2 days

In TWO days, Lord willing Josh and I will be heading down town SF to be induced. I am especially excited to be able to breathe better, not need a push to get off the couch, or a four point turn just to roll over in bed, be able to bend over and pick up the kids toys off the ground, and hold my babies on my lap again.
I think that the Lord must use this uncomfortable feeling as motivation to be willing to endure labor and to want to be done with nine months of belly growth.
The kids are excited too and I can't wait to see their reactions to the new baby. I think Josh and I are just really ready to meet her. I feel like after months of getting used to her hiccups and movement and kicking lately I am excited to see the little face that goes with this active baby girl.
We would love your prayers as I am scheduled to be induced on Wed afternoon, hopefully, and we are praying for an uneventful labor. It will be interesting to see how this labor contrasts with Hallel's hard head and Simeon's 10.8 lb. body. We are hoping for something rather simple.
Thank you for your prayers and hopefully we will have baby pictures to follow soon!

This past Saturday my sweet friend Nikkie threw me an adorable baby shower. The theme was nursery rhymes and children's books. Each person brought one of their favorite children's books. I couldn't believe we  didn't have any duplicates and we had so much laughter and fun seeing each person's favorite. It was a great idea and Simeon and Hallel are loving getting to break them in before the baby arrives.

THE SHOWER

jsyk-just so you know...

fyi is so over used I thought I would make up my own acronym:)
"jsyk" is that I am apologizing ahead of time for a lack of blogging in the past few weeks and for the weeks to come. Don't worry I am not tired of blogging or thinking about quitting. Just so you know we just came back from 3 wonderful weeks with family and are headed into a busy month. I hardly took any pictures this Christmas vacation and just soaked up the wonderful time together. Some of my favorite times were acting out the Christmas story in costume and all with all my family in Medford. It was quite comical as we had 3 sarcastic brother in laws involved, a pre Mary (me) and a post Mary (Cynthia and her one month old son) and Simeon as the cutest little sheep. It will be a video that we will watch for years to come.
A highlight for Josh was to take a 3 day duck hunting trip with his brother and brother in law. They spent a few days making a blind for their boat before they went and came back with 6 ducks and a goose and lots of stories.

The other main event has been celebrating birthdays. We started out with a special party for Hallel early in December. She still talks about it and it was special for her to have all of her friends come celebrate with her. Then we celebrated again on Christmas day with Josh's family in Portland. My birthday is after Christmas and it worked out to go downtown Portland with the girls and enjoy some dessert at Papa Hayden's. It was a special and fun treat. And TODAY we are celebrating Josh. We started the morning with a candle in his cinnamon roll and will end the day (after naps) downtown SF for burgers. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!

Hallel and sweet friend Carsyn playing in the curtains

Simeons birthday dance