Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

So the date is set.

As I sat on the doctors table at 39 weeks, doctor said she didn't want me going past my due date because of Liams size (9 1/2 pounds on his due date) AND because I went so fast with Brielle (I went from 5cm to totally complete/crowning in 30 minutes and the hospital is a good 45 minutes away). Not that I expect either to happen again, but you just never know. Better to be prepared. Anyways, she left to call the hospital to pick a date for the week before my due date. "Wow, THE date" was all I could think of. In the hallway I heard her voice:

"O gosh. The only day they have available is Wednesday. I feel bad doing that to her"

At first I thought ummmm, what are you going to do to me?!?! And then I glanced at the calender on the wall. Wednesday the 27th. 2 days early. O that is my birthday. ::giggle:: that is ironic. As she explained the only day I could could come in that week for a scheduled induction was that day, all I could do was smile. The plan is for me to come in in the morning, the doc will break my water and we will sit back and watch. Considering the fact that with my babies once my water breaks labor goes fast, she thinks that is all it will take. 

Anyways, it's pretty odd to have the date set.

Especially considering what the date is.

So as is my personality, planning instantly started and things started rolling. 

We decided to celebrate Easter today and my birthday yesterday. 

And both were fantastic.

My birthday consisted of my favorite breakfast (crepes covered in whipped cream, nutella and fresh strawberries with a side of bacon), a long nap, playing with the family at the park (it was a GORGEOUS day), shopping for my presents, eating Chinese food for dinner, pie for dessert (not a fan of cake) and watching a movie (all the while having painful contractions of course). Easter was equally fun with a wonderful day at church, epic Easter egg hunt, a big ham dinner and chocolate.

In their easter best ready for church

and the easter egg hunt begun

Liam totally got it filling his bucket with pretty much all the eggs.
Brielle found (maybe) 3 and just sat down to open them all

all the loot...and a boot.

My birthday flowers

Final preparations can now be made.

(less than) 3 days left.

And it's at this point that Jack Johnson's lyrics start running through my head

"Now I was sitting, waiting, wishing"

But in my cause it will be "Now I was walking, cleaning, wishing"

At least the waiting and wishing for her to be in my arms, 

has an expiration date.

I am scured.

Yes, I am scured.
It's how we say scared in my family. Somehow, sometime it got started by a toddler saying the word wrong, and it hasn't stopped.
Anyways, I am scured.

Because soon everything is going to change, and I don't know what to expect. I am not scured for labor and delivery. I actually love that part (or I guess more specifically the part at the end when you see your sweet babe for the first time). I am scured by what comes after. 

The part where I have 3 littles and we are outnumbered. 

The part where I am a sleep deprived ghost

The part where I don't have enough time to spend with each child like I want

The part where I don't go out in public very often (it's still flu season here with a whooping cough outbreak. Not risking anything)

The part where I live in my yoga pants

The part where our living space stays a disaster

Mostly the part I don't know about.

I don't know what it will be like to have 3 kids and your oldest just turned 3 last month. 

It's the unknown that has me shaking in my boots the most.

All of the aboves are so worth it to bring new life into the world. I love being a mom and wife more than anything else in the world. But no one can lie and tell me that the first couple weeks when a baby comes is not quite...interesting. Because I know it would be a lie if someone said that to me. Having your kids close together, you remember what that is like. Because it happened recently. 

I feel like already my 2 littles take up so much time and effort there isn't much left over. So thinking of adding another sweet spirit to that, makes me scured. Of course, when I think about it rationally, I realize it won't be as hard as it is now because I will (for the most part) have my body back and every step won't hurt and I will be able to keep up with them like I used to. That makes me feel better about everything. Like I said before, I love pregnancy. But by the end, the thought of not having excruciating pain makes me giddy. 

I have 10 days left until the big day. Or less. (I had my 38 1/2 week appointment today and I am dilated to 2 almost 3 cm and 70% effaced. She is so low that as the doctor was checking me, she bumped her head and baby girl jumped so hard)

In 10 days, it will all be a reality. 

My bags are packed, her bed is all ready, her clothes are all washed and ready, her new carseat/stroller came today, I have all my post-delivery needs bought (witch hazel is my beeeeest friend), everything is clean and organized, my nails are painted, maternity pictures already taken...we are ready. 

Brielle riding the belly like a pro 

Hopefully she is ready to come soon, because even though I am scured, 

I am so excited to fall in love again.

Liam and I love to sit and feel her dance around

p.s. O and if anyone has ANY advice about having 3 kids close together, I am willing and ready for any kind of advice! Bring it on ladies :)

For the love of a hat

Starting around December of 2012, Brielle all of a sudden developed a new passion.

Hats.

She would run up to us and ask us to put anything from a dish towel to a shirt to a conventional hat on her head and if it fell off, she would scream until we put it back. And that has never ended. Her obsession with hats is pretty unreal, hilarious and the most darling thing ever. Wearing a hat, running around the house and "talking"  and usually in dress up clothes, is the most common way to find our little princess. If we are out at the store, she loves to wear a hat and even more so, loves to watch herself in the mirror wearing said hat. 

This one has a funny story.

Richard put her on his shoulders and she instantly took his hat off, and put it on her, like so.

She made everyone around her laugh hysterically. Including us.

And brother joining in on the fun

...see I wasn't kidding.

It is so fun to watch the personalities of your children develop and see how they are so unique, with their own little quirks. Her little personality has boomed in the last couple months, and she definitely has such a strong, fiery, hilarious, independent little spirit. I hope this obsession lasts for a long time, because it is so fun to see her little body running around the house with her pink cowboy hat or princess hat on. She is such a girl! And golly gee, I love that girl. 

The story of OUR house.

After being married (almost) 7 1/2 years, living in little apartments that consist of 650 square feet and soon-to-be 3 kids, we will have our own home. Our own starter home. I am still in denial, or shock really.

I feel like for the past 7 1/2 years we have been playing house.
Then the babies came, and it felt more real, but still, just playing.
We left our tiny 650 square foot apartment, the place we had spent the majority of our marriage together and our future was planned.
But now that we are building our first home together, to fill with our own appliances, furniture and keepsakes along with our 3 kids while my hubby becomes a doctor,
I feel like I have legitimately grown-up.

And for those interested, here are some FAQs answered, 

because I am sure there will be many Q's asked by a certain few :)

Why aren't you renting?!

The city where Richard's medical school is located, has some very dangerous non-family-friendly areas. Everyone, including real estate agents, told us to stay away from most of the areas except 2. One of them is a 30 minute drive (one way) from the school and the other area is the one the school is in. It is safe (it has an A+ rating on safety) , very family friendly, protected from the "bad" of the "scary" area by a big highway, and super close to the school. Since time with the family will be very limited because of how busy he will be, we opted to live in the area next to the school so we can spend an extra 1-2 hours a day with Richard (figuring in commuting time and the fact he can come home for lunch). This area doesn't have many rentals and the ones they do have are more than the allotment the school gives you for housing (because they only give enough for a single room apartment since the majority of the students are single men), requiring us to take out more student loans (NO THANKS!!) or not have enough for other expenses. It can be done, and we were going to, but it is definitely not ideal. Considering the only options were very small, with stairs (they are very hard with multiple small children and for that reason I REALLY don't like them) and no backyard and the fact I will have 3 VERY young kids, my time while he will be in medical school would have been awful really really hard. 

Long story short, we found out a couple months ago that my in-laws had sold their house and had a big chunk of money that they wanted to invest in housing for us (they are acting like "bank" and we are going to make monthly payments to them as if they were the "bank"). So we started looking at houses and because the area we need to live in is so nice, there were zero options in that price range. So we decided to look at all the options, including building. We found a perfect lot about a 2 minute drive from the campus for a decent price (and down the street from the brand-new elementary school and church building). And then we found out about a building company that could do everything we needed for the price we could do it in. The whole time we have been very cautious and did a lot of research to make sure it was the right decision. After all our research, we realized it very much is! 

What about the fact you are leaving in 4 years?

With the medical school growing by 30 seats a year and with their plans to open a P.A. school in a few years, we know that there would be a HUGE influx of students and a huge shortage of housing (and this school seeks after students who are LDS with families). So the possibility of renting or selling it when we are ready to leave, is very good. And the price of rentals with it's specs are VERY high, so worse case scenario and we can't sell it, we would make a lot by renting it. And like I said, there is a big market for that with the school growing so much. Plus, worst worst case scenario, and we can't sell it OR rent it out, we could stay there for 3-4 more years after medical school and Richard could very possibly do his residency there (and staying in our brand-new home we built in a very nice area wouldn't be a problem...hehe).
BUT even with all that considered, Business Insider predicts that Yakima will be one of the top markets to grow in the next 4 years (it should grow almost 8%) and it was named one of 15 of the best in the nation for housing markets because of that! And the neat thing, is we will be ready to sell in about 2017 when it is predicted to be at it's peak! HUGE BLESSING. 

How is it a good idea with property taxes, utilities, insurance etc?

Part of our research we did before making the final decision was to find out exactly how much that would be. The school gives you a utility and insurance allowance which is a little bit higher than what we will need to spend. And when we figured in the property taxes plus all the utilities etc. in the monthly payment, it is still much cheaper than renting.

What is the status?
The building permits have been approved, we have paid for the lot and closed on it, we paid the first deposit to the builder/contractor, temporary power pole is up and they are staking out the house on the property tomorrow so they can start excavating this next week!!

Will it be done by the time school starts?
The reason we choose the company that we did is because they are under contract to be completely finished with the project in 4 1/2 months. School doesn't start for another 5 months so we know it will definitely be finished in time. Their contract says 4 1/2 months, but they have been finishing houses in 85-90 days consistently and the main contractor is one of Richards relative and very old family friends, so we know we are in great hands. He knows our deadline and says he will definitely make it, with a good buffer.

What are the specs of the house?

almost 1500 square feet

3 bedrooms

2 full bathrooms

2 car garage

Walk-in closet in master bedroom (YAY!)

Kitchen bar

Covered front porch

Soaker tub and normal shower in master bathroom

Oil rubbed bronze fixtures (all lights and door handles)

Recessed lighting in the kitchen and covered porch 

Thick craftsman style trim throughout the house

Rounded corners on all walls and windows

Cheyenne doors throughout the house

Staggered cabinets in the kitchen

ETC

...perfect starter home!!!

(and I can't wait to put pictures of all the things we picked for the inside!!!)

So it is happening. 

I still can't believe it! The way this has come together is absolutely amazing. I really feel like things have been "guided" and really full of so many blessings. I know it sounds weird, but I have felt that way several times in this process. Like for example: as soon as we realized buying a house in that area was too expensive, I started looking at property and found the one we bought. We looked at other options and did our research trying to keep an open mind, but the whole time I felt a real sense of urgency. I quietly felt a little frantic. But I wasn't sure why because they hadn't had any offers on it since it hit the market almost a year before. Well we sped things through, put an offer on which they accepted and paid our earnest money. Almost as soon as we did that, the Realtor said they had multiple people put offers on it as back-ups and a lot of people very interested in it. She said that we did it at the perfect time. Now I see why I felt the urgency! If we would have waited much longer, we probably wouldn't have gotten it because they went $6,000 under their asking price and I am sure someone would have offered a full price offer! PHEW. 

Richard and I have had so much fun through this process! We are always talking about how we want to decorate the house, how we want to put a huge garden in the side yard and set-up our backyard asap (the yard is going to be HUGE!!! I am so excited). Richard is so excited to make some of the furniture we need  (like this kitchen table) and I am filling my Pinterest boards with ideas for our house. We had so much fun picking out all the things for the house (like carpets, cabinets, doors, flooring, windows, trim, fixtures etc) and we agreed on all of it!! We kept laughing the whole time because we would choose the same exact thing every time! We really are 1 mind and soul mates. We have had so much fun daydreaming constantly, making plans and getting randomly giddy when we think about it!

And lastly, we are SO INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL to my in-laws who have chosen to invest in this project so that our lives in medical school will be much easier! I feel so grateful to be a part of such a wonderful, supportive and selfless family!

Can't wait for our house to be finished so we can begin to fill it with fun memories!

Mother nature, I can relate.

Today is March 1st.

and the process of spring "springing" has begun.

We spent most of the day outside and it was a perfect, beautiful spring day full of adventure and exploring.

I followed after the kids while they walked around, caught frogs, explored the woods around the house, swung on the swing in the barn, played at the park, fed the ducks and soaked up the sun (that was actually shinning!! ::gasp::)

But as we were outside, exploring the world together

I couldn't help but relate with mother nature.

Liam and his precious frogs just after he caught them

I spy some pink legs...and a huge pregnant shadow...

You could see that everything was about to burst forth with life, the green was just about to push out from the ground, the trees had buds that will soon become leaves and the baby birds were singing.

As I looked around, I realized that mother earth was about to "pop", 

and so am I.

The "bowling ball" shot

He carried them around for a long time and was surprisingly
 gentle for a 3-year-old boy!

showing sister his findings

Spring is coming, so close, all the preparations are being made.

There might be a couple more colder days 

But it's almost here.

Baby girl is coming, so close, all the preparations are being made

(today I finished washing all the newborn clothes!!)

There might be a couple more hard days where my body hurts, I have acid reflux, being feeling ginormous and false labor

But she is almost here.

The similarities I felt between spring just around the corner and my current state was a little uncanny

and ironic.

(those pants make me look WAY more fat than I am...just FYI)

Spring is coming and the process has begun, 19 days early.
With 28 days left until my own special date,
My body is also slowly beginning the process of my own "progression" (if you know what I mean).
It's pretty cool being on the same "cycle" as mother nature.

Anyways, I love living in an area where spring exists and you can watch the slow process from winter to summer.

It is so beautiful and exciting to watch the world wake up after winter.

(If spring has come -19 days early, and the weather stays like it was today, that would be flippin' awesome.)