Happy Birthday, Victory Joy!

My little girl is 5 today! It is so hard to believe that time has passed so quickly.

Sweet Girl

Brownie Points

This morning we were awakened by a ringing phone. Immediately after taking care of the call, Tim looked at me and said, "Happy Anniversary!" I laughed and said, "I totally forgot!" So, he's earned some bonus points for that one! :)

Truth is, I didn't forget... not really. And once I'd had a chance to wake up a bit more I would certainly have remembered. I was thinking about it quite a bit yesterday, and it was one of the last things to cross my mind before falling asleep last night. On the other hand, my mind is really preoccupied with my upcoming delivery (which I want SOOOO badly!!) and with Christmas, and Victory's birthday (tomorrow - she'll be 5!!!).

So, even though I did say it this morning...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, TIM!

I love you with all my heart.

I am so thankful to God for giving us a second chance.

When I think of the coming years, I just can't wait

to see what God has in store for us.

I LOVE YOU.

Resignation

Levi has some sort of oral fixation and often chews on things. His favorite thing to chew has been the tassels on his blankie. It's (they -- there are 2) are fleece and really disgustingly damp if they touch you. After getting after him several times (read "for weeks on end") I finally gave an ultimatum... stop chewing or the tassels would be cut off. This week, both blankies lost their tassels. The first I simply serged. Because of this, the tassels came off in one long line. Tim brought it upstairs and said, "Here buddy, this is all that's left of your blanket." Levi took a look, sighed, and said, "Okay..." and reached his hand out to take it. Tim assured him that I would be bringing the real blankie up in a minute, but it was cute that he was going to be okay with just the scraps. LOL

Today when I cut the tabs off the second blanket (it was already stitched) he gladly stood and watched and took piles of tabs to the garbage can until I was done.

He's still chewing... but it's not as bad as it was...

35 weeks!!!

Where has the time gone?? I had my 35 week appointment with Joy (my midwife) yesterday. It went well. No weight gain for me since my last visit 2 weeks ago. This is a pleasant surprise for me :) At the beginning of my pregnancy I lost 5 pounds. From that point, I'm up only 20 pounds. So, only 15 pounds from my actual pre-pregnancy weight. This is DEFINITELY the least I've ever gained during a pregnancy. I'm hoping that my post-delivery weight loss will remain about the same as usual (in the 10-15 pound range) and that I'll be able to lose more following that. It would be good if I could lose another 20 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.

Enough about me... LOL Jericho is a busy little girl. I feel movement often, and it's strong! Joy says she still feels a bit scrawny (actually she says she has a bony butt - LOL) It's so hard to believe that in only 2 weeks she'll be considered full term! We are all looking forward to meeting her. The older boys remind me on a fairly regular basis that I HAVE to have dad wake them up if Jericho arrives in the middle of the night. They really want to be there for the delivery. When I had Shiloh all the kids slept through everything (she was born around 3:00 in the morning).

I guess our Christmas plans are a little bit up in the air... the current plan is spending time at my mom and dad's in Pillager. My aunt and uncle from Colorado Springs, as well as my aunt who is a missionary in Ethiopia will be there. It's my brother's family's year with our family, so he will also be there with his wife and son. Wow... it sounds hectic just typing it out! Of course, if Jericho arrives earlier than her due date we could have a new baby to introduce! And, I guess beyond that it really depends on how I'm feeling. Based on previous pregnancies as well as how I've felt through this pregnancy, I'd say we'll be in Pillager for Christmas :)

So, there's my update... hope you're not too bored! :) I'll try to update again soon.