17 weeks

My pictures seems a little blurry this week.  I decided to try a different pose this week, but I don't really think my belly is big enough yet, so I took another one, but it looks like I only have half an arm, ha!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 17 weeks

Maternity Clothes: Once school starts, I’ll be able to wear my maternity dresses and feel more put together!

Gender: We find out in 3 more weeks!

Movement: I thought for sure I felt a flutter on Sunday, but nothing really since then. 

Sleep: Not bad!

Cravings: I have been wanting the little man shaped E.L. Fudge cookies for a few weeks, but I can’t make myself buy them because I know I’ll eat too many of them.

Symptoms: Hungry

Total Weight Gain: almost 6 pounds

What I Miss: Nothing really at the moment.

Best Moment of the Week: Getting 2 extra days of summer vacation with Bryce.

What I'm Looking Forward to: 3 day weekend before school officially starts.

new shirt

This has been an interesting week.  Yesterday was supposed to be the start of my school year, but due to power outages from the hurricane, I got an extra day off with Bryce.  It was a great day and I was surprised when school was canceled again today!  However, my school was lucky enough to get power back over night so we had the option of coming in.  Of course I didn't want to, but I knew it would make my life easier in the long run if I did.  I spent a few hours with Bryce this morning, and then he spent the day with MeMaw while I worked.  He had a great day and I'm sure I missed him more than he missed me! He came home sporting this new baseball shirt and he couldn't have been happier.  I'm officially back to work tomorrow and summer vacation is over.....so sad!

so long, Irene

If an earthquake wasn't enough for one week, we also survived a hurricane.  Irene came in like a lion early Saturday morning and did her thing before leaving early this morning and leaving downed trees and a beautiful day!  Our power went out about 2:30 yesterday afternoon, but we have a generator that allows us to keep a few things running.  We kept the fridge cold and the tv on since the cable hadn't gone out.  It didn't have enough power to run the microwave so we roasted hot dogs over our fireplace since we have propane heat! 

We gave the generator a rest after dinner so it wouldn't run out of gas since we weren't sure when the power would be back on and we didn't have extra gas (it's our first time using it, we're still learning).  We played around the house while we still had daylight and then Bryce watched some Blues Clues on the portable DVD player.  Jason hooked up the generator so we would have lights to get Bryce ready for bed and then we watched a little tv before going to bed too.  It was a long night in a hot, quiet house with no fans to lull us to sleep.  Not to mention the roar of the wind and not being able to see what was happening outside the house.  We were up by 6:30 and walked around the neighborhood to survey the damage and enjoy the cooler temperatures.

Unfortunately our neighbors tree came down on our shed during the storm.  Luckily it didn't do any damage to it and only destroyed a few of the fence pickets.  Fortunately, there was no other damage to our house or yard from the storm!

Jason got right to work with the chain saw this morning and cut up the tree.  The neighbor and his son helped him load it all on a trailer and he has already been to the dump to unload the debris.  He's out now waiting in line to get me gas (if he can find any) since I missed the memo about filling up the car BEFORE the storm.

Luckily we have had our cell phones (with internet) to keep us up to speed on what's going on because we still don't have power and the cable finally went out so we would of been disconnected from everything.  We're spending the afternoon and probably night at my parent's house because they only lost power for a short time and it has already been restored.  A neighbor told us this morning that he heard we were scheduled to get ours back Tuesday between 12-7.  This should make for a very interesting start to my school year tomorrow.  This is our work week to prepare for the kids coming back next Tuesday.  Should be interesting.

two and a half

Bryce is 2 and a half today.  How did this happen?  We went to the doctor today for his check-up and he did great.  He weighed 28 pounds (25th percentile) and was 34 inches tall (10th percentile).  He is still a shorty like his Mama and Dada, but he did jump up a little in weight!  He weighed 25.3 pounds and was 33 inches at his two year check up.  They had flu vaccines ready today so Bryce was able to get his.  He was able to choose between the mist and the shot this year and he obviously went for the mist!  I always want Bryce to show off how much he knows when he goes to the doctor, but they rarely ask him to do much and I don't want to look like the crazy parent that tries to get their kid to perform, but the doctor did tell me that his reasoning skills were very good for his age!  It was a great visit and Bryce left happily with his dinosaur sticker and yellow lollipop!     

16 weeks

Definitely look more pregnant this week, but I swear it depends on the outfit.

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 16 weeks

Maternity Clothes: I’m loving my maternity jeans and ruched maternity tops.  Other than that, I’m not enjoying picking out my clothes each day.

Gender: We have our ultrasound on Tuesday, September 20^th.  Hoping to see a healthy baby boy or girl.

Movement: Maybe, but not totally sure.

Sleep: Pretty good!

Cravings: Nothing really; just healthy foods and smaller portions at a time.

Symptoms: I can tell my belly is getting bigger and I just feel pregnant.  Not in a bad way, but I just feel pregnant.  Guess that’s a good thing!

Total Weight Gain: 5.5 pounds (I had gained 13 pounds at this point when I was pregnant with Bryce.  I have things better under control this time!)

What I Miss: Nothing really at the moment.

Best Moment of the Week: Spending my last week of summer vacation doing fun things with Bryce!

What I'm Looking Forward to: our ultrasound

Bryce really wanted to be in the picture this week so Jason got a good belly shot with him!

picnics and puzzles

We headed out to Jason's work for a picnic lunch today to enjoy this cooler weather we are having!  This is the last time we'll get to have a picnic since school starts next week.  I'm so sad!  Bryce got a new puzzle today so he brought it to lunch with him so DaDa could help him!

Speaking of puzzles, that is all Bryce is interested in these days.  Most of the puzzles we have are just simple puzzles with pegs.  We only have one puzzle that you have to work and fit the pieces together.  Bryce has mastered it this week and has been dying to get a new one.  It took me a few days to find a challenging one, but I did.  He has just about mastered this one too! 

We had a picnic with Chase and Taylor last week and I just found this picture on my camera so I decided to include it in today's theme.

our day

Our day started like any other day.  We played at home, went to the library, visited my Nanny, and I had a doctor's appointment.  It wasn't until Bryce was all settled into his nap that our day took a turn.  I started to hear a loud noise upstairs and would have thought Bryce was barreling down the stairs if he weighed 100 more pounds.  I ran up to check on him and he was sound asleep.  Then I thought maybe a storm had come up and the wind was really bad.  Nope, the leaves weren't moving.  Then I thought it sounded like a dump truck full of rocks at the elementary school behind our house (last summer our house shook all day while they built a new parking lot).  It wasn't until the blinds stopped banging in the windows and the house got quiet that I realized I had just experienced an earthquake!  That's right, 5.8 to be exact.  You can see on the map below where the epicenter was.  We live just north of Richmond, about 30 miles from the epicenter.  The last earthquake I felt was in 2003 when I was taking a college exam.  It was only a 4.5 and didn't even compare to what I felt today! 

I called Jason as soon as it was over and he was evacuating the building at his work.  I have to admit, it never crossed my mind to grab Bryce and go outside.  I honestly had no idea what was going on until it was all over.  And it wasn't like it lasted a few seconds, it was like 30 seconds.  I watched the news all afternoon to get the latest updates.  It seems as though there was damage to homes and buildings, but no injuries.  PTL!  Things have settled down and we had a normal evening.  My Nanny took us out to dinner tonight and insisted on getting ice cream afterwards.  We went to Bruster's and they had my all time favorite ice cream (coconut chip).  They NEVER have it.  I only ended up eating half of it.  I barely even got to the cone! 

The weather today was unseasonably cool so we took advantage of the low temperatures and low humidity and went on a walk tonight.  I would do anything to have weather like this ALL the time!

Very glad today ended up fine and we luckily have not felt any of the aftershocks.  Hopefully the worst is behind us and we won't have anything major tonight or tomorrow!

zoo

Yesterday was Jason's last day of vacation so we took advantage of it and took Bryce to the zoo! 

He was a little braver this year and actually fed the giraffes.

You can clearly see he wasn't thrilled with the end result, but he did a great job!

He even fed the birds.  Jason had to help him hold the stick so he wouldn't drop it when the bird landed on it.  I had my camera off and missed my opportunity to take a picture of the bird that landed on Bryce's shoulder.  He didn't really like it.  Tons of birds ended up landing on Jason's shoulder.  I had a bird land on me and try to play in my hair.  That's when I bailed!

Bryce's favorite was the "nocerous".  I"m pretty sure that was his favorite last year and he still pronounces it the same!

He rode the merry-go-round the last time he went to the zoo with Kelly so it was a must again this time.  Of course I had the camera on manual setting when I took the picture so it's blurry, but you get the point!

15 weeks

I'm not loving the weekly pictures right now.  Jason didn't think the shirt I was wearing today showed as much of a bump as my tank top did that I was wearing underneath.  So here I am in all black and in need of a serious hair cut!

Pregnancy Highlights

 

How Far Along: 15 weeks 1 day

Maternity Clothes: Not really.  I’m not really loving my clothes from when I was pregnant with Bryce and I hate this in between stage.  I’m mostly wearing t-shirts and pajama pants at home and then flowy stuff if I have to go somewhere. 

Gender: We should find out mid/late September

Movement: Not Yet

Sleep: Maybe it’s getting a little better?!?

Cravings: Nothing really; just healthy foods and smaller portions at a time.

Symptoms: Headaches

Total Weight Gain: 5 pounds

What I Miss: Nothing really at the moment.

Best Moment of the Week: Going to the beach for a few days and having family fun time!

What I'm Looking Forward to: Going to the doctor on Tuesday and hearing the heartbeat.

Nags Head

We headed down to Nags Head on Sunday for a few days in the sun!  Bryce was really looking forward to going this year because we told him we would stop and see the Grave Digger monster truck.  Like all things, Bryce likes the fake/toy version of Grave Digger better.

He did fine on Jason's shoulders, but it was like pulling teeth just to get him to stand in front of the thing all by himself.  I tried to get him to sit in the wheel, but he wasn't having it!

Each summer Jason's aunt opens her beach house to the family for a week.  We were lucky enough to be down there with other kids for Bryce to play with!

I'm not sure why we never thought to bring a dump truck to the beach, but we will definitely bring one from now on.  He could have pushed that thing all over the beach all.day.long!

He really enjoyed the water this time.  Even though the water was FREEZING!

He even got brave enough to lay in the waves.

Of course when the photo op came, so did a big wave.  Yep, it got him!

Our little beach baby!

Playing in the water with Da Da, Josh, Hannah and Sara.

Bryce was very excited to play Putt Putt for the first time.  We went to a dinosaur course and Bryce absolutely loved it.  He did a great job and had a lot of fun.

Getting the ball out of the hole was the fun part!

slip 'n slide

We stumbled upon a great deal this morning while grocery shopping and brought home this slip 'n slide for $3.

Bryce couldn't get up enough momentum by running and sliding on his own, but Jason was able to pull him and get him going really fast!

He didn't mind the water in his face one bit!

Chase never did warm up to the idea.

What a great way to spend a Saturday.

Taylor wasn't much for the water either.

They enjoyed eating lunch on the driveway.......

.....until a thunderstorm popped up and scared them all to death!