Curry did not make baby hurry

Baby Sammi at the hospital

Me ready to give birth 5 years ago
Me ready to give birth now (not a great picture)

So, yesterday I tried some Thai food with Curry. I have read that sometimes really spicy foods can help in getting labor to start. Also, that is what Kary ate right before her water broke. I figured, it was worth a chance. Plus, spicy sounded good. Well, no success. There was nothing as a result of this curry except the baby really started kicking around pretty good. It was funny though. I am not totally uncomfortable or desperate for baby to come out. I am just so excited and ready. I really cannot complain. I feel great, I can still go for long walks with no problems. I generally feel good. Maybe I should just enjoy it. : ) I am ready to enjoy little William too that is all. I am ready to meet him and have him join our family on the outside. : )

That is pretty much it for now. I will let everyone know when we are about to pop. I will take tons of pictures (Charles will) and I will post them on the blog. For now, patience. Waiting when you are pregnant is one of the hardest times to be patient. Really though, I have 2 weeks max. More like a week and a half. I can wait, I can be patient. I do want him to come out on his own though. In 2 weeks it is inducing time so he will not get too big. The funny thing is the first day I can be induced is the 25th - that is Daniel's birthday. I am going to do my best to not have William on that day. : ) I want Dan to have his special day. We shall see when baby wants to get out! Come on matey!

Lots of Love to all!

Mari

Egg Coloring Fun

Here are some pictures of the kiddos coloring their eggs. We had a fun day yesterday at the church Easter egg hunt and then we had our own little egg coloring time. The kids really loved it. It was fun. We ate the eggs for dinner tonight on our salad - pretty yummy!

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It was a good Easter Sunday. Sam and Daniel sang with the primary. It was Daniels first time singing with the primary and it was pretty cute. He did a nice job, it was a hard song for the little guys. It is so fun to see them both up there now. I love it. Sammi has a best friend named Julia and they went up holding hands and they stood next to each other, of course. They are so cute together. I am glad she has a friend that she loves. Too bad they are moving soon.

Well, that is it for now. I will write more later. For now I think we are going out for our walk.

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Lots of Love,

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Mari

Sammi and Daniel hunting for eggs. . .

Happy Easter Weekend!

Tomorrow is chocolate bunny day here. We are going to do our egg and treats day on Saturday. We will celebrate the real meaning of Easter on Sunday. I love Easter candy. The best are Cadbury eggs, I never get them but they are my favorite. : ) We will see what we do for the kiddos. I do not want to overload them or anything. They do get to go to an Easter egg hunt tomorrow at the church. That should be entertaining.

I have this special tree here that I love. I have been told that it is a magnolia tree. It is my absolute favorite. It blooms with beautiful bright pink flowers - so pretty. The other day I walked by it (it is on my normal route) and it is starting to bloom! Hooray! It made me so happy. I will make sure and take a picture of it as soon as it is in all of its glory.

I have still been walking almost daily. Charles has been coming with me after work and we go about 3-4 miles. I feel great. Yesterday, I was feeling so good I decided to see if I could still run. It was SO funny. I ran for about 2 minutes and all I have to say is jiggle, jiggle. I felt great, my breathing was great, my legs felt great, but my lower spine had way too much pressure on it at this point. But I did it, I ran, and it made me think that my running days are not too far off now! I cannot wait to feel the wind in my hair again! : ) Soon enough.

We are going to be purchasing another jogger stroller. We cannot afford the triple which is about $700.00 so we are going to get a single. Charles will push Daniel and William in the double and I will push Sammi in the single. We should be quite the sight and quite the road hogs! Oh well, we gotta do what we gotta do. Exercising is a priority for me. I will run again by myself when Sam goes to first grade all day. I will just take the boys out. Fun times!

Sammi told me the other day she liked it when my tummy was sunken in - not poking out. She said she was glad we are having a baby but that she wants me to be normal again. It must be weird for them to watch me expand. Especially for Daniel who I think must think it is not real. Soon enough, it will be real and their little worlds will change! We are teaching them about loving the new baby and helping him to feel welcome in our home and family. They have been praying for William a lot lately. They say things like, "Help William to be a good boy." Also, they pray that mommy can get him out of her tummy soon. I love that one. I feel the same way! They are so sweet and they always give my tummy, or William, a hug and kiss goodnight.

Yesterday during scripture study we were in Helaman reading about how people loved their riches and that they and their riches were cursed because they set their hearts upon riches and not God. We talked to the kids about what this meant. We talked about what the most important things are, and that is our family and Jesus. Sammi even said, and understood, that Jesus is THE most important thing - even more than our family. I was so amazed that she new that He comes first. I then went on and explained to them that we do not always need more stuff, and that stuff will never make us happy.We really need to be happy with what we have and be grateful for it. I believe if you are not happy with what you have - you will never be happy. So last night Daniel prayed that he could be happy with what he has. It was so sweet - he listened and understood. A great moment in a parents world. I love teaching them the gospel. Children have such an innocent understanding of it, without all the doubt and questions that adults like to throw into the mix. Perhaps that is why we are told to be like little children. : )

Anyhow, baby time gets closer everyday. Sammi helped me pack my hospital bag last night, it was cute. I starting feeling excited about it. I am so tempted to eat curry tomorrow but I still think it is a little too soon. Easter would be a nice day to give birth. : )

Well, that is all for now. It is a beautiful day today here at 70 degrees! Yahoo! The grass is green and trees are coming alive. I love it. Last night there was a frog right under our window and I listened to it all night long. Normally, we can hear tons, like hundreds of frogs in the neighborhood but last night it was just one. I love the sound of frogs. : ) Ribbit! They hang out in the ponds around here.

Lots of Love,

Mari

Funny Kids

The other day we were watching the movie Hook. It has Robin Williams in it as Peter Pan and in the movie he is a lawyer. In the movie there are some "bad words" that we are teaching the kids not to say. Daniel came up to me and said, " Mommy, is Lawyer a bad word?" I laughed so hard. I told him to ask Daddy. I guess in the movie they say the word Lawyer in various ways that make it sound like a bad word. It was such a crack up though. You had to be there to appreciate the humor.

Charles is getting excited about the baby coming. After the other night of contractions he is constantly asking me if I am having one. I do have them often but I feel like little Will is going to stick it out for awhile. He needs a little longer to bake. A friend from Charles work brought him a baby basket full of diapers, wipes, lotions, soaps, clothes, binkies, and all sorts of good stuff. It was so unexpected. I was so thrilled, we did not have any of those things. My question is, how do you say thank you for something so thoughtful? I am thinking on it. I am not having a baby shower this time because it is number 3. We do have most things and I also know you do not need as much as I first thought. If anyone asks what I want I say, Diapers!!! They are so expensive and a major need!

We found where the labor and delivery drop off is a few days ago, that is good. I need to pack my bag for the hospital too. I keep saying I will do it tomorrow. I better do it today. : ) It sure is strange being away from all family during this time. I have a daytime babysitter set up in case of an emergency. At night the kids are going to have to come with us to the hospital and wait with Charles. I pray for the day!! Once again inducing sounds good cause it can all be planned ahead of time. How I loved that. So unless he comes before three weeks time inducing I will do! No matter what though, it will be exciting. I am really anxiously looking forward to it. I am going to start eating curry sometime late next week! : ) Worked for Kary.

Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, a Pirates life for me! Come on William Turner! Pirates of the Caribean 3 comes out in May! : ) Good timing! You know Disneyland sounds fun about now, I bet that would get the baby out! Yee-ha!

Well, that is all for now. Hope everyone is well and good!

Love, ME

Spring and Mari are busting out all over!

These are some pictures of our Sunday walk. It was so pretty. The flowers are blooming and so am I! It is really a beautiful time of year here, I love it.

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I had a doctors appointment yesterday and all was well. I have about 3 weeks left and then he will induce me, if I want. 3 weeks is all! Yikes! I actually spent much of the night up last night because I was having lots of braxton hicks contractions. So many, and some hard enough to wake me up and cause discomfort. I got up at 4am and it took me awhile to go back to bed. I do want the baby to stay in a little longer. It is too early now, about 36 weeks. After 37 weeks they are considered full term, so I will hold out until then (I will try). I think he is just preparing for his departure, but I think he will hang in their as long as he can. The doctor estimated his weight now at about 6lbs. It is getting so close! How crazy!

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Lots of love, ME

And they pitched their tents round about the Temple...

Here are some pictures of our conference day on Saturday. We went to the first session at the church and then decided to spend the others at home. I had this brillant idea to put up our tent, face it towards the picture of the temple and watch conference on the computer from inside the tent. Before we began I read out of Mosiah chapter 2, about the people gathering around the temple to listen to King Benjamin speak to them. They all pitched their tents with the doors facing the temple and sat and listened with their families. So, that is what we did. The kids LOVED it and it made conference a little more interesting for them. : )

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I enjoyed many of the talks at conference. My favorite was the first one by Elder Scott about prayer. I had just been researching that very topic and had come up with pretty much everything he had said, so I was comforted that I was on the right track and not the wrong one. : ) What is amazing about the gospel is that we can learn and find out the doctrine for ourselves. We have leaders to guide us but we truly need to learn to govern ourselves, and we can do that through prayer and determined scripture study. I am so grateful to have the gospel. How desperate life must seem without it. I pray I can help others to find the joy and peace found in the Savior. I try to be an example for now, but hope to be more anxiously engaged in the future.

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The other day when Sammi was doing student of the week she got to share some toys and special things of hers with the class. She brought a couple of bracelets that we made together which said, CTR, Be Good, and CTR Sammi. She shared them with the class and said CTR means choose the right. And the "Be Good" was to remind her to be good. She said the kids asked her questions and that Mr. T held them and looked at them. I was so proud of her for so innocently sharing just a piece of the gospel with her class in a very simple way. She is my CTR girl and I love her so much.

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Daniel is my curious boy. He loves to ask questions. At scripture time it is more like question time. Every word he does not understand he asks for a definition. It is good, and good for me to have to explain to him. Lately it seems like he has ants in his pants, it is really hard for him to sit still, anytime. It will be really fun to see him be a big brother to William, I know Dan will need the love cranked up for him though. I will do my best to be aware of each of their needs. I pray though, they will be forgiving of my weaknesses, especially after birth.

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Lots of love to you all. I am just waiting for Charles to come home from the Preisthood session. We made a turkey today, leftover from Thanksgiving (frozen). We had two for some reason and so we thought we might as well have a turkey weekend. I am sure that the doctor will be pleased with my weight gain over the weekend!! Turkey - YUM!

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Love, ME

Fun at the Park

We spent last night at the park and it was lots of fun. Sam and Dan were trying their hand at baseball. It was pretty funny to watch. Sammi also LOVES to swing and she gets pretty high, so does daddy (as you can see). It was a beautiful night at about 60 degrees. Spring is busting out all over around here and I love it.

I hope you all enjoy your General Conference time. I know I love it. We just got back from the first session which we went to the church for. We are going to watch on the computer for the next one. I love Conference time. I will write more about that later.

Lots of love to all!

Love, ME