getting ready

We had been spending lots of time running around, getting all the doctor appointments out of the way, stocked up on diapers, baby items washed and in order, etc. just in case the baby made an early arrival. With busy days like that it was nice to have a few low key days... baking cookies in our jammies (and of course taste testing the leftover batter)...

Or watching the guys hook up our new internet (yay! we can skype again!) all morning long, or taking extra baths just for fun. These boys are so good. I am usually pretty scheduled and they have been so good to just follow along with whatever I say we are doing that day. Plus, I can hardly wait to see them with the new baby. Matix is a great big brother, we already know that, and I think Hawken will be too. Yesterday, Matix showed off his protective big brother side by yelling at the nurse during Hawken's doctor appointment for making him cry. She had given him a shot, and he cried, which made Matix step and tell her "You stop hurting baby Hawken! That's not nice! Stop RIGHT NOW!" He ended up crying too because he was so upset that Hawken was being hurt. So sweet. Hawken actually calmed down before Matix did. :) Hawken continues to ask to see "his baby", he will lift up my shirt, kiss my belly or tickle it and then say, "All done. Close the door mommy." Close the door means to put my shirt back down. Love it.

Updates

Paul:

Well... Paul did not have his surgery today (read previous post) as scheduled. I guess it was scheduled at the wrong facility and was going to cost WAYYYYY too much there, so he switched it. He still spent the morning with us which was very nice, and I am still looking forward to taking care of him whenever his surgery does happen, hopefully sooner rather than later. Then this afternoon he offered to watch the boys so I could go to my doctor appointment alone, so sweet. I have the best hubby ever, I really do. He is currently writing a paper on a cyanotic infant...? I don't know what that is either, but he is writing a paper on it.

Jessie:

I switched doctors today after a not so pleasant experience yesterday. I had never had a problem with him before, so I won't go into details or write his name or anything, but yesterday was awful. I cried. Anyway, my new doctor(s) - there is a whole team working at this practice - are WONDERFUL. I love them so much already. They did a ton of lab work and ultra sounds and spent a lot of time with me. The nurses and other staff were super friendly too and I couldn't be happier with my decision. I got home to smell freshly baked (from scratch) cookies that the boys had made with Paul, and I fell more in love with the 3 of them. :)

Matix:

What do I say about Matix... He is anxiously awaiting his dinosaur (per request) birthday party. We are going to have it early so the new baby won't accidentally crash the party. :) He is really into longer stories for bedtime, like Rapunzel (the real version, not Disney), The Giving Tree, and Where The Wild Things Are. He knows them all by heart and will recite them without the book randomly in his play. He is very into feelings and will tell us when he is sad or upset, or when he thinks someone else is and why... :) He can also undress himself now and can put on some of his clothes (if they are oriented the right way first). Sometimes he tries out new things, like this... I love this kid!

Hawken:

Oh my silly little man. He is turning into such a ham. "Watch me mommy! See dat?!" is his all time favorite thing to say. He is a GOOD eater despite being so little. He is all muscle and loves to wrestle with Matix, or anyone else who will let him. He is in the "NO! I do it myself" phase, which is hard since he is so small and often can't really do what he thinks he can. Hawken is also potty training. I know, I am a crazy person for letting this 20 month old attempt this, but I am really only following his lead. During our trip he would cry and cry when he would ask to use the toilet and we would tell him "just go in your diapers" It just wasn't feasible to stop every 5 minutes on a 7,000+ mile road trip. He is doing great and loves wearing big boy underpants like Matix, but he is still in diapers at night. Look at this face!

Baby girl:

No name yet. Paul gets to name her though and he does have a list. She kicks ALL THE TIME, to the point I sometimes can't fall asleep, but I am loving it all. I smile with each hiccup, and squirm, and kick. She is still growing right on cue and her due date hasn't changed. Matix talks about "his baby" coming and what he will do with her. He plans on holding her and giving her kisses if she's sad, to which Hawken pipes up and says, "No me! I kiss my baby by myself!" Of course. She is so very loved already. Paul and I are eagerly awaiting her debut.

surgery tomorrow

Paul started his second week of rotations and although we are happy he is moving onto this part of his medical school training, we are all missing all the Paul/daddy time we had been getting. :( These little guys especially are not liking the lack of daddy.

Paul is having a great time and is learning a lot. BUT, tomorrow, he is having surgery on his ear (he's getting a tympanoplasty because he basically has no hearing in one ear, again), which means we get LOTS of Paul/daddy time!! Hooray hooray!!! The surgery is pretty minor, but he will be taking an entire day off to wait for the surgery and then afterward to recover. I can hardly wait. But even though it's just a little surgery, it's still surgery, so please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. :)

package from grandma

These lucky boys got mail from grandma Stacy! Which means, lots of good stuff, especially the lollipops! Yum!! They get so excited when something in the mail is for them. Thank you!

PS, How cute are these little munchkins of mine?! I love them too much. They are so fun.

belly pics 31 and 34 weeks!

So, I have been hoping and praying and wanting this big belly SO badly, and now finally I get one and I don't post pictures?! What's wrong with me?! :) Don't worry baby girl, I haven't forgotten about you, I still took the pictures, I am just slow to show the world how beautiful you have made me. No, I am not trying to be conceded, but I love this big belly SO SO SO much! This first picture is of me when we were back in Utah at only 31 weeks!! Can you believe it? Only 1 week later I was measuring at the same size I was when I delivered Matix, my 8 pound 4 ounce hefty little boy...

This second picture is of me on my birthday, about to burst!! I even got a few stretch marks, which I equally love, who knew? They are painful to get, but I think look like a good reminder of the fact that I was blessed to be a mommy. I was 34 weeks exactly in the picture.

Here is the interesting part of how far along I am though... The doctor continues to question my due date (it's already changed twice). This baby girl is measuring too big, AGAIN! She is perfectly healthy, but she is measuring 2 weeks bigger than she should be, already head down and almost engaged?! Huh? I have another appointment on Tuesday so the doctor can give me a new due date (if necessary) and because I have been having contractions like no ones business. No, they are not braxton hicks either. They are full out, painful, every 30 minutes contractions... But, they don't get much closer than that for the few hours I have them, and then they stop for a few hours. My doctor seems to think that is because my body and the baby are getting ready, although I didn't go through any of this with the boys... We shall see. I can hardly wait to meet her, but I will be super bummed to lose this wonderful big belly of mine.

good bye pacifiers.

The morning after we returned to Miami we decided to get rid of the boys' pacifiers. It had been a long time coming and they were getting to the ridiculous point with them. We were going to get rid of them just before the trip, but honestly, Paul and I were too scared to. :) We thought that with that long of a drive, and that many changes it would be too much for them to handle, especially if we took away their comfort item. Following a few friends, we cut the nipple off of the pacifiers like this:

I tossed them right back into their beds and waited for them to discover them. This is what happened. We had talked about the new baby coming and how she might need a paci, but the boys don't need a paci anymore because they will are big boys. I also mentioned a few times that if their pacifiers ever break, we will just throw them away because we don't use broken things... Here is the video.

Amazingly, or not, it only was 1 night of torture for us. Paul and I had it the worst though... There is a store super close by that we could have run over to and purchased new pacifiers, but we didn't. Hooray! The boys asked about them a few times and we had to look at them in the trash, talk about it, watch the video again and again, but finally now they get it. Pacifiers are gone now. I am so relieved! They are sleeping better in the night now too because they don't wake up if it falls out of their mouth. Hooray! So many perks. Why did we wait so long?! What is so funny is that now when they see pictures of themselves with pacifiers in their mouths they call themselves "baby Matix" or "baby Hawken", even though they were taken just a few weeks ago... Ha ha ha! And, no judgement please, I know I am the slowest person ever for waiting until Matix was almost 3 and Hawken was 20 months old... All is well that ends well though, right? ;)

summer trip day 13

We left Ocala on Saturday August 6th to go back to Miami, finally. This was a loooong trip. We had a blast, but we were ready to get home. In the morning the boys got to see Lexi, and they both fell back in love instantly. :)

Group shot of us with our favorite neighbors. :) Keep in mind this was taken in the morning, during a road trip. Thanks guys for taking such good care of us, as always. And Lexi, thanks for giving up your room. So sweet! Hopefully we will be able to see more of them soon, Phil just took his test and wants to go to Georgia for his rotations too! Hooray!

The boys took good naps in the car as usual, Paul and I were super excited to start recognizing things as we got closer to our house... He didn't know I was going to take a picture, but I promise he was excited. :)

We got home and got to unpacking. We also went out and got Hawken his first real big boy bed. And thanks to auntie Heather and the train tracks she got them and auntie Jill for all the trains, the boys were well entertained as we (mostly Paul) ran around getting things set up and organized again.

We left on our summer trip on May 30th and got back on August 6th. We had 13 full days of driving, and stopped a lot along the way. Our car got ridiculously good gas mileage, nothing broke on the car, and fuel prices were lower than we had expected. We traveled with a 2 and 1/2 year old who has a bladder the size of a walnut, and 1 and 1/2 year old who thought he was potty training, and a daddy who doesn't like to drive for more than 45 minutes at a time, and a mommy who was big and pregnant... We also came back with at least twice the amount of stuff than we left with. We traveled through 18 states, got to see most of our family and friends, and were happily surprised at how fun it all was, even the driving. Hooray for summer vacations!

summer trip day 12

Our trip from Pensacola to Ocala was a breeze. We got up and lazily got ready. We didn't have to rush at all. We left on August 5th. Our neighbors in Dominica (by the way, they were the best neighbors ever) Phil, Cora, and Lexi live in Ocala and they were nice enough to let us crash there for a night so we could have an easy drive the next day down to Miami. The boys were holding hands while watching their movie on the way. It was so sweet. I loved it.

A stop at a gas station along the way had a Dairy Queen, so went in for hand dipped dilly bars. Yum!!

When we got to their house they weren't home yet, but they left us a key so we got ready and went the pool. The kids were SO happy. Hawken swam with Paul while I attempted to chase Matix out of the decorative pond/waterfall thing... :)

Cora made a spectacular dinner and the boys acted like we had forgotten to feed them at all that day. The boys were asleep by the time Phil and Lexi got back so they didn't get a chance to play that night. It was another good day.

summer trip day 11

We left Houston on August 4th. Our stop for that night was in Pensacola Florida, meaning we got to drive the rest of the way through Texas, then all the way through Louisiana (I missed the sign though), and Mississippi, and Alabama, and then just barely into Florida. Wow.

Our lunch stopping stop was under this huge tree. It was pretty hot, but the boys still needed some running around time. Paul found a bee hive hidden in the back of the tree too. It was fun to watch for a little while. Then Paul found this ball in the brush and we played a little kid version of soccer.

Happily back in the air conditioned car. Ready for the next stretch until dinner.

We got into our hotel that we paid for with our hotel points... Not the best, but sufficient. The boys jumped on the bed and they thought it was wonderful. Oh how simple life is when you're 1 and 2. :)

Visiting the Barnum Family!

Oops!! I forgot about this day! :) We went over to the Barnum's for dinner and fun at their neighborhood splash park and playground back in Arizona. I didn't have my camera that day and Leslie sent me these pics in my email and I totally spaced putting them into iPhoto. This was at the end of July, before we left. Mike and Paul grew up together, although Mike is a little older. Here are the 2 of them with each of their youngest kids.

This was our first time meeting their newest kiddo, Avery. She is so cute and patient. Matix wanted to hold her of course. :) He really is getting ready for our new baby to come too.

Matix loved watching Josh and Ethan play and run around at the splash park even though it was crazy windy. I love this picture. He was giggling at seeing the water get dumped on their heads.

After a little while everyone went over to the playground. This is one of the coolest playgrounds, and the boys had a blast. Matix and Hawken showed off their daredevil skills. Great.

Thanks Barnum family for the fun evening, amazing food, and good conversation. We had a great time!

Aaron's band

The show I went to with Laurel was great. Her brother Aaron is SO talented! He plays the bass and between him, the drummer, the guitar play and the amazing lead singer, this band is a new favorite for sure.

Because I had sent my camera with Vanessa, Laurel had to take these pics for me on her phone, so they are a little blurry. Here I am with Aaron playing the crazed fan! Too fun!

Thanks to Laurel's dad, Maxi, for getting us in and then buying me a fancy smoothie. :) And of course to Laurel for the great trip. The only picture I got of the 2 of us together was in the morning after this late show, and we both look... tired, to put it nicely. :) So I won't be posting that.