28 Weeks

So I'm officially third trimester. Which means I've got to start thinking about this pregnancy ending soon. I'm getting a bit scared! I know how much work a newborn is and how little sleep I'll be getting. I LOVE to sleep and regularly get 9+ hours a night. So it's going to be a hard adjustment for me. BUT...this isn't the first time I've done this! So if I got through the sleepless nights twice before, I can do it again!

I'm also a bit sad to not have Paige as my baby anymore. She is so much a baby to me. I still cuddle her and rock her like she's a newborn. She's just so sweet and I don't want to disturb her perfect life in anyway. I'm not worried about Hailey at all...poor girl! But I know that she'll be fine! She's done this before.

Even with all my worries I'm still so excited to meet this baby and fall in love. I KNOW it'll be just as great and rewarding as my other babies were. And I know that Paige will be fine...especially with Hailey there to play with. We're going to have some good times!

But I still have about 12 weeks until I really need to start thinking about these things. Until then I can just focus on getting all the sleep I can. Maybe try to eat less junk. And mostly just LOVE on these two perfect girls I've got right now!

The Christmas Post

These last two weeks have been divine! Seriously, I have loved every single second of this Holiday season. My favourite part of it all was having Ben home ALL week! Life was getting just a bit 'out of control busy' so it was nice to see him regularly and to not have any other commitments/responsibilities. I slept a LOT this last week. A LOT. Our kids figured out that their parents were exhausted and let us sleep in every single day (i.e. 10:00am). I'm honestly not sure if I could ask for more.

We spent Christmas eve with my entire family (which is something we haven't done in years). Christmas morning was at my home (Sarah, Nick and my parents spent the night and Santa got the message). We opened stockings and then all headed off to church. After church Sarah and Nick disappeared to his family's Celebration, and my parents came back to our house to open gifts. It was so NICE and so LAID BACK. I LOVED it!! Then Jeff and Yuka and Alisa came over for Christmas dinner with my parents and us. That was also so nice and so laid back.

We got together with Ben's family a few days later for a gift exchange (and of course I forgot my camera...so I'll need to borrow some from someone else). Santa came to visit us. The girls were mesmerized! They've been lucky this year and have gotten a few surprise visits from Santa. Lucky Lucky girls!

Then we got together with my WHOLE family again so the cousins could exchange gifts. We had a TON of fun...I was sick though (what's new?). My camera didn't make an appearance here either.

Then in New Years eve we got together with my cousins on my Dad's side. It was a sweet day. We ate delicious food, played games ALL day long, went swimming at the hotel, and played some more games. It was a GREAT New Years Eve!

It was just so nice to be with family so much this Holiday.

It was also so nice to have no plans in between all these family gatherings...my poor pregnant body needed some serious down time. And that's what I got! I feel so regenerated and ready to go! (maybe that's just the iron pills I'm taking to deal with the Anemia I was FINALLY diagnosed with). Whatever it is, I'm feeling so much healthier...and a million times less tired!

Now onto 2012! This is going to be a GREAT year!

And the pics:

A nativity reenactment...The Angle giving Mary the news of Baby Jesus


Something clearly had this Angel Embarrassed...she still delivered the message to the Shepherd and his lamb

The whole crew, Mary, Jesus, Joseph, Angel, sheep, shepherd, wisemen. Cute kids hey?

A "masterpiece" painted on a gift from Santa

Opening Presents with G-ma and G-pa

Daddy got some presents too

Oh and we can't forget G-ma

Or G-pa (and his fancy transformers wrapping paper)

The girls gave each other gifts...and hugs

And I got hugs from them too! Nothing better than that!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We're very excited for Christmas this year! We'll be eating lots of yummy food, opening a million presents, and spending LOTS and LOTS of time with our families this year! I can hardly wait!

Here are some adorable (and horribly scanned) pictures of the girls from their visit with Santa earlier this week. This was the best Santa display we've seen in a while (the free picture may have helped sway my opinion...and maybe the tiny 3 minute wait in line)

Christmas Preperations

We've been getting ready for Christmas, slowly but surely this year. I'm pretty sure most of the presents have been purchased, the decorations are up, cookies have been baked and decorated, crafts have been completed, and lots of chocolate and treats have been eaten. Here are some pictures:

Getting ready for a Christmas Craft...concentration NEEDED

Watching very closely to make sure everything goes where it belongs

Working on the actual craft....serious serious business here

Finished!

Cookies cooling...waiting to be decorated and eaten (well, at least waiting for their icing to get licked off, we don't seem to actually EAT the cookies around here)

Decorating those same cookies...the ones that will get licked clean!

And that's it so far. We've been busy with our Advent calendar and all the activities it's provided us. We've also been very anxiously awaiting the return of some special cousins that were living in the Caribbean all last year. They came home yesterday and my kids (especially Hailey) were SO EXCITED!! Now we're just waiting for the rest of the 'sneezles' to leave our home so we can properly celebrate Christmas!

Working out with Mom

There are a few things that I want my children to grow up always knowing, things like:

Who they are, and where they came from

Their Heavenly Father loves them

Mom and Dad LOVE them no matter what

Santa only brings gifts to believers

and...

Working out is important!

I want them to grow up knowing that physical exercise is not only fun...but necessary. I don't care how skinny you naturally are...exercise is still IMPORTANT (especially when you eat as much junk food as I do)!!

I am by NO means a fitness expert or even fanatic, BUT on the odd days when I feel good (i.e. not completely exhausted from this pregnancy), we get all geared up (panties and tank tops for Hailey, onesie undershirts for Paige) and head on down to the basement to get in a good workout.

We do things like:

Yoga - downward dog (with my back acting as a ramp for anything and everything)



We do a little 'modified' Child's Pose


And we try to get in some abs too


Sometimes we get some stretching in too


It's pretty funny...you've got to see them doing jumping jacks. And Hailey's lunges and squats are HILARIOUS!!!

Anyway, I feel like I'm teaching them a good lesson. I hope they remember these times and learn to love fitness even more than me one day! And hopefully...just hopefully their form will improve:)

Mexico

So we went on another trip to Mexico...it seems to be our favourite destination. And why not? It's gorgeous! The Weather is perfect! The People are Great! And It's Gorgeous. Did I mention that it's gorgeous?

This trip we went back to Puerto Vallarta where I travelled two years ago with my girls (see This post). I had so much fun with My Mom and Brother, cousins and Aunts and Uncles, that when the opportunity came up to do it all over again, we JUMPED on it!! This time Ben came along, and this time we didn't bring our girls. Which honestly is a whole separate post. We wanted a chance to Holiday without kids, and it was wonderful; BUT I missed them sooooo much! Honestly, if we go again we'll for sure bring the kids! They make it so much more fun!

We did take full advantage of our 'freedom' and relaxed, played a LOT, and relaxed some more. Eating dinner at night was a DREAM! Sleeping in as long as I wanted was much needed. And spending some quality time with my hubby was perfection!

On this trip we:

We went shopping in Bucerias



Went swimming with the Dolphins (well Ben, my cousin's husband and their two sons)


We lounged on the Beach

Helloooo...model pose!

We ate breakfast on the Balcony with the crashing waves as our soundtrack

We Boogie Boarded a LOT

Helloooo preggo belly (23 weeks)
We went surfing (well Ben and my cousins husband did...the rest of watched)


We ate Tacos at little roadside stands and restaurants

We went on a sunset boat ride, landed on a candle lit beach, watched an amazing show (with crazy characters), and ate a delicious meal.

We went Whale watching and snorkeling....sorry I don't have pictures. I'll explain: I knew we were going on a tiny boat, I knew we were going to see Humpback whales (40+ feet long), and I knew that when my cousin went a few years ago the whale swam right under their boat and surfaced RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM!! So I was worried that we were going to get tipped over and I didn't want my camera to get ruined (my life obviously wasn't as important). So I left it (the camera) back at the resort. My cousins have pictures which I'll have to bum off them, because it really was so exceptionally amazing!

Another thing 'we' did...that didn't include me was Zip lining! Ben and my cousin and her husband went and because I'm pregnant I wasn't allowed to. I can't even begin to describe how sad this was for me! Which means...I'll just have to go back to do it again when I'm not pregnant!



Anyway, the trip was so fun! I loved hanging out with a few of my cousins and Aunts and Uncles...getting to know them better. I loved going to church and having no clue what anyone was talking about. I loved sitting in the car while Ben did his best to fit in on the crazy Mexican roads. I loved the food...Pinadas, Pico de Gallo, Guacamole etc. I just LOVED it all. And best of all? I loved coming home to my sweet girls who were so wonderfully taken care of by their Aunt Sarah and Uncle Nick as well as their Aunt Lauren and Uncle Chris. We're so grateful to them for watching our girls!

Another week via the iPhone.

I'm a week or two late on this one...but at least I'm getting something done around here. Here is a glimpse into our life (2 weeks late):

Playing 'school bus' together...these two PLAY so well together 95% of the time. And the other 5% of the time? Well, we're still recovering.

Tired after a Day at cousins Max's Birthday Party

My pregnant Belly...22weeks

Decorating the Family Tree...Big sister Helping little Elf

Decorating the Girls tree...and clearly eating chocolate

Making Crafts...like robots and other fun things

More sleeping because the 'sneezles' made their rounds in our home

2:00 am self portraits after watching the latest Twilight movie never turn out well...you just end up looking like the Bad Vampires everyone's afraid of. (I was actually trying to get a shot of my makeup...it clearly was too late to even bother)

21 Weeks

21 Weeks now! So I've already posted about our Ultrasound experience and not knowing what we're having. I'm actually kind of excited about this baby being a surprise. I'm still going to guess 'girl' though because that seems like a safe bet in my home.

At 21 weeks I'm definitely showing, there's no hiding this baby bump, although I'm notorious for forgetting it's there. I'm always side swiping my kids with this thing...or getting stuck in awkward places because the belly won't fit. I'm still trying to decide if I should make the full switch to maternity clothes. Most of what I wear isn't maternity...with the exception of a few pairs of sweats. But I think it's that that time...I may just need to take that leap. I really do LOVE maternity clothes, but I just hate being stuck in them for too long.

I'm still feeling good, not too sick, not sore yet etc. My blood pressure is CRAZY low though, and I find I'm constantly dizzy, lightheaded and exhausted! I feel like I'm being drugged...that's how tired I am. It could also be due to the fact that I'm actually really busy. I have two little kids to take care of, I teach a million piano students and I have a busy calling at church.

We haven't really started preparing for this baby in any way (I still have a little more then 4 months so it's no rush). But we did set up the toddler bed in Hailey's room with the hope that Paige will decide to leave the crib and sleep in there. She NOT interested at all. She LOVES her crib. She can climb in and out of it without problem, but when it's bedtime she willingly stays in it all night long. She just LOVES her crib!! So we'll have to see what happens in the next few months. We're not really pushing it because there's plenty of space in our room for the baby. But one day the babes will need it's own room...and bed. Which means Paige will be making the move. Poor girl.

Anyway, enough of the chatting, here's my 21 week pic: