Maternity Clothes and Sex (As in a baby boy or girl)

I love maternity clothes. It's not that I like getting bigger and rounder, but the fact that I feel like I have a whole new wardrobe of clothes to pick from every morning is super fun. With both pregnancies I have had someone loan me all of their maternity clothes in addition to my own maternity clothes which makes it doubly fun to get dressed every morning...almost like college when I had 3 different people's clothes to choose from every morning! Every day is a new day with a new outfit to wear! So much fun.

Early this week we went in for our very anticipated ultrasound to find out the sex of our child. And wouldn't you guess, they had their legs pinned together the entire time with the umbilical cord between the legs. The technician even had me leave and go get lunch and come back after an hour and our darling boy or girl still had their legs stuck together. But they are healthy, they have two legs and two arms, 4 working chambers of the heart, etc. It was a success, but we're going to be surprised at the birth. I am glad that God has given us this surprise, because I never could have waited to find out if He hadn't hidden it from us. I like surprises, but they also drive me crazy. This will be a good one!

Samoas and other stuff

I realize that my blog is constantly only talking about food or baby...they are possibly of my two favorite things. Maybe it's just from having to go a few months without being able to enjoy food has reminded me once again how very good it is. Well...I can't stop talking or thinking about Girl Scout Cookies. One of the girls from church was selling some and I bought 5 boxes from her. Samoas are my all time favorite. Absolute deliciousness, but we also like the Tagalongs and Thin Mints and I don't know how I came away without any of the shortbread cookies because those are good too. 2 boxes are almost gone (it's not just me eating them) and I am sure the others will be gone soon. Here's to all those little girls standing outside of Safeways and Fred Meyers across the country...Thank you for the cookies! They are so good!

Sometimes I forget that I am having a baby. It's not that I don't know I'm pregnant, but my experience with this second child has been so much different than with my first. When I was pregnant with Liam, the world revolved around my round and growing belly. It was all I thought about, talked about, and cared about. I feel like I have so much keeping me busy, that I can hardly believe I am almost half way through this pregnancy. The time went by so slowly with Liam and I was so impatient for every new thing. Everything is zooming past me right now that I wish in some ways that it would all slow down a little. But there are still those very special moments where time seems to stand still, like feeling the baby move and it reminds of me of this special little person God has created.

I wanted to share some pictures of little man/woman and I at 18 weeks.

I sure love these boys. I have been working on Jeb's days off for about 6 months and my schedule changed this week so that we are going to have one day off together every week. Today was spent with these most special boys in my life and I have enjoyed every minute of it!

Home Sick

We are staying home from church today, Liam and I. He is sick. He woke up last night having all sorts of horrible croupy symptoms. He sounded like a dog barking when he coughed and had wheezy breathing. I was just reflecting on how since he has been born I have stayed home from church probably more than the rest of my life combined. I miss being there with everyone. At the same time, I love being here for my baby when he is so helpless and down in spirits. I love being with him when he's sick because there is so much cuddling and he is so relient on someone to be here for him. But it hurts my heart to see a little person who is normally full of energy and with such a positive disposition to be so helpless. To make it worse, I can't tell him it's Sunday either, because he would be so upset to miss church because he LOVES church. Usually when I ask him what he would like to do for fun on any given day he says he wants to go to children's church. Poor little guy. Now he has to wait until next week!

Magically Delicious

I indulged myself lately when I was shopping while hungry at the grocery store which is a very bad idea when you are pregnant AND hungry. So as I was strolling down the cereal aisle I noticed my childhood/college favorite cereal was on sale. I usually try to avoid cereals like this one because of all the sugar hype and lack of nutrition, but I just couldn't resist this time. I threw it in the cart and told Liam we would have it for breakfast in the morning. The next morning I pour a bowl and he goes straight for the marshmallows. I ate two bowls and they took me back to Saturday morning breakfasts in the cafeteria in college and to my Great Grandma's house where we always got to pick out a special box of cereal to eat and my choice was always none other than Lucky Charms. It is soooo yummy. Plus I get the added fun of every morning Liam asking for the cereal with "Peter Pan" on it. I don't have the heart to tell him it is really a leprechaun...at least not yet.

The bun in the oven

Things have finally turned a bend for me these past few weeks as far as my pregnancy goes. There were days and sometimes a week here and there when I seriously didn't know how I was going to make it through nine months of feeling the way I did, but those symptoms have started to fade. My energy is up. My appetite is back. Food tastes good again. There are moments of being sick that still pop up here and there, but overall, I feel a million times better. I have even started excercising again this week in hopes of keeping somewhat fit. I am in my 15th week now and Baby Bristow-Hanna is due the 4th of July! We'll be finding out if the baby is a boy or girl in about a month! What do you think it's going to be?

Happy Holidays in January!

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! Hope yours was great!!!

Ahhh...it's so nice for Christmas to be all over and for a new year to have begun. I like winter, I like the decorating, I like the tree and all the lights, I like giving gifts, I like the good food, I love seeing family and friends, but I also like the calm after the busyness. On a different note, Liam really got Christmas this year. Up until now he has been oblivious to the presents and everything, but it gave me so much joy to watch him open each present and be completely enamoured with the gift. Christmas was pretty awesome because we had snow. Not just a little, we had a whopping 3 feet of it. Enough snow to build a snowwoman with Liam and my nieces. We had a wood fire crackling around the clock to keep us nice and toasty inside. That was what I liked about Christmas.

Eleesha and Jayden's snowwoman
Liam kept getting stuck in the snow

All the cousins eating breakfast together. You can't tell, but they are watching a movie. They watched the movie "Cars" probably 10 times in one week!