Of pictures and nesting and such

Nesting hit me hard earlier this pregnancy. Maybe because I know how weary and big I get at the end. And it will be hot at the end (this is not my first July baby rodeo). My mind is full of projects to get done.

One is pictures. I am finally caught up with the last load of pictures (2 years worth) that we printed at Costco, and now they are all in albums. From the big camera, little camera, JB's phone and my phone. They printed all in a jumble, so I had James's birth mixed in with the most recent for example. It took months of chipping away at the pile.

Speaking of pictures, my work has started to award a monthly MVP and take a picture at staff meetings. March was the first. I tried to put my hand on my pregnant belly and smile to make it obvious. Just looked like a tummy ache. This time I stood in the back right and tried a serious look:

I'm ready for that closeup, Mr DeMille:

Every time I look at it, I just giggle. Such fierceness.

The other main nesting project is The Big Room Switch.  We have four bedrooms - two up, two down. The babies have all slept across from us. When Baby Benny came along, Max and Ben shared (here's the post about easing that transition along. I think putting baby James in with Andrew went pretty smoothly. Our third boy is a great sleeper.) When Andrew came along, Max and Ben moved to the downstairs (see this post about how that move went). They were the same age as Andrew and James are now, but I'm not sure how this move will go.  Never-the-less, it must happen.

The plan is to have the room across from us be a baby girl nursery after hosting boys for 11 years.  But before I can decorate, first, we have to move Andrew and James into the spare room downstairs and into bigger beds than their current crib and toddler bed (James is 3 in June. He climbs out and into the crib when he pleases). Either another bunkbed, or the spare bed down there for Andrew and the toddler bed moved there for James.

Before that, we must move out of that room the printer, extra filing cabinets and sewing table and fabric/crafts stash. That will go into our large laundry room/storage room. But some of the storage has to come out of THERE first, to make room. So I've been hoisting boxes around, shuffling food storage, and trying to find a place for extra wedding gifts, spare shoes, clothes, basketball trading cards, the ice-cream maker, empty Mason jars, old paint (lots of paint) and on and on and on. All stuff we put in there when we moved in 12 years ago this summer.

So for now, a corner is filling up with the girly things I am slowly collecting again to put in a nursery. I gave away everything I had already, after finding out James was our fourth boy -- when I thought I would never have a girl (like in this post).

Anyone want some paint or Pyrex? Help a nesting 6 1/2 month pregnant woman along.

RIP, Spring Break

Rest in peace, Spring Break 2016, I hardly knew ye.

While others were posting fabulous beach/red rock/pool/fluffy clouds-and-unicorns pictures of their spring break trips, we spent most of the week at home.  It was rainy/snowy most of the week, and I was working mornings still, so the boys watched The Lego Brickumentary on Amazon Prime every day. Every day. They would pause it to run and try and create new creations. We didn't clean the downstairs floor every night because, futile.

My camera is full of pictures of their Lego city stuff, so I just picked three.

Max finished his snowboarding course the Friday before. He is getting so brave on the slopes and loved riding the bus up with his friend Andy.

One of the nicer afternoons of that week, we were invited to The Homestead Resort in Midway by some friends.

These froggy statues are everywhere.

It has a huge steamy, deep crater, full of people learning to scuba dive, and there's an indoor pool that we had all to ourselves. Cute Jamsey loved the goggles, and loved having strong Maxwell carry him all throughout the water, while I saw on the edge with water-shy Andrew. I keep vowing he will get swim lessons.

 

The Daltons were so nice -- they treated us to dinner and things from the gift shop. Check her out at GoAdventureMom by the way on Twitter and her website. She inspires me to be more adventurous with my boys.

March MADness

We were way into basketball this season. College and professional. The boys filled out March Madness brackets, and 5-year-old Andrew picked Buffalo to win it all because it sounded the coolest. They were all sad/mad/very bummed when the Utes were eliminated.

JB had U of U season tickets, and would take turns taking the big boys. This was a giveaway night.

I have not seen either of them wear these thingys since, by the way.

JB's dad scored great tickets to a Jazz game, and JB took Max with him that night. We are rooting for their playoff chances.

Then, our friends invited us on a date night with them to a Jazz game last week. This is the only picture I took, to show that we were sitting behind the pink ladies. They always make it on TV.

My two big boys will watch any basketball game, just like their dad. The two little boys will get grumpy about it and demand "Paw Patrol" any time the TV is on. Hence the other part of the "MADness" title of this post.

Scott and Kristina

We are so excited for JB's youngest brother Scott and his new wife Kristi. She is kind, funny, and has the energy to play hide-and-seek with my boys. So...perfection.

They got married on Good Friday at the Bountiful Temple. Waiting afterward outside:

There they are.

The wedding lunch was Cafe Rio at a nearby Stake Center, and the reception was at a beautiful location in Bountiful.  We tried to get a picture of our four boys all with their matching ties. James didn't want me to put him down by the others, and Andrew I believe was trying to keep his face smiling here?

One attempt:

 

 This one is the winner. Cheesy Andrew, handsome big boys, and James playing with his belly button.

 

Inside, we posed with the newlyweds.

And they tried to get a picture with all of the nieces and nephews. Look how good the babies Millicent and Harvey are in the back. In the front, great job by the rest of the cousins, except for that pair of legs in the corner. ...

 

Those legs belonged to James, who was noping out of the picture. Kate was, too, to give him some company.

Stick a fork in him, he was done with picture taking. 

 

Sitting to rest the pins. While sitting, I missed the frisbee toss and first dance, but did see the rehearsal dance and cake cutting.

 

A couple more of my handsome big boys.

JB and boys wore the matching ties again on Easter Sunday and it really looked like we planned ahead and did that ourselves, but really, we have Scott to thank for getting married. Congratulations!

Cousins

Our baby girl is going to have lots of cousins close to her age on both sides of the family.

On the 'deuff side, my brother Michael had Katherine last October (after 3 boys), my brother Peter's had Daniel born just last week, and my sister Emily's baby is due also in July (surprise gender).

On the Richards side, she has Harvey and Millicent born last fall, seen here in this picture JB took at Benjamin's baptism in January.

And coming up is Bart and Collette's baby boy next month. Collette and I were teased about also taking a picture together at the baptism, but she had a nice baby bump, and all I had at that time to show for my pregnancy was extreme nausea, tons of extra spit and a larger chest. 

All these cousins on both sides will all be the same school year. Remember, the last batch of 4 Richards cousins are also all in the same year:

(September 2013)

Pregnancy 2nd trimester update: heartburn mostly at bay for now, energy is what is to be expected for a mid-upper 30s woman pregnant with #5 (FIVE!) who works at 4 AM.  And still so.much.spit. I can fill a cup in an hour.

My first two pregnancies had no spit; the third and fourth, I slept on a towel over my pillow for all the drool. Now I just cuddle a towel to my mouth like it's my blankie. That way I still have the nice-feeling pillow case against my cheek. But, recently JB confessed that I am now snoring. Open-mouth + stuffy nose = sawing logs. Yikes!

The only time I feel normal from all this spit is when I'm eating, so, hello weight gain. My boys are used to my baseball-player-spitting antics, but they remind me to chew gum if we are in public. I think I embarrass them. I fight against being depressed by this spituation -- it really helps me to keep planning and making girly things, and to feel such lovely kicks and movement inside.

Cooking goals

It's nice to find a recipe that people like -- nay, love. Be it my boys, my co-workers or neighbors, or my extended family members.  Recently for Richards family dinner I made a Caramel Apple Pound Cake. We've had it there before as made by others; this time James decided it needed just a sampling first on our counter after church. The sticker on his hand came from good behavior during nursery.

 I took three pictures in a row of his tongue getting closer before I stopped him.  And I cut out that tiny portion of frosting, don't worry Richards fam.

I mainly like to bake. Cakes, cookies, brownies, breads. I am extremely blessed to have a husband who is talented at cooking and makes dinner nightly. I mean, for example, if I set out to make spaghetti, I boil water in a small pan and add bottled sauce.  JB pulls out the larger pot (so boiling water doesn't overflow) and salts the water and stirs the noodles and makes a bolognese from scratch and grates fresh cheese for the top.

So, to any neighbors or ward members who are reading this, if you have ever received a meal from us after a new baby or death or illness, if it tasted good, it was JB.  I either tried to be his sous chef, or I kept Things #3 and #4 out from underfoot. Because anybody could cook so much more easily if they didn't have screaming children biting their ankles, am I right or am I right?

Hey girl

Recently we had our official 20 week ultrasound. I thought they might move my due date up, because I felt kicks so much sooner and felt better earlier than in the past, but they say she's on track still for around July 22-24 as a due date.

Everything looked great, which was a relief, because after our cruise came all those worries about the Zika virus and pregnant women. And the doctor made kind of a big deal about my last baby being 9 lbs 6 oz, but did say baby girls tend to be smaller.

She moves so much. Her hands were up by her face, and then down by her thighs and then up by her stomach.

I can't wait to see what she looks like. Judging by the ultrasound, she looks like her brothers (because that's what their ultrasounds looked like, and pretty much every other baby, haha).

People say James looks like me. Here I am at roughly his age:

Too soon to tell if our girl will look like this:

 

Years ago, I saw this painting in the BYU Bookstore while there for Women's Conference. I came around the corner where there were lots of paintings all up on the wall, and this one just jumped out at me and brought tears to my eyes. I almost thought the title of it would be "Millie," it haunted me so. I saved a picture on my phone. It's called "Looking Down," and the painter is Julie Rogers.

11 years ago, when I was first pregnant and lolling around ill on our old blue couches, I remember sitting straight up like a bolt of lightening had hit me, thinking, "THAT'S it. Millie is what I want to name a daughter."

The song about her in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" goes, "Simple and sweet, and sassy as can be. Bless her beautiful hide, for she's the gal for me!"

She's such a strong character in the movie and the short story. She has all those brothers (by marriage) that fill the house with their presence and rowdiness (like this baby girl's brothers), but she gets them all whipped into shape. 

She stands up for herself, but is able to forgive, and I envy that.

ThinkBabyNames says the name means "rival, eager work; helper to the priest; rival; laborious; eager; bee; honey; gentle strength; brave strength." What a nice definition.