Some Comparisons

I love looking at old pictures and seeing how things have changed. So here are some comparison pictures:


This is 3 years worth of Christmas card pictures: 2012, 2013, 2014. I was 20 weeks pregnant with Gavin in the first one and 20 weeks pregnant with #3 in the 3rd one. It's fun to see our family growing (so quickly!).

Here are the kids sitting on Santa's lap this year....

And last year. Sigh, they are grown so much.

 And here is my 22-ish week pregnant belly with Ava, Gavin and now #3. I think I was the biggest with Ava, smallest with Gavin and this time I am somewhere in between. Just interesting to see the difference. 

And that's all I've got for now. :)

21 weeks

I feel like I was so good at documenting my pregnancies with ava and gavin, but this time I have been horrible. Probably because I'm chasing around those two all day. But I just wanted to take a minute to document for the sake of remembering this pregnancy. 

This pregnancy has been pretty different than the last two (especially with gavin - his was suuuuuper easy, I would have forgotten I was pregnant with him almost the entire time, I felt so great). This time it has really taken a toll on me - I am always so exhausted and still throwing up daily and healthy food still is so unapplealing. I have gained about 9 lbs already, whereas last time by 20 weeks I had gained 0 lbs. Interestingly I weighed 10 lbs less when I got pregnant this time than last time, so I weigh almost the exact same numbers-wise at 20 weeks this time as last time (just a random fact to help me remember). I remember feeling small with Gavin, just a cute little belly. This time I feel huuuuge haha. BUT on the GREAT side, I feel this little boy moving all the time. ALL the time. He kicks and wiggles all day long and it's nice to have those little reassuring kicks. Even Ava has felt him kick from the outside. We have a name we are pretty sure of, but not set in stone. I've even ordered a couple personalized things (oops) so it's pretty certain, but you never know haha. 

We had our diagnostic ultrasound at 19 weeks and it was such a fun ultrasound. The lady spent about an hour and half explaining every tiny inch of his little body to us - it was very informative and amazing. We saw him opening and closing his mouth and swallowing and wiggling constantly, of course. Once again it was instantly clear that he is in fact a HE. I'm so glad my kids have never been "shy" in that regard - it has always been very easy to determine their genders. At the end, she printed out literally 25 pictures for us to take home. It was fun to go show Ava and Gavin the pictures of their little brother. :) 

Here are some pictures of the ever-growing belly: 

15 weeks:

17 weeks: 

After the 20 week ultrasound: 

21 weeks: (trying to get a good shot of how big I feel haha) 

21 weeks with Gavin vs this time:

21 weeks again: (haha I feel like it's hard to get a good shot - especially because these are all self-timer shots haha Bryson hates taking my pictures) :) 

And here's the survey I used last time with Gavin: 

How far along? 21 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: Up 8-10 pounds, depending on the time of day haha

Maternity clothes? Still a bit too big for me, but my pants are getting a bit tight when I sit down. I ordered some new maternity jeans and a dress from ASOS. :) Should arrive today, so excited! 

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: Fine - my back hurts though. 

Best moment this week: He is constantly moving, and being able to feel him kick from the outside is always fun.

Have you told family and friends: Everyone

Movement: TONS, all the time.
Heartburn? Yes, horrible!!

Food cravings: Eh, nothing really...random things throughout the day. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: I still throw up usually once a day, in the morning. 

Have you started to show yet: Yes, definitely. I feel huuuggge this time.

Gender prediction: It's a BOY!! :)

Labor Signs:  No, but I have been feeling Braxton Hicks since about 17 weeks. 

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Depends on the time of day (nothing abnormal haha)

Weekly Wisdom: ?

Milestones: Our baby is as long as a carrot, and his skin now responds to touch. If you put pressure on your belly, he'll move away or push back.

Baby's Length: 10.51 in.

Baby's Weight: 12.70 oz.

Baby Name Ideas:  That's a secret :) 

It's a BOY!

We had our early determination ultrasound yesterday and we found out our little one is a BOY!!! How exciting to have two little guys in our family - two little brothers. I swear Ava was destined to have little brothers because she has always been so high-energy and she loves to play rough and tumble and just can totally keep up with two little brothers. As soon as the girl put the ultrasound wand on my belly I saw "it" right away - like immediately. She wasn't even looking at her screen and hadn't freezed the image and I blurted out, "It's a boy." haha It was very obvious, which is always good to have a clear shot - my kids have always been very cooperative in this area and not modest or shy at all. :) So now to decide on a name. It's nice that I have pretty much everything we need for him because I swear it feels like Gavin just barely outgrew all the newborn clothes. 

Pregnant!

I wrote this in a draft, never intending to post it...but I'm afraid of losing it, so I figure why not chronicle my journey to baby #3.

So far, this pregnancy has been similar in some ways, but different in some ways than my others. I am "showing" WAAAAY sooner - I'm serious, my belly is definitely not what it was 3 months ago. I am also "sick" all. day. long. I am on the verge of throwing up constantly, but if I sit calmly, chew some gum and just breathe deeply, I can usually keep it from actually happening. There have been a few throwing up in the car incidents because the car makes me feel sick if I am driving in the morning. Nothing ever sounds good to eat...ever. And I constantly have a bad taste in my mouth...like something bitter on the back of my tongue. I have also been soooooooo irritable this time around - like everything bugs me waaaay more than normal. I can feel this starting to go away, but man it was bad.

So here are the previous things I wrote about this pregnancy:

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Well, I guess baby number three is on the way! I have really enjoyed re-reading my blog entries from when I was pregnant with Gavin, so I decided to write down my feelings this time around as well. I am 5 weeks along...still very early, so early that I really can't talk about it yet. So this private blog is a perfect journal of sorts for me.

How far along? 5 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: None so far

Maternity clothes? No

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: Fine

Best moment this week: No

Have you told family and friends: My dad, Kaitlyn, Nam, Jordan and Monica

Movement: No

Food cravings:  No

Anything making you queasy or sick:  No

Have you started to show yet:  No

Gender prediction:  ?

Labor Signs:  No

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Depends on the time of day (nothing abnormal haha)

Weekly Wisdom: 

Milestones: 
Baby Name Ideas:  
  Boys - Crew, Rowan, Owen
  Girls - Olivia, Everlee, Harper

Pregnancy goals this time:

1. Gain no more than 25 lbs
2. Exercise daily
3. Eat very little sugar and flour
4. Get adequate sleep (ba haha)

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6 weeks - feeling queasy, nothing sounds good to eat except bland food (rice, chicken noodle soup, etc)
6 weeks, 4 days - threw up first time

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8 weeks:
(Sunday) threw up 5 times, nothing sounded good to eat. Hoping this isn't the new "normal"

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How far along? 9 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: plus 2 pounds (depending on the time of day) yikes!

Maternity clothes? No

Stretch marks? No

Sleep: Fine

Best moment this week: Telling more family members

Have you told family and friends: My dad, Kaitlyn, Nam, Lisa and Jeff, Maddie, Kelsey and Brad, Granny & Papa

Movement: No

Food cravings: Peaches...honestly nothing else. I eat a lot of saltine crackers and other bland foods like tortillas with cheese
Food aversions: Meat - any and ALL meat, sugary things (leaves a horrible taste in my mouth)

Anything making you queasy or sick: Everything - really I feel nauseous all day, but I have to keep eating because if I get hungry, I feel super sick. If I get hot, I honestly feel like I'm about to have a panic attack haha. These hot summer days have been stressful. 

Have you started to show yet: I honestly feel like I have. What the heck? My belly is definitely poking out more than it did before at this point! Oh dear. I don't look "pregnant" though - just in that awkward fat stage. 

Gender prediction: ?

Labor Signs:  No

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Definitely moody - I am so, so, so tired and feeling so queasy all day...yes I am moody - and you would be too! haha. 

Weekly Wisdom: I had a dream I was having twins and it freaked me out so bad. SO, when I feel overwhelmed I can say at least I'm not having twins. :/

Milestones: 
Baby Name Ideas:  
  Boys - Crew, Rowan, Owen, Milo
  Girls - Olivia, Everlee, Harper, Reagan, Mila

10 week ultrasound. Bryson and Gavin came with me and we got a little peek of our little gummy bear. Ava was at preschool. The NP said the baby is measuring at 9 weeks 1 day, but she kept my due date at April 15th. 180 bpm heartbeat. Everything looks great. :)

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10 weeks, 3 days - I heard the baby's heartbeat on our at home fetal doppler! What a beautiful sound!

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11 weeks:

And now I am 13 weeks tomorrow. I have a dr appointment next Monday, just a routine checkup. We will find out the gender in about 2 weeks. I am still feeling sick and exhausted...one activity for the day and I am wiped out haha. I am hoping I am on the upswing and I start feeling back to my normal self again. 

And that's the update so far. :) So excited. :)

Ava Sophia {t-h-r-e-e}

Here's three years in 47 seconds...

Three. 

Three?

I have loved these three years with this sweet, spunky, inquisitive, curious, active, social, emotional, deep, loving, lovely, beautiful little girl.
I am amazed by her constantly - the things she picks up on, her imagination, her compassion, her wit.

Here are some things I want to remember about Ava at this age:

• Ava is in the inevitable "dress up" phase of life. Princesses and dolls and plastic high heels rule her little sparkly life.
• Ava loves to sing and dance. Whenever she hears a new song, she listens very intently the first time and then somehow knows all the words the second time (okay maybe not by the 2nd time haha, but she picks up on songs very quickly). Ava loves to dance like a ballerina.
• Ava knows all her letter sounds and is starting to write her letters. She can spell her name (pretty challenging, ya know A-V-A haha) and is learning how to write her name as well. She can write the letter A and it working on V. 
• Ava loves to color, paint, play with play dough, and do any kind of art project she can. She loves cutting with scissors and using glue and overall, just making huge messes but having so much fun. She also loves to help me bake.
• Ava knows the first Article of Faith and parts of the other ones.
• Ava can count to 20.
• Ava goes to preschool 2 times a week and loves it. She also started swim lessons and has loved learning how to put her face in the water and kick and swim to her teacher.
• Ava s just so smart and sweet and happy and very insightful for her age. She comforts people when they are sad and loves to give hugs and kisses. She says the funniest things and shocks me daily by saying the funniest, smartest, most clever things. 

I could go on and on and on and on. I ADORE this little girl. I treasure these moments when she is little and just love watching her grow up. She is definitely in the "3's" phase of her life - always wanting to do things herself and be independent and sometimes overly emotional, but overall she is just an absolute joy in my life. She is my sweet, snuggly, helper girl - I know she will be a wonderful big sister to her little siblings. 

I love you my sweet Ava girl. Forever and ever, and ever. 

Love, 

Momma

I'll put up more pictures of her party later.

Gavin {18 months}

I haven't had any time to take cute pictures of Gavin for his 18 month post, so I'll just put up photos from my iPhone and some videos, too. I seriously love this little boy so much. I have loved having some one-on-one time with him while Ava is at preschool...he is my little buddy boy. I call him my "belly boy" because he is ALL belly - his belly is huge and when he walks, he walks "belly first." He is friendly and flirty to everyone he meets and has started loving to show off his skills and just beams with pride when he gets a reaction out of people. He has just suddenly started talking a lot more and he learns a new word or two every day. 

These are the words Gavin says regularly: mine, Mickey, more, passy, eyes, milk, belly, baby, momma, popcorn, pop, Papa, apple, duck, uh oh, hi, up, ball, puppy, bubble, water, daddy, auntie, choo choo, fishie, bye, one, Ava (ah-yah), cookie, pee pee, juice, outside (side), please, cheese (for pictures), banana, yuckie


These next two videos were taken last month, it's so cute to see how much he has improved and learned since then. I'll have to take an updated video and add it. 

Animal sounds: Moos, rawr, quack, woof woof

Knows these body parts and will point to them when asked: Nose, eyes, ears, head, lips, toes, belly, bum (shakes his bum), eyebrows, tongue (sticks out his tongue)

If you say "I love you," he will blow kisses to you.

If you ask, "How old are you?" he will put up one finger and say, "One!"
If you ask, "How big is Gavin?" he holds his arms over his head and we say, "So big!"

In the car he LOVE to sing along to songs. He gets so into it and opens his mouth wide and just lets out one steady sound, "uhhhhh uhhh." 

He is shockingly good at some games on the ipad that are about matching letters and numbers and sorting/stacking by color and size and shape. I honestly never taught him, but he just knows how to do it. It's pretty amazing, actually. 

Loves nursery and going to the YMCA childwatch. The girls at the YMCA love him and as soon as he walks in, they all get excited and say, "Gavin!"

Songs he loves: Wheels on Bus, Itsy Bitsy, Popcorn Popping, Bubble Gum, ABC song (he sings along and it is sooo cute!)

LOVES Ava, follows her around all day and does exactly what she does. At the same time, he gets so annoyed with her and definitely holds his own when she tries to take something that he is playing with. He SCREAMS until she gives it back. 

LOVES being outside. 

Wears size 3 diapers (moving to size 4 when this box is gone), size 18-24 month clothes, size 5 shoes. 

He is such a great eater - he will eat any and everything I put in front of him. He especially loves milk, rice, fruit, tomatoes, carrots (the big ones more than the baby carrots). 

He got his first haircut and he just sat perfectly still the whole time. And at the doctor's office, he did the same thing. Just sat there while the doctor checked his ears and mouth and little body. Such a good boy! She said he was her easiest patient in a long time haha. 

I love this little boy so much. I just stare at him all day long, his beautiful little face.  

Love you my sweet, sweet boy. 

Love you forever and ever and ever. 

Love, 

Mama :)