Lots of Pictures from Nash's party

Our cousin Kayla took over 800 pictures at Nash's party. After editing I think she got it down to 400! Here are a few of them that I wanted to share on the blog.

The train that the kids rode (the favorite ride)

Nash riding the car with Bryce

Bryce, Nash , and Koa riding the airplanes

Nash and Nate riding the Helicopter (I heart this one)

Cousins Lilly and Braydi riding the helicopter

The kids on the roller coaster

Nash and Makenna on the airplanes

Nash riding the carousel

Nash and I on the train

  Nash Thomas birthday cake

Blowing out his candles

opening presents

my big 3 year old

Nash turned 3 years old this past Friday June 10th. This birthday was emotional for me. As the ones of you I am friends with on fb got to see a younger picture of Nash every day the week before his birthday. Part of it, was the hormones from pregnancy I am guessing and I kept thinking this will be his last birthday with it just being him.  I don't know why that makes me sad but anways I was. The other part is I can't believe he is 3 and is so big not just sizewise but he's so smart, funny, and acts so big. On one hand I love it because he is a lot of fun and the otherhand I want time to stop or even go back to those younger times just for a bit. Just to think in 6 short months we will be back at those baby stages with another little one.
We celebrated his birthday on Friday by going to Wild River Country and then that night eating pizza with family, having cupcakes, opening some presents, and playing games. Then on Saturday we had his party at Funland. We had a bunch of family and friends there that all seemed to enjoy themselves and have a good time. It was a fun party. One that I will post more pictures of when I have them. I am thankful to have our cousin Kayla who takes great pictures take pictures at Nash's birthday parties  for me so I don't have to.
Nash was super excited this year about his birthday and birthday party. Probably cause I sent out invitations about 3 weeks before and he has been anticipating it the whole time. It was a good one and I know he enjoyed every bit of it.

Our Chicago Trip

Chris and I went to Chicago for our annivesary. We enjoyed it so much last year that we wanted to go again and stay a little longer so that's what we did. We got there Friday afternoon. We had an amazing hotel. The Hyatt Regency which happens to be the largest Hyatt in the word. We were on the 30 floor. It had tons of stuff in it and was located in walking distance from a lot of things in Chicago. On Friday we did a boat tour which I have always wanted to do. It was cool. It was about an hour long and they explained the different buildings and the history of the city.

There was this weird dense fog that was only in certian places.

Then there were prefectly fine places like this. I tried to take a picture of this building which I believe is the tallest in Chicago and it wouldn't all fit in my picture.

The Sears Tower

Chris and I walked over to the Navy Peir which was close to where the boat tour was and rode on the ferris wheel which was huge. Unfortunately the fog was really bad in that area so we didn't see much but still had fun. (my husband doesn't like pictures so he either looks like he is mad in pictures or does an extremely goofy face)

I tried to take a picture looking down so you could see how high up we were even though we couldn't see out because all that was in front of us was a white cloud.

Then I thought about giving you a reference point. That small round thing at the bottom is one of those swings things in the park that swings you high in the air. This is how small it looked from the top of the ferris wheel.

And of course we went to two White Sox games. I figured since we were paying the high priced tickets like we did for opening day we could aford to to go two. The White Sox won both games against the Dodgers. Chris and I like to think we are good luck to the White Sox games as they won all three games that we have been two. They were exciting games with lots of homeruns and good plays.

The weather was crazy this trip. The first day the high was 70. We stopped in this store and a local man talked about having "summer like" weather today. Chris and I were freezing. That night it got down right cold. Saturday there was a 80% chance of rain but it was just a cloudy but cool nice day weatherwise and never rained on us. Sunday there was a 30% chance of rain. It was hot and sunny at the ball game but a good steady breeze so it was fine. By the end of the ballgame storm clouds game rolling in and by the time we got to the airport it was storming pretty bad. So much so that our flight kept getting delayed and finally canceled. Which ended us up in Chicago for another night and coming home Monday afternoon.

When we got home and saw Nash. I was showing him pictures from my camera and telling him about our trip. He looks at me and says "Mommy, Why I not go?" My heart sunk. Next time we go which will more likely be in two years instead of next year (you know because a baby is on it's way). I definatley want to take Nash to see all the cool things in Chicago and some we haven't been to yet. We love Chicago. A great place to visit. One I would not like to be at in the winter though.

a moment of truth

I have been wanting to blog about this since it happened but have been busy and hesitant about blogging about it  due to my mixed emotions but here goes. So last week or so I go into a my co-worker's office who he and his wife just had their first baby. He is ecstatic about it. He brings pictures to work all the time and always has stories to tell. So, he calls me preggo (before I was skinny bones, it's an inside joke) and says "hey preggo! Are you getting excited yet?" because he knows this wasn't particularly planned and how much shock I was in. I hesitated and said something like "I wouldn't really say excited". I immediately felt awful but secretly have been wanting to say that for a while to someone. He didn't seem to understand since he is bubbling over with excitement of his first born maybe 2 month old. So, I started to explain.
As I started to explain it kind of came out. It's not that I am not excited. I have moments of excitement but it really seems different with the second one and I really hate to say that. I was afraid this is how it would be with a second baby. That is why I thought maybe if I spaced them out better I would have more time to be excited and focused on the baby with Nash being a little older. Now I don't know if that necessarily would be true. I am pretty hands on a bunch with Nash and spend a lot of my time with him so I probably would no matter what age he is.
With that being said I I feel super guilty about not being "excited" per say like I was with Nash. With Nash I had nothing but time to focus on him and get ready for him coming and really soak it all in. With this one not so much.  I do notice that when I see a baby my heart melts. I have always liked babies but there for awhile after I had Nash I would look at a baby and think it was cute or sweet but have no desire to just hold it and love on it and not want to give it back like I do now. I also feel like and hope with time and when I start feeling the baby move and know what the baby is my excitement will grow.
I am the second child as well and I feel like with the second one they don't get and probably it is impossible to give them as much attention as you do the first one because you simply can't give all your time to both. I know there are benefits to being the second and last baby. As you are the baby and tend to get babied more than the oldest. I go back and forth were I feel sad that this baby won't get as much attention as Nash did and I get sad thinking that Nash will not have my full attention as well.
I hope and think these are normally feelings or thoughts but either way it felt good to express it. I know that Nash will be a great big brother and is excited. Any time we talk about the baby he gets excited and has lately hugged and kissed my belly and asked last night "mommy can the baby come out now?" I know the baby will be loved by everyone and will complete our family is a blessing.

Time to Shine

This morning Nash had his end of the year TOT performance called Time to Shine. He was in rare form. Like in this picture where he was doing this forever while the rest of the group was standing up at attention.

 He also sat on the floor and stood there during the first part while everyone else did the songs and the movements but then I guess it got to the fun stuff he liked and he got into it. Partly being silly and partly doing what he was supposed to.

 Look at this man dribble

I think his favorite was doing the ball between the legs even though his legs were pretty small and it was hard for him. There was a lot of chasing the ball and getting back into his spot.

His favorite part was getting his first trophy. (I am sure there will be many more to come)

He LOVES it.

 The only decent family shot we got.

Thanks for all the family and friends that came out and watched our little guy. If nothing else it was pretty entertaining as he was the clown of the group and the youngest. His teacher came to and she couldn't believe it because he normally at school does everything exactly like he is told but today he  just let loose and had fun being silly. I think maybe having 10 people there to watch him directly in the front of him in the front row had something to do with it. Too much pressure. :) It was a lot of fun though. He put on a good show.

Hello blog

It's been a while or feels like it. Lets see what all has been going on. More of the same exhaustion. Definitely have a round lower belly that is getting harder and harder to cover up. I am most definitely in the in between stages where I am not really fitting into maternity clothes but very uncomfortable in regular clothes. I have had some definite starving moments where I feel like I can eat like a grown man and other times where I am super nausious and not wanting to eat anything. There's also going to the bathroom every hour to empty the bladder.
Exciting news. We had our first appointment on May 5th where we saw the baby and heard it's heart beat. So far everything is fine. I am offically  9 weeks and 1 day today. The really only new thing at this appointment that I didn't know from before. I am going to go ahead and have a C-section. I didn't even discuss the possiblity of not with my doctor. Of course, she recommends going ahead and having one as well. Honestly I haven't even looked into have a VBAC (Vaginal birth after C-section). I do really hate how Nash' birth went down and wish I would have been able to have him vaginally or at least been awake for his birth (that would have been nice). Part of me does feel like I missed out on having a vaginal birth but with this being the second and last baby I have decided to get my tubes tied. So I figured why not go ahead have scheduled C section and not risk anything crazy happening (which would be my luck considering Nash's birth) and go ahead and have my tubes tied at the same time. I really have low expectations this time. I just want to be awake during the birth. Saying all that with me scheduling a C-Section, they typically schedule one 7-10 days before the due date so baby #2 should be here a week or so before 12/13/11.
Other goings on, we had Chris's 31st birthday but due to the crazy floods got postponed on our normal celebrating on his birthday with his parents to another day but it all worked out and he just had an extended birthday.
Mother's Day was okay. Nothing exciting. The most exciting part of my day was getting a 4 hour nap. Nash painted me a vase and had flowers in it and a painted on a flower pot at school with flowers in it.
I got Nash's 3 year old pictures taken from my friend Amy and they are real good. If you want to check them out got to http://www.amyaukesphotography.blogspot.com/.
This weekend we have Nash's big end of the year TOT proformance and that should be fun and exciting and next weekend Chris and I are leaving to Chicago to watch the White Sox play and do other fun stuff there for our 7 year anniversary. May is a busy month for us but has been a good one for us.

Exhaustion

Another early pregnancy symptom that is occuring right now is pure exhuastion. I am talking barely keeping my eyes open. One day (or a few days) after work when I come home I go straight to the couch. Nash watches a movie and I fall asleep for a good hour or longer. Normally, I am constantly going when I get home. Straighten up, doing laundry, making lunches, paying bills, playing with the boy. I hardly ever sit down for long periods of time. Not so much anymore. It has become the norm where before that would only occur if  I was sick. The worst time recently was a day after work where I fell asleep like I said before while Nash was watching a movie. I woke up a hour later. My mom kept Nash for the night because I had to be up early and at Vilonia early to volunteer. So about 7 or 7:30 after he left. I fell back asleep until about 10:30. Got up for maybe 30 minutes and went back to sleep and slept all night.
This was one symptom I remember to a certian extent from last time but when you go through it again it brings it all back and even more real if that make sense. There are a few days or a few hours that I have some spurts of energy and I take full advantage of those times and be as productive as I can. Ready for the exhuastion to lift.