A Mother's Intuition

You know how some moms just know what they are having. They know from the beginning and they know it way down deep? Well I am NOT that mother. As I posted yesterday I really thought it was going to be a girl. But after a VERY revealing ultrasound we found out the Case name will be living on...we are having a boy!!!

I have changed my page layout to the very appropriate blue that will now be adorning our closets. I told a friend today the news and her response was "Now you have to get all new stuff." I told her, I am more then ready to get all new stuff, after three girls, each wearing Jaya's clothing I am so ready for this new step!
A few of my friends wanted to know Darrin's reaction when he found out. Darrin actually saw the revealing parts first (remember I am a mother of girls, I can't say the real word yet) and so when the doctor confirmed he said "Now I get to go on father & son's camp outs!" In other words he is so excited.

We are both still in quite a bit of shock, for those of you with mixed gender families you may not be able to relate, but we feel like our whole world will change this coming July. Maybe not right away, but when you have all girls, all of your thoughts, decisions, and future goals revolve around what that means, how to get them through dating, emotions, and give them self-confidence, one gender made it a lot easier to focus. Now I get to think more seriously about having a boy which means, I have to figure out how to raise a gentlemen, encourage him to go on a mission someday and keep the sisters from being too much of a mother! One huge plus is at least this is one less wedding we will have to pay for.
We are THRILLED!!!

I've taken all the tests.

Our ultrasound is tomorrow. I have been containing my excitement for weeks, but I finally decided that I could let loose today, I can handle one day of complete impatience! So with my impatient self, I went ahead and did some pre-test predictions and these were the results.

I found a site that is based on Old Wives tales to predict the gender of your baby, here were the results:

Your score is 40%. Congratulations! According to the Old Wives it's a girl!

Then I found my much more reliable source the old Chinese calendar. This one really through me through a loop. I am not sure the EXACT day I concieved, and so the first result is based on the 8th, which is what they said based on my due date, and here were the results:

Conception Date: October 8, 2008
Mother's Age at Conception: 28
The calendar predicts: Boy

But if you notice, (not that any of you did) my birthday is on the 9th, and then I am no longer 28, so I decided to see what would happen if I changed the conception date to the 9th (because who knows when it really happened) and since I am a whole year older now, it changed the gender, check it out:

Conception Date: October 9, 2008
Mother's Age at Conception: 29
The calendar predicts: Girl

The best part was this little disclaimer they added (like anyone would really sue over this)
IMPORTANT: Beware that the date of conception is near a gender change-over so the prediction may be less reliable.

What this tells me is that I really do have to wait till tomorrow, and the impatience has completely set it, and is making me so anxious.

So what do I think it is? I would have to say a GIRL. I would be pretty shocked if it turned out to be a boy, I am beginning to wonder if all the boys out there aren't really just a figment of their mothers' imaginations. Do boys really exist? For me so far they haven't. I guess we will see if things are going to change around here...TO BE CONTINUED

Overwhelmed and under-blogging

Since it's been so long that I have blogged, I feel completely overwhelmed. Where do I start? What do I say? So much, but so little has happened at the same time. So here goes my attempt to get back...
December - Was a complete blur and STRESS. With photo shoot after photo shoot, I kept thinking I should be almost done, and then there would be more. I did manage to finish the week before Christmas, just in time to have family come and visit. Which was so great, but all the stress did cause me to go into total rebellion.
January - What was I rebelling from? TECHNOLOGY! I seriously couldn't even look at my computer without disgust and most days it wasn't even turned on (this was a serious rebellion) I also stopped answering the phone, when I could. No more playdates, phone calls, just me and the girls. I wish I could say that we did great stuff, and have tons of pictures from all the neat stuff we did but, I had also added my camera to my banned list, plus I don't know if there was a lot of fun going on anyway. So before you get depressed or worried about me, I think it was good I went through all this, because I started cleaning more, and really tried to figure out my priorities. I decided I can't do everything and I don't have to. I am learning and hopefully getting closer to figuring out when enough is enough for me.
February - I feel great now, I am now talking on the phone, seeing my friends (a little more), and I have turned on the computer, I have even edited a few photo shoots of my own children! So in other words...I'm back!

Confessions

Confession #1 - Okay, as you all guessed we are pregnant! My official due date is July 1st. We are getting more excited as this has been our only surprise pregnancy so far. I guess I shouldn't say it was a total surprise, we did plan on having a 4th but it just happened several months before I was even going to THINK about it. I am hoping for a boy, so keep us in your prayers. I guess I should add that if we have a girl I will be so completely content, it will just most likely end the Darrin Case line (Darrin says if it's a girl we are D-O-N-E! If it's a boy there is a 2% chance we will try for another boy.)

Confession #2 - Darrin has been blogging for the last 2 months, under my name. He wouldn't really want me to admit this to everyone, but I have to give him a shout out. I have been so swamped with Photography and Christmas cards I haven't been much of a mother or a wife. Darrin has been blogging, baking Christmas goodies, cleaning, and all of his normal responsibilities, he's been amazing. Even after all he has done, we celebrated our 9th anniversary over lunch (that was all we could squeeze in) and he STILL said that I was the best person out there for him. I really lucked out.

Confession #3 - I still can't decide if I am going to send out Christmas Cards. I guess it's like they say the Shoemakers kids never have shoes, the Christmas card makers family doesn't send out cards. I haven't officially decided yet (I just can't get past that nagging feeling that it's not right to NOT send cards) but since it is December 22, and nothing has been made, they definitely won't be Christmas cards. Sooooo, just know we love you all, we wish you a happy, merry Christmas. Maybe you'll get a New Years Card!!

Take A Guess

It is a contest to see who can guess which one is mine.

A)

B)

This Is Getting Out Of Control

Our life has been so out of control these past few weeks that I have not even had time to blog. So I am trying to just do some ketch up. These are just a few of the other pictures from our Thanksgiving Day vacation up to Washington.

To sum up the week we went to the beach, and had a camp fire to dry out after all of my kids dove in the water.

We went hiking to some water falls (I really don't remember the name but here they are)

We ate a lot of food!

We played games almost every night. Either on my nephew's Xbox as shown above(Darrin and I rocked at rock band) or we played card games.

When we weren’t hiking or playing games we went back to eating. It was a great trip, other than the flights see pervious post. Oh the flight home was almost as bad but not because we were getting the stink eye from anyone, it was because Eden was too tired and would not fall asleep.

Thanks For The Giving

I know it has been a while sense the last post, but we have been having too much fun for me to take the time and post. We spent last week in Vancouver Washington with Darrin's brothers and sisters. It was so much fun other then the flight out there, because it was like stake conference with the kids except your only 20,000 feet in the air and the sets aren’t as comfortable. I only had one lady that sat in front of me, turn and tell Baylie that she was being rude for kicking her set. Fortunately we all survived the flight.

Once we were in Washington everything was great. We stayed at Darrin's oldest brothers Bryan's house. It was better than my wildest dreams because between Janice cooking the best food ever and their 3 boys watching and taking care of our 3 girls I was left to play and just have fun. On Monday we went out to the beach.
Here we are checking out the sea urchin. The Girls had so much fun playing with all the cousins.

Here is my hot husband, with his brother and sister in the background; I am hiding in there also.

Here is Baylie's glamour shot. Yes she is licking her shirt, I don't know why.

Here Jaya is practicing her break dancing moves out on the beach, she is so dedicated.

Here we are stuck on the rocks because a big wave came in and trapped us. The weather was good and the water was cold, but the fire that we had on the beach made up for it. It was a great day. More from our Thanksgiving trip to come; this is just one day of the festivities.