Thursday, September 15, 2011

Guess what???

So... I'm sure you CAN guess what it is I want to tell you.  If not,  I'll give you a few hints first.

-EXHAUSTED doesn't even begin to describe what I've been the last few weeks.
-The smell of my shampoo makes me want to SPEW!
-I have worse acne than I EVER did all throughtout high school...
-I could eat an animal style cheeseburger from In&Out anytime, day or night.
-I can CRY at the drop of a hat.  Especially movies with any measurement of a sentimental moment... (I may or may not have bawled at the end of Tangled the other day... Pathetic.)
-I've got a frumpy little pooch that's starting to appear in my abdominal area...

Yeeeeesssssss................. :)



If you guessed that I am pregnant, you would be CORRECT!!!:D
That fuzzy little white spot is
OUR
Baby #3!


We are so excited!!! This pregnancy has been especially hard for me to keep to myself... I don't know if it has to do with this one being planned or not, but I've wanted to make this announcement pretty much since the day we first found out!:)

I am about 8 1/2 weeks now so still not too far along.  We had the first ultrasound yesterday & Baby's growth is right on track to my original due date, which is
APRIL 23, 2012!:) 

We were able to see our grape-size baby love & hear his/her little heart beating for the first time.  So fast & strong... 170 bpm, to be exact. (I hope that means we're having a girl! But that very well could be mostly wives tale because Drake's was 165... We'll see. Either way, I'll be a happy mommy!)  That is honestly one of my very favorite moments as a mother, with all 3 of my babies now- hearing their hearts beat for the first time.  Such an undescribable feeling! 

So yes... This baby was planned- a first for us!:)  If you had told me at the beginning of this year that I would be pregnant again by the last bit of this year, I would have smacked you, called you crazy, & told you to bite your tongue!  But the Lord does work in mysterious ways... Especially with the sweet, gentle promptings of the Holy Ghost!:)

At the beginning of the year, we were doing a session at the temple.  During which time, I got the destinct impression, "Get ready. Another will be coming soon."  I'm not gonna lie- at that moment, I wanted to cry.  And not exactly tears of joy, either.  When I told Shane about it, the look of fear on his face told me he felt the same way!  I was so not at a good place physically, mentally, & emotionally at that time where I was okay with this happening again soon. Especially emotionally...

I've been dealing for a long time with feeling guilty about being "Fertile Myrtle," beeing able to conceive so easily when I have quite a few friends who want nothing more than to HAVE a baby and be parents... And here I am, having to take triple precautions, at times, NOT to get pregnant.  This was especially hard after I found out I was pregnant with Jax & one of my best friends had just miscarried a few months earlier.  I was so sad for her & frustrated with why I could get pregant so easily & unexpectadly when I knew of her & plenty of others that wanted such a blessing... As much as I sympathized for them, I was looking at MY situation from the completely wrong perspective.

I am so grateful to be a mother & acknowledge that I am so blessed to have a body where I can carry & deliver healthy babies.  I am so VERY grateful for my children- Born & unborn, surprises & planned:)  They are all blessings in our lives and Shane & I know how lucky we are to have these sweet spirits to love & raise. I, for the most part, have gotten over that feeling of guilt, because those kinds of things are out of our hands.  I still deeply sympathize with those friends and my heart goes out to them that are hurting. I can & do keep hoping & praying for them that they will soon have the dream of being parents come true, which I do with all my heart.  Names are added to the prayer roll every trip to the temple I take... So friends that I am talking about, whether you think I'm aware of you or not, know that there ARE thoughts & prayers being offered up in your behalf for your peace & comfort, and that you may one day be blessed with little ones of your own.

SO... that was a BIG thing I had to work on in order to accept the possible arrival of another baby. And every time we went to the temple, I kept getting the same impression, only a little stronger each time. So then I started working on my state of mind... Something I am reluctant to go into great detail about:D

  I was sure I was crazy- as I'm sure every mother has felt at one point or another in their life. So, among other things, I started to make a concious effort to be more patient with my boys and appreciate the "little moments" I have with them... I tell ya, I am so in love with my babies!!!  Those moments when Jax comes up to me out of the blue and gives me a kiss.  Or when Drake is sweetly singing one of the many movie songs he knows. Or when I'm doing something & from across the room or house, I can hear those 2 munchkins making each other laugh.... AH! I have just learned to appreciate it so much more & let those things FAR outweigh the messes & the temper tantrums.  And it has made SUCH a difference in our lives! Not to say that we don't still have our bad days, but it sure makes dealing with those bad days a bit easier.

Physically speaking, I was having to go to physical therapy to work on my stomach & back... (I have the back of a 40 year old! No joke...) Of all of these things, that was honestly probably the easiest to work on:) My back still is not quite 100%... I threw it out a couple of weeks ago:( But oh well. I just gotta take it easy.  Anyone have any input on chiropractic care during pregnancy? Or message therapy? Or a combination of both? It's the only things I haven't tried but am oh so willing to at this point!

So yes... All those things worked on, I started getting baby hungry around July... And much to the credit of some of my friends with adorable & sweet babies, I believe I am ready... Ha! Well, ready or not now, right?:) It's just been a different experience being able to plan this one. I definitely think it's made a difference in my attitude (Shane might beg to differ!;)) I just mean in the way that I approached things, like the nausea or exhaustion. I welcome it:) Ok, maybe not WELCOME it, haha... But I try not to complain about it because I know what's causing it. And that's one thing I'm resolving to do throughout this whole pregnancy. I don't know if I complained a lot with Drake or Jaxon, but I know I just didn't appreciate the experiences as much, which I guess is my real ressolve. I'm blessed to have this experience and I will not be taking it for granted. :)

BIG update!

 Well, this Summer was not necessarily as eventful as the last, but we sure had some big things in this Hunsaker Home to share... :) We'll pick up where we left off with the last post...

-THIS MOM is OLD!;)-
Yep, I turned a quarter of a century old too & I didn't quite know what to think about it, at first. The day before, Shane & I went out with Kyle & Kels to see the last installment of Harry Potter...... LOVED it! Then Kyle & Kels were kind enough to watch the munchkins so we could keep up a 9 year tradition of going to Olive Garden for my birthday date dinner:) Oh so good! My favorite restaurant, for sure... On the actual day, my amazing Mom made my favorite meal, STEAK & POTATOES (Yeah, I gained a bit of weight that weekend:D) & spent the rest of the evening being with my wonderful family, which is just how I like it... So 25 definitely didn't start out too shabby, that's for sure:)



-VACATION TO ST. GEORGE!-
At the end of July, we finally had an opportunity to get away & see my MAMMA!  We absolutely love this lady & we love Utah so we look forward to any chance we have to visit her...

Yep, that's my Mamma getting down & playing with my babies at thier level...
This will probably always be one of my favorite pictures!:)

Mamma's lap is one of the best places in the world! I speak from experience;)
It makes me so happy that my babies can know & love this amazing women as much as Shane & I do...

 These boys definitely had a good time while at Mamma's!  A little history where her name came from: My oldest cousin came up with it to differentiate her & his other grandmother.  So that's what my cousins & I have always called her.  But my boys just can't quite get the "Mamma" name down though. They call her Gramma... Which is funny because they call Shane's mom "Magga" because they couldn't say Grandma before! Haha  babies...
I've mentioned this before, but pretty much every child, grandchild, great-grandchild, & now great-great-grandchild of my Great Grandpa Bigelow in my family has swung on this swing!:) Too cool...
 Since this trip, they always tell me," Wanna go see Gramma & swing, pwease???" As if we can just pack up a diaper bag & take off & be there in minutes... Ah, if only. We'll be back soon!:)

Little munchkins playing in that Southern Utah red dirt!:)



-DRAKE turned 3!!!-
Happy Birthday to Drakey!
 This was one event that gave me a little bit of emtoional trauma... I can't believe I have a 3 year old! Time has definitely flown by...
He might be mad at me one day for posting this but I just had to! He's so cute!!!:)
 As proof, he is pretty much potty trained! (Yes, the momma is VERY happy about this one!;)) He goes on his own, which I love because I am not very good at the reminders... And when he's done he comes out & announces "I went to da POTTY!!!" Then we have to have a small celebration for him... :) So proud of my big guy!
Haha we don't know where this came from
but this is his "Pirate Face!"
He says, "Arrrrgh!!!" LOL
He is growing up to be such a big boy with a big personality to boot! We very well may have an aspiring actor/singer on our hands:)We just LOVE him and all of the entertainment he brings to us!!!



-Mr. & Mrs. Hoffman-

 Kirsten & JT were married on 08.19.2011... Woo hoo!
Welcome to the fam JT!


-JAXON is 2!!!-
What can I say? August & Septemeber are just tough months for me... My BABY is 2- not a baby so much anymore!:(
He was in the middle of clapping for himself but doesn't totally look like an "Ooooh yeeeaaah! Gimme some cake!" face????:) Love it...

My little Thor... His birthday presents from his Uncles:)
He is so funny- he's talking so much and truely says the darndest things... Like this little video, haha! My brother has been trying to get me to post it to Youtube for forever now but I'll give it a test run on here. The quality doesn't look all that great but it's the sound that counts!:D 

Sorry if you were offended by it- all I can say is we're working on his 'S' sound. BUT you're welcome if you laughed as hard as we do when watching this!:)
Ah we LOVE this little guy too!!!
 

-CABIN GETAWAY- 
We got a mini-vacation up at the cabin this weekend to celebrate Jax's b-day & also just to get the heck out of this darn AZ heat!  It was making us crazy... But the cabin sure did us some good! Here's our proof:
Chillin' in the hammock with our Aunt Kels:)

My boys checking out Drake playing Tarzan on the rope swing!:D

2 of my monkies! Drake thought this was "Sooo COOL!!!"

Jax petting our horny toad (Christopher!:D) that we found on our little hike.
Almost looks like he was squishing him but I promise he was being gentle!:)

Drake holding Christopher... This is a BREAK THRU for him
because he normally HATES
 small animals, insects & reptiles. Haha  what a big brave boy!

Jax & Max walking from our little hike.
They're buddies... Partners in crime is more like it, actually!:)

Chillaxin' with his big bucket of cheese balls.
I'm sure he's thinking
"Life is GOOD!"

GORGEOUS view from Rim Rd! Ah... Just perfect.

There's more where this all came from... But you'll have to check back at our next post!:D And I promise that won't be in a couple months either!;)  Try back in a couple of hours...