Happy October!

This is one of my favorite months of the year and not just because of it's my birthday month. I love fall. I love Halloween. I love changing leaves and sunflowers. Last year, October marked the halfway point of GB being gone and it was full of fun times for Max and I including adorable photo ops like this:

This month plans to be busy for us as well.  We have our big u/s coming up very soon, which means getting serious about naming this little one and starting organizing everything.We have several short trips planned. I want to go to a pumpkin patch. There is going to be a legit family costume theme for Halloween. Plus the smell and taste of pumpkin make me happy so that only adds to greatness that is this month. I wish every a fabulous 10th month of the year!

Bonus: Here is baby at 19 weeks. I started feeling sweet little movements this week , which was definitely of my week. Also one more week for good measure.

Two years of perfection.

Ok, perfection might be stretching it just a little, but in the middle of our move Max man turned two. I am still having a hard time grasping how this teeny tiny little creature

turned into a walking, talking, sassy, awesome little person.

While perfection may be a slight exaggeration, this kid is pretty awesome. He has starting speaking in full sentences. He counts to 12 and knows all the numbers up to there. He knows every letter by sight. He knows about 10 shapes. In fact, he loves to point to things in his room when he is supposed to be sleeping and point to different shapes. So at night we can listen to him say, "Where is a rectangle?" then pause for like 3 seconds and answer, "There it is. Window is a rectangle." It cracks us up. He loves to run, play, and giggle. He keeps us on our toes because he is just slightly sass. I have no idea where this came from, it must have been from his dad. Ha!

The past two years have been full of tears, giggles, sleepless nights, cuddles, hugs, and awesomeness. As hard as it is for me to believe how quickly the last two years have gone by, I am so excited to watch him grow this next year especially as a big brother. And hopefully next year we can have a little more fun on his birthday because this year he spent it in the car, getting carsick multiple times!

All About Baby!

I can certainly tell you that so far this pregnancy has flown by while I remember thinking that the time crawled  during my pregnancy with Max. I think that how busy our lives have been have played a very large role in this. We have had Alaskan adventures, moving, trips to see both GB's and my families as well as finally settling into our sweet little southern home. While baby has never been far from my mind (thanks to constant nausea and discomfort early on), the reality of our family becoming four has become more real as we discuss just where this new bundle of joy will live in our new home and visit the hospital that he or she will be born in.  I am so looking forward to meeting this new little one, but we are soaking in as much time as possible as a family of three and having Max be an only child.

How far along? 18 Weeks 

How big is baby? The size of a sweet potato

Total weight gain/loss: up about 5ish lbs

Maternity clothes? More and more. I can wear normal pants, but I get uncomfortable in the very quickly. My clothing of choice at this point seems to be dresses. I can wear many of my "normal" ones still and they all me to be cool, because adjusting to the humidity has been hard.

Sleep: All of the moving has left me drained so I sleep like a rock a night. 

Best moment this week: Purchasing a new mattress.  I know this is probably meant to be pregnancy related, but this mattress is heavenly. Since GB and I got married, we have been slowly replacing our hand-me-down furniture with our own, and this purchase is one of the best of our marriage. It sure makes it hard to get out of the bed in the morning.

Movement: Not yet! At my last ultrasound the doctor said she thought I would have an anterior placenta again, which can muffle the feeling of movement when baby is so little so I am not too worried about it yet.

Food cravings: Ice cream. Does it get anymore cliche than that?

Food Aversions: Most meat still.

Gender: Hopefully we find out soon!

Labor Signs: No, thank goodness!

Pregnancy Symptoms: Holy heartburn!

What I am looking forward to: Organizing baby stuff and maybe purchasing a few things after we find out the sex.

18 weeks at the Saturday market!

Hello again. I could come up with a million reason as to why I fell of the the blogging band wagon. We were busy trying to do as many Alaskan things as possible. We were getting ready to move. I found out I am pregnant again and spent much of the summer months on the couch not moving. That is right, there will be a new little baby B coming in late February. 

Which ever reason you choose to believe, I no longer have that as an excuse. We just moved down to the south and are so close to being all moved in. I am now well into the second trimester and am finally starting to feel better with some energy. We are all trying to adjust to a completely different timezone and some heat as well as humidity. 

Anyway, I am back and I am ready to blog about the changes in our family as well as our day to day life with our sweet little TWO year old! Time flies when you are having fun.

May and June were very busy.

**fair warning: this is going to be long**

After being gone for so long, GB had a lot of leave built up and we took advantage of it. We said good bye to the AK and headed to the real part of the United States. We enjoyed a cram packed 3 weeks of vacation, but boy were we tired after we got home. GB and I got to sneak away and have a little us time for the first time since Max was born. 

First up was a wedding in Seattle. GB and I actually set up the couple in college and they are such sweet friends. GB had the honor of being part of the wedding party. We celebrated, danced, and chatted the night away. I was so happy to see so many friends that I hadn't seen in forever. 

The first wedding that we have been to together since our wedding.

We got our dance on. "A little bit softer now"

Max spent that weekend with my parents. We drove back to my parents house for another day and some Max snuggles and then GB and I headed to Vegas. We had so much fun, but oh my goodness was it hot. We got to sit by the pool, see some of the sights, catch a few shows, and play some slots. All in all, it was a successful trip. By the end of it though, we were tired of the sounds of the slots and the smell smoke, and we were so excited to get our arms around the Max man.

Enjoying some date time and sunshine.

 After we picked Max up from my parents, we headed down for some quality time with GB's family and then back up to my parents for the last couple days of vacation. Can I just mention the fact that Max may be the most loved and spoiled grandchild I know? 

With all our travels, everything went very smoothly until the last day. We sat for over three hours as our first flight was delayed, missed our connection flight to AK, and then didn't arrive back home until about 2 a.m. The only food in the concourse we were in was a bar, which is awesome when you have a tired, hungry toddler. Ugh. 

When we got home, Max and I spent almost the entire first week outside. We bought Max a kiddie pool, and enjoyed the week of 80+ temperatures. Unfortunately, the heat and sunshine didn't last that long so we have been having to play inside and be creative. 

Here is a quick summary of our time back in the AK:

This is what happens when Mommy wants to take a picture of Max 's cute outfit.

I am pretty sure this is Max's idea of a perfect day.

Max's first concert. He was pumped.

Pure excitement.

Getting his groove on.

A family picture where we are all almost looking at the camera.

Playing playdoh!

Poor little wild man gets bored easily inside.

Swinging!

Whew! I think that brings us up to the present. I think life has settled down enough for me to be a better blogger. And if you made it this far, as always, thanks for reading!

Well, I made it.

This post is like a month and half late, but better late than never!

Our family is finally together again! I can't tell you how amazing it was to see that smiling face and have his arms around me. Not to mention, seeing Max and GB together might be the cutest thing in the entire world. To be honest, at this point I do not even remember what it was like when he was gone. We have gotten into a nice routine and our family has made the transition very smoothly, which has made me very thankful.

Some of the preparations! Max is quite the aritist!

This sign was clearly made by a professional.

Waiting so patiently (NOT) for Daddy to come in! It was hard knowing he was so close yet we couldn't see him yet!

And then, life was perfect!

So, like I said, I made it. Or rather we made it. Here is at little list of some of the things that got me through!

• Having something to look forward to! We went to Portland, Disneyland, Kansas City, Reno/San Francisco, Boise x2, Oahu, not to mention living 3+ weeks at the lake. Staying busy made every month go by a little faster.
• Motivation. I had some weight to lose. I gained over 60lbs with Max and lost 35lbs the first couple of weeks after I had him, but then nothing. By the time GB got home, I had lost over 30 more pounds and am really starting to feel more like my old self. I am pretty proud of myself!
• Netflix and FB chat. Night time was the worst. So thanks to Netflix, I found a great way to make the time pass a little quicker. Add in night time FB chats with the other wives and it really made those lonely nights pass a little easier.
• Max. That kid grew and changed and kept me so busy, I honestly do not know if I would be as sane without him. He kinda rocks.

There are many other things like my family, etc but these are just a few of the reasons, I am not completely crazy. It was a very difficult, but great year. I definitely grew as a person and GB and I's relationship definitely got stronger. I cannot even begin to express my thanks to those who helped make it a little easier on our family especially the other wives going through it with me. You are all amazing people and great friends <3

Becoming domestic, and such

Well, GB has been home over a month now, which means we have been busy doing fun family things. Before he left, I never knew what I was going to make for dinner until late in the afternoon. I never tried any new recipes. My cooking was less than great. All in all, I was in a domestic rut. However, I have worked really hard in starting new routines since the big move back to Alaska and I am really proud of how well they have worked for our family!

I have become much more creative with our meals in large part to skinnytaste.com. I have made enchiladas, stuffed peppers, broccoli mac and cheese, Cajun chicken pasta, Shepard's pie several different rice dishes, and some a few others. Every recipe has been a hit with GB and most have been with Max as well. I have been meal planning ever week and doing one big grocery shopping trip and it was worked so well. All in all, I am proud of myself and I am shocked that I have become the kind of person who gets excited to find new recipes on the Internet!