End of the Road

Although this blog post really had it's meaning a couple weeks ago, I'll go ahead and post it late anyway.

I've come to the end of my pregnancy. Waiting for the big moment now. Funny thing is, there are some other things coming to the end of their road as well.
The biggest one is Hallee become a full-time walker! She has really blossomed with this new freedom too. I'm glad to see the end of the crawling phase come before baby is born. That was my secret wish, and what a nice girl for giving her mother her wish! With a couple of road trips coming up though, I think we'll be investing in the those backpack leashes for her. I swore I would never put one of those on my child, but I'm feeling an inkling of being overwhelmed when I think about tackling tasks with 4 kids by myself. scarey!
There was another end of the road last week- one that was more on the sad side. Jeremy's mom came to visit and help with the baby, but- sorry to spoil the ending- she ended up having to leave with no baby born yet. She arrived on Tuesday, 2 days before due date, and I even had a couple contractions that night. Then nothing really. I had a midwife appointment on that Thursday and I was dilated to a 2 and not really effaced much, but definetly "soft." :) I always laugh when they use that word. The midwife said she would be really surprised if she saw me again in a week for a regular apointment, in other words, she thought I would deliver soon. She told Jeremy, "no more riding your bike to work."
Well, everyone became very anxious for the baby to come; minus me I'd say, someone's got to keep a calm head. Each day was spent waiting for contractions, every conversation seemed to be about how I was feeling, Jeremy giving me orders to do certain labor-inducing activities. It was actually quite torturous. ;) With Jeremy taking the car everyday, Grandma and us were left at home to do nothing too exciting. It added to the torture. I crazily thought of things to do- one of which was making a big card- more about that later.
Luckily, we at least at Lucy's ballet recital that weekend. Another "end of the road." It was very fun to be a part of the dance recital. Lucy was very excited. I'm not sure how many dancers there were, but it was a long recital! I hadn't anticipated part of the mom's job to keep the kids entertained yet quiet as they waited for their turn to perform. I hadn't brought anything to do nor any snacks. Thankfully, some of the other moms were more prepared than I was. I was able to think of one game for the girls to do, "Ballerina, Ballerina, where's your flower?" (a twist on the Doggie doggie, where's your bone game.) It was quite the hit with girls and moms because it kept them sitting down, quiet, and entertained for a good 40 minutes or so. Lucy did a great job on her dances. I was surprised because she had missed a couple of the last practices and I wasn't sure she would remember anything. They have a leader to follow of course, but she still did a great job. You can see in the video how she was one of the 'those' kids that runs off stage as soon as she's done dancing, an excited exit to daddy, not to script, but it did make the audience laugh.

After the recital, the focus was back on having the baby. :( Grandma's flight was scheduled to leave Tuesday night. Sunday and Monday were tense and sad realizing that nothing much was happening. Monday was spent talking about how and if she could take another flight and stay a few more days. Unforunteately, there were just no signs I would go into labor and it didn't seem worth the money to change the ticket. We finished a huge card for the residents at the elderly community where she manages. I had started making ice cream cone cards for all the residents, then Grandma suggested making just one big card. We came up with the phrase, "I scream, You scream, We all scream" and the inside of the card said, "Is the baby here yet?" There were 37 ice cream cones, each with one of the resident's name on it, on the inside of the card.
The baby was eventually born. :) She ended up coming the day after Grandma left. That Sunday was Father's day and we were having ice cream cones for dessert. I had to take a picture of all of us with our cones. It fit in too well with our card for the elderly residents and I had to send the update: "Here's the latest scoop...Isabella Van Tress." We're very happy with this new little sister. I'm sure you want to hear every last detail (not really) so I'll be sure to write my birth post next.

Oh, and the last 'end of the road' was... the end of my 30th year. Happy 31st birthday with homemade apple pie.

Wait...Rewind!

Wait, holy cow- I'm due in just a week and I'm not ready to move on! I've had lots of mixed emotions these last few months as so much has been happening and I'm just barely beginning to see it and already another big new thing is on the way! I hope every baby in the army will not be so crazy. (Well, no, I'm not sure I endorse the ramifications of that statement.)

I almost cried the other day thinking how much of a baby Hallee still is while about to have another baby any day. I've done this before! How did I do this before??
I've been spending a lot of time with her lately just wanting to be with her to celebrate everything she's learning and discovering, knowing that with another baby those moments might be fewer. The girl has been cracking us up with her silly personality. She's super curious yet a cuddly homebody at the same time. Just yesterday she started to stand up! And today, she took her first steps. This feels so much bigger than the other two I guess because of how long it's taken her. Even though I know there's nothing wrong with her AT ALL (emphasis added for the dude who asked if she was slow, because she wasn't walking at 18months- boo to you Mister!), but I'm so happy she decided to take that risk and felt joy in doing it. It was a moment all 4 of us shared together watching her decide to stand up. We were doing songs during some circle time (it's so cute that Hallee will come sit with us for our little circle time) and the kids were standing up dancing while doing a song. She didn't want to miss the action, I guess, and just stands up on her own and starts doing a little bounce dance. It was so funny/awesome!! We were all together again when she was taking some steps today. Even Lucy and Willie were so excited for her seeming to understand this grandeur of what she's been through to be able to get to this accomplishment. So cute. Awww, families.

So, even though this is supposed to be a rewind in pictures...blogger, of course, can't load them up. So if I could share some pictures with you, here's what they would be about:
*Cute pictures of Lucy and Willie enjoying park time at Lake rim, and also at the grand opening of the Botanical Gardens.
*Day at the Horse Derby- most excellent 4 for 1 ticket I've ever bought. Picture was of the 3 kids eating our picnic lunch. Hallee stuck under layers of blankets protecting her cast from getting dirty or wet. This event was just 3 days after her fall. I was going to just not go, but decided late the night before, it just couldn't be missed. I'm so glad our first outing with cast went well.
*Huge Python at the nature center corraling the kids- talk about scary!
*Lucy's big 5th birthday- not anything what we tried to plan, but it was fun. We also happened to find a trampoline just a week before, so extra fun there!
*The Easter bunny photo, taken the day a tornado ran through town. So glad we were blessed to have escaped ANY kind of devastation from that ordeal.
*Placing flags on graves of the Veterans in preparation for Memorial Day.
*Baby shower for Jamie. So fun! How the heck did she start labor before me?! Unfortunetly, this wasn't a good thing and I hope it all goes well for her!
*A nice big belly shot for you. One last shot before baby comes. I'm so bummed that I never lined up a photographer for this pregnancy & newborn photos. sigh. I never can get on that it seems.
I guess the rest of the picture are just preschool stuff. I've been able to meet some super nice homeschooling moms and hope that we will be able to start a good support group for each other. I'm not sure what school will be like next year, I still have so much to do there! :(

Oh yeah- I got a few pictures on here-
Our celebration night out after Hallee got her cast off. Such a cute munchkin!

Belly Belly Belleeee (when you coming off btw?)

Lucy creating Barbie's "Baptism dress" from a paper napkin (we're talking HOURS of fun here!)

Easter egg hunt, Hallee still in a cast.

Cute brother and sister! Botanical Gardens with great face painters!

He's home.

I've not felt like writing lately, but I look at my unupdated blog and it kind of just bugs me. You know, like looking into the mirror and wishing you had put make-up on that day, so you have the real you looking back at you. Ha! Guess I should be saying the real "made-up" you, right? lol.

Anyway, I guess the biggest news is Jeremy's home. Yep. It's disappointing, from my side, that he didn't finish, but of course that doesn't reflect at all my feelings for having him home. That's been super awesome. And, yes, now I don't have to worry anthing about what to do about when the baby comes.

That last statement is not really the story at all. Really, it's just the fact that all the worries I have are completely different ones from before. It's all so wrapped up and I won't disclose every detail. The short of it is...I was planning a homebirth and had found a midwife that I like. Now, mostly from Jeremy's side, we're feeling like maybe we shouldn't do a homebirth. I feel I'm starring at two completely fine roads to the same end point, and just have no idea which way to start trodding down. So, I'm doing both, lol, of course. This next month will have to be some major decisions, so I'm sure things will be shifting in a permanent direction soon.

Jeremy leaves tomorrow for airborne school which is about 3 weeks. I'm nervous at how the kids will react. We struggle with the separation a little bit still, it's been hard to find a way to help them be more positive. My strategy right now is to just distract them like crazy...which kind of works for the most part. And the next 3 weeks have a lot of fun things going on, so I'm looking forward to it. It's always a plus when we're not worrying about sharing the car either. :)

Of course I haven't been taking pictures too...rats. Maybe next time.
I'm very excited to announce my little brother is getting married in July. It will be a hard trip having just had a baby, but I'll be fine, and actually it's not too far away, so that really helps. They are getting married in the DC temple, so cool!!

Ballet Girls

Lucy is taking ballet at the rec center. She had her first class this past week. The expanded version of this story is on Lucy's page, if you want the full story. I thought she did a pretty good job being new and never had done anything before. It was just as great watching Willie as it was Lucy actually. Willie sat there in the line of parents on the wall just watching the girls. He was so cute, sitting against the wall, crossed feet and just chilling. What a nice brother. He's pretty upset that he doesn't have "his class" yet. Unfortunately, he's just a little too young for any organized sports.

This is Your Life

I thought I'd post an explaination as to the side bar coloumn I added called "This is Your Life." When we were growing up, I remember an "occasional" tradition that we did. The kids chose a memory from the past year of our Dad, and drew it out with a little caption telling what the memory was. The pages were complied and put in a book with the title, "This is Your Life", subtitle, "As told by your children." The binder was presented to my Dad every year on Father's Day. I think that was the initial thought of the tradition, though in reality, we really just drew pictures when my mom said it was time to draw a picture, and the gifting was done on Father's day or even on his birthday I think. An effort to involved all the ten kids in giving Dad a more meaningful gift. There may even be more details to the binder that I have forgotten, it's been a little while since I've seen it last.
Well, whether or not this is a treasure to my Dad is something to ask in the eternities, but I remember having oodles of laughter looking back over the drawings as we all grew up and could tease each other about our memories, or the drawings, or even our handwriting... :) Even from the time I got married, I determined to start this tradition with my own family. But guess how many drawings are in Jeremy's book- one. Yes, just one, from when Lucy was born. Wow, one in almost five years! It's not even in color, it's still in pencil. Haha. Well, life's not over yet.
Well, my kids are probably just coming to the age that they could really grasp the idea and contribute to the book, so I'll have to get it going again. But this idea has been my inspiration to be more diligent in journaling altogether. The other side of this is, however far the binder develops, or not, Jeremy still needs to be more informed of the goings on in the family and more specifically with the kids.
So, in short, that is my long explaination to the fact that I needed a place to journal about the kids. Somewhere separate from the blog which I keep more for just interesting, light-hearted, picture-filled accounts of big (and some little) moments. Well, because I'm on the computer way more than I'd like to admit, the blog seemed like really an easy way to also incoporate my other need. Plus, when Jeremy's away in places where he still has internet access, then he can read my entries.
So, what does this mean to you? Nothing more than the knowledge of what the "This is Your Life" coloumn is doing on the side there. And, no, it's not recommended reading. It's written rather poorly, it's boring and will get long. Especially the page for Mommy because that is just an outlet for my venting on life. Writing is good for the soul.
So that's it. any questions? :)

Just a few shots taken around the house. Our big white mailbox. The only other white mailbox on the street is our neighbor across the street. They actually put our mailbox in for us too. They are great, we love them!



Haha, not looking so great (no shower fit in today), but Jeremy has been after me to take a picture of my belly. Here you go, though you can't see it too well. I can't pull out the camera without Lucy insisting that she take the pictures, she gets such a kick out of it. I told her to take some of the house- here's a shot of the stairs...

Home Sweet Home

Life has been busy with all the "to do's" when you get to a new city- stocking the house with needed supplies, getting a mailbox (it's taken me way too long to get this one crossed off my list, in fact, it's still not crossed off!), medical records and appointments, keeping kid's school going, getting registered for various things, dealing with door salesmen...
Hate that last one. New house = prime target.
This week, we've been sick with colds, which ended up leaving us home from church for two weeks in a row. I'm anxious to meet friends at church, but it just hasn't fallen into place yet. The friends we've been able to meet have been at the library or our neighbors. The weather has been nice, warm enough to play outside, so that has been fun to enjoy the neighborhood and our backyard, even though there's nothing back there yet! That's kind of the downer about a new house, is how long it takes to really get plants and things in place. I'd love to get a garden going but it's bad timing with being pregnant and Jeremy not able to get it set up for me. I'll have to think of an alternative I guess....no ideas...I'm new in this department.
I've had people asking for pics of the house, and my excuse is my camera, though that's not a good one because I can easily fix the problem, anyway, I do need to get some documentation going. :) These photos are from the real estate websites. Unfortunately, I only have these two because all them are taken down now, otherwise I would tell you to just go look at it for more pics- they look better than any pics I could take anyway. There's nothing interesting about pics I would take because it's just boxes and unorganized messes, so it would have been better to look at the professional 'empty' pictures anyway! But that house is so nice. Jeremy picked this one out on his own really, so I've been dreading the possibility that I might not like it, but the more I live here, the more I love the house and feel like it fits us well.
We've been blessed to have all the help we've needed so far while Jeremy's gone. The day after the movers brought our stuff, the Singles Ward here called me up and asked if they could come help me for FHE that night doing whatever I needed. I was first inclined to say no, especially when they said it would be 15-20 people. But I'm so glad they came! I made a big list of things we could do, there were at least 15 that came, and they were done with the list in less than an hour! They were so great! All the guys were army (except one) and had no problem lifting heavy things, keeping on task, or being told what to do. :) They were great guys to have around! The girls were all very nice as well, a couple helped play with the kids while we all worked. It worked out so great! It felt SO nice to feel "moved in" too. I was already tired of pulling silverware and cups out of boxes to eat and trying to cook meals with not the right stuff. It was such a blessing.
The next big important things to check off the list is settling in with a ob/midwife to get ready for delivery, and getting the kid's school figured out. I've been going back and forth for the past 6 months or so deciding between starting public school or doing homeschool. I've always wanted to do homeschool, but I've had so many doubts these past 6 months. Contrarily, I've continually been meeting people these past 6 months who do homeschool and have been encouraging me. So I feel like it's been a blessing to have met those people and help me push past this kind of scary feeling of starting up homeschooling. Homeschooling is actually quite popular in the military community, I think it's safe to say. Which it does make sense, military families can strive better if they can take summer break or spring break when they want, or do school from Grandma's house for a couple months while Dad is gone if they want. It is a great solution to the demands of military life on the family. I just hope I can step it up and get disciplined and committed to the regimen and the lifestyle of homeschooling.
Finding a delivery plan has been equally as challenging. I'm pushing for a natural birth, as I have with the last two, and I've not heard good things about the hospitals in the area as far as those things go. I actually tried to talk to the hospital on base about my desires and concerns, and I basically got the rolled eyes at me. I've been talking with a midwife service that's in the area and have an appointment to meet them next week. That would mean a homebirth, however, which I never thought I'd do, but it's funny when you're faced with choosing between non- desirable options, a homebirth seems right for me now. There is also this looming cloud that Jeremy won't be able to make it home for the birth. I had come to grips with that from the moment we found out we're pregnant, but I'm still unsure how I'm going to be feeling as the 9 months draws to a close. I do thank God everyday that He is there. I've always felt God watching over me, it's something I've never doubted, and having that sense has given me so much strength to be able to accept whatever life has brought. I have a little girl who's every prayer the last few days usually goes like this, "Please bless Daddy will come home safe. Please help Grandma B or Grandma Connie to come to babysit with us, so we can go to the doctor so the doctor can help pop the baby out." Often, just those two things, she's been sick so she keeps prayers short I guess. But yes, I do have the exact same prayer of my own, little one.