Babies

They are 11 weeks in this picture. I get my cerclage at 14 weeks then check back in at the dr. Two weeks later. By then, I should know if they are boys or girls!! I can't wait!!!

I am already fighting the urge to completely do the kids' room just so it is complete. I don't like having things undone. The room is now mostly storage and I really want to see how they will all fit with their millions of things. I have purged down the toys so much already. I guess maybe shelves on the walls will be my only option if there isn't enough floor space. 

Snow

After a week in the upper fifties, we got snow yesterday! It is so thick, Alex got to make snow angels, a snowman, and shovel the sidewalk. He loved it. We were outside for around two hours. Apparently alex and I got a little sunburned. There isn't much snow left on our area without foot tracks from the little guy! He keeps asking if it is Christmas and if we are going to put lights in the house. (We are still working on the difference between winter and Christmas.) oh happy days.

Tractors in the snow

Nothing could be more fun!

Water science

When it's just too cold to play outside.

Ice skating!!

There is an outdoor rink just a few miles north of us Patrick stumbled upon. Alex was soooo excited to skate. We had him in his snow bib and gloves because, even though it wasn't too cold that day, this rink is completely in the shade. In Denver, no sun means no warmth at all. He was able to walk upright I the skates. Most of the younger ones I noticed had their ankles turned out so I was pretty impressed with Alex. He was pretty brave. I only dumped him once, and he smiled the entire time.

Alex is excited to have his bed again!

Before

Tons of stuff with no place yet to put them. Disorganization drives me crazy!! 

Not only that, but when we moved in w,e noticed a huge number of things that needed fixing. 

*Item number one: the washer and dryer. They were not there. When they came the next day, we found out there was no vent for the dryer so a portable vent had to be purchased and the washer wouldn't work because the drain was plugged. We moved in on Thursday but didn't get to use the washer until Monday night. Ugh! (What fun Alex and I had doing all the laundry though!! He loved watching the washer fill up and agitate.) 

*Item number two: the dining room light didn't work. We got a new one put in Monday.

*Item number three:  replace two wall plugs.

*Item number four: no fridge light. Apparently it was a little finicky. Got it working quickly enough.

*Item number five: no mailbox keys. Got them to punch out the old lock and rekey it yesterday.

There are more that I could list, but its a little boring already.

Anyway. We are happy here now with all this stuff fixed and the majority of our things put away. The kitchen is a bit smaller than the last, so it is a challenge- mainly having the pantry in the nook by the coat closet. (You can see it in the top of the picture. We are using bookshelves. So far it works.)

Denver

Yup. We are here. It's cold. Not really much snow on the ground, but sure we'll get some soon. Alex is missing home and the grandparents, but a few good snow toys (tractor with trailer and a digger) and he's a happy boy. It will take some time to adjust to the climate, city, and new lifestyle, but I think we will be happy here. If anyone wants to visit, please come!

Positively wonderful

I got my pregnancy test blood work done and it was positive!! The babies are growing strong. I am scheduled for an ultrasound on December 31st to see if it is truly twins. This will be a busy day as we will be moving out of our apartment that morning and going to Denver the next day. I need to set up an appointment with a doctor up there ASAP and one of the dr's here knows of a good one he went to school with for high risk pregnancy (which I am now in three ways.) Hopefully he will be near our new area.

How am I feeling? Well, where do I start. . .

Exhausted. I am so tired. I try so hard to make it to Alex's 1:00 nap time. Sometimes I even get him to bed a little early.

Cranky. Hormones, exhaustion and an energetic little boy don't make it easy to be pleasant.

Hungry. I have to eat every few hours. This is strange to me because it has only been a few weeks since the babies were implanted so I feel like I am just eating too much.

Terribly thirsty all of the time. I can't drink enough. As soon as I pee, I have to get another glass of water. What a cycle that is.

Sore. My tush hurts from getting a shot every evening, though Patrick is an amazingly wonderful shot-giver.  I started them the day after thanksgiving and will continue for about another month. Ugh.

Blessed and joyous. The Lord has blessed us greatly and we are truly thankful. What perfect timing too. One day shy of the three week mark where they normally do the ultrasound is our moving day.

We now have signed a lease for a condo in Denver. The grocery store, library, bank and park are all within a mile of our new place. It also comes with a dishwasher AND washer and dryer!! So excited to be able to wash at home. Lugging the laundry and Alex all the way to the laundry room would be pretty bad in the Denver cold and while pregnant. We signed a two year lease to lock in the price so it doesn't increase on us next year when we would renew anyway. (Tiffany- it is at the corner of Hampden and Sheridan in Bear Valley.)

What blessings God has blessed us with. May we be wise stewards of them now and in the years to come.

A tale of two

So, this past Wednesday I had my big doctor appointment. Two little baby embryos were implanted into my uterus. The nurse commented with much enthusiasm about how well it went. The strange part is that I thought I would be more excited by now. The reality is that I have read too many stories about the losses and missed chances when it comes to IVF. I don't want to be overly optimistic, nor do I want to be pessimistic. So here I am just kinda floating in between pretending nothing is different and having faith that God will let everything work out to His benefit, not mine. I want to be elated, but not yet. We shall see after the official blood work pregnancy test on December 11th.

One cool side thought: if the babies are growing normally, an ultrasound would be able to pick up the heartbeats on Christmas Day. (Smile)

Changes in 2013

Change #1:
It is now official. Patrick accepted the position in Denver. We will move the beginning of January. I am actually happy about it because it is an exciting leap for our adult lives. What a change for 2013!

Change #2:
I am going to have two of my frozen embryos implanted on around November 27th. The chance for twins is highly probable.  I am praying for a healthy pregnancy and a good doctor in Colorado.

Change #3:
Well, I don't really have another. The two listed are big enough for us.


Deep breath. Breathe. We will get through this with God's help. He will take care of us and I believe is leading us through this for an unforseable reason. I am trusting in God to give us the wisdom to use these changes to bring glory to Him. Please remember us in your prayers.

Hottotter

The Belton fire department had an awesome open house Saturday. They let kids climb the fire truck ladder, spray the water hose and go into a real medical helicopter! Of course, Alex didn't do any of it, but he got close to the helicopter and ate a hotdog.  Good times.

Fireman Alex

Saturday, the fire dept. in Temple held a fun firefest at the whistle stop. The kids were able to ride in the back of this fire truck, wear a fireman suit while doing fire drills, and slide down a big inflatable slide. He also got to spend time with Zaky and Jonas (you can see them in the background waiting to get on the truck.) That was one happy little boy!

Bunnies

He got to sit in the bunny pen!

Firetruck

Upside down

Train ride

First train ride without mommy beside him. Bittersweet.

The cutest thing ever!

Found this online and HAD to share.

Welcome Anna-Lena!

Tongues!

We went to a drive through safari in Johnson City yesterday. We toured in an enclosed trailer pulled by a tractor. Alex was thrilled with just that part.

As we took off, all the animals surrounded the trailer. We had a bucket of feed and fed the animals. The bison was by far my favorite.  Alex was thrilled with them too.  They walked beside us and stuck out their tongues. All we had to do was drop the food in their mouths. We got licked a few times! We were able to pet them and get a great up close view of these wonderful creatures. I wanted to give him a great big snugly hug. (Yeah, I know, you are really surprised right now, huh? ;) ). 

Bison feeding

Safari

Ostrich

Scooter!

Got this for $5 at a garage sale. His new favorite toy!

Friends

Feeling better after ice

Goose egg

Ice cream

Happy birthday BBBFF!

Have a wonderful day, John. I love you!

Hiding

Hiding

Once upon a potty

Warning! If you dont want to hear about potty traing details, skip to the last paragraph.

So, I decided to get Alex into undies for good. His little cousin Jonas is visiting and everyone is talking about Jonas getting potty trained and wearing big boy undies. Alex is finally wanting to wear undies again like Zaki and Jonas.

Today was day one of our second attempt (originally trained in January) and it started out pretty well as I expected. We had special treats for him to eat after going in the potty. I had a variety as he gets bored easily with one or two of the same repeated often. He drank juice and peed in the potty that was set up in the living room. Success. Though peeing was not his problem the first time around either.

After being bare bottomed for a good few hours, he asked for undies. My little man is modest and likes being clothed. I let him choose his undies. He wanted Spiderman. He was now a big boy in his eyes. He did very well continuing to pee in the potty when needed, but I soon smelled a problem. He had begun to poop in his beloved Spiderman undies. I was disappointed and let him know it. I then told him that he had pooped in his undies and so I now had to throw them away. He watched me toss them in the trash. The light clicked on. He got it.

I did not let him put undies back on until after nap. He chose a blue paire with sports balls on them. He told me he needed to potty and sat on it. He was there for a good while. Twice he asked to get up and I told him he could but all pee pee and poo poo needed to go in the potty, so he stayed seated. Not too long after that, he had a double hitter! We were both so proud. His undies were clean and he was able to continue wearing them until bedtime. All day he kept telling me he had big boy undies like Zaki and Jonas. He was a big boy, too.

Tomorrow we will venture out to spend a little play time with the cousins and see how it all goes. I will be driving Patrick to and from work in order to get the car, but I think Alex will do fine. I will be using a timer to help us both not get distracted. One day locked in he house is all I can do. Ready or not, here we come!

IVF update

I started my month of hormone shots just fine. Doctor was impressed with my follicle development and all looked great. Had 23 eggs retrieved and woke up the next day with OHSS. (Ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome.)

My ovaries produced a lot of fluid which filled my belly making me gain five pounds and five inches on my waist on one short weekend. Yes it was painful, and I looked 6 months pregnant. I had the fluid drained, but they ended up freezing my 13 usable embryos and I will have to wait until around November to get them put back in me so I can heal. This is quite upsetting for me. I am so sick of waiting. Ugh!

Positive side? Uh. . . I got to stop the big muscle shots in the rump, so my tooshie feels better.

His namesake

Cousins

Komodo dragon

Zoo

Happy days

Woohoo! I'm on a roll- downhill!!!

Duckies

Cousins+Water=FUN!!

Ha ha

Wowza!

Ack!!! Lots of little needles I was expecting. Lots of big needles along with lots of little needles- I was not. I get one to three little shots for three weeks, then one big one in the muscle until October! That's a lot of big needles (they gave me 70)!  I felt sick as soon as I opened the box. I dreamed of needles so much, I felt sick all night long. Ugh. I better toughen up my tummy. This next couple of months is going to be trying on me.

Cousins

She's home!!!

After years of not having her, and then the emotional turmoil of wondering if she will ever sail again, here she is. The Roi-L is back in her slip with mast raised just waiting for a good rain bath and some TLC. Hopefully very soon she will be able to stretch her sails out and experience the awesomeness she once was.

Road to nowhere

It has begun

I am now starting the magical journey of IVF. Lots of shots, doctors, and bloodwork for the next couple of months. Keep us in your prayers. We are so excited for the chance to enlarge our little family!

Obstacle course!

He was so excited about this, but in true Alex fashion, he had to have me play with him. Everything is more fun with someone you care about. I got to crawl on my tummy under all of this and once in the center, he told me to go in the tunnel (under the table.) We had lots of fun together, but it is truly hard to fit in those tiny spaces like he does without knocking your head or funny bone on something.

Camp Preschool

Today was the first day of camp preschool. This is in lieu of VBS at our church. All of the available classes were at maximum enrollment. Yea! I had my T-shirt on this morning and showed Alex that he had one just like it. He got so excited and immediately asked to take off his Jammie's and put it on. We were twinkies today and he thought it was cool. I wonder when that will go away. For now it's a treasure. Alex had so much fun in his class that he was anxious to skip lunch and go straight to nap time! Four days in a row of this and I can bet Friday will be a welcomed rest for him. Camp is from 9-noon which is perfect timing for us, but the some of the tiny ones were late for their naps and got flustered. I was blessed to be able to teach the one year olds. Three teachers with six kids. Great odds especially since they all break down into tears at the drop off and pick up times. I love it when they come up to me and want to be held or just loved on. I felt really special today. They got to hear about how God gave Jesus a special family who loved Him and we have families who love us too. Who knows if they understand it, but they Sure recognized when I mentioned the word "mommy" when referring to Mary. That was not necessarily the best thing to say on the first day right after they were dropped off! I'll have to remember that for tomorrow.

A Beautiful Bookshelf

Books

Books