The Little Guy is on His Way

I had an ultrasound today to see if there was a reason I'm measuring 4 weeks small. We were a little worried and a little excited since we figured we'd get a good look at the little guy just 4 weeks from his arrival. Too bad he's wedged in there face down, butt up. The craziest thing was that one of his feet was directly next to his cheek. I can't even begin to visualize how he's crammed in there. The ultrasound tech showed us exactly where everything is sitting and he's sitting CRAZY low! His butt is up to the right of my belly button (from my view) and you can sometimes feel his spine when he bows his back. I was wondering earlier today what part of him was visibly sticking out on one side of me, happened to be his back. So, my fluids were fine, but he seems to be a little small and his growth rate percentage is slowing down a little bit. After we talked for a few minutes about the size of my other two babies, and how small Jason's family is, Dr Anderson looked up and said to Jason, "Yea, your head is a little small." Apparently that makes him feel better about Carson! So, on July 17th at 7:30 a.m. the last of our crew will be joining us. I can't even believe its just a few weeks away... And to all you crazy newborn lovers, I'll be passing around his appointment book soon. He's got a lot of dates open!

*The funniest/worst part is when Jason came home last night and said, "Just don't have any more kids before July 18th." I looked at him and said, "Uh, that is when we're having him." His face completely fell. You see, The Dark Knight (the new Batman movie) is coming out on the 18th. We both loved the first one and have been anxiously anticipating the 2nd. We've spent all day discussing the appropriate age to leave a newborn with Rachael so we can go to the movies! If Jason disappears from the hospital and is gone for more than two hours I'm going to send someone to the theater to drag him out!

One Bad Friend

I forgot this girl's birthday yesterday. I hope she will forgive me. I actually remembered twice during the day, both when I was not at home and not near a computer. I am up to my eyeballs in busy-ness, entering inventory for the Halloween Store and having doctors appointments since I am nearing my due date and have completely lost track of real things, like the date. So, I am hoping to scrounge up some good pics of her and me and post them this weekend. Maybe then she will not hate me.

Beachy Bums

Here's a rundown of how we spent our week in Lincoln City.
DAY 1
Departure time: 6 a.m. Arrival: 1:00'ish

This is me cleaning up Spencer since he decided to puke literally the second we pulled in. Not the best timing, but certainly not the worst.


After getting everyone cleaned up and changed, we headed to the beach. Thank goodness we got there early, this was probably the nicest, warmest day we had.

DAY 2
Due to rainy, cold weather we didn't take many pics. Spencer got to head to Depoe Bay with everyone while Jason, me, and Sophie went shopping for some warmer clothes for her. They found a delicious place to eat called "Avast, A Pirate's Bite" that we frequented throughout the week. Her brownies were to die for.

DAY 3
Also a cold, rainy day. My camera got another break, until the evening. We were all sitting around when Colton comes busting through the door telling us he had broke one of Uncle Jason's teeth. We didn't take him seriously at first, there were no tears, no yells from next door, no visible signs of any mishaps. Then Jason walks in, smiling and holding in his hand the temporary cap he's had on his front tooth for 5 or 6 years now. Uh, this is late Friday night. What is there to do? We checked the Yellow Pages for any dental places that would possibly be open on a Saturday. Not much luck in a tourist town. We already had plans to head to Walmart so we added 'teeth glue' to our list and headed out. I'm looking around trying to locate their raingear when I notice that Jason isn't with me anymore. I turn around and find him searching the ground. Takes me a minute to realize what he's doing. He's searching the main aisle of white tile looking for his tooth. You see, he had decided that rather than be embarrassed looking like a hill-billy, he would just keep shoving the cap back on as best as he could. He never anticipated it falling out, especially in the middle of Walmart. 20 minutes later, the little piece of plastic was found, along with some glue that claimed it would work. It didn't. The rest of the weekend was spent with me doing most of the talking in public, but occassionally I would forget and leave him open only to realize he had popped the cap back on so he could communicate without looking like white trash.

$90 later, late Monday afternoon, Jason had two full front teeth.

DAY 4
We packed a lot in on Saturday. The dads and boys went fishing at the hatchery first thing that morning, they all caught some trout and my dad had it smoked. Mmm, good stuff.
Then we headed to the bay to crab. Not a lot of luck in the crab department this year. Lots of catching, not much keeping, they were all too small.

Getting the pole ready.

Digging a hole. Later, Spencer climbed in it.

She was a total beach bum. We couldn't believe how much she loved it!
We met up with everyone else that evening at a park they had found the day before. It was a great playground and had a gorgeous view of Devils Lake.


Since the weather was great after two days of rain, we headed to the ocean after the playground.

Aunt Rach and Aunt Lisa jumped waves with the kids. They loved it!

DAY5
Another sunny day, so we headed to the other side of Devils Lake where we rented two pontoon boats and cruised the lake for a couple hours.


It was a little cool and breezy but the kids loved it. We also got to see a bald eagle flying above us out on the lake. It was pretty cool. After going home for lunch, we headed back to the bay.

The boys had a great time playing in the water. After a bit, Steve and Lisa and their fam joined us. Easton and Graycie took the alligator and shark out into the bay and Easton ended up a little too far out. Startled by a little drop off, he let go of the shark and it went floating across the bay. Gramps decided that he would go rescue the shark. A mile or two down the highway he accessed the beach by a little restaurant and waded in up to his mid-calf to retrieve the shark. He provided a little entertainment for all the window-side diners.

This is what one looks like after throwing one of those face-planting fits straight into the sand 'cause mean Aunt Rach wouldn't let her eat a piece of sand covered licorice.

She loved playing in the water, no matter how cold it was!

DAY 6
We headed into Newport to the aquarium. While we were there, we got to watch one of the biologists suit up and climb into a tank. She was removing two of the eels, who had been sick, to see if they were responding to some medication they had been given. After catching one in a net, a volunteer from the aquarium carried it down the ladder and placed it in a bin of water right in front of us. It was pretty cool to watch.

They added some funky artwork to some of the tanks.

Spencer in the shark tunnel, always a super cool part of the aquarium. Even Sophie loved watching all the sharks swim by.

We had lunch then stopped in Depoe Bay to do some quick shopping. It was just me and the kids with my parents at this point, Jason had headed in for his dentist appointment. Soph and Gramps had stayed in the truck. Lucky for him she decided she needed a little nap!

DAY 7
We woke up to another rainy, windy, cold day. We lounged around most of the morning and then hit the outlet mall that afternoon. By evening it had cleared and we spent the last evening of our trip walking down the beach. I was totally lame and forgot to tote the camera down to the beach with us.

DAY 8
We try to drag out our vacation as long as possible so we plan to make some sort of stop in Portland for some last minute fun. Last year we went to the Enchanted Forest, this year we went to the Portland Zoo. We spent 5 hours there and still didn't see all the animals! We took a little train ride which was super pretty and went through the "Dinosaur Walk" which is a temporary exhibit.

They were a little shocked when this one spit at them!

This is before T-Rex growled...

This is after. Needless to say, it caught Easton off guard! We ended the day with a quick bite to eat then headed home. After all that walking, and being 33 weeks pregnant, it was the quickest trip home since I slept almost as much as the kids did. I would wake up, check on Jason, and immediately fall asleep again!

Thanks so much to these two amazing parents/grandparents for all they sacrifice, especially peace and quiet, to take all of us with them when they could so easily leave our sorry, poor bums at home!

Spotlight on Sophie

Much like this post, I have felt over the last couple weeks that my adorable little girl had been snatched and replaced with a much less appealing clone. The last day or two has given me the slightest hope that my original child may still be in there somewhere, possibly buried underneath 28 lbs of pure chub. It's seriously hard to believe by the following pictures that she could be anything but pure sweetness, but if you don't believe me ask anyone who's been around her lately and they will back me up. Is it possible to hit the "terrible twos" at 13 months? I'm posting these in an attempt to bring my real daughter back, or maybe just to remind myself that things aren't as bad as they seem...

I think she see's them coming to snatch her...

Happiness really can be found in chocolate...Just don't ask how many puddings I let her have that morning, all in the name of getting housework done. I could be turned in.

How sweet are they? In still-life form at least.

Maybe you have to be the same height in order to get hugged. The rest of us, we just get hit. We're working hard on correcting this behavior, though it is the tiniest bit funny when she hangs her head, pokes out her bottom lip and pouts when she hears the words, "Sophie, be soft!"

Maybe today's tragedy will jar a little something and in the morning my sweet lil Sophie will be back. She didn't fare well trying to get out her Aunt Rachy's sliding glass door today, or the other day when her thumb got smashed in the gate, or when her cousin bit her twice in 10 minutes a few days ago...Poor thing. The bruise above the scratch should look lovely by morning.

Up for a Vote

We've recently decided that its time to buckle down and pick out a name for the next baby boy. He'll be here in just a couple months and I don't want to come home from the hospital with "Baby Boy Buchanan." Here's what we're considering...
1) Larson Momake
2)Carson Delmer
3)Shiner Goben
It's up to you to decide which two were provided by Spencer.

According to Spencer

Heres him and Sophie playing under the table at the "shown-in-tell" (hotel)that we stayed at a few weeks ago with my mom and dad.

Here is the "STD" Player (FP3 Player) that he got for his birthday. He LOVES listening to his music on it. It's been great for road trips, cleaning his room, and just being silly.

And here's the "commander" oranges (mandarin oranges) he had for lunch along with his spaghettios. I wouldn't dare serve easy mac again though I'm not sure spaghettios are any better!

We traveled to Boise last weekend to attend Jason's grandpas funeral. At the viewing, Spencer was completely intrigued, and I could tell his wheels were spinning (which they always do). I wasn't sure what direction his little mind was going, he was so quiet and concentrating so hard as we stood there viewing the body. He then grabbed my hand, looked up and said, "But where are his feet, mom?" This was followed by, "Are those the clothes he rides his horses in? Why isn't his cowboy hat a color? (There was one on top of the casket that was a khaki color, he apparently thought his hat should have been blue) Can we touch him?" He also informed us that he thought everyone should carry the casket low so that he could be a pallbearer too.

Celebrations!

I am not sure why there's such a feeling of relief at the end of April and all its birthdays when May comes next and is just as packed. There's Mothers Day, my dad's birthday, my nephews Easton and Trentons birthdays, and prepping for our quickly approaching vacation...Phew! Oh yea, and Kimmie's birthday! I hope I'm not forgetting anything/one. So here's to the "Special People of May"...

My mom for Mother's Day-
Anyone who knows her thinks she's pretty amazing. It's sometimes intimidating to me actually. I feel like I can't keep up with her! It's been incredible watching her over the last year tackle another responsibility- the warehouse. She's done a great job and she totally kicks my butt in her dedication and productivity! I use to think I was a pretty hard worker until working side by side with her. She's also a great source of comfort, strength, guidance, and example for those around her who are having a hard time finding their way. She amazes me in the things she says to people that helps them along their way. I wish I had even half her patience, kindness, and tolerance. Happy late Mother's Day!

My dad...
I use to have to tell my friends in highschool, "He's not as scary as he looks!" And then one day, I realized I had inherited that same look from him. The one that makes people ask, "Are you mad about something?" when I'm really just sitting there content. Once you get to know him you realize how funny he is, what a hard worker he is, and how much he loves his family. Nothing is more important to my dad then our family. I appreciate how much he worries about us (another thing he's passed on to me, I am a huge worrier). I love knowing that if my kids are sick, there will be a call first thing in the morning from grandpa checking on everyone. Or if we go out of town, he'll call to remind us to check the oil, call when we get there, call when we get home. It's comforting knowing that he'll come looking if something isn't right! I also appreciate how him and my mom save all year not for themselves, but for all of us. Our family vacations to the coast get better every year and I love how much he anticipates being all together, no matter how crazy it can get with 2 grandparents, 3 kids, 3 spouses, and 8 grandchildren.

My nephew, Easton-
The thing I love right now the most about Easton is how much he is like his dad. Someone warned him the other day about not doing something so I wouldn't get mad and his reply was, "I don't care if I make Aunt Amy mad, I think it's funny." That is so incredibly Steve it's ridiculous! He has a big heart and a big smile. I love hearing him laugh. He's grown up so much lately and it makes me a little sad. But I love knowing that he's not so old that he doesn't want to come with me, or Rachael. It will be nice this summer when we don't have to tell everyone, "Sorry, it's a school night for E." Spencer said he loves when Easton plays with him. I know how much the little boys look up to him. I appreciate how kind he always is to them. It will be fun to watch him continue to grow up.

My cousin Kimmie-
I so dropped the ball on this one, even though she plastered every calendar in my house with her birthday. I am SO SORRY I "fregot." Kimmie is the best when it comes to children. She loves being with them so much and takes them on the best adventures. The first thing all the kids ask when they are here is, "Is Kimmie coming over? Can we call her?" I don't know what Spencer would have done without his "Mimmie" or as we called her, "His real mom." Kim, you are a great example to all the kids in our family. You love them unconditionally and there is nothing greater than that. You make them feel important and loved. Thank you SOOO much. And please, please, forgive me for being a horrible, horrible cousin, especially missing the big 18.
(Sorry, I don't have a picture of Kimmie...How sad is that!)

My nephew Trenton-
Oh, what shall I say about the 3rd of the trio o' boys. Trenton has the most adorable smile and an outrageous set of ears to go with it. His little voice cracks me up! He's changed a lot in the last couple of months and it's been way fun. I'm now realizing that I need to start having him over more...he's quite the entertaining little guy. I love how excited they all get to see each other and its been great having him and Spencer in preschool together. Whenever Spencer is on the fence about something I just remind him that Trenton will be there too. I can't wait to watch these three grow up together. I hope they become the best of friends.

So "Happy Whatever" to all you May people...Thanks for keeping me so busy! And for being such great people!