Having some fun!!!

After Ava got over her bout of strep throat, she’s been a busy girl having a whole lot of fun!

Since she and her daddy have some long summer days ahead, we’ve been trying to get some activities together to make their days pass quickly.

Playdoh anyone? We haven’t tried this in a long time. The last time we did, she tried to eat it! I think she has a better grasp on it this time!

We also got her a “water pool” as she calls it for the backyard. She was sooooo excited about it. Monday morning was the first morning it had been up and we found her out of bed that morning standing at the back door looking at it. She had a blast swimming Monday afternoon!

We went to a local bounce house tonight for a birthday party. Ava had so much fun! She was a little scared of some of the bigger things and said she couldn’t do it but she did get down this monster slide!  These last couple are from my phone so they aren’t so great, but still cute!

   

And I know this one is super blurry but check out that form! :)

I bet we’ll be going to lots of birthday parties here and maybe having some there over the years too!

Lots more summery fun to come I’m sure! :)

20 weeks pregnant was an exciting week!!!

I am 20 weeks pregnant today! We are halfway there! I am in awe at how fast this is going!

This is certainly not the most flattering picture of me but I guess pregnancy is like that. I feel like I’m carrying the same way I did with Ava….high, but I also feel like my belly is bigger sooner…

While I am certainly excited for Friday’s ultrasound and to know boy or girl, I am more concerned with finding a healthy baby in there! Praying everything is just as it should be!

This week has also marked some big events!

My baby sister graduated high school! I can’t believe she’s grown up and going off to college! She’s heading off to be an Arkansas Razorback!! We will certainly miss her, especially Ava who thinks Aunt Stephie is the best! Here she is giving the thumbs up right before graduating! Congrats Steph! So proud of you!

Friday was Ava’s last day of school at her current school. She will go some days this summer but a lot of her little friends won’t be there so this was her last day with all her friends! While we are so thankful she will be in a great place next year, it is SO SAD that we are leaving this place. I think I cried more Friday when leaving her than I did on her very first day there!

Mrs. Randi was Ava’s teacher for the past two years, and her little girl, Shelbey, was one of Ava’s first best friends! Her other little best friend was sick this week and we didn’t get to grab a picture of her! :( 

Another BIG event that happened this week is our nephew was born Friday afternoon!!! Welcome Lucas Andrew!!!!!It’s incredible how great our God is! Baby Lucas wasn’t due for four more weeks and his mommy went into labor Friday morning. He is perfectly healthy and went home this morning!!!!! Praise Jesus! Sadly he lives about 6 hours away and we haven’t seen him or loved on him yet, but we cannot wait to meet him in a couple of weeks!!!

We rounded out the week with Ava getting strep throat. Yesterday we had a breakfast date at Chick-fil-a and by 1:00 I knew we needed to go to the dr. She was running fever and her ear hurt. I also mentioned there had been some strep at school so he checked her for that and sure enough she had it. She didn’t get to go to Steph’s graduation party but I’m so thankful we caught it early! She was much better today with no fever!

I’m SO glad we are off tomorrow! Good way to start the week! We plan to get up and go for a walk, work on some pricing for a garage sale and lounge outside in Ava’s new “water pool” as she calls it! :)

Well, that was dumb!

My Monday evening did NOT go as planned! Zach and Ava came home and Zach was busy getting dinner ready – we were going to have yummy dinner of grilled shrimp and veggies. Well, everything else was ready, and on the table, and Zach brought in the basket of grilled shrimp. He asked me to help him get it out, and not thinking about it being hot since I had been doing other things and wasn’t really thinking about it being on a hot grill (pregnancy brain at its finest!), I grabbed the handle of the metal basket. As he was saying, “Don’t touch, it’s hot!” a searing pan shot through my hand!

My hand felt like it was on fire! I started crying and put it in cold water. I kept it there for a while and then just got a bowl of cold water and kept my hand in it. (Ava thought this was fun and of course felt like her finger needed to be in the water too.) We started reading online what we needed to do to treat a 1st degree burn, as we’ve not dealt with more than minor burns or sunburns.

After an hour, my hand still felt like it did when it had just been burned and the pain was horrible so I decided to go ahead and go to the walk in clinic to get it checked out.

After an hour of waiting, he declared it was a 2nd degree burn and gave me a prescription ointment to use as well as an antibiotic to ward off infection. He was also going to give me pain pills until I told him I was pregnant (I think they really like to push pills at these walk in clinics!)

It doesn’t look as bad this morning, but the burn goes from the bottom of my palm, up my index finger and also up my thumb. I’ve already got several blisters. Ouch.

This part is definitely the worst…. I’ll survive even though it hurts like heck! Ava was sooo upset – I think seeing me cry and then when I left for the doctor she was so sad. Zach said she kept crying and looking for me out the window. And when I got home, she had a boo-boo on her hand too. It’s nice to be loved.

Not my finest moment, people. Thankful it’s not worse though!

19 weeks and counting!

Today I’m 19 weeks pregnant! I cannot believe how fast this is going! One more week and we will be halfway!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 19 Weeks

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 6 lbs

Maternity Clothes: I’m wearing maternity pants. I still go between normal and maternity tops

Gender: We find out June 3! I have to say, I have very much been leaning toward this baby being a girl, but now I’m starting to 2nd guess myself and I’m not really sure why! I am able to talk myself into one or the other way too easily!! Let’s just say either way, I know I will be happy, and either way, I’m pretty sure I’ll be surprised!

Movement: I felt this sweet baby very early – and would feel it for a bit and then go several days without feeling it. The movements are getting much more frequent now – and I am starting to notice jabs and kicks instead of just flutters!

Sleep: ugh! I am still SO tired! I fall asleep very easily but may wake up in the middle of the night and be awake for a couple of hours!

What I miss: I’ve really been wanting a margarita lately – maybe a margarita flavored snow cone will suffice?! :)

Cravings: I haven’t had any consistent cravings this time. I will crave something and then once I get it, I am satisfied and I start craving something else! So weird!

Symptoms: Just really tired! Every once in a while, I’ll have a random wave of nausea that passes really quickly.

Another thing I want to remember about this stage – Just this morning, Ava started talking about the baby in Ava’s belly! I asked her where her baby was and she patted her belly! And then she said her belly was “too big”! Guess little ears are always listening! ;) I’m so excited to be able to talk to her about her brother or sister. She is coming with us to the ultrasound and I can’t wait to see what she says/does/etc!!

A little brother or a little sister???

That is the question! We are just about 3 weeks away from finding out little Baby E is going to be! I saw on twitter that IntelliGender was looking for mom bloggers who liked reviews – um, yes please! So I filled out the form and got in touch with me and sent me their Gender Prediction Test(GPT) to try out! I was so excited to see this on my door step two days ago!! I opened it up and found the GPT inside! And here is everything that came inside: And the look at the two sides that will gave our answer! I woke up this morning and took the test and was excited to see the results!

According to the test, this little bebe in my belly is a….

BOY!!!

 

There wasn’t even a question of what the result was – it was super clear!

Zach saw it and said “See, that’s what I’ve been telling you all along!” I was surprised a little because I’ve had a feeling for the past few weeks that we’re having another girl! I’ll be equally as happy with a bouncing baby boy, my gut has just been telling me otherwise and it was right with Ava! I can’t wait to see 3 weeks from tomorrow if the test is correct!!!! 

The kind people at IntelliGender also sent me a product of my choice from their new line of IntelliCeuticals. These are products that are natural remedies for moms and babies. Since I had issues with my milk supply with Ava, I chose to try baby’s best milk drops. I’m curious to try these and see if they help this time around.

If you would like to try any product from their IntelliCeuticals line, they are offering a 25% discount for these items. Just enter IC025 at checkout. (this does not apply to the GPT.)

Please visit IntelliGender at any of these places:
www.intelligenderblog.com
www.facebook.com/IntelliGender
http://twitter.com/IntelliGender
www.youtube.com/intelligender
http://intelligender.tumblr.com/

Thanks IntelliGender for the wonderful opportunity to try the GPT- it was so much fun and will be exciting to compare the results. Thanks also for the baby’s best milk drops!! Can’t wait to try those too!

And just because she wanted a photo while I was taking the photos of all the products, here’s our big sister! :)

Recap of our week and help from you!!!!!

There’s a good reason why I’ve been absent – Zach spent the week in New Orleans, and I had Ava all to myself this week. The week included Ava waking up one night for two and a half hours, outrunning a wall cloud  to get to Ava safely, and a play date. We had a busy week!

Oh, and one other notable thing that happened this week is that I “graduated” from Financial Peace University! Even though I felt like we had good control of our finances and made smart financial decisions, we both learned SO much from this course. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to take it! The amount of debt we were able to pay off during the 13 week course blows my mind, but it just shows what dedication can do!

Friday morning I did not wake up early to watch the Royal Wedding but I did record it and watched live coverage when I woke up to get ready. When Ava woke up, I brought her into my bedroom, I told her we were going to watch a princess get married, even though it had already happened – that sure caught her attention! She got really interested when she saw the little bridesmaids and called them “little princesses"! I asked her if she wanted to be a little princess when Stephen and Leslie get married and she said “YEA!” and then ran away and came back with this for me to put on her: Don’t you love her morning hair?! :)

She has woken up at 5:30 the past two days – ugh!! And she has been very tired fairly early in the day:

Snow White getting her beauty sleep

Asleep on our way to church this morning  

Okay, wrapping up shortly but first a couple other things! Had a dr appointment Thursday and heard our sweet baby’s heartbeat for the first time!! It was 160 bpm! We find out the gender on June 3! I’ll be almost 21 weeks but my dr is adamant about waiting until a full 20 weeks to get an accurate scan of all organs. Zach and I are divided on our thoughts of the gender. Guess we’ll see!

So that brings me to one of two things I need your help with!

1. I’ve debated having a gender reveal party – I think it’d be fun to tell our family and close friends the baby’s gender all together. After looking for stuff on the internet, I saw A LOT of people discussing how rude they thought the party was – that it would be a gift solicitation and if not, why would anyone think people want to take time out of their busy schedule just to hear whether it’s a boy or girl! Please, please give me your honest opinions on that – would never want to offend or insult our family/friends! But, I’ve only got a month to do it if I’m going to do it! So help please!!!

2. I need some suggestions for good books to read! Things slow down for us in the summer and I have a feeling I might be a little lazy this summer and want some new reading material! So, go! :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! Happy May!!!!