In case you were wondering...

We're having another baby! Yes, we are 'en route' with our second child and in perfect timing I'd say. Our first two kids will be almost 2 years apart. Our new baby will be due January 5th. I'm 12 -almost 13- weeks along now; that means I'm pretty much in the second trimester already! Yeah baby! Here is a model of the size of our baby now:

So... gee guys, what can I say? I've been tormented not being able to blog about any of this yet! I've needed a chance to vent (and explain my situation) because my life for the past 12 weeks has been kind of miserable and all due to this innocent little person. No offense, baby, but the first 3 months are rough. Nausea, vomiting, and just feeling lazy and gross all day.

In perspective, it really hasn't been too bad (about the same as it was with Avery). All the while, I've been pretty emotional about it and it bites that I have to constantly find something to feed myself even though that's the last thing I want to do or think about! Ugh! Gratefully, I've had progressively better days over this course and the yuck days are farther between (if not about gone by now). Yes! Now you'll never know just how I felt. Ah well. Now you get happy pregnant Bonnie. :)

The nurse guessed for fun that it was a boy from the movements she got. Brian and I have already each referred to it as "she." So who knows! Take a guess for me if you please. It would be fun to have two girls, but it would be nice to have a boy next so I wouldn't be worrying if we'd ever have a boy down the line! Know what I mean?

Now, If you've made it this far in the blog, I'll share today's photo at 12 weeks. Yes, I'm squeezing the t-shirt so you can see. I had a super cute outfit on earlier and forgot to take a picture then. This is after softball practice today, but at least you get to see my happy smile!

Bishop's Cabin

We just had an overnighter with the ward in Mt. Pleasant at Bishop's cabin. It was a blast!

Who doesn't love watermelon?

Swing high!

Smiley eyes.

cute gal.

THIS is the view you swing into. Lovely!

Here's a little perspective. These swings were SO fun and breathtaking even for us adults!

Setting up our brand new tent. We love it!

Avery's new sleeping bag!! (So cute and small!) Unfortunately she doesn't love it yet, but she will. She had a rough time getting to sleep; she only wanted to be with dad- laying on top of him. It was super cute, but finally she went in her pack-n-play thankfully.

This is at the dance in the workshop. We all had fun!

Stopping for a short hike on the way home.

Wheeler Farm

We had a good time with our friends today at Wheeler Farm. I know Avery enjoyed seeing the animals even though it was NINETY-SEVEN degrees today and she was wearing some really tight jeans (waddling around). She's a trooper. At least we used sunscreen this time! The turkeys and pigs were my favorite. Avery liked watching the ducks horse-play.

Give her a fork!

When all else fails, let HER do it! She didn't mind eating broccoli, she just wanted to do it herself. I have a feeling she's going to learn this fork thing very fast.

She's also good about doing what we ask if we don't force something out of her hands etc. She really is an obedient kid. She does have her little sassy moments, though. Honestly they're pretty funny. We love her!

Some things don't change

Brian likes to relax on the couch in front of the TV or computer and Avery likes to find her way beside him. It's not often that she'll sit so still or be so enthralled. I find this to be pretty cute. Here are a few examples.

7 months old

8 months old

16 months old

And today we turned around to find Avery like this: (enjoy!)

Few Bites

Gone are the days of my freely eating child. She used to eat whatever we'd give her and a lot of it too. I was proud she could eat so healthy. Within the last couple of weeks, I've noticed a big change. Sometimes she refuses to try things, or if she does try, she'll only take a few bites. She knows the things she likes and wants at that very moment and I have to try really hard to convince her otherwise. Usually I have to give in a little for her to eat anything.

Lately she LOVES corn on the cob, likes cereal and oatmeal, pancakes sometimes, carrots sometimes, peas, cheese, eggs, tomatoes, buttery crackers, and besides that- anything SWEET or PACKAGED (like cheetos etc). At least I can still get a few good things in her, but it also can be frustrating when one day she'll eat something and the next day she won't. I think all moms of toddlers know exactly what I mean.

She's starting to be more aware of what she wants, not only at the dinner table. She's gained a little attitude here and there, but she's still a sweet girl and mostly obedient.

Geared-up

We are getting geared-up for summer camping. It's time for some upgrading. It's crazy to think we need a bigger tent already with only one small child, but since she'll need to sleep in a pack-n-play (which we also recently bought), an upgrade was inevitable. It's like a chain effect. After many days and hours of research, we finally settled on a tent for us.

The Swiss Gear St. Alban Family tent is 11' x 14' and about 6' tall. We found this brand (Swiss Gear/Wenger) to have the better reviews on waterproof, stability, and durability in this price range. At $144 on amazon, we feel like we made a good choice.

We almost went with a 16' x 10' tent with 2 rooms, but decided since it was longer than our living room, we wanted to shoot for a tent that might not be as difficult to find a camping spot for. Besides it's a little embarrassing to have such an enormous tent for only 3 campers. At 11' x 14', ours is not much smaller (in fact our living room is about 13' x 15'), but I hope the 2' knocked off the end will help. I would have liked to have a room divider, but we weighed the options and this one won. We also like this one because the walls are straighter up. The dome sized ones felt A LOT smaller even at the same dimensions and you could only stand straight up in the very middle. Lame. Maybe we could even use this tent as a day area for playing card games and avoiding bugs.

Now we're excited to get a sleeping bag for Avery when it's back in stock and I've got my eye on a hanging tent fan/light that would be so cool if we ever feel the need to splurge on that (which shouldn't be soon).

Happy Camping!

5-blogs-in-1

Fender Benders

We've had a record two fender benders within the last month or so.

#1: The first one was on University Parkway and a lady behind us turned her head to look at the school stadium in bumper-to-bumper traffic and bumped into us. Though the impact was surely felt, there was no evidence of any damage so we both left amicably to avoid any insurance and court business. That was nice.

#2: Unfortunately, this one ended with a police report and the works two days ago. This was on I-15 right by the Belt Route exit on the way to taking Brian to the airport. Some metal shelf flew off a truck and caused a lot of swerving and slammed brakes, thus resulting in a three-car pile up for us. (We being in the middle.) Again, no real damage to us but the guy in the back had something go wrong with his air intake valve so he called the police. We're just glad Brian got to his flight in the end (that's why you go early, right?).

Swimming and Sunburn

While Brian has been in NM, Avery and I went swimming with Jenni and Katelyn yesterday. It was overcast when we left the house so I was lazy and didn't bother to mess with sunscreen for either of us. MISTAKE. We were swimming for 2 hours and the sun DID appear for more of the time than not. I could hardly sleep last night for the burning on my shoulders, but I feel the worst for Avery who should never have known what a sunburn was. She doesn't seem to be bothered (by that or the scrape on her knee), but I still feel horrible about it! :(

Staples

I have to tell you that I LOVE love love the Staples commercials! "WOW, THAT'S A LOW PRICE!" It cracks me up like none other and makes me think of myself when I grocery shop (at an exaggerated level, but imagining myself screaming that phrase just makes me laugh!).

Family Reunion

Our next family reunion was just established for next summer in Island Park Idaho. We will be renting a huge cabin and the WHOLE family is planning on coming!!!!! That makes me jump for joy!! There will be 18 adults and 18 kids. FUN TIMES TO COME!

Avery's Latest Words

Ruff, Ruff = "oof, oof"

Meow = "ooow"

Shoe = "chew"

Ball = "ba"

Grandpa = "bam-pa"

She says "mom" and "ba" for a galore of things and still babbles too. Avery can touch her head and nose when we ask her- she picked up on that quickly.

Not-So-Sunny Sun Valley

Brittany, my sister-in-law, deemed the phrase and it fit our Memorial Day weekend very well. Regardless of the weather, we still went our bike escapade through Sun Valley, Idaho with the family in the rain. We had a surprisingly good time! :)

First thing we did was stretch our legs. Avery on the ice.

Everyone checking out the swans.

Cold, rainy ride!

Avery was comfy and dry.

And content with a stash of pretzels!

Her first very own ice cream cone (it's a baby size perfect) but no baby size mess!

Shelly and Briley enjoying ice cream too!

In the car

Playing with kitties at Shelly and Bryce's.

I cleaned the bathroom

Phew! Glad that's finally done. I very much dislike cleaning the bathroom and I've put it off for WAY too long this time. I have to get worked up to do it, yet surprisingly, it doesn't ever take as long as I expect. (Probably because our bathroom is like 5ft x 4ft.) Regardless, this was my feat for the day and I have no idea what I'll do now. Just having that one accomplishment would satisfy me for the rest of the day, but surely there's something else I should do with my time now.