Oh boy, oh boy!!

We are so excited that we are having another BOY!! Ryan is just thrilled! We were told that we would find out the gender towards the end of the ultrasound and Ryan was getting a bit impatient. Finally he said, "Doctor, can you just tell me what it is?!" The big smile on his face made us even more excited. We are very blessed!

I guess this means I'm still queen of the house! I love being surrounded by my gentlemen who make me feel loved each day. And I'm looking forward to watching another boy be raised by his amazing father...I couldn't ask for a better role model for my sons.

18 Weeks

This week I'm 18 weeks along. I've been feeling pretty good most days. A bit more energy would be nice, but I guess we always wish we had more energy each day! We find out in one week if baby is a boy or girl...so exciting! Stay tuned!

Fall fun and more catching up

Nothing like a big leaf pile in the backyard to let us know fall is here! I got my pregnant self out one afternoon and raked up a section of the yard for Ryan to enjoy. He loved it so it was worth it!

At the end of September we went up to Stockton to see my sister's new house. It is beautiful, fits their family perfectly, and is on lots of land to explore. We had a cookout Saturday night and the kids LOVED playing in the dirt. Now Ryan thinks every house needs a dirt pile:

Halloween was fun and no cost. I had told Ryan he could dress up as whatever he wanted, but we weren't going to purchase a new costume. He was fine with that and went with three different options for his three events. For his preschool party he wore his mechanic costume from last year: For the Roger's Goblin Parade he dressed as a cowboy:
Ryan and two of his friends, Kylie and Lucy. They trick or treat together every year:
And for our neighborhood trick or treating he wanted to be a doctor. I think he enjoyed the options and did most of the accessorizing himself!
When Grandpa and Mimi visited for their fall break we were pretty low key for the weekend, but managed to get out a bit. The guys did some fishing in the creek and on the boat, we went to the Ozark Corn Maze, and had a cookout dinner one night at the lake:

Love is squeezing into the cow train barrell since your son really wanted to ride with you!!!:

Since I've been feeling better we got out one Saturdayat the end of October and took a hike at Devil's Den. It was great to be outdoors and spend the day as a family:

Ryan said he would be our "guy"...he wanted to be the guide and he did a fantastic job:Me and my 16 week baby belly. Few more months and I'm sure I'll really be sticking out like this rock:

Happy Fall, Ya'll!

WOW

I can't believe it has been five months since I updated the blog. Yikes. Sorry. Hopefully it won't happen again. :)

We had a GREAT summer. Super busy, but a lot of fun. Summer turned into fall with a new schedule and our pregnancy so that threw us for a loop. I guess I'll devote this post to catching up and then we can move on. Enjoy!

I left off with our trip to OK for swimming lessons...

June 11th we spent a long weekend in Longview since the Terhaar family was visiting:

Father's Day weekend we took David camping (along with the Castaneda family) to Bull Shoals Lake. It was the first time to try out the guy's boat. They were beyond thrilled:

July 3-8 was the Steinmuller Family vacation at Bull Shoals lake. We spent lots of time on/in the water and also got to celebrate my dad's 61st birthday and Ethan's 1st birthday:
July 16-24 Ryan was in Longview by himself. He had a GREAT time and did tons of fun things: July 17 & 18: David and I went to St. Louis with David, Ann, and Robyn. FUN!!:
August 4-7 I went to the Body & Soul workshop in Batimore:
August 13th at about 10pm we find out we are expecting! That threw our world for a loop, but a great loop! And a fun surprise to end the summer! August 24th Ryan started preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He now LOVES it, but it took about a month for him to totally get into it:September and October were pretty low key months. My first trimester was not fun, but now that I am 16 weeks I am feeling much better and have more energy. We are all excited about that. We pretty much stayed home those two months except for a quick weekend trip to Stockton to see my sister's new house. David did travel to NY two different times when both of his grandparents passed away. We were thankful he was able to go and celebrate their lives. David's parents came to visit during their fall break which is always nice. And Halloween is always a fun thing. I'll have to do another catch up post on those events since the pictures are still on the camera.

And that should get us up-to-date. :)

Little Swimmer Boy

Last week Ryan and I made our annual summer trip to Norman, OK with the Bradley girls. We spent most of our time enjoying the pool and relaxing. Ryan and Lucy did wonderful playing together and had a lot of fun. Even Amelia, who turned one while we were there, got in on the action.

The big thing we did while we were there was put Ryan and Lucy in private swim lessons. We had heard about a lady in Norman who offered lessons and the results were usually great. So we went for it! And I can now say I'm a big beliver in Ms. Murray's swim lessons! It was an emotinal, intense week, but oh so worth it!

Day One - Dressed and ready to go. Only thing needed, goggles. Allison and I were to drop them off and leave. We had been prepping Ryan for a few months. He was excited, but let us know he did not want to go under the water. Day one was all tears...tears when we left them, tears when we picked them up. The entire 40 mintues was filled with them learning to hold their breath under water. It worked, but they were not happy.

Day Two - Dread and screaming! Ryan did not even want to get in the pool at the house for fear that I would make him go under the water. It was a rough day. He went to swimming lessons screaming (I hadn't heard him scream like that in a long time...it was so hard), but when I picked him up he was just fine and best buddies with Ms. Murray.

Day Three - Crying when we left them, swimming when we picked them up. On day three we were able to come back a bit early and watch. Let's just say we watched in amazement!! This is what we saw when we came back:

Day Four - smiles! Ryan was all smiles...excited to go and swim! Yay!!

On day four Ryan "got it"! We came back from lessons and got in the pool at the house and he swam over and over with me. It was so exciting!!

Day Five - Fun Friday! The kids showed off for us and then got to celebrate with popsicles. And this was the day Lucy "got it". She still had some tears at the lesson, but after we got in the pool at the house we couldn't keep that girl's head above water she wanted to swim so much!

Swimming with Mommy:

We got the kids a gift to celebrate...dive sticks! Now it's time to practice and improve so we can go back and learn more from Ms. Murray next summer! Ryan and Lucy, we are SO PROUD of you!!