Beach 2011 - Memorial Day weekend

Here are just a few pictures from our first couple of days at St. Augustine Beach. We are having such a relaxing time...heading out to the sand and surf shortly after 9am and coming in for lunch close to 2pm. With all that sun, the children are all tuckered out at night! The back of Gabby's hair has turned into a mass of gorgeous strawberry blonde curls. The boys think it's funny this year to evade the paparazzi (a.k.a. mommy). But never fear....I'll get 'em! At 37 weeks pregnant, our baby is willing to wait, thank goodness. Enjoy the pictures! We're heading out to enjoy some ice cream :)

Lily's Dance Recital

A week ago, Lily danced at her first recital. I took this picture of her just before we headed out the door to attend the rehearsal. She was in 2 dances, and this picture is of her ballet outfit. She later changed into a tap dance dress.

The rehearsal was friday night from 5:30pm until 9:30pm...quite late for a 4 year old! But she was a trooper and did so well. She then had her opening night performance on saturday from 6-10pm and a matinee performance on sunday from 1-5pm. She danced beautifully and had a wonderful time. She certainly slept well last weekend, after all that!

We think Finnegan was pretty proud of Lily too. He came over to be near our "Tiny Dancer" for the photo.

Fuzzy Dice

Blonde, barefoot, pregnant, and.... fuzzy dice?

Okay, there's a story behind this one. Dan's boss sent him some big fuzzy dice to hang in our 12 passenger van as a joke. The thought of me sitting behind the wheel of this monster vehicle, pregnant and with fuzzy dice in view must have sounded amusing, because a photo was requested. So, here I am! No offense guys, but I prefer my oversized diaper pin with bling to the fuzzy dice hanging from my mirror. Glad to provide everyone with a little comic relief though :)

Cameron's 7th birthday

Cameron celebrated his 7th birthday on May 16th!!! It was a school day. In fact, it was the last monday of school. I baked a cake and took it to school for him to share with his class. For his home cake, he chose a Harley Davidson Motorcycle cake :) He had a fun time opening his presents, and was very patient as he waited for Daddy to get home from work to be able to open them. This year, we chose to give all of the older children one joint gift...a very large trampoline with a safety enclosure. The children love it! We gave it to them a couple days after Cameron's birthday, so on each of the children's actual birthday, they will open a small gift from each of their siblings. Cameron is growing up so fast! Already 7 years old. I remember being 7, and it is hard to imagine that my son has just celebrated his 7th birthday. We love you, Cameron!

Baby Update

I thought I would update everyone on our baby's development. I went in today for my 34 week OB appointment. A routine ultrasound was done to check on the baby's size and position. I'm very happy to say that our baby is head-down, so my hopes for a VBAC are looking good. The technician measured the baby's head & abdomen to get a close guess on the baby's size. Our little one did not make it easy. In utero, babies will practice breathing movements periodically. Our baby was practicing constantly! The tech had a very hard time finding a moment when our baby's abdomen was still long enough to measure. One opportunity presented itself and she got a measurement. Then our baby got the hiccups :) The result? Well, it's not looking very likely that I'll make it to my due date of June 21st. At 34 weeks, our baby's head measures 36 weeks and the abdomen measures 37 weeks. My OB said that this is not necessarily an indicator of an early delivery. However, seeing as how this is our 6th baby, and both Cameron & Lily were born 9 days early, I suspect this little one will want to come early too. The ultrasound guess on the baby's weight is 6 lbs, 6 oz....today. It is suspected that if our baby were to be born on the due date, we'd be looking at 9 3/4 lbs. Now, you have to take that with a grain of salt. Lily was born 9 days early, but her doctor thought she'd be 10 lbs. She was "only" 8 lbs, 13.5 oz. Anyway, a baby who's measuring ahead of schedule (no, my due date is not off) AND practicing breathing motions so regularly....leads me to believe that I'll be holding our little one on the due date, and will likely be home from the hospital while doing it.

Wait...the plot thickens. My doctor told me that he thinks I'm 1 cm dilated as of today. It's not uncommon for a woman to be slightly dilated like that for several weeks. However, we are planning to drive 6 hours to St. Augustine Beach, FL in about 2 weeks. We'll be there from May 28 - June 4th. My doctor has asked me to come back a couple days before our drive to the beach so he can check me again. It's likely that we'll still be traveling to FL, but if I've progressed too much, then he's going to ask us to stay local. So, we'll see. If he gives us the green light to travel, we're going. If not, we'll respect his experience-based opinion. We have that big 12 passenger van with lots of room, but neither Dan nor I have any intention of delivering in it!

So folks, stay tuned! I'm thinking that I may want to re-adjust my schedule and get my hospital bag packed and birth plan written sooner than I'd planned. I'm not looking to go into labor anytime immediately, but after that 1st week of June, it could happen any time....

~Tiff :)

33 weeks pregnant!

This pregnancy has been flying by so fast! During my 33rd week of pregnancy, we all went strawberry picking, and I celebrated mother's day. I'm loving every moment! :)

strawberry picking 2011

On saturday, May 7th, our family took a trip to the strawberry farm to pick some delicious berries. As you can see by looking at Gabby's hands, we were successful! Everyone sampled the strawberries, and we picked 4 buckets full. We had a great time, and the strawberries were sooo juicy. Once you eat a hand picked strawberry fresh from the field, you'll never want to settle for grocery store berries again. Yummmmm!

Babymoon in Savannah

Dan & I just returned from our babymoon in Savannah, GA. We had a wonderful time! Savannah is a walking and biking city. When we arrived, we parked the car and never moved it again until it was time to head home. Everything was accessible by walking a comfortable distance. Sidewalks were make of old bricks, and spanish moss draped gracefully from the trees. Creamer saucer magnolias were blooming. While there, we enjoyed the comfort of a local B&B. We shopped, dined out, and enjoyed the people & scenery. One of my favorite places to eat was "The Tea Room". Half the shop was a tea store and the other half was a restaurant. We enjoyed both! The soup of the day was a warm carrot soup, and I'm including a picture here just for you, Dixie! (Inside joke!!!) It was really good. On the plate of goodies that accompanied the mean, there was an edible orchid spinkled with powdered sugar. Dan did not believe me that it was edible, but our waiter confirmed that it was. We both tasted our orchids and were surprised to find the petals crunchy. They had at least 50 teas on the menu to be served either iced or hot, and the food was deliciously unique. We had a wonderful time, and would definitely enjoy making another trip.