HAPPY DUE DATE TO ME!!!

I had a doctor's appt. yesterday. Things look just fine, dilated to a 2 (which doesn't mean anything since people can be dilated at a 2 for weeks!) but it's still super "thick". Just wondering if he's saying I'm fat.......

Anyway, so I decided to celebrate by coming home and kicking my hiney so they baby won't WANT to be inside anymore. Below is the before shot of the dirt area (behind Aleeya....yes, that's my girl covered in mud) And here's the after! A weeded, 5 rowed (is that a word?) experimental garden.
When I say "experimental" it's because our normal garden with peas, tomatoes, gr. peppers, zuchinni and squash are over in the out-of-reach-of-kids area. In THIS one we've started some artichoke, watermelon (2 rows) and cantelope (2 rows) seeds inside for the past 4 weeks and finally I got around to transplanting them outside. We'll see how they do.
The funniest part was my neighbor's face while I was doing it. He's a retired doctor and probably thought I was going to fall over, give birth, then die. I imagine I looked pretty silly.
Buuuuuuuut, it didn't work. I'm thinking that I overdid it TOO much that the baby was exhausted too. So here I am, on my due date (no surprise considering 2 of mine have been late and one ON the due date), just chillin'.
But don't you worry, I have a plan for today......
#1- have some friends over for dinner (because my dinner put another girl into labor a few weeks ago)
#2- go to Brooks' softball game (or send him.....not sure what I'll feel like) tonight
Note: TWO of my labors started during Brooks' sports games and he had to leave them early......much to his shagrin.
#3- If THOSE two don't work, hope for labor during Brooks' softball game tomorrow
AND IF ALL ELSE FAILS and I'm babyless by Sunday, at least it's 5th Sunday where they send all the Primary workers into RS/Priesthood combined and I get to snuggle (okay, maybe no PDA but at least sit BY) Brooks during last hour of church.
See? There's a bright side to it all.

Wow, never thought I would see this......

I know what you're thinking..............

- WHAT?!? Seafood in Melissa's kitchen?!?!

-What?! Brooks and the boys FISHING?!?

-WHAT?!? Smith boys w/o shirts or shoes (I know that one is the biggest shocker)?!?

But it's true. Brooks took the boys to the river fishing with another Dad and his boys (who is really mountain-izing Brooks after the camping and 4-wheeling) yesterday.

The boys had the BEST time and actually caught some fish, that Joe (the other dad) is cleaning so they can all eat. The only requirement I have is that it's while I'm in the hospital or they eat/cook them at HIS house.

As you can see though, the boys couldn't have been happier.

My handsome clan!

Here we are before church. I always do Aleeya's hair RIGHT when we get to church because she pulls out the bows/elastics in the car. So here's the picture taken as they piled out of the van at the church this morning. Sorry, not a better picture of them, but there were quite a few cars driving by, etc.

I just love Bronson's hair though. You can't see it well, but he wanted to gel it and make it all "spikey" today for church. He did it himself and since I cut it yesterday, he can finally do it spikey like he wanted to.

I finally learned how to do those cork-screw curly bows too yesterday and made Aleeya's bows. She actually kept them in all of church! YAY!Sorry for the mammal shot below, but you HAVE to have a shot of yourself the week of your due date.....because it makes you feel soooooooo much better about your shape AFTER you have the baby. It's funny getting to this stage when everyone says, "Wow, you're getting ready to pop" or "You poor thing", etc. Aleeya is in front of me asking for my bracelet.........which she did all day. But hey, it made for wonderful sacrament meeting entertainment.
Happy Memorial Day everyone!!!!!!!!

Last game for soccer

The boys had their last game of soccer on Friday and they actually got trophies with their names on them! They were soooooooooo excited. Camden even snuggled his to bed. :)

Brooks and Camden playing during halftime. Camden, according to him, scored a goal and was sooooo excited! We don't need to tell him the whistle had blown a few seconds before he did though. He's had quite a few chances to score, but he either kicks it right to the goalie or Bronson will steal it away.
Bronson, on the other hand is quite a soccer player, scoring a lot......maybe a little too much. We've tried to teach him to pass it to other kids though and towards the end of the season he got better at it.

The mighty soccer team. What's funny is ALL of the kids, except one go our church and all us moms are friends. It's weird how it turned out that way.

Bronson, showing his muscles.

Camden holding a ball.

Me, holding a ball as well.....with no hands even!

Child Birth 101

So the whole Child Birth thing isn't hard to understand at all. I mean, even my KIDS know how it works. I found them the other day playing "doctor" (hey, at least they're not doing autopsies like Brooks does....THEN I would worry) to get the baby out. Here are the instructions they explained to me:

1- the doctors will sit on the blankie that is over the Mommy's belly...........(with a silly smile on their faces like, "Ha ha ha, glad WE'RE not girls")














Step #2- Open up the Mommy's belly (portrayed here by the potty seat) and take the babies out......once again with a "SUCKER"-grin on your face.



Honestly, I have NOOOOO clue where they would've gotten these ideas. I've never had a C-section or anything. But BRONSON on the other hand has another version of Child Birth and how it happens. He said (through translation, of course, so it's not word for word) that "The Mommy's belly will start to hurt because the muscles want to push the baby out. Then when they're ready, the muscles will push the baby out and it'll be an ouwie for the Mommy, but that's okay because it's special and Heavenly Father couldn't get all the boys and girls here if the Mommies didn't do that".
On the note of my STRONG stomach muscles, Bronson has been working on his and showing them off. Out of the blue he said, "And Daddy has BIG muscles on his stomach because you can see them, but Mommy has even bigger ones because she can push a baby out!" That's RIGHT ya'll! My six-pack is just disguised in my uterus.

And NO, there's no baby yet and NO he/she probably won't come for a little while. Not that things aren't ready for the baby, it's just I usually go over my due date, so don't be thinking you're going to get some cool news in the near future. We're just fine how things are and there's NO need to rush. As tired and uncomfortable as I'm getting, I just think, hey, I don't have to carry around diaper bag, carseat and Lanolin (for obvious reasons) for a little while yet. Don't get me wrong though, we have a HOUSEHOLD of people ready to snuggle this little package when the day finally arrives!

What Goalie?

Here you go Bug and Gabe, the infamous goalie shots of Camden. THEN he got into defensive position.

This was actually the first game and he's had 2 more since. Let's just say TOTAL improvement and he's actually quite agressive now and stealing the ball from Bronson (who's on his team) a lot. Honestly, compared to last year's 30 second on the field (TOTAL For the whole season), the fact that he plays every game with a big smile on his face makes me feel........okay, I'll just say it, PROUD!

My competition!

So here is my competition for Brooks' heart. Check out this princess kissing Daddy's picture on the computer screen while he's gone at work. Pathetic, if you ask me......so let's give the stats to see who wins Brooks' heart. Our bellies about about the same size and our backsides just as shapeless. So there's a tie. She eats with her mouth open and makes noises and I don't. Since that's a HUGE pet peeve of Brooks' I get a point. We both prefer not doing our hair and being in pjs. A tie. She gets longer snuggle time and hugs then I do. Her point. Her legs are hairless and toenails perfectly painted.......no comment. We BOTH put on make-up, just one of us better then the other. Tie. Brooks watches HER sleep and tries to fall asleep before I do to avoid the "loud breathing" (I think it's all in his head) Her point. We both have stains on our clothes by the time Brooks gets home. Tie. She wears less clothes then I do.....which in normal-dom marriages you MIGHT think that would be her point, but considering my whale-state, I'm thinking he's pretty grateful I favor the whole clothing thing. So, my point. I don't make him wipe after I go to the bathroom........give me about 50 years though and we may have a different story. My point. We both grunt when we bend down to pick something up. Tie. Ah-ha! I think I got her on this one........I actually scratch HIS back the right way and better then Aleeya. HA Aleeya, looks like I got you today. Keep trying babe.

When you've got it.....you've got it

Some people just have all the confidence in the world, don't they?

Emerson puts on his own undies like a champ.....see? Or maybe you see too much. But Brooks and I get the biggest kick out of this kid when he puts BRONSON'S undies on himself....backwards.....and has no clue. Check out his muscles (and his face concentrating so hard), then the back shot with him climbing our fig tree.

This kid is a stud.

Pet and not-so-wanted pet

I'm sure you can GUESS which one is the not-wanted one and it practically scared me to death. You see, I was weeding in my garden and in the corner of my eye I saw something dark and long. In my home, I didn't think anything of it......we have so many sticks, guns and toy snakes around. THEN the dark thing started moving towards me!!!!! So with all my boys there to see, I screamed like a girl and told them to run go get my neighbor. Afterall, I can claim the girls-can-scream card around here. My neighbor comes over in boots and gloves, holding a bucket and a mop. A MOP?!?! I offered my shovel, but he didn't want it. He kept trying to convince me that this snake was our "friend". I'll pick who my friends are, thank you very much.

Apparently this GARDEN SNAKE was "fully matured" and the biggest he had seen. Great. He pushed the mop on the snake and it coiled around it and he put it in the bucket. Then of course, all my kids got to touch and pet it.....even Aleeya. Seriously. Are you kidding me?
Last Saturday was the Stake Service Day and Brooks took Bronson to go clean some parks. I honestly planned on going but picking strawberries the day before wore me out. Talk about being handicapped now! Whoever says you don't get anything in return for service is DEAD WRONG. You see, my sons thinks if you go serve in your community you can come home with a turtle.....which is just what he did. Meet Holly. (She was Macky first, but after my extensive reading on these things, I found out she was a girl.....and if you you'd like to hear how I know, I'll bore you w/ the details later). Holly is actually North Carolina's state reptile and was about to be killed when Brooks grabbed her. It provided seriously a whole day's worth of entertainment and into the next day. The boys love/loved Holly. Why the past tense you ask? Well, Holly is hiding somewhere in the backyard (can't blame her) and we haven't see her for 2 days. But they DO love to dig and hide under things, so I imagine she's under a bush, cut grass pile or folage in the back corner of our lawn. Who knows......we may or may not see Holly again. But the boys now know that there's 4 girls (Aleeya, me, Sally and Holly) and 4 boys (Bronson, Camden, Emerson and Daddy) so this baby is the tie breaker in their minds.

Softball

Brooks plays in a Church softball league and the kids LOVE going to his games (however Aleeya watches it the most and follows the ball whenever it comes close to Daddy). Good thing because this is a VERY long season of games every Friday night.I let the kids grab some toys to play in the sand and OF COURSE Aleeya brings her dinosaurs (she still sleeps with her hotwheel cars). Emerson brought some animals and Camden and Bronson brought their bikes. But here's the funny thing, Camden is riding Emerson's bike here because his got ran over a year ago. He looks so ridiculous riding it because it's too small and has training wheels and Camden doesn't need them...........NOT to mention it has been run over the the wheels are bent so he has to lean the other way to balance it out.

BUT my favorite picture is of Emerson standing on his Clifford riding toy negociating with the snack shack guy to try to get some candy w/o paying for it. He's soooo funny.

Oh darn, I forgot to put the picture of Aleeya in the dugout with Brooks (eating his seeds). Everytime he's in the dugout, Aleeya runs and sits with him. SUCH SUCH SUCH a Daddy's girl. A few times she'll cry and freak out when he goes out on the field, but I think she's getting the hang of it now.

Field trip day FINALLY arrived

Here is the princess taking her rightful spot on her throne (Daddy's lap) for family prayer. She just LOVES folding her arms and getting ready.

So today was the MUCH awaited day of Bronson's kindergarten field trip to this one park place/zoo/train ride thingy (I believe that's the official name). Brooks was going to chaperone and decided to take Camden and Emerson with him. The boys were soooooooooo excited this morning and hyper and couldn't keep their hands off each other......obviously, take a look at these two pictures I took before they left.

So while Brooks took the boys, Aleeya, Sally and I and hung out. I went to a U-pick strawberry patch to go a-pickin'. Knowing this, I sent the camera with Brooks on the field trip so I could document it for the boys (better that, then take pictures of a 37 weekly looking pregnant lady picking strawberries) but they were having too much fun that we didn't get one picture taken. Oh well, I got plenty of stories of bears, roosters, water park (apparently just a few fountains), trains, etc.

I couldn't help but take a picture of my shirtless crew on Thursday night. I decided to be crazy and let them watch a movie. But here they are with their OWN pillows that went with that couch. We went to the fabric store a while back and they could pick whatever fabric they wanted to cover the pillows and this is what we ended up with. They love it.

Women's Conference!!!

Talk about a WHOLE lot of estrogen in one place......Women's Conference @ BYU. Many people depicted all the ladies walking around campus as "herds".....it was probably pretty accurate. First of all, let me start with the drama proceeding my departure. Brooks dropped me off at the airport a hour and a half early. While checking in, this nice lady from Delta was teaching me how to use the kiosk. She asked if this was my first pregnancy. When I told her it was my 5th, she about died. I told her THAT'S why I was so excited for this get-away with my sisters. She had 3 boys of her own. Anyway, we had a great visit. I went to go past security and they said I couldn't get on the plane because my ticket said "Ralph Degn" and not "Melissa Smith". Apparently when booking the ticket my parents forgot to change it to my name. I went back to this nice lady and she said my Dad had to call up the Frequent Flyer Mile Gods somewhere in Bangledesh to fix it. You can imagine how well that went over. My dad told me they couldn't straighten it out before my flight left and that I needed to hurry and get my bags back before they got on the plane. All of a sudden my nose started stinging and my eyes started watering. "It's okay", I thought, "get it together"...... When I walked up to the SAME lady to give her my baggage receipt to get my bags back, I lost it. And I mean lost it. I'm really not an emotional person....I think it comes with taking upon the Smith last name.....but every cry that has never come out this pregnancy just came out. We're talking blotchy face, red cheeks, and tears pouring out. Cathy (her name) told me that I NEEDED that get-away and she would work something out while I got a grip in the bathroom. I couldn't believe I didn't put my make-up in my carry-on, but I at least stopped the tears. When I came back out, she was on the phone with her 2nd person and she kept repeating, "I KNOW I'm not supposed to do this, but I have a good feeling about this. I have a good feeling about her......", etc. To make a LOOOOONG story short, I got on the plane after thanking Miss Cathy over and over (breaking down again in gratitude) and saying a quick prayer of thanks as well. It was quite the ordeal, especially considering they were paging my name, the plane was at the END of the terminal and everyone in between got to see a 36 week pregnant lady sprint through the airport.

But, as you can see, I made it. Here we are heading out the first day from our cozy Motel 8. I'm here with my sis, Jessica (left), Mom, me, Sarah (my sis) and Christine, my gorgeous sis-in-law.
Here we are doing our little sevice blankets while listening to Sister Julie Beck.

OF COURSE, we had some Jamba Juice stops between some classes, and had to pose by the mountains, because my boys wanted pictures of them. (funny huh)

And here's a dozey. So my sister, Sarah is 21 weeks along and wanted a belly shot. Tell me WHY the girl that's the LEAST far along ALWAYS asks for a belly shot. Oh well. You can tell I'm ripe and ready and getting close. :)

It really was such an incredible and quick few days. I flew home Sunday morning and couldn't WAIT to see my kids. (Oh, but don't you worry about them, they had a LOT more fun with Daddy then if I were home. They got to go camping, fishing, play games, get treats, go to softball games, etc. Bronson even said that Daddy is a GREAT snack-packer for school. Brooks even ran Bronson's lunch down to him at school when it was forgotten. Yep, they were spoiled. I think the dog missed me the most.....since she hasn't left my side even still.)

I DID have fun being the aunt and playing with my nieces and nephews. They are all so cute. But as I flew over North Carolina and was about to land, I really felt like I was coming home to the prettiest place on the planet.....and the view got even better when I got in the van and saw all those shirtless boys, and crazy-haired girl.....smiling at me! I love those rascals.

My family!

I actually got to see quite a few of my family....not all...... in less then 24 hours! Here is Patrick's (my brother) family. They seriously are just sooooooo stinkin' cute. I can honestly say though, there's NOTHING like seeing an older brother. It's like a sense of protection comes over me. Despite all the teasings, spit kisses and smacked feet I got from them, I still just LOVE being watched out for by my brothers. (Maybe one day Aleeya will feel the same......)

As I was driving up to Logan with my mom for one QUICK night, she said, "I betcha Dad got us flowers". I told her that would be silly and I didn't think so.....but yep, he got us flowers. Two vases....one for each. We had to guess which one was our's. One came with a card that said, "To the girl of all my dreams" and the other said, "To the girl of my dream". (Mom and Dad were "done" having kids before me, and Dad had a dream about me waiting in heaven asking when it was my turn to come......or something like that). Sadly there are no pics with Dad, probably because I was too busy enjoying his company and going through my TWELVE storage boxes my parents had of mine there......which I narrowed down to ONE! Thank you very much.....and thanks to Brooks for teaching me some things are just STUFF.

Casey (Brooks' brother), Jodi and their kids were soooooo nice to drive down to see me. It's so sad, but their youngest, Lincoln turned one in April and I STILL had never met him. Isn't he a doll? The girls were so sweet and it was just fun to hang out with them....albeit only for 20 minutes. And as usual Jodi was delivering favors to me. Talk about cool in-laws.
I spent the night before my early flight at Jessica's (my sis). I had never met her little Vivian (4 months) either! But Aunt Baloo is STILL always able to get the smiles even if they've never met me! Here we are playing the "Princess Game" (which I HIGHLY recommend if you have girls)....that I won at. Emma brought us up all crowns to wear and even though there were enough to go around she STILL brought her mom up a witch's hat. :)