Ode to a Fabulous Mother-in-Law

I am a lucky girl, in that I love my in laws. I know I got lucky, and the last few days have proved it. Eric's mom, Joan, came out to help with the baby and has been totally fabulous! I am still sick, and she has just picked up the slack and asked what else she can do. It is great to have her here!

Look What I Did!

So we are at the mad dash to the finish line with this baby. I have a list with about 30 things that I felt needed to be done before she arrived. Then I got sick. Not just a little wimpy cough; full blown cold with hacking cough, lost voice, and 24 hour stomach flu on top. Basically I have been laid out all week on the couch wishing I was no longer breathing because then I couldn't cough anymore. At least laying on the couch afforded me the time to finish 1 of the projects on my list. I finished knitting the outfit I am going to bring the baby home in. It's my first project besides blankets for stuffed animals, scarfs, and hats. It was actually really, really fun, but not the easiest thing to do when you are self taught. As long as no one looks too closely it looks pretty good. Hopefully I don't have a gigantic baby (like Eric's brothers) and the baby will fit in it for the trip home at least.
So the door may not be hung in the baby's room, the bassinet is still out in the garage, and the changing table is still wrapped up, but heck, my baby will look stylish coming home. We all have to have priorities, I guess.
Last night we had our church trunk or treat. In Lincoln it was this major production that took hours and the kids bags were filled with horrible goodies that I would eventually end up eating. Cars were decorated, there was a carnival inside, and a chili contest for the adults. It's a little different here in Scottsbluff. The kids made the rounds in about 10 minutes and then we went to eat chili and cinnamon rolls inside. I felt pretty sick still, but since I will be missing trick-or-treating this year I thought I would go to this so I had a Halloween memory with the kids. We showed up at 6 and left at 7. It was AWESOME. All church activities should be like that. You go and enjoy things and then you go home, no stress. Anyways I have some cute pics of the kids in their costumes and since I probably wont get around to Halloween pics until mid-March I thought I'd post these instead.Ella thouroughly enjoying just the icing from one of the cinnamon rolls. Poor Eric got to eat the rest.The kids getting ready with Dad. Ella is, of course, Pincess Aurora, and Ethan is the black power ranger, who, as everyone who is anyone knows, is the coolest of power rangers.
A little bit blurry, but you get the idea. Ella felt beautiful and wanted to pose for every picture. Ethan I guess felt like the bad guy on Scream, but he makes this face now in every pictures. Future girlfriends will think he had a spastic muscle disorder for an entire year of his life. Oh well.

"You can't get much bigger."

That was one of the wonderful comments I received on Sunday at church. I am a little sick of insensitive comments that are all directly related to how big I am. Yup, I'm big. I'm 37 weeks pregnant, what do they expect. One man in the ward came up and said "Sister Stott, I lost a bet because of you. I thought you wouldn't be here this Sunday because you are so big, I thought you would have the baby by now." Another great comment was "Wow, you're big and low." From now on I would like everyone to know that we pregnant women do not need these comments. Here are some alternatives: "I bet you're baby is going to be just as pretty as you." "When are you due? (response in here) How exciting." Never, never, never say in response to the due date "Wow, you've got a ways to go," or "You're pretty big for being that far along." (I've had both of these responses and they are very demoralizing)
So on to happier things. I just realized I didn't have a single picture of my grotesque belly for this pregnancy, so today after my haircut I made Eric take some pictures. You can all see how big I am now, and can make responses to people at home (or me if they are appropriate, see above).
The kids wanted to be in the pictures really badly and I think the picture speaks volumes about their personalities. Ella wanted to be in the picture to hug the baby, and Ethan wanted to be in the picture to make a silly face. Silly kids.

Chasing Girls

Oh how quickly they grow up, especially in public school. The picture on the left is at our zoo on a trip we took with some friends. From left to right is Ella, Ethan, Caleb, and Madi. Luckily our kids are all within months of each other, and have become best friends. Ethan and Caleb are in the same kindergarten class and play every recess together (Ella and Madi are in the same preschool class too). The boys had been engaged in digging holes in the sand in an effort to reach the magma under the Earth's crust in order to start a fire on the bundle of sticks they have waiting. It was always fun to hear of their progress in digging down to the fire they knew they would reach.
Today I was shaken as Eric asked if they were still trying to start a fire and Ethan said no. When asked what he did at recess he answered "Chase girls." I guess he and Caleb have been chasing girls at recess for the last couple of days, and he seems to think this is REALLY fun. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I thought I would have a least a couple of years before this awareness of girls began. It wouldn't scare me so much except one little girls that he chases seems to have glomed onto him. What is a mother to do. Home school kids are too weird.

P.S. on a weird side note, yes I do know our kids are tall. Poor Caleb is the same height as Ella.