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 outhere. 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.
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!
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.
Michael and I have been thinking about having another baby for a while now, but have had a few issues with getting decently priced maternity insurance.
So after months of searching I finally found an insurance company here in Oregon that gave us a really good deal.
It became effective September 1st.
I was so excited to start trying and was hoping that we'd be pregnant by Christmas.
Well a few days before Olivia's birthday I could just tell that I was pregnant.
Something felt different and I just knew I had a little special someone growing inside.
So I decided to take an early pregnancy test on the morning of her birthday.
And it was positive.
We really are having a baby!
When I told Michael he was a little surprised since we'd only been trying for about a month.
But we both know we have a little one anxious to join our family and we feel so so blessed.
So far I have been feeling great.
The past few days I wake up feeling a bit sick, but after eating breakfast I start feeling better.
Crossing our fingers that it stays that way.
Although I'm definitely preparing for the worst.
The tentative due date is June 8th 2013.
So I'm about 4 weeks.
And the baby is currently the size of a poppy seed!!
I already love him/her so much and can hardly wait for these 9 months to be over!
Oh my gosh we are just thrilled and Olivia is surely going to love being a big sister.
Since we did find out on her birthday I wanted to tell her in a cute way even though I'm sure she doesn't really get it.
Here's what we did!
Yay!!
(I'm sure this was her favorite present!)
The ultrasound picture is actually one of Olivia's since we obviously don't have one of our new little one!
But she loves babies and will definitely be the best big sister!
Because her birthday was on Sunday the first thing we did when we woke up was go to church.
Well I take that back, we actually had to go "touch" the balloons first.
She was obsessed with them and always asked if she could touch them. Of course we did everything she wanted and would pick her up so that she could whack them. She loved them so much and always got the biggest smile on her face when she saw them!
After church we put her down for a little nap and made sure everything was ready for her when she woke up.
Grandpa Antone was still here but had to make a long drive down to California so we planned on doing cake and presents a little early.
I think she knew it was a special day and whenever we would ask her about her birthday she would get all excited and either point to her presents and cake or the happy birthday sign on the wall.
This year I made a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.
And it definitely was yummy.
Olivia loved the frosting and was constantly trying to swipe the cake with her little finger so she could have a lick.
She loved getting sung to and tried so hard to blow out the candles, but her little puff of air was just not strong enough, so daddy had to help.
When we gave her a slice of cake all she wanted to eat was the frosting.
Yum!
After cake we opened all her presents which she loved.
She was really good at ripping them open and if she had a hard time she would say, "hep" (help).
She got so excited about all her gifts and would even occasionally squeal.
She definitely is a spoiled little girl and got some really fun stuff this year.
Here are some pictures:
(Some of these pictures are so crappy, but at least you get the idea.)
Her cake.
I had originally planned on doing roses all over the cake but because I used a cream cheese frosting instead of a butter cream frosting I had a hard time getting the roses to stick on the sides so we went with a more ruffled look!
