Who Will She Look Like?

I think Baby Girl #2 will look just like this picture of Diego. I had a dream a long time ago, before I had Eliana, that I had a girl that looked just like that picture, but wrapped in a pink blanket. So that's how I'm picturing her. Marcelo thinks she'll be lighter haired and lighter skinned than Eliana but that she'll still have lots of hair. And both Diego and Celo think that out of these three pictures, she'll look most like Diego. We'll find out in 2 days!

Maternity Photoshoot

Marcelo was a sport and played photographer for a quick maternity photoshoot. I'm not going to lie: I see myself in these pictures and I think Holy Moly. But I'm pretty sure my daughter won't care and will be glad I can show her a few shots of her in my belly. Let's start with the bloopers. This first one is right after church. My last Sunday as a pregnant lady! I wore heels. And then my ankles were super swollen the rest of the day. Actually, they're still swollen today. Genius. 

In the evening we went to a nearby church and took pictures in the grass. Celo was having a really hard time cooperating. Here I am telling him to stop acting like a puppy (which was in turn making his sister act like a puppy) and smile at the dang camera.

She was over it. She kept saying, "No! I don't want it!" But then when we were leaving she had a fit and said, "No! More picture me!" The girl has no idea what she wants half the time.

Poor Celo and his extreme grass allergies. We were only sitting in the grass for about 5 minutes at this point and his eyes started getting itchy and his nose was running. Does he look miserable or what? And I don't know what's up with Diego's fake smile. All I know is that my sweet husband saw this picture and said, "You're welcome for cutting your feet out of the picture." Yes. Thank you.

Now for the keepers!

Marcelo getting crafty with his photography skills.

It took like 25 shots to get one good one of the four of us looking at the camera.

Squeezing the baby.

Hello Hips.

Oh the cankles. They crack me up every time. I was so happy Eliana was cooperative during these shots!

Love the cheese faces.

Absolute favorite of the day. Want to know a secret? I cut Eliana's head from another pic to create this one. In the one picture where she was looking at the camera, the boys were not. This was a very very difficult shoot!

Diego took this one of us. You put that camera in his hands and watch out! There were approximately 50 pictures exactly like this one. Pretty sure he just likes to hear it click click click click click.

A couple more sweet ones.

Kisses for the baby.

The kids, well, the boys really, are so so excited to meet their baby sister. When I walk them through what's going to happen in the next few days, they seriously squeal when I get to the part that says, "And then you'll come to the hospital and meet your baby sister!" It makes me tear up just thinking about it. I can NOT believe the time is here. I'm terrified that something will go wrong with the surgery, that the baby will have health problems, and every other crazy thought that goes through a pregnant woman's mind. But I'm also tremendously excited for the huge changes this week will bring. EEEEEK. Now I'm the one squealing.

Pet Week

Our theme weeks have pretty much died out. We had a good run, but then I started to feel very pregnant and uncomfortable and started having lots of pain and very little energy. So the two weeks that the kids were most looking forward to were very low key and I still feel pretty bad about that. Oh the mom guilt. BUT, they were also out of town having tons of fun with Tata for part of the time, so I don't feel TOO bad. 

Celo was really looking forward to Pet Week. He's obsessed with dogs. We took a trip to a local pet store that has all kinds of crazy pets. Here are some things we saw, taken on my smart phone. Oh yeah, did I mention that? I got a smart phone. I'm only a few years behind the rest of the world. Marcelo is still representing with his super cool flip phone with a one inch screen.

We did a pet craft. It started out as a wiener dog activity, but then they were like, "Can you make Chihuahuas??" They're obsessed with Chihuahuas.

We also made puppy houses. 

These boys loooove their puppies. 

We also got books from the library about dogs. But that happens every time we go to the library. So yeah, not tons of stuff, but hopefully the kids had fun.

Baby Shower

My mom put together a baby shower for me last weekend. She's aware that etiquette says that the mother isn't really supposed to be the one to do that, but since it was going to be just family and a couple of Colombian friends, she decided to do it anyway. Everything turned out so cute and I was so so grateful for all the love my baby girl was given!

These little babies on the party favors were adorable. My mom got them in Colombia when she was there last month.

There is a story behind these chocolate dipped marshmallows involving a cake ball attempt gone wrong. They still turned out really cute. :)

My dad came to the rescue and went out and got this cake when cake ball attempt went sour. Let the record show that "Sweet Baby Girl" had no name.

Adorable napkins.

The banner had the same little birds on it.

This was a huge surprise. My grandma crocheted this blanket and sent it in time for the shower. It's beautiful and I love it!

Thanks to my mom for making it a special day. I should have taken pictures of the delicious food. I also should have taken pictures of the fun activity we did. Instead of games we made hair bows for my little girl. My money is on her being born bald, but we'll see! I really wish I had taken pictures of all the cute bows people made. When you are the family photographer, no one else brings a camera, and I was having too much fun just enjoying the day and forgot to document it better.

Five inch heels and 9 months pregnant? Don't mind if I do. My feet were killing me at the end of the night, but dang it, it's an addiction and I just can't break it. Notice my parents changed the decor of their living room. The wall used to be brick/terra cotta colored and had little Colombian houses on it. I loooove the new green color.

My good friend Vanessa threw me a shower for the English speaking women in my life. Yes, we segregate. I am so mad at myself because I didn't bring my camera and I forgot to ask anyone to take any pictures!! It was super fun and the food was so yummy. We played a funny question game and she surprised me with a little interview she did with Marcelo beforehand. His answers were so funny and it was nice to see that we were on the same page overall! She also made me an awesome thing to hold hair clips that I've been wanting to make for a long time. I looove it! I'll take a picture of it soon.

When I got home I told Marcelo how bummed I was about forgetting to take my camera, so he took this one of me to at least document a cute pregnant outfit, haha. I spend most of my days looking like quite the frump, but let's let posterity think otherwise:

I feel so blessed to have such great family and friends! I now have all the things I was missing for my baby girl and it's such a relief to feel more ready for her to arrive. 

Holiday Week

I have so much blogging to catch up with and so little time! I should be running errands right now but I keep putting it off. Going to buy paint with the three kids does not sound as good as sitting here and catching up on a few posts while they play oh so nicely in the toy room.

We did Holiday Week on the week of the 4th, and we covered Easter, Halloween, Christmas, and Independence Day. For our Easter activity we did an Easter egg hunt with clues. It was a lot of fun, but I didn't take pictures. Each egg had a little clue that said something like, "Your next egg is somewhere Mommy cooks." Then they'd find that egg in the oven. That egg would say, "Your next egg is where you put your dirty clothes." and it would be in their hamper, and so on. They loved it.

For our Halloween activity, they just dressed up in all their dress up clothes. Diego just wanted to wear his "Zumba Instructor" clothes, which consist of a comfy pair of pants and a sleeveless athletic shirt. And wristbands. Gotta have the wristbands. That has pretty much been his uniform all summer, just like the dinosaur shirt Celo is wearing in these pictures has been. That's all they want to wear.

For Independence Day, we did poppers, sparklers, and decorated our front lawn with American flags. Then we went to see Fireworks with all the cousins. Here are Angela and Danielle's sparkler stars:

And here are all the cousins on the back of Uncle Jerry's truck watching the fireworks. Angela and Danielle are at the top, Leilani is hidden behind Diego and Reagan, Gabriella is hidden behind Juliana and Isabella, in front of Diego is Vivi, Lina, Eliana, and Celo. Tia Juany is on the side.

Aunt Karen is on the left and Grandma is hugging Diego.

For our Christmas activity, I actually put the boys to work on something I had been meaning to do since, oh, Christmas. I have had a stack of Christmas books in my room since December that I wanted to wrap up so they can unwrap them each day in December this year. (Got the idea from my awesome friend Vanessa.) The kids wanted to learn how to wrap a present, so that's what we did! They did a great job.

With the leftover paper the boys wrapped up some of their toys and made "Christmas Trees" out of pillows. 

  

That was pretty much it. I had a cold all week and wasn't up for doing much more than that. They didn't seem to mind too much!

36 Weeks

Here I am, 9 months pregnant with baby #4. (You should see the shoes I wore with this dress. I have some friends who would be very disappointed in me.)

I'll post the baby shower pictures, separately, but for now, some tidbits about being 9 months pregnant for the 4th time. I'd like to stress that I am not trying to be ungrateful for this enormous gift that Heavenly Father is giving me of being able to bring another baby into our family. However, I want to keep it real on this blog and not act like everything is flowers and rainbows.

I have come to realize that I have been extremely spoiled in my other pregnancies. I could reach my toes, bend down without much problem, and overall felt pretty good right up until the end. I am now "pushing 30", doing this for the 4th and last time, and wow what a difference! I can barely reach my toes, I feel like I'm going to fall over when I try to bend down, if I sit down on the floor I sit there and wonder how on earth I'm going to get back up, I have Braxton Hicks contractions on the daily, sometimes multiple times an hour, as of yesterday I feel like my pelvic bone is broken when I walk, I can't sleep well, and I am permanently exhausted. I feel really bad for my kids because our last 3 themed weeks have gone way downhill with very few activities and outings because my energy level is at an all time low. Thankfully Tata is around to take them away on fun vacations so they're not too bored in these last few weeks before their sister arrives. Marcelo said to me the other day, "You only have a few weeks left where these 3 kids will be your only kids." Makes me want to make it the best few weeks ever for them, and I will try, but I'm definitely more limited in what I can do.

On the other hand, I am thoroughly enjoying feeling Baby Girl kick and squirm. I'm enjoying the kids' reactions (well, Diego's really) to feeling her kick, too. I'm trying to soak in those wonderful parts of pregnancy that I will never experience again. It truly is a miracle.

I'm ALMOST ready for it. I'm trying not to think about the spinal I will have to get, or the fact that I will be getting cut open. I'm trying not to think about the fact that how tired I feel right now is NOTHING compared to how tired I will feel when I'm in newborn mode again. I have a few things left to do like pack the hospital bag, get the bassinet, and wash the rest of the blankets and baby things. So in that sense, I'm ALMOST ready. Emotionally...maybe a little farther. I am completely overwhelmed at the thought of being a mom to 4. I'm scared that Eliana is going to have a really hard time with it. I'm scared that I won't be able to give the boys the individual attention they so crave. I'm scared that my house will never be clean again and that laundry will control my life. I'm scared that breastfeeding will be a nightmare like it was with Eliana. Please oh please oh please let it be easy breezy like it was with Diego. BUT...I'm grateful that our family is growing. I'm looking forward to that feeling of being so close to heaven in the hospital, to newborn cuddles and coos, to watching Eliana and her sister grow to be friends like the boys did, and to meeting this little person!

What? Does it sound like I have two personalities? (Or as I like to call it, personathalys.) I'm pregnant. I'm allowed to be an emotional wreck.

Camping Week

Camping Week was so much fun. Diego is reading over my shoulder and said, "Mommy, don't put a period!" He thinks it should say, Camping Week was so much fun!!!

We went on a nature hike and collected all kinds of things to make pictures with.

Here is Celo hard at work writing his name with sticks and decorating it. By the way, he wishes we would have named him Celo instead of Marcelo. Sorry, bud.

Diego working on his masterpiece.

Check out that farmer's tan.

There is no picture of Eliana hard at work because all she did was make giant blobs of Elmer's Glue on that black sheet of paper beside her. So I just made one for her.

We set up camp in the living room all week. By Friday, I couldn't wait to get that tent down, but the kids loved it. On Wednesday night we let the boys sleep in it, which they thought was pretty awesome.

Here they are trying to give Eliana some love for the picture. I love that they always want to do this when I'm trying to take a picture of the 3 of them together.

Clearly Eliana doesn't think it's so cute. Holy Grumpelina.

More love for the little sis.

Showing off our "campfire".

We ate s'mores, but I didn't take a picture. We also ate these banana boat things with marshmallows and chocolate. The kids gobbled them up. Well, Celo ate half and Little Lady Sweet Tooth (Eliana) finished his off.

I made the kids a fishing game to play with our friends, but I forgot to take pictures when we did it! So we played it again when the cousins came over.

We also made little porcupines with construction paper and toothpicks but I didn't take pictures of them either.

To finish off camping week we went "camping" with Grandpa and Grandma. We were "roughing it" for two nights. Okay, not so much roughing it. These were Grandpa and Grandma's sleeping quarters:

And these were ours (right across from their motorhome):

Ahhh, so much better than sleeping in a tent. This is my kind of camping!

We had so much fun! More pictures to come.