6 Days from Due Date

I’m at six days away from my due date of July 1st… and still pregnant. 

I had an appointment last Thursday and was told that I was going to have a baby that weekend!!  Which was this past weekend.

Jesse had a dirt bike trip planned for Saturday!  So I tell him that my mid-wife thinks she is coming this weekend… however she said you could still go on your trip but to keep your phone mounted to your bike where you can see it at all times.  A mid-wife that was all for him going dirt biking.  Now he should send her flowers or something, don’t you think?!  ; ) 

Then on Friday night I get a call from my parents… who are to watch the kids when I do go into labor… that they are going to the cottage because my dad can’t let the lawn get too long up there.  He is a lawn freak so taking care of two lawns now is almost a full time job.  So he *has* to go mow.  Which puts them TWO hours from me! 

Thankfully my sister-in-law was coming to stay with the kids and I on Saturday while the guys went dirt biking.  AND!  My friend up the street was ever so willing (and wanting) to take me to the hospital and be my fill-in husband if I was to go into labor.  We are a new friendship – so I wasn’t sure if we had reached that level of friendship where she could see me in an intense moment.

Side story… this same friend and I went to get our toes done earlier in the week.  Well the nail technician put cotton between my pinky toe because my feet are so swollen that pinky toe was buried underneath the next toe.  They never removed the cotton when they were done so I get out to the truck and I look down and I still have cotton and we are now going out to eat.  I attempted to reach it and I’m not kidding… I could not reach my toes to get it out!  I was laughing and mad and embarrassed all rolled into one.  Well my friend says “well if I am going to be in the delivery room with you I better be able to get the cotton out of your toes!”  Oh I laughed for two days over that!  So funny and well… so true in the moment!  : )

So I did have a complete back up plan.  My friend was my fill-in husband and my sister-in-law would be here with the kids until my parents arrived.  AND Jesse was ever so excited to ride into the hospital parking lot on his dirt bike and walk into labor and delivery dressed in full motocross gear!!  Seriously!  He was!  I think he wanted me to go into labor while he was out riding just so he could do that!  And I think my friend wanted me too – so she could be in labor and delivery with me! 

Well… Saturday came and went and nothing happened.  No baby! 

I’m now 7 days from that last appointment and still no baby!  Talk about living day to day wondering… okay is today the day?  Today has to be the day!  And then you wake up another morning still pregnant!

I’m actually feeling good.  I have no pain!  And I had pain the entire pregnancy!  So it has been a really nice end to the pregnancy.  The last three nights I have slept like a rock!

The only negative thing I have to say is my ankles!  Oh my sweet ankles and feet!  They are so swollen!  They are so swollen that people comment on them without me having to show them!  They are actually rather disgusting it is hard for even me to look at them! 

Mallory came 4 days late and was about 14 hours of labor.

Maxwell came 7 days early and was about 7 hours of labor.

Frenchie… what’s your story going to be!  I’m so ready to meet you and move onto the next phase of late nights and nursing a baby!!  And for your foot to be out of my side!  I constantly have a foot (or hand – just assumed foot) sticking out of my left side!  My little kicker!

Dance Night

Even though at the end of ballet I had to force her to go to practice each week – when it came to the night of the big dance she was so excited about that.  She absolutely loved getting dressed up.  Getting her hair curled and done.  I even splashed some sparkly eye shadow on her eyes which she thought was just the best and fluttered those eyes at everyone to show off the sparkles.  She wore lip gloss, of course. 

They kept the little dancers in the gym for the whole performance.  And when I dropped her off she found the coloring station where they were coloring pictures of ballet dancers.

I had a little spot between the crowd where I could see her when she came out.  She did great! 

It is the first time these girls are up on that stage and I don’t think they realize how many faces are going to be looking back at them when they open up the curtains.  I was expecting some of them to lock up, but no one did.

Everything is done and we are walking back to our vehicle and someone asks her if she is going to do it again next year and she says “Noooo!” 

We get in the truck and it is just Jesse, Mallory and I (Max went to my friends house for the night).  Jesse says “So you don’t want to do ballet again?”

Mallory – No!

Jesse – Good.  Now that we got that out of the way.  How about karate?

Mallory – *complete silence*

Me – *laughing really hard*

Mallory – What’s karate?

Jesse – They teach you to fight.  It is good for you.

Mallory – *more silence*

I think the word “fight” has her a little tongue tied and speechless.  But Jesse is determined that her next adventure is going to be karate and we can kiss ballet goodbye.  He thinks she needs something useful… like karate. 

We’ll see what the fall brings and what she ends up picking.

Rehearsal Night

I signed Mallory up for ballet this year.  I thought it would be a good activity for her.  She was in a phase of dancing around the house.

She started out loving it.  But then towards the end I was having to force her to go.  I didn’t want her “quitting” I was trying to teach her that once you start something you need to finish.

And there were some nights where I didn’t want to drag everyone out in the cold and blustery snow and go either… but we did.  Once I got her there she enjoyed it.

Here she is on rehearsal night.  3rd girl from the left.

I very much enjoyed they style of ballet they did.  Her teacher is an older gal so she keeps it very real.   She literally plays old records for the girls to stretch to and dance to.  The song they danced to was super old… I can’t even remember it now… something about Wonderful World.  I liked that she was keeping the girls young and age appropriate. 

Here she is after rehearsal giving me a ballet pose. 

5 Years Old!

Five!  Five years old!  I don’t know why, but I have a really hard time saying that Mallory is five now.  I guess it just feels like at five years of age you are officially out of that toddler stage and you are a full fledge kid now.

She was so excited to turn five and have a party!  She ended up having a beautiful day.

Here are all the kids.  We are missing Junior – which makes me sad.

Opening presents.  Ellyn reads the cards.  The boys hold the present.

Princess Belle Doll! 

Since Max got a squirt gun for his birthday – one of her requests was her very own squirt gun… and bigger then Max’s. 

Coloring books.  She loves to color!  I bet she sits down to color 4-5 times a day.  She has just about used up all the books we had – so she got a fresh supply.  She also tapes her finished pictures all over the house.  My fridge is covered.  She puts them on my bedroom door.  She puts them on her own bedroom door.  One day I went on a tangent and tore down all the pictures and threw them away… which was really hard.  Some of them were hand drawn pictures which I love.  And it took a few days for her to notice and when she did she was almost offended.  But I told her she could make me more.  And more she did.  Instantly.  I’m now covered in colored pictures again.

Her first big girl necklace!!  She loves this!  She wears it just about every day.  She also got a jewelry box to put her new necklace in.

Mallory is very much a jewelry girl. She constantly has some sort of jewelry on.  Also lip gloss.  Loves her lip gloss.  She almost can’t leave the house without it.  I’ll be ready to go and she’ll be hollering “I need some lip gloss first” and she’ll be in her room loading it on.  She likes to put them all on at one time.  Sometimes she has come out and it is running down her chin she has so much on.

Her cake request was my homemade (100% from scratch) chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (100% from scratch). 

She wanted a frozen theme too – so I just searched for free printables and decorated it.  Kind of cheesey… but she loved it.

Hard to believe our little Mallory Rae is 5!  She is growing into a beautiful little lady!  We can’t get enough of her!

A summer of swings

Both of my kids love to swing.  So much.  They would spend the whole afternoon on the swings if I was willing to stand there and push them the whole afternoon.

This boy!

He is in a fussy whinny stage again.

Me taking pictures of him was making him even more mad.

I said something to the effect of “Mr. Cranky Pants” and it sent them into giggles.  And he was better.  He just wanted me to put the camera down and push him already.

There will never be grass growing under these swings. 

They had to show me their new “trick” of running to the swings.  I captured it for them.

I look at this girl lately and I think… you are growing up too fast!  She is looking so different lately.  So grown up.  Getting that kid look. 

And then there is this clown.  Seriously.  He is a clown.

They are a perfect team though!  I love it when they get in there Mally & Max World!  They are little best friends!

Last Day of 4K!

We kicked 4K butt! 

She completed a whole year with flying colors!  I should of asked her some of her favorite things about her year in school… but she is in bed right now and I’m too far behind on blogging to push this back any longer.

On the last day of school they got to go to the park and play and have a picnic.  Max and I stopped in at the park for a bit and it was just too funny.  Mallory and all her little girl friends oh’d- ah’d – and fussed over Mallory’s little brother Max.  I think he had 4 girls surrounding him the whole time.  Helping him on the play equipment.  Trying to get him to go down big slides he was afraid of.  Helping him climb up ladders.  Trying to get him to go here.  Trying to get him to go there.  Max.  Max.  Max.  He soaked it up!  He loved every minute of it! 

Mallory loved school.  She loved seeing her friends that she made and getting to play with them.  Towards the end though she was ready to be done.  She just didn’t have that pep about school that she had when she first started. 

We all loved her teacher.  I could not have asked for a better teacher for our first year of school.  She was perfect for Mallory… and me.  I also think her teacher had a little special spot for Mallory.  On the last day when I came to pick her up – her teacher personally walked her to me and had to get one last big hug from “Miss Mallory”.  She said a bunch of super nice things about Mallory and my family – but for the life of me I can’t remember them now.  I know they brought tears to my eyes though… which lately doesn’t take much so she could of just said I had cute kids and I would of cried.  But I know it was something deeper and sweeter than that. 

We walked out of school and she says “Now I’m a Kindergartner!” 

Let’s not rush this Miss Mallory!!!  We have a few more months before that starts!!! 

Homemade Bubbles

Saturday after naps I decided to make our own bubble mix.  Thanks to Pinterest we had a recipe in 2.3 seconds and we were off blowing bubbles.

Big huge bubbles!

Bouncy bubbles!

The only downfall was that there is sugar in the recipe and so when they pop on you they leave you sticky!

I was able to refill their bubble containers and put the extra in a mason jar to use for the rest of the summer.

After bubble blowing they were sticky and sweaty… we got out squirt guns and swim suits and they played with them until almost dark! 

The neighbors came over and their little guy joined in the squirt gun fight.  Max was the youngest, but had the biggest gun.

Bubble Recipe.