A day of rest...

I love Sundays at home! Sometimes we have family things, and coffee at my grandparents, and Christ Group, all on top of going to church in the mornings. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy all that too. BUT... I love taking a nap. I love getting to do something I want to do (scrapbook!) instead of all that I need to do. I love playing with the kids, eating whatever's easy. I love Sundays at home! I've been playing with wedding invitation designing (I'm off to find more fonts!) and a little bit with PSE. I'm debating whether I should make my dip for Christ Group tonight, or play a little longer on the computer! The boys are in bed, Tyler's watching football... Later on I am going to go shoot Breanne and Tyson's engagement pictures. Oooh-la-la! I am just having flashbacks of how Tyson acted for our wedding pictures... He better have grown up since then! (He was 16.... you think it's hard to photograph a two year old, try a 16 year old!) I'm counting on Breanne to make him smile! :-) Later all!

Here's the rest of the story...

Okay, here's the long awaited details for you all. We'll start at the beginning. Back at the end of November and coming into December, I didn't feel good. In fact, I remember getting a raging headache and going to bed early! I felt kind of queasy, and tired, but I was working a bunch, planning for the holidays, chasing two kids, and I try not to be a whiner. So, I sucked it up and kept going. I occasionally thought, "darn my weak stomach" as coffee no longer sat well with me, and I felt definitely off my game. I figured that was how I was dealing with stress. Whatever. Too busy to add up all the other symptoms. We took my parents to dinner to celebrate Tyler's 1 year fall anniversay, and at the end of the night Mom said she thought we were taking them out to tell them I was pregnant. I laughed and said no, but later thought, "hmmm.. Nah!" The month carried on, but by December 30, I had thrown up enough time to warrant Tyler forcing me to buy a pregnancy test. (I was on the phone with Todd while I was in Riteaid... if he only knew why I was so distracted!) Sure enough...

(for those not familiar... two straight lines is negative, a straight line and a plus sign means POSITIVE!)

Hmm... Really? Could I really be? The next step was getting bloodwork done. Sure enough, my HCG levels were 75,000, and three days later they were 88,000. That meant either I was pregnant with twins, or I was more than 5 weeks along. Of course, the doctor's office couldn't get me in until January 14 (Weston's birthday) but I took what I could get.

At my appointment, the doctor confirmed that indeed, I was now just over 12 weeks along, and past my first trimester. She estimated my due date to be July 27, but we will have a little more accuracy at my upcoming appointment next Friday when the "real" ultrasound tech takes a look. Normally when I've seen early ultrasounds of Wayne and Weston, they have resembled a kidney bean. Not this baby! He/she already has arms, and was saluting her/his mama!

(Top circle=head, bottom circle=body, sticks on the side=arms)

So now... Some answers to the questions you want to ask but may not dare...

1. Was it planned? Uh..... no! :-) But are we so excited we can hardly contain ourselves? Yes!!! We are absolutely thrilled. After two pregnancies that required fertility drugs and hormone supplements, I am grateful to tears for this all natural gift from God. His grace his more than I can fathom.

2. How close will the baby and Weston be? Wayne and Weston are 22 months apart. Weston and the new baby will be 18 months apart. Yes, I am aware that we will have rough days. For goodness sake... I'll have three kids 3 and under! But, things will get better, and several years down the road I am going to be so happy to have three kids so close in age. My siblings and I were close, and I LOVED it growing up, and even now. I also know that God promised to not ever give me more than I could handle, so I am leaning HEAVILY on him to multiply my strength, energy and patience!

3. Was this a shameless attempt to increase the traffic on my blog? Who, me?!? Hey, whatever keeps you guys coming back! :0)

4. Will we find out if it's a girl or a boy? The jury is out on this one. We didn't find out with Wayne, we found out with Weston... the pattern holds that this baby gets to be a surprise. We both just don't feel a need to know, but we'll see... Please vote on my sidebar with your opinion!

5. If it's a boy, will it have a name that starts with W? Hmm.. maybe. Got any good names?

6. Have I been sick? Yes! I have such a weak stomach anyway, it's just not pretty. I was christening Lynden parking lots and driveways for awhile, but it's been a few days so I hope it is passing. It got so bad at one point that every time I was throwing up in the kitchen sink, I'd turn around and Wayne would have come running, opened the fridge, and brought me a can of sprite! WHAT a doll! That boy is so compassionate. I love that!

Does that answer all your questions? :-)

1st Birthday Bash!

We had around 30 people here for Weston's party. I decided to heck with two parties, one for each side of the family, we would just do one BIG party! I wish we could invite everybody (great aunts, uncles, friends, 2nd cousins) but alas, we do not have that much room in our house, big as it is! Maybe our families are just too big! :-) I made mexican for dinner, with some help from Mom, Tara and Aunt Shelly (thank you soooo much, you really helped me out and your food was AMAZING!) Weston did really well. I even made him play "Birthday Boy Photo Roulette" by passing him from one guest to the next, and Taylor was making faces at him to get him to smile while I took pictures. It was hilarious! Wayne didn't know what to think of the people. He was a little out of sorts and hid on the stairs or upstairs most of the night.

Sneaking up to his present from us.

Eating his quasadilla.

Hmm... "What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine."

The food....

Practicing his walking skills.

Are you just dying yet? My next post will contain info about baby #3..... I bet you're hoping the boys are good so that I get to it tonight!

Happy Birthday Weston, we love you!

Who knew one year ago, that one year from then we would have such a delightful, joyful little one year old! Weston's birth was long awaited, and uneventful, thank the Lord! After all the drama before, I remember laying in the hospital, snuggled in with this little peanut, who even until the last moment before he was delivered, was kicking and wiggling inside of me. Man, he was busy! Over the next year, we would have first smiles, the nap wars, the nightime wars, colic, acid reflux, learning to sit, crawl, and steal Wayne's toys. First steps, first foods, first attachments. Weston has just blossomed in the last few months, and has become an EASY baby. He is scheduled, and loving it! :-) When he smiles, it spreads from one ear to the other (no comments on his ears from the peanut gallery, I love them just they way they are!) I is a go getter, and goes from the time he wakes up to the time he goes down. I love when he wakes up after being in bed for an hour or so. I sneak into his room, and he puts his arms up for me. As soon as I pick him up and grab his blankie, he buries his head in me and is asleep again before I can sit down in the rocking chair. He loves to cluck his tongue and blow raspberries. He thinks Wayne is the funniest thing on earth. He does not like when groups of people sing songs ("Happy Birthday" didn't go too well.. neither does Christ Group!) He is my joy and my delight. He loves to play all on his own, loves to chase balls and cars across the hardwood, and loves anything he can hit or crash. He is a bruiser... I am constantly having to edit pictures so that his bruises and scratches don't show! A noise dive off a toy, crawling too fast and not looking where he's going, throwing a toy that comes back down on his head... all these are daily occurences in the world of Weston the bruiser. What a little dudard! Here are a few favorite pictures from the last year.

Dear Weston,

I can hardly wait for the next year to come, because I know how much fun you are going to be, and all of the things you will learn. I love watching you grow, and I pray that as you continue to grow, you will know the Lord and walk with him. I pray that you will one day become a man after God's own heart. He has a wonderful, divine plan for your life, and I hope that you will trust in that plan as I do. You are a blessing to our family, we would not be the same without you. You bring joy and laughter to our days. I'll love you forever, I'll pray for you always, forever my baby you'll be!

Love, Mom

Happy Birthday Weston!

I thought I'd quick post a few pictures from Weston's party tonight. It's been a long, fun day, and I am too tired to sort through all the other pictures... So here is the last gift that he opened. More tomorrow!

NO ACCIDENTS TODAY!

Wayne was accident free today! We went to the bathroom every 45 minutes or so, except one time we went two hours in between breaks (he fell asleep. He was at Mom and Dad's, and I didn't tell Mom he was in panties until AFTER he woke up dry! Why invite trouble? :=) Oh yeah Dad... he was on your side of the bed!) He didn't even fuss when I took him to the bathroom today. He went in ours, obviously, but also at church and then tonight at Coppinger's. Go Waynard Paynard! You'll be on Grandpa's fishing boat in no time!

Tyler is now off work for the next three days, works Thursday, and is then off for the weekend. Yippee!!! Of course, I have to work the next two days, so I will be missing my boys something terrible, but then I will just have a few hours to work from home the rest of the week. Weston's birthday is on Wednesday, so that will be a day full of festivities and cooking for his party that night. I've just started his scrapbook (doing it digitally of course!) because of course I had to at least start it by the time he turned one. When Wayne turned one, I had his book completed up through Valentine's day! (his birthday is in March!) I was nuts back then. I am sliding down the slippery slope of slacking because I have more than one kid. Amanda is still TOTALLY my hero. That girl is crazy in love with her daughter, even borderlining on obsession, and I love it. It reminds me of those moments with Wayne, and now when Wayne is napping and it's just Weston and I, I pretend that he's the only child for awhile and dump all my love and devotion on just him, to the point where he usually ditches me to go find toys! Boys! :-) Oh well, I hope that all it ever takes for him to gaze adoringly at his mom is just letting him play with my hair.



Okay folks, that's all for tonight. Don't expect any posts the next few days, but I'll be back Wednesday to show you how far baby Weston has come in 1 year! Here's a preview.

"No potty in my panties" update!

Well, we are 48 hours into things over here. All things considered, things are going really well I think. It's gone exactly as I suspected it would, and we're not giving up at all! Wayne is still very proud to wear his panties, although he's a little tired of spending so much time in the bathroom. The treats have helped (we only give them out when he remembers, about half the time.) I figure that's okay since we're having to go every 30 minutes, and it takes 5-10 minutes to do the deed, pull pants up, wash hands, etc. It reminds me of when he was just born and we didn't seem to have much break between feedings! Oh well. I am sooooo unbelievably proud of him, he's doing a great job. He just looks too funny running around here in only his panties though! Before I got his pajama's on last night, he was running around in only his little blue panties, and I was just cracking up. He's half my height, and so scrawny, and those panties were just too big boy for me to take seriously!!!!