Laboring

Tonight I'll be laboring. We will soon know what this third addition is like. Things we do know:

1. As the doctor said, "this is one big kid." Oh, Dr., I wanted to say, you don't know the half of it....ten years ago I pushed out a 9 lb. 7 oz. 23 inch boy. Just look at that almost five foot boy now, so much to love.

2. Anna will be very glad when my belly goes in. It has become in the way the last few days, apparently. I commiserate with you my dear.

3. I am still humbled daily that I have been chosen to be his mother. Being uncomfortable is an endurable blessing when birthing is pending.

So, I will update soon with all the stats and stories. Wish me luck.

Siblings

Anna and Harris are planning a sleepover for tonight. Some sort of tent structure is in the makings. It might not seem like a gem of gratitude tomorrow, let's see how well they sleep. Yet, I like that they like each other.

Scouts

We're at pack meeting and the cub master announces for everyone to help put away chairs. So, I get to talking to a lady in the ward about the up and coming Super Saturday (three days and counting...until it is over). Harris comes and takes the chair that she is holding and brings it to the men to put away and then kindly helps me up and takes mine.

Did I really raise this gentleman? Is he really mine? Even after all the goofy jokes and antics of pack meeting, I'll claim him.

What mother isn't grateful for that? Even though this is the last pack meeting until I deliver, I would sit uncomfortably on a folding chair just to watch you and your fellow scouts do age old cheesy cheers and laugh at scout jokes. The bar is raised for your little brother, just so you know.

Centered

1. I am thankful for a daughter who likes to go to the doctor, probably because she gets to watch Toy Story and Snow White and sit in the princess chair.

2. For Ibuprofen and Tylenol.

3. Living in close vicinity to a place that caters to little ones.

4. For princess books and wagons.

5. Daddies who are tenderly wrapped around their daughter's fingers.

6. Skilled and jovial physicians, nurses, and technicians

7. Root beer Slushies.

8. No car sickness.

9. Healing and hope.

Anna had eye muscle surgery Friday. A minor procedure that left her eye bitter-sweetly centered. She is a trooper, braver than most. Leaving a much relieved mother that that hour has passed and she is on the road to recovery with out it jilting her much.

A wish and a request

First off, scroll down and read the goings on of our family this last little bit.

Today is Aaron's birthday. In the midst of the gratitude season, I am indeed grateful for him. Like today when he loaded Anna in the car for me when I took Harris to school or how Saturday he did all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen while I went to get a hair cut. Also, he will always get the good ice from Smith's for me. I know, as most of us who have been in my present state, that this last bit is just as hard on the Daddy to be as the Mom to be. I am not always the best sport. Yet, Aaron has been, sweet, kind, observant, and helpful. I am so lucky to have grown with him in love.

Now a request: We are now narrowed down to three names for this baby boy, I think. If you would be so kind as to give us your vote it would be helpful. It seems to change day to day what one is my favorite but, with d-day approaching we need to give this boy some identity. So here are your three choices:

John Preston Nydegger (we'd call him Jack)

Henry John Nydegger

William John Nydegger (we'd call him Will)

Other suggestions will be considered.

Revived at Last

**It took me a week to get this post together. Enjoy, even though it is a bit belated

I decided it was about time a brought my blog back from hibernation. I think my state as an incubator has been an excuse long enough. I mean, it seems in my efforts to hurry this along, I have stopped even considering posting anything. Not our autumn jaunts or our Halloween haunts, not even that I have a son who is now in double digits. Scary thought. If you haven't hit this stage, this is all I have to say, frightening. It is probably his entering a new decade in his life that has made me realize how time doesn't wait. As much as I want it too, it doesn't pay mind to my heeds. So as all these thoughts have been floating through my pregnancy foggy brain, I decided November was as good as time as any to resuscitate my record keeping. So, to start this off in seasonal fashion, gratitude is on the menu. Which reminds me, I do have a recipe blog that I might actually have to use the paddles to get its heart humming again. So don't click on the link quite yet, but soon, because I have a few yummy things I've wanted to share.

Browsing through the photos we have taken this past month, I realized that at no other time am I more grateful for the change of season. Fall, even in the third trimester of pregnancy, is blissful. Maybe I should say fall makes all the heat and dizziness vanish and leaves a pregnant woman feeling refreshed. So, walk along side us as we frolicked in the crisp fall air. Excuse the order, apparently I have forgotten all my blogging skills.

He won this game where they had to find all the gummy worms in a plate of whip cream....so proud a mother was I.

My Cinderella. Apparently, my Indiana Jones was too busy for any photo ops. He looked great.

Went to a darling pumpkin patch with lots of these. This is my fave.

Harris and his Deathstar cake, hmmm. I can't believe he is ten!

Hanging out at wheeler farm, loving this picture. Not loving how BIG my tikes are.

Hiking in Adam's Canyon on Sunday Afternoon, not the most flattering picture of moi, but the view is spectacular.