Berkley!

We found out that we are having another little girl. Berkley Adele. The kids were both thrilled with the news. I had tried to prepare both kids that the baby cannot be a BOY and a GIRL and Benjamin understood and said that was fine. He was perfectly happy when he figured out what exactly he was getting! We found out on Monday and shared with the kids on Tuesday.

I got rid of all of Bailey's clothes up until she was about 18 months old. Bailey actually has been wearing those clothes since then-so I never got rid of them. I finally went through her closet and EVERYTHING is all packed up in to 2 huge tubs for Berkley. Bailey and Berkley will eventually share their room, but we kept Bailey in our room for the first year in an Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper and we plan to do the same thing for Berkley.

I haven't had a cleaning lady since late July--well, I had one and let her know if wouldn't work out after the first visit she made. So, right now I'm trying to keep the house clean, work at school, work on the business, work out, and spend time with my family-plus soccer and dance. I'm having to go back to the way things were when I first took on the business-and that means a lot less sleep. It has to get done...so I'm doing it. Not easy, but I figure when Berkley arrives sleep will really be a thing of the past so I'm getting used to it.

Since school is nearly 30 minutes away from our home, we have arranged for Benjamin to ride with his teacher from last year each morning while I'm on maternity leave. We will pick him up from school each day-and that will save me tons of time of trying to get him out there every morning. Bailey is starting to talk more and more about going to school next year-can't believe she will be that big so soon! :)

Oh, and I haven't thrown up since September 19th! That is a HUGE step for me!

Update!

So, I haven't blogged in nearly two months. Whoops. I will be 20 weeks pregnant on Tuesday. 1/2 way there! I have been hospitalized again since my last post. It was a couple of weeks ago-I had to go in again for more fluids. I'm still battling with Hypermesis Gravidium (sp?) and it has been such a nightmare. Today I ended up sitting on the floor in the ISS room throwing up for about 4 minutes straight. It was horrible and pretty much the norm of my life right now. I try not to complain much but the throwing up thing is out of control and it takes a lot of self discipline to try and keep myself healthy right now. The children are so thrilled about the new baby and ask a lot of questions. They both know that they baby makes me really sick and they are both pretty sensitive to that. We have an appointment on Wednesday and Thursday of the week coming up. We have already picked out names and are just waiting to find out the gender. I've been trying to work out at least 3x a week and we are fitting that in by walking Bailey in a stroller at soccer practice and hitting the gym.

18 weeks in both pics, I think the first pic was my last time to wear regular pants...until February. 

We are starting to prepare for this new arrival--we have almost all of our diapers (the most exciting thing to purchase) and we have swaddling blankets, and the co-sleeper. The kids get so excited looking at newborn things and Bailey is excited because she gets to feed the baby (at the baby sitters). We got rid of all of our baby stuff with the idea that if we ever had another we would just start over. :) 

We have already tried it out in my car and my sedan will happily fit three car seats. Which is great! I don't want anything big right now

Benjamin has started soccer and Bailey has started her first year in dance! She is really enjoying her tap shoes! Benjamin is doing very well in kinder so far, he loves his teacher. She is a 2nd year teacher that I picked out for him. He actually asked for her first and I thought it would be a good match. She is very upbeat and kind. We just love her. Benjamin already knows all of his sight words for the first unit of the year and he has been practicing reading books on his level.


Chad and I are also pretty excited because we have booked a trip to Vegas. I have a few things I actually need to do there and we thought it would be the perfect time for us to go and enjoy some time together. My mom had planned on coming out some time in October, so we just thought she would enjoy keeping the kids for us while we went. We will also get to celebrate Chad's 30th birthday out there AND one of my favorite friends will also be there at the same time we are! How awesome is that?

We also have some pretty fun plans already set in place for Mother's Day weekend and Father's Day weekend. :) We are looking forward to all the fun stuff scheduled with our family of 5! :)

12 Weeks!

We hit 12 weeks on Tuesday. We had a sonogram on Monday and it went well. Baby was pretty much a crazy kiddo in there, had my check up today with my OB and he said I do NOT have to have a c-section unless it is needed. This is FANTASTIC NEWS!

I ended up losing about 10% of my body weight-I'm working on putting the weight back on and I think that all will just be terrific!

Benjamin turned 5 yesterday---he had tons of phone calls coming in and was happy to talk to everyone that called him to wish him a happy birthday. He also went to the sitter's house and they had a blast--first we took donuts over there. Then she:
-took him to the park
-took him to McDonald's
-took him to Baskin Robbins

and then she brought them back home. He had a great day.

Update!

Update since the last post! I've lost an additional 4 pounds since being discharged from the hospital. I finally decided that the only way get any kind of relief is to try nearly every home remedy out there. Sea Bands are really providing some kind of relief. Benjamin had two birthday parties this weekend and I was able to go to both of them. Lots of coworkers were there-so we were able to catch up on all the new changes that we will have this year at school. Benjamin enjoyed being able to see many of his friends!  I haven't worked at all the past few weeks, I've become really good at laying in bed all day long. Hoping things improve-I have to go back to work in less than a month (August 12th) and I am really going to need to get my butt in gear to make it through the days there. I have an appointment tomorrow, the 29th, and August 1st. I'm hoping to be completely better by the 1st.  We still haven't told extended family or friends (or the kids) about the new development--I had to go back to blogging in order to keep the journal of my thoughts through this.

Wow!

It has been a very long time since I have blogged. I'm going to try to start doing that again. Bay turned 3 about two weeks ago. Ben will be 5 at the end of July. We have some other big news-baby #3 is coming this way early February. It has been a very long month already, this new baby has me extremely sick. I've been told I have hypermesis gravidarum. Lost 7lbs last week, we ended up going to the ER last Thursday, and my OB called me this past Monday and admitted me to the hospital for fluids. Hoping to stay hydrated!

Life has been busy lately! In the past few weeks I have been to San Antonio for a bachelorette party, Conroe for a wedding, and this past weekend C and I both got to head to The Woodlands for the entire weekend for another wedding. We had the BEST time! Absolutely the best time! The kids stayed with the Uncle Tony and his girlfriend for the entire weekend-minus the few hours that we had a girl come babysit while Uncle Tony and them ran the 5k. The kids had an awesome time over the weekend. Benjamin is really enjoying school right now, he loves it! He is SO ready for kinder, maybe even a little "too" ready!

It was really great to be able to spend the weekend with just the husband. He is the perfect guy for me and I'm so glad we were able to enjoy lots of dancing. I'm pretty sure he is one of the best guys a girl could ask for. 

Below are some pictures of the wedding weekend from the past weekend. Also was my 3 month mark from my surgery. :) 

Whew! Ready for a break from school, exciting news--the little guy gets to spend the entire Thanksgiving break with his GiGi and PawPaw. :) He is so excited about that! I plan on working the rest of the break--while doing some things around the house.

Here is a preview of the Halloween costumes. :) 

I'm so ready for Christmas to be here!  I already have most of the little shopping done, waiting for Benjamin to pull the trigger on what he wants "Santa" to bring, Bailey is getting the coolest gift ever from Skippy and Pops that I found---cannot wait for her to get it. Have a few things I still need to get for Bailey, but I have a pretty good list for both of them and I'm just waiting to see which items go on sale in the near future. I cannot wait for Christmas this year!! :)

Skippy!

Skippy came for a visit this weekend! She came all the way out here to watch Benjamin play soccer, but it rained out and she didn't get to see the game. She did get to keep Bailey for Friday and Monday and then drove out and had lunch with Benjamin both days at school. Benjamin and Bailey had a really good time with her, I know they miss her already. We didn't get to do much on the weekend because the weather was kind of nasty, but the children enjoyed just hanging out. We even rented a movie, blew up the air mattress and popped popcorn on Saturday night with Benjamin. :)

Benjamin's arm is almost fully recovered from the hole the doctor cut into it-and the heart murmur they heard is gone-he is a healthy boy. Just hope he stays away from the mosquitoes! His teacher brought him by my room today because he did so well on his beginning of the year reading benchmark test. :)

Below are some pics from 3 weeks ago, his first soccer game and after his little procedure he had done on his arm.