False Alarm...

This past Sunday marked 39 weeks with Baby #3. Zach and I have been nesting and preparing for the baby for weeks and we both feel very ready to meet this little guy or gal, which we thought was going to happen on Tuesday.
I woke up and started having contractions around 7:30. (I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks but these were more intense and coming more consistently.) I was pretty excited so I started to time them and discovered they were coming every 5-12 minutes. They continued at this pace and even became more consistent (only 7-8 minutes apart) after a couple hours. I called the doctor and they told me to come in. The contractions were continuing to become stronger as well so we thought this was the real deal. We made it to the hospital and after 2.5 hours of monitoring me they told me I wasn't progressing enough to be admitted. So they told us to go eat dinner and that they would probably see us again later that night. We did as we were told and the contractions continued to become more painful all evening. I went to bed at 10:00 and suddenly the contractions stopped! 15 hours of contractions and no baby- Grrrrr!!! It was super disappointing, but we know that this baby will come in God's timing, not ours. So now I'm just 3 days to my due date and we'll see if we make it!

We're going to the zoo!

Yeah for warmer Spring weather...finally! We were thrilled to wake up to a beautiful blue sky and sunshine this past week. I called up my parents and asked if they were interested in a morning at the zoo with me and the girls. They gladly agreed which I was very thankful for since I don't have the energy needed for outings without a little help these days.

Below, Grandpa is helping Carrie see the monkeys. :-)

 The tigers were out and very active. They kept walking right in front of the viewing area.

 "Whoe!"

 My mom got a picture of me, 39 weeks and 3 days, pushing Lyddi around.

The hit of the zoo every time we go is the tree house play area for the kids. Lydia LOVES it and Carrie got into it this summer too. 

Gotta get a picture at the John Ball statue!

What a fun morning! Feels so great to be outdoors after a long winter.

39 Weeks!

39 weeks! Come on baby, we are ready to meet you!

Air Zoo!

We spent a morning at the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo with my sister, her boys, and my dad. It was a super-cool place to visit! It had many old war planes on display with interesting information and facts about each one.

The Air Zoo was very educational, although I didn't get to read most of the info. due to keeping up with the kids. Here we are enjoying a mirror closet in the DaVinci exhibit.

Exploring some of Da Vinci's inventions...

There was also this toddler room for the little ones to play. We spent a good chunk of time in there.

They even had a few kid rides! I was shocked to see Lyddi get jump right in- she did awesome! And a big thank you to Grandpa for taking the kids since I couldn't.

What a fun morning!

38 weeks and counting!

Here I am at 38 weeks.... countdown is ON!

Misc. April Pics

Lydia recently found my make-up bag and had a little fun with the eye liner... :-)

 For Zach's birthday weekend we traveled Port Huron to meet up with some friend for Jarvis. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and had an awesome time catching up for a couple hours.

 Lydia having a tractor ride with Grandpa!

 My friend, Julie, came over with her three boys for a playdate one morning. The weather was beautiful so we attempted a short walk with 5 kids.

 I got to get together with some great high school friends for a lovely dinner. It was so fun catching up and enjoying lots of laughs together.

 Eating lunch at Costco with cousins. The girls were enjoying their lemonade. :-)

 Lydia's first drawing of a person!

That's April in a nutshell!

Zach's Bread Debut!

Zach was recently asked to provide the bread for a soup supper at a nearby church. He was very eager and excited to spend the day baking and giving his bread away for others to enjoy!

 After about 7 hours of baking, he came away with 15 pounds of bread! He made roughly 80 rolls and 8 baguettes from scratch!

37 weeks!

Homestretch! So, talk about preggo-brain- the sign says 36 weeks but I am actually 37 weeks along. Still lots to do to prepare for another baby in the home, but we're getting there. We are feeling super excited to meet this little one in just a few weeks!

Happy Birthday Zach!!

Zach turned 34 this month- wow, hard to believe he's in his mid-thirties! His birthday landed on a Sunday so I had to get a picture of him with his little ladies before church. 

His birthday was a pretty typical Sunday with church, lunch, rest and evening church. But we did get together with some good friends from Canada earlier in the weekend in Port Huron, which was a lot of fun. And we plan to enjoy a delicious steak dinner on Monday- kind of nice to spread out the birthday festivities. :-)

Happy Birthday Zach! Lydia, Carrie, Baby and I love you so much and feel so grateful to have such  dedicated, loving, supportive Daddy/husband! 

Getting Ready for Easter!

We had an early Easter egg hunt with the cousins since some of them will be away on Easter Sunday. It was a cold afternoon so we quickly fit the egg hunt in before dinner. Lydia is all ready to go!

 The whole crew before being released.

A friend of mine recommended these Resurrection Eggs (by Family Life) for helping teach the Easter story to children. The little book tells the awesome truth of Easter in a simple, Biblical way and after each page, your child gets to open an egg containing a little symbol from that page. It's really great and holds the attention of our 3 year old extremely well- she wanted to read the entire story 3 times in a row! She's been asking to read it as her bedtime story every night since we purchased them! I highly recommend this for Moms out there.

35 weeks!

So, I must apologize at my horrible ability to post preggo pics this time around. I've been meaning to take a picture each week on Sunday before heading out for church. But in the rush of a busy morning getting everyone ready I have forgotten again, and again, and again. So I got smart and put a post-it on the counter reminding me to do it and alas...here it is! I figure I may be forgetful in the future so I posted 2. :-)  I am feeling pretty good overall. This baby is a mover so it's a lot of fun to feel the little guy or gal making his/her presence known!

5 weeks to go for Baby #3!!!

Misc. March Pic

What a fun month. Here are some random shots from the month of March. Below the girls are enjoying a play date with their friend, Daena. As you can see, Lyddi got really into her baker outfit.

 Ready for church!

 Decorating some Easter eggs.

 What's so funny?!

 Brushing teeth is the best!

 Mamma and Care all ready for church!

 One morning I had to drop the girls off at church so I could go to a doctor visit. Zach watched them in the nursery. Here they are enjoying a snack in the little house.

 One morning we woke up to a light rain. Lydia was so pumped to get outside with her raincoat and umbrella. The simple things.

Bath time giggles!

 Some friends of ours, Steve and Rachel Swets, were in town for a wedding so they came to our church and then to our house for lunch. They live in British Columbia so visits are far and few between. It was great to visit, even for a few hours.

 Cool rider!

 Sweetie pie!

Here we are at a small group dinner. Dan (the man holding Lyddi) took her downstairs to see his drum set. Pretty cool stuff!

Yipee for Turning Three!!!

Our sweet Lyddi turned 3 this month. Wow, it really is flying by. She had a great birthday week celebrating with family and friends. I took about a hundred pictures during the week but due to technical issues with both my phone and camera (Grrrrr), I lost all but a few of them. So here is what I have of the week. Some of the highlights were going to an open gym with some cousins, a trip to the Children's Museum, a birthday breakfast, a Teddy Bear cake made by Daddy and a birthday lunch with cousins.

Happy Birthday Lyddi Love! We adore and delight in you! We are so grateful to God for each day we get to enjoy with you. We pray for many more happy and healthy birthday celebrations!!!