Christmas Tree 2014

I can't believe it's time for the Christmas tree again! Arabelle is still just as excited as ever about Christmas. Bo can be excited at times, but not as much as Arabelle. Mae has been doing a lot of 'ohhhhh' ing at all the lights!

We got our tree today and got a nice and tall one.

See how excited Arabelle is. ;)

This is the classic Bo pout. He pouts with his whole body. Ha!

 Big girl!! She's wearing a Santa shirt that Aunt Kay made for Arabelle in 2009. :)

Bo's favorite part....candy cane!

Mae enjoyed her first candy cane too!

7 years of Christmas tree pictures!!! Excited to add one more boy for the tradition next year. :)

Family Pictures

In mid-October, we had family pictures done in Pineview. they turned out so nicely! 

I know this one will be something we and our children will treasure for years! 

Pretty good for eight kids ages 6 and under!

We were TIRED by the time our little family's time came, so we just did what we could to get the pics. So, Mae was holding a Snicker bar. Ha!

All I can think of when I see this picture is how awful I felt (I was 11 weeks), but glad to have one of Jared and I together....that's rare!

There is one (I hope!) of all 5 of us, but it's not edited yet (probably requires a lot of editing for our crew!). 

Here's Mae after it was all done, with her Snicker! 

Thanks Aunt Dawn for the great pics! 

Pictures by Capture the Happiness. 

Sick babies!

We have had quite a week! Friday was a week ago, we left to go to Papaw and Mamaw's house for the weekend because Jared was gone, I needed the help, and the kids would have a blast. Well, Mae threw up in the car about 15 minutes after we left the house. Awful. It was awful. Luckily, I had an extra booster seat in the car from when a little girl rode to church with us, so I shuffled the kids around, stripped Mae down, and away we went (with the windows cracked and the heater on!). Mae made it almost to Papaw and Mamaw's house before getting sick in Bo's car seat (Bo was so mad at her! Ha!). 

She settled on down and never got sick again. Phew.

Bo woke up Sat. morning with a fever and congestion (so, Sat. was day 1 for him).

Cuddling up and making silly faces: 

Sunday Bo was still sick and I figured out that I had picked up the stomach virus from Mae. I was feeling AWFUL Sat. night, but thought it was pregnancy sickness until early Sun morning. Fortunately, it was a relatively short virus and I was back to my baseline nausea by Monday morning.

We got home Sunday afternoon. As you can see, Mae had perked up. :)

Arabelle picked up the stomach virus on Monday  (and Mamaw did too....sorry Mamaw!!!) and Bo was still feverish, congested, and coughing. Pretty pitiful! Mae went to pre-school that day and stayed through lunch and nap time so I could recover and the big kids could rest without a high energy toddler around. 

Arabelle was fine by Tue morning, Bo was still sick, and Mae woke up feverish and snotty. 

So, off to the Dr we went for Bo, who was on day 4 of the fever. His ears were beginning to get infected from all the drainage and sinus congestion, so he started his first ever antibiotic.

Big kids at the Dr office! 

Pitiful boy! His amoxicillin is pink and supposed to be bubble gum flavored. After he swallowed his first dose, Arabelle asked him what it tasted like and he said, "A hot dog with bubble gum in it....not good!". Hahaha!

Mae ran a fever from Tuesday-Friday, but was fine Saturday. She has been sleepier than usual and a bit moody. She went from this:

 to this in about a second....

So far Arabelle seems to have missed out on this fever and cold virus (not the flu, Bo's swab was negative).

I had the fever, coughing, and congestion from Wed night on to now. The fever stopped during the night Friday night, but the congestion and coughing is about to drive me nuts and I feel even more awful for how the kids must have felt!

16 weeks and it's a boy!

Ahhh, the Dr. appointment we've been so excited about! Wednesday, at my 16 week appointment, Dr. G did his freebie ultrasound and showed us if we were having a boy or a girl. Most OB offices have an ultrasound tech do all their ultrasounds and find out gender at the 20 week appt, so it's really nice to have the Dr do them and that he does this free sneak peek a month earlier than most people get them!

Here's a few pictures of our baby BOY!!! I'll try to explain them in case you can't tell what is what.

This is a profile picture with the head on the right of your screen.

This is the baby's face looking up with the hand right beside it's face. That dark circle on the head is the eye.

Close up of the baby's profile. I love that I can already see his nose and lips!

This is your money shot. It's not the best view we got, but pretty obvious there. You're looking at the baby's bottom from the underside (sorry baby!).

Alien baby view....baby's facing looking up. I have one of Bo like this and they already favor. Ha!

Pregnancy highlights:

• How far along: 16 weeks 3 days today. 
• Size of the baby: About 4.5 inches long and the size of an avocado
• Total weight gain: Back up to the positive side! +4 lbs. 
• Maternity clothes: Yes, when I put on regular clothes, which isn't very often! I live in stretch fleece or cotton pants at home. Regular shirts for now. 
• Gender: BOY!!! So excited that we get to have two girls and two boys! I couldn't have planned it any better! We ended up taking all the kids with us to the appointment because Mae and Bo were sick and couldn't go to pre-school. It was a zoo in that tiny room. Dr G measured the heart rate first, then started looking for the gender. I saw it immediately and said, "It's a boy!!!". He confirmed I was right and we were all so excited! Bo said, "I was right!" pretty quickly. Arabelle didn't say much, but was grinning. 
• Sleep: I had a good 7-10 days of sleep between colds. Back to coughing and sleeping sitting up because I'm too stuffed up to lay flat. :(
• What I miss: energy, enjoying food and water.
• Cravings: Not hating food quite as much as I had been. Not really craving anything though. 
• Symptoms: Nausea is fading away!!!! I have to eat pretty quickly in the morning and take the Zofran and keep snacking all day to keep it at bay. It gets worse in the evenings no matter what. 

Overall, feeling a bit better than 2 weeks ago and hoping to be feeling 100% in a couple more weeks! 

14 weeks....second trimester!!!

Finally, second trimester!!! The first trimester always creeps by and the last one goes by too fast. Ha!

Trying to get back to blogging regularly.....

Pregnancy highlights:

• How far along: 14 weeks 4 days
• Size of the baby: About the size of a lemon or 3.5 inches long
• Total weight gain/loss: I was down 2 lbs at the last appointment 2 weeks ago, so probably back to starting weight by my next appointment.
• Maternity clothes: I've stopped wearing my slimmer fitting jeans because I don't want to stretch them out. Some regular clothes fit and I've pulled out one pair of maternity jeans. 
• Gender: finding out on the 19th! I'm guessing boy, along with Bo. Arabelle wants a girl. :)
• Movement: I've felt a few little flutters, but nothing consistent. 
• Sleep: not very good...crazy dreams, congestion, and coughing is not a great combination.
• What I miss: enjoying food, energy, feeling like a normal human being, being active with the kids, etc. 
• Cravings: I hate food.
• Symptoms: Still nauseated nearly all the time, but not throwing up nearly as much. Haven't tried weaning off the Zofran though. Feeling awful in the evenings still. Exhausted all the time. Basically Jared is a saint for dealing with me....

Well, that was all pretty negative, I guess. Ha! I just hate this part of the pregnancy, but I'm super excited about this little baby!!! I'm really looking forward to finding out boy/girl and to start feeling better. 

Getting a little bit of a baby bump....

Fall Fun

Well, I'm way behind on pictures, so here's the photo dump of our Fall fun!

Bo's preschool class had a field trip to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. They took a long hayride (seriously, 20 minutes with a bunch of 3-4 year olds!), walked through the corn maze, played on the playground, and had a snack. Bo wasn't very impressed with the hayride or the corn maze.....

We got there a few minutes before Bo's class did and Arabelle had to show off all the pumpkins. Ha!

They did love playing in the corn bin!

This was as good as it got on a picture of them together (Mae was at preschool this morning).

The preschool also had a costume day and Fall party day. Bo dressed as Captain America, of course. 

Mae was still in PJs and finishing breakfast, but wanted in on Bo's picture.

She just wore her shirt that said "I love my mummy".

And here's a bunch of pictures from my phone: 

She loves getting her little paws on Arabelle's glasses.

Doing "circus tricks"

Green pumpkins. Ha!