Saturday, September 27, 2014

Baby #4!

Here we go again! Baby #4 is due 5/11/15!

Remember when we went to Disney World for Arabelle and Bo's birthday? Well, we had discovered the big surprise that morning, so it was quite the 'magical' day in addition to the Disney fun. 

My first thought was to calculate how long I had until I started being sick (about 12-15 days). I decided right then that I would be EATING ALL THE FOOD I wanted until I was sick. Ha! 

We didn't tell anyone for several weeks (well, I told Mae...ha!), then told Arabelle and Bo after their beach trip with Papaw and Mamaw. Arabelle was SO excited and Bo seemed excited too, but pretty quickly asked if it was going to be a boy. :)

The sickness started Sept. 7th and got bad pretty quickly from there. Imagine being nauseated and on the verge of puking (and actually puking) 24/7 and hating all food/drink. I've tried all the 'morning sickness' tips three times now and nothing works. Zofran doesn't make a difference. Phenergan helps, but also knocks me out, so I can only use it in the evenings and when I know I can sleep 12 hours before being alone with the kids. So you can pretty much assume I feel awful now until November. Super happy about the baby, but just feeling awful. 

That said, three times now we've had 9.5 lb babies, so I'm certain he/she is thriving in there and will end up being another big one. :)

The first Dr appt was on 9/23 and the baby looked great! He/she measured 7 weeks and 2 days and had a heart rate of 160. I can't believe we'll be welcoming another baby in just a few months (and yes, we'll find out the gender this time)!!!!!

Before we left Orlando, we stopped in the Carter's outlet to get Mae a Big Sister shirt and we had a little photoshoot while the big kids were at the beach!




Next appointment is 10/22. Arabelle is so excited to go with me to that appointment and see the baby!  

You can see our announcement for baby #3 (Mae!) here. 

Monday, September 22, 2014

Catching up!

We're still here! Between Jared's hunting trip, sick kids, homeschooling, and all the other things that go along with a family of little ones, it's been a bit crazy!

We stayed busy while Jared was away...playing at the church playground, playing outside, storytime at the library, movies (at home), etc.






Arabelle and Bo usually sleep separately, but one night they wanted to sleep together. Looks comfortable, right?

Every morning when Arabelle gets up, she sits o the floor and Mae will sit in her lap. This day, Bo got in on the fun! Love this picture, even though it's still dark outside....that was a long day!

And "Spiderman" trapped me in his "web".

The day after Jared got back, Arabelle and Bo had a birthday beach trip planned with Papaw and Mamaw!






They had a BLAST and didn't want to come home! We enjoyed some quiet days with Mae, but I'm pretty sure she was glad to have Arabelle and Bo back on Sunday. :)











Monday, September 8, 2014

State Park with the Cousins!

A couple of weeks ago, we met Rhianna, Gigi, and Tripp at the State Park for a little fun and a picnic!




We had a fun and hot morning! :)

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Magic Kingdom Birthday Fun!

This year, Arabelle and Bo chose to skip the usual birthday party and take a trip to Disney World!

We left after lunch on Wednesday afternoon and got to the hotel early evening. The kids wanted to go right to the pool, of course!





We swam while Jared went and picked up Chick-fil-a for us, then we had a picnic in the room before bed and they watched Sophia the First. 


They both were SO excited and took forever to settle down and go to sleep. Then they were awake at 4:30 am and I put Bo in the bed with Jared and I got in bed with Arabelle so they would stop talking. They both eventually fell back to sleep, but I never did. I was pretty mad about being up so early when we had a really big day ahead!

Bo was up first (no surprise there), so I took him to the lobby while Arabelle and Jared finished sleeping. He was really excited to see Olaf there. Ha! We snuggled and watched Mickey Mouse on the TV. 

We all go going and dressed, had breakfast, and made our way to the happiest place on earth....the Magic Kingdom! 


They didn't have the monorail running yet, which was weird since MK opened at 8 that morning, so we had to wait awhile to ride the ferry over.



The loved riding the ferry! It was already really HOT out, so we are sweaty in all the pictures. :)

And we're in!!!!!

We went right to our favorite rides (and the lines weren't bad at all!). We rode Ariel's Under the Sea ride, then met Ariel in her Grotto. One of Arabelle's highlights of the trip!

Who's excited????

 Then we went and rode Bo's favorite ride, Peter Pan's Flight!

Next was Enchanted Tales with Belle and Arabelle was really hoping she'd get to be 'Chip' the tea cup in the play. 



Jared and Bo weren't very interested in this one, so they hung back and didn't participate. ;)

And she got to be Chip! She was SO happy. :)

Next we went over to the Dumbo ride and the Barnstormer (another favorite....a roller coaster!). We rode each of them a couple of times, since the lines were so short. 



From there we rode the carrousel. 




Then another favorite, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin!



We were getting pretty tired by this point (and we had been stopping for snack and water breaks), so we hopped on the People Mover, which is a pretty boring ride, but it was nice to sit for a while! 



Next were the teacups. I rode once with them and just can't handle the spinning, so Jared rode a couple of more times with them. There was basically no line for this one.


After the teacups, we had about 30 minutes before our reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table. I made the reservation at 3:45 because I knew we'd be really tired by then and be ready to sit in the air conditioner and rest. I was right! We were all really tired and dragging by then. We were first in line, so Arabelle and Bo were the honorary Prince and Princess of the meal. Too bad they were both so tired because they weren't even acting that excited about it all. ha!  


Wearing their Prince and Princess stickers.

Meeting Cinderella downstairs in the castle before going up to the dining room.


The boys got a sword and the girls got a magic wand. Let's just say that giving a 4 year old boy a sword at a sit down restaurant isn't the best idea.
 It was SO nice to sit and relax a bit! We ordered our food (which was delicious!) and the princesses came out one by one throughout the meal.

Snow White was first and Arabelle was THRILLED because she was the only princess we didn't meet when we were there last time.


 See how much Bo loved his sword? ;) He did ask Jasmine where Rajah (her tiger) was.

My phone battery had died earlier in the day. Luckily we were sitting near an outlet in the restaurant and got it charged up for the evening! 


We all felt so much better after a good meal, hydration, and rest! It was around 5, I think, and we were ready for 5 more hours of riding!!!!

We went over to Frontierland and Adventureland for the next bit. I was getting tired of getting the camera and phone in and out, so I didn't take as many pictures of the rest of the day. 

One of Bo's other favorites, Pirates of the Caribbean! We rode it two times (not in a row though). 

Jungle Cruise
 And Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride. I think we did this one twice too.

The lines were really short, so we were loving it!!!


I didn't get pictures on Splash Mountain or Thunder Mountain (another favorite....rode it twice!). After we finished in that area of the park, we went back to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and rode the favorites again....Under the Sea, Barnstormer (twice more), Peter Pan, Buzz Lighyear's Space Ranger Spin, and more!

Arabelle and Bo received money on their birthday for shopping at Disney and Bo was worried all day about his shopping. Ha! He chose a Buzz Lightyear gun, Woody parachute figurine, Peter Pan and friend's figurines, and a Capt. America mask and shield (that both shoot). Needless to say, he spent ALL his money. :) Arabelle got 3 princess lollipops, sequined Minnie Mouse ears, and an Ariel barbie type doll. She still has some money left. :)

The fireworks were at 10 and we watched from Main Street, so we'd be close to the exit. We didn't get there early or anything to get a spot (too busy riding rides!), so we squeezed in and watched most of them before heading to the monorail to leave. We rented a stroller, so we dropped it on the way out (so much easier than taking one to and from the car!) and were ready to go. 

Jared carried Bo and he was asleep before we got on the monorail. :) We did lose one of his Crocs along the way, but weren't going back to look for it. We were back at the hotel just after 11 and Bo slept until 7:30, which is late for him! 

We got moving, showered the kids, and headed to McDonald's for breakfast before heading home. We were tired and happy! 

I have loved hearing them talk about their favorite parts of the trip. They had so much fun and Arabelle declared that day as the BEST DAY EVER!!!!!

Yesterday, Bo randomly asked, "Don't you wish you were at Disney World?". Yeah, Bo, I do. :)