Vacation Bible School

Layla went for her first time to VBS last week. I was a little nervous of how it would go especially since she didn't know anyone at that church (it's near our church and a lady helping out works with my MIL so that's how we knew about it) and it was a very new experience for her. It was for four days in a row from 9am to 11:15. I was a little concerned with getting us out of the door on time in the morning, but for some reason the kids were up early every day last week (otherwise Layla often sleeps until 9) so we made it on time (or close to:D) every morning. And it was worth rushing out of the house in the morning since it was good for Layla and because she really liked it!

Gibs and I then just ran errands every morning. We were going to pick blueberries one morning, but then with how hot it was last week, we ended up just picking them up already picked. That worked much easier:). We also thought we'd have plenty of time to clean the toys in nursery at church too but went after running some errands one morning and after organizing some paperwork, ran out of time to finish cleaning the toys. It was nice having one on one time with Gibs though. I get a lot more alone time with Layla, so it was nice to have time with him (weird though to not have someone along that will answer me and ask me questions:D).

The pics are out of order, but I don't feel like moving them. This is after her last day. She was proud of her pencil box (well, actually it had crayons and bubbles in it) she stickered and of the poster she got. She also loved (and still loves) the little Bible Buddies (little plastic animals with the verse of the day written on their back) they gave her (Gibs loves them too). She missed getting them the first two days so we made sure to get them on the last night. Today her Bible Buddies have been doing lots of camping (in her Loving Family pop-up camper:D).

Ready to go one of the mornings...

I had just put Gibs' sandels on and Layla wanted a pic so I told him to smile and he leaned in nicely, put his arm around Layla and smiled but of course my camera made the picture turn out blurry! :(

Hugging before leaving a different morning...

On the last day of VBS they had a program for the parents/grandparents at night. She had been asking for a panda all week so I told her she could get one for the final night. Thankfully Gibs and I found one at Family Fare for her.

She was a little apprehensive being up there at first and just stared at us, but eventually started to do the motions at the end. I was just proud of her for even going up there! Now at home she loves the songs they sang and likes to watch the videos on You Tube and do the motions and sing along.

Gibs enjoyed the show (well, for the beginning, then he got a little antsy)...

The girl standing behind her was her buddy for the week. That girl was one of the young helpers in her group. Layla likes older girls for some reason. I spotted that girl when we got to the church that night and brought Layla right over by her or I'm sure she wouldn't have been as okay with going up front!

Layla enjoyed the ice cream afterwards:)...

One of the days they played with feathers and when I picked her up that day she mainly just talked about the feathers and chocolate cookie she had for a snack:). The other thing that she talked about that week was singing and that they would say "Thank you God!" a lot. It's cute to hear her around the house still shouting "Thank you God!".

The co-worker of my mother-in-law took pictures during VBS so after the first day she sent some right over to my MIL and then at the end they also gave us a DVD with all of the pictures.

Singing on the first day (well, I assume it looks like they're singing:D)...

Unfortunately we forgot her bow the first day, oops!

I aways wonder what she's like when I'm not around...she looks obedient here:). And her teacher said she was really good, so hopefully she was!

20 Weeks

I'm happy to be 20 weeks pregnant! I'll feel a lot more at ease once I hit 30 weeks, but I'm also really happy with making it to this milestone and hopefully things keep going well! One day at a time, right? :) We had our ultrasound last week and the tech said the baby looked good, but I won't talk to my doctor about it until my next appointment which isn't for a few weeks yet. I'm assuming if there were any problems I would have heard by now. I was I think 19 weeks and 6 days when I went in and all the measurements were showing about 20 weeks and a day or 2--so right around where he/she should be. It's just such a relief to see that you baby has all the parts it needs to to be healthy! We decided before we went to for sure not find out and the tech said we made her job easier b/c every time she looked the legs were crossed anyway. Guess it was a sign that it was good we didn't find out:). It would be handy knowning for planning purporses, but it will be worth the "it's a..." in the end. Afterall, I need something to get me through labor, right? :) We didn't find out with Layla, but we did with Gibs. It was nice both ways, but since we're quite sure this is our last kid, this is our last chance to be surprised. Layla most of the day still thinks it's a girl which I think is partly what makes me feel like it's a girl. Today she came out of Gibs' room with a stuffed monkey and said, "This is my baby brother. But he needs to go to the hospital. Then he'll be my baby sister." Hopefully she doesn't think that if this baby comes out a boy we can just bring him to the hospital and make him a sister:). There are similarities to both my other pregnancies, but overall, I can't really tell--I feel like in certain ways all my pregnancies have been different yet there are many ways in which they've all been the same. I've been feeling a lot better the past few days so I think the nausea coming back again was from my UTI. I think that also part of the reason I think it's a girl is because we don't have a boy's name. I THINK we have a girl's name picked out, but have no idea for a boy (well, I like one and said that if we can't think of anything better, I guess that'll be it, but Joe isn't sold on it).

I had my first progesterone shot today. I don't think I've blogged about that before, but it's a shot that is relatively newer (approved by the FDA earlier this year) and has shown in studies that if you start getting the shot between 18-21 (ish weeks--I forget exactly what the recommended window is) up until like 36ish weeks, it helps prevent preterm labor. It's for people that are having a single pregnancy and have had a single preterm birth in the past. So I'm (as is my sister) the perfect candidate. Here's hoping it works! My doctor had mixed feelings on having me do it, but overall, decided we should try it. I have to get the shot once a week and whenever Joe can meet me at my dr's office to get trained one of these times, he'll start giving them to me at home since that'd be much more conveniant than having to go in every week. I think our baby's heartbeat was around 150 at our u/s. I really should look back at what Layla and Gibson's was to compare.

Typical Layla

This is how Layla typically comes up from rest time...winter jammies (apparently she gets cold in the basement, although she often complains she's cold), no band/bow in her hair, sometimes dressy shoes on and normally way more animals than what she had today (she LOVES all her "buddies")...

Gibson's 18 Month Stats

Gibs had his 18 month appointment and all went well. Well, the worst part was that while waiting in the room for the doctor to come in he kept itching at his dry skin and pulling the back of his diaper down so much so that his scratches were bleeding by the time the doctor came in:(. But the doctor told us what to do so hopefully that goes away soon. Otherwise his ezcema seemed to be gone, but then just recently has started itching in places again.

The doctor said he's doing fine with his talking. He said they only expect a minimum of 4-10 words at 18 month and Gibs says a lot more than that. I had thought he was really behind b/c I thought he should be putting words together since Gavin went to speech therapy at this age for not putting words together, but apparently not. The doctor said he's doing well with his fine motor skills since some boys tend to be a bit slower with fine motor skills and he's doing just fine with everything else too. I was surprised how well he did with his exam. He didn't mind the measuring or checking him out or anything (which is pretty good for a kid that doesn't like to sit still). He did cry right after his shot, but then calmed right down after it (he just needed one).

Head: ?? -- 50th %

Height: 33" -- 50-75th %

Weight: 25 lbs 11 oz -- just under 50th %

A pound and a half and he'd weigh the same as his big sis:). We're so blessed to have two healthy kiddos and pray this next little one is just as healthy!!

Before his appointment, Layla had her first Vacation Bible School experience. I was wondering how it would go since she's shy with that kind of stuff. Yesterday we told her she had to go up front for the children's message in church, but as soon as they told the kids to come up and we told her to go up she was yelling that she didn't want to go up there and then started crying. Next time we'll need to prep her ahead of time better. It wasn't worth causing a scene yesterday so we didn't make her go. Although then they handed out suckers up front so she did feel bad that she missed out. But they also put sand/stones in the kids' shoes (as part of the lesson) and she later said she didn't want to go up next time because she didn't want stones in her shoes. Anyway, VBS went well. After I got her signed in they said she could just go play with the other kids, but everyone one else was busy playing kick ball or on the swing set and she didn't know anyone so I stayed until it was time for all the kids to head inside for it to start. Then thankfully when they all headed inside, one of the leaders noticed she looked a little confused as to what was going on, so they held her hand while walking inside. I didn't think I'd ever be the type to have a hard time dropping my kids off places, but I seriously might cry the first day I drop her off at school (she's not going this year--the next). :) So anyway, while Layla goes to VBS this week, Gibs and I need to find things to do on that side of town each day. Today we didn't have that much time since it started late with registration and such and then I had to pick her up just a little early to make it on time for Gibs' appointment, so we grabbed a few things we needed from Family Fare and then we were both hungry so we went to McDonald's for a late breakfast/snack:). Tomorrow I think we'll go clean the toys in the nursery at our church (since I'm on the nursery committee). I'm not used to spending time with just Gibs (except that he often does wake up about an hour earlier than her). Normally if I drop one of the kids off, it's him and I run errands or go to appointments with Layla. It's nice to get one on one time with my little buddy too:). Oh, and when I picked Layla up from VBS she said she had fun and talked about the songs they sang (she loves singing), the feathers they played with, pandas, and the chocolate cookie she got for a snack:). I asked if they had a Bible story and she said they did but all she could remember was that it was about God:).

Thankfully we didn't have to wait in the room at the doctor's office for as long as we did for Layla's 3 year (which he wasn't along for), but it's really a bummer they don't have toys in the rooms. It's probably for germs since the waiting area seperates sick kids from the healthy ones, but pretty sure my kids touched everything else in the room anyway, so they'd still get germs. Don't get me wrong, I really like our ped's office, I just need to learn to take more toys along for them. They love the toys in the waiting area, but we were harldy there.

New Bed!

Layla has my old furniture I had at my parents' house during my late college years (so I hardly used it). She was in a toddler bed and the big bed that matches her furniture was in Heidi and Steve's basement. With Heidi and Steve moving out of their house very shortly (and starting to build a new one!) we figured it was easiest to just move the bed here rather than move and store it somewhere else for awhile. It takes up a lot more of her room than her little toddler bed, but we've moved some stuff around, so it works:). And she really loves her new big bed. She's never fallen out of bed at home, but she did fall out camping (which was a rude awakening for her to wake up to in the middle of the night on the hard kitchen floor!), so for now we put the bedrail on.

I looked back at my blog to see when it was that she moved to her toddler bed, but apparently I never posted about it--or at least not the picture. We didn't move her to the toddler bed until early April. She didn't mind being in a crib and never tried to escape it, so we just left her in her crib until after our trip to the Bahamas so that it'd be easier for her to sleep in a pack n play at other people's houses (although she still slept in a pack n play in Disney in May and liked it--she liked having a bed like Gibs':D).

And here's her new bed...I like the bedding I quickly found at TJ Maxx (after we thought about the fact that with Steidi moving, we should move this bed in), but it doesn't have as many colors as her old bedding, so some of the decorations will have to change...eventually:).

She has always loved sleeping with a ton of stuffed animals, or "buddies" as she calls them, and now she has room in bed for even more:). What you see below is not nearly all the buddies she brings to bed. Whatever makes her sleep good:). Oh, and for some reason she has not napped in a little over a week! Otherwise she was napping about 3 times a week! I can tell she's tired and it makes her act up at times, she just won't nap--just wants to play during rest time. She goes to bed right at 8 or if it's like tonight, 7:30, and then sleeps until like 9-10, but like this week now, she's got to get up at like 8 for VBS so we'll see how tired she gets! I'm pretty sure she'll be sleeping on the car ride home from VBS! I wouldn't mind her dropping naps since she has rest time downstairs for a few hours each day anyway, as long as she doesn't get grumpy from it. Apparently she is just too excited about her toys lately!

19.5 Weeks

I hated pregnancy pics of myself the last two pregnancies and hate them even more this time, but since this is only my second post about this baby (I think the only other one was when I announced the pregnancy), I figured I owed it to Baby:). I feel much bigger this time and already feel uncomfortable. A few weeks ago I was starting to feel a LOT better and was only throwing up every few days or so, but then this past week or so I've felt like I was 8 weeks pregnant again and it's been worse the past few days. I got a UTI this past week that I'm now on antibiotics for, so I'm really hoping that's causing some of the nausea and hopefully that goes away soon! I started having some braxton hicks contractions the end of last week which always make me nervous since I've had issues having contractions with Layla and Gibson, but thankfully they've gotten better and were never consistant and went away when I laid down, so I knew they were just braxton hicks. I have my ultrasound and a dr appointment on Tuesday, so I'm excited for that to hopefully find out that all is well with Baby G. #3! This pregnancy has just been different. If there was a third gender, I'd swear I was having that, ha:). I've felt really down and just really ready for it to all be over even though I know we have so much to get done around the house and such before I go on bedrest, and I know that life with a baby again and two toddlers to deal with will be busy, but I just really can't wait to feel like myself again. Don't get me wrong, I love this lil' babe already, I'm just really ready to meet him or her--just hopefully for not at least 14 weeks! And hopefully those 14 weeks go quickly:).

Princess Gibs and Weekend Fun

Since I never post pics of Elv, here's him sleeping in the sun the other day...he didn't even care that he was about laying on toys as long as he had his sun:)...

A couple of weeks ago Layla was trying on her princess dresses and Gibs grabbed the Minnie Mouse one and seriously kept whining he wanted it on so badly...so I was just doing what he wanted by putting it on him:).

Layla was having fun helping pick peas from the garden yesterday. Before that we had only gotten a few peas, but yesterday picked some zucchini (one a bit overgrown, oops), squash, peas and broccoli...

She liked eating the peas out of the pods...

Friday night we went to Hawk's Nest for Ice Cream instead of the place right by our house like we normally do thinking it'd be fun for the kids to play on the toys for a few minutes, however, after only playing there for about 10 minutes they were so filthy!! Their legs, feet and hands were literally black from the dirt. We then quickly headed back for baths before bedtime so that we could have them both tucked in bed by 8pm when the very last Friday Night Lights was on:(. I said to Joe the other day that I'm not sure I've ever been so sad to see a show go off the air and he said he's never been sad to see any show end but was actually really sad to see FNL go. Not sure what we'll find to replace it with!

Layla ordered her ice cream to the girl at the window as "the weird guy".Not sure why the girl didn't know what she was talking about:). I know she gets that from me because when she's seen Sponge Bob on tv I used to tell her that he was weird and she didn't need to watch him. She took a few bites of him and thought that playing with Gibs was apparently more fun than eating ice cream:).

They both love hiding and playing in small spots. Layla often makes them her "house". They surprisingly didn't even fight behind the chair the other day and stayed back there for awhile (otherwise being that close to each normally leads to fighting).