March was a busy busy month for us, but it was sure fun too! After Samuel's birthday weekend and Spring Break, the rest of the month was filled with even more fun.
There is NEVER a dull moment with this little diva. She wears me out, but I love her personality so much.
And her brothers are pretty awesome too. I was just thinking the other night how much I'm enjoying this stage of life. Nathan is thriving in Kindergarten, Samuel is growing up and voicing his opinion and showing his fun personality more and more, and Elisabeth just pushes herself right into the big boys' life and activities. I'm enjoying the dynamic of all three of them and their fun ages so much right now- Life without a diaper bag, what??? (for a few more months anyway, ha!)
I'm never short of helpers in the kitchen. One of Samuel's favorite activities is helping me bake banana bread.
Elisabeth learned how to spell her name. We didn't make it easy on her. Ha!
When Fridays aren't date nights, they are pizza nights with these Crazies!
And a movie night to go along with the pizza picnic.
Samuel and Nathan (and I) have been counting down the months and weeks and days until we could see the new Beauty and the Beast movie. Disney World ruined all of us on all things Beauty and the Beast. We couldn't wait! We finally got a chance and I took two of my favorite boys on an afternoon movie date.
They wanted to pose in front of the Power Rangers. They may love Beauty and the Beast, but they are still boys...
Pretty cute dates!
We all loved the movie! I can not wait to see it again- such good music, characters, and a more developed plot than the animated version. SO good! Daddy and Elisabeth crashed our dinner date after the movie. We didn't mind! It was a great day.
Nathan has been itching to shoot Matt's BB gun, and he finally got the chance
Little Brother couldn't be left out.
Spring weather makes my heart happy, happy. I'm so excited that walks to the playground can be a regular part of our evening routine again. It's my favorite part of the day.
Nathan went through a phase where he wanted scrambled eggs with cheese for breakfast every morning, and he wanted to help make them. He was so proud that he could do it (almost) all by himself. He and I spent a few nights watching the Kids Baking Championship on Food Network, and it was so fun watching it together! Now he wants to help with everything in the kitchen.
Our church had a big four day mission conference at the end of March, and Matt and I were in charge of coordinating one of the church wide meals (EEK!). It was a little intimidating, but everything turned out so well. It was a great night! And in the end, I really enjoyed serving in a new way and being involved in the ins and outs of the conference. But we were TIRED by the end of the weekend.
Friday night our class hosted two missionaries from Montreal and got to hear their testimonies. It was a great night. Their testimonies were genuine and encouraging.
These kiddos were ready for the banquet on Saturday evening at church. They were good sports to spend so much time at church over the weekend.
It was fun to see a familiar face from our visit to Venezuela. Alexis' daughter was a translator on our trip last summer.
This was the highlight of the missionary displays for our kids. We couldn't get them off this bike!
In the midst of the all the busyness of church, we crammed in a birthday party for a friend in Nathan's class. We all crashed hard on Sunday night.
Elisabeth and Samuel were ready for school.
And we've managed to get some cute pictures of the kiddos in their Sunday Best.
Elisabeth has been impatiently waiting for her turn to do gymnastics, and we finally found her a spot, so she started last week. She loved it, and her coach told me she did awesome for her first time. She just walked right in and seemed to know just what to do. She and Samuel will get to be in the same class in the Fall, but for now we make an extra trip for her class. It makes for a busy week, but her smile and excitement and constant somersaults totally make it worth it!
Samuel is still loving it too!
These two are my errand buddies during the week. They are too cool for Target apparently.
And while they tag along with me, Nathan has been doing all sorts of fun things at school. They just finished a dinosaur unit, and I've learned more about dinosaurs from him in the last few weeks, than I think I've known my whole life.
April is bringing soccer and Easter fun and then we head into a big boy's birthday and SUMMER! Life is SO fun right now!
I can't believe I'm already in my second trimester with this pregnancy. It has gone by so fast! March was a busy, busy month for us, so I think that the busyness contributed to this pregnancy feeling like it's flying by. Here's a little recap of my last three months with this sweet baby growing inside.
Finding out I was pregnant ended up being a little crazier than I expected. We tried for one whole month to get pregnant with this baby. I'll never know why God has blessed us with being able to conceive all four babies so easily, but I also don't take it for granted and am always grateful. Since it was our first month trying, I don't think Matt really ever thought that I'd get pregnant that fast. We hadn't talked much about the possibility of me being pregnant or anything. The day after I was expecting my period was a Friday and that was date night for us. So, after I dropped off the kids at my parents' house for the evening, I came home and took a test. I didn't tell Matt I was going to take a test or anything. I just figured if it was negative, then he didn't need to know, and if it was positive it would be a fun surprise to talk about during our date. So... I took the test, and I saw a VERY faint blue line. I was a little surprised it was so faint because I wasn't testing super early or anything. Anyway, I had always heard that any line (even faint) meant a positive test, but I couldn't convince myself 100% that it was a positive test. I was just confused. I had always used a pink dye test with the other pregnancies and the result were always super clear even testing at about the same time. So when Matt got home, he asked what I was doing, and I pulled out the test and told him that I was trying to decide if it was positive or not. First he sort of laughed at me, like "we just decided to start trying for a baby like three weeks ago, how could you already be taking a test?" and then he looked at it and very confidently said there was no way it was positive, and that I had gone a little crazy for thinking so. I told him that the rule always was that any line was a positive, but he was sure that the light blue line was just the dye and meant nothing. So we went on with our night. I googled it later that night and read that the blue dye tests were more unreliable than pink dye tests and had more of a potential for a false positive with a blue dye test than a pink dye test. I wondered all night about it, and the next morning I tested with the second test (since that's the recommended testing time of day for the best results). The line on that test might have been a tad darker, but Matt was still sure that it was negative and that I was crazy. We picked up the kids from my parents' house, ran some errands and stopped and bought one more test. I didn't want to have any doubts, so I spent the extra money on a digital test. My plans of having time to process the results by ourselves on a fun date night had gone out the window, and while the kids were being super loud and crazy and eating their lunch, I took the digital test, and brought it out to show Matt.
He didn't doubt me this time! I think we were both a little shocked at how quickly we got pregnant. (I was excited because I worried if it took us a few months to get pregnant we'd end up with a December baby which wouldn't have been as fun for birthday parties. Ha! And I didn't want the age gap between our kids to get much larger since the other three were so close in age). We just sort of stared at each other and talked in code because the kids were around and we didn't want to tell them yet. So, it ended up not being the way I had hoped to find out, but it's a fun story to remember :)
Two days after I found out I was pregnant, Elisabeth told everyone at her preschool that she was a big sister. I was mortified because we had not told a soul and we definitely had not told the kids we were expecting. She went through a phase a few months ago when she called herself a big sister, and I have no idea what prompted her to say it again, but she had no idea what she was really saying. I think she just knows she's a big girl and a sister, so that makes her a big sister in her mind. I told her that if she was a big sister then that meant we had a baby in our family, and she was like we do have a baby in our family... it's me! Anyway, I had to lie to her teachers at the preschool and tell them that I wasn't pregnant because we hadn't even told our families yet. And then a few weeks later I had to explain that I was in fact pregnant. Silly Girl!
It was fun sharing our news with family and friends, although it was a bit more complicated this time around. We wanted to wait a few weeks before we shared the news with the kids, just to spare them any trauma if I happened to miscarry or something and because they aren't the best secret keepers. Ha! So we had to find time to tell people alone without the kids, which was tricky. It was still fun to share our fun news. I think we surprised most people, so that was extra fun.
At eight weeks, we had our first ultrasound of our tiny babe and got to see a teeny tiny heart beating. I always love that first ultrasound appointment. It's always a relief that everything is fine with the baby (and that there was one baby and not two. ha!) and makes the pregnancy feel real.
After that appointment, we felt comfortable telling the kids our big news. So we sat them down on the couch and told them we had a surprise. I gave Samuel a picture of the ultrasound, Nathan a onesie with a 4 on it, and Elisabeth a Big Sister book. I really thought they'd be able to figure out the surprise, but they were CLUELESS. I knew they wouldn't understand the ultrasound picture, but they thought the shirt was for Elisabeth, and Nathan even read the title of the Big Sister book and still had no idea. It was hilarious. Finally, we came out and just told them. For as much as their little minds could comprehend, they were all excited.
It has been really fun to share this pregnancy with them. They all say and do the cutest things. I thought Samuel would be the one that wouldn't think much about a new baby, but he has been the most excited one, and he is so thoughtful toward this baby. He always wants to know how big the baby is and he's told us that we need to get the baby a new car seat and a kindle :). He talks about making sure we have milk and bottles for the new baby and wants to know where the baby will sleep. He gives my tummy hugs and kisses and says he can't wait to know if the baby is a boy or a girl. He also tells everyone that we're having a baby. I just love how excited he is. I think siblings are one of the greatest gifts we give our kids, so I'm thrilled to see their joy in adding to our family. Nathan is excited too, but I think since he's not around us as much, he doesn't voice it as much. And Elisabeth has a hard time comprehending how long it will be before the baby comes and is adamant that this baby better be a girl! She loves to hug and kiss my belly too. Finally, just last week she conceded that she'd still hold the baby if it's a boy, but she still gets upset if anyone mentions the possibility of her having a baby brother. When we first told the kids, we told them that we'd have to wait a few weeks to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl, and that we don't get to choose, but God chooses the baby He thinks is best for our family. Samuel immediately said, "I hope God choosed a boy for our family." He was really insistent on wanting a boy at first, but now he says he wants a girl, but really he just wants a baby. He's the sweetest.
We got to see the bay again at my 12 week appointment. It was still so tiny but so much bigger than at eight weeks. We went to the store to look at limes afterward to show the kids how big the baby was at 12 weeks.
I haven't been feeling the best with this pregnancy. During the first trimester, I was pretty nauseous almost all day everyday. I never threw up, and I was still able to function which I was very thankful for, but I felt crummy a lot of the time. I was either nauseous or starving with not much in between. This pregnancy has been different from all of my others, because I've never had much morning sickness. I did feel a little more queasy with each pregnancy- I had nothing with Nathan, a few random times of queasiness with Samuel, and a little more consistently with Elisabeth, but this pregnancy felt significantly worse. Thankfully, it's improved a lot now that I'm past the first trimester.
13 Weeks
I guess the trade off was that I didn't notice being as tired this
pregnancy as in my other three. I did always notice a slump in energy
levels in the afternoon and tried to make a point to lie down and rest
during Elisabeth's nap time. I would rest for about an hour and doze for
about twenty minutes of that pretty consistently. I hated when I woke
up though because I would be really nauseous and groggy, and it always
took me a while to snap out of the waking up funk. Samuel was sweet to let me rest. I always told the kids that I needed to
rest to help the baby grow, so now they remind me that I need to sleep a
lot. I also fell asleep a little earlier at night. But I also had a
hard time sleeping in the middle of the night (after a trip to the
bathroom), so that was super annoying. That's improved in the last
couple of weeks too.
14 Weeks
I've certainly been thankful for the second trimester to make its appearance. I love seeing my little bump and looking forward to feeling baby kicks soon! The kids ask all the time if they can feel the baby kick, so I know they are ready too. I'm savoring this pregnancy and all the joy that comes with anticipating a new life.
Our family is so excited about welcoming a new baby into our family this Fall. For my own memory, I wanted to share about all our thoughts and emotions involved with this new addition.
Making the decision to have a fourth child was something Matt and I thought about, talked about, and prayed about for months and months. It felt like one of the biggest decisions we've made in our marriage. It was so different than our decision making process about our other kids. I remember when we decided to start trying to have a baby for the first time, we both just sort of knew when we were ready. I Then we always knew we wanted more than one child, so adding Samuel to our family was easy too. We wanted our first two kids to be close together in age (and then planned to have a larger age gap between our second and third child. HAHAHAHAHA!), so after Nathan's first birthday, it was easy to decide to try for Baby #2. Way back when Matt and I started dating, we talked about how many kids we wanted to have, and we both quickly answered that we wanted three kids. We both always wanted a larger family than two kids, so while we always planned to add a third child to our family, there was no decision involved in when Elisabeth joined us. She just did her own thing and threw us all for a loop (fits her personality perfectly!).
While I was pregnant with Elisabeth, I always wondered if she'd be my last, but I'd never let myself think about it too much because I would get too sad. When I packed away her baby clothes, I'd wonder if I'd ever get to pull them out again. Somehow once we started having babies when people asked us how many kids we wanted, our answer changed from three to three or maybe four. Honestly though, I think the only way I thought we'd ever have four kids is if we ended up with three boys and wanted to try one more time for a girl :), but we had our three awesome kids, we had boys and a girl, our hands and our hearts were full, but in the back of my mind the question of "Are we sure we're done having kids?" always lingered.
The fact that we had Samuel and Elisabeth so close together complicated both sides of our decision to have another baby. Once Elisabeth turned eighteen months or so, I started to realize how fast we were moving out of the baby/toddler stage. She's always been big for her age, and her verbal and communication skills have always been advanced, so when she was eighteen months old, she looked and acted like a two year old. I just couldn't believe that I had three kids, and in just five years, I felt like I was moving out of the baby/toddler stage. I wasn't ready to be out of that season of life. I felt like I got robbed a little of the sweet baby stage from both Samuel and Elisabeth's babyhood because of having them only seventeen months apart. So, on that end, I wanted more kids. BUT, by the time Elisabeth got close to two years old, the benefits of having kiddos close in age were showing up. We noticed how well all three kids could play together, how their interests were similar, how fun it was that as they were getting older we could do more things with them, and we wondered how adding another baby with a larger age gap would change that dynamic that Matt and I were enjoying with our three kids in three years family makeup.
So about a year ago, we both sort of bringing up the idea of having one more baby. We both would change our minds every single day. Seriously, one day I would think that I was sure we needed one more baby to even out and complete our family, and then the next day I would feel so content and complete with our three blessings. I remember one day, we drove past train tracks and we laughed about how that used to be the highlight of toddler Nathan's day when he saw a train track, and Matt randomly said, "I think I want another baby." And then the next day, the kids would act crazy, and he'd change his mind. While we talked about it last year, we also had already committed to going to Venezuela that summer on a mission trip, so that delayed any immediate decision (Venezuela was not a country we felt safe traveling to if I was pregnant). We always just said, we'll talk about it when we get back, there's no reason to make a decision now. Well, we got back from Venezuela and still couldn't decide. I remember we talked about it once during a date shortly after we returned and it turned into a conversation about all the reasons we wanted one more child and all the reasons we didn't, and then the conversation ended. About a month after we got back from Venezuela we made a last minute decision to go to Disney World in October. Since it was just a few weeks away, and I knew I'd enjoy Disney World much more not being pregnant at the time, we delayed our decision again.
Just a couple of weeks after we returned from Disney before we had any more opportunities for baby talks, I ended up in the hospital with a diagnosis of MS. There were so many things we processed during those hours in the ER after the doctor told us the results of the MRI, but I remember wondering if that diagnosis would end any of our thoughts of having another baby, and I remember feeling really sad about the possibility of not having any more children. For me, that was a pivotal moment where I realized that yes, I really did want another baby. Matt still wasn't sure (I think he was concerned about my health), but we talked at length with our neurologist and not only was he so positive and hopeful about my diagnosis and prognosis in general, but he was especially optimistic about pregnancy, letting us know that pregnancy is one of the most effective treatments in preventing MS relapses. He recommended we have six more kids, ha! However, I received high doses of steroids in the hospital, so we still had to postpone any decision for several more weeks until those side effects were gone. In the meantime we still talked back and forth with no firm decision.
Finally, at the beginning of January there was nothing delaying a decision any longer, and we sort of didn't even talk about it much. I think we both just knew that after so much talking and deciding, we probably really did want to add to our family or we wouldn't have thought about it so much. We both think our kids are pretty awesome, and we see a lot of benefits of having a larger family particularly when our kids are older. We both thought that a few years from now we'd probably regret not having one more baby. God blessed us quickly with a positive pregnancy test, and although I might have occasional moments of panic about adding another baby to our already crazy life, we feel immensely blessed and grateful for the opportunity to add more love to our family. We are looking forward to the coming months with grateful and excited hearts. This baby is a blessing to our entire family, and we can't wait to become a family of six!
We had a fun Spring Break. I didn't realize how much we miss Nathan when he's at school. Our days were so much more fun having our big boy with us!
A few days before Spring Break started, Samuel got to sleep in his birthday present for the first time. We got him a bunk bed for his birthday. He had way outgrown his toddler bed and was so excited to get a bunk bed. Nathan was excited too. They've slept together most nights since we've gotten it.
My priority over Spring Break was to schedule play dates with some of our best friends. So on Monday, we spent the morning with Emma and Grant. We had such a good time with them. We had prepared ourselves that their family was moving out of state and grieved that for a few weeks, but God has been so faithful to their family, and we get to keep them! If Nathan chose a best friend, he would say it is Emma.
Samuel's birthday always falls over Spring Break which I think will be fun as he gets older that we can do fun things on his birthday since he's not in school.
I made birthday pancakes for breakfast.
After breakfast, we headed over to Levi and Audrey's house for our second play date of the week. Leslie is always the sweetest hostess and had a little party set up for Samuel when we got there.
The kids had SO much fun playing together. They played and played and played.
What I thought was really cute was that probably about half the time they were all five playing happily together (instead of splitting up boys and girls like they usually do)
We had lunch,
and then the kids braved the cold, cold weather to spend a few minutes on the trampoline. I never thought it would be too cold to jump on the trampoline during Spring Break, but it was freezing. The kids didn't last long, but they had fun.
It was another really fun morning. I love it that my kids are friends with my friends' kids. I always have as much fun as they do at play dates!
Tuesday night we celebrated Samuel's birthday. I told him he got to pick whatever he wanted for dinner, that I could cook whatever he wanted or we could go to a restaurant. His choice was McDonalds (the one with the play place) :). So that's what we did!
My parents joined us. We ate dinner and then he opened his presents from us and my parents
Then the kids ran around and played in the play place for about an hour. It was a great night celebrating our four year old!
Wednesday morning the boys got busy playing with Samuel's new presents.
We spent the morning playing at home, and then we went out to lunch at Hideaway with some of my friends. The kids were happy to tag along when pizza is on the menu. We also ran to Trader Joe's while we were on that side of town and let the kids pick out some snacks and treats.
Wednesday afternoon the weather finally had started warming up, so we took a walk to the neighborhood pond and let the kids burn off some energy outside. They love playing on the rocks at the pond.
Thursday morning was my last morning of Spring Break with my boy, so we splurged and went out for donuts for breakfast.
The kids left Thursday afternoon to go to Iowa with my parents for the rest of Spring Break. They stopped at a water park in Kansas City, went to the children's museum in Iowa and spent lots of time playing with their favorite cousin.
I missed them, but I also really enjoyed a break. I cleaned my house Thursday, because one of my favorite things about getting a break from the kids is that my house stays clean for more than fifteen minutes at a time. I know I'll miss their mess when they're grown and out of the house, but I did enjoy a break from it for a few days.
I made myself a pretty big to do list to get accomplished while I was kid free, but I also made sure to rest and relax too. I'm coordinating a church wide dinner next week at our church, and I got the table decorations finished, ran a lot of errands, had lunch with a friend, cleaned out all the kids' closets and their rooms, napped, caught up on some tv shows and spent a lot of time with Matt.
On Saturday night we went out on a triple date with some of our great friends.
I was ready to have my babies back by Sunday though! I missed them and all their craziness. Our next break from school is summer, and as much fun as we all had during Spring Break, I know summer will be awesome!
