Valentine's Day Weekend

Getting ready to go swim.

Bekah with her new bows from G & G Helwig

Sarah and her new bows from G & G Helwig

The girls in their princess hats. (Target $1)

All our cards, and my belly with the growing Leah inside.

We had a fun filled Valentine's Day weekend this year. My parents offered to babysit all the kiddos Friday evening so that they would not be asked Saturday and could enjoy their own day, so we took them up on the offer.
After Bobby got home from work, we headed to Joe's Crab Shack. We had a coupon and a gift card, so after crab legs, steak, a side of hushpuppies as an appetizer, and tip, we only paid $11. We headed back to my parents' to pick up the girls for a family fun night.
We took them to a hotel for the night. It will probably be the last time it is just the 4 of us in a hotel, so we savored every moment of it. We put them in their jammies before heading to the hotel, got to the hotel around 9 pm and the girls proceeded to go crazy in the room until them conked out around 10:30 pm. Before them fell asleep, we gave them their bags with Strawberry Shortcake themed items from the Target $1 bins. They loved everything. They also gave their daddy the cards they had made. I also got a beautiful card with a picture that the girls had colored.
The next morning, we got up, had a wonderful breakfast, and then headed to the pool. The girls and I had a lot of fun. Bobby did a lot of chasing Sarah. :) After swimming, we went back and gave the girls a bath, and they got ready to go. Checkout was at Noon, and we left a bit after 11 am.
We headed home (to my parents') to enjoy the rest of the day. Sarah and Bobby napped while Bekah and I went to the grocery store. I wish I had my camera with me, cause I shoved so much into one of those movie carts at Meijer that Bekah had to hold food on her lap down in the car part of the cart. It was hilarious!! All-in-all, it was a wonderful weekend!

Mini-post

So sorry that I've been so bad about updating. Who thought I would actually do less posting as a stay-at-home-mom/nanny to my nephews than while teaching full-time? Not me.

Things continue to progress.

Bobby started his FINAL SEMESTER of seminary this week. Woohooo!!!! He is excited, but this is his heaviest load since Bekah was born, so say a prayer for strength. He is still waiting/looking for full-time pay that will allow us to buy a house and move out. We are starting to think it will not happen until after Leah makes her arrival, (probably at the end of April, early May) but are still open to what God may hold for our family.
Sarah is getting over a cold that Bekah passed to her. Bekah's consisted of 2 days of fever and then 6-8 days of runny/stuffy nose and coughing. Sarah is on the 3rd day of the nose stuff and coughing. Her appetite has been next to nothing, which is VERY unusual for her. She usually eats everything!! She is still potty training well. We have started to do pull-ups during the day and diapers at night. I am very excited at the thought of only 1 in diapers, but I am not holding my breath. :)
Bekah is continuing to grow and learn. She is starting to sound out 3 and 4 letter words with no help and can spell several 3 letter words also. Her birthday is 9 days past the cut off for kindergarten, but we are considering petitioning sending her early. I definitely think she's ready educationally. It would be nice to just have Sarah and Leah during the mornings every day. If they won't allow it, or we decide she's not ready, then we will definitely be doing the preschool at our church which has a 3, 4, or 5 mornings per week program. I'm leaning towards 4, but it will depend on my stress level with having a new baby, etc. She is finally getting over her cold where she probably lost a couple pounds, but she is normally a picker when she eats, and it has been even worse over these last 9 days.

I am still swimming every week, but I have cut it down to Mondays and Fridays. Wednesday were getting too tiring because I stay at my sister's house with all the kiddos for dinner and take them to church. I was leaving at 6 am and not getting home until 8:45 pm. I was tired!! Now I just walk on my sister's treadmill on Wednesday mornings before the boys wake up.
I have my glucose test on February 20th, and I am really hoping and praying that I do not have gestational diabetes with this pregnancy. The doctor said that there is a 40-50% chance I will because it's mostly hereditary. I am still hoping I won't though because I feel I didn't doing anything different "foodwise" with Sarah's pregnancy, I just wasn't active. It was the year I had a 20 minute lunch at school, and by the time I got home, I just wanted to collapse on the couch and read/watch TV with Bekah until dinner, then work on school stuff after she was in bed. I did not want to exercise at all!! With Bekah I had exercised at least 3x per week. I am hoping the swimming/walking 3x per week will keep me from having to regular my sugar levels via my carbohydrate intake. I love my carbs!! Please say a prayer for me in this area!!

Nearly 25 weeks pregnant

There are several new posts below, so keep scrolling to see them all.

Wearing a regular, medium sized shirt, at 24 weeks 5 days. (with baby Leah)24 weeks with Sarah.
25 weeks with Sarah. Man, I miss that shirt!!25 weeks with Bekah. Also wearing a normal shirt. Bad angle cause Bobby was really low taking the picture of me. We were in a cabin in Charleston, NC.

The Storm, before it dropped a lot more snow

You can barely see the road in front of the house. It still hasn't been plowed, and the snow stopped over an hour ago. The mailman is stuck a few houses down because the road is horrible!
Imagine several more inches of snow on top of my van and filling the street. This is what it looks like right now. I did take the kiddos outside and attempted to shovel some of the snow. Yes, I know I'm almost 6 months pregnant.

Cuties

Crafts Part 3

Early this morning we got an inch of ice on top of the 3-4 inches of snow the day before, and then it proceeded to snow 6 more inches. Because of this, we had a snow day. This means we didn't have to go over to my sister's house. We stayed at my parents' house. We did another craft that started with P to keep us occupied for a bit. We made Paper Bag Puppets. The girls had a lot of fun decorated their bags and taped the arms on. A fun and easy craft. Most of my crafty stuff is over at my sisters' house, but I think we did a nice job with what we had here.

Crafts Part 2

This week is a study of the letter P in our preschool activities. For a craft on Monday we made paper plate crowns. The kiddos had a a lot of fun coloring the plates and then wearing them around for a while after I cut them out for them.

Crafts Part 1

A couple weeks ago, I think, Bekah and I make these great crayons out of broken crayon pieces. It was a lot of fun! We sent them to my friend Amy's baby Grace who turned 1 last month along with a coloring book. The only thing I would do differently next time is use muffin papers and tear them off after. I had to buy my mom new muffin tins because I was too lazy to clean the ones we used thorough. :)

Fun Meme

Courtesy of Deven, I tried this today.

Here's the idea: Google your name + needs and share what you come up with.

Here were my top hits.

Poor Paula needs to put her children first.

Well, currently I always put my children first. Sometimes I don't eat lunch until 1:30 because I'm feeding them, etc. This is really hard for a pregnant woman.

Paula needs serious help now.

Well, my whole family needs help. Bobby needs to get a full-time job in the next month or so so we can focus on getting a house before Leah comes. Anyone want to give us 30K??

Paula needs a man in her life....is it you??????

I already have a man, a wonderful one, and I don't need another.

Paula needs more butter!

This is in reference to something with Paula Dean. I am craving sweets and salt right now, so I definitely don't need more butter!

Paula needs a reason to smile.

I have reason to smile every day, and their names are Rebekah and Sarah, and also Dylan and Ethan (nephews), but I would love to have the reason to smile that includes a house of my own!

Paula needs to enter herself in rehab or something.

Don't drink, never have, but I may need rehab to cure my addiction to sugar. :~)

Snow, snow, snow!!

The playset this morning.

My parents' deck last night.

We got a lot of snow during the day yesterday. It took Bobby 2 hours to travel the 21 miles home last night. The school district my brother-in-law works for let out 1 hour early, so I was able to get home by 2 pm and shovel the driveway. This same school district did not even have a delay this morning when everywhere around was delayed or closed. (I am only home for a bit longer because my sister decided not to go to work this morning.)
The county we live in is also under a Level 1 snow emergency and wind chill advisory. My parents' thermometer says that it is -2.4 degrees outside. We ended up getting about 7 inches.

Praise, but still needs Prayer

Bobby found out today that they will be "pushing his packet through by the end of the week." This is in reference to all the "stuff" that has to be filled out/done before he can obtain a full-time job at UPS. We are ecstatic! We were starting to worry that the "timeline" was breaking down, but God once again has showed us that His timing and only His timing is perfect!
Continue to pray that a job opens up full-time and everything happens for us to buy a house and get in before Miss Leah decides to make her arrival.

Thank you!

So excited!!

So excited to announced that Bekah has decided she likes the name Leah. We are very happy! We always liked the name Leah better, but she always threw a fit about it. We were having trouble deciding on the spelling of Anah, so it is now going to be Leah Pauline.

What we've been doing .........Since Christmas

My attempt to post about everything that has happened since Christmas.



This morning at 21 weeks, before we left for the ultrasound.

My attempt at taking pictures of Bekah's new hair cut. She looks so cute!!

Playing outside on a "warmer" day this week. (I think it was Monday)

Bekah with Grandpa looking at the trains at the zoo lights.

Sarah with Grandma looking at the trains at the zoo lights.

Posing for Mom after watching the light show at the zoo lights.

Some of the zoo lights.

Bekah loves to color, and my attenpt at showing you her hair before it got cut.

Sarah "watching" my tiles for me.

Playing dominoes instead of going to the zoo lights because it was thunder storming.

Baby Girl

I was wrong. It's another girl!

Her name is Anah Pauline. I know, not traditional, but I really wanted AH at the end to keep up the pattern, and this is a Hebrew form of Ana. I will post ultrasound pictures when I get a chance.

(PS, I only gained 1 pound in the last 4 weeks, and I hadn't been swimming for the last 2 because of my hip/holiday scheduling, etc. Yah!!!)