Baby J #2 - Week 9

How far along? 9 weeks.  Officially in my third month!
Total weight gain/loss: I think I'm back up a pound!  Yay!!
Maternity clothes? Pants.  Mostly just because they're comfy.
Stretch marks?  Nope.
Sleep: It's off and on.
Best moment this week: Being able to eat.  Yay for medication.
Have you told family and friends: Yup

Movement: Apparently the baby is moving but there's no way I can feel it yet.
Food cravings: Still no.  I think the closest thing is peaches.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Food.

Have you started to show yet: I can tell, but no one else can.
Gender prediction: I'm starting to lean more towards girl actually....
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly Button in or out? In.
Wedding rings on or off? On.  
Happy or Moody most of the time: More happy this time.  I think being less nauseous is helping with that.
Missing: Still missing being able to eat without regretting it.

Baby J #2 - Week 6

How far along? 6 weeks today :) We'll know for sure at our ultrasound in about 6 days.
Total weight gain/loss: I think I've lost a pound.  Morning sickness has not treated me well this time.
Maternity clothes? Nope.  With Joey getting sick, and Neal working 16-18 hour days, we've kinda just sat at home and I've lived in comfy clothes.
Stretch marks?  Same as last time.
Sleep: Better.  Joey's wearing me out, so I'm sleeping really well right now.
Best moment this week: Having Joey pet my stomach after watching me do it.
Have you told family and friends: Well, my dad accidentally spilled the beans at a family gathering over the weekend....so more people know now than knew last weekend. Haha

Movement: I wish
Food cravings: Nothing, unfortunately.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Anything and everything in my fridge currently.

Have you started to show yet: Nope.
Gender prediction: Still think boy.
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly Button in or out? In.
Wedding rings on or off? On.  
Happy or Moody most of the time: It's been off and on this month.
Missing: Being able to open my fridge without gagging and wanting to puke my guts out.

Baby J #2 - Week 4

When I finally actually post this (instead of keeping it as a draft), we'll have announced we are pregnant with Baby J #2 :)

I was looking back at my pregnancy posts from Joey, and I feel like I didn't really post enough about it, so I want to get in the habit now of typing something up every month about this pregnancy.  To help with that, I'm going to do a monthly questionaire :)

I've decided that the first trimester is the longest part of pregnancy.  You have to wait to see your OB, wait to tell everyone, and you don't have the baby moving around to keep you entertained and occupied.  I've heard that time goes much faster with your second pregnancy, but I feel like time is DRAGGING.  I'm sure it's just because it's still new, but hopefully time will go a little bit faster these next couple of weeks.

How far along? About 4 1/2 weeks.  We won't know for sure until our ultrasound on the 28th :)
Total weight gain/loss: None.  It should still be a while.
Maternity clothes? Pants.  Haha.  They're the best thing ever.
Stretch marks?  Nope.  I didn't get any with Joey, so I'm hoping I'll be that lucky this time too.
Sleep: Kind of a mess right now.  I can sleep SO easily during the day.  I pretty much sleep for Joey's entire nap time every day.  Nighttime, however, is a totally different story.  It takes me a while to fall asleep, and I wake up at least twice a night.
Best moment this week: Finding out we were pregnant :)
Have you told family and friends: Just immediate family and a few really close friends.

Movement: Nope
Food cravings: Smoothies
Anything making you queasy or sick: Eggs made me gag this morning.  That's really been the only things so far, thankfully.

Have you started to show yet: I wish.  But it's just bloat.  Haha.  Hence the maternity pants.
Gender prediction: Boy.  I'm like 99% sure.
Labor Signs: Those can stay away for a while.
Belly Button in or out? In.
Wedding rings on or off? On.  
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy.  Mostly just tired.
Missing: Being able to sleep whenever I wanted during my first pregnancy, and being able to sleep at night.  I'm already waking up 1-2 times a night, every night.

I can't wait to actually post this! :)

Big News :)

We are REALLY excited.  A few months ago I started feeling like Joey needed a sibling, and that feeling kept getting stronger.  It took 7 months before we got pregnant with Joey, so we figured it would take a few months.  Apparently this spirit is very anxious to get here because it took less than a month for this little kiddo to join our family.

We are due March 14, 2016.  If baby were to be born on the due date, they would be 23 months and 2 weeks apart.

It will be an adventure for sure!

(PS.  This is why I've been absent on my blog for a month.  I really, really haven't been feeling well, and I'm just finally getting to the point where I can actually function.)

Joey - 15 months

Can I just tell you how much of a rockstar this kid is?  Ninja. Rockstar. Possum. Bear.  Kid has too many nicknames.  Haha.

This month:

- Joey's been in this weird stage where he's trying to transition from two naps to one, but one nap is not enough, but two is too much.  It makes things a little difficult sometimes because I have no idea if he is going to need one nap or two that day.  So, we're kind of just winging it right now.

- We went on a hike with the Young Women in our ward to fulfill their Girl's Camp hiking requirement, and had a blast.  We went up to Gem Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Joey was so excited that he refused to take his morning nap.  So he finally fell asleep in the backpack on the way back down.  It was pretty darn cute (if I do say so myself).

- We went to the Family FunPlex in Greeley during Neal's lunch one day.  They have a super cool pirate themed "little kid" pool.  Joey really enjoyed it for the first time, and started putting his head under the sprayers and such.  He had a blast.

- A very kind person anonymously dropped off a kiddy pool and a bunch of toys on our front porch.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to whoever decided to do that!

- We went camping.  Read all about that here.

- I went up to Girl's Camp, so Joey spent a few days with friends and family, and then spent the evenings with Neal.  Those two really seemed to have a blast while I was gone (though I don't have any pictures!)

- We went to the rodeo at the Greeley Stampede.  Joey was fascinated by the horses, cows, and sheep that we saw.  Every time a contestant would come out of the gate, Joey would stop whatever he was doing and just stare.

- We celebrated Independence Day, which is always a blast.  We went to our church for a breakfast in the morning, and then watched the Greeley Stampede parade later in the morning.  Then we headed down to my parent's house for lunch.  Afterwards, we went to Firestone's celebration and Joey got to pet animals in a petting zoo, and ride a pony.  We enjoyed listening to a band that was playing while we cooled off eating snow cones.  Later that night, we watched Firestone's fireworks with my family and Neal's cousins.  Joey was such a trooper that whole day.  He didn't get much sleep, but still was happy and excited most of the day :)

- Joey said his first word: "ah-der" (translation: water)

- We have officially entered the climbing stage.  There aren't many "safe" places to put stuff in our house anymore.  Thankfully he hasn't figured out how to move chairs yet ;)

Other cute pictures from this month :)

North Michigan Reservoir

Our second trip to the mountains was supposed to be a trip to the cabin that the City of Greeley employees have access to.  Unfortunately, the rains washed out the road up to the cabin, so they closed the cabin until the middle of July.

Instead, we took a camping trip to one of my favorite lakes, North Michigan Reservoir.  We went there a lot when I was a kid, so I was pretty excited to share it with Neal, Joey, and Neal's parents.  We were up there for two nights and had SO much fun.

We stopped at the Moose Visitor's Center on our way to the lake and Joey thought it was so fun.  They have buttons that play the sounds of moose and elk when you push them.  Joey pushed the buttons so many times in a row that we finally had to take him outside because it was getting a little annoying.  

When we got to our campsite, we set up our tent and Neal's parents' tent.  Then we took Joey down to the lake and let him wade around for a little bit.  Then we drove around for a while, discovering new places while Joey took a nap.  When Neal's parents arrived, we ate dinner, ate smores, and then put Joey to bed.  After he went to sleep we spent the evening sitting around the fire, talking. 

The next day, after breakfast, we drove to a trail head, and by the time we got there Joey had fallen asleep.  We decided to go 4-wheeling instead, and took an old logging road around a mountain.  It was kind of depressing to see the amount of beetle kill that has happened up there.  We also discovered several other trails that we'd like to hike someday.

After lunch, we went and did the hike that we were planning on doing that morning.  The trail was called the "Beaver Lodge Trail."  They had a little brochure that had different stopping points marked so you could learn about the nature around you.  We actually learned a lot about the history of North Park while we were on that hike.

In the evening, we drove around the lake to show Neal's parents some of the things we had found the day before.  While we were driving we saw three fox kits wrestling each other.  It was pretty funny to watch because dad kept running away from them when they tried to get him to play with them, and mom just laid there and ignored them jumping all over her.  It was SUPER cute.

We unfortunately did see any moose, but we did hear bats fly around us as the sun went down.  We thought it was a bird originally, but then realized that the "call" we thought we were hearing was actually the wind moving through the bats wings.

Joey loved being allowed to play in the dirt and get as dirty as he wanted.  He did really, really well while we were up there.  We discovered that the secret to getting him to sleep IN his sleeping bag was to put him in it after he had been asleep for a while.

We really had a good time, and can't wait to go back up there to do more exploring and to take Joey fishing.  

Memorial Day 2015

Neal's family almost always goes to Hermit Park up by Estes Park for Memorial Day.  They rent a cabin for the weekend, and the whole family comes up when they can. 

This year we were just going to go up for the actual day of Memorial Day and have breakfast and lunch with Neal's family.  The day before we were supposed to go up, however, we found out that Neal's brother's kids had caught the stomach bug that had been going around their family.  We made the decision to not go to the cabin and set up some other things with some friends.

On Memorial Day, we went up to a place called Bunce School Road by Allenspark with Neal's coworker, his wife, and their little girl.  We met in Estes Park and the kids played at the park for a little bit.  Then we went and had our picnic and hung out for a while.

After that, we headed down to Fort Collins to go to a BBQ at our friends' house.  We all have kiddos about the same age, so it's really fun to hang out and watch them play.  They always have so much fun, and it's nice for us parents to hang out and have adult conversations (that almost always end up being about our kids).