The Last 3 Weeks & Officially 18 Weeks

The last few weeks have been busy ones for us. The only things I have documented with pictures are our afternoon at a pumpkin patch, a trip down to Virginia, and our latest Dr.'s appointment for this baby. We'll start with our pumpkin patch visit.

We switched things up a bit and headed to Wickham farms where Eleanor and Ethan enjoyed a ride in the wagon.

 Eleanor DIDN'T enjoy sitting in a bin of pumpkins. She screamed and made this face until we snatched her out of there.

 Ethan got to jump on the jumping pillow. It wasn't until later that we realized we were supposed to pay for him to do this, but there were so many people there that we just let him go in there without a wrist band.

He loved it.

 Eleanor loved it as long as she was being held by Ben.

 Once we paid for our pumpkins the kiddos got a cookie and we headed out of there.

Next up is our trip to Virginia which I didn't document as well as I should have. The colors on the drive down were gorgeous. It made the drive down that much more pleasant. Even if Eleanor didn't sleep a wink the entire 7+ hours. Stinker.

When we got there we ended up staying with Sam and Julie in their new home that they bought last month. Their new place is in Vienna and has a good deal of space so we got our own room and bathroom on the lower level. Ethan loved being able to sleep in the same room as his cousins so it was a win-win for all.

Sam and Julie are quite the hosts and threw their annual Halloween party while we were there. Ben was a dead ringer for Pee Wee, while I'm sure not a ton of people knew who Dottie was. We were just happy that the costumes cost us absolutely no money. The food at the party was delicious and the couples who went had some of the most creative costumes I had ever seen.

 

"Paging Mr. Herman, Mr. Herman you have a telephone call at the front desk."

The next day was baby James' blessing. I of course didn't take any pictures. Sorry. We spent the rest of the day with family (including my own parents who were in town for the weekend as well), and sleeping away the day. Ben and I both started to feel a little under the weather while we were there.

The next day we headed downtown to meet up with our friends the Fishes at the zoo. We spent a good hour or so walking around exhibits where it seemed that Ethan was more entertained by jumping off rocks and seeing skeletons on the zoo grounds than the actual animals themselves. Such is the life of a 4 year-old.

This is Ethan's "smile" at the panda exhibit.
 

 It was the first time I had seen the orangutans actually going across the high lines. Pretty cool.

 One of the things that Ethan was more entertained with than the real animals.

After the zoo we headed to lunch at Chipotle. It was nice to be able to sit and chat while the kids were a little crazy. We can't wait to come back in November and meet their baby girl who is expected to arrive in the next few weeks.

 Can you believe she's 38.5 weeks pregnant? Yeah, me neither.

 Ethan and Beckett hugging it out. Both are little lover boys.

After we said our goodbyes we met up with my parents and Ben's parents at the natural history museum downtown. The kids' favorite exhibit was the gems exhibit where they were able to see all sorts of kryptonite and princess jewels. They enjoyed the whole museum overall, including this huge great white shark jaw.

 Makes you think twice about swimming in the ocean.

Later that night we met up with my sister and parents in Shirlington for dinner. We left both of the kids at home where Ethan enjoyed an exciting role playing FHE about Ammon. When he cut off his Uncle Sam's fake Halloween hand it took him a while to realize it was a fake. He's been talking about it for the last few days now. Maybe we should start holding better FHE's :)

Yesterday we made the trek home with a pit stop at Ikea along the way. They unfortunately didn't have the bed in stock that we wanted for Ethan so it was sort of a bust, but Ikea is always good for a $.99 breakfast! The kids were troopers in the car ride home and ended up sleeping the last 2 hours or so. 

This morning we had the gender ultrasound for this pregnancy. We were hoping we'd be able to have it before we went to VA, but the midwife told us to make the appointment for 18 weeks. Today is my 18 week mark, so we took the whole fam to the ultrasound. Ethan and Eleanor were kind of restless in there and it took a good 45 minutes (a trip to the bathroom and a run down the hall to get the baby to move) before we found out that we're having another GIRL!

 

We are pretty excited to have another girl, though Ethan's first response (in a very sad tone) was, "I wanted it to be a boy." He has been quite sad about the prospect of another sister, but we've reassured him that he is a great big brother and that the more sisters he has, the less he has to worry about sharing his Legos. He's still not convinced, though he does have a name picked out for the baby. Marie Mudrick (if it was a boy he wanted him to be named Toulouse from The Aristocats). Eleanor on the other hand has the name Baby Honey picked out. We have NO idea where that one came from, but we've told her she can use it as a nickname for the baby if she likes.

Explanations For the Lull

Almost an entire month since my last post. Yikes! My excuse, as futile as it may seem, is that we're expecting our third child and I have been feeling under the weather for the last 8 weeks or so. The usual symptoms of nausea, headaches, and fatigue have been taking their toll. I am about 14.5 weeks now and our baby is due on March 27th. We're excited for this addition and can't wait to find out what we're having!

I posted this photo on instagram a couple weeks ago to announce we're expecting. 

In other news we have been just hanging out, doing the daily routine of school, work, meetings, and church callings. We're busy, but happy. The kids are keeping us busy as well. Here's a little update about them:

Ethan:

- He is still obsessed with all things Lego, superhero, or drawing related. He often will draw random pictures for us which aren't too far off from what they're supposed to be. Other times Ethan will draw a series of letters and ask us what "BERPH" means. Your guess is as good as mine, buddy.

- Ethan is enjoying school, a lot. He has made a bunch of friends yet doesn't understand why they can't just come to his house after school. I've had to explain to him that we don't know the families of these kids but we will get to know them. For the time being, he is content playing for an extra 15 minutes on the playground with them after school. He still acts like the leader and tries to tell the kids they're either playing super heroes or Ninjago.

- Ethan is still a sweet boy. He is very loving and will often just come up to me and tell me, "I love you, Mom" or "You're the best!" He also over-appologizes for things he doesn't really need to be sorry for. Just the other day he told me, "I'm sorry I ALWAYS do bad things." I'm not sure where he got that impression. I don't think that we over-discipline him. Anyway, we are lucky and Ben and I often talk about how good of a kid Ethan is.

Eleanor:
- This girl is hot or cold. She's always been this way. Not one for snuggling and with the drop of a hat she looks like this:

- Other times Eleanor is sweet. She is obsessed with princesses (Aurora in particular) and is often trying to get all of us to to dance with her while singing, "Once Upon a Dream." Being the sweet brother that he is, Ethan often entertains her with dancing and doesn't mind watching princess movies when Eleanor wants to. Luckily, Eleanor loves her brother and his obsession with Legos so she often wants to watch Lego shows too. Another sweet thing is that she genuinely misses Ethan while he's at school. She can't wait to pick him up every day and always requires a hug from him when she sees him come out of school.

- Eleanor is quite the ham. She always is trying to copycat things that she thinks are funny, like Ethan's knock-knock jokes. She tends to add her own flare so that they go something like this:
E - Knock, knock.
Us - Who's there?
E - Batman.
Us - Batman who?
E - Batman prin-sees (princess)!

- And then there's the moment that she realizes she wants something and that she's been wanting it internally for the last 5 minutes, but just let you know. She ends up sulking around like Charlie Brown. She also tends to do this when you're walking along with her and she suddenly realizes she wants to be held, but doesn't want to tell anyone. We get the message, Eleanor.

So there's the update. Now I don't feel so guilty :)