Walnuts!!!!!!!!!!!!

This afternoon we had the privilege of visiting a walnut farm! There's a family in our church that own and operate a walnut orchard and Mr. Stone invited us to come and visit. So we packed the kids in the car and took a drive out there.



They were excited to see the trucks and machines. Mr. Stone let them both take turns helping shake a walnut tree. Boy, did they LOVE that! Here's Alia in the shaker.



And here's Elijah in the shaker. This machine grabs ahold of each tree trunk and literally shakes the nuts off the tree. We could feel the ground shaking from where we were standing. It was pretty cool.



I thought this picture was kind of fun. This is what you see when the shaking starts. Walnuts fall from all over! It's raining walnut!!



The ground was full of walnuts. It seemed like they were pretty grateful for the crop (is that what you call it?) of walnuts they've gotten this year. There sure seemed like a lot of walnuts to me.

We had a fun time learning about walnuts. And they even let us come home with a plastic bag full of walnuts! We have to let them dry out a bit...and then it's off to baking for me! Alia seems to believe I am going to make brownies with them :) Make sure to watch the video below of Alia shaking a tree.

Thanks so much Mr. Stone!!!

Here's a video of Alia in the walnut shaker shaking a tree!

The official update

I had a DR appt this afternoon. He had a lot to say...but also not much. :) Overall everything is looking good. I told him about my migraines the past few weeks and he was intrigued. He said that to get headaches this late in the pregnancy and NOT have it connected to high blood pressure was unusual. BUT, I CLEARLY haven't had any issues with my blood pressure so he's not too worried. He also made comment to my past two birth experiences because I've gotten a migraine within 5 minutes of the baby coming out. He hasn't ever seen that either...so I may just be an unusual case. (PLEASE NO COMMENTS) :) He did suggest that I take it easy and rest in the next few weeks-so as not to do anything to bring on a migraine. We'll see. I did walk this morning and it's starting to take me a little longer-mostly because my bones and pelvis hurts :) Maybe I'll keep walking, just not as long?
At any rate, the baby is doing fine. He has a strong heartbeat and he's still in the head down position. He hasn't dropped yet (boo hoo) so he is measuring a bit big. The DR said that he will check me next week to see where we're at (he usually doesn't check until the week of due date), since my labors have gone pretty fast. So, we're just waiting now.

2.5 weeks left!!

...so that translates into 37.5 weeks pregnant. It's hard to believe that it's almost here...but I'm also wishing it were here already! :)
I've been doing real well up to this point. The past few weeks I've had a few migraines. This last bout was 2 migraines, one on Sunday afternoon and ANOTHER on Monday afternoon! Monday's was pretty bad and I'm still trying to recover from it. I've always gotten migraines in the beginning of the pregnancy, and then for the 2 weeks after the baby is born. But I haven't ever gotten migraines like this so late along. MAYBE HE'LL COME EARLY!??! :) teeheehee...anyways. I go back to the DR tomorrow so we'll see what he says.
I'm still walking in the morning and that's been such a blessing! It's a bit cooler in the mornings now so it's so nice to be outside.



I thought I should get some shirts ready for Alia and Elijah...so here they are. They won't last long...but I figured it would do for the special "meet our new brother" party. They will wear them proudly, I know!

Sept 14th: Shower of Blessings!

My friend Kristy at church hosted a beautiful baby shower for us a few weeks ago. We played a few games, people shared their pieces of parenting wisdom, and I felt very cared for and loved! Here are a few pics!

The cute invitation that we passed out to everyone at church.



What a cute cake!



A beautiful NEMO quilt that was made for the baby. He'll have to fight Elijah for it though. teehee.



And this is my friend Kristy. This picture is actually from a retreat we just went to...but I figured it'd work. We both still look pretty cute. :)

My husband's amazing!

Part of my troubles have been all of the things that have been going on in my mind that need to get done. The #1 of them was the growing pile in the boy's room...because of how the closet was set up there was no room to put anything for the baby...thus, the pile.
So, this weekend Jason tackled the closet! Friday morning he took Elijah to Home Depot and got the closet organizers. Then I took Elijah out for the morning while Jason painted the closet. The closet construction began Friday afternoon and was finished by 11am this morning! WOW! I think it looks great. And it was fun putting things away and actually having places to put them! Now maybe I can sleep better. :)
Way to go Jason! You are amazing! Thanks for your hard work!


Here's the closet all painted:



Mr Amazing in the front room constructing shelves...with the help of Elijah.



The constructed closet! Hooray!!



The finished product...with the boy's clothes put away. Now we just need to work on the doors! Any suggestions?

God's sense of humor

Jason and I have chuckled at what has come of our pumpkin plants. We've planted 2 plants and here is the fruit:



How many pumpkins are there? And, take note of the size of them. We chuckle because it seems to be a reproduction of our lives. Two plants planted (translation: we thought we were done with 2 kids), three pumpkins pop out (translation: we'll soon have 3 kids!)...and there are two "big" ones and one "baby" pumpkin (just like our kids!). My, God is pretty funny, isn't he? :) teeheehee

Cars

Here is what you would have seen if you had turned down our block earlier this week:



After we went to the grocery store on Tuesday I decided to wash the car. (this was a day full of energy for me!) Whenever Jason washes the car the kids always get to wash their car, too. So, I followed suit. Out came their car and sponges...soon to lead to a big wet mess! Elijah ended up soaked! But the kids had fun and I got a clean car.

Sand Art!

We did some sand art this week...mostly the kids got to sprinkle the sand after I made pictures with glue, but they had fun! It was an easy project once you have the sand. I have to admit, we did travel to a local park to "swipe some sand". :) Elijah thought it was so much fun to play with the sand on the grass that he decided to dump the whole ziplock bag full of sand onto his lap. Ahh...boys. Meanwhile Alia was working hard on her pictures.


Here are the pictures drying off in the garage.


And a picture of the family...all five of us. Just for the record, Alia is the one who instructed me to put princess crowns on my head and hers.

Eyelashes

Earlier this week Elijah woke up from his nap early and ended up falling asleep next to me in my bed. Since I couldn't really sleep I tried to take a picture of his long eyelashes. This was as clear as I could get them. He's pretty cute, isn't he? There's nothing better than a sleeping baby. :)

Of Baking and Nesting

What am I up to these day? I mean, besides chasing after Alia & Elijah? Well...it seems like it's mostly organizing and baking. :)

I should say it's more about ATTEMPTING to organize. For some reason (perhaps being 33 weeks prego?) I keep looking around our house and being frustrated at the unorganized spots. Everywhere I look there is something that needs to be organized: the hutch in our kitchen, the boys' closet (all the baby's things are being piled in his crib), the playroom/guest room....the list goes on! I've even found it hard to take a nap because I keep thinking about the things that need to get done! AHHHH!!!

The other thing I've been doing is baking! Maybe this is the emotional part of not being able to get everything organized as quick as I want :) Sunday I baked banana bread to take to a friend, Monday I baked the coffee cake, yesterday I baked a YUMMY batch of chocolate chip cookies, and tomorrow I plan to make some peanut butter cookies for dinner guests we're having on Sunday night. While the baking isn't good for anyones belly...I am sure that Jason and the kid are appreciating it!

Labor Day

We didn't do much for Labor Day. Jason worked...so the kids and I made the most of the day. :) We did some cleaning, then I made a coffee cake. It was officially called and Evaporated Milk Coffee Cake. It wasn't too hard to make-except Jason had to run to get some flour first...I didn't realize we didn't have enough. :) It took a bit longer to cook, but turned out pretty yummy. I thought I'd include a picture of it. It sort of looks like something you'd buy at The Corner Bakery or Panera.

The Ultimate Adventure

Today was an exciting and fun morning...the beginning of a new MOPS year for us! I've been attending a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group for the past two years and have been blessed by the friendships I've made. Yes, it took some time to make those friendships...and it will still take time to deepen them...but I've been blessed.
So today was our pre-registration, with MOPS officially starting next week. This morning there were three bounce houses, a popcorn machine, a snow cone machine and a CLOWN! The kids had a great time...and were real sweaty come the end of the morning.


Here are the kids taking a popcorn break.



I wasn't sure how Elijah would do with the clown...but he loved him! Elijah kept honking his own nose...because the clown had a big red nose. :)



Alia got a balloon butterfly and Elijah got a balloon turtle.




So...if you are a mom and your kids are in kindergarten and below...check out a local MOPS group! They are all starting up right about now and I am confident that you will be blessed by the 2 hours away from your kids (with childcare included!!). If you are in Visalia...talk with me! I'd love for you to join me this year at MOPS.

32 weeks

I am 32 weeks and 4 day pregnant! It's been a while so I thought I would post this silly belly picture. Yesterday the kids were playing the balls and started sticking them in their shirts. I tried to get a picture of all three of us, but Elijah was having too much fun to stand still.

I had a DR appt last week and everything is progressing just fine. As she started to measure my belly she said, "gee! you are all baby!". I am measuring 2 weeks ahead of what I should be so her thought is that this little guy is going to be big-especially if he goes full term like our other two kids. I am anticipating a baby of at least 9 pounds. The baby's heartbeat is fine and I am healthy and normal, too. We go back on Sept 10th. That's the baby update!

Today is Tuesday

This morning we had a little family time. After breakfast Jason had the kids outside while he mowed the front lawn and washed his car. I went for my morning walk-alone! I actually went faster alone than I do pushing a stroller. :) Go me! After we took showers and got ready we traveled to Target and walked around a bit. Jason took Elijah in a cart and I took Alia to find a birthday gift for a party we're going to. At one point we ran into Jason and Elijah and this is what I found:

Pretty cute, eh? The kids have been having a fun time pretending to play baseball at home. I guess Jason is pretty excited, too. Perhaps Santa will bring them the appropriate necessities.
After Target we went to a Hot Dog place in Tulare called Aerodogs. We all had hot dogs and got to eat them inside of an airplane. I took an inside picture but it wasn't "blog worthy"...so you just get to see this outside picture.

Happy Tuesday!

Bedtime Woes

For the past week or so we've been having some bedtime struggles. Now, don't get me wrong...things could be MUCH WORSE...but when you have a child who has usually had a decent time of going to bed...there are struggles. :) Alia's bedtimes have been dragging on forever with a number of bedroom "escapes" to go potty for the fifth time, or get a drink, or just to say hi, or to hug us for the fourth time...the list could go on.
So, out of desperation I decided to take a different approach and thus introduced the sticker chart:

We've used sticker charts before, but it's been a while, so I'm not too sure how it will all work. For every 5 stickers she gets she gets a trip to the dollar store to pick out a toy. In order to get a sticker she has to stay in her room and go to bed after we close the door. If she opens the door-no sticker! Last night went beautifully. I even had some friends over and she didn't come out! GREAT! Today at naptime...well..let's just say she didn't get a sticker :)
Ahh, the journeys of parenting.
As far as Elijah is concerned...he's sleeping great! After we read him some books and sing songs he's off to la la land with no complaining! Hooray!

Cute Kids

Last week I took the kids on some errands. We got the car washed (on a free car wash coupon!) and vacuumed...the kids got little bags of popcorn while we were there, then we went to Costco to fill up the gas tank, then I surprised Alia by getting her hair cut! She was soo excited about that. Elijah likes playing with the train set there. After that we went to the store to get milk then home to meet daddy for lunch. It was an amazingly pleasant morning with no whining or fits (which seems to be rare these days)
Here's a picture of the kids-you can sort of see Alia's new haircut. I had about 2 inches cut off-so, no more ponytails! On a side note-about 2 weeks ago Jason buzzed Elijah's hair in the backyard. Boy did he need a cut.

A Little late...

Here is Alia on her second day of preschool...with her new Tinkerbell lunch bag. Tinkerbell is her favorite.

Today....

Today I am thankful for the things that I have:

...a loving husband who is great with our kids
...two healthy kids who enjoy playing with each other
...a third child who is growing and healthy, soon to play too
...a house to live in
...a car to get around with
...AMAZING parents/parents-in-laws who continue to bless us
...the cool breeze that is coming through the house
...being able to communicate via computer
...the prayers of many people
...a God who cares enough about me to challenge me

School Starts!

Today was Alia's first day of school. She was SOOO excited and has been asking me for days when she got to go back to school. She missed her friends, and I'm sure she missed the activity of preschool, too. She picked out her clothes Sunday night and this morning she got dressed. She had a good breakfast of Kix cereal, banana & orange juice. She gobbled it all up and away we all were to take her to school.


Last year she was in classroom "D". She moved over to classroom "C" during summer school and will be there until the end of May.

Here's Alia's cubby, where she keeps her pillow, blanket, and care bear for rest time.

And here's little Alia!

**They only had a 1/2 day today, so she didn't bring her lunchbag. So, on Wednesday there will be another picture...with lunchbag and all! You can't forget those lunchbags! :)

Chapter Books

A few months ago Jason started reading Alia chapter books before she went to bed. Alia LOVES them!

Alia amazed me as she read this story. She was very saddened when Aslan died (sorry to spoil it for you if you didn't know). But her comment was "well...the book isn't over yet, so maybe something else happens!" How observant of her to notice that! Then, when Aslan came back to life Alia came running down the hall yelling "mommy! mommy! aslan came back to life! Just like Jesus did!!!" She made that connection without any prompting...amazing. Jesus is moving in her little heart and it seems like she somewhat grasps what it means that Jesus was resurrected.


Charlotte's Webb was the first book he read her. We found a copy of the book that used to be mine and that made it much more interesting to Alia. As Jason read it Alia seemed to not be listening-she'd squirm around in bed a lot...but throughout the days we found out she really was listening! Amazing! :) :)

Our day

I just wanted to share a few things of our day...well, it all revolves around one topic. WIC. For those of you who don't know what WIC is, it stands for Women, Infants and Children. WIC is a government funded financial aid for pregnant/nursing women and children up to age 5. They provide checks for specific foods (milk, cheese, cereal, peanut butter, eggs, juice) as well as nutritional information for women and children.
How do we fit into this topic? About a year ago Jason and I had to face some financial turmoil and look honestly about our finances. It was a deeply sorrowful place to be, yet freeing at the same time. Out of this came our need for me to get a job in order to supplement our income so that we could actually have enough money to pay our bills, get gas, etc. Well...now that I am pregnant we have been faced with some similar feelings of "how are we going to make this work?". We have been doing really well...mostly because I was working 15-20 hour weeks. I am now down to a max of 8 hours a week (sometimes it's only 4) because it's been harder for me to stand for extended amounts of time. And, once the baby come I will be taking time off...at least 3 months...and we're not sure if I will even go back.
I began looking into options and remembered WIC. I didn't know much about it but looked online and discovered that since I'm not working as much we now qualify to get help. So we had a first appointment today and walked out with an envelope full of checks to get a TON of stuff for the next month-12 dozen GALLONS of milk among them!
While I am EXTREMELY blessed and grateful for this help...it's also been an internal struggle for me (and Jason, too). There have been so many things in the last year or so that I never thought I would have to experience, and this is one of them. I am confident that Jesus is in the midst of it all...I just don't know how. I wish I could take a step back and see the big picture...but right now that's not for me to know. And so I continue to struggle...all the while exercising my "faith muscle", as my friend Linda calls it.
Is it possible to be in a frustrated spot, yet still be so grateful for the blessing of your frustration? I guess so, cause that's where we're at.

Artists

This past week Alia was sick for the first half of the week. So, the three of us stayed home all day long. I tried to find things for Elijah to do to keep him busy....but I have to admit, it was pretty hard. He just doesn't like to be confined in one space and he LOVES to get into stuff. :) On Tuesday I decided to let Elijah try out painting. I haven't done this with him simply because of the mess...but figured I could give it a try. While Alia was on the couch watching a show I got Elijah ready outside-boy was he excited. :) He did really well and had a lot of fun. And, while we were outside Alia came out and wanted to paint too-her first sign of life in days! So she painted a picture of her and then a picture of our family, complete with a circle where my belly would be on me (I am the yellow person on the far right).

The New Look

So, my friend Jen told me about LeeLou Blogs...it offers FREE blog templates that are really cute! There are tons of options for fun and funky blog templates and it's pretty easy to transfer. Check it out and give yourself a little makeover! Everyone needs a makeover, right?

The past few days...

On Thursday afternoon we all hopped in the car and drove north to visit the Quayle's in Sacramento. We had a fabulous time together, as we usually do. We got there and spent Thursday night just hanging out. We played in their pool and had a yummy rib BBQ for dinner. On Friday we all piled in our 2 minivans and drove to Fairytale Land-our favorite place in Sacramento. The kids had a blast running around and playing. There pictures are all from Fairytale Land. Then after naptime back at the house Faye and I went out all by ourselves!! We haven't done that in forever! We had a great Mexican fajita dinner then went to Color Me Mine to paint a ceramic. It was nice to actually get to talk about life-uninterrupted! Saturday morning we took a trip to the play area at a mall where we also had lunch. Then we headed back to Visalia. It was a quick trip but so worth it. Thanks Quayles for having us! We love you! And Faye, thanks for making having 3 kids seem more "do-able" in my mind! You're a GREAT mommy!

My big boy bed!!!

Here's our little mister in his brand new big boy bed!!! I still need to get a bedskirt to cover up the bottom mattress...but you get the jist. He loves his bed. In fact, when we went to Sacramento this weekend he wouldn't have a thing to do with the pack and play when we tried to have him sleep in that. So, big boy beds are where it's at! He's doing real well with sleeping, too. After our bedtime routine, he cries for maybe 2 minutes and then goes right to sleep in his bed. He's been getting up pretty early lately, so that's our new challenge with him...but, horrah! We're past the bed challenge. Is it time for the potty challenge? We'll see. I'm not TOO sure he's ready...but there are a few little signs...so we'll see.
My little boy is growing up. Causes a little sadness inside my heart, but I'm so proud of where he has come in the last few months. And he still offers great snuggles that I will gladly take anytime!

Fruit Bearing

Here's the fruit I'm bearing...at 27 weeks along.teeheehee... I'm still taking my morning 3 mile walk with Elijah, so this is a picture of me before my walk yesterday morning.








All of these pictures are the fruit (more like, veggies) that is growing in our yard. We've planted pumpkins-one from a seed Alia planted at school, sunflowers, Zinnia's (Jason's grandmother's favorite flower), tomatoes-both cherry tomatoes and the regular tomatoes, and bell peppers-green and red! We're not sure what to do with the pumpkins...as one looks like it could be taken off the vine already...but another one is still green, it hasn't turned orange yet. It's sure amazing how fast the pumpkins grow!

We've, well, Jason and his friend Justin, worked hard this weekend to paint the boy's room. So it's mostly painted, minus the closet. So...pictures should be coming soon-in a few weeks. I want to try to get things together in there before I show you. :)

Summer fun!!

Here's some pictures of some summer fun we had this week. I met my friend Kristi and her daughter, Jenna, at the Riverway Sports Park for some good, clean water fun for the kiddos. Boy, they had a ton of fun...we stayed for about 2 hours and had lunch right in the middle of our time.


Before our friends came the kids got to play on one of the three play structures. This structure is what Alia calls the castle-obviously they are underneath a portion of it having some swinging fun.




Alia and Elijah crawling under the water "bridges". This was Elijah's favorite portion of the water spouts. He spent most of his time crawling between the fountains and walking through them and putting his foot on them to see what would happen.




Alia and Jenna-good friends. Needless to say these girls spent most of THEIR time running around screaming. Hey! Better there than at home! :)



Just a cute pic of our little mister.


Some other fun summer things we've been doing: Alia has been going to summer school twice a week so Elijah and I still get to enjoy our morning walk-although it's not so enjoyable when it's already 88 degrees at 8am! We've gone to the library and brought some books home, we've played in the pool at a few friends house, we've played at the play area in the mall a TON of times, we've had special lunches with daddy, we've planted flowers and watched our produce grow (pics of that coming soon), we're going to Sacramento next weekend to visit with our very good friends the Quayles, we've done lots of projects and had some special movie days. It's been a pretty good summer so far. The heat hasn't been TOO bad...maybe because I've been staying inside. But I know the summer isn't over-we have about 2 months left when it can get REALLY hot. But for now I'll enjoy it as it is. My kids are happy, my husband is happy and those things make me happy.

Day 4 & 5

Sorry I didn't update ya'll last night. Jason and I went out and when I got home I was pretty tired...and just went to bed.

So yesterday was good. Elijah did fine at naptime and bedtime. We had sitters here last night so Jason and I could to to a movie and dinner. I guess Elijah cried a bit when they left his room, so Heidi sat with him until he feel asleep. When I went in his room to check on him before I went to bed (yes...i still do that with BOTH kids!) he didn't have his lovies-his blankie or his lion...so I'm pretty sure that's why he was crying. Since his speech isn't too clear still they probably didn't understand that he was asking for them...because he does have words for his blankie and lion...but probably only mommy can understand them. :) Praise Jesus there wasn't any drama! :)

Today was just the same. We came home for pool playtime/dinner with some friends and he went right to sleep in his bed...with his lion in his arms and blankie right next to him. :) So...I think we're on the right track with him and his bed situation. I'm sure there will be some obstacles ahead...but overall things have gotten better with each day.

On a different note...this morning I worked a 4.5 hour shift and by the 3.5-4.0 hours by abdomen was hurting so bad! I'm not too sure what the deal was...perhaps I've done too much lifting (of little mister) or something because I was in a TON of pain. The last 20 minutes of my shift was pretty bad...but I realize it also might be just too much to stand for 4.5 hours straight! So, we'll see. I work the same shift next Friday and if I'm in pain at the end of that shift then I'm going to have to give up the shift and pick up a shorter shift.

That's the Backlund update for you!

Day 3

Well...today was a much better day overall.

My plan was to take the kids to the mall and have them play in the play area, then have lunch, then pray to Jesus that Elijah would fall asleep in the car :) And it worked. Elijah played so hard and had a ton of fun so he fell asleep within minutes of me driving. And he transfers perfectly so he slept in his bed with no issue.

Tonight was a repeat of last night. I was at work but Jason followed the routine I did last night and he went right to sleep.

Good job, little mister. Good job!

Tomorrow we're having lunch at home, so we'll see how things go. Keep the prayers coming!

Toddler Bed-Day 2: Disaster Redeemed

Well...naptime was in one word-a disaster. Elijah didn't fall asleep in the car...but when I took him out of the car he put his head on my shoulder. He was tired. So, I put him in his bed and the next hour was LONG. I basically picked him up ever 3-5 seconds and put him back in his bed-for the WHOLE hour! He didn't cry, he just thought it was a game, I guess. After an hour of this I was emotionally exhausted and physically exhausted. A pregnant women should not be bending and lifting as much as I did! So, I left the room and shut the door...and picked up the phone and called Jason in tears. Elijah cried in his room for about 20 minutes until we didn't hear from him again. He finally fell asleep, but I think he feel asleep on the floor by his toys. :)

Tonight was a whole different story. I read him books in his rocker and then put him in his bed for his last 2 night-time books and his songs. After his first song I decided that I should pray for him as he went to sleep. After that I sang his last song-Jesus Loves Me. His little eyes didn't leave my face for the songs and prayer. I kissed his forehead and left the room.

I haven't heard from him since! Yep! Right to sleep! He was probably so tired from this afternoons fiasco. :) But...thanks Jesus for answering my prayers because I couldn't have done what I did earlier again. Thus, disaster redeemed.

Until tomorrow...

Toddler Bed-Day 1

Well...today we decided we needed to "just do it". What, you ask? Well...we took the side off of Elijah's crib in hopes of getting him into a big boy bed by the end of summer. His crib turns into a toddler bed so we're starting with that. Once he figures that out, we'll get twin mattresses and start preparing the room for 2 boys!

So tonight was day 1. Jason did the normal bedtime routine of books and a song in the rocker, then put him down in the bed. About a minute later as I was standing outside the door, a little face appeared in the crack of the opened door. I must say it was pretty cute. I ended up standing at the door about 10 minutes as Elijah kept opening the door and upon seeing me he shut the door and ran back to the bed. After my 10 minutes of that, Jason stood there for about 5 minutes...then he put the door handle protector on the inside of the door. Boy, Elijah didn't like that. He screamed for a few minutes...then mommy decided it was too soon to use that tactic. :) So, daddy went into Elijah's room and turned into super nanny. He sat right by the door, looking at the wall...and every time Elijah came to him he put Elijah back in bed. Elijah cried a bit when he got put back to bed...but, after only a total of 40 minutes (this includes my standing at the door) he was fast asleep. So by 8pm we had a sleeping Little Mister.

So, in my opinion is wasn't too bad. I am a bit nervous about naptime tomorrow. And tomorrow night will be my turn to be super nanny. We're having a babysitter come on Thursday night so we'll see how things go. :)

We'd covet your prayers as we embark on the toddler crib journey. We are going to need patience...and LOTS of it! We are taking a trip to visit our friends in Sacramento at the end of the month, so I'd like him to be well adjusted by the time we leave. Is this too much to ask??? :)

On a different note...i went to Lowes today and got some samples of wall paint for the boys room. I found a twin quilt that I really like and it will be the "theme" for the room. Once Elijah gets a twin bed it will go on his bed. Click HERE to see the quilt. I think we're going to paint the walls a sandy color and the baby will hopefully get a dark blue crib bumper-a gingham one if I can find it. We might also paint one wall a moss green-to add "pop" to the room. Hopefully it'll turn out nice. And I'm sure Elijah will like it because he likes fishies and the quilt has fishies on it.

25 weeks

This is me at 25 weeks, today. I'm feeling pretty good so far...just feeling BIG. :) I had my DR appt this past week and everything is going good with the little guy-he's got a strong heartbeat. At this point they are measuring my uterus by measuring my belly...and right now I'm actually measuring a bit big. The DR said that we'd keep an eye on it. I'm a bit anxious because if I'm measuring big throughout the likelihood of them wanting to induce increases...and I sure don't want that! :) So...life goes on. I'm feeling him move all the time and if you watch my belly real good you can see the movement. I haven't had a migraine since the last week in May (when we were on the cruise)and I'm eating just fine these days-perhaps a big too fine. :) All in all I'm doing good. The hardest part right now for me is the gaining of weight...I know I'm supposed to...but after I've worked so hard to get where I was it's hard to watch that fade away. BUT...I am CONFIDENT that if I've lost the weight once, I can do it again! Praise God for the way He works in our lives. I'm thankful for all my kids, all three of them!

The 4th

Here are the kids at the carnival


Happy 4th of July!
We had a good day...I actually had to work all morning. We were a lot busier than we thought we would be, so that was nice. The time passed quickly for me. While I was gone Jason had quite the morning with the kiddos. They started the day outside by doing some gardening to get ready to move a big pile of new bark into the flower beds we have. After that they all piled in the car and drove to a local church for their 13th annual 4th of July carnival. Jason was incredibly impressed by what he saw-tons of bounce houses (some with water, too!), pony rides, carnival games, prizes, food...all for FREE!!! Needless to say the kids had a fabulous time and came home with a bunch of trinkets to play with. Then...my parents arrived for the night! (at this point I came home too)
We spent some time hanging out, I backed a yummy apple pie, the kids played in our kiddie pool and then we had delicious BBQ burgers! After dinner we moved inside and watched Toy Story 2. This was our way of calming the kids but still keeping them awake past their bedtime. :) About 8:30pm we got in the van and drove to a grassy area to watch fireworks. The kids loved running around a bit more and were fascinated by the fireworks. On the way home Alia and Elijah fell fast asleep. So...our festivities will continue tonight. We bought a few fireworks for home, so we invited some friends to come over tonight to light them off. It was a fun holiday...mostly because we were with family-and actually had plans! :)

Reverend Jason Backlund

Jason is now an ordained Reverend! We traveled to Wisconsin for the Covenant Church's annual meeting for all the churches within the denomination. We were quite nervous about this trip-as we had 3 planes to ride getting there and coming home...but our prayers were answered because the kids did GREAT! They were such troopers. We had a great time being together as a family. I was thoroughly blessed by spending some good time with a good friend from our time in Chicago. The kids had a fantastic time playing on the play structure and in the hotel kiddie pool...and with their new pal Quinn. We enjoyed seeing all of Jason's family-his parents were there most of the week...and everyone else came for the Ordination service. AND we were blessed and sent out during a beautiful Ordination service that Thursday night.


This is the only pic I have of the Ordination portion of our trip. I had to run out to pick up the kids from childcare...so I didn't get to take any more pictures. Everyone who was ordained received a Bible and was vested with a stole-the sash that Jason is wearing in this picture.

Alia, Quinn, and Elijah. The kids had so much fun playing with our friend's son, Quinn. They chased each other and laughed a TON! Alia tells me she still missed Quinn.

Our first day in Wisconsin I found out that my grandfather passed away. So once we returned we traveled out to Palm Desert to be with my family. It was a blessing spending time with Malnu, my parents, my brothers family, and all of the Skoglunds (my aunt/uncle/cousins). Here are all of the little cousins: Cayley, Elijah, Alia & Avery.