38 weeks

Here I am with a 38 week belly...

and here I am a 38 week belly and an almosty 18 month old sitting on top...

She just has to be a part of everything in this house.

It's been a while...haven't had much to report on, but here are a few pics from the past week...

Beckett, sleeping on the "top bunk".

Marketa trying on the boys' Batman pj's.

Reading some books with Great Grandpa.

My little couch potatoes...they don't watch all that much tv, but it's a nice break for us all when they do.

38 weeks pregnant and still with child. This is the furthest I've made it into a pregnancy. I keep thinking this baby is going to come at any time, but also telling myself I could go past my due date (July 10). We'll see. I'll try to remember to take a pic and post it soon. I wanted to make it through this past week since family was coming to visit. I did and we had a great time seeing everyone. Now I'm ready to have this little guy.

Jake, Stacie and the kids came out from North Carolina and Grandpa and Aunt Susan came down from North Dakota. We got to hang out and get all the cousins together a few times. That was a bit crazy, but fun! 10 cousins, ages 10 and under. By the end of the summer that number will be up to 12. Family gatherings will only get better.

Last week

We have been busy, as always. Here's a little of what we've been up to...

Marketa, well, she's just busy living life to it's fullest. She's 17 months now and keeping us on our toes, including her big brothers.

Speaking of big brothers, Maddox and Beckett are being great ones (most of the time). They are excited for baby brother to join us soon. For now they help take care of Marketa, when they're not busy working with their crane truck and plowing the field/carpet with their tractor.

Scott takes care of us all when he gets home from work, helping with dinner, bathing the kids and reading them stories before bed. I love this man!

He's also been working on our small half bath...getting it ready to paint and put up new fixtures. Apparently the "handy man" who used to live here wasn't quite so handy. Many projects have taken longer than anticipated. Doesn't help that Scott only has a few hours in the evenings to work on stuff and not much time on the weekends...spending time with kids sometimes takes over, especially when your wife is 36 weeks pregnant.

I have been keeping busy as well...I've found a great use for the pool table (that came with the house and will be sold soon--anyone want one??).

I've found some fun sewing projects...

...making a diaper bag and water bottle sling. Not sure what my next project will be, but I'm sure I'll find something.

And, most importantly lately, I've been growing a baby...36 weeks now. It has gone so fast!! This little guy could be joining us any time now. Hopefully not for a few more weeks, but God's timing is best. We'll see what happens.

Living room

Per someone's request (you know who you are) here are a few more house pictures. Old (from before we owned the house) and new pics of the living room. We haven't done too much with it...just some fresh paint on the walls and some new red curtains. Those vertical blinds had to go. Eventually we will have more furniture and wood floors. Those aren't in the budget right now. Pictures and shelves will happen at some point in the future, once we know where furniture will land. New windows will come later this summer as well. That will change the look of our large picture window quite a bit and will hopefully save us some money this winter.

Haircuts

Aunt Jodi came and gave us haircuts on Saturday. Marketa got her bangs trimmed, I got my hair trimmed and the boys got their shaggy hair chopped off. The shaggy look was way too cute, but these cuts will be much cooler for the summer. Also, while it's short, for most of you who can't tell the difference between them, look at their hairlines---Beckett goes straight across in the front and Maddox got his daddy's cowlick.





As a reward for sitting still for haircuts (they almost did not happen as the boys were very adamant that Jodi would not cut their hair) they got Lightening McQueen. Pretty exciting.

Kitchen

Here are some pics of the kitchen (before we moved in and after we painted):







Scott did a great job with the paint and I love how it turned out. My new faucet is much more user friendly. Still need to figure out curtains for the sliding door, but that can wait for now. Hopefully sometime in the next year we'll be able to get wood flooring down as well. For now, this is good.
I'll post more pics of the house later.

Grandpa and Grandma Larsen came to visit on Saturday. They got to enjoy some kid time while Scott and I (mostly Scott) painted the kitchen. I'm loving the new color and my new faucet (will post pics later).
Ed and Ginny brought over a little picnic table for the kids. Marketa and Maddox cleaned it up a bit so they could all eat lunch on it. I'm sure Marketa felt like such a big kid, sitting at the table with the boys and not in her booster seat.






After dinner we've been able to spend a little more time on the 3-seasons porch, when it's not so hot. It's been fun. The kids love it out there and Scott and I can sit and chat a bit too. The other day, the boys were pretending that the table was their van--they'd climb under it and buckle each other in, then drive to church to Mr. Cory's class. It was pretty cute. Marketa just loves hanging out and doing her own thing, especially making the dragon fly. Scott's sister, Beth, sent the kids a wooden dragon that hangs from the ceiling. Now we finally have a place to put him. You pull on a string and let him flap his wings.