Sweet Baby

Our Sweet baby girl is here!

Actually, she has been here for almost a whole week.

It's hard to imagine life without this sweet girl.

There is so much to write about...but this will just have to be a quick update.

I was editing pictures from Hannah's first (of many, I'm sure) photo shoot and found this cutie.

I'm so in love. 

No Baby

Well, no baby so far.
Still waiting on this little one.
Of course, we have really been waiting for over four years now, so I am not too surprised that she is coming in her own sweet time instead of on my time table! :)
And technically my due date isn't until Monday, so she really isn't even late yet...but she's getting close!
I had a doctor's appointment yesterday.  Over the weekend I had a few good stretches of contractions, so we were hopeful that Dr. E would just keep me there...but no. Nothing had even changed since last week!  All those contractions for nothing! Now my next appointment isn't until two days after the due date. Blah...doesn't this girly know how badly we want to meet her?!
Maybe Thanksgiving is a good time to have a baby after all... :)

Halloween Family Style

Halloween sure seemed to come and go in a hurry this year.
I think it was midway through October by the time I had all the decorations out, and I may or may not have been found making my costume on the evening of October 30th. :)  My brain was certainly more focused elsewhere this year!
Thankfully our kiddos picked costumes that were not only things we had on hand or could easily obtain, but they also chose costumes that went together, so we were able to pull off a nice little family theme without too much effort. Yay!
Grace wanted to be a Pampa Harvester cheerleader, and since it is all the rage for little girls to wear mini Harvester cheerleader uniforms to the Friday night home games, that was an easy one to track down.
Joshua wanted to be a football player, and he already had a Cowboys uniform, so that one was a cinch, too.
Bryan and I decided that since the kids had picked coordinating costumes, we better go along with the theme as well.  Bryan has a friend that refs games, so he borrowed his uniform, and all I had to do was paint my shirt with a football for Hannah to "wear."  The kids thought that was especially awesome!

We had a chili supper and trunk-or-treat at the church, which was fun.  It is always good to see so many people from our ward come together for some good times!  Poor Grace wasn't feeling too hot, and I think walking around the parking lot was about all she could handle anyway, so it was perfect. :)
And now Thanksgiving will be here before we know it...time continues to fly!
I am especially excited for Thanksgiving this year, so fly away, Time, fly away! :)

37 weeks

Yep, we are almost there!

This sweet baby's due date was three weeks from yesterday.  

It's crazy to think that after all this time we are just days away from meeting our baby girl.

We couldn't be more excited!!

It has been really sweet to see how excited Joshua and Grace are for baby Hannah's arrival.
They no longer want to give me hugs and kisses...just the baby. :) They love to hug and kiss my belly, and Grace can often be found rubbing her nose on my belly, trying to give "Miss Hanny" (as she sometimes calls the baby) nosies.
I love it.
I never thought Joshua and Grace would be this old when baby #3 joined us, but it has been really neat to have them old enough to know and understand what is happening. They are so excited, and already they are being really helpful. They are getting really good at noticing when I drop things and picking them up for me...which is much appreciated! :)

                           

Bryan is also super excited...I think he is more anxious for my upcoming doctor's appointments than I am. :)

Because we are over an hour from the hospital and it is our third baby, our doctor has said that if I ever come to an appointment and he finds I am progressing quite a bit he would keep me there and break my water to induce labor, rather than risk me going back home and going into labor with such a long drive to the hospital. So we are going to each of the appointments with a hospital bag packed, just in case. We can always hope, right? :)

Bryan is such a great dad, and I am excited to see him with a little baby of ours in his arms again.

I am excited, and admittedly a bit nervous. I worry about being so far from the hospital, especially because I have never gone into labor on my own before. What if I don't realize what is happening until it is too late to get there in time?  Yikes!  I really don't want to have a baby on the side of highway 60! :)  And then there is the fact that it has been nearly six years since we had a newborn. I'm sure it will be an adjustment for us all. But in spite of the nerves, I am really, really anxious and excited to meet this little baby girl.  It seems like forever that we have been waiting for this day. I don't know if I can even imagine the joy we are going to feel over the next few weeks as Hannah joins our family!

We love you, baby Hannah!

Back to School

Yesterday was the first day of school for these cute kids.  They were quite excited! 

Grace started kindergarten and is so excited to be in school! She has the same teacher Joshua had in kindergarten, Mrs. Ellis, which is who Grace was hoping to have and we were all thrilled that it worked out that way!

Joshua started 2nd grade (can it really be true!?) and he has Mrs. Campbell.  She seems like a really great teacher, but admittedly the most exciting part to Joshua is that his buddy Huston is in his class for three years running!

Here are a few first day pictures...how do they grow up so fast?!

I did pretty well dropping them off yesterday, and amazingly I didn't even cry.  

It was such a different experience than when I dropped Joshua off for his first day of kindergarten.  It was was so much easier knowing that Grace knew some of the people I was leaving her with.  We walked into the classroom and Mrs. Ellis says, "Grace!  There you are!  I've been waiting for you!" and goes on to tell us how excited she was to have Grace in her class. Huge difference.

I went and had lunch with each of them and they were both so excited about being back in school!  The school staff was getting quite a kick out of Grace.  She has been at the school with me so many times that she already knows a lot of the rules and how things work.  When I went to meet her for lunch the secretary told me I better hurry down to the cafeteria because Grace was waiting for me.  Apparently the teachers had taken them to lunch a few minutes early, so I wasn't there yet when she got to the cafeteria. Grace was insistent that she needed to sit at the special table for kids with visitors, but the cafeteria staff wouldn't let her because I wasn't there yet. She finally sat at the table with the other kindergartners, but kept telling everyone that her mom was coming and she had to sit at that table!  The school counselor said Grace had it all figured out and they might as well just move her to second grade, too. :)   We had lunch and she definitely talked more than she ate, which really isn't a surprise! I don't think I am ever going to lack for details of how her day went!

Lunch with Joshua was really sweet. He had been a bit nervous for the first day, but by lunch he was an old pro again.  Now he was just worried about me!  He kept asking me if I had cried yet, and what I was doing with my day by myself.  He asked how Grace was liking school and if she had made any friends yet. He asked if she was being good. :) What a sweet boy!  We are so lucky to have such a caring son, and these little sisters are so blessed to have such a caring big brother! 

I was so busy yesterday I hardly had time to realize my kiddos were gone.  

Then today hit...

Bryan took the kids to school and I am sitting in this silent house with nothing urgent to do all day...for 7 straight hours.  Really?  After nearly 8 years of not even being able to go to the bathroom alone, I am not sure what I am supposed to do with that many hours alone.  I did okay until about 10:00, and then I bawled! I miss my kids...a lot!!!  But at least I have cute little reminders of them around my house, like this:

Look how little! I love these two...even if they have to grow up. :)
At least I am only alone for a couple of months, then I will have a little baby to keep me company and keep me busy.
Of course that means the cycle of kids growing up too fast just starts over...Yikes!

Grandpa Larsen

My dad called me yesterday afternoon, from his cell phone.  

I knew something was up as soon as I saw it was Dad calling, especially from his cell phone. 

He started off like he always does:

"Hi Janelle, what's going on in Texas?"

"Nothing much, Dad. What is going on there?"

I'm thinking, come on Dad, I know something is up...

"Well...I just wanted to call and let you know your Grandpa Mel just passed away about an hour ago."

I knew it was coming, but it is still sad.  Even though he is 86 and has lived a wonderful life, it is still sad to see him go. My world felt sad today, knowing he isn't here anymore. How grateful I am for the knowledge that he is in a better place with people he loves who passed on before him.  And someday we will see him again. I will give him a big hug and he will say "Hi, Beautiful."  The thought makes me smile...and cry. :)

As I have been reflecting on the many memories I have of my grandpa, I have been feeling especially blessed   simply because I have so many memories with him!  How sad it would be to have him pass away and leave me feeling like I didn't know who he was.  Thankfully that is not at all the case!

Grandpa was cheerful, hardworking, patriotic, and a very loving husband, father, and grandfather.  I always loved when he would tell Grandma how beautiful she looked.  She would roll her eyes and "Oh...Mel!" him, but you couldn't miss the sweetness in the exchange.  He would always thank us for coming to visit, and especially for bringing the kids by, because he knew how happy it made Grandma.

I loved to listen to his stories about growing up in Hyrum, UT and about his time in the Air Force.  It seemed like he could remember everything!  Dates, names, places, it seemed that he knew it all. Until he started to forget some things...it was kind of hard for me when I realized he couldn't remember where I lived or why we lived here.  But he was still Grandpa, sweet, and still throwing out that occasional joke.

I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with him alone in June when I was home visiting.  He had just been released from the nursing home/rehabilitation center after 3 or 4 months of recovering from hip surgery. Although, while he was there, he had pneumonia and broke his pelvis, so he didn't come home in very good shape.  He wasn't able to walk on his own, so he couldn't be left alone.  I went to sit with him while my mom took Grandma to a graveside service.  It had been an especially hard afternoon: he had fallen while Grandma was trying to get him to the bathroom.  Grandma was sad and frustrated; I could tell she put her whole heart into caring for him, and it was really hard on her.  She was crying as she left with my mom and Grandpa noticed.  He turned to me and sadly said "This is really hard on Mom, and I don't know why." My heart hurt to see him wanting to take care of her like he had in the past, to fix what was hurting her, but not having the memory to realize that it was his health problems that were making her so sad.  He loved her so much!

We sat and talked about things in the news for a bit, and then we just sat in comfortable silence. I liked being there, just me and him for a few minutes.  I was so grateful to have that time with him and to witness the caring and love between Grandma and Grandpa.  I couldn't help but think that this was true love. 

As we have seen his health decline over the last several months, I have been secretly hoping that when he passed away it would be at a time when I could go for the funeral.  My doctor has already told me that I can't travel anymore starting in a month or so, and I was worried that he would pass away at a time when I wouldn't be able to go and be there with my family.  We already had a trip to Utah planned for this week, one last hurrah before school starts and then the baby comes.  We get to Utah later this week and the funeral will be while we are there.  I am so grateful that I will get to be there to celebrate his wonderful life, and to be there for Grandma.

We love you, Grandpa!  We will certainly miss you, but we will see you again!  Until then...

We're awful excited around here...

because we are having a LITTLE SISTER!!

We had our ultrasound two weeks ago and all is well!  

The baby looked great, although she was a bit stubborn for pictures. :)

We are so grateful to find a healthy, growing baby. Heavenly Father has truly blessed us!

Even the doctor gave his stamp of approval...he said we are like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way.  That is good to hear after how we started out!

And since 3/4 of our family thought this baby was a boy, we were a bit surprised when the ultrasound tech said Grace was the only one that guessed right! Nice job Grace! The tech even pointed out that usually the moms guess correctly...but not this time.  Haha! I don't mind being wrong.

Bryan was the most surprised because he was the most convinced it was a boy, but he quickly overcame the shock and is quite thrilled at having another little girl around.

He has all the little girl outfits we bought hanging in his closet and he gets so excited every time he sees them...it's really quite cute.

The first question he asked me after we left the office was if I was ready for more drama. :)

Yeah, we are so ready for it!!

Is it November yet?