NOT slacking!

This is my 199th post! WOO!

I really haven't been slacking. I think of things everyday that I could blog about, but I'm trying to save my 200th post for when Ari finally comes. So, this one will probably be a bit long and random, but you know the next post will have an adorable baby girl in it! :D

Let's see...to start off with...

We moved Kaden to a twin sized bed (which he LOVES) and moved Lexi to a toddler bed. Ari won't be in the crib for a couple of months, but Lexi is more than ready to be in the toddler bed. She liked playing on it a lot, but when that first bedtime came, she was scared and just wanted me to hold her. She did just fine, though, and is now totally in love with her new bed. Plus, she also loves not having to wait for someone to come get her when she wakes up. She just jumps out of bed with her blanket and teddy bear and comes out all smiles. Yay!

Lexi also has a total of 12 teeth now!! She had 8 for the longest time so I'm glad the others finally decided to make their appearance. :)

Shane found out that his last day at his job will be the 30th (of this month). Basically, his company is hurting financially (dang economy) and he is the top paid debt collector, so he was the first to go. Awesome timing, right? We have just been job hunting like crazy and keeping the faith that something will work out. Heavenly Father wouldn't "bless" us with a THIRD child and then not let us be able to take care of her. Anyway, if you know of anyone needing a computer nerd, let me know. :D

As for me, I am FINALLY 37 WEEKS!! Full term!! YAY! This past Friday (the 17th) I was having contractions all day so we went into the hospital at night. They monitored me and called Kathy (my midwife). Legally, they have to do everything in their power to stop labor if I'm not 37 weeks. I was 37 weeks on Sunday....and this was the Friday beforehand. Awesome, huh? So, they gave me a morphine shot in my hip (I didn't even know you could give morphine to a pregnant woman!) and that slowed the contractions down enough to stop labor. Dang it!
SO FREAKING CLOSE!! I had an appointment today and Kathy said that she really thought I would go on Friday and she was surprised that the morphine had worked on me. For those of you who like TMI, I am at a 3 and 50% effaced! Last Tuesday at my appointment, I was at a 1 and not at all effaced, so I love seeing some progress. :) I was at a 3 on Friday at the hospital, but still not effaced at all. Anyway, we're oh-so-slowly getting there. I am just ready to sleep on my stomach again!!!

Speaking of sleeping, I was hurting so much last night that I ended up getting exactly three hours of sleep. THE. WHOLE. NIGHT. Yeah. It wasn't contractions, though, just this sharp, stabbing pain. I asked Kathy about it at my appointment and she said that since Ariana is sitting so incredibly low, she is most likely hitting certain ligaments and nerves anytime she moves her head, which is what is causing the sharp pains.
Good times, good times.
I complained to Kathy about not getting any sleep and she gave me drugs!! Have I mentioned in the last five minutes just how much I love her?! She gave me Ambien and the pharmacist told me to not walk around after taking it because it works REALLY fast and I would literally collapse in the middle of the floor. So, I get to take it, then go straight to bed. :D I can handle that!

I am all scheduled to be induced on October 4th (IF I make it that far), so I should be able to do my 200th post no later than around then! :) However, Shane is determined that I won't make it past this weekend.

That means there will be lots o' lovin' going on around the Porter household. ;) haha

Pictures of a cute three year old

On Saturday morning (before Kaden's party), we took him in to Kiddie Kandid's (yes, they are open again) for his three year pictures. :)

I gotta say, I was not at all impressed with the photographers. They used to be so good and could make any kid smile. We went there last December (right before they went bankrupt and closed all the stores) with my entire family and did pictures and the lady was good about getting Kaden to smile. He's so shy and just locks up in situations where he is the center of attention.

He SO did NOT get that from me. ;)

This photographer was pregnant with her first child (due 3 days before me) and just didn't understand how to work with difficult kids. I told her beforehand that Kaden is extremely shy and she just didn't understand to give him space rather than crowd him like she did. Anyway, eventually, she hung onto the camera clicker thingy and "left" the room. Shane and I took over and got some good smiles and giggles almost immediately.
These all have the watermark logo thing on them, but ignore that and look at the cutie patootie little boy....

Kaden was covering his face in every shot before the lady left.

So, we tried putting Lexi next to him just for a second to loosen him up. She LOVED it and Kaden stopped covering his eyes. Not the rest of his face, just his eyes. :)

This was when the lady left. He kept pointing to her to let us know where she had gone.

This was an okay one, but I knew we could do better.

Shane pretended to run into a wall and Kaden loved it. I think this is so cute!

As much as Kaden loves soccer, we ditched the soccer balls for a while and brought out the big guns trains. He totally forgot about the camera and loved just playing for a bit.

He was watching Lexi being thrown around by Shane here.

Now is when I started working my momma magic to make him smile BIG. Wait for it....

Better.....

BEST!
Seriously-can he possibly get any cuter?! Look at that expression! Totally perfect. :D

For those of you wondering, I actually wouldn't recommend Kiddie Kandid's anymore. Not for a while, anyway. Because they are slowly getting back into business, they only had three backdrops to choose from (black, white, and blue) and very few props. They called us the day before and let us know to bring our own props that we wanted. They still have the cute benches, but hardly anything besides that. And I didn't like the photographer, but that could have just been that particular lady and the other ones might be as good as before. They also don't print your pictures while you wait anymore (unless you want to pay an extra $4) and it sucks waiting two weeks for one 8x10. Anyway, I'm glad the one we got is free (even if we do have to wait two weeks to get it)!

Thomas the Tank Birthday Party!

Today was Kaden's 3rd birthday party!!

He went back and forth a lot between having a Thomas one and having a Mickey Mouse one. Eventually, though, Thomas won. :) (I knew he would.) Kaden was SO excited and loved when Shane and I put the decorations up and started getting the food ready.

Can you see the trains in the sign? One at the beginning, middle, and end. Kaden wants to make this sign permanent decor at our house. ;)

Some friends of ours, the Hansen's, offered to buy Kaden's cake. Ok, not offered, TOLD us they were taking care of the cake. :) I went and picked it up this morning and brought it home to show Kaden. Kaden saw the cake and promptly put the train he had in his hand on the tracks (on the lower left-hand corner of the cake). Shane and I both were like, "NOOOOO!" but it happened too fast to stop. Kaden felt SO bad, but we were laughing and told him it's fine. The cake came with a real Thomas engine (cause you know we need more of those around here) and Kaden was pretty upset that he didn't get to play with his "birthday cake Thomas."

Here's the kitchen all set up. We had animal crackers, peanut M&M's, and skittles (Kaden's favorite) along with a big bowl of fruit (mom's current favorite). :) I also got enough extra balloons for all of the little kids coming to be able to take one home.

The kiddos eating.

Time for presents! Kaden had lots of little helpers. :)

All the kids were curious to see what he got.

We saved the present from my mom for last, cause we knew he wouldn't be able to focus on any other presents after seeing it.....
See my crazy face? I was thinking, "PLEASE give a good reaction!"

Kaden was VERY excited for his very first trike! He stayed on it for hours after everyone left and we took him outside for some pedaling practice.

Lexi trying to show Logan some love. :)

I hid the spot Kaden put his train on with the candle. :)

Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Kaden.

He is super shy and doesn't like being the center of attention. He would NOT blow out his candle. Luckily, though, Liz was on hand to help him out. :)

Our little scavenger found someone's plate of cake and ice cream and decided to help herself.

Lexi showing Logan how to crawl. :) She looks massive next to him. haha

He really does like hugs from Liz. He was just more focused on getting back on his bike. :)

Kaden talked about his party all night and said he had so much fun. Thanks to everyone who came and shared this special day with us! :D

Three years old!!

It's hard to believe my little man has gone from this:

to this:

Where has the time gone?

Kaden's party isn't until tomorrow (Saturday), but for his actual birthday today we've done a little mini-celebrating. :) We let him open a present from us when he got up, then went to the doctor for his three year well-check. Here are some stats for those of you who are interested:

Height: 39 inches (70%)
Weight: 33 lbs (50%)

He is growing great! The doc said that his throat was still red and a little raw from his surgery, but since he isn't even three weeks out, he is healing exactly as expected. I was actually surprised by this news because I had just assumed that since he doesn't need pain medicine anymore he is completely healed. Wrong! So, that was good for me to know. :) He got two shots, then got to choose two suckers for being super brave. The rest of the day, Kaden kept saying, "My hurt leg" over and over and started limping and then was really saying it hurt a LOT. We had planned on taking him mini-golfing with Shane's parents, but he didn't want to go because he said his leg hurt so much. I am thinking his leg really is hurting if it's enough for him to pass up mini-golfing. (He LOVES it.) Anyway, we decided to stay at home and Shane's parents came over for a pizza party (they can't make it to his party tomorrow). While everyone else had this:


Kaden was spoiled and had this:
Can you see the fries and chicken nuggets? He was BEGGING for them literally from the minute he woke up. I have no idea why. He never keeps asking over and over for fast food. After hearing it all day, I couldn't say no to the birthday boy. :)

We hung out with Shane's parents and little brother, then Lexi wanted to play some Wii after they left. It was so stinkin' cute. :)

Kaden showing off his new battery operated Thomas from Shane's parents. :) He also got a Mater shirt (from Cars) and a really cool wooden build-a-train-with-the-blocks toy.

How ADORABLE is she?!

Lexi is having a hard time understanding why Kaden gets new toys/clothes and she gets nothing. Plus, I think kids shouldn't have to share their birthday toys for at least that day, so she also doesn't understand why Kaden isn't sharing (and why I'm not making him). The newness wears off sooner rather than later, so she'll get her chance. :)

Tomorrow is Kaden's Thomas the Tank Engine birthday party! Kaden and I have been excited about this for a month. :)

Cute story

I have to write this down (type it down??) before I forget. And, you KNOW I'll forget. ;)

This morning started out beautifully with a wonderful thunderstorm that soon started the rain coming down. *sigh* Every pregnant woman who doesn't have A/C's dream.

So, Kaden wanted to make cookies. We made no bake cookies and sat in front of our huge front window to watch the rain while the cookies cooled off. I thought it would be a good teaching moment for my almost-3-year-old, then the following conversation happened:

Me: "Hey, Kaden, guess what? The rain comes down from the clouds."

Kaden (SUPER concerned): "Clouds fall down?!"

Me (laughing): "No, no, the clouds don't fall down. The water inside the clouds falls down and that makes rain."

Kaden: "Yeah. No clouds falling. Rain fall down and water ALL over."
(Meaning the rains gets all over the place.)

Kaden is my sweetheart and always so concerned for others. I thought it was so sweet that he was concerned that the clouds would fall down. :)

35 week update!

Since I am going in to the doctor midwife every week now, the time is going by faster. :D
YAY!

I had an appointment yesterday and Ariana is growing and healthy. She is measuring long and skinny, just like my other two kiddos. My midwife did say that Ari has dropped and is extremely low (which is exactly how Kaden was and it broke my water....). I was hooked up to the NST (?) machine for about 50 minutes so that they could measure the cord flow and her heartbeat. It was only supposed to be 20 minutes, but they weren't seeing the "acceleration" that they wanted to. I gave them my best "HUH?!" face and was told that her heartbeat is just staying the same, not going between 130-160 like they wanted. I asked if that meant anything was wrong with her and they said no, not at all, it just means she sleeping. To wake her up, they put a vibrator/buzzer thing on top of my stomach and gave her a quick jolt. It scared her SO bad! I was laughing cause that's what I do when my kids jump. haha I both felt and saw her jump and even the nurse commented on how much that must have surprised Ari. HAHAHA Poor thing.

On another note, can I just say I LOVE my midwife, Kathy?! I know I've said it before, but I really, truly do. I've never been comfortable going to a male OB/GYN, although I know most women do and I have nothing against them. I just prefer women. (haha) I love that Kathy can empathize with me. She can swap engorgement stories with the best of 'em (she's had 6 kids) and truly understands the pain of labor and delivery. Guy doctors can feel bad for you, but they will never understand what it's like to push a watermelon through a keyhole or have mastitis. Those things aren't important to most people, but I love knowing that Kathy's been there, done that, and understands. :) She's so great.

Anyway, we have Kaden's birthday this Friday and his big Thomas the tank engine party on Saturday (we have to count down the days every morning with him). :) As long as Ariana stays in until then, I'll be happy.

Pregnancy brain

It's not just a myth, pregnancy brain is FOR. REAL.

Shane thinks it's hilarious. Especially since it's gotten worse with each baby. A couple of months ago, I was telling him a story, but right in the middle it reminded me of something else, so I started telling him about the other thing. He was laughing so hard and said that he'd never seen someone interrupt themselves.

There have been multiple times when Shane and I are in the middle of a conversation and I completely forget what we are talking about. Again, lucky for him, Shane thinks it's completely hilarious.

But the mother of all pregnancy brain stories happened last Thursday (the 2nd).

We got a text late Wednesday night from Shane's mom that I didn't get until the next morning (since I go to bed extremely early...). So, Thursday morning, I checked my phone and read a text from her that let us know his Aunt Beth had died and her viewing was that night. Shane got up a little while later and came in the living room. I immediately let him know about the text and told him his Aunt Bonnie had died.

He was so sad. Bonnie is his grandma's sister and only 70 years old. I told him he should call his grandma during his lunch break and see how she's doing. He readily agreed.

A couple of hours later, I was emailing his mom to let her know we had a wedding to go to and couldn't make it to the viewing. I double-checked the text and all of a sudden, saw the name Beth and not Bonnie. I reread the text several times with one thought:

"Who the heck is Beth?!"

I realized my mistake, though, and tried calling Shane immediately. His company had just gotten a new phone system in and were still working out the bugs. I couldn't reach him. It was 11:30. He was about to go on break and call his grandma to tell her he was sorry her sister had died!!

I tried emailing him, but he rarely ever checks it at work. The phones were still not letting me through, so I just prayed that he would get the email....and if he didn't, that his grandma wouldn't have a heart attack.

Around 12:30, the phone systems were back, but it went straight to his voice mail since he was gone at lunch. AHHH!!

I kept picturing his grandma's reaction to the news about her sister. CRAP!

I was actually laughing pretty hard at myself. I thought the whole thing was funny, although notsomuch for Beth. I texted Shane's mom and told her what I did and asked who Beth was. She, too, thought it was funny and told me that Beth was in her 80's and very sick and was the last surviving Porter sibling of Shane's grandpa (who passed away in 2004).

Bonnie is on Shane's MOM'S side of the family!

At 1:01, I called Shane who FINALLY answered. I didn't even say hello, I just quickly asked if he had called his grandma. He said no, he hadn't had time. YAY! I told him what had happened. After he got it straight in his head "So Bonnie isn't dead?" he pretty much thought it was the funniest thing EVER. I bet he cried he was laughing so hard. His response to the whole thing? "Well, that's very good news for Bonnie!" HAHAHA

After work, we were talking about Beth and I told him I had no idea who she was. He told me that I met her once, in 2004 when we were dating, for a couple of minutes at Home Town Buffet when his entire family was there. Since I don't even remember going to Home Town Buffet with Shane, chances are that I won't remember Aunt Beth. But I'm sure she was super nice.

A quarter of a century

Where on earth did August go?!

This post is a bit late, but that's because someone forgot to tell me August was going to fly by.

August 18th I turned 25 years old. *sniff*

I said goodbye to youth and started looking for gray hairs. haha Totally kidding. I did all of that when I first had Kaden (at 22 years old).

We did our usual tradition (that I really like, so don't hate) of going to Red Robin (they give you a free meal!) then to Cold Stone (they give you a free Like It size ice cream!). :) We also added going to our friend's house after where I had the BEST double chocolate chip cookies EVER.
Thanks Kelly!

Before I show you a couple of pics from this year's festivities, I just want to point something out to get some sympathy....

August 18, 2007-8 months preggers with Kaden

August 18, 2008-5 months preggers with Lexi (see how flippin' chubby my face is?!)

See the pillow blocking my tummy? I am always trying to cover myself-even when I'm pregnant.

August 18, 2009-NOT PREGGERS!! (But still obviously trying to lose baby weight from two kids in a row)

August 18, 2010-7 1/2 months preggers with Ariana. Massively huge. (Great paint job, Kelly!)

Isn't that so sad/pathetic?! 3 out of the last 4 birthdays I've had, I've been with child. Can't a girl get a break?! But, it does give me an excuse to eat all the cake I want, right? haha

Ok, just had to get that off my chest. Now, here are a couple pics from this year's outing:

Somehow the kids must have known it was my birthday. They were SO well behaved ALL day and were holding hands the whole way to Red Robin. :)

This is how Lexi eats grilled cheese. haha She loves being a big girl and using a fork/spoon with anything and everything she eats.

Here she is trying to share with the people sitting behind us. Such a giver...

She's so stinkin' cute!

We usually just get water when we go out to eat cause we are not big soda drinkers. (I am seriously obsessed with lemon water.) But I got a strawberry lemonade that day and may or may not have had at least three glasses of it.... It was SO good and I didn't even realize I was craving it until I saw the picture on the menu. Yummmm.....

The Sunday after my birthday, some friends invited us over for dinner. What they didn't tell me (Shane knew) was that it was a birthday celebration for me! Their whole family (who have adopted us as one of their own) was there and we had a GREAT meal followed by YUMMY cake and ice cream!

You can tell how happy I am about having my picture taken while eating.

Besides my wedding cake (that I paid for), I have never had someone go to all the trouble of making a fondant cake for me!! It was marshmallow fondant and SOOO GOOD! And SUPER cute! Kaden helped me blow out the candles. :)

It was such a fun birthday this year and I hope and pray I am not ever pregnant again (including on my birthday). :D