It's a...

Well, the poll results were 50/50 for a boy or a girl - which means that half of you guessed right and the other half guessed wrong. The baby appears healthy and developing on schedule. It pretty much confirmed our due date of July 14th - yes, our third July baby. I just hope that it comes before that date - and definitely not on the 15th or the 30th!!

I decided to cook up a little surprise for the kids to keep them in suspense for a little while as to what the baby is. I finally decided to make some cupcakes out of white cake mix and then color it either blue or pink to let them know the gender. I then covered them with chocolate frosting. So here is a picture of one of the cupcakes:
Yes, that's right, another girl!! It was fun watching the kids' reactions. When Blondie was handed her cupcake she immediately started saying, "Yes! It's a boy!", while M&M looked at her and said, "No it's not." This was Luke's response - "What! You've got to be kidding me!!" Baby K was just excited to be eating cake with chocolate frosting! M&M is still hopeful that the ultrasound was wrong and that there is a chance that it could still be a boy - even though the ultrasound tech was able to get a pretty clear view more than once during the ultrasound.

So, while the kids (and DH and I) were somewhat surprised by the result, we are really glad that we found out now so we have time to let it sink in and get excited before the baby comes in July. Plus this will give us time to think of another girl name!!

I can honestly say that I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would end up with a family of 5 girls - especially since I have always been more of a tomboy! There must be some reason unknown to us that Heavenly Father is sending us all of these girls!! In one way it will be nice for Baby K because she and the baby will be just over two years apart and should have fun playing together - like Blondie and Kitty do.

Neat story

This is an article I just came across today. How would you like to be able to say that you were born in the temple?!? What a neat story! Baby born at the Tonga Temple

Boy or Girl?

Well, for those that don't know yet, we are expecting baby #6!! I am about 20 weeks along right now and we just got the ultrasound scheduled for Thursday - 2 days from now! I told DH after Baby K was born that if we decided to have any more kids, I wanted to find out what the gender is in our 20 week ultrasound. I am done with the surprises and want to know up front if this baby is the boy that I thought that Kitty and then Baby K were going to be...

There are a couple of trends that we could end up following - our family trend of having girls or the extended family trend on my side of the family where the last three babies that have been born have been boys.

So, you have 2 days to cast your vote in my poll on the right. Let me know if you think we are having a boy or a girl. I will post the results after we find out on Thursday!!

Girls, girls, and more girls!!

Baby K seems to be turning more "girly" every day - mostly thanks to her older sister Blondie! Lately Blondie and Kitty like to get dress up in leotards and ballet shoes and dance all around the house. Baby K has felt a little left out and sometimes likes to have one of the tutus or other skirts put on her so she can dance around with them too. The other day I pulled out a leotard that Kitty used to wear when she was younger and I put it on Baby K. I then put one of the tutus on over it and Baby K was in HEAVEN!! Then M&M - who is not very girly at all - decided to get in on the fun too and she put on a leotard/skirt that she will be wearing for a part in an upcoming school play. At one point the three older girls were laying on the floor together watching some of the Olympics and Baby K just plopped herself down right next to them and I quickly snapped a picture before Baby K noticed that I had the camera out (which she thinks is the coolest thing and that she should be allowed to play with it and push buttons on).

Prayer time

Baby K is probably one of our more free-spirited, rebellious children - especially when it comes to prayer time. Whenever we kneel down for family prayer, she thinks that it is time to run around and be crazy and goof off. We're not quite sure why she doesn't want to join us, so lately we have really started to clamp down on her and make her sit with one of us while the prayer is being said (which usually means she sits with me because she throws a fit if anyone else tries to hold her). Dinner time prayer isn't much better and she usually digs right into her food or drink while we are praying, so we have started not giving her anything until after the prayer has been said.

Well, a few weeks ago we had just finished the evening family prayer and the older kids were off to bed so it was just me, DH and Baby K watching some T.V. in the family room. After a few minutes I realized that Baby K was on the floor next to the couch where I was sitting and she was looking up at me. I finally clued in on what she was doing - she was kneeling on the floor with her arms folded. When she saw that I was watching her, she bowed her head and said, "Heavenly Father" - very clearly. Then she looked up at me and then she bowed her head again and said, "Amen". After she said "amen", she upfolded her arms and looked up at me with a big grin on her face! It was the cutest thing! I quietly got DH's attention while she did the whole thing one more time. Then she got up and found a little Polly Pocket doll - one of the few that we own that has bendable arms - and proceeded to fold the dolls arms and pretend like it was saying a prayer too.

Unfortunately, Baby K hasn't done this since that one incident and she still tries to be unruly during the prayers, but we know that on some level she really is paying attention to what is going on and learning.

Talking up a storm!

Baby K's vocabulary has been growing by leaps and bounds! It's so fun to hear her say little phrases and even whole sentences from time to time. Here are some of the things that she can say now:

"Pretty dress" - This was one of the first phrases that she put together herself. One Sunday about a month ago I had just finished changing her diaper and she saw herself in the mirror with her dress on and she pointed to herself and said, "Pretty dress".

"Pretty pease" - I have no idea where she learned this one or how she knows when to use it. Whenever she really wants something - like some food or to watch Sesame Street - and I don't want to let her at that moment, she looks at me and says, "Pretty pease!"

"Baka" - This is what she calls my Dad - and sometimes my Mom too. One time she used the word "baga" for Grandma but she hasn't really done that consistently.

"I don't want it!" - She says this often when her siblings are trying to give her something that she doesn't want.

Sibling names - She can say all of her sibling names - or variations of them.

Sesame Street - Baby K knows just about all of the Sesame Street characters and calls Sesame Street, "Treet".

"Oh-man" - What she calls a snowman - or just snow for that matter.

"Hi there" - Baby K says this to me when I have just gotten after her about doing something she shouldn't do. When I'm finished chastising her she will look up at me and wave and say, "Hi there!" - trying to distract me from being upset at her...

"What's that?" - This is what Baby K usually says when she knows something and wants us to ask her what it is.

"Huggies" - What Baby K says when she wants me to pick her up.

"Walk" or "hand" - When Baby K wants you to come with her somewhere, she will hold out her hand and say, "Walk" or "Hand".

"Oh no, what happened?" - What she says when something falls or breaks.

"Okay?, okay?" - She says this when she falls down.

"Cold, brrr!" - When something is cold.

"Tato Head" - The potato head toys

Counting - Sometimes when Baby K is playing she will start babbling and talking/singing to herself. Sometimes she will start counting. I have heard her get as high as six (starting at one) and the other day she was saying, "Seven, eight, nine".

"Princess" - the Disney princesses or any doll/girl wearing a pretty dress

"I don't want hot!" - This is what Baby K said last night at dinner. We set her down at the table and warned her that the dinner was hot, so she pushed her plate away saying, "I don't want hot!"

One gone..., no make that two!

Blondie lost her first upper tooth on January 17th. And then just 2 weeks later the other one came out!

Amazing find...

This is what I found this afternoon:Baby K curled up on Kitty's bed asleep for her afternoon nap.

After lunch today I was downstairs inputting some things on the computer in my husband's office. Baby K was watching Sesame Street upstairs. After a little while I heard Baby K whining some and I thought she might come downstairs to find me, but she didn't. When I finished on the computer I stopped at the laundry to take out a load and put a new one in, and Baby K was not watching Sesame Street. So I went upstairs to find her and she was curled up asleep on Kitty's bed. She took a good long nap - which she desperately needed because she has been sick and not sleeping too well the last couple of days.

Happy 9th Birthday Luke!!

Luke turned 9 yesterday. His birthday always seems to creep up on me since it is not too long after Christmas. For that reason, usually while I am Christmas shopping I also buy birthday gifts for him. By the time his birthday came around this year I just needed to buy a few clothes for him, but the bulk of the gifts I already had. Luke was super excited for his birthday and loved all of his gifts. He has been saving up some money to buy a transformer toy but ended up getting it as a gift so now he can use the money for something else. This year we just did a family party. His only request for a cake was chocolate with chocolate frosting which turned out well for me because Baby K ended up coming down with a bad cold a couple of nights ago and has been very clingy - especially when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap because her throat hurts. I ended up doing just a very basic cake but everyone loved it.
Luke chose McDonald's for dinner so DH picked it up and we ate it at the house (since Baby K is sick) and then my parents came over for presents and cake and ice cream. Baby K finally started feeling better when Grandma and Grandpa arrived and she had a lot of fun carrying all of the opened wrapping paper over to Grandpa and handing it to him. It's really funny because she calls him "Baka" and gets really excited when she sees them.

Now that Luke is 9 he gets to come to my den meetings (Bears) and I don't have to drive him to separate meetings each week. He earned his Wolf about a month ago and is excited to be moving up!

January Weather

January was somewhat depressing when it came to weather this year. The kids were off-track from school for all but the last week of the month and I think we had fresh snowfall only once during that time - and only an inch or two. We have been bitterly cold and overcast so the snow that we got the week of Christmas still hasn't melted all the way from our yard. So while the midwest and east coast have been getting some major snowstorms this season, we have had next to nothing! We are really going to be hurting water-wise this summer if we don't get some significant snowfall in the next month or two...