Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving from our Baby Turkey :)

 Every year I have Jenna do a craft on Thanksgiving showing all the things that she is thankful for. Partly so she can look back and see as she gets older what things have changed from year to year, but mostly to drive home the meaning of the holiday! This year when we were deciding what her craft would be she asked if we could do something to make everyone in the family part of her craft, so she is making a book of what our family is thankful for :)

Here is some of the pictures for her book! 

 Sadly we didn't have Kade man with us this year, but we are having Thanksgiving with Mike's family on  Sunday and he gets to come! Other then missing him more then I usually do it was such a wonderful day. All of my siblings were there, and we spent the day just enjoying each other and spoiling the babies!! We had lots of  yummy food, family games, and of course football!

Cuddling with Daddy watching the Parade before breakfast!

Uncle Joshy and the boys who love him!

Jenna doing crafts with her Auntie Grace and Hope

 Baby James and his Auntie Eva

 Mike and I have a debate about the best part of Thanksgiving food... I vote my sister Stevie's Pumpkin pie Cheesecake, but he says its my mom's sweet potatoes! But we agree that it has been a fantastic year, and we are so blessed! One year ago we were still praying daily for me to get pregnant (though I was last Thanksgiving we didn't know yet), and now we have a sweet baby boy! We are now debt free (other than our home), our kids are healthy and happy, he has a job he loves, and I get to stay home with this little guy!!

Bump 5- Midwife appointment- 16 weeks

How far along? 16 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 4lbs and growing 

Maternity clothes? Yes... I may never wear pants other than Maternity Pants again! After my appointment today Mike and I went shopping for maternity shorts and capri pants... I want summer already!!

Stretch marks? Nothing new. I am really liking my bump gloss and hope that it helps my skin grow like it needs to as my baby grows!

Sleep: Once I get comfortable I sleep great! Dreams are crazy though... I don't remember having such vivid dreams with Jennabelle! I literally wake up every morning having to question "did that really happen"?

Best moment this week: Today we got to have our 3rd appointment with the Midwife! She says everything looks perfect, and we got to hear our little love's heartbeat 150 :) This will be Mike's last appointment for awhile so she recorded it for us! 

Miss Anything? Mike and I went to dinner with our friends last weekend and I wanted Dr. Pepper so bad, but that has gone away thankfully! My dear sister Stevie got me some yummy pregnancy tea that gives me something to drink when I don't want water.

Movement: I can definitely feel my little butterfly at random moments through the day! Usually when I am laying down I can feel it the most! 

Food cravings: Well Lobster is expensive, so I have been substituting with shrimp or other kind of fish... Do you know how good crab stuffed Mahi Mahi is? My newest addition is GF blueberry muffins!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Still sensitive to smells, but nothing specific anymore. 

Labor Signs: My stomach will get rock solid randomly. My midwife said that it's normal, and just my body's early stage of getting ready for it's upcoming job

Belly Button in or out? In where it belongs!

Wedding rings on or off? On and still too big... I swelled a lot by this point with Jenna in my hands and feet, so I am feeling lucky that I have normal extremities this far :)

Happy or Moody most of the time: I have gone through a sad stage this week... probably because Mike is leaving, but my husband is the best at reminding me how blessed we are and pointing my thoughts to all the joy! He knows pictures make me happy, so we took some pregnancy pictures and that cheered me up for sure! 

Looking forward to: Getting to feel more movement, my next ultrasound (my mother in law and Jenna get to come), but mostly right now spending as much time as possible with my darling! We are spending the weeks before he leaves converting the room next to ours into a nursery... house shuffle! And we are taking a break this weekend for a little pre-deployment get away just the 2 of us!!!!

Great Weekend!

Mike started the 3 day weekend by spoiling me rotten! He took me out to a nice dinner...which alone is sweet, but he got there early and had it set up so that I could come straight from work and the minute I sat down they gave us our appetizer :) If you have ever been pregnant you know how sick you are asking to get if you wait to long to eat!! Then after dinner he gave me presents :) A Snoogle (a giant pregnancy pillow to make sleeping easier), and some colored maternity pants (because I was sad that I wasn't going to get to wear all my cute colored jeans while I was pregnant), and the sweetest letter about how excited he is to have a baby with me the only woman he has ever really loved :)  It was the perfect pick me up to my hormonal day! 

Saturday we went Shopping and bought our crib (I am so excited I will post pics when it is delivered), and spent the day together just enjoying life...and eating a lot :)
That night we got our kiddos back, and took them to The BSU Basketball Game! It was a blast! Mike and Jenna have gone a few times, but this was our 1st time as a family! The kids were so into it, and BSU won at the very last minute! 

 Sunday was the playoffs which in the Reece House means Church and Football are the only thing we do! It was fun we had my best friend and her kids over and vegged out all day! Sadly my Pats lost, but I like the Broncos so I am looking forward to watching them play the Sea Chickens in the Super Bowl!

The kids had a sleep over and Monday was a much needed relaxing, clean up the house, watch my kids play, cuddle with my man kind of day! 

Happy Civil Rights day to all my fellow Americans! I hope your weekend was blessed, and full of reminders why living in a country where all people are equal and free is so amazing! 

Month 4 begins... I think?!?!

So the week of Thanksgiving has come and gone, and none of the "real girl" symptoms that we expected to start are here at all!! However, sigh, there are no pregnancy symptoms either :(  I took a test on Wednesday, and it was negative... 
It looks like I am not as much of a "real girl" as I thought I was. Yes, this comes with some very obvious pros like I am not crampy, crying, or considering the death of anyone. But is has also brought to light our #1 concerns: I may never cycle like most women which will make it much harder then we hoped to get pregnant.
It is funny how something about me that was such an awesome side effect to my health problems before, now has me so terrified!

As my general consolation prize I had a glass of wine with my sisters on Thanksgiving, and spent the weekend thankful I didn't have to deal with any kind of womanly aliments. We had a great time catching up with family, going to the movies, decorating for Christmas, and getting in the Holiday Spirit!
Despite the background worry this really was one of the best Thanksgiving weeks I have ever had!  

I have a few more days before either side of the female coin is ruled out for sure. We have an appointment at the end of the month to see a specialist to decide if pin pointing an ovulation schedule is something that my body will allow. For now I am just focused on getting ready for Christmas, and spoiling the babies I already have! 

Thank you

Last night I was standing at the back door sipping tea watching Jenna do every gymnastic trick she knows on our trampoline when Mike came up behind me and said, “I love our life so much babe"! Then he asked "don't you"?
At the moment I just took it in and smiled at him, but all day today I have been thinking about those words. As a busy American human I tend to forget to stop and think about what I have, especially when I have a goal in mind I forget about the blessings in front of me. But I am really am so happy that my husband is happy, that my daughter has parents who can afford to put her in 2- 2 hour classes a week just to learn to do flips on the trampoline, that Mike and I could take a 4 day weekend this weekend together just because we wanted quality time with our kids and each other. I am so thankful for this life, for my best friend, and our kids. I am thankful for our supportive parents and awesome siblings who all adore our kiddos. For having fun friends, a great church, and people who make us smile. We have nice things, a great home, life in a free country and Love from God who has blessed us so immensely!
Today I feel overwhelmed with gratitude, and want to thank everyone who reads this for your part in my life!




Yes, Michael I love our life too!

  

Picking a hospital - Part 1

My favorite part of this whole thing is that we get to do, and be excited for EVERY SINGLE STEP! With our older kids we didn't get that! Mike didn't have a say with Kade, and I was so young I just trusted my mom with a lot of the big decisions for Jenna, but this time it's all ours!

Once we decided to take this journey of becoming new parents I started the obvious take prenatal vitamins, replacing my morning coffee, and Mike and I put our Wine Tour on hold!

Now to start month 3 in a positive light we are looking into what hospital we want to have our baby at, and what kind of doctor we want to use.

I have had the same OB since I was 15 years old. However this last spring she became the main OBGYN on-call at St. Luke’s Boise, so she is no longer taking non-emergency clients. This means that I get to pick a new doctor... We decided to pick a hospital 1st, so that it narrows down who we pick.

That being said, we scheduled private appointments with all of the local hospitals and birthing clinics over the next weeks, so that we can decide where we want to spend our babies "Birthday"! I had Jenna at St. Luke’s, but haven't even seen what others have to offer, so I am ridiculously excited to weigh all our options!!

If anyone has any pros or cons I'd love to hear them, so comment or message me personally :)

I can't wait to tell this to my sweet baby one day!