Birthday season begins here and more

His birthday present from us, he LOVES it!

This past weekend we celebrated Gabriel's second birthday anniversary. I don't like to call them "Birthdays" because we all only ever have one real birthday. Friday September 21st was Gabriel's official birthday anniversary. Prob,Gabriel,Dominique and myself celebrated by going to a place called Pump it up.The big kids were at school. This place is a kids dream with many giant inflatable bounce houses, slides and mazes. It was his first time there and though cautious at first, it didn't take him long to discover the fun!

Sunday we had a family party at our house. Lots of family and a few friends came over to celebrate Gabriel. Olivia and I made a pinata for the party since Gabriel loves candy! I really enjoyed making the pinata as it gave Olivia and I something to do together and I always feel like handmade things for the ones you love are just that much more meaningful (not to mention at times much more affordable.)

Dominique's newest favorite thing to do, climb in the car bin

 Gabriel's festivities are just the beginning around here since all of our children have close birthdays with the next 3 in October. It gets a bit overwhelming with so much going on this time of year.

 Right now I am also working on some tough love with both my little guys. I can tell you im sure its harder on me than on them and I just hate it. This is definitely something that needs to be done in order to establish some peace around here, mainly for me. A few things we are working on are; weaning Gabriel, teaching Dom to self soothe during nap and Gabriel to stay in bed at bedtime. More on these things later.

In my last blog post we were in the process of hopefully getting into a new home since we have more than outgrown our current one. With a lot of wasted effort on our part, it doesn't look like it will happen until next fall. I am so sad and defeated feeling about the whole situation, this was all I wanted for our family. The whole time though I guess I have been feeling like we could make this happen since we wanted it so bad. I think im finally realizing that I didn't leave it in God's hands and that is the problem. I know God has a plan for us and just because we want this NOW, he knows when the time will be right and I have to be ok with that.

Rome's first flag FB game

His first visit to the dentist

With that said more organizing, donating and rearranging has to happen so I can keep my sanity. One project I did yesterday was make a craft area in the basement just for Olivia. A place she can go where no one will disturb her. A place if only small where she can create without little brothers(or a big one) bothering her or her creations.

School, Fall and more

Here we are at the beginning of the new school year. The children had their first day last Tuesday and luckily are able to be attending the school we love without me having to be their transportation this year considering I have my hands full with Gabriel and a new baby due here in about a month.

I love this time of year. I always have since I was a little girl. I think my favorite things about it are the changing colors, the way the air smells in the mornings when you first step outside, the excitement of a new school year and to me it always feels like a fresh start somehow. Fall makes me happy and cheery.

I am 2 days shy of being 35 weeks pregnant. At our 33 week appointment the doctor said they wanted to do an amniocentesis to check the baby's lungs for maturity and induce if they were indeed mature. The reason she said this was because I guess once you reach 36 weeks gestation the testing to check the baby for anemia are no longer very accurate. At my 34 week appointment, a different doctor thought it would be ok to just wait until labor begins on its own since most likely the baby will be unaffected by theses antibodies since he hasn't thus far meaning my placenta is doing a good job not allowing those antibodies to reach the baby.

I don't know what to think. All I know is I want to do whatever is best for the baby. I know my body is spent and ready to be done as soon as possible. I know I have a 11 month old that is very attached to mommy lately and doesn't realize its hard for mommy to carry him around 24/7, only that he needs me. A husband that doesn't understand how hard it is to be pregnant only that he is worn out too from long days of work.  2 older kids that don't see that I need them to be more responsible and two dogs that don't care that I'm almost 9 months pregnant but know that they crave exercise.

That's life I guess as a mother. Its all worth it though and things will get easier. I am looking forward to taking the family to the pumpkin patch soon, Gabriel's first birthday party this weekend and Romeos football games. Oh and I cant forget sweatshirts and bonfires. Beautiful Fall.