Carlee Jane's 3rd Birthday

Warning.....she's pretty cute!

3 years ago today we welcomed our one and only princess girl to the world! I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was a tough pregnancy as is all of mine it seems. She was feisty even in the womb:) I had a wonderful mid-wife, who if I could, I would fly here to Arizona to have deliver my last child. She was amazing! I had a water birth with Carlee. Unusual for me to choose this path since I prefer to be pain free! I had a not so great experience with the epidural I had with Peyton, so I wanted to try a different route. I went in to the hospital on my due date and deliver a few hours later. You must know that this was a miracle, since with Peyton I labored for 21 hours:( I labored for a couple of hours with Carlee and was in the tub for 30 minutes and she was out! It was not totally pain free, but bearable:) We new Carlee was a princess from day 1. She cried and cried and cried some more. It wasn't a normal newborn cry, it was like a I am a princess and I need something cry. To this day, she still has this cry! But boy do I love this little girl! We have our moments, she and I, but at the end of the day all is well! I will always cherish her sweet voice, her dimple smile, and her sassiness(which I am told she gets from me). Carlee Jane, we love you more than we could ever imagine possible. You bring joy to our lives everyday!

Now, on to her Party day......

RAIN! Go figure! It is always our luck that things like this happen. It has been gorgeous here in Arizona the last week. It's been in the 70's all week. The sun was out and all the children were outside and enjoying the light breeze!

Not on Party day.....

We woke up to a very cold and rainy day:( We were so sad because we had gotten a trampoline for her..and Peyton:) I cried a little. Dave stayed positive, but I could see it in his face that he was bummed too! We were able to get a break in the rain to put it together. The sun decided to come out for a short time so the kids were able to jump a little bit. We do not have complete grass in our back yard yet so there was some mud issues. I had the brilliant idea to put a tarp down so the kids could walk on and not get it too dirty.

We decided this year to not have a kid party. We had family over and that was good enough for her! I did however take cupcakes and treat bags to her class on Thursday!

Here are some pictures of our little princess girl:)

The Name Game?!?!?!

So I suppose the more children one has the harder it is to come up with names???? This seems to be the case with us! We are struggling to pin down a definate name for "baby". Peyton Douglas was such an easy pic! Carlee Jane was not too difficult! But this third bundle of joy still has no name:( We have had many suggestions from friends and family...let me just share a few with you:

Sloane
Scrub
Kellan
Graham
Elijah
Graylen
Bryce
River
Wyatt
Briley
Maher Shalal Hash Baz ( yep, pretty unique)
Lincoln
Mookie
Starship (Really?!?!)
Lucky
DeQuane(Hmm...)
LaTyrone(Thanks to Dave's brother)
Jamarcus(Dave's brother has some good ones)
Kao Pai(An even more interesting choice)

Well, we have a first name narrowed down. Dave really likes one that I am good with; and I really like one that Dave is good with. The middle name is a whole new bag of marbles!!! I think we are keeping it to ourselves until we are 100% sure!

We will keep you posted:)

I won the award

Yes, I win the award for worst blogger in 2009! I suppose working full time, being a mother and wife, going to Graduate school, and getting knocked up kept me otherwise engaged! I don't really make New Year's resolutions, mainly because they last maybe through the first week of January! But if I were to make one it would be to be a better blogger! We will see what happens!

So since I last posted not much has changed. My stomach is growing at a fast pace I might add. Third babies will do that to a gal! We found out that we are having another boy! We are excited! There is no way in God's green earth that Carlee Jane Carpenter could share the role as Princess! She is the one and only and we are happy that it will remain this way! She's a special little girl with a vibrant personality:) Vibrant is a good word for WILD!! This pregnancy has been a challenge. I have always had difficult pregnancies in the beginning. At my 18 week ultrasound, they saw that I had Placenta Previa. This is where the placenta basically is sitting on the cervix. It normally corrects itself which mine did (Thank you Lord!!). If it didn't not correct itself, a C-section and bed rest would have been in my future! So for about 3 weeks I was a nervous wreck and had to take it easy. This was difficult because I could not lift anything, including my babies! And of course they did not understand why I couldn't carry them around like I normally would! There was a week or so span where the kids were angry with me and acting out:( I am not sure if they were angry about the baby or that I couldn't spend as much time with them. Did I mention that I slept alot! Yes, I would go to bed before them most nights. Dave did a GREAT job taking the role of mom and dad! He pretty much did everything. If he can't endure the actual pregnancy and delivery, then this was a good job for him! Although I do not think he was ever in any physical pain, I'll work on that one:)

It seems that the holidays flew by me this year. I was not as 'in' it as in the past! I did manage to decorate for Christmas. We had family from Illinois come stay with us so that motivated me to get with it! I have not been much into house work or shopping. I did wake up today thinking I need to get busy and start thinking ahead to May. Seriously crazy I know, but it will be here before you know it! I need to get prepared for the little booger. I am losing my office to make room for baby. I am ok with it because I had not spent a whole lot of time in there anyway!!

So, I suppose I will share pictures now. I am a little frustrated with myself because I have not been taking that many pictures lately. For one reason, I lost my camera for about a month:( I found the day before Christmas!! I still had Halloween pics on there, sad I know! So get ready for a wide variety of random pictures!!

Birthday Party at Bounce U

Carlee and Londyn trying to box each other

Carlee and Jennifer on Halloween

The best drink on the planet. You can only get them in certain parts of Kentucky

Flying to Kentucky for Fall break

Peyton played soccer this fall

Yes, that is Mr. Carpenter as a Transformer....it was dress as a movie character day at school. Creative, huh???

Broncos Football game

Losing some teeth:)

What do high school basketball coaches do on the weekends???

Bake Cookies:)

16 weeks Prego

Carpenter Cousins at Christmas

The Mario jammies were a huge hit

Another Baby Doll!!!!!!!!!!!

Uncle Ky and Carlee

Abby and Uncle Dave

The Ice Cream truck came:)

Abby Mae Carpenter being baptized! We are so proud of how grown up she is becoming, but a little sad!!

I'm what??????

That's what I said after I took 3 home pregnancy tests!!!! Yeah, I took 3. I needed a little more convincing! I would say shock was more of my first reaction. Dave was excited the second I walked out of the bathroom with a look of horror on my face!!!!! Of course, he's not the one hugging the porcelain! We did not tell many people until we had a confirmation from an educated physician!

I finally went to the doctor. Everything looked great, heartbeat was perfect, the baby was measuring big already(great), and he/she was very active, and there was only one in there! I swear at times I had an army in there! We will not know the sex until 18 weeks. I want to know, Dave does not! Like it matters! We have a bet on how long before he is dying to know. I got my due date which is May 12th...same as cousin Kenzie. She's excited to say the least! Being a teacher this is a good time. Well maybe a week or two later. But I will have the summer to relax and not sleep! Maybe that's why I am sleeping so much now. I know I will not get much!

Now for my lack of blogging, well I am sure you could guess. I'M PREGNANT!!!! Let me tell you how I am pregnant (at least for the first SEVERAL months)....MISERABLE! I am sick, tired, sick, and tired! I sleep as much as I can. I have been known to go to bed at 6 pm. Working full time, being a mother to MY children, taking Master's classes, and being in charge of domestic things is hard work! Add pregnancy to that, and you've got my chaotic life! I am trying to stay positive, but if I hear another person tell me how much they LOVED every second of being pregnant I will SCREAM or throw up on them! Dave has stepped up big time! I have not been in the kitchen for longer than a minute at a time! He cooks, cleans, does laundry, and takes care of bath time! Wow, this really sounds like I do nothing. Well, if you call carrying a child who seems to like nothing more than doing flipple's(this is what Carlee calls flips) all the while trying to do lesson plans, teach kindergarten, and take classes, nothing....then we need to talk!! I am getting better. My doc prescribed some sweet candy I wasn't aware of with my other 2....ZOFRAN!!! It has helped so much with the nausea!

I have tried several times to scan the sonogram, but it's not working! I will keep trying! But I am not sure you are missing much. A certain family member(I will protect her since she gave birth to me...oops, sorry) said it looked like a snake:)

My next appointment is the day before Thanksgiving. Then a week after that we will find out the sex! Place your bets!! Dave and I are split, but I am sure I will win! Mother's always know, but I can say I haven't really had a strong feeling yet! I will let you know!