Highlights - Thatcher & more

We started our trip in Dave's hometown of Thatcher, AZ.

Caroline has 10 cousins there (all moved there this past summer!)


Cousin Patti came down too!



Emily's Cousin Volleyball Camp.


Then we headed up to Gilbert for a couple of days:

We got to go to the kid's swim meet - which made me nostalgic.


Go Teams Welker!

Swimming at the Welker's pool - so fun!

Dave with Caroline and Lucy (who I think look more and more alike the older they get)

After the Welker's, we stayed at Dave's brother, Greg's, house.

Having fun with Maya, Cooper, and Max.

Love this one!

Driving back to Thatcher. We took these pictures in the mountains that made me throw up :(

Crawdad fishing!

Riding Grandpa's train.

The "real" reason we went to AZ when we did was for Dave's 10-yr. high school reunion. It was great to see some old friends. It's nice that I like Dave's friends and their wives too! We always have a good time visiting. Here are the guys at the reunion:

The time we spent in Thatcher felt like one long, dirty playdate for Caroline! I hardly saw her while we were there because she was always running off with another cousin. And between the trampoline and the dirt field between the family houses, she was constantly filthy! But happy!

Before going to Tucson, we made a stop to visit the James family.

Caroline and Holly loved playing ping pong. (note: playing ping pong with a 4-year-old is much easier on the Wii than in real-life. We did both at their house!)

Swimming at the Cove. It was strange to be there when it's not packed with the usual 4th of July crowd!

Caroline's cousins were SO nice to her and she ate up all the attention they gave her.

It was fun to see all these families one at a time at their own houses - every house we stayed at had a different dog to play with too! Caroline loved having sleepovers every night and playing with someone else's toys every day. It was a lot of driving, but totally worth it. Thanks to all those that let us stay over.

We miss our AZ friends and family already!

Highlights - Tucson

The thought of describing in detail our two and a half week adventure to AZ seems daunting. Also, I don't know that anyone would read that novel! So here are just a few of the hilights. (this is Part 1:Tucson)

Sleepover with Brandon.


Grandma made Caroline and her doll matching jammies and she loves them!

Tucson Children's Museum with Brandon and Grandma.

Brandon touching a sea star!

Fun and good eats at Jenna and Adam's house.

Caroline loves her newest cousin, Eli.

Jammin' out with Ella and Ava.

Some very cute nieces with their super-handsome Uncle Dave.

Me and adorable Eli.

Jumping on the beds at the motel on the way home!

So we drove over 3,000 miles. Caroline was a total champ and handled the time in the car better than Dave and I did, but she had some help!

There's no way I could capture every fun moment we had. The park, the zoo, eating out, and just visiting weren't posted here, but made for some great memories. We love love love our family!

Coming soon... Part 2: Thatcher, Gilbert, and Sierra Vista!

Adventures in Babysitting!

Caroline has really liked having the boys over and is sad when they don't come! The other day we had cupcakes. Little Guy here especially appreciated the treat!

The big kids enjoyed the show - they just watched him and laughed!

Last Spring I bought a small Thomas the Train set for the boys to play with at our house. I kept it in my closet and forgot about it until last week. Turns out, Caroline was more interested in trains than I thought she would be. Even after the boys went home, she pulled it out and played with it twice by herself! When she heard that the boys had more trains and tracks at their house, she asked their dad if he would bring them next time.

They spent a good part of the morning building the track.

And watching the trains.

I never even thought to get trains for Caroline to play with, but she loves them!

So, it was only right that Caroline introduced Jaden to Polly Pockets.... ;)

Details

When you announce you are pregnant, there are usually a list of questions everyone wants to know, so I'll just take care of those now! (not that I mind talking about it in person!) Feel free to skip this one as there are no pictures and it's mostly just me allowing myself to be excited about being pregnant. A friend said the more you share your news, the more real it feels.

1. I am due March 16th. (which feels SO far away)
2. ...So that means I am about 13 weeks now.
3. We don't know what the gender is, but we will find out the middle of next month.
4. If we got to choose, the votes would go as follows: Susan is leaning toward wanting a boy, Caroline wants a girl, and Dave is going with the "I don't care, as long as it's healthy".
5. I will have to have another C-Section. They routinely do scheduled C-Sections at 39 weeks around here, so we're looking at about the first or second week in March. (Kind of nice we get to schedule it.)
6. I'm feeling pretty good. So far, I have not thrown-up (yay!) but I do get nauseated if I don't eat something fairly bland every 2 hours. But it's nothing that I can't handle! I have, however, started getting some awful headaches. Really, miserable, throbbing headaches. I don't say this to complain - because I'm soooo not complaining about this pregnancy, but to ask if anyone out there has advice. I'm usually not prone to headaches, so this is new to me and most likely pregnancy related. I get them mostly at night, but they last hours and sometimes over-night. I don't want to take any pain meds if I can get away with it. Any ideas?
7. We do not have any names picked out. We refuse to have that conversation until we know what the gender is. Basically that's because we don't agree on names and that at least narrows it down by 50%! We do plan on using at least one family name. Caroline likes the names Freddy, Velma, and Daphne. (she's in a Scooby Doo phase right now). For now we strictly use "The Baby" because I hate calling the baby "It".
8. Some have asked if we did InVitro Fertilization. No, we didn't. But both Dave and I were on medication and thankfully that worked!

Big News!

We're having a baby!!!!
By March, 2011 we'll be a family of four! We're so excited - especially Caroline. She has been acutely aware the last year or so that all her friends have brothers and sisters, and she doesn't. I even heard her describe herself as an "only child" a couple of months ago! She has been asking for a loonnngg time for a baby sister and when we told her I was pregnant, we found her a few minutes later praying for a girl! Of course we don't know whether this baby is a boy or girl yet, but we know which way Caroline is leaning!
This has actually been a great lesson in prayer for our family. We've been praying for a baby to join our family for a while now, and we were so happy to be able to tell Caroline that Heavenly Father heard our prayers.
There will be 5 years and 4 months between Caroline and her sibling. The thought that there would be a big gap between my first two kids always bothered me, but I've also known that it's part of a plan. Dave and I also agreed that when you wait and work and want something so bad for a long time, it helps you appreciate the blessing that it truly is.


Also, we've started babysitting again. We consider it practice now! Three kids under five years and pregnant is sometimes a challenge, but I love all four of these kids and that seems to make all the difference.

PS - Caroline's T-Shirt is courtesy of Aunt Heather in Tucson, AZ. Caroline LOVES to get mail and was super excited about this! Thanks Aunt Heather!