a rambling update on life.

whew.

lots has been going on.

i thought i'd just do a quick update.

first. last week i took some pictures of the kids. they turned out great. here's one of my favorites.

i got all emotional looking at this picture. i'm not even sure if i can articulate the "why" but i do know it had a lot to do with the blessing i feel when i look at it. and look at each one of the. especially as mr. f moves and grooves inside of my womb, and i can recall each one of their movements. it makes me so grateful for this opportunity to have been given another baby to grow. i've been given 6 babies to grow in my womb (well, to the point of feeling movement) and some women have NEVER been given this chance. i DO know how blessed i am!!
((if you want to see the rest of the pictures...click here.))

i'm not sure if i've even shared a belly picture on my blog. SHAME on me. i've posted some to facebook. so here is a collage i made of the pictures i have taken. :)

i find it amusing that i THOUGHT i looked pregnant at 14 weeks! :) i mean, i guess there is a belly...i'm just not sure how much of it is BABY!!

i also have this super sweet one of me and evaleigh from the other week. it's about 28 weeks.

and this week i'll be 30!! so i'll have to take another "official" picture. i should probably take one with my actual camera, too. all of these have been cell phone pictures. 

i can't believe i'm almost 30 weeks pregnant!! it's crazy. time has flown by.

it also means i need to seriously talk to shaun about a name. i have a name at the top of my list. but shaun has zero names he likes on any sort of list. so i'm trying to convince him of mine. :) shaun does have the middle name picked out. so...since he choose that AND the baby gets his last name...that's 2/3rds of the kids name...i should get a little bit of more choice in the other 1/3rd ...right?! ;) in all seriousness, we really do like to decide on a name together. so it will be something that both of us 100% agree on. we just HAVE to agree on something. my fear is this kid will be Flash Bang Popp. ((although Bang is NOT the name shaun has picked out...so i'm pretty safe that way.)) 

here's another sweet picture of the baby and a sibling. it's miss caitlyn.

one of my favorite parts of this pregnancy has been the ages of our kids. they're all old enough to "get" it and they LOVE to feel their little brother move inside of my belly. they're always asking where the baby is. or what he's doing. hugging my belly. kissing it. it will be really fun to see what happens when this little man arrives!!

speaking of his arrival. we're getting closer to "knowing" when he'll come. due to the other health things i have to take care of, we're choosing to be induced. i've been induced with all of our babies and have actually had wonderful and beautiful experiences with them. and in all honesty, it makes it easier to plan for where the other kids are going to be. which, when you have five other kids to plan for, it's a big deal. friends of ours offered to watch our kids for when we have him. we're really blessed by their generosity...and i'm sure a level of craziness...they'll have 9 (NINE!!) kids under the age of 8 in their house. :) but the kids are all friends, and our kids are really excited to hang out their family. so much so, i doubt they will miss us and won't want to come home. good thing we'll have some leverage with a new baby brother. :) 

i'm also starting to get excited about looking at our amazon wish list for the stuff we need for the baby and realizing how close it is until he gets here! it also seems a little daunting with the amount of stuff we need to buy. but thankfully we don't need ALL of it ALL at once. and can buy it when our budget allows. here's our list, in case you want to drool over baby stuff! :) it's always fun to do that. well, i think so!! in my last post i posted a car seat we were looking at getting. we totally changed our mind this weekend. so now we'll be getting a different one. mainly because it will take up less space in the van. which is funny to think about since we drive a 12 passenger van!! 

in other pregnancy news. i failed my 1 hr glucose. boo. but passed my 3 hr. yay! but yesterday had some funny things happen after eating some sugary stuff...boo. so i'll talk to my doctor this week and see what she says. 

i've been getting a ton of crocheting done. my orders have picked up lately, and it's been a huge blessing!
here are some of them that i've done lately...

a pom pom packers hat!

 curly banged cabbage patch hat. ((i loved learning a new stitch to get the "curls"))

 a sock monkey. this is actually for our little guy's first winter! :)

 i thought this football was cute...

 my word. this hat still makes me go "awwwww." a flower petal hat...

 and i can't wait to see pictures of my customer's kiddo in this set. the person who bought this has been a faithful client since the beginning and actually is part of the reason i ever started making this a "business" adventure. it's nice to have such an encouragement. and it's someone i've only met online! :)

so. yeah. lots going on in this life. i'm sure i've missed a bajillion things. 

one more thing. we're potty training evaleigh. i can't wait until we're done!!

hope to be back before WEEKS from now!!