Pray for us!

You should really read the post after this, before this one...that being said, we could use some extra prayers sent out way over the next few weeks. This time of pregnancy has typically been rough on me. I am tired and achy and overall have a low tolerance for much of anything. Add in to that Taylor being in school, a feisty 3 year old, a 21 month old in a cast, a barfing dog, a messy house and you have a recipe for one grouchy Becky. I know that God has set this time for me for a reason. I am so thankful for our health, Taylor's job, great family and friends and the ability to get new flooring:) I cannot wait to hold this baby in my arms. Taylor and his great attitude has been such a blessing to me. He comes home most nights to me close to, if not in tears, and the kids going stir-crazy from spending so much more time at home than usual. He always is ready to take the kids for a few minutes, give me a big hug and try to start helping out aroud the house. And this is after a long day at work and a night full of homework ahead of him. He is the rock for our family. So, please pray for endurance for our family. Dedication to getting things done even when we are tired. And that we would realize when we need to take the time to rest. We take Levi to the Dr. tomorrow and are hoping and praying that we will be done with the cast!

Here's what we have been up to:
Levi snuggling on the couch watching Cars for the 6 millionth time. He looks so old in this picture. What happened to my baby? Playing with Grandma.

Gran came over to have breakfast with us. Katie and Levi loved showing her all their toys and pictures on the blog.

Katie pretending to be Rapunzel and helping me flatten the chicken for dinner. She was super-excited about this.

Levi wearing Katie's boots.

2 happy kiddos having breakfast. My kids love cereal! Aren't winter footed jammies the best?

new floors

So, I have had a little bit of crazy nesting going on over here. Taylor's mom accurately pointed out that since I don't have a new baby room to decorate I am just going crazy on the rest of the house:) I have hated/been embarrassed by/detested our white living room carpet since around the time Katie was born. White carpet is horrible with pets and kids! There were several spots that would never come clean, even with multiple professional cleanings. You cannot begin to imagine the joy in my heart as this horrible carpeting came out!

Dan came over to help rip it all out. Thanks Dan!

We put in new laminate flooring. It is, literally, the cheapest kind we could buy. I love it! Passionately and with my whole heart. love. it. It only took the guys 12 hours to put it in:) There are a lot of weird corners in this room we thought was relatively square. Now all we have to do is re-paint the baseboards. Paint the room. Paint the new kids furniture. Move all the new furniture in. Facillitate the switch to sharing rooms. Take out all the baby stuff and get it sorted and organized. And get a bunch of organizing in the house done that really feels like it HAS to be done before the baby comes. Oh, and lets not forget Halloween, a trip to Pagosa, Taylor's trip to California, Thanksgiving, school, homework, finals and we are having a baby in just over 7 weeks! Woohoo! We are nuts.

A trip to Urgent Care

Taylor gave the kids a piggyback ride this morning and when he swung Levi off his back we hear a loud pop. Levi started crying and then would not use his hand. When he tried to pick up cereal he couldn't even make a fist. Off to Urgent Care we went. Thankfully my Dad literally works next door to the Urgent Care place so he took Katie for the morning. After two unsuccesful attempts to get it to pop back in off we went to the Pediatric Orthopedic specialist. He determined that the bone just wasn't staying in place so he put Levi in a cast for 2 weeks. We had several sets of x-rays that Levi was not a fan of. It broke my heart to see him hurting and not be able to help him. He seems much happier in the cast and is now sleeping away the morning. He probably had a sugar crash from all the dum-dums we gave him:)

Color

Fall is here in Colorado, even though it still feels way too hot! We drove up to the mountains on Saturday to see the Aspen and get out of the house for a while. We had been planning on going to The Doughnut Mill, but decided to skip it due to long lines and them always being out of fritters. I don't love their doughnuts anyways. We first stopped at 7-11. No doughnuts. Then we went to Dunkin Doughnuts and they were so good! We will just go there first next year. After a stop at Wal-mart for batteries and potty break we finally made it out. The colors were amazing. We pulled off on a private road and took a ton of family pictures. We propped the Capri-Sun box up on the car and used the multiple picture setting. We took about 150 pictures. I know included way too may here, but they really were good ones. There are a lot of the backside of very pregnant Becky and Taylor and I looking like complete goons trying to make the kids smile. I even included some pictures that show off the ever-expanding belly! Please dismiss anything else you might notice expanding as well:) After the drive, which was super short, we went back to the playground at Divide. The kids had a blast. It was a great place to stop and stretch legs. After one more stop at Wal-mart for Lunchables (I swore I would never buy them, but the kids loved them.) we made it home.

Balloons!

The Colorado Balloon Classic was this weekend, and it is one of our favorite ways to kick off fall. We tried to go Saturday morning and it was so windy we turned around and went home. We later heard they ended up cancelling. We were determined to go though, so we got up before church Sunday and tried again. Beautiful weather this time! The kids had so much fun. I started crying because they were so excited. I blame hormones:) Levi literally pointed at every balloon for over an hour and said, "balloon! balloon!." Family shot.
Balloon!

No time to pose for a picture.

I know some of you are desperate for a belly-shot...sorry!

It was super sunny!

Poor Katie was terrified when they started the fan to blow up a balloon right next to us. She rallied pretty quick though.

I love how close we get to be!

Another blinded by sun shot.

Levi looks stunned in most of these shots.

Watching lift off.

Can't wait until next year. We will have a 4 1/2 year old, 2 1/2 year old and a 9 month old! We need a new stroller!

Ballet

Katie has talked excitedly for weeks about her ballet class. We watched videos of ballerinas and practiced dancing. Today was finally the big day!To put in mildly, she was a bit of a stinker about it. She didn't want to go in. Refused to participate. And kept making her crazy silly face at me. She did like the barre excercises and said that next week she wants to go back. She said she will listen to the teacher next time. I think we will probably try one more week and see. I'm guessing she was nervous with the whole process. She sure did look cute though.

We also made some new t-shirt headbands this week. They don't slip and are so easy to make! Katie helped me cut out the circles to make the flower!

The last days of summer...I hope.

This summer has been so hot! The news is reporting that it is the hottest summer on record for Colorado. This adds up to one very tired, swollen, and ready for fall pregnant mama. I love all the things we have done this summer, but my body is definitely ready for some cooler temperatures!

Our garden. I planted about a month later than I should have but we are hoping to get some corn, zuchinni and more than a handful of beans from the garden. Since we haven't had a huge hail-storm we are doing 100 times better than last year with this garden! Levi loved the beans. Katie asked me about 500 times not to make her eat them. I told her each time that I wouldn't. She ended up trying them and loved them.

Sprinkler time. I sat in the wet grass and let the kids go crazy with the hose. We made it to lunchtime that way:) On a side-note. I have a thing against 2 pieces for little girls. It isn't that I think they are horrible. I actually think Katie looks adorable in this one. But! There are so few rites of passage for little girls. They are supposed to grow up so quickly and care so much about their bodies and what they look like. So, for us, bikinis are for in the backyard only until she is older.

Drowning the garden.

Sky-Sox baseball game. The kids were more interested in mooching food off people than the game. We still had fun for a short time though.