We're mobile!

Genevieve is now mobile! She can roll over front to back and back to front, and she's also scooting/army crawling. No fair! Where'd my baby go, and who is this mobile creature that's replacing her???

Matthew is teaching himself how to swim without his swim floaties on. We were in the pool today, and he has already become confident enough to swim all by himself with them on, but today he decided to try to swim WITHOUT them on. *sigh* He's becoming such a big boy.

Nothing really new with Hannah..just being her sweet, adorable self (when she's not trying to convince me that she's the spawn of Satan....). ;)


Also, Genna is now eating solids. So I need to get a highchair for her. She's refusing her bottle though (stubborn little chit, isn't she? :) ), but has taken to her rice cereal like a crack addict to a fix. She's obsessing over it. And tries to grab whatever food I'm eating, and eat it herself. Uhm, no sweetie. Gotta cut some teeth first, love. :)

And Tim is gone again, after being home for a week. It's so nice when he's here, but it's also nice to have a break when he's gone. And he's never gone too long. Just long enough.

My boy's sick

Yesterday, Matthew came to me and told me his tummy and "froat" hurt. :( He fell asleep at 5 last night (he was up 'til 10 the night before, so he was exhausted. So I wasn't too surprised at that). He was also running a low-grade fever. So I went to Walmart to get groceries (the upstairs neighbor watched the girls down here while Matthew was sleeping). She then called me to tell me that Matthew was throwing up. Great. So I grab what groceries I *NEED* right now, and tried to come home. But I couldn't. Because my key wouldn't turn in the ignition. *GROAN!* Some good Samaritan came by, and tried to help, and then gave me (and my groceries) a ride home. Matthew was sleeping again when I got home, and he (and our puke bucket) slept in my bed with me last night. And he puked every time he tried to drink ANYTHING. Nothing would stay in his stomach. This went on until 1 am.

This morning he woke up and finally was able to keep liquids down. Hannah was wonderful and watched tv by herself in the living room, or snuggled up to me in my bed, but let me (and Matthew) snooze 'til 11. Genevieve was awesome also and slept 'til then. YAE! Also, my father-in-law (FIL) somehow fixed my car, and delivered it to me. WHOO HOO!

When he woke up, I noticed a weird rash on his body. We got up, and he came and lay down on the couch. The rash didn't go away-in fact, it got worse, and spread down his legs and arms. So I got the kids ready, and took the girls to my MIL's house. Matthew and I went to urgent care, and apparently he has a double ear infection AND strep throat. The rash was "strep rash". Who knew.

So anyway, he's konked out again (passed out at 7) after having a wonderfully nutritious dinner of orange jello. Hehe.

Just updating

Matthew is now 4 1/2, and we're starting kindergarten in September. I'm going to be homeschooling him, and he's really excited about going to school, and having Mommy as his teacher. I'm buying the "My Father's World" curriculum for him and Hannah (the preschool packet for her). He keeps asking me "is it school time yet, Mommy?".

We've decorated his room in Cars memorobilia. He has Cars EVERYTHING-wall stickers, toys, bedding, lights....I hope he likes it for a while! HAHA.

Hannah is starting to be potty trained. She is basically totally potty trained IF she's naked. She goes to the potty by herself, and uses it, then empties it out in the "big potty", all without my help. If she's wearing clothes, though, the accidents are plenty. It's weird. She's only 26 months though, so we have time. :)

We had her birthday party in May at the bounce house in Virginia, and Ji-Ji, Cara&Albie, and Jeannie's crew all came. It was so much fun, and Hannah bounced all by herself on the BIG ones. I decorated with dark&light pink and white streamers, and we had cupcakes for her "cake".

We had her 2 year checkup on the 23rd of July, and she's tall and thin. She was 35 1/2 inches tall (90-95% for height), and 25 1/4 lbs (25% for weight). She's my string bean.

Genevieve is now 4 months old, and is babbling constantly, especially to Matthew and Hannah. She's been smiling for 2 months now (I just LOVE those full-body smiles), and is attempting to sit up now. She's got it, until she loses her concentration and tips over.

She won't take a bottle though, and that's frusterating. She's definitely a boobie-girl. That's going to be a problem come the 18th of August, since my husband and I are going to an all-day concert, and I'm NOT taking her. So....she and my mother-in-law are going to not be happy that day if I can't get her to either take a bottle or a cup. *grimace*

At her 4 month app't (on the same day as Hannah's 2 year checkup) she weighed 14lbs 8oz (was 75% for weight) and was 25inches (50% for height). So she's my plump little butterball. But that's ok, since she's just that much more smiles, giggles and squishiness to go around!

We moved from our "mold house" in Freeport to our apartment in Angleton the beginning of June. Matthew has his own room, and Hannah and Genevieve share a room next to ours. Hannah has my old queen sized bed, since Tim and I bought a king sized bed. I figure that once Genevieve has moved out of her crib, she and Hannah can share the queen if we don't have another bed for one of the girls. My kids rooms are SO cute.

We left our 30 year old couches at the "mold house", and we didn't have any couches when we moved. But the day after we moved in, we found a fantastic blue couch at the dumpster. So we went "dumpster diving" and swiped it for our house. We're going to replace it when we have the time/money, but this works for now.

Tim also has another new job. This one's a keeper, though. He works offshore on an oil rig, and started that the beginning of April. He's gone for 2 weeks, then home for 2 weeks, then gone again for 2 weeks, etc. But he can go work "in the yard" if he wants to/if we need more money on his "off" weeks.

Jenna's here!

Our newest addition, Genevieve Elizabeth arrived on Sunday, March 18 2007 at 11:02 am, after 5 hours of labor. She was 8lbs, 11oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

I woke up to contractions 5 minutes apart Sunday morning, which was nothing unusual, since I had been contracting every morning since Friday. But when I took a shower on Sunday, instead of the contractions going away, like they used to, they got stronger. By 8am, they were about 2-3 minutes apart, and lasting about 45 seconds. I thought that this may be it, so we called the kids' babysitter, since Audrey and everyone was still out of town. We (well, Tim) got the kids ready and we dropped them off about 8:45.

We got to the hospital by 9, and the contractions were coming about every 2 minutes and lasting a minute. I got checked, and was 5 centimeters dilated. By the time my dr came into the room and checked me, I was at a 7 1/2. I wanted an epidural, but after Dr. Creel broke my water, I was at an 8 1/2, so I declined the epi.

A couple more contractions, and I felt the need to PUSH! I couldn't control myself-I was pushing whether or not I wanted to. I started pushing, and it took about 3-4 pushes, and Genevieve was out.

Sex is a surprise!

The baby's sex, that is. So I guess I shoulda named this "Gender is a surprise", but I liked the sound of sex instead. LOL.

We went to the hospital, and told the u/s tech that we didn't want to find out the sex of the baby. Which she was fine with. We got some GREAT pics of the baby though. We even got one of the baby (from now on mentioned as Monkey) sticking his/her tounge out. VERY cute. Never saw that before.

Audrey (MIL), Rachel (SIL) and Tim (Dh) also came to the u/s. Rachel thought that it was FANTASTIC, and told her mom that this was the best "field trip" she's been on. She's 10.

After the u/s was over, the tech looked at us, and said that there's a 70% certainty of the baby's gender, and did we want to know? I looked at Tim and asked if he wanted to know. He didn't care, and I really didnt' want to find out at that time. So I told her no. But I also told her to write it down on a piece of paper, in case I went crazy between now and the time Monkey's born. So she did. And I gave it to Audrey, who looked. LOL. So my MIL knows what I'm having, and I don't! LOL. She also told my mom (who wanted to know also). So both grandmothers' know, and I don't.

I think I may have seen "girly parts" on the u/s, but I'm not sure. I still feel as though I'm having a boy, but having possibly seen girly parts is making me start doubting myself. Also, Audrey keeps referring to the baby as a "she". So I'm now contemplating whether or not she's accidentally slipping up and telling me, or if she's calling the baby "she" since I'm so adament that Monkey's a "he". Who knows.

Oh, and the OB has decided that even though Monkey's measuring 6 days early (and has been since my 12 week u/s), he's not moving my due date to the 21st. So my official due date is the 27th, but since I've delivered all my other kids early, and the baby's measuring (and has been) 6 days early, I'm moving my OWN due date up to the 21st. We'll see who's right when Monkey decides to come! :)

A job! Huzzah!

Tim got a job this week. Yesterday, in fact. After 7 months of being jobless, 5 months of being money-less, and 2 months of being homeless (living with the inlaws just doesn't count), HE HAS A JOB!!!

We've been house-hunting for the past two days also. (Well, technically, *I*'ve been house OR apartment hunting). We're not going to buy right now, so we're looking at rentals. And WOW are rentals expensive. We could buy a nice and decent place for at little as $70,000. But to rent? Around $800 a month. OUCH! But I did find two really cute houses that we're going to tour on Friday, and another house (that would be really great to have) is getting looked at by us tomorrow.

Also, in even better news (or at least AS good :) ) is that I've found an AWESOME OB that delivers at an AWESOME hospital. Which is good, cuz I'm 25 weeks pregnant now. Over half-way there. AND, I get my u/s tomorrow! Not sure if we're going to find out what the baby is, though. Since we have one of each sex, and it really would be cool to find out when I deliver, I'm leaning towards not finding out. But then again, I'm the person who snoops through the house trying to find my presents. And I'm 25 years old! I don't know if I can last throughout the pregnancy without knowing!!! Guess we'll find out tomorrow if we're finding out! LOL.

Hannah is now 19 months old, and is talking is full (short, but full) sentances now. WOW is this a change from Matthew. He was still basically grunting at this age, didn't talk in complete sentances until he was almost 3. She's not even two (heck, she's barely past 1 1/2!) and is full-sentance talking. Amazing how different each child is.

Matthew's 4 now (he had his birthday on the 26th). We went to "Pony Land" (which is a farm where you can ride horses in a circle for $4 a ride). He had a BLAST. He had a cowboy themed party, and is still a cowboy most days. He got a stick horse, a BIG (3 ft) stuffed animal horse, a "real" cowboy hat and boots, and a rifle and pistol for his birthday. Needless to say, he was one happy camper.

So we've all had a really good week (and Matthew's had a good month!! LOL). And we're all very happy, although ready to move out. :O)

All new things!

Hannah's 15 months now, and can say "kitty" (Tee-tee!), bye (baa-ahh, with her arm raised in the "royal wave" behind her), hi (haa-ah, with her hand raised again in the royal wave behind her), pretty (again, Tee-tee!). She says ball, shoe, uh-oh...she's just growing up so fast!

She also likes to play dress up with any and all of my scarves, shirts-anything she can get her hands on. She also likes shoes-mine, hers, her brother's, dad's...doesn't matter. She'll either put them on her foot if she can, or will bring them to me to put on her.

She gives huggies now, and will fall on her brother while giving huggies, and just lie on him. She wraps her arms around me or her father, and just LUVS on us. :)

Matthew can now draw pictures of people, cars...all sorts of things! He can also identify and write the letters M, A, T, H, W, P. My smart boy! :)

And for me-I'm pregnant again! :) I'm due late March (I *THINK* around the 27th, but not definite yet). I went to the ER last night for cramping, but was able to see the baby! YAE! The heart was beating, the baby was squirming around-I was so relieved. And now the pain doesn't seem like that big a deal. LOL.

Matthew was very upset when I went to the ER. His dad dropped him off at the house and rushed me to the dr, and Matthew thought that I was going to the hospital and wasn't coming home. He was so scared for me! Tim told me what Matthew told him after he went back home from dropping me off, and it just broke my heart. Tim let him stay up until I came home (of course, he fell asleep at 11:00, but I couldn't blame Tim for that-my poor boy was just scared for Mommy!).

Matthew knows that there's a baby in Mommy's tummy, and told me that he wants to go to the dr and see the baby in my tummy when Daddy goes with me. Oh, how I love that boy! :)

Tim now has 2 VERY good job possibilities-one at my Dad's job, which he's going to take for now, and the other in Texas, which is his dream job. Once that job gets offered to him, he's going to give his 2 week's notice at my dad's job, but hey-money's money and we need any we can get right now! LOL.

So the whole family had new news, and I'm excited about all of it! :)