Baby Prep Mode & Facebook Takes Over

So, I'm sure some of you (if there are any of you actually left reading) are wondering where I've been. I have to admit, Facebook has taken over a little bit with my sharing of The Miller Experience. It's just easier to post a quick pic or write a little something to share. But then I realize I have readers here who are not on Facebook or are not my "friends" and those people are not seeing what we are up to. So I thought I'd do a little update for you. We are in full Baby Prep Mode around these parts: teeny, tiny baby clothes washing; cleaning out closets & making room for baby things to come out of the attic; signing all consent forms at the hospital and making sure we're registered & ready to go there; talking a lot about Baby Ford to Ty so we can get him as prepared as possible; stocking up on diapers & wipes; thinking about what's going to go in the hospital bag and making lists of things we need to get done before his arrival. We had one last ultrasound on Thursday to get an estimate on Baby Boy's weight and see if he's in position, ready for his eviction. He's measuring a little on the small side (say what!?) so we'd like for him to stay put for at least another 2 weeks. Then, if he cooperates with our plan, he will be served his eviction papers around the 7th of February. For once, I'm hoping he doesn't decide to break his lease early & come on his own. (There will be a hefty fine for that!) I like the idea of having all my ducks in a row (quite literally) and having everyone taken care of for the day we know he will be evicted. Only time will tell if Mr. Ford is going to go along with our little scheme. So until then, here is the latest "pic of him" from last week. See you all soon....as a mother to FOUR children....scary.

Fiesta Baby!

The Name Game

Oh, baby names...how I loathe thee. I don't like looking through all of those books. I despise how the enormous weight of giving another human being THEIR NAME, the one they will have for the REST OF THEIR LIFE, presses down on my shoulders. I don't appreciate how everyone has a story about someone they knew with this name or that and how that absolutely should never be the name we choose for our child. Blah Blah Blah. Names. Ugh! For all 3 of our previous children I have felt very strongly that I absolutely could not pick a name for a human being I had never laid eyes on. For that reason, we have never named our babies before they were born. We always waited until the last minute in the hospital when the "birth certificate Lady" was knocking down our door saying, "We really need to get this filled out & taken care of" to finally choose THE NAME. Each time we went into the hospital with a list of names we thought we would choose from. And each time we decided none of the names on our list actually fit. So we pulled some random something out of the air that seemed to fit just right, and we went with it. I remember the weight of the pen as I was filling out the oh so official birth certificate form and thinking, "I'm not sure I can do this!" So, with this pregnancy, we of course, have started our list. The list that always consists of names we like but will not choose. I stored it on my iphone so I could reference it often and add/delete names conveniently. But a series of events has changed our course. And changed it drastically. A few weeks ago I heard a name. It was a name I never hear and it instantly struck a chord. It was as if I immediately knew, when I heard it, this would be our son's name. I sort of kept it quiet & mulled it over for a little while, not even telling my husband. And the more I thought about it, the more I knew this was his name. There were so many things I just really liked about it and the style of it seemed to fit in perfectly with all of our names, like the very last piece of a puzzle you're finishing. So I talked it over with Marty and after making me sweat for days, not knowing what he really thought about it, he finally admitted he liked it and said, "Let's do it." So, folks, this is monumental. For the first time ever, we have chosen a name for our baby BEFORE he is born.

And

without

further

ado....

Ty would like to announce his baby brother's name....

...and just in case you can't understand

exactly what he is saying,

here it is...officially:

Thankful...

I've been doing 30 Days of Thanksgiving on Facebook where each morning for 30 days in November, I post something I'm thankful for. Today I thought I'd change it up a bit by sending my Facebook friends here to read a short post about being thankful. I once saw a quote that said,

"If you woke up tomorrow with only the things you thanked God for today, what would you have?"

Wow. Sobering. That quote certainly made me take a look at what I was thanking God for throughout my days. To be honest, it also overwhelmed me. I started thinking of everything I would want to wake up to the next morning and how I would need to thank God for ALL of those things and how could I possibly even fit everything in?? But that's not really what it's about. God knows our hearts and He knows I am thankful for everything He has given me. That also doesn't mean I don't need to be constantly thanking Him. And the thing is, I've realized, even in the midst of not so ideal situations there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for. So in light of that, I give you these things I AM thankful for:

• I am thankful for dirty diapers & temper tantrums because that means I have been blessed with a healthy toddler.

• I am thankful for slammed doors & rolled eyes because that means I get to be the mother to 2 expressive girls.

• I am thankful for back aches, swollen feet & weight gain because that means I get to "assist" God in creating another miracle to join our family.

• I am thankful for not-so-fun evenings at our dinner table with children who "don't WAAAANNNA eat" the food I've prepared because that means we have food on our table.

• I am thankful for the inconvenience of having a huge roach crawling across our floor because that means we have a home & walls to protect us from most of those nasty things.

• I am thankful for car troubles because that means our family is blessed with not one, but two vehicles to drive.

• I am thankful for late evenings doing dinner, bath & bed with the kids alone because that means my husband has a job.

• I am thankful for the piles & piles of laundry we have constantly building up in our house because that means we have more than enough clothes.

Don't misunderstand me. I do not always have a thankful attitude for these things. I am working on remembering that the small inconveniences I have on a regular basis all stem from other things that I have been GIVEN. And

"to whom much is given, much is expected." {Luke 12:48}

So I am trying to keep that in mind during this Season of Thanksgiving.

I Heart Halloween - 2011

I heart Halloween. Like I really, really heart it. At the very last minute yesterday I decided to have some finger foods for the kids to enjoy before heading out to trick-or-treat. And because of my slight obsession with the whimsy of Halloween & also a teensy bit of insanity I suffer from, I could not just make any old snacks. They needed to be "appropriate" for the occasion.

"Mouths Full of Teeth" & "Bandaids"

"Q-Tips with Wax"

"Mummies"

"Veggie Skeleton"

"Sick Pumpkin"

After our snacks we headed out to take a few pictures.

Then it was off to trick-or-treat.

My Dad's birthday is Halloween so he spends it doing this every year. He's a trooper!

Practicing the art of the trick-or-treat...

And I think he got it...or at least he got that he was supposed to be getting candy. That's all that really matters, right?

It's a...

Keepin' It Real

Tomorrow I'm 19 weeks pregnant. 19 weeks! How is that even possible? I feel like I still have a ways to go, but I am shocked at how fast HALF of this entire pregnancy has gone by. I fear that everything this time around is going to feel like it's moving at mach speed. Since we know (at least in OUR plan) this will be the last bambino for us, it's like I want to hold on to every single moment. And I realize that is going to make everything seem like it's zooming by once the baby is here and having his/her first milestones. So I will try my best to cherish it all, even the sleep-deprived nights and the frustrating "baby won't stop crying and I can't figure out what's wrong" moments. Next week is our "big" 20 week ultrasound. Marty & I had considered, from the beginning of this pregnancy, not finding out the gender. It was a really fun thought....for about 4 months. Now that the time has come and we know that next week we could find out if we're having another son or another daughter, we're pretty much crumbling. Honestly just the thought of having to get out our baby clothes from the attic, washing them, putting them away, setting up a nursery, etc. all AFTER the baby is here and WHILE also taking care of 3 other little ones is enough to put me over the edge with stress. So I think we're going to take a peek and find out what's going on in there so we can plan and I can feel more relaxed about bringing a FOURTH child into our already hectic house. I know all you "Gender Waiters" are going to be disappointed in me. What can I say? I just don't have it in me. Plus I have this irrational fear that I feel so strongly this baby is a girl and if, at the time of delivery, a boy was born I would not know how to handle that. So there you have it. Love it or hate it. We're just "Gender Finder Outers." Let's see...names. We have growing lists of names for both genders, but if you know us and our history, you can bank on the fact that we will name this baby something that is not on "the list." And we definitely won't name the baby until after he/she (totally a she, by the way) is here. What else? Umm, the nausea I had for weeks is now pretty much gone. It rears its ugly head every once in a while, but for the most part it stays away. It's getting harder to pick up Ty and put him in his bed or car seat. The kid weighs over 32 pounds. Pretty soon, he's going to have to start climbing into those things on his own. Luckily he got an early start on practicing his climbing skills, since he has climbed on everything since he could move, so he should be good to go. I've got some really horrible veins on the back of one of my legs and if I'm on my feet a lot they flare up, get really red & start throbbing & burning. Super fun. So babe, if you're reading this and you come home to a not so clean house, dinner's not ready, laundry's not done, your son is running around with poop in his diaper, and I'm lying on the couch with my feet up, it's not in the name of bon-bon eating mmmk?? Here I am at 19 weeks (well technically 1 day shy of, but same thing). I feel like you can already see a difference from the picture of me at 16 weeks. Scary. And since we're "keepin' it real" you like my chaos of a bedroom? Thought you might.