Easter

Ethan has been counting down to Easter for the last week and a half. Every day he would ask if the bunny hid eggs and brought him treats. Sunday morning, we finally were able to tell him it was Easter and he was so excited! 

My matching boys after church. They look so handsome! 

Mart likes to dress to match his boys whenever he can. :) 

Okay, okay. We all ended up matching this Easter.

After my boys were tortured while they had to take pictures (Ethan kept looking around and seeing all the eggs hidden in the yard!) We went inside to find baskets.

Within just a couple minutes of finding his basket, I think Lincoln had eaten probably 10 pieces of candy. He didn't care about anything else in there, only the chocolate.

Ethan was so excited about everything. He was just being a super cheese ball.

After we found baskets and had changed clothes, we headed back outside to find eggs.

After dinner and naps, we got out the egg dye and colored eggs. Ethan was so excited to color them and it went super fast! He just couldn't wait to get them all in the dye.

Ber and Ethan waiting for me to finish getting the color ready.

Lincoln had no idea what was going on, but had fun anyway.

After they were dry, Ber and the boys stickered them up!

It was a fun day and Ethan had a blast. We are glad Ber is home and was able to come and spend the day with us! Happy Easter!

Little Monsters

**Be warned. I'm sure this will just turn into a pregnant lady rant ... **

Lately I feel like I have been living with two little monsters. Not the cute, clean, smiley ones straight out of the bath, but the ones you want to strangle before the night is over and eat lots of chocolate once they finally are asleep kind. Honestly, I don't know if it seems worse because I'm 24 weeks pregnant with extra estrogen flowing through my body, or if it is that combined with my kids are just going bonkers.

Ethan ... has been Ethan. He's so stubborn and hard headed and it just seems like he wants to battle it out with me every chance he gets. I hate having that kind of relationship with him. I feel like all we do is fight. Lincoln has always been a Mama's boy and is way easier for me to deal with most of the time. Although, he has been having his moments too. He has entered this screaming/crying phase and just cries non-stop for no reason at all. It's driving me completely crazy.

Mart hasn't had a lot of hours since November and we have been scraping by, which just adds to our stress, but thankfully (and not thankfully) they finally have enough work that he has been working lots of hours. It will be nice to finally be able to play catch up, but it's hard having him gone all day long every day when I am exhausted and my boys are missing him like crazy. By the time he gets home, the last thing he wants to deal with is screaming/crying Lincoln and defiant stubborn Ethan. I'm not sure what to do, I just keep trying to hang in there and be as patient as possible. (Not always possible).

I'm sure there are lots of things that are helping Ethan act the way he's been acting. New baby on the way, getting ready to move, remodeling, sick Mama, turning 5, Ber moving to California, Dad working a lot, etc. Hopefully once we finish the other house and move and get settled, things will start to calm down soon.

Phew. I guess that's all for my pregnant lady rant for now. I'm sure there's plenty more brewing around in my head. As for what's been going on lately, I guess I should update about that.

As I mentioned above (and most people know by now) that we are preparing to move. We are moving into my Mom's old house that my brother had been living in for the last several years. It honestly isn't going to give us a more room, it's just spaced out differently. At my house now, both my boys live upstairs which are basically attic type rooms. Their ceilings are slanted making it so there isn't really room to share a room once the baby arrives. The rooms are bigger and have normal ceilings at the other house so they will be able to share a room. The other perk is that there are two bathrooms. It's been a little obnoxious having only one bathroom. I'm feeling a little bad for my dogs, they are used to a fully enclosed backyard that they are the bosses of and can do what they like, but at the other house, it's not fully fenced in and when we first get there, they will have to be tied up until we can figure something out. Most likely, they will have to be in a kennel until we get a new house.
Before we could move in, the house needed quite a bit of work. It was built in the 70's and has only a handful of updates since. We removed all the linoleum flooring from the bathrooms, tore out some of the floor and had to replace it because of mold. Tiled both bathrooms. (Tiling is finished, just need to seal them now). We ripped out all the counters in the kitchen and both bathrooms and Mart has been working on new granite for the entire house in his free time at work (which hasn't been a lot the last week). We will rip out the entry at the very end and tile it (it's currently a wood pattern). We pulled off all the wood on an accent wood wall in the kitchen and are just updating it to a new wood wall. It used to be two large diamonds, but it will now be a pallet wall all going one direction. It looks much better already! After the counters go in, two new appliances will be delivered (which will be totally awesome!). I have had to paint the entire house (I'm nearly finished), remove wallpaper from one bathroom (that wasn't as bad as I pictured) and scrub the carpets. It's just been a lot of work, and we are slowly coming along. It's starting to look much better and it'll be fun to see it when it's all finished. It's the house I was born in and grew up in, so I keep thinking that it'll be weird to have my family move in and live there for a while. It will give us a much needed  cut to our expenses, which will help us catch up where we are behind, save for a new home, and help pay for this baby! (My insurance deductible is outrageous!) I'm extremely grateful my mom has this home and we have the option to move in. It took a huge weight off both of our shoulders, and my mom's as well. She's been stressing about finding renters that she trusts living there. And, like every remodeling project, we've had our fair share of problems. The most recent was when Mart was working on the pallet wall, he shot a nail into the electrical wiring and we lost all power to the kitchen ... after flipping the breaker a few times and watching sparks fly ... we realized what had happened and pulled the nail out. We haven't fixed that problem yet, but it shouldn't be too bad of a fix. As the days go on, I am becoming more pregnant and am realizing that we need to get finished and moved before I get much further along.

As for being pregnant, I am now 24 weeks! The baby is the size of a cantaloupe. (That seems a little big to me at this point, but maybe so?) She has been moving a lot, but in awkward areas. She only kicks up high around my belly button like once a week. Otherwise, she kicks extremely low, right around where my pants sit. I joke with Mart and tell him that once she starts moving often enough that people can actually feel her, someone is going to ask and I'll have to reply "sure, just stick your hand down my pants .. that's where she's sitting". Hopefully she flips around soon ... :)

I still think I'm a little in shock that we are actually having a girl. We went to the store to buy some clothes for her, and I was so overwhelmed. I'm used to two rows of boy clothes and very few options, but there was row after row after row after row after row after row ... after row of girl clothes! It was hard to look through because there were so many!  We are excited to have a girl! Mart jokes around with Lincoln and tells him when I have the baby and forget all about him, he'll be there for him. Then he told Kace one night that I'll have my own new toy to dress up and play with. It'll be fun.

We think we have decided on a name for her. Jade Careen. Since I was pregnant with Ethan, our girl name choice has been Autumn Careen, but Autumn seems to have been getting a little more popular, and over the last few years I really started to like the name Jade so I think we may have switched over. Careen is in memory of Mart's mom who passed away when he was very young. Her name was Karen, and we wanted to name a girl after her, but didn't want the actual name Karen ... so we did an off version and decided to do Careen instead.

I have been feeling alright. I'm not nauseated anymore which has been super nice, but I'm getting to the point where I'm hitting the "I'm starting to hurt" wall. I don't think it helps that she only kicks super low either. I am starting to have a little more trouble sleeping, and the last few days I've been feeling just weird and getting dizzy. Last night I was so dizzy I could barely function. I think it might be due to lack of water, so I have been trying to step it up and drink water more often. I'm still wearing my normal pants (just with the help of a rubber band) and some of my regular shirts. I'm generally more comfortable in a maternity shirt because they are a little longer.

I think that's it for now. This has turned into quite a novel, but I guess I had some catching up to do. I haven't been taking photos lately, and I really need to start taking more. We just stay home all day and hang out so there isn't a whole lot to be taking pictures of. Maybe now that it's warmer I will start to get more.

Little Mr. or Little Miss?

From the beginning, we have said that this would be our last baby. My body just doesn't handle being pregnant very well. It has always been so miserable, like beyond miserable. With that in mind, I found gender reveal parties on Pinterest and wanted to throw one this time around. The only thing was, I didn't want to be surprised at the party with everyone else (I know, I'm boring like that). I wanted to be the one to make the cake and regardless of it being a boy or a girl, I needed to get my emotions in check before the party. I didn't want any hormonal, emotional, or irrational tears. I liked the idea of mustaches or bows? Little Mr. or Little Miss? Instead of blue vs. pink though, I did brown for the boy/mustache color.

Because of a lot going on, it was thrown together last minute. So it didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but it worked out. 

This is hard to read, but it was my banner that said "Little Mr. or Little Miss?"

The cake! I'm glad this worked out. I was having issues with it all day long!

I wanted a voting area where people got to show if they thought it was a boy or a girl. Then they got to wear either a mustache or a bow so everyone knew what they guessed it was. 

Lincoln didn't feel like looking at me, but he was sporting his bow!

Ethan was funny. For a week leading up to finding out, he guessed girl. A couple of days before he told me he thought it was a boy and a girl like Zach's mom. (My friend Seantae just had twins, a boy and a girl) and then after I told him repeatedly that it was just one baby, he changed his mind and insisted that it was a boy. So he got to sport a mustache (or a beard as he called it all night). 

I also wanted to make some props and have a photo booth! I thought it might be a fun way to kill some time and for people to relax and have some fun. 

Here are the results of our photo booth! Again, not quite what I wanted, but some of them turned out alright. Ethan was obsessed with it and it was by far his favorite part! He would dress up and tell everyone to come take pictures.


Grandma Erm and Ethan

Ryan and Kace

Grandma Ilene and Ethan

Me, Mart and Ethan

Mart and Ethan

Rachel, Devin and Ethan (Do you see a pattern here? He had to be in everybody's picture! Silly boy)

Ethan

Kace and Ethan

Mart and Zack

Me and Debbie

Me and Lincoln

Debi

Amanda and Ryan

We ate some dinner and then people started to get antsy. Debi was all for cutting the cake before dinner and then just saving it, but I told her we should wait. (I wasn't nearly as antsy, because I already knew!) But after dinner, I finally decided it was time to cut the cake.

 

It's pink!!

That is definitely not a color we are used to at our house, but we are excited to add it! Out of everyone who was there, we only had 3 (plus 2 more who weren't there) votes for a boy, and everyone else guessed girl!

During the ultrasound, she was very stubborn and we were lucky to get photos of all the medically necessary stuff. All she did was curl herself into a tight ball and hide behind the placenta. We couldn't get a profile shot at all, and only had a quick half a second window to check her nose and lips for cleft. Everything looks great! I am very grateful that we were able to at least see what we were having, I was starting to go bananas not knowing!

We are so excited to have her a part of our family. For a long time, I've known that there was a girl waiting for me. I'm just glad to know she's finally going to be here and that I wasn't crazy. *wink*

20 weeks down, halfway there. So excited for summer!

Ethan turned 5!

At the end of January my little Ethan monster man turned 5! He's been so anxious to be 5 all last year, that we kept forgetting how old he already was and started thinking that he was already 5. I told him that instead of turning 5 this year, we would go backward and he would turn 3 instead. He didn't think that was funny at all.

This year because of so much going on, being pregnant and busy we decided to do fun things with him, but keep it low key and not throw a big party. Mart took the day off and that afternoon he took him to a movie by himself and when they got back we met friends and family at the bowling alley to go bowling! Ethan loves bowling and going to movies, so he had a fun filled day! After bowling we picked up some pizza and went to my moms house for dinner and cake. It was low key but Ethan seemed to have a good time.

At the bowling alley:

Ryan and Mr. Zack

Lincoln loves bowling too! (Not that you can tell in this picture)

Ethan was so excited to get started

Mart and Dallan

I was there too. :) Once again, I wasn't quite sure how to pose all by myself, so I just pulled my "I'm feeling weird standing in front of a camera by myself" face.

Kace and Tyler

Debi and myself

My mom and crazy Ethan

Me and my other half

For the last few months I had been asking Ethan what kind of cake he wanted, and up until a month before his birthday he told me he wanted a super hero cake. "Batman and Robin with the batmobile". About a month before his birthday he changed his mind and wanted a monster cake instead.

Much easier for me (besides the hand cramping from all the piping with the grass tip!)

I can't make a cake without making cupcakes too ...

Traves looks almost like his cupcake. :)

Ethan really liked it, but wasn't very interested in posing with it. He was too excited to blow out the candles.

He was so excited for his birthday and I know he was sad he didn't get to go to Disneyland this year, but I think he had a good time anyway. I can't believe I have a 5 year old ... it feels like I just had him a couple years ago. Crazy. Even though he can be a stinker lots of the time, I can't imagine life without him. He's such a sweet boy and we love him so much.

Happy Birthday little Monster!