Big News

Well, it's time to reveal the big news that I referred to in my last post. It would be shocking and surprising except I am so behind on blogging that everyone already knows. But here goes.....

We are going to have a baby!! Hooray!!

We are very excited. In fact, we feel excited, nervous, thrilled, anxious, relieved, overjoyed, and just plain happy all at once. Since the girls were born, Ben and I always felt like we would have another child at some point. But for a lot of different reasons, the timing just wasn't right until recently. Even when we decided that the timing was right, it was still a very scary decision because the girls have finally reached an age where I feel like I can come up for air. Also,  I'm happy with my current job situation and don't know what adding another one will do to that and most of all I was terrified that I would have twins again. But despite all of those reservations, we knew that our family was not yet complete. So, here we are. Baby #3 is set to arrive in mid-December. My actual due date is December 22nd but they will take the baby by C-section about a week before that. I am currently 14 weeks along and feeling really well. I had a few weeks (between 7 and 12) where I didn't feel so great. I wasn't as sick as I was with the girls but I have had some major food aversions and queasiness. I was also SOOO tired. But, I am happy to report that I will now eat just about any food that I can get my hands on, I am having very little queasiness, and my energy has returned. We had our first appointment and ultra sound at 8 weeks where they confirmed that it is only one baby and that everything looks perfect. I had another appointment at 12 weeks where again everything looked right on track. It is very strange for me to have "run of the mill" appointments where there is nothing to report, the doctor has no concerns, and everything is just as expected. It is actually pretty wonderful. I don't even miss the constant ultra sounds because with the girls they really weren't ever fun. They brought on so much anxiety because we never really new what they were going to find. And most of the time, it wasn't good. So, hopefully everything will continue to be uneventful and boring. : )

Like I said, Ben and I are excited but Ava and Macy are beside themselves. They can't wait for December and already love to give my belly hugs and kisses and high fives (kinda funny). I think they will be great big sisters. We told them at the same time we told Ben's parents which was fun. Ben and Joyce were in town for mother's day weekend which happen to be right after our 8 week appointment. Because everything went well at the doctor, we decided to go ahead and share the news. We told Ben, Joyce, Ava, and Macy on mother's day morning after giving Joyce her gifts.  Ava and Macy didn't act like they were that surprised... just excited. Later that day, we skyped with my parents and Ava and Macy told them the news. More excitement all around! Later that week, I sent out an email to extended family and friends to share the news. I also included this picture..........

Yep,  that pretty much sums up how they feel about it. Keep checking back for more baby updates! : )

Did you miss us?

It has been over 2 months since my last post. I can't believe that much time has gone by since Easter. I am going to play catch up in this post then hopefully I will be able to get back to more frequent updates. Here is what we have been up to (at  least what I can remember anyway).

So long to soccer
Ava and Macy finished up their soccer season and had an end-of-the season picnic at the park. All four of us really enjoyed their first soccer season and can't wait for next Spring! (They offer fall soccer but let's be honest. What is more important? Razorback game days or 4 year old soccer game days).

pre-game warm up

 post game donut celebration

 Ava getting her trophy from Coach Katie

 Macy getting her trophy

 They were so proud of their trophies, medals, and certificates

 Taking a swing at the pinata

 This picture cracks me up. After the pinata broke, all of the kids piled on the candy and starting grabbing everything they could. Ava and Macy are strangely shy and non-aggressive around other kids, especially a big group of kids. Macy stood off to the side until she thought she could get in there safely. If only they were this patient and non-confrontational with each other at home!!

 Surprisingly, she did come away with some loot.

Hello to Summer
Ava, Macy, and I wrapped up another school year. They finished up their 3-year old preschool year and will be heading to the big time Pre-K in August. Can't even begin to think about kindergarten. I get teary every time I really start thinking about it.  For now, we are enjoying our summer at home together. The girls are taking swim lessons, they are finishing up their TOT basketball class, we are making trips to the library, the movies and the swimming pool. Of course, we are doing lots of playing at home too. One thing I have noticed since being here with them all day is how much they pretend play. They are constantly using their imaginations. They do this at the pool, in the car, at Walmart, outside, and at home. They love to pretend they are cats, dogs, lions, mommies, daddies, the ice cream truck man, wicked witches, giants, etc. Some of the things they come up with make me laugh. The other day, I was downstairs getting dressed and they were running around acting crazy (as usual). When I asked what they were doing, Macy said, "We're playing T-Rex and Baby Jesus capture the wicked witch." Okay..... interesting trio of characters there. 

First day of swim lessons

 This was the first day of summer. I was downstairs and they were playing very quietly upstairs (the quietness should have been my first clue they were up to something). They piled all of these toys on their couch. They said they were fireman and this was their firetruck.

Tracing each other with sidewalk chalk. Yes, they are wearing their dance costumes from last year. It's summer. You can wear what you want.

NYC
Ben and I took a  trip to New York. He was there for work at the beginning of the week so it worked out that I could meet him up there for the weekend. We had nice (kid-free!) dinners, saw all the sites, went to see Rock of Ages on Broadway, and slept in (might have been the best part!). It was a very nice get away weekend. We took some pictures of sites but have zero pictures of us with the sites. Gigi and Papa came to take care of the girls. They went to the park, the splash pad, the pool, the movies, the mall, Gatti town, and probably other places that I don't even know about. Of course, Ava and Macy loved every second of it!

 Carnival at Central Park.

The new world trade center building.

 riding a motorcycle with Papa at Gatti Town

 mini-bowling

Reunited again

Girls Weekend
I had my annual girls weekend with my college friends last weekend. I hosted it at my house this year and as always we had a blast. We hit the pool to relax, went to a fondue restaurant for something different, and went to a comedy show. So fun to see those girls and just be together. Ben took Ava and Macy to The Nalley's house. Eddie and Ben took care of all four girls for the weekend and other than the girls coming home with about a bazillion mosquito bites everyone survived and did just fine without me.

That pretty much sums up the high points of the last couple of months.  Stay tuned for a separate post with some exciting news! Everyone that reads this blog already knows the exciting news but I want it to be in a post all its own.

Easter

We started celebrating Easter about a week before actual Easter Sunday. Some friends in our neighborhood hosted a Easter egg hunt and brunch. There were 20 adults and 24 kids! And the majority of the kids are 5 and under. It was wild and crazy but a lot of fun. As usual, the girls had a blast hunting Easter Eggs.

On Thursday they had their Easter Party at school. More party food, more hunting for eggs, and more candy! I forgot to take a picture of them before school with their baskets but these are the cute outfits that they wore. Thanks Grammy for the super cute outfits!

On Thursday afternoon we went to the Spring Carnival at my school. They had fun playing on the bounce houses and snacking on popcorn and cookies. They were also holding the Book Fair for our students so I let the girls pick out one book each. They had free reign to pick out any book they wanted. I found it amusing that this is what they picked:

Macy picked the one on the left. Dinotrux. About creatures that are half dinosaur/half truck.

Ava picked the one on the right. Dora Saves the Enchanted Forest. She liked the unicorn and princess castle on the front.

Love the differences in their personalities!!

On Friday, Gigi and Papa came to visit. I finally put up a calendar on our refrigerator earlier in the week because I really thought I might go insane if the girls asked me one more time when Gigi and Papa were going to be at our house. At least 10 times a day I would hear, "when are Gigi and Papa coming? Is today Friday? Is the day after tomorrow Friday? Is Friday coming soon? Is it Friday yet? Now is it Friday?" Ahhhh!!!! Like every other kid their age, they don't fully understand the concept of time so I put up a calendar and drew little pictures on the days where exciting things are happening to give them a visual. It helped some but I was really glad when Friday finally came!!! Friday afternoon we went to see a Dora the Explorer play at this little Children's Theatre. To say the girls loved it would be an understatement. It is a really small theatre so they could see everything. They sang along and danced and smiled through the whole thing. They were in heaven! After the play, we went to dinner then headed home to rest up for the big day we had planned on Saturday.

Here they are dancing with some of the characters after the play.

Saturday morning the girls had a soccer game. After the game went to lunch to celebrate another Girl Power victory! : ) After lunch it was time for fishing! We have a little pond in our neighborhood, but Ben only has fly fishing equipment so we haven't taken the girls fishing yet. I thought they would have fun fishing so I asked my Dad to bring a couple of his fishing poles with him. They also brought some Barbie fishing poles for A and M that were just their size. Ben and Ava caught a fish almost immediately. Dad caught two after that so we had the girls quickly run over and help him reel them in. They loved it and weren't afraid to touch the fish at all. In fact, their favorite part was playing with the worms that we used for bait. Soooo gross!! They played with them like they were pets. At one point Macy was saying, "Hi little worm. Awwww... You're so cute." We brought the worms home and they spent about two hours playing with them in the back yard. Crazy girls! We grilled out steaks and decorated Easter eggs to end the day.

 Fish #1

 Fish #2

Fish #3

 Handful of worms

We have some pictures of Ava decorating eggs too but I was in them looking very scary so I decided to leave those out. : )

Sunday morning the girls got up early to check out what the Easter Bunny brought them and find the eggs that he had hidden. Then we got all dressed up and went to church. When we got to church we took the girls to their regular spot for Sunday school and found out that they were not having child care for kids 4 and over because they didn't have enough volunteers. Lord help us! Macy and Ava have NEVER sat in big church with us! Not even as infants. Never! In all 3 weddings, they only made it about 5 minutes before Ben had to take them out. And.. to make things worse... I was totally unprepared. No coloring books, no crayons, no snacks, no quiet toys, nothing! Only my iPhone. One phone! Mom had hers but didn't have any kid friendly apps. Well, apparently I am not giving my girls enough credit and had pre-church anxiety for no reason b/c they did awesome. It was weird. They drew and colored (with tiny church pencils) on every piece of paper we could find and listened (and danced a little) to the music. Toward the end of the sermon, we were out of paper so I gave Macy my phone to play a game and Ava got mom's phone to look at pictures. It ended up working out just fine. I was SO proud of how well behaved they were!

 The Easter Bunny is tall!