Because I'm Paranoid

Today I had an unexpected doctor's visit. All day yesterday I was cleaning like a wild woman trying to get the hoarder-like amount of clean laundry piles folded and put away. It was ridiculous. We literally had a walking path through our bedroom from the door to the bathroom and to each side of our bed.... When it doesn't get done the first day, every day it gets harder to do.

Anyways, I finally got all that done and went to bed feeling exhausted. The next morning after we got up and ate breakfast I decided to dust a little. I'd only been on my feet for about 10 minutes when I had to sit down because I was aching so bad. And not just sore muscles all over... The icky lower pelvic ache that usually only accompanies the last week or two of pregnancy when you're about ready to deliver. It totally freaked me out! I'm only 14 weeks!!

So I called the doctor and they scheduled me to come in half hour later for a checkup. The MA did the doppler and it took her several minutes to find the baby's heartbeat. Even then, I didn't actually hear it, she just said that the monitor picked it up at 152 beats.

When the doctor came in, I apologized for being paranoid and asked if she could please do the doppler again. I wanted the reassurance of hearing it. She looked up at me and said, "You're allowed to be paranoid, I've seen your chart!"... It made us both laugh and me feel better. I feel like the doctors and office staff must be sick of my paranoia by now, but you know what?! I'm allowed!! It's been a long time since I've had a normal, boring pregnancy!

She did the doppler again and indulged my need to hear the baby's heartbeat. Everything was perfect and the heartbeat was nice and strong hovering around 150. They did a couple tests and checked to find out what could be causing my pelvic pain and found nothing. I went home with "take it easy" orders, have been "taking it easy: for the last couple hours and I already feel better. I guess all my hard work was just a teeny bit too much for one day.

Lounging Around

Every once in a while lately, Carrie gets in a tiny snuggly mood and will cuddle up to Justin. Today since he wasn't sitting on the couch and she couldn't snuggle into the crook of his arm very comfortably, she decided that laying on his lap was a good alternative. (She's pretending to be asleep)...
**Side note: She had her well check today and she was 27 lbs (10th percentile) and 36 inches tall (35th percentile) She picked those percentiles early in life and has been steadily following them for three years now! Growing healthy and strong!

Look Who's THREE!!

We have a birthday girl! Tonight we went to Peter Piper Pizza with my family to have dinner and celebrate again! (Carrie called it Peeper Piper, it was adorable!) Luckily my sister had her camera because I forgot mine! We ended up getting tons of cute pictures!

Carrie and Isac riding in the purple car

Me being frustrated and Carrie being confused because we should have won tickets on this game, and they didn't come!

Justin taught Carrie how to throw the skee balls! She couldn't quite throw them hard enough to actually get them to go in, so daddy helped ;)

Another "My Little Pony" She loves her little horsies!

Clothes from Nana and Papa

A singing "Little Mermaid" card. Think she's excited?! (A funny side note: she got the same card last year from someone else! And she loved it then too!)

Daddy teaching his girl how to throw freethrows!

And ride motorcycles.... Good thing she's really girlie at heart!

Justin, Kevin, and Jake making quite the ticket jackpot at a machine

Bite-sized brownies instead of cake

Yummmmmy

Happy birthday to our wonderful sweet little THREE year old! We've loved every minute so far and look forward to another wonderful year with our cutie Carrie!

Pink Birthday Party

Carrie's been so excited for yesterday to come..... Her PINK birthday party!!

It was her first friends party and all week she's been asking if it was time for her party yet. It was adorable :) The week would have been better if I hadn't been stuck on the couch with the worst cold of my life, but fortunately I felt better just in time to actually throw a decent party. And bake an AWESOME cake! Withsome help of course! (The towers are made from rice krispie treats)

We decided to run with the pink theme a little and add a Princess theme in there too. So when all the kids came we had them decorate their royal crowns with crayons and sparkly foam flower stickers.

Princess Carrie wore several crowns throughout the day ;)


Even baby cousin Isac got a prince crown

This might be a good time to add that I certainly didn't throw this party on my own. Because of my wicked cold, my sister came to my house Friday morning to take care of me and my house. Her husband works with Justin, so they carpooled home together and my parents came around dinner time. My dad had to go home for work, but the rest of them stayed overnight. So I had Justin, my sister Marissa, Bro-in-law Brandon, AND my mom helping/doing everything at the party.



This is pretty much the extent of my decorations... I don't even know that Carrie noticed, but I was proud of myself anyways considering my state of non-health.

Oh yeah, and tons of pink balloons all over the family room

You'll notice in this picture, Carrie is actually wearing two crowns at once. A true princess indeed...

It seems I didn't get any pictures of our next activity, necklace making. We had colorful shoe laces and a random bucket of beads for all the kids to string on. Luckily we had a lot of adults there because we discovered that shoe-string necklaces are not the easiest thing for three year olds to make on their own. They turned out cute though and the kids loved them.

Next we sang to the birthday girl and her pink princess castle cake. It was a shame to cut into it... At least it tasted good :)

Last, but certainly not least, we did the pinata shaped like a giant crown. Justin figured since the kids were so short, he'd just hold it up instead of hanging it. There were a couple close calls when we got some serious bat swingers, but for the most part, not too dangerous.

It turns out that 3 year olds aren't strong enough to break a pinata on their own, so daddy came to the rescue!

It was such a great party that one of Carrie's little prince friends wiped out for a nap before it even ended!

Uncle Boo-boo enjoyed wearing the pinata crown....

Later that night we went out with our good friend Corynn to celebrate her birthday. (sadly, her hubby couldn't get work off) But there were plenty of other good friends to go bowling with! During our last game of bowling we decided to be goofy and bowl in different silly ways. This look is from the middle of Corynn's slow-motion-baywatch-run-bowl... :)

It was fun to have some grown-up fun time after an afternoon full of three year olds!! Although the three year olds were certainly entertaining! Overall, a fantastic day!

Toy Story 3 on Ice!

On a bit of a whim, we bought tickets to go see Toy Story 3 on Ice last night! We knew it was going to be a long late night, so I tried to get Carrie to nap in the afternoon.... Yeah right... After a late afternoon snack, we headed up into town and parked to ride the lightrail into Phoenix. I was excited. I know lots of people ride metros, subways and lightrails all the time, but for me, it's a little treat and usually means we're heading into see a baseball game, a concert, or something like that. So I still get a little giddy. :)

A few minutes before we got to the lightrail parking lot I turned and saw Carrie totally asleep in her carseat... I was a bit worried about how the rest of our late night might go...

But the second she heard the lightrail pull up, she was awake and as excited as me!


Once we got to the show we went to the souvenir stand. Though we were there to see Toy Story and there were plenty of Toy Story themed toys she could have chosen, she chose a Minnie Mouse doll instead. At least she's happy about it!

We got concession stand hotdogs for dinner. Yummy! Much to my disappointment, cotton candy was only being sold by the guys who walk through the crowd and we didn't have any cash. I was really looking forward to it... :(

We were surprised when Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck showed up to open the show!

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head with the army men

Jessie and Bullseye (who I'm pretty sure is two different people on ice skates working together- amazing!

Woody and the crew putting on a show!

The crane-machine aliens dancing with Buzz Lightyear!

A couple of rows in front of us was a very good sport of a dad who came dressed up as Woody and was more than happy to pose with several children during intermission! Carrie loved it!

Ken and Barbie were a ton of fun to watch!

By the time we got on the train after the show it was 10pm. And we were all super tired! Especially since we'd been fighting colds all week. We got lucky and found a spot where we could lean back and snuggle for the long ride home.

We had a lot of fun celebrating an early birthday present with our almost three-year-old. :)

Checking in on the Little One

I had my regular doctor's appointment yesterday and let me tell you... I was nervous.... At this appointment last pregnancy, we found out I had miscarried. It was making me antsy all day. We didn't have an ultrasound scheduled or anything, so we just went in, did the normal weight, blood pressure, pee in a cup.... and waited to see the NP. When she came in she said something to the effect of, "Well, everything looks good, we'll see you next time"

That was not cool with me... I asked if we were going to do the doppler or anything. She thought the MA had already done that, but apparently, they're not "supposed" to until 12 weeks. I was 11 weeks and 5 days. REALLY?! They were ready to let me leave the office without checking on the baby at all! Grrrr..... Suffice it to say, I was perturbed. So the NP went to get the doppler. After several minutes and still not being able to find the baby's heartbeat (just because it was too small to catch on a doppler), I requested an ultrasound. There was no way I was going to just wait another 4 weeks to check in on the baby.

Luckily, the ultrasound tech hadn't left for the day yet, so we were the last patient squeaked in. I could hear the confused ultrasound tech asking the NP and MA outside my room asking why she was doing this ultrasound and what she should write on my chart. I didn't hear what the NP answered, but a second later when the tech knocked on our door to take us to ultrasound, I told her, "You can just write 'paranoid' on my chart" We all laughed, but it's true. I've been especially paranoid this whole pregnancy, as I surely hope can be understood...

To our relief and delight, the baby is completely healthy! It's the right size with a strong, wonderful heartbeat. It measured a few days behind, but it did last time too, and as we've found so far, our babies usually measure a tad on the small side, so there was nothing to worry about :) So baby #3, here's to you! Keep up the good work! We want to bring you home this summer!

Wiped Out Early

It's only 6:00.... Looks like we've got a TIRED girl on our hands... Early bedtime anyone?

Celebrating Our Angel

We started off celebrating Brigham's birthday yesterday with pancakes. Pink pancakes... per Carrie's request. We figured, why not? Brigham can't make a color request, so we'll let Carrie decide for him. :)

Then we headed up into town and went to the cemetery. Carrie never stays in one place when we visit there, but it's cute. She wanted to put a couple of Brigham's flowers on another grave ;)

Uncle Jake helped distract her by walking on the wall

Our two sweet kiddos. Carrie being goofy, of course

Family photo op

Extended family. It was nice to have my family close by to celebrate with us. They brought the birthday hats, cute huh?!

Some balloons for our birthday boy

We ended our evening by going out to Texas Roadhouse. Carrie still wanted to wear her birthday hat. Our waitress mistook that it meant it was Carrie's birthday, so she got to sit on the saddle and get a birthday "Yee-haw!" from the whole restaurant.

We had a wonderful day celebrating our sweet angel's birthday. I'd worried it would be a very hard day. But then Justin helped me realize I was headed for a bit of self fulfilling prophecy. If I was expecting to have a bad day, I was going to. If I could choose to be happy, it would be a happy day of memories and celebration. So with the help of Justin's wonderful outlook, we had a great day.

We did have a good cry right before bed when we watched our little slideshow of Brigham's pictures that played at his funeral. But there's certainly nothing wrong with crying and missing our boy. We're so glad he's a part of our family for all eternity.