Pregnant Belly Pics

Well, I thought that I should include a picture of how huge I'm getting to go along with the post about having less than 100 days left of pregnancy. We're at 26 and a half weeks or so. I am the whiniest pregnant woman ever. I don't think my pregnancies are that bad compared to some, but I hate, hate, hate it. You just go from one discomfort to the next, always with labor looming in the distance (you'd think I'd be looking forward to the new baby enough to forget about the labor part, but no. Baby is what gets me through just the labor part. Throughout the pregnancy, it's labor pains that are on my mind. That and the baby name debate). And this pregnancy isn't that bad right now! I'm relatively comfortable and mobile. But heart burn is the pits and round ligaments should just be amputated. My back doesn't hurt yet and my hips aren't sore from sleeping yet. Restless legs syndrome has been minimal (thank goodness!). I look huge (to myself anyway) but I really haven't gained that much weight, thanks to morning sickness and my swimming class. So, all in all it's been a good pregnancy so far and I'm looking forward to a new baby in the family, but I'm still a wuss about the discomfort. The kids brighten my day though. I just love it when Ryker comes up and kisses my belly and says, "I love that baby." Today he got hurt and I went to give him a hug as he was running towards me and crying, but right when he got to me he kissed the belly and forgot the hurt. I love that boy.

Ooooh, cool!

Two cool notes for the day:

Note #1-- We broke 100 days left before baby day! Woohoo! Getting closer!

Note #2-- My friend Dorothy started doing a recipe group about 7 or 8 months ago and I started a blog for it to post all our recipes. Each month we have a theme and we get together to share recipes, good food, and good times. So if you're ever looking for a good recipe, check out our blog! I posted all the recipes we've sampled since we started (at least, all the ones that I had) and each month I'll post the new ones! Yummy! Hopefully I'll be able to get pictures to go along with it from now on.

springvillerecipegroup.blogspot.com

Creating my own tag--just for Gina

So, my sister is giving me a hard time (all in good fun) because I didn't tag her in my tag post (scroll down). Admittedly, I'd give her a hard time too if the situation was reversed. So I decided to start my own tag post just for her so she could not only be included, but be the star. So, my tag is to find your favorite picture of a sibling and write about a favorite memory with that person (If you don't have a sibling, do it for your best friend).So this is my little sister, Gina Marie. I need to get more pictures of her. The two I had in mind were from my pre-digital-days, so I couldn't use them. One of my favorite memories was a few years ago on her birthday. If you know Gina, she LOVES her birthday. It's her favorite month of the year, and yes, she does celebrate all month long. Her birthday is September 13th, for any of you that want to contribute to her special day next year. So a few years ago I planned a surprise for her. I got all the stuff together for a foil dinner lunch and took her and my kids up to a gorgeous spot up Alpine Loop. We built a fire (yes, the Lawler girls do know how to build fires all by themselves!) and made our foil dinner-lunches and played and hiked and took some great pictures of all the beautiful fall colors. I wanted to use a picture from that trip for this post, but, alas, I only have prints and no digital copies. I think what makes it a great memory for me was just how happy Gina was that day. She loves foil dinners (who doesn't?) and she loves the canyon and fall colors and she loves her niece and nephew and hopefully she loves me too, so it made a for a great birthday surprise. She was all smiles. And as you can see, she has a beautiful smile! Love you Gina!

To get this tag going, I tag everyone who is on my blog list to the left. If you aren't on it and should be, leave a comment so I get your blog added to my list! I love to read about what friends and family are up to!

I know, I know. So much for once a week posts, huh.

But aren't these the cutest kids in the universe!? Worth the wait, anyway, right?

How cute is she in her daddy's hat and those little braids! I could just eat her up!Ryker played in the yard this morning and he worked hard at cleaning off the pumpkins we got for family night last night.

Playing at the park.

These two have been best buddies lately. They play together so well and they look out for each other. I love it when they get along well! We were at a park yesterday and I heard Ryker start to cry a genuine hurt-cry. I started over to where they were and Raelin had his little hand in hers and was walking him towards me. So cute! What a good big sister!

This was Ryker's other fun project this morning: Finger painting with shaving cream on a cookie sheet.

I was actually surprised; he loved it, but he kept wanting to wash it off. Usually he LOVES messes. I guess they aren't quite as much fun when Mommie tells you to make them.

This is one of my latest projects (above). It's a mei tai style carrier. I made it for the new baby, but Ryker loves it and he wanted to be my show-and-tell dolly. It's pretty comfy, even with a kid as big as Ryker.And last, but not least, this is our big preschooler. She loves going to school and she has a great time there (Ryker wishes he could go too. You should see the tantrums he throws when we leave after dropping Raelin off in the morning!). We'd hoped to get her into kindergarten this year (she would be if we still lived in California, but the cut-off dates in Utah are earlier), but since we couldn't, we decided to do preschool to get her into a routine and ready for next year when she'll hopefully be ready to jump right into first grade. They won't test kids into kindergarten, but they will test them into first grade. Weird... Anyway, she hates getting up early, but she LOVES her school! We've also been working with her at home and she is learning how to sound out words and how to add and subtract. Brice is a wonderful teacher! I'm so glad that Brice has the opportunity to spend so much time with the kids right now. What a blessing for all of us! He's actually with them more than I am this semester because I have class three days a week and he only has class two days. It's great for the kids because he is so great at getting them to help around the house, keeping on top of any reinforcement plan we have (lately it's been stickers for no thumb sucking and it's going great!), and teaching the kids all kinds of things. They help him work in the yard and he spends time teaching Raelin to read and both kids love to do math with him. What a great daddy!

I got tagged! Yay!

How neat! I've never been tagged before. Thanks, Laura!

HOW TO PLAY: Go to your pictures and choose the 4th picture from the 4th file and post it!Here's my gorgeous Raelin bug in her pretty coat from her Uncle Jesse. We'll be keeping a bat and a shotgun handy at all times when this girl hits high school! By the way, Uncle Jesse is living with our parents as of late and it's been loads of fun having him around! His niece and nephew sure do love him!

I tag Kari, Jordan, BreAn, Melissa, and Michelle. Your turn!

It's a...

GIRL!!!!!!

We had our ultrasound a few weeks ago and it was a one-of-a-kind experience. The Andrews and Angel and Liam all came with us and the ultrasound tech was great! She told us all the things she was doing and was fast, but still did a LOT of things so we were there for a while. She checked all kinds of things I don't remember them checking with my other kids. It was so much fun! And so interesting. When she checked for gender, Brice explained to Ryker and Raelin that the tech saw girl parts and they were having a sister. Ryker said very matter-of-fact-ly, "I see boy parts." And he continues to maintain that he saw boy parts and that he only likes boy babies and doesn't like girl babies. He's really funny about it. But I think he'll come around. I only have two pictures for now (a foot and half of an alien face) because the tech ran out of paper to print them on, but she said she'd print them and put them in my file for me to pick up at my next appointment. So I'll post those when I get them at the end of the month.

So, I really wanted to do a good job of documenting this pregnancy. I've wanted to with my others too, but any of you that know me at all know that organization is really not my strong suit...yet... Hopefully one day, but for now, documenting this pregnancy is falling by the wayside. I wanted to take pictures exactly every four weeks but whenever I thought of it, there was no one around to take the picture or it wasn't the right day. So I've given up with the particulars and you'll just have to settle for a picture with the top of my head cut off because I propped the camera and set the timer so that I could at least get something on here. And it's Wednesday, not Monday when we enter a new week. But better that than nothing, so here you go:
As of today (when I took this picture), I am 21 weeks and two days and I feel and look like I'm 28 weeks. Already squished and battling heartburn but morning sickness is OVER! WOOHOO! If anyone knows a remedy for round ligament pain, please, please, please, send it my way! Other than that, this is one wiggly baby! And strong, too. She seems to already be on a schedule (though I already mentioned that I'm not so good with schedules, and that carries over into time perception as well, so maybe it's all in my head...). She wiggles more when I'm hungry... or maybe when she's hungry? Or maybe 8:00, 12:00, and 6:00 are just some of her waking hours? And she wiggles a lot in the evenings and during my first class. By the way, I have to mention that even though I look enormous, I've only just started gaining weight last week! I finally lost the last of the baby weight I'd gained when I was pregnant with Ryker. So that makes me feel a little better. Though I still lament the sorry state of my abdominal muscles and tummy skin. Oh, the joys of motherhood!

P.S. I had started a post before the one about Jax and Kira, so if you want to see some great pictures, scroll down past the post about our dogs to the one about the rest of our summer break.

A Sad Day in the Somers' Home

(Jax hates having his picture taken--look at those flat ears!)

Well, it's finally happened. Jax has gotten himself into trouble so deep that we can't get him out. Yesterday he and Kira escaped the yard and killed a couple of sheep. Now they are quarantined at the pound. Jax will be put to sleep and Kira might be too--I'm not sure about her yet, but we won't get her back. Kira was mostly in the wrong place at the wrong time and Jax was the perpetrator, so he's in a heap of trouble. Saying goodbye to Jax yesterday was one of the saddest things I've ever had to do. We are going to miss him SO much. There have been countless tears shed around her in the past day and, admittedly, most of them have been mine and Brice's. My poor sweet husband couldn't even come out to say goodbye. It's probably good for the poor police officer that he didn't. The poor man had to haul off the dogs while a pregnant, weeping mommy and her two pitiful little kids sobbed and said their goodbyes through the cages and watched their beloved dogs get taken away from them. Both dogs will be greatly missed, but Jax had a special place in our hearts and filled a special place in our lives. He was such a good friend and he was so sweet and happy. He certainly filled the measure of his calling and brought smiles and happiness to all of us with his antics and his affection. We love him and we will miss him. It's just not the same around here without our dogs.