17 Weeks

So good news, guys! I cleaned my bathroom! Aren't you excited? To celebrate this (major) accomplishment, you get a different angle for today's belly shot. You are welcome.

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 17 weeks
Size of baby: About 5 inches long, the size of a turnip (but who really knows anything about turnips?!?)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: At my last appointment I was up two pounds. We don't own a scale, but I'm fairly certain that I will have gained at least five more by the time my next appointment rolls around. Needless to say, my appetite is back in a big way.

Maternity Clothes: Yes. A resounding yes. Especially pants. And seeing as how I'm just as big as I was at this point when I was pregnant with Landon but I wasn't needing maternity pants at all, maybe that means another girl? Ah, who knows.

Gender: We find out on March 12! 

Movement: Yep! Not all the time, but if I'm paying attention I can feel little flutters. Usually the only time I notice is at night.

Sleep: Well funny you should ask. My kids have decided that it's not okay for us to sleep through the night anymore. Maybe I should start going to bed a little earlier to counterbalance that.
What I miss: Nothing really.

Cravings: Unfrosted Strawberry Pop Tarts (I know, still!) and chips. Confession: I brought home five bags of chips from the grocery store this week. FIVE. I never buy chips unless I'm getting a big 'ol bag of tortilla strips from Costco. But guys, Aldi has the best sour cream and onion chips for so cheap! AND they have chili cheese fritos, my absolute favorite. Sorry I'm not sorry. Oh, and I have been loving strawberries, so I have that going for me.
Symptoms: My stomach just keeps on getting bigger, so I'd say that's a pretty obvious symptom.

Best Moment this week: It's been an uneventful week, but we're officially less than two weeks away from finding out the gender! Eek! Then I can start clearing out either the outgrown girl clothes or the outgrown boy clothes. This pregnancy is seriously flying by. I'm not complaining. :)

16 Weeks

I know, I need to clean my mirror. What you probably can't tell from this picture is that I really need to clean my entire bathroom. But check out that little cutie hiding out in the corner! I blame him.

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 16 weeks
Size of baby: About 4.5 inches long, the size of an avocado

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 2 lbs

Maternity Clothes: Wearing maternity pants, but they're still too big. Wearing mostly maternity shirts too simply because I don't want to stretch out my regular ones. I kind of hate this in between size!

Gender: Counting down the days until our sonogram on March 12. Also, I need some good boy names in a bad way. We only have a girl name, which naturally means that this baby will be a boy.

Movement: Yes! This week I felt lots of flutters! This is the fun part, so yay!

Sleep: I'm sleeping okay actually.

What I miss: Having energy and motivation to clean and be productive

Cravings: And we're back to cereal. I could also really use some Olive Garden peach tea and chicken alfredo pizza (I blame Chelsie for reminding me that I've been wanting that!)
Symptoms: This big ol' baby bump is pretty much my only symptom. Otherwise I'm good!

Best Moment this week: Feeling the baby moving around. It finally makes this thing seem real.

Happy Valenstimes Day!

When adults pronounce the holiday as "Valentimes" Day, I want to punch them in the throat. (Don't even get me started on fustrated, aks, and nucular.)

But Avery calls it Valenstimes Day, and it's super cute because she's only three.

Gosh, kids get away with everything.

So I stayed up until 3:30 this morning because I'm ridiculous. I decided that I would be Supermom this year and make all the kids' treats for their classmates, make the cards for their teachers, make cards for my own two lovely children, and make pink pancakes for a special breakfast.

Oh, and I thought it would be a great idea to learn how to use my new embroidery machine so I could applique and monogram Valentine t-shirts for Avery and Landon to wear to school today.

Supermom can suck it because that was the worst decision ever.

Did I mention that I had never so much as even turned on the embroidery machine before? At 11 pm I got to teach myself how to thread the machine, wind the bobbin, import my custom design (that I had already worked on for two hours during yesterday's naptime because I had to figure out how to use the software), troubleshoot the error message I kept getting even though my file format was correct all along, apply stabilizer, machine applique, change the bobbin thread that ran out halfway through the project, and unsew the t-shirt that got stuck into the stitching because by 2 am I was no longer a functioning human being.

And I cut straight through Landon's shirt because I don't have the right scissors to trim appliques yet.

But if you look at them from a distance, the shirts turned out really cute.

And we ate breakfast at the table this morning instead of in the car. (Don't worry, we were still late as usual.)

And I saved money by not buying commercial cards.

And we spent all afternoon outside enjoying the gorgeous weather. Okay, the kids enjoyed it. I cleaned out our swagger wagon. It took over an hour to clean it if that tells you anything.

And the kids were bathed, in bed, and asleep by 7 pm.

So it's been a good day.

Except that I really miss this guy. Stupid TMEA.

So to recover from last night, I'll be spending the rest of the evening on the couch with my favorite blanket and Monday's episode of The Bachelor. Try not to be too jealous.

I hope you had a great day and that you know how loved you are!

And if you hate today because it's an over commercialized excuse for florists to jack up the price of roses, I hope you're glad it's almost over!

Happy Valentimes Valenstimes Valentine's Day!

15 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

 

How Far Along: 15 weeks
Size of baby: About 4 inches long, the size of an apple

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 2 lbs

Maternity Clothes: Wearing maternity pants, but they're still too big. I kind of hate this in between size!

Gender: We find out at my next appointment (March 12)!

Movement: It's so hard to say! I think I may have felt some movement this week, but I always second guess it this early.

Sleep: I'm sleeping okay for now!

What I miss: Clothes that fit correctly

Cravings: Unfrosted strawberry Pop Tarts. I know.
Symptoms: I get the occasional bout of nausea, but I'm feeling pretty good these days!

Best Moment this week: Hearing a strong heartbeat on Tuesday. And now the countdown begins for the gender reveal next month!

A Weekend to Party

I woke up Saturday with the same headache I went to sleep with because apparently the North Texas air hates us all and wants everyone to be miserable.

But we had some partying to do! I dropped Landon off with my mom for the day since he'd been sick on Thursday and I didn't want to pass on any remaining stomach bug germs. (Matt was working all day because February is the stupidest month of the year.)

First up was Lily's princess party for her 4th birthday.

Lily's mom, Iris, made this cake! She is so talented!

Gift opening at kids' parties stresses me out

Avery with the birthday girl!

Then we made it to Jacob's Thomas the Train 3rd birthday party!

Sugar overload!

I wish I'd gotten a picture of the train decorations because Amy did such a great job!

We picked up Landon just in time to bring him to our house for Aunt Allison to come over and babysit him while the rest of us went to the Valentine Banquet at our church (again with the germs).

Matt met us at the church, and let's just say that it was not a relaxing evening for me since I ended up working the entire time. (I was in charge of coordinating childcare and we hit quite a few, uh, snafus during the evening, requiring multiple exits on my part. I think I sat for about 30 minutes total.) The food was delicious though!

We came home and were overcome by exhaustion. The end.

Wordless Wednesday: Morning Cartoons

14 Weeks

Hello second trimester! The first one pretty much flew by, and I'm not sad about that in the least. And now that I'm past the boring part, I figure it's a good time to start the weekly updates! And for the record, I am showing WAY earlier than I did with my first two. Way earlier. I'm a little nervous about how big I'll be at month nine, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there, haha.

Note to self: Take future pictures in the morning when you don't look so, uh, rough.

 

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 14 weeks
Size of baby: About 3.5 inches, the size of a lemon

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Lost 1 lb as of my last appointment, but I'm sure next week I'll have a different story.

Maternity Clothes: My pants physically hurt me, so I busted out the maternity stash already. They're a little big, so my Bella Bands are my best friend. I'm still in regular shirts though.

Gender: We'll find out (hopefully) in March

Movement: None that I can feel so far, but the baby was super active on the last ultrasound

Sleep: I'm sleeping okay for now! 

What I miss: The option to drink Chuy's margaritas. Mmm, happy hour.

Cravings: Tamales. Isn't that so weird? Also unfrosted strawberry Pop Tarts. Toasted with butter. Don't judge.
Symptoms: I'm pretty tired, but that may just be because I'm a night owl and my kids are early birds. My nausea has gotten much better (I still swear by my chiropractor. She is amazing.), so I'm feeling good these days!

Best Moment this week: Honestly, my chiropractor visit. I fell asleep during heat therapy and it was glorious.
What I'm Looking Forward To: My OB appointment, choosing a boy name (SO HARD FOR ME), and feeling movement

(14 weeks with Landon)

Landon: 20 Months

I'm a little behind on kid updates, but looking at my blogging track record as of late, I'm sure none of you are surprised! Nor should you be surprised that I hardly have any pictures right now. (I have GOT to start taking more pictures again! And on a real camera at that!)

So Landon is only four months away from two now (what?!?), and here is what our little wild child is up to these days:

• He wears 24 month and 2T clothes, although they're usually too big for him. He's still in a size 4 diaper and wears a 6 or 7 shoe.
• Landon has three volume levels: silent, loud, and louder. 
• He loves birthday cake and sings "Happy birthday to you" if he thinks he gets to eat some.
• He makes sound effects for everything: "choo choo!" when we're at a railroad crossing, "moo!" when we drive by cows, "roar!" when he's trying to be scary or destructive, and animal sounds whenever he sees their pictures.
• Landon gets really silly in the bathtub and lately thinks it's hilarious to try to pee on Avery right after we drain the water. Boys. Needless to say, she's terrified of bath time now. Poor girl, I don't blame her!
• Landon's on a Thomas the Train kick. That and Sesame Street are really the only shows he'll sit down to watch.

• Every time I pick up Landon from school he does a little dance that I have dubbed The Backpack Boogie. He puts his thumbs by his armpits (much like the chicken dance) and sways sideways, singing "Backpack, backpack!" Kid loves his backpack. 
• He is very, um, aware of his bodily functions. He's really good about telling me when he needs a diaper change. Maybe potty training won't be so bad. Maybe?
• He is super active and prefers running to walking. He's getting FAST. He's also a climber, so that's fun. Bruises and scrapes are part of his wardrobe.
• He loves books. He's constantly yelling, "Lap! Read! Book!" and running at us with his I Spy and word picture books. He likes stories too, but he much prefers to find the tractors in the other ones.

• Landon isn't quite as verbal as Avery was at this age, but he says a lot of words and is just too busy getting into everything he can to be worried about using sentences yet. :) 
• Speaking of Avery, Landon adores his big sister. They are so sweet together and are starting to really play well together, which is both sweet to watch and helpful when I'm cooking dinner!

He definitely keeps us on our toes, but we just love this little boy!  Happy 20 months, Landon!