In the midst of this craziness, we found out our images from our photography business were being stolen by another photographer. I honestly was in so much shock. I just never thought someone would actually do this and use our images to try to promote themselves. Thankfully, someone caught her and alerted all the photographers who images she was stealing. We have since then talked to her and she made a public apology to us and her clients and her website (and hopefully her business) is gone. Sadly, she got away with it for over 6 months and made a lot of money showing off our images by deceiving many people.

Life is moving really fast right now and daily my baby boy #2 lets me know he is around. I feel like before I know it, he will be here. The kids were thrilled to know they are getting a baby brother. Abel really wanted a brother and when Sage saw his excitement she was overjoyed to have a baby brother.

Abel is starting to wonder “who is mommy & daddy’s favorite” and keeps saying “but I will always be your firstborn son, right?”. I found this great book called “You are all my favorites”. It’s perfect because there are 3 baby bears, 2 boys & a girl, so it was must read for our little family.

In other boy news, our 1st born will be 5 years old in just a few weeks. He couldn’t be more thrilled about it. (this photos is a few months old, since I don’t have an updated one.)

Meet our new guy!

The sono tech was great and we had told her how happy Abel would be to have a brother so she wrote a message for Abel.

8oz of pure muscle! ha!

The proof!

I’m 18 weeks and I realize you can’t see the belly too well in this dress but I wanted to take a picture on the day we found out what we were having.

Seth got offered an great job opportunity at a company called Journey Group. We were not looking to move out of the area, but we have seen God’s hand through all of this and have such a peace about our new city and Seth’s new company.

We have spent the last 2 weekends there as a family and really have fallen in love with the charming town of Charlottesville. We have been house hunting and we are praying God shows us the perfect house. We hope to get our house on the market this weekend so if you are looking for a super cute 1960s brick townhome that has just had major renovations, you know were to find it.

My heart was racing and I couldn’t think straight. Sage actually took off with the pregnancy test box and was running all over the house. Thankfully, Abel was at school because I don’t really remember how I got through the rest of day. I waited till the kids were in bed to tell Seth because I knew it would be hard for him to take in.

Fast forward to 16 weeks and I was lying in bed the other night wide awake at 3am and feeling a little swimming and kicking go around in my belly. I’ve been having a hard time sleeping. Guess it is the pregnancy. Lying there awake, I prayed for this little one that God would keep him/her safe and be a healthy baby. (I’m not going to lie, I pray daily that this one is a good sleeper. I’ve learned Abel was not your normal baby…so I pray hard.) I thanked God for blessing us with another one to love. My mind started racing and I went down that path of “what if something happens to the baby” and I lose the baby. Yes, I still have those thoughts but it was 3am. Then it hit me, I realized I am totally in love with this little one. Totally smitten and in love.

It’s amazing how God can change your heart. Something you thought you were so not ready or prepared for and yet weeks later I am so attached to my little baby growing inside me.

I’d thought it was time for another belly shot. Clearly, baby is growing!

Almost 17 weeks.

So, this is a typical day in our house. Around 4-5pm we can get a little crazy. If we aren’t outside we are usually inside dancing to music and being silly. Abel thought it would be a good idea to have a huge snake as a tail so he stuffed it in his undies. Sometimes he doesn’t wear pants. ha!

And now when I get out the camera, Sage gives me a huge smile. I love this girl. She is just plain awesome. We have so much fun together. She is my dancing buddy too and thinks my moves are really funny.

We’ll start off with Easter morning. It was lovely…full of adorable kids in jammies eating candy way too early in the morning.

Sage couldn’t believe there was actually candy inside the eggs. She loves playing with Easter eggs (I have kept them in a bin for her) and now there is candy in them all the sudden. Now, when she opens an egg she throws it and says “no candy”.

She was so excited about the candy she didn’t care that she was eating the wrapper.

My little loves…you probably saw these on Facebook.

I look a bit tired. Shot a wedding the night before till 1am. Preggers can’t handle past 10:30pm, but somehow I managed.

Sage and Natalie talking about what candy they had.

I love Sage’s crazy curls. Today, when I was doing her hair she started crying and I told her in about 20 years she will appreciate her curls. The same thing my mom said to me when she was brushing out my curls and I was crying.

Natalie never stays still…reminds me a someone I know…

I think they could be sisters.

“Please more candy.”

The hunt…if the egg didn’t have candy, she threw it down and said “just a toy, no candy”.

She could care less for the basket and once she found an egg and ate the candy, she threw the opened egg back on the ground and went on her way.

Notice the open egg with the toy thrown down.

“Nonni, enough with the toys. Where is the candy?”

Abel on the other hand takes an Easter hunt very seriously.

The end…

Surprisingly, I’m currently the smallest with my 3rd pregnancy (even though I feel like I have popped)! It’s probably because I chase 2 kids all day long and never stop moving. Just the other day, I thought it was safe to sneak off to the bathroom (I have to go all the time…even Abel noticed all my visits to the bathroom) while the kids seemed to be playing nicely together. Sage comes running and laughing and Abel is screaming “She stole my grapes.” They were massive grapes that I didn’t want her to get and she was running with them in her mouth. Talk about major chocking hazard. So yes, even a trip to the bathroom was a workout.

Here’s the baby bump at almost 13 weeks. It’s amazing how much my belly grows from morning to night. Just to shove you, I took these on the same day, one at night and one in the morning.

Morning belly:

Night belly:

Clearly, my jeans are getting too tight. ha!

I’m still fighting with the 1st trimester. It feels like it is taking forever to get me to the 2nd trimester. I know once I hit it (14 weeks & if I start feel better) time is going to fly and it already seems so crazy to us that a newborn will be with us in 6 months!

And here is a pic to prove my girl has curls! YAY! Let’s hope they stay.

I don’t have any pics of my precious boy, but I do have some of his artwork. Every day he draws us the same picture and I love it. It’s me & Seth holding hands. Sometimes Abel & Sage are in the picture and recently he started adding a baby in my belly. I mean, how precious! I love that he always thinks of me and Seth holding hands with a bunch of hearts around us.

Love our long arms and massive ears in this one. Look at that great heart!

I adore the whole family ones.

Close up of the baby…for some reason he drew the baby’s brain on the outside of his head.

And every one is signed with his name on the back.

This little one is sure putting its momma through a lot of pain. Some nasty heartburn & indigestion type of pain. I had no idea it could ever get this bad. I got heartburn with both my other pregnancies but it wasn’t till like the 7th or 8th month and it wasn’t this bad or all the time.

Somehow even though I run 2 miles almost every day and am faithful at my Pilates and Zumba classes and look at food and want to run, I still have manage to put on around 5lbs. I hate this chubby stage and I think will welcome a cute bump. Hopefully, it will be cute. I sure don’t feel cute and round right now.

Work is picking up and thankfully the Lord has given me the strength to get through my sessions.

I’m behind on posting some pictures…my little girl is finally getting hair and with the start of the humidity and heat, curls now sprout on top of her head. (no pictures of that yet since these were all taken a few weeks ago).

I got addicted to leggings when she was stuck in her brace. I can’t help myself and she looks so cute in them.

I probably should not post this, but it is too funny not to. We are in the slow stages of potty training. She trains when she wants to and we don’t push it. Some days it is like “wow, girl you got this” and other days she could care less. It would be a super awesome gift if she was trained by baby #3′s arrival.

I guess I should probably tell you Abel has picked out his names for the baby. If it is a girl, he wants her name to be Essi and if it is a boy he wants “X-0″. (We told him right around Valentine’s day and he was seeing a lot of x’s & o’s and I think that is how he came up with it.) I actually kinda like Essi…So now we just call baby “EssiXo” Way too long of a nickname, but it stuck.

Storytime with daddy.

I’ve been working on a project for our church. Here is a little peak.

Abel and his buddies.

Since I was taking pictures of everyone else at church, I gave the camera to my friend and ask her to snap of few of my crew.

Don’t ask Abel to smile at the camera, because this is what you get.

We got to see our little October baby at 8 weeks 3 days and hear the heartbeat. (I’m pretty sure baby is upside down. The first round part you see is the body and a little limb and the bottom round part is the big head.)

I’m now 10 1/2 weeks along and this one is by far been my hardest first trimester. Pregnancy should just get easier the more you have, but no this little one is putting me through the ringer.

We’re still kinda in shock.

This past weekend we FINALLY had our baby girl’s big hip party. It was a celebration! We have been wanting to do this for her for a very long time. Most of our families were able to make it so that was special. Thank you everyone who came. Sage had a blast!

Her daddy made the invites.

Almost all the kids.

She refused to take a picture unless food was in her mouth. That’s our girl.

Not sure what face this is that she is making.

Thanks to Sage’s “adopted Grandparents” Rick & Annie for supplying all the fun party toys.

Thanks Auntie Ali for making the yummy cupcakes!

My niece who will be ONE on March 9th!

More nieces!

Thanks everyone who has prayed for our girl! She now has FANTASTIC HIPS and we PRAISE GOD for His healing!