And the race begins...

I am embarassed by these pictures but they must be posted! My sister-in-law, Rebecca, and I are both due on the SAME DAY! You would never know it by our size... She and my brother and niece just arrived from California this week so that Rebecca would be here in Arizona to deliver her baby (insurance reasons). It is so fun to be able to commiserate with Rebecca and to wonder who will get to have their baby first! We are now 37 weeks - full term - and so the clock is ticking and we are waiting... Who will have the 3rd grandchild and who will have the 4th??

Addiction

Stephen is in LOVE with books! I couldn't be happier because I love books too! He can sit and look at books for over an hour just quietly by himself. He brings one story after another to Scott and I (and anyone else that is willing) to read to him and never gets tired of it. Here is my sister Celsea reading to Stephen - she was so sweet and probably read to him for at least an hour yesterday. The story they are reading is very long but he sat still and quiet for the entire thing! Here Stephen is involved in one of his favorite activities at Grandma Smith's house. He goes and pulls out book after book out of the bin in the closet and just sits quietly looking at the pictures.

36 weeks...but who is counting?

I must be getting VERY big. This is how I know:

Stephen: "your belly is HUOOOGE!"

An old lady in a public restroom: "When are you due?" "4 more weeks," then her eyes bulged, "IS IT TWINS???" "uuhhhhh, no..." "well you look like you are due tomorrow!"

A police officer: (this one is a full story)

A police officer in my parent's neighborhood was talking to a crowd of neighbors and kids (who were throwing rocks at a dog and had the police called on them). Stephen and I went outside to check out the action. As we walked (ok, Stephen walked and I waddled) down the sidewalk toward the group they all turned and stared at me. I thought I was parinoid until my sister came over to me and said "let's go home" and as we got further away she started laughing. Apparently, as I approached the group the police officer had broken off from his speech and said "oh, that lady is VERY pregnant...she doesn't need to come over here!" My dad who was in the crowd then said "oh, that's my daughter!" (Thanks for claiming me dad!) At that point my kind sister, Celsea, decided to save me from my embarrassment by preventing me from joining the crowd. I guess they really WERE all staring at me!

Other indications of my huge size:

• I have about 3 maternity shirts that actually fully cover my entire belly and I think that they only cover it because I have a full panel on my maternity jeans. Church is a problem because my skirts have to ride below my belly and I don't have any shirts that long so I am pretty sure short people and little kids have a good view of my lovely white under-belly.

• Rolling over in bed requires such massive effort that I end up waking up Scott a few times a night with my efforts!

• Doing dishes requires contortion of my body so that I can get close enough to the sink to reach the dishes without my belly getting sore from leaning against the counter.

I am to the point where every other day I alternate from wanting the baby to come RIGHT NOW to hoping for a few more months of "just the three of us." But really, I am so excited to meet this little guy soon! I went to the doctor on Friday and everything is going well. He says the baby is a normal size (Stephen was BIG) so my plan is to try for the VBAC. Hopefully all will go well!

Good News!

We found out this weekend that Scott was accepted into ASU's W.P. Carey School of Accountancy!!! This is an exciting step in the right direction for us! He can start taking classes this summer...yea!! I am proud of my hubby - he works very hard at school and is such a great husband and father!

The Diagnosis

We found out about our car yesterday... $1,500!! And we won't get it back until Wednesday evening. Aparently there was some problem with the thingymajig that controls the throttle. I don't get exactly what it all does but the part alone costs $600! There were some other labor intesive issues that combined just really add up. If you want to know more detail you would have to ask Scott... Anyway, the "good news" is that our little camping trip and off-roading adventure did NOT cause the problems - they would have happened anyway and we are sooooo blessed that they didn't show up until AFTER we got home from the camping trip. It would have been such a nightmare to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere!

Engine Power Reduced??

This is not a sight you like to see, especially when it is YOUR car they are taking away... Unfortunately, we had to have our car towed to the dealership because it has something very wrong with it!

We came home from our camping trip on Saturday and spent the afternoon resting and putting all of the gear away. Later that evening we decided to go and get some subs for dinner and then we were going to watch a movie with my family. We all piled into the car and when Scott turned it on the little display computer in the car said "Engine Power Reduced." Sure enough, the car gave a shudder and then sounded like a lawn mower engine - small and weak. We tried to drive it and when Scott pushed the gas pedal to the floor we were going 20 mph. Needless to say we did not leave the neighborhood. Scott checked out the engine and could not figure out what was causing the problem, then we noticed the smoke coming out of the engine. Great!! So, of course being Saturday night we had to wait until today to do anything about it! My mom brought over one of their cars for us to borrow until ours is fixed. Hopefully it will not cost too much but we don't have our hopes up...

We don't know if our weekend adventure caused the car problems. We made it home with absolutely no trouble from the car so it seems unlikely...

Only time will tell...I feel like a member of the family is sick and we are waiting to hear the bad news...

Queen Valley

I am now 33 weeks pregnant! How did we celebrate this milestone?

I know what you are thinking...pedicure...chocolate...foot rub...a movie...

No no, we decided to go...

CAMPING!!!

Our good friends, Kesseli and Jon, invited us to go camping with them on Friday afternoon and we decided it would be fun to take Stephen for his first camping trip. I know - I was asking for a rough night's sleep, but hey you are only youngish once so why not?

Here is a picture of Queen Valley, the area we camped in... I LOVE this part of Arizona at this time of year!

Here are the bathroom facilities...yes, even I had to use the bushes...don't ask...although there is a funny story here. Stephen was a really good bathroom coach for me - when I would go in the bushes he would say "good job mommy! you did it mommy!"

Kesseli, Jon, and their son Anden...their other little guy, Brecker, was asleep in the tent already. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire. I love S'mores. I think that might be the main reason I was willing to go...

Here we are in the tent - it fit a queen sized air mattress which the three of us shared. It started out ok, but it turned into one of the worst nights for all three of us. My back hurt sooooo bad and Tylenol did nothing to help. (I have sciatic nerve pain so I don't generally sleep very well at home either.) Also, every time I would start to doze Stephen would try to steam roll me so I would have to push him back to Scott's side and he would then push Steve back to my side. The poor kid kept saying "stop pushing me!" Luckily he is a heavy sleeper...

Stephen was absolutely thrilled with sleeping in the tent until the sun came up in the morning. He sleeps until about 9:00 at home and I think it got light at about 7:00. When the sun started to light up the tent he rolled over and started to whine, "turn off the light!" He was VERY mad about waking up.

Here are Stephen and Anden throwing rocks into a stream the next morning. They would have done this all day long if we let them. They were slowly getting wetter and wetter so we had to stop though. The boys also enjoyed running around in the dark with flashlights and Stephen was especially disappointed the next morning to discover that the flashlight just wasn't quite the same in full day light!

This is Stephen in the car on the way home. He was eating a sucker and still managed to fall asleep. The pictures do not fully convey how incredibly dirty he was!

The biggest adventure for the adults was the road we traveled to get to this camping spot. It wasn't really far but the road was not designed for a Chevy Malibu. We bottomed out several times and the only vehicles we passed coming and going were trucks or ATVs. We got a lot of funny looks and one guy even stopped to ask us how we were taking the road in our car. Every time it would be particularly rough or harzardous I would have to close my eyes until it was over. Our car is now the weekend warrior!! (Except for the major car problems that we now have as of Saturday evening...another post will have to explain that one).Overall, it was a fun trip and we had a lot of fun bonding as a little family and spending time with friends. The next time we go we are going to need a bigger tent and a truck!