Early Pregnancy

Yes, I am already having cravings. Those of you from our area know exactly what these are.
They are heaven.... I mean, pepperoni sticks from Bobes.

Quite possibly these are my weakness!

Now, don't get me wrong I have the usual cravings I have had with both girls carbs, lots and lots of apples, etc.
Right now I am pretty much sick to my stomach 24/7. Never actually getting sick, just feeling sick.
Which leaves me to drinking alot of water and eating something almost hourly. My womanly figure is beginning to become a little tooo womanly too quick. hehe

I am usually at my Zumba class 1-2x a week. Love it. Plus my studio time. After I went back to Z with my miscarriage a woman asked me... "so do you think you pushed yourself too hard" (the class is very tough) Ugh. My response was a very polite, "no". As I didn't need to feel like I did something wrong to cause loosing the baby. Regardless, after finding out I was pregnant again I felt the need to not go to class for a month. Now studio class is back in session and I went back to Z. Not pushing it but it feels good to be moving my body again.

At 8.5 weeks now my belly lump is so much more apparent than any other pregnancy!
Its such a cool, short time in a woman's life I am trying to not feel fat but blessed :)

PS. Those of you who are curious-- Yes, I ate them all by myself proudly hehe

Baby In your tummy...

The girls love saying "my mommy has a baby in her tummy"
Ayla has said it to her friends, their parents, and strangers in line at WalMart.

She is very proud :)

Leah says it looks like a worm. hehe

PS> Im totally trying to catch up today.

Honest Blogging

It's so nice to look at all the blogs across blogland that I read and see the "perfect families" with "angelic children" but if we can be honest with ourselves.... that isn't honest blogging. No man is perfect and all children misbehave at times. If we never made mistakes we would never have anything left to learn.


Lately, I have really noticed my imperfections as a parent. Early pregnany hormones have me sent to the couch most days feeling sick and tired. Boy, am I sick of being sick and tired. I remind myself of the days ahead where I will feel normal and joyful. But, I am a girl and feel sorry for myself most days. When really I should feel sorry for my hubs for dealing with my "girly moods". We stack up books on the couch and I go through the motions.

I look back to a year ago when we decided to go off of birth control. At this point in time I truely felt like I was a baby making factory. With both of our girls we were pregnant within 2 mo of stopping the meds. After 5-6 months I started to doubt myself.... then Valentines day 2011 we found out we were expecting!! What an amazing gift to give my hubs. We were very excited. But, excitement was short lived. Within 9 days of finding out we were expecting we were faced with a week of bleeding and lots of lab work. Then what I thought would NEVER happen to me, happened.

I have had so many friends facing infertility and miscarriages. Its ugly and you never think you will be able to handle it. But, God is good. Always. I will always carry that baby within me. I will always tear up thinking of the heartache, but I am stronger because of it. I may not understand why some woman have these problems, but I am not angry with God for it. Beautiful children get loving homes through adoption and foster homes. And miracles happen when we least expect it.

We feel so blessed to be pregnant again. I don't expect this child to come out speaking in sentences, sleeping through the night, and never cry. Because life is messy and wonderful at the same time. Always expect me to be honest on here. Because I want to look back at the heartaches and happiness with the same amount of reverence.

Our Future

Flashforward to March 2012

We are truly blessed :)

The Heat is making us a little crazy...

The heat has made us a little crazy lately.
We've spent alot of time indoors because its hard to breathe as soon as we open the door!
I have found our barbie's in new action poses. Like Barbie Man above working out his abs.

The girls really love doing crafts and drawing. I let Leah use markers for the first time this week. For the most part the markers stayed on the paper. ha Leah likes to draw circles and practice her colors. She isn't recognizing her colors as well as I remember Ayla doing. She only knows a couple. Pink and Brown, I believe. She draws lots of circles, but tells a HUGE story that coincides with her picture.

Ayla is becoming quite the artist lately also. She really like to draw people. See below: Jeff & my portraits. ha
My fave is Jeff's hair! She said, he needs alot of hair. ha It also looks as if he is wearing glasses, but I think it's his arms. I am looking forward to have a body in her drawings. But, right now we are the cutest big headed, no bodied parents EVER. :)

Is it bad that I am looking forward to a gloomy, rainy day soon?

Ridge pays us a visit....

Our nephew came to visit for a few days. We were sure excited to spend a little extra time with him alone since he lives a few hours away and we don't visit nearly as often as we hope!

Uncle Jeff had a little shadow. And I think he enjoyed having more testosterone in the house! ha

Aren't they a cute bunch?

I can't belive how hard it is to get 3 kids all looking in same direction and not scowling!

We loved our sweaty afternoon with Ridge :)

Real Life...

Proof: My family missed me while I was away at camp.

A week away...

My week away, was not relaxing..

or glamorous.... or anything of the sort.

It was DANCE CAMP.
Ha.
I have been coaching for over 6 years now. Its crazy to think of all the camps, clinics, fundraisors, competitions, etc I have been apart of.
I still very much love it, but most of the time its very stressful. Especially, if it involves leaving my children.

This was one of the best camps I have attended. Great teams, coaches, and staff. However, the food was Awful and not seeing my kids and husband for an extended amount of time wore me OUT!

But I can't say enough about the dancers we have this year. Such sweet, funny kids! We did really well in competition and they were all troopers through the whole week! We had parents come up almost every night to do something special for the girls.

Like foot spas for tired feet!

I felt like I had it all "handled" I cooked dinners to freeze, laid out clothes, cleaned the house, and set up sitters. My hopes were for Jeff to have a laid back fun 4 days. NOPE. Ayla got sick (just a fever--but still) which through off our sitters and he ended up staying home with them most of one day and sleeping with her through the night. :( He is such a great dad! I can not thank him enough.

All in all I was proud of my dancers for all their hard work. Feel blessed to have such a wonderful, hands on husband. And SO glad to be home. Getting back to normal life of cooking and cleaning has been hard!

Life 365: Aftermath

This summer has by far the fastest of my life... At least that I can remember!
With all the running here and weekends there, my brain feels a little frazzled.
I do feel like we've lived it to the fullest, however!

I called this week the 'aftermath'.
It was the first full week at home, after all the busyness that has taken place, that we had NO plans.
Except for the insane amount of laundry that needed washed, folded and put away.
Not to mention the pile of dishes from our 4th of July party!

I had no motivation to do such things!
So what if my play room was messy? Or we stayed in pjs most of the day?

So this week, we played outside... walked in the yard with Gus.....

braided our hair when we decided to get out of pjs....

and swam with friends....

It was a good week, but I gotta buckle down. Dance camp is coming up soon and that means this mama is away from her hubs and kiddos for 4 days :( I have to clean the house, pack my bag, pack dance stuff, make freezer meals, lay out the girl's clothes, and so much more before I leave! Oh man!

At least I got one week of laziness in!

Independence Day 2011

Its alot of work having a shindig, but we love doing it.
I think our 4th of July party is my fave party we throw every year bc you're not worried about a "theme" or birthday.
Its just a good excuse to get together and have a good time.

We had lots of friends and family over for dinner and even more showed up to watch the fireworks.
I forgot to get my camera out all afternoon, but still got some good shots.

Ayla loves her great-grandma

Daisy & "Bop"

This sadly is the only pic I got of my two girls together. The kids were running wild and this is as good as it gets. Good thing they are cute! ha :) Mimi got in on the lovin' too! Isn't my mama beautiful?!

Our little family

Ayla's first sparkler.... looks like a ragamuffin!

Hope you had a tasty 4th of July!

Holiday World

Enough Said....