Anyway, I wanted to share the whole story about how we found out that I am pregnant.

Over Christmas and New Years, my sister and her family were visiting (this picture is of Riley and his cousins..Aiden wouldn’t pose).  It was near the end of their visit that I started thinking that I might be pregnant.  I didn’t say anything to anyone, including my husband.  I always keep a few pregnancy tests on hand but for some reason I didn’t have any in the house.  I normally buy them from the Dollar Store (yes they work!) but it’s not convenient to go to.  So I had a $2 off coupon for an E.P.T one.  On my way over to my parents house for family dinner, I stopped and bought one.  I wasn’t feeling good that day so I had been home resting and I was by myself.  I kept the test in my purse and went straight in to the bathroom when I got to my parents house.  I took one test (there were two in the box) and almost right away there was a very faint line.  I’ve heard so many people say the line can be really faint and still accurate.  In fact, that’s exactly what happened when I found out I was pregnant with Aiden.  I took one and it was really faint, then took a digital one and it said “pregnant”.  So I didn’t even second guess it, I knew I was pregnant!  But just for kicks I decided to take the second test, but unfortunately I already emptied my bladder and didn’t have enough to make the test work (sorry TMI).  So I wasted it.  I was still convinced.  So I walked into the living room and got everyone’s attention.  Then I asked (in the commotion that was ensuing with all the kids in a small house) “Are we ready for another one next Christmas?”.  Everyone was so excited, and I think my husbands face was priceless!  He was excited but shocked.  I have never got to tell my sister in person that I was pregnant, so I was so excited to get to share this moment with her.

When my husband saw how faint the line was, he encouraged me to take another test just to be sure.  So we bought a digital test on the way home.  So I went ahead and took one that night.  It was negative.  I waited until morning to take the second one.  It was negative.  I was crushed!  I really couldn’t believe it.  And I was humiliated.  I couldn’t believe I made that big announcement and it wasn’t true.  I wasn’t in very good spirits for a few days after that.  But somehow I still wasn’t convinced that I wasn’t pregnant.  And even my sister encouraged me to take another test in another week or so because it’s so uncommon to get false positives.  And if I wasn’t feeling good and I hadn’t started, then there was a good chance it was just too early.

So a week later I took a Dollar Store test.  I was a blaring positive.  I took one more with the same results.  I really was pregnant!  Unfortunately my sister had gone home the day before, so I just had to call and tell her.  But she really did get to know in person.  Based on dates, I thought I was about 6 weeks pregnant.

Monday I had my first appointment with my Midwife.  She did an ultra sound just to verify how far along I am and check on the baby.  I found out I am NOW only 6 weeks (I thought I was almost 8 weeks!).  So as far as I can tell, my due date should be around September 8th, instead of August 30th.  She is going to do another ultra sound at my next appointment in 4 weeks, so we can actually see the baby.  We couldn’t even see the heartbeat since it was so small.  It was really only the yolk sack we were seeing and couldn’t see the baby yet.  I’m glad we are doing another one so this time my husband can come!

Well, that’s where we are.  Six weeks pregnant and feeling pretty sick these days.  But as a friend said, at least that means the baby is growing and things are moving along.  If you think about it, you could pray that I feel good enough to take care of my kids and the safety of the baby.  I get paranoid because I know so many people who have issues with their babies and I know I’m not exempt from the possibilities of that happening.  But I have my hope in God and I know His plan is already written for this child.

We are so excited to complete our family with this new little bundle!

(For those of you who follow both my blogs, yes I’m double posting!)

That’s right folks, this PCOS girl is pregnant with baby #3!  And this time….NO CLOMID!!!

Since finding out I have Hashimoto’s, I have been taking thyroid medication and my numbers are normal!  That combined with my weight loss earlier this year and the progesterone has helped us conceive naturally.  And I also know God’s hand was in it all!  He is so amazing!  I can’t believe He has intrusted me with three little ones to raise and guide towards Him.

I am about 6 weeks pregnant, due August 30th.

If all goes well this will be our last child.  I am going to relish every moment of this pregnancy.  I’m also going to spoil Aiden like crazy since he won’t be the baby much longer   And boys is he going to be mad about that!  He loves getting all the attention.  I’m not so sure the transition will go as smoothly as it did with Riley   He will learn to love the baby though.

We are so excited and can’t wait to meet this new little one that will complete our family!

Communication:
Says and uses correctly: Mama, Daddy, Pop, Uh-oh, tickle, duck, book, bye-bye. Occasionally says: Grammy, Riley, hi.

Signs and uses correctly: please, more, up, eat, bye. Occasionally signs: all done, thank you.

Weight:
When I took him for his 12 month check up (at 13 months) we found out he weighs 20lbs and is in the 8% for weight.  His Pediatrician is a little concerned that he went from 35% to 8% in four months and he wasn’t walking at the time.  So we are spending this month feeding him a lot and upping he fats to see if we can get his weight up.  She wasn’t overly concerned, just wanted to see what we could do.  I think that if he doesn’t gain much that it’s just his metabolism and as long as he’s eating well he will be ok.

Height:
29.75 inches – 40%

Aiden’s first experience with the Christmas tree.  He does so good with it!  He barely notices it, but when he does, he is really gentle.  I expected him to always be pulling at it and possibly even pull it over with his personality, but so far so good!

Riley makes sure we have the tree lights on at all times.  He loves his Little People Nativity from his Grandma!  I attempted to do Jesse Tree ornaments with him this year and put them on the bottom part of the tree (thus why it looks bare here).  I like this idea because it keeps the breakables away from little hands and also adds that homemade touch.  BUT he would only color four of them, so that’s all we have.  He just doesn’t like coloring or drawing very much.  Maybe next year I’ll make it more of a craft then just coloring and see if that helps.  I really want to do more with Advent next year, including an Advent Wreath if possible.

Aiden loves his Sing-A-Ma-Jig!  They are BFF’s!  I even bought him a new one for Christmas.  This one won’t change modes any more because he crawled around with the hand and wore out that button.  So it only sings “Happy Birthday”.  He likes to stick his finger in the mouth while it sings.

Riley posing by his first Jess Tree ornament.  This is his attempt at smiling   For some reason when I ask him to smile he makes a funny face now, but he is really trying to smile nice for me.  I have to just catch him already smiling to get his beautiful smile.  And a random update on Riley – he is fully potty trained now, night time and all!  I know there will still be accidents but it’s so nice to not have to worry about!  And he’s just started sleeping through the night and not getting up to go in the middle of the night.

Can’t get enough of this face!  This little man has the sweetest smile and is growing up way to fast!  Did I mention…..

He’s walking!!!!!  You can watch the video of his first real steps here.

We are going to have lots of family coming in and out around Christmas and I can’t wait!  My Sister-In-Law is coming for 4 days, my sister and her whole family are coming for two weeks and my Grandparents are coming for 3 days….all at the same time!  Riley is so excited that his family is coming!  I love how much he loves his family!

I most likely won’t be updating again until after Christmas, so MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Friday was our Little Man’s first birthday!  I’m still in shock that he is this old already.

After Riley’s first birthday, we decided to just do family parties until the kids are in school at least.  Riley really loves having a lot of family around, so he may be ok with family parties until he’s older – we’ll just see.

My Dad’s parents were here for the weekend, but some how I didn’t get a picture of EITHER of them with Aiden.  I have  a few with Riley, but not Aiden.

I am so grateful that he is my good eater!  Here he is eating Harvest Chili with Grammy.  He LOVED it!  He will eat anything I put in front of him….or anything he finds on the floor!

We were the only ones with a camera, so we only got video of him eating his cake, no pictures.  I made a super yummy Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcake and everyone loved it!  Here he is playing with his new mini-kitchen.  He has already figured out all the bells a whistles and plays with it for really long periods of time.  What a great gift!

And his most favorite toy of all.  We call him “Creeper”.  He’s one of those creepy dolls that sings one note at a time.  This one has 3 modes, one of which does “Happy Birthday”.  He absolutely loves him and is always giving him kisses!

Speaking of kisses, he has started giving kisses more freely, especially when you are laying down for some reason.  Here was kisses for Daddy!

And me with my birthday boy!  He is such a little ham, we love him!  He is ALWAYS making us laugh.  He makes funny faces, does this open mouth thing were he opens his mouth really wide and won’t close it until we do the same.  He has a deep, baby belly laugh that is infectious.  He loves to play in his brother’s room by himself.  He really can walk, but is refusing   Supposedly he took 3 steps on his birthday, but I didn’t see it.  He DID take two steps yesterday and then was done.  One of these days he’s just gonna stand up and walk across the room!  It would be so nice because maybe his pants would stop falling off then!

I measured him on his birthday (because his 12 month appointment isn’t until Dec. 7th!) and he weighed 21lbs and was 29 inches long.  He fits in 12 month clothing – some of which is still a little big.  He has this huge pot belly but pants still seem to fall right off of him, poor guy!

Aiden, we love you so much!  Happy birthday Baby Boy!

We are entering a whole new phase of life around here.  Aiden is almost ONE!  He’s not walking yet, but so very close!  One of the boys’ favorite things is playing in Riley’s room (for those who don’t know, Riley is three).  We put up all the little stuff that he might choke on and let him play with everything else.  I go in there with him because there is always that chance that we missed something.  But there are times when Riley asks to play in his room with Aiden when I can’t sit in there and watch them.  His room is right off of the main area of the house so I can still see them, but it’s not totally baby-proof so I’m not super comfortable with it.  Aiden has all of his toys in the living room, but would much rather play with Riley’s toys.

My ultimate goal is to have the boys share a room and turn Riley’s room into a play room.  I’m just not sure when to do it.  I feel like if we did it now, I could get two separate bins that would be just Riley’s and just Aiden’s.  Then everything else in the room would be toys to share.  I really want to do it soon, because my sister and her family are coming for Christmas and having a room where all the kids could play would really be nice.  Four kids in my tiny house is a lot, especially when they can’t be outside.

So here are the questions I have:

*How do you transition toys from belonging to one kid to belonging to both?
*Would you let your one year old and your three year old play in a room together with the door open and you in the next room, if it was baby-proofed?
*If your children share a room, at what age did you put them together?
*Any other tips for room sharing/play room transitions?

I just had to share these pics from the other day.  This is our new life,  boys playing together!  I love it!  Aiden climbed up onto Riley and they were “wrestling”.  Normally Riley doesn’t like Aiden to climb on him, but for some reason he put up with it that day.  Aiden stayed between Riley’s legs and Riley gently rolled him back and forth.  Aiden was cracking up, it was awesome!

A few nights ago I was putting him to bed and we had a conversation about Jesus living in our hearts.  It went a little like this (not exactly mind you, my memory is not that good!):

Me:  Riley, would you like Jesus to live in your heart?
Riley: No, Jesus live in our house
Me: Yes, Jesus is in our house, but He can also live in our hearts.  If he lives in our heart then he can help us when we are scared, hurt or sad.
Riley: I don’t want Jesus in my heart, that hurts me
Me: No, Jesus will never hurt you.  If He lives in your heart He will make you feel better.
Riley: I don’t want Jesus in my heart, He live in my  house

So, he doesn’t quite get the concept, but we are getting there   It’s so fun to talk to him every day and see what new things he comes up with!  I love him!

I’ve had many fears in my life.  In fact, I used to live in fear.  I don’t like to dwell on it because I feel that fear breeds fear, so when I think about my fears the old ones just come flooding back.  I had a break through in my life and I’m not as fearful as I used to be.  At least not in the same way.  My fears before used to be dark and spiritual, but now they are practical.

I actually had a brush with those fears just last night.  There’s a lot more to the story than I’m going to share, because it touches on a personal issue I’m working through in my life.

One of my greatest fears right now is failing my children.  I know that most Moms probably have this fear in some form or another, but that doesn’t make it any easier or any less real.

I fear that I won’t be the best example of a Christian so that they can live their lives for Christ.

I fear that my emotions will get in the way of my relationship with my sons.

I fear that I’m not teaching them the things I should be.

I fear that I won’t be able to have another child.

There is so much more to these fears than I can share, but they haunt me so often.  I pray every day that I can change, be better and trust God more.  I do my best to learn and grow so I can teach my children even more.  I know God can calm my fears, but I’m only human….I still have them.

I’m looking forward to starting Angie’s book and participating in the book club so that maybe I can learn to put some fears to rest.

This last week/weekend I went to visit my BFF and her new baby boy!  He is just so sweet!  I love snuggling new babies, especially when I don’t have to get up with them at 3am   Here is Mr. E sacked out.  Isn’t he precious?

I had a great time doing all the things that my BFF needed me to do: snuggling, dance parties with her 3 year old; baby sitting so she could go make some money.  She keeps saying I wasn’t on vacation, but I called it a “mind vacation”.  I didn’t realize it until I got home but I didn’t think about anything home or church related almost the whole time.  It’s actually been a little rough getting back in to things.  Usually when I’m away I think about all the things I should be doing at home, but I stayed so busy I didn’t have time to.  It was really refreshing!  Thank you friend for sharing your baby with me!

This weekend I’m co-leading worship at our church.  Our worship leaders are out of town, so I’m helping one of the other worship leaders.  If you think of it will you pray for me?  There always seems to be something that comes up whenever I lead that puts me in the wrong frame of mind.  The enemy tries his best to distract me when I need to be focused.  He’s not gonna win, I’m telling you!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Lots of fun, but non-earth-shattering, stuff going on around here.

Per my Wordless Wednesday post, college football season has started, woo-hoo!!!  We are very big BSU Bronco fans around here.  And honestly, who couldn’t be?  It’s infectious.  And we caught it the first fall we lived here and don’t plan on every getting over it!  I’ve said that no matter where we live from here on, we will always be BSU fans.  The funny thing is that we weren’t even really football people before we lived here.  I now know almost everything there is to know and I understand it too   It’s so fun to live in a college town, and honestly our fans are the best!  On game day you can’t go anywhere without being surrounded by it.  It’s just part of our community, and it’s awesome!  My Mom was saying on Saturday the went to breakfast and half the staff were wearing BSU gear and about 3/4 of the patrons – so cool!  And we are finally getting DISH again so we are going to be able to watch all but 3 of the games from the comfort of our own home (that’s not why we are getting it, but it’s a great bonus!).  We have gone to a couple of games and they are so fun.  I don’t think we will get to one this year, but we hope to be able to get season tickets some day.

Aiden is a speed demon   He is seriously so fast!  And he tries to stand up in the middle of the room.  He gets up on his knees and you can see him trying, but just falls down gently onto his hands.  He wants to run after Riley.  They play chase (crawling) and catch.  I said to Riley the other day “Why don’t you go play with your brother?” and guess what?  He did it!  And it was super cute.  I love seeing them play together.  And sometimes Daddy gets in on the fun too.

Aiden is also a beggar!  I can’t eat ANYTHING without him crawling straight for me and smacking his lips!  So the other day Riley and I were both having a snack on the couch and Aiden just couldn’t be left out.  So I got him a Mum Mum to eat with us.  It was pretty cute to have snack time all together.  We have been doing so much better at getting to eat as a family lately and I’m loving it!  I’m finally figuring out what Riley can eat (long story if you don’t know it, but we are doing GF for him) and combining it with what we eat.  I love eating at the table all together.

My BFF had her son, YAY!!!!  I get to go see them in 9 days – oh man, that’s so soon!  Can you tell I’m excited?  I haven’t seen her in about 6 months and of course I will get to meet little Everett for the first time.  Travis got to go to Portland on a short trip and was able to stop by and seem him.  So fun!

Our mornings are cooling off around here and it’s great!  Last week we went to the zoo with some friends, so I bundled up the boys.  I got out clothes for Aiden that are 12 month/winter clothes.  I LOVE winter clothes for babies and just thought he was so yummy looking!  He even wore his first pair of tennis shoes.  Of course the day warmed up by the time we were almost done, so I was glad I had a short sleeved shirt on, but Aiden was super cute anyway.  I can’t wait for more warm winter clothes for all of us.

My boys are growing up so fast.  They can finally take baths together!  Aiden is still a little slippery to wash, but they have fun.  They really do get along so well. Riley puts up with the crazy things Aiden does because he doesn’t know better, and Aiden puts up with the even crazier things Riley does because he’s Riley   I love my boys!