Evening at the park

A few weeks back, we decided kind of spur of the moment to take a picnic supper to a park by the river and enjoy some time as a family. The kids and I made a pizza, packed our picnic basket with veggies and fruit and plenty of water, and loaded up to go meet Jacob, who had been working all day. 

We had the best time watching boats on the river,

Exploring the train tracks,

Playing on the playground,

And just hanging out together! 

I love my little family!

20 weeks

I'm not really sure how I can already be half way through this pregnancy! Our sweet little one is going to be here before we know it!

We had our ultrasound on Wednesday. It was the first and probably the only ultrasound we'll have this time around, unless of course, there is a problem. The baby is doing great! Measuring right on schedule and developing properly, according to all we could tell.

We were thrilled to find out that we are having a sweet baby GIRL!!!!! I still feel like I need to pinch myself to believe it! Ha! 

Of course we would have been happy to have another little guy, but I've been praying the whole pregnancy that the Lord would bless us with a sister for Lily. I know how wonderful sisters are, and I have always hoped that Lily would have a sister close in age.

20 weeks

I am feeling good. This is the first pregnancy that I've experienced low back pain, and it's no fun. Thankfully I don't have it all the time though! 

Snapshots from the weekend.

Jacob conducted at a music camp last week, so he was gone a lot. Lily wanted to take a picture and send it to him and tell him that we loved him and missed him lots. 

Friday night Jacob had a concert and I was planning to take the kids to Five Guys for supper, but spur of the moment we found out my family was eating at Cracker Barrel, so we joined them. Papaw attempted to teach L&L how to play checkers. :)

The kids and Uncle Luke. 

Silly kids.

During lunch on Saturday, I left the kids for like less than a minute to run to the bathroom and I came back to a kitchen covered in milk. Mr. Levi thought it was great fun to dip his hands in his cup and sling them everywhere. I spent the afternoon wiping down everything (which I really needed to do, so it was fine...just not exactly how I'd planned to spend the afternoon.)

Asher is such a climber. I was in another room and heard him frantically yelling, "ma-maaa, ma-maaa." I went running and found him on top of this table. He's a mess!

"Is it naptime yet?"

The kids got this ark for Christmas, and I just remembered to pull it out on Sunday morning. I think it's going to be a toy that they only get to play with on Sundays - to keep them occupied while mama and daddy get ready for church. :)

Details about the baby.

Thank you all for your sweet congratulations on our announcement of our new baby! We are very excited!

I am 18 weeks along! Just two-ish weeks until we have an ultrasound and hopefully find out the gender! Yes, we normally announce a lot earlier than this, but the midwife wasn't able to find the baby's heartbeat at our 10 week appointment (which isn't normal for me and all my other pregnancies) and then when we did hear the heartbeat at 14 weeks, we had just found out about Memaw's terminal illness and with that and her passing, I just didn't feel like announcing. 

We found out about our new little one just a few days before traveling to Indiana for Jacob's brother's wedding and then to South Carolina for my brother's wedding the following weekend. With all the stress and craziness going on at that time, we decided to tell our families after the weddings were all over with. A few times on the trip to my brother's wedding (when Jacob couldn't go with us) I nearly broke down and told because I was just so exhausted and sick-ish feeling. 

We had a little birthday party for Asher's 1st birthday the Sunday night after Jer's wedding. Everyone from both sides of the immediate family was there except for Jer and Anna who were on their honeymoon. I slipped the big brother shirt on Asher at the beginning of the party and we announced. There was a lot of excitement and I think everyone was super surprised! :)

14 weeks

I am feeling really good, except for the exhaustion that has not gone away when I hit the second trimester. Probably a lot of it has to do with being a mommy to three littles already. :) I am trying my best to rest every afternoon when the kids are down for naps.

16 weeks

I am working out at the gym three times a week doing 25 minutes on the elliptical and about 15 minutes on weights. I also do pilates at home on the days I don't go to the gym.

18 weeks

Eeek! I'm really feeling large this time around. I guess my abdominal muscles are just give out from multiple close pregnancies. ha!

Jacob felt the baby kicking last night! It's definitely an active little one.

The estimated due date is November 6th, but with my track record, it'll probably be a week or so late. :)

Weekend Happenings.

Hopefully I'm getting back into the groove of regular posting. May seems like such a blur - there is so much to catch up on.

This weekend my sweet great Aunt Kay came to visit. She lives out in Iowa, so my Mom's sister (Aunt Jan) flew out and drove Aunt Kay around to visit lots of different family members.

On Friday we went out to my parent's for lunch and to visit with Aunt Kay and Aunt Jan. The kids had a great time playing in the sprinkler.

We went back to Mom's on Saturday evening for more visiting. My kids certainly put the Aunts to work reading to them. Ha. 

I think my kids think we're always supposed to eat when we go to Yaya's. I fed them supper (and they all ate a lot) right before we went to visit and almost as soon as we got there they were begging for food! Seriously. "Mama, I'm so hungry." "I need food!" Ha! All three of my kids and my sister's oldest son climbed up to the table and wolfed down a bunch of food. I guess maybe all kids think they need to eat at their grandparent's? I remember eating Ritz crackers with peanut butter with Memaw and my Granddaddy always went to the day-old-bread store and brought home a trunk load of junk food like Little Debbie (I think) pecan rolls and snowballs. We loved them! 

So...obviously my kids love to read! Here's Papaw reading the same book to them that Aunt Jan read the night before! ha.