We made it to June!

After the Heidi birthday extravaganza we still have half a cake to eat.  So like a good parent I plopped it on the table and told the kids to have at it, anything left in an hour goes in the trash. 

The kids were in a state of shock that morphed into heaven.

 We have started to pack up and purge and while we were going through the dungeon we found an old fanny pack with ASAY written on the back.  It was gifted to Alex who thinks it is the most marvelous thing in the universe.  We are bringing fanny packs back.
        Tyler found a pair of hand me down shiny leather high heel boots that were Heidi's size.  She thought they were the most marvelous things in the universe and has tried to wear them everywhere no matter the temperature, and usually with super short skirts.  I finally had to confiscate and hide them.  She looked like a hooker.

 Mother's Day this year was fun, the kids bought me a margarita cup and made dinner with Tyler.  Everyone was happy and kind and helpful and we had pie and ice-cream.

 Alex has been waiting months for corn on the cob and we made corn husk dolls while they cooked.  Quinn couldn't even wait for the cooking part.

 Heidi LOVES helping in the kitchen.

 The following week the weather dropped back to livable, after some pretty terrible hot and humid days.  After a month of searching I was able to find some super cheap AND modest summer dresses for the girls.  3 girls, 3 colors each, I can't ever figure out which one belongs to which child.  They wear them nearly every day.

 Quinn thinks she is so big, and so brave.  I'm a bench rat at the park and Quinn is great at getting grandma's and other mothers to push her on the swing.

 Tyer and Heidi went on a date to the Monongahela Incline and found a cookie spot where they bought me a baby carriage cookie cutter and a carrot one.  So we made sugar cookies and decorated them and it was fun and exhausting.

 I ate most of them.

 Heidi took the extra dough and made whales and princesses.

 Alex and Heidi also completed the season of soccer.  Our goals at the beginning were quite different by the end..... "Just have fun and don't cry."  It worked for Alex, in the final game she scored a goal and didn't cry or run to me a single time.  Heidi cried and refused to play, but annoyed the coaches instead of finding me to cling to.  I considered it a success.

 Memorial day was the start of Tyler's week off of school and we spend the week house hunting for a reasonably priced rental near Tyler's new job (more on that later).  The ward had a picnic at a fantastic park and the kids found about 40 caterpillars that we got to take home.  They all accidentally drowned the next day and Alex discovered that Caterpillars don't need much water to survive.  Many, many, tears accompanied this discovery.

 Miss Vicki my co-nursery leader, brought some crafts and taught Alex some new fun things.  It was adorable.

 I got to lounge around and hold babies while the other adults played ultimate frisbee and the kids ran around in a giant pack.  It was a great day.

 Thursday Tyler took us on vacation and we drove to to Lake Erie for a couple days of fun.  The weather was perfect and the kids went nuts over the giant sandbox.

 They ran and played and laughed and ran and I got to sit and enjoy it all.

 Tyler announced that perhaps a sidewards slouch isn't my greatest angle.  The baby has dropped and turned into a cinderblock.  I also got a haircut.

 We all started out pretty clean and dry.

 Quinn was just in heaven.

 They made chairs to lounge in and we ate Sandwiches, some more literally than others.

 Heidi spent a good hour of the day running into the water then rolling in the sand, then running back into the water to wash off, and then back to the sand........ endless entertainment.

 Tyler tried to teach a lesson about tides with sandcastles but Quinn wouldn't let them stay standing long enough for the waves to take them.

 best buds.

 Tyler was super dad and did EVERYTHING for everyone.  After the beach we went to dinner and then at the hotel he took everyone swimming while I got to sit and watch.

 He scratched backs and made dreams comes true right and left.

 Oh how I love this family of mine.

 Heidi has no qualms about getting dirty or wet or both.

 She is so fun to watch.

 While Heidi was playing clean and dirty, Alex was digging in the sand for rocks and dragging them around the beach.  Quinn was content to sit and fill a bucket of water up with sand.

 Day 2 we all woke up with sunburns, but no one quite like Tyler!  It was almost amusing, think the ice-cream tourist on Lilo and stitch- it was that level of red and white.  We swam after breakfast and then headed to the beach again until the rain came.

Everyone was pretty worn out after 2 days of beach and swimming and running around in the sand so we drove home and crashed in our beds that night.  It was a wonderful vacation, we love lake Erie and being together without homework and the internet.

Tyler officially took the ER job in Butler.  He won't be able to start until after he takes his certification test in August and gets the scores and paperwork back, so we are thinking it may not be until October that we get into the groove of what "real life" is like now.  Classes start again for him tomorrow June 1st, and go for the next month, at that point he will just need to study like crazy for the big test in August.
  I can't believe we made it to this point and I really can't believe we made it to June!  Only 11 days until my due date hits and only 7 until Mom comes!  The weeks have been flying by so I feel like any day now baby boy will arrive!  We are trying to get Quinn into the bottom bunk which is actually working out fine so far (I can't believe it).  The house is clean and baby ready so I really just have to keep everyone OUT for the next week so it will stay that way.  If we can just get a rental home set up for August then I can relax, have the baby and all my jobs will be done for a bit!
       It's going to be a great month.

Heidi's 5th Birthday

 Finally, after everyone else birthday's, it was Heidi's turn!

 Tyler had worked a 12 hour shift the day before and promptly fell asleep when he got home after the hour commute so it was up to Alex and I to decorate.  Usually this wouldn't be a big deal but I'm not so agile anymore.  We made up for the lack of streamer mess with balloons and even got some of the long skinny ones to tie into animals and such with the aid of you tube.

 Quinn is starting to really love birthdays, she has made the connection between the birthday song and cake, presents, decorations and fun and has started to get really excited about birthdays!

 Heidi was the SWEETEST birthday girl ever.  Super generous with all her things and time- she was just a doll the whole day!

 She got lego's from Alex and Grandma, and more lego's from Daddy, and used birthday money to buy herself a beautiful fancy necklace for church and a dinosaur bone excavation kit.  That's my Heidi!

 Oh and bubbles, she got bubbles and wanted nothing more than to go out and blow them, which Quinn loved, and which gave Alex the chance to go to town on the legos.

 The best part of the day was her friends princess party!  Kori's parents had promised her a princess party when she got potty trained and we were lucky enough to be invited!  Heidi was convinced it was for her birthday and I was fine with that.

  All the little girls in the ward came dressed up in their princess dresses and pinks, Alex and Heidi decided to wear their halloween costumes, vampire princess and pirate princess.
 Lisa had gotten some of the younger ladies in the ward without kids to dress up as Elsa, Ariel and Rapunzle post hair cutting.  They were perfect for the job and I think they enjoyed the attention.  Later I overheard Heidi telling her friend "Can you believe that Alex's piano teacher is the grown up Elsa!!!!!!"

There was crown making and delicious cupcakes, the sun was shining and the yard was full of wonderful friends. It was a great morning.

 Plus there were princesses to push my children in the swings. Awesome.

 Here are Heidi with some of her very best friends.  Bri on the left is about to turn 4 and is who Heidi chose to take on her birthday date.  Next to her is the party girl Kori who is the quietest child ever and my shadow in nursery.  She follows me everywhere and helps me with jobs or reads books with me.  They just moved out of the ward to this new house with the great backyard, but I swap babysitting with her Mom so we still see them all the time.  Jack and Heidi just go nuts around each other, it's hard to even explain.  My children are ALL enamored with Jack and can't get enough of him, chasing him, wresting him, and laughing and laughing and laughing.  He is 4 like Heidi and they always say that together they are "Quackers".

 I'm not sure Quinn cared about what was going on, but i was thrilled to get to use Heidi's old halloween dress one more time.
 I stole Heidi and Bri away from the party, while Jen took Alex home and dropped Quinn off at our house with Tyler.  Heidi decided that instead of a birthday party we would do a date and we went to McDonalds for happy meals and ice-cream cones and then to the children's museum for 3 hours!  It was so fun watching Heidi and Bri together,  since Heidi is a year older she takes on a very sweet/bossy tone with Bri, she is 1/2 her equal and a great playmate and 1/2 a child that Heidi needs to protect.

 Friday we had gone to Costco for the express purpose of buying this cake.  Heidi had seen it during a previous trip months before and declared THAT was the cake for her birthday, and she kept reminding me.  So we made the journey only to find out there were none and had to talk to the bakers who happened to have one in the freezer!  They even wrote Heidi's name on it which made her shudder with joy.

Heidi had also gotten an apron, a chef hat, old fashioned egg beaters and a chocolate sucker making kit for her birthday.  She loves to help cook.  Quinn was very excited for cake time.

 Very.

 Heidi was not very happy that Quinn was trying to blow our her candles.

After cake and ice-cream the birthday goblins dropped some clues and had us all over the house and neighborhood finding goody bags.  Then Tyler took Heidi to the store to spend her birthday money and I put Quinn to bed and crashed.  I love birthdays, but being the fun mom at 8 months pregnant, is not so fun and pretty exhausting.

Sunday we played pin the tail on the donkey because there had been no time the day before.  Sunday was the actual day of Heidi's birthday but we decided to celebrate early.  That evening we had friends over to help eat cake and had 9 kids and 15 adults crammed into our tiny backyard all at once!  It was a fun weekend, the weather was great and Heidi was a wonderful and gracious birthday girl, it was such a joy to celebrate her.  I decided that the reason she just shone that day is because we all did everything she wanted all day, which is exactly what she always wants us to do.

We were able to get our Landlords to extend our contract through August thank heavens, which has completely taken the pressure off and calmed my mind a bit.  Tyler has been offered a job in the ER he is currently doing his rotation at, about an hour away, and he has 2 interview in the next week.  The first is in SLC for transplant surgery, and the second is in Columbus, Ohio for Cardio-thorasic surgery.  We don't have a lot of details on any of the jobs yet, and our preference is still to move back West, but there would be a lot of benefits to taking the ER job here.  Although I'm wondering if the pre-humidity warm sunny weather has lulled us into a state of Pittsburgh bliss.

I've got about 4 weeks to go until baby day and I'm feeling great as far as hips and back go.  When I lay down on my back I'm still stranded if i stay there for more than 30 seconds.  When the baby moves it moves my entire belly and I think I'm starting the uncomfortable ribs stage for sure.  I know I need to start getting things ready but Tyler's schedule/ my immobility is creating problems.  On his work days when we don't see him from 6 am until 8 pm, I'm just trying to survive.  Quinn usually choses these days to be extra whiny or sick and needy so we are in complete survival mode.  Then when Tyler is here we all just want to be with him and nothing gets accomplished that needs to.  he has become the master of laundry, Alex is great at sweeping and mopping, and Quinn loves unloading the dishwasher.  Heidi is great at cleaning up the living room if she comes up with the idea on her own, and she likes wiping things with a wet cloth and babysitting Quinn, otherwise most things are torture.  I am a great delegator.

End of April

This past weekend we were able to convince Tyler to give up a day of studying and just be.  He has been working 3, 12 hour shifts a week at the ER in Butler (about an hour away) the past 2 weeks and now that we know to avoid back to back shifts, life has settled into a nice little routine where we get plenty of Daddy park time and he probably doesn't get in as much studying as he should.

 We took our day and drove over to Johnstown to see where the big flood occurred.  Tyler has been reading a book on the flood and it was really neat to see the area after reading/hearing about it from him.  The kids loved the open sidewalks to run around on, walls to climb and display buttons to push.

 Every single time we go to the library Quinn races the bigger girls to the handicap door to push the button and then runs in yelling "push button, PUSH BUTTON" to the elevator and then inside the elevator.  It's a crazy little stampede of bodies fighting over who gets to push the buttons first and always ending in them all pushing the buttons anyway.  We normally only annoy 97% of the elderly patrons doing this.

 It was a nice sunny day although still a bit chilly with the wind, but I've nearly given up the skirt/dress fight now that they have Quinn on their side and I'm completely outnumbered.

 Quinn is big enough to want to climb on the walls and "balance beams" that the bigger girls attempt.  She is also stubborn enough to insist on trying it alone.

 We enjoyed the museum at the Dam site and had a picnic lunch in front of a restored old home.  The girls ran up and down the ramp 100 times laughing like hyenas.  Afterwards we took a detour to the Flight 93- 9/11 memorial.  It was pretty windy at that point and had a very solemn and respectful air about it.  That didn't match well with 3 little girls who just wanted to run along the low wide walls and pick up all the mementos left.  They did discover a spider on the sidewalk that they followed and named "boogy eyes" because they couldn't decide if Quinn was saying that or "poke it's eyes" which she has been saying a LOT lately, followed by someone or thing getting poked in the eyes.  We talk about Boogy eyes daily.

 This week we were also able to go along on a homeschool outing to a local family owned farm.  It was very different from the ones out West I've seen, mostly because it was on hills!  Alex and Heidi got to feed a calf, which they decided was hard and heavy work.  Quinn got kissed by said calf a few times and did not enjoy it much.

 She was all about the chickens thought.  Quinn and I hung out together waddling behind the rest of the group and I didn't know where Alex and Heidi were most of the time.  The farmer couple were so kind to all the kids and let them "help out" doing all kinds of things and just let us all roam around everywhere we wanted.

 They had about 10 GIANT pigs.  This pig is huge,   the picture doesn't do it justice, and it was the smallest of the lot.  It was so fat and had such short legs that they don't even fence this one in because it just can't go anywhere.  The others were split up in groups of 2 or 3 and had areas fenced out by electric fence up on the hill among the trees.  So many trees and bushes and hills- they had 15 acres but so little of it was functional it seemed.

Whenever I did spot my children Alex was carrying this rooster.  It had been raised in a home and was as tame as a cat.  She held it for at east an hour and carried it everywhere we went.  In the end she declared it her best friend and said we had to get another rooster so we could go back and trade for that one.  They had about 150 free range chickens and then another 50 "commercial" chickens they kept in a movable pen.  Seeing the 2 varieties side by side was pretty disturbing.  The commercial chickens were so front heavy with their genetically engineered larger breasts that they couldn't walk very well and mostly just lay down.  They just looked weird.
     Quinn wanted to see all the animals and keep up with the group, but walking up those steep hills showed me how completely out of shape I am, especially when she wanted to be held.  We compromised with piggy back rides.  Quinn was quietly observant and interested in all the animals.  Alex clung to her rooster and claimed it as her own, and Heidi was everywhere with everyone doing everything.
After the kids helped gather the eggs we had a picnic lunch on the lawn with the goats and chickens and went home with 4 eggs that Alex was certain would hatch out her next best friend.  I've never seen her so excited about anything.  That is until we discovered we didn't' have any old light bulbs that would work, and actually thought through what would happen if they did hatch.  The next morning I was woken up at 6am by an excited Alex who claimed that she had dreamed and prayed all night that the eggs would hatch, then came down and snuggled them all through breakfast.  I let her down as gently as I could and gave her 10 minutes to mourn where she sat with them on the couch and cried her eyes out.  At that point I took them away and she ran to her room to cry away her sorrows.  Everyday I fear the teenage years more and more.
     We have had a few good days of great weather and been able to play with the pastor's daughter across the alley.  Tyler helped them out with yard work this past weekend and we had another campfire and dinner potluck.  They are very kind and their daughter mixes in with our brood just right at 3 years old.  It's so great to have kind neighbors close enough where the kids can wander to their yard and be safe and have fun.  We have been practicing soccer and baseball at the park a lot as well, now that Alex is good enough at hitting the ball that our windows are at stake and the ball routinely flies into yards not directly touching our own.  Heidi is coming along as well and Quinn just likes to chase after things and dogs and run away from us without looking back.
     We have only 6 weeks until the baby is due and i've stalled out on spring cleaning just as my physical therapy is working the best.  I'm feeling so much better, but perhaps it's because I've given up hauling the laundry around, scrubbing the tub and vacuuming.  That's got to be great for any body right?
      Alex loves to snuggle up with my belly and talk to the baby and try to get him to answer questions through kicking.  She has declared him Tommy and asked me every single day if that is what we can name him.  I like this suggestion a lot more than Flower or Snowflake so she might just get her way.  She is looking quite like a little lady running around in her long skirts with her long hair and those summer freckles popping out.  She is very grown up all of a sudden it seems.
     Heidi tells me everyday that my belly is so huge that it's going to pop and that I better stop eating food.  She always assesses it's size after dinner time and makes some hilarious comment that is going to be a lot less hilarious in a few months.  Heidi and Quinn have become best frenemies and we have discovered that they day goes a lot better if they use each other to get their energy out in the morning- usually wrestling, always instigated by Quinn.  Heidi also asked last week if the baby was going to have light skin or dark skin and when I asked why it mattered she made it very clear that she was NOT a fan or dark skin and it became clear after some discussion that this was related to 3 unruly and mean boys in her primary class.  I thought we were doing a great job at raising unbiased children who got to interact with a variety of children of different colors and backgrounds- but upon further investigation and a few more choice Heidi comments this week I've seem I'm wrong.
      Quinn was a Monster on Monday and an Angel on Tuesday.  Still trying to figure her out.  She has entered the stage of willful disobedience and n longer comes when I call, or bribe, or beg or threaten.  She wakes up happy but it's usually only minutes before she is angry as a hornet at me for not fulfilling some demand, or hitting a sister or pulling hair.  She loves breakfast but only if it is prepared to her specifications, oatmeal with the honey put on first and then blueberries, but not mixed in.  Or cereal with just the right amount of milk.  When I can mentally take the screaming fits that come after, I try not to give in because I know it will just make it all the worse when baby comes.  I fear that day.  Seeing how possessive she can be over a stick at the park or if another child walks to me at church makes me fear for baby boy.  Alex and Heidi have already been lectured on how they will need to be protectors and guardians over their little brother and I'm hoping to train Heidi to be the number 1 Quinn distractor.  We are going to need a game plan for this, the 3rd child is NOT ready to give up her title as Queen Quinn.
    As I sit and type in my lounge chair this afternoon, Tyler is studying at the desk in front of me and all 3 kids are asleep.  Yesterday we were outside from 10 am until 8pm, soaking up every warm minute the sun gave us.  The girls helped me make chicken soup and apple crisp and we enjoyed a wonderful warm meal while enjoying a cool breeze.  Then daddy arrived home with surprise doughnuts and we played "baseball" in the yard until dark.  Bedtime strung out while we laughed about mommy's tummy and daddy goofed off with the kids.  We woke up to a bit of sunshine this morning and seized the day before predicted thunderstorms arrived (still not here) Alex studied genetic diseases with Daddy while Quinn and Heidi read an anatomy book together and then tickle fought.  We all went to the park and played catch and pitch and soccer and swings for  hours and then returned home as a friend was walking past and snagged a few more sunny moments with sidewalk chalk and a wagon.  Lunch together, fairytales with the kids and then some more playtime before exhaustion hit the household.  So much joy.

Beginning of April

When I look to the future it seems like June will never arrive, but when I look back on the past I'm amazed at how quickly the time has flown this past month!  After Grandma and Grandpa Brady left we had about a week before Grandma Asay and Grandma Sanderson showed up!  They were in state for a Genealogy trip and we were lucky enough to steal quite a few days away for ourselves.
  Unfortunately for them, but heaven sent for us, they showed up at the best/worst possible time.  That Thursday Alex had woken up throwing up, and Quinn had a runny nose and cough that kept getting worse and worse as the day went on.  By the time it came to pick the Grandmas up from the airport I was torn in 3 different directions!  Quinn needed to get to the doctor because her inhaler wasn't doing anything, but Alex was still throwing up, and we needed to get to the airport!  Luckily Tyler was able to get off work early to go to the airport and poor Alex got tossed in the car so we could go to the Dr. Quinn threw up in the car on the way, and Alex again at the dr. office.  We looked like quite the rag tag bunch with me waddling along trying to manage my circus, in the rain.  The dr. told us to up our inhaler dose and see if that would work, if not then to take her to the ER.
    Tyler and the Grandmas showed up with dinner and we had a great 20 minutes before Quinn started going downhill and Tyler rushed her to the hospital.  She was throwing up and having a very hard time breathing and ended up passing completely out in the ER waiting room (and not from exhaustion).  That got the nurses attention and Quinn a room quickly!  After 3 hours of breathing treatments she started to respond just before they were going to admit her to the ICU.  Tyler and Quinn were admitted that evening and stayed the night, then I switched him in the morning so he could finally get some sleep!  Thank goodness the Grandmas were there so we didn't have to worry about the other 2 kids at all!  Quinn and I were there the rest of the day and were finally discharged Friday evening with instructions to see a Pulmenologist as soon as we could.  We got to enjoy Saturday and Sunday with the Grandmas and took a drive around town to see the sights and visit the big Allegheny cemetery.  It was a windy cold day Saturday but we went to Clavon's old fashioned ice cream parlor for some treats and had a fantastic time!  A must visit.  Monday the Grandma's left to do some genealogy adventuring for the week and the girls and I readied ourselves for Tyler's birthday!       Poor Tyler, all I remember about the day is that we had brownies and ice cream and the girls bought him a lego dragon and they played lego's all evening with him.
      The rest of that week was crazy because Quinn started throwing up again, then Heidi and then myself and Tyler.  It was so incredibly stressful but we were so being watched over by angels!  A friend randomly brought over dinner 2 days and freezer meals for another 2, and then another friend ran to the store to get milk and cereal for us when that ran out and the next day another friend brought over dinner again out of the blue!  I didn't have to cook for an entire week!  In the middle of all the vomit, Tyler took Quinn to her Pulmenology apt and it was decided that she might have not had pneumonia in the first place but just Asthma this whole time.  I was feeling completely overwhelmed at this point and so when Tyler called to report, said she would need breathing treatments twice a day for the next year, and on top of it she had an ear infection, I just cried and cried.  Pretty sure pregnancy hormones were at play on top of all the stress.

 On Quinn's birthday I was a sick zombie so we decided to celebrate on our Conference/Easter Saturday.  The morning was spent celebrating Quinn with helium balloons and special cereal.  We have a tradition of the birthday person getting to drink out of the birthday gobble and so far this birthday season Quinn has stolen the precious cup from every single person on their birthday.  She was very happy to have it for her own this day, and chose chocolate cereal for breakfast.

 Daddy got her a stuffed work and sand toys, which was funny because I had gotten her sand toys as well and so it was determined that we would use the tube sand that weighed down daddy's truck and an old rubbermaid container to make Quinn a birthday sandbox.  She LOVES it, especially now that the weather is much warmer.

 Alex and Heidi each bought Quinn a robotic chicken wind up toy.

 And we got her a squishy turtle because she loves the turtle song so much.  She calls it tim.

 Here is a shot of Heidi and little Heidi in her sandbox.

 The sun came out in-between conference sessions and we had an Easter egg hunt.  The kids each had 20 eggs to find but after about 5 Quinn discovered the candy inside and just sat and ate hers.

 We hadn't had much of a chance to be in the backyard this spring so it was a mess and a real trick to find those eggs.

 In between sessions we also ran to the grocery store and had our cake and ice-cream!

Quinn LOVES strawberries and whipped cream and ice-cream so I didn't even bother to make her a cake.  She wasn't at all interested in Alex's birthday cake so I didn't feel guilty.  

 After 3 previous birthday's that month you could tell she had figured out the singing the birthday song and blowing out the candles connection and she wanted to do it over and over again.

 It was so much fun celebrating Quinn, I think we all spoiled her in our own way that day.

 Here is a great shot of Daddy's spoiling, and his hand.  He got scratched while helping restrain a patient in the psych ward at work the day before.  He comes home with lots of interesting tales from work in the psych ward- I don't think it's a job I want him to have.

 The Grandma's came back that evening and we got to spend Easter Sunday with them as well as Monday before they took off again, then they were back on Thursday before leaving Friday.  We did so much but I got so few pictures!

 We stayed up late Thursday night reading books and talking.

 The girls have declared it Grandparent season and I think they are waiting for the next visit from someone, it's been such an exciting month!

 Quinn loves oatmeal and blueberries with honey and whenever she eats this particular breakfast she props her right foot up on the table.  I had to get a picture so I would remember.  She also is obsessed with and freaked out by bugs of any kind.  When she sees any speck she starts gasping and yelling "bugs, BUGS, BUG!!"
Saturday was the girls first day of soccer this year and Heidi's first day ever.  She was so excited she woke up early and ran into everyone's bedroom saying "Wake up, it's soccer day!"  We walked to the park, which was a joke because the girls were on their birthday scooters and I was waddling slower than a duck (Alex's comparison).  Tyler pushed Quinn on the swings and things went well until Alex and Heidi were split up and put on different scrimmage teams- this devolved into tears after about 10 minutes but with a bit of bribery all was set right again and we enjoyed some extra time afterwards playing with friends, hanging out at the park and chatting like a real family with no looming tests or school deadlines.

We spent Saturday afternoon piling the truck up with stuff for goodwill and then dropped it off and hit the grocery store.  Such a family day!  Quinn can open the fridge and if she isn't trying to break into yogurts then this is what she does.

We upgraded the sandbox to a plastic swimming pool and the weather has been so warm that Tyler put in the AC units already!  It's still rainy and cloudy but now that we have the sandbox I can send the kids out on the porch, shut the gate and let them play in the sand rain or shine while watching from my lounge chair through the open door.  It's flipped the tides on home life and attitudes- amazing what a little freedom and sand can do.  

Alex had her homeschool evaluation and officially passed 1st grade.  I wanted to end the year with a bang, but after weeks of sickness and grandparent visits our schedule was all off and it would have been a nightmare to try to establish any habits again just to end a few days later.  So we called it and are enjoying our summer vacation.  I decided that this was the best choice anyway because I want some time to just enjoy my kids as a Mom before we add another and jump into the stress of packing and baby and moving.

I did a few physical therapy sessions and can happily say that I'm cured!  Well, at least of most of the day time hip pain which is HUGE!  The day after Quinn was in the hospital I could barely walk at all, it was almost a joke, a very painful and terrible joke.  After getting adjusted and getting a maternity belt that works great and doing all these little exercises everyday I can now walk down the hall with only normal pregnancy pain and not debilitating hip pain.  Rolling over in bed is still nearly impossible but things are SO much better.

Things are mostly rainy and warm now with a few sunny days and some partly cloudy days mixed in.  The girls and I have been listening to Anne of Green Gables in the car as we drive around town and I think even Quinn enjoys it.  We have decided that Heidi is a little Anne.  We are constantly rearranging the carseats and trying to find a way that works so Heidi can buckle herself, Quinn is on the outside so I can get her in easily, and everyone is happy.  I think to myself everyday how I wish we had bought a van instead, and then I cringe and remember I don't want a van, and then I spent 10 minutes getting the kids in the car and swear I'm never leaving the house again.

I'm currently 32 weeks pregnant which is just crazy.  I thought it would never come and we are nearly on the home stretch.  In some ways I feel we have left the worst behind and things are only going to get better, and then I look around the house and remember we are moving and we don't know where, and there is the packing up of an entire home to do plus the actual delivery of the baby on top of the last miserable weeks to endure and the hormones that hit plus recover after that.  It's so easy to get overwhelmed that I'm just trying to enjoy one day at a time and not look past the next week.  I enjoy the weekly dates to the grocery store with Tyler- the girls get watched in the Eagle's Nest and Tyler and I stroll down the isles with Quinn who is usually adorable or a monster, never much in-between.  I don't think we will ever get to do that again once we move.  

We made friends with the neighbors across the ally and one the house over, and have enjoyed 2 minute walks to the park and visits to all the amazing parks around the city.  Spring is such a wonderful time to be in Pittsburgh.  We had a campfire at the neighbors house and it was just so nice to finally be making neighborhood friends and really feeling like we are fitting in, it kills me.  Tyler and I were lamenting our moving plans and then I found a deer tick on Quinn while I was putting her in her crib and it washed all the good feelings away.  We woke up the other girls to check them for ticks and Tyler pulled the gross little thing off Quinn's arm with tweezers while I googled lyme disease.