Soon to Be a Family of Five

15 Weeks - It's definitely a boy!

It's true. As of October, our family will be expanding and including a little more testosterone. It's still sinking in for me since I feel pretty clueless when it comes to boys, but we are excited.

At first, Bridget wanted a baby sister, but the morning of my ultrasound she informed me that she changed her mind and wanted a brother. Felicity doesn't completely understand what's going on, but when I asked her that morning if she wanted a baby brother or baby sister she kept saying over and over, "baby brudder." When I ask her where baby brother is, she says, "Me." and then pats her belly. I then ask her if baby brother is in her belly and she says yes. It should be interesting to see how she reacts as my belly grows and when she'll be able to feel his movements. She absolutely loves babies though, so I anticipate her trying to be a very good helper and big sister.

We're still working on a name for him. We have a few ideas, but nothing decided yet. Boy names are hard. Good thing we have a few months to figure it out.

So far I've been feeling much like I did when I was pregnant with Felicity. My morning sickness has gone in waves and is much worse in the evenings just like it was with her. The only difference is that it's lasted past 13 weeks this time. I really can't complain though since I don't throw up at all, and it's more of a comfort to me that everything is going well with this pregnancy. The other difference is that I've been much more tired. I don't know if it's the pregnancy or just the fact that I have 2 other kids to take care of all the time - or maybe a combination of both.

Trip to St. George

This past weekend we made a very quick trip to St. George to attend the baby blessing of our newest niece, Sophie. Somehow this was the first trip we'd made to St.George since Nate's sister blessed her last baby 2.5 years ago. We arrived Friday evening and spent a little time with Nate's family before we had to head over to Nate's Grandma's house to get our kids to bed.

On Saturday, we were a little slow to get going that morning due to a rough night with our kids, so it was late morning by the time we were ready to leave the house.

A view a St. George with the temple to the left. Bridget thought all the red dirt was pretty cool.

We didn't have time to do much, so we took the girls to the temple grounds including the Visitor's Center.

They enjoyed climbing the steps, although Felicity was a little confused about how to get in the doors at the top.

After the temple, we got some lunch and then headed back to the house so Felicity could take a much needed nap. This girl loves to sleep and normally sleeps for 11-12 hours at night and then takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. The problem is she doesn't sleep well anywhere except her crib. On the way down she took about a 30 minute nap in the car. Friday night, she didn't fall asleep until 11:00 at night and then was up by 7:30 Saturday morning. It took about 30 minutes to settle her down for an afternoon nap, and then she only napped for an hour or so. Saturday night, she didn't settle down until almost 10:00 and was up by 7:30 again the next morning. Luckily she did nap for about 1.5 hours in the car on the way home Sunday. Needless to say, she was quite the sleep-deprived child by the time we got home on Sunday, but she settled right back into her normal sleeping habits as soon as we were home. And this is why we rarely go on vacations. Her poor sleeping while we're away makes for poor sleep for Nate and me too which certainly makes a vacation less enjoyable. Maybe someday she'll stop being so terrible about sleeping away from home.

Finally getting a much needed nap, even if it didn't end up being as long as she needed.

Anyway, Saturday evening we spent having dinner with Nate's family. Then Sunday, we went to church and headed home right afterward. It was great to spend some time with Nate's family, and we especially enjoyed the 80 degree weather while we were there. Hopefully it won't be so long before our next trip south.

Felicity's 2nd Birthday Celebration

With Felicity's birthday falling on the Saturday of General Conference this year, it made finding time to celebrate a little tricky. Lucky for her, the celebration ended up lasting 3 days. We wanted to do something fun and decided to the girls might like going on pony rides. Last summer, Nate helped some friends of his when they moved into a home about 10 minutes from ours. These friends happen to own a very gentle pony named Buddy and told Nate would should bring our girls over to ride him sometime. After coordinating with them and planning around the weather, we took them to ride Buddy on Thursday evening. Both of the girls loved it, and had a good time. Watching Felicity ride was probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen. She was fearless and would giggle anytime he started trotting very fast. They also had a swing set, and Felicity loves to swing so she was in heaven.

Look at that smile - that's how much she loves to swing.

With the weekend being busy with General Conference and a belated Easter dinner the day after her birthday, we opted to celebrate with presents, cake, ice cream, and family on Friday evening.

Opening presents. Some of them are a little blurry because she was so excited she hardly stopped moving. She got lots of fun things - puzzles, a book, clothes, baby and toy car seat, shopping cart, and the green wagon she and Bridget are sitting in.

Felicity loves fish, so she got a fish cupcake cake for her birthday.

She loved having everyone sing to her and blowing her candle out so much that we had to relight it and sing to her a second time so she could do it again.

And last of all, on her actual birthday we celebrated with birthday cake pancakes before spending the rest of the day watching General Conference. She loved being sung to again and blowing out more candles.

 We love you Felicity! Happy birthday!

And here's her stats from her check-up at the doctor:

Height: 35.5 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 27 lbs. (55th percentile)

Head: 18.5 inches (40th percentile)