Fun with Friends

Our good friends, that live about an hour from us, invited us to spend the day with them.  We started by meeting them at the library.  Arin loved seeing her friends and she had so much fun at storytime.  The librarian read a story and then the kids made a handprint tree craft.  The librarian read another story.  Then, she let the kids paint the table with "snow" (shaving cream).  They had a blast!  We've never made such a mess at the library!

Next, we went back to our friends' house for a delicious lunch.  After lunch, the kids enjoyed feeding the animals (goats, turkeys, and chickens) on the farm.  They also had a lot of fun just playing together. 

Let Them Eat Cake

When Ella thought nobody was looking, she helped herself to more cake.  Yummy!

Happy Half Birthday!

My sister and her four boys came up for a visit this week.  Arin was thrilled that they brought a cake for her half (3.5) birthday!

Reasons to Celebrate

Today, is my sweet little Arin's half birthday.  She is three and a half!

My niece, Brianna, gave birth to her second bundle of joy today!  Welcome to the world Kynzie Alexys. Kynzie, who was a week late, weighed in at 8 pounds 13.5 ounces and 20" long.

Also, two weeks ago, my grandmother was admitted to the ICU.  She suffered from a heart attack and stroke.  She continued to have mini strokes for a few days.  She was not expected to live. Tomorrow, she will be released from the hospital and has already been given the ok to travel from New York to Florida for a couple of months.  Today is her 92nd birthday!

So many things to be thankful for!

Always Climbing

I have had several comments/requests to start blogging more often like I used to.  Between the pregnancy and Ella, I have been exhausted.  Poor Arin has been wanting to do school and asking on a regular basis for it, so in the next few weeks, I hope to be feeling better and more energetic so that we can do our projects and I can post about them. 

In the mean time, I just thought that I'd write a small post about Ella.  Ella will be 15 months old tomorrow.  She is a busy, busy little girl.  She does not think that clothes should be in drawers or pots and pans in cabinets.  The floor is a much better place for those things, in her opinion!  She isn't saying many words yet, but she understands well and she voices her opinion often, especially if Arin has something she wants!  She also loves to climb.  She climbs on chairs boxes, beds, the couch, and several times a day, I find her on the table!

She also loves to be held!  She is sweet as can be and she has a rotten temper all at the same time.  We joke that she is just practicing to be a middle child, but I think I am going to be in trouble when she gets older!

Pregnancy Update

I have already updated most of you through texts or Facebook, as I am not ready to talk out loud about it yet, but for the rest of you, I thought I should post this.

Had my first prenatal appointment this morning.  I was very anxious about this appointment because it was with a new doctor, I was going by myself, and of course I couldn't wait to hear the heartbeat! 

Had a wonderful experience with the doctor, nurse and staff.  Everyone was very friendly and professional.  We did the exam and I asked if I could hear the heartbeat since I was 11 weeks.  The doctor said she would try but sometimes at this stage the baby is still so small and well hidden in the pelvis that it is difficult to get a reading.  At twelve weeks we shouldn't have any issues hearing it.  So she checked, and checked and checked and couldn't get the heartbeat.  She did not seem worried.  Just said she'd send me over to get an ultrasound for peace of mind and they would do the baby's measurements and make sure the due date was right on and all of that. 

It was an internal ultrasound.  The technician found the baby right away, but I could tell by the look on her face something wasn't right.  She said there was no heartbeat.  She tried and tried to pick up the heartbeat, but there wasn't one and there was no movement from the baby.  The baby also measured about four weeks behind - measuring in at 7 weeks 2 days instead of 11 weeks.

The doctor said that normally when this happens, the baby's growth slows/stops prior to the heart stopping, so it is very hard to tell when the baby actually passed.  I am not bleeding, which also makes this so hard to believe.  I have had a miscarriage one other time - about 5.5 years ago.  With that baby, I started bleeding and then cramping and that is how I knew I was miscarrying.  This one caught me completely by surprise.  It is true that my symptoms during this pregnancy have been more mild, but I have still had symptoms.  I was told that the bleeding typically starts about a week after the baby's heart stops.  We have decided to give it a week and see if I expell the remains on my own.  I go back to the doctor for a follow-up on Monday, and if need be, we will schedule an appointment for a D&C at that time.  That scares me, so I am hoping that things start working naturally on their own.

It has been a long day and Andy and I are both in denial/shock over the whole thing.

Playing the Wii

Tonight, Arin enjoyed playing the Wii with her daddy.  She got him the new Super Mario Bros.Wii game for his birthday.

Pups

The puppies are four weeks old now and we are still looking for homes for them. 

Today, we took them outside, which they loved.  Their tails were wagging and they were running all over the place!  They kept crawling all over Arin.  She said, "Guys, I'm not a feeding girl!  Shirley dog (that's their momma) feeds you.  I am not a dog!"

Arin has named most of the puppies.

LEIF

SELPHA (the runt & Arin's favorite)

unnamed puppy

DAISY

unnamed puppy

FLOWER

SNAKE

At first, Arin had only named two of the puppies.  She said, "When I am 20, I'll know the rest of their names."

Bounce!

This morning we went to the local indoor playcenter.  The girls enjoyed it for the first thirty minutes, but quickly got bored because there were no other kids there to play with.  We stayed about an hour total before heading to the park to meet up with our homeschool friends!

Pregnancy Update: 9 weeks

I am 9.5 weeks pregnant now.  I am feeling really good.  I have been a little queasy, but not sick yet, which is a huge change from either of the pregnancy I had for the girls.  I feel sickest if I wait too long to eat, but a little protein snack sends that feeling running!  I have not been to the doctor yet - that's because I live in a new city and I am still trying to figure out how to have my old midwife deliver this baby too.  It's not going to happen, so I have been stalling picking someone new. 

My friend recently asked for a belly picture. I hesitated at first because, although my belly is getting a bit firm, I don't have a real baby belly yet (still carrying around some extra weight from my previous pregnancies *sigh*).  Anyways, Ruth, this picture is for you!

Puppies!

There is a stray dog that hangs around Andy's work. She's a very good dog, so Andy let her stay. Unfortunately, she got pregnant and ended up with seven puppies! It is freezing outside right now, so Andy brought momma and babies home and made them a nice warm home here. The puppies are little right now - about two weeks old. They have started to open their eyes in the past couple of days. In the next few weeks (4 or 6??) they will be ready to find new homes. If you are reading this and you know us in real life and you want a puppy or several puppies, please let me know!

Quack Quack

While wearing this dress a couple of weeks ago, Ella learned what ducks say.  I pointed to the duck on her dress and told her what it said.  Then, I asked her what a duck said.  She looked down and pointed to the duck and said "Cack, Cack!"

Cloth Diapers

We have decided to put Ella back into cloth diapers.  She wore cloth diapers until she was six months old and then we got away from it.  Then we moved and all of her diapers got packed away.  I am still searching for my BumGenius diapers, which will fit her at this time.  I did find a couple of her small diapers, which she grew out of when she was little, but they seem to fit her again now that she is getting taller and slimmer.