Thanksgiving

Tanner is enjoying football. Harvey is already asleep. All the excitement must have worn him out cause he was kind of a pill this evening. But anyway - felt like it was as good of time as anyway to post a few pics and tales of our day. 

I spent the morning doing what one does on Thanksgiving morning.  Cooking :) I had made a "game plan" on Tuesday to help me navigate through and try to have everything done on time and warm etc. My duties included cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, rolls and banana cream pie. All were new recipes except the pie. I think everything turned out pretty good except I cooked the first batch of rolls a tiny bit too long, which saddened me. But still delicious. 

Why I love taking food pictures is still unclear. Might have something to do with how much I love food. And "documenting". Ya - that probably explains it. 

Had to wake Harv up from his nap - which was difficult. I mean - look how precious he is!!

We had dinner with 3 other couples from our ward at my friend, Stephanie's apartment party room. It had a huge screen tv, nice kitchen, lots of space and fooseball and pool and darts. It was fun for us and it seemed Harvey had fun with everything. He wasn't a fan of leaving all the cool stuff behind. 

I'm bad and didn't get a pic of all the adults that were there. Oops. Lyn and her husband Jason and their little guy Ammon came. And a fam we didn't really know - the Robertson's - Loagn and Jaleesa and their two boys and a friend of Logan's. And of course Stephanie and her family. 

Anyway, like I said, it was a meltdown by the minute after we got home and a little before even. So even though he got some tv while I was cooking, I succumbed to the power of the iPad. But it was sweet cuddling with him. 

His favorite show right now, Room on the Broom, and I caught his favorite character on it too. The little green bird. Ask him what that bird says sometime. You won't regret it. 

There really is so much to be grateful for. We are so blessed in so many ways. I am especially grateful for my Savior. My testimony. My big family. And this little family of mine that brings me more happiness than I can even accurately express.  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from our family to yours!

Bambino #2

That's a beautiful sight when you want a baby!! And it was definitely that this time around. I figured now that we are well past halfway with this little one, I probably should document some of it. Poor second baby syndrome ;) 

We had been trying for a few months again...6 or 7. We discovered the secret formula for us. Major League Baseball and a planned trip to Red Lodge. Or maybe it was just the baseball? With Harvey, we had just gotten back from a Minneapolis trip and seeing the Twins and then went to Red Lodge over 4th of July. We had a trip in June to Wisconsin and hit a Brewers game. We had another 4th of July trip planned to Red lodge too. I wasn't feeling pregnant at all but the day after I was supposed to start the ol' period, I hadn't yet, and knew I had one test leftover. I told myself I knew it would be negative but I'd just try it anyway so I'd stop thinking about it for the next month. Welp. I was wrong. It was positive. Tanner had just left for work and Harvey was in his high chair eating breakfast. I started freaking out. In the happiest of happy dances possible and Harv looked at me with some serious confusion as I danced and jumped around the kitchen. 

It was June 29, the day before our anniversary. I had been contemplating ways to tell Tanner for months. I had a good one for our date night but then I didn't think I could wait over 24 hrs to tell him so Harv and I ran to Walmart and picked up a few newborn items before I had to work. I kept my mouth shut till that night. And anyone that knows me knows that that was a SERIOUS feat. I told him I had an early anniversary present for him. When he pulled the stuff out he got a really cute grin on his face and asked if I was pregnant. YEP!!!

There was talk of waiting until Christmas to tell people (6 months!?!? - an impossible task for me), or at least till we found out the sex. I couldn't. I caved when my parents came to visit in July and then we told his family. 

The first view we got of the little peanut was by my PA student at the time, using a portable machine we had in the ER   She had never touched an ultrasound machine so...

Not the best pic but it was nice to see something where it was supposed to be. That was Aug 4.

I felt more sick with this one than with Harvey. Still never puked but felt more tired and much more blah and eating actually seemed to make things a little better. I started feeling better earlier with this one though. Like 10-11 instead of like 13-14 with Harv. Thus far I have been feeling pretty good. I exercise much less because it has just been harder with job AND a kid. Excuses, excuses. The one good thing about not exercising as much is my pelvic pain that I had with Harvey that was AWFUL is very minimal this time. 

My first OB appointment ended up not being until I was just past 13 weeks. The second appointment was our anatomy US. We had actually had a few before that from friends from work. I was extremely impatient to find out what it was (makes me laugh to think I used to think I'd want it to be a surprise!). Tanner came for two of them. I was practically 100% sure in my mind it was a boy for some reason. I really wanted a boy and honestly could not picture myself having a girl. Tanner thought and wanted a girl. So when the first one was about 60-40 girl, I was in shock. Couldn't believe it. And could not wait to be able to go in soon again to try again. We had tried just a few days too early. She was super uncooperative for the next one too but the ultrasonographer was 95% sure it was all girl. Not as much of a shock then but still crazy to me! Tanner couldn't wipe the smile off his face all day! 

This is the best female showing we got. 

I just realized I didn't take pics from our first official ultrasound. They printed off a few but I never took them with my phone. The doctor did want us to see a dumb perinatologist for another ultrasound a month later because she was concerned about something with heart. I was only like 3% worried and figured it was overkill (they made me get another one with Harvey too, but just by the same ultrasonographer). But as it got closer I did start to stress a titch more. But it was all unwarranted. She and her heart were all perfect. So much gratitude for that. Man. Overwhelming really. She was a WIGGLE worm and wouldn't show her face much. They commented on her long legs and 90th percentile huge head. Haha. She's measuring a week ahead so I'm predicting a baby bigger than Harvey! 

These were from that second one...

And I took this picture today (while at work). I think it's really the only belly shot I have this whole pregnancy. Oops. I'm just not a huge fan of seeing myself get fatter and grosser. I guess it's good for documentation purposes?? I already feel huge and have difficulties bending over. And 15 more weeks is a lot of time for a lot of growing. Yikes!

Regardless, we are getting super excited for our little GIRL to join our family somewhere around March 7, 2016!!! (Names are still being 'debated' :) )

Diggers!!

I figured I would do a quick post dedicated to one of Harv's strongest obsessions. Construction trucks. This is a great city to live in because there's no shortage of them! We see them all over. And they recently built a through street near a park where we walk a lot - so for most of the summer we got lots of close encounters watching all the cool stuff in action. Maybe that's part of the reason he loves them so much.

Don't mind the ugly mom picture. This was when he was really sick a bit ago. He doesn't like letting these things out of his sight. 

We went to Bismarck a month or so ago and didn't take the "digger" (he likes all trucks but the ones that "scoop" and "dump" are his favorites - well and bobcats). He talked about the scoop the whole time. We ended up buying another set down there :) He really can never have too many!

Walks to the mailbox have been taking much longer than they could. The small dirt road we take to get there provides FAR too many opportunities for stopping and doing some scoopin'. The way he says "scoop" and does the hand action, and how he says dump is so cute!

Some from a mailbox run with Tanner this last week:

He also has been in love with this junior Lego set Tanner recently bought that has some garbage trucks and this little green garbage can that he tries to lose on a daily basis. I'm bad cause I let him take it wherever because he asks about it ALL the time. So for the last month + he's taken it all over town. And amazingly enough,  I even know where it is right now. 

Also note those "shoes". He got them from my friend Brooke for a shower gift. He found them in his drawer about a month ago and wants them on all the time. They have diggers and dump trucks on them. Amazing. 
He has a puzzle that has construction puzzle that has a digger. Tanner recently introduced him to Gold Rush which is chalk full of cool stuff. The first time he watched it he gathered all of his trucks. Big, little, puzzle pieces etc and piled them on Tanner to enjoy the show. 

Love this kid and his fun personality! 

Halloween

I can tell holidays are going to get continually more fun as kids get a little bigger. The week before Halloween we went and carved pumpkins with our friends the Mabeus'. Unfortunately Tanner didn't make it back in time from a fun hunting trip so Harv and I went solo. We had a delicious soup and pumpkin roll dinner and then decorated pumpkins. Harvey actually got pretty into it and I had so much fun with him for as long as he stayed interested (much longer than I expected, actually).

The finished products:

He loved seeing the pumpkins for the next week or so. He'd point to the one that was his, mama's and dada's. And he has a word for pumpkin that almost sounds like it. More just like "pum". That's kind of how his words are these days. Either just the first or last syllables. 

Tanner picked and created Harvey's costume. It turned out so good. I think and Tanner was quite excited about it. Almost finished...

When the day came to finally get to wear it, Harv woke up MUCH sicker than he had been the previous few days. Lots of breathing trouble again. So I spent the morning trying to round up a nebulizer and meds etc for him so we could stay out of the ER. He ended up getting a bunch of treatments that day but seemed to be better enough to go to our ward's trunk or treat. He was not a fan of the hair spray and was kind of grumpy after his nap, but gosh dang it, kid, it's Halloween and you're gonna like (and enjoy) it :)

So cute. He didn't really walk around much with the walker and only wanted it if other kids tried to check it out. Hat and glasses stayed on slightly more than would be expected for a 20 month old. It was a hit. And despite his grumpiness I think he had fun.

That's my friend Lyn and her little guy Ammon. Great costumes there too.

I think our ward did a great job too on the whole event. And Harvey actually got the hang of trick (trunk) or treating and thought it was pretty cool. He'd go up and hold out his hand and he'd be the one to put the candy in his pumpkin. And he even, almost, said a few "thank-you's".  Good times all around!