Rite of Spring

Strawberry pizza. Evelyn said, "Oh, yummy dessert Mommy!" Jilly said, "I want pumpkin pie." Guess some of us are still stuck on the holidays. Ben was proud of the pumpkin comment, the pie is his favorite (loaded with whipped cream). 

The Future

The girls have really enjoyed flipping through their baby books and seeing themselves as babies lately. I brought my book down for them to look at, and they had fun seeing me as a baby as well. I had fun looking through it with the perspective of what I did at my girls' age, and how some things seem to have come across in the genes. For example, I carried my blanket into nursery each Sunday almost until I graduated into Sunbeams, and still needed it on occasion. That would be Jilly today, Captain "I need security," who must always bring something with her out of the house, and World War 3 will ensue if you try to take it away. But as my mom wrote in my journal, "There is hope." So maybe around three she'll not have to take toys all over the place. I also found this picture:

I laughed when I saw this picture because we're going to be at this point really soon. And my sister is making a face that's so much like Jilly's picture expressions. That's me in the middle, kind of not paying attention, just like my oldest daughter. And the next Sunday, Ben wanted a similar shot of us on the couch. We changed our blog header to the best picture out of the four we shot, but these ones were funny. 

Great first picture girls. 

And every time I look at this one, I just about die laughing. I have no idea what Evelyn was doing, or trying to do. Jilly wouldn't stop chewing whatever it was. 

On Monday the hospital I'm delivering at held a 'sibling class/tour,' so I signed us up and a nurse talked about how to treat a baby, hold a baby, making sure they know to wash their hands, don't poke their eyes, play with the umbilical cord, and definitely no using the blue suction bulb. Ev and Jill loved holding the life-size baby dolls, and at the end they got their own gear to go and check out the nursery. There were two little boys in there, and the girls liked watching them. One was just over 7 lbs, while the other one was over 9 lbs. All you had to do was look at the fat rolls to see which one was bigger. When I saw those little babies, it really hit me that I will have one of those in hopefully two weeks or less. I'd kind of forgotten how little they are! 

Speaking of fat rolls, I had an ultrasound today to make sure this little boy is head down, and the tech said, "Whoa! He's sure got some fat little cheeks!" And from what she could see, not a whole lot of hair except on the back of his neck. I'm not used to chubby babies. The girls were two skinny little frog babies for the first 8 weeks or so, but still cute none the less. She took this shot for me, if you can make it out. The vertical axis of his face is tipped at a 45 degree angle, and his left fist is right up next to his left eye. The top left quadrant of the picture is the right side of his face and eye. If you can make all that out, you can see the cheeks. I feel like I'm spoiling my Christmas present by knowing this, but we'll see how accurate the description is. 

And for the last portion of this post, the long-awaited, hemmed-and-hawed decision has finally had its conclusion. We'll be moving here in early September. 

We get to go to church right next to the temple! The girls will be mad they can't go inside, but they'll just have to wait. 

Decision Time

Well, the time to decide where our family is moving for the next five years has come. Ben has been visiting both places (St. Louis, MO and Irvine, CA) and is finding great stuff about each college. I'm looking for info on the areas. So if you're reading this, and live in either of these places, have lived, or have good friends/family that live in these areas, I would love to hear your opinion. This is probably the biggest decision Ben and I have ever made. Not that it's bigger than the time we decided to marry each other, but we were able to take our sweet time (9 months) with that one. This time around we have the luxury of a week or two.

On a side note, I saw the doctor today and I'm already 70% thinned out! This is huge! I never thinned out that much with either daughter until I was 3 hours away from delivering. I'm very interested in seeing how this one will play out.

Update

We have now entered the last month of what I consider to be the most boring quarter of the year. Yippee! Even the weather was compliant for the last 2 weeks or so, and got outside to draw on sidewalks and dig in the dirt (yesterday the girls "planted" their socks and shoes, intending them to grow into trees. Obviously, I wasn't paying attention). Today it has snowed a little, but that's typical of this area. It could snow 12" on the 15th of April. No big deal. 

Ben spent some time in St. Louis, Missouri this week, visiting Washington University's campus. All the buildings on the campus Ben would be spending the bulk of his time on are done in this same Gothic architectural style. He said all the people were really friendly, and wishes he could  have spent more time seeing the city. He was there for less than 24 hours. Better than the 4 days he had to spend in Philadelphia. We actually found out today that he was denied acceptance at University of Pennsylvania, which was fine with us because Ben decided he didn't really want to attend there if he was accepted. University of Kentucky sent an email today telling him he had been accepted, so that leaves only 2 more schools to hear from. 

Two of the projects I finished sewing a few weeks back. They love dresses, so that's what they've been getting. I finished the last one for Jilly today. I'm glad to say that the sewing spree is over. I've had my fill for the next little while. I feel like I still have too much to do in the next month, or less, or maybe a little more. More than sewing at least. 
Here is the hiccpuy baby boy at 35 weeks. And the belly is lower now (a week later) than it was in this picture. I hope that means I don't go 10 days overdue? My sister is flying out for a few weeks, so hopefully he makes his appearance in that window when she'll be here. 

Towing update: We found out through city police we were towed because our Camry was unregistered, and apartment complex parking lots are considered under city ordinance that no unregistered/expired registration can be parked on city streets. So $300 later, we know better. The really aggravating part of all this was that all other unregistered/exprired cars recieved notices saying they would be towed if the vehicle was not brought up to date. Except us. And as far as I know, we're the only ones who were towed. So if you live in the city, beware.