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....)