Happy New Year!

Wishing you & yours a happy and prosperous 2013!!! 

A post by Sariah

by Sariah

I am 6.

Least Exciting Post Ever

This might not matter much to anyone but us, but I'm going to document it because it makes me happy.  Our garage door was the original to the house and OLD.  Its been giving us problems since I can't remember, probably the beginning of us living here.  Anytime the weather changed, it wouldn't stay down.  We've been living with it for years, until last Saturday when it did this and wouldn't move.  

 Yeah, that wasn't going to work.  So we replaced it.  Now it looks like this.

Much better!  Plus the cars are inside the garage which will be a huge deal when the snow flies soon.  The weather had been cold and miserable this week, and it was no fun having to go outside to pile inside the vehicle.  Now to get back to normal life...

Update

I was thinking that maybe I should update people on what's going on with us.  I think about it often, but there's usually never real time to sit down and write about what's going on.  There's not really even time right now when I should be moving the laundry, but I'm upstairs and it's down, so I it can wait a moment.

Sariah:  Sariah loves school.  She has already made several new friends and tells me all the time about what they did that day.  For awhile the thing to do was start different clubs.  During recess they were in a grasshopper club where they tried to catch grasshoppers in the grass near the playground.  I hear they caught a couple too, but for awhile they were concerned that "Queen" grasshoppers ate people, so we had to look up what they actually ate (not people.)

Her favorite thing in class is a center called "writer's workshop."  There they draw a picture and try to write a story.  Sariah loves to write.  She can't read yet, but she loves to try.  She actually just started sounding things out more for me.  I'm sure she does it much more at school because she's much more inclined to try things for other people instead of me.  I've noticed that she also tends to write and read things right to left instead of left to right.  She spells her name backwards often, and the other day she read "no" instead of "on."  I'm hoping it's just a learning thing and not something to worry about.  (I'm a mom, I tend to worry.)

Outside of school she is still swimming, and she's doing really well.  She's been in level two and becoming a very strong swimmer without aid.  I'm thinking they might graduate her to level three for the Spring, but we'll have to see.  She's also doing a community class called "Showstoppers"  Its a basic broadway class for grade K-2 kids.  Her group is doing a medley of Beatles songs, and she's have an official recital on her birthday.  She really enjoys it but tells me that the hour long rehearsals make her very tired.  They have rehearsals on Monday afternoons since it's an early release day from school.

At home Sariah loves to play with her brother.  They often wake each other up in the morning to play before school.  She's a good example for him (most of the time.)  After the disappointment of not getting a sister, she's gotten over it with the purchase of a low loft bed.  Bryson will be sleeping in her room for awhile after the baby comes on a mattress on the floor.  They're very excited.  She's planning on being Morgana (from King Arthur legend) for Halloween, but she wanted to be a good Morgana because we watch a BBC series called Merlin where Morgana was good for the first 2 seasons, so it's a very pretty Morgana dress.

Sariah also amazes me with her love of the gospel.  At times I think she was more excited for General Conference than Christmas!  It helped that we had treats for most the speakers and pictures of the First Presidency and the Twelve on the wall.  After each talk, she would write the topic of the talk on a paper under each person's picture.  I meant to take a picture of the finished project, but never got around to it.  She's excited about the Primary program coming up in 3 weeks.  She's really learned the music well this year.  She's also been working at home at memorizing the Articles of Faith, and she's managed so far to memorize 11 of the 13.

Bryson: Bryson is growing up, which means he gets in trouble more often.  There's a whole new world of things to explore!  Taking after his sister, he's learned to climb and be his own kind of monkey.  He's still a very helpful little boy.  He loves to help with the dishes or the laundry and especially the cooking and gets very upset when there's nothing for him to do.  It's been really nice to spend some one on one time with just Bryson and learn more about his personality.  Bryson loves dogs.  He's really into Blue's Clues and books with dogs.  Sariah never cared for being read to, but Bryson will sit in my lap and let me read story after story to him.  Sometimes I think he's trying to grow up too fast on me, but he is becoming more independent.  Today he got dressed all by himself for (what I think is) the first time (that I've seen.)  He's picky about his clothes.  Bryson is planning on being King Arthur for Halloween, and if you didn't see, there's a preview picture on my facebook page.

I purpose under scheduled our time this semester after a super crazy Summer, and with driving Sariah to school and back every day.  We do have a couple of activities that Bryson enjoys during the week.  We attend a Sound Beginnings music class every Monday (we call it Bubby/Mommy music class.) Bryson tends to be more musically inclined, so I've been trying to encourage that.  I'm also thinking a sound basis in music theory will help him later in math and science.  He really does love it, and has been picking up lots of rhythms and sounds.  He's very involved during class.  I'm very pleased with it considering it costs a bit more money then I like to spend for classes.  He's also doing a class on Thursday called Jumping Jellybeans which has helped him be more social.  I'm hoping he'll be ready for Itty Bitty Broadway in the Spring which is an individual class and not a parent/child like Jellybeans is since I can't bring the baby in with us.

Bryson is also swimming.  This is his last semester in the parent/child class.  They use float belts and noodles, but he's confident to go out on his own and not cling to Doug the whole time.  He loves to jump off the side of the pool.  When he starts Shrimp one in the Spring they play a game called "Chop Chop Timber!" and he's very excited about that.

Bryson is very excited about the baby and loves to kids and hug him already.  He can't wait to hold his little brother and talks about it all the time.  He was a bit sad when we moved the toys out of his room to make room for the baby bed and dresser but he's excited again to share his room.  He's also in love with his whole family.  He still gets really upset when Sariah and Doug leave in the morning, and I usually hear about 10 minutes of "Me miss sister and daddy" once they leave.

Speaking of speaking... we're firmly stuck in what I call the cookie monster phase.  Everything Bryson says is "me" or "us" instead of "I" and "we."  It's driving me insane.  I know it won't last forever but I seem to be correcting him 500 times a day.  He will repeat the correct way, but I know I get tired of correcting him and he's not really interested in saying it right yet.  At least it is kinda cute, and I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually.

Doug: Doug is even busier now that he was two months ago.  He's worked his work schedule out so that he is able to take Sariah to school most mornings, but still get home for dinner most nights.  Sometimes deadlines do get in the way of that, though.  He seems to be enjoying work still, so that's good.

Scouting takes up a new chunk of his time, but I know he loves it.  He's really into getting those boys to progress.  They had his first campout (and thankfully the last of this year) a couple of weeks ago and I swear scouting took over our whole house and van for a week.  They were very prepared (even for the wind and rain that hit them overnight into the next day) and I think it was a success.

Scouting has become a bit of a family affair.  Bryson and I went out to purchase Doug's uniform, and I sewed all his patches on (good practice for later when Bryson starts) and Sariah and Doug went on a pre-scout campout campout together weeks before Doug took the boys out.

Doug was able to take the day off on my birthday and we found a sitter for Bryson so we could have a lunch date at our favorite Indian buffet.  It was super tasty, and our first date in over 7 months.  We really don't get out enough.  I'm looking forward to the end of the year when he burns off his remaining vacation days (so he doesn't lose them, he can only roll over 8) so we can spend some more time together.

Marin: Nothing too exciting going on at my end.  Still pregnant.  We just entered the 3rd trimester last Saturday and I'm feeling pretty good.  Exercise is amazing.  I'm not as constant as I was about going to the gym, I've cut down from 6 days to 3 or 4 partly because my gym buddy had her baby, partly because of scheduling conflicts with the kids.  I am still doing pretty well, I can squat down and still get back up, I'm lifting the same amount of weight, and I can hold plank position for 12 seconds, which I do twice.  Pretty good for 28 weeks pregnant.  The exercise has really helped, I'm not as sore this go around (somethings are sore, but that's just pregnancy.) I'm sleeping pretty well, too.  I can't complain.

Pregnancy and exercise are really my life right now.  I'm not singing with the Wisconsin Chamber Choir right now because their first concert is on Sariah's birthday, and I'll have a newborn for the next two.  I'm still technically on the board, but I'm not participating as much, in fact I only go when they need a quorum to make decisions.  It's been a welcome relief not to have the responsibility on my shoulders right now, as much as I miss singing in the choir.

Other than that, life is normal.  I can't keep up the cleaning before the messes happen, but life goes on.  I'm looking forward to the fun at the end of the year.  After making the Halloween costumes for the kids, my next big project is Sariah's birthday, including a Butterfly Princess Party.  I start volunteering once a week at her school next month as well.  So I keep busy.

Baby:  Our little guy is doing fine.  As far as I can tell, he seems to be head down already, but I'm sure my doctor will check next appointment, he's pretty good at telling.  He must be bigger because he feels way more active now.  I can feel him, not just when I'm lying down, but almost all the time.  Plus, for the first time, Doug felt him kick the other day.  Its actually the first time Doug has felt any of the babies kick.  So that was kind of cool.

We're pretty much ready for him to be here, even though we've got awhile to go.  The biggest project to finish is to put the baby clothes in the dresser drawers, but that shouldn't take long.  So nothing too exciting on that front.  I've kind of resigned myself to the fact that he will probably be a 9 pounder again.  I guess if I accept it and expect it, maybe I'll be emotionally more ready this time than last time when I tried to fight it.  Babies are going to be as big as they're going to be and come when they're ready.


So, that's what's going on with us.  Hope it was exciting... pat yourself on the back if you actually read all that!

Ultrasound, take 2!

 So two weeks ago when we had our ultrasound, I said everything was healthy, which was not a lie, but there was a shot or two of the spine that our little guy would not let the tech see, and they also found 2 choroid plexus cysts in the babies brain.  These cysts, along with other soft markers, can be a sign of Trisomy 18, so my OB wanted us to get a second ultrasound, this time at the hospital, check to make sure.  Better safe than sorry.

So we headed to the hospital earlier today to get another look at our little guy, and yes, we're very sure he's a little guy, Doug saw all his little boy parts, although I still totally missed them.  I'm also very happy to report that while the cysts are still present, there are no other markers that might be present with him having Tri 18.  If you want to know the odds that he still might have it, they're 1/320.  (With no markers present, odds are 1/2000).  After talking with the doctor and the genetic councilor, I'm satisfied in saying no other testing is necessary and we should have a healthy, happy boy in January.

On a side note, because I'm obsessed with it, he's currently weighing in at 1 lb, 7 oz, about 78% for 22 weeks.  Its going to be another big baby for us.  Yes, I'm freaking out.

So do you want to see some more pictures?  Of course you do!  These all ended up sideways, which I guess is what happens when I use my ipod to take pictures of pictures.

 Going to the hospital means 3D pictures!  I thought that was super cool.  Sorry about having to crane your head sideways to see him, but you can see his profile here.

 Here you can see his leg and his cute little foot.

 He's a tricky little guy, every time the tech went to scan something, he moved so she couldn't see it.  Not very cooperative little guy!I guess I wouldn't want to be poked and prodded like that either, though, so you can't blame him.  He was an active little guy!  We can't wait to finally meet him, only 18 weeks or so.

Twenty week Ultrasound!

Here he is!  Another handsome little boy!

Why can't I get this picture to rotate?

Everything looks healthy and happy!  Although they couldn't get a great picture of his spine, so it looks like we'll get another ultrasound either at the end of September or in October.  His heart beat was 144 bpm, and he's measuring either 4 days ahead or 20 weeks, 4 days (I'm 20 weeks, 2 days today) I can't remember exactly because when she pointed it out I started my normal "no more big babies!!" freak out in my head.  He's approx. 14 oz., almost a lb. already.

Sariah & Bryson (and Doug) were allowed in for the end of the exam for the gender reveal and to see the baby.  We had the annoying tech (again!) who doesn't actually point out the gender, just mentions it to you really quick.  "It looks like a boy."  We waited for a bit for her to point it out, and when she did not do it, we confirmed to the kids it was a boy.  Sariah immediately started crying.  She was really hoping for a sister (and a bunk bed.)  Bryson said "me knew it boy!"  over and over.  Then he fell over and busted his lip open. Poor Buddy.

I'm excited and happy about having another boy, but I do have to admit that I have to shift my attitude a bit.  I've always known what we were having.  I totally called my first two pregnancies, and I was so sure this was a girl!  So I was def. surprised when she said boy, but good surprised!  It does make a few things easier, like the fact that I have a whole boy wardrobe in the correct season already.  (Who am I kidding, I'm going to buy new things for this baby, too, in fact I already have, mwahahaha!!)  Car seats will be easier, as well, because we can move Bryson up into a bigger car seat at the same time the baby can start using the one Bryson is now.  Plus Bryson's room is the (slightly) bigger of the two upstairs rooms, which is nicer for sharing.

Oh yes, we have a name picked out, but I'm going to wait a bit before sharing it, for no other reason than I can.  We're pretty set on it, and it honors two people that mean a lot to us.  The initials are JAC, so you can do your guessing if you'd like.  You obviously know the "C".  (I might be a little sad at never getting to use our girl name, because we did spend a bit of time on it, and I really liked it, but this is def. our last pregnancy!)

We're excited to be halfway done with the pregnancy, and so much closer to holding our new little buddy in our arms!  The fall will fly by (it usually does!) so it'll be here before we know it!

Three-Oh or Doug had a Birthday and all I Took was a Picture of Pie

Yes, this is the only picture from Doug's 30th birthday.  A picture of delicious rhubarb/pineapple pie.  Doug specifically asked for pictures not to be taken, so this is what you get.

Doug's birthay was yesterday, Fast Sunday, yay.  So we expanded the party over the whole weekend.  We had our friends Richard & Chrissie over on Saturday night and I made Doug's favorite dish, Noodles Romanoff.   Then I let him open 4 of his 24 (yes, I'm not kidding) presents.  The first four were all new board games, Pitureka, Tsuro, Small World & Castle Panic.  So far we've played Tsuro & Castle Panic, with the later being Doug's favorite so far.  Actually we've played 4 rounds of Castle Panic since Doug opened it and we've won twice and the monsters got us twice.  (CP is a cooperative game, so you're all playing together against the monsters.)

Sunday after church (and a couple more rounds of Castle Panic) Doug opened his other presents.  Most of them were socks (we're replacing all his socks, it's time) and some new dress shirts, but Bryson specifically wanted to buy Daddy a new polo shirt and some socks with dinosaurs on it, and Sariah got him some of his favorite candies: black Twizzlers, Butterfingers & Whoppers.  My big, final, presents were a Playstation 2 (used, but in great condition) and two games, Final Fantasy X & X-2.  He might be in RPG heaven for awhile. :)

We had hamburgers & corn on the cob for dinner and pie instead of cake for dessert.  Outside of my nasty migraine that kept me in bed for most of the evening so we didn't get to play Small World, I think Doug had a great birthday!

As a sort of final present this morning, we closed on our house refinance this morning.  We moved from a 15 year at 4.5% to a 10 at 2.99%.  We're on track to pay off the loan before Doug's 40th birthday.  What a blessing that is in our lives to be able to save that money for later, college tuition, missions, retirement, once the house is paid off.

What a blessing Doug is in our lives as well.  He's the best husband he can be, loves his kids and his wife.  Yesterday Sariah asked me who my best friend is and without a doubt it is Doug.  He's always there for me, and works so hard for our family.  We're looking forward to future birthdays and life experiences!  

Bryson's World Episode 1

I got really frustrated over a month ago because the kids would ask me when the baby was coming. Bryson would especially think that the baby was coming out any minute. Tired of listing everything else that had to happen before the baby came, I made the kids this big events calendar, so they can visually see everything and stop asking me every 5 minutes.

This morning Bryson started describing it, and it was so cute, I ran for the camera.  I love how Bryson talks now days, and I've been meaning to blog this (or something, anything!)  I think I should make these videos more often, but he's pretty adorable and loves to talk.



In other news, I'm 16 weeks now, and 10 lbs less that I was with either of my other pregnancies.  I'm pretty excited about that.  I'm looking forward to our 20 week ultrasound in about 4 weeks.  If you view my blog on the page, you'll notice the poll on the side.  It has initials, and while the boy name is totally and 100% set, I'm still not sure on our girl name.  It is what it is for now though, so feel free to speculate...  :)

The Difference a Year Makes

Remember this post?  I can't believe the school year is finally over.  Sariah has definitely left her early years and is a full fledged girl now.  My she's grown.  There has been nothing but praise from her teacher.  She loved school, I never should have worried about sending her, because it was so good for her.  

Somehow we all fell in love with Olson this year.  It is so hard to leave it all behind now.  Without taking a loss on our house and moving, there is a slim chance she'll be back next year.  (We're on a waiting list, but I'm not hopeful.)  We keep telling ourselves that Falk will be just as good next year, but it's hard to say goodbye because we loved Olson so much.  Sariah is already sad and misses her friends.

Ms. Pirkel has been the best teacher!  Sariah has learned so much from her, and she constantly talks about her and school and her friends.  Sariah tells me that her favorite thing about Ms. Pirkel is that she's so nice.

Here's some other pictures that I snapped today.  Bryson has gotten pretty big this year, too!

Look at that beautiful smile!

and those pretty eyes!

Sariah loves to ride her bike.  She's gotten really good at it this year.

Silly Sariah

Bryson can't wait to go to school either. 

And here is her diploma!  Ms. Pirkel tells me that she's more than ready for kindergarten.  Her report card was outstanding (not that you could really have a bad 4k report card.)  They had an end of the year celebration in class today with ice cream and fun toppings, and the kids sang some songs for us.  I've loved so much coming to volunteer.  

I won't deny that as she gathered up her things from her locker and lined up for the last time that I teared up.    I held it together until we made it to the car, then I bawled all the way home.  I cried while I read her report card, I cried looking at the info for next year for Olson that we don't need. (I might blame the pregnancy hormones, but maybe not...)  Sariah took her memory book she made at school and went up to her room.  She tells me she already misses school and her friends.  (Did I type that already?  Well it's still true.)

The upside is that it is now Summer, and we have a lot of fun stuff planned.  The break is going to fly by, and before we know it it'll be time to go back to school with a whole new group of friends to make and things to learn and all day kindergarten!  I scarcely can believe it!

BratFest Weekend!

Memorial Day weekend in Madison means it's also time for "The World's Largest Bratfest!"  In the past we've just gone and enjoyed the brats and live music, but this is also an event to raise money for charities, specifically for us, our Boy Scout troupe.  For every hour a person works on behalf of our troupe, they get about $8.  Sign ups happen early, like Feb., so we can get the spots.  This is basically the only fundraiser our scouts do.  We thought this year would be a good year to "get our hands dirty" and join in the volunteering fun!

We also signed up about  5 weeks ago to walk the 5K Brat Walk (as part of the 5K Bun Run.)  It's part of the being healthy thing we've been trying to do.  When I signed up to do all these things, I had no idea I'd be/I was pregnant!  Thankfully it wasn't really an issue, even with morning sickness.

Friday night into Saturday morning it rained and thunder stormed all night long.  Sariah was in our room most of the night and I woke up about 5 or 6 times, so I was kinda of tired, but ready to walk!  We arrived at 8:45am, about the same time the rain stopped.  It was overcast with a nice breeze, perfect for a walk!  Here we are pre-walk (sorry about being in front of the Budweiser sign!)

'

My awesome (and 21 week pregnant) friend Miriam, walked with us!  We're super pregnant women!

Sariah took this picture of the 3 of us, pre-race.

The race started about 9:30.  We were obviously in the back since we were walking.  The kid's thought it'd be fun to hold hands for awhile.

The race went around the dog park, through the parking lot, and up and around the neighborhood.  There was a lot of up for awhile!  We weren't even to mile 1 when the first runners crossed the finish line.

Here we are at the top of the hilly section and headed back down.  If you squint, you can see the capital ahead.

Here we are finally walking past mile marker 3!  We're almost to the end!

Victory!  We finished in just over an hour.  I think the first mile was the longest, but after that we caught a good pace.  We weren't the last over the line for sure.  The kids were really good in their strollers and enjoyed the ride.

It was about 10:30 when we finished and Doug's grill shift didn't start till noon, so he took Sariah over to do some ridiculously over-priced carnival rides.  They did a dragon roller coaster & the ferris wheel.  Bryson went over and claimed us a table where we would camp out until 2pm.

Isn't this the cutest t-shirt that Bryson is wearing?  I found it at Target and had to have it.  Esp. because Bryson loves saying "hotdog!"

The kids both ate 2 hot dogs each, corn on the cob and a cup of ice cream.  Doug ate 3 brats, and I ate 1 brat and about 2.5 ears of corn on the cob (morning sickness doesn't really agree with greasy meat, but corn?  nom nom nom!)  We got free brat and soda coupons for walking the 5K, and they were put to good use!

Doug's grill shift went from noon to two.  By then the clouds had parted and the sun was out, so even though he put on sunscreen, he was pretty toasted when he was done.  I managed to walk by and snap a picture of my man grilling meat.  Yum.

The kids and I parked at our table and enjoyed the live music and tried to stay in the shade.  We had 4 different groups of people (including one single mom with triplets!) join us while we were waiting.  Considering we were full and there wasn't really much to do, the kids we're really good while we were waiting for Doug to be done.

Here's Doug and Sariah hanging out afterwards.  We get free t-shirts for volunteering and for walking the 5K, yay free shirts!

Monday (today) I headed back to Bratfest by myself for my volunteer shift.  I opted to be a "wrapper" basically putting the brats in buns and wrapping them in paper to sell.  I got assigned a table with a very nice retired woman and 4 spunky teenagers.  Mainly I opened the buns and put the brat in and handed it to someone to wrap.  I was also the unofficial person to make sure we always had buns in our tray.  It was a lot of wrapping really fast, then waiting around for more brats for awhile, but it got pretty busy after noon.  (My shift was 11-1)  Here's a couple quick pics I snapped while we were wrapping.  I wanted to get some of the un-bunned brats in the pic.

The only pic of me, poorly & quickly taken.  Along with my retired friend who's name I sadly can't remember!

I was kind of worried about smelling those brats for such a long period of time and getting sick, but it didn't really hit me until an hour and a half in, and the last half hour went by super quick!  Besides the shirt, we also get a "brat buck" good for a brat or corn or soda and a free ice cream coupon after we volunteer.  I opted for another corn on the cob because I didn't think I could stomach a brat (my brat consumption was down this year, with good reason, but is a little sad because I do enjoy a good brat with pickle relish and "Official World Record" mustard.  Maybe next year!)  The corn was so tasty this year!

I also got some mint explosion ice cream from Chocolate Shoppe.  It was enjoyable to eat on my way back to the car!

We had a lot of fun this year.  As of today at 2:45 the brat eaten total was 140,400 (Bratfest holds the world record of most brats consumed in a 4 day period at 209,376.)  They might not be on target for breaking the record this year.  On the upside, we will definitely be volunteering again next year and hopefully walking (or running?) the 5K again.  We've had a blast!  Ya'll are welcome to come visit us next year for all the fun!

Pregnancy FAQ

So in an attempt to blog more, here's some info about what's going on with me.  It's kind of been a crazy Spring!

So the baby is due 12th of January.  That puts me at 7 weeks on Saturday.  It might have been a little early to announce, but it wasn't anything everyone was going to notice since I feel pretty gross right now.  So I thought it best to just go ahead and tell family and everyone else.  Plus I can't keep a secret, not when the news is this great!  

Three has always been our magic number (even when I tried to convince myself one way or the other that it wasn't.)  So while we weren't actively "trying" to get pregnant, we weren't stopping it either.  I was kind of hoping this would happen a couple of months from now so the kids would be 3 years, 2 months apart exactly, but I'll take what I'm given.  So yes, the baby is due the day before Bryson's birthday, we'll see how that plays out.  I'm thinking we'll have to celebrate Bryson's birthday a couple weeks early, just in case.  

Some of you who know about my medical concerns might be wondering how this all plays out.  First off, let me explain a bit of what's been going on in case you don't know, or maybe my (well meaning) husband led you to believe that my head is about to explode.  Back as early as right after Christmas last year I was starting to experience visual auras, not unlike what some people get with migraines, but without the headache.  This went on for a couple months, getting increasingly worse, until one of my friends mentioned that maybe I was getting diabetes (I'm not).  So since it was about time for a physical anyway I emailed my doctor and asked if we could do the blood work first.  When it came back normal, she suggested I visit the eye clinic (which I was due for a check up there, as well.)  

After seeing my normal eye doctor, he observed swelling of my optical nerves, so he referred me to the University of Wisconsin eye clinic for further tests.  Which they did, lots and lots of further tests, including a super fun (not) MRI and a lumbar puncture.  The diagnosis?  Psudotumor Cerebrei, which is a fancy way of saying there's nothing in my brain causing the swelling, but it's swelling.  The best I can explain it, is because I'm obese, the pressure from the weight is causing pressure in my spine which is making my brain, and therefore my optical nerves, swell.  The treatment is possible medication and weight loss.  At the moment my doctor feels that the medication is not necessary because I'm managing it with my weight loss.

How much weight loss you ask?  Well, in the past 75 days, I've lost 25 lbs.  (If I wasn't pregnant I'd still have 60 lbs to go to reach my goal weight.)  The good news is that when I went for a follow up today, there were visible signs of reduced swelling.  I'd say in the past 3 weeks, I've only had one serious case of visual aura, and I was pretty dehydrated.  The nerves are not completely back to normal, but we're getting there.  The concern now is to manage and still have a healthy pregnancy.  

I've been very active before I got pregnant.  My friend (who is 20 weeks pregnant) and I attend our gym 6 days a week.  I want to continue being active throughout the pregnancy.  I'm not "dieting" (which is a word I detest anyways, but a rant for another day), but I believe that I can have a healthy pregnancy and continue losing a few pounds, at least for a while, but I definitely don't want to gain the type of weight I gained with the first two pregnancies.  I'll be working close with my OB, a nutritionist, and the eye doctor, plus I've really learned a lot about listening to what my own body is saying.  

So how am I feeling now?  Like vomit.  All day long.  It started about a week and a half ago and the nausea has gotten progressively worse.  I'm doing my best to control it, drinking water, eating protein.  It's the worst in the mornings when I first wake up and there's nothing in my stomach.  I can't sit around and feel bad for myself like I did with my first pregnancy.  I've got two busy kids and lots to do, so I manage.  

If you're wondering how it compares to my other two pregnancies: this one has the timing of Sariah's, with the aversions of Bryson's.  With Sariah I was sick from about 5.5 weeks to 13.  I lived on water, toast and McDonald's cheeseburgers (true story!)  With Bryson morning sickness waited until 10 weeks and lasted until 20, and I had a strong aversion to beef and dairy (if it comes from a cow, it's a no, no.)  This time around I'm sick starting at 5.5 weeks, we'll see how long it lasts, but I also have the cow aversions.  I'm doing my best with whole wheat, peanut butter, and chicken.  I've been trying to eat veggies and fruits, but the green stuff is a little harder, the first thing I gagged on was a big salad.  I'm just hoping this doesn't last till week 20!

If you're wondering how the kids are doing, well Sariah is taking it super well.  She's very excited for the baby, and she can't wait to help out.  We've been babysitting for a friend on and off for the past year and she's had lots of time to play with the baby.  Bryson doesn't really get what's going on yet.  He still thinks he's the baby.  We've been trying to impress to him what a big boy he is, but he's not having it.  He's also a super clingy momma's boy.  Often when I've been holding our friend's baby, he insists on climbing up in my lap, too.  I'm hoping we'll have lots of loving grandparents and daddy around for awhile to help him with the adjustment.  

I'm really excited about this pregnancy and doing my best to enjoy it since I'm 99.9% sure it'll be the last one for us.  I have that calm feeling that our family is finally about to be completed.  It should be a fun year!  If you managed to read this all without your eyes glazing over, I'm totally impressed.  If you have other questions, feel free to hit me up.  I never know what to write on here anymore and most days can't string to sentences together.  (This took me 1.5 hrs to write, and everyone else is in bed, so it's completely quiet!)

News!

P.S.  This is post 102.  My birthday is 10/2.  I just think that's cool...  Carry on...

Tooth. Gone

Sunday night I cut up some apples for the kids to enjoy.   Then this happened:

 The tooth had been loose for about a week, but it didn't seem super wiggly, so I thought I had some time.  Guess I didn't.  For a moment we thought that Sariah had swallowed the tooth because she hadn't imminently noticed it was gone, but luckily for Sariah, Mommy found it on the floor.  And here it is!

 I quickly whipped up a little pillow with a tooth shaped pocked for the tooth fairy (unfortunately not pictured) and when she awoke there were two shiny quarters waiting her.  She is super excited and loves showing everyone the hole in her mouth.

I just can't believe she's old enough to be losing teeth.  They sure grow up fast.

(This is for Grandparents that didn't see it on facebook.)

Chicago Children's Museum

Warning:  There are 45 pictures on this post.  I'm not sorry about it either.  

Doug took the day off last Friday and we headed down to Chicago to visit the Children's Museum which is located on Navy Pier.  Navy Pier is like a combo shopping mall/IMAX theatre/ outdoor rides/cruise ship docks.  Had I realized, maybe we would've tried to go out on one of the boats and toured the lake, but our main focus of the trip was the children's museum.  

The children's museum is 3 story of fun for the kids!  There were lots of different room to explore and I think we only really got about 2/3rds of the way and we were there from opening at 10am to 4pm (it closes at 5pm.)

Since there were 4 of us we split up so the kids could explore on their own terms.  I spent the morning following Sariah around.  First stop...

Circus Zirkus

She's a circus star!  Spinning on the hoop!

Climbing the ladder!

Hanging on the swing!

 Play it Safe (Fire safety)

Sariah was really good at sliding down the pole.

 Skyline (building)

She insisted on the goggles and hard hat.  (Sorry for the sideways pic.)

She built this herself.  I'm not really sure what it was.

 Climbing Schooner  

Climb Sariah!

 After Sariah scaled the schooner to the 2nd floor we headed outside to detox for a bit.  It was quite crowded inside and loud.  After stepping outside we asked Sariah what she wanted to do next, maybe walk down the dock and see the boats or eat lunch or something.  Her response?  "Can we do that?" as she points to the large Ferris Wheel.  Oh boy.

First off, I'm not a huge fan of heights.  Second, my brain images all kinds of impossible scenarios on how we would plunge to our doom.  But Sariah really wants to do this, so I swallow my fear (sort of) and we pay to do it with the stipulation that both kids will keep their backsides firmly planted on the seats.

Can you see the death grip I've got on the bar & Sariah's hand?

Sariah really loved it.  You can see the Chicago skyline behind her.

Bryson with the cutest smile ever.  He really enjoyed it too. 

We survived!

 After a lunch at Mcdonald's (it was nice so we ate outside, even with the flock of birds staring down at us from the trees hoping we'd drop a french fry) we went back inside the museum.  I spent the afternoon mostly with Bryson.

Water Ways (Probably the kids favorite place)

The harder you pumped the higher the water flew!

Siblings working together.

Before you wonder, I wrote Sariah's name to get her interested in the water painting, but she did write it again later.

Bryson poses next to my awesome race car pic.  (I personally liked the water painting)

Bryson stayed here for a good 45 minutes.  

Happy Boy.

Micheal's (Mini) Museum

I see you!

Bryson liked to open all these drawers.  Inside was a different collection of things to look at.  The drawers had  plastic covers on top so you couldn't touch. 

Dinosaur Expedition

Don't eat Bryson! (ps. his eyes do that droopy thing Doug's do when the flash catches them)

Don't eat Sariah, either!

Momma's boy.

Big Backyard (bugs)

The bugs on the screens would avoid your shadow.  The better ones were  the few where the bugs fell out of sky and over the "umbrellas" but this was the only one you could take a pic of from the opposite side.  

Inventing Lab

This slide is suppose to play a scale as you slide down, but Bryson was still pretty wet from the  water ways and  didn't slide very fast. 

Daddy gives Sariah a "massage" on the rolling pin chair.

 Kids Town

The driver on the bus says move on back!

Move on back, all the way back!

Bryson loves a play grocery store & cash register

My little chef!

Bryson loves a play kitchen the best of all!  It's def. his favorite at any place.

Into the oven it goes!

 Finally the kids were worn out, so we headed out through the indoor garden.  They had cool "hopping" fountains and water that streamed right over our heads.

Water over our heads is cool!

These flowers are the same kind that were in my Grandma Holbrook's wedding bouquet .  They always make me think of her and Grandpa. 

And then we were on our way home.  Traffic wasn't too bad considering it was 4pm and almost rush hour on a Friday.  We made good time and stopped at the Olive Garden in Janesville on the way home.  We made it just in time for the kids to fall exhausted into bed.  We had a great time, and we'd probably do it again.  Highly recommended!