors and we’re five minutes from Wal-Mart.  But, we are not in our city proper and we can see beautiful sunsets like the one above.  We rarely noticed them before we moved.

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Happy 8th Birthday, Liam!

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Liam had a built in birthday party with his cousins visiting!  Fifteen kids, four adults and lots of laughs and smiles.
That’s one excited birthday boy and brother.
 Liam finding out he was going to be taking martial arts classes.

He requested a cheetah chocolate cake with caramel frosting.  We opted for a cheetah den and lots of plastic cheetahs on it.  He liked it even though there were lots of cave ins.

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Happy 11th Birthday Zoe!

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Here comes some sad news.  My cellphone went for a swim.  And didn’t come out alive.  On it were pictures from December.  You know the ones…the ones I took with my phone because I didn’t have my camera.  Fortunately, all other months pictures had been gotten off…just not the ones from December.  If my phone is able to be repaired (if you know me, you’ll know that Mark got insurance on my phone…smart man), and the pictures were not damaged, then I will make sure to post those.  If not, trust me…we had a lot of fun on these next few posts.
Zoe’s birthday in December was a ton of fun.  We celebrated with family on her actual day and then traveled that weekend to visit family and then celebrated with friends on that Monday.  She wanted to go bowling.  We live quite near a military fort and they have a bowling alley open to the public.  On Mondays, they offer cheap bowling and cheap food.  So, we rallied her friends and played a couple of games of bowling and ate cake.  It was both fun and yummy.  And we all got a kick out of the little ones trying to carry a big ol’ ball to roll.
 Opening presents…That’s one excited young lady.

She got her first ever charm bracelet and was thrilled.  Especially since she couldn’t really think of what she wanted for her birthday.

Scouring pinterest, Zoe came up with this for her cake.  It’s a chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip buttercream icing.  Was it yummy?  Oh my goodness it was.  The cake was my standard chocolate cake but the icing was so fluffy and good.  And I don’t like mint chocolate chip anything.

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Merry Christmas from our Crew!

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Yeah, I know it’s the middle of March.  At least I got it up, huh?  Here’s our kids in their Christmas pj finest.

 The hat.  It was a dollar store find.  Malachi wore it throughout the store.  When he lost interest, we hid it and saved it for a sibling shop gift.  He loved it…again!

 We got the boys’ their big gift together.  They had all asked for the same Lego set for Christmas.  Obviously, legos are not cheap so we decided to combine it.  These are some thrilled boys.

 Zoe was thrilled.  Absolutely thrilled to receive a kindle.  It’s a basic one and was a sweet, generous gift from a friend, but Zoe could care less.  We quickly found all of Louisa May Alcott’s books for free and she quickly devoured them.

Be still my heart.  These two fight like sisters but love just like sisters.

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