Yes, a picture of me and my ever-growing belly.

Some of you have requested a picture of me so here it is. I guess I am almost always the one behind the camera so needless to say there are not a lot of pictures with me in it. After receiving 2 emails and at least one other conversation about this I gave in and had Adam shoot a photo of me. The girls thought it was quite amusing as mommy posed for the camera and did some silly shots.... perhaps I'll add one of those another time. It is amazing, yet a little difficult, to see the changes your body goes through during pregnancy. I truly think women are blessed to have this experience even though we may not realize it as our belly, bum and other parts are expanding and veins we never knew were there are appearing. I am one of those who absolutely loves being pregnant - okay not the first 18weeks when I feel like death but the rest of it for sure. The baby is constantly squirming around and is protected in there... such an amazing feeling!

With 4 weeks to go I find myself with eager arms. I cannot wait to hold our newest little one. Yesterday at a playgroup I got the chance to hold the newest arrival to our group, baby CeCe. I held her for so long, feeling her little tootsies, her soft, fuzzy hair and I had that continual bounce. It was hard to share her with the other women (although I finally did)... when I did my arms felt so empty. I cannot really put the feeling into words; I just know that my arms are so ready for our little one.

Speaking of our little one we have finally decided on names... I think. The boy's name seems to be set with all of us agreeing and we are still deciding between two girls' names. I told Adam we should just plan on another little one so we could use all of our names... he just smiled... smirked might be a better term for what he did. To our complete surprise, Maddie announced she would really like to go to the hospital with us to see the baby come out because she thinks that would be "sooooo cool". As natural of a household as I try to have, I'm just not sure that is something I'm ready for. Some of you have been in the hallway or even in the room with our other deliveries... I'm not necessarily the quietest of natural laborers. Hopefully we will go in the middle of the night when she is sound asleep :)

On another note, yes I turned cousin Kristen away from her visit here... but let me explain. It seems, after looking back at the baby journals from Chloe and Adam, Kristen has babysat the night before going into labor with each of them. Chloe was 3 1/2 weeks early and Adam was just shy of a week early. As crazy as it might sound I just had this vision of her coming this weekend and me going into labor the day after she flies home. Luckily for both of us she really likes the Ravens and wants to be in Baltimore this weekend with her friends to watch them anyway - it all works out.

We are in party planning mode here as we are preparing for Adam's big 4-0 at the end of the month. If I can make it past his poker night then I will gladly invite Kristen for a long weekend:)

Hope everyone is keeping warm. Much love, Laura