I Love the Hospital

So, we will be heading off to the hospital tomorrow to have our little man pending no excitement today so I thought this would be a good time to share my love of hospitals. I know I am in the minority when I make this statement, but I really do love hospitals. Call me crazy, I know but I just get so excited when I get to go to the hospital (granted, I have never had to stay for anything too serious). So I thought I would give you a list of the top ten reasons why I love hospitals:

1. People waiting on me day and night.

2. Three well balanced meals served to me in bed each day. (I know, I know, I'm crazy to admit I actually like hospital food!)

3. They wheel me in, they wheel me out!

4. Complete control of the remote control.

5. Ice chips!

6. An adjustable bed (propped head, elevated feet anyone?!)

7. Heated blankets.

8. My husband offering to rub my feet, my back, my hands...

9. No laundry to do, no dishes to do, no cleaning to be done...need I say more?

10. I get to leave with a beautiful new bundle of joy that will change my life forever!

Hopefully on Friday we will have some great news to share!

Back to school we go!

Just like that, our blink and you'll miss it summer is over! Literally, I blinked and I missed it! Well, it was snowing in the middle of June for the love of Pete. Now the air is filled with that autumn chill and it's all over. I can't complain too much since I didn't want a horrible icky summer to suffer through my pregnancy with but come on, two months long, aaaahhhh! Oh well, this is what I get for living somewhere with seasons. So, weather complaints aside I must admit it is heavenly having school back in session. Does this make me a bad mom? I am so glad to be back into a routine of sorts and to have a little more calm around the house and I think the kids are having fun being back in school. This is the trick- bore them to death the last few weeks of summer and they'll be so glad to be going back to school. I can't believe I have a fourth grader!?! and a second grader!?! They seem so old, am I really old enough to have a kid in 4th grade, yikes! Gracie (or let me reclarify) Katie (as she goes by in school) (I have a harder time with this than she does, I think she enjoys her double identity) was nervous to go but she overcame her nerves and had a great first day. Matthew is just so- how do I describe it- noncaring. He doesn't get nervous and he doesn't really care who his teacher is, he's just very matter of fact about the whole thing. He always likes his teachers and he's always a good sport about everything. Now we can have the baby and everything will be right in my world, well, you know what I mean! :-) I had to put up a picture of my cute little non-schoolers on the first day of school, I especially thought Rex' little closed eyes were adorable, I couldn't resist!

End of Summer Fun!

I've been feeling like such a lazy mom these last few weeks of summer. At least I have a good excuse, but the end of our summer has been shaping up to be pretty good, so now I don't have to feel so guilty for being a slacker mom. We went to Yellowstone last Saturday and just enjoyed a day of driving, beautiful weather and scenery and we got to see 3 bears! We finished up soccer for Matthew and Gracie this week and we went to the City of Rexburg employee party where the kids got to enjoy a giant water slide, a climbing wall, free carousel rides and good food. Then last night we went to the Madison County Fair. We walked over since the fairgrounds are basically around the corner from our house. We watched a little of the rodeo, they jumped in a bouncy thing, shot guns, climbed all over an army tank (Kris kept insisting it wasn't a tank but who knows what a Howitzer? is anyway!) enjoyed snow cones and fudge, and looked at all the animals. It was a small town af'fair' (ha,ha, I kill me) but we had a nice time anyway! On Tuesday they are having a big citywide back to school party for all the kids in the area called Celebrate Youth and they will have a bunch of carnival games and dinner (I can't turn down free food) so the kids are looking forward to that and getting back to school. I think they are bored with me.

Gracie Turns Seven!

On Friday 8/8/08 Gracie turned seven. She was excited to have her birthday on this momentus of all days, the beginning of the Olympics! For some reason she thought this was soooo cool. She also was wondering why we couldn't have had her exactly one year earlier so that she could turn 8 on 8/8/08 and I just said well, we tried honey, we really did, but just think then you wouldn't have all the same friends that you have now. This seemed to placate her. We started the morning off with donuts (of course), then she opened her presents when Kris came home for lunch, it about killed her to wait until noon. Then in the evening she and I went on a special mom and daughter date to celebrate her day. (We only do friend parties every other year so this was an off year for her.) I took her to Olive Garden because she loves Italian food and had never been there. They handed her the buzzer and she took it and while we were going to sit down and wait she looked at me and said, "what is this thing, a game?" I laughed and told her it would light up and vibrate when it was our turn to get seated. After dinner we did some major shopping, she had some birthday money and allowance she'd been saving just burning a hole in her pocket. We went to the craft store, ToysRus, and Walmart and we returned home exhausted (she fell asleep on the way home). I think she had a great day. On Sunday Michelle and Dan came over for some cake and today her Grandma and Grandpa Archibald took us to McDonalds for lunch and then she got her presents from them and her Aunt Hayley. The day before her birthday we got a big box of goodies from her Grandpa and Grandma Grover which included her birthday card and lots of other fun stuff like clay, fuzzy posters and a kit to make their own bouncy balls. Now she is looking forward to getting her present from Granny and Papa in the mail (or maybe Michelle will bring it home with her.) Her birthday just keeps going and going...

Cross Jar Contamination

So, we have this problem in our household and it comes from having kids who are old enough to make their own sandwiches and toast. We like to call it cross jar contamination. This is the phenomenon where the butter knife does not get sufficiently cleaned prior to entering the second jar of topping leaving us with bits of jam in the peanut butter or vice versa and chunks of butter in the jam. And my kids happen to be jam lovers so we have several different kinds of jam in the fridge with this problem going on. This drives me crazy as I love a clean smooth peanut butter and non contaminated jams! Oh well, this is just one of the many benefits of raising small children! ;-)

Random Ramblings

Today at Walmart we saw the cutest onesie it said "Does this diaper make my butt look big?" another one that I thought was pretty funny said "Party at my crib 2am." I wanted to get the diaper one for Scarlet but they didn't have her size, sorry Tara.

Some Rexisms for you: "peedough" means playdough, "porn" means popcorn, "weenie" means windy. Get this, we are having to teach him the difference between burp and fart because he's a little confused and every time someone burps he laughs and says "farted" so in order to save ourselves even further embarrassment we have to say no that's a burp, burps come from your mouth, farts come from your bum. OK, does this mean we have too many boys in our house that we are having conversations like this, now that I write this it sounds a little embarrassing. Oh well, such is my life!

I think Rex is starting to catch on to this idea of a baby being in my tummy, probably because it just keeps getting bigger. Today at the store I was pushing the cart with him in it and he patted his tummy and mine and was saying baby in my tummy. I can't wait now to actually have the baby be here and see his reaction. I will also be glad to not have him climbing all over my stomach, well at least not my huge pregnant one. Here's to being able to bend over and pick things up again and having the kids climbing all over me and sitting on my lap. Oh, happy day you are not far away!

It's great having older kids because I make them pick everything up for me when I don't want to bend over. Today in the dressing room at Old Navy Gracie and I walked in and I said, "Oh, I've got to sit down I'm so tired." To which she replied, "Well, I have heard that when women are pregnant they do get more tired more easily." I said, "Yes, that's true especially when you already have four little kids." Matthew and Gracie have been such good sports letting me sleep in all summer, I'll miss that when school starts. Owen even started crying one morning when I got up and I was like "what's the matter?" and he said sobbing "I didn't want you to get up yet." (The reason: I let them play on the computer before I get up, but when I get up they aren't allowed to play on the computer until their chores are done. My feelings were a little hurt but I had to laugh at this.)