Not Much to Report But I Will Anyway

I haven't felt like doing a lot of things lately, blogging included, and that's strange for me.  I haven't felt like unloading the dishwasher, or doing the laundry, or making dinner, or packing lunches, or cleaning the bathroom, or mopping the floor, or picking up toys, though that stuff's not really that strange. Sometimes I get a wild hair and start in on painting furniture or hanging picture frames, but Dan doesn't seem to find much satisfaction in returning from work to a disastrous house and no dinner, even though the inside of the armoire is now a happy yellow (and still minus a door and knobs in this picture).

I am 15 weeks now.  This time around there are many, many similarities, though overall I would have to say that this pregnancy has been slightly milder than at least two of the others. I can feel the sickness waning and I find myself on the couch every afternoon, under the control of some other entity, where I remain until I can force my eyes open again an hour later.

  I truly have no inclination as to the gender.  At first I openly wanted another girl to round things out.  But as the weeks passed, I kept picturing my new little baby boys, and realized that actually, I would give my left arm to have another one of those.  That realization combined with a convincing conversation with a friend, led me to convince Dan, that we won't find out the sex of the baby beforehand because whatever it is, it's exactly what I wanted!

 Technically, my regular pants still fit.  But they do not look good.  It was time to choose a direction--over or under, cause through the middle wasn't doing me any favors.  I bought a new pair of maternity jeans, and they were just what the doctor ordered. I am looking forward to having a baby pooch as opposed to displaced organs and fat pooch that I am sporting now.

And I don't know how to say this without sounding like a like a heartless person, and I promise I am not heartless, but I am so excited for this baby, more than I have been for any of the others.  Moments of giddiness come upon me each day and I can hardly contain my excitement.  I can't recall that ever happening before.  And surely it's not because I don't love my other kids because obviously I do. I decided to push out the guilt and just enjoy my own excitement.  I can't wait!

Without fail, as I've left the OB's office each time, I step in the elevator to go down to my car, I start to cry as I get overwhelmed thinking about the little body floating in there and the heartbeat I just heard.  There's really a baby in there!

But as I mentioned, it's not sunshine and butterflies all the time.  Our life is still running a little more roughly, and we've all lowered the bar.  But it's good.  Or it could be a lot worse.

And now, the crappy phone picture recap.  The past few weeks highlight reel:

With the big ones in school everyday, Max and I have been getting a lot of QT together.

I took the whole gang to Hobby Lobby, The Three Musketeers: Max, Buzz, and Harry

We've also had some time that was not so quality, for example the floured living room:

We've celebrated two birthdays:

And if you are wondering if layering ice cream sandwiches with whip cream, caramel, chopped up reese's cups and another layer of ice cream sandwiches, whip cream, caramel, and chopped up reese's cups tastes good, the answer is yes.

There 's been cowboy bonding over the ipad:

Max refuses to nap and consequently falls asleep at random times and places:

And after last weekend's garage sale, we are one step closer to parking Dan's car in the garage.  But it was Ava's cookies and rice crispy treats which brought in the most profit.