Pregnancy Update

We are beyond excited for baby number 3! My due date is March 19th, 2012.

I thought I was pregnant before even testing due to the creeping nauseous feeling I was having. Unfortunately, I’ve been pretty sick this pregnancy, like my others, but this one has felt harder. It seemed to start earlier and more intense. There have definitely been moments when I didn’t know if I would be able to handle it anymore.

I secretly take some comfort in the sickness, hoping that means things are going well with the baby, but logically knowing that means nothing. We’ve been blessed to hear the heartbeat three times. The first was when I was was around 7 weeks, with an ultrasound. The second time, at 10 weeks, was a little scary because the Dr could not find the heartbeat after many attempts. She was about to send me for an ultrasound when she finally found it! The third time, at 14 weeks, she had no trouble and even commented on how active the baby already was :)

I’m 16 weeks now and still feeling sick but nearly as bad as earlier. I just keep eating a ton hoping that will help!

The Girls Trip with the Grandparents

While Jason and I were at GNP, Kate and Abby stayed with my parents then Jason’s parents and sister came up to watch them. We figured it would be too much for one person to watch them the whole time. We have very active children! Here are some pictures my Mom took on her phone to send us so I didn’t get too homesick

Kate loved her sign so much she made my Mom take her picture again. I think Kate looks like Jennifer here; Jennifer used to make the same smile when she was little.

Love these girls!

My Dad is known for filling up our Christmas stockings with items from the Dollar Store. He stocked up with treats from his favorite stores for each day they had the girls. It was like Christmas for them!

Abby makes us laugh ALL the time!

This is a random old picture I found on my phone. My Dad is very serious about catching squirrels but one day he caught an opossum instead. He sent a picture to Kate since she was disappointed my Dad was freeing the nasty thing before she could come over.

Kate’s 1st Day of Pre-School

While Jason and I were out of town Kate had her first day of pre-school. Not the best planning on our part. My parents said she was so excited to get ready and take her school bag and lunch bag. She had a great first day and couldn’t wait to go back!

She’s going to Johns Creek Presbyterian Church, right by our house, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30-1:00PM.

I had a hard time deciding all the pre-school logistics… what time, which school??? I LOVE the school we choose. They’re smaller, have amazing teachers and I can literally walk there. I also only wanted Kate to go for 2 days a week and not for a long day. I know she loves going, but she is going to be in school for the rest of her life! This is the only time I get her at home all day (away from outside influences), plus I think this is a great bonding time for her and Abby.

Hello Mr. Grizzly Bear

It's a long story so bear with me (heehee) ;)

We did a long 13 or so mile hike one day. Around mile 8-10 we came across this very minimalistic chalet people have to hike to and can stay overnight. A couple of people told us they saw a large male grizzly on one trail we were going to be taking but that he was far away. We continued on and passed two guys who said they saw the bear about a mile back but also said he was super far away. Jason was kind of excited to be able to take a picture of this bear. Well a mile came and went and there was no bear. Figured he had moved out of sight or something. At this point we are only 2-3 miles from being done with the hike and aren’t even thinking about bears anymore.

I was walking in front and as we turned a bend the bear was RIGHT there about 10 feet from us. Too close to walk by and too close to just back up. We were talking but apparently weren’t being very loud. I reacted and clapped really loud. All the rangers told us to yell or clap when going around blind corners to not surprise a bear but I’m not too sure you’re actually supposed to clap AT the bear :) The grizzly stood up on his hind legs, pretty big, and then ran away. When he first ran he went into a bush and you couldn’t tell if he was coming at us or away. That was a fun second ;) We walked pretty fast the rest of the way down! It was just the rejuvenation I needed to finish the long hike!

Ironically, this was the only day we forgot to bring our bear spray. We did a hike at the beginning of our trip where we were completely isolated, not a single person out there and the trail was overgrown at parts. We saw multiple signs of a grizzly bear then and I was actually more nervous on that hike when we had the bear spray and didn’t even see the bear then when we actually ran into one! Jason took a picture when we were far away from the bear. Unfortunately, you can’t see just how large he was!

Besides all the fun bear stuff it was such an amazing trip! I’ll make Jason blog more about the trip later but it was beyond words!!!!

Things I learned on our trip…

1. Six tenths of a mile can be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.

2. I have a love/hate relationship with facebook. I didn’t check it while on our trip and loved it, but when I’m home I can’t seem to stay away.

3. My goal is to never allow Kate to watch MTV.

4. Kate will also be ending her semi dance career by the ripe age of 5. Have you seen Dance Moms???? Who are these people?!

5. EVERYTHING is more fun with someone you LOVE

6. If a bear was to charge me I could stand my guard without freaking out. In this situation I also have the fight not flight reaction (maybe too much actually).

7. It’s more fun to turn the TV off and listen to the creek out on your balcony.

8. No camera or lens can fully capture what the human eye can see.

9. The air out West really is cleaner and easier to breathe without all the humidity and smog.

10. I love hiking and being in nature but I also love seeing the buildings of downtown Atlanta. It just makes me happy.

11. You can do almost ANYTHING when you finally have some hours in the day where you don’t feel like death.

12. My life would be complete if I had someone to cook 3 real meals for me each day. I also am happiest when I eat an outrageously ginormous breakfast everyday.

13. It’s nice having someone who completely loves you

The day I climbed out a 2nd story window

This happened awhile ago but I need to record it because it’s definitely an event worth remembering! Kate went through a stage a long time ago of locking her door and closing it. Sometimes with her in the room or not. She just liked pushing the little button. It got annoying always finding a wire hanger, ruining it and unlocking the door. I finally turned the knob around so she couldn’t do it anymore. In hindsight it would have been smarter just to take the door handle off…

One early morning, Kate, Abby, and I were playing in Kate’s room. All of a sudden I heard Kate slam her door and then giggle. I just KNEW what happened. Sure enough we were locked in. I searched her room but apparently a 2 year old didn’t have too many tools or sharp objects in her room. We were stuck, with no phone! Now this was about 9AM and Jason was getting home from work around 6PM if not later that week. Problem! If it had been later I could have waited it out, but Abby was just a baby who wouldn’t understand and both girls would have been starving.

There isn’t a home behind us and our neighbors on the side can’t see the back of our house so I couldn’t yell for help or anything. Since I had to do something there was no point in waiting around. I took Kate’s sheets off her bed and tied one end to the wood slats under her mattress. I don’t know any special knots so I just put some weight on the mattress and tugged really hard to see if it would hold. Seemed okay. Apparently it’s hard to tie sheets together so I took the rope like material from a bag she had to tie the fitted sheet to the top sheet. I had baggy pajama pants on and was afraid they would get caught on something so I took them off. (I was definitely a sight to see and so glad no one saw)!

I threw the sheets out the window while threatening Kate to almost tears to stay away from the window and help keep Abby away. My biggest fear was she’d lean out to watch me and fall. It was kinda hard swinging that second leg over the windowsill. My shirt, of course, got stuck on the nail where the screen went. I learned at that moment that I can support my entire body weight with one hand as I reached up to free my shirt. I shimmed down, ran in the back door, upstairs, and freed the girls.

That was a fun morning

PS. I worked up the nerve to do this by saying it’s just like repelling. Um, yeah except for the part that I had no harness and would have to actually support my body weight and hold on. Didn’t quite make that realization ‘till I swung both legs over…

A Child’s Prayer

I love when Kate says the prayer and each time is cuter than the last. Here’s an example from her prayer yesterday:

“Bless we have a good day, Mommy feel better, Daddy be okay because I want him to be okay (she asks for Daddy to be okay EVERY time and we have no idea why :)) so I can go camping with him and my backpack, Jesus Christ, oh and bless the food, we can go to Grandma’s later and we can play and have fun, and Abby can go… Jesus Christ, AMEN.”

Abby participates by folding her arms when we tell her it’s time to pray. I love my girls!