20 Weeks

In so many ways, I've been in denial that I'm pregnant. It a really strange situation following a miscarriage. I'll just leave it at that since it's personal and I don't quite know how to put it all into words anyways. The point of this post anyways, is to write about this little boy's pregnancy and get it recorded. So far, this pregnancy hasn't been a cake walk...just like my other's weren't. However, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was with Emery and Ella. It was much more like Isabelle's pregnancy. In fact, the only reason this pregnancy felt any different was because I didn't show for so very long. It's really only since hitting 20 weeks that I look pregnant at all. Now that I can look down and see a belly, it's making it a lot more real. That combined with finding out it's a boy and feeling him kick for about two or three weeks now has really pulled me out of my denial and made me realize I am actually going to have a baby at the end of this. I'm still freaking out about that a little bit...to be honest, but I'm finally excited too. The thoughts of having a little boy in our home make me a little nervous...I mean, I haven't ever had a little boy living in my home. I only have sisters and I only have girls. So, for that reason, I'm nervous. However, I'm thrilled with the idea of having a little boy in our family. We really couldn't be happier or more excited.

Here are some other things that are going on with the pregnancy:

• At about 31 weeks with Emery and Ella my pelvic bone was under some serious stress. I'm pretty sure it actually cracked. It took a long time for it to heal after the babies were delivered and I still had pain in the same spot whenever the kids put any pressure on it while sitting on me or whatever. That pain has already started to surface. It doesn't stay for extended periods of time, but it gets bad enough that it's very painful to walk around. 
• There have been some cravings...mostly for tater tots, but I've still been struggling with food and finding it appealing to eat. It's been a lot better in the past two or three weeks, but I still wish I didn't have to eat at all. 
• I still throw up every few days. Specially when I don't eat fast enough in the mornings. Or if I get up before nine. Every time I have in the past few weeks, I've ended up getting sick. 
• I live with a headache, probably 90% of the time. 
• My nose is almost always slightly congested. This is a symptom I have almost my whole pregnancy, with all four of them. 
• Even though I am finally starting to show, I can still fit in my normal pants. My uterus still doesn't poke out much, it's just pushed everything up. 
• I'm finally starting to get out of my total lack of motivation to do anything at all stage. Yay. I've even done some Christmas crafting this past week. It feels great to not be so sick that it zaps any desire to do anything. 
• With each pregnancy I seem to learn more and more tricks to combat the morning (100% all day) sickness. My essential oils, preggie pops (thanks Mom), ginger mints (thanks Madelyn) and SeaBands have all been imperative to helping me get through the first 17 weeks. 
• I have pain in my right side in my belly, from the very beginning. It comes and goes, but it's always in the exact same spot. The doctor doesn't seem to have any answers. 

Friends

In September I went up to Fort Worth for my girls to stay with Grandma while I went to Utah and Idaho for a long weekend. I pretty much didn't take any pictures of my trip...I just kind of checked out. When I got back to Fort Worth, I spent a few days there before treking it back to Houston. On one morning, we met some friends at the park. We rarely go to parks...they stress me out with three girls running in opposite directions. Now that they are a little older, it isn't so bad anymore. Because of us not going much in the past three years, my girls love to go. They all had a blast. Isabelle loved being able to play with her self declared best friend. I have to admit...it makes my heart really sad that these two don't get to spend more time together. Especially since Isabelle hasn't really made many friends, and no good friends, here in Houston. I love this picture though. Both girls so happy and willing to pose for a picture. I love watching them interact.

It's A BOY!

We are beyond excited, thrilled and happy to know that the little baby in my belly is a BOY!

Yes, this picture is taken in the car. My doctor is about an hour south of where we live. Not that a close doctor would mean Curt could come to my appointments with me, but the distance definitely adds to the reality that Curt couldn't take the time off of work to come to the sonogram with me. So, I had the doctor write down the sex of the baby on a paper and not tell me at the appointment so Curt and I could find out at the same time. After my appointment, I drove to Curt's work and managed to make it there while he was still on his lunch break. He came down to the car and he opened the paper. I was way too nervous to open it. I couldn't even look at the paper until Curt looked and told me to look. I immediately started crying. We were both just so happy (and relieved...don't judge)! Since there is quite a bit of distance between us and our families, we sent this picture to everyone to share the news. We are soooo thrilled! Beyond thrilled! April can't come soon enough!! :)

Baby Frog

The evening before we left to move to Houston, the girls went outside to play with a little baby frog my dad had discovered. It had just rained, which is probably why my dad found the frog in the first place. The girls really liked playing with him. Only Isabelle held him though.

Pioneer Day

I'm throwing order and chronological posts to the wind and just concentrating on getting some posts up. Blogging about Fort Worth makes me homesick...so I'll start with one of the first things we did when we moved to Houston. The first weekend we were here, our new ward had a Pioneer Day Ward Party. I have to admit...being welcomed to a ward at a party is a pretty good start. It made a lot of my nerves calm down that everyone was so friendly, went out of their way to come introduce themselves and also be in a ward fun enough to throw such a fantastic Pioneer Day party. We started off with a donut breakfast followed by a pioneer costume parade. Even in the morning, watching this 3 minute parade was enough to make us drenched in the humid July! We were glad it was a short parade. :) Then we went inside again to explore some of the activities the primary had put together. There was lots too. Most of them were a bit too old for my girls to understand, but they still loved it.

We really enjoyed ourselves and it made us very excited for our ward. (Which has been awesome and such a blessing!)


In addition to all the activities and the party itself, the primary printed out a 25 page coloring packet for each of the kids. We used the packet in our Family Home Evening two days later. We explained what pioneers actually were and used a clip from the Legacy movie to demonstrate pioneers and wagons etc. Then we colored the packets for our activity. So, part + FHE activity = one happy family! :)

Halloween

Since I just really can't stay caught up or blog in order anymore, it seems...I think I'll just skip to the girls' Halloween costumes.

My girls love Halloween. They talk about it all year long. They plan... They change their minds a hundred times... As soon as October rolled around this year, their desired costumes were still changing. Isabelle consistently asked to be a My Little Pony. Knowing there weren't really costumes that you can buy that actually look like a pony, I consistently told her that she was a girl and I couldn't get her a costume that would make her into a pony. However, the girls never settled on anything else for sure. I've been suffering from quite a bit of mommy guilt lately and when one of my digi scrapping friends made her daughter a Rainbow Dash costume, I convinced myself I had to make my girls pony costumes too. Cause I am crazy. In my defense...I inherited my crazy. :) So exactly one week from our ward's trunk or treat, I went to JoAnn's with my new friend here in Houston. I bought all the supplies for less than $42. I was very excited about that!

I started the next day with the pants. Before this endeavor, I had never sewn a top or hood and I had never made my own pattern. It was definitely a long process with lots of ups and downs and I learned a ton. They are not perfect in any way, but they worked, they didn't fall apart and they all fit! Hurray!! I didn't do 100% of all the work. Curt did the cutie marks. He definitely is more artistic than me and I was very grateful to have his help. Other than that...I did it all. From scratch. See...I told you. Crazy!

The girls love their costumes and it was so so adorable watching them interact with each other. They play and watch ponies almost exclusively right now. They are so passionate and get very involved in their role playing. Putting on their costumes and actually becoming their beloved ponies was just too cute to watch! It definitely made all the work worth it. Especially now that I'm a week past finishing. I'm glad I did it, but I'm not sure I want to do anything of the sort again...

Princess Cadence:

Rainbow Dash:

Ella was very upset because she couldn't find her toy Twilight Sparkle, so she was not in the picture taking mood. However when the girls started playing the game that Cadence and Twilight Sparkle play in the show, she finally joined in and decided to be happy.

They chant:

"Sunshine Sunshine,

Ladybugs Awake,

Clap your Hooves and

Do a Little Shake!"

While playing with their ponies, they sing this chant all the time. ALL THE TIME! But in costume, to see them jumping around, clapping their "hooves" and shaking their booties, it was so so so adorable! I wish I'd had brought my video camera out. 

Twilight Sparkle:

My Little Ponies:

Going trick or treating down our street and in our cul-de-sac. 

Such a fun Halloween. Now if all the candy would go away and with it the tantrums and nagging for said candy!