The Big Reveal

So... in case you haven't heard... We're expecting Baby #2! 

We didn't make the announcement until after we found out what we were having. (One perk of never seeing your family - you can hide it longer!) I actually knew I was pregnant when I went out to Utah in April, but I was only 6 weeks along and we didn't want to say anything for a while. I had started off the pregnancy bleeding, just like the last one where I miscarried. They did an ultrasound before I went to Utah, but it was too early to tell if there was a heartbeat, so things were kind of in the air anyway.

Since we were going camping at the end of July and that's when I would have had my ultrasound, I begged the scheduling ladies to do it the week before so that we could find out what we were having and then send out announcements. 

My ultrasound was scheduled the day after Pierscen fell and split his head open, so that's why he has the huge bandages on his head for these pictures.

I know the picture below is pretty worthless, but I thought it was adorable that Pierscen wanted to do the belly picture with me. ;)

Anyway, I didn't wear that shirt for any particular reason - but it ended up being fortuitous because we are having a GIRL! We are super excited. P came along with us to the ultrasound and thought it was pretty cool. By the end he was shouting out what body parts we were looking at. "There's the leg!" I was rather impressed! Afterward, we dropped P off at Logan's house so that Ryan and I could go grab a bite to eat. After taking Ry back to work, I stopped by a used baby clothes store and picked up a cute dress so we could go home and do this:

Most of these pictures are blurry because he was getting tired and really didn't want to be taking any more photos, but he was a good sport.

After our little photo shoot, I jumped online and created these Save the Date cards. I was originally bummed that P had such a huge bandage on his head, but the more I thought about it, the funnier it became. Classic boy. 

Then I popped them in the mail to the immediate family and waited. It was a really hard wait! You never know how long it's going to take, first of all, and then I realized most of them were going to Utah and it was Pioneer Day. Though mail was delivered, Necia and family went out of town, as did Fred and fam. 

I think it was that Saturday (I mailed them out Tues or Wed) that I got my first response from Sabrina - all in caps saying how excited she was. Then followed a text from my mom calling me a liar. Haha. I called her to explain that no - I was not in fact I liar. She never asked me if I was pregnant. I just told her not to worry about it and that I was sure it would happen eventually. ;) The only one I bold face lied to was Kara - and that's cause she asked me while we were in St George when I was 6 or 7 weeks along. She forgave me pretty quickly. 

As it turned out, my in-laws were out at Grandpa's for the weekend. Jen let me know, so I ended up just sending them a picture of the card so that they wouldn't be left out. Necia was the last to find out as she didn't come back from St George until Sunday. She was mad. Not at being last, but that I waited so long to spill the beans in the first place. Sorry! Kind of... okay not really. Granted it was a long time to wait, but it was fun and it made the pregnancy go WAY faster! I mean look at it this way - now they only have half as long to wait. :)

I thought it was a fun way to announce it and we are very excited!  It's another December baby, set to arrive via c-section Dec 8th. (I don't actually have a choice in the matter unless I go into labor on my own which is highly unlikely. Living here they have a one size fits all rule. If you've had a c-section previously, no matter the reason, it will be a c-section again.) I am not thrilled about the December factor, but hey, at least it's closer to the beginning. Her actual due date is the 14th, but they do all c-sections a week early if they can manage it. Ryan and I even discussed not trying that month to avoid the December birthday, but then I realized that I would far rather have another December baby than no baby. That may just be my window. And I also felt it was a little unfair to be praying that we could conceive... but not this month. You know? Anyway, December will be really hard, but that's okay. 

Here is my official 20 week picture. It's horrible in every way possible - from the unmade bed, the toothpaste on the mirror, which the camera focused on - to my unkempt mane of hair. Oh well. There you have it.

For the most part, this pregnancy has been great. I did not throw up, thought I was nauseous all the time at the beginning. I definitely started showing WAY earlier this time around and I'm exhausted a lot, but I'm doing pretty good. I do feel more awkward this time around. As I type this, I am 27 weeks along and for weeks I have been feeling gross every time I bend over - like sick to my stomach and just awkward. Makes me nervous knowing I still have 3 months to go! 

Many people have asked how Pierscen is doing with it. I would say as much as he can understand, he is very excited! He loves his little sister. He gives my stomach hugs and kisses every morning and tells her good morning. He has come with me to all of my appointments and loves listening to her heartbeat. He loves babies and actually expressed a lot of interest when I hold them. There have been multiple times when we pointed out a baby that he didn't "care" so much until I picked it up. Then, instead of acting jealous, he has wanted to hug and kiss the baby too. I have a few kids that I teach piano to that have baby siblings that come for the lessons as well. Pierscen loves to hold them. Even if there are kids to play with, he will often ignore the child his age and just ask to hold the baby. It's pretty sweet. I know we will have our challenges when attention and time is split, but I think he will be an awesome brother.
 

I am still feeling a bit unprepared about things, but thankfully we have all of the big stuff, except for a mattress for the crib. The mattress we had became Pierscen's toddler bed. I have had a couple people give me some hand-me-downs, so that is a relief to at least have something for her. My mom is hoping to throw me a baby shower when we go home for Thanksgiving, so let's hope that this baby doesn't get any ideas about coming on her own since Thanksgiving will only be a week and a half before my c-section date. Ha!


Things are going good. I went in for a checkup today and everything is good. I do my glucose test sometimes this week. Baby loves to punch and kick - especially as I am getting ready to go to sleep. But that's how it goes, right? ;) Twelve weeks left!

July Recap

July started with some beautiful sunsets. Apparently this was due to a fire in Canada. Say what? It's crazy how far smoke can travel!

 We took a few fun trips to Crossroads Adventure Park - or as it is referred to more often - Castle Park. It is awesome! I don't remember if I have already posted on this park or not, but it is by far our favorite park now. I can't believe we have lived here for two years and just made it this summer! It's not like it's that far away. I guess we are just spoiled by the fact that we have a park down the street. Anyway, the whole place is fenced in, so there is only one entrance, which is great for parents! It is built to look like a castle. I had a bunch of other pictures, but I think P must have erased them from my camera before I got them on the computer. 

We stopped by Castle Park on the 4th of July and had the park to ourselves. Ryan and Pierscen started playing hide and seek. Ryan climbed up on the monkey bars and started whistling for P. He ran back and forth under Ryan a dozen times before he finally found him. It was so funny!

We wanted to do some fun fireworks with Pierscen, but as we learned, even though we live in Wyoming - the state known for awesome fireworks - they aren't allowed here. The only thing available to buy were confetti poppers and snaps. They didn't even have sparklers! What the heck?! We bought a few packages of snaps, but that was it. Luckily for us, we had a few leftover fireworks from our friends. Nothing crazy, but we did have some sparklers and firecrackers. Pierscen loved it!

Dodger wasn't as appreciative at first... the sparklers were not the metal ones that stay together as they burn. The middle kept falling off. (This is why you should always wear shoes!) Anyway, a piece fell in Dodger's tail. Thank goodness it was just in the long hair, no skin involved. Sorry pup.

That being said, Pierscen loved it!

Casper does have a great firework show, and I'm sure Pierscen would have loved it, but we decided sleep was more important this year. So we let him sleep. 

We made it to our first Home Depot kids project that they hold the first Saturday of every month. They made a bug house! Totally perfect for our little bug boy.

When we got home, Ryan and Pierscen went for a bug hunt in the backyard and within a few minutes, Pierscen had caught a cricket. Yes, I said Pierscen caught it. He pounced when he saw it, caught it in his hand, and threw it in the bug house. I was very impressed. He has since caught lots and lots of bugs. He usually lets them go pretty soon after the catches them, but it's been fun for him. 
                                 

My project for the month was finishing the painting in the half bath. I painted the wall with two different blues a while ago trying to decide what color I wanted. Once we removed the toilet tank, we could see the bathroom had once been purple and perhaps yellow? Anyway, I made my decision and went to town.

Do you like it? I also painted the rest of the walls white again - just a nice fresh coat.

We also replaced the light above the mirror. Much better in my opinion!

We attended the Casper Day parade. Pierscen thought it was awesome - especially because we got SO much candy!

It was so cute watching the boys dance. Logan was there too, but he was in his stroller. I didn't catch him dancing, but he was grooving along with P and Landon too. Afterward we went back to Landon's house while I had my hair cut. They are pretty cute together. True boys - dirt all over their faces within a few minutes. Haha.

We had some great play dates with friends. This summer has been wonderful with fairly mild weather. It's been really enjoyable.

We made a count down chain for Pierscen until we got to go camping with family at the end of the month. (That's a whole different post). But these count down chains really make a difference for Pierscen in helping him to understand how much time we have left.

We made one last trip to Alcova for Lindsay and Logan's "going away" party as they were moving back to Utah at the end of the month. We were not happy to see them go, but any excuse to go play at the lake is a good one. :)

We had a pretty exciting storm with lots of hail. I am so grateful we have a garage to park in! The east side of town actually got pelted with golf ball size hail. Holy cow!

Anyway... back to the half bath/laundry room. I finally tackled the valence project. I did shop around for one I could just buy, but I didn't love any of them, and they are stupidly expensive. So I took my paint chip sample with me shopping for fabric and found a good match. One evening while Ryan was... who knows where - camping, I think, I made these:

Before:

After:

I love them. I tried to get a decent picture with the wall in the bathroom and the valence in the laundry room, but it didn't turn out. I'm proud of myself. Go me!

Five days after P split his head open, I took him back to the ER to have the sutures removed. He was a total champ! We walked to the library that morning (okay, yes, I remember - Ryan was camping because that was the same weekend and he had the car) and then we went to the ER. I read him books while we waited. When them came in to clip them out, he held perfectly still while they snipped the suture. He had a moment of panic while the tech reached for the tweezers to pull them out, but he called right back down, didn't budge at all, and we had them out just like that. He did so good!

I promised him a treat if he was a good boy, so we stopped by the vending machine on our way our and he chose fruit snacks. Good choice little dude.

July was a great month! There are actually two more posts to follow regarding the more "exciting" happenings of July, but I thought I'd end with this picture I snapped of Pierscen walking Dodger down on the river trail. Dodger may get irritated with Pierscen, because let's face it, P pesters him a lot just to get a reaction, but they also have some really cute moments together. Love these boys!