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A Happy Easter

Easter this year wasn't just about giving thanks for all the blessings Jesus has given us, watching morning service online (yes, you read that right), and happy just because people say "happy Easter" all day... but it was more about celebrating and actually being happy that our stay here in Roswell is nearing its end!

The day began at 6:20 AM for Alec, as Ming was a nuisance all morning and didn't let him sleep!  I, on the other hand, slept just fine... and my day thankfully didn't get started until two hours later!  Our plans were to go golfing after watching service, but I took an unexpected nap (imagine that) and we ended up getting a late start, which meant stronger hurricane-force winds... so our plans to golf went right out the door.  Instead, we stayed home and took advantage of the swing set in the backyard and enjoyed a beautiful (but windy) afternoon (in our Idahoan Compound)!

I'm not so sure Alec was completely satisfied with his detail here... and at the same time, I don't think I was completely satisfied with my stay here either!  But I think the both of us are glad we came out to New Mexico, for at least Alec got to finally experience instructing at the Academy, and I didn't get to experience living by myself for 9 months!  It was boring, uneventful, and we missed a lot of family... but all in all, I think we made the best of our time here and thoroughly enjoyed the only company we had... each  other!  

Roswell, New Mexico...  thank you for the warm welcome, the lovely stay, and of course for giving us little 'Butterbean'!!!  It's just too bad we won't be missing you much at all!  

See ya in SoCal!  =)

30 Already?!?

Throughout my 20's, I had such great expectations for my 30th birthday!  But then as it began to creep closer and closer... I actually thought I would be depressed as it arrived and would somehow find myself in a bar getting drunk trying to forget such a day existed!  After all, I was supposed to be celebrating my 30th with twin babies and with all my family & friends!  But if I've learned anything in life... I've learned that things don't always turn out exactly how you expect them to.

So although I found myself stuck in Roswell with no babies, friends or family around, my 30th birthday turned out to be a wonderful surprise full of happiness and joy... for I realized I am extremely lucky and had so many things to celebrate:

- I have been blessed with a family from whom I've learned many valuable lessons.

- I am blessed with parents, siblings, aunts, in-laws, nieces and nephews who love me, accept me for who I am, celebrate with me when I am happy and cry with me when I'm sad.

- And most importantly, I am blessed to have spent a beautiful afternoon on a walk, holding the hand of the most wonderful man God could have created for me... while my second chance at motherhood waits patiently in my belly.

The day most certainly could've started off much better... starting with me being able to sleep in without the Key-Dens waking me up and bothering me all morning, but unfortunately, I actually had to get up early and go to work!  But once I got off work that afternoon, the day actually did get a whole heck of a lot better... especially when I arrived home and found a gorgeous bouquet of yellow & purple tulips from Mojo & Dado! (Thank you so much for the beautiful flowers!)     

Once Alec got home from work, we decided to go for a walk along a nice paved trail by the local golf course. 

(You'll have to excuse the photo...I look like an absolute cow!  Yikes!!!)

With absolute perfect weather... 

it was hard not to enjoy being out and getting some exercise together!

After building up quite the appetite, Alec took me out to dinner after our walk to the place that had the one thing I wanted most for my birthday dinner: BEETS!  So we walked into the 'Cattle Baron' and I practically ran straight to the salad bar to make sure they had my precious beets!  We were in luck... so we got seated and I anxiously planned out exactly what I was going to get on my plate!  By the time we got seated, ordered our drinks, and placed our meal order, I'm guessing somewhere around 10 minutes had passed.  Believe it or not, after just 10 minutes of visually making sure they indeed had beets up at the salad bar, I walked over with my plate eager to cover it entirely with my beloved beets, only to feel my heart drop and see that the beets were no more!  I was completely shocked and almost threw a tantrum... but fortunately, I saw one of the cooks and asked him the obvious... WTF???  Long story short... they completely ran out of beets, but on the super fantastic upside, I managed to use some of that pregnant glow of mine and somehow walked away with the recipe used to make their beets!  So yes, I was super bummed that I didn't get to have my beets... but incredibly excited to have the recipe for them so that I now can have them anytime I want!  Fortunately for me, I still loved pretty much everything else on that salad bar... including the clam chowder, so dinner was truly delicious!     

Did I mention just how delicious the food was? (Yes, all four plates were mine!)

Believe it or not, for once in our lives we really didn't save any room at all for dessert... so after dinner, we came home and went straight to opening presents.

So after opening the Florida gifts, followed by the ones from Colorado... Alec once again surprised me with his very own gift to me!  And as usual, after many weeks of research & homework, he totally scored a home run with it!

Happy 30th Birthday to me!!! It certainly wasn't anything extraordinary or special... but thanks to some very thoughtful and extremely generous family members, I sure did feel special! Thank you all for all your cards, gifts, and phone/Skype calls!  I probably could've asked for a better 30th birthday... like not being in Roswell and with a bunch of family & friends, but to be perfectly honest, I was quite satisfied and pleased with the way it turned out!  I'm sure Alec would have loved to gift me the world on this milestone celebration, but my heart was happy and that is all that mattered to me.

Life Is Like An Onion

Believe it or not... I've been pregers now for four whole months!  Hard to believe considering how time seems to creep on by in slow motion out here.... but I think that's only because I'm looking forward to going home so much!  Otherwise, it seems like just yesterday Alec & I were barely finding out the good news, and now to think that in less than six months we're actually going to be parents is honestly a little scary!

Anywho... week 17 is finally upon us and according to the baby measurement guide, little Butterbean should be about the size of an onion.  But not your average onion... no, this was one ginormous onion with a diameter measuring a little over five inches!  Needless to say, we had to make a special trip to the market just to find a big enough onion!  

 

A few days ago while lying in bed I felt a soft finger-like poke coming from the inside of my belly!  Naturally, I got super excited and thought to myself, "Yippee, baby, I know you're there!  Now kick harder so daddy can feel you too!"  I then yelled at Alec to come and feel the baby kick, but as it turns out, baby doesn't like being told what to do and daddy unfortunately didn't get to feel anything.  I thought maybe that was the start of a neat little trend for baby... but ever since then, I haven't felt any wiggles, pokes or kicks... but I'm sure we'll get plenty of that later on down the road!

Well, it isn't much... but I think I've definitely grown a little since the last pictures.  I still feel really good and of course, eating like a champ!  I'm so looking forward to going home next week... and super excited about our next doctor's appointment with Dr. Neal on May 5th!  Here's to hoping time goes by super fast the next couple of weeks!

Alive and Kicking!

I had my last doctor's appointment here in Roswell on Monday (Yippeee!)... and although I was excited to hear the baby's heartbeat again, I was super disappointed to find out  I was seeing the unpleasant doctor I saw the last time.  Fortunately for me though, I found that getting mentally prepared for his crummy attitude ended up being a good distraction from my nervousness!  

As I made my way back towards the room, I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by my favorite nurse, Jennifer... as she is super sweet and so easy to talk to!  As soon as I told her about my fears & paranoia about something always being wrong, she immediately suggested that we hear the baby first (that is, before questions and blood pressure was taken).  

So there I was laying on the table with my shirt pulled up when suddenly I noticed myself breaking out into a cold sweat and thinking, "Please baby be alive!"  (Remember... it was at this point, week 15, last year that we found out the horrible news!)  And then what felt like an absolute instant... all my fears, nervousness, and paranoia about the baby not "being there" completely vanished and the biggest smile ever was firmly planted on my face!    

Within seconds of placing the Doppler wand on my belly, there it was... "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" ...the unmistakable sound of Butterbean's rapid little heart beating at a solid 143 beats per minute!  Surprisingly, we also heard a strange "thump" noise, which turned out to be a kick believe it or not, from little Butterbean as explained from the nurse.  Suddenly it was silent and all the "whooshing" and "thumping" stopped!  The nurse moved the wand around and bam, there it was again.  She found the heartbeat and we enjoyed listening for a few seconds of it there, and then again it disappeared, so again we had to go and find it.  We both very much enjoyed playing with baby as he/she moved around!  It was such an amazing experience and I was so happy and relieved to hear a strong and healthy heartbeat!

Speaking of "he/she", after the Doppler was put away, out of nowhere, Jennifer the nurse wanted to let it be known that she thinks baby #3 is a boy! (Judging by my body shape and the baby's heart beats per minute)  She claims to have only been wrong once in her career... so she felt pretty confident in her prediction, but still made me promise to call and let her know if she was right!

After a very happy and satisfying appointment, I couldn't wait to get to the car and call Alec to let him know that Butterbean sounded great and was actually pretty active!  Needless to say, he was very excited too and wished he had been there!  Oh, and the other good news: I gained only two pounds this last month putting me at 133.6 pounds... which is really good considering my diet lately consists of frozen waffles, hotdogs and a lettuce leaf here and there!

Week 16, here we come!!!

Out for a Hike

A beautiful Sunday afternoon... 

Nothing to do...

In need of some exercise...

Time to explore... 

The Bottomless Lakes State Park!

Okay, so it was only one lake, it was kind of small, and I'm pretty sure it had a 'bottom' to it... but nonetheless, it was somewhere we hadn't been yet (can you believe that!?) and it gave us something to do on such a gorgeous day!

We managed to find remnants of a trail system on top of some cliffs overlooking the lake... and well, you know me... I just had to go exploring! 

Jei of course, didn't want anything to do with hiking down with me...

and was quite content with staying on top cheering me on!

The hiking was fun... reminded me of work actually,

but unlike hiking at work, I (fortunately) didn't run into any snakes!

I finally made it down all the way to the water's edge!  It wasn't blistering hot or anything... but something about that water totally made me want to jump in for a swim!  

I decided to stay dry however, and hiked it back up top.

Not really sure what we were expecting... but we were definitely disappointed!  Not much of a lake, and the hiking was uneventful and somewhat uninviting. Regardless, we enjoyed getting out of the house, seeing something new, and of course... the wonderful weather!   

"Are You Showing Yet?"

For a few weeks now my belly has been playing a game of "now you see me, now you don't"!  Most of the time I just feel bloated and assume that's why my belly seems bigger than usual... and then by the next morning it's gone back down to normal.  But then there are the days when I don't necessarily feel so bloated and I look down at my belly in the mornings and see a tiny little awkward bump that sits right in between my pelvic bones!  To be honest, it's rather annoying... not knowing exactly what's making me look so big... but between the bloatedness and the rapidly growing 'Butterbean' inside me, I'm pretty confident that this size belly of mine is here to stay... and it's only going to get bigger!

So for several weeks now I've been hearing a lot of... "So are you showing yet?" Since Alec & I see my belly everyday, we really haven't seen a dramatic change. Truth be told though, I've been reluctantly hesitant about taking belly pictures so that family & friends can see and decide on their own whether or not my belly has gotten any bigger.  Certainly not for any superstitious reasons, but simply because I didn't want to follow the same pattern we did with the twins last year.  This time around, I definitely wanted to wait until my belly both looked and felt very much real, so I could proudly stand in front of the camera with a confident smile that says, "Yay, there is a growing baby in here!"

So according to our calendar we are now in week 15... and have successfully conquered the first trimester!!!  It wasn't as rough as I'm sure it couldn't been, but I'm definitely glad to see those first three months behind us!  I still feel fatigued and tired a lot (especially after working the morning shift), and still get random headaches every now and then... but I haven't felt really nauseous in a while, so I hope I've seen the last of those days!  Other than that I feel really good and looking forward to our next doctor's visit next week.  In the meantime, our little baby should now measure somewhere around four inches... about the diameter of a large orange.

Please note: I think the baby was quite eager to come out and play in front of the camera... as both Alec and I saw my belly way bigger in these photos than we did later on that day. (Of course the huge pancake, eggs, and bacon breakfast we had that morning couldn't have had anything to do with it!)

15 Weeks

It's Someone's Birthday Today!

Happy Birthday to my love, best friend and soulmate!

God bless the day you chose me to marry you and celebrate the rest of your birthdays together!

P.S. I promise next year I'll remember to buy your birthday blueberry muffins and brownies.  So, so sorry!

A Spring Surprise!

This morning I opened our dining room binds and saw the most beautiful tulips in our backyard... it was love at first sight!

Thank you Spring for such a beautiful surprise!

Happy Spring Everyone!