Gender Reveal Baby #3

Last Monday, Steve and I went in for our big half-way ultrasound. We found out the gender of our sweet baby #3, and we kept the exciting news a secret for a few days. On Thursday night, we were able to get the grandparents and a few friends together to do a gender reveal. :)

We hadn't told the boys any news from the ultrasound, and they went in with the guess that baby is a girl. We said that if the balloons were pink, it's going to a be a baby sister; and if the balloons were blue, it's going to be a baby brother.

Baby BROTHER!!! 

I am still processing the idea of having THREE boys. I'll admit, it wasn't the easiest news for me to hear as I was thinking pink, but another sweet boy is definitely welcome in our hearts.

And what's more fun than 15 blue balloons??

 The grandparents were all excited, and not seemingly surprised by the news. Nolan burst into tears a little bit later that he wanted a sister, but I think he's already adjusted to the fact that it's a boy. Now instead of naming the baby Emily, he has started saying Thomas (both train-related names). :)

I made a pretty blue cake for the occasion, but with the heat that we've been having and the wrong choice of frosting, it MELTED right after I made it. Ah!

We're ready to add another wild one to our family in four months! At least, we have some more time to wrap our heads around the idea :)

Thanks to my friend Ashley for snapping these photos for us!

Mom's Surprise 60th!

On Monday, my mom turned the big 6-0! Earlier in the summer, she and I had talked about throwing a party, but as time went on, she started saying, "Oh, I don't need a party. . . " in humble mom fashion. Her husband Don suggested throwing her a surprise party on the night of her birthday, and I thought that would be perfect. I secretly messaged around thirty people, inviting them over to my house for ice cream sundaes to celebrate. Steve and I had been on vacation for ten days, so when we got home, we had a couple of days to put together the decorations.

The big tissue paper flowers came in a kit from JoAnn's, that's still there (on sale) if you are looking. Steve graciously put them together. I found a few black-and-white photos of my mom at her house, and they added some cuteness to the mantel.

Pink, coral, white, and a little bit of mint = such a pretty combination!

 

Ice cream sundae toppings, including a Crock Pot in the back with fresh, homemade hot fudge.

Don picked up a yummy marble cake, and we had raspberry punch to wash all that sugar down :)

Nolan helped MorMor blow out her candles :)

Cheesing with MorMor at the end of the party!

 

I'm so glad we pulled off this surprise party to celebrate one wonderful woman! Hope your sixties bring you much joy, Mom! Love you!

18 Weeks & Pregnancy after Miscarriage

I'm calling this 18 weeks, but actually, I'll be 19 tomorrow! We are SO excited about this little one, our sweet number three. The weeks are breezing past at this point, but I can't say that this pregnancy in general has felt fast.

Going back to the beginning. .  .

I was pregnant with a baby at the end of January, and I miscarried on February 29th. The loss was devastating. Our family, friends, blog friends, church - all commiserated with us and shared in our sadness. We were lifted up in prayer by so many people, and in turn, God began to give us peace. We had to wait 6 weeks until we could try again, and it was a really long 6 weeks. I remember telling Steve that I needed some kind of hobby or creative outlet to keep my mind off of the waiting. I didn't feel like I received much medical or emotional care from my doctor's office. In fact, the office never even gave me a chance to speak to the actual doctor. I had some friends who advised trying for another baby right away because they had success quickly, and others who advised waiting a while for healing. For me, I knew that I wouldn't be happy until I was pregnant again. And I hoped and prayed that it wouldn't take us 6 months of trying, like it had with all three of our pregnancies.

Nolan and Ephraim kept me absolutely busy for those weeks. I took a break from the blog so that I could spend my evenings with Steve, just watching TV and relaxing.

On April 22, we saw a positive pregnancy test! It was such a miracle that we were able to conceive on the first try. Again, I credit this all to the prayers prayed for us, and the hope that surrounded us. It puts us 10 weeks behind the first pregnancy, with a due date of December 31st. God is so good.

Experiencing the first trimester is totally different after you've had a miscarriage. You live with a certain amount of fear. You get nervous with every trip to the bathroom. You don't let yourself form a deep attachment with the baby until you have a little bit more certainty that this pregnancy will stay. The first few weeks were tough, but I began to feel peace once the symptoms started appearing.

 During week five, I developed major food aversions. In fact, even though I was so hungry during weeks five through ten, nothing sounded good. I would browse the whole grocery store and still not find anything I wanted. My taste buds were all wrong. Salty food was way too salty, and sweet food was awfully rich. Once we got past six weeks, I gradually became more and more optimistic about this pregnancy. We took it one day at a time.

We waited a little longer to tell people about this baby. We liked having our little secret, and we also wanted to make sure everything was fine on the first ultrasound (it was!)

Right now, I'm really enjoying the second trimester. I've been able to feel the baby's tiny kicks and punches for about four weeks now. My appetite is all back, and I haven't had too many crazy cravings or aversions lately. I've gained about ten pounds, and I'm just getting my maternity clothes out of the attic. The veins in my right leg are purple and popping out, and so I try to wear my compression stockings when it's not quite so hot outside. Other than that, everything is going really well, and we look forward to our big ultrasound later this month :)

The boys are convinced that the baby is a girl, and they want her name to be Emily. Nolan loves to kiss and hug the baby bump every chance he gets, and it's adorable. He really changed his tune from when he told me, "Two babies is enough. You only have enough love for two, Mommy." Now, I think he's very excited to experience becoming a big brother again. Ephraim, on the other hand, has no idea that his world will change in December.

I'll try to get updates up every two weeks or so. We really are so excited, and in the meantime, we're enjoying these last few months as a family of four :)

Hello August

Our last week of July was a lot of fun. I do love August, my birthday month, but I am so not ready for summer to end! This past week, we can cross a couple of things off of our summer bucket list: we went blueberry picking, Nolan went to his first VBS, and we did a day trip to Pittsburgh. Here are some of those photos!

Building Thor at Lowe's. We now have 4 of the 6 superheroes of the summer :)  Ephraim's happy face here cracks me up.

We chose a super hot morning for blueberry picking, but it was the exact right time of the season - there were plenty of beautiful, ripe berries!

Similar to when we went strawberry picking, Ephraim worked hard at getting the berries while Nolan picked a few and was done. Haha.

 They sell for $1.50 a pound, so we got five pounds for only $7.50.

 I flash-froze most of them, so we'll be able to make blueberry muffins and blueberry zucchini bread for months to come!

Nolan went to a big church in our community for his first Vacation Bible School. They did "Cave Quest", and their decorations were awesome. I was a little bummed that he was put in the 3-4 year old group when he turns 5 in six weeks. Almost all of his friends were in the older group. Oh well! He seemed to have a lot of fun, and he came home with sweet messages about Jesus.

Ephraim loved dropping Nolan off, having Mommy to himself for a few hours, and then going back to pick Nolan up!

After I had my miscarriage at the end of February, my friend Hannah sent me this sweet care package. The little blue pot on the left was for growing Forget-Me-Nots. I planted the seeds right away and they grew into a tiny little plant on my windowsill. Once I transferred it into the garden, it didn't do very well and I was sure it wasn't going to get any blossoms. Fast forward three months later, and I have this beautiful little bush of Forget-Me-Nots! It's so special to me that now I'm 18 weeks pregnant!

All the boys want to do these days is play with sand and water outside!

Ephraim turned 2 and a half on Thursday! He has been learning so many new words and phrases these past few months (my favorite is "Have Mercy!") He still loves to sleep full nights and long naps in the afternoon (Yay!) Two has made him a little feisty. On Sunday, he threw an hour long fit! But overall, this little boy is the biggest blue-eyed sweetheart I know!

Met a new friend the other night. He apparently likes tortilla chips.

 

On Saturday, we trekked to Pittsburgh. The weather wasn't bad on the way there, but we had a huge downpour around lunchtime. A friend of mine on IG recommended this little French bakery for their delicious macarons. I knew I had to find the store and give them a try :)

 

 Just as pretty and tasty as I hoped!

We ate lunch at Chick-Fil-A with Steve's brother Josh who lives in Pittsburgh. Then we braved IKEA on a Saturday afternoon.

The boys thought it was a giant playground. And I got to pick up a few odds and ends for our house :)

My cousin Dayna and her family met us there, and unfortunately this was the only photo I got of them with us!

Before heading home, we grabbed dinner at one of our favorites, Jimmy John's.

Takes after his dad with his love of bread, cookies, and pastries.

We brought the macarons home, and the boys were super excited about all the brightly colored cookies. They were gone in no time. My favorites were the chocolate, the raspberry, and the lemon.

Back to playing in the sand and water! 

So, hello August. We've got some big plans for you! :)