WHAT??

So you know the post a few weeks back My Belly and Me? Scroll down to refresh your memory. At my 34 week appointment they measured me at 37 weeks along!!

Today I had my 38 week appointment. They did an ultrasound. The baby looks like he's measuring between 7.5 and 8 lbs - EEK! Hunter was my biggest baby weighing in at 7 lbs 10 oz and he was also my EARLIEST baby (four days early.) Can we say I'm a bit freaked this time around?

And then the doc measured me. 35 weeks. WTF? How can I go from one extreme to the other? Granted, my last 4 appointments I was seen by 3 different women. So that could be part of the discrepancy in numbers. But it's still WEIRD!

The countdown continues...

Baby Shower for Baby #4

You can imagine my surprise when my sweet friend, Cassie said she wanted to throw me a baby shower. What? This is my FOURTH baby! Nevertheless, she wanted to do *something.* And so I conceded.

What mom-to-be (even if it is the 4th time around) doesn't want to have time away with girlfriends and eat yummy food and open presents? I for one, DID! And so a simple shower was planned. And it was perfect. :)

That's me in all my glory these days! And beautiful Cassie behind me. Thanks Cassie for everything!

Just opening a few things. A few, very cute things!

And showing them off!

Thanks ladies for making this a fun event! It was just what I had in mind- time away from the hubby and kids for a while. Some great girl talk, accompanied with some delicious food and a warm, loving atmosphere! You sure know how to make a girl feel loved. :)

Fook Yuen

A couple of weeks ago I was worried that I might not *make it* to Ryan's birthday w/0 having this baby. So I planned a date for him and we celebrated a little early.

Every time we go to Honolulu we pass this restaurant on our way home, always saying to one another "we REALLY need to check that place out!!" With a name like that? How could we not! So this is where we ended up. :)

We were in for a surprise! We thought it would be some run down, hole in the wall, joke of a place- just b/c we always joked about the name! BUT it was in fact quite a nice and classy place to be. We felt a little underdressed in our shorts and t-shirts. Oops!

We ordered some lobster along with a couple of other dishes. It was Maine Lobster. I've only ever had lobster from the Caribbean so this was a first for me. And I'm used to having only the lobster tail presented in beautiful form with a bowl full of drawn butter- YUM! So this was a little different. Still good, but different. Especially since I felt like the lobster was smiling at me!

Happy early birthday Ryan! We all know how Ryan LOVES his birthday so I didn't feel too badly about celebrating nine days earlier. It's the best excuse to stretch it out longer!
After dinner, I had a surprise planned for him. There just so happened to be- THAT very night at the U of H Manoa campus a special film presentation and book signing of Ryan's newest, favorite photographer, Clark Little. How could we get so lucky? :)

We drove over there and he of course figured it out! OF COURSE he would know that Clark Little had his show that night- but Ryan never said anything to me about it. I think his opinion of went up a couple of notches that night since I planned it all on my own :)

We saw a fabulous film presentation about how he's able to capture such gorgeous pictures and then a short question/answer period between he and the audience. After that we stood in line to buy his book of art so we could meet him and have him sign it!!

Me and Clark! Like we're old friends, eh? :) Sorry Ryan I took over and got the picture with him instead of you! But Ryan did get the book and it was signed to Ryan by Clark.

Ryan mentioned to Clark that he'd been looking at something to buy for our wall at home but since we live here on the island we wondered if we could pick something up and not have it shipped...

Clark said, "oh sure! Here take my cell number down. Just call me and we can meet up at a Starbucks or something. Figure it all out!"

I love this place! It's still such a small and unique community of people that this was totally normal! So now Ryan has Clark's cell number. We have yet to decide what we want to invest in to put on the wall- but the whole thing is kind of exciting in a nutshell!

Although it was just he and I on our little date- he had a FABULOUS time! Love you honey!

Oops!

How could I leave off these three pictures from my last post? Danielle was a lucky girl to have her birthday stretch for two days-- who am I kidding? That's pretty normal for our family. Just ask Ryan.

I made a chocolate cake with a vanilla icing that I colored lime green (Dani's favorite color.) I thought I would spice it up and add a Barbie doll for kicks. Her arms are raised, celebrating Dani entering her 20's!!
Gabriella was SUPER excited to play with the doll after the candles were blown out. She couldn't stop talking about it! Poor Barbie- her hair kept singeing and basically melting... quick, blow out the candles!!
Danielle warned us that blowing out candles was NOT her forte. It took her three tries to get all 20 candles out. =) Gabriella is giving her moral support. Haha!
Happy Birthday Danielle! We love you!

Sunset Beach

Sunset is rapidly becoming one of our favorite beaches to visit. Besides the fact that it's beautiful, it also has a nice sandy bottom and plenty of swimming room for the kids w/o crazy waves. Don't get me wrong, we like waves too- but it all depends on what kind of beach experience you want that day.

This is last Saturday, August 14th which also happened to be my sis-in-law, Danielle's birthday! So we went to Sunset to just BE!

How picturesque can you get!?!

This is Dani with Gabriella and Lexie with Kolea, playing! David is in the background with Hunter who was obviously snorkeling. He's become quite the swimmer! It's about 5' deep where he's swimming.

David is Ryan's younger brother and Dani is his wife. Lexie is Ryan and David's younger sister. The three of them moved here this summer and began attending BYU-H in July for the First Term. It's been fun having them around! =)

Say "CHEESE!"

Ryan was trying to be "good" and get some reading done. The term is only six weeks long and for ONE of his classes he's had FIVE books to read... I swear, that's ALL he's done lately and he's pretty tired of it. Luckily the term ends in two weeks!

A little beach play time!

And here's our crew, sans Me of course since I'm behind the camera! You don't want to see me anyway. I'm nearly 37 weeks prego- not a pretty sight... *shudder*
We left the beach and got cleaned up to head to town for some shopping and dinner. Italian food is Dani's favorite so we went to the Macaroni Grill for dinner. One of the hostesses was walking around singing in this beautiful operatic voice! When she found out it was Dani's birthday, she came over and serenaded her with a little birthday song. I wish I would've recorded it- she did a fantastic job!

Time for dessert! And make a wish!

There were plenty of helpers to share the birthday dessert with... YUM!

Oh happy day!

Where'd Everyone GO?

This is Kolea. This is the perfect picture to describe how she felt all morning. You see, Gabriella started Kindergarten this morning. Hunter has already been in school for a week! My sweet little girl is all alone at home with mommy. I'm not as fun as brother and sissy.

Every few minutes Kolea would ask me "a Ella go?" I would respond, "she went to school!" And then she would ask, "a Ha-to go?" ('Hunter') I would tell her the same. She would go off and play for a few minutes and then come back asking the same questions.

Kolea was lonely for her two best friends.

Hunter began FIRST grade last week! I can't believe I have a 1st grader. He was pretty excited and went to class w/o incident. These pictures are from the second day of school b/c I was so awesome and FORGOT the camera on the first day of school!

BUT... funny story: When I picked up Hunter after school on the first day a woman in the classroom was talking to me... She wasn't the teacher I'd dropped him off to so I asked her, "are you a TA or something?" She said "No, I'm the afternoon teacher!!" Welcome to Hawaii, you never know EVERYTHING up front. So Hunter has two teachers and they are both wonderful!

K- that's only part of the funny story... Mrs. Heimuli, his afternoon teacher said to me (with such surprise in her voice) "Hunter is such a good kid! He's very bright and on the ball! He's really good!"

I had to laugh b/c we'd just cut his hair in a mohawk over the weekend and he wore a shirt to school that said "Part Time Trouble Maker!" Hahahaha! Just goes to show, "you can't judge a book by its cover." All I could do was smile and agree. Yes, (despite appearances) he IS a very good boy. Love you Hunter!

And then there is Gabriella. Her first day of Kindergarten finally arrived! Last week she had a meeting with her teacher to assess her abilities. This week she only goes for 3 hours today with a quarter of her class, and on Friday with half of the class... then next Tuesday with the whole class! And THEN they continue to go after that. Talk about easing them into it!

She did great and we didn't have any tears- by any of us! Although, Kolea had a hard time leaving big sissy behind =( That's the back of Kolea's head as she's trying to figure out why there's no seat for her to join Gabriella! Have a great day Gabriella, we love you!!
Hunter and Gabriella are just over two years apart (their b-days are 6 days apart in December.) If we were on the mainland, she would still have another year of pre-school before she started Kindergarten, but not here. Since she will be 5 yrs old before Dec. 31st she is enrolled in what they call Jr. Kindergarten (and they are mixed in with the 5 yr olds.) She will attend this year and depending on how she does, she will either go on up to first grade or re-do Kindergarten. It's kind of crazy. Had we been here two years ago, Hunter would've done the same thing.

So I guess I kind of look at it like a free pre-school and if she does extremely well, she'll just move on up! But it'll be crazy if she's in first and Hunter's in second! Oh well. We all just do the best we can. =)

My Belly & Me

I awoke this morning. Donned my "exercise" clothing (really the only things that will fit right now) and thought I need a picture of my belly.

And these pictures are the result. Let me first explain the LACK of clothing; I own an eliptical and it's in the privacy of my own home. OK, enough judging and on with the pictures...

Did I mention I'd JUST woken up? I sleep with my hair in a braid every night so it doesn't fly all over my face. I hate that. So that's why I'm looking totally awesome.

I'm nearly 35 weeks pregnant. I weigh more than what I did when I delivered BOTH Hunter and Gabriella. And I'm right at the weight when I delivered Kolea. So according to my weight gain, I should be having this baby NOW! But I'm not that lucky.

At my 34 week appointment this week I was told I was measuring 37 weeks along. They've ordered an ultrasound to be done soon...

HELLO BELLY!

Hunter grabbed the camera and snapped this... I love that it's all blurry! What a good little photographer he is! See, I told ya I have an eliptical...
I've been feeling TONS of Braxton Hicks contractions and mild pressure... also, starting in last night were the lower back aches. I keep thinking maybe soon!

But then today I remembered a conversation I'd had with my mom the night I went into labor with Kolea. She'd asked me how I was feeling and if I'd been feeling lots of contractions. I simply answered, "yep, but I've been feeling this way for WEEKS now and it's always the same thing. So who knows when this baby will come..." She came about 7 hours later (on her due date.) The point is: I realized that I could be feeling this way for the next month or longer. (You know, dealing with all of these contractions and aches and pains...) So it's time to sit back, be patient, and WAIT.

In the words of Inigo Montoya (from Princess Bride) "I HATE WAITING."

P.S. Don't hate me b/c this is baby #4 and I have NO stretch marks.... knock on wood. Haha! I thank my mother for her beautiful, elastic skin! And the fact that I basically do a daily rub down of lotion after my shower... done it since I was 12 yrs old! =)

FHE Dessert

I LOVE divinity. My kids LOVE divinity. I make really yummy divinity! In fact I'm known in my family for it. And I normally make it only at Christmas time.

It is not Christmas. Nor is it any other holiday for that matter- but I wanted to make divinity. Maybe it is "pregnancy cravings" I can blame it on, maybe not. But there is no reason why I can't make divinity at any other time of the year... so I figured we should have it for Family Home Evening dessert.

There is one little thing you have to take into consideration... HUMIDITY.

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory.

It didn't work out. This time. I even checked the humidity levels and (according to my phone) they were at 60% at that moment. Last Christmas I made it at 64% humidity and it worked out... so I was hopeful. But it was not to be.

No matter. It didn't stop my kids and I from a little indulgence of pure sugar.

When I say pure sugar, you must know the ingredients for divinity: sugar, corn syrup, water, egg whites and vanilla. That's it. The trick is knowing how to put it together. =)

Maybe next time.