May Overview

May came and went just as fast as April. This pregnancy is seriously flying by. I can't believe it.

23 weeks 2 days

24 weeks 3 days

I spent a lot of time searching for the perfect bed for Ellie's big girl room and I found one off of a Facebook yard sale page. We decide to strip the chipped white/glazed paint and just give it a fresh coat. Between me being pregnant and James' knee injury it took us WAY TOO LONG. But Ellie was so excited to be in a big girl bed. She did great. The first morning she came out on her own and woke us up. I was surprised. I thought for sure she'd stay in there and yell at us over the monitor that she was awake. Then after a few nights she tested what would happen if she got up after we put her down. She quickly learned that she just goes right back in there. So that pretty much has stopped. She also was caught playing for way too long during a nap and reading books. While it was adorable and melted my heart, she needs naps still so I had to correct that too. All those situations have been super minor though. I'm so grateful with how well she took to her new bed. She's a big girl now!!

One rainy afternoon she came to me and asked if she could play outside. I told her it was raining so she went and found a jacket and gloves and came to me and asked for an umbrella. Love! 

"Mom! Look! The number 8." Sure enough the bracelet was twisted like the number 8. 

Impressive

 We had a dead tree in our backyard. I was sad to see it go. Out backyard was landscaped in a pattern along that back wall so now that pattern is all messed up. Ha. However, now I have a spot to put a gardening box if I ever decide to. Our backyard doesn't get good sun until the afternoon and even then the trees shade all open spaces that a garden box could possibly go. So we'll see. I'm getting used to the empty space now.

 Recently, Ellie has been coming up to me and calling me "Anna." She usually pairs it with a question, "Anna, what are you doing?" "Anna, want to play?" I play along and call her Elsa.
Here she is knocking on the door saying, "Anna!"
She cracks me up. Roll playing every second she gets.
p.s. that's her Coronation stick, she says.

 I've been taking my weekly maternity pictures before church on Sunday and on this particular Sunday she must have felt extra pretty because she asked to go outside and take pictures. 

 Then it was my turn. 26.3 weeks

April Overview

Here are some more April pictures...

I planned that April 1st would be time to get rid of the Paci. She was only using it when she slept but it was time. We talked about it with her for awhile. We talked about how she would throw it in the trash and save it for the baby. For some reason that logic made sense to her. She didn't have a single problem with it. She asked for it a few times at night which I just told her, "We threw it away, remember?" And that was that.

This dress has been a favorite of Ellie's. She would wear it all day everyday if I let her. 

I love how I gave her a snack and she seated herself right there in the entryway. 

I rarely check on Ellie before I go to bed. But she had a rough time going to sleep this night so I checked on her and found her through the bars. Makes me wonder how many other times that has happened. Ha.

 If she isn't wearing this dress, or any other dress, she has her Elsa cape and crown on. But when she pairs both together, magical. She really is a Princess. I really do enjoy how girly she is. She plays princess all day long.

 And if she's not pretend-playing princess she's playing with her Princesses. My mom bought her this Cinderella Magiclip doll when we were in AZ in March. I knew she'd like it because she watches these youtube videos of a lady making play-doh dresses for her Magiclip dolls. And that lady makes a lot of money, by the way. Sure enough, Ellie loves it. She carries Cinderella and her pink and blue dress around everywhere and makes play-doh dresses for her too.

 I found Ellie a bed off a facebook yard sale page and decided to give it a fresh coat of paint. We used a stripper for the first time which was nicer than sanding, sorta, but it left a huge mess. Ellie loved to help vacuum it up. Cinderella, Cinderella.

 
James' mom was here visiting us for awhile and she got Ellie really interested in dancing to ballerina music. So here is Ellie in her room with her animals all lined up dancing while Grandma sings. 

Here I am 21.3 weeks pregnant. May not seem like it but compared to more recent pictures I've taken I can tell I was holding onto more water here. So my goal, especially with summer is to DRINK WATER.

 Matchy Matchy for church 

Last, but not least!!!

James tore his ACL and Meniscus playing soccer at church in the middle of April. Long story short, he had surgery 2 weeks later. He has to be on crutches for 6 weeks in full leg brace.

Thankfully, James' mom was here at the same time coincidenntly so she was able to watch Ellie while I took James to have surgery.

Easter 2015

Each year my friend and former neighbors parents host an Easter Egg hunt in their fun backyard for the kids in the neighborhood, friends, grandkids, etc.  We've gone 3 years now. It's crazy to see how much Ellie has grown too!

4 months, 16 months, 2 years

Walking up to the house. Ellie was so into Easter this year. It's also crazy to me how much she has grasped the understanding of lately. 

 

It got pretty cold outside. Ellie was shivering and her lips were turning purple. So we headed for the heat to collect her candy and return the eggs. She was pretty proud of all the candy she got.

For Easter, both my mom sent a basket and the Easter Bunny brought one so the lucky girl got lots of fun things. 

The Easter bunny brought her My Little Ponies, some candy, a cup, a light up ball, sunglasses and princess gloves. Grandma got her a cup, sticker book, jelly beans, a light up bunny and a chocolate rubber ducky,

Here is a little video of Ellie going through her basket from Grandma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdL4W0i5eyM

We're Having a Baby

James and I made plans to grow our family. In December I knew I could take a test as soon as the 19th. James didn't remember that that was the day so I decided to take it after he left for work and surprise him if it was positive. That morning he was taking his sweet time leaving the house (or so it felt) and I had to pee soooo bad. Haha! But I took it and couldn't stop shaking. Just anxiously excited. Within seconds it read Pregnant! Gah. I was so excited and still shaking. But now I had to wait ALL day to tell James so I thought of all different kind of ways to tell him.
I decided to do a "bun in the oven." I had what I was going to say all prepared and had one roll in the oven waiting for him. We had mexican food for dinner so a roll definitely didn't fit the menu. But just my luck, James had to stay late at work so I had to change up what I was going to say since Ellie and I were going to go ahead and eat.
I set up the camera and had his dinner on the table so I could tell him his was in the oven before he looked at the table. I turned the camera on when I heard the garage open and quickly sat down. Well...he gets home and then has to go the bathroom. Like seriously?! I paused the camera and waited for the toilet to flush. 

I told James his was in the oven and he just opens the oven and grabs the rolls and starts eating it and walks toward the table (out of the line of the camera). Not how I envisioned that going. Haha. But I was like wait, wait, wait and pushed him back to the kitchen. Then I think he saw the camera and I asked, "Did you get that bun out of the oven?" He got it right away. We were excited and hugged and awww so cute. Glad I recorded it too. Pretty funny.

I did a series of pictures when I was pregnant with Ellie so I wanted to do that again this time.This is the first picture in the series.


11.4 weeks. I was starting to feel a little bump push out so I decided I needed to start taking some weekly pictures.

About 14 weeks at my dad's wedding rehearsal dinner I had a huge plate of mexican food and I swear ever since that I felt like I was for sure showing. And to be honest, I know I'm pregnant, but why is getting bigger so depressing? So irrational but it happens. 

15.4 weeks 

I was lucky enough to get the gender ultrasound at 18.4 weeks. They usually do it between 18-20 weeks so I'm glad I was able to get in on the earlier end.

18.4 weeks. Many people notice now that I'm pregnant and ask if I am.

Since I recorded telling James I was pregnant I wanted to record our reaction to what the gender was. James really wanted a boy and I wanted another girl. I think I wanted a girl because that's what I have so I know girls and I have a sister so I wanted Ellie to have a sister. But to be honest, I know brothers and sisters can be best of friends too so after giving it lots of thought I decided a boy wouldn't be too bad either. Most people guessed I'd have a boy and I think that was influencing my guess too. Ellie was saying the entire time that it was a girl until the day of the ultrasound she said it was a boy. No idea why she changed her mind.
So the tech didn't tell us right away. She worked her way down the body. James was recording in the beginning since we thought she may look for us real quick but once I realized she wasn't going to I told James to turn it off and asked her to tell us when she got down there.
I saw the two legs and told James it was time to turn it on. As she was asking us what our guess was I saw it there on the screen. His little boy parts clear as day! James could NOT stop smiling. He is so excited and so am I. Going to be a new experience for sure and Ellie is going to be a great big sister. I'm so lucky she is my first born. She is so sweet and helpful and excited to be an assistant. I talk to her all the time about holding the baby, rocking the baby and getting the baby's paci,, etc.

I told the tech to get a really good profile pictures for me. She kept going back to his face but his little hands wouldn't leave. Man, I'm excited to see what he looks like!

After the ultrasound and my Dr.'s appt James went to work and Ellie and I went shopping. I wanted to get a Little Brother onesie to do in our gender picture. I checked the second hand store first because I knew Carter's would have one but I of course always trying to save money where I can. I ended up getting it at Carter's. We ran home and it was past nap time but I wanted to get this picture done. Ellie was such a trooper. Thank goodness for chocolate chips!

Of course having Ellie be a big sister is super exciting so I had to use her in our "General Reveal." I had two outfits and couldn't decide which one I liked better on her. I went with the light pink dress for Facebook but I wanted to post both on here. 

About this pregnancy:
I started out 10lbs less than I did when I got pregnant with Ellie but now I'm the exact same as I was at this time with Ellie. Kind of weird (and slightly sad). I was hoping not to gain as much as I did with Ellie but my whole body likes to be pregnant I guess, not just by belly.
I was much more sick this pregnancy. I only threw up once when I was pregnant with Ellie and I've only thrown up once this pregnancy too (after brushing my teeth-gag) but I've felt much more nauseous and ZERO energy. The exhaustion was all day long and the nausea hit around lunch time and got worse at night. With Ellie I was only nauseous at night.

 I decided to call the doctor and get a prescription for Zofran to help take the edge off but she first prescribed me another medicine that made me soo much worse! I couldn't get out of bed or eat or anything. It was horrible. I thought I was done for and that's how the first 4 months were going to be. I had someone lined up to watch Ellie on Monday but Monday morning I was feeling well enough to get out of bed. I didn't want to cry wolf so I text my neighbor and told her I thought I'd be okay.

 Ellie knew I was sick and she coped well. She even came up with her own song, "Mom's sick. Dad at work..." Sad but cute I suppose.
I finally got Zofran and honestly I still don't know if it helped or not. I still was pretty nauseous but maybe not as bad? I still took it anyways. I was scared not to remembering how bad it could get. About 13 weeks I finally was having better days and more energy. Now, at 18 weeks, I still feel low energy but I can leave the house. James has done so much grocery shopping and errands for me I'm very grateful so I'm trying to get back in the groove.

Some other symptoms: I've had many more vivid dreams than I ever remember having with Ellie. Especially in the beginning. It was like a full on movie every night. My cravings have been very similar between the two pregnancies too. So nothing alluded to whether this was a boy or girl according to old wives tales.
That's all I can think of for now. Almost 1/2 way! Despite being sick for so long I feel like it's already going by fast! And now that I know that the baby is a BOY I have a lot of nursery planning to do and finish Ellie's big girl room. Yay!

New Mexico Trip

After some time in Arizona James and I rented a car and drove 4.5 hours to New Mexico to see our friends.

Timing just worked out perfect with my dad's wedding and Tania being due with her 4th baby that we made sure to plan an entire vacation and go and see the new baby and spend time with our friends in New Mexico.
This picture is from Tania's facebook. But her kids are just the cutest and they love their new addition, baby Clint.

Ellie was in heaven while we were there. I've mentioned before how much she loves attention and playing with other people so having 3 other kids to play with from 7am-8pm everyday couldn't have gotten any better for her. Jane and Ellie are the same age but Ellie seems to gravitate toward the older kids. Ellie got all wide eyed when she saw Sadie's dolls in the closet so Sadie was nice enough to play dolls with Ellie. I wish I could give Ellie an older sibling, haha.

 New toys are always exciting. Ellie loved this doll house and all the tiny babies that were in it. She frequently lined them up across the couch just to check them all out.

 The bubble machine was a big hit they got to do before bed. Notice the difference between boys and girls. Ellie and Jane would clap at the bubbles and chase them around while Everett Karate kicked them. 

 I cannot wait for Ellie to be a big sister. She adored this baby and was so gentle while rocking him.

It was "cold" outside for the most part but my kid needs to be outside, a lot, so I bundled her (because she wouldn't have it any other way) and Jane up and threw them out there a few times. 

The dad's took the kids to the park while Tania drove me around her town to help me understand the full picture of it's awesomeness, wink wink. James took this picture. Sadie was obviously trying to attempt something here.  

I've been holding out to get Ellie's haircut until we saw Tania. Her hair has curl but it was often falling straight after naps or in the carseat and it just wasn't looking right. And she had a long tail in the back and long wings in the side so it needed trimming. I didn't think of a before picture until after she got started, but this one is before enough...but it doesn't look bad here since I did it and sprayed it and all that.

Anyways, she was so into getting her haircut. Such a girl. And she got a sucker afterwards. She couldn't stop talking about it for days after either. "Knee-uh (Tania) Haircut and sucker."

 And the after. 

Since cutting it short the curls stay better and if it goes straight you can still see wave and nicely cut layers vs long crazy baby hair. But hey, she was bald for so long that I'm so grateful we got to get a haircut! 

We rented a car from Arizona but we flew back to Idaho from Albuquerque. It was a 2.5 hour drive back to Alb. from where we were so we left to get the car back by 11am and our flight was at 2pm. The Alb. airport is small but Ellie and James walked around a lot and Ellie found her fair share of things to jump off of.

 But let me tell you this story...we got there and went through the security and we have our system down to a T. I make sure to get the carseat hand checked because it's probably too big for the scanner and it's attached to the roller so undoing it would be a pain. All the other airports we've been through James, Ellie and I all go through the metal detector vs the x-ray scanner. That's usually what they do when you have small children. But at this airport they said only one parent could go through the metal detector the other had to do the x-ray scanner. I've never done the x-ray scanner so I told James I'd just go with Ellie. 

Sometimes after going through they swap your hands for explosive materials and the computer reads the swap. They probably do that since there wasn't an x-ray scanner to detect anything hidden on your body I suppose? This time they did swab my hands, which, normally, no big deal. But this time she said I failed the test. I thought she just reswab or something but no a whole bunch of people came over and were looking at the computer that read 100%! The lady said she never sees it say 100%. She mentioned to the man how she wasn't able to do the "pat down" so here comes this other lady and she said she was going to have to go through all my stuff and take me into a private room. What on Earth!? 

Of course they stop the anxiety girl! However, I wasn't too anxious and James got to stay with me so it was fine. But they asked what bags were mine and I wasn't allowed to touch them or my shoes. They went through them and swabbed them and I saw the computer say pass. Then they took us into a private closet and there was one lady who explained what she was going to do and the other lady watching probably to be sure she followed all the rules and did it professionally and what not. But she had to touch around my boobs and my groin and in the waist band of my pants. It was fun. HA! Ellie kept saying I was getting a haircut?!

After the pat down the observer lady swabbed the gloves of the lady that just patted me down and went and tested for that explosive material and it passed so I was good to go. But here are the weird things about all this...I was holding Ellie the entire time and they never once swabbed her or checked her. I pointed to which bags were mine but James was with me, they didn't take extra precaution and recheck his bags. I could have not pointed to my bags and James would have just grabbed them. So in my opinion, while it didn't matter in my situation because I knew nothing was wrong, if it did happen to someone who really was bringing explosives on the plane I sure hope they would check EVERYTHING. Quite the experience. And afterwards I felt like they were probably watching me from all the cameras in the ceiling. HA! JK. Sort of.