Family pics soon:)

So I thought I should get in a quick post before Maci Brielle arrives (yeah we picked a name, Aaron mainly picked the first name and I picked the middle...how is that even fair?). I am not just about to be 37 weeks in 2 days and I am already dilated to 4. I am 70% effaced and the baby is at -2 station, head down and engaged. Which basically means I feel like I am walking around with a bowling ball between my legs: fun times! TMI, but it's my blog so I'm gonna say it. I lost my mucous plug over the weekend. Very gross but just another sign labor is coming at any moment. I'm also at 191 lbs. Yikes. Hopefully breastfeeding sucks the fat back out like it did last time. I can't wait to start working out and get skinny again.
We took the kids to walk around Heartland of America Park last night. The older girls are enjoying probably their last sleepover before Maci is born. We took them to get ice cream and went for a long walk to see the ducks, fish and turtles. We had fun and got chased by ducks for our bread:) Contractions occurred while walking but then stopped by the time we got home. Just my luck, all I got from that long walk was a more sore pelvis and 2+ pitting edema in my lower extremities. The girls know that I can't do anymore sleepovers at our house after Maci is born. Sleepovers are exhausting to parents and disruptive to the little one's sleep schedule. But the older girls are obsessed with them...it's not enough to play with their friends for 15 hours during the day, they have to stay up until 3 AM watching movies with them too.
Quick update on the fam:
 

We purchased 2 new vehicles in anticipation of needing more room for our fourth child. Aaron's friend works at Bellevue Toyota as a finance manager so we got a great deal on a silver Honda Pilot. We had leather seating put in so the kids wouldn't destroy the seats with food and drinks and we had to have a DVD player put in. Liv really enjoys watching Elmo while listening on the headphones these days. We also decided that 2 SUV's were going to be too much on gas so we leased a Toyota Corolla for work. Whoever is working drives the Corolla and whoever has the kids keeps the Pilot. So far it's worked out pretty good.

We were able to do the landscaping as well..or at least get 90% of it done. We were going to rent a sod cutter but after Aaron tried pulling up a little sod and made it look so darn easy, I decided we could save the money and Aaron could put in some sweat equity. My portion of work involved designing, picking out plants, spray paint/outline the areas I wanted to be pulled up and helped actually plant the plants. We made a good team and our efforts turned out beautiful. The only thing we didn't get done is our sugar maple tree out front. We couldn't find one that was in our price range before it got too hot to plant trees so now we are waiting until the fall so we don't kill the poor thing we plant. For now there is a nice bean shaped mulched area with a few rocks waiting for a sugar maple tree to be planted.

Cece and Liv's room's are all painted and finished. Maci's room is finished but I didn't paint it because the color went with her shabby chic decor just fine. The downstairs formal living room and dining room got an accent wall painted and I plan on doing the kitchen and the island. I have the paint color, I just need the time and motivation.

We recently got a costco membership and are in love! lol. The things that excited you as an adult. Seriously though the food is way healthier than Sam's club and although we spend more upfront for some stuff because we buy it in bulk, we save a ton in the long run and I never have to make those annoying trips to walmart for toilet paper or paper towels or dish soap. We've found some really good staple snack items we've been keeping around the house for the kids too.

We have become very good friends with our neighbors. I am just in awe of how lucky we are to be surrounded by such amazing people who we have so much in common with. We spend many hours every week just hanging out with our neighbors while the kids play in any one of our back yards. Were lucky that the kids get to enjoy having friends so close and so close in age. It's a good life:)

Aaron took a new position at his job a few months ago. Same office, more pay, union contract, better wknd hours which allow him to be home by 6 on the weekends now with Monday and Tuesday off every week. The benefits to this schedule are pretty great because it allows us to still do stuff as a family on the weekends and to get to do more family activities during the week when the usual locations would normally be packed if we were forced to do them on the weekends.

Kiley is moving from Colorado to San Antonio at the end of her 6 week summer break with us. We are very happy for her to experience a different lifestyle. We are also excited to visit her every year in the spring. We are planning to take a week long spring break every year down there. We may stay in San Antonio to see her city the first year but then we would like to pick her up and go stay near the ocean every year. We really are more beach people then mountain people. The only downside is a few more hours in the car to get to her. Probably about 3-4 more hours actually. So it makes Aaron and I have to be a little more creative with our traveling plans and keeping the kids occupied.

Cece is now in level 4 competition. She was just recently bumped up. They actually asked her to do pre team which means she would go from training her current 2 days a week for 2 hours each day, to 3 days a week, 3 hours each day. We agreed as a family that at 8 going on 9 years old that's just too much and too expensive to do right now. I especially don't want her to get burnt out at such a young age because she truly has a talent that she could probably get a full ride college scholarship for if she continues to work at and can avoid injury. We love her gym and are so glad we switched from Omega gymnastics. Her coaches are amazing! Cece is going to be a 4th grader this year! My baby is growing up!
Olivia Camille is about to be 2 in August. The girls are having a pool party at papio pool where we rented out the pool for 2 hours. She is now in her own twin bed in her room and off the bottle. Thank goodness. She is talking more and more each day. She is so loving but can be such 2 year old handful most days. She also still likes us to lay down with her at night to get her to go to sleep. A hard habit I am hoping we can break when the school year resumes and the late night summer schedule concludes. Potty training was going great for about 6 weeks and then she decided that M&Ms were just not enough motivation to sit on the toilet all the time in order to stay dry. We still offer to take her to the bathroom but we arent' forcing her to do anything she doesn't want to do. She really isn't even 2 yet so I'm not in the least bit worried. She won't go to kindergarten in diapers, I'm sure of it!

I'm working about 24-30 hours a week doing the home nursing. Much better fit for our family and so very flexible. They asked me to take a full time position after the baby is born and I return but I think my place is at home with the kids as much as possible in the early years. Maybe when Liv is in 4 yr old preschool and Maci is 2 I will again consider it, or if sooner before if Aaron's work schedule changes (the home program is ever growing in an effort to keep kids home and out of jail).  I'm still doing mom's group through southridge every Tuesday and I have grown so much and have made life long friendships with the girls in my group. I feel so blessed to know them and am so glad that I went out of my comfort zone for a minute to start going in the first place last fall. Liv loves it because it gives her a chance to be with other kids in the nursery and play every week.

We have family pictures in a few weeks and I can't wait to get them done. We need some new pictures of all of us around the house. I feel so bad doing pictures without Kiley here but the only good time to do them is during summer break because we are usually always so busy during the other times during the year that she comes home. That's ok because the girls are always so tan and sunkissed in the summer. These girls are so beautiful and blessed. I'm so happy to be their mom. Even if some days they drive me to the brink of sanity:)