The BIG Day

Tomorrow is the big day! I had an appointment with my doctor today and we have decided to schedule something for tomorrow. The reason I say "something" is because I have tonight to decide wether I want to be induced or get a c-section. The baby is a week late and I am still showing absolutely no progress. On top of that the doctor is estimating a very big baby (9+ pounds!!) and is worried about it getting too much bigger if we continue to wait. If I choose to get induced he would have to take a more aggressive approach since my body is not favorable but there is a 50-70% chance it would end in a c-section, and that is why I also have the decision to just get a c-section. Chances are I won't get much sleep tonight with this big decision but we are so excited (and nervous) to finally meet our baby boy or girl tomorrow and become a family of 4.

Here is our last picture as a family of 3.

We'll be sure to keep everyone updated on how things go and we'll post pictures to show off our newest addition as soon as possible.

April 21st

I'm still pregnant. Enough said.

Today is April 17th...

...my due date. Unfortunately there is no sign of this baby coming today. Call it wishful thinking, but I truely thought this baby was going to make it's arrival a little early. But here I am, 10:00pm on the day I've been looking forward to for so long now without even the tiniest bit of contractions. In the first half of this pregnancy I would usually forget I was even pregnant since I was so busy with Dawson. The second half was a little harder as I got more and more tired, my patience got less and less and I got bigger and bigger. Now that I am HUGE it's hard to think about making it one more day. But of course I know it's bound to happen soon and then I'll quickly forget how tired and uncomfortable I am. So for now, be amazed at the size of the belly you are about to see below. Is it obvious that my smile is forced at this point? :)

Come on baby! Please get this show on the road so we can all find out if you are a little boy or girl in there, we're anxious to meet you!!

Tulip Town

We spent yesterday's beautiful sunny day in Mount Vernon visiting Tulip Town and the Tulip Festival Street Fair. The street fair was great! Tons of vendors with fun goodies, huge yummy waffle cones and lots of music and entertainment to keep Dawson's attention. The tulips, one of my favorite flowers, were beautiful of course. Such a boy. All Dawson wanted to do was grab the tulip and pull the flower right off the stem. Love this picture of Daddy & Dawson among the bright yellow tulips!

Dawson's favorite part seemed to be walking up and down on the humps that seperated the tulip lines.

Black pants in the dirt was probably not the best idea!

Loved these orange & red tulips.

One of the few pictures (in a long time) of just Chad and I.

The last picture on the way out. You can tell by the expression-Dawson was done.

Hard Workin' Boys

As a lot of you know, we got our three huge poplar trees on the edge of our property cut down a few months ago. This weekend we finally got around to renting a wood splitter to get it all cut up. Luckily Chad's friends Colby and Bob helped out so it got done in a day. So...does anyone need some wood? We've got a huge pile that we're anxious to get out of the yard.

I should say that it was even luckier that Chad had two strong friends helping.

I couldn't resist laughing as I watched Bob and Colby lift these huge rounds while Chad stood there and pulled the lever on the splitter :).

Dawson decided to take the day off from being "Daddy's helper" and instead observed while eating his grapes.

When that got boring, he moved on to playing in the dirt and mowing the lawn.

We've Got It!!!

That's right, we finally came up with a boy name! We didn't have to find it in a book or anything, we kind of made it up ourselves. Now we're just debating on if we're going to tell anyone or wait since baby should be here soon (hopefully!). I kept thinking that baby was just waiting until I felt comfortable going to the hospital with a boy and girl name that I loved and now that I have them...come on baby-let's get this show on the road!!

Happy Easter!

We had a fantastic Easter weekend! On Saturday we took Dawson to a couple Easter egg hunts around town. We were unsure how he would do or if he would understand but once Chad showed him to put the first egg in his basket he was on the hunt.

Walking proudly with his basket full of eggs.

We went to the next Easter egg hunt because they had the Easter Bunny there-but Dawson was scared of him. He clenched on to me so tight that I had to sit in on the picture with him. Of course, right when we walked away all he did was point and say "go" because he wanted to go back to the bunny. We stayed for the hunt (despite a little rain) and Dawson was the proud owner of another Easter basket full of goodies.

Then Saturday night Dawson went to Grandma Gartner's to dye Easter eggs. Sorry, no pics but he did a great job!

Easter morning we had Dawson look around the house to find his basket. He found it very quickly considering I put it at his favorite spot in the house-under his tool bench.

Look at that snarl as he piles M&Ms in his mouth.

At least he's holding his new electric toothbrush.

Later that afternoon we went to Mooma & Poopa's (Chad's parents) to celebrate and do Dawson's 3rd Easter egg hunt.

By this time he was a pro. The only problem...after discovering that these eggs he's picking up have candy inside them all he wants to do is open and eat rather than continue hunting.

Chad had to stand close by with the basket open to ensure he wouldn't sit there and eat all his goodies at once.

Happy Easter!

Names, Names, Names

Word of warning: reading 4 baby name books in a row will make you fuzzy in the head...and no, I still have not found our perfect boy name. My doctor actually laughed at me at my appointment yesterday because he couldn't believe 2 weeks before the due date we didn't have names chosen. It's out there somewhere and I'm hoping we'll find it before this baby makes it's debut. Then who knows if this stressing over a boy name will have been for nothing. Kai is now out. Grady and Grayson are still the top choices. We've went back and forth with the name Cooper. We both like it but worry that it may get too common soon. Chad heard another one that he likes-Lincoln, but I don't think it's working for me.

Daddy and Dawson reading a baby name book.

It would be great if the names Dawson pointed at were good ones and he could help choose but so far I swear every one he's pointed to is the most hideous on the page! :)