Happy Birthday Alex!

Our little guy on the day he was born!

Alex at one years old! We waited until he turned one to go to Disney Land. His favorite ride was It's a Small World After All. He loved the little figures that were just his size. (Good luck getting the song out of your head...sorry!)

Alex's second birthday party.

Alex's third birthday.

Sir Alexander on his fourth birthday. We had a knights and castles theme.

Our big five year old! He was very lucky today. His preschool had a field trip for an easter egg hunt at a local park. I was able to go along with him and we had a great time. Happy Birthday Alex!

Obnoxious questions not to ask a pregnant woman...

Today I had my first doctor appointment in Texas. It had been almost a month since my last appointment in South Dakota so I was anxious to see how things were going. The first part was the dreaded scale. Since we have been traveling I hadn't seen a scale for almost a month. Let's just say that I have never weighed this much before and leave it at that. During my exam I was measured, and told that I was measuring big. I was sent to get a round of lab work done and was told that most likely they will have to take the baby a couple of weeks early because of his size. Normally a pregnant woman would be thrilled to be done a couple of weeks early, but we are trying to keep this kiddo in up to his due date so that we can move in to our house and actually have baby stuff ready. Everything is in storage right now. Not the best news, but other than that everything else looks good. While I was waiting in the lab, several people asked me when I was due. When I told them that I had five more weeks to go people looked shocked and couldn't believe that I had that much more to go. Then I was asked if I was having a boy or a girl. When I replied that I was having my third boy, some people said they were sorry that I wasn't having a girl. I told them I wasn't. That shocked me. A little girl asked me how the baby got in my tummy, and I wasn't sure how to answer that so I told her to ask her mom. On my way out of the hospital while I was waiting for an elevator a man asked me if I was having twins. By this time I was sick of people asking me weird questions about my size so I told him no, I'm just really big. He didn't seem to think that his question was inappropriate.

To sum up here is a list of questions not to ask a pregnant woman:

1.How did that baby get in your tummy?

2. When are you due? (normally ok, but don't look shocked when she tells you when.)

3. Are you having a boy or a girl? (again normally ok, but don't feel sorry for the poor woman if it isn't what you think she wanted. She might actually be happy with what she is getting!)

4.Are you having twins? (it just makes the woman feel fat!)

5. this isn't a question, because strangers never ask, but don't rub a woman's belly under any circumstance unless she says it is ok.

We have a contract on a house!!!

We finally found a house! We made two previous offers on other houses and both fell through. I have to admit that I was getting pretty discouraged, but our realtor found this house for us by chance as she was driving around. She saw a for sale by owner sign and got us an appointment to see it. I'm really glad that she did because I like this house better than the other two we made offers on. We finalized the contract today and we should close on the house on April 17th. I wish it was sooner, but apparently that is pretty fast to close on a house. With a contract, James and Alex can finally get into school. The policy out here is that you have to have proof of residency before children can attend school. The boys have both been out of school since March 10th so I was getting a little worried and they were getting really bored in the TLF. Jamesy started 1st grade today and Alex starts preschool tomorrow. The preschool program out here is free to military dependents and is all day five days a week. That means that I'll have plenty of free time before we move, and when we move in, I'll have a lot of time to unpack without having to keep kids entertained. When we close on the house I'll send out an e-mail with our updated information.

We made it to Texas, Happy Anniversary, and Buying a House is Hard!

Well, we made it to Texas! South Dakota gave us a great send off...we left the State at -11 degrees! The roads were better than we thought so it wasn't as scary as we thought it would be. We enjoyed our time in Utah on the way. We spent almost a week at a fabulous cabin in Sundance, Utah with some awesome friends. It was nice to kick back and live a few care-free days before the trek to Texas. The only bad thing about the trip to Utah was that we didn't have enough time to see everyone we wanted to.

Today is also James and my 8th anniversary! Since we didn't know anyone out here to watch the kids, we took the whole family out on a "romantic" dinner to Olive Garden. James took me to Olive Garden on our first date and we also went there for lunch on our wedding day, so it is kind of a tradition to go there on our anniversary. The boys did surprisingly well. It would have been nicer to go alone, but what do you do? At least we tried to celebrate!

Over the last few days we have looked at 16 houses with the kids. The boys are totally sick of looking at houses and pray that we will find a house soon so they don't have to look at anymore houses. So far, Alex's favorite house is the one where they had a bowl of chocolate out. He could care less about the actual houses. James is a little more helpful, but his favorite we eliminated for practical reasons. Can't win them all! We have finally narrowed it down to two. Hopefully we can make a decision tonight and put in an offer tomorrow. I'm already sick of TLF so the sooner we get out of here the better! I guess it takes several weeks to close on a house so its a race to see if the baby comes first or we get in the house first. I've been having a lot of pre-term labor. Hopefully I'll have better news about the house hunt soon, and I'll post pictures then.

We are moving south...

A lot of you already know, but for those of you who don't, James got a new assignment to Dyess Afb, in Abilene, Texas. He will be an instructor at the B-1 school down there. We only have about a week left in our house at Ellsworth Afb. I have mixed feelings about the move, but I'm sure it will be a good experience for our family over all. To let you know why my feelings are mixed I decided to make a pro's and con's list.

Pro's

*It is warmer down there! Around 70 right now!

*There will be a break from all the wind in Rapid City.

*We get to purchase a home of our own!!!

*We will have children born in three different states.

*James will not deploy for a couple of years.

Con's

* I have to move at 7 months pregnant. :0(

*Find all new doctors.

* I will miss all of my awesome friends in Rapid City.

*I will have to make new friends, I can be really shy so it might take awhile.

*No mountains or hills to play in.

*Interupting school for the boys, yet again.

There are many more, but those are just a few of the things that I have been thinking about lately. I'm hoping that this move will go smoothly. We are having the Air Force pack us and move us and I've hired someone to clean this house. We are taking our time getting down there too. We are going the "long" way to get there. We are going to stop in Utah to visit with some friends there for a little while and then drive out to Texas.

Here's our Boy!

I went in for a 3D Ultra Sound today! I have never had one before so this was a really cool experience for me. They didn't have 3D Ultra Sounds available for Alex and James so it was neat to get a better peek at our little Rand! For those of you that haven't had one either, don't be alarmed at how lumpy he looks. The tech said that all babies will have lumps and bumps show up because of things being in the way. To get a peek at Rand's face the tech had to digitally remove my placenta from the picture and it leaves shadows on what is underneath. I think she caught some really cute images though.It looks like this little guy will have the same full lips that his brothers have.
He was in such a wierd position. He had his bum in the air, which made him almost upside down on his head. He put both hands over his face and one leg up by his face too while the other leg was straight out. Whatever makes him comfortable I guess...

I thought that this shot was really cute too. You can see his little hand and ear really well.


I thought this one was funny! It looks like he is pouting! This little guy likes his space and when ever the Tech would move the wand around he would kick it. When ever she removed the wand he would move all over like he was trying to get back the space that she was pushing on. I've noticed Rand does that when Aella, our little dog, lays on my belly too!

I also wanted to say Happy Birthday to my little brother Danny too! I love you Danny and I hope you have a great birthday!

My mom had this hanging up at her house:

Whatever you give a woman will multiply.

If you give her a house, she'll give you a home.

If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.

If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.

She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

So, fair warning...don't give her any crap!

I thought this was pretty funny, and since mostly woman look at my blog, you all might appreciate it.