28 weeks

Figured I'd get this down before I forget half of whats going on because... Pregnancy Brain is real my friends!

Our halls have been decked, presents are waiting under the tree and littles are anxiously awaiting tearing open gifts in a fraction of the time it took to wrap them.

We've been more intentional about participating in the season of advent this year as a family. We've been reading a nightly advent family devotional and progressively decorating the tree and house to participate in the anticipation of the coming of Christ. The girls' are getting it and it's so precious to hear their sweet childlike faith and wisdom remind me what it's all about.

The third trimester is here.

We've taken a break from all things baby prep for the holiday season, which after the move, the new car, the new job and wanting to stay on track homeschooling is, oh so NECESSARY!! But I have spurts of nesting where I clean like a maniac and cook freezer meals to store till after baby comes. I'm anticipating the new year and getting this little girl's nursery ready and washing all the little clothes and hopefully finishing unpacking the boxes that have been neglected in our storage room.
I'm excited to know little one in there is growing and things are looking good. I've still been feeling good, although getting slightly more uncomfortable, which I'm reminded of every night when I try to get comfortable. Luckily Jared doesn't mind the 4 extra pillows that have recently taken up residence in bed.

Friday, I had a doctors appointment and 1 hour glucose test, which I found out today I failed meaning I get to return to take the 3 hour glucose test in a few hours. (BLEH) I had gestational diabetes with Addiston and it seemed terrible because I already had food aversions, but as good as I've been feeling this time I honestly don't think it would be that bad to have it again this pregnancy. Don't get me wrong I don't welcome the hundreds of finger pricks but in the big scheme of things it's manageable. And do to the excitement (anxiety) about the follow up test, I'm up at 4am blogging (not eating-even though a pb&j sounds divine) instead of sleeping-lucky you!

Sunday when we were in our regular hurry to get all four of us dressed, ready, fed and in the car for our (we've been in the new house 3 months and still cant get used to the) 30 minute drive to church. I was loading up the van with breakfast items that hadn't been finished, make-up that still needed applying and little girl hair bows when I slipped. My cute leopard print ballet flats have nearly no traction and as I was reaching to put something on the console my feet just slipped out from under mean and my belly caught my fall on the edge of the seat and van. It hurt, startled me and Jared and led to a few  hours of baby girl being chill (which is very unlike this growing little karate kid) I tried to take it easy the rest of the day sunday, but woke up Monday feeling extra sore, so I called the doctor who told me to head strait to Labor and delivery.

After a few hours of being monitored, they determined Baby and I were ok and that I should try to limit myself till the pain subsided. I had a few days of being sore and nervous but am feeling much better!

We're headed to my parent's house for Christmas and I'm super excited to see family and get to continue with our little family traditions. The girls' are at great ages for traveling and usually we can make it strait through only stopping once. I'm only a little annoyed that It's suppose to be in the 50s on Christmas day, in Cincinnati. I love that today it was 70 in Nashville and we played outside, but I go north for the holidays to get my white Christmas. (get it together mother nature) On the bright side, heavy winter clothes take up more space and require and extra suitcase, so here's to packing light for the trip!

Safe travels and Merry Christmas Friends!

14 Weeks & Vegas

The day I was officially 14 weeks, we were a day past when we were suppose to close on our house, and taking a weekend trip to vegas with Jared's new company.

Being freshly sprung from bedrest and still recovering from, new car, new job and house in Limbo referring to us as stressed was a HUGE understatement. The trip was probably the worst timing possible but oh so necessary. Having a reason to put on make up and wearing something besides yoga pants was just an added bonus!

Small talk about fantasy football isn't my forte, (and thank the lord neither is it Jared's) but we love to travel, see new sights and eat! All of which Vegas provided.

The highlights of the trip included, eating brunch at the top of the stratosphere:

The food and the views were spectacular. 

Getting to go to Vladimir Kush and Chihuly (two of my favorite artists) galleries on the same day! 

Reading an entire book (Go set a watchman) Poolside

Eating Gordon Ramsay's famous Beef Wellington! 

YES! Worth the hype!!

And the appearance of the bump! (earlier than any of my other pregnancies)

14 weeks 3 days Baby the size of a Lemon

We spent most of our time in work functions and trying not to stress about the house closing still being in limbo! We played 0.17 on penny slots (just to say we gambled in vegas) and took more pictures of things we thought the girls would find interesting than things we were actually interested in.

"dancing fountain" which the girls want to see! 

Ours and the girls' souvenirs

We came home to no news on when we would close on the house, but happy girls and a positive outlook from a much needed break!

Tease (short catch up post-but there's pictures)

Sorry it's been so long since I've undated! Life continues to be busier than I deem necessary but with 2 little ones how could it be anything else.

Currently every member of my family is asleep, which is how I'm able to post mid-day. If I had the stamina to post at night I would but currently Isabella is in that wonderful transitional stage of learning to sleep through the night again post teething torture and Addiston still rises with the sun so my ability to string together coherent sentences after the sun goes down are slim to nill-sorry! Take what you can get!

Addiston is done with MDO for the year and while I am a little sad because I loved having a little alone time with Isabella, I am embracing the free schedule of summer!

Addiston on her first and last day of "school"

Isabella is growing so much I just want to pause time (during the day) she is saying a few words now: dog, dada, mama, this, and we're pushing Addy! She is so cuddly. Whenever she sees me she lunges for me to hug her even if she is in someone else's arms. It's good for my mama pride to feel so loved. She holds on so tight that sometimes I can throw my arms out and she's just there clinging on like a little koala bear. She gets so excited to see Addiston after nap time and in the morning. They both just smile and hug. I love witnessing the bonds they're forming! Isabella is more mobile now (not walking) so she gets into everything and she always has the same surprised/intrigued expression no matter what content she is exploring!

Addiston is usually good at keeping her favorite things out of reach but mostly she's cool with sharing. One of Isabella's favorite thing to swipe is a little mermaid tail. It's a tiny little doll the size of a cell phone that converts from mermaid ariel to princess ariel (the toy with tiny little parts all parents hate!) Well the tail is all squishy and I'm not sure why but Isabella loves to suck on it and excuse the terrible photography but this is what I see at least twice a day!

I'm so glad that the girls are getting along. I know we have a long way to go with the whole this is "Mine" stage and I am already in prayer for the teenage years, but even though it is tough having two little ones so close in age I hope that they will always be as excited to see each other and want to share their things and help each other! 

Speaking of sharing: we went Ohio not long ago for my sister's wedding reception and Isabella caught some sort of devil cold from Ikea (ok I have no proof but I'm blaming Ikea) She ended up having an ear infection & UTI. She shared her fever and congestion with Addiston who then was kind enough to share it with me! And coincidently the Dog got an ear infection too! Jared has super immune system and never gets sick or possibly was and we couldn't tell because he was already on antibiotics from having his wisdom teeth removed! So needless to say we got to spend some quality time with our Doc and all moms know how fun germy waiting rooms are! 

Somewhere in the last month Jared went to New york, I made a shotgun trip to Ohio to attend my nana's funeral, Jared got his wisdom teeth removed, we went to Ohio as a family, attempted to catch up on house work, and celebrated Jared's birthday! I let the girls pick out his presents this year (at Jared approved stores) and Addiston wanted to get him a basketball hoop and of course what dad of 2 girls doesn't need a pink basketball?

Addiston was so thrilled because she just knew that he would share with her! I think she may have had some ulterior motives when selecting this particular part of the gift but he was happy none the less! We were all recovering from the whirlwind of the last month and then this week was Addiston's birthday! I'll save the details of that for another time as the whole family has just woken up! But one more for the road!

Apparently Addiston wanted to be like Isabella while driving home one afternoon!

Easter & a flower girl

Both girls are napping which if you follow my blog you can see hasn't happened since March 19th. Eek, sorry for my inability to update anytime other than naptime!

Easter was a bit hectic with a long weekend worth of activities crammed into a shortened weekend if you factor in the travel time to and from Cincinnati. I love easter and I am so glad I get to spend it with my whole family but I also love my home church and am seriously considering making Easter our stay planted holiday and enjoy it with our little family of four and church family.

I'm trying to start participating more in practicing traditions and holiday decorating now that Addiston is old enough to realize. So this year we took up dying easter eggs. We did it a week before easter so we would have a chance to enjoy them before we left town.

Boiling the water for the eggs

Cooling the eggs off quick so we could get to the fun stuff

making the color

Checking to see if they're done

Putting them on the cooling rack all by herself

Adding some decoration

The finished product!

Addiston loved that she got to do most of the work by herself and honestly I was shocked that she didn't break a single egg. She was so cute while she was decorating the eggs after they were dyed. She put a basketball and rocket sticker on a blue egg and told Jared that was his egg because he likes basketball and he should go in a rocket with buzz lightyear. 

The day after we had our church egg hunt and while my girls had very little interest in finding eggs or eating the candy inside of them They did have matching egg hunt shirts that I made them-I am NOT a talented seamstress so I was super proud of my handywork! 

This past weekend was "Uncle" Nathan's wedding. Jared was a groomsman and Addiston was the flower girl so I had my hands full. A sweet family at church watched Isabella for the day to save me from certain insanity and exhaustion.

It was perfect weather for a spring wedding and it was so exciting for me to witness God's blessing of marriage upon these two sweet people whom I have been praying for to find each other for years.  We adore Nathan in this house and are so happy that he has found Whitney. Addiston has been referring to her as uncle whitney since the wedding so we'll have to work on that but I'm pretty sure it means that she approves!

I should have taken more pictures but I was preoccupied with this lil one and while I was missing my baby terribly it was nice to have a day with just one kid again!

She and the ring bearer got along so well and I thought they looked like they could be related.

When they made it down the isle the proudly exclaimed "we did it" and ran over to us to receive their candy reward which also doubled at keeping them silent throughout the ceremony.

She acted like a perfect little lady all day

She need a picture with her daddy and there were dozens of pictures of her with the bride. I managed to get one of her with her "uncle" Nathan and after all the photos were done she said momma you need a picture with me so we got a quick selfie before the reception started. 

There was no open dancing at the reception just the standard first and father/daughter but music was playing the whole time so Addiston made Jared and I dance with her every time we were standing.

The last few weeks have been packed with about as much as possible and I'm so looking forward to having a free weekend to catch up before Jared's work trip next week.Well boys and girls thats all the time we have for today I hear whimpering and thats my que!

The first time

Last week we decided would be a good week to put 1500+ miles on our car. (before we sell it-more on that another time)

Early saturday morning we left home headed for my parents house. The first stop on a long road trip resulting in canada. The three days before we had planned to leave were slightly crazy with the girls alternating nap times and having too much on the calendar and I ended up forgetting our passports, we were only an hour away from home when I remembered so we turned around to fetch them. We made it a little late but we got to go to Pumpkin fest. 

Sunday we went to my nephew's football game and got to visit with my oldest brothers family a bit. Monday we headed to Jared's parents' house and the following day we left both girls for the first time and headed to Niagara falls for our 5th anniversary. I only had a minor freak out as we pulled out of the driveway but this trip was much needed!

Jared has been to the falls a few times and was excited to switch rolls with me and play tour guide for a change! We were both bummed that this was our falls view the evening we arrived.



This was our view on our last day! Crazy how different!




This is where the falls under tide evens out and there is a constant whirlpool. It turns the water a beautiful color and the fall trees made the scenery breathtaking! This picture doesn't do it justice!

Here we are in front of the American falls. 

Thanks random Irish guy for taking our photo!

When we got back to Jared's parents' house the girls were both excited to see us. Addiston turned into super hyper 2 year old and ran around in circles for about an hour! 

Friday afternoon we headed back to my parents house, where Isabella decided to stop being lazy and roll over. She's super strong and I kid you not has held her head up since she was 2 days old! She's just super happy all the time and loves being on her side so usually she gets to that position and chills. I just don't think she's seen the need but something must have changed because she decided to show off and roll over both ways several times last weekend and has since become a rolling machine!

the popular side position

showing off on her tummy

Saturday was our actual anniversary and my parents took us out to one of my favorite restaurants. Brio, it's at newport on the levee where coincidently Jared and I had our first official date. 

And Addiston was obsessed with the jumping fountain!

It was a great trip but we are so glad to be home and getting caught up on laundry. At one point Addiston said "hey mom, remember my pink bed." Yeah I said, "I like that big girl bed." she replied We knew she was ready to be home! But we are so thankful for a chance to see family and have some couple time! 

Happy Anniversary Jared-sorry you didn't get your donatos!