ANOTHER New Addition?

This morning I am finally starting to feel better!  The kids wanted blueberry muffins for breakfast, and it was so beautiful outside we decided to eat out here.  The kids are now playing in the 70% finished chicken coop, and Gabi--as always--is carrying Gizmo around like a baby.  It's so gorgeous this morning!  We've got jackets on, but we probably won't need them much longer.

Earlier in the week Addy and Rafe spiked fevers.  They slept a lot, but seemed to have fought it off.  Gabi followed suit.  Wednesday I ended up with a 103.5 fever and was pretty delirious and lethargic.  I'm still unable to eat because my throat is so sore I can't swallow, but my fever has been down since Thursday evening.  I'm drinking as much as I can, but even that is painful.  My dad is headed over with popsicles.. :-)

Addy was completely potty trained a few days after our inital success.  She was sooo easy to potty train.  Makes me wish I had done it sooner!  The first few weeks every time she'd go potty everyone would run into the hall with us and sit around when she needed to go.  With three small kids at home, they pretty much move as a pack.  We've got a "potty station" set up right next to the bathroom door.  Rafe and Addy's potty seats are side by side.  Because our house is older it has a built in telephone stand (we don't even have a "home phone"), and I've got clorox wipes and Addy's dry diaper from the previous night up there.  Then Addy dumps her potty in the big toilet and washes her hands while I clean the little potty.  It's been soooo wonderful just having one in diapers...

But if I want to keep it that way I'll have to potty train Rafe before November.  Yep!  Baby S. #5 is due around Nov 29th.  We've known for almost 2 weeks now, and the shock is slowly starting to wear off.  We sold the Envoy two days ago and have test driven a Yukon Denali that I'm basically in love with.  Rafe is on day 3 of being 100% weaned.  I've been sleeping on the couch while Mitch had the "joy" of teaching Rafe to fall back asleep without nursing!  Oh what bad habits I instilled.  I resovle to not do that with this next one!! 

We're excited despite it putting a kink in some of our goals for 2011..not to add any more members to the family!  And we will no longer be able to complete another goal of a family vacation to San Antonio in early Novemeber for STAFDA.  And we probably won't be able to pay the house off 25k more this year because we have to buy a bigger car and because Mitch will need to take 2 months off FMLA to help with the kids while I'm on bed rest (aka no pay).  But I know we're so blessed that it won't cause any big strains and that we can welcome another baby with open arms.  This is the longest time I've had between pregnancies--Rafe will be 2 in July!!  Hopefully my cervix has healed and is ready for another cerclage.  Thankfully this time the kids can get themselves into their car seats and high chairs and beds and clothes and even Rafe can drink from a regular glass--a far cry from where we were when I found out I was pg with Rafe.  We'd just brought Addy home from NICU and she needed 100% care... probably more than 100%!!  I see Jensen the 19th, I can't wait to hear what he has to say.