31 & 27

This year for Jed's and my birthdays, we decided it would be nice to have a weekend together just by ourselves, especially before he leaves again for training and before Baby comes in August. It was the best decision! Jed's birthday was Friday so his parents took us out for dinner to celebrate both of our birthdays. We went back to their place for cake and to sing to Jed and after putting the kids to bed, we left the kids with them for the rest of the weekend.

Jed's dad and I both made him a birthday cake. We were so full from our dinner that stuffing cake into our bellies was painful, but delicious.

It's kind of funny what we decide to do when we don't have kids around. We get really productive with our time. Before we left to go to our Bed and Breakfast in SLC, we finished sprucing up the house, finally put up pictures around the house, and did our visiting teaching and home teaching. We also ran a few errands. It was really cold and windy that weekend, which was a bummer since the weather leading up to the weekend was beautiful! Alas, the skies turned grey and white and it decided to snow. It squashed some of our plans since we had wanted to spend most of our time outdoors welcoming the warmer Spring weather. It also sank my hope of getting to take tons of pictures with my new camera since the lighting was horrible and dark most of the time. :( But it was such a nice weekend together and we loved it!

Jed found a cute B&B in SLC and booked a night for us. It was so cute and we really enjoyed it. I think I'm converted to B&B's now.

While we were driving around, we stopped at a really pretty duck pond and we were able to take a nice walk together (which with our kids is a huge deal since most of the time we end up having to carry them if they were there).

We also went to Trolley Square to window shop. I love stopping at Pottery Barn Kids for ideas for the kids' rooms. I'm really excited to finish up Chloe's room and it gave me some really cute ideas to finish it off. Jed bought a kite since it was ridiculously windy that day and decided to take it for a test run on the roof parking lot (I tried my best to get at least one picture of it, but it was pitch black by then). After our dinner (and gelato...have I declared my love for gelato yet? It's really one of my favorite desserts, so I begged him to go) we went back to our room and Jed had arranged for a romantic candlelight package. It was so sweet! They had soft "romantic" music playing and had the entire room covered in lit candles. They even had a bottle of Sparkling Cider. It was such a sweet surprise!

The next day, we took another walk around the B&B. It was a block away from the Capitol so we decided to check it out. It was Sunday so everything was closed, but it was just nice to look around and I got to play with my camera a little bit more. We just wandered around a bit more then went home. We couldn't wait to see the kids again. We're such suckers for our adorable kids. It was so nice to just have a couple of days together and just enjoy each other's company. It was also really relaxing! :)

I don't know why but Utah has painted buffalo statues everywhere... it kind of makes me sad for them

For my birthday, Jed took the day off. It was the first time he's actually planned something for just me for my birthday, because we normally just combine ours together. Since the weather was nice again, I really just wanted to go out and do something fun with the entire family. We decided to take the kids to the zoo. First we stopped by another duck pond, because the kids LOVE ducks and we had a picnic together. After our picnic we headed off to the zoo. Elijah said it was the best birthday and the best day ever! I really think this was one of my favorite birthdays too. :)

 I just loved his face here, he hasn't been wanting me to take his picture lately so this is the face he gives me

 This sign just made me feel better about being pregnant lol

18 Weeks

I know I said I wanted to try to do this every month, but now I'm thinking every trimester. I also know I said that I'll try to post pictures of myself, but I'm in the lovely spot where my old clothes are too small and my maternity ones are too big, so I'll post a pic after I go shopping. :)

The baby is about 5.5 inches long and weighs about 7 ounces, about the size of a bell pepper.

So here are my eh's:
I get horrible migraines! They are starting to lessen in intensity but I still get them almost every other day and they can last for days (sometimes a full week). The prescription that they gave me just makes them worse if it does anything at all so I avoid them at all cost. These are also the reason that I've been MIA or a little anti social (sorry!)

I don't like bacon. This is something almost sad to me, because bacon was so great at one time. Hopefully I'll learn to like it again. Also, I'm not really into vegetables either. I like them when they're mixed in with other foods but on the side they almost make me sick. I'm dealing with salads a little bit better but even then they're plain.

Since the start of my second trimester, I have horrible insomnia. I'm really hoping this passes soon because I miss sleep. It's even hard to take naps. Plus I have weird pregnancy dreams that wake me up in the middle of the night and once I'm up (it doesn't matter what time) I'm up for good. I haven't had weird pregnancy dreams before so this is something new to me. Can't really say I like them either.

I'm showing a lot more now than my other pregnancies. I know this is normal but I feel huge and I look a month ahead of how I normally show.

I'm ridiculously emotional. This is sort of a huge thing for me because I normally never cry and I think I've cried more during this pregnancy than I have my entire marriage. Poor Jed is dealing with it like a champ and the kids are so sweet they just give me hugs and kisses. I seriously cry over nothing too. Some examples: I cried during Cars 2 when the cars piled up and I cried for 20 minutes when Jed couldn't get me the envelopes I needed. The sad thing is I couldn't stop even when I tried to. It's kind of funny afterwards but I think it kind of freaks Jed out.

I don't do well with showers. For some reason I almost pass out taking showers. Even when I keep the temp down a bit so it's barely warm and keep the door and window open I almost pass out. I'm not really sure what's wrong with me, I'm just hoping it'll pass soon.

Amazingnesses:
I love feeling the baby moving. I started feeling the baby move about two weeks ago which is sometimes earlier than most, but it's about the same time I started feeling Chloe. This one moves a lot too. I can already feel the baby at least 5-6 times a day. This baby almost seems like a combination of Chloe and Elijah. Chloe moved a ton (which might explain why she is constantly on the move now) and Elijah moved a lot but especially during spiritual moments (and he still is pretty spiritual). I love it though. Even with all of the ultrasounds and hearing the heart beat it's still really comforting to me when I finally feel the baby move.

I like being able to take the kids to my appointments. I didn't get to do this last time, but I think it really helps the kids to get involved. Elijah loves it also, because so far I've had two ultrasounds and he got to keep the pictures of "his" baby. Chloe gets so excited watching the baby on the monitor too.

I didn't really have morning sickness. I think the total time I was queasy was about 3-4 weeks and it really was only when I ate something "off" like something greasy or salty and not everyday. I only threw up once during the entire time. Ice cream was also like my best friend when I was nauseous because for some reason it'd make my stomach feel better. This was a big thing since I was sick until about my 30th week with Chloe and then it came back for a few more weeks in the end.

This time Jed has been so good about indulging my cravings. I didn't really have huge cravings in the past, but even then he didn't really like to indulge them because he heard "horror stories" about having to get food for cravings just for it to be wrong or changed right when they got it. This time I've actually had a lot of cravings and he's been so good with indulging me. He even went out to the store without me even asking and got me everything that I had recently said sounded good to me. My cravings so far have been fruit, lots and lots of fruit especially peaches, sweets, Asian style noodles, Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich, and gyros at one time.

I've been able to work out more. Since my morning sickness didn't last long I've felt well enough to work out more. I try to at least work out 3 times a week, more if my schedule is not so hectic and my migraines are tolerable. I'm even "training" to walk a 10k or half marathon in May. The kids even love to work out so they'll try to do it along with me and are always up for a nice walk when the weather is nice.

My back hasn't gone out on me. Yay! With both Elijah and Chloe I had really bad sciatica and on some days I could barely move. This time, I still get back aches but not where it puts me out for a day or two. This is really good with my two kids since I have to keep up on them constantly.

We get to find out the sex of the baby in two weeks. I'm so excited! Jed and I both have our guesses of what we think the baby will be, but we won't tell anyone. (I know this is mean, and this is the reason why we don't tell, but my brothers and I still poke fun at my younger brother because everyone thought he was going to be a girl) I have been right so far in my predictions of both Elijah and Chloe, so we'll get to see if I'm right at the end of the month. We're also having a gender reveal party to announce it to family. I'm so excited! :)

Chloe's First Dance Class

If anyone knows Chloe then you know that she LOVES to dance! When she turned two we decided to sign her up for ballet/tap classes here on base. Today was Chloe's first lesson. She had so much fun. She was also really good and did everything she was supposed to do. We're so proud of her. Even Elijah had fun watching her dance. I already have so many different tutus that I want to make for her. lol

Here's a few pictures of her getting ready:

Here's some of her during her lesson:

And Jed took a short video during one of the songs:

Can you tell we're so excited for her?

Week of Elijah

I know this is a week late, but I can't believe I have a four year old! Elijah's getting so big and he just seems so old now. It seems like all of last week was about Elijah. I guess that's how birthday weeks go though. He had a lot of fun and was so excited to turn four. He's been telling everyone he was four since Chloe's birthday.

The Sunday before his birthday we had a family dinner at Jed's parent's house for him. He told me he wanted to have pasta for it so we made it a spaghetti dinner for him. We had Jed's family there along with the great grandparents. Elijah thought Sunday was his birthday since we were celebrating then. He had a lot of fun. He always loves getting to play with his cousins and uncles. Jed took pictures and I think my settings were on manual so these are the only that turned out :(

The next couple of days after his dinner party, Elijah was really sick. The poor kid had a fever of 102 off and on for those two days. It was so sad to watch him. He loved the attention though. He got to snuggle all day and  watch t.v and we read books together.

He got better on his birthday, so we were able to celebrate a little bit. He really wanted to have cheeseburgers for dinner and wanted to go to Carl's Jr so he can play. There were other kids there and I guess he told them it was his birthday. It was so cute because they were playing in the playground and the other kids pretended to get him a cake and had him blow out the candles and they even made him king of the castle and sang to him. It was adorable too, mainly because the kids were all about 3 and 4 and they did  it all on their own. Elijah didn't believe it was his birthday because he kept telling me he needed a cake. We decided to go to a cupcake bakery and get him a cupcake for his cake. We got him a play set of tools for his birthday. Since living at Jed's parent's house he's always saying he's a builder and now he has the tools. :)

The days after his birthday, I spent working on his party. I always feel bad that I seem to do more for Chloe, so I really wanted to make sure to do a fun party for Elijah. This year his theme was paper plane pilot program. He was so excited to see all of his decorations and he even tried to help me. He insisted that he had to either sit on my lap or sit right next to me while I did everything. He kept telling me that "We are a good team, the best team ever!" He even helped me make his birthday cake. I let him play with the frosting while I worked on the fondant pieces for it too. He loves rolling out fondant and he got cookie cutters out to make shapes. This was my first time doing flooding and fondant pieces like this so I was really happy with it :)

It was funny because everyday he woke up asking me if it was time for his party. Finally, Saturday came and it was finally time for his party. He had a few friends and his cousins invited to his party. I think they all had fun. Elijah had been so excited for his birthday and party and it seemed to go by so quickly. If you want to see more details about his party you can check out my other blog.

So here's just a few things I love about our amazing four year old along with some pictures during the last year:

He loves to cook! Seriously, every time we're in the kitchen he always has to have his stool next to me or Jed and help in some way. He even tries to make stuff on his own (which results with flour, water, and anything else he tried to put into the concoction all over the place).

He's so thoughtful! When I was really sick with morning sickness and migraines, Elijah would bring me water or make me a sandwich to "help me feel better and to feed the baby". He did it without me even asking him for anything. He even had Jed buy me flowers when we were at the store.

He's a great big brother. He helps me out with Chloe all the time. Chloe is seriously into everything and Elijah helps to clean up and stop her from getting into too much trouble. When he gets himself something to eat he always makes sure to get something for Chloe too. He's also so excited for the new baby to come. He says it not my baby or Jed's but his baby. Since I've been starting to show a bit more he told me that my tummy is big now so wants to see the baby. He even wants the baby to sleep in his room and said he'll share all of his toys and books.

He loves to learn. I really love this about him. He loves to count and do math. He loves to read and tries his best to learn new words (even Japanese). He loves reading books about things. Right now one of his favorite books is about the body and he can tell you everything about the body (things that I didn't even remember he taught me again). He is a wiz with puzzles and memory games. He also loves doing science experiments. For a month he became obsessed with ice. He wanted to see how fast water would freeze then how fast it would melt. He even froze things in the water to see what would happen to them AND he did it all on his own! He's just so interested in everything around him and wants to learn all about it.

He's really spiritual. He loves church and learning about Christ. He LOVES temples. If he ever sees a picture or hears us talking about the temple he always asks us to go. His favorite primary song is "I Love To See The Temple". He's always the one to say prayers (then helps Chloe say hers) and constantly reminds us to read scriptures.


He's very independent. If he can do it on his own he wants to do it by himself.

He's cautious but willing to try new things. Even when he's not sure if he'll like something or thinks it might be scary, he will always try it out to make up his mind about it. I have never really needed to worry about him. Even when he was a baby he would try things but make sure to do it carefully.

It's so easy to see why we love this kid so much!