This post

Me at 20 weeks and 1 day

is all about me and baby number three.  Today I am 21 weeks and 1 day pregnant. I had my 20 week appointment and ultra sound on Wednesday.  At this appointment I received the results of my 4 week integrated screening test and I was so happy and relieved to learn that as far as they can tell this baby is healthy and beautiful, and we feel so thrilled and blessed at our house.  I also learned that my age related risk for having another baby with a chromosome disorder was 1:69.  I am sad that the odds are so daunting.  The window really closes fast after age 35 I have learned.

This pregnancy has been going well for the most part.  In fact I am now enjoying it!  I had my usual debilitating morning sickness for a little over two months, but now it has mostly subsided and we are back to normal life around here.

The funnest part of this pregnancy is sharing it with Robin and Rue.  They are so absolutely thrilled to be getting another baby at our house.  Jace has told me on numerous occasions that we still have three empty seats in our van and we need to fill it up with brothers for him.

They maul my stomach everyday for what seems like hours talking to the baby and trying to feel it move.  According to Jace he has already taught it to say "Jace, Gracie, Mommy and Daddy."  So we are expecting the first talking newborn in the history of the world to arrive at our house sometime around the beginning of November.

I did not find out if this baby is a boy or girl.  We are going to be surprised this time.  And I really don't have a clue as to which it is.  I have usually known, but this time I am blank, but leaning towards boy.  I didn't know that waiting would be so fun, I am enjoying the anticipation.  I know some of you are not enjoying the anticipation, but here in Iowa it is great fun!

I am due on Nov. 2nd, but measuring slightly ahead.  But they have not moved my due date up.  I personally hope I  have this baby on Sunday, November 3rd.

The kids mauling my stomach after church.  Gracie of course ripped her clothes off the minute she walked through the door.  Keeping that girl clothed will be the death of me.

 

 

Here is my sweet boy, just so happy that he has a healthy sibling on the way to our house.  He really hopes it's a brother.  He took the loss of Truman in November much harder then I thought he would. 

 

 So here's to only 19 weeks to go!!

Fathers Day

I think the Dr had a  happy Father's Day this year.  He actually got to attend church for the first time this month with his pager only going off a few times during Sunday School.  He is the Trauma chief this month so he doesn't get a day off the whole month and he has been BUSY everyday fixing mandible fractures and other gory facial trauma. 

Church was over at noon and we decided to take a drive to the Coralville dam to see all the flood water.  Parts of Iowa City have been under water for the last few weeks and we wanted to see what the lake looked like. So after lunch we set out on an adventure-- as Christopher Robin likes to call it.

The river below the dam was full and up to this walk way. The kids took off their shoes and were in the water before I even reached the waters edge!   Gracie was squealing with delight.  She is our thrill seeker.  She was waist deep in water before I had time to get my shoes off.

I went in after her.  All we needed to make Father's Day really great would be for her to get swept away in the current.

Here we are just waiting for the Dr.  He was doing important things like coordinating surgery in the OR.





There were several minnows that we could see clearly in the water!



Minnows!

When he was finally off the phone--with the hospital--- he was able to join us.  We would have hated for him to miss out on getting in the fish smelling water.

Of course he upped the fun by kicking water on the kids and starting a water fight.

 

He even attempted to catch the minnows we had seen. 

 

 

It would have never dawned on me to try to catch one unless I had a net.  I guess it's a dad-son-thing.

They finally gave up, and we had to go anyway.

 

 

The hospital was calling.  They wouldn't want Ryan to have too much time away before they needed him AGAIN.  He was in surgery from about 3-7:30 PM.  A young man got attacked in the face with a saw blade and what I saw of it was ugly.  I unfortunately saw the pictures on our home computer before he went in.

That evening around 8:00 PM we had a last minute cook out in our fire pit with our neighbors the Toppings.  They came over and we roasted brats, and hot dogs and corn on the cob until it was way past the Dr's bedtime-- 11:30.  But it was fun and something we have been meaning to do with them for three years now.

And that is wrap-up of  our Father's Day.  It was really great. Minus the laceration in the OR.

Hope you all had a wonderful day.

P.S.

Dear Dad, (Will)

I just couldn't stop thinking about you as I was standing on the lake dock/sidewalk on Sunday watching Ryan have a blast with his kids.  I felt so much appreciation and love for you.  You were and are a great father.  Ryan is such a great Dad, and it is because of your example.  Thank you for always honoring and loving his mother.  Thank you for teaching him the value of hard work and also how to leave work behind, and just have fun.  Thank you for moving us across the country twice. We couldn't have done 11 years of school and 3 babies without you and Mom. We are so excited that we only have one more move to make across the country--back home--hopefully.  We love you so much.  We hope you had a wonderful day.

Love,

Bronwynn--and all your Iowa munchkins

We survived our first T-ball game

Jace's first T-ball game was on Tuesday evening at 5:45. It was long and hot and humid and there was no place to sit out of the direct sun. I was dying.  Jace had fun and liked it, I guess that is the important part.

I took a few bad shots of him playing.  Here he is up to bat! He got 3 chances to bat and all three times he had nice hits.

 

He is off to 1st base! 

 

 

And here is a terrible picture of him in the outfield.  He also got to be the catcher for an inning and he loved that. I should have taken pictures of him doing it. But I didn't.  Now I wish I would have.

 

Miss Gracie Rue had a hard time sitting in the heat for an hour and 15 minutes.  They told us the games would be about 45 minutes, so I wasn't prepared for the long haul.  She never really annoys me, but at this game she was getting on my nerves.  It was the constant climbing all over me, the putting of grass in my hair, and lap, and in my shoes, the wanting to take her clothes off because she was hot and itchy.  It was the fact that she wanted pretzels and pretzels only, and of course I didn't have any.  But we survived! 

 

I was hoping that Jace would tell me when it was over that he hated it and didn't want to play anymore, because instead of encouraging him to finish out the season, I would have told him GREAT!!  Let's be done until next year. But he didn't. So Gracie and I made a big fuss and told him how well he played. (Minus the incidence of him throwing the metal bat and hitting the catcher with it--he doesn't know that happened -he was running to first base-luckily his coach handled the incidence beautifully or Jace would have been in tears too.)  So I guess we (I) will figure out how to enjoy our next 5 games. And then I will HAPPILY be done for the season. But don't tell Christopher Robin I said that! 

 

 

My Li'l Darlin'

My little darling is growing up! She is three years old now and tells me everyday, " I am three years old now so I can do that all by myself". 

 She had her 3 year old Dr visit on May 23rd.  She was so excited to go.

While she was waiting for Dr. Katie to come in the room, she kept herself busy with this chalk board.  She did not want to stop drawing for me to take her picture, so she just reached behind herself to keep drawing while the camera flashed.

Here is Dr. Katie.  She is in our ward and was so darling with Gracie. 

Gracie passed all her 3 year mile stones with flying colors.  She even got to demonstrate to Katie how she can hop on one foot!

 Her speech is great, she wears big girl pants and her weight and height are perfect.  She is in the 39 percentile for weight and 67 percentile for height.

What can I say, she is just adorable and perfect through and through!!  We are thrilled she is part of our family. 

Best Day Ever

 

There is another family in our ward that home schools.  It is the Perry family.  We have been meaning to get together all year and it finally happened on Monday!  Jace was in seventh heaven!  He had a pack of boys to play with and he was beside himself.  They did things that has never crossed his mind!

 

First of all, they played in the sandbox with him and made an elaborate dam out of bricks and concrete. When they grew tired of that they went chipmunk hunting and actually caught one in our rain gutter!  I gave them a blue water container to keep it in.

 

They were so careful with it.  I told them if they didn't hurt it, they could keep it for a while to look at.  And they were so gentle.  I was proud of those boys!!

 

Here is the other half of the crew.  I had 7 kids in all.  Gracie helped me tend these little ones.  I put them on a movie after they had grown tired of the great outdoors and told her to just bonk them on the head with the bat if they got out of line, and they were perfect little angels!!  Go figure.  My best parenting technique yet!

 

 

I looked out to see how the boys were and found Christopher Robin in this precarious position.  He has never attempted to climb our fence before. The boys wanted to go find berries to feed the chipmunk and the logical thing to do is hop the fence--not go through the gate.

He was stuck and calling for help.  I arrived just in time to save his manhood. 

 

They played in the trees and did find some berries, which I heard the chipmunk ate.

 

Then I suggested that they show the girls the chipmunk they had found.

They all took turns looking at it.  Gracie of course wanted to keep it forever and ever.  But we turned it loose to go back to be with its family.

And as luck would have it-- Christopher Robin and Rue had one of their "best days ever!!"

Starting T-ball

Christopher Robin is starting T-ball tonight.  It is his first time ever and he is so excited. 

 

 

 

We are fortunate to live next to excellent neighbors.  Not only do they do our yard work for us, they also happen to be professional umpires! 

 

So here is Andy over in our yard teaching Jace the mechanics of how to swing a bat.  He also supplied us with all the latest equipment!

 

 

As we all know, you have to have the proper technique to get the right results.

After a few swings Christopher Robin was getting the hang of it!

The bat was hitting the ball, and the ball was leaving the T!
But Andy was still scratching his head, so he must have still seen some technique that still needed "cleaning up!"

Tonight is the big night.  Jace is on the Mariners team and he will meet his coach and team members at 6:00 pm.  Wish us luck! 

And P.S.-He has games through the 16th of July, so if any of you want to drive 1500 miles to come to a game, you are more then welcome!!