3 brothers

My irresistible, captivating, squishy opening act!

My sweet, soft, awe-inspiring show stopper!

And now for my long-awaited, much-loved GRAND FINALE! The doctor says you're getting ready to join us and we can't wait to meet you little boy.  See you next week little one!

My nautical baby shower!

I have the coolest friends of all time.  Need proof?  Here ya go:






















The food was so tasty, the games were so hilarious, and the company was so much fun!  I felt so loved.  Thank you to Rachel Bennett, Dee Kauwe, Sheila Rich, and Kristen Tuifua for giving me this fun, amazing night and everyone else who came or sent gifts from here and on the mainland!  Man I am a lucky girl!  Thank you thank you!

Getting closer (and going crazy).

I'm down, but not out
throw some water on my face
let's make this count.

It's 5 more weeks
my order's in
I've made a plan
it's got to win.

Just stick with me
and I'll see this through

there's really nothing else to do.

Sea star headpieces, set-design, pregnancy, bullies, sassy toddlers, terrific Thomas and stuff.

The sea stars arrived in the mail.  Now to figure out the right kind of glue to use.  I have opened the mail one too many times to find some little piece of jewelry I ordered in pieces because regular old hot glue gun was used.  It's not the end of the world because that's an easy fix, but I want to make this perfect if I am going to do it at all.

So there's that.

Oh and I got asked by my pal to design the set for the elementary school fall break play.  I have no idea what I am doing, but it's fun!  I get to go measure the stage tomorrow so I can give rough estimates to the assistant principal who is ordering all the colored butcher paper.  Colored butcher paper you guys.  This is gonna be awesome.  I'm also teaching the kids who signed up to make the set how to create a coconut tree, waves, surf boards, and a volcano.  Someone please hurry over here and teach me how to do it first so I can act all professional!

And, I have six more weeks of pregnancy.  I thought about this neglected blog of mine the other day and how Ambrose and Asher's pregnancies were so thoroughly reported on here.  This poor last baby boy has had two or three posts.  I blame Instagram once again.  It's just easier.  I will get those pictures together and blog them so this baby can see his pregnancy too someday when I am organized and print this blog.

My new Fall semester class seems great so far and I only go in once-a-week to teach, which sort of feels like zero-times-a-week, but with a paycheck so that is nice!

My Ambrose found himself in the middle of some big kids rough housing at school by accident and got shoved down on the ground and hit his head.  He was so scared he ran and locked himself in a bathroom stall and cried while his little buddy ran to tell a teacher.  He is totally OK now, but I was so upset!  He was apologized to by the rough kids and doesn't seem too bothered by it anymore, but those kinds of things make me want to keep him home forever.  I was contemplating just that when I realized that he was alive, totally fine, and had made it through something I would wish to shield him from with perfect resilience.  These are important experiences for us because my reaction plays a big role in how he feels about the situation and so we both learned a lot I think.  Me probably more than him.

Asher is driving us crazy!  School is almost too good for him to the point that he is kind of out of sorts as the weekend wears on.  If we are out at the beach or something he is ok.  At home though, just milling around and watching TV and playing with toys, he becomes impossible.  He and I are always ready for him to get back to his routine of learning activities, and regular naps, and structured schedule come Monday.  This kind of makes me sad, because I want home to be even more enriching for him, but I am pleased that school is where he soars too!  I need to figure out how to make our weekends just as profitable for him so we can all be happy.  This cranky, bored, sleepy Asher come Sunday is not working out for anyone.  My little boy is undeniably progressing in his speech and I couldn't ask for more so I am determined to figure out how to get around his weekend funk.

Thomas is still being his terrific, creative, hard working self and I love him for it because with my mood swings- someone has to be the stable one around here!  He takes care of all of us.  All the time.

I have been too impatient, too out of sorts and cranky, too pregnant in general lately, but everything is progressing as it should.  Six more weeks.  Six more weeks.  We can do it.

Summer kick-off! (Happy/Sad)

The summer started before we knew it and it was happy and it was sad.

First sad: The Allred family started getting serious about leaving.  We didn't want to believe it was true, but it was.  So of course we had to dress up as.... weird people... and karaoke one last time!

 Happy: Asher visited his long-lost twin brother Chuck-E for his third birthday:

 Happy/sad: A bunch of us girls joined the Allred's on the beach one last time:

 Happy: And ward camp started:

on Spiderman's, I mean Asher's birthday:  (another happy)

 Saddest: We said our final goodbyes:  (All the adults cried.) (Adelaide cheerfully told me she wasn't sad.  She was excited!  I admired her bravery as I sobbed in her face.)

 A little happier: We consoled ourselves at ward camp.  (I might have woken up in the middle of the night just to cry.)

 Happy: But there's nothing like getting your hair done by a good friend to help cheer you up a bit!

 Very, very happy: And the baby continued to grow....

It was an interesting and action packed start to the summer.  Next up: Our summer vacation!

Another boy!

I couldn't stop laughing when the ultrasound technician pointed to the screen and whispered apologetically, "That's a penis."  I don't think I've ever typed that word before.

I am assuming that she whispered it out of discretion since Ambrose and Asher were in the room, but I guess it's not really a word that you shout in any situation unless you need attention desperately.

Anyway, she was sweet to break it to me gently, but all the boy dreams I had leading up to this ultrasound had prepared me well.  Instead of shouting, "WHAT?!  I won't get a crocheted mermaid tail from my friend Meg after all?! BLAST!" like I thought I would I just laughed and said, "Of course!"

So here's the little darling boy.

His foot:

Double verification that he was in fact a boy... I just had to be sure.  I don't care about annoying people when mermaid tails are on the line.

And his scary little alien face- precious! :)

At this ultrasound she said my due date was Oct 20th - almost a week earlier than we thought!  I will see what my doctor says next week.  Whenever he comes we are ready!  We have all the boy stuff, we can stay in our two-bedroom a lot longer (three boys in one room...it's gonna smell great in there),  and we are good at this whole boy thing... it all feels right.  He is ours and we are half way to meeting him!  Can't wait!

Baby Bump by Ambrose Robertson

12 weeks... not sure I started showing this early with the other two, but who remembers such things?

Also, there's really no shortage of photographers around here. Ambrose takes direction well: "Don't get the top of mommy's legs or her whole face."

Our future photographer and his lame mother.

Asher loves to hijack my phone and play games. I tried to stop him originally, but once I saw how careful he is with my phone and how useful it is in keeping him occupied in various situations I let the boy indulge. A recent favorite of his is taking pictures and making videos. He has always been interested, but he's currently obsessed.

I love to look through at the millions of up-close self-portraits and other randoms he deems worthy of a photo. They usually end up looking like a 2-year-old took them.

The other day I was laying around feeling sick, which is a current obsession of mine apparently and I heard the iPhone camera clicking away. Here's one of the shots of that unplanned photo shoot. I was sad when I first saw it because now we have proof that I am lame and sickly all the time and then I changed my mind.

I know it sounds silly, but I am really grateful for this picture. It captures reality right now. I have had to get up early and teach every morning, fulfill my church calling responsibilities, and pick up Ambrose every day from school while feeling like I want to curl up and die. Those three everyday tasks seem like nothing when you feel fine. When you are nauseous all the time they are mountains to climb. And honestly, the rest of the day looks like that picture most of the time. Every once in a while I feel bad enough to take my kids on an outing or try my hand at getting some sort of dinner together. At the beginning of this first trimester I was telling myself: "Keep your head down and just swim right through it. Paddle, paddle, paddle."

Finally I am starting to get energy back and even enjoying some of the things I eat instead of just shoveling the nearest cracker in my mouth before I ... you know what. The queasiness is so manageable lately and I don't end each day with a sigh that it will get better soon because it already is!

I am glad Mr. Ash captured this little chunk of our lives (when Mama watched a lot of Netflix on demand while he and his brother messed up our house) for me to remember the hard work it takes to grow a human life, but life with Ambrose and Asher everyday proves how worth it it is! Every wave of nausea is a reminder that we have good things in store with a baby we already love and have been looking forward to for a long time--and we wouldn't change that for the world!

Hip-hip-hooray!

It's not easy to improve upon a photo by Yan, but I think I may have found the one and only way... add your own, new family member!

I brought these adorably blurry, grey, swirly images home to show the boys last night and they are so excited! When I try to decipher anything out of these images at least one thing adds up: it was hard to take a photo of this child because he or she is very active= yep, it's our child. The boys have been so silly and precious about the new baby for the last 24 hours. They keep hugging my mid-section and asking strange (?!?! I'm not sure I am ready to have those discussions just yet you overly curious 5 year old !!!?!) questions and making all kinds of plans.

Ambrose is certain it's a boy and Asher casually shrugged that it might be a girl.

Whatever the case we are excited and can't wait for Oct 25th!