My brother Jord just sent me these pictures he took while he was visiting us. We miss JOJO! We had fun with him. Jacki loves to cheese it!

Haiti

K, so I was having a pity party yesterday- not really feeling and dealing with kids that hadn't had naps. I've been watching the news lately, mainly for the weather, but fox13 was covering the earthquake in Haiti. They said it is estimated that 50,000 people have died. I thought maybe I had heard wrong, but in the recap they said it again, and I just saw some of the pictures on msn's home page. Unbelievable....I really am so blessed. I took a minute to put life into perspective and realize that just to be in a warm safe house with my little kiddos was such a blessing. I'm impressed with everyone who is helping, and I'd like to help in some way. I don't have money or ability to go over there, but I'm determined to find some way to do something. Right now, all I can think to do is pray for those people that are affected.

I spy with my little eye

When we ride in the car, Jacki and I play I spy. We have our own simplified version. For example, instead of saying, "I spy with my little eye something red (fire hydrant), we say I spy a fire hydrant. The other day she said, "I spy with my little eye something with glowing eyes." I wondered where she had picked up on the "my little eye" part and where she thought of the glowing eyes. As I'm sitting here typing, she's watching her Bernstein Bears movie, and brother bear said, "I spy with my little eye something with glowing eyes." He found the neighbor's cat while they were playing the game. She really remembers what she sees and hears.

Chocolate cow

Well, I didn't sleep well. I went swimming with Elise Hardy this morning and came home and went back to bed. I didn't get up until the kids got up. In order to buy some time to dry my hair, I let Jacki watch Bernstein Bears Fun at the Park movie. She was really upset when I told her it was time for breakfast, and she would have to pause her movie. She threw a tantrum and slithered on the floor like a snake. She gave in when I gave Wes chocolate milk. We don't usually buy it, but Smiths had it on sale, and it's her favorite. She cheered up and ate her rice crispies after that. I asked her where chocolate milk comes from. She said that milk comes from a cow, so chocolate milk comes from a chocolate cow. The other day she told me that rice krispies are her "very favorite" cereal.

REALLY????

My sweet brother Jordan is still in town on his school break, and so I took advantage of it and took him shopping with me. (He had to chase Wes around the store carrying a stuffed animal.) Jacki made him look at the toys.

Well, I'm getting to the part in pregnancy where nothing is comfortable, and though people tell me "you're tiny," it doesn't make the pants fit. I don't like prego pants either because they hug me too much. I just want to be comfortable. I found a pair of pants under $3 at Ross....yeah...until I took them out of the bag at home and saw that the gray plastic tag that beeps when people steal items was still on there. It did beep when we left, but the loss prevention lady told me that it was because we bought a movie (which was the Berenstain bears movie that Jacki got Jordan to get for her. I didn't even give permission for that one.) I asked her if I could take it off. She said that I would have to bring it in to the store.....REALLY....that's totally not worth it. What a pain, but I turned it into an excuse for Ty to take me on a date yesterday. My mom told me that she had the same thing happen at kohl's, so we took hers back too. I told Ty I couldn't believe that they had put a tag on a $2.50 pair of pants. We figured that they put those on everything when they come in- no matter the value, but we still had fun cracking jokes: "Don't let the pregnant lady get away with the $2 pants."

We did have a great date though. I read my friend's Marisa's cool blog post about their marriage counseling session and just preventing problems. I don't have the luxury of having free counseling, so I thought I'd be my own counselor/therapist and counseled myself to go on more dates to spend time with Ty without the kids. It was great.....hard to breath though....the air was sooooo cold. Ty noticed a big dent on the passenger side of my car when he opened my door.

Wes is trying to put his fingers in the shredder and crying, so that's all of my "really" moments for today.

Baby

I haven't said much about the baby yet. Ty thinks this is our most active baby yet, which is saying a lot. Jacki made my belly do the wave. I believe it. I'm so exhausted. It must be from being pounded from the inside all the time. I told my doctor that I had so much more energy with the other two during the 2nd trimester (I wondered if depression or anxiety was making me tired.) He didn't seem concerned and said that the reason why I had more energy is because I didn't have the other two. He compared them to the dementors (spell check doesn't like this word by the way.) in Harry Potter that suck all of the energy out of you.

The picture on the left is our baby's first picture.

We had the typical 20 month ultrasound in November. The doctor couldn't find the corpus collosum. It's that gray part in the middle of the brain in the picture below. The doctor said it separates the left and right side of the brain, and they don't know exactly what it means if it isn't there. So, I haven't said much about it (since we have no idea what it means.) I did tell my mom about it, and she told my sister that there is something wrong with my baby. She's been really worried about him and prays for him a lot.
This baby has had an extra ultrasound, and we go in for a MRI the end of this month. I don't want people to worry, but prayers are always appreciated. (I am worried about being claustrophobic in that machine they use. (Of course I'm taking my MRI knowledge from fox 13's series House, but the ultrasound doctor suggested maybe I should take a Valium....good idea....maybe I should take a Valium to deal with the rest of motherhood too. That might help me chill out next time I have to help Jacki clean out her toy chest.

I'm going to have a photo album full before he even comes out. I like that each of these ultrasound pictures say what they are. The ultrasounds have gotten better with each child, but I still like the helps. So, here's the face, and the doc said that he is very good looking.
Here is a foot.
We're getting excited to have another baby around here. Wes isn't a baby anymore!!! It's also going to be fun to have a baby the same age as his cousins. (Rachie's twins will be born within weeks...maybe even within days of our sweetie. We'll see where this baby takes our lives. I've quit my job....it was too much, and the boss needed someone who could work more and whenever he needed them, and it was too hard. I told him that it would be easier for him to find another accountant than it would be for me to find someone to watch 3 kids under the age of 4. I've tried to really enjoy being home and spend more "quality time" with the kids rather than just babysit.  Jacki and I worked on her first talk this week. Every day she asks me what day it is. Today I told her it is Saturday, and she said, "What do we do on Saturday." I sang her the "Saturday is a special day it's the day we get ready for Sunday song." She got excited and said that Sunday is when she's giving her talk. I've also been reading her Disney stories. (We really want to go to Disneyland now.) We played the wii too, and she was able to do a fast serve on the tennis game and got two strikes in a row in bowling. I adore these kids!!!!

Where's the binky

Binkies disappear so fast. Wes will have one in his mouth, and then it's gone seconds later. It couldn't have gone too far. One time I found it under Ty's desk. This week I found toy in Jacki's toy chest. I think the craziest place I've found one is in the bag of flour. Then, I found one in the toilet. Where's the binky is a constant adventure around here.