Mall Toys

 Just a few pics I snapped at the mall the other day.  My kids LOVE to play on the "mall toys".  They could stay there all day.  It's fun to watch them.  Andrew is always knocking people out of the way so he can get down the slide.  So, there's always a little disciplining going on too but it's all good. 

Beatin' the Heat

 One of our favorite Saturday activities is to go to the City Gardens downtown.  The kids LOVE it.  We've had temperatures over 103 everyday for almost two weeks, so anything to beat the heat is just a good idea.  Check out our pics

Pregnancy!

Holy cow!  Am I really almost 27 weeks pregnant?  Wow.  It is just going by so fast.  We will blink and our little Daniel will be here.  Sometimes I feel a little self conscience about writing details of my pregnancy on my blog, but I always love reading other peoples stories.  Plus, this is my "blog journal" so I'm counting this post as a documenting blog for Daniel to read later.  (Yea, we'll see if that ever happens).  ;-)

This pregnancy has been wonderful so far.  In the first trimester, I felt incredibly sick but actually only threw up twice, (thank goodness).  However, I picked the two worst days to throw up...the day we moved and the day we drove half way across country.  Yea, those weren't timed very well.  I had to just throw up and keep on truckin'.  Being a mom is tough!  My sickness lasted for what seemed like forever.  It probably didn't really go away until about 20 weeks or so.  That is very comparable to how Anna's pregnancy was, which really made me think this baby was going to be a girl.  I guess old wive's tales just aren't always true.  Josh is still rubbing that one in. 

I have been super, super tired this pregnancy.  Much more than with the other two.  Of course, a large part of that is that I have "the other two" to keep me running around all the time.  Thankfully, the tiredness phase has pretty much passed.  I still take naps here and there but nothing like I used to.  It was ridiculous.  Every single day, I would take about an hour and a half nap while Andrew was sleeping.  Plus, I was getting 8+ hours of sleep each night.  I just felt completely drained all of the time.  I really began to wonder if that would ever go away.  Thankfully it did and now nap time can be productive,...(or not).  ;-)

My emotions have been pretty moderate.  No huge mood swings.  There have been some but not too bad.  I don't know, maybe you should ask Josh his opinion on that one.  I just remember driving in the car when I was pregnant with Anna and crying for completely no reason.  I just needed to cry.  Yea, none of that this time.  I think we're all thankful for that. 

Here I am at 21 weeks pregnant at the Saint Louis Zoo.

 One super weird thing that has happened is that I have become ALLERGIC TO MY WEDDING RING!  Say what?  I know.  It's crazy.  I've developed an allergy to the metal in my ring.  Talk about a bummer.  It makes my finger super red and itchy and even pussy.  TMI?  Yea, I know.  It's awful though.  I can't even wear it for 8 hours.  When I do, it will be irritated for weeks.  I've given up on trying to wear it all together.  No more wedding ring for me.  I asked my doctor about it, and she said that it will probably go away about 6 weeks after the baby comes.  Oh, I hope so.  She said that pregnancy will mess with the ph levels in your body.  I sure hope it all gets resolved when I'm done.  I like my ring.  :-( 
She also told me that one of her patients also had something crazy happen to her skin.  This patient grew a huge, brown mole smack dab in the middle of her forehead.  The girl was obviously upset about it but 6 weeks after she delivered, it completely went away.  I guess things could be worse.  ;-)
This is me on the 4th of July after a very long and exhausting, (but fun), day.  Don't look too closely.  ;-)  I'm 26 weeks in this photo.  I grew a lot in 5 weeks!  I also gained 10 POUNDS in 6 weeks.  Yea, that's ridiculous. 

  This picture is from my last appointment.  At my 20 week utlrasound, they were pretty sure it was a boy but wanted to be certain.  They also couldn't see a valve in his heart very well, so I got to have another ultrasound.  So, I went on Monday and I began to get nervous because the tech was really struggling to see this valve.  She finally was able to and said everything looked normal.  So, that was good.  And yes, he still is a boy.  ;-)
As if three ultrasounds aren't enough....  My doctor wants to do yet another ultrasound in 5 weeks to make sure he is growing well enough.  He's only in the 33rd percentile.  She says that anything between the 25th and the 75th percentile is normal but she knows that I have big babies.  So, she expected that number to be a bit higher.  She said that my due date is probably just off.  Well, I already knew that.  ;-)  Anyways, she wants to do a check just to make sure he is continuing to grow at a rate that makes her happy.  She also told me that he could just be a smaller baby and it's really nothing to be concerned with.  She just wants to keep an eye on things. 
Look, he's totally flexing.  What a boy!

This is probably way more information than you ever wanted to know about this pregnancy, but again, it's a good way for me to document!  We can't wait to see this little buddy!

Happy 4th

 Holy Smokes!  This was the 4th of July last year!  Look how little these guys are.  I cannot believe how BALD and CHUNKY Andrew was.  I knew he was big but looking back on these pictures makes me realize just how huge he really was.  Wow!  And look, he wasn't quite mobile yet in regards to walking.   It's amazing what one little year can do. 

 And here we are in 2012!  We tried and tried to get some cute pics of these guys together on the 4th, but it was hard.  It was 106 degrees outside, so being out there for that one minute was painful and was all we could take.  Thus, we have what we have and are happy for it. 

 These were taken earlier in the morning.  They are better but we never could get them to look at the same time.  ;-)

 (My camera was having lighting issues, which I'm not spending the time on correcting at the moment).  ;-)

 My little patriotic girl!  She LOVES the 4th!  She was about to burst to get a flag in her hand.  She was so into the whole thing.  She was really excited to wear red, white and blue to match her flag.  It literally was a party all day long, for the kids and the adults. 

 It is so much easier getting pictures of the kids separate, rather than together.  However, I was looking through my pictures the other day, and I realized that I actually have very few pictures of them together.  So, that is my new goal.  At least to try....

 We started off the morning at the Webster Groves parade.  It was SO hot!  We have seriously had a high of 103 or higher every single day for about a week and a half.  Josh's car read 116 after work yesterday.  We're melting over here!  It really is painful. 
Anyways, back to the parade....  It was super fun.  As soon as we pulled up, we said, "We're here".  Anna's response was, "But I don't see any candy!".  She did end up scoring a ton of tootsie rolls, a Popsicle, gum, even a headband!  The parade was great!  It made it feel very 4th of July-ish.

 That girl jumped so fast if she ever thought candy was close by.  How can you refuse that face? 

 I know this may come as a shock, but Andrew was SO calm the whole parade.  We could barely get him to move.  The only time he said anything was when the horses went by.  I think he loved it though.  He was just taking it all in. 

 This is Anna eating her 100th piece of candy.  It's a holiday, right?

 This is the headband someone gave her.  Wow!  We were really impressed.  It was super cute and she LOVED it!  We couldn't get her to take it off all day.  We also had to watch Andrew like a hawk because he was quite interested in stealing it away from her. 

 This was the Bubble Bus.  The picture really doesn't do it justice but it spewed TONS of bubbles.  Anna and Daddy ran out in the street to play in it.  SO FUN!

 What's the 4th of July without some red, white, and blue food?  Oh yea, and it's chocolate.  Mmm Mmm!  We do love good food and lots of it. This was our very patriotic trifle.  

 Our friends, the Armstrongs, invited us over for a 4th of July BBQ.  It was super fun.  We had lots of good food and the kids got to play in water games.  We all had a great time.

 The slip and slide was a major success.  All of the kids were going crazy! 

 Andrew loves to jump like a mad man.  He makes the biggest splashes too.  He loves to swim in the big pool at our apartment complex, but this little kiddie pool may have taken the gold.  He was in heaven. 

,

 Darling! 

It was probably the best 4th we've had yet!  Our whole day was jam packed with fun stuff.  Josh and I even got to watch fireworks from our couch that some people were shooting off next to us.  It was a perfect day!  Happy Independence Day everyone!