I'm not napping (or facebooking-at the moment), I'm blogging!

No, you're not dreaming, I am actually blogging! Something I hardly EVER do anymore because when I do have the time to do it, I usually decide that a nap is more important to me at that moment. (It's also partially Facebook's fault!)

Thankfully I have regained some of my energy and stamina back now that I'm in the second phase of baby bearing. The first 14 weeks or so were pretty rough, thus no blogs during that time. My knuckles drug the ground from morning till night. I was in bed EVERY night by 8 pm and spent most of the day consuming the box of saltines and drinking ginger ale. Two wonderful God-sends to have on hand during the first three months of pregnancy! I am twenty weeks now, as of yesterday. And boy, is this time flying by! I guess the other three are keeping me so busy I don't have time to think about adding another baby to our household. I also think it's partially a God thing too...he is protecting me by keeping my mind busy and not thinking about adding a FOURTH child to this already busy household!

At my last doctor's appointment I was at 16 weeks and he attempted to see if he could tell the gender of the baby with a small ultrasound machine he has in his exam room. The best we could tell it looked like a boy. What we were seeing hadn't looked like any of our girl's ultrasounds! However, we had never had an ultrasound that early before either. The doctor seemed to think what we were seeing were BOY parts. I go back tomorrow for my 20 week ultrasound that will be done by an ultrasound tech on a good machine that will show more detail and can be zoomed in. So I'm positively sure she will tell us that the last ultrasound machine's resolution was just too low and we, in fact, are having another girl, (Eden Elise) NOT a boy. Then I will be more at ease knowing that I'm all set for having a baby girl. Since it was only about a year and a half ago that we bought a brand new car seat, stroller, etc...ALL pink, of course! Not to mention all the other PINK baby items we have! Pretty much everything is pink. I love pink and girly! And it is so much fun to shop for pink and girly things! However, if it IS a boy, I'm going to try to console myself with the fact that I will at least still get to shop...not pink and girly, which is all I know, but blue and boyish. (Whatever that is!) :)

Nathan is "sort of excited" (as he says) that it's a boy. He's looking forward to not so much PINK, I think. He has decided that HE should be the one who names this boy since (he claims!) I named all the girls. He is pretty set on the name Noah Graham. At first I didn't really like it at all but the name Noah is growing on me. Every time I hear it I think of the "Noah" in the book & movie The Notebook, and boy wasn't he dreamy?! McDreamy and a little McSteamy too! :)

Okay, enough about baby stuff...

Christmas this year was great! For the first time since we moved to Florida, we were able to have Santa and our family Christmas here at our house. The girls were excited that Santa came to their house, even though he had to come just a few days earlier than the normal Christmas morning. It worked out well that way. We were able to have Santa and open gifts with each other and were still able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Meme & Nana. The girls got way too many new things, as usual. It's hard not to overdo it this time of year. And I justify it to myself in that during the year, other than birthdays, I don't buy them toys and things, just clothes/shoes as needed. (and sometimes MORE than needed...)

I actually saw the Times Square ball drop on New Year's Eve this year. First time in a few years, I think, that I've actually been able to stay awake for it. I was fast asleep ten minutes later however. But hey, I made it! I didn't make any resolutions this year. I figure, I'm barely keeping my head above water so to speak as it is, Its probably best to just stick with getting through each day, getting my housework and childwork done. I think by the end of the day if everyone is fed, clothed in clean clothes, has a relatively clean place to live and are somewhat happy, I'm doing good. And adding something new to my "to-do" list or "to-be" list is just asking for a meltdown!

A quick update on the kids...
Taylor is growing up SO fast! She just turned 8 about a month ago. She is still doing well in school and enjoys it. We are hoping to get her started back in piano soon. Nathan's aunt is giving us her piano and we're really excited about that! Now if Nathan can just figure out a way to get it here to our house and unloaded. We didn't know how heavy pianos are! I'm hoping we'll have it here soon so that Taylor can get back into it. Taylor continues to be a huge help to me with her sisters. Or at least with Addison. She takes really good care of her when I need her to. And she is also a big help with housework too...a lot of times without even having to be asked, she'll just go get the broom and start sweeping the kitchen or dusting. The night before her birthday I had decided that the ends of her hair really needed to be trimmed. So after her shower I got ready to trim it. She has been asking for a while to have her hair cut up to her shoulders, which would've been about 4 inches or more off of it and I didn't want her cutting it. On this night, she played on my soft side and told me that for her birthday she really wanted to look pretty and would I pleeeeeease cut it up to her shoulders. So, I cut off about 3 1/2 inches, I was too afraid to do more. It was just below her shoulders. And it did look really cute. I was nervous about it but really liked it that length once it was done. She was thrilled with it. Naturally, only being fair, I had to cut Emma's a little bit too-what little bit she has. She loved hers too. We'd never seen so much prissing around and swinging of hair as was done that night!

Emma too is growing up fast! She'll turn 5 in a couple weeks. She is still a tiny little energetic thing with a huge imagination. She is hilarious. She makes us laugh, and scratch our heads in wonderment, every day. She absolutely LOVES school and hates holidays when she has to be out of school. She is learning so quickly too. She has started reading already and can add small numbers too. She can write and tell you how to write numbers all the way up to 100. She can also tell time on a digital clock. All of these things she has learned without my help, and MUCH to my surprise! Especially the telling time thing...one day she came into the kitchen where I was and said really sassy like "MOM! It's 5:28, when is supper going to be ready?!" I glanced at the clock and it was 5:28. Another day, she had asked me to show her how to do math. So I gave her some basic addition problems and showed her how to do them by drawing dots & counting them. I did the first one for her and then left her with it. When I came back, she had added all of the problems correctly without using any dots or making any other marks than the answer. She told me she just used her fingers to count them up instead of drawing those dots. She still very much lives in her own little world and hardly notices what's going on outside of her world. She is oblivious to things (outside of Emmaville) most of the time.

Addison turned a year old on Oct. 30th. It's so hard to believe she is already a year old! It doesn't seem possible. She is walking and going all over the place. She got a new wagon that has seats in it for Christmas and she loves it. She will sit in that wagon, in the living room or her bedroom, with her books or toys for half an hour or longer! It's GREAT! :) She is really sweet most of time. She can't say much...Mama, Gah-Gah (for Dada), Bye-Bye, and Buh (for book or bird or anything else that begins with B). She can be a little feisty at times and has developed quite a temper. And she has learned how to take out her anger on her sisters, if they're the source of it, by slapping at their faces or pulling their hair. She is VERY dramatic! Even more so than the other two girls, if you can believe that! When Nathan or I have to tell her no or get on to her for something, she opens her mouth so wide and just cries and cries! And sometimes she'll fall down into the floor like she's hurt and lay there and cry. It's funny to us now but won't be for long I'm sure. She is still a good sleeper and goes to sleep on her own every night. She goes to bed at 8:00 when the other two do and doesn't get up until around 7:00 or 7:30. We've been very fortunate in that area!

It's been really cold here in Oklahoma for the last couple of months. And I mean REALLY cold. We got about 4 or 5 inches of snow here on Christmas Eve. We had already left town before it started but when we got home were pleasantly surprised that it was all still on the ground. Emma and Addison had never seen snow before. Taylor and Emma played in it for two days and loved it. It still hasn't all melted yet. Our entire front yard is still completely covered and hasn't melted hardly at all. The back yard is about half covered. Tonight we are expecting to get more snow and are supposed to have bitterly cold temps from tomorrow through the weekend. The low on Friday morning is 1 degree! THAT'S ONE DEGREE! It would be kind of nice is they'd cancel school for Thursday and Friday since it is going to be so very cold that way we wouldn't have to get out in it. Wait a minute....what am I saying?!!

Okay, that's enough for today...until next time, which I have no idea when that will be but maybe tomorrow so that I can tell you we're having a girl! ...or for sure that it's a boy...stay warm! :)