Cruising to Mexico!

Here we are in Cozumel, Mexico. This was our only stop as the cruise was a 4 day one. We had a good time walking around. We were looking for a particular store and were headed the wrong direction. We found this little opening to the water that was public, so we headed in for a swim. The water felt great with pockets of warm and cold water. Of course, it was beautiful!

 

 

This picture was Katie's idea as I would never typically have Matt put his hand on my belly for a picture. Too cheesy for me. If you all are wondering how big my belly is getting, here you go. It has grown quite a bit over the past few weeks. I have also gained a few pounds too.

 These next few pictures are of the boat going under the Sunshine Skyway. The top of the ship gets pretty close to the bridge. It was very very windy on the top deck at this point and we were having trouble standing still for the pictures.

All 4 of us had a great time doing a lot of nothing. We tried to sleep late, but were woken by some clanging metal objects below us, and took some afternoon naps. I hit the casino with absolutely no luck this time. The craps table was not a good place to be this time around. Oh well. Matt and Josiah ate a lot and Katie and I just tried to not make ourselves feel sick. The food was delicious and the sun was intense. None of us got a bad sunburn, but I currently am sporting the raccoon look as I always had my sunglasses on. Thankfully, I live in Florida and have plenty of opportunities to get rid of that line. We saw some comedy shows and Josiah was forced into playing a game show. The guys played and won many games of corn hole (a bean bag game) and Katie and I read a lot. Our chickens are still alive and the new grass has grown a ton. Our yard has not been mowed in over a month and in some places, it is about a foot tall. Mowing was on my to-do list, but since it rained, I am not sure that will happen today. Hence, I have now have the time to update the blog.

Our Big Trip!

These two were so entertaining. One was playing under the blanket and the other starting swinging and climbing around. The girls enjoyed seeing them in action.

The butterfly house was so pretty. There were so many butterflies everywhere and she loved looking at them.

Had to climb on the frog.

At Suson Park

We have a similar picture from our last trip, except Reagan is the new addition and unfortunately, they only have 3 cutouts.

Rachel was not too keen on getting close to this horse. I suppose it was okay since most of the animals had signs saying "we may bite"

We made it back from our trip to St. Louis and Chicago. We left 2 Fridays ago and made it up around midnight, exhausted of course. With the time change, the girls were consistently getting up around 5:45-6 in the morning and since they were all sleeping in the same area, sending them back to bed wasn't a great option since they might wake any remaining sleeping kids. So, thankfully Grandma has cable and Disney Jr channel was watched (a lot). Lauren and I took a lot of afternoon naps, ate a ton of Cecil Whitaker's pizza, had Ted Drewes' frozen custard, took the girls for Krispy Kreme donuts, went to the zoo and Grant's Farm, and spent a lot of time with family. We really enjoyed our time in St. Louis. We headed over to the Chicago area the following Friday to visit Michael, Amy, and our new nephew Will. The girls have been pretty excited to meet Baby Will, but unfortunately, he was a little sick so no kisses could be given. They chased around the 4 cats and went back and forth between liking and not liking the dog. Since Michael seemed to be getting sick and Amy and Will were getting over something, we decided to head out a day early on Sunday. Sunday evening at dinner, Lauren started to not feel good and then got progressively worse in the van. Thankfully we were close to a hospital and we headed to the ER. I waited in the van with 4 sleeping kiddos for about 4 hours while Lauren was treated (given pain meds) for most likely a ruptured ovarian cyst. We made it to the hotel around midnight and settled into bed an hour or so later. No rest for the weary, we were up around 6am and at least got a yummy continental breakfast with some good food. We drove pretty much all day and got home at 11pm Monday night. We were so happy to be back. I spent yesterday recovering (doing laundry, unpacking, etc) and will spend tomorrow morning packing things back up for our cruise! Matt and I are really looking forward to time by ourselves and with some friends. If you are wondering about the pregnancy, I had an appointment the day before we left and things were fine. The baby was being difficult, but we finally heard a good heartbeat in the 150's or so. I am feeling alright, but still have some evening where I don't feel great. I definitely feel like my belly is getting bigger and am a lot bigger at this point than I was with Rachel. I hadn't gained any weight as of my appointment, but with all of the junk food that was eaten in St. Louis and with the never ending supply of yummy food on our cruise, I have a feeling the next appointment will show some weight gain.On a sad note, 4 of our chickens were pulled through the chicken wire and eaten by a raccoon. Matt spent a few days trying to catch it, but caught a stray cat (and it escaped) and then an opossum. He put up some metal sheeting around the bottom foot or so of the coop, so hopefully, no more deaths. He did buy two more chicks, so we now have a total of 4.

Just an Update

Eating her popsicle after lunch

Our backyard used to have two big dirt hills in it. They had been sitting around for about 5 or so months and finally, they are gone. Our neighbor bought a little tractor and him and Matt (and sometimes Rachel) were out there this weekend working hard to leveling out the backyard and filling in the two major holes/hazards. Rachel and Matt spread some summer rye grass seed, so hopefully it won't be just dirt for too long.

Ready for car cleaning with Mommy. After doing to the gym this morning, I decided my car was filthy and really needed to be cleaned and vacuumed. Well, we got the inside really clean and then I decided to quit and forget about the outside. I am happy with the inside being clean for one whole day probably.

12 Week Ultrasound

I went to the OB on Friday for my 12 week ultrasound and the tech said that the baby was measuring right on track. The techs don't really tell you much else, but I assume everything is going fine. I don't remember getting pictures at this point with Rachel that look so much like a person rather than a peanut or something blob-like. But, I think he/she is just so cute already! I go back to see the doctor on May 10 and on the 11th, Lauren and I leave for our big trip to St. Louis. We are hoping to spend only one day driving each way and then about 8 days visiting. Pray for us. I have been feeling a little better, but I also have been doing my fair share of laying down. I haven't been to the gym in a few weeks, which is a bummer because I had really wanted to keep up with that. Maybe after the cruise I can go back. I have 3 more classes left of school, which is really exciting and then we have a very busy summer. Here is the ultrasound picture and I cannot figure out how to make it bigger. I am thinking that maybe you can click on it and that make enlarge. Sorry.

We got a facelift!

Actually, just our house. We are both really pleased with the way our house turned out after the painting, roof, and shutters! We upgraded the shingles a little bit and feel it was worth it if they are going to be on our house for the next 25+ years. We ordered the shutters from Home Depot and Matt was just happy they came already painted so we didn't have to do it. He will be doing a little touch up painting today as when some debris came off the room, it scratched the paint in a few places. Otherwise, we will be heading to a little one year old's birthday party and then I am going to a retirement party (if I feel okay) for our department head at work. It is looking really dreary outside, so hopefully this will force me to get some housework done and read a book.






The chicks are getting bigger and Mother Hen Rachel is still in love with them!


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I am a slacker - get used to it

I have been feeling pretty crummy most of the time, so blogging is just not on the priority list. When I do feel like doing anything, my household chores take the top of the list. My nausea has gotten worse and sleeping is the only thing that seems to help. Needless to say, I take quite a few naps and get plenty of rest at night. I only have 5 more classes this semester and then will be off until next January! I am really excited about that extended break. I had a OB appointment last Friday and everything was normal. I had lost about a pound, but I did hear the heartbeat for a few seconds. It was very elusive, but we heard it. I have my 12 week ultrasound this Friday and some bloodwork that tests for genetic abnormalities. Lauren has been wonderful about watching Rachel, but I suppose I did this for her, so what else can she do but kindly repay the favor.

Rachel also turned 3 since the last blog post. I am terrible and took no pictures as I was rather busy. We had an ice cream bar with lots of different toppings and just some small appetizers. Nothing crazy and very easy on me. I tried to keep the party small, but it turns out that it is impossible even with inviting just family and close friends. Oh well, at least we have a bigger house and yard to accommodate. She got a lot of great presents, but lost interest in opening them after she received bubbles.

One of Rachel's new nightgowns!

Very unlike us, we decided to pay someone to do a home project: painting the exterior of the house. It was a big job that neither one of us wanted to participate in, but we kept the delusion up that we were going to do it to save the money. Well, the roof became more pressing and we wanted the painting done before the roof, so we started getting quotes and ended up hiring a contractor friend from church. They did a great job and we are so happy with the huge change from a blue to tan house. It was done in a week and worth the money spent. So that got Matt thinking about whether he wanted to do the roof or hire someone. He started getting quotes and after a lot of back and forth thinking with himself, he decided with a roofing company. They have been working all day today and I think will pretty much get everything done except the shingles. So we have spent a lot of money this month and Matt is really praying for overtime. Thankfully, we are not going into debt to do these things and we are very blessed for that. Here is what the house used to look like: The blue was more awful looking than this picture shows.








Matt finished building the chicken coop or as he calls it, the McMansion. It looks nice and he did a great job. He initially bought 4 baby chickens and Rachel fell in love immediately. They are her little pets/objects of obsession. She is constantly asking about them, loves to be outside with them, etc. Two days ago, Matt bought two more chicks that are in the pictures. We now have 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2 yellow (I forget the name), 1 Americana (the brown one), and 1 Plymouth Rock Bard (the black one). Apparently the Americana will produce blue and green eggs while the others give brown. They are all in the coop and I really glad they are out of the laundry room and back porch. They poop a lot.




While I have been laying around on the couch a lot, Matt has been great with keeping Rachel off of me. Last night, they made a pizza together and put an R on it for Rachel. It looks like they had a good time.