Everythinig You (Didn't) Want To Know About the Pregnancy

More so for family history than for you guys (because this might be boring for you), I thought I would tell about this pregnancy thing going on.

I found out we were pregnant October 2. Even though I was pretty excited, I was pretty nervous to tell Ben. He is not too thrilled about the prospect of having another newborn and going through the first 3 years all over again. I kept telling him, "We just need to have our third so we can get rid of all of our baby stuff and be DONE with the newborn stage forever!" to which he would reply, "I want to be done now." Nevertheless, pregnancy was on the schedule.

On Monday night, October 3rd, I made a special dinner:

Baby peas, baby salad mixed greens, baby hamburgers. Baby hamburgers, for the record, are the most disgusting things on the planet. I bought them from the freezer case and then you just put them in the oven: GROSS! I know it sounds gross when I say it, but it is way more gross than it even sounds.

 Everything was decorated- the girls loved this part:

The "Celebrate" Plate was brought out:

And, the unsuspecting once-again-father came home- completely bewildered and not at all sure what was going on:

I told him we were having a theme dinner and after awhile he started laughing and said "I think I know what this is about." I figured laughing was a good sign. I said, "What do you think it is?" He refused to say it out loud, so finally I said, "let's just say life should get a lot more busy on June 3rd."

Ben took it pretty well- he was mostly just in shock the rest of the night.

Then a couple of days later I found out that Ben had been losing sleep over this. Going from 2 to 3 is a big deal- the girls will have to share a room, we have to get a bigger car (which is turning into quite the battle around here), there will be A LOT more chaos.

I was able to calm his fears by telling him that really the timing is perfect. Audra will be starting school in the fall, and I already know I can handle 2 kids at home. When the baby is a year, Claire will be in pre-school- everything will be fine. That seems to have helped quite a bit. Like it or not, the baby is coming. Which does leave one really great piece of news: We can get rid of all of this baby stuff! The second the baby is out of the swing, the swing is gone! The second the baby is out of the exersaucer, it is out of here! We will get our storage room back! Wahoo!

Now we are at about 12 weeks. So far, everything is great. When I went in for the 8 week appointment (the first one), I actually saw the baby's hands and feet- I have never seen that so early in the pregnancy. It was a pretty special moment. Next Tuesday I go in for the 12 week appointment.

This pregnancy has been the hardest one (as if I needed more incentive for this to be our last one!).  Don't get mad at me those of you who get really super super sick, but I have had pretty easy pregnancies outside of some very painful sciatica. Typically, I will only get nauseous if I am hungry at night, but I just eat a couple of crackers and the nausea goes away.

Not this time. For about 5-6 weeks I had really bad nausea, I ALWAYS had to be full, I would have a soda pop for dinner every night (that is absolutely NOT something I usually do), and after 5 PM I was completely worthless. There were some nights I couldn't even get off the couch. I only threw up once, but I felt like throwing up many more times than that. Thankfully, Ben was awesome through all of that- he would do almost all of the cleaning, take care of the kids, and really just be mom and dad. Through a friend I discovered the glory of protein bars and I went and bought a few dozen of those and carried those around with me everywhere I went. Those helped quite a bit. One night, Ben and I went out for Mexican and I ate a huge burrito and that helped a TON. I couldn't believe it- I actually felt well enough to come home and clean the toilets. It was the best I had felt in weeks- we decided we might need to order out there every night.

Thankfully, those days are past and have been for a couple of weeks. It was rough, but it's over and I am feeling really good now. Well, I'm tired. I take lots of naps. Thankfully, computer games and TV can keep Audra pretty occupied so I can take a little rest once in awhile. As a special bonus, on occasion I can get Audra to snuggle with me and we nap together- those are the best, but very rare. When I told her that I had a baby growing in my tummy she said, "Mommy- maybe that is why your tummy has been hurting!" That's my smartie pants. She also told me that she "doesn't want a baby- (she) already has a big baby!" I told her that now she can have a big baby and a little baby, and she was OK with that. If it's a girl. She doesn't want a boy.

So overall things are good. Ben is still pretty nervous, but I keep telling him we are due for a good baby. He tells me we don't know how to make good babies. I am excited that after this our family will be complete- no more babies! It feels right- everything feels good.

As I said before, we are due June 3rd. I am sure we will go a week early- especially since I want to have a C-section (I was so scared for it last time, and it turned out to be great- way better than the other way!) and so I can schedule it. Both Audra and Claire came a week early (even though it was a scheduled C-section a week before the due date, I went into full blown labor with Claire) so we'll probably schedule it at least 7 days early, hopefully 8 or 9 if they will let me. We have some time to think about it.

We haven't figured everything out yet- like the car or sleeping situations, but we will. For now, we are cautiously optimistic- we know the first few months will be hard (because they always are), but by now we kind-of have a routine and know how to handle these newborns, so I really think it will be good.

But, we have already started arguing over names- and we don't even know the sex yet! Not everything can be perfect, you know?

Family Pictures

It took me long enough, but here are those family pictures that I promised you guys months ago:

Thanksgiving!

I really love Thanksgiving- what a great holiday! A day to celebrate all that we have been blessed with, and a day to relax (well, not if you're cooking and baking like crazy!), enjoy family, and eat lots of delicious FOOD!

I have great memories of Thanksgiving growing up. It was not unusual to have upwards of 20 people at our house- all crammed in with Pilgrim name cards at their place setting. We would make a dozen pies- sometimes more- of all different varieties: Chocolate, apple, cherry, pumpkin. Celery with cheese whiz was a must (does anybody else have that tradition?), cranberry sauce that nobody ever touched  but that was always on the table, homemade rolls, and yams with marshmallows on top also made their yearly appearance. All of us girls would squeeze into the tiny kitchen and get the work done. It was great.

Now, of course, it is different. Not better or worse, just different, and that's OK.

Now we head over to Ben's parents house and I help a little bit with the meal, but Ann does most of the work- and she is good at it. She is definitely a fantastic chef! This year I made rolls, pies, and a jell-o salad for the meal.

For the pies, I went with some simple recipes this year. I made a Banana Cream (which, Heather I., your mom taught me how to make in YW and I haven't made it in 20 years- you should tell her that I still remember that activity and the recipe!), and a Chocolate Bar Pie- YUM! I bought the crust this year because, well, it's easier.

 I make these rolls every Thanksgiving- I LOVE them! I do make great homemade rolls!

 This is a new recipe- isn't it a beautiful salad? I am so excited to eat it!

 Of course, the main purpose of this holiday is to remember all that we are grateful for. Did you know that people who are grateful are happier, healthier, and live longer? It's true.

Anyway, as I thought of the very long list of things that I am grateful for, I realized that I am simply grateful for a good life. Pretty much every night as I end my daily journal entry I end it with "Life is good."


Ben has a job. Our girls are healthy. We are happy. Life is good.

The list goes on and on, but life is good. Yes, there are bumps in the road- and sometimes pot holes and U-Turns and 30 car pile-ups. Yes, sometimes we need a shoulder to cry on, and sometimes we need a lot more than that. But I am constantly reminded that God is near and that there are true angels on this earth. There are amazing people who do amazing things everyday. With all the trials life has to offer, life is good.

Just my thoughts on what I am grateful for this year.

Now for some more pics of our fantastic Thanksgiving dinner:

The feast:

 Claire asking for a roll:

Audra sitting so nicely:

Claire likes to do puzzles after she eats- and today was no exception. Since it takes her about 20 seconds to eat, this is the perfect activity for her. She really is very good at puzzles.

And here we are with Ben's family- full and happy. Except for Audra who refused to look up because she really did not want to be in the picture. I had to bribe her with marshmallows just to get into the picture.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving Tree

Inspired by many of you who are doing similar things, last night for Family Home Evening we made a Thanksgiving Tree. On the back of some Christmas paper I drew a tree and hung it up on the wall and then cut out leaves from construction paper. Then, the girls got to draw pictures of what they are grateful for on the leaves and hang them on the tree. They LOVED this- they both thought it was the best thing ever and it kept them entertained for 20 minutes before we finally stopped them. It really turned out great. Plus, it was fun to hear what they are thankful for- though I am a bit distraught that "Boxes" came before "Family" on Audra's list.

 All of Claire's leaves were just scribbles exactly like this:

 Virtually all of her leaves were names of people: Ava, Hannah, Audra (never mom or dad, though). She kept going back to Shanelle again and again and we had to tell her she needed to come up with different things.

Audra mostly did body parts- she had elbows, nose, eyes, ears, etc. And, each picture was pretty much two circles like the picture below:

This activity actually turned out to be really great. They want to add more and more leaves, which we will do during the week as we lead up to Thanksgiving. They really got into it- I would highly recommend doing something along these lines if you are thinking of a way to try and teach gratitude to your kiddos. I know a lot of you are already doing something similar, so I thank you for your great ideas! (Speaking of great ideas, the other day Audra told me, "Mommy, I have a GREAT idea! My brain is always thinking of great ideas!")

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Day In The Life

Today was a great day. I woke up to Claire insisting on wearing this:

 I said, "Oh, Claire, you are such a cute cowgirl!" And she said, "NO! I a girl cowboy!" Anytime anyone tried to call her a cowgirl, she quickly corrected them.

Then later tonight we went with Grandma and Grandpa to Southglenn to watch the Christmas lights turn on. It was pretty fun- and not too cold.

We didn't know Santa was going to show up, but he did. And, we were super lucky- after the turning on of the lights as everybody was leaving, Santa walked right by us- within just a foot or two of Audra. Audra was completely mesmerized and so incredibly thrilled that Santa walked so close to her. It was awesome.

The lights were gorgeous! It was fun. Then afterwards we went out to dinner at Five Guys, which is always YUMMY- we LOVE that place!

Budding Artist?

On Sunday, Claire colored this picture in nursery (look closely, you can see some light pink and blue scribbles).

Normally, a picture like this would warrant a couple of days on the fridge and then be recycled, not receive it's own blogpost. But there is a story behind this picture.

After church I met Ben out in the car- he had already gotten the girls loaded up. I hopped in the car and Claire yelled as loud as possible, "LOOK MOM! LOOK AT MY PICTURE!"

I looked at her picture and told her how beautiful it was. Then when we got home she said, "The picture goes on the fridge. I put it on the fridge- no, Audra, not you put it on the fridge, I put it on!" So Claire went and hung her picture up.

Then on Monday morning she pulled her stool over to the fridge and says, "Look at my beautiful picture!"

I have never seen her be so proud of a picture before. It is really quite cute!

South Platte River Trail

It was a wonderfully rare weekend where we had absolutely zero plans. I love these kind of weekends- where we can just do whatever it is that we want to do. Or not do. We asked Audra what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to go on a hike. Luckily, the weather cooperated and it was perfect weather for a hike, so off we went.

If you live in the area and have never been to the South Platte River Trail and Nature Center, you are really missing out! We discovered this place over the summer and went there again today and it is simply fantastic. Here's why:

1. It's free- always a huge bonus!
2. The trail is totally flat and super safe.
3. There is a river that the kids can throw rocks into (always a favorite with our kids- what is it about water that begs for rocks to be thrown into it?)
4. There are two trails side by side- one that is paved, and one that is a dirt trail that meanders through trees and such. You can bring bikes or just walk- it's perfect.
5. The Nature Center is a great place for kids- there is a "flood" pit that the kids can build communities and see if they withstand the flood. This is, by far, the highlight for our kids. There are also snakes and such for them to see. Today we got to watch some salamanders being fed crickets.

So if you live in the area, you should definitely check it out- you won't be disappointed!

These pictures were taken with my phone, so they are not great- but you can get the idea of how much fun we had and how perfect the weather was.

 Why does Claire always have to find big sticks to carry? Sigh.

 I refuse to carry the girls while we are hiking- I tell them they can walk. 

Ben is nicer than I am and will carry Claire- what a good dad!

 Inside the nature center building their communities. Audra did a great job and her 

houses withstood the flood. She was very proud of herself- it was really cute.

 Claire just dug really big piles of sand- and loved every second of it.

Silly Faces

It's hard not to smile when I get to hang out with these clowns all day long:

(Claire LOVES to make this face. I asked her who taught her to make this face and Audra loudly and excitedly proclaimed: "It was me! I taught her how!" Thank goodness for sisters!)