So very thankful

So very thankful for my little, yet growing family. Addison has been kicking as I type this and I can't begin to describe how grateful I am for the miracle of bringing children into this world. I know there are so many women out there who ache to have children and are unable to do so and my heart breaks for them. So I want to make sure I express my gratitude for the blessing I have had to be able to have children. Here is the most current picture of my family - taken on 11/29/11 - just 52 days before our little baby girl joins our family. Can't wait to meet, hold, and cherish her.

I am also so very thankful for a husband who is working so hard to provide a good life for us. We sure do miss him around here - he goes to school early - comes home to eat dinner and spend about 30 mins with us - then goes back to school until late. Even though it is hard at times, I am very grateful for the opportunity Dan has to attend Law School and get an education is something he is passionate about. It will be great when finals are over to have him around for a month or so of NO SCHOOL!

Thanksgiving in San Antonio

This year we decided that since we couldn't make it to Utah to visit our families for Thanksgiving, we would go to San Antonio and visit Dan's Aunt and Uncle. We were lucky that Dan's Grandma (Betty RAE - who we are naming Addison RAE after) was going to be flying in from Utah to spend Thanksgiving with them too so we would get to spend time with her as well! We left Tuesday after Dan got out of class and drove there. The drive was great, other than the 40 mile detour we took because we were lost haha. Thank goodness there was a random house on the side of the road out in the middle of nowhere with a friendly cowboy and his wife sitting out on their porch that we were able to stop at and ask for directions. LOL. Jaxon didn't get out of the car once and he did GREAT! I on the other hand had to stop 3 times in the 6 1/2 hours for potty breaks HEHE! Wednesday morning Dan had the opportunity to go golfing at a really nice coarse with his aunt and uncle and some one of their friends. They had a great time and I'm so glad Dan was able to take a break, relax, and do something he loves. While they were golfing Jaxon, Grandma, and I were able to spend the morning together having fun! We took Jax to a park later that day and just spent a nice relaxing day together! Thanksgiving was great! We had a wonderful dinner and we took Jax to the park again to play after dinner. Friday Dan went golfing again with his uncle and some of his uncles friends at this coarse that you have to know a member of to get in and it cost $150 to play (luckily Dan didn't have to pay thanks to the generosity of those he was playing with) but that should tell you it was a pretty nice coarse! While he was doing that Jaxon and I went to the Witte Museum in San Antonio. It was such a fun place! Jaxon loved it and of coarse love all the dinosaur stuff they had there! Saturday morning we went to the Zoo. We woke up and it was raining but the forecast said it would stop by mid morning so we decided to still go - we are so glad we did because by the time we got there, it was overcast and a little chilly, but not raining. We basically had the zoo to ourselves. By the time we were leaving the sun was coming out and it was clearing up so a TON of people were showing up. It seriously was perfect timing! Then after Jaxon's nap we went to the Alamo and the Riverwalk. It was windy and a little chilly - but that didn't stop us. The River Walk had lights up for Christmas and was really pretty! We played games and night and got to spend a lot of time talking, laughing, relaxing, and enjoying having a vacation from some of the stresses of life (aka finals). We are so grateful to Dan's aunt and uncle for letting us stay with them and taking such good care of us while we were there! Here are a few pictures of the trip!

This is my favorite picture! I love Jax's face! I know he looks scared but he is actually REALLY excited because the Tiger just walked out of  his little cave. Jaxon LOVES tigers :)  

This was us trying to get a family picture. Jax finally agreed to say cheese and smile when we told him he could have a sucker if he did. LOL! And I know - I really need chapstick.

The Alamo

Couldn't resist taking a picture of this VERY Texas Christmas tree right by the Alamo!

The River Walk

Some of the beautiful lights along the River Walk - the picture doesn't do it justice! 

Again - I have been so bad at taking pictures - I am so glad I got the few that I did to document our trip! Does anyone else have this problem? What do you do to remind yourself or make sure you get your camera out and snap the shot?!

Gratitude

I had another doctor appointment today. Baby Girl Garner is doing well - heart beat was strong and she is measuring great! It was decided after my appointment today that a C-section is the way I will need to go. I am finally at peace with it and I have to admit I am a little excited that I will know the exact day she is going to come. Right now it will either be January 19th or 20th. The doctor is checking the schedule and will see what will work. The 20th would be PERFECT for us because it's a Friday and Dan doesn't have school on Friday's next semester and then he would be able to help me that weekend since he won't have school and then my mom will fly in late Sunday night to be here to help when Dan goes back to school on Monday! So hopefully the 20th will work for the doctor!!! I am already dilated though, so she might come earlier than that ... who knows!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving that I will post more about later with pictures! I can't even begin to express how grateful I am for my little-growing family. I have felt so overwhelmed with gratitude the past week and don't even know how to adequately put it into words. I am also so grateful for the amazing family I was born into and the wonderful family I married into. I can't believe how blessed Dan, Jaxon, baby girl, and I are to be surrounded by such amazing people who love and support us constantly. And last but NOT least - I am grateful for the opportunity we have to be here in Lubbock Texas right now while Dan attends Law School. How blessed we are that he is able to get this education and that we are here with such wonderful, amazing, and loving people. It is going to be so hard to leave here and I NEVER thought I would say that. I have grown to love Lubbock (mostly the people and friends here), but it is going to be so hard to leave.

"You Pretty Mama"

Today after Jaxon and I took Dan to school, we were cuddling on the couch (this is VERY rare - Jaxon usually won't cuddle) trying to get warm because it is a cold/foggy/rainy day in Lubbock today, and Jaxon put his hand on my cheek, "stroked" my face a few times and said "you pretty mama". Obviously this just melted my heart! I took this picture shortly after to document exactly what my little boy looked like at the time he said this haha. He is still in his Dino jammies, has a little bit of pen on his face from drawing, and has some weird hair from waking up not too long before that - but isn't he just adorable?!

Last Friday I got a knock at the door and was handed the most beautiful arrangement of flowers! White lily's with orange and red roses and a very sweet card from Dan. It was such a perfect day already because I was able to see Baby Girl Garner - but this just made it even better! Thank you sweetheart!

Jaxon has been staying in his bed the past 3 days for naps and during the night. I hope this is permanent! Early one morning I was trying to document this big event haha and the flash on the camera woke Jax up. He wasn't too happy as you can see LOL. But isn't he cute in his bed? And yes - that is a binky in his mouth - he will be 2 1/2 next month and he still sleeps with a binky. Judge all you want - I am fine with it!

30 week Ultrasound (pictures of Baby Girl Garner)

Today I got to go have an ultra sound of my sweet baby! It was so fun to see her again! Yes she is definitely a girl! When I asked the tech to confirm the gender, she said, "I hope they told you it's a girl" haha - YES they did! They were able to get a few pictures of her face but because of her position, it was hard. Here is what we know about Baby Girl Garner as of right now...

-She is 3lbs 3oz (45%)

-She is a thumb-sucker haha - her hand was in her mouth basically the entire appointment

-She doesn't like when the ultrasound wand is over her feet (she kicked every time)

-She is head down and her head is "snuggled" in my pelvic and hip bones (no wonder they hurt)

-She has big lips (or so it looks like - the one time she took her hand out of her mouth the tech was able to get a 3D pulled up of her for a second and her lips look big - those come from Dan haha)

-She has a strong heartbeat and is growing well

I still have the bleed they saw at my 20 week appointment - but it hasn't gotten any bigger which is good. The tech can't say any more than that since she isn't my Dr. - but I'm sure its fine - it doesn't seem like its that big of a deal. :) 

I am so excited to meet this sweet baby girl in January

30 Week Doctor Appt - not a great appointment

I had my "30 week" doctor appointment yesterday (11/15). I was 2 days away from being 30 weeks, but you have to do your diabetes test between 28-30 weeks and it HAS to be done BEFORE 30 weeks haha, so I just did my appt 2 days before and killed 2 birds with 1 stone. That orange drink is nasty and I almost threw up - I probably would have but then I would have had to drink it again, and the idea of that made me use all of my will power to keep it down haha. Luckily the results came back and I don't have it. WAHOO!

The rest of my appt was disappointing. This is the second time I actually saw MY doctor. I saw her when she was 36 weeks pregnant, then she had her baby before I got back in, then she took time off (understandable) and so I have been seeing her nurse practitioner (who is great, but because she isn't my dr - would say or suggest things, but say I need to talk to the dr about it). Because my blog is not private right now - I don't want to go into all the details, so I will just bullet point what happened.

-My dr. didn't take notes from our first visit when we went over ALL the details from my previous labor so I had to remind her about everything.

-We had a Q&A about C-section vs. Vaginal delivery for my situation and the answers were discouraging

-Because she doesn't feel comfortable performing C-section's V-back (I guess that's how you say it) - if she does the C-section for me, I will have to have C-sections for the rest of my kids (which I would probably do anyway because of my situation - but I guess I liked the idea of having the option)

-Found out that the ultra sound tech wanted to see me back for another ultra sound at 26 weeks to follow up with something they found during the 20 week ultrasound (my doctor missed that before and JUST saw it so I obviously didn't go to any appointment) - VERY FRUSTRATED ABOUT THIS

-Even though I asked the doctor what they found, she jumped around the question and just made sure they got me in ASAP - would that make you nervous? It did me a little! 

The confidence I had in my doctor after the first appointment has diminished. During my first appointment, she was so tentative and was asking a lot of questions, listening to my answers, giving suggestions, all that - but I guess she forgot to write it all down which I didn't know about until yesterday so it was like that first appointment never really happened. 

Good news out of all of this - I get to have another ultra sound on Friday and get to see my baby. I did call the ultra sound tech's office to find out what they saw since my dr wouldn't tell me and they said the baby is totally fine, they found something with me that they wanted to have the dr check and they wanted to follow up with at 26 weeks or before, so its obviously not serious - but still - they found a bleed which to me sounds like it could affect the baby or something, maybe not - but I'm just bugged that I was not told about this and that it was overlooked. 

Where is Dr. Brown when I need her. I miss you Dr. Brown!!!

Do I look for another doctor - or just stick it out with this one? I can't trust how I'm feeling because I am pregnant and over emotional haha - what would you do?

Third Trimester

So I have been in my third trimester for a couple of weeks now - today I am 29 weeks. Things are going well. My last dr. appt I saw the nurse practitioner because my dr was out of the office and she kept telling me how low the baby was and asked if I had to pee a lot. HAHA - yes I do and I KNOW the baby is low - I can feel all the pressure - but thanks for confirming it LOL. I am actually worried for when the baby drops - um... where is she going to go? I don't think she can get any lower!!! The good thing is - because of my incredibly short torso, I don't look like I'm carrying low, I look pretty normal - just big. People ask me when I am due and when I tell them the end of January they are usually shocked. No big deal though - that was the same reaction I got with Jax and I feel like I'm bigger with this one since it's my second haha.

I have been pretty tired - but THANK GOODNESS Jaxon is napping again so I nap too! I am up every morning by 7:30 at the latest (when Jax gets up) then I take at least an hour nap in the day (most the time longer depending on Jaxon's nap) and I am still super tired by 9 haha.

I feel hungry all the time and crave anything with sugar (very different than my pregnancy with Jaxon). It takes A LOT of self control to not go crazy -but having Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas during this time of my pregnancy is not a good thing! I am not bragging when I say this and I will tell you why in a second, but I haven't gained any weight with this pregnancy yet thank goodness. This is not bragging because I started this pregnancy MUCH heavier than a normal person should be - so I didn't need to gain any weight. I'm sure I will - I gained the most with Jax at the end so I'm sure at my doctors appointment next week I will start to see weight gain - but I don't ever weigh myself, I let the dr. do it - I eat when I'm hungry and I usually eat what I want unless it is an excessive amount of sugar and I know me and the baby DO NOT need that. So don't worry, I'm not one of those girls who obsess about my weight while I'm pregnant - I believe to eat when you are hungry and that is what I do!

Baby girl moves a lot and she ALWAYS moves when I lay down to go to sleep! I love feeling that right before I go to bed. Speaking of bed - I have had to sleep on the couch a few times because the bed is getting too uncomfortable lol, but I have been toughing it out as long as I can.

Next week I will go in for a dr appt 2 days before I am officially 30 weeks. My dr's office does an ultrasound between 30 and 32 weeks so I'm not sure if they will do one then or wait - but I hope they do - I love seeing our baby! Life is good!

Yes Sir

Ahhh kids.....

A while ago a police show preview was on and a cop was running pointing a gun at someone and yelling "stop right there" Jax does that now. I haven't gotten him any guns so he uses the hose attachment from the vacuum and runs around yelling "stop right there". I have been working with him all day and I'm happy to report that he now says, "stop please" while pointing his gun. LOL.

Today he told me to spank the lotion because he didn't want me to put it on him after his bath. Seriously? He talks about spanking a lot now, probably because we threaten it often. We don't do it often, just threaten, but apparently we are doing it too much if he wants to spank lotion. We need to re-evaluate that for sure.

Last night Jaxon, Dan, and I were all playing before Jax went to bed. It became clean up time so we started cleaning up. Dan asked Jaxon, "Jaxon - can you go pick up the toy over there?" Jaxon replied "YES SIR" and saluted Dan. Dan and I looked at each other and started laughing. I asked Dan if he taught Jax that and he said no - and asked if I had. I didn't either so we started trying to think where he would have learned that and we realized it was probably from the little soldiers on Toy Story. HAHA.

Jaxon is starting to copy and mimic A LOT of stuff now so we have to be very careful what we let him see and what we say. Gotta love the things kids pick up on and say!

FOSSILS

On Saturday when we had the JRCLS over, the kids went into the backyard to play. They first played swords using sticks. Then they decided to make those sticks into "shovels" and they started using them to dig. They were over on the side of our backyard where the previous owner had a dog run (which part of it is still up since it is cemented in and we can't get it out haha). While digging one of the boys sticks hit something hard and he started moving the dirt off. He yelled "wow what is it?" so all the kids ran over to see what he found. Jaxon got so excited and yelled "FOSSILS"!!! He was seriously so excited about it. Obviously it was not a fossil - it was a chunk of cement but seeing how excited Jax got was so funny and it gave me so many ideas of fun things we can do!

I am thankful for...

Today was a fun day! The J. Ruben Clark Law Society members came over to our house today to watch the Texas Tech v. Texas football game and we all had a great time. Lots of kids running around, yummy pizza, and good conversations! After everyone left, Jax napped, Dan and I relaxed for a little bit and then we headed to a park for a birthday party for 2 of Jaxon's friends!

One of Jaxon's friends Dad's is a photographer and had his super nice camera there and was taking pictures - he got these darling ones of Jaxon playing. I am so jealous of his camera! Look at how amazing and "crisp" these pictures are and he was just snapping them as the kids played. My pictures never look this good. Oh well - I guess that is the difference between my ok camera and his AMAZING one. OR it could be the difference between the operators of the camera LOL.

Swinging - Yes in the baby swing because he can go super high and not fall off lol

He wanted daddy to push him because I didn't do it right LOL

Running

Jumping

 Jax just being our fun, energetic, little boy. LOVE YOU LITTLE MONKEY! I am so thankful you are in my life... or should I say I am so thankful you ARE my life haha :)