Belly Shots – My Sweet Chaos

Desiring Time Travel

November 18, 2013Ariana Sullivan

Just to tomorrow night. I just want to fast forward to tomorrow night. Then it will be the night before I have my baby instead of the night before the night before I have my baby.

But I can’t complain or be impatient or anything of the sort because I only have one more day as a pregnant lady. I have only one more day until I meet my son. One more day. Tuesday my baby boy will be here!

Goodness gracious what am I going to do tomorrow?!?! I’m going to be pacing around like a crazed woman with anticipation!! Even though I can barely walk (truly, it’s horrifying) I might just have to stay out of the house all day tomorrow with Ember to distract myself.

Maybe I’ll take her to a movie at the dollar theater. Or maybe a visit to the library? Or maybe just a Costco trip?
Or maybe I actually feel like passing out with exhaustion at just the idea of those things and I’ll lay around on the couch and watch Nickjr all day with her? haha

I had the very best time watching the BYU game with Allan this weekend! Such a good game!! It was the most perfect timing ever, too, because that day was particularly bad physically. Everything on my entire body hurt for some reason.
An exciting football game was just what I needed!

The girls have been writing and drawing a million notes and stories.

Another thing my kids are always doing is making giant messes.

I’m still absolutely head over heels in love with project life. Love love love love love love. Love.
Ember joins me at the kitchen counter with paints while I catch up before baby brother comes.

She’d brought those wings to Allan while he watched another football game and he tied them on for her. She wore them all evening.

I Don’t Have Anything Creative or Special to Share this Week

November 14, 2013Ariana Sullivan

I feel really ready for labor. Delivery. Non pregnancy. And baby.
And I really can’t think or talk about much else. Waiting these last few days has become a huge patience test!

It’s hard to walk now. I have shooting nerve pain through my legs and back when I go shopping. I feel so heavy. Which I am, but mostly this baby boy is riding right on my cervix and the pressure is extreme.
I’m glad because I’m hoping that means, like his siblings’, his labor will be short!

I can no longer take all four kids out. It is way beyond my capabilities to handle them and being pregnant while on an errand! We’re home bound from here on out!

Everything lately for me is about simplifying. I don’t want any extra work of any sort. If the kids ask to do a craft or have a friend over or go somewhere or pretty much anything I have to stop myself from thinking they’re crazy for even asking. They don’t get (at all) that this week before delivery is like the rest of pregnancy pain x 1,000.
Even something as simple as trying to walk to the car after a particularly annoying shopping trip, and having them stop and climb up on these ball things in front of Target, when I told them not to, because I just wanted to get to the car and sit, was frustrating.
I have to just bite my tongue a million times a day and try to remember I’m the broken one right now.

I got a magnetic nativity scene from a craft store. I’ve already pulled out a few Christmas toys for the kids to play with. I wouldn’t mind completely skipping Thanksgiving and just plunging into Christmas. I’d like that a lot, actually.

Since Halloween the kids have had two pieces of candy in their lunches every day.

Because of holiday season Brooklyn is back to her extreme picky eater ways. She’s always a picky eater but any time she gets any kind of a treat she’s beyond picky. Way, way beyond. It’s super annoying to have to deal with a 10 year old picky eater.

Ember is my other picky eater and that’s annoying, too. But luckily she’s been less picky this week!

I got the kids little goody bags from Everett. Hopefully having some special things and activities will help the transition a little bit.

Sometimes Ember really loves bananas and sometimes she hates them. She’s like that with most foods. One day something will be her favorite and she’ll want like 5 servings of it and then the next week she’ll act like you’re offering her the grossest thing she’s ever seen. lol

It’s Finally Friday!!

November 9, 2013Ariana Sullivan

Gosh, this week seemed to go on forever!! I’m so glad it’s the weekend!! I’ve missed Allan this week!
We’re setting up Everett’s crib this weekend. I wonder if he’ll use it. I’m not planning on co-sleeping over crib sleeping but, if I’m tired and I get more sleep with him in my bed that’s exactly where he’ll be. I’m sure he’ll sleep a lot in his bouncy chair or swing, too! I’m excited to get his crib set up, though. If not for any other reason than having a place to put his sheets/blankets rather than in a box on my bedroom floor.

Everyone in this house is getting baby crazy now. We’ve all been excited all along but seeing that count down chain shrink and saying things like, “In 11 days we’ll be holding our baby!” has caused an anticipation frenzy! We’re all excited and impatient! It’s hard to talk about much else. At least for me. And the kids bring it up just as often as I do, putting their hands on my belly and telling me, “I just can’t wait! I just can’t believe he’s coming so soon!”

A simple update on potty training… Ember’s been fully potty trained for 11 days now! She hasn’t had any accidents and though I put a diaper or pullup on her for nights she is always totally dry in the mornings. It’s adorable when she wakes up and heads to the potty first thing.
She went through a brief phase where she was changing her underwear each and every time she peed, I’m guessing because she was excited about her new undies I bought, but now she wears one pair all day. She does still change her clothes often throughout the day but she’s always done that!

We bring her Dora bag to every doctor appointment now. The simple supplies I bring are:
-a sippy cup of water
-a single serve pack of annie’s bunny crackers
-a lollipop
-a small toy (usually my little pony)
-a sheet of stickers
-a small notebook
-four or five crayons

She’s started bringing her bag on all our errands now. It’s so cute when we’re getting ready to go and she says, “Oh, I need to get my Dora bag!” and runs off for it.
She called it her purse for a while and then she called it her backpack for a while after that but now it’s her Dora bag. While I’m rambling about this I’ll go ahead and mention she used to call my purse my backpack when the kids first started school. She’s just so fun!

She falls asleep every time we run errands. Mostly for only ten minutes or so. She wakes up and wants me to hold her for five or ten minutes while she wakes up. She’s super snuggly in those first few minutes 🙂

The last time she wore lipgloss she purposefully kissed her baby to share it. Her baby’s mouth was still pretty shiny from that day so when she went to kiss her baby she hesitated and said she didn’t want to ruin her baby’s lipgloss. I told her it was fine because she was just sharing lipgloss like me and her do! (She asks me to kiss her every time I wear lip stuff of any kind, after I do she rubs her lips together and smiles and says, “Now we the same!”)

Being Friday I went ahead and chose the easy way out for dinner.

Payson had a bean and cheese burrito I made with some tortillas I bought at Costco. When I saw the gluten-free tortillas and bent them and noticed they held their shape without cracking apart (like all other gluten-free crap I’ve tried) I about peed my pants with excitement. And he loves those tortillas so they’ve pretty much been my favorite food item of the year!

Doctor, Doctor

November 7, 2013Ariana Sullivan

Another week, another appointment. The craziest part is I only have one more appointment before Everett will be born!!

This week my contractions have picked up. They’re more often and they’re stronger. I’m contracting all the live long day. I usually do the last few weeks. I’ll be a good 4cm dilated and probably 90% (if not 100) effaced before I ever go into labor.

Oh yeah, according to my ultrasound yesterday- Everett will probably be around 8 pounds when he’s born. Maybe a few ounces less. We’ll see in 12 days!

Hieroglyphic Trail Hike

November 5, 2013Ariana Sullivan

It’s November and the weather has finally made it to where it drops below 80 degrees in the evenings.
Which for our family means one thing…
Hiking season!!

I wasn’t too sure how my uterus would take this hike but it turned out to be easy peasy. I wasn’t crampy at all (until the drive home when I had a few strong contractions) but since I’m still fighting off a wretched cold I felt really horrible. Not like, I wanted to stop hiking… I just wanted my nose to stop running and my throat to stop hurting and to stop coughing!! lol

But besides that it was SO much fun and every single one of my kids was on their best behavior and we’re planning on hiking every weekend from now until the end of the year! haha (well, not the weekend after I have Everett, obviously!)

We made it up to this flat area, which is our only goal when hiking with the littler kids, just in time for the sunset. It was gorgeous!

Ember had hiked the entire way there by herself but Allan was holding and cuddling her because just before arriving at this stop she’d stumbled and bonked her knee on a rock.

Daddy and his hiking buddies.

Mommy and kids. Minus Brooklyn who didn’t feel like having another picture taken right then! (I think she was mad at one of her siblings right then)

Funny how my entire pregnancy was spent in the desert but only two of my pregnant pictures were taken out in the desert.

The oldest and youngest. For another two weeks 😉

All my daughters! ♥♥♥

Mommy’s funny!

The two that look like Allan! (I hope Everett gets Allan’s brown eyes! It’d be cool to have another brown eyed baby in this family!)

I try to take some zoomed out shots each hike… Allan was getting a cactus off Payson’s pants in this picture.

We’ve been having some major, major bullying issues in our home. I typed up an entire post about it last Friday but then deleted it for Brooklyn’s sake 😉
Allan had this genius idea to make it a special project of Brooklyn’s to be Payson’s buddy and be nice to him. If we notice Brooklyn being nice to Payson we’ll keep track of it on a chart and every week or so Allan will do something special with her. Maybe not a prize or treat but just extra time together or a campout (she LOVES camping) or something.
He’d just talked in depth with her about it that day so right before the hike he told her that she could be Payson’s hiking buddy and lead the family on the hike. Since both she and Payson love being in front of everyone else it worked out really well! Payson was SOOOO happy that Brooklyn was being nice to him!

Allan carried Ember all the way back to the car. She was loving cuddling into his shoulder and being able to leisurely look all around on the way back 🙂

I’m Going to Have a Baby This Month!!

November 1, 2013Ariana Sullivan

Everett has dropped. Like, dude is hanging out on my cervix. haha
I’m 3cm dilated and 70% effaced and the doctor says Everett’s head is right there! Everything’s ready to go!

Ember wanted to wear her Halloween costume all day so she was dressed up for my appointment.

I filled Ember’s Dora bag up with a couple toys and snacks to keep her busy during my appointment. She loved it!

I’m now feeling really ready to meet my little boy. I’m glad he’s not here yet since I’m suffering with a really bad cold (I have NO voice today!! Eek), but anytime he wants to come after I kick this is fine with me! Based on past pregnancies he’ll probably be here around the 20th!
♥ C a n ‘ t ♥ W a i t ♥

Things from Thursday

October 25, 2013Ariana Sullivan

1. Allan got news last Friday that he was going to be hired by that company in Colorado. Because of what’s going on in that company and his current company and the baby’s due date… it was decided that he wouldn’t have a start date until January!
I didn’t blog about this because I had a huge sobbing meltdown and didn’t want to talk to a soul about it. No one understands the way I feel about being stuck here in Arizona with a newborn so I didn’t want to bother trying to explain why I wasn’t super happy about finally hearing we were escaping.

2. Allan got an email from someone higher up, very much higher up, that basically said he really loved Allan and wanted Allan to start ASAP. Doesn’t matter what’s going on in their company, this guy’s top priority was getting Allan working there right now. So, today Allan’s expecting a call today with an offer and a start date of… probably early next month?! I HOOOOOOOOOPE!! I’ll post about it when we get solid news.

3. Sierra finally lost her tooth! That thing held on with determination but yesterday morning it anti-climatically fell out when she wiggled it with her tongue!
I am a really horrible tooth fairy because the second the kids were in bed I forgot all about her tooth under the pillow. I pretty much don’t think about my kids at all once they’re in bed. My brain is so fried I pretty much don’t think of anything, really! haha!
BUT, back to the tooth fairy, Sierra happens to be really easy to “trick” (for lack of a better word) so this morning after hearing her talking to Payson about her tooth, I slipped into her room with a dollar under my shirt. I told her how bummed I was we left her bedroom door shut and that the poor tooth fairy probably couldn’t get it open. Then I moved her pillow over while asking her, “Where is your tooth?”
As I shifted the pillow with one hand I snuck the dollar to the side of her bed (near her pillow) with the other. She immediately caught sight of the dollar and lunged forward, smiling. I said, “The pillow must’ve pushed it over there when you lifted it earlier!”
Sierra laughed and with a HUGE grin said, “It was there! I just didn’t see it! Oh my gosh!” I can’t remember her exact words after that but she was filled with excitement. haha! She didn’t have any doubts or questions about “missing” the dollar the first time she checked.
I just feel bad picturing her lifting her pillow in the morning and finding her tooth still there 🙁 🙁

4. Ember’s potty training is going really well! I really didn’t want to say anything for fear of everything falling apart right after saying so, but this is day three with no accidents so… I’m hopeful! haha
Monday she peed her pants 6 times! She didn’t pee in the potty once that day! Tuesday we were out on errands for about four hours. She drank at least 12 ounces of water in that time and I stopped at the restroom in each place we visited and sat her on the toilet to see if she needed to go. I was seriously SO convinced she was going to pee her pants in a store but she didn’t! But, she also refused to go pee on the public restroom toilets. I’d put her on there and she’d look like she was thinking she couldn’t imagine anything worse. She’d tell me each time, “I fink I just wait to use my small potty at home.” lol. So freaking adorable!
So she didn’t have any accidents and didn’t pee until we got home. We got home and while I was putting away groceries she went over to her potty and peed! It was a lot of pee, too! haha
For the next week or two I’m going to bring her potty in my car and see if she’ll go in there before heading into a store. Hopefully that works out. I’ll also have to bring a water bottle to rinse it off and a grocery bag to set it on. And maybe I might as well keep a change of pants/panties in my diaper bag, too!

5. Pregnancy. I should probably not blog about being pregnant. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. haha

6.Allan got a really big promotion and raise at his current company. Like, really huge. If I didn’t loathe Arizona as much as I do we’d be in a pretty good position here!

7. My mom’s coming to stay with me for two weeks around the time the baby’s due. I’m super excited to see her!

Um, there’s probably a lot more but I am freaking hungry and need to go make myself some breakfast. ha

These pictures were from our outing on Tuesday. Ember was so full of energy that day. We had fun but I was feeling SO much pressure and pain in my pelvis. I think maybe the baby dropped a bit this week because suddenly I have shooting pain in my hips and lower back when I walk.
Ember, though, Ember was really happy and had a blast in Big Lots looking at cheapy toys.

We spent a good long while in the Christmas section trying out all the singing/dancing toys.

We ate pizza at Costco but Ember said she was still hungry once we got to WalMart. I got her a small fries and small powerade to snack on while we shopped.

It’s been many months since she got McDonald’s so she was pretty happy about it.

I’ve finished Christmas shopping for my kids except I need one more thing for Ember. I’m thinking about getting her a small bike or a scooter. I’m not sure…

She was able to pedal forward a little bit but once her feet got to a certain position she couldn’t move forward anymore. I’m not sure if I want to get her a bike now, with winter in Colorado looming, or get her some other toy and wait to get her a bike next year. Trivial decision 😉

This is about when I thought maybe it wasn’t a good idea to give her chocolate in the car.

I bought the girls Christmas dresses from Costco. I had them try the dresses on for me and because they’re really soft dresses, Brooklyn was happy! She complains so much about dresses, it’s always a huge relief when I find one that’s pretty and that she likes!
I just need to buy some half tees for them to wear under the dresses.

One night before bed Sierra’s tooth looked like maybe it was ready to come out. I tried to pull on it but, nope. It was holding on tightly.

Huge belly.

I’m so sick of cleaning toothpaste off of my counters!

This morning!

While I was snapping those photos of Sierra and her lost tooth the other kids ran outside to play with the sprinkler.

I told them not to get wet since we were two minutes from heading to the car to drive to the bus stop.

Ember said that water made her really cold!

Brooklyn got a homework assigment earlier in the week to make a diagram with some animal print outs. It’s due today. She didn’t tell me about it until after bedtime last night. I let her stay up and make one. She told me a lot of other kids in her class had their mom make most of their diagram. We talked about how stupid that was of moms to do their kids projects! ha

While we were walking towards the garage Ember was telling me her pants were all wet. She was starting to cry about it (I could see a meltdown seconds away, she is a total grump in the mornings and everything makes her break down in crying fits. lol!) so I quickly said, “I know! My pants are super wet, too!”
But I wasn’t wearing pants, I was wearing a dress, so she looked and saw my bare legs and laughed and said, “You not wearing pants!”

You’re right, Ember. And you’re not crying anymore 😉

So Pregnant, So Much Fun, Halloween is Coming

October 18, 2013Ariana Sullivan

Man, I am so pregnant. I still don’t feel ready to have a baby. I mean, I WANT my baby and to hold him and kiss him and love on him, but I’m not ready for him to be here yet. I have too much to do. Nothing that involves preparing for baby, either, since I’ve been ready for him for months now. haha!
I just want to know, you know, if we’ll be living here or moving in the next couple weeks!! (We should find out today)
But then again, I’m sick to death of being pregnant so if I had him I’d be pretty happy about having my body to myself again!

The kids love decorating for Halloween. We have raided the dollar section of Target and the dollar store for super cheap Halloween decorations.

The kids mess with all the Halloween stuff all the time so it never looks how it did originally. But I don’t care. They love it and it was for them so… it’s all good.

I printed a small album with all of their past costumes and they love looking through that. I didn’t photograph that because it’s kinda boring but here’s our calendar area.

Potty training is going okay. Ember’s peed in her potty and had a few accidents. I’m using the potty training approach of: put kid in undies, tell her where to pee, let time work out all the kinks. AKA: lazy. But it works pretty well. haha!

The girls did a small experiment with coke and nerds candy. Payson was in quiet time for being naughty in the store earlier that day.

I found some charts for them to fill out. We have tons of these printed out and when they finish them we put them in their scrapbooks with the pictures from the experiment. I love scrapbooking 🙂

I ended up being late to my doctor appointment because I chose to drop the kids off at school instead of bringing them with me. I didn’t think my mental health could take the hit of being at the doctor’s with four children! I loathe being late 🙁

Ember was being so sweet and cute during the wait, it really cheered me up!

I did not have fun attempting to use the timer to take some belly shots. But I hate asking Allan to (and he’s been getting home waaaaaaaaaaay past dark this week) so, there’s no other option if I want to document this GIANT belly.

I looked super washed out so I went and put on lipstick to add some color to my face. haha! I should wear lipstick all the time. It perks up a tired face!

We had parent teacher conferences. I wasn’t expecting such glowing reviews of my children from their teachers. That was a happy day! (And I was pretty proud because each teacher told me I pretty much nailed teaching them at home because they’re all exceeding expectations. Woot woot)

In the picture above they’re holding up their book fair purchases. I try not to but can’t help myself supporting their school. I HATE what our school chooses to spend money on (I could scream when I hear they bought more ipads or computers) but yet, I participate in all the financial support we can. I just really wish they’d buy more quality books and supplies and no ipods or ipads.

I let Brooklyn be the picture taker. Payson was bummed because he loveslovesloves pushing the shutter button when we do these types of pictures. I told him he could take a few extra at the end. So anyway, that’s why I seem focused on him… I was trying to cheer him up. haha

Brooklyn took a dozen pictures and then at the end I let Payson run over to push the button. He was happy after that! (and Brooklyn was happy since she’d been the designated photographer, win-win!)

We did a Frankestein art project. I told them to do dot style paintings with q-tips. Sierra and Payson did but Brooklyn refused and kept saying it was really stupid. She ended up painting her picture fully in with the q-tip. When Payson was done with his dot version he ended up copying Brooklyn and painting the entire thing in. So anyway, I really liked the way all four of the kids’ pictures turned out. Payson’s looked the most monster-ish:

And Sierra’s was done exactly like I’d said to and turned out cute. (oh and the other two pictures are a couple of Brooklyn’s Halloween art projects from the last couple of weeks that I like. I don’t know what it is about that ghost, it’s so simple but I just love it.

In my next house I want a designated wall for the kids’ art projects. Here in this house we have art projects on like five different walls right now. haha

The kids played with some slimy stuff we’d made.

Ember refused to touch it. She kept saying it was yucky and would get her dirty 🙂

This week there’s regularly a naked baby running through the house. She’d just peed in her potty. lol

I bought a pack of vampire teeth because Brooklyn LOVES vampire teeth and the kids wore them a lot that day. Ember tried and tried to get them in her mouth but they were way too big.
And as for Everett, he’s getting huge, everything seems healthy and perfect from what one can tell during pregnancy, and I feel like he’s with us all day long because I can feel his limbs and his body movements ALL day. Even just standing cooking dinner or whatever, I feel arms and legs moving all over the place. I think a lot about how fun it’ll be when he’s in the wrap on my chest during these things instead of inside of my body. Oh and all the kids have felt him moving around and kicking and they talk about him a lot. I guess to sum it all up he’s already such a part of the family even though none of us have met him. It’s a fun, weird thing to be pregnant! I can’t wait to meet my baby! I hope this next month flies by!

For the Sake of the Post!

October 11, 2013Ariana Sullivan

Dude, I’m so over blogging.
Is this the 7 year itch? haha.
That’s insane that I’ve been blogging 7 years. Eeps. Who needs to talk to the internet for that long?!

Anyhizzle… here are some pics and some words because that’s the blogger thing to do 😉
I’ve reached that phase in pregnancy where my maternity clothes still fit but I’m so sick to death of wearing the same clothes all the time that getting dressed causes me to feel like screaming and throwing things. And going to the store in my pajamas. Why is it not acceptable to go out in pjs when preggo?! It should be acceptable.
Here is an outfit I tried on but didn’t buy. (Ember was being a sleeping baby puppy, Payson her puppy brother)

I can’t even remember the last time I bought pringles for my kids. We get lays or ruffles sometimes but pringles? Must’ve been at least two years ago or more!

Junk food makes us super happy!

These kids of mine and their endless messes are making me feel like I need to be medicated to handle the crazy.

Sierra asked me if I would take a picture of her by this bushy tree the other day. I suppose we’re all not used to seeing green and the event needed to be captured? ha

Sister does what big sister does.

Ember is by far my most picky eater. She is the pickiest eater I could ever imagine. Two of the only foods she’ll consistently eat are: cereal and cheese. It’s frustrating.
Here she is enjoying some Raisin Bran. In a paper bowl with a plastic spoon because I’m super wasteful like that these days.

Real fruit popsicles. Fave treat around here considering we’re still having hot summer temps despite the October written on my calendar. Good job, Arizona. Heat is the bestest thing ever! :/

Telling me his favorite kind was grape.

Sierra’s funny. I should photograph her more. But, you know, I feel like I’m invading their privacy and/or annoying the crap out of them when I ask for a picture.
Wanna hear something ironic? Allan just got a good promotion at work today. But next week he’s off to Colorado for a house hunting trip because most likely we’re moving there soon. I really wish I didn’t hate the heat or the desert so he could stay in a job that’s going super awesome but, I’m so miserable here I could actually die. So despite a glorious work situation, we gotsta go. And despite Colorado not exciting me in any way, anywhere is better than the desert. ‘cept the bayou or ultra hot and humid places! Humidity is the worst!

It Starts to Break Down

October 10, 2013Ariana Sullivan

Next month I will have a baby. I am very glad because this month, bursting with pregnancy… is not my favorite.

Fall Break is not helping things. My kids home all day every day when the weather is still super hot. I’ve hated every single second of this week.

Today it is cooler (not cool) and rainy so that’s awwwwesome. But my kids have asked to go outside a few dozen times and I’ve said, “When you clean up my family room and kitchen.” And I’m standing firm. Destructive little brats completely destroyed my house in one day. There were several times where they literally threw a box full of crap (toys and papers) from their bedrooms or the play room onto the family room floor. What kind of person does that?! Sierra this morning, after cleaning for ten minutes, threw her two handfuls of crayons on the floor when she got mad at Payson. I told her, “Not a smart idea because you have to pick them all up now.”

Kids. They’re not the funnest.

Everett is going to be my last child. I love babies. I do not love raising a bunch of kids. And I hate being pregnant.