It's a...

GIRL!

I am so excited I am having a hard time believing its true! But we saw it with our own eyes (or maybe it's what we didn't see...). During the ultrasound she was holding her hands above her head, crossing her feet and wiggling her toes. Everything looked great!

When we told Jonas he didn't seem to care. Of course he was staying at his favorite person's house while we went to the appointment and was not happy to see us because it meant he had to leave. Liam was all smiles! So excited to have a sister and not another brother.

Now we just have to pick a name!? Good thing we have a few more months!

20 weeks

I'm halfway there! I have been feeling pretty good lately (except for the tiredness, headaches, leg pain and pelvic pain). I have started to feel the baby move in the last couple weeks but it hasn't been strong enough for Nate or the boys to feel it yet. We have an ultrasound scheduled for Friday and if all goes well, we will be finding out if we are having a boy or a girl! I am really excited! The baby's room is already painted in a light green with white stripes (it was like that when we moved in) and I have all of these plans in my head of how to make it cute. Is it too early for nesting?

I have different cravings every hour of the day it seems. Some of the most recent are: big fat burrito (I finally tried one here at the only burrito place we have found and it was not satisfying. Everything about it was wrong. I think I'll give it another try and get something completely different), In-N-Out, turkey/swiss/pesto panini, blueberry pancakes, milkshakes, McDonald's french fries, corn tortillas, Alfredo sauce, pasta in general. Tomorrow I'm sure I could come up with a whole new list!

Liam and Jonas are excited about their new sibling. Liam was telling me just this morning how happy he will be to have a sister and how unexcited he will be to have another brother. Jonas doesn't care either way but loves the baby already. Sometimes when I am lying down he will come lay next to me and ask "is your baby sleeping?" I usually tell him yes and then he wants to give it(my belly) a kiss and hug. He tells me all the time, "Mom, your baby is so cute!" He is so sweet about it. I hope it continues after the baby is born.

I'll make sure to update after the ultrasound!

Valentines Surprise

Yesterday (Friday, the 12th) we were meeting up with 2 other families from church to go see an indoor soccer game that one of their sons was playing in. Both Liam and Jonas love and look up to this boy Caleb so much. We also thought it would be a good way to see if it was something we might want to sign our boys up for. The game was great even though they didn't win. Jonas was especially cheering Caleb on (mostly because he wanted Caleb to look at him). After the game we were going back to the Fisher's house to order pizza and hang out. The guys were all acting suspicious but we couldn't get any information out of them. Nate and one of the other guys went to get the pizza while the rest of us stayed there with all of the kids.

20 minutes later 3 pizzas (not the 7 we agreed on) were delivered to the house and the one guy left instructed us to get in the car. (Don't worry, one of the sons is 14 so the little ones were left with him). Of course all of us ladies were giddy about what might be happening. He drove us to a park that is next to a lake nearby and made us close our eyes and hold hands while he walked us to our destination. He sat us down and finally let us open our eyes. We were sitting at a picnic table all set up for dinner with a nice red table cloth and sparkle lights across the center. They had hung red hearts in the tree nearby and served us barbecue pork, fried rice and sparkling apple and grape cider. After dinner the guys cleaned up and we went for a walk around the lake holding hands (not all of us together, just the couples :) ). It was such a sweet surprise and made us all feel so loved! We couldn't get many details from them about how they pulled it off but it seems they had been planning it for weeks. And just earlier this week when we got some ads in the mail with Valentines candy Nate said, "oh man, I haven't gotten you anything yet". Sneaky boy!

I am so grateful for Nate and that he still finds ways to surprise me and show me that he loves me even after 8 years of marriage. I love you Nate!

Kindie Update

Liam and Jonas in their sun hats. I am amazed at the difference between his paintings at the start of this year and the ones he did at the start of preschool last year.

Liam has been doing really well so far and loving going to school. The first day I went and checked on him at 12:30 to make sure he was alright to keep going until the end of school. He said he was a little tired but I talked him into staying. I think if he came home he would have just wanted to watch tv and would have probably been sad he was missing out on whatever they were doing at school. He came home tired, hungry and cranky! I was really worried that school had turned my sweet little boy into a monster but it only lasted a few days. Now that he had mostly adjusted to the routine he is doing better. (He is still really hungry though). The first day he asked me if that was how long school always was. I told him yes, that was the longest he would be at school. I was thinking he might have had a hard time sitting still in class for such a long time but then he told me he wished there wasn't so much recess! He said he got too tired running around so much. I don't think he minds recess anymore. He has made a few friends (but can't remember their names) and it sounds like they are having fun running around together. Last Thursday he even wanted to go out and ride his scooter after being at school all day and walking to the mall by our house.

We learned Tuesday that he is not allowed to have any nut products at school. Supposedly there are "several" students at his school who are highly allergic. This makes lunches a little tricky (and annoying) since the only sandwich he eats is peanut butter and honey. I haven't been able to figure out an alternative yet. He likes ham and cheese but I'm afraid by the time lunch came it wouldn't be very good anymore. For now he gets a few extra snacks to make sure he has enough to eat.

He was excited to go back to school today. He loves getting to do so many projects and activities. Here are some from his first week:

This fish he did on the first day of school. They had to color it, cut out the strips and glue it back together in order.

This cracks me up. I'm not sure why they were drawing on envelopes but I guess they were supposed to draw a picture of what they want to be when they grow up. On the left Liam drew himself playing basketball "because its my favorite sport" and on the far right himself playing guitar. I had no idea he was interested in either but apparently he wants to be either a basketball player or a rockstar when he grows up (at least he did last week).

First Day of Kindie

Today was Liam's first day of Kindergarten (or Kindie as they call it here). He has been excited for weeks so we've had a count down going. All of the schools have uniforms. I'm not super excited about his "Christmas colors" but all of the kids did look really cute this morning all dressed up. We got to school a little early to make sure we had some last minute things taken care of and had time to play at the playground before he met his teachers.

"The hamster wheel"

There are only 20 kids per kindie room and Liam's class has two teachers. One comes in Monday, Tuesday and the other comes in Wednesday through Friday. It seems like it will be a great class.

When we walked in there were little activities set up all over the room. Liam went straight for the building stuff. I shouldn't be surprised because that's what he always went for in preschool as well. He never wanted to do any of the crafty activities. Jonas and I stayed for a little while and then it was time for them to start their day and get to know each other. When it was time to leave he said, "Bye Mom, I love you" and sat down with the other kids. I didn't even cry. I'm happy I got an "I love you"! Jonas did cry though. He wanted to stay and play too. Hopefully I'll be able to give a report of his first day - if I can get him to tell me about it.

Rice/Root Beer Belly

I brought home a little souvenir from the Philippines.

Right away we figured out that if we were going to stay on budget we were going to have to eat like the locals. We had easy access to a lot of familiar foods from the US and Australia but they were much more expensive than other foods. So we ended up eating a lot of rice. Probably not a lot compared to what most Filipinos eat but we ate it 3 or 4 times a week. To someone like me who grew up eating rice 2 or 3 times a month that was A LOT! After a while I noticed that I was developing a rice belly. I tried and tried to work it off but nothing seemed to help.

I can't blame only the rice. We also had a lot more soda than we are used to drinking. There was Taco Bell, TGIF, Chilis, Pizza Hut and lots of other restaurants. Since we've been without some of these American chains for the last year and half we were so excited we had to go to them at least once (some of them a few more times). With eating out comes drinking soda. We could (and did) get bottled water sometimes but it was pretty much the same price as getting a cup of root beer! Sometimes it was too tempting to pass up. In the grocery stores we could buy root beer for $1 for a 1.5 liter bottle. Compared to $1.50 a can in Australia that was a bargain. Drinking lots of root beer = root beer belly.

Its been over a month now since we've been back in Australia and I still haven't been able to get rid of this rice/root beer belly!

Probably because I brought back another little souvenir as well...

Baby blank #3 at 13 weeks, 6 days. (I'm due July 21)

Rice/Root Beer/Baby belly

Dress Up

We never know what crazy costumes these boys will come up with but they always crack us up!