whobody is cinco de reimer?

So. I am officially 20 weeks pregnant with baby #5! 

We had our ultrasound yesterday and all is well.  

Another perfectly "boring" ultrasound...which is wonderful.  

I am amazed at how thoroughly they are able to check out the growing baby...and all of the wonderfully intricate things they can see. (For instance, the 4 chambers of the heart....crazy!) I think that with each baby the ultrasounds have gotten longer and more thorough...I swear Keaton's ultrasound only lasted a few minutes! Eight years changes a lot...and I guess I am 'almost' at the point of being labeled an "advanced age pregnancy". 

We did NOT find out the gender of "cinco de reimer"... but I was definitely tempted to.  I love to plan and be ready for things...but I also love a good surprise.  We did consider finding out, but in the end, we decided to just do this time what we did with all the others...wait and see.  As for right now I do not have a strong feeling either way. I think Jason is thinking it is another boy, but he hasn't decided for sure yet either.  Neither list of names sounds 'right' yet either... The baby was only measuring a few days ahead, so my due date is still February 6th. That really seems like it is a long ways away! (It also feels like I have been pregnant forever already too...at least the worst half is over :))  

I know that it will come soon enough...patience is a virtue. 

I feel incredibly, incredibly blessed to be expecting our fifth child. 

I am always amazed at how apparent God's hand is 

to me in the development of a baby.  

It is truly something I thank him for each and every day.  

Our children have been such a blessing, and I am constantly amazed to see their different personalities come out in all of life's situations. (Sometimes in good ways and sometimes...not so good.)  I am very much looking forward to meeting this upcoming little one and seeing how he or she fits into our family (and, really, seeing how he or she fits into the car...or around the table....yikes;)) 

The ultrasound tech had a very hard time getting a "good" picture of the baby. 

He or she kept on pulling her hands and legs up to their face. 

It was amazing to see how much the baby was moving and how little of it I could feel! 

Wow. The tech did say that the baby was approximately 11 oz. (wowzers). 

I did look back at Cruz's 4d ultrasound pic in whobody is not a horse...or an alien? and I guess this baby does look a LOT like Cruz in his ultrasound pic. *But, I realize that most ultrasounds look the same anyway. 

We are so happy that things are still 'so far, so good' in this pregnancy. 

I keep on hoping and praying that things will continue to go well for this growing baby!

whobody is in preschool?

 Today was the day Nash has been looking forward to for MONTHS.

His first day of preschool.

He came out of his bedroom this morning, fully dressed....

and did this (which I made him reenact for this picture) 

and he yelled:

"ITSCH MY FIRSHT DAY OF PRESCHOOL!!!"

He is very, very, very happy to be going to school

I am sure he will be great for Lisa-the-teacher. 

 It seems with both Lola and Nash, they turned a corner about 2 months before preschool started....I worried about BOTH of them and their behavior in school, but by the time it came around, they were different kids. (phew)

Nash is a wonderful little boy.  He is full of joy!  

This is a kid who either LOVES something or HATES something. 

There is no in between with him.  (But, truly, he mostly loves things.)  

He has become very caring towards Cruz and really loves to play with him, 

even if it is sometimes a little rough.  

He especially loves to be included in things that Keaton and Lola do....and be a 'big kid'.  

I have said it before, and I will say it again...

it is SO much fun to see the developing personalities of each of my kids.  

They truly are a blessing.

As I said earlier, Nash was super excited for his first day of school.  

He ate breakfast and then went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. 

Then I heard the pshhhhhh sound of mousse.  

Yes, this kid LOVES to put mousse in his hair....and really wanted to do it last night after his bath, but I convinced him to wait until this morning.

When we got to preschool, 

he was not nervous at all...

just extremely PROUD.

We found two of his bestest buddies for pictures: Tate...

...and Hayden.  

She seemed to be a little bit more in a silly mood than Tate. :)

Nash gave me a quick 

bump, high five, hug and kiss

...and sent me out the door.  

He is SO ready for this, and, surprisingly, so am I.

I am SURE that I drove away from here crying when I dropped Keaton off....

but not today.  

It helps that he is so excited about his and 

barely nervous at all.  

I KNOW he is going to have a great day. 

I can't wait for 11:00 to come so I can pick him up and hear all about it.  

(He will be disappointed that it is over so soon.)

For now, I am getting lots done around the house...Cruz is just now waking up! 

Now for some quality time with my littlest buddy.

whobody is all packed up for preschool?

So, I JUST went into Nash's room and got his backpack to get it ready for his first day of school tomorrow. 

He informed me that he already has it packed......

So, I pulled everything out...

and here are the bare essentials he thought he would need during his 3 hours of preschool! 

1 superhero cape

1 work goggles

1 whistle

8 pairs of socks

2 single socks

1 cardinal's foam claw

1 stuffed monkey

1 tape measure

6 matchbox trucks/cars

2 plastic dinosaurs

 [ Well. At least he got it ready! ]

I am sure Lisa-the-teacher will appreciate his preparedness.  Now...to find the REAL list of supplies I am supposed to send.  

(I'm pretty sure it doesn't include anything he has already packed.)

whobody went on the river....again?

Last week, when we went on the river, we let the older three ride on the tube all the way from our slip to the sandbar! (via backwaters, of course). 

 I thought this would cause Cruz a baby heart attack...BUT he didn't seem to mind a bit!  

The kids loved having a ride all the way there, and Jason and I agreed that 

it was the quietest, most peaceful ride we have EVER had to the sandbar 

(with kids, at least).

When we got to the sandbar, we were the only ones there 

(I think this was on a Sunday night?)...so that makes it even more enjoyable.  

Keaton got right to WORK...

with a little "help" from Cruzie.

I then attempted a group picture.

I have a LOT of pictures from Cruz at the sandbar...

but, he is the only one that really sticks close enough to me the whole night to get very many pictures.  

The nice thing about the water being SO low is that there really aren't a lot of places for the kids to be in too much danger!  

Below is a picture of Keaton's finished project...

he dug these little waterways out for little fish to live in....

I believe

he called it his "fish hatchery".

Nash and Lola found a spot that was deep enough to swim in...

they very much enjoyed splashing around in the water!

These are some pictures of what Cruz does in the water. 

He kept on doing this the whole night...

he would just lay down and look at his reflection in the water.

 It was extremely serious business.

...he did it like it was HIS JOB.  

I kept on thinking he was drinking the water (eeewww)  but, nope, just chilling.

I'm pretty sure he thought he was swimming like Nash and Lola! 

Look at that muscle man!

Nash LOVES to find clams! 

He always wants to bring them home, but we make him throw them all 

back into the river on our way home.

Nash stuck this stick with leaves straight up in the water

...it looked like a little tree. 

We kept on trying to get Cruz to push it over.  

There is just something about boys trying to push trees over into the river. 

 [Too funny]

It was another BEAUTIFUL night on the river.

whobody is a soccer princess?

Lola FINALLY gets to play soccer this fall.  

After 2 torturous years of watching Keaton play soccer, she is finally old enough.

She is so excited.

She finally has a reason to wear this "soccer princess" shirt.

I caught this picture during her first practice. 

She is very "into" the game and tries super hard to be a soccer star!  

Lola is very aggressive and loves to 

frolic around the field 

after the ball!

I really don't even know if I took this picture 

while she was actually kicking the ball...

or if she was just jumping around. 

The picture below was taken during one of the times that the coach told Lola to 

"take a rest" 

while the others were playing a scrimmage.  

She is very creative with her "resting".

She is excited to be on the "orange" team...and loves her jersey.

She does, however, wish that I wouldn't sit by my friends so that I could watch every second of her playing....instead of chatting! 

(But, that is SO hard, because they are so much fun to chat with.)

GO TIGERS!!!

whobody had a fun summer?

As I was going through all of my pictures from the summer, I found these random ones that I just have to share!

Quite a few times over the summer, 

the kids would put on a concert for us. 

Sometimes they would use music from the iPod...and sometimes they (mostly Lola) would make up their own songs and sing.

On this particular night, the kids set up a drum set (complete with the pole from our teeball tee as a drumstick.)  Of course, Nash was the drummer.  I thought I had better pictures of this...but I can't seem to find them!  

Something else we did this summer was make "roads" on the carpet (on the warmest of days) for the kids to play trucks and tractors on.  I will say...
my urge to keep things in order beat me up enough to take the tape up before the kids were ready.  
They loved this...while it lasted, at least.

They have been playing outside 
together SO well
(most of the time)...

here Keaton was pulling everyone!!!

We have had lots of fun outside this summer!

Fun at the pool *during swim lessons*.  I miserably failed at getting the kids to the pool this year. We only went a few times....BUT they were fun. :)

AND of course...Lola going off of the high dive!

 AND Nash going off of the board! (very brave for a kid who doesn't get his head wet.)

He didn't "wuv it".  But he survived.

We DID make it to a Waterloo Bucks game. The kids had a blast (although Cruz was out of control, yet very entertaining for the people around us)
...and the "people watching" was wonderful. :)

Our summer has been extremely busy, but very fun. 

I haven't been feeling quite 100%...the beginning of the summer was about 25%...but now I think we are up to about 80 or 90. :)  

Things just don't QUITE go as they should when 

I am not on top of my game. 

Hopefully, as I get to the easier part of pregnancy, I can get things back in order and things can run a little more smoothly.  

I am sad that summer is over (as usual) BUT I am looking forward to the more relaxed time of year with not so much running and extra activities.  

I am hoping that harvest holds off for a few more weeks yet so we can enjoy some slower weeks with Daddy around!