So, apparently, my body just doesn't want to sleep well the night before we find out the gender of our babies. I went to bed and slept for a little while, but woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. We live in a condo building and we have some neighbors underneath, to the right, and behind us. The neighbors behind us share the bedroom wall. They were up until around 1AM or later talking and laughing loudly. I would have banged on the wall, but I don't want to be THAT neighbor and I doubt it would do much good. Once they were quiet, I still struggled with getting to sleep and felt like I had a panic attack all night long. My hips, especially, my left side, have been hurting after awhile of laying in bed. So lots of tossing and turning.
I finally got up about 6:45 and went to do my treadmill workout. Ty worked from home today since we had the ultrasound appointment. He was so sweet and let me stay in bed and rest and try to fall asleep for a bit, while he took care of Anna. He really is the best!
Soon enough, we were on our way as I tried to finish my liter of water before we got there. The ultrasound tech was so nice. We had forgotten to bring a USB drive so we could have pictures to take home and he offered to let us come back for another ultrasound sound for free just so we could make sure we could have pictures. We took some with my phone of the screen, but it will be so nice to have some better ones to print out. It was so fun to see our baby moving around. Opening and closing their mouth, moving their limbs, sucking their thumb, seeing the heart pumping. So incredible!
Soon, he was able to check for the gender. And......
We're having another girl!! In the beginning, I really felt like we were having a boy, but the last few weeks I started to think we might be having a girl. I couldn't make up my mind so I knew I'd be surprised either way. We're so happy! Luckily, I've saved all of Anna's clothes and since our newest girl will also be a February baby, everything should work out seasonally too. We haven't settled on any names for a girl so we have some thinking to do. I'm mostly just feeling so at peace finally knowing we're having a girl. Life should be pretty interesting with all these females. A little funny since Ty and I both only have brothers. Let's pray that this girl will be as easy as Anna! Haha.
I haven't really been keeping up with much on this blog very well and that includes this pregnancy. I do like having a record of everything though and seeing the difference between how I am now and where I was with Anna has been interesting. Losing weight and staying in shape has really benefited me this pregnancy as I've tried to keep up with that. Being so sick in the first trimester made it easy to not gain any weight, and in fact I lost some, but I wasn't able to work out the way I was used to and that's been hard. I think I'm still in a good place, but I'm still trying to figure out the best ways to get a good pregnancy workouts. Anyway, since I haven't posted any yet, I have lots of pictures to share, so here ya go!
Everything has been going well and I'm feeling pretty good. Tired most of the time, but good. We're planning on a Birth Center birth this time around since living in a condo where space is limited and our neighbors are just so much closer. I just feel like it will stress me out and I'd rather be more comfortable. It's so crazy that we're halfway through this pregnancy! February and this baby will be here before you know it.
Since coming out of the first trimester, I finally started feeling better at around 13 or 14 weeks. The first trimester was pretty rough, especially compared with my pregnancy with Anna. With Anna, I had really just morning sickness most of the time. This little one had me feeling sick all day long. I could hardly eat, but still tried because I knew I needed to. Sunday's still seem to give me a hard time. I've only had two good ones so far. I think it's because I have to get up and get ready so much earlier than usual. Hopefully, I'll have more good Sunday's from now on.
Being sick put a damper on our Summer and we didn't do a lot, but as soon as I started feeling better, I wanted to make sure we did as much as we could. In other words, I packed our weekends full. Haha. One Saturday we took Anna bowling for the first time. I lost in the worst way, but we had so much fun and will definitely do it again.
We went to the Zoo and it was a blast! They had statue and animatronic dinosaurs all over the park and it was really fun for all of us to see them. We got there later than we planned (probably my fault), but we managed to spend hours seeing all the dinosaurs and animals and there was still more we could have seen. But it was sooooo hot! Before we left we made sure to let Anna go on the carousel and we all went on the little African Safari train.
I also when with the Youth in our Ward to float along the Provo River. Sounds nice and relaxing right. Well, not so much. Haha. There weren't enough tubes for everyone and another leader and I shared a larger tube. Unfortunately, that tube had a hole in it and was deflating the longer we were on it. If we had to walk it was a little hard because the current was so quick it was hard to keep up. It's sad because I had hurt my toe and it hurt every time I took a step on it. Eventually, we made it work and me and few of the Youth got it out at a good stopping point. I was actually just released from the Young Womens and put in as an Activity Day leader. I'll miss Young Women for sure, it felt like I was just getting the hang of things. Hopefully, I'll be able to do well with this new calling.
We got a new Washer & Dryer!!!! It's been glorious. The set we had was a hand-me-down from Ty's grandparents and we did really well with it for a long time. In December the dryer stopped heating up and we had to use a laundromat. We bought a cheap used one to replace it, but it had to be intensely cleaned and then Ty noticed that burned spots on his white church shirts. We decided to finally just buy a brand new set. We love them! Laundry takes so much less time and our energy bill is a lot lower than it used to be.
The biggest thing we've been up to lately in school. Preschool for Anna. Since she wasn't showing interest in potty training (which has drastically changed in the last couple of weeks), I decided to do home Preschool. We don't spend a lot of time since she really is so smart and knows all the things I'm teaching (and more) anyway. However, we are working on her handwriting and fine motor skills and she's been doing great. I seriously wouldn't be surprised if she skips second year of Preschool and goes straight into Kindergarten next year.
Ty has also been busy with work and school. With luck, but especially hard work, he will hopefully be done by the end of October. The class he is in now has been very information heavy and taken a long time to get through, but he's amazing and almost finished. I'm so proud of him and how much he's been able to accomplish. Having this degree will absolutely mean good things for our family, but just as much for him, personally. He's a pretty awesome guy and we just love him around here.
We find out the gender of our baby tomorrow!! I'm very excited! And anxious. Haha. It seems all of the friends I have who are also pregnant have found out what they are having already and I'm so ready to find out. I was pretty confident before I knew what we were having, but now I'm not so sure. We'll be so happy either way. I'm just ready to know and give them a name.
I'm really good at this keeping up with my blog thing. ;) I really like keeping everything in order so we'll just start with Christmas.
We had a great Christmas Eve dinner at my Aunt Karin and Uncle Charlie's house. I actually Skyped with my mom earlier in the week and she taught me how to make the traditional Sauerbraten that we always have every year. My first time ever making it. I think it turned out really well! Yay! It's been so nice to have family to be with at Christmas. The next morning we woke up, opened presents, and had our gingerbread pancake breakfast. We decided to make bacon and the house smelled of it for a LONG time. Haha. Afterwards, we headed over to hang out with Nathan and Celia's family. We all lounged in our pajamas and had a nice relaxing day.
The next day we flew to Washington to spend a few days with my parents and siblings as our last get together with everyone there before my youngest brother, Michael, left for his mission. It was Anna's first flight and once we got on the plane and it started getting ready, she was not a fan. She really doesn't like loud sounds and the poor thing plugged her ears and laid down in my lap. Luckily, I remembered that I had my old phone, now dubbed the Monkey phone because of the protective case it's in. I also had my small earphones. We put those in and let her watch videos and play games until we landed. The flight for her went really smooth after that. Seeing her Papa made her pretty glad. He took us out for lunch at our favorite diner place in Tri-cities and it was awesome.
When we got to my parents' house the pretzel jar was a big hit for Anna. The chocolates and treats were a big hit for her mommy. :) Unfortunately, the next morning I woke up feeling extremely ill. Not sure what happened or what I might have eaten that caused it, but my stomach bug kept from enjoying a good portion of our trip. Luckily, I was the only one to get sick and I was feeling better towards the end, but not very much like eating a lot. Still it was great to see and hang out with everyone for a bit and it was great for Anna to play with her cousins. I wish we lived closer to more cousins. Unfortunately, for us we missed the little snow Utah provided when we came home. I'm beginning to lose faith in these "Utah Winters" I was promised.
Just a couple weeks later, I picked up Michael from the airport and we took him to the MTC for the official beginning of his mission. It was kind of weird to think that I was sending my baby brother off on his mission. When we got to the MTC, a group of missionaries with an instructor came out of one of the buildings and were ready to take him in. We got a quick picture, said our quick goodbyes, and he was off! No dawdling for these guys. He's now serving in Virginia and seems to really be enjoying his mission and everything the spirit has to offer him. You could definitely sense the change in him while he was in MTC. He's a good kid and is, I'm sure, a great missionary.
Pause for adorable double braided Anna and just a bit more random fun. Seriously, cute. :)
Anna and I have birthdays right next to each other on the calendar, so that makes birthday planning a little interesting. Anna's day is first, but this year I turned the big 3-0, so I decided that I would only make one birthday cake a year and since I knew the cake I wanted I was going to make mine this year. Anna isn't old enough to really care anyway.
Her birthday was President's Day this year and since there were some deals happening, there was shopping to be done. (She will definitely appreciate this more as she get's older.) We went to Savers and they have a big toy section that they let kids play with since the toys are all used anyway. I let her play longer than I normally would and she definitely enjoyed herself. Then we went to get a birthday balloon at the Dollar Tree. She LOVED it! We headed to the mall where I bought some stuff at Bath & Body Works. I realized they had a little kiddie train and a carousel inside. I wasn't sure how she'd do with the carousel so we went for the train. HUGE hit! She still talks about it. We are definitely planning on it for next year, as well as the carousel. Later, after Ty finished work, we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point with Nathan, Celia, and their kids. It was great. The Eliza and her twin brothers know more about dinosaurs than most adults I know. Afterwards, we ate birthday cupcakes and Anna opened some presents. She definitely enjoyed her birthday.
My birthday was pretty low key. We were planning to go out and do something fancy and fun later, but nothing turned the way it was supposed to. We ended up celebrating a little extra more for our anniversary, so it all worked out. I still had a good day on my actual birthday. My parents sent flowers and I made my yummy Black Forest cake that my mom would always make growing up. Anna was still beaming from the great day she had yesterday, so I felt pretty like a pretty good Mommy. Ty and his parents gave me some great gifts and I was sufficiently spoiled.
A week and half later we randomly decided to hit the Waffle Love truck for dinner and I have to say, AMAZING! Worth all the hype. We also went to an indoor pool in Lehi...in February. Outside was freezing and actually had some snow sprinkle the ground, but we were oblivious inside and Anna had a great time splashing around and swimming. Her favorite thing was the lazy river.
For Easter, we decided to make the drive to Moses Lake and see everyone again before my parents went off on their mission. They hadn't received their call yet, but were just waiting to hear back and knew that they would be leaving really soon. It was almost weird seeing everyone so soon since we're not used to having visits so close together. It was fun though. We even took family pictures and only missed having Michael there. So apparently, no one brought Easter Eggs for the Easter Egg hunt for the kiddos except for me. Haha. It worked out, but the hunting didn't last very long. That's probably for the best since I'm not sure those kids needed any more sugar. On our second travel day back home, I got sick. Man, I think I'm allergic to Moses Lake. Just kidding Mom! :)
One day Anna fell from one of the stools and chipped her tooth. I wasn't sure how bad it would be so I texted my super awesome dentist brother and asked him for advice. He said that I should take her in because it might need attention. It was somewhat ironic because that very morning I noticed a sign for a pediatric dentist as we drove home. The office was great and she loved playing there. They checked her teeth and did an x-ray. The dentist said that her tooth would be fine, especially since she wasn't having any sensitivity or pain. Yay! My parents happened to come down for my cousin's homecoming talk so my mom was able to come with us. It's always nice to have family here.
Our second annual spring trip to Temple Square was great. It was a pretty hot day so we didn't stay very long. Afterwards, we went to the mall across the street to get lunch at Johnny Rocket's diner. So yummy! I think we are gathering up some good ideas for next year.
Mid-May my parents were finally headed on their mission. Once again, I picked up future missionaries from the airport and dropped them off at the MTC. It was definitely a different experience for my parents. They were there only a week and then they were able to stay the night with us and I dropped them off at the airport in the morning. We really miss them, but it was so great to spend their last day in the U.S. with them.
In June we went to the carnival in South Jordan. As we were walking down the sidewalk to cross the street to it, Anna tripped and skinned her knee pretty bad. We headed to the first aid tent and they gave her a band-aid. She played the victim card for a bit, but soon recovered as soon as their was rides involved.
She just had a hard time on the ladybug ride, but that's it. She wasn't a big fan of the bouncing that it did. She also wasn't to keen on riding ponies for some reason. Liked the idea, just not the actual riding. She loved everything else.
Ty and I both were called to new callings. His was a little less of a jump, going from the 1st Counselor to President of Sunday School. Definitely more responsibility, but he's been in the Sunday School since we moved here. I went from teaching Sunbeams (4 year olds) to being the Beehive teacher (12 year olds). As a part of this, I was able to go to our ward's Youth Conference. It was a cool experience to be there and get to know the youth in our ward.
Fourth of July was a low key day, but lots of fun. We decided to let Anna stay up late so that she could watch the fireworks. Our balcony has a great view of all the fireworks from the surrounding towns. We even saw the ones from our close neighbors. Like I said before, Anna doesn't like loud sounds. The closer fireworks freaked her out a little bit. We did some sparklers and she loved watching those, but didn't have much desire to actually hold them.
We were at the family reunion for Ty's birthday, so we gave him his present a day early. It was fun having everyone together for his birthday and to enjoy his cake. Transporting the cake was interesting and we had to do some putting together there. I'm hoping we can be at home for his birthday next year to avoid that. Haha. It was fun to be together with everyone and celebrate though.
This was the first year that we didn't have our Robbins Reunion in Othello at Rex & Cheryl's house. It was great. We had some weather issues with a wacky week of rain and cloudy, cold weather. Overall though, it was fun. We definitely learned some things for next year, but we had a blast.
Well, we're all caught up! It's been a crazy year so far and we are excited about all the upcoming things in our lives. Including a new sibling for Anna to be a great big sister to! Yay! Due in February!
