When Baby Leah Was Still Inside

I'm itching to find some time to write down Leah's birth story, but in the mean time I wanted to make sure I got these pictures on the blog that my amazing friend Anna took while I was still pregnant. She took these on May 5, so that was 18 days before she arrived.

San Antonio/No Baby Yet/Cinco De Mayo/Etc.

A couple weeks ago I was in the kitchen making dinner and Nate walked in the door. He started telling me a story that was related to work, and I just had the sense that there was a big and important reason he was sharing it with me. I think I finally kind of interrupted him and asked what all this meant and why was he telling it to me. He told me there was a possibility the Air Force was going to send us to Lackland AFB in San Antonio. I burst into tears and just cried while I continued to work on dinner. I was so overwhelmed at the thought of going somewhere other than Vegas, somewhere farther from family and friends and familiarity. In my shock and also just because of some confusion on my part, I was thinking Lackland was in Florida. Nate was comforting me and then said jokingly, "I'll get you a cowboy hat and some boots." Now I was really confused. I asked him (kind of annoyed) why I would need those in Florida, and he told me Lackland was in San Antonio. Duh!  

We spent a week or so just waiting and wondering how things would all play out. There were a lot of people involved in the decision of where to send Nate. Eventually we got word that we would be going to San Antonio. There have been lots of tears and lots of mixed feelings, but at this moment in time I am very, very excited about San Antonio. I feel really good about, and I think our family will love it there. Emmy doesn't truly understand the change, Natalie is excited, and Jansen cried. I think he is going to be ok though. He hasn't really expressed much concern about the change since we first told them. 

It's been a little hard to process a change like that as well as the pending arrival of our little one. Yesterday I had my membranes stripped, and that put me into labor with Natalie and Emmy. We had care for the kids in place in the event that it put me into labor. Well, it didn't. After the appointment Nate and I stayed in Bethesda for a couple hours to make sure things didn't start progressing quickly. That's what had happened with Natalie, but I was 40 weeks with her and this time I was only 39. So we went home. Later that afternoon I was having a lot of contractions. We were toying with the idea of going to the hospital. It can be so hard to know...even when you are married to a doctor. We decided to hold off, which was the right choice. Once I laid down, the contractions stopped. It was an uneventful night, and actually pretty restful. And so now we are waiting again. 

I took this picture one night because Nate spends a lot of time standing in this spot working on his laptop. We both realized just the other day that he REALLY needs a desk when we get to Texas. 

For Cinco de Mayo we picked up Cafe Rio (half price on Mondays for military!) and ate it at the Rasmussens. Anna had bought and filled a pinata for the kids. 

They thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

Oh and we celebrated our 10 year anniversary! Nate got me these beautiful flowers. I honestly don't remember much about the day. I think it was a busy one, and we both had the understanding that it would be a low key anniversary this year. Words can't express how much I love him and how happy he has made me the past 10 years.

The ward father and son campout was a great success. Jansen had a blast.

I took baby on the Metro. Anna told me about this cool opportunity to be a guest usher at Ford's Theater which is where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. She and I met up and ushered The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. 

The upper box seats you can see in this picture is where he was shot. 

It was a really fun night.

Jansen greeted me on Mother's Day morning with this sweet Lego creation. 

Lately Natalie loves to have a big box fan blasting in her face as she falls asleep. I actually think she falls asleep a lot faster with it on. 

Playing Outside

We have been playing outside a lot lately. I guess the weather has been just right. This means extra laundry, extra baths, extra patience because of the messes, but the kids are so happy outside. This is how Natalie spent a recent Sunday morning.

Jansen runs outside right after coming home from school every day. He has really loved climbing trees lately. It makes me very nervous, but I feel like I need to just let him be an 8 year old boy.

And I can't believe it took us this long to discover the perfect hideout on the side of our house.

Let's hope summer and the humidity don't creep up on us too fast and we can have more afternoons like these.

The Circus and Stuff

The other night my visiting teachers wanted to meet up at Baskin Robbins for ice cream. The kids helped "push" the car out of the driveway for me. They love to do that.

A little over a week ago Emmy and I met some friends at a really small children's museum in downtown Bethesda. It was such a unique little place. Basically it had lots of different themed rooms like this one.

After playing for awhile we walked to the famous Georgetown Cupcake. I am often disappointed in these types of places that everyone raves about, but my lemon coconut cupcake was AMAZING. I brought Flat Stanley with us who is visiting from Las Vegas. 

We didn't do that much walking, but I was having lots of contractions when we did. These were a little more crampy and painful than all the tightening that has been going on for a couple months. They subsided with some rest, and I haven't had any like that for a week. 

Natalie has a great friend out here named Risa. She invited Natalie to her birthday party at an ice cream place called Carvel, and Natalie looked forward to it for weeks. 

 One Saturday night Nate and I decided kind of last minute to take the kids to the circus, but it was going to be a surprise. As we got close to our destination, it was actually Emmy who guessed where we were going. Natalie was the most excited. Jansen had a rough start to the evening because it was fairly windy. 

After this picture I took Jansen inside, and Nate took the girls to ride on an elephant. 

It was one of those nights when you let the kids have all sorts of things you usually say no to. Cotton candy, sno cones, popcorn, etc. Cotton candy is disgusting. 

The elephants made me sad. To be honest, I don't think I had ever given it much thought till now. But that night I felt so bad for their life in a circus. I'm just going to have to tell myself that they are happy. And I am a fairly patient and understanding person in most circumstances, but I was getting pretty annoyed with the little girl (not her actually, her mother) who stood on her chair through the whole circus. 

I had to get my military ID renewed, and let me tell you, I was thrilled about having a close up picture of my face taken when I was 37 weeks pregnant. Emmy asked me to take this picture of her and Nate. Emmy gets dragged to all sorts of appointments and meetings, and she is so good about it for the most part. At all my OB appointments Dr. Stephens lets her hold the doppler to my tummy to hear the baby's heartbeat. I love having her with me all day.

This is her sweet friend Ava that we have lots of preschool and play dates with.

Natalie has so many little toys, but lately she has mostly been playing with these little paper dolls she made. I just love it.

A little bird has a nest in one of the trees right next to our porch. Natalie set up a feast for them yesterday.

And Emmy set up this nice shrine??? on our front porch with a few of the things that are important to her right now. I'm sure it has made the UPS guy smile.