more from Iowa

This is my little brother and Biscuit

My dad, Belle, our good friend's fiancé (who doesn't speak any engilsh!) and our dinner.

about the only moment Bucket was smiling- she doesn't like the pool

Biscuit with great uncle and great grandpa

Belle doing chores with great grandpa

great grandpa and Belle feeding Cookie.  My grandpa got Cookie the same week Belle was born, and I have pictures from the newspaper of Belle with Cookie when they were about 4 months old.

Biscuit with great grandma, and grandma (my mom)

Belle with my grandpa's new pet squirrel

Biscuit and grandpa (my step-dad)

Biscuit with great grandma

frog legs

frog legs for dinner

Biscuit with grandpa (my dad)

Biscuit with grandpa and grandma

My Little Sister Got Married

Belle, Bucket, Biscuit (just trying that name out, it was Belle's idea...) and I went to my little sister's wedding in Iowa last weekend.  Iowa is very far away!  It took a shuttle ride, a ferry ride, a hotel stay, a bus ride, two airplane rides, and an hour and a half car ride to get to my dad's house.  Whew! It was worth it!  I have tons of pictures and we got to see tons of family.

I'm just going to post a couple of the photos because I may never get around to sorting and posting from the trip!  

Bucket watching Miss Patty Cake on the plane ride

and Biscuit snoozing

hanging out just before the rain started

Bride and Groom.  My aunt made the cake.

the centerpiece my brother carved

Biscuit and Grandma

Belle hosted the guest book table

My dad had to keep her dress out of the mud

my little (younger, but bigger) brother helping Bucket through the mud

my little brother and his daughter

Perhaps I will find time later this week to tell you about the 95 degrees (we are now accustom to 55 degree summers,) the pouring rain, and the almost tornado that thankfully did not steal my sister's joy but made for a memorable wedding, eating snapping turtle and frog legs, feeding great grandpa's deer, holding a squirrel, and cat fishing... 

It is always an adventure with my family!

Never Leave Your Baby Unattended.

There is a sticker monster on the loose!

Bucket is so in love with her baby sister.  She always looks forward to an open opportunity to decorate her.

This kinda reminds me of the time when Butter decorated her little sister.

Introducing...

My BFTKC has already dubbed our new baby's blog name Shovel, but Dad was thinking she should be called Barrel...  What is your vote?

Just as a refresher, we don't use our real names on the blog...

We have Mr. Pilot and Mom plus

Belle, Boy, Peanut (or Sis), Butter, Pops, and Bucket

and, leave your ideas in the comments!

I have a 10 pound baby.

I am sorry for my terrible slowness at sharing pictures of our beautiful baby!  Our computer broke right after she was born and it had to stay at the Apple place until fixed.


Baby is two weeks old today, and a whopping 10 lbs 2 oz!  I think that is incredible since Bucket was 10 pounds even at her 2 month appointment.  Crazy!

If there were a record for the most kissed newborn, she definitely wins the prize.  She could quite possibly be the most loved, kissed, hugged, and held baby there ever was.

She is very content, and never even has a chance to cry.  We love her so much!

I wish I could tell you our new baby's name...

A new baby is here!

Exactly on time, and exactly perfect.  I'll get around to posting the entire labor story when I am not sleep deprived, but here is the short version:

I had my 39 week appointment on Wednesday and my doc asked me if I wanted her to "get things started."  I knew she'd be asking since she already told me that they don't like VBAC's going past 39 weeks, and I knew I'd be tempted to say yes.  Since I was trying really hard to be patient, I brought all of my children to my appointment to hold me accountable ;~) and she agreed to let me wait another week.  

Imagine my surprise then the next morning things started all on their own!

After arriving at the hospital too early, we left so I could labor more comfortably~ in the van.

We arrived back at the hospital in the perfect amount of time.  No time at all!  No iv, no monitors, no pressure gauges, no being forced to lay on my back in the bed.  No doctor.  

  Just 12 minutes in the hospital and our baby arrived!

Can you read that scale?  9 pounds 12 ounces and 19 3/4 inches.

A whopping 2 pounds bigger than my previously biggest baby!

Hello Biggest Sister!

Baby is so big, the hat the Belle made is too small!

Yet another perfect detail, Dad was right by my side to welcome this new precious life.

So blessed!

And hello to biggest brother!

This baby is big and strong!

Baby's first morning in the Word with daddy.

All right, I'll tell you, we have a new baby GIRL!  We kept the entire family in suspense because the children wanted to find out together if they had a new brother or sister.  She was born at 4:42pm on Thursday and we were able to leave the hospital around 9:30 the very next morning.  The children were at home eagerly awaiting the arrival and big reveal of their newest sibling.  That will be another blog post.

Her birth was everything I wanted minus being at home~ every detail played out perfectly.

You will have to email me if you want to know her name...  It's perfect, too.

Quick Update. Great News.

In case you were on the edge of your seat, I thought I better not leave you hanging.

I am still pregnant. With only 11 days until my due date, this baby is now my "latest" baby aside from Belle (my first) and I'm huge. Ready. Excited. Seriously, I'm huge. Even the casher tells me so.
and
My husband is still home.
Did you hear what I said???
I am in complete awe that my husband is not going to miss the birth of our baby. God saw fit to move some things around and he will be here until... further notice.

I am super elated.  It took me a few days to believe it.  But the squadron is gone, and my husband is sitting right here beside me, ready to catch a baby at any moment.  This is fantastic.

Hopefully, my next post will include a picture of a sweet new baby and a less huge momma.

I made it!

When you live on Windy Island a.k.a. Whidbey Island where the wind is regularly 25-30 mph and often 50 mph, van doors get ripped off the hinges, balls, toys and perhaps chickens disappear from your yard, sheds and trees get blown over, people walk at an angle and the breath gets sucked right out of little baby's lungs.

So, I made a wind cover.

Dad picked out the fabric.

Bucket made sure the seat still worked.

and I made it!

I bought some cute green flower buttons to add to the straps to make it more girly if the baby is a girl.

There is green minky fabric underneath to give it some weight. 

It was super easy, and also way cheaper than any you can buy, especially since when I went to buy the fabric it just so happened to be 1/2 price.  Yeah!

HERE is the link I used, if you want to give it a whirl.  Makes a great baby shower gift!

My family makes me proud!

Wednesday night we puked a cumulative total of about 78 times and never missed the bucket.  What an accomplishment!

I will share with you how there were children sleeping on my bedroom and bathroom floor.  Each had a bucket and a towel that I had to try not to trip over on my way to the bathroom. I am sure it will eventually be funny to me, that Butter cheerfully asked a billion questions after every time she threw up, and if Pops even flinched she was shoving his bucket in his face screaming "don't miss the bucket Poppy!"   I am pretty sure I lost 8 pounds.  And ripped some of my nonexistent stomach muscles.  I will spare you the rest of the details.

I hope we never, ever experience that again.