The last few presents.....

Since we were in Colorado for Christmas, we decided to have our Seeman gift opening on January 1st. Nick's parents cooked a yummy crab and steak dinner for us and we also enjoyed watching everyone....well, mostly Cole open gifts.
Cole's first gift he opened was from Uncle Blake and Aunt Emily. He is obsessed with Elmo right now so they got him this hockey pockey Elmo that sings and dances and it's pretty hilarious! He think he tried to take it to bed with him that night but it's not the type of Elmo that you want to sleep with :)

 

Blake opening some gifts....nice bow Blake! :)

 

Nick has been talking about getting Cole a basketball hoop for the longest time so we finally got him one for Christmas. When Nick was talking about it I thought it was just going to be this small hoop that he can use now. Well....it's anything but small!!! As you can see in the picture.

 

Another big hit was Cole's first instrument set. Granddad and Gigi got this for him because he LOVES music and dancing. It has a drum, trumpet, tambourine and a couple other things. Cole loved carrying around the drum around his neck while playing the trumpet. He's talented! :)

 

He also got some of my favorite Hanna Anderson pajamas!!! Best pajamas ever!!!

 

Granddad and Gigi got him this really cool Christmas book where you can record your voice reading the book. Granddad reads him the story of The Night Before Christmas. How cool is that?

 

And of course Toy Story 3

We had a great time spending the evening with Nick's family. It's always hard with a toddler who goes to bed at 8:00 to spend TOO much time with them, so we decided to just let Cole fall asleep on Granddad and Gigi's bed. Usually Cole insists on being in his bed or some bed for that matter, but Granddad can get that kid to sleep in a matter of minutes so he laid him on their bed and he looked so cute on their big king-sized bed. Guess he better get used to it because come March/April, he's going to be sleeping in a queen sized bed!!!

Funny story....Cole's favorite thing to sleep with since he was pretty little is this monkey. He never took to a paci or blanket but definitely took to these monkey's. Now, these monkey's are exactly the same thing, identical! However, he took to one more than the other. If you will notice exhibit on the left, monkey A....look at that poor monkey's hands. All shriveled and deformed, that is because Cole would suck and bite on the hands. Monkey B is what the monkey is supposed to look like. Normally we wouldn't have a problem with this hand-sucking thing but if you got within a few yards of this monkey, you could smell the nastiness that it gave off. I would wash that monkey a couple times a week but it will constantly smell, mostly because he'd drink his milk at night, then stick the hands in his mouth...sick!!!

 

While Nick and I were out for our anniversary and Nick's parents stayed with him, Gigi snuck stinky-hand monkey in his closet and he hasn't asked for it since!!! Halleluia!!

He still sleeps with normal-hand monkey but doesn't chew on it like he did the other one. Let's hope it stays that way!

21 Weeks

21 Weeks!!!

 

Pregnancy Highlights:

(I know, how can someone be this big already and only be half-way!?!)

How far along: 21 weeks

Size of baby: Baby S is the length of a carrot, about 11 inches long and almost 1lb

Total weight gain/loss: Gained 8lbs...oops, guess the holidays treated me well!

Maternity clothes: Pretty much all my clothes are maternity. I'm still wearing a lot of regular shirts if they are long enough. I'm LOVING dresses this time around!

Gender: Not sure. We could have found out and it was SO hard because it was right there, but we are excited for the surprise.

Movements: I'm feeling lots of pokes and nudges. I think I'm about to the point where someone on the outside could feel them.

Sleep: Sleeping much better than 1st trimester!!!! I wake up every 4 or so hours to readjust.

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach and.....beer!!!! Crazy I know. With Cole I never even desired a drink but sometimes a cold beer sounds SOOOOO good!

Cravings: Nothing as crazy as my 1st trimester. Still liking a lot of fish (once a week), AND, some exciting news....I ate a hamburger yesterday!!!! Normally any kind of meat is repulsive to me when I'm pregnant but it sounded and tasted so good yesterday and today I'm wanting another one. Maybe my food aversions are diminishing.

Symptoms: Up until a couple days ago, food was still extremely gross to me, but the last couple days I've been able to pretty much eat anything, yay!!! The bad taste in my mouth is WAY better and I really have no complaints other than that. Feeling SO much better.

Best moment of the week: Finally seeing our baby on the sonogram and knowing he/she is completely healthy and one week ahead of schedule.

When I was home over Christmas my mom came back from her hair appointment and told me about this chiropractor/acupuncturist that her hair lady has been going to and she deals a lot with prenatal stuff. I was very reluctant to go at first because what was I going to say? "Uh yeah, I'm pregnant and I don't feel good and I hate food". Yeah that's like ALL pregnant women, I can just suck it up and deal for the next 4 months. BUT, my mom insisted, she even made the appointment for me! So, I went and was very pleased that I did!!! The chiropractor was pregnant herself so we were able to talk a lot about that and she understood my complaints. She said my food aversions and bad taste in my mouth were a lack of vitamins. I have been taking prenatal vitamins but she got me on some Metagenics and they make me feel amazing, so much more energy AND the taste in my mouth is pretty much gone. She also said I need to be drinking way more water or drinks with electrolytes.
Then, she did some acupuncture on me (my first time) and it was awesome! I totally loved it! She said that if you continue with acupuncture it's shown to cut off hours of labor/delivery, heck yeah! It didn't hurt at all, except one that she put in my hand. I made her take it out it hurt so bad.
She gave me the name of some chiro/acupuncturists in my area that I'm going to check out and hopefully start that up soon. I guess mom was right, mom's are so smart sometimes :) I just assumed that I'd have to feel like this the rest of the pregnancy but there is a lot women can do to help the symptoms! I'm so excited! :)

New Years....oh how our lives have changed!!!

First off....I have been WAY behind on blogging!!! With being out of town and being on the go since we got home, this is the first chance I've had to sit down at the computer. There are a few blog posts updating our past couple weeks.

New Years!!!!
It's amazing how your life changes when you have kids! Normally our New Years is spent like most people...staying out late, spending time with friends and family. This year was a little different. There were a lot of us parents that wanted to get together but all of us have little ones. So, Beau and Stacey were nice enough to host a get together. Everyone there had a child under 2 so it was pretty crazy for awhile, but so funny at the same time! I think everyone had a great time and we even tried to get some pictures of the kiddos together......
First, here are all the parents trying to get their kid to smile, it sure took a lot of work!!

Here is what the pictures looked like. Yeah, pretty impossible to get 4 kids smiling or even looking at the camera for that matter! Sadly, our 5th little guy Grayson had already fallen asleep and was in bed. Maybe we can Photoshop him into some of the pictures. :)
Also, I only had my phone so the pictures aren't good at all!!
Here's 3 out of the 4 kids: Emerson, Piper and Cole

 

Alright!!! All 4 of them...haha!!!

Emerson, Piper, Cole and Liam

 

We sure had a great time but unfortunately we are paying for keeping Cole out late last night. As usual he woke up at his normal time so he's been a total delight to be around this morning! (sarcasm) This is one of those days when we look forward to naptime!

Hope everyone had an awesome New Years!!

Our Anniversary

December 30th, Nick and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. Having our anniversary right in the middle of Christmas and New Years has made it hard to ever do much for our past anniversaries. Typically we are surrounded by family or out of state. This year we finally were able to do something special, just the two of us.

Nick's parents were nice enough to watch Cole for us so we could enjoy a night out.
Our day started out with our big 20 week sonogram for baby #2. Normally our doctor would have let us do this sono a week or so earlier because normally parents are so anxious to find out the gender, but since we weren't finding out, we just decided to wait till 20 weeks. Normally Nick doesn't come to my appointments but he likes to come for sonograms. This sonogram is always cool because the baby actually looks like a baby and not a blueberry.
The baby looks totally healthy and perfect and apparently very active. It's looking like I'm measuring at 21 weeks, a week ahead of schedule, but that's pretty normal. Baby was about in the 90th percentile so if he/she takes after big brother Cole, we won't be too surprised :)
It was SO hard not finding out what the gender was, I mean, it was right there and so easy to find out. Our sono technician even made us plug our ears because she types some things on the machine and she didn't want us to hear if it was three or four letters. Ha!
We got a lot of great pictures, but here is one of my favorites....cute profile!!!

 

After my doctors appointment, we went to do a little shopping. I can't even remember the last time Nick and I have been at the mall at the same time!! It was kind of fun and we got a lot accomplished!

Then, we drove to downtown Dallas and checked into a really cool hotel. We got ready and went to dinner at Steele. It is a yummy sushi restaurant but of course I stuck to my california rolls. It still was very good and we had a great time. We then went back to the hotel and hung out at the lounge in the hotel. It's a really cool bar called The Library and it made me feel like I was in the game of Clue :) We had dessert, listened to music and enjoyed eachothers company.
The next morning we had breakfast then headed back home....it was a perfect night alone with my hunny bunny :)

Colorado

The three of us flew to Colorado for a week trip to spend Christmas with my family. We were so looking forward to having some snow and taking the kids sledding. Well, we missed out on the snow and I'm pretty sure they got dumped on the day after we left...yep, great timing!
As usual, our trip went too fast be we sure had great times and made some fun memories.
Our trip started off with Cole and Cameron browsing around the house seeing what they can get into. Cameron is at such a funny age, always following Cole around, he's pretty sweet to her though so it was pretty fun to watch.

 

My mom also got in some bedtime cuddle time in before the kiddos had to retire to their beds. This is a whole lot of love right here!!!

 

This picture cracked me up. Cole slept really well while we were there, probably because there was so much activity and it wore him out. He's even using one of his monkey's as a pillow :)

Christmas Eve: Our whole family went to Christmas Eve service together at my parents church and then we came back to my parents house for dinner and presents. That is sort of our family tradition to open presents on Christmas Eve, then do Santa presents Christmas morning.
Here is our family of 3....well, 3.2 right now, ha! Next year it will be a family of 4!!!! Yikes!

After dinner and pictures the kiddos got their Christmas jammies on and we started opening presents. Cole was super excited!!! This year was so fun to watch him experience Christmas because he was actually into opening presents and understood the concept of that better than last.

Cole got so many fun presents, but here are just a couple that he got. Cousin Cameron got Cole this cute Cousin frame with the two of them in it. So precious!!!

 

Uncle Ryan and Aunt Rachel got him this awesome "packpack". He absolutely loves wearing backpacks and now he has one of his own that actually fits him. It even has his name on it :)

He wears it all the time now!!!

 

Cole also was a big help with helping everyone else with their presents...haha!! Nick and I got Cameron this fun walking toy and of course Cole had to help her check it out.

 

Cole and Cameron both got some books and this picture is just way too cute, both of them looking at books.

 

Again, Cole had to help break everyone's presents in....Cole got into a wrestling match with Uncle Ross' new yoga mat, crazy kid.

 

More helping out with opening others gifts :)

 

Christmas Morning: As I said before, we always have our stockings and santa presents to open on Christmas morning.

 

He loved pulling out all his goodies from his stocking. He got some fun things like a giant bouncy ball (that later TSA took away from us at airport security, jerks!), Veggie Tales and Elmo DVD's, tractors, etc. He loved it all!!!

After all our busy gift-opening activities, Cole decided to take a little swim in my parents big tub. He thought it was pretty cool! I think he stayed in it for about an hour and it took some negotiating to get him out!

 

Of course silly dad had to give him a mohawk......doesn't he kinda resemble a certain Denver Nuggets basketball player??? Just add a few tats on his arms and we have Birdman! :)

 

The morning after Christmas, my dad was determined to take Cole sledding, but again, they had zero snow. We decided to head up towards Estes Park because they had a designated sledding hill in Rocky Mountain National Forest. Sure enough they had plenty of snow!!! Luckily we were able to borrow some snow clothes from a friend, I won't show you the pink snow boots he had on though, ha!

Mom and Uncle Ross pulling Cole up the hill

Mom pulling Cole down the hill

 

We had a great time up in Estes. Of course I wasn't able to do any sledding, I had to stay at the bottom of the hill and just take pictures. Even the big guys were able to go down the hill a few times so I think everyone had a great time. I swear my parents have the energy of 20 year olds because I think my dad went up that hill with Cole about 15 times, I was worn out just watching him, ha!

We also were able to spend some time with some other relatives on my mom's side. My cousin Nichole has a little boy named Brady and they love spending time with eachother.

 

My cousin Christopher and his wife Ammone also flew in from California and it was so great seeing them. Christopher is so awesome with little kids, he's going to be such a great dad some day!!!

I was holding baby Kinsley and Cameron decided she wanted in on the action too...ha! I just love these girls, so much fun!!

 

My cousin Christopher brought his fun helicopter and the little boys got the biggest kick out of watching that thing fly. They would just hoot and holler when it would go up.

 

They even got in a little hug while watching the helicopter :)

 

Sadly, our trip came to an end after many activities and fun times. It's always sad leaving Colorado but it was kind of nice to be back home. This also was our very last trip of Cole flying for free (sad, not b/c he's getting so big but for our budget....ugh). We are definitely ready for him to have his own seat but our checkbooks aren't ready to have to pay for 3 flights!!! Luckily on our way back to TX, Cole slept the entire way!!! He fell asleep at takeoff and didn't wake up till we landed. I actually was able to do some reading so it was delightful!!!

However, poor Nick had to hold him the entire time because with my belly getting bigger, it's hard for us to be comfortable :)

Great last day of school

Today was our last day before Christmas break. Usually it is full of crazy kids high on sugar, teachers just trying to get through the day and counting down the minutes till we don't have to see teenagers for 2 whole weeks!!! Today at school was a little different. We have had 3 tragedies happen at our school just this semester and the assembly we had today couldn't have come at a better time. We had a group of teens from a group called Journey to Dream - Livin it Loud come and do a presentation for the whole school. Some of the performers are current students and also alumni of Hebron. The whole performance was about drugs, alcohol, suicide and different issues teens today face.

I thought the performance was excellent for several reasons. You can have adults, counselors, parents or coaches tell these kids till they are blue in the face about how their decisions can create horrible consequences but I think what really made an impact was that these were their peers, telling their story. Their testimonies were heart-wrenching.....but true. This group did such a good job of telling our students that they are not alone in their challenges with life and to demonstrate that, they had everyone stand that has battles with: divorce, alcohol, drugs, suicide or depression. Literally, everyone was standing in the auditorium and I think to some of these kids it was such a realization that there is always someone there to listen or help.

Probably my favorite part of the assembly (and I feel like only in the south this would be allowed in a public school because we are in the Bible Belt) was that all the kids that gave testimonies and the true message behind the whole performance that what saved these kids from their addiction or problems was their faith and getting involved with church and a group of people that truly cared and wanted the best for them. We had a kid talk about how he started with drugs and alcohol at age 11 only to find himelf in front of a judge ready to be thrown in jail by the time he was in 10th grade. He is now 20 years old, and looking to go into the ministry full time. I taught this kid and it just amazes me to see how his life and completely changed and you can see the joy he has and how he loves sharing his story with others.

On days like this.....I love my job more than anything!!!

Meeting Santa

 Thursday night, our YoungLife group put on free pictures with Santa at a local coffee shop. It was so fun to see friends and all the little kids but I was a little nervous about how Cole would react to this "Santa" character. :) We are bad parents and did not take Cole to see Santa last year. Last year Cole kinda went through that stranger-danger phase so we didn't even try. Cole is the easiest going kid so I knew this year would be better....hopefully.

So this is how the meeting went.......

First, Cole checked Santa out for awhile, he literally stood in that spot for about 2 minutes just observing.

 

Then, he realized this crazy guy looked kinda fun, so he lunged at him and let Santa pick him up. Yay!!! I was so excited!!!

 

At first he acted pretty stoic and didn't really know what to think and I could just see him saying, "I'm just doing this because my mom has the camera and she'll be bummed if I don't cooperate."

But then Santa started to tickle him and he was all smiles at that point!!

What a sweet child!!!
YoungLife did a great job of finding a great Santa and he was so nice to all the kids!! We definitely had a great first Santa experience!

AND, since Cole was such a great sport....Gigi bought him a couple donut holes that he inhaled! ha!

When you have a sick mommy....

First, let me start off by telling you about my fun day BEFORE I got sick. For my birthday, Nick's family gave me 2 things....Season 1 of Glee (which I've definitely watched already since I received the DVD's last Saturday night!) and a gift card to get some maternity clothes. I'm still kind of in that in-between stage of regular and maternity clothes, but I definitely needed some pants, so Wednesday, I took Cole to the mall and we did some shopping. It's getting a little harder to shop with Cole now because he always wants to grab at everything and not stay in his stroller. So, I thought I'd text Casey to save some time....
Me: "Casey, what size pants to you get at Motherhood?"

Casey: "Depends on the pants, they all vary"

Me: "You are NO help, I wanted to get through this shopping trip without trying clothes on"

So needless to say, I had to take Cole into the dressing room with me and I guess he stayed pretty entertained, laughing at me, pointing to my belly saying "baby" and trying to put some of the clothes on himself. He really was a good sport so I decided to take us across the way and get......

Yes.....CINNABON!!! One of the greatest things ever made. Look at that box of goodness, YUM!!!

Cole also enjoyed the roll, even after I threw the box away he kept saying "more more".

Now, almost every winter, I get the sinus crud. Wednesday evening I started feeling the drainage...yuck! I don't think I slept at all Wednesday night because I couldn't breath, my throat hurt and my head felt like it was going to explode. Normally getting sick like this is not a big deal, I take drugs and it quickly passes. It's a little different when you are pregnant! I know there wasn't a lot I could take and when you have to keep a toddler entertained but all you want to do is lay on the couch and not move because it hurts to move, it makes for an interesting day. So....this is how our day went....

I stuck Mary Poppins in and he was fascinated!!! I really didn't think I could handle watching Elmo or the Sprout channel all afternoon so I put in something that I like watching too.

I also had about 3 loads of laundry to fold that had been sitting on the couch for days so I sat on the floor and folded laundry. Cole wanted to help...although, his helping usually involves unfolding everything I've already folded.

He also thought it was funny to put my underwear around his neck along with Nick's pajama bottoms.

For dinner, I (for the 2nd time this week) popped in some Eggo waffles and didn't even bother putting him in his booster seat. He hasn't wanted to sit in his seat lately and I didn't have the energy to fight with him about it, so I let him sit in the big chair. However, I did threaten that if he got down before he was done, that he'd have to go back in his booster and he stayed till it was all gone! Good job Cole!

I did manage to go the store and get a few things to help me feel better. I got a Vicks humidifier which rocked my world last night!!!!! Sudafed (didn't help so much), tylenol (not sure if that helped either), orange juice (which made me want to vomit) and the greatest invention ever.....Kleenex WITH Vicks!!!

With the humidifier right next to my bed and those vicks kleenex that was stuck up my nose half the night (lovely, I know) I breathed so much better and actually got some rest. Granted, I slept with like 3 pillows propping me up but as long as I could breath, I'd be ok with whatever!

I still feel yucky today, like I just want to split my head open, scoop out all the junk and put my head back together. Hopefully it goes away soon and it doesn't spread to the rest of my family.

One funny thing that happened last night, I had been in bed since about 7:30, but around 11:00 I got up to use the restroom, I checked the video monitor to check on Cole and I noticed something funny.....I walked out to the family room and told Nick to check on him and sure enough, Cole had unzipped his pj's, gotten his legs out and taken his diaper off. Yikes, that could have been bad news had we not noticed it before morning! He has really been into taking his clothes off lately, maybe they need to invent pj's with the zipper on the back, ha! I told Nick that next time he needed to take a picture :)

We have a few fun things going on this weekend so let's all pray that our household gets and stays healthy!!!

16 Weeks, plus a couple days

16 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How far along: 16 weeks, plus a couple days

Size of baby: Baby S is the size of an apple, about 4.5 inches long

Total weight gain/loss: Gained 3lbs...right on track!

Maternity clothes: I'm definitely preferring my maternity pants because they are so much more comfortable, but most of my shirts are regular, just getting a bit shorter every day!

Gender: Not sure. We could find out next month but we aren't going to find out

Movements: I've definitely felt a few pokes here and there, especially if I'm holding Cole and my belly is being squished. With Cole I didn't feel anything till I was 20 weeks, so this is happening much sooner this time!

Sleep: Up until this week, I had still been sleeping terrible! Waking up every hour and just laying awake during the night. However, keeping my fingers crossed, I've been sleeping so good this week, let's hope it continues!

What I miss: Over the holidays, I definitely missed having a glass of champagne (my fav!) or a glass of wine. I'm not a drinker at all, but I love having a glass or two of these and with all the family in town and celebrating, I would have to say I missed that this week. Starting to miss sleeping on my stomach a bit.

Cravings: I've been eating cheese and mustard sandwiches on potato bread like they are going out of style! Weird I know! I also had crab legs the other night at dinner and it was SOOOOO good and now I can't stop thinking about crab, ha!

Symptoms: Still, most food kinda grosses me out, but it IS getting better. Again, keeping my fingers crossed, this week I've been feeling pretty good and more and more foods are sounding good to me. Oh Lord I hope this continues! Sometimes still have that terrible taste in my mouth but getting better. Not as tired, but I still go to bed pretty early.

Best moment of the week: Going to the doctor yesterday to find out I only gained 1lb, and that was over Thanksgiving!!

I had my 16 week appointment yesterday and everything was great. Heard the heartbeat and that is such a great sound to hear! Especially towards the beginning of the pregnancy when you aren't feeling the baby move too much, hearing that heartbeat is such a relief! I'm just looking forward to feeling more movements, then it will feel even more real.

My yucky-ness feeling has definitely lasted longer this pregnancy so thats why I'm staying optimistic that I have finally turned the corner. Even my students have said in the last couple days that I have more energy and I'm being more "fun". I know they thought I was the worlds worst teacher for awhile there because I felt like a bump on a log so luckily I'm getting some energy back and will be more fun to be around...haha!

Nick has tried to get Cole to point to my belly and say "baby" and he will, but he still doesn't understand what is happening. It's so weird thinking about what your second child will look like. You wonder if it will look like your first kid or if it will take after one side of the family more. It's all so crazy to think about. Obviously with your first kid you think about the same, but with your second, it's just so different. We can't wait to meet this little person.

We still are planning on not finding out the gender. A lot of people have told me that they don't think I can hold out, but that just makes me want to wait even more, just to prove it to them. We could find out at my next doctors appointment but we just think it will be so fun to wait. I'm having no intuition on what I think it could be. Some days I think it's a boy, some days a girl so who knows...what a fun surprise!!!