Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Abigail's first "photo shoot"

So last night we went to a local place that does 3D ultrasounds of the baby. We did this with the kiddos too, but never got any good shots. Well, that's how it started last night. For 25 minutes she had her head burried in the placenta and would not give us a good shot of her face. We ticked her off enough that she even pulled her legs up over her head and covered any chance we had at a picture of her. So after 25 min., they said the time was up. While we sat in the waiting room theylooked and said there were no good shots and we were welcome to come to the back and try again. Well, it's a good thing we did, because she decided to put her legs down and move her face out from the placenta :) It was really funny, because the umbilical cord was right by her mouth and on the video you can see her using her mouth to play with it. She was also grabbing at it too. She gave us about 10 minutes of facial shots before she turned her back to us completely so we couldn't get any more shots. She sure has quite the personality already!








Saturday, December 19, 2009

Snow, gingerbread houses, Christmas tree...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Decorating sugar cookies for the 1st time.

We said it was ok if they ate the gingerbread house, wasn't exactly expecting that :P


Went to an exhibit made of ice. It was COLD in there. They keep it at 9 degrees.

Now for the snow pictures. It started snowing around 11 pm Friday night. By 8 pm Saturday night this is what it looked like...




This was the 1st real snow fall of the season. We had a little snow flurries a couple of weeks ago, but it never really stuck to the ground. This storm is incredible. Everything is basically closed down. Including all the churches tomorrow.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Visit with Santa...

The kiddos got to go see Santa today. They even are old enough to tell him what they want for Christmas. The picture is definitely an improvement from last year :) Still needs some work though, lol.
The kids are both over the chicken pox, hand foot and mouth disease, and the other junk. They had a good 2 weeks disease free, and now Kd is getting some kind of cough. Lovely. We're loading him with vitamins, so maybe we can catch this before it gets too out of hand.
The kids had a great Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa (Clint's parents) and their uncles. Those pictures are on my other comp, and frankly I am too lazy to go up the stairs and get them. We have been going non-stop since 7:30 this morning (it's nearly 7 pm now!). I will post them when I get on that computer at some point though :)
Everyone said my 1st attempt at a turkey was amazing. Not too dry, tasted great. I'm pretty happy with myself. We had a friend of ours come over too. She made half the food, I made the other half. Worked out great!
We have quite the busy month ahead. We plan on going to the National aquarium, a new exhibit called ICE!, as well as the trip down to Williamsburg for Christmas. After that, one of my brother's is getting married. The kids 3rd birthday is Jan. 2nd, so I have some planning for that. Clint's b-day is next week. I also have 2 OB appts this month So yes, just a little crazy. I'm loving it though, sure makes the time go by MUCH faster :)
I am 26 weeks pregnant now. Things are looking great! The baby is getting nice and big, and of course, so is my belly. The kids remind me of that daily. The baby is still doing flips and kicks. She doesn't quite want to settle down for the long haul just yet.
Having to pee 6 times during the night is really getting old. 39 weeks they'll pull this baby out at the latest. I can make it 13 weeks, I can, I can, I think I can. I will be fine if she shows up anytime after 36 weeks though :)
The kiddos have been having fun with their friends. They have several now, and they go to playgroup with them each week. Well, the weeks they aren't sick anyway.
That's all I have for now. I'll update with Thanksgiving pics when I can get to it.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

She's gonna be a big baby!


Well, here I am at 22 weeks. This last week has been quite the adventure. This baby is crazy active! She keeps sending my uterus into contractions. I went in to my OB appt. and instead of a quick check up, I was sent to Labor and Delivery to monitor the contractions. After several hours of fluids, cervical checks, and monitoring the baby's heartbeat, they sent me home. Looks like things are trying to repeat themselves down there. We could use lots of prayers that these contractions will stop and that I don't end up back on bedrest. Good news is the baby is doing great. We have decided on a name. Abigail Ruth (leaving out the last name for privacy). We'll call her Abby for short though. Things may change once we see her face when she is born. But for now, we're going to stick with Abigail.
Kayley is over her chicken pox. She has just a few scabs left. Kaiden is now in the window of, if he's going to get the pox, the spot will show up anytime.
We have decided that we are going to go ahead and retire from the military at Clint's 20 year mark. Which is technically Jan. 2012 but we can take paid leave starting in Sept. 2011. So less than 2 years left in the military!!! As of now we are looking in to retiring in Cedar City, UT. We're hoping to buy some land within the next 6 months or so, then have our own house built. We'll see though. Location was based on price, distance to my family, distance to airports to see Clint's family, and the fact that I am SO done with city life. If I could afford my own private Island I would jump on that! Since that's obviously not an option, I am going to go for the small town feel. We'll be just 6 hours away from family in CA. 3 hours away from family in SLC. and if we want to go to the city for anything, St. George is 45 min. away and Vegas only 2 hours away. We're definitely looking forward to stability and a place to call our own.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Update and some pictures...

This was taken the night before Halloween. They don't "do" Halloween on the weekends in the Airforce for some reason. So they have the kids do trick-or-treating the Fri. before. Anyway the kids were really into it and had a great time. This was also day one of Ky's chicken pox. I have a few pics of Ky's chicken pox, but because this is public I won't be posting them.



I took the kiddos to a small family farm. There is a playgroup here on base of a bunch of kids, and we all went on a field trip to the farm.

They had a fun little craft place for the kiddos, so Kd and Ky got to experience painting for the first time.

The kiddos got to dress up and do some Trick or Treating at the Lodge.

Long day for Kd at the water park down at Great Wolf Lodge. He fell asleep about 5 bites into his dinner :)
So the lodge was a ton of fun. There was an indoor waterpark, a craft place for the kids, Trick or Treating, a show in the lobby of puppets (robotic), and other fun things to do. We'll definitely be going back next year. It was also great at making the kids very tired :P
On the baby front, things are going good. She is VERY active now. If I am sitting a certain way, she lets me know she doesn't like it, and will kick at me until I move. We are still narrowing down names for her. Right now I am really liking the name Abigail. We would call her Abby for short though. That name is the top of the list now, so if we can't come up with anything else by the time she gets here, that'll be her name :) My next OB appt. is Thurs. Basic appt. They'll tell me the results of my labs and if anything showed up abnormal on the ultrasound. After that, they won't likely see me for another 3-4 weeks. SOOOO much different than being preggo with twins!

























Monday, October 26, 2009

It's a.....

GIRL!!!!!!
We had the ultrasound this morning. Wanted to get this put up real quick. She was very modest with her legs crossed and arms in front of her face. But we did (after an hour of measurements) finally get to see the "goods".
I have reached the halfway point in this pregnancy now :) I feel her kick quite often now. Her awake times are generally noon, 7pm, and 10pm. At least that's when I feel her the most anyway.
She's measuring about 6 days ahead of her due date. She did at the 11 week scan as well. So I am pretty sure she's going to be due a week earlier than what the docs think from the chart alone.
I have been feeling a lot better as far as morning sickness goes. Mostly just get nauseated easily.
When we came home, i told Kd he was going to have a little sister, he rubbed my belly and said "sister baby". I think he gets it. Of course, he rubs his belly and says he has a baby too :P
We went to a very neat place this last weekend, but I'll update later when I have the pictures loaded in the computer.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Meet and greet with the cast of Ace of Cakes

I don't know how many are familiar with the show Ace of Cakes. Basically, these guys make the best cakes. Today they made one for the troops and their families. Some friends and I decided to go see them and we got some cute pictures. I didn't actually get any cake though. By the time I got through the line for pictures, the cake was gone. Oh well. Anyway, enjoy :)



This is my 17 week belly shot. The baby is very active at night, hopefully that will change by the time s/he is born though. We are going to find out the gender afterall. My appt. is Oct. 26th. Take care!



Friday, September 25, 2009

Not much to report

Haven't posted in awhile, because there is nothing really tp post about.
Same stuff, different day.
The kids are putting words together a lot better now than before. Kd has learned how to tell on every little thing someone does (or doesn't do) to him.
We will be moving to a different house, same area, next month. Apparently this house is unsafe to live in due to crappy construction, possible black mold, etc. etc. We will be moving to a bigger house at least. Right now we are in a 3 story 3 bedroom house. We will be moving to a 2 story 4 bedroom house instead. It has a very nice backyard with the back right next to a playground.
The baby seems to be doing fine. I feel the little one move every day. My bladder is apparently a fun toy because the baby likes to kick it whenever it gets full. I still have some morning sickness, but not nearly as bad as it used to be. I have an OB appt. on the 2nd of Oct. It's just a quick check up and they'll give a referral for an ultrasound. It's supposed to be the "big" ultrasound for gender. I have been wanting it to be a surprise so bad, I just don't know if I can hold out! As of Sept. 27th I will be 16 weeks along (about 4 months).
That's about all I have for now. Sorry it wasn't much!

Friday, September 4, 2009

This could get long...












Ok, so I am going to backtrack a bit in this entry...
On Aug. 4th the kids and I headed out to UT. That was the LONGEST 4.5 hours of my life. I would take Baghdad over that any day of the week! The kids screamed the entire time. Thankfully there was a couple of ladies on the plane that helped out. We got to UT. and I was feeling extremely sick. Morning sickness had hit me hard. It just so happened (I don't believe in coincidences, there is a reason for everything) that a family friend was visiting my parents from out of town. The one friend just so happened to be an OB/GYN. He could see how miserable I was and he was able to call in an Rx for the best medicine in the world...Zofran! I had taken that with the kiddos and it kept me from having to be hospitilized from the extreme morning sickness. I was concerned because each pill can run about $45-60 depending where you go. My insurance won't cover it. He had said they came out with a generic form, but I still wasn't sure insurance would cover it. I was willing to spend several hundred dollars for it anyway though. I brought my insurance card, and to my great relief I was able to get 2.5 month supply for only $6!!! It is the difference between night and day. Even with the zofran, I still have food aversions. Primarily meat. Just looking at meet makes me sick.
Anyway, so I spent the week with my family in UT. then we got on the plane, again, to CA. That flight was only 1 hr 45 minutes. The kids did AMAZING! No crying at all, they were happy and playing the whole time. While in CA. we stayed with Jody.
The kids had their pictures taken (the pics in the prior post), they got to see the B-2 bomber take off as they ate doughnuts (very rare treat), they got to go to the local fire station and even got to ride in the fire truck with lights and sirens going. The firefighters even gave the kiddos each a teddy bear. Then they got to tour the fire house. Kd talked about that trip for a week. He had so much fun with it. We got to hang out with my dear friend Donna and her cute little girl. She took over as "big sister" and was very helpful with the kiddos.
We also got to see my brother Chad, his wife, and their 6 month old daughter. The kids got to play in the little kiddie pool together at his house.
2 days after we got to CA. Kd started getting a runny nose. There was lots of wildfire smoke in the air, so I firgured that must have been the issue. I was wrong. 2 days after his runny nose, Ky and I got sick. 5 days in to the trip all of us had fevers, coughs, sore throats, the works. The last 2 days in CA. we were miserable and tried to relax as much as possible. Then we had to get on the plane (still sick). I had tried rescheduling the flight, but they wanted $150 per ticket transfer fee, each ticket only cost $167, so I was not about to pay that much money to transfer the dates.
We got back to UT. and surprisingly, the kids did extremely well on the flight.
We got to see our good friends that we met out in CO. when I was pregnant on bedrest with the kiddos. They have totally been adopted in to our family.
The kids and I, my dad, my brother and his kids, and 2 of my sisters all went on a hike up to a waterfall not far from my Dad's house. The kids loved it (well, until we had to leave and they didn't want to walk anymore).
We got to see my grandma, my cousin's wedding, went to several parks, etc.
We had a great time, but we were ready to go home. The trip was long and exhausting. Vacations are no longer vacations when kids are involved. Then add a pregnancy and hormones to the mix, and it can get ugly.
We all survived and Wed. we all got on the flight to head back home. The kiddos did great up until the last hour. They were tired and cranky. So was I! Clint met us at the airport and he had some flowers for me. Pregnancy hormones, fatigue, hunger, all of it caught up to me and I was in tears.
We got home later that night.
Now for the baby update:
While in UT. Cassie (sister-in-law) and I went to an ultrasound place and had them do a quick one on the baby. I was concerned with all of the traveling and cold medicine that something was wrong with the baby. We went in, and immediately saw that the baby was bouncing and kicking all over the place. The heart rate was nice and strong.
Yesterday I had my 12 week OB appt. They did a quick ultrasound and the baby was moving. Had a nice heart beat and looked great. They then listened for the heart rate with the doppler. We could hear it just fine, as well as the baby had hiccups. A little unusual this early according to the doc, but she said it's nothing to be concerned about. When babies are still in the uterus, they have practice breathing and actual hiccups, basically the diaphragm is just practicing for after birth. So it was a little odd that the baby had them this soon.
The doctor didn't seem concerned, so I'm not. They did the genetic screen (drew a bunch of my blood) and the good old papsmear (any guy that wants to complain that they have to turn their head and cough while being touched down there, may very well get punched in the face by me). My next appt. is Oct. 2nd, they'll just listen to the heartbeat and check my blood pressure and weight, nothing special. Then they will schedule me for the "BIG" ultrasound. Well, sorry to dissapoint, but we are not finding out the gender of this one. We have a boy and a girl and everything we need for the new baby. So there is no reason we have to find out the gender :)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Professional Pics...

So today we went and had some pictures taken with Ella (my niece born in Feb.) and the pics came out pretty cute! I'll update on my trip when I get home. But wanted to get some of the pics up for everyone.








Tuesday, July 28, 2009

7 week ultrasound!


So we went to the doc again today. The baby looks great. In the 1st picture you can see the heartbeat at the bottom of the picture. The 2nd picture you can see a close up of the little blob :P
The thin line is the cord and the leftover yolk sac.
The baby is measuring right on with dates and has a healthy heartrate of 140 beats a minute.
My official due date is March 16th.
I have been released to regular OB care now and don't have to follow up as often from the ER visit I had a few weeks ago. So more than likely my next ultrasound won't be until I am around 18-20 weeks along. Unless of course we go to a fetal ultrasound place they have in the mall.
So it's still just one baby :)
Some other updates:
Clint and I went with the kiddos to NY. to go see his family. The kids and Clint had a great time. Iwas feeling too sickly to enjoy myself.
Clint took Kd to the amusement park out there along with his sister and other family members. They had a great time. While they were gone, Roe (Clint's sister-in-law) and I took Ky to the mall and did some girly stuff.
I ended up coming home early with the kiddos because I wasn't feeling so good. Clint drove back with the kids and I, then flew back to NY. so he could spend some more time with family.
After a few days to relax, I drove down with my family (they came out from UT.) and we went down to Myrtle beach.
My dad has a timeshare, and so we stayed in a nice condo right on the beach. It was really fun and the kids and I had a great time. Sorry, I have been horrible with picture taking. I brought the camera, but just didn't feel like taking a ton of pictures.
Then we got back from Myrtle and I spent all day Sun. going to and from the airport dropping and picking people up.
Yesterday I spent the day feeling crappy and having tons of cramping. I was worried I overdid it at the beach. I talked to the doc, and she said it's likely just growing pains from my uterus just stretching.
So we are home a few days. On the 4th I have to go to the OB orientation class. It's 3.5 hour class. Then that evening the kids and I fly to UT. and Clint stays here. He has school in August so we're just going to go be with family and friends while he is gone.
Ok, I think I got all of the updates in :)