Gender Reveal Party

God thought today would be a good day for our 'Gender Reveal Party'. :)
Yup, that's right. We have a new baby!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!!
Grant Michael Myrick
8 lb 7 oz
20 Inches Long
Born 12/30/11
5:08 pm

Less then 2 to Go...

These are 'technically' 38 week pictures. However, that is going off the original due date of January 10 which is what my doctor's office is still going with. I am going with the due date of January 4 which was given to me at about week 10 by a good friend who does ultrasounds so to me, these are 39 week pics. I feel 39 weeks pregnant that is for sure. I have not been this pregnant since Payton. Charley was born at 39 weeks...I am a few days over that right now. We are ready whenever baby is.

Taken Christmas day.
The 'Girls' are almost 33 weeks & Baby #3 is almost 39.

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas Everyone!

The Myrick family had a great Christmas Day. Even though it was busy it was great. The kids definitely got spoiled yet again this year. We will not be running out of toys any time soon that is for sure. Thanks to everyone who made their day special.
(Also, thanks to Baby 3 for NOT coming today. We love you very much but really didn't want you to have a Christmas birthday.)Santa ate her cookies. She was a little bummed he had eaten her special rainbow cookie which I thought was really funny. I guess we didn't really explain how that worked but she got over it. Tangled doll! Score!The year of the truck for Charley. He loved them all though.His very own pots.A Fur Real walking kitty for Payton...should have gotten Charley one too...he really liked it.
A horse!
Way more excited about this then I thought she would be.

"Where did my car go?" What a silly boy
The BIG gift! A GATOR!
One good thing about not having snow was they were able to drive it around the yard for a while. Awesome.

Charley's little legs couldn't reach the peddle so Payton pushed the gas while Charley steered the wheel. Good team work guys!He did not want to get out...

One last picture of our family of 4
Sweet road sign from Auntie J.Matching 'Big Guy'/'Little Guy' sweatshirtsMatching bellies :) New seat for CharleyLoving Family doll house...very exciting!
The Next Morning there were a few gifts that were waiting all put together...it was like Christmas morning all over! :)
Zoomer (that is what I call it) from Great Aunt Carol and Great Uncle Dave
Doll house all set upWe didn't have time to open this one last gift for Charley on Christmas day so it had to wait until the 26th.
He was busy at work right after the reveal.

Cookies for Santa

Payton & I decorated Christmas cookies for Santa this afternoon. She did a great job and was really into it.Don't mind my chubby cheeks...remember I am 38 + weeks prago. A great time to have lots of photos taken...blah. Setting them out for Santa. With Chocolate milk because 'that's what Santa wants'. :) I think Santa will enjoy them. :)

Friends Gift Exchange

We added another party to our schedule this year. Instead of getting all the kiddos in our group of friends a small gift we decided to do a gift exchange this year. Every kid had another's name and got them a $10 item then we got together for pizza and let them exchange them. It was fun and a good excuse to get together on a week night and celebrate Christmas as a group.Adi & Payton had each other's name and both got 'Barbie's'A tool set from Braden for LouisA 'Chuck Truck' for Charley from KellanA Notre Dame shirt for Braden from Emmersyn...very funny because Braden's daddy is a Michigan fan & his mommy a Notre Dame fan but Mommy wasn't able to come so Daddy got to open it....hehehe...classic. A 'I-phone/Blackberry' for Kellan from LouisA singing seahorse for Emmersyn from Charley

Visiting Santa

We took the kids to see Santa at Home & Company tonight. Payton told us before we even left the house that she was not going to talk to Santa so we did not push it. Really thought Charley would scream but he did awesome and even gave Santa a high-five. Thata boy big guy.

After Santa we drove to Highbanks Court on the northside to check out the pretty lights. Payton loved it once again this year and Charley really seemed to like them as well.

Prago Pics

Yet again my wonderful, very talented cousin Misty took some pics for me. This time...of the belly! (Our Christmas card pics were also taken on the same day)
She put up a 'sneak peek' on her blog.
They are AMAZING!
Check them out here
Thanks once again Misty. I love you and think you are super talented.
(Believe it or not, this is just her hobby)

Emotions

I am a hurricane of emotions these days. We are nearing the end of this pregnancy and hormones and emotions are all over the board.
Let's see, there is excitement, anxiety, guilt, fear, just to name a few (these are in no particular order by the way :) .
I am of course very excited to meet this new little one, to see if I have another daughter or another son, to see if baby looks like Payton or Charley or looks completely different. I am excited to get to know his or her little personality and experience all the fun firsts. Also, I am excited about the whole 'birth' process. That may sound crazy but I really love it. I am excited to see Payton & Charley's reaction to the new member of our family. There are so many things to be excited about but there are so many things that freak me out as well...
My anxiety level is high.
I am beginning to get extremely nervous about being a mom of 3 very young children. I don't know what to expect in the coming weeks and that is a very frightening thing to me. I get anxious thinking I might have a difficult baby. Baby may not sleep well or eat well or may have colic. I worry about how Charley is going to react being so young and really at a 'Mommy' stage right now. I worry how Payton is going to react. What if she feels like she has been put on the back burner or she is getting 'left' out because I expect her to do certain things on her own because she can.
I still feel a little guilty because Charley is getting 'booted' from his 'baby' status so quickly. I have been waiting for him to 'grow-up' over the past few months but he is still just a baby and that makes me feel guilty about bringing another baby into the family at this point in his life. I know he will never know any different but it doesn't help to think about that to be honest...almost makes it worse.
Fear, well...there it is. I am fearful about all of it. For the most part I have not given too much thought about having 'enough love' for another child but over the past week or so it has again crept into my mind. When I was pregnant with Charley it was a concern throughout the whole pregnancy because I didn't know what to expect. I had all this love for Payton and it seemed impossible to be able to love another like I loved her but in the instant I held my sweet boy there was no doubt that I loved him just as much as I loved her. I know in my head that it will be no different this time around so the fact that I even have this 'fear' is crazy to me but non-the-less, it is there.
I am trying my best to 'lay it all down' but it is hard. Philippians 4:6 has been playing in my mind over and over...even if it doesn't always 'help'. :) The Lord is going to give me what I need in the coming days, I know that but what that means in terms of what my household is going to look & feel like...only He knows. :)

Philippians 4:6
⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Baby Face

Had my 36 week appointment today. All looks, sounds great.

We were lucky enough to get a little 'sneak peek' at our little pumpkin's face via ultrasound before my actual appointment.
I knew Bryan's first question would be, "does it look like a boy face or a girl face". I have my thoughts but I'll let you decide. :)

Good Service

Have to give props to a few 'companies' for the wonderful service I have had from them over the past few days.

First, Hasbro. They are wonderful! Emailed them a week or so ago about our Busy Ball Popper we got last year for Christmas. The balls had stopped popping while the music still play etc. even with brand new batteries. It probably stopped working about 3 months ago and because Charley really started to pay a lot of attention to it and really wanted to play with it, I decided to email just to see what they could do. Never did I expect them to give me the response they did.

"Thank you for contacting Hasbro Inc. regarding the Explore N' Grow Ball Popper. I appreciate your taking the time to share your concerns with us. Please be assured that I have shared your comments with the product team. Since your satisfaction is our ultimate goal, I wish to send you a replacement item, to the address you provided. If the exact item is not available a substitution may be made at Hasbro's discretion."

We received our new ball popper in the mail a few days ago and Charley (& Payton) can not get enough of it.THANK YOU HASBRO/PLAYSKOOL!
Second, Arby's on Feltch in Holland. Went through the drive through today and they gave me the wrong sandwich. Not a huge deal, didn't have the kids so I just ran in and was immediately greeted by the manager from behind the counter. Because I was carrying a bag he knew I had just been through the drive thru. I just said what I ordered and what I had gotten. He quickly apologized, grabbed a new sandwich, put it in the bag, handed it to me and then gave me a card for a free sandwich on my next visit. SWEET! I was very impressed and now know what Arby's to go to. :) Thank you!
Last but certainly not least, the US Postal Service. Ok, so I know the USPS doesn't always have the best rap BUT today, they impressed me greatly. As you may remember, a few posts ago I said Payton sent her first Christmas letter to Santa. Well, we put that letter in the mailbox of course. I really thought our mailman would just leave it in the box but he didn't, he took it. Well, today Payton got a letter back from Santa!! So cute! She was excited...maybe not as excited about it as Mommy & Daddy but she was excited. I thought it was really sweet of the USPS to do that for kids this time of year. So, props to them.