pics from the beach

today we went to the beach and it was gorgeous!!! then everyone left to head home. it's so sad! the house is so quiet and empty and suddenly we have nothing to do. it's lonely!

A few pictures from christmas

At the wild animal park. the lion was right by the glass which never happens!

my sis in law cheryl being forced to feed the lorikeets.

zander feeding them.

on the train waiting to go

the cousins. matching shirts and looking adorable.

zander's new bike from oma and opa

opening presents

oma and ronan

zander in his christmas suit

ronan getting dressed

making gingerbread cookies with mama!

ronan and jabba the hut before christmas eve service

making sugar cookies

the brother's christmas morning

lots o' love!

celebrating zander's bday early with ben's family

FAT MONDAY

well i went to the doctor today....never a good thing after christmas....for the usual OB checkup. according to my records i'm around 28 wks + a few days. to start off my appointment i learned i gained FOURTEEN pounds this month. one month. ONE MONTH!!! hello hefty! fatty fatt two by four, can't get through the kitchen door! oh yes, i'm experiencing "excessive weight gain" according to my doctor. i'd like to show him what a heft woman can do with a two by four and his face! ok, i'm simmering....anyways, about the baby. this was the first time i had seen the doctor in about three months (normally i see the p.a.) so he told me i was measuring closer to 30 weeks and that my due date was mar. 17 (st. patty's day) according to my ultrasounds. no one had told me that before....so he told me to start looking at dates around march. 10 for my csection. holy crap!!!! that is almost two weeks ahead of what i was expecting! that means only 1o weeks from tomorrow this baby is coming! HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i'm so freaking out now! ben better get sewing on the baby's bedding!
well today the fam went to the zoo but i stayed back and rested. tomorrow is their last day here and we are going to hit up the beach. i hope it gets a little warmer since it's only been in the upper 60's so far. but i'm sure the boys will love playing in the sand anyways. i'm trying to load some pics so we'll see how that goes.

Christmas fun!

well the annens all arrived wednesday, christmas eve. after a whirlwind hello we headed to our christmas eve service. why do people think we want the kids in the service with us just cause it's christmas eve?! umm...nope, i don't. send them to nursery! ronan was all over the place and crazified....blah...by the time i left i was hot and tired. the next morning the boys woke up bright and early ready for oma and opa, and uncle jay and aunt cheryl. and of course baby jake (even though he's the same age as ronan). ben and i fixed french toast casseroles so we ate a good breakfast and then opened presents. it was a great morning but pouring outside too. (not fun!) so we sat around and played with presents. ate some lunch, took naps, then went to denny's for dinner since it was pretty much the only thing open.
by the end of the evening we were all exhausted. it was early bed for everyone. then this morning we woke up and headed off to the wild animal park. thank goodness it had stopped raining but it was still freezing! (ok like 51 degrees) but the wild animal park was fun and they've added some great ways to get to the exhibits without a lot of walking (thank goodness for this hefty preggo!). we got to see everything we wanted and still leave by lunch time.
while the boys slept, oma and opa (these are ben's parents in case you're wondering) watched them so we could go down to the mall downtown. really, i shouldn't have walked any more without resting...hello, seven months pregnant now?~! i was exhausted. then we came home and i grilled some chicken and we ate and just hung out. i am really really tired....but fun was had by all. tomorrow i think we're going shopping at the outlet malls and ben said i can only go if i agree to a wheel chair. :) we'll see!
so i'm pooped...off to bed i go. merry christmas all!

Crazy sick christmas!

the boys have been sick for over two weeks and the last few days have gotten a fever. so i took them to the dr. today only to be told that they were getting new illnesses so no antibiotics. dang it....ronan is struggling the most with not sleeping and the cough from all the drainage. zander's a little trooper. i was hoping to have them better by the time christmas rolled around and the annens all got here. apparently jake is sick too so they can all swap sicknesses. it'll be great. :) sunday the boys and i are headed to palm dessert to spend some time with my parents and ben is staying home cause he's still working. dec. 24 oma, opa, jay, cheryl, and jake all arrive. so hopefully i'll get things cleaned and goodies baked before then. being preggo at christmas is just not an easy thing. this baby is incredibly big, active, and painful. fortunately my pelvis has not been bothering me like it did with the last pregnancy so that's an answer to prayer! but i'm just sore and slow moving. no fun.
updates on the boys....ronan is a talking machine now. he repeats everything you say and of course loves to say "no!" but he says it so funny like. i can't write it, but he makes it sound cute. his favorite word is still "papaw" (my dad). he and zander love to wrestle and have dance parties. ronan copies everything zander does including how he plays with toys. its weird to me that ronan talks so much cause zander was well over two before he really started talking. ronan is also a VERY tall boy and sturdy. i thought zander was tall at his age, but ronan is huge.
as for zander, he's a true little angel. he has the sweetest heart and loves life. he's always thanking us for something, and giving hugs and kisses. his imagination is insane! i'm so not a creative person but zander blows me away with the things he imagines and stories he makes up. he loves to tell funny little made stories that just make me laugh. the other day we were driving and he told me he was flying in an airplane over oma and opa's house and jay and cheryl's house and they were drinking tea. TEA?! he's so weird...i don't even drink tea so i dont' know where he got that one from.
i love the boys so much even if they wear me down. honestly i'll be very glad to have the fam here so the boys get a little more play time attention that i haven't been able to give them so much lately.
well i'm off to bed....merry christmas friends!!!!

christmas with the parents

Last night (saturday) we had a fabulous christmas with my parents. we had a steak and scallop dinner followed by fun with presents. weirdly enough zander actually ate the scallops! i could barely get through dinner because i thought i was going to explode. it was sooo good! zander was going to die with anticipation about seeing the presents but having to eat first. but once the boys got to open presents it was a pure joy to watch. zander especially is the most greatful child i have ever seen. after every present was a big "OH THANK YOU!!" i swear you could have wrapped dog poop and he would have been so happy! my parents got him a big train track /space thing and i thought his head was going to pop with excitement. even after being home he kept doing his 'happy dance' which is just funny....you'd have to see it.
ronan is definitely at the age where boxes are fabulous. so he was just all over the place. all in all it was a great night.

Zander singing at church

I can honestly say that my heart is absolutely full after getting the priviledge to watch my precious song sing for the first time in church. I am definitely one of "those moms". :) Today the kids sang their songs in front of church for christmas time and it was a wonderful time. my parents came and zander was absolutely the proudest child ever to sing in front of us all. and for those of you who used to watch ben at the same age, you will be happy to know that zander sways while singing just like ben did. :) you never quite know how they're going to respond once they're on stage, but zander was a natural. but i'm way overly proud and biased. his three best girl friends, emma, caitlin, and elizabeth all sang too. i've included some pics to show you how adorable he was!

Thanksgiving and Christmas

How are the holidays already here?! it's insane to me how quickly my life is flying by since adding children! thanksgiving was rather uneventful except that it rained and rained keeping us from going to our usual park day. that made for some very stir crazy little boys and a very stir crazy little husband. we rented wall-e and kung fu panda but eventually the boys were at each other. finally that evening we went to my parents for dinner which was truly yummy. mom does the turkey and her low carb side dishes for her and dad, and i do the side dishes for my fam. it was so funny to watch ronan eat his first thanksgiving dinner. last year he was too young. this year he devoured it and loved the stuffing and mashed potatoes. he's such a food lover. zander well, he still picks and choses. but he does love his pumpkin pie.

the day after thanksgiving ben finally had it off! it was the first time since we've been together that he's had it off. it was very nice! we went to walmart and target and then a second walmart. finally we went to veijas (outlet shopping center). the boys were really good but definitely done with shopping by the afternoon. however we did get all our shopping done so that made me happy! i've got a few things to make online but that's it. by the evening i was truly pooped. my feet were so swollen and my hips, ankles, everything were all in so much pain i could barely move. but...zander was begging to put up the tree. we've always put it up while they were sleeping but for some unknown reason i decided to do it with the kids. i'm so stupid. ronan immediately threw a brand new glass ornament, breaking it everywhere (darth vader none the less! ) and cried for the next hour as we said "no ronan, no ronan, no ronan" to just about everything he did. halfway through i heard zander in the bathroom followed by a loud crash. he had knocked over a glass vase filled with glass ornaments all over the bathroom. it was just the end of a crappy night! from now on there will be no more kids involved till their fifteen!

we also did our christmas card pics the night before. so here's some candid shots that i didn't edit. so they're a little bright and washed out.

enjoy!

Roasting Marshmallows

We finally got a chance to roast marshmallows with the boys in our fire pit. zander has been dying to do this for a while. he sees "camping" on tv and they always roast marshmallows. so here's the boys on the swing enjoying the fire. ronan is quite the cheeser.
Ronan after his first bite of smores. zander in the background looking frighteningly scary.

Chubby bunny!

Roasting away.

This is my little cross dresser! :) he loves to wear mommies shoes! :) high heels and crocs.

this is just funny cause ronan took the computer cord and tried to plug in his ear.

Ridiculous week

we've had a really really bad week this week. ronan has not been sleeping at all and i really mean not sleeping at all. waking up every 30-40 minutes at night. he's on antibiotics starting yesterday and hopefully will be better soon. and i've had no naps either for three days...so i'm a wreck and very tired. well this morning ben woke up at 5 am this morning with severe diarrhea. by this evening it was nothing but blood. off to urgent care we go! after xrays, ivs, blood samples, and general waiting, we were released with antibiotics and some sampling tools. (for special sampling gathering....:) ) they think it's a bacterial infection of some sort gotten probably by food poisoning. the poor guy has never been so sick i swear. sooo....i'm still very tired...very very tired. pray for ben to get completely better.
and for sleep, precious sleep.

day in and day out

christmas....christmas....blah blah blah....i can't figure out gifts this year...i'm tired of getting the inlaws the same ole same ole. but asking what they want is useless too....(sorry guys, you know its true). i want to be creative, but i'm just not. doesn't everyone just want a cute picture of my boys?! come on, they're adorable! hahaha....i have no idea what to get for my parents, for my sis in laws, for anyone.....poop. if i had more money the options would be greater. but i have to think more creatively. i love buying the boys stuff cause they'd be happy with a cardboard box. maybe i'll just get some moving supplies for them. :)
and then there's the photo cards. why do i do them? cause i love them...i love getting them from people and seeing how kids have changed, etc. but i always want to come up with something fun to do. last years pics were awful cause i just wanted to get them done on black friday...so i cut and pasted and then we were the color green for some reason. horrible i tell you. the years before that were just boring.....i've got nothing...and then do i do just the kids? the whole family? what would you want to recieve? and another fun thought, all my christmas card labels are on the crashed computer...great. so i've gotta try to retrieve those again!
bah humbug! but i do love christmas and i want to set the tree up already! zander is practicing for singing his christmas songs for church which i'm SOOOO excited about! it'll be the first time to see him sing and to experience that 'parent' moment. he's so stinkin' cute about it too.
ok that's all

silly boy

the other day ronan was doing his crazy screams for my ice cubes...he loves to eat that stuff. zander was getting annoyed that i wasn't giving ronan the ice right away so he says "mama, that's spanish for he wants ice.". :) hahahahha.....so funny.
i thought ronan had an ear infection too because he was scratching at his ear and freaking out and crying. so i took him to the doctor and she said he's fine. absolutely, positively nothing wrong with him. go figure. isn't that the way of it? oh well...better to know than not to know.

new pains

well i thought i might not have the pelvis pain that i had with the last pregnancy...but alas, it is starting. it's far less traumatizing this time cause i know what to expect and the pain is sadly familiar. but it's disappointing cause for some reason i was hoping it wouldn't happen. and my hips are already aching like crazy. dang third baby. how do people have so many children? do they have steel bones? feel no pain? just plain crazy? or lying to us about how wonderful pregnancy is?! blah i 'm not bitter. :) i would have more kids if i could have a surrogate. any volunteers? :) hahaha...
baby jade is moving a ton now! and i just want to say, that i wore my regular non maternity pants to church today. granted my butt was squished into them like sardines, but hey they bottoned and i didn't feel like i was going to pop. so yea, i'm bragging....if you'd carried the butt, thighs, and other nasty weighty places i did with the boys you'd be bragging too! jade is mostly all belly which is totally weird to me. the boys were little belly, tons of fat every where else.
ok, not sure why i'm even writing about this.
today was cold and rainy; and although i could have lived without the rain, i loved the cold. we've had 90 and then down to 65, then back to 90 again. i'm over it. one temp range per season please! but today was freezing cause of the wind but i swear my thermometer only said 63. oh how our bodies change since moving to cali. i've forgotten what real 'freezing' means! :)
ok, i'm off.

Sickies

Yup, sick again. Ronan is sick, zander is sick, and ben thinks he's getting sick. blah.....i hate colds. i think it's been less than two weeks since the boys had a cold. man i thought i would escape all this moving away from michigan. i took zander to the doctor tonight with stomach pain and turns out he's constipated. poor little thing. so we had to fill him with fiber supplement and now he's stomach's hurting again from that. plus he's just now coming down with the cold. so he's pretty much miserable. oh the joys....
they've both been waking up at the butt crack of dawn lately because of the time change. i'm so over it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they need to sleep better. i'm going to go crazy if i don't get some deeper and longer amounts of sleep!
oh well i'm off to eat some ice cream!

still going

so the computer went haywire yesterday and i couldn't finish my post. the ultrasound showed that i have placenta previa. if you've had csections before or a d&c you're chances of having it are higher. so i'm not surprised or alarmed really. if you don't know, it just means my placenta is over my cervix. because i'm having a csection already, it's not really a problem for me. but i guess it could cause early bleeding and bed rest of preterm labor. but 90% of women have their placenta move up on their own. so i'm really not worried. just an fyi.
also, our hearts go out to my father in law who's mother passed away today. prayers for you and your family!

Baby Jade

We had our actual 20 week ultrasound today! Jade looks very healthy and good. and she is DEFINITELY still a girl! ok, i can relax now. the first picture is her spine, butt and little leg. the second is her big foot, and the last is her looking right at you. unfortunately after we saw all the girl parts, etc. she started freaking out and moving and we didn't get a picture after that. but there is no question! she's 14 oz.

TRICK OR TREAT!!!!

Happy Halloween! halloween is always stressful. getting everyone in costumes and out the door is a pain in the butt! somehow we managed to do it though. this year we were characters from "finding nemo". Ben sewed our costumes of Bruce and Dory. Zander was crush and Ronan was nemo. they were so cute but i am so impressed by ben's sewing and the costumes he came up with. he didn't even use a pattern!
the boys loved trick or treating and ronan literally would bounce up and down after getting candy. he was so cute! he did have to grab the candy himself and then put it into the basket. if the person tried to put it in the basket for him, he'd stand there thinking he didn't get any. zander got scared a few times but loved getting candy too.
GeeGee went with us this year too and the boys loved having her there. And as usual we went with our small group which proved to be chaotic with so many kids, adults, and strollers! but fun was had by all!
so here's the pics!
Me at 20 weeks!