Pregnancy Update

For every pregnancy I have done a blog post on comparing this pregnancy to the past ones. I love being able to go back and read about how every pregnancy has been really different! With this one being a little baby boy I thought things would be totally different - turns out my body still hates being pregnant no matter what the gender is!

I get the WORST charlie horses only in my right leg like every other night. My calf on my right leg is so tender and sore it hurts to touch it. I told my doctor about it and he told me to up my calcium intake but not by more than 1500mg because otherwise I will increase my odds of getting another kidney stone with the added calcium.

This little man likes to be in a position where all of the sudden the top of my stomach goes hard as a rock and then I get severe pain in my lower back. Doctor said he is just breach and so he is stretching out and kicking me in the back!

Love love love ICE cold milk - like sit in the freezer for 10 minutes to make it slushy - ice cold milk! The only other thing I really crave is ice cold water or even just a cup of pebble ice to munch on. Poor Trent goes to the gas station way to frequently to pick up a cup of ice water for me! In past pregnancies I always liked orange juice but any kind of fruit juice makes me sick to my stomach really quickly. I will think it sounds good and will drink a little cup of it and instantly regret it!

I constantly crave fresh fruit! Riley and I sat on the couch the other day and devoured a bag of green grapes and it was heavenly. Cut up strawberries and bananas are also at the top of my list! But seriously really any fruit will do that I can get my hands on!

I have thrown up everyday (well technically every night) from day one. It was worse during the first trimester and would be multiple times a day and now it is just at nights. About an hour or two after dinner I start to feel sick to my stomach and by the time I go to bed I have to throw up. If I don't throw up before I go to bed I toss and turn all night long until I do get up and throw up! It's seriously the worse part about this pregnancy. The only good thing about throwing up is that I have lost 17lbs since I found out I was pregnant so not really any weight gain for me this pregnancy!

I am always sweaty and hot. Trent installed a ceiling fan in our room for Mother's Day and it has been heavenly. I have the A/C set to crank up at night making the house an ice box otherwise I can't sleep. Most afternoons you will find me laying on the couch under the fan attempting to cool off! I bought a fan to sit on my desk at work too so I can have some cool air blowing on me constantly.

I am constantly brushing my teeth. I can't stand to have leftover taste in my mouth after eating and if I pop in a piece of gum I can only chew it for a minute or two before the minty taste makes me nauseous, and I can't do mints because they make me even sicker! If I brush my teeth though I am good to go. I keep a spare tube of toothpaste and toothbrush in my desk at work too!

GIVE ME A SMOOTHIE. Most days (let's be honest it's really everyday) all I want for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is a smoothie. My appetite is so small that seriously just drinking a smoothie fills me up. There is an Orange Julius a couple blocks away from my office and let's just say that the employees there probably have me and my order memorized - "1 Medium OrangeBerry Smoothie please!"


I am still wearing my normal pants, shorts, and skirts which is super nice. No maternity pants for me! I am sure once the baby drops and isn't breach anymore I will have to start wearing them but hey I made it 32 weeks without them so that is a thumbs up in my book!

I am so.very.tired all the time. I don't know what the deal is with this pregnancy but everyday no matter how much sleep I get I can barely keep my eyes open. Most afternoons I am taking a nap and usually am in bed by 10:30 at the latest but still can't survive. This baby is zapping all my energy from me!

Baby Shower

I need to get back into the blogging world before baby #4 makes his debut and nothing gets documented like with the other 3 girls! What better time to start blogging then now during the summer when all the fun and exciting stuff happens!

Over the week of the 4th of July we went to California for our summer vacation and to see Elder Kyle Smith come home from his 2 year mission to New Zealand! I flew out the Friday before and it.was.a.nightmare. The lines were crazy long and I was suppose to board at the farthest gate away from the entrance. Imagine a pregnant woman attempting to run (and not wet her pants) to make her plane only to find out that by the time I got to the gate (with 10 minutes to spare) they had given my seat away. I cried - called Trent - cried some more - called my Mom - cried some more. I was that crazy crying lady in the airport! I got put on standby and went to Denver and then waited on standby again and finally made it to Sacramento 6 hours after I should have. It was a long day!

Saturday morning my mom's friends threw me a baby shower for this little man! It was fun to see so many people from my ward growing up and get to talk to family friends and get SUPER spoiled with gifts!

Lori Haycock did an amazing job with the decorations and food and everything! It turned out better than ever!

 With it being the weekend before a holiday I assumed alot of people would be out of town and so it would just be like 5 hanging out together! I was wrong so many people showed up it was so awesome!

It was so much fun to see blue everywhere! We have lived in a world of pink and bows for 9 years and it is nice to change things up a bit!

 Lori Haycock made this cute little Elephant on a motorcycle out of baby supplies! So cute I don't ever want to take it apart!

We played a couple quick and painless baby shower games!

 Then it was time to open all the presents!

 I felt so blessed with all the amazing beautiful gifts people gave us. Everyone was so generous with their gifts!

 People always say that shopping for girls is so much more fun than boys but I have to disagree! Seeing all these cute boy clothes was SO much fun! I especially love all the cute little church outfits we received for him and the shoes!

 Another thing we got was baby boy blankets - wohoo! We don't have to wrap this poor little guy in his sister's pink blankets!

Thanks again to everyone who came and set up and planned for this it was amazing!

Erika's Baptism

Erika chose to get baptized this year and we couldn't be happier with her decision! With all the craziness of the move and 2 birthday's and a soccer tournament why not add in a baptism?! We decided to keep our membership records in our old ward until after her baptism so she could meet with the Bishop she knew and felt comfortable with, have it conducted by a primary president that she knew, and get baptized with one of her friends. Not to mention that people already bought plane tickets to fly out for the baptism before we thought about moving so the baptism date was set there was no changing it!

Erika helped me make these baptism invitations that we mailed out to everyone

 

We then made this cute paper that we put on the table for everyone who came to the baptism to sign so she could remember who was there on her big day

The night before we laid out her dress and shoes and accessories so it would be already in the morning when she woke up.

That morning we got to the church at 10:30 so she could get some pictures with family and changed into the baptismal clothing. Here she is all ready for her big day before we left the house!

 Erika with her Dad who baptized her.

 Our cute little family!

 The proud parents of Erika Paige!

Here is Erika with Bishop Johnson and Sister Johnson

 

 Erika & her Dad

 Matthew Hansen & his dad with Erika & Trent

 So proud of our girl!

 For the program her and Matthew sang the song "When I Am Baptized" and she did such a good job! I love to hear her sing! Here she is all squeaky clean on the inside and out after her baptism!

 After the baptism we invited family over to Chris & Debbie Hale's house for a luncheon. Erika's only request was to have strawberries and doughnuts - easy to please!

 We were blessed to have so many family members travel to be there for her big day!

 

 We had a meat tray for sandwiches and a couple different salads.

For dessert we had tons of different doughnuts and made little baggies of two mini doughnuts in it that looked like the number 8 and then put this sticker on it

 She also got spoiled with lots of cute jewelry and books for her baptism!

While we were in St. George in February we took all of Erika's baptism stuff with us and went to the St. George temple and took some pictures of her in her beautiful dress.

 She was a total poser and came of up with most of these shots all on her own!

 

 Trent & I had a blast walking around the temple with her snapping pictures.

 

 This picture is by far one of my favorites!

 

 

We drove around after the temple to find a waterfall and found this one in front of a business. The water was ICE cold but she was a good sport!

 So proud of this sweet daughter of mine. She is growing up so fast and is turning into an amazing young lady!

Lexi's 5th Birthday

Lexi got to do a spotlight on herself as well for her preschool class! The problem is we remembered the night before it was due and all of our crafting supplies were buried in boxes in the basement! It took us a couple hours to find everything and by midnight we had the poster created!!

In our family we don't do friend birthday parties until you are in school (pre-school counts!) so Lexi has been counting down the years until she went to school so she could have a friend party! The theme for the party changed about every 2 months and she started planning it at least a year in advance. Who she would invite, what we would eat, what games we would play, what the theme was, etc.
About a month before her birthday she decided she wanted to have a Disney Frozen birthday party. Well guess what - the movie is so overly popular that you can find NOTHING in stores that is Frozen themed. So we improvised! I made these cute invitations:

We then threw together any purple and blue party decorations we could find! We scored and found a bunch of clearance snowflake decorations too which worked out nicely! I ordered some Frozen stickers online and rings and then printed off coloring pages online and that was the extent of the theme! Lexi had fun helping me stuff cute little candy bags for each girl before the party started.

On the day of the big party Lexi could hardly contain herself! She had a blast helping me set up the party and get everything ready. The party people couldn't get their fast enough!

As each girl arrived Lexi would give them a crown so that they could be a Frozen princess too! For the first part of the party they all sat down and colored their Frozen coloring pages while singing along (at the top of their lungs) to the Frozen soundtrack. Those girls new every.single.word and sang their hearts out! It was so entertaining to watch! When I told them it was time to stop coloring they all got upset! I should have just let them color for 2 hours and they would have been happy!

 We played pin the nose on Olaf and did snowball bowling

 Then we had all the girls sit in a circle (which would get smaller and smaller as the song would go on!) and pass presents around in a circle. When the music stopped Lexi opened whatever present she was holding. She got lots of amazing gifts and was so excited to start playing with them all!

 We let each girl decorate one cupcake to eat and one to take home - holy messy! They got those purple and blue and snowflake sprinkles EVERYWHERE. But they had fun...that is all that matters right?

Lexi had so much fun and is already planning her swimming party for next years birthday!

Erika's 8th Birthday

On Erika's actual birthday this year we were in St. George for the Icebreakers Soccer tournament. Trent's parents came down and brought her two cousins with them so they could soak up some sun and watch some of the games with us.  Before we left she and her Dad made this awesome All About Me poster to take to school. She was the student of the week so she got to do things each day that she liked!

 Since her birthday was while we were in St. George we took one present for her to open on her birthday. She got a new outfit and a new pair of pajamas.

 On Saturday (her birthday) we had a list a mile long of things to do! We had 2 soccer games that we went to and cheered her on for!

 Go #14!!

 Riley did alot of this while we watched and waited for games to start!

 After both games were over we went out to dinner with Trent's parents, cousins, and Grandparents to Brick Oven (Erika's choice!).

 After dinner they brought out ice cream and 11 spoons so she could share it with everyone!

 After dinner we ripped home and changed into swimsuits so we could go to her soccer clubs swim party.

 The girls had a ton of fun and Erika won the prize drawing and won a World Cup soccer ball...sweet! On Sunday we took Erika over to St. George temple and took pictures of her on the temple grounds in her baptism dress. It was fun to see her all dolled up and take pictures! She was a riot and had a ton of fun poses she wanted to do!

On Monday she had one final game and it was FREEZING! Her game was early in the morning and we went through many cups of hot chocolate to stay warm!

This year for her friend party she wanted to have a movie themed party. I showed her what pinterest was a while back and she is addicted to that app now! She found the party theme and all the details online by herself! I created this birthday invitation for her and we took them around and delivered them to friends in the ward, at school, and on the soccer team.

Since we weren't actually set up at our new house and were still painting Trent's Aunt Debbie graciously allowed us (and 11 crazy 8 year olds!) to use their large room at their house! Erika wanted to have a concession stand with treats like at the movie. She wanted to have everyone get so many tickets and then they had to "buy" food but I just didn't have the energy to go the extra step so we just set out treats for everyone! We had boxes of popcorn, 

and boxes of mini little treats,

water bottles with labels on them (Erika chose the words "Let's Go To The Movies" because she saw it in Annie and wanted it to be like that hahah!),

Erika helped me make these "popcorn" cupcakes she found online. Its just a frosted cupcake with marshmallows cut up on top and then sprayed with yellow food coloring! Pretty easy and they turned out cute!

Everyone that came got to take a theater size box of candy home as a thank you!

Here is the concession stand all set up by the birthday girl herself!

Debbie has the perfect room for watching a movie complete with lots of HUGE bean bag chairs!!

As tradition we had music playing and they passed the presents around in a circle and then when the music stopped Erika opened the present she was holding.

While we were getting the movie set up the girls were all super hyper so we played "Dance Freeze Tag" - totally the girls idea!

They all sat down with their treats finally to watch Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 that had just come out that week.

Erika has a great group of friends and I am so happy that they all get along well with each other and had fun at the party! She sure got spoiled!