All things December

Kicking off December with our visit to see Santa and as you can see, Kinley is not having it again this year. She really considered it after Tyler told her that Santa would bring them presents, but she quickly changed her mind as soon as she saw him from a far distance, which meant I knew it would be a successful picture for me (insert my evil laugh). ;-) After just a second of torture and picture taking, she said, "I no wike Santa and I no want presents!" She later said that her DADDY would bring her presents. Uh-huh... she knows what's up!





A little fun at the Buda Christmas festival~










Decorating the tree~ Tyler picked out an Iron Man and Kinley picked out a Little Mermaid ornament for our addition this year.












Watching a movie after a long day of decorating. :-)


Tyler can count to 100! This is one of the first big achievements for kindergarteners! They test as the kids are ready and Tyler attempted a few times before with no luck, despite usually getting it at home. He was SO proud when he finally got his certificate, gumballs and his name on the hallway bulletin board. Out of about 100 kids, he was #42 to get his name on the board! :-)






Neighborhood Christmas party and gift exchange~






Kinley's Christmas dance performance~






Someone snuck mommy's mascara and was pretty excited about it!






First class party I helped organize! I'm SO thankful that I get to work from home and be so involved in Tyler's school! He had a blast at his Christmas party!

Goodie bags that Tyler and I made for his his classmates.








A few friends:
With Jaylin


With Matthew




With Marlo


With Marlo, Lucien & Lily


With William and Marlo


With Ms. Crawford


Class gift from Ms. Crawford




At the Jingle Bell Ball


With Matthew, Jacob and Gavin


With Cash


Polar Express Day. The kids got to wear their pajamas to school and do all kinds of fun Polar Express activities.





Ms. Crawford reading Polar Express to the class.


With Sydney, Caleb and Matthew


With Emerson, Sydney, Caleb and Ava

Third Time's a Charm...

... or so they say, right?? :-) We have finally shared our news with everyone so as you know, we're expecting baby #3. That sounds so CRAZY and EXCITING at the same time! We waited a little longer to share the news this time around because we wanted to tell all of our family in person over the Thanksgiving holiday and then we had cute Christmas cards to send out with the expecting news. So, I'm already 15 weeks along now. I've had two prenatal appointments and with the kids' busy schedules and holidays, the time is flying by!

Here's the recap of our pregnancy story so far~ I was a little surprised that several people asked me if this was a surprise. I guess most third pregnancies that I know of actually are a surprise, but with my type A personality and OCD nature, there's very little room for surprises in my life. This was absolutely a planned baby! And at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, this is probably the most difficult decision [I've] ever made. It's been a huge struggle for me since the day that Kinley was born over 2 1/2 years ago. Was she our last or would we try for one more?? I didn't know that answer and I NEEDED to know. There was never any question over whether we'd have a child and there was never any question over whether we'd give Tyler a sibling. A lot of people consider our family "ideal" with 1 boy and 1 girl so it became very complicated after that and I would literally go back and forth 10 times a day... for 2 1/2 years! It was completely mentally exhausting. I made pros and cons lists to try and clear my mind and the cons to having another baby always seemed greater than the pros. On that cons list were silly things like how we couldn't fit in a standard booth at a restaurant or how we'd have to get a new kitchen table or how I could only hold two hands in a parking lot to more thought out things like what a third pregnancy would do to my body or the possibility of having one child feeling left out or finances, or our house/car accommodations, or college. You name it, I promise I've thought about it. And in the end, I always came back to wanting this little baby. Despite the seemingly cons, I knew in my heart what I wanted. I knew what I wanted my family to look like down the road. I knew that our family wouldn't feel complete until this baby joined it. The decision became clearer and here we are. :-) And obviously, this wasn't just my decision. Travis was very supportive either way. He loved the idea of adding to our family and he loved the family we already had, therefore, I put the pressure on myself to make this huge decision for us. And when it came down to it, he was excited and less nervous about moving forward with our decision than I was. It's great to have clarity on how to plan/prepare for the rest of our lives/family now. :-)

We found out I was pregnant September 30, 2013. I took the test that morning. Travis was at work, Tyler was at school and I thought it would be fun to surprise the kids with the news first. I filled the living room with balloons while Kinley was napping and turned it into a real celebration- kid style (cake pops and all!). What kid doesn't love balloons and cake pops?? They were both excited to hear the news!






The kids' gender prediction. Of course!


And they were very excited to share the news with Daddy once he got home from work! We celebrated by having a nice dinner at a local restaurant.









1st prenatal appointment: November 11, 2013. Weight gained: 2.6lbs.

We are already joking about having "third baby problems." Travis planned on attending this appointment and even with a reminder a day or two before, he completely forgot. Not running late, not had to back out because of work, just completely forgot all about getting a small glimpse of our little baby for the very first time. Ha. He missed out and felt really bad, but I'm still planning to give him a hard time for a little bit. ;-) With that said, I had Tyler and Kinley in tow and they were more than excited at the opportunity to see the baby on screen. It's funny going through all the motions for a third time. My doctor considers me a "pro" now and with no real questions, we just focused on seeing the baby. When I saw Tyler and Kinley for the first time at 7 1/2 weeks, they were just little 'beans' with a beating heart. That's exactly what I expected this time since I was 8 weeks, so I was very surprised and confused to see a little 'gummy bear' with arm and leg buds. Turns out I measured at 9 weeks, 1 day. Score on an extra week! Seeing some recognizable body parts made it really fun for the kids and there were lots of "awwwww's" from all of us.




2nd prenatal appointment: December 9, 2013. Weight gained total: 5lbs.

We got to hear the baby's heart beat at the second appointment and Travis DID make it to this one. :-) Because I have a tipped uterus, I anticipated that it would be a little difficult to find the heart beat, just like it was with Kinley, however, the technician immediately found it and it was loud and strong in the 160's range. Another surprising appointment!

And that's where we're at now. Excited and happy! Here's to hoping baby #3 will be an easy one because we SO deserve it after our two little turkeys. :-) Stay tuned for more updates!

Fall/Holiday/Baby Pictures

And we can't forget this non-professional picture of Coop getting in on the announcement action!