Girl or Boy??

It's a BOY!! Which took us a bit by surprise, because we just felt like it was a girl the whole time, but alas it's a boy and we couldn't be more thrilled! As you could see, Spencer is QUITE excited by having a baby brother. He has already started to tell me which toys he is going to give to him, and which things he will teach him. It's so cute. I told Spencer last night while cuddling with him that the baby can hear him, and he should start telling him stories. So last night our little baby boy got his first story from his big brother. It was all about how Spencer found out we were having a baby and how he found out the baby was a boy. Spencer was excited to know that this little baby will listen to him for hours on end, I loved being in on the story last night, and can't wait to see what else Spencer tells baby brother. 


Here are some ultrasound pictures we got yesterday at the doctor's appointment. 


This first one is a 3D image one of the baby. Head at the top and kind of his arm coming to his chin, Tyler liked to think that this baby was already thinking of very complex things. 

This next one is the regular ultrasound, and it's the baby's profile. The big black dot is the eye socket. 

During the whole ultrasound this kid was moving EVERYWHERE! And whenever the technician would try to get a picture he would kick and the picture would be all blurry. It was kinda funny to me, but I could tell she was just wanting to get these pictures. It also seemed to me that he would "swim" away from her. So I guess he is already a stubborn little boy, or one that knows exactly what he wants. Even when I feel him kick (which is all day long, seriously, the most ACTIVE boy!), and I will put my hand on my tummy to feel it, he won't kick. Then once I take my hand away...oh then he starts to kick again. It's quite fun. We can't wait to meet this little man in just 20 weeks!!!! He is going to be the most loved baby ever, and will probably think we are crazy for how much we love him and how happy we are that he finally has come to our family. 

Spencerisms

I read one of my friend's blogs today about how her daughter lost a tooth, and then found out the next morning that the tooth fairy never came to give her anything!! Her daughter was so sad, so my friend and her husband had to think quickly and come up with something, and then found out that the next night a note was left by their daughter to the tooth fairy hoping that she would come get her tooth that night. It was quite a sad story, but one in which my friend asked "Why is it so hard to lie to our children?" Anyway...that story reminded me that I had not posted about our little run in with Spencer losing a tooth and leaving his own note. 


Spencer has lost many teeth now, and he knows the drill of putting the tooth into a plastic baggie and then putting it under his pillow and then seeing what the tooth fairy brings the next morning. Well, he was not satisfied after losing all of these teeth that he only got one dollar for each tooth. So this was the note he left for the tooth fairy when he lost his last tooth:

No, "Dearest Tooth Fairy, you are so great. May I please have some more money for all of these teeth I have given to you??" Nope, just straight out "more money please". We were impressed that he added the please, but still we thought it was hilarious!! You can see the small little tooth he lost that night at the bottom of the baggie. 


So, what did he find under his pillow the next morning? TWO dollars. 

Pregnancy

I know that this blog is mostly for our adventures of each of the crazy places we live in, but it's also a journal of the things going on with us during this time. One of which at this time is this pregnancy. It definitely affects how much I can go and explore the city, which it makes me really happy that we had a ton of visitors at the beginning of living here, so I could see lots of things in the city then.

This pregnancy is completely different than what it was like almost 8 years ago with Spencer. I feel a lot of achy feelings, and tendons stretching a bit more. It could be because I did have an emergency c-section with Spencer, so the scar tissue could be doing that, and I don't know what is up with my tendons this time, but they ache. I am nauseous this time, just like with Spencer. Just feeling it all day long, but luckily haven't been losing anything after eating it. I am at 17 weeks 2 days today, and I still have some moments of nauseousness, but it's fading, which I'm happy about. One thing that is completely different from this pregnancy and Spencer's is that even with the aches and pains and not feeling good I'm loving it. I'm so concerned for this baby, and want it to keep growing to be strong and healthy.

I wanted to share our story of why this pregnancy is so thrilling for us. It started about 4 and a half years ago. We were living in Centerville, Virginia and getting ready to move to Africa (Congo to be exact). Things were stressful, and we decided to not start trying to have a child until after we moved and things settled down a bit. Side note: Back in the day I really REALLY did not deal with stress well, I'm much better today, surprisingly because of all the moves we've done I've relaxed A LOT. Anyway, so we thought with Spencer it took us around 4 months to get pregnant which is pretty quick I think. So that's what we thought would happen. Well it didn't...and being in Africa it's not like I have an OB/GYN there or fertility doctor to go to to find out what was going on. So we decided to be patient.

We prayed endlessly about what we should be doing, and it always seem to fall to the wayside (which yes, now I do think that was an answer to our prayer). The years kept going by, and we moved to Zimbabwe and things were not as tense as it was in Congo, so perhaps this would help my body to get pregnant. Um, nope. I started to get frustrated that we were not getting pregnant, and again just kept praying. The answer though that both Tyler and I continued to get was "Don't worry about it". Which is hard to do when you want to add more people to your family, and especially difficult when you have a son who keeps asking when he was going to get a little brother or little sister.

I know that our wait of four years is nothing compared to others who have had been wanting children for a lot longer, and don't even have one child yet. But to us, it was our own little trial that we had to go through. It makes this pregnancy so much sweeter. Spencer is absolutely thrilled to be a big brother, and is already showing how helpful he can be. The other morning he made his lunch for school and got himself ready for the day! We know we have been so blessed, and we are so grateful for this wonderful blessing.

I guess the moral of our story was that we listened to the answers to our prayers, even though we didn't understand it at the time. Now I look back and think, could I have actually been pregnant while in Africa?? And then fly over 30 hours being 34 weeks pregnant with a 6 yr. old?? And then fly back over 30 hours with a newborn and a 6 yr. old??? I'm not so sure that I would have survived with my sanity, so obviously the Lord knew more about me than I did. I'm so grateful that we have Heavenly Father there to guide us through our lives.

So that's our story of why this pregnancy was hard to achieve, and why it's a really special one to us.

Here's our little one!

At 10 weeks, first appointment, and we saw that little flutter of a heartbeat. I could not smile big enough! If you can't understand ultrasounds, the baby is in the black hole area, and it's back is curved on the top.

Here he/she is at 12 weeks. Growing so fast!!! This is a profile of the face. Can you see that little nose???  LOVE IT!

Another 12 week pic of the side profile of the whole baby. The back is at the bottom of the picture. It's legs are at the right.

One last one of a side profile of the face. 

Thanks for reading through this long essay of my feelings on this pregnancy. We are so excited to find out if this little one is a boy or girl and I love feeling it already nudge me here and there. Okay...next post will be about NYC. :)

Spencer's New Shirt!!!

Spencer is SO excited to share this news with everyone!!! Yep, we have a baby on the way!!! :) We are BEYOND thrilled. We have been patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) waiting for this to happen for  FOUR years now. And finally it has! Spencer of course would love a brother, but said a girl would be fine too. We are just praying for a healthy little one to add to our family. 

Baby number 2 is due Aug. 19th. 

If I saw you at Christmas time and didn't tell you, I'm sorry!!!! We wanted to tell everyone, but of course are a little cautious of what was to come. I'm 12 weeks, and doing great. Feeling much better, and able to actually enjoy food again. 

3, 2, 1! Beyblades, Let it rip!!!

One of the highlight toys that the boys got this Christmas was Beyblades!

Spencer and one of his other cousins had some before coming for Christmas and they knew they were going to play with it lots. 

Beyblades are these tops that have different abilities. So they just spin around and kinda fight each other. The boys were all thrilled that they got some on Christmas morning...even the big boys. 

All the cousins playing Beyblades!!

3, 2, 1...Beyblades, Let It Rip!!!

Watching to see who will win. 

Christmas 2011

Christmas Day finally came and we were so excited for the gifts we were all getting each other. I think we all got GREAT gifts this year, and we were all excited about gifts we got others. Our family gets REALLY excited about Christmas...and I mean REALLY excited. Liza usually screams at least once during the day, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it this year. But it's always fun to see which present she will scream on. :) 

Our Santa gifts, they were few because we got a Disney Cruise from him!!!

The other side of the room. 

Cute Seth. :) We were the picture takers waiting for the kids to come down the stairs. 

Oh how I love those sleepy eyes and smiley face.

Spencer seeing we were going on a cruise!!

Cute happy boy! 

D man got a cute hat and a candy cane...which he did not want to put down. 

Grandma got a GPS unit!!! She's excited!

The kids came over to see what she was screaming about. 

Tyler got some tickets from "Santa" to the Knicks vs. Jazz NBA game.

I think every boy got some kind of Beyblade, so there was lots of looking at each others and figuring out which one was best.

D got a cell phone...no he got two cell phones, so he started to play with it and said "hello?" But the best part was when he put it on his shoulder to hold it up to his ear. 

Had to switch arms.

This is such a cool toy for a little kid!! Simple and so fun. 

After we opened all the Santa gifts and stockings, we all got ready for church and went. 

On the way home though one little boy was tuckered out. 

Then we started with the rest of the gifts. Did you notice that after church we all got BACK into our pjs. Yep even the adults, well except for Liza's family because they had just brought regular clothes. 

The BEST gift of all time?!!?! Seth's! He got a ticket to go to UNC to see a college game!!!!! Dad was taking him and Tyler and W to see the game. This is his all time favorite team and he was SOOOO excited to go. We were all thrilled for him. I believe that both Liza and I screamed with him on that one! 

Christmas is such a special time of the year, a time we remember what is truly important in life. Christ and family. I'm so glad we were able to have my whole family together again to spend so much time together and have a blast with each other. We are pretty awesome. 

Christmas Eve!!

All the kids got new pjs on Christmas Eve, and were very excited about Santa coming that night. 

Cute kids!! I don't know what Spencer is doing, really, he can't just smile for a picture.

We had to get all the cousins together, this is a good looking crew. 

Uh...Did I say good looking? 

We had to do a jump in the air one!!! AH, I love this!

Aunt Liza was helping us get all of our presents around the tree before Santa came, yes those are just our presents, but remember we had 3 families presents under there! 

The kids fast asleep, right....

...nope! 

They are too excited! I love that they all have fun together and love each other so much. There were many tears from these kids when they had to say goodbye to each other.