Baby Number 4 is already over half way there! This pregnancy has been good- I think it feels about the same as the girls did so maybe that means another girl :) But my intuition is always wrong and I do feel like it's a girl if i had to guess so maybe that means it will be a boy? Not statistically likely! But I would love to have another girl - it is annoying when people say "I hope you get a boy finally" - a healthy new member of the family is all we hope for.

I've had all the 20 week scans and appointments and the due date is looking like September 17 (the day before Francie turns 5) but I'm pretty sure I will go overdue again (I was 9 and 8 days late with the last two) and this baby is measuring on the small side so we'll see. But I feel great and I love all the little kicks and punches reminding me there is another new personality brewing to join the clan soon.

Emmy took these pictures at the park a few weeks ago - as close as I have to 'belly pics' ;)

Little Maisie always asks if the baby is awake and then if she can feel it kicking. She is very patient putting her hand on my belly and waiting - and still believes the muscle flex "it kicked!" move (Francie not so much). I love that Maisie loves babies so much - it will be fun to see her as a bigger girl when this baby is born.

Sweet Maisie

so for 16+ more weeks we keep soaking up the sun of summer - while I'm sure it will fly by and this baby will be here before we know it

and I can't believe this little one won't be my baby anymore. Sometime in the last few weeks she turned into a kid. We think she looks the most like me (or my sister/my side of the family) but has Brian's personality. She's LOUD and makes herself known when she walks into a room (I mean toddles-like-a-drunken-sailor). She knows what she wants and if she doesn't get it throws herself face first on the dirt/floor/sidewalk kicking her right foot, head on her flat hands and cries. The minute you distract her she forgets it :) She loves the binky or Jannie's lip gloss or anything she can chew on and if JJ ain't happy... nobody's happy :)

and Maisie is still walking to her own beat - she cracks us up all day with her non-traditional way of doing things :) She is a tough one to discipline but also such a little love and very sweet. Heff calls her a little imp. Sometimes she doesn't stop talking and whatever story or reenactment comes out of her mouth has just enough of the baby accent and enough of a twist or incorrect retelling it just makes you laugh every time.

and then there is our "oldest child" - who looks the most like a Heff but has my personality through and through (knows how to push my buttons too!) She is an endless stream of questions about life, God, animals and learning about how and why things work. She loves to create things and is a really good caretaker to her little sisters (most of the time ;)

this picture kind of sums them up at this moment - Janie is pissed, Maisie is singing and trying to help JJ and Francie is playing with a cat that has no interest in playing with her:)

just trying to enjoy every day with these stinkers (and cousin Luke in this picture:) since I know I will miss these days in a few years. I can't believe it's already June and "summer vacation"... (not that that means much yet - we still stay up until 11pm and sleep in past 9am everyday and make it to Francie's T/Th preschool about half the time... one more year before REAL SCHOOL hits us like a ton of bricks. Good thing Heff is a morning person!)