Boy or Girl???

Wednesday, May 23rd....I had been looking forward to this date for the previous 5.5 weeks.  This would be the date of our ultrasound, when we would find out if Caeden would have a new brother or sister.  We quickly decided that we wanted to do some sort of "Gender Reveal Party."  We wanted to do something fun to find out what we were having, but under one condition - it had to be the day of the ultrasound!  I could not stand to wait one or more days to find out!

So, May 23rd arrived and I was so nervous! I actually didn't even sleep very well the night before! I don't know why I was so nervous.  I think it was because I was afraid we would accidentally find out before the party, or the ultrasound tech wouldn't be able to tell the gender, or just the fact that I would leave the ultrasound not knowing what I was having!  So, we had the ultrasound first thing in the morning (8:30am) and we are happy to report that the baby looked perfectly healthy!  The tech put the ultrasound pictures in a manila envelope so we couldn't see them.  And she wrote on a small index card what the gender was, put it in an envelope, and sealed it up.  Do you know how hard it was to leave, with the verdict in my purse, and not being able to look????  At one point during the ultrasound, the tech referred to it as a "he," but I had also been saying "he" throughout the entire ultrasound.  So, we left wondering if she slipped or if she just said that because that's what I had been saying.  I truly, honestly, was 100% sure it was a boy!  My pregnancy has been so much the same as the first one, this baby has been very active just like Caeden was, and Reid's family has all boys.....so I truly thought I would be a mom of all boys!  And was excited for that! 

 Here are a few of the fun ultrasound pictures:

Leg & Foot

Profile

We then went to the doctor's office, where she looked at our ultrasound pictures, and kept it a secret from us the entire appointment.  Our next stop?  Walmart!  We had recently collected a large empty box from Sears and took it to Walmart.  We explained to the ladies at Customer Service that we had our ultrasound that morning, but did not look at the gender.  We handed them a package of blue balloons and a package of pink balloons.  We asked them to look in our small envelope at what we were having, ring up the correct color behind the counter, and we paid for them.  We then walked around the store for 30 minutes, while they put helium in the "correct" color of balloons, stuffed them in our LARGE box, and taped it up for us.  We came to pick it up, and took it home.  We then had fun decorating the box at home!

A few hours later, off to the Gender Reveal Party.  We had a total of 49 people there, and were so happy our family and close friends got to celebrate this moment with us!  We had each person wear either a pink or blue shirt, indicating their prediction of the gender.  Caeden was excited to see what color the balloons were.  He made it very clear to us that the baby would be a boy, and would not be a girl!

Here's a picture of those predicting a BOY (Team Blue):

And those predicting a GIRL (Team Pink:

We took a few more pictures...

Then busted open the box with our hands!  

I cannot express in words how utterly shocked we both were!  Yes, Reid wanted a girl, but he made it very clear that he thought it was a boy....he was just hoping for a girl.  I'm telling you - I KNEW it was a boy!  As soon as I saw the pink balloons, I ran over to grab the manila envelope with the ultrasound pictures - I wanted to make sure it really was a girl!  I had been so positive it was a boy, that I kept waking up in the middle of the night that night, worrying that the ultrasound tech was wrong!  I just couldn't believe it!  There's no way!  But luckily we have the ultrasound pictures and they definitely prove it!  I talked to another ultrasound tech the other day and she said that it's without a doubt a girl!  For real??  It's been almost a week, and I'm still shocked!  I think I'll still be shocked when I'm holding her in my arms.  I didn't think it was possible for me to have a girl!  But we are both just so excited and thrilled.  Caeden is still getting used to the idea, but I know he will love her so much!  He probably won't really grasp the whole idea until she's here anyway!

Here's our verifying picture:

It's hard to tell here because it's grainy since I had to scan it in.

But the 3 little lines between her legs are what gives it away!

So, as many people have asked....no, we don't have a name yet.  It took us awhile to agree on Caeden's, so it will probably be a few weeks (maybe longer) before we know her name.  We have a list and a few favorites, so I'm sure it won't be too long!  This is just so crazy!  I can't tell you how many times I've replayed the moment in my mind when I saw the pink balloons.  I just was. not. expecting. that. at. ALL!  We absolutely loved having a party with our friends and finding out the way we did!  We would not have done it any other way! 

For those of you that did not see our Reveal Video that we posted on facebook, you can view it here:

Baby #2: Month 4!!

So, my belly just keeps growing!  I'm definitely bigger in my 4th month with this baby, than I was with Caeden!

     Month 4 of Pregnancy with Caeden

               Month 4 of Pregnancy with Baby #2


I had to start wearing maternity clothes (this month) as the rubber band trick stopped working on my "normal" pants.  However, I have to say that I was glad to have some more comfortable clothes! I've continued to be pretty tired most days of the week, have LOTS of headaches, and am feeling warm almost all the time!  I don't think I experienced the warm body heat until much later with Caeden....so this will be a long pregnancy!

People really started to comment on my belly around 15-16 weeks, so I was glad I was maybe past the "fat" stage, and was actually looking pregnant.  There have been a few strange symptoms I've had that have been new for me this time around: cramping in the back of my thighs, and occasional heartburn.  I don't remember having these in my last pregnancy, so that's kinda different. As I'm writing this post, we will be finding out the gender of our baby in TWO WEEKS!  I just want to say now that I'm predicting this baby is another BOY and Reid feels strongly that this one is probably a GIRL!  So, who knows?

Probably the most exciting part of this month was starting to feel the baby move.  I felt it at 15 weeks, which was much earlier than I did with Caeden (18 wks). It feels like tapping on the inside of my very lower belly. It's so fun feeling these tiny movements!

I've still been working out, which I'm proud of.  I didn't work out at all during my pregnancy with Caeden.  This time, I started working out after Christmas (which was actually before I even got pregnant) and have worked out 4-5 days/wk since then!  I'm hoping this will mean a healthier pregnancy, an easier delivery, and maybe even that my body will bounce back quicker after this pregnancy!  At this point, I'm 17 weeks and I have not gained any weight.  I'm so happy with this (and my dr is okay with it too) since I was actually a little overweight when I got pregnant.  She's recommending that I only gain 15-25 lbs with this baby, so it's perfectly okay (and actually healthy) that I haven't gained any weight yet.

I think that's the end of this update!  So far the pregnancy is going well, and we're SUPER EXCITED to find out the gender in a few weeks!  We'll keep you posted!!!!

Mommy & Caeden Weekend!

So, last weekend, we had "Mommy & Caeden Weekend" while Daddy was on a camping trip with his buddies.  Now, normally, mommy would go to Joplin for the weekend because I HATE staying here all by myself.  I get lonely, bored, freaked out, etc.  But considering we'll be traveling for 6 of the next 7 weeks, I decided I did not want to travel another weekend.  So...I braved it out!

First off, on Friday our play group met at the "Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari" that is about 20 miles away.  This is a drive-through zoo that Caeden had never been to before.  The drive-through part was a little long and Caeden was getting kinda bored part of the way through it.  But then we began the petting zoo & walk-through zoo and he loved it even more! I got lots of really great pictures, but just picked out a few to put on here!

Yes, that's a real peacock sitting on the entrance sign!

This is a monkey who jumped on our car. This picture is looking

up through our sunroof.  The kids thought this was hilarious!

Some ostrich-type bird staring at us through our window!

And we were seriously inches away from this zebra.

I've never been that close to a zebra before! 

Not so sure about the rooster...

but it ended up being one of his favorite animals to see!

Another favorite...the turkey!  I had to bribe him 

to get him to see some other animals!

And this little brown fella - Caeden loved him also!

Here's Caeden just feet away from a kangaroo!

The only thing separating them was the rope...

As he was petting this baby goat, he was saying, 

"I love him Mommy!"

After the fun, but exhausting, visit to the zoo, we went home and crashed!!  Daddy came home after work for just a few minutes to say good-bye, and then Caeden & I headed to eat dinner at Chick-fil-a!!

We met some friends at First Friday on the Bentonville square.  Caeden got a frog tattoo on his hand (see picture below), got to play in the fountain, hear some music, and pretend to be Shrek! :) 

By the time we got home, it was bedtime for Caeden, and "stall time" for mommy.  I did not want to go to sleep without Reid so I tried to find things to do, stayed up too late, and was then extremely tired in the morning!  But when Caeden woke up, we ate breakfast, played at home, and then went to the Farmer's Market with some friends.  No pictures of this, but Caeden's favorite part was picking up rocks (as usual).  We then walked to a nearby park and played until lunchtime.  After eating lunch in our backyard together, playing outside and taking a nap, we got down to business!  Mommy cleaned the whole house, while Caeden played contentedly by himself for almost two hours (we should write this in the record books!!)  Then....our friends came over!  The other mommies/kids whose husbands were gone camping came over to eat dinner and play outside.  Caeden had fun eating pizza and getting wet in the sprinkler!

Caeden and Hannah having fun together!

After our friends left, it was bedtime for Caeden, and this time...mommy learned her lesson and went to bed earlier.  We got up and went to church together on Sunday morning, came home to eat lunch, and then DADDY GOT HOME!!  We were both so excited to see him, and were so proud to have survived the weekend by ourselves!  It was a fun, busy weekend!  And while I didn't enjoy the nights by myself...I loved every minute I got to spend with Mr. Man!

Moments that Make Me Smile...

Today was one of those days that Caeden just kept saying funny things.  And there was one I just wanted to record.  I realize that it might not be as cute or funny to those reading it.  But having been in the moment, it just made me smile and I don't want to forget it.

Caeden had gone with me to pass out fliers in our neighborhood for our upcoming block party.  He was riding his tricycle.  While I was at one house, he waited on the sidewalk and squealed "Mommy!  A ladybug!"  As I turned around, he was squatted down trying to pick it up.  Since he was occupied, I walked 20 yds over to the next house real quick.  I walked back down to the sidewalk and called for him to come on.  I see him lift the compartment lid on the back of his trike and put something in.  He starts riding towards me very quickly, with the biggest, proudest smile on his face, saying, "Mommy!  I put ladybug in my tricycle!  I'M GIVING HIM A RIDE!!!  I'm pulling him!!"  He then repeated this a couple times.  He was so proud that he was giving the ladybug a ride. Ha!  I'm sure the ladybug appreciated it as well!

Once we got back to the house, we checked and the ladybug was still there, so we got some pictures!

And just for fun, an extra pic:

A few minutes later, he and Ella chased a beetle around the driveway!

These kids and bugs....

Caeden: 30-32 mos.

This will be a summary of what Caeden was doing from 30-32 mos (the best I can remember).

Surrounded by stuffed animals in his bed

EATING
Caeden's eating has gotten better during these months.  We give him smaller afternoon snacks and he eats a better dinner....go figure! ;)  He's truly not as picky, especially if he's hungry.  So I'm praying we're over that hump...but not going to get my hopes up. His all-time favorite food is macaroni and cheese - and would eat this everyday if I let him.  Some of his other favorites are applesauce, pizza, RANCH, hot dogs, and Gogurt!  He will dip ANYTHING in ranch.  If there's fruit on his plate, and ranch, he'll dip the fruit in ranch.  It's been a helpful tool in getting him to eat lots of foods. Ha!  He has not been liking many varieties of fruits lately, so that's no fun....mainly grapes and applesauce.  We still offer different things, but he rarely eats them.

PLAYING
It's been warmer outside so his favorite toys have been outside toys!  He's loving his tricycle the most.  He also still loves to play basketball and hit his tee ball.  We did lots of Valentine and Easter crafts during this time and he always loves this.  I have been awful at implementing Room Time so we need to start this back up soon - it will be very helpful when the baby arrives!

SLEEP
He is still sleeping normally.  He goes to sleep great and basically never gets out of his bed.  His nap lasts about 1-1.5 hours long and he sleeps 11-12 hours at night still.

LANGUAGE
His vocabulary is still growing all the time and he is speaking more clearly, so more and more people understand him. His favorite questions are "What's that?" and "What you say?"  He asks these numerous times a day....We just answer them simply and go on  :)

POTTY
He is still doing great at the potty!  He tells us 98% of the time that he needs to go....maybe only 2ish accidents a week...and they're always #2. :)  He basically never has a pee accident.  And just recently he's been taking himself to the potty if we leave the bathroom light on.

DISCIPLINE
We've dealt with some very difficult tantrums during this time period.  But over the last few months they've gotten better.  He was consistently put in time-out when he would throw a fit, so I think that helped a lot.  Caeden is just so social, he hates being isolated...so time-outs are something that work for him.  We are having to work a lot on not whining.

SURGERY #2
Caeden had his second surgery during this time.  In March he had his hernia repair done. He did great before the surgery, but waking up from the anesthesia was the worst part!!!  Once we got home, he did awesome and his recovery was very quick!  Now he's just got a one inch scar down his belly...

SIBLING!!
Caeden learned that he has a sibling on the way during this time.  He knows its in mommy's belly and at first, he kept telling mommy to take it out.  We showed him how small it was with our fingers and are always reminding him that we have to let the baby grow big and strong in mommy's tummy before the doctor can take it out.  We've shown him pictures of mommy being pregnant with him and talked about how big he made my belly - and this baby will do the same thing.  He loves to talk to the baby and say, "Hi baby!  This is Caeden!  I love you!"  Sometimes he will say other random things to my belly....like telling the baby what he will teach it and telling the baby that he will share his toys with it.  We are daily praying that he loves and accepts this baby and has a lifelong bond with it.  We have lots of things we're trying to teach Caeden to do independently before the baby comes.  He will be 3 yrs and 2 mos old....so hopefully he'll be at an age where he can do many things independently!

We still thank God every day for the precious gift of Caeden....even on our rough days!!

Baby #2 Pregnancy: Third Month

I think when I updated my blog last and broke the news of us being pregnant, I only covered the first month of us finding out.  So I'm going to recap the month of March here (which was the third month of my pregnancy). Being the last month of my first trimester, I continued to experience lots of exhaustion, gagging, and some AWFUL migraine headaches!!  My irritability continued (Sorry Caeden & Reid!)   All of these symptoms seemed a little worse than they were when I was pregnant with Caeden.

Here is a picture of my belly at 10 weeks.  My waist had already grown .5" around (uh-oh) and I knew it wouldn't be long before I was out of my regular clothes.  

Caeden is already loving to kiss on the baby

Some highlights from this month

• Getting to hear the heartbeat on March 21 - I was 10 weeks pregnant. Reid and I both felt relief to know everything was okay, excitement to tell people, and an automatic love for this baby!  The heart rate was 164 bpm, which was very comparable to Caeden's at this time.  Our doctor also made our due date October 12!
• Caeden's interactions with this baby.  He loves to talk to my belly (even though the baby can't hear him yet). :)  He often calls it "Adalyn" because we have a baby girl neighbor with that name.  This could be a problem if he continues to call it this name...Ha!  One time this month he was talking to my belly and said "Hi baby!  I wanna share my toys with you."  So sweet!...We'll see how long that thought lasts! ;)  He also said he wanted the baby to look like mommy...
• Our most exciting moments this month were simply telling people!  I loved seeing everyone's reactions! The best were people who were very shocked and not expecting it at all!
• This month I continued craving Chick-fil-a, but this time it was their chicken wraps.  This is kinda funny because normally these don't sound good to me at all, but this month...LOVED THEM!  The thought of eating their nuggets actually made me queasy...which is normally what I want when I go there. Crazy what hormones will do to you!
• One day I was craving ice cream so bad and we had none in the freezer.  I sent Reid a text telling him my latest craving, hoping maybe if I put the thought in his head, he would "allow" us to go get some later in the evening.  Instead, he showed up after school with my favorite shake from Sonic! :)  Such a good husband!
• Smells continued to make me sick and gag.  Mainly being around the sink (even when there were no dirty dishes or food in it) and the fridge...  This was also the month Caeden had his hernia repair done.  I gagged many times that day, as I kept smelling the hospital smell and anesthesia smell on him...ugh...
• I finished my first trimester actually a little under my pre-pregnancy weight....just by a couple pounds.

With all my unpleasant symptoms, I was glad to finish my first trimester! :)  We already love this new little addition to our family and can't wait to meet "him!"  (I.e.: I think it's a boy!)  We think about "him" every day!!

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday, we were blessed to have Reid's family in town to celebrate with us.  When Caeden woke up Sunday morning, he went straight to his Easter basket to see what the Easter Bunny had left him! His favorite part...the candy!

Next we all loaded and went to church to CELEBRATE that the cross was not the end of the story!  Jesus has risen and is alive!  We had been doing Resurrection Eggs with Caeden each night for the two weeks leading up to Easter.  He had really been taking in the story of what Jesus had done for us on the cross and that he was now alive!  While we do the Easter Bunny and egg hunts, we always want him to know these are just fun things we do on Easter, but that the real reason we celebrate is because Jesus IS alive!  So glad we got to spend part of the day with our other Christian brothers & sisters celebrating this!  Here are some fun pictures of us all dressed up in our Easter clothes...

After our amazing, filling lunch, we did an Easter egg hunt outside with Caeden & Emerson (my nephew).  Emerson just turned a year old so this was his first egg hunt!

This is Caeden bringing eggs to Emerson...he was trying to "help" him. :)

And these two boys are so busy it's hard to get them in a picture together.

But they're just so darn cute I had to post one picture of them in the same frame!

So here ya go! ;)

After our egg hunt, it was naptime for the kids and relaxation time for the adults.  Then our afternoon closed with good-byes and resting that evening.  It was a fun day, celebrating with our family and I'm so glad Caeden had a cousin to celebrate with this year!  (Next year, he'll have a sibling to celebrate with!!)