Rained today :)

We've been blessed with lots of rain this week! It poured or was at least steady most of the day today. There were a few times it let up. Rachel said they had to have their egg hunt indoors today, but oh well! The rain was very welcome, and at least they got to have a hunt even if inside. Unfortunately, I had to drive to Brandon's work today because he forgot his wallet when he left this morning. That was pretty scary, especially when I was driving near home both leaving and coming back. . .seemed to be pouring here, but was more like a sprinkle the closer I got to his work.

Brandon took yesterday off and worked around in the yard to help get our house ready to sell. He was supposed to take today off too, but with rain in the forecast, he asked his boss if he could switch it to Monday so that he could work outside when it's not raining. She was fine with that, so he switched it out. So, I have him home on Monday to look forward to. I've been working on getting the painting jobs I've started finished, and cleaning up the clutter around here.

Been waiting for Alyssa's birth certificates to come in the mail. It's been over two months now since I mailed in the form requesting them. Brandon looked up our checking account this evening, and they cashed our check on January 17th, but never mailed the darn things! They're getting a complaint call from me on Monday! In CA, we just went somewhere and picked them up. . .none of this mailing and hope you get it crap! Makes me not want to have another baby in NC. . .lol. I don't want to have to go through paying for birth certificates we don't get again.

I'm tired and have had a headache this evening from all the little surprises in my day today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. . . . .

Update from Tuesday

So, we ended up getting a pretty good thunder storm Tuesday night. :) Brandon likes to watch the rain, so he was in and out to go stand on the porch and watch it come down. Normally, I join him, but I think I was busy with something this time. We even lost power, twice. Once in the afternoon when it was just raining, and once near midnight during the thunder and all. With the power out, Brandon didn't think to turn the lights off that had been on before power going out when he went to sleep. So, in the middle of the night when the power came back, I got woken up by the lights coming on in the family room. lol

Tried out the vacuum, and it works again! Thanks, hun! :) Brandon also liked the daffodils in the kitchen. His comment was, "Smells like spring in here."

Bringing the outdoors in!

So, we're supposed to get some storms this afternoon. I sure hope so! But, anyway, I know how storms have been in the past to my flowers, so I cut all the daffodils growing in the back yard and put them in a vase so they can be enjoyed longer. Actually, just plain enjoyed! They're so far away back there, it's hard to enjoy them from the window if they're outside. So, even without the storm coming, I had been thinking about bringing them in and putting in a vase. But, the impending storm that hopefully comes, just helped to get me out there and get the job done! I don't want to chance them getting blown to bits! When I went out there, no storm yet, but it was getting pretty windy already. I really like having them in here. Makes the kitchen cheery looking! :) Looking forward to my tulips blooming in a couple months!

Sweetness!

Thought I'd say a little about the sweet things my girls do. :)

Rachel: This past weekend, she decided to put little gifts under me and Brandon's pillows. :) She drew a picture of her hand, colored it, cut it out. . . .bent down the middle and ring fingers and tacked them down with a little heart sticker so the other fingers were up to say, "I love you." She put one under my pillow and a second one under Brandon's pillow as a surprise for us to find. :) She said someone at school taught her how to make that. Then, she wanted Brandon and I to put something under her pillow in return! lol

Michaela: Kayla loves to mother her bear! She puts Bear into Alyssa's swing, and then turns it on along with the music for it. Alyssa doesn't sleep in the bassinet anymore, but we still have it out in our room. She takes Bear and puts it in there, takes 'blankie' (her beloved blanket that a coworker of Brandon's from CA made for her when she was born. . .she doesn't share it with anyone but Bear and Alyssa!) and covers Bear with it. Tells Bear to go night-night and starts to sing to it! Then, she'll tell me to be quiet because Bear is sleeping! Bear gets 'hurt' sometimes and she'll doctor him up. lol Bear also gets breastfed by Kayla. . . .something Rachel used to do when Kayla was the baby! Some reason my kids think they need to nurse a doll or stuffed animal when they see me nursing the new baby in the family. Michaela also loves to kiss Alyssa's head. From day one, we told her she could kiss the baby's head because we didn't want her getting in the baby's face. So, whenever she sees Alyssa, will ask, "Can I kiss head?" She really loves her baby sister!

Alyssa: I just love getting Alyssa out of her crib in the mornings! As soon as she sees me, her eyes will get big, and she kicks her legs and flaps her arms and gets all excited and coos! I also love her big smiles and cute little dimple. That's about all I'm getting from her these days. . . .but can't expect too much from an almost 5 month old! ha! :)

Brandon: Guess I should say something about my man too! Last night he helped me fold clothes and emptied the diaper champ. :) I have been complaining about my vacuum these past few weeks too. . .it won't suck everything up anymore, and sometimes has a funny smell when running. This morning I found out that after I went to sleep, he took a look at it and said there was a bunch of hair and string stuck around the brush that turns around. So, he cleaned that out for me. We're hoping that does the trick. I still have yet to try it out and see if it works again now. . .will do so later today.

Almost track out!

One more week of school! Yippie! Rachel's last day is March 7, then she has 3 weeks off. She took in 24 plastic eggs with a piece of candy today for the egg hunt at school this Friday. She's excited about that. She thinks that this Friday is actually Easter. . . .lol. They use the eggs afterwards for math somehow.

Speaking of Easter. . . so, I bought a cute little "Baby's First Easter" outfit for Alyssa. Seeing as how she'll be 5 months old on the 9th, I bought a 3-6 month one. I just put it on her, and she's SWIMMING in it! Should have gotten the 0-3. . .wasn't thinking logically, or maybe I was, just not realistically. . .something! It'll be "Baby's First Easter" still this fall. . . .lol. I'm sure it'll fit then if she's anything like her sisters that wore 0-3 till they were 9 months old, and 3-6 until they were somewhere between 12 and 18 months.

The other two are currently in: Rachel who will be 6 on July 7, is in 4T and starting to wear 5T (she's actually starting to grow out of things, and I need to go shopping for her!) she was still in 3T at the beginning of the cold season; and Michaela will be 3 on April 19 and in 24 month, 2T and 3T. . .she's our "big" child. . . . she was fitting into 18 month at the beginning of the cold weather season, but grew out of those by the end of December! Some of the 3T shirts that started out on Rachel's side of the closet in October, ended up on Michaela's side. 3T jeans are finally fitting Rachel around the middle, but they're too short in length now. 4T jeans are long enough, but again, fall off and bother her. I found some 5T slim at Target. . . .WONDERFUL! Long enough without showing the panties. . .thanks Target! :) I think 4 slim would fit her too, but decided on the 5 so they'll last a couple years. :) Now to find some jeans that won't fall off mommy's bum too! ;) I HATE shopping for jeans for myself. . .it's so freakin hard!

Teacher Conference

Yesterday we had the 3rd quarter teacher conference with Rachel's teacher. She's doing really well! She got a 4 in writing again, a 3* in reading again, and a 3 in everything else. Not really sure why she didn't get a 4 in math. . .guess her teacher doesn't know her adding abilities! She understands above the material they're covering. . .whatever! She got the 3* in reading because she has passed the benchmark for getting a 3 in reading for 3rd quarter, and is currently working on the benchmark to get a 4, but hasn't passed that level yet so couldn't quite get the 4. She's now working on a first grade reading level. :) I think we're going to work on reading more during track out so by the end of 4th quarter she can get the 4 in reading! :) She has a long way to go to catch up with daddy! Daddy was on a 5th grade level in first or second grade, can't remember which. Mrs. Fry also said that she's very mature for her age, has a good working pace, but is still very chatty! That's my girl. . . .chatty, chatty, chatty! lol Can't ever shut her up! The one thing she says she needs to work on is writing her last name. She's leaving out the u in it when spelling. I think that's about it. The teacher said our conference went fast since she didn't have anything bad to say about Rach.

Been a while!

Since the newest was born, I guess I just stopped coming to post anything! But, that's not surprising since I've been doing this active/inactivity cycle for years now on message boards and online journals. . .why would it be different on a blog? ha!

So, yes, she was born on October 9th as scheduled! Wasn't bumped after all! She was 7 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches long, and came at 6:22 pm. We named her Alyssa Avery. Looks like her sisters! She has brown hair though and dimples. :) Two parents both with dimples, and no dimples until the 3rd child! My induction took longer this time since the Dr didn't completely break my water. He didn't realize it until later. We were past the time frame that the other two had been out by, and we were wondering what was going on. We said a prayer that things would start happening finally because we didn't know what was going on, and I was getting scared. Five minutes after the prayer. . .the Dr came in to check me and said that I had a 2nd membrane of water that didn't break for some reason, and that was holding things back from progressing like my other labors. So, he broke it, I went from about 5-6 cm to complete and I was pushing in about 30 minutes. :) Amazing how the bag of water can delay labor like that. . .

Here are my three girls! This was taken at the hospital on October 10. The hospital gave her that pink hat. I got to pick from so many cute ones! I liked the little flower on this one, so I chose it.

I'm pretty sure I'm done having kids! Brandon wants to try again in the future in hopes of a boy, but having a baby just throws me off for a year and a half, and the existing kids suffer, and that's not fair to them. So, I'm keeping the option open, but I'm not sold on the idea of another. Maybe when Alyssa is 4-6 years old, I'll consider it!