Today

Today is always a hard day.  It's a day filled with a lot of mixed emotions, some happy, but mostly sad.  It's hard to believe that my little baby would have been 4 years old today.  I just can't imagine what she would have been like or would have been doing.  Happy Birthday Hope, we miss you everyday and can't wait to be together again.

Cute pictures

We went to a fun and cute reception for one of my cousin's getting sealed in the temple (YAY for Zack and Becka!).  Belle fell in love with the photographer and was following her around and so the photographer snapped a couple of cute pictures of my sweet girl.  

I made some yummy chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling and chocolate frosting to add to the dessert table.  I loved the cute pearls all over the top and it went well with the vintage theme of the reception.

This last one is my favorite.  I think I need to frame it and hang it up!

Things are going great with the baby.  We had our big ultrasound a couple weeks ago and everything looked good.  A four chamber heart,  good measurements on everything, and a cute profile.  I decided to get the quad screen test this time and that came back negative.  I have another ultrasound scheduled the beginning of November.  My doctor and I have have talked about all the monitoring we will do as I get farther along and how we may consult with a perinatalogist again (I say one monthly with Belle's pregnancy).  We will have a lot of non-stress tests (basically monitoring the baby's heart rate over a period of time) and a lot of AFI's (amniotic fluid index-measure the amount of fluid through an ultrasound). With Belle we induced me about a week early but it didn't go as planned (nothing happened-my body just wouldn't go into labor). So we waited a couple of days and tried again. I would like to be induced again so that we can monitor the baby the whole time I am labor and know that everything is ok but how early we will do that I am not sure, it will all depend on how ready my body seems. I have been a little less sick this pregnancy than with either Hope or Belle (with Hope I threw up 4-5 times everyday for 9 months, with Belle I threw up at least 1-2 times a day for 9 months). But with the this pregnancy there have been several days in a row where I haven't thrown up so that is nice (still a lot of nausea but the medication I have been taking this time has worked better for that and I feel better this month than last month and last month I felt better than the month before that-so progress).

Who doesn't love a pony?

Here is our new pony Cinnamon.  My dad surprised everyone yesterday by buying a family pony.  He is 5 months old and his back is only about 3 1/2 feet tall.  He will get bigger but he is half Shetland pony so not too big.  All the grandkids screamed and jumped up and down when we told them.  It will be so fun for the kids to have a pony, my grandpa always had a pony for the grandkids and it was a fun memory growing up.

IT'S A GIRL!

We had a friend of ours take a quick peek at our little bundle a couple weeks ago and she thought it was a girl.  After having a party to celebrate (wished I had taken pictures), we had our official doctor ordered ultrasound yesterday.  Well, our second opinion said it was a girl too.  We are excited for Belle to have a sister and that we can use all the cute baby clothes we already have.  Belle has a hard time saying sister, it sounds like sisser, so we are calling the baby "sissy" for now. Just a side note, my due date the doctor gave me is February 9 (I thought the 10th based on my own calculations before my first appointment but we will go with what the doc says).

Jarod has finally received his Christmas present

For Christmas I got Jarod a day at racing school at a track in Post Falls.  It was a great package deal with tickets to a race and Jarod getting to drive one of the stockcar racecars.  It has 435 horsepower and is not limited in anyway (Jarod wanted me to include those features in this description). Here he is out on the track.  I think he did pretty good for a first-timer.  He had to put on the full suit and helmet and everything.

Surprise!

Memorial Day Weekend

We were invited by Jarod's parents to a condo in Leavenworth for the Memorial Day weekend.  It was so much fun.  We went up Saturday evening and came home Monday night.  It was beautiful.  We were down in a meadow area that had a beautiful pond with a fountain.  There was a pool just a few steps away-that Belle asked constantly to go in- and it had a 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a full living room and kitchen.  We spent time downtown walking through all the cute shops, we ate yummy crepes at one restaurant, and loved the gorgeous mountain views and trees.  It was a fun, relaxing weekend.  Belle was just getting over a cold, and I was still in the middle of a cold, but it was still a lot of fun. Thanks Mom & Dad!

Here is what the condos and the pond looked like (the landscaping was so nice).