We are family...... Emma got a new doll! Wait, that is her brother........ Sockies are hard to get stuff out of.... Can I get a what, what, from Xander G. New sockies....(what Davis calls them...) " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." ~Luke 2:14~

We have called our belly buttons as well as our nipples buttons for a long time now. Davis is aware that Alexander drinks milk from my buttons. Today, Davis informed us that he has milk in his buttons. He was going to feed Emma and Max (the dog). It went something like this: Davis: I have milk in my buttons. Emma: giggling Davis: Here Emma, drink it my milk. Go ahead. You'll like it. Taste it. (While walking toward her, lifting up his shirt. Then trying to grab her by the back of the head and shove her on. ) It was hysterical. Really. I was laughing so hard. And trying to nurse the baby. He tried to get Max to drink after Emma refused. Max was not having it either. Who knew breastfeeding could be dangerous?

Time does fly by. Mr. Alexander Pants (why I call him that, I have no clue) was one month old yesterday. He is doing well. We all are. I realize this photo looks a little funny because of the angle, but I love it. Alexander's eyes are open and he looks like a little man. I think he may be thinking, "weird lady, put down the stupid camera and give me your boob." And the best gifts EVAH... (Davis wanted to holded his baby....)

Being a new mother carries a lot of baggage with it. I love my new son curled up in my arms. I ache for my older son who is now the dreaded middle child. I fear my oldest daughter will think I ask her to help too much. The guilt of being the mom. My children are perfection even when they behave like monsters. I grew them and cared for them and will continue to do so as long as I breathe air on this Earth. They are my reason for being. My inspiration on off days and my heart always.

Ah, what a year. With Emma and Davis I was pregnant during the holiday season. With Alexander he will be weeks old for the holidays. Such a different way to do things. We have been blessed with three wonderful, healthy kids. Which is more than we ever could have hoped for. We have been blessed with each other, Mark and I. And who and what we are now is more than I think either of us could have ever dreamed it to be. It is not perfect no. But it is a wonderful life none the less. We are thankful each and every day for our kids, each other, and our family. With what we have in those things, what more is there to ask for? And when you look down after feeding your newest little one and this is what your eyes take in... Could anything be wrong in the world? Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. I know we are....

Okay, here you go. I have six different photos. All are in black and white so as to not give away who is who. I am posting all three kids pictures at birth as well as a two week close up picture. Now, see if you can guess which baby is which. Good Luck! **ANSWERS ARE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION.**

Is never done, is it? There is always something more to be done, something else left to finish, someone else who needs something. Once one chore, job, task is completed, fifteen more await you. I knew this before I even was pregnant with Alexander. I was already mom to two kids. I had been at this for a few years as well. As the kids got older, they needed me in different ways. The messes grew. The hands on time lessened. But it never ceased. It has been overwhelming to add yet another being to care for. There was enough to occupy my day as it was. Now, add in a little one who needs to be fed anywhere from every 2 hours to every four hours, diaper changes, fussy time, and not sleeping for a good solid block of time and the every day of before is that much more of an undertaking. Turns out, the older kids still need to be fed and Emma still needs to do school, and they both need baths. The work of before has not stopped, I have just added on to it. I also had to heal from th...

There is a web album at Picasa. If you go to my link you will see Picasa Web Albums and you click it. There you will find the albums and one for Alexander. That is all the pictures we have of him so far. Much easier for me to do that then post a bunch on here. Just an fyi...........

Soon I will post baby pictures of all three kids and see if anyone can figure out which child is which. They all look very much alike at birth. It should be fun....

Alexander Gabriel joined our family on Monday at 2:05. He weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces and was 20 and 1/2 inches long. We are all doing well. Trying to settle in and get the hang of being a family of five. Here are a few more pictures.... Big brother and big sister All snuggled up Ready to go home... Alexander is crying so I best go now. Mark is taking great care of us. Thank God for him, he has been an angel. More to come to soon...............

Both mommy and baby are doing very well. These are just a few from earlier today. More to follow later.

Time for one last belly shot. The house is clean. The cookies are done. The bags are packed. Emma and Davis are safe at Kiki's. Nine months has come and gone and in just a few more hours now, we will meet our newest family member. It won't be long now. I will update this blog with the baby arrival information as soon as I am able. In the meantime, here are some pictures. The last ones taken as a family of four. 39 weeks and ready. I realize my smile is off for some reason. Davis wanted to "cheese" with me and Emma took this picture at the exact moment he looked up to me as I looked down on him. My big boy..... I wanted a picture of me with my babies before this baby is actually born. Will the baby be a boy.... Or a girl? Hoping to make nice with the nurses....helping me pee at three in the morning will be much better if you can grab one of these right? And with that, so ends this pregnancy journey.

So what do you do when you are days away from delivering your third child? Bake you say? That is exactly what I did. Mark wanted some cookies to take to a lady who had a baby at his office a while ago. So I decided to bake six dozen cookies. I figure I can take them to the hospital for visitors and to make nice with the nurses. The funny thing is now I want to take my coffee, my coffee maker, some half and half and some sugar so I can offer cookies and coffee to people. I am not right. Here is the cookie plan. I have done already, blue baby feet, blue stars, and blue moons. I will make pink cookies in the same way (I am out of red food coloring and unable to drive to the store). They will be outlined in darker/brighter pink in two varying shades and filled in with a paler pink. Same shapes as well. Then I made circles that are iced white. These will get boy? and girl? written on them in either blue or pink. I do not have much left to do with the cookies. I just wonder.........

Here are my kids on Halloween. I do not have a lot of pictures because well........I do not like Halloween anyway. They trick or treated at my mother in laws house. Only a few people but my goodness. We still ended up with two big bowls of candy. Crazy. They did have a good time, even though it did not include walking around a neighborhood door to door. Our neighbor stepped up her game this year. Complete with a fog machine and a strobe light. Oh and a few teenagers dressed as creepy things standing on the side of her house, right by MY house, to scare the kids. Oh the joys. Freaks. (Anyone who knows me will get why this is a big deal. We need to move before next year....)

Here we sit. By this time next week I will be checked into the hospital awaiting the arrival of baby #3. Wow. Nerves have set in some. Will the surgery go okay? Will the baby be okay and healthy? I am supposed to bring home a new baby and do what again? I am sure things will be fine and very soon none of us will be able to remember what life was like before this new addition became a part of us. I will post here as soon as I am able too, likely sometime Wednesday or Thursday of next week (November 7 or8) with the news. Along with the first pictures of the newest family member. Every day this week, I know I will be thinking, "This time next week.......". As much as I am ready to be done, there is still that odd feeling of knowing that soon this child, the one I have been carrying all this time, will be outside of me. We will have a whole new person, one we created and one that I carried all this time. What a miracle. I may post some more this week, who knows. I...

The baby officially has a nursery now. We got the crib put together today and I ironed all the items and got it all put together. Hung a few things. Moved things under the crib for storing. It is all done and ready to go. It looks really nice. Kiki has good taste, doesn't she??? After I got the crib all done, Emma came into the room. She was looking at the crib and said, "I can just imagine the baby laying in there Mom. Won't the baby be so cute laying in there?" So sweet. Let us just hope she remembers that when the baby is screaming..... Without further ado.......I give you the nursery. (please note that if this baby is a girl, I will girl up the bug wall by adding some pink flowers and possibly painting the dragonflies pink as well, we will see.....) Window treatments (infant car seat and bouncy seat as well) Dresser with wall hanging Bug wall Crib wall Close up of the bedding So there you have it. The baby's room. Nine more days to go.......

Mark has a cousin who provides comic relief non-stop. He always has some sort of come back. But today I got a real gem from him and must share. This was in response to a family dinner the other night. Adam, the cousin, spent most of the evening downstairs with Mark and the kids. They were watching the baseball game as well. However it meant that the "adults" were upstairs. It was noted that maybe next time Adam could hang out with the adults. To which he replied: "Hanging with the adults is conditional on me being one. Since I took the advice of Peter Pan and the giraffe off of those Toys-R-Us commercials, I am postponing such a transition possibly indefinitely. So we'll see..." Good one Adam. And I agree.

I was thinking today of taking that 37 week picture. And as I thought about it, I thought, "I will wait for a day when I look good." To which I had to laugh. If I did that it would never get taken. I am no longer able to drive. At the request of many family members, Mark being the ring leader, it has been noted that I should no longer drive. I did not discuss this with my doctor and it is not by her orders. However, once you no longer fit into your car, it is probably best to cease driving. To be honest it pisses me off. But, between the largeness of my belly and the shortness of my legs.....it is no longer possible. Simply put, the steering wheel is up as far as it will go and the seat is moved back as far as I can move it and still reach the pedals. The steering wheel now rests ON my belly and my legs are cramping from having to stretch to reach the pedals. Mark is probably right. It is no longer safe. And I hate it when he is right. So we are homebound during ...

If you do not want to see these, look away. Here is the 32 weeks shot. Taken with Emma's camera and fixed as much as I can. And if that were not scary enough, here is 35 weeks. Taken today with my camera. (Have I mentioned how happy I am to have my camera back?) I am aware that the stripes around do nothing for my size. I am also aware that my "hairdo" leaves a lot to be desired. Get over it. Notice how my face is swelling now? As if my face were not round enough..... I figure I will do a 37 week shot and the 39 week one since that will be right before I deliver.

First, I put in pictures of the kids room after it got picked up. Looks much nicer now. Second, my mom commented that they looked cramped up there. Let me assure anyone that it is more about having too much stuff. To see how much space they are sharing I found the house layout with the square footage. Anyone care to guess how much square footage my kids are being shoved into? I will put then answer in the comments for this post. And if you think it is unfair that they share this amount of space..........I am not sure what to think.

Okay, okay. My Aunt Fid did help with the shower. She has a gorgeous house and she offered it up yet again as the party spot. Not only that, but she helped out with the food and set up. She is truly a blessing as well. She also got me these great slipcovers for my ugly old couch. (and once again excuse the mess) So not chopped liver..........but still not the Kiki. Fair enough? Oh and the pink rocker? Yes, I am aware that it is....interesting. Emma bought it from my brother in law, as in Kiki's husband for two kisses. Long story.............but the pink rocker is Emma's and we had to find a place for it. It is a Lazy Boy one and it is really comfortable and in good shape. Just a different color......

Oh around. We got the rooms all rearranged and whew! A lot of work. But all is done now. Except, the stairwell and the room we are in now need to be painted. The baby's room is on it's way. The always on top of things and over the top in things Kiki, is coming by Friday to put her special touch on the room. Which happens to be the entire bedding collection. I was going to wait and just use a blanket for the baby but Kiki? Um no, that will not do for her future niece, as she believes it is, or nephew. She choose the most beautiful bedding......how lucky am I? A sister who has great taste and is willing to come over and do that? Oh yea, I scored in the sibling department. Once it is done, I will take some pictures. The awesome Kiki also insisted on another shower to which I asked that she keep it low key. My sister is all the utmost in party planning. And she did keep it low key..............for her. But to the lay person, it was still magnificent and oh so lovely...