37 weeks & counting

Had my 37 week appointment today and so far, all is on track to have Shelby in 2 weeks. Nothing has progressed any further since my trip to labor & delivery last week (which is great yet crummy since Michael is now home). Unless I go into labor spontaneously, she will be making her big debut on the 9th. We won't know until he gets to Georgia, but we are hoping that Michael can join us in Michigan on the 10th for a couple of days.

This week we are enjoying as much time together as a family and later this week Michael will have to start packing his things up.

Sorry I don't have something more exciting to post for you, but in a few weeks I promise I will! *wink wink*

TWO MORE NIGHTS!

Only 2 more nights and then my husband will be home with us! OMG I am soooo stinking happy and excited. This 3 weeks has been the longest we have ever gone apart and gave us both a preview as to what the year will hold for us. I would be lying if I told you that it was a piece of cake...because it was not. It was very hard at times but on the whole, we managed.

I do have a tiny baby update. I spent some time at the hospital this week with contractions. Wednesday night *almost* became Shelby's birthday but things finally started to settle down and they allowed me to go home. The bottom line is that we might not make it to our scheduled surgery date & after that small scare, I am now prepared to have her at any moment. Let's pray for a little longer to ensure her health. I will be able to update from the hospital because they have Wifi there, so when the time actually comes, I am sure I will find a lonely moment or two in the middle of the night to send out a blog post or email.

You might not hear a whole lot from me next week while we savor our last full week together as a family of 4 because Michael leaves on July 1st and then Shelby's big day is after that....life in the Vivian home is about to change drastically!!!!!

Maternity Photo Shoot

I decided to splurge for myself on our last baby and have a belly to birth photo session (meaning some belly shots and Shelby pics after she is born for one price).

I can't post all the photos obviously (over 150 of them) so I will just post the pregnant mommy ones.

ENJOY!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there. Here is a photo of each of Michael's precious girls for him today because I know he was missing them. And yes, she was wearing those goggles while playing in the yard this afternoon. Don't ask. I don't. HAHA

Oh, and how do you like her war wound? She tried to brawl with a deck at a friend's house...and she lost. The poor thing scared mommy half to death as I was afraid she had split it wide open until I saw it was mostly a scratch.

We miss you Michael! Can't wait to see you in one week and celebrate your Daddy's Day then.

Random garden & house stuff

I got some decent pictures of a few of my favorites in my gardens. I don't really know all the names of this stuff and I especially have no clue what the heck that strange alien exploding start type flower is! If anyone knows...please tell me! LOL

And the painting in the house is finally done. I know I posted a photo of the red accent wall in the dining room but now the living room & my "sticker/photo" wall in there is done. That "sticker" is exactly that...a vinyl word art sticker that just rubbed right onto the wall. And sorry for only having a photo of Elyse as an infant up...still need to have Ashley's printed and then of course we'll add Shelby's. For those of you that scrap, I thought it might be fun to get a large letter rub-on of each girl's first initial to rub onto the white photo matte in each frame. Maybe in the bottom right hand corners of each frame? What do you think?

PS: the last photo of the living room is prior to painting...the entire dining room, living room and hallway was that very light white/cream color when we bought the house. I love the colors we did and think the entire space feels so much more warm & inviting now! HGTV here I come. LOL

3 weeks...wait WHAT?!

Yeah. THREE. Well, three and a few days. That is when we will add the third daughter to our family. I am still a bit in shock over this myself even though I have grown her inside my belly all this time and have been getting more and more miserable as each day goes by.

July 9th will be our big day unless Miss Shelby decides to make an appearance early. We have our game plan set...and I am getting really excited to meet her and see her tiny beautiful face.

Daddy says that we need a little blondie for our family. I keep focusing on her hair and dimples. Will her hair be straight, curly, sandy or red? Or will she surprise us and be none of that?! What about dimples? Will she be blessed with 2 like Elyse or be just as adorable with none? Or maybe....she will have just one single delicious dimple.

As far as the body goes, I think I am doing really well. I of course have all the normal complaints of swollen feet, hips that ache, peeing way too many times at night, being hungry yet sick all at once and the biggie: NO ENERGY TO KEEP UP WITH MY KIDS!

NOTE: These few pictures were done a few weeks ago. I'll update maybe later this week or next week with a new photo.

The Early Celebration

Since her daddy was going to be gone on her 2nd birthday and we were asking all her friends & family to come to us...we opted to have Ashley's birthday celebration a month early over Memorial Day Weekend. And I am so glad we did. The weather was PERFECT, the yard looked fabulous, it wasn't too hot and we had a great time celebrating our big 2 year old. We even had a VERY BIG SURPRISE visit from Michael's parents who did not tell us they were coming from the Philly area and just showed up like all the other guests! SO FUN!

So Happy 2nd Birthday big girl....we love you oh so much.

My little graduate

I can hardly believe that at the ripe old age of 4 that Elyse is a "graduate"! LOL I used to think it was so silly to have preschool graduation. Really, they aren't graduating anything and they don't understand so it turns into an event for the parents. But then I had a preschooler. Who finished her very first "formal" year of schooling and it all began to make some sense. It truly is a big deal to watch how much they grow and change during that year as preschoolers. Making that passage from baby school onto big kid school is even bigger...and now I know why it's so fun to do a preschool graduation. Yes, it was quite an organized mess. And it was just adorable that way. They all marched into the gym in their little white caps and gowns (mine marched in minus the cap because it was stupid). They got on stage and sang us a bunch of songs complete with arm movements of some sort. Many of them didn't know the words and a few were literally screaming them as loudly as they could making the show even more entertaining. Then they got their names called one by one to get their diploma and hear all of us insane parents cheer for them.

IT WAS A BLAST!

And my little girl couldn't have been more proud and quite honestly, neither could I. She really is so big now even trapped in that tiny body!!! (In the 2nd photo, you will see that Elyse is standing up while the 2 girls on either side of her are sitting & yet they are the same level!) And like a true mother and scrapbooker, I took a bunch of photos to document the event. So enjoy....this fall she is off to be even bigger in full day kindergarten which will include not only a bus ride but a bus transfer to get to school and getting her lunch in the LUNCHLINE like all the other big kids!