8 weeks.

So we're 8 weeks along with 32 more to go!

Although I would be dead shocked if the baby was born around 40 weeks.

Olivia was born at 37 weeks so I'm thinking this baby will be a little early too.

I can not believe how much my little tummy is growing. 

It is still cute and small now but oh my gosh, I can't believe I already have a tummy at 8 weeks.

It is just crazy to me.

When my tummy looked like this when I was pregnant with Olivia I was 20 weeks along.

Well besides the fact that our little raspberry is growing so very quickly the only other real symptom I've had is the morning sickness.

And it has been bad.

Really bad.

I don't want to complain about it because a huge part of me is so relieved when I wake up sick in the morning because I know our little one is safe and sound, but the other part of me has really been struggling.

It's been hard to take care of Olivia and have all our usual fun together as well as do all the other things wifes do like cleaning, cooking, and laundry when I feel like I need sit by the toilet all day.

But it will pass.

And as hard as it is be sick and emotional all day everyday, I couldn't be more grateful for our little baby. And I honestly would go through anything to get them here.

I had my first doctor's appointment.

I met with a nurse and went over a bunch of things and then had a bunch of lab work done.

They prescribed me some anti-nausea medication but it makes me so tired I can hardly function.

So it looks like I'm going to have to deal with the sickness.

So enough about the sickness and more about our plans for this baby.

Well name plans at least!

I really would be thrilled to have either gender.

I think Michael would prefer a boy but he did say he would be excited about another girl.

Here is our name list:

 Girl: 

Clara Rose

Charlotte Isabel

(Not 100% sure on the middle names yet)

Boy:

Joshua Michael

William Michael

We still are not 100 percent sure on boy names. We just know we would want his middle name to be Michael.

But I guess we'll find out in like 12 weeks!

Oh my gosh it seems like forever.

I can hardly wait!

This girl LOVES to dance.

I know I've posted other videos of her dancing but I just can't get enough.

She absolutely loves to dance and sing.

Of course she gets that from her dad:)

I love how you can hear her saying (singing) some of the words in this song.

She is just so dang cute.

Fall harvest festival and my family's visit.

Sorry it's been a while.

Things have been a little interesting around here with me being sick and all so blogging has kind of been put on the back burner.

I have lots of things I want to post about so I'll try to update more!

Anyway, my mom, the twins, and Harrison came to visit on Wednesday Oct. 10th and left on Monday the 15th.

We had such a fun time together and I'm so glad they were willing to make the long 12 hour drive up here to see us.

We went shopping at the outlets in Woodburn, ate all the yummy food I talked about in this post, my mom and I were even able to escape for a few minutes and go to breakfast at my most favorite crepe place. My mom helped me ( well she mostly did it) paint 2 pieces of furniture that I would never have gotten to had it not been for her, we all watched Snow White and the Huntsman for the first time, Michael and I were able to go out on a romantic date to Applebees, and last but not least we were able to go to a fall harvest festival they have here in Salem. 

I am so grateful for my mom. She seriously is such a lifesaver.

The few days she was here were the days that my morning sickness really started to set in.

She completely babied me, let me sleep in, made sure everything stayed clean, helped stock us up with food for the week, and of course spoiled Olivia like nobody's business.

The three littles of course are a huge help too in that they literally played with Olivia every second of the day.

She was in heaven and was so sad to see them leave.

She cried as she gave each of them their goodbye hugs.

She now walks around saying "mama, tits, shas, twooo monts"

(We told her we would be going to visit them in two months)

I'm just really grateful to have such loving and supportive families.

The only pictures I managed to take were of us at the Harvest festival so enjoy!

Hello cutie!

Olivia talks about horses "shorse" until she's blue in the face, but when it came time to ride one she refused. She hardly even wanted to pet one.

She loved the little petting zoo.

Mostly the "ba bas" (In a high voice) (Chickens) and the "dots" (goats).

Not the best picture of us haha.

Olivia did agree to ride the wooden horse with Emmaline.

The duck racing.

Michael was helping Olivia pump that thing so fast her little bow came out!

Us!

Climbing up the giant haystack.

They made it!

She was a little reluctant to go down the slide but after getting a little push from one of the twins she decided that she loved it and wanted to do it again!

For lunch we had hotdogs, fries, and fresh apple cider!

Eating her very own hotdog!

She loved riding the tractors.

This is seriously one of my favorite pictures because she seriously looks EXACTLY like Michael.

Showing off to daddy.

Sometimes she finds herself in crazy places when dad's playing with her!

She picked her pumpkin all by herself and is definitely proud!

Michael would sit on the pumpkins so of course Olivia wanted to do the same. So as we walked around the patch she would just plop her little self right on a pumpkin.

I love her face in this picture!

Riding in the wagon with Elizabeth.

Having a blast!

Us again!

So happy to be with grandma on the hay ride!

Thank you so much mom and littles for your visit, your help, and everything else you do for us.

We love you and can't wait to see everyone in December!

Matt & Stephanie.

Matt and Stephanie are without a doubt one of the strongest, most amazing couples you will ever meet.  I went to school with Stephanie and she has always been the cutest sweetest girl. She has a darling blog that you can check out here.  Matt and Stephanie have been longing for a baby for years now and are so close to reaching their goal. You can read their story here. You can help them by donating here. Every dollar counts. So please donate!! I'm sure as you read their story you will feel of their strong spirit and know that they will be the most amazing parents. I can't even imagine how hard this has been for them and I'm so impressed with their faith and positive attitudes. I'm so excited for them to become parents and couldn't be more grateful for their examples. 

Please keep them in your prayers as well!

6 weeks.

This pregnancy has so far been quite a bit different from my pregnancy with Olivia. Really the only thing that has been similar is my extreme tiredness. I really think I could sleep all day!

Anyway here are a few of the differences:

One: I seriously have a little pooch at just 6 weeks. I didn't even start to show in the tiniest bit with Olivia until seriously 15 + weeks.

Two: I already feel uncomfortable in my clothes and puff out even more after I eat.

I never did that with her until way into the pregnancy.

Three: I have encountered a food/treat that I can't even think about without having that lump of vomit in my throat.

It's white chocolate.

I know so weird but I made these ginger spice cookies dipped in white chocolate for my family when they came and as I started melting the chocolate and got my first whiff, I immediately gagged.

I then proceeded to dip all 44 cookies all while seriously holding back my barf.

Talk about true love and service.

Now whenever that cookie jar opens I immediately flee.

One whiff of that and I'm immediately queezy.

So please keep white chocolate FAR away from me!

And by far I mean far, I seriously can smell it when I'm in a completely different room.

With Olivia I really didn't get grossed out by anything even meats unless I threw them up.

Like coco dynobites.

So these next weeks will definitely be interesting.

Four: I could never tell that there was a little person growing inside of me with Olivia until she started to move but seriously from the first weeks of this pregnancy, I've just been able to feel the little lentil bean (that's the size of him or her right now!) inside of me even though there is no movement yet.

I love it!

I'm guessing it is just a second baby thing? 

Or maybe twins?

Whatever the case I am thrilled to have our sweet little baby growing inside of me and can hardly wait to meet him/her!

Visits and pumpkin yumminess.

My mom, the twins, and Harrison are as we speak on their way up to see us.

We couldn't be more excited.

We have plans to go to the outlets and the fall harvest festival as well as eat all things pumpkin.

Here's a little preview of our menu:

Breakfasts: 

Pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon frosting

Pumpkin coffee cake w/brown sugar glaze

cinnamon buttermilk muffins

Dinners:

Creamy bacon carbonara

Cafe rio sweet pork with tomatillo dressing

Tomato basil parmesan soup

Desserts: (My personal favorite)

Cinnamon mini cheesecakes with pumpkin pie frosting

ginger spice cookies dipped in white chocolate

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

pumpkin brown butter cupcakes with cinnamon frosting.

I personally think we may all die and go to heaven this week!

Wish me luck grocery shopping today.

It's just me and Olivia and it is always interesting shopping with a 2 year old!

Fall family photos.

It's been about a year since I've done serious family pictures.

And with Christmas cards coming up I thought it would be nice to get them out of the way before the morning sickness begins.

When I not only don't have the energy to do anything but I definitely won't look good enough to be in any sort of picture.

(Showers are hard to come by in that stage for me.)

So I asked my cute sister in law Rachel to take them for us.

She's a photographer in the making as you can tell:)

And Antone helped too.

I really didn't want to make a big deal out of them and was really just hoping to get one decent picture.

But I ended up with a lot more than that thanks to my amazing photographers!

Olivia was a doll and just gave us the cutest smiles.

I'm one proud mommy!

Here are the favorites:

Oh my gosh can you believe how beautiful and perfect my baby is?!!

I just love us!

Fall break in Yakima.

Michael had no school last Thursday and Friday because of fall break.

We had been planning on spending our long weekend up in Yakima and also getting Michael in to see a couple doctors. (Eye, Dentest and an Allergist.)

So Wednesday after school we headed up.

Olivia was beyond thrilled and we were excited to spend a relaxing weekend with the Mickelsons.

We:

golfed. lots. (Mostly Michael of course)

ate lots of yummy food thanks to Kelly.

got Michael's appointments taken care of.

had family pictures taken. Thanks Rachel and Antone.
I saw Avengers for the first time.

Went to Red Robin for lunch.

Played cards.

Did a few Halloween crafts and played some Halloween games.

Ate caramel apples and pumpkin cookies.

&

Watched conference. 

Olivia was in heaven with her aunts and uncle and always wanted to go see "butt"or "ruffy" (Buck) and the "meow"

One of Matthew's friends was so sweet and brought over her "tu tle" so that Olivia could see it.

She loves turtles just like her dad.

It's been so fun to live just 4 hours away from Michael's family.

We all love visiting and are already so excited for Thanksgiving!

My camera battery was really low so I only managed to snap a few photos.

I went golfing with Michael to Fisher (a par 3 course).

I didn't actually hit because it would take me at least a hundred strokes to actually make it on the green, but I did manage to sink a few of Michael's putts.

Go me!

Maybe one day when I get older I will golf.

He's one hott golfer.

Olivia gets SO excited when we visit that she seriously hardly sleeps.

No naps and late bed times.

She's even been know to pull all nighters because she doesn't want to miss anything.

A few times we found her out of her port a crib on the floor fast asleep.

One of the times she emptied the garbage can in the crib and then fell asleep on the floor ha.

Maybe the floor is softer than her crib:)

She sure is a spunky little thing.

She loves cuddling with uncle "Math".

Playing "Don't Eat Pete" with everyone!