sixteen weeks

how far along:  16 weeks (compare to 16 weeks with Ryann, 16 weeks with Elsie)

size of baby:  according to the bump an avocado, about 4.6 inches long and weighing 3.5 ounces.  Baby can now hear my voice, is growing hair, lashes and eyebrows and is forming taste buds.

weight gain:  We'll pretend 5 pounds.  But I don't have a scale and we're on vacation so that number could be a heck of a lot worse.  Oh well.

maternity clothes:  My pants still fit completely fine, for the most part anyway.  And don't bother me.  But I like wearing my maternity tops.  Just for the length.

symptoms:  Headaches and fatigue.  Neither or awful, but I love a good nap.

exercise:  Ran a total of 11.5 miles.  According to my fitbit I've walked 80,505 steps this past week.  Not too shabby.  It would have been a lot more if it had actually been warmer while we've been in Georgia.  It is certainly warmer than home but I'm not one to be outside so much when it is 45-50 degrees.

cravings/aversions:  Nothing really.

movement:  I swear that I was able to feel a few kicks yesterday.  I was almost positive that is what I was feeling.  But it hasn't happened since.  So who knows.  This would be by far the earliest I've felt movement.

sleep:  Meh.

gender:  Girl :o).

looking forward to:  Getting home to my doppler.  I only use it twice a week, but it will have been 10+ days since I've used it, and I'm starting to feel antsy.  I don't really have any strong symptoms, and I can't guarantee I've felt movement.  So the doppler is my reassurance.

worries:  I always have a slight worry in the back of my mind that something is going to go wrong and we'll some how lose the baby.  But for the most part anything I'm worrying about lately is moving/renovating related.

what's different this time:  I'm still feeling so removed from this pregnancy.  Like it isn't happening.  I'm thrilled, and the little bump makes it a bit more real.  But it's just weird.  Also no serious cravings at all.

best moment this week:  Ryann has pretty much become obsessed with her baby sister.  She constantly wants to snuggle with my belly and 'keep her baby sister warm'.  She talks about her a lot.  It has the potential to get annoying, but for now it is really cute.  Also just being on the beach earlier this week was wonderful and relaxing.  It's been nice to not have a schedule for a bit.  But I'm glad we usually have a schedule.  :o)

taking the stage

On Valentine's Day, Ryann participated in her first dance competition.  Some people give me those wide questioning eyes when I say she is on a competitive team, but honestly the competition aspect means very little to these girls at this age.  Sure they know they can in theory win a trophy, but ultimately it is just good for being a part of a team and pushing her to work hard and care about something.

That morning we had quite the struggle over her make-up, because she had zero interest in wearing the false eyelashes.  So I gave up, and thankfully another mom came to the rescue once we were at the competition location and put on the rest of Ry's eye make-up for me.  The competition was actually running nearly an hour ahead of schedule, so we didn't have to wait long before it was performance time!  I was so nervous as they walked on stage, worried that Ryann might freak out or something.  That auditorium was huge, much more expansive than anything she has ever been in.  But the fear was completely unnecessary.  They got up there and rocked it.  I was so proud of those girls.  It wasn't perfect, but they worked hard and kept smiles on their faces and had a good time.

I honestly don't know how they 'placed' or scored or what not.  I was so dang confused during the awards ceremony.  Ha.  But they did well enough!  I thought that all 8 and unders competed against each other, which they did in some areas, but their actual dance was judged based on age, and since they were the only 4 year old group there they were scored against themselves.  It works.  The only real mishap of the day was that Ryann was supposed to go up to collect the trophy for her class, but they were all confused and another girl ended up doing it.  So naturally Ryann cried through the rest of the awards ceremony and I had to go retrieve her from the stage.  :o)

I don't know if we'll stick with competitive dance for Ryann.  She likes taking dance class and loves getting to hang out with her little girl friends.  But she HATES practicing her dance.  I'm over fighting with her about it, so unless she shows me that she really really wants to do it, we might just switch to rec classes next year.  She's 4, we'll figure it out, we'll all survive.  :o)

Great job Miss Ryann, mommy loves watching you dance so much!

valentine's fun

oh hey fashionably late blog post.  no one is surprised...

I felt like I sort of slacked on Valentine's day this year.  Between Elsie's birthday party and Ryann's first dance competition, plus the pregnancy and the new house, my brain has just been spent.  However we still had three days of heart day themed fun and the girls were non the wiser, so that is all that matters, right?

Thursday our friend Steph hosted a Valentine's themed playdate.  Which is obviously just an excuse to dress our kids in festive gear, take pictures, and eat treats.  But it works, the kids played and had fun, and the moms got to sit and chat.  Plus, pink and red cutenes.  #winning

On Friday I helped host the Valentine's party for Ryann's preschool class.  Elsie and I had to rush over after her dance class (Elsie takes dance class! It's so cute! More on that another time), so I opted to just be in charge of the plates and drinks.  I did go slightly Martha Stewart and covered the juice boxes in construction paper to make them a bit cuter.  Elsie made herself right at home, playing games with the kids and sneaking in at the table for snack too.  She is certainly not afraid to hang out with the big kids!

Ryann scored quite the loot from her class.  This year was surprisingly tame, with mostly store bought invites.  Which made me feel a bit better about ours.  I don't think either way is better, homemade vs store bought, but I do like making them.  It just didn't happen.

Saturday was Ryann's dance competition, and Chris had to get up and head out to work, but I still managed to sneak a little heart shaped fun in for the morning.  We got the girls simple little gifts, with a new shirt, some coloring utensils and stickers.  Then I made heart shaped pancakes and we had strawberry milk.  When I set out the platter of pancakes Ryann exclaimed, "MOM!  They're shaped like HEARTS!  You're AMAZING!!"  They were a little wonky, but they worked.  And it's the little things that make the kids the most happy.  :o)

That evening we wound up taking the girls to a semi nice Italian restaurant in town.  Really it was a last minute decision, but it worked out.  When we walked up to the hostess stand Ryann immediately said to the girl working, "My name is Ryann, this is my sister Elsie, and this is my mom Ashley.  She has a baby in her belly!"  The girl was a little overwhelmed with all the information, haha.  There weren't any other children in the dining room, so I felt a little bad, but for the most part the girls were very well behaved.  At one point a man across the room made eye contact with Elsie and waved at her.  Naturally her reaction was to lift her dress up and flash him her belly button.  That kid and her belly button, it's ridiculous.

fifteen weeks

I'm going to be back dating all my weekly pregnancy posts over the next couple of days, but here is the most recent!

written February 20th

My monthly doctor's appointment was on Wednesday.  All was well, blood pressure was 124/82 (however the nurse always takes my blood pressure immediately after weighing me and having me go to the bathroom, so I think in theory it should be lower), baby's heart rate was great and I didn't really have anything to complain about.  I was in and out of the office in approximately seven minutes.  I did run into a mom who goes to the same office when I was picking Ryann up from preschool.  She informed me she saw me heading out, and that I should count myself lucky, as my doctor had to run over and deliver a baby immediately after my appointment and set the entire office back an hour and a half.  Whew!

how far along:  15 weeks (compare to 15 weeks with Ryann, 15 weeks with Elsie)

size of baby:  according to the bump a naval orange, about 4 inches long and weighing 2.5 ounces.  It's funny, but since not that long ago the baby was merely a fraction of an inch, 4 inches sounds huge.  Baby's body proportions are nearing normal, and all of the joints and limbs can now move.

weight gain:  4 pounds.  I can't. stop. eating.  And then I feel like I want to puke because I ate too much.  So fun!  Ha.

maternity clothes:  I haven't ventured into the maternity pants, or needed to really, but I have been wearing some of my tops.  I just feel like all my shirts are too short and I want stuff that is a little looser.  I don't NEED maternity clothes, if I could find some longer tops or cute tunics those would probably work better.

symptoms:  Pregnancy wise my symptoms have been pretty good this past week.  Still tired, get the occasional headache, but I feel a little bit more normal.  My belly is getting a little bigger, and making sleep uncomfortable, so that kind of sucks.  When my doctor was looking for the heart beat she said 'oh wow, I can feel your uterus right there.'  I kind of wanted to ask if I should be alarmed by that, but I highly doubt it.  It is just pretty dang hard.  Chris says he can tell the difference when he hugs me.

I do have a pretty horrible head cold this week and it is driving me insane.

exercise:  Not my best week, but it could have been worse.  I ran 7.5 miles, walked 2.3 miles and did one barbell class.  My dad got a fitbit flex from work that he didn't think he'd use, so I snagged it.  So now my goal is to get 70,000 steps a week this pregnancy.  It's amazing to me that even on the days that I run 3ish miles, I have to try to hit that 10,000 steps.  It isn't easy!

cravings/aversions:  Fruit and ice cream.  And I randomly felt the urge for breakfast sausage with syrup.  Haha.

movement:  nope

sleep:  I've been waking up at 3am and staying awake for two ish hours.  So annoying and so exhausting.  I just feel like crap from the cold when I wake up and I can't get comfortable.

gender:  Girl!

looking forward to:  We made some more decisions on our house that we're renovating and I just can't wait to work on it more.  I'm also ready to get to Georgia today!

worries:  Not much really.  I'm excited AND stressed about decorating all the rooms in our new house.

what's different this time:  I don't remember my belly being uncomfortable at this point.  I've also gained more weight than with the other two.  Maybe that has something to do with it?  Whoops.  Also this is the least concerned I've been with a pregnancy and eventual labor and delivery.

best moment this week: Is it sad that all my best moments are related to our new house?  Seeing the progress they've made is so exciting.  Also watching Ryann's first dance competition was fun.  It was mildly stressful because she hates the eye make-up, but they were so cute on stage.

Baby J, the third edition

written January 30th

We had finally gotten in to a real groove with two kids.  The girls have both become relatively easy to care for, are a lot of fun, and for the most part we can get out of the house pretty easily.  So what is any normal sane person supposed to do?  Decide to have another baby of course.  :o)

Now to fully understand the beginning of this pregnancy, a little background information is necessary.  Back in October, a few days before Halloween, I found out I was pregnant.  The whole situation was a little weird with some questionable cheap test sticks and dates that didn't match up.  But a First Response Early Reader test came up positive without any question so we started celebrating.  One week later when I got out of bed, there was bright red blood.

It ended up being a chemical pregnancy.  A chemical pregnancy is a miscarriage before anything can be seen in the uterus.  Essentially, a fertilized egg implants into the uterus, but for whatever reason does not continue to grow, therefore the only evidence that the woman was ever pregnant was the chemical reaction that caused the pregnancy test to turn positive.  I was confused and devastated.  I wasn't sure how to feel.  I kept trying to reason with myself that I had only been 'pregnant' a week.  How could I have been so attached?  But my friend said it best, you fall in love the minute that second line appears.  I was surprised by how much it hurt, and I definitely spent a few days in tears.

We debated waiting a bit to try again, but ultimately I decided that would make it even harder on me.  I didn't feel like I had lost a baby.  I hadn't really begun to picture what our third baby would be like.  What life would be like.  But I absolutely mourned the loss of the pregnancy.  And I felt like being pregnant again would help ease the pain.  Because I generally have irregular cycles, I was using ovulation strips, and was surprised when they came up positive just two weeks after my loss.  It was going to be my shortest cycle to date.

Fast forward eleven days later.  I had been emotional and irrational and just not feeling great.  But I attributed most of that to eating crap food for a bit because of Thanksgiving.  I've learned how much food can affect my body and how I feel thanks to the Whole30.  I swore that was the cause.  But the morning of December 1st I got antsy and took a pregnancy test.  It was SO faint.  I thought maybe it was an evaporation line, or that I was going to go through another chemical pregnancy.  I said nothing to Christopher, and waited until the next morning to take another test.  This one was again faint, but definitely darker than the day before.  I dipped a more expensive test, and a digital test, and they both came up positive.  I thought I would be elated, but truthfully I was just numb.  I couldn't find an ounce of excitement because I was instantly terrified.

After letting it sink in a bit, I woke Christopher up.  Mostly because I wanted his butt out of bed to help me make the girls breakfast, but just before I went back to tend to the littles, I dropped a 'by the way, I'm pregnant.'  He was happy.  And said that he thought I was based on the way I had been acting, but hey.

In all honesty it took a couple of weeks before I started to feel excited.  Once I passed my loss date, and especially after the first ultrasound, I began to relax a bit.  I also kept taking pregnancy tests like a crazy person.  Watching the line get darker and darker was just so comforting.  With the chemical, granted I didn't take near as many tests, but the line just never got darker.  With this pregnancy when the test line was finally darker than the control line, I stopped being such a freak with the tests.  :o)

I'm pretty sure that is crazy all wrapped up in a jpeg there.  Yes I even used ovulation tests as pregnancy tests because I ran out of cheapies and I only had so many of the 'nice' tests and you can turn an ovulation predictor test positive when you're pregnant.  Completely unnecessary to take all those tests, but they helped calm my nerves so whatever.

We wanted to hold off telling people, partly because of the previous loss, and mostly because we wanted to protect the girls (and keep the girls from telling EVERYONE).  But that plan was quickly ruined the morning after I told Christopher.  I received the following text from my sister:

I sent a screen shot to Chris with a 'what the hell am I supposed to do with this?!?!?'  I ended up telling her.  Then two weeks later I was with my mom when my doctor's office had to call me to reschedule my first appointment.  The entire scenario is detailed in one of my weekly posts (which I will get to posting in a bit) but she figured me out too.

And I know several other people have.  They haven't directly asked me, but I hear several people have asked girls that do know!  One guess was because I haven't been blogging.  Yes, I do kind of crash in the evenings, but honestly for a while I didn't know what to blog about or was too lazy to edit pictures.  So really the pregnancy wasn't the only thing killing my blog.  Nah, instagram did that too.  :o)

edited to add: I think it's funny that so many people were tipped off because of the portable ultrasound comment!  Yes, we totally used it to peek at the baby, but the truth is Chris often brings it home to practice on my joints, and that particular weekend he had it to look at a friend's wrist.  Too funny.

So to bring this long winded up and down post to a close, baby (GIRL!!!) number three is on the way and we are THRILLED.  2015 is seriously going to be quite the year.  If we make it to 2016 alive I'll count it a success.  But I'm certainly excited for the crazy ride! 

pink pink pink!

Yes, it's true.  There will be more pink and glitter and tutus in this house.  Baby number three is another girl!

I've gotten several 'how did you find out so early?!?!'  I honestly don't know which exact test I had done, I swear they just called it the panorama test?  Anyway, it is genetic blood testing you can do after 10 weeks.  They look for abnormalities in the chromosomes, and a lovely little bonus is that you can find out the sex super early on.  The test is geared towards people with risk factors, or women over the age of 35.  But the lab my office uses was only charging $25 for the test right now, so it didn't seem like a bad idea to go ahead and get it done.

My doctor's office called me about ten days after my blood was drawn with the results.  First she told me that everything looked normal and my risk was low for any abnormalities.  Yay!  Then she asked if I wanted to know the sex, to which I replied not over the phone.  I was able to go to the office and pick up an envelope with the results in it.  I took the envelope to Carter's and picked out a girl's outfit and a boy's outfit, then the girls who were working took those along with the envelope, and wrapped up the appropriate outfit.

Later that night after the girls were in bed, Chris and I opened the box together.  Now I loved the gender reveal party we had with Elsie, and the anticipation and excitement we had finding out with all our friends, but Chris was very adamant that if it were a third girl, he'd like to find out without being among a crowd.  I didn't blame him.  And wouldn't you know, we opened up that girly romper.

We are thrilled to be having another little girl, we're very excited to add to our family.  But yes, we both were pulling for a boy.  The idea of getting to raise a boy was exciting for both of us.  However three girls will be so much fun.  And so cute.  And I know girls.  And I'm already oogling headbands and rompers and oh my goodness.  THREE GIRLS!  So much fun.

What I find funny is that most of the responses to hearing it's a third girl are along the lines of 'oh your poor husband', as if A) three girls are going to make him absolutely miserable or B) I had zero interest in having a boy.  Whatever, it doesn't matter.  We've got a little baby girl on the way and I just can't wait to snuggle her, and see her with her big sisters, and oh my gosh what if she DOESN'T look like them?  That would be so weird.  I don't really see how it's possible with our gene pool, but I have no idea.

Here is the video of when we revealed the sex to our family and friends...

Yes, Miss Ryann was upset that candy didn't fall out.  Haha.  I'm pretty sure she was just a little overwhelmed by everything going on anyway.  And the video when we told the girls.  Sorry my computer wasn't cooperating so I didn't cut it any shorter.  But Ryann's reaction just cracks me up in this one too.

With the third being a girl, I think the most difficult thing for us right now is picking a name!  We've basically stopped talking about it because I don't know how we're going to agree.  I want a name that isn't in the top 100, and I have all these other ridiculous rules.  He has his own list that I have something against.  We're screwed.  But we'll figure it out.  I don't think not naming her is an option.  ;o)

A girl.  Another baby girl.

I love her.

elsie - twenty four months

And she's two!  Time just won't stop flying.  But the good news is I think it's because we're having fun.  :o)  As trying as this age can be, it truly is a blast, and watching Elsie's little personality emerge and come to life is pretty exciting.

two shirt | heart leggings

When Elsie was born she was somewhere between the 6th and 9th percentile for length and weight.  I was astonished when she jumped to the 40th ish percentiles by her first birthday.  And now as she turns two, she is 28 pounds 2 ounces (70th percentile) and 35 inches (81st percentile).  Say what?!?!  It's obvious that she is on the bigger (but proportional!) side.  She is at least an inch taller than Collins, who is just under 3 months older than her.  It's just crazy to me.  I finally brought up all of the 2T clothes because ALL of the 18-24 month stuff was just too small.  Yeah, there is quite a bit of summer stuff that I'm pretty sure she'll grow out of before she ever gets to wear it.  I put a pair of pajamas on her that I pulled out of the bin and her belly button is hanging out.  Back in the bin they go!  She is still fitting in to her size six shoes, but I bet if I brought up the 7's she'd be able to wear several of those.  Also still in a size five diaper.  And her hair is still SUPER curly (we can't go anywhere without at least one person commenting on it) and I'm starting to think maybe, just maybe, it might stay curly.

Sleep has been much better this month.  For the most part the times are still the same, but sleep isn't a battle.  She goes to bed right around 8pm, and usually sleeps until somewhere between 6:45am and 7:15am.  She'll randomly wake up around 4:30am upset about something.  One time it was because she couldn't find her owl.  She was laying on it, naturally.  But other than that she is a great night sleeper.  Elsie usually naps about 2 hours, going down sometime between 1:15-1:45.  We're still holding strong in the crib, and she seems less inclined to climb out (she never has, just throws her leg over the top to tick me off on occasion).  Still, I'm just not sure how long it will last.  If we can make it until we move that would be awesome, to not have to deal with that transition.  However I'm not sure if moving, and kicking her out of the crib, and her new baby stealing it within a month or so would be too much.

Elsie girl continues to be a pretty great eater (as evidenced by the high percentiles on the growth charts!).  Meat and vegetables are the hardest to convince her to eat, but other than broccoli she'll try almost anything, especially if she has a dipping sauce.  Her favorites include bananas, blueberries, raspberries, Panera Mac 'n Cheese, pizza, avocado, and of course sweets.  Girlfriend loves sweets.  She is also still a huge fan of soup.  Every now and then we order sushi and I get a bowl of egg drop soup.  Elsie always wants to eat it, but she is so bad at it.  :o)  She is much better with a heartier soup.  Either way though, I'm glad someone else shares my love of soup and will eat many different kinds with me!

Though it hasn't been as much of an issue in the last week, this month Elsie has been quite the little turd about getting in her car seat.  She finds herself quite hilarious as she goes completely stiff and refuses to allow me to buckle her in.  We ended up turning her seat around about two weeks before she turned two, in the hope that if she couldn't push up against the seat it would be easier.  Yeah, not so much.  She still just goes completely stiff and rolls around making it nearly impossible for me to buckle her.  It makes me so livid and irrational.  And I often avoid going places because I can't handle the thought of fighting with her.  It's so sad.  I'm hoping she just grows out of it, because no amount of yelling or pleading or praising her when she makes good choice, or anything else you can think of seems to help.  Gah.  She also has a tendency to take off her shoes and socks and rip out her hair clip EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we get in the car.  So dang annoying.  She is definitely testing her two year old limits!!

Elsie continues to pick up so many funny little phrases.  She talks non stop and the sentences she puts together certainly surprise me.  She regularly asks us, "What doing Daddy?" "What doing Mommy?" E has picked up from Ryann (and probably myself) when she is doing something and I ask her to stop, "Just one more second!"  When Ryann goes in her room because she needs a little space, Elsie will sit outside and bang on her door, "Sissy!  Sis-SY! Sis! SIS! Wet me in! Open door, RIGHT NOW!  SISSSSSSSY!"  It's kinda funny, even though I'm sure it drives Ryann crazy.  And speaking of 'right now', she'll tack that on to almost anything.  I truly can't figure out where she picked that one up, and a lot of times it pisses me off, but it is a little bit funny.  "Want a 'nack, RIGHT NOW!" "Wet's play legos, RIGHT NOW!" "I want down RIGHT NOW!"

Miss E loves loves LOVES to drive Ryann crazy.  She takes her toys and runs off.  She pokes her.  Pulls her hair.  Sits on her.  Etc. etc. etc.  But Elsie can really be the absolute sweetest thing too.  She regularly runs up to Ryann and gives her a big hug, saying "Mmmm, love you so much!"  And man does she have a thing for Grammy.  When my mom is around Elsie can't contain her hugs and snuggles.  She pretty much just has to be on top of her at all times.  She is also really starting to care about her friends, wanting to give them hugs before we leave, telling me things like "Tollins (Collins) my friend, I wike her." "I see Kaya today! We friends.  We hold hands!"  I mean it doesn't get much cuter than that.

Elsie is still absolutely OBSESSED with her belly button.  She has to have access to it at all times.  She regularly flashes it to anyone and everyone who happens to make eye contact with her.  And possibly even funnier than when she said Merry Christmas to her belly button... The morning of her birthday party I brought her out to see the decorations we had put up.  The first thing she saw was the polka dot back drop.  She gasped, then slowly pulled up her shirt, "belly button see it too!"  I mean honestly, is anyone else's child THAT obsessed with their belly button?  It is discolored because she messes with it so much.  Chris had a specific name for the discoloration, but basically the girl won't leave the dang thing alone.  Eventually she'll grow out of that too, right?

trying really hard to put up only two fingers

E has become more and more interested in letters.  I know she has added some to the ones she can pick out by sight, but I can't think of any other than Q right now.  She loves the letter E, and in her world E is ONLY for Elsie.  Any E she sees she screams out "E for Elsie!"  And also thinks anything with the letter E in it must say Elsie.  "It have E, it say my name!"  She still does pretty good with shapes and colors, and counting too.  A lot of times she'll scream out "2 3 6!" but if you ask her to 'count for real' she'll start with 2 and go to 10.  Getting her to start with one is still a bit of a challenge.

She has taken an interest in some of the longer books we have.  I'm sure she would have liked many of them before, but most of the bigger books are in Ryann's room or the family room, and we just have a lot of board books in her room.  Still some favorites this month have been Cats Night Out, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (which she calls Chicka ABCD), Max the Minow, Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site and Put Me in the Zoo.  Some other favorite things are Hello Kitty, playing Legos (or so she says), the color red, playing outside, the iPad, helping with laundry and the dishwasher and having an excessive number of stuffed animals in her crib.

Happy second birthday Elsie.  I can't believe you're two.  We all love you to pieces!

more to love

As if this year wasn't going to be crazy enough as it is, we decided throwing another baby in to the mix was a fantastic idea. ;o)  We're happy to announce that Baby J 3.0 will make their debut in August!

My official due date is August 14th, so I'm banking on a baby around the beginning of the month.  Unless gestational hypertension isn't an issue this time around.  Which would be cool.  :o)  Ryann is very excited for me to have another baby, and Elsie is as thrilled to be a big sister as any two year old can be.  Which means she keeps trying to look in my belly button for the baby.  We didn't tell the girls I was pregnant until Elsie's birthday party, because I knew there was no way Ryann could keep the secret to herself.

And yes, we will be finding out what we're having.  Actually, we already know.  !!!!!  But that deserves a post all of it's own.  ;o)

fourteen weeks

I kept hoping I'd get in the habit of taking my picture in the black dress like I did with Elsie, but it always seemed like way too much work, then I lost the dang dress for like a month, so mirror selfies plus the occasional fancy weekly pic is just how it's going to be.  Oh well!

14 weeks 4 days

how far along:  14 weeks (compare to 14 weeks with Ryann, 14 weeks with Elsie)

size of baby:  according to the bump a lemon, about 3.4 inches long and weighing 1.5 ounces.  Baby is growing lanugo and his or her kidneys are making urine.  Yay.  :o)

weight gain:  3.5 pounds.  Somebody hide the dang cookie and chips in my house please oh please!!  Chips are so good right now.  Not so good for the weight gain.

maternity clothes:  I've been wearing some tops here and there but really just because they're longer.  My pants don't really feel tight at all for the most part, so that's good I guess.

symptoms: I generally have a gross taste in my mouth, and I've had a ton of headaches this week.  But I'm attributing that to lack of sleep and too much sugar rather than being pregnant.

exercise:  This week was for sure better than my zero last week!  Still not wonderful but whatever.  I ran about 10 miles and walked another mile.  Running is getting so much harder though.  I feel like I am so slow, and I get tired quickly.  And I'm just annoyed that it is cold.  Where the heck is spring?  I mean I know it is only February but I am so over cold temps.

cravings/aversions:  Fruit and chips.

movement:  nope

sleep:  It hasn't been too bad, I've just stayed up too late doing things so I'm not sleeping enough.  Although one night I did sleep almost 10 hours straight and I was still ridiculously tired.

gender:  It's a girl!

looking forward to:  Decorating our new house (although that is a wee bit stressful) and going to Georgia.  BRING IT ON.

worries:  That my house will never ever ever EVER be clean when we have three children.  I have a hard enough time as it is keeping things picked up.  But I suppose there are worse things in life so I'll get over it.

what's different this time:  Knowing what we're having so early!

best moment this week:  Sharing the news with the girls, and the rest of the world.  I'm hoping the pregnancy will start to feel a little more real.  Also Ryann has hugged and kissed my belly more than once now, and it is just the sweetest.  It is so fun that she is older and can understand.  She is excited and can't wait for my belly to get big and to feel the baby move.  I love it.

elsie's school bus second birthday party

Eventually I'll get Elsie's 24 month post up, but I edited these photos first so here you go...

Originally when I started 'planning' Elsie's second birthday, I settled on a carousel horse themed party.  She sits on anything she can and says 'giddy up! I ridin' a horsey!', and loves carousels.  So great plan right?  Until Sarah asked her what kind of birthday she was going to have and she responded with 'school bus party'.  And her answered stayed the same for over a week, so I changed my plans.

I wasn't thrilled with the idea of using just black, white and yellow, so we took some liberty with the school bus theme and tossed in some pink, blue and purple too.  It's my (Elsie's) party and I'll do what I want.  Right?  I started searching pinterest for black and white parties and came across this one.  I LOVED the dessert table backdrop so I pretty much copied it.  It was seriously the easiest decoration I've ever made.  Circle punch + card stock + hot glue + twin sized sheet.  You can do it, I promise.  I just spray painted a large E, blasted it with some Krylon Glitter spray, and used push pins to hang everything up.  I made the tassels for the balloons myself, and ordered the giant yellow ones off amazon (FYI, those suckers cost at least $8 per to fill up at Party City.  Ouch!).

We had the party at 11am, and once all the guests had arrived we hopped on a real live school bus and went for a ride.  I swear the people thought I was crazy when I first called to see if I could rent a bus for a two-year-olds birthday party, and that I didn't have a plan of where to go, I just wanted to go.  But the driver who was assigned the party was awesome, and ended up driving us to the bus barn, where roughly 300 school buses of all sizes were parked.  Elsie was pretty dang impressed.  I think all the other kids had a good time on the bus as well.

By the time we got back from our ride it was time to eat.  I had looked for recipes for crock pot mac n' cheese, since that is Elsie's absolute favorite food, but then I got smart and we ordered Panera mac 'n cheese (Elsie's absolute absolute for sure favorite food EVER) and stuck that in our crock pot.  #winning  We also had these honey garlic lil' smokies, pizza roll ups, fresh fruit and veggies.  For dessert my mom made chocolate chip M&M cookies, and we got cake balls and a lemon cake from my friend Jenny.  Jenny is awesome and the cake was so cute.  Plus her cake balls/pops are AMAZING.  They taste so good.  She also is an amazing cookie decorator so if you're in the KC area and need some cookies, I think you should bug her.  :o)

The goal for this party was to make it look cute, have a lot of fun, and not stress too much.  I think we did a pretty darn good job.  I forgot to take pictures of a few of the details, naturally, but hey.  You get the idea.  Elsie's adorable little top was from Swallow's Return, and her crown is from Little Blue Olive.  Oh and the kids picnic tables I found on Wayfair, they're call a Kidnic table.  Such a good investment.  They wipe down so easily, fold up so easily, and are pretty darn sturdy when they are set up.  I don't think kids much over the age of 5 would be comfortable at them, but they definitely work WONDERFULLY for the 2-4 range.

Thanks to everyone who came over to celebrate with us!  It was so fun to celebrate our Elsie girl, and we appreciate you showing her so much love.