Walking, 30 weeks, and School!

Well, it took 16 months, but he's got it! Sims is walking!! He is certainly proud of himself as are his brothers and sisters. Today, Henry asked him if he wanted to race. :) He may not have been walking, but he has been observing. I caught him walking into the kitchen, grabbing a plastic cup, and then getting water out of the refrigerator door!!!! Crazy! It has been an exciting time in our house for sure!

30 weeks!!!
30 weeks down, 10 to go! That sounds so soon! I am still feeling good and still stand by my statement that this has been the easiest pregnancy yet. I know that most likely, I have about 4 weeks left until "lock down" mode but who knows?? Hutch is very active which I love. The kids are all so excited about his arrival. The girls are in discussions about which child will get to hold him first. They both did decide that I can hold him first, first. :) Henry said he wanted to teach him to play beach volleyball and soccer so we are set in those areas. Jack is very concerned that we get him a blanket to sleep with and Sims is just Sims.
I've been thinking a lot about how loved our newest one is. In God's Providence, He has placed Hutch as our 6th child. There are not many people who can say that they have 7 people in there household who are so eagerly anticipating their birth. He is already greatly loved and wanted and I know that will continue to grow in the coming weeks and then after he is born.

School
We are still going strong on school! I'm looking forward to our extending break beginning in December but I am still very happy with the curriculum choices made for this year. I'll start looking at next years material in February but I don't foresee many changes at all.

Well, I guess that's about all for now. Will give another baby update around 35 weeks, if not before. Things are about to kick into high gear around here!

Disney World

• Disney World was awesome! Hey, it's Disney World!
• Disney World was exhausting! Everyday we were taking into the park, a 7 year old, a 6 year old, a 4 year old, a 2 year old, a 1 year old, 1 double stroller, 1 single stroller, 1 backpack, 10 water bottles, 2 blankies and a camera (and I was 6 months pregnant). In fact, I'm a little exhausted just writing all of that out. :)
• To prevent from exasperating our children with exhaustion, we woke up every morning and went straight to the park (normally there with 30 mins of the park opening), played hard all day, and then left the park before dinner. We came back to our hotel to eat (went to downtown Disney one night) and then everyone went to bed. No fireworks or late nights for our group. This really works well for our family because of the ages of our children. 
• My parents and sister Sarah went with us! Rick's parents and his sister's family where also there! Our trips overlapped some of the days and while we did see them every day we could, we were a little off of their schedule because they have older kids. Our kids LOVED seeing their cousins though when we could. 
• Sims had the stomach bug during the middle of the week. He threw up 4 times between 12am and 6am one night. In fact, Rick went and did laundry at the hotel laundromat at 2am because Sims was out of sheets for his pack and play and had no other pajamas to wear. Sims also threw up one more time all over my sister in the bus on the way to the Magic Kingdom. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day in the hotel with him and he slept for 6 hours and was completely fine after that. Don't feel sorry for me though, remember, I was 6 months pregnant and forced to do nothing in a small hotel room for 6 hours. Thankfully, no one else ever got sick! 
• I hardly took any pictures. But here are some of them. 

This is how Rick looked 75% of the time at Disney World - holding Sims and his blanket. The fleece blanket helped keep him warm in the 90 degree weather. :)

Favorite Rides:
Kate - Rockin' Roller Coaster (rode it 3 times in a row), Space Mountain
Claire - Tower of Terror, Space Mountain
Henry - Star Tours, People Mover, Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan
Jack - Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, Dumbo
Sims - It's a Small World

27 weeks

I'm 27 weeks today. Don't know if that's really the beginning of the 3rd trimester or if that's next week but either way, we're getting close! I am very grateful that this has been the easiest of all 6 pregnancies. My pregnancy with Simon was the hardest so I was wondering how this one would be. I even PASSED my sugar test! :) The only other child I've done that with was Claire. I know I still have 13 weeks left, but so far, best pregnancy yet. Easy or hard, I tend to be completely over the entire thing around 34 weeks and by 37 weeks, I'm normally in hibernation mode. Knowing this, we started school end of July so we will have completed half of the required school days by the 1st of December. This way, we can take off the months of December and January and still be finished up with our year in May!
We have a busy few months ahead so I know this pregnancy will continue to fly by. Rick is going out of town for training later in October and then in November he has to go back out of town for more training and I'M GOING WITH HIM!!! He's worked for his company for 11 years and has only been out of town 1 other time. These 2 conferences just happen to fall close together this year. We have not been out of town together in over 6 years so I am super excited. This is also the last time I've been without children. I have grand plans to go do some things while Rick is in his meetings but I may just hang out at the hotel! :)
After those trips we have Thanksgiving, Henry's birthday (December 3rd), Jack's birthday (December 9th), Kate's Birthday (December 22nd), Christmas, and then mere days until Hutch's birth.
Hutch does have a name (and yes, it is on the "Lost" character list :)) but I don't know if we'll share it before he's born or not. We're still trying to decide on that one. Although, I've called him Hutch for so long, I sometimes say that name when I'm thinking about him. We're all very excited about the newest little guy! :)

While we're on the topic of Henry....

Rick took Kate, Claire, and Henry to the pool at our hotel in Disney World one night. While there, Henry started playing with some new Spanish speaking friends. After a few minutes of observing them playing together, Rick overheard this:

Henry: So, have y'all learned to speak English yet???

Thankfully I do not think they had. 

And so I don't forget:

Disney World employee to Henry: What is your favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom?

Henry: The People Mover

Pretty sure that is the first time those words have been uttered in response to that question.

Henry and Jack on his favorite ride in the Magic Kingdom. 

WANTED: Wife who wants to live in Orlando

Henry: Mommy, when I get to be a grown up, I'm going to go to the money store and get enough money to buy a house right next to Disney World. Will you come live with me and be my wife???

Me: I can't buddy. I'm already married and I'm your mother.

Henry: Oh Man!!! Claire, will you marry me then??

Claire: Believe me Henry, I would if I could but they won't let me.

So, if any of you have a nice young daughter who loves Disney World, have we got the husband for you. :)

Henry LOVES Soccer!!!

Well, we are back from Disney World but first things first. Henry is playing soccer for the first time and last night was his first game! We are playing at the Y and practices/games are on the same night so it is only 1 day a week which we love. He missed the last 2 weeks because of rain and our big trip so he was just thrilled to be playing tonight. He scored FOUR goals so it was a successful night. :) Everyone had fun and thanks to Boo and Papaw for coming out to cheer on the Tigers!

Adoring Fans: Sims-15 months, Kate-7

Sims and Claire - 6

Ready to get started

Warming Up

Practice Shot

One of his goals :)

He loved it!