One Month Countdown to Baby #3!

Can you tell that I'm trying to wrap up unfinished tasks before the baby arrives? I think this is my fourth blog post in a week after a 2 month break.

We are very excited to finally meet our third baby! I'm 36 weeks pregnant and the baby is due March 27th.

Since I didn't include very many photos from the pregnancy in the blog, I thought I'd put them into their own post. Here's a family picture from August when I was 7 weeks pregnant. Grandma Hunter took the photo when she was visiting. On this trip, we told her she was going to be a grandma for the 5th time!

This photo was taken in October at 17 weeks. I definitely showed a lot sooner with this pregnancy!

Here I am in December at 24 weeks pregnant.

And, here's the current BIG belly at 36 weeks. It's hard to believe that the baby is still going to gain approximately two more pounds over the next four weeks. I might tip over.

Although it's my third baby, my friends were so generous and threw me a surprise baby shower. They did a diaper drive and gave me an awesome new diaper bag. We now have enough diapers to last us through the summer! Here's the awesome diaper cake they made! 

It was a breakfast shower so we enjoyed scones, coffee and cake! Here's a beautiful bouquet of flowers that I got too.

A sneak peek of the baby. This is the 32 week ultrasound photo. At this visit, the baby weighed in at 3lbs. 13oz. We were thrilled by the surprise 4D picture that the technician gave us. Since I've been told it's hard to see, I included labels to help you visualize.

The nesting instinct has finally kicked in and we're starting to get the house ready for the new baby. One of the most pressing "to do's" is to pick the names! After reading hundreds of boys and girls names out loud from a baby naming book lent to me by a friend, Liam finally decided the only name he liked was Wilhelmina. At this point, all ideas are welcome!

Liam is 3 years old!

Just a quick edit to put this post in it's proper place behind the December/January posts.

Although I'm a few months behind on the blog, I wanted to prioritize this post since it was such an important milestone. Our big boy Liam turned 3 years old!

Liam's favorite breakfast is pancakes with syrup (must include syrup and low sugar syrup is not acceptable). So, of course for his birthday, I made him pancakes!

Neil worked from home the morning of Liam's birthday so we did presents first thing. Liam continues to love Buzz Lightyear and the whole Toy Story gang so he was thrilled with his new Potato Head pieces.

He also loved the camping Playdoh kit. Here he is roasting a marshmallow on his Playdoh campfire.

I have to say, the camping Playdoh set was a lot of fun for me too. I made bacon and eggs!

We attended many birthday parties over the past few months and after each one, Liam let me know that he was going to have a Diego birthday party. Here's the Diego cake (chocolate of course)!

We had 10 kids over to celebrate Liam's birthday!

Liam has a huge Diego coloring book so we had fun making our own Diego decorations!

Here's the Diego and Dora decoration made by Liam!

 "When is this party going to start? We're ready!"

Neil played the Diego Theme song throughout the party and the kids had so much fun running around the house, dancing to the song. One parent asked, "Are you going to play this song over and over? I just need to prepare myself." At least the kids loved it!

Blowing out the 3 candles!

Enjoying the birthday cake and chatting with friends!

Rocking out on his new doggy guitar. It actually woofs the notes.

Opening more presents the day after the party. Liam got his first digital camera. Here he is taking a picture of Neil. Also, notice the Lightning McQueen tent in the background. It was a huge hit with both boys. They played together in it all day.

It's hard to believe that our Liam is 3 years old already. But, then when we think about the fact that we're about to welcome our third baby into the world, it only makes sense that he's at least 3 years old! We are so proud of our funny, smart, active big boy and look forward to the next year of milestones and watching him explore the world through the eyes of a three year old.

Everyday in Iowa is an Adventure!

Still catching up on events from January...

It was a three week trip to Iowa so there's a lot to share. Whenever we go to Iowa, the kids have a blast! It's one fun activity after another. Here we are at Monkey Joe's. This time Dylan was old enough to do some climbing and sliding. 

The kids have so much fun playing on these inflatables that I actually bought some for our basement. We haven't blown them up quite yet but once the baby arrives, it will be a fun new place at home for them to play.

Our trip to Iowa lasted three weeks but I was trying to travel light so I only brought one pair of pajamas for each kid. Grandma to the rescue! She keeps these adorable jammies for Adelia and Hadley at her house. Somehow Liam knew they were girl jammies. I guess our giggling and photo taking didn't help.

Dylan loved playing with our new inflatable soccer ball and goal. Another new activity for the basement until the weather warms up.

Neil teaching Dylan some soccer skills.

While Dylan was napping, Neil and I took Liam to the Children's Museum. It was fun for Liam to have some special alone time with mommy and daddy.

Driving Santa's sleigh!

Liam's expression was perfect for the cutout!

I had fun posing too!

Aunt Heather drove with Adelia and Hadley from Chicago so the cousins could play with each other over New Year's weekend. It's so cute to see the cousins together! They even cooperated when taking the cousin photo this time!

For New Year's, Neil and I enjoyed a two night getaway to Galena. We had so much fun we hardly had time for pictures. We visited Ryan Mansion, the DeSoto House Hotel and had a fabulous New Year's Eve dinner at the Log Cabin Steakhouse. We watched the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Insight Bowl game and the Northwestern Wildcats in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. I enjoyed a relaxing prenatal massage. Unfortunately, both teams lost! Galena is also known for it's little specialty shops and Neil was such a good sport with the shopping. We didn't actually buy anything except some popcorn and biscotti but we visited every single store on the main street. I did take a few photos with my phone. Here's a photo from the aquarium we visited.

Another site we visited was the Ulysses S. Grant home. Here's a picture of the living room decorated for Christmas.

Neil returned home to New York on New Year's Day but the kids and I stayed for another week. It gave us another opportunity to visit Great Grandma. Here's Great Grandma's Christmas tree. The stocking ornaments have pictures of each grandchild and great grandchild. She has nine grandchildren and five great grandchildren (soon to be six!).

Dylan and Great Grandma!

Great Aunt Jane and Cousin Ben joined us for dinner at Great Grandma's house. Here's Dylan with Great Aunt Jane. It seems that Liam was not cooperating for photos.

My friend Kristin (friends since 1st grade) lives in Des Moines with her husband Rick and their adorable kids, Olivia and Bennett. We met halfway at a mall so we could meet each others' kids and catch up. The mall had lots of fun rides for the kids. Grandma Hunter came too and here we are on the carousel.

Here's Kristin and Rick on the carousel too!

Here's Kristin and I posing for a picture. It was so much fun to catch up with her and Rick. And, their kiddos are adorable of course!

This is the best group shot I could get!

The Mall had a great play space for the kids. Dylan loved these life sized crayons.

A trip to Iowa always includes a trip to Happy Joe's Pizza! They kids loved playing in the Jungle Bungle room waiting for our food.

Dylan loved driving the boat. We didn't even have to put a quarter in it, the steering wheel was enough entertainment!

Although the play equipment is technically designed for kids a little older than Liam, he was so determined and brave. He climbed all the way to the top and loved peeking out at us. A few times I got nervous when I couldn't find him in the giant maze of tubes but he seemed to enjoy every minute of the climbing.

Grandma Hunter had to work a few of the days we were visiting so when we picked her up, we got a tour of her school. The kids had fun playing in the large motor skills room. A noodle war!

A fun place to run!

And, one last fun stop on the trip was Chuck E. Cheese in Chicago for Adelia's 4th birthday party! The boys were intrigued by the singing characters. 

Liam could barely hold the heavy guitar but he was so cute jamming to "Mississippi Queen"!

Uncle John making sure Liam wasn't going to crash his motorcycle.

Dylan jumped on the back but I think he looks like he wants to be the one driving.

Adelia's cake was adorable - a Disney Princess cake. Here she is blowing out her candles.

Aunt Angie with the birthday girl!

One more cousin pic! Adelia was still loving all the birthday attention but I think the rest of them were in desperate need of a nap!

It was a fantastic trip filled with lots of fun. We miss everyone already but look forward to heading back this summer and introducing our new little one to the family!