Back to School again...

Luke & Blondie had their first day of school on Monday. It seems crazy that they're already back for the new school year. Luke is 4th grade this year and has the same teacher that M&M had for 4th grade - and Blondie is 2nd grade. On Thursday I took Kitty to school to meet her kindergarten teacher and do some kindergarten testing. She goes for her first day on Tuesday.

There have been a couple of changes made at the school for this new year. First of all the school day is starting a half hour later than last year - so it also ends a half hour later. I'm not really liking it so far because this is really going to cut into the day - plus any after school activities such as scouts, piano lessons, soccer practices. Apparently it was done because of some cuts within the school district and buses having to be doubled up between the different schools. Another change this year is that there is not a kindergarten bus for our school. That means that I am going to have to drive Kitty to school every day and then she will ride the bus home at the end of the day with Blondie and Luke.

She's here!

Welcome to the latest addition to our family!
Introducing Melanie Johanna - born July 19th, 2010 at 5:21 a.m.
Weight: 8 lbs 14 ozs
Length: 22 1/4 inches

She is by far our biggest baby and she was born about 5 days past her due date. We are both doing great and I am definitely glad that she is finally here! I will post more details about the birth a little later on. Here are a few pictures:

Blondie turns 7!

We had a pretty low key family birthday party for Blondie this year. We might have a bigger friend party once the baby is born and school has started back up again - but that won't be for a couple of weeks. I set up the pools for the kids to play on in the afternoon and then Blondie picked Arby's for dinner. Afterwards my parents came over with a few presents and then we had some cake and ice cream. She's a super cute girl who loves the attention. She also especially loves clothes and shoes which she got a lot of. We are just glad that the baby didn't decide to make it's appearance on her birthday as well...

Still waiting...

Well, my due date has now come and gone and still no baby. At this point we are just glad that she wasn't born yesterday, which was Blondie's birthday. As of my midwife appointment on Tuesday the baby still hadn't dropped and I am definitely more uncomfortable than I have been at the end of my other pregnancies. The baby always seems to be up in my ribs, making it hard to bend over or even sit upright comfortably. Since my last 2 babies were 6 and 10 days early, I didn't think that I would last this long with this pregnancy. The frustrating part is that next week is the S. family reunion and assuming I have the baby before it begins on Wednesday, I am not going to be in much of a position to participate much. The other hard part is that I feel like my life is on hold until I have this baby - I can't really plan anything day to day and it would be nice to just know at this point when she will be coming. My only baby to this point that was born past the due date was Blondie - and she was only two days late (which would be today for this baby).

I have definitely gotten a lot of interesting questions at church the last couple of weeks about this pregnancy - How far dilated am I? Has the doctor checked me yet? Is the doctor going to induce me? Have my other pregnancies started on their own? When you consider that I use a midwife and have my babies at home, some of these questions are kind of silly (although to give them credit, most people don't know that I have my babies at home). I have definitely talked to a lot more people about it with this pregnancy than I have with my others though. So to answer some of the questions: I don't know how far dilated I am because I haven't been checked. Really there is no point because a woman can be dilated to 3 or 4 cm for several weeks before she ever gives birth. Plus, internal checking just increases the risk of infection - and who wants that? Yes my other pregnancies have started on their own and since I am still only 2 days late I'm not too concerned at this point. At my appointment on Tuesday my midwife said that if she were to guess the size of my baby right now, she would guess around 7 1/2 pounds - so we're not concerned about the baby getting too big. My kids have all been in the range of 7 lbs 6 ozs to 8 lbs 4 ozs.

So, while waiting for this baby I have gone to the temple a couple of times, taken the kids to see Toy Story 3 and set up the pools out back for the kids to play in. (And can I just mention that Monday morning is the best time to go and see a movie. We were one of only two families in the theater for the 11 a.m. showing of Toy Story 3. It was great!) I try and get a nap in during the afternoon because I'm not sleeping too well at night. I have been reading a lot and doing a lot of shopping to make sure we have everything we need. Plus it always seems that we're running out of something from the grocery store. I've done birthday shopping for Blondie and M&M and also done some shopping for M&M to go to YW camp on July 27th!! Blondie and Luke start school on July 26th - just over a week away. Kitty starts kindergarten the following week and I just found out that there will be no kindergarten buses this year so I will have to drive her to school everyday and then she will ride the bus home with the older kids. I'm not sure if I mentioned it in a previous post or not but Kitty got assigned to afternoon kindergarten. I tried to get her switched to morning, but they said that they had more requests for morning kindergarten this year than they ever have in previous years so some of the kids had to be put in the afternoon classes. So we'll just have to give it a try and see how we like it.

More 4th of July fun

Monday morning was our annual 4th of July neighborhood parade and pancake breakfast. Kay was in a really whiny mood so I had DH walk with the older kids in the parade while I waited on the sidelines with Kay. When they got to us we joined in the parade to the church parking lot where the breakfast was held.

After the breakfast I set up our pools in the backyard for the kids and DH and M&M finished painting the fence. When Kay got up from her nap the kids played in the pools and then we barbecued for dinner and I made my annual flag cake with strawberries and blueberries. My parents came over later for a little fireworks show in the front yard.

Kay waiting for the parade to start.

Happy Independence Day

Yesterday we had a cookout at my parents' house for an early Independence Day celebration. This is the cake that I made for it: I got the instructions from this website: 17 and baking. Everyone was quite surprised when I cut into the cake and this is what they saw: I was pleased with how it turned out and it tasted great too! The kids were all confused when I was making the cake because I usually just do a white rectangular cake that I decorate with strawberries and blueberries to make a flag - I will still make that one tomorrow. The kids couldn't figure out why I was making multiple round layers of cake in different colors. It was fun seeing everyone's reaction to the finished product.

Outside work

Yesterday morning and afternoon we spent outside working in the yard - and thankfully the weather wasn't too hot. DH and the kids painted/stained the wood fence while I worked in the garden (and M&M helped some too). Luke helped out a lot with Kay so the rest of us could do the other work.