Gavin's Class Christmas Party

I was able to help out at Gavin's School Christmas party. They made gingerbread houses and had hot chocolate and got all hyped up on a sugar high...it was great fun.
Here's Gavin enjoying the festivities...


Here are my two little helpers enjoying the party.

Belly Post

20 weeks along...1/2 way there :)

Black Friday Shopping

I'm not a big Black Friday shopper, but there were a couple of good sales that were worth getting up for at the Wal-mart. We were all at Jason's parent's house for Thanksgiving, so my sister-in-law Angie, and I got up in time to get to Wal-mart by 5:00 am...luckily the Wal-mart is only 5 minutes from their house. It was a good thing we got there when we did because by 5:10 am everything on sale was GONE!
Here are Angie and me first thing in the morning...aren't we pretty! lol ;)

Haircut!

I was growing my hair out to donate to Locks of Love. I think my hair grew faster when I was pregnant because suddenly it was so long it was just unmanageable! One day I just couldn't take it anymore and called up a salon and took Connor and Aidan with me to just get my hair cut that very day. It feels so much lighter now...I love it! Jason kind of misses my long hair although he loves me no matter what of course! I told him I'd think about growing it out again to donate it, but in the meantime I'm just really enjoying the shorter hair :)

Laundry, Laundry, Laundry...

We have had endless laundry lately (more than usual anyway) to catch up on since I've been sick and Jason's been busy trying bring home the bacon and fry it up too! Here's a picture of Aidan taking advantage of one of the laundry piles :)

Halloween

Here's the one and only picture I got of the kids for Halloween...I guess I'm not as picture-happy when I'm feeling nauseous (morning sickness...) But, the kids had so much fun getting their candy...of course. Even the wind and rain didn't put a damper on these happy trick-or-treaters. Jason and his brother took the kids around while I stayed inside with Jason's parents passing out candy.

October Conference Weekend

In October, the ladies on Jason's side of the family traditionally get together over General Conference Weekend (a world-wide broadcast from our Church and prophet) to scrapbook, quilt, stamp and just plain laugh and visit. It's always a really fun time that I look forward to spending time with such great ladies.
Here we all are...no makeup and all...that's the best part about hanging out with just the ladies :)

Soccer!

Gavin and Connor both played soccer this year and LOVED it. Jason and Aidan and I had fun watching their games and enjoying nice Summer evenings outside. It also gave me something to take my mind off of my morning sickness. We were all sad to see the season end, although it did make our evenings a lot less busy not driving back and forth to practices and games. Here are a few pictures of what our Summer evenings looked like at the Soccer games.

Fun on Grandma and Grandpa's Trampoline

The kids always love jumping on Grandma and Grandpa's trampoline.

Ultrasound!

We had our ultrasound today and found out that we're having a boy! We're so excited...of course it would be fun to have a girl, but we thought it probably was a boy because that seems to be what we do best...and we love our boys. We're just excited to know what we're having so that we can start thinking of names and getting things ready for him. The best news is that the earlier complications of the pregnancy have all healed up...there is no blood clot behind the placenta anymore and the placenta itself is completely healed up. I even got the okay to exercise and treat this pregnancy as a normal pregnancy...what a relief! We're so happy. The baby looks wonderful and happy in there...kicking around and snuggling up with his arms by his face. It's so great to see the baby on the screen kicking and moving and also feel the baby kicking and moving inside of me at the same time. Today I feel like I can just take a huge sigh of relief that the baby is doing great...healthy and developing normally with no sign of future complications in sight...whew! And, now I just can't wait to hold the cute, chubby little bundle of boy in my arms this Spring!

So Behind....

Being pregnant and nauseous and taking Unisom (a sleeping aid that also helps with nausea, but leaves you tired all the time) has made me feel so out of the loop. I'm 15 weeks along now and the morning sickness is starting to get better although it's not gone completely yet, and I still have to take Unisom...for now...I'm hoping next week I'll be able to slowly get off of that without getting too sick...I already tried to go down to 1/2 a tablet and I was sick (laid out on the couch kind of sick) for three days after that!...so I'm slightly scared to try that again too soon...better to be tired than sick that's for sure! Anyway, the purpose of this post is just to say that I feel like I'm finally starting to wake up from a somewhat bad dream and join the real world again! (I say bad dream because of the sickness...not because of the pregnancy). Anyway, that's the best way I can describe it, and being out of the loop I am sooo behind on blog posts...I didn't even post any soccer pictures of the boys which pretty much consumed most of our late Summer and early Fall going to and from practices and games. The boys loved it, and were sad to see it end. Mommy and Daddy were sad to see it end too, but also glad to have our evenings back! I can't even think of what else I have not posted on here over the last several months...another reason for the lack of posts has been my own fears over the complications of my pregnancy and feeling...stuck...is the only way I can describe it...like nothing else I posted really mattered until I knew if my baby was okay. I don't know if that makes any sense, and I realize that I'm rambling...but this is my blog so I'm allowed, right? As for an update on the baby's condition...things are looking pretty good. I did have some more bleeding, but the doctor said it was from the original tear of the placenta and that the baby is doing fine. He said that while I'm still at a higher risk for miscarriage than the average pregnancy that now that I'm past the first trimester that risk is only 5-10% risk of miscarriage. So I'm feeling some relief after my last doctor's visit. Of course, hearing the heartbeat was great. It took a little longer than normal to find the heartbeat so I got a little nervous, but was definitely relieved when he found it. I was doing find holding my emotions in until he showed me sympathy and said how hard it is when you're worrying about the safety of your baby. Have you ever had that happen to you where you're holding it together fine until someone shows you sympathy and then...here come the waterworks! Unfortunately, I was crying so I wasn't able to talk very well to ask too many questions, but the important thing is that the baby is doing well. I have my ultrasound scheduled for Dec. 8th...I'll only be a little over 18 weeks along, but the doctor said that given the complications, he doesn't want to make me wait any longer to have the ultrasound and get some reassurance and also to be able to find out if it's a boy or a girl...so exciting! Now, my goal is to post some pictures from this Summer and Fall and try to catch up on my blog...

Ultrasound

I've hesitated to post this because I've had a lot of ups and downs this past week with the pregnancy. The biggest down was on Thursday when I was having some mild cramping and light bleeding and on Friday morning when there was more bleeding...I thought for sure that I was miscarrying and called to go to the doctor's for an ultrasound. As soon as the ultrasound was going, the first thing I saw was a little heart beating and little legs and arms kicking around. That was the huge UP...I was feeling so relieved, and it was amazing to see the little baby so awake and active and have the ultrasound tech tell me how perfect the baby looks and how the heartbeat looks nice and strong. Then I started to feel a little down again when the doctor met with me and told me that there's a "bleed" and I'm still at risk to miscarry. Apparently, a section of the placenta detached from the uterus wall and that caused a blood clot behind the placenta and the bleeding and cramping I was experiencing. The good news is that you can carry a perfectly healthy baby to full-term even if only 1/2 of the placenta is still attached, but the bad news is that I'm still at risk for the whole placenta to detach and cause me to miscarry. So many up and downs for one day! I was so busy trying to take it all in that I didn't ask a lot of questions that I thought about later, but the doctor did tell me to look at the glass as half full, to take it easy for the next two weeks and to hope for the best. He kind of made it sound like if everything goes well over the next couple of weeks that the baby will probably be okay. So, that was my hesitation for posting these ultrasound pictures...but, here it is almost a week later and thankfully there has not been any more cramping or new bleeding...so I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. Jason and his brother gave me a priesthood blessing Friday night and I'm feeling like everything will be okay...whether everything will be okay even though we lose the baby or everything will be okay with the pregnancy I'm not sure, but I'm hopeful that everything will be okay with the pregnancy. So, here are the pictures of this beautiful little baby that we're praying for :) The first one is of the front of the baby's face with the two little arms on the side and half of the belly showing. The second one is a profile shot of the baby's whole body.

We're Pregnant!

Baby #4 is on the way and due to arrive May 9th! We're so excited, and luckily...so far...the morning sickness hasn't been as horrible as it usually is...I still feel nauseous but I haven't thrown up...yet...