How to be a Sibling 101 :)

Well, I thought I'd end the week with a few cute pics of our family of 5 3/4 (I've bumped up the half since I know "baby girl" is almost full cooked :))....so, here's our family last Saturday at the hospital taking "sibling" classes and a tour. We do the tour every time we're expecting, even though we're fully aware of the hospital maternity floor layout (we just think it's semi-fun for the kids to see it all beforehand. This time we added a sibling class. I'm not sure why we've never done this class in the past as I know it's been available since Hailey was going to be a big sis in 2004...but I guess we just never did it. So, better late than never...we did it with all the kiddos this time in prep for their new sister :) Above is us arriving at the hospital...the next time I arrive here I'll be in labor in about 5 weeks (hopefully!)...yikes! Shelby was so excited (above) that she couldn't keep her eyes open :)...and she had to bring Clara (her AG doll)...
Inside checking out the fish tanks...a big highlight for Dylan :)
Time to learn about diapers....Shelby was fascinated, but needed some help diapering her baby...daddy is the expert so he lent a hand! (and notice big bro Dylan about to throw his baby :))
Dylan thinking, "I'm not so sure about this 'baby stuff'" :) He was a little young for the class...they say 2 is a good age for this, but he mainly just wanted to throw the baby, not diaper it! :) But, I will say again how NUTS he went over seeing a real baby through the nursery window. He was yelling at the top of his lungs (in happy tones), "Baby AGAIN!" after they took the baby away :) He definitely loves real babies so hopefully that's a good sign for his new sister! :)
Hailey was the diapering pro...she was officially too old for the class, but I think she was perfect and loved it the most (and made a point to tell us "how fun" it was after we left)! Here she is with her very evident boy baby :)
Our family trying to figure out how to diaper 3 babies at once...not an easy task! :)
Learning how to burrito wrap our babies....Dylan decided he'd rather hit mama instead :)
And I love this pic (above)...me and my three kiddos and our triplet babies :) Shelby was a bit unhappy with her slightly tanned baby :) But, doesn't Hailey look like a natural!? I love my kiddos...and I'm so thankful I'm not having 3 babies soon! One new girl will do just fine!

Have a happy weekend and be looking for our St. Louis pics soon! And thanks for the all the sweet comments about my parent's anniversary...I got a good laugh over the remarks about Dentist Pops :) Love ya'll!

Happy 37th, Mom and Dad! :)

Well, today is a day I honor my parents and their 37 years of wedded bliss :) Happy Anniversary, guys! :) Wow, that's a long time to be hitched! I, for one, am glad they found each other so, so long ago. I'm pretty sure they were high school sweethearts and even when my dad went away to Calvin to be a dentist they still stayed strong. And now look at all they have to show for their years of marriage...two of the best kids, 3 of the cutest grandkids and 2 of the cutest-granddaughters-to-be on the way! What could be better than that?! The Lord has truly smiled upon their marriage and their family and I am so grateful that he put them together so long ago so that we could all be part of this world and part of their lives. They are two of my most favorite people in the whole world and I am indepted to them forever for their unconditional love and support, not to mention all the sacrifices they've made for me over the years. They are tops in my books and 37 years of marriage just makes them even more impressive in my eyes. So, here's to my two fav. parents on their big anniversary! Hope you guys get to do something fun and romantic! And here's to many more years of life and lovin' together! Love you both!!!

Home Again, Home Again...

...and wishing we were back on our lovely get-away vacation :(

But, I have to say it was a super great time in the land of St. Louis. And what a fun place to celebrate our 10th anniversary (even if it wasn't the big cruise we were hoping for this year!) :)

Truly though...I'd recommend St. Louis to anyone...especially anyone who lives here in IN. Not too far of a drive (4 hours from Indy) and really there is so much to do. I'd love to take our kids back in a few years when they are older and do some of the same things (and more)...really...there is a lot of history in that nice, lil' city.

I wish I had the pics downloaded to show you, but like I said before...our old computer is out of space and I have no idea when Kev will have time/energy to hook up the new one. So, it might be awhile on the photo end of our journey. But I do want to give a "quick" rundown our fun time....mostly for me who uses this blog as an online journal...and maybe for those of you who've been there and know the fun stuff I'm actually talking about. I will say this....we never had much free/down time (and, yes, that's code for "we're exhausted!" :)...we did so much stuff in those 2 full days we spent there, but it was good times and I'm glad we did all that we did...just wish we had had more time and some rest....

With that I'm gonna do a day-by-day account complete with bullet points (it's been awhile since I've used the good ol' bullets and they deserve a reappearance on the ol' blog!) :) So, with that...here ya' go....

Day 1 (Sat):

• We arrived in good ol' St. Luey. I don't even remember what time it was, but I'll say around normal dinnertime....we sorta forgot about the time change (an hour behind us)...and to make a long story short, let's just say it really messed with our dinner plans. We ended up arriving in the city right as a Cardinals game was starting and all the floods of people were hustling to get there...it was kinda neat to see the big Busch stadium and all the red-dressed fans :) Too bad Kev is in no way, shape or form a baseball fan or we could have caught the game. But, at least we saw the stadium and the fans!
• From there we drove right to our hotel: The Renaissance Grand. It was actually quite fancy, which shouldn't surprise me since the name was fancy. But, we got a good AAA deal, so I just assumed by the price and the fact that most other hotels in the city were booked (probably due to the Cardinals game)...that this hotel wouldn't be that nice. But, it was very fancy. We laughed when we got to our room though. Nothing like the good ol' handicapped room for our romantic 10th getaway! :) I will say this...the room was very nice and I do believe it had extra space due to the wheelchair needs (which also worked out great for this big bellied mama's needs :))....and the view was actually pretty awesome. We were in a corner room on the 15th floor and we could see the big arch from our room. I enjoyed that especially since we usually get a room with "no view". The only funny thing about the room was the bathroom. It was made for a wheelchair and thus there was really no beginning or end to the shower (i.e...no tub or door)...but it did have a chair in the shower! I've always wanted one of those so believe me I sat down at least once while enjoying a warm shower :) The only bad thing about the room...the bed :( While it looked fancy with down bedding, etc...it was comparable to the crappy NC bed at the cabin...ya' know the one where you felt like you fell into the Grand Canyon when you slept. Luckily it was a king size so we just kept to our sides at night and all was fine...yes, very romantic :)
• After changing for our big night on the town (ha!) :) We headed to the riverfront for a carriage ride. Very fun! We had no problem catching a ride and had a great tour guide guy who gave us a 30-minute run-down of the town complete with a VERY bumpy ride into the old part of town (if I remember right we rode over the original stone streets from the 1800's??) And gosh by golly....if I ever thought I was gonna go into early labor and have that baby fall out of me...it was THEN! I think that carriage ride was comparable to some roller coasters (or worse)! EEK! Poor "baby girl" was probably wanting to cry inside of me...much too bumpy of a ride for a 34 week belly! But, it was a fun ride aside from that and neat to hear the history of St. Louis and see the sights from a romantic carriage behind a smelly horse :) We even drove through the Mississippi River! The River had crested a bit and was over the road that we had to take...our tour guide told us that not many people get to claim that fun bit of fame! :) The river was just a couple feet below flooding and was about 20 feet above what it normally was...so the statue of Louis and Clark and the normal parking area were all under water. Not surprising with all the flooding we've had in the midwest lately....
• After our romantic ride it was off to our romantic dinner. Unfortunately we hit the Cardinals crowd again coming out of the game (not to mention that parking was hard to come by) and we were a tad bit late for our already late reservation at the top of the Millenium Hotel (thanks to the hotel employee who let us ride up in the service elevator cuz the line for the regular elevator was miles long). The restaurant was very nice though...one of those fancy smancy 360 degree rotating restaurants (like the one we went to in Las Vegas a year ago). Very fun....or so we thought. Ok...so I won't get into the whole story...but we made our reservations for 9pm (on IN time that was 10pm)...so, by the time we got seated it was probably between 9:30 and 10pm and I don't think we even got food until close to 10:30 (11:30 our time)...we were just trying to stay awake at this point and I was in no mood to eat. But, I will say the view of the arch from that high up was awesome. And it was neat to see all the city at night from that high up. We even saw fireworks going off. Very romantic, I suppose...but I think all Kev and I wanted to do was go to bed. We figured out during this trip that we aren't the young whipper snappers we used to be :) But, dinner was fairly good...Kev had his normal filet and I had my normal chicken. All good, but too late to eat and we were happy to be back in the hotel by midnight to sleep!

Day 2 (Sun):

• Room Service to start off the day! YAY! Ok, so that probably sounds snooty of me to say I love room service...but so be it...I DO! I love to be pampered every once in awhile...and I think the last time we actually splurged and got room service was on our first anniversary celebration in Chicago when I was pukey and just newly pg with Hailey....I remember wanting to hurl all over the tray of room service then! This time it was much better! I enjoyed every minute of my buttermilk pancakes and bacon...I was even too stuffed to finished it all (the side effects of being 8 mos pg...my tummy gets too full too fast). So, that was an awesome way to start the morning...nothing like eating in bed and watching a movie with my hubby by my side :) It was lovely and relaxing and nice to be spoiled :)
• Then it was off do the tourist thing.....first up was the famous Gateway Arch. We actually had bought on-line all access passes (which saved us lots of money in end)...so we used those all day to get in all the tourist stuff. The Arch was pretty neat. My only complaint was the heat. We went up into the arch right away and I had no idea you had to ride up in this tram like thing that was basically like a closed/very small ferris wheel/capsule--no windows, no air (or so it felt) and we had to ride up with 2 other people. I felt nauseous right away and I was already so hot that I thought I was going to pass out. It was definitely borderline night-marish for me :( I really thought I was going to black out at one point. Luckily it only took 4 minutes to get up...1 minute more and I could have been a goner :( I definitely don't plan to do that again if pg (that's a joke, since I won't be pg again...just wanted to see who reads this :)). The view from the top was magnificent and much cooler! I could have stayed up there for hours! Unfortunately we had to go back down in the same claustrophobic tram thing (mom, I thought of you the whole time...no way could you have done this!)...luckily the ride down was only 3 minutes and cooler, so I made it! YAY!
  
• After that we just did some mulling around and movie-watching on the history of the arch and Louis and Clark, etc. I admit I almost fell asleep during the movie. You know me and movies...and me and historical movies are even worse...I usually take those opportunities to nap! But, I refrained and did ok. The museum was pretty neat and I know Kev would have loved to stay there all day (he's the history buff in our fam. :)).
  
• Next it was off to the Riverboat. I think the Tom Sawyer was the one we took....it was a fun, historical 1 hour ride down the Mississippi. Relaxing....and especially enjoyable for that history/boat loving hubby of mine!
  
• Then back to our hotel to change and off to an early dinner at none other than my fav. restaurant chain--MP (that's Melting Pot for those of you who aren't big fans like me!). I love this place and we try to go every time we're near one...especially on big occasions like anniversaries and b-days! So, I was in fondue heaven there! We had our normal meal and I thoroughly enjoyed the cheese and choc. the most! We always get the Yin and Yang so Kev can enjoy his white choc. and I get my milk choc. It was divine, but I did come away feeling slightly guilty that we didn't get the dessert Kev really wanted (they have a bananas foster dessert that I heard was amazing...and it's only a seasonal event)...sorry, Kev...I just really wanted my milk choc!! Yummy yumm, yumm it was a delicious meal....but again, we were tired. It was only 6pm and I think Kev was yawning and almost falling asleep in the pot of boiling cheese :) But, oh how I love MP! It rocked!
• And finally...even in the midst of our tiredness and wanting to fall into bed...we had more plans for the night...a theater production of My One and Only at the Muny Theater near the MP. This is actually a huge outdoor theater and we probably could have watched the show for free, but instead we wanted guaranteed tickets so we paid 9 bucks a piece to get "far-away" seats :) It was a great show...or at least I think so...I'm not a theater buff...that's Kev's thing too. He liked the tap dancing and there was actually some good theater humor to it....so as tired as we were and as much as we nodded off here and there, it was a good show. Slightly hot since it was outside, but still worth $18 for tickets :) And the show was fitting...a romantic comedy that ends in marriage...what could be better than that for our anniversary...ok, so I'm sure Kev was wishing we'd been there the week before for Miss Saigon...but still....it was something to do.....

Day 3 (Mon.):

• Last day in the city :( And, boy, was it a hot one...we have proof as Kev took a pic of our thermostat that read 104! Yikes! No wonder I have swollen ankles today!
• We started off the morning with breakfast at the Rooster :) Funny name for a cute, hole-in-the-wall crepe cafe'. Kev and I both had some fruity crepe's...they were pretty yummy too :)
• Then we went biking...yes, you are reading that correctly...the 8 month-big-bellied prego went bike-riding. Ok, so actually it was one of those quadricycles (like we rode in WI, mom)...so in all honesty Kev did most of the work steering and I just helped with pedaling. And it was mucho HOT out so we didn't stay out the whole hour we could have....but it was still fun to ride up and down the riverfront and get some exercise! :) We were sweaty messes after that though! Then it was off to the....
  
• The Busch Tour (yes, the beer place) :) Neither Kev nor I like beer, but we thought since we were in St. Louis, where the Busch headquarters and big processing plant are...that we'd take the big (free) tour. It was actually pretty fun. If it weren't for the excessive heat of the day I would say it was enjoyable too. But, after walking on the tour up and down stairs and smelling the nasty beer hops (or maybe it was yeast?), well, I was ready to put my feet up and breath some normal air. But, the whole beer process was fun to see and neat to see the bottling plant and the Clydesdale horses and also get the "free beer". Kev actually drank his glass...I opted for the "root" kind :) But, the place was fun to tour and it's amazing to me that like 3000 people tour that place on a normal weekend day...wow! That's a lot of free beer to give away too!
• From there we went to an early dinner/late lunch at Fitz'. I'm sure you've never heard of it, but it's a local soda place that makes their own bottled soda (esp. root beer). It was a cute lil' restaurant and we had a yummy meal and got to see the bottling area. They weren't making soda when we got there, but you could see all the stuff through the windows....a great place to bring kids, I'm sure....

So, that was that...the "jest" of our pre-10th-anniversary trip to good ol St. Louis, MO! It was definitely fun times and good for the soul to get-away from our house stresses and the everyday stuff and enjoy one last outing before baby #4 makes her appearance. I'm certainly glad we took the time and money to get away...and to do it now. I'm truly not sure I could have done that drive and all the walking even a week from now. I am getting way too uncomfortable. After we got home last night I noticed how puffy my legs and ankles are getting and I've noticed over the course of the week how much harder it is to move and even get comfortable in bed. It's definitely becoming evident that I am near delivery and this baby is growing. But, I'm so thankful that we could get away one last time and enjoy each other's company. As tired as we were, it was just nice to be tired together and to have some peace and quiet! :) I love my husband and I'm so very thankful for him and the special times we get to spend together.

And the kids had a great time with Nina and Poppy. Big thanks to Nina who watched the kids most of the time all by herself. She's one super Nina! I hope she's getting some much-needed rest now! :)

And now we're all home. Back to the crazy life we lead and weeks ahead of finishing our basement (and since I know I forgot to mention this recently....we have AWESOME friends....our wonderful pals from MI--Jer and Melisa and kiddos--are coming into town to lend a hand with our huge remodeling project). I'm not sure I can even put into words how thankful I am to have them coming...not only cuz they are going to help us out big time, but also cuz I'm thrilled to pieces to see them again after such a long time (possibly years??). We are so looking forward to their arrival!

So, with that I must go....and I'm not sure I'll have time to post much in the coming weeks with all the "stuff" going on. But, hopefully at some point I'll get some pics posted of our fun trip and also of our fun sibling class/tour at the hospital on Sat. I've never seen Dylan so excited by the sight of real babies...the boy went nuts yelling "Baby Again!" when the nurse held the baby up to the window. This big brother stuff is gonna be sight to see! :) I'm getting so excited. The tour made it all the more real for us...and the girls loved learning how to change diapers and wrap babies....more about all that later.......toodleloo!

Weekend Away...YAY! :)

Well, can I just say that I'm so glad the weekend is finally upon us. It's been a long week as I know I've already mentioned in earlier posts...with the basement stuff and sickness and just life.....

So, I'm excited to say a fond fairwell for the next 3 days as we head on our long-awaited vacation! We can't leave til tomorrow unfortunately cuz I've scheduled a sibling class and hospital tour in the morning...so we'll leave after that! Of course I wish we were going on our awesome Caribbean Cruise, but that'll have to wait a little over a year. For now I'm just happy to get out of this house and forget all the craziness here and tour the city of great St. Louis. I've never been and we always try to do something fun/new every anniversary so I think this will be right up our alley. We have lots of activities in the works so we'll see what we can accomplish in a couple days, but it'll at least be great to spend some time with my hubby! Truly, I could care less what we do...as long as we do it together!

So, have a great weekend everyone and hopefully I'll be back online next Tuesday with some pics to share of the big arch and some other St. Louis sightseeing! And can I just say that it boggles my mind that 10 years ago today I was anxiously planning my wedding...I feel old knowing it's been a decade since we tied the big knot! That was truly one of the best days of my life and I'd do it all over again if I had to! :) I love you, Kev...happy 10th in 2 weeks! :)

Have a great weekend, everyone! And here's to Nina S. who is watching all 3 kiddos by herself so we can get-away! Hats off to her!

Fair Fun!

Well I, for one, love fair pics and I love the fair...ok, so it might be hot, crowded and smelly, but the food is good and it's great to watch the kids with the animals and on the rides....so here's our trek to our local county fair last week! We were glad daddy was back so we could go! Above is us just getting to the fair...we were hungry so we grabbed some dinner...Dylan enjoyed daddy's soda, Hailey loved her corn dog and we all liked the fries! Yumm!
Hailey with her "dog" :)
Dylan trying the fries...not surprising that he ate them...he likes fried food :)
Big Mama and her kiddos feasting on food!
The big slide...always a kid/daddy fav! Even Dylan went down this year, but that pic turned out blurry...darn! :( But at least you can kinda see Hailey, Daddy and Shelba!
Can you see our littlest kiddos on the coaster?! This was Dylan's fav. ride! He got off and said "FUN, FUN Mama...that was FUN!" :)
A little blurry, but it shoes the fun they were having!
Shelb's fav. fair treat...cotton candy! :)
The spinning berries...remember last year I went on this and almost threw up! Of course I kept my distance this year, but even watching them spin made me nauseous! Not a cool ride!
Dylan with his fav. treat...ice cream! I think he ate a little bit of all of ours! :)
Our tractor-loving boy on an ol' John Deere...can we say future farmer? Ok, maybe not....he can't even eat veggies so I doubt he'll grow 'em!
And a few animal pics...by the time we got to the animals after all the rides (it was family day at the fair so we had wristbands and went on lots of rides)...so after all that the kids were tired and ready to go home...so we only saw a few animals...Shelby's fav. were the bunnies :) Hailey enjoyed the birds...is this a pigeon or dove? My dad is probably cringing that I don't know this :) But Hailey enjoyed petting the white bird...

Final Swim/Dive Day!

I know I've already posted some swim/dive pics from our lessons the last couple weeks at IU Outdoor Pool...but here is our last day (last week)...above is the big mama with her swimming fools :)
Look at that dive form...she's actually gotten much better compared to last year...
I love this...it kinda looks fun to be dumped off into the water...
Dylan with his swimming bud, Drew :) Dylan did not want a pic with him so this is all we got...
Shelby with her two instructors...one was Jenny...not sure about the other...but she liked them, which isn't always the case with Shelby and authority figures! :)
Check it out...Shelby going off the high dive...I was pretty impressed! She is our lil' daredevil!
Dylan's fav. part of swim lessons...jumping off the side...he even did it a few times when I wasn't looking :)
Trying to do our backstroke...
Shelby and her bud, Cami...they was supposed to be in the same class, but that didn't happen...Shelby was bummed out, but at least we still saw her BFF every day :)
Hailey and her BFF Julia (Cami's sister)...same thing happened with them...were supposed to be swim-mates, but didn't happen...then Julia got swim ear and couldn't swim anyway :(
I love this pic of red, hot Dylan watching big sis Hailey dive :)
Check out the above pic...Hailey on the highest diving platform...very impressive...since I'm sorta afraid of heights I was amazed at this! And below is her going down, down, down from the high dive!

Days w/o Daddy :(

Just in case you were wondering (as most of you probably weren't :))...this is how we filled our days w/o daddy....ok, so we did a lot more than this to keep our minds off missing him...but these were a few things that kept us occupied.....above is Shelby with her normal "I love my mom" face :) Have I ever mentioned she's a spitfire?! And this particular day we had just walked down to our trail and then she told me she had to pee...go figure...so that face was after I told her "you'll have to wait or go in a bush!" :)
Dylan throwing rocks (his fav!) in the creek...we love our lil' creek near our house and the trail is perfect for walks, especially when it's cooler...this day it was smokin' hot!
Dylan loves his wagon...mama wishes she could have been pulled in the wagon this day!
Dylan's new fav. thing...his trains...ever since NC and his new Thomas train from Nina and Pops, he plays with them every day....this kept him very happy while missing daddy....
And if ever in need of a thing to do for kids when bored...make a tent! We did this and the kids watched a movie from inside it and ate popcorn :) They were tickled pink...even though Shelby's face below doesn't show it! :)