Due Date

My due date for this baby is October 8th.  Morgan found out recently that he is supposed to be in Texas for a trial on October 9th.  He will go to TX in September for the same case. Hopefully it will be resolved then, or the date for the next part can be changed so that he is not gone so close to my due date.

A lot of people have been asking us whether I was late or early with my other pregnancies, that way we can get an idea of what might happen this time.  I couldn't remember for them, so I decided to check it out.

Eli was due July 24th 2006.  I went into labor on July 24th and had him on July 25th at 12:30-ish AM. So he was pretty much right on time.


Josh was due September 2nd 2008.  He wasn't born until Sept. 7th, so we had to wait five days.


Noelle was due May 14th 2011. She was born on May 11th 2011, my first early baby.


So I guess there is no telling when this little bundle of joy is going to join our family.  Each of my kids have done things their very own way.

I Miss My Boys

It is only the second day of school and I am surprised at how much I miss my boys.  I have been looking forward to school starting for a long time. I didn't cry when I dropped them off and was ready to be able to get a lot more work done at home.

Instead I find myself sitting at my computer feeling slightly depressed. I don't want to write for my job, I just want to eat. In fact, I am eating semi-sweet chocolate chips right now instead of writing articles.

Noelle really misses her brothers too. This morning she said she wanted to go to school too. I told her that we would all go on a bike ride to take the boys to school. Then she says, "No, I want to go in the school with my back pack. Please, please!"

Hopefully I can get back on track and figure out a new schedule for us. Of course, it will only has for about seven more weeks until baby Quippa joins us. Then life will begin a whole new adventure.

First Day of School!

The first day of school has arrived for our family! Eli started 2nd grade and Josh is now a Kindergardener!  I had planned for us to ride our bikes to school, but it was rainy this morning. I did get to walk to school with Noelle to pick the boys up afterwards.

Noelle was such a grump this morning while her brothers were gone!  As we left the school she kept saying that she wanted to go too.

Later as we were grocery shopping nothing would make her happy. She wanted a fun cart (the store didn't have any), she didn't want to buy milk or eggs or even string cheese.

Even as we were leaving to go home she tells me "I don't like to go home."

Later she enjoyed playing with toys and seemed to calm down. Hopefully she will get used to being just with mom. Of course once that happens we'll have a new baby and she'll have to adjust to a whole new member of the family.

Outside Fun

This summer I have been making the boys play outside for the two hours that Noelle is taking her nap in the afternoon.  Josh had saved up his money and decided to spend it on a slip and slide. The boys had a lot of fun using it whenever it was warm enough.

Other times they played outside (with things they weren't supposed to) pretending to be pole vaulters and javelin throwers.

They would also take toys outside to play with. Here the boys are building some ships with lots of guns.

You Just Can't Win

Eli got some water balloons for his birthday and had a great time using them. This morning he and Josh both found an extra one in their bedroom. Their dad was VERY nice and blew up the balloons for them (with air).

Then Noelle was sad because she did not have a balloon. Morgan sent the kids back in their room to look for an extra. I remembered some balloons that we had and was lucky to find one left. It was a much larger balloon.

Well, Josh and Eli were terribly sad that Noelle got a big balloon while their balloons were small.  Josh actually went into his room to cry for a bit about it. While he was in their crying his balloon hit something sharp on the floor and popped.

You just can't win sometimes.

One Boy, Boy for Sale

I always liked the musical Oliver. The song at the beginning has been going through my head lately.

The lyrics are:

One boy,
Boy for sale.
He's going cheap.
Only seven guineas.
That -- or thereabouts.

Small boy...
Rather pale...
From lack of sleep.
Feed him gruel dinners.
Stop him getting stout.

If I should say he wasn't very greedy...
I could not, I'd be telling you a tale.
One boy,
Boy for sale.
Come take a peep.
Have you ever seen as
Nice
A boy
For sale.



I don't want to tell you which of my kids I feel like selling, since this is the Internet and will last for ever.  All I can say is that we need to figure out a way for both he and I to move past this stage!  

Double D Rodeo

Three years ago we went to the Double D Rodeo for the first time.  We have wanted to go back, but never found a time that worked until this year.

We went early so that we could get dinner and let the boys have the chance to do the Woolly Bully. A competition where kids age 3-9 can try to ride on a sheep for as long as possible.

It was raining as we drove down and so we weren't sure how long we were going to stay. But we did have 2 umbrellas and we didn't want to miss the chance.



Dinner consisted of giant hotdogs, cheeseburgers, pork sandwiches, cheeseballs, fries and onion rings.

Eli was ready to go on the ride. (We heard that the kids had to have helmets, which was not true but our kids chose to wear their helmets.)

Eli, before the ride.

Eli, waiting to watch Josh on the sheep. 

At first, Josh was not going to ride the sheep. Too nervous, too worried about getting hurt. Then he realized that the dirt had been broken up and would be soft to land on, so he decided to sign up after all.

Josh is waiting for his turn. 

Here are the 2 videos of the boys, spliced into one big video of their rides.

Eli started off a little sideways on his sheep and so he wasn't able to stay on very long. He told me that the sheep sort of stepped on his face when he was falling off.

Josh did a really good job, holding on to that sheep for an impressive amount of time.

In the end Josh won 4th place in the Wooly Bully!  He was so excited to get his "champion", as he called his trophy.

I have no idea why the trophy says 2nd place.  The competition may have been divided into older and younger kids and the 1st two winners got belt buckles as their prize.  (This is a rodeo, belt buckles are way cooler than trophies apparently. )