Tonight we carved our pumpkins with the kids. We bought the pumpkins over a week ago at a farm we had driven by on a detour. They were five bucks each and they had the coolest tops on them. Lot’s of character. Savannah and Max helped with cleaning out the pumpkin guts…a very messy job that Karson wanted nothing to do with. I carved the faces…but the kids had drawn them with crayon first. Except for Max who wanted me to carve fly guy from a book he got from his book order today. I did my best, but it doesn’t really look like fly guy, so much. Besides carving pumpkins, we also had a fire in the chiminia…but then it started raining. We finished it anyway, it was just a light sprinkle, so it wasn’t that bad. When we finished, we took pictures with the candles inside and brought in all the pumpkin seeds so we could roast them in the oven. Yummy!

Tonight I got to go get my Henna Tattoo on my HUGE belly. I took along my sister and my daughter, Savannah. We had a great time. It was such a neat experience. It was relaxing and fun. I got to soak my feet while the artist, Keleigh, applied the henna paste. After she was done, while it was drying, she massaged my feet and hands and it was so relaxing. The best part about it, though, was the tattoo itself.

Last night she talked to me, on the phone, about the baby and the pregnancy and our family. When I arrived there tonight, she had prepared 3 drawings…each a different design, but incorporating our family and our nanny, whom we are naming the baby after. So if you look at the design, which has a lot of traditional henna elements – which I love, the large fan design above my bellybutton represents me, Sam is represented behind me…which symbolizes his support and important role in the birth of the baby. To the right are 3 leaves…Savannah, Max and Karson…and the tiny one shooting off of Savannah’s leaf is our baby Jasmin. Above the design, you see a butterfly which represents our wonderful nanny who has been a huge blessing to our whole family the past 4 years. This is her 5th year working for us. Our lives would be so different without her.

The other two designs were pretty, but I loved this one and how we all were represented…it just seem to be the perfect fit. And it looks so great! Actually right now it doesn’t…because I am all taped up, to keep the paste on. But tomorrow morning I can take it off and see the tattoo on my belly and I am really looking forward to that!

Hi again. It’s been so long since I updated my blog, I figured today would be as good a day as any to post some recent news.
This past week we had another ultrasound because I am measuring about two weeks bigger than what I should be. I told my dr. this was normal for me, because all my babies have been big, but he wanted me to have it done anyway. We were excited to see if we could get a good look at her with the 3D ultrasound. So here she is at 36 weeks. Isn’t it amazing that they have this technology? I love this picture and it seriously reminds me a lot of Savannah when she was a baby. I am not sure what was up with the open mouth…she was like that the whole time we were looking at her face. And you can see her arm and her hand up by her face too.
The technician told us that she thinks that the baby is probably 8.5 pounds already. And I have 3 weeks left!? Holy cow. I guess I better prepare for another 10 pound baby. (Karson, my last, was 10lbs 13 oz.) In other news…this weekend my parents were here, and on Saturday, my mom, me and Savannah went on a trip to this really cool store in Ann Arbor. I found out about it from a soccer mom at a game a couple weeks ago. She was carrying her newborn in this really cool sling, so I asked her about it. I have the snuggli, front carrier, that I used for Max and Karson. It was convenient, but I always felt like the baby may have been a little uncomfortable in that thing. I also know there is a whole group of people who are really opposed to those kind of baby carriers. I never had a sling, but I always thought they looked so much more comfy for the baby and the mom! So anyway, we made the trip to Tree City Diapers to check it out. An employee named Alicia helped me out and showed me the way the Moby wrap worked and how to put it on. We put one on Savannah too, (a kid’s size one) and she loved it – so I bought her one too, she’s been wearing it with her baby doll since we came home. I can’t wait to try it out with the new baby.

So I have been trying to figure out how to get my house more organized. With one more kid, I am going to have to be on the ball. My biggest challenge right now is all the school papers. Tons of paper comes home everyday: homework, permission slips, book orders, reminders, school work, art work…I have to get the massive amount of paper that comes through our home in a week into some kind of organized system…plus there are bills that need to have a place to be, as well. Besides all the paper, laundry is the other thing that overwhelms me. I definitely need a better system for doing laundry. I have been reading some articles and advice on the internet as well as a book that I found to get some ideas. I am not a very organized person, so it’s something I really have to work at.

We are also looking at ways to save money. And when school picture order forms came home, for all three kids, we decided we were going to have to come up with something different because we couldn’t possibly spend $75 to $90 dollars just on pictures. That week, the kids had a half day of school, so Jasmin (our babysitter/nanny)took the kids to Cascades park and took pictures of them. They turned out so great! She is a wonderful photographer…so we cropped them, added a couple of effects in iPhoto and these are our kids’ school pictures. Everyone we have given them to, loves them. We ended up printing them at Walmart for 2.94 a sheet. And the whole bulk of pictures for everyone was half the price of what we were going to pay at school. And, Jasmin got a small photography job out of it, too!

I am still working, planning on working as long as I can. I have actually planned to work till the 2nd, but we will see what happens. This week I am working hard to get plans together. I still don’t know if I will have a sub, or not, or if teachers will be allowed to sub for their own art class if they won’t hire a sub, so since it is all up in the air, I am planning for a sub with some fairly easy lesson plans that hopefully classroom teachers would be able to do too.

We have been thinking about getting a henna tattoo on my belly. And Sam found this place in Ann Arbor that does pregnant bellies. I think it sounds so cool, even though I don’t really think my belly is all that beautiful right now. So I may be getting this done in the next week, if it works out. I hope maybe I can bring Jasmin and her camera along too!