Introducing Baby #3

The real reason my blog has been neglected since November is due to this little surprise.....

This was an ultrasound 10 weeks ago. I am now 18 weeks and counting. So, this little one has grown. Let's' be honest, I've grown too. I haven't been courageous enough to get any tummy pics. But, I don't think this belly will be getting much smaller any time soon! As you can see on the picture, my due date is July 19, but who's counting?

Funny story, I was at the gym working out last week (I try to go a few times a week just because I can this time. My pregnancies with the boys were much more complicated.) I was laying flat on one of those skinny little benches, when I realized I wouldn't be able to get up very graciously. So, I dropped my weights, and grunted my way up, while telling my friend, "I had better move to the inclined bench from now on." Some random guy next to me blurts out, "It's called working on your core. It would help you get up easier." To which I replied, "It's called being 5 months pregnant. I have no core left...." He stammered his way through a very lame apology and shut up. It was quite amazing that he would have the gall to say something like that to someone. My friend and I got a good laugh out of that!

We find out the sex in less than 2 weeks. Can't wait. I'm kind of a planner. If you know me at all, you probably knew that. So, considering this was a surprise addition to our family, I can't wait to find out boy or girl. At least it will help me to have some sort of picture of what our newly extended family will look like! 

It's not just my blog that's neglected. It's my house, my friends, my laundry, my everything else! I have just enough energy to buy some groceries, sometimes make meals, and take care of my boys. Outside of that, not much else is happening! First trimester, I was crazy nauseous most of the time and super tired. Luckily, the nausea is intermittent now, but the exhaustion is still there. I've just had to let go of my normal expectations of what I can do and accept what I do get done. 

So, now you know why it's past Valentine's Day and I still haven't uploaded my Christmas photos. 

A "Cousins" Christmas: Part 2

After we spent a few days in our home, we headed up to the mountains for some skiing, snow, and sledding! We stayed at the Snow Mountain Ranch, YMCA camp near Granby, CO. We had a cabin with 4 rooms and got cozy all together! Staying at a YMCA camp was awesome with kids. They had a gym where you could rent roller skates, tricycles, and balls to play basketball, pool, foos ball and ping pong. There was an indoor heated pool (though we only got to use it for 20 minutes because of bad timing). And, there was sledding galore!

This was our cabin. Notice Little Brother's facial expression. This is what happens when he doesn't get enough sleep. Precious, isn't it?

The first full day up there, the adults went skiing with the three of the kids. I stayed back with Little Brother and his sweet little cousin. Big Brother has skied a few times and was so excited to have his cousins learn for the first time. I wasn't there, but I heard that there were some good times and some not so good times throughout the day of learning!

Before and during skiing!

On our last day, we did a couple of hours of sledding. The snow was not that great at this point in the season, but it was good enough to send us all flying down the hill! It was a long trek back up each and every time. The littlest ones usually got pulled up, but the oldest 3 were on their own!

The last run of the day, the kids wanted to be tethered together down the hill. They had a blast!

It was a great time, and as you can see from the photo above, we had a lot of fun and a lot of noise and energy leading up to Christmas. The cousins went home the day before Christmas Eve, but we were able to do a small Christmas celebration together. We felt blessed to have their family visit with us for the holidays this year.

A "Cousins" Christmas: Part 1

We were blessed to have Kevin's brother and his family come to visit us the week before Christmas. We had a busy week and a busy house: 5 kids- ages 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7! We kept busy playing in the snow, watching movies, skiing, sledding, shopping, eating a lot, and just hanging out.

The kids headed for the snow as soon as we pulled into the driveway. Poor AZ kids- so deprived of the seasons!

We got a kick out of passing around my Halloween wig! Lady Gaga- step aside!

We also enjoyed visiting Santa. Well, most of us did!!!

Cousins Christmas: Part 2 to come...

Winter Ball

We're full swing into basketball season for Big Brother. He's playing on a new league and a new team, thankfully much closer to home than the team last year. In fact, some of his games are played at his school. I've been shooting video, but as you can tell from this neglected blog, not much is happening with video or even pictures for that matter! So, for now, this is it!

I happened to be taking photos when he made this shot. He loves the sequence of getting the rebound, dribbling, setting up, shooting and scoring. However, I was too busy cheering for him to get the final picture of the ball going in. But, trust me, it went in! I promise to figure out this video thing one day and add some real footage. I'm just not really on top of things right now! I'm sure my family would rather have clean laundry than edited video of bball games!