Pregnancy Update

I am still busy trying to catch up the blog so that, as our family scrapbook, it will be in order.  But, I thought I would break the order up a little bit and give a quick pregnancy update.

I am currently almost 30 weeks (this Sunday).  Since week 14, I have not had anymore nausea, praise God!!!  I have felt much more like myself and love taking care of everybody after they did such a good job of taking care of me and everything else.  I have gained 21 lbs so far which is lower than I was at this point with Madeline and Will.  Right now, I am starting to really feel the aches and pains of this 3rd pregnancy:)  My lower back and hips are very lose and get sore easily.  I have had some slight swelling in my feet and fingers but it is very minor.  Overall, I look farther along than I am, so I am always being asked if I am due any day, a frustrating question when I still have about 9 more weeks to go!

At the beginning of March, we had our 2nd ultrasound with my doctor and found out we are having a girl!  Madeline wanted a baby sister badly, so we were excited for her.  Nathan and I had no preference either way and knew we would be thrilled either way:)  To tell Madeline, I surprised her at lunchtime with a special dessert.  It was in a brown bag and I told her it would tell her if we were having a boy or girl.  When she opened the bag, she screamed and was so excited to see that pink cupcake:)  After much debate (Nathan and I have very different tastes in baby names), we have decided to name her:

Mallory Sue

We both loved the sound of Mallory and liked that it wasn't too common of a name but not too out-of-the-box either.  My Mema's middle name was Sue and we wanted to honor her by using that name.  All of our kids have a least one family name, so we have kept that tradition alive.

We are excited to be on the count down and are working hard to prepare for her arrival.  Here are a few pictures of the new girls room and Will's big boy room:

 Madeline got a new mattress and headboard.

 All we have left in their room is to touch up paint and hang pictures and wall decor.

 Sorry about the quality of these pictures!  They were taken with my phone:)  Will is loving his boy room and I love how the color turned out with the bedding he already had.

Except for Madeline's bed and paint, we did not spend any money changing up the rooms.  We just made a point to use what we already have!  It was hard, as I love decorating, but we are trying hard to stay focused on our needs more than the wants as we prepare for our family to grow!

The Little Rock Half Marathon

During the first weekend in March, my family all gathered for the Little Rock Half Marathon. They decided to have a little competition to keep everyone motivated to train and even had an elaborate handicap system in place to keep it fair. My mom and dad speed walk and then Robbie, John, Nathan, and Nathan's brother Jason all planned to run. This was Nathan's first half marathon. Before this, he had only run one 5k, which was not a good experience:) They all began training in October and were excited and nervous for this event. We made it a weekend of family fun!
Lindsey and I are pregnant, so we didn't plan to run. So, we headed out with Robbie's girlfriend, Connie, and the kids to stake out places to watch our runners! The kids had a really good time!
Madeline and Emma discovered that if they put their hand out, runners would come over and give them a "five" and thank them for cheering for them. They loved this! I love how Madeline wouldn't even put her hand down in that last group picture. I am glad that she wanted to encourage the runners.
We moved around a few times and ended up seeing almost all of our group at each place:) The first to finish was Robbie who made his goal of finishing in under 2 hours.
Jason finished about 2 minutes later (and also under 2 hours) but he was the one person we never saw the whole race. It was also his first half marathon and he did so well!

About 20 min. or so later, we saw Nathan! He was hurting by this point but we are so proud that he finished in a respectable 2 hours 24 min!
Here is our little family:) Will was not into taking pictures at this time. He just wanted to play! Madeline loved wearing her Daddy's medal.

Right after Nathan, came John. He expected to have a much faster time, as this was his 2nd half marathon, but ended up injuring his knee toward the end, which slowed him down a lot:( He still did well and we were proud! Lindsey is a little happy because he still hasn't beat her half marathon time yet:)
About ten minutes behind the runners came my fast, speed-walking Dad. He looked so relaxed and was very happy with his time. He ended up placing 4th among all walkers in the race!!!
My mom had recovered from pneumonia just a month before and wasn't even sure she was going to be cleared by her doctor to race. We expected her to come in closer to the 4 hour mark, so we were very surprised when she came in an hour earlier!!! With her fast time and the handicap system, she was the overall winner!!! Go mom!
Here she is with her medal and the "Race for the Rock" trophy Nathan created for the event. It is so heavy, she had to leave it with us rather than try to take it on the plane back to Spokane:) We plan to have her name and the year engraved on the back.
Here is the whole group with their medals. They all had such a good time and felt accomplished by achieving their goal of finishing:)
Nathan has officially caught the running bug now. He felt like his training could have been better. He did train mostly on the treadmill and has switched to outdoor training. He has lost a lot of weight as a result. I am proud of how hard he is working and love that he has such a healthy hobby!

A few February things I missed. . .

I knew I had more Valentine's Day pictures and finally got them all uploaded.
That morning, I made the kids heart cinnamon rolls and they were a big hit!
They dug right in with smiles on their faces:)
After eating and getting dressed for school, the kids got to open all of their cards and gifts their grandparents and great-grandparents sent them. Will loved his card!

He was so excited about the new Bob books Nana sent now that he is starting to read on his own!
Madeline earned a pajama pass at school for good behavior, so she is actually ready for school. She just changed into clean heart/peace sign p.j.'s:) She loved her cards and liked that Granny sent a dollar to get an Icee after school!
Nana sent her 2 new American Girl books. She was given the doll, Molly for Christmas and was so excited to get 2 new Molly books to read!!! I still can't believe is reading these on her own at her age. When I looked them up, they are on a 4th grade reading level, wow!!!
A few days later, as I was doing things around the house, I noticed that Will was really quiet and absorbed in what he was doing. So, I went into the living room and saw this:

We have a step down from our living room into the playroom and he had worked hard to use his train tracks and blocks to create a level bridge even with that step down! I think we may have a future engineer on our hands! I could not believe the level of concentration and attention to detail it took for him to do this but thought it was pretty impressive for a 4 year old!
I sure love how my kids are always surprising and amazing me with their talents! Being a mom is just so special:)

February Catch Up!

Madeline started February by entering her first Science Fair. She did a great experiment about how quickly bananas spoil in different environments. We then helped her make a cute board to show the process. She ended up getting the highest score for her grade! We were so proud of how hard she worked and I feel like she really learned a lot about the Scientific Process.
Then, it was time to get their teeth cleaned. It occurred to me that I have never documented a trip to the dentist, so here is Will getting ready for his exam. He is a little nervous about the dentist and has a little trouble holding his mouth open long enough. Luckily we have a great dental hygienist who works so well with him. His teeth looked perfect with no cavities or problems!
Here is Madeline after her exam. She is always such a good patient and also got a great report of perfect teeth! She loved the blown up glove and kept it until it deflated on its own:)

Nana caught a really great sale at Pottery Barn kids and decided to order the kids new backpacks and lunchboxes for next school year. This is Will's first "big boy" backpack and he was so excited! He carried it around for hours and pretended to go to kindergarten:) It was hard, but he understood why he needs to wait to really use it until he starts kindergarten in August. Thank you Nana for the fun surprise in the mail!!!

I helped in Will's class on Valentine's Day. They had an ice cream sundae party. Sorry this picture was so blurry but my i phone was not cooperating at the time. Here is Will with his best friend, Clarabeth.
For Madeline, Valentine's Day means it's time for the annual Campfire Father/Daughter Dance! So, the Saturday after, we got them both all fixed up for a night of fun. I though she looked so cute this year. I did her hair and I liked it even better than what I did last year. Short hair is hard to fix, but it turned out really cute! With the ruffles on her dress, I thought she looked like a cute little flapper girl from the 1920s.
Here is a close up of her sweet face!
This year, she kept telling me that all of her friends were wearing high heels and she wanted some too. This mama is opposed to that, personally but I went to Payless to see if I could find her something special. This is what I found. Ironically, she thought these were high heels LOL! They went perfectly with the dress and made her feel special:)
Here is the annual corsage placing picture:) It's also a good shot of the curls I so painstakingly worked on:)
The flower shop did such an amazing job on the corsage! It was just precious and Madeline loved it! I learned that they no longer put the little elastic band around the wrist. Instead, the corsage was attached to a white satin slap bracelet! It worked well and fit her tiny wrist better as well. It's amazing what people think of!
They both looked so great! This picture brings tears to my eyes! I am so glad Madeline has such an amazing relationship with her daddy and am so proud of the wonderful Daddy Nathan is!
Last year, Madeline stayed by Nathan's side for the entire time and really only wanted to dance with him instead of with her friends. He said this year was a very different story! They held the dance at the new high school and gave the kids free reign. Apparently Madeline was way more interested in running around the huge, beautiful high school with her friends than dancing. It's funny how things change:)

January Catch Up!

After our fun Christmas, we settled back into a more normal routine with me hitting the 14 week mark in this pregnancy, where the awful nausea completely went away!!! I had a lot of catching up to do around the house after that many weeks of being so sick. I am so thankful to Nathan who did a good job of holding everything together during that time.

Will brought home a fun project from preschool. Each child was loaned a bear to take home for one night. He took the bear with him everywhere and then drew pictures in a little book of the things they did. He then told me what words to write. He loved this and said it was doing homework like Maddie:) He had to name the bear and he named it Bercher which is what he always says he wants to name our new baby. He came up with that all by himself:) Anytime someone asks him what the baby is, he always answers, "It's a boy and his name is Bercher." Even though we didn't know the gender at the time:)

Madeline had her first special field trip with all of the 1st grade Gifted and Talented students. They went to Little Rock to see a play at the Arts Center and then went to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch. I was so thankful to be able to go. This was one of the things I wanted to be able to do for my children once I was able to stay at home. The kids were all so well-behaved and had such a good time. The play was really cute. It was a remake of Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Bears. The actors did such a good job of making it fun for the kids. Here are Madeline and Haley at Chuck E. Cheese. I think that was the favorite part:)
On January 22, my niece Emma celebrated her 5th birthday. We drove up to Little Rock to help celebrate and had a great time at Playtime Pizza thanks to Uncle Robbie! Then we went back to his house and had cake and cookies. These are the Hello Kitty cookies I made for her.

Sadly, at the end of the month, this precious boy ended up at the doctor's office. He had a sinus infection and just felt rotten:( He still looks so sweet though!

Luckily the antibiotics worked quickly and he was back to feeling better in a few days. It has been so nice that he has been sick so little this year and since having her tonsils out, Madeline has been so healthy too!

Merry Christmas!

Okay, so I am not doing that great of a job catching up! Here is Christmas:

Now that my parents live thousands of miles away from us kids, we had to come up with a new plan for Christmas this year. Robbie had since moved back to Little Rock, so we decided to do most of the festivities at his house. We were so blessed to get to spend Christmas with my parents, both brothers and their families, and Grandma and Grandpa Taylor! We all gathered on Christmas Eve in our "nice clothes" to go to the Children's Mass at the Cathedral.

Nana couldn't resist getting her grand babies matching outfits! They looked so cute!
Mass was beautiful and such a wonderful celebration of our Lord's birth. It truly reminded us all what Christmas is truly about!


After mass, we allowed the kids to open one gift, which was, of course, Christmas pajamas!
Then, it was time to spread our Reindeer food on Uncle Robbie's front lawn!
My dad continued my Pepa's tradition of reading, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the grand kids and they just loved it! He was rewarded with sweet kisses before the kids went to bed:)


Both kids put a lot of thought into what they wanted Santa to bring them this year. Santa did a great job of making it happen! Here are Madeline's gifts. We ask Santa not to wrap so that they can enjoy and play right away!

Here are Will's gifts. Everything was such a big hit and they had such a good time playing while Nathan and I made brunch for the rest of the family who was coming over to open family gifts.

We had our usual 7 up biscuits, hash brown casserole, egg and sausage casserole, and Lindsey made delicious cheese grits. Are we Southern or what! Robbie and Emma enjoyed it all:)

My family has always been very organized when it comes to opening gifts. We all have to wait until everyone is done eating and one person opens at a time, starting with the youngest. Sometimes its really hard to wait!

Finally, it started! This is the last year Will will be first:) He will have 2 baby cousins who will go next year:)
Here is a shot of the whole crew. It makes my heart fill with joy to be with all of the people I love on such a special day!!!

Later, after lots of playing and enjoying new toys, we moved over to John and Lindsey's house for a delicious Christmas dinner. This was the first year the meal was prepared by my brother's, Nathan, and I. I think we did a great job. We had pork roast with gravy, baked cinnamon apples, broccoli and cheese casserole, green bean bundles, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls, and many desserts made by Lindsey, Grandma Taylor and I. It was a lot of food and it was sooooo good!!!

The kiddie table: We will forgive Emma for the Longhorn sign:) Us Razorbacks know where our loyalties lie:)
My dad took a picture of his plate:)

It was such a great holiday. I was so thankful that my nausea was starting to get better by this point. I was able to eat and only felt bad occasionally which was a great improvement! I can't wait for next year when John and Lindsey's baby and our new addition will add to the joy and excitement!