It's been so long since I've posted, but I want to try and get one more update in before this baby comes. I don't even know where to start. How about Easter?

This year we had an Easter egg hunt with our neighbors. The kids had fun, and I was so glad to not have to go to the city hunt which is always madness. It was cold!

Then we headed over to Great Nana's house to color Easter eggs and do more hunting. My boys love going to Great Nana's house!

These days Blake is just as cute as can be. He is full of hugs and kisses, and likes to be my little helper. He loves to help me change the laundry and loves to help me wipe down the bathrooms. He is super excited about the baby coming, and keeps telling people that the new baby is going to come to the hospital soon, and that the new baby is making Mommy's tummy big. He wants to name the new baby Obi Wan---I think he got that idea from Michael!

He often says things that surprise me, and I think that his brain is working faster than his vocabulary can keep up. On Sunday we were headed to stake conference and Blake said, "We're going to conference? Is President Monson going to be there?" What a smart cookie!

The other night we were sitting at the dinner table and Reed asked Michael and Ty what they learned at school that day. A few minutes later Blake said, "Dad, what did you learn at work today?" We all laughed, but Reed especially liked Blake's question. None of the kids have ever asked Dad how his day went!

He loves coming to watch Michael and Ty's games.

Blake has become Michael's little partner in crime. They like to sneak out of bed at night and sleep on the floor or the orange chairs in their room. I can't figure out why. Their beds have got to be more comfortable! We just inherited a small dresser from my Mom and we decided to put it in the boys' room for Blake's clothes. With a bed, a bunk bed, a dresser, a desk, and 2 large chairs, their room is now busting at the seems. I still haven't figured out if I can make room in the closet for his shirts to hang. But, they like being all together, and I have really liked having a free room to keep some of my projects out to work on. Eventually one of them will want their own room, but for now things are going to stay nice and cozy.

By the way, Blake and I are totally addicted to these small mangoes from Costco. I try to eat mine at breakfast before he can see that have one, because I don't like to share!

Ty is in a bit of a funk lately. Maybe a nicer way to say it is that he's testing the limits of his independence. He likes to take his own sweet time doing things, and he does not like to be told what to do. We had had an especially rough few weeks, and a really bad time at the grocery store, and Ty earned himself a few minutes with a bar of soap in his mouth. I'd never done soap before, but I was at my wit's end, and none of my other threats were working. Ty could not believe I was actually going to make him put soap in his mouth. After the whole ordeal I asked him if he understood why he got the punishment. Yup. I asked him if he thought I liked being mean and making him put soap in his mouth. No. (Although I have to admit I did get some satisfaction out of this after all the grief he put me through!). So then I asked him what kind of a punishment he thought he deserved---what would help him change his behavior so this didn't happen again? He looked at me and said, "Soap. That was really smart Mom." The soap actually really did the trick. He has done so much better ever since. I have to say, that he also has a really sweet side, and can be very affectionate. He never leaves the house without giving me a big hug and kiss. And, he is way excited about the baby. I know he will be super sweet and a really big help to me.

Ty is loving soccer. He is really good too. Every time he plays he scores several times. He's aggressive and fast, and knows what he's doing on the field. On Saturday he even got to play on Michael's team because they were short on players. Although he didn't score, he certainly held his own against the bigger kids.

"Chillin'" at Michael's baseball game. Have I mentioned how COLD it has been? We have had to bundle up in full winter gear just to survive the games. Hopefully it will warm up soon?!

Ty found this worm on the field and came after me with it. I freaked out just a little bit. He thought it was so funny. Me, not so much!

Michael is at a fun age. Just really curious and wanting to learn. He is especially interested in sports and can be found practicing basketball in all of his spare time. I'm sure he'd spend a lot more time playing games on the computer too, if I'd let him! He is reading pretty well, but he's still on an Easy reader level---so those simple little books are totally boring to him. He wants to be reading Star Wars chapter books that are just way above his ability---and he's too impatient to want to sound things out. So, we spend a lot of time reading to him. Last week he came home from school with "Diary of a Wimpy Kid #4." It captured his attention and was easy enough for him to read. He had his nose in that book all day on Saturday, and I found him in bed with a flashlight trying to finish the book. I couldn't bring myself to make him go to sleep because I was so happy he was finally reading on his own! Plus, it totally reminded me of myself as a kid staying up with a flashlight until all hours of the night.

He's really enjoying baseball this year. He especially loves to have Dad practice catch with him before bed.

Michael brought this little buddy home from school a couple of weeks ago. He's gotten several haircuts since then.

For earth day Michael's school had a competition to see which class could collect the most pop cans for recycling. The winning class got a rootbeer float party. Michael is very competitive, and he was bummed when I told him we didn't have any cans for him since we don't really drink soda. Well, Reed got the bright idea to bring home pop cans from the recycling bin at work. He happened to call the maintenance guy at just the right time, and they guy completely loaded up Reed's car. Michael ended up bringing in 6 of the huge bags. The kids were so excited, and yes, they won the rootbeer float party!

Last thing on Michael. One of these days I need to take a picture of him when he comes home from school. The boy is always filthy, and his face is always covered in food---usually ketchup from his chicken sandwich at lunch. I have got to teach this kid how to use a napkin!

This is what Reed's been up to. . .

Yep, more water problems. Ugh.

I think I've mentioned this before, but ever since Christmas Reed has been plugging away at beating his Super Mario game. He beat the game only to find out that there was a bonus world at the end, but you could only unlock it if you gathered all the star coins from all the previous levels. So, he went through and beat the game a second time and collected all of the coins. Well, he was one level away from beating the bonus world when one of the kids deleted his game. Argh! So close!

As for me, I've been in a full blown nesting phase since Christmas. The problem is that maybe I've been focusing my energies on the wrong kinds of projects. You would think that I might have given a little bit of thought into getting the nursery put together, but no. . .

Last Wednesday I went to my doctor's appointment and they found that my amniotic fluids were low, so the doctor wanted to induce me early. I can't say that I was really surprised, because the same thing happened with Blake. But, that doesn't mean I was exactly ready. Because I had been working on other projects, I had been neglecting my housework, and the house was a disaster. I know the baby doesn't care if the house is clean or not, but I just don't want to come home from the hospital to nasty floors, and have to scrub the bathrooms down the next day, ya know? Luckily I have awesome friends who took my kids, and a really awesome sister who came over and helped me clean. Dana came over on Saturday for a few hours and did the jobs that I haven't been able to do for awhile, like the tubs and the baseboards and my nasty kitchen floor. I owe her big time. Reed also kicked into high gear and helped me get the nursery put together. This is how it looked Wednesday when I came home from the doctor's appointment:

We decided to move the baby's room across the hall to the room I'd been using for storage and projects, so we had to swap out everything in the closets. Plus the room was full of my scrapbooking projects and prints that I've gotten framed but not hung, and a bazillion other things. . . Ugh. . .

The room used to be the kids toy room until the basement was finished, so the walls are covered in putty marks where I patched up the holes the kids made throwing toys and such. I know I'm going to stare at the patchy walls, and they are going to drive me insane. Wish we had painted the room months ago, but what can ya do?

Anyway this is how it looks now:

Not totally there, but huge improvement! Anyway, I am scheduled to be to the hospital tomorrow morning at 8 am, and I couldn't be happier to get this baby out of me sooner rather than later!

Here are some of the projects that I probably shouldn't have been worrying about, but I'm still glad they are done---because for sure I won't be doing stuff like this any time soon!

14 photo albums full of pictures that have been kicking around in shoe boxes and on my hard drive for way too many years.

Blake's baby book. Super simple, but totally done!

Freezer food. Last week I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that I wouldn't really want to cook much after the baby was born, and I really should cook and freeze some stuff ahead of time. So I headed off to Costco and bought a boatload of stuff---and cursed myself for the next several days as I tried to get it all taken care of and fit it in my freezer. But now I'm happy because I have taco meat, fajita meat, rotisserie chicken, marinated chicken, etc. to last me like all summer! Seriously, I must be insane!

I'm probably going to totally regret this later, but here is a picture of what I look like 3 days before delivery. My Mom is scandalized by the tight t-shirt and says I look like I'm ready to pop. Well, that's how I feel, but I thought I might as well document it. I think this is the only picture I have of myself during this pregnancy, and every kid deserves a picture of their pregnant Mom for the baby book, right?

So there is my marathon update. Make it last awhile. I'm not sure when I'll be back online! Wish me luck tomorrow, and for heaven's sake, pray that Reed and I will one day be able to agree on a name!