Roman is 3!

Drinking asparagus soup with straws, "I made a mess on my forehead!"
The Tuesday night before Roman's 3rd birthday, the girls were sick and I was worried Roman was next. He started crying in the middle of the night, so I went to check on him cuz he never wakes up at night. We ended up cuddling and goofing off at least 4 times throughout the night, and I loved every minute of it. At one point I was just looking at him and he whined "me too", which is how he says "i love you back" sometimes, but I hadn't even said it yet. I can't believe my tiny preemie baby boy is so old and smart and talkative!
I put him down for nap/rest time and he was fine. A few minutes later, he started whining so I went in to see why. "Mommy, you cuddle with me?" How could I resist that?!
Roman, while watching ice skating on tv, "I have arms. That boy has hands like I do." "You're adorable.""I not 'dorable, I a big boy!"

A: "Let the show commence! That's a fancy word for begin."

R - potty training! The first day and a half was awful and I had pretty much decided to give up and try again in a few weeks/months. Then suddenly he totally got it and has been doing awesome! He is adorable running to the bathroom yelling "I go potty really bad!" And he's really only had one accident since then and that was because we forgot to remind him. The only weird thing is he hasn't pooped in the potty yet. Not for lack of trying, but I put a diaper on him for nap and he is now only pooping at nap time. Lol. I'm sure he will be fine eventually though.

A: "I don't even LIKE lettuce!" [While pointing her finger at herself]

Karina is 4 months old and so adorable! She's rolling like crazy and starting to sleep on her belly no matter what I do. She's still a great sleeper and all around a happy girl. She weighed 12#11oz and was 25.5in long at her checkup.

Christmas was kinda crazy but fun. It was just our "little" family (which isn't so little anymore!) But I just mean no relatives. The grandparents and great grandparents showered the kids with gifts and EVERYTHING was a huge hit. They exclaimed over everything they opened and were just delighted the whole day.

Well even though this is kinda all over the place, it's time to post it or it'll never happen. I've been adding to it since Roman's birthday and planning to spend more time on it but oh well!

snippets 2

• This morning the girls woke up and played in their room, Dan was at a church event, and Karina slept late after nursing at 8:30am. I went into Roman's room and cuddled with him for a bit. Then we went to my bed and read book after book after book. Love that sweet boy.
• Yesterday morning on our way to CC, Marissa asked why Merida from Brave wanted to "change her feet" - "change her fate" with a Scottish accent. Haha!
• The other day I finally got around to giving the big girls their first piano lesson! Marissa learned cdefg on paper and every octave on the piano. Arianna learned cde on paper and every octave on the piano - and they both actually remembered what they learned so far. 

Snippets

• "Mommy, you leff it in my room, I foun' it!" -Roman calling me from nap to tell me I left my water bottle in his room.
• Last night Karina slept from 10pm until 7:30am without waking up! It was wonderful! She has only been waking up once anyways, but this was extra nice.
• Yesterday, Dan took Arianna to the store to grab a few things we needed. He took my van key off my key chain because he doesn't have a button unlocker. Well, yesterday he left for evening church early (as usual), and then later I loaded all the kids in the card to go to the rest of evening church. Only to find that he had never returned my van key and he had the valet key too! Needless to say, we didn't get to church! We watched The Incredibles instead - the kids' favorite movie!
• Fall Back (hour time change) was this past weekend, and I was worried it would screw us all up, but we have the best kids ever and all 6 of us got an extra hour of sleep!
• Before Halloween, Arianna was having a hard time decided what dress up outfit to wear and changed her mind several times. Roman had no trouble deciding on the Merida dress from Brave...for himself! Haha! I managed to convince him that a monkey was cool enough!
• A few days ago, I woke up to both big girls in my bed cuddling with me. Arianna fell back asleep for a long time and Marissa requested to go downstairs and start school early. She finished everything I usually have her do before the rest of us even had breakfast!
• Karina just turned 2 months old and had a well visit check-up. She weighed 10lbs 13oz (25th %) and was 23.25in long (80th %), making her the biggest 2 month old we've had by 1oz (M: 10#, A: 10#12oz), R: 8#9oz)). She grinned at the nurse til it was time for her shots. She hated them of course, and was so pitiful. She slept a lot that day, but when she was awake she was miserable - it seemed like her legs were sore because everytime she moved or I moved her or tried to nurse her, she screamed out in pain. The next day she was fine though!
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• *Note to self* Always remember the smell and feel of fuzzy baby hair after a bath!
• I've found myself getting very emotional while doing laundry - I have to pack away the tiny cute things Karina has already outgrown, and Arianna outgrew, and Marissa outgrew. Ugh. I need a steady supply of newborns for an indefinite period of time!
• Marissa's top two front teeth just fell out recently! Her smile is adorable!
• Marissa has started dotting her "i"s with hearts instead of dots. Her reasoning: Hearts are so much prettier than dots, don't you think?
• I took all 4 kids to a pumpkin/apple farm for a field trip with our CC group. I wore 4 week old Karina in my Mei Tai (baby carrier) and she slept the whole time! Phew!

• Conversations in the car last month:
• Marissa: What is that tent?
• Me & Dan: Um, a tent!

• Roman: My nose not moving!
• I turned around to see him trying to shove a pair of sunglasses upside down over his nose.

Welcome to the world, Karina!

• Karina Brielle was born August 27, 2013 at 2:47pm.
  
  I want to write out her birth story here so I don’t forget it:
  In the early morning hours (1-3am) of August 27th, I woke up feeling odd. I felt like I was leaking, so I got a towel to lay on, and tried to get back to sleep. I was having sporadic contractions, but they weren’t painful at all, but I really couldn’t get back to sleep either. Somewhere around 3-4am, I felt something “different”, ran to the bathroom, and then I knew for sure my water had broken. My sudden run to the bathroom woke up Dan, so we started timing my contractions using an app on my phone. They were 10-15 minutes apart and not painful for a while. Around 5am, they were 5-10 minutes apart, and I was definitely feeling them more than before. We started to think we should call our friends who were going to watch the other kids. So I got up to pack a few last minute things before we decided it was definitely time to call them. After I finished packing, I realized the contractions had basically stopped, and even when I had one, they weren’t painful at all. It was weird, but my water was still broken so we knew it would be sometime that day.
  When the girls came into our room that morning, we told them Karina would be coming sometime that day. Marissa said “It doesn’t seem like a special day, but it’s gonna be!” They were thrilled, and we decided then to call our friends to pick up the kids. Their kids and our kids had all been looking forward to it for a loooong time, so we knew they were in good hands and would enjoy the day/night with them. They came to pick them up around 8:30am, and Dan and I had breakfast then headed to my regularly scheduled doctor’s appointment that week. They did some test on the fluid and confirmed that my water had broken. The doctor also checked me and said I was at 5cm already! That was a shock because for every other baby, I was at a 2 for one check, then the next thing I knew I was at 10 and ready to push. So being at a 5 was odd. At this point I was having a contraction every once in a while and they were slightly painful, but not much. I went 45 minutes-1.5 hrs in between some of them. We decided to head on over to the birth center in case things picked up quickly (like in the past).
  We got there around 11 and got the same room that both Arianna and Roman were born in. They had the tub filled up already, per my request. The nurse started my IV (for GBS+) and I got my first (and only) dose of that. We ordered lunch and just sat around waiting for things to pick up! I was having sporadic contractions, but nothing I had to struggle through, and they weren’t very consistent.
  I called my mom around 1:20 and we chatted for a bit. During our phone call, I had a few contractions that were finally hurting enough to let me know I was actually in labor. I labored on my hands and knees on the bed and around the room for a little while, and the nurses listened to Karina a few times. I don’t remember what time it was, but I decided to get in the tub at some point – maybe around 2:20? As I was on my way in, the nurse wanted to check Karina one more time. While she was trying, I had a BAD contraction, more fluid leaked, and I could barely stand up.
  I got in the tub, and was still having hard contractions, but I got a few minutes of relaxation in the water before things really got bad. I had maybe 2-3 contractions in the water, and dang, they really hurt! At this point I was on my hands and knees, with my hands up on the edge of the tub and my legs behind me. Then suddenly I wanted to push! I pushed one, looooong, EPIC push (at one point the midwife yelled to stop pushing but I couldn’t, then told me to grunt through it – apparently Karina’s hand was up by her face and she was worried I’d tear really bad), and she was out at 2:47pm! The midwife caught her behind me and I didn’t tear at all! The midwife rested Karina on my back for a minute, and then they all helped me stand up so they could pass Karina through my legs so I could hold her. She was super slimy and got slime all over my IV site. She cried pretty much right away (which doesn’t always happen with water births), and was LOUD! I told Dan to run and grab the camera, and we got a few nasty pictures of her fresh out in the world
  I held her on my chest for a little while in the tub, but the cord was pretty short so I was having trouble keeping her out of the water enough, plus she was screaming her guts out – we couldn’t even talk over her! Dan cut the cord, and then the nurse took her so I could get out of the tub. I felt so dirty (and actually pretty good) that I asked the nurse and midwife to help me clean up a little before I got out! So I stood up and they helped me shower. Haha. Then I climbed out of the tub and walked to the bed where the midwife delivered the placenta. Then I held Karina for a long time and she even nursed for a while. It didn’t take her long to get latched on. I think after that the nurse came and weighed her and checked her all out again. She weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 19 1/4 inches long (they measured her much later though).
  It was by far the weirdest of my deliveries, since it kinda took a while to get going. But it was still very fast once it actually started. Maybe 1 1/2 hours total? And of all my deliveries, I felt the best after this one. I wasn’t really sore at all, and I actually felt better afterwards. My muscles and back had been so sore for so long – it was just a relief! I immediately slept better too! Well, the first night she was up a lot obviously, but I still was much more comfortable sleeping than I had been in months!
  Because she was born so quickly, I never got the second dose of the GBS+ antibiotic (story of my life apparently). So they had to check her blood over and over (poor thing kept clotting, so they had to re-do it several times), and we had to stay an extra day to “observe” her. I was so ready to go home (it was BORING at the hospital! haha), but it was nice to have food brought to me and just do nothing for a while. The food was actually really good, and they serve a lot at each meal, which is awesome for me. Dan picked up the kids Wednesday night after the first night of AWANA (our friends took them there), and my parents and sister drove into town Wednesday night too. I was by myself at the hospital after that, and around 1am I had to move down the hall so someone else could have the birthing room. Thursday after lunch, we finally got discharged and my parents and sister came with Dan and the kids to take us home!
  At this point I still felt great. My only complaint was sore and bleeding from breastfeeding, but I expected that after living a nightmare with Marissa and Arianna as babies (not with Roman since I was still nursing Arianna at the time, plus he was in the NICU so I was pumping like crazy). Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were fun days spent with family. We even all went to see Monsters University at the cheap movie theater.
  Sunday morning I felt great, so we all went to church together, 5 days after Karina was born. Towards the end of small group, I started to feel really really cold. I thought I was fine, since I’m always cold in church. After small group ended, I took Karina downstairs to nurse her in the nursing room. At this point, I was visibly shivering and realized I might have a fever. I was also in TONS of pain every time I nursed her, so I thought maybe I was getting mastitis (again, not something I wanted to repeat). After I cried/nursed her, I went upstairs and met Dan on his way down to check on us. I handed Karina to him and went outside to stand in the hot sun. I was still sooooo cold, that he gave Karina to my sister in church, and we went outside to sit in the hot car to try to warm me up. I knew I wasn’t “just cold” from being in church, but I didn’t think it was that bad. Dan sat with me in the car for a while, but he was positively dying of heat, so I sent him inside and told him I was doing better, which I was starting to warm up a little. After about 45 minutes in the hot car, I suddenly was so hot I couldn’t stand it. I was sweating buckets and desperately needed some water to drink, but my water bottle was empty. I texted Dan, and my sister brought me out some water to drink. Church was over at this point, so we all went home and I landed on the couch. Dan took my temperature and it was 104 so he called the nurse/midwife after hours number and they said I needed to be seen in triage at the Women’s Center. So Dan, Karina, and I went back to the hospital. Boooo. They checked me out and did an ultrasound, where they thought some lining was still too thick for 5 days post-partum. They decided I needed a D&C to get rid of the infection I obviously had, but someone was having a C-section so we had to wait for the OR and my doctor. We timed it so that I nursed Karina really well just before I went in for the procedure. As long as Dan was with me, I could also keep her with me. I would only have to pump/dump once after the surgery and then she could nurse. My parents came down to the hospital too, while my sister kept the rest of the kids. So while I was under (breathing tube and everything – yuck), Dan and my parents consoled poor starving Karina. I was adamant that she not get any formula/bottle, and she made it through just fine - it was probably about 4-5 hours. Once I came out, I immediately pumped (a ton!) and then tried to wait for some milk to come back so she could finally nurse again! It was a rough few hours for Dan and my parents, rocking her and doing everything they could think of to keep her asleep and calm. And then once I was out, it was a rough few hours while I tried to let my milk build up again, but she just wanted to nurse and nurse and nurse. But I was still in so much pain from breastfeeding that I couldn’t let her, but she just wanted to nurse! I tried to make her wait at least 30 minutes in between feedings, but there still wasn’t much milk for her. Finally around midnight she got a good long filling feeding in, and we were able to sleep. This entire time I had an IV and was getting antibiotics every 6 hours. They were watching my temperature to make sure it didn’t spike again, but I already felt 100% better and totally fine. All day on Monday (Labor Day, her due date!), Dan and I sat around waiting for the word on when we could go home. It seemed like the longest day ever – we just watched tv all day! But finally before dinner they let me go! After having an IV for 24 hours, my arm was actually the most painful part of my body, with breastfeeding pain a close second. I also had a very sore throat from the breathing tube, and very sore neck and jaw (possibly also from the breathing tube, or possibly from tensing up from the pain every time I had to nurse her). I had to laugh about all my pains though, since NONE of them had anything to do with pushing a baby out!
  Since we’ve been home, we’ve had wonderful friends bringing us meals, and after my parents and sister left on Tuesday, Dan’s parents came that Friday for the weekend. As of today, 15 days post-partum, my only complaint is slight sharpness when she first latches on. This is HUGE compared to past nursing experiences, and I’m already loving snuggling with her and actually sleeping in normal positions without crying.
  I’m trying my hardest to enjoy every moment of this sweet newborn girl, since most likely this will be our last baby. I think I’m finally ok with that, since this pregnancy was so much more uncomfortable than the others, and I will never forget that giant EPIC push. But I will always miss these newborn days, especially when I’m not in pain anymore (especially nursing pain). I love love LOVE newborns, kissing newborn cheeks, snuggling a newborn in a froggy curl on my chest, even nursing in the middle of the night. So I’m soaking her in and letting other things fall behind. Because right now SHE is much more important than laundry or a picked up living room.
  The kids love her too. The girls are sweet and sing her songs, but Roman has surprised me the most. Every waking moment, he has to know where she is, what she’s doing, if she needs to eat “mommy’s milk”, he wants to see her arms if they’re hiding, he wants to kiss her forehead, and hold her all the time. He is the sweetest proudest big brother ever. I can’t believe I’m a mom to 4 kids, and they’re the sweetest most wonderful kids in the world.

August?!

How can it possibly be August already?! I'm almost 36 weeks pregnant, and each week goes by so slowly, but I'm surprised it's August. I've blocked out the whole month from other activities and appointments (except for mine every week of course), and we'll be starting school soon so hopefully we can get a little done before it's baby time.

This morning I got up and went to a kids' clothes sale nearby. Got a bunch of stuff for Roman, who really needed the most, and a few things for each of the girls. Roman is still barely wearing 2T right now, and even then sometimes his pants fall right off his butt. But I got him a bunch of 3T stuff (with adjustable waistbands!) that should hopefully carry him through the fall/winter. Arianna is growing out of 4T, which is surprising me, and into 5T, which is coming straight off Marissa's rack in the closet! It's pretty handy since I don't even have to pack things away in between them. Haha. Marissa is around a 6, but also has a problem with pants since her legs are so long but her waist is so skinny. Right now I've got a load of tiny baby girl clothes in the washer and once they're clean, all we need is a dresser (Ikea run!) and she can come! I'm so ready to be done, but want to make sure she doesn't come early like Roman, so for now I have to be patient. One more week or so and I'll feel better about wanting to be done!

Marissa has been whining about how the summer went so fast. She says she misses her friends (at our CC group), but I can tell she's not that excited about starting back to school. Arianna is though - I'll be doing some preschool with her, depending on how everything else goes! She's already at preschool level on many things, so it'll be pretty laid back. But we did get her school supplies that she's excited to use.

Roman is talking like crazy lately. I love hearing him discover new ways to communicate, and his voice is so cute saying things like "Roman's fault" and "No, YOU'RE a goober"

There's a list a mile long of things I wish we could get done around the house before K is born. But most days I can barely get through doing the bare minimum, and I feel bad putting it all onto Dan, so it's probably not all going to get done. I've checked a few minor things off the list, and there are a few I know we'll be working on together. But after that I think I just have to give up on my list. It's mostly organizing junk anyway, so it can wait. Although the junk is really getting on my nerves, I am just in too much muscle pain to go crazy with nesting.

I'm really enjoying the quiet of nap time today. Dan took Marissa out bike riding, so I don't have my usual chatterbox next to me. Haha! Arianna isn't sleeping (she only sleeps once every few weeks lately) but she's playing quietly in her room, and Roman isn't sleeping (he only sleeps once or twice a week - boo!), but he's calm and happy to play in his bed with his stuffed animals for now. I really wish he took naps more regularly, because once K is born, I'm really going to need them (for him AND me!). At least he's good at keeping himself happy, just like he always has been.

I think since everyone's occupied, I'll see if I can check something off my big list before I get too tired today!
(Yesterday Marissa tried to copy my use of the word "occupy" and ended up saying "octopi" instead!)

Ugh

2nd week of swimming lessons, and I'm so incredibly frustrated with my girls. Marissa has been getting progressively better, even though I know she can do more than she is. But Arianna is boggling my mind. Despite having almost one-on-one attention, the girl who is typically afraid of NOTHING is terrified to do ANYTHING in the water. She started out the first week doing pretty well, but suddenly this week it's like she's never heard of this thing called "swimming" before. I have tried every bribing, reasoning, and threatening tactic and nothing seems to be working. I really thought having someone else teach them would help much more than my previous attempts. But at this rate, neither of them will even do a thing on their own, no matter how much I tell them it's supposed to be FUN! Ahhhhhhh!

Remember this

I'm writing this because I want to remember every detail about tonight. Dan's coming home from work late (OISF meeting), so it's just me and the kids. We did dinner, baths, and bedtime. Roman was crying for some reason, after I had put him to bed and was finishing up with the girls. So I went in to see why, since he's usually completely happy to go to bed. I asked him what's wrong when I went in, and he said "kiss" - so what was I to do? I gave him a kiss and a hug and a long cuddle (on the big boy bed waiting for him in his room) and put him back to bed in his crib. A few minutes later he started crying again. He's got me wrapped around every single finger, and he NEVER cries at bedtime, so I went back to check on him. He said "kiss" again and pointed to the big bed. So I scooped him up and took him to the big bed, where he pushed me down so I was laying down, then he put both arms around my neck. Then he rested both hands on either side of my face, and just stared at me. We cuddled like that for a long time, then I gave him a kiss as I was getting ready to get back up. Then he started kissing my cheeks and lips over and over and grinning. I asked him where he wanted to sleep "baby bed" or "big boy bed" (he knows the difference and thinks it's a funny argument to have at every nap/bedtime. He always says "baby bed" but tonight he pointed to the big bed and said "big boy bed." So I got ready to get up (it takes me a while lately), but he kept pushing me back down for more cuddles! Then Marissa shows up in his doorway, so I ask her what's wrong. She said "you said to always tell you this if it happened again: I feel sad, like I'm gonna cry." So I managed to extricate myself from Roman, promised him I'd be back in a minute, and went to give the girls each a long cuddle in their beds. Then I went back to Roman, clarified that he still wanted to sleep in the big bed, and then said I'd check on him in a few minutes. As of right now, I haven't heard a peep from his room (over the monitor) and he hasn't tried to open his door (it has a child-proof knob on it, but I'd hear him try it). It's hard to believe that he might actually be ready for a big boy bed. But he was the cuddliest sweetest little boy on the face of the planet tonight, and I don't ever wanna forget that feeling when he's 5 and bouncing off the walls or when he's 13 and stinky all the time, or 18 and grumpy and moving away. He will always be my sweet cuddly little 2yr old who is finally talking up a storm and I'm loving every second of it.

Catching up

Time to play catch-up again! It's Sunday, and tomorrow I will be 27 weeks pregnant! I'm home from church this morning because somehow I got this awesome head cold/allergies and I need a million tissues every second. Dan has it too, but not as bad, and he seemed mostly better this morning. Not fair! Haha.

We finished homeschooling for Marissa's 1st grade year and I'm so proud of how it went. I didn't go crazy with stuff, but I feel like she learned a lot, and so did I. The hardest part was dealing with Arianna and Roman when we needed to do school, but we were able to do things during naptime too, so that helped. Marissa did great on the standardized tests we signed her up for, not that we were surprised. We finished the math book (and did extra math towards the end), finished the phonics book (exactly to the day!), learned each letter in cursive (her handwriting is amazing!), and did lots of reading. She had typing lessons on the computer, and watched several PBS documentaries about elephants, lions, wolves, etc. - she LOVES those types of things. Add all of that to our Classical Conversations curriculum (that she memorized like a pro), and I feel like she got a well-rounded education this year. I'm not sure I'll ever be the type of homeschool mom who does school year round and incorporates schooling into every part of our day. But maybe that's ok. I'm looking forward to a school-free summer, aside from daily reading time. I feel like it's an important part of a kid's life to have a break, and I need a break too! Next year will be extra challenging because Arianna will be starting Classical Conversations and I'll start doing more preschool stuff with her, AND the baby will be coming right when the year is starting.

Arianna has turned into a hilarious awesome 4 year old. We talked to her pediatrician and took some drastic measures with her digestive issues (enemas and LOTS of miralax), and since then she is happier and eating better and just all around more pleasant to be with. She's finally wearing underwear because she actually poops in the potty (this was a LONG time coming). For a while, she was positively soaking the bed every night, even through a pull-up. I changed her sheets every day - it was ridiculous! But suddenly, she was dry for a week straight, and now she's even wearing underwear to bed. I can't believe how much she has grown up. She's super sweet and plays adorably with Roman (most of the time). The girls are still sharing the purple room in their own twin beds. There will be lots of bed-shifting going on in the next year or so, but eventually the 3 girls will share a room, and we'll have to get another twin bed to put in there with the bunk beds.

Roman is 2.5 and graduated out of his speech therapy/Help Me Grow program. Just in the last few months, he suddenly has so many words and is speaking in 3+ word sentences. He thinks he's hilarious, and he is! He is still super sweet and cuddly, and most of the time so obedient too - but he's definitely 2! His little tantrums break my heart, and I have the hardest time keeping a straight face to discipline sometimes! He knows he can always ask his sisters for help with things, and it makes me smile when they help him out. He's starting to ask to go potty lately, and I can see that we will have to address that this summer - although I'm worried about him regressing when the baby gets here, so we'll see how that goes. A few weeks back he had been climbing in the girls' beds and asking to go to sleep there. So we decided to try him out in a big bed. The double bed has been in his room since he was born, so all we did was take the frame out so it wasn't quite as tall. He was super excited about it, but when we tried to let him sleep in it he FREAKED out HYSTERICALLY! It was pitiful, so we gave in and put him back in his crib. He's not climbing out or anything, so we're not in a rush. We're doing it gradually now, and usually just sing and play on the big bed before putting him to bed. I'm not sure why it was so terrifying, but now we playfully fight about "big boy bed" and "baby bed" every time it's nap or bed time. The other day in the car, he suddenly said "mommy, doggy bite me!" and started giggling like crazy. I don't know where that story came from (because it definitely didn't happen), but it was hilarious and I want to keep him this age forever. I just love 2 year olds!

After 9 weeks of "discussion" we finally settled on a name we like for our baby girl, but I'll probably wait to announce it when she's born. It's unique enough for me, but normal enough for Dan. And there isn't another name in existence (that doesn't start with M, A, or R) that we agree on. So it's not changing! I'm definitely much more uncomfortable in pregnancy this time around, but it's still wonderful and I love it. I get sore under-belly muscles a lot, but the worst is if I'm sitting strangely for too long (like slouching in bed, etc), I get the WORST feeling in my butt and down my thighs. It feels like I'm sitting on a tennis ball, and getting up doesn't help, walking on it doesn't help, and it hurts when I put pressure on that side AND when I take pressure off that side (like switching which leg I'm walking on). Aside from that though, I feel great and so blessed to have complication-free pregnancies. I'm a little overly aware of my water breaking early, just because of Roman's water breaking so early. But there's no reason to expect it to happen again, so I'm just being careful.

We've got a busy summer ahead of us, starting with our 8th anniversary on Tuesday! Hard to believe we've been married for 8 years, but we've packed it full of life! I'll turn 30 this month (holy cow!) and it seems odd to me that we'll probably be done having kids when I'm 30. Most people nowadays don't even start til 30 or later. It will be nice to be done with diapers and naptimes (Arianna and Roman barely nap these days, so it's a peek into what life could be like with older kids!), but I'm worried I'll have a hard time being done with babies, and then being done with 2 year olds. I don't think I want more kids, but I think I will always want more babies and 2 year olds. Lol.

We're going to NY to visit my side of the family next week. We usually go later in the summer so we can enjoy going to the pool with them, but this was the only time that would work. Once we get back, the girls both are signed up for 2 weeks of swimming lessons and hopefully someone ELSE teaching them will work better than me teaching them. Haha! After that we have a week at home and then we're going on vacation with Dan's parents, and after that is our church's VBS. That brings us to August, which I have left completely open and free just in case, and for my sanity.

Then it's baby time! I have no idea what I'll do with all the little girl clothes. It's getting a little insane already, and we don't even have baby clothes out yet! I'm so excited to see what she looks like and hopefully the seasons won't be too off and most of the stored clothes we have will still work for her. I got rid of TONS of baby boy clothes already, but that barely made a dent in our clothes collection. It's ridiculous, but we'll probably start getting rid of things as baby girl grows out of them. So sad!

Well, I think I'll go take a hot shower and try to clear out my stuffy head a little. I'm not enjoying being sick, but I AM enjoying the peace and quiet while Dan and the kids are at church. This better clear up fast for our trip to NY this week!

Coming Labor Day 2013...

I'm pregnant! And I can finally share it! I hate keeping secrets, and a pregnancy secret is the worst! I had my 3rd miscarriage last November, so we wanted to be SURE before we told the kids. And so we ended up keeping it a secret from just about everyone we know until we knew it was safe. I didn't want it to get back to the girls, and then have to explain if something were to happen again. But I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and heard the heartbeat again, so it was time to spill the beans! Marissa was SOOOOOOO excited, flipping out all day after we told them. Arianna wants to name it Balloon Boy or Faline. And Roman doesn't know what everyone's so excited about. But we're so happy! I'm 12 weeks pregnant, due September 2, 2013, which just happens to be Labor Day, which I think is so funny! It will certainly make homeschooling interesting, but we're so excited no matter what!

2013

I'm officially a failure at blogging. And I'm so used to typing on my phone (new Samsung Galaxy Note 2! Love it!) that I wait for auto correct to fix things on the computer! Arianna is sleeping, Roman is supposed to be sleeping, and Marissa is playing her My Little Pony game on the iPad (after some extra CC during naptime) so I'm going to try to get a quick update in!

• Still homeschooling, though we have yet to really get back into the routine of things after Thanksgiving and Christmas, and a super long break from CC. Marissa is starting to fight it, and seems to be getting bored with some things, so it's time to kick it up a notch! She understands most things so quickly, but also gets bored quickly. The only thing she's really struggling with is spelling, which we aren't even really focusing on. It's part of phonics to me though, and the English language is frustrating the crap out of me lately! Marissa totally understands phonics rules like long vowel/silent e. But uses them in the wrong words (rane=rain) and other than saying "it's just that way because it's that way" I don't know how to explain it any better. I like the phonics book  - it's very clear about rules/exceptions - I don't think that's the problem. It's just driving me crazy :-)
• I've been doing several pages of Kindergarten stuff with Arianna most days, and she whizzes through almost all of it. She can read most any CVC words and loves doing her "school." She'll turn 4 in February, and next year will start CC with us officially. Can't believe it! She's still very much a daddy's girl, and sometimes I just have to back away because I know I'm no good! She's still hilarious and full of imagination, so she and Marissa pretend pretty well together.
• Roman is finally starting to talk more and communicate things to us! It's been a long frustrating wait for it to happen though. The PACE therapist is still coming twice a month, though I don't really know for sure that it's helping - it certainly isn't hurting. He answers "good" when you ask how he is. He says "what" when you call his name. And knows the names of all of his favorite toys: cars, balls, truck, books, animal names - and most recently he's obsessed with the girls' My Little Ponies and calls them "moanies"  and makes them say "yee haaaww" - it's adorable! He's actually growing out of his clothes for a change, and with Christmas money from generous relatives, I fixed that problem :-) His winter coat is still a 12m, but in actual clothes he's wearing 18-24 month stuff.
• OH, ROMAN TURNED 2! He finally hit 21 lbs at his check up, and now I officially don't have any babies/toddlers in the nursery at church for the first time since Arianna was born. *sniff sniff*
• Speaking of Christmas, we had a wonderfully crazy holiday. My parents and sister and grandma drove out from NY for a (too short) visit, and then I randomly decided that I would drive back with them with the kids and visit for another week before CC started back up again. Unfortunately, Dan had to work in the middle of the holidays, so he couldn't come. Also unfortunately, we were predicted to get a GIANT snow storm here and then in NY too, during the planned traveling days. So at about 3pm on Christmas day, we decided we would try to leave ASAP before the snow hit OH and get to NY ahead of it. I hadn't packed a single thing, so I ran around like a maniac for 3 hours and we managed to leave at 6pm. We completely avoided all the snow, but didn't get to NY until 3am. But we left poor Dan all alone for the rest of Christmas AND his 30th birthday. We had a blast in NY though, and the kids loved playing in the snow. We got to see a bunch of extended family too, which was a bonus. The kids got SHOWERED with wonderful gifts from very generous family, and now I'm still working on finding our house and laundry room after all that chaos! (By the way, I LOVE shopping for clothes for the kids with Christmas present money. Haha!)
• Hmmm, I guess I never shared about this either: I had a miscarriage over Thanksgiving. We found out I was pregnant in October sometime (kinda forget now), but hadn't shared it with anyone. I got checked out kinda early for other reasons, and they were monitoring my levels (bloodwork - fun!) and the second they started to go down I just knew it. I had one good cry before we even found out for sure that it was over, and then I was ready to move on. Dan's parents came for Thanksgiving, which was amazing, especially since I was pretty much down for the count during that week. It was so nice to have the help, and the kids always love visiting with grandparents!
• I stopped babysitting the extra boys since they moved farther away. Roman was sad to not see the baby every week! He's so funny around babies.
• Roman also got his first haircut! Dan had a mowhawk at the time, so I went crazy and had Roman's hair cut into kind of a faux hawk. Roman thinks he is SO COOL when I gel his hair to look just like Daddy's! He begs me to do it and then goes around showing everyone!
• He's still an awesome sleeper, although it sounds like today he decided not to nap. Lol. He's singing and babbling away in his room, happy as a clam as usual. He was awesome even in NY, which surprised me, although it shouldn't have. He's just plain awesome.
• One of Marissa's main Christmas gifts from us was an mp3 player. She thinks she's so cool listening to music all the time, and we loaded it up with some of her favorites like Skillet and Flyleaf. Haha!

That's about all I can think of that's worth mentioning from the last few months. I'm giving up hope that I'll keep blogging regularly, but maybe I'll at least blog every few months? Haha!

*UPDATE* Can't believe I forgot to mention the best Christmas present ever: we got a DSLR! Again, thanks to generous relatives, we were able to find one we could afford, barely used on craigslist. It's a Canon Rebel t2i, and it's basically in perfect condition. The guy who owned it only used it once, and we got an extra lens and a giant carrying case and all the manuals for it. We've just been using it on manual mode right now, cuz I have no clue what I'm doing! But I hope to be able to learn how to really maximize the potential. It's already worth it though, because it takes pictures so quickly that the kids are actually not blurry and it takes much less time to get a good shot. I'm so excited to see where we can do with this new toy!