Baby - It's a.....

We knew we wanted to find out what we were having as soon as possible. I waited until the 20 week ultrasound last time and I have no idea how I waited that long. Since we were all going to be together for Craw's birthday I thought it would be fun for us all to find out together. On December 11,2013 Brad, Craw, and I headed to the ultrasound facility and got to watch the baby wiggle and move all around. I told that tech that we would like to take the results of the sex with us and not find out that day. After showing us the baby move all about she told us to turn our heads while she figured out what we were having. I could have sworn I heard her type b-o-y enter and I was just 100% it was a boy. When I asked her how someone would know what it is she said "oh they will be able to tell and if not I labeled it." I kept thinking back and I was like I totally heard her type boy and now she's telling me she typed something so I know it's a boy. I thought we would be so anxious the rest of the day...but we thought it would be so much more fun to find out with a ton of balloons exploding out of a box. We wanted to wait until Corinne and all the kiddos got to the cabin so we could all get excited together. Brad and his mom took this giant box up to Kroger and asked the florist to blow up a dozen balloons and seal the box as tight as possible. They told her that no one knew what it was and she was so surprised that she would be the only one who knew. We told her we would be back later that afternoon for the box. We were all so nervous picking the box up...we didn't want the surprise ruined and we were so nervous that we would see something coming out of the box that would ruin the surprise. After celebrating Craw's birthday with his Thomas cake we took the box downstairs and all crowded around. We had Brittany on facetime, Meghan on facetime, (Cathleen was holding two iphones), Brian/Amy on facetime (on doug's phone), Janet was videoing it, and Corinne had Brad's phone --- so on the count of 3 we opened the box and out came pink balloons!! All I remember is jumping up and down again and again. I think I was soooo shocked I didn't even know how to react...Ryan and Hayden we just as excited as me and it was craziness in the room. It was such a fun moment for me to share with everyone. Brad was looking at me like I was looney! Corinne forgot to hit record so we don't have this on video. Janet videod the balloons so we really don't have a good video of any of it...but we will never forget this exciting moment!!

 

 

 

 Poor Craw--when you ask him if he wants a brother or sister he says "no thanks"
We (by we I mean I) have been in a state of uncertainty since we found out the sex because now I keep second guessing the ultrasound like "maybe we went too soon and it's really a boy" so I haven't gone overboard shopping yet until we have our next ultrasound at 19 weeks. Either way I am over the moon about a second baby and I can only imagine how hard my bank account will take a hit once the shopping ensues.

 

 

The baby was moving around like crazy at the 15 week ultrasound so we didn't get the many clear shots.

This is the picture that was labeled girl in the envelope! It is soo crazy to believe we will be having a girl!! 

Christmas Pictures

We always do Christmas pictures and this was the first year Craw would actually smile for the pictures! Here are a few of our favorites!

 

 

Crawford Turns 3

Since Craw's birthday is in December and it's cold and close to Christmas I have vowed to make his birthday as special as I can. There is nothing he loves more than all of his cousins so we were excited to plan a weekend in Pigeon Forge at a cabin with my sisters, the kiddos, and Brad's parents. All Craw talked about was wanting to see a train for his birthday...we were thinking oh please let us find a train. It was too cold to take him to see the Dollywood train and after visiting the Christmas shop and letting him watch the model train he still wanted more train action.

The first night there was just Brad's parents, Aunt Cat and us so we decided to let him open up his first birthday present which was a giant train that goes around the Christmas tree. Of course he LOVED it!

 

He must have sat like this watching the train forever!

The next day Corinne and her crew arrived. We decided to check out Gatlinburg. We ate lunch at Johnny Rockets and then took the tram to the top of Ober Gatlinburg. The 4 kids just thought the tram was the coolest thing! When we got to the top there was snow everywhere. We watched some snow tubers and skiers before heading back down. I think we will all plan to bring snow clothes next time and try out the snow tubing!

 

Back at the house we cooked up a roast dinner and then sang Happy Birthday to Craw. He got the only thing he asked for which was a Thomas the Train cake!

 

 

 

All the kids gathered around the table and we sang to Craw before he blew out every single one of the candles that spelt out Happy Birthday!

 

It's amazing how well they all play together...they all run around like crazy wild and they laugh and have a ball!

 

Craw got to open all his presents from his cousins which included lots of Thomas the train themed items.

We sure don't get to see all these munckins enough and even though I am not sure Craw quite got that this was a celebration for him turning 3 he still loved all of these people coming together and getting to play with his cousins.

 

The kids played in the hot tub, they played with his train, they played shuffleboard, and just ran all over the cabin until they were all exhausted. We will always remember our sweet boy turning 3 up in the mountains of Tennessee!

baby #2 ---1st trimester

 

We found out we having baby #2 on October 1, 2013. After months of trying to conceive I finally took a positive pregnancy test. I had gotten so frustrated and discouraged that this particular month I waited until I 4 days late before testing. I woke up at 6 am giddy excited because I thought this really could be the month. I waited until Brad left for work and then after getting confirmation that we were indeed pregnant I couldn't wait to share the news with Brad. I had the day off so I just beamed from ear to ear all day before picking Crawford up from school. I changed him into a big brother shirt and we picked up some ice cream and met Brad at the new house to surprise him with the news. He was sooo excited!

 

 

Since I found out when I was only 4 weeks along I was very cautious and nervous. I waited a few days before calling the doctor since I knew they wouldn't want to see me for a few weeks. I went in to see the nurse at the Ob office on October 10 at just 5 weeks pregnant. They went over the dos and donts of pregnancy. I still wasn't feeling sick or pregnant but I felt much more excited about it all after this visit. ...three days later sickness set in....It was BAD! (much worse than I ever remember feeling with Crawford) I felt sick from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to sleep. It was like instant sickness. All of the sudden I couldn't work out, nothing sounded good to eat, and I felt like I could hardly stand up to work all day. I kept reading that the "morning sickness" usually peaked around 9 weeks. I kept wondering how I was going to make through the first trimester. Every now and then I would have an hour here or there where I didn't feel sick but overall I felt sick...all day...everyday! Around 8 weeks along I started feeling a little cramping. I called the doctor and they suggested I come in for an ultrasound later that week. When I got home from work two night later around 9 I went to get ready for bed and I started bleeding everywhere. I just  broke down. I thought for sure my pregnancy was over. I called the doctor and they told me to come in first thing in the morning and kind of prepared me for the worst. I had to call in to work (which you can't really do as a pharmacist) but I was a wreck and knew that I had to be at the doctor in the morning). I woke up and we went into the doctor prepared for the worst and then the ultrasound tech pulled up the ultrasound monitor and the first thing I heard was a heartbeat. She goes well there's the baby. I was stunned. She didn't know anything that was going on...so of course I stopped her immediately and was like wait but I thought the baby ....and I just couldn't believe my eyes. I was in shock! The doctor said everything looked perfect and they truly couldn't identify what caused the bleeding. She even asked me "are you sure you were really bleeding." I felt excited but cautious over the next several days. I still had some bleeding but I still felt terribly sick. They ran some tests on my hormones and still everything looked ok. I was set for an ultrasound 2 weeks later at 11 weeks.

 

At 11 weeks, the nerves set in again as I was soo nervous about hearing the sweet heartbeat of the baby. The sickness had continued which kept my hopes alive. The baby was moving all over the place and the ultrasound tech said the baby measured around 11 weeks and looked great. Again, the doctor assured me that these things happen and that I indeed did have a little baby growing in my stomach. We were beaming when we left the office....No sickness could take away my excitement that day.

I still had not told many people as the whole scare had me nervous but I finally felt like I could share our exciting news!!

First Elf Visit

We heard the doorbell ring one morning in December and Craw ran to the door to answer it. He found an elf with a packed suitcase who was ready to move in for the month. Craw just stared at him for quite sometime. Crawford loves the Elf on the Shelf movie and watches "Chippy" the elf go live with a family so at first he thought it was Chippy. We told him that this was his own and elf and he got to name him. We made quite a few suggestions and Craw turned them all down. He then politely told us later that day that his elf's name was Duga Duga (pronounced doooooga dooooga). He thinks it's funny when we help guide him to where Duga Duga is each day. We have found him eating pancakges, turning milk green, and hiding in the washing machine. It has been a fun addition to our December this year!

 

Thanksgiving 2013

Aunt Cat arrived the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We enjoyed an afternoon together shopping at Costco and having dinner at Bonefish. Then we woke up Sunday and had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then started preparing for our first Friendsgiving. We had a ball cooking our very first turkey (Cat cooked I supervised) and hashbrown casserole. We arrived at the Rehns around 6 and spent the next 4 hour eating, socializing, chasing kids, and playing Pictionary. It was such a fun evening and I can't wait to make this a yearly tradition. I had to work Monday and Tuesday. We had Church turkey dinner at the Redds church and enjoyed having all the cousins together for a fun dinner. On Wednesday, Crawford got a haircut and we ran a few errands before enjoying a spaghetti dinner (cooked by Aunt Cat) at home. We decorated the Christmas tree and watched Hallmark Christmas movies. Thursday (Thanksgiving) we had the Redds over for breakfast and then we went to town in the kitchen. We made hot fudge pie, pecan pie, hashbrown casserole, and sausage/corn casserole. We spend the whole afternoon at nanas eating and playing and looking through all the fun shopping ads. We hit up walmart at 5:30 and scored some great deals. We were home by 7:30 and enjoyed a night at the Redds watching football and seeing Craw run all over the place. We are sooo grateful for the wonderful family that we have close by. They support us and help us and love our son as much as we do. We are so appreciative of all that his parents do for us. I am so glad my sister got to enjoy the wonderful hospitality. We are looking forward to some fun black Friday deals in the morning! 

 

 

Halloween 2013

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Crawford got to dress up as Mickey this year. My old partner at Walmart has hung onto this Mickey costume for years now and always said I could borrow it and we were so excited that it fit. Craw watches Mickey every day so it was perfectly fitting for the stage he is in right now. We had the costume for almost a month and we would always ask Craw to try it on. He would refuse each time. But if you asked him what he was going to be he would always say "Mickey." Well fast forward to the weekend of boo at the zoo and all the fun dress-up events around town and he wouldn't budge there was no way we were getting him in costume. We tried taking him to pick out a new costume and he wasn't having any of it. He put his costume on the morning of school because they were going trick or treating but quickly pleaded that I take it off. So he went to school without a costume. Luckily the teachers said they were able to get him in it (I have no idea how). We thought Halloween was a bust. There was no way he was going to wear his costume out that night. Thanks to Hope and Carter we were able to convince him that candy and bounce houses were worth wearing you costume for. I am so glad I got a smiling picture of him in this costume.

 

 

 

The cousins together before trunk or treating at Praise church.

 

Hope is soo sweet with Crawford and always wants him by her side.

 

Standing in line to trunk or treat.

 

The kids looking at all the bounce houses they got to go in after trick or treating.

 

They walked around the parking lot collecting candy from the different cars and Crawford would say "thank you" to everyone. Then they were off for the rides and games in the field. They got to ride a train around the parking lot and of course loved it!

 

Then it was bounce houses galore.

 

 

I had to include this last picture because this is how poor Craw felt about dressing up. I hope next year he gets excited about Halloween but he straight up would say "I don't want candy if I have to wear that costume" --

I didn't know how I would feel about trunk or treating but since we don't live in a neighborhood we decided to give it whirl. It took the fun out of running to the houses and saying "trick or treat" but the excited about the bounce houses and train were enough to distract from trick or treating at people's cars.