8 months later...

I guess I kind of let this blog go...thought I'd post an update.

Dan got a job! He just started a new job about a month ago. I'm not sure that he loves it but it's a job, and at almost a year since loosing his job a job is a job! Right now we're trying to adjust to him working again.

I am working now too. I've been a stay at home mom since I was pregnant with Nicolas and in August I got hired on at the Health Department as their Peer Breastfeeding Counselor. It's a new program there so it's kind of a lot of work to get it up and going but so far I'm loving it. I also help a friend at her store a couple days a week and I'm still doing some photography. This working mom thing is hard!

Elijah is in 5th grade this year. He's having an awesome year! He played JFL football this past season and loved it....and he's awesome! This skinny kid is pretty tough out on the field. He's very excited to play again next season. We moved some rooms around and he has his own room now and he's lovin' that.

Nicolas is in 2nd grade this year. He's having a better year then last but still having an issue with taking school more seriously. He's so smart, but doesn't care so much for school...hoping he changes that soon. Nicolas played soccer over the summer. He did good, but half way through the game he'd ask to be goalie so he wouldn't have to run so much LOL. He also wants to play football like his big brother, but he'd be playing flag football at his age. We'll see.

Joshua started Kindergarten this year. He loves it! And his teacher loves him...seems that he's a very good student (never had one of these before lol). Josh also played soccer over the summer and did great. Josh is a go getter and a people pleaser...both of these qualities makes for a pretty good kid. :)

Zachary started preschool this year. He loves it so far. He has some friends now that he talks about too. Zack will be 4 in a couple months, and he's starting to act like a big kid, which is kind of killing me. It's so weird how fast these kids grow! Zack also became a big brother this year and he LOVES his baby brother. He does every and anything for him.

Benjamin was born April 29th weighing in at 7 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches long. He's now 6 months old and is 20 lbs and 27 inches. My oh my has he grown! I could not imagine our lives without our little Benjamin, he definitly completes our family. Benjamin just started eating baby food. So far we've done rice cereal, homemade butternut squash, apples and now oatmeal. His favorite is apples so far! He is almost a sitter, he's rolling both ways now and loves to eat his feet!

I will try to figure out how to do updates from my phone, that way I'll update more often. :)

8 wks till baby!

It's been 2 months since I've updated? Wow! Doesn't seem like it's been that long. I won't even try to update on everything that's happened around here in the past couple months.

Dan's still looking for a job, he's had lots of interviews so far but nothing promising yet. We are believing God will provide him with the perfect job at the best time.

We are almost finished with the baby's room, have to add a few things still. I'm having a babyshower a week from tomorrow that I'm VERY excited about! I know this is my 5th, and another boy, but babyshowers are so much fun and I'm thrilled to be having one for my last baby. :) We still need a few important things for this little guy, so hopefully over the next few weeks we'll be about done getting everything together for him.

I have had a rough pregnancy so far but am still trying to enjoy it since this is my last. There's been a lot of pain, making it hard to do normal daily things. My normal contractions haven't been too bad so far, but Tuesday night they took a turn for the worse causing me to spend 5 hrs in the hospital. 8 more weeks until I'm due, but I'm still praying he decides to come in April!

A busy month!

In the past month we celebrated Elijah's birthday, Christmas, drove to Chicago the weekend before Christmas, drove to Maryland for Christmas, New Years Eve and Day, my sister got married and now we're well into January. Whew!! This will not be a long update, just wanted to mention a few things.

First of all, our baby on the way has a name! He will be Benjamin Sawyer :) I love it! (love it even more that Zacky calls him Benjy-min) I am 24 wks today and will be getting another ultrasound sometime in Febuary to check growth.

Also, Dan lost his job the beginning of last week. God will take care of us so I'm not worried (although it was pretty scary for a while) and I know he'll have another job soon...a better job!

I started a new project this year, it's called the 365 project. I will take a picture everyday, it will generally have something to do with what's going on in my life that day, and I'm posting in on Facebook in my "365 Project" album. So if you're not a friend of mine on FB you're missing out!

Almost a month!

Wow, sorry it's taken me so long to post an update! I can't believe Christmas is almost here! So in the past month here's a small run down of what's been going on in our lives...

We're having a boy! We found out about a week ago and we're very excited to be adding another little guy to our clan. :) He will fit in just fine! I'm almost 20 weeks, which is the half way mark, this pregnancy sure is flying by! My pregnancies are usually pretty rough and this one isn't much different, but I'm trying to enjoy every part of it since this is our last. :)

We're going to have a 10 yr old is 4 days and I can hardly believe it. I remember Elijah being a baby like it was not that long ago. But he is maturing into such a wonderful little man, I couldn't be more proud of him. He wants a sledding birthday party with about 5 of his close friends, so we're praying for snow! The only weekends we have free are in January so he's going to have to wait a little while for that party. My sister just bought a house with her soon to be hubby (only 4 weeks from today and they'll be married!) and there's a huge hill that would be perfect for sledding, so they were very kind in letting us use their house for Elijah's birthday party!

Our house is DIAPER FREE!!! (well for the next few months at least lol) Zachary is potty trained...woo hoo!!! He will be 3 in Febuary, so it's about that time. I tried a different approach this time. I decided not to push him at all and he ended up doing it 100% on his own. It took him a few days to get it down, but in the process he's had NO accidents and even sleeps in underwear at night. It's crazy how fast and easy it was. When they are ready then it all will fall into place I guess. So it's been about 3 weeks now and it's just great!

Joshua and Nicolas don't really have anything new going on in their lives, Nicolas just had his school Christmas program Thursday night and Elijah's is Monday night. All 3 of the older boys will be in our church Christmas program tomorrow morning. Also, we went to a Christmas concert Wednesday night at a local church here with the boys. It was so much fun! The boys loved that they recognized some of the songs from the radio.

We're going up to the Chicago area next weekend to have a Christmas get together with some of my mom's family Saturday, then heading to my dad and step mom's house to have Christmas with them next Sunday. Then we'll drive home Sunday afternoon and get home just in time for our Christmas service at church that night. Then the next day we're leaving for Maryland to visit Dan's family for Christmas and will be home the following weekend. Shew! We're going to be busy, but it's worth it, I love this time of year!!

I hope to update again before Christmas (but as you just read I'll be pretty busy!) so if not have a wonderful Christmas!!!

The flu!

We were hit! Sunday morning Nicolas woke up with a fever, cough, chest hurting and runny nose, out of no where. He seemed to be acting fine but when the fever got high (around 103) he would just lay there (poor guy). Monday he was a little worse, I called the dr and and they immediately told me over the phone it sounded like the flu. They would not see him, just called some Tamiflu in for him to take. So he started on Tamiflu. I'm assuming that if he did indeed have the flu, it was h1n1 because it's not regular flu season and his chest was hurting which is a major one for h1n1 (respiratory problems). Monday evening I started with a soar throat and cough. By Tuesday morning I was a wreck. Nicolas missed another day of school and I called my OB. Since I'm pregnant they did want to see me. I slept until my appointment at 2 then drug myself there (Dan, Josh, Nicolas and Zack came too, but they all waited in the car). They tested me for the flu (which SUCKED, it was soooo uncomfortable) which was negative, they don't do swine flu tests unless you're in the hospital, and they gave me a breathing treatment. I left with a script for Tamiflu (which I protested to her that I did NOT want to take it because it's normally not safe for pregnant woman, but they're giving it to them now because of how sick you can get from the flu without it). So I got home, took my first dose and within an hour was vomiting horribly. I obviously couldn't tolerate it. So for the next few hours I was throwing up, it was horrible, I have never been that sick. When it was all out of my system I started with contractions. I was worried I'd have to go to the ER for some fluids or something, but after a few hours I fell asleep. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling much better. My wonderful hubby took M-W off work to take care of me. :) There was so school Wednesday so I was thankful for that. In the meantime, Zachary started with a fever but it never really did anything. So, this being Friday night I am thankful I'm almost 100% back to normal. Yuck! I feel like I'm getting a sinus infection now, but it's ok, I will deal. :)

Oh and on a different note, Zack is potty training! He is doing it all by himself too, I haven't pushed him once. He just started going on his own, without even telling anyone (until he was one of course, then he'd run out yelling "I WENT POTTY!") so for the past 2 days he's been wearing underwear around the house. He's doing VERY well. I'm so proud of him!! Oh, and today, he found that there's a slit in the front of his underwear and has been opening it all day LOL!

Baby Guesses!

I created a game on Expect Net, go there and put in your guess! I'm not sure if you need to register (if you do, it shouldn't take long) but go to www.expectnet.com and on the left you will see where it says "Game name" type in Rodmanbaby5 (no spaces and yes the R needs to be capital). It will take you to our game. Put in your guesses about the baby's gender, weight, length, and when it will be born...by the way my official due date is May 6th. I'm getting my ultrasound on December 1st, so if you guess the wrong gender you can go back into the game and fix it. Please play, it will be fun!again the site and game name is...www.expectnet.com Rodmanbaby5

sick Elijah...

So far this fall/winter hasn't been too bad to us. Zack had an ear infection last week, Josh has done some coughing, but now Elijah's sick. He's missed Mon and Tues at school and looks like he will be missing tomorrow as well. I brought him to dr Monday. She said his throat was very red but we decided not to do the strep test because she was putting him on an antibiotic anyway so it really didn't matter, and he was wheezing so he's doing breathing treatments. He's been on his medicine 2 days now and still has a fever and no appetite. Not sure if he has a touch of the flu or something as well, just seems strange. He's not acting that bad, he lays around some but definitely isn't himself. I'm hoping he has no fever tomorrow so he can go back to school Thursday! (he has to be fever free for 24 hrs before being able to go back to school)

I hope all of you are healthy!