Gender Poll

Well this is the week that we finally find out the gender of Baby #4! Will it be the first boy for our family? Will it be a 4th girl?

AJ felt really strongly for quite awhile that it is a boy but he last couple weeks he has been wavering again and feels unsure.

I honestly have no guesses or intuition in either direction. I actually had a dream a couple weeks ago where the ultrasound tech told us that it was a boy and then we laughed at her and told her that we knew were in a dream and that in real life it is a girl. So who knows what in the world THAT means! I've had two other dreams where I'm getting an ultrasound but the dream never gets to the point where they tell us the gender!

So the big day is on Friday, Dec 4. In the meantime, take the poll over there on the right hand side and/or feel free to leave us a comment with your guess as well. Maybe you have some questions about various gender predictors (Chinese calendar stuff, how I'm carrying, what I crave, etc) that you want answered so you can make a guess? Let me know!

Help us pass the time!

Rating: Sugar and spice and everything nice (or is it snips and snails and puppy dog tails?)

Pearl Street Mall

The Pearl Street Mall is a tourist trap in Boulder. When we have house guests we usually take them there to soak in the local atmosphere. There are always street performers, and lots of interesting shops and people to look at!

Well today was no different - my sister and her husband are here visiting for the week so we took them down there! We saw people playing the guitar, the harp, and even the didgeridoo. All that is normal - but today there were a few things out of ordinary!

1) There was a man in long dread locks wearing the colors of the Jamaican flag and doing yoga. It was quite a sight and he was surprisingly flexible!

2) Emmaline saw a panhandler (not uncommon there) and says to her as we were walking by: "What are you doing?"
"I'm holding a sign"
"Why?"
"For money"
"Why?"
The lady answered but we were just out of earshot at that point. I wonder what Emmaline would have said to whatever the response was?

3) We saw a couple walking with a camera crew following them. They kept walking and rewalking the same area to get different shots. The whole scene looked familiar and AJ and I knew instantly what it had to be about! Then some sort of production type person appeared so I went up to her and asked her if they were filming House Hunters! She was surprised and said that yes they were and wanted to know how I knew what show it was! I told her I could tell by the way they were filming the couple - it just looked like the show! She told me how the show would air with the new season in January and that the idea for that episode was that it is a young couple who want to live in Boulder but can't afford it, so they are going to be looking in other towns around Boulder instead. She said the couple still wanted the "feel" of Boulder so they were filming the couple walking through the Pearl Street Mall in order to get shots of the "vibe" of Boulder! It was pretty neat. I don't know how often they get people coming up to them but she was a really nice lady and seemed more than pleased to talk to a fan of the show!

So all in all - a good trip to Pearl Street!

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Happy Birthday AJ!

Sadly AJ had to go to work on his birthday as most grown-ups do. But overall I think he had a good day! The girls selected some gifts from The Dollar Tree. Emmaline got him a huge (think 2 feet long) pencil, Lil got him a sudoku book, and Idgie got him some Beef Jerky. I skipped the Dollar Tree and got him some model railroad stuff instead! (Read that: I told him how much he had to spend and let him pick out his own stuff!). For dinner we fed the kids chicken nuggets, and then ordered Red Lobster after bedtime for us! Then we watched Battlestar Galactica and AJ played a new computer game he got.

Happy Birthday AJ!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Shelving

Check out these AWESOME shelves AJ made for me! The hold our water barrels and our food storage that is in #10 cans. For those unfamiliar with what we are working on - here is a link to explain it: Provident Living.

The shelves are slanted so the cans roll forward as we need them. Here is the before:

And here is after we put the cans in. Don't kid yourself into thinking those shelves are all full! It just looks that way because it all rolls forward!

And for those interested in the fine details of the construction here are a couple pictures that show some of the details:

Rating: 5 Lollipops (great job AJ!!!)

16 weeks

Already 16 weeks! YAY! The nausea is starting to wear off finally though I still am exhausted! I had an appointment today. It was right after school so I picked up Emmaline and took her with me. There was a nerve wracking moment where the OB couldn't find the heartbeat on the doppler. So instead she did an ultrasound and everything looked good! Emmaline thought it was great to see baby on the ultrasound.

Here is baby. It was actually really hard to get a good picture - the placenta was right in the way and we'd get a random body part poking out from behind but never a full body shot. This will have to do!




And here is me at 16 weeks! Why am I already big??? Why oh why?





Ratin: 3 Lollipops

Most Improved

We got a paper home from school the other day that there would be an assembly and Emmaline had been selected to receive a quarterly award for her class. It turns out what she got was "Most Improved". They said it was for the child who has been working hard, and following rules, etc. I'd say based on the parent/teacher conference we had the other week, that what it means is that Emmaline was bouncing off the walls and not focusing on her work and gabbing too much at the start of the year, and now she is doing much better on those things!

Is anyone else besides me amused that she is a whole head shorter than the other kids in her class???

Good Job Emmaline!





Rating: 5 rolls of Smarties (Emmaline's favorite candy!)