Our Big News

We are so excited to share that we are expecting baby #2!! Ah I can't really believe it still :) I'm just too happy.  We had been trying for a few months then decided to take a break and try to loose some weight.  Then we find out "taking a break" is apparently just what we need :) Because we got pregnant right away.

Due date is July 2nd, 2014.  I'm measuring small (thankfully) and everything looks very very good.  I've lost about 10lbs this first trimester because I have the worst morning sickness.  For real, it's debilitating.  I basically live off of granola bars and water.  My midwife down here at Rosemark in Idaho Falls is so nice and I'm really happy that we chose her!  I got the best impression of her at my first appointment because I had to bring Brynlee with me.  So even with my cute (but very naught that day) toddler running around and throwing tantrums she was so friendly, patient, and just a gem.  She wanted to here all about my pregnancy and labor and delivery with Brynlee (which I love to talk about!) So it was really fun and she totally on board with my approach on how I want to labor and deliver on my own terms again.  I seriously love labor, like really love it!  I'll be the first to admit I wasn't the best pregnant woman the first time around; I gained way too much weight, didn't exercise enough, and was just a grumpy person.  But labor and delivery- man I got that and seriously enjoyed it!

We have guesses that it will be a boy because it feels so different then with Brynlee.  It's still really early in the pregnancy (I'm just shy of 12 weeks), but this time around I don't want to eat anything.  And when I do actually want to eat it's really simple food (nothing spicy, greasy, ew I'm getting sick just thinking about it) and I can only eat a tiny little bit.  I'm also so bloated, I feel like I can't breath well most of the time (okay exaggerating a little), but it is very uncomfortable, and I am beyond tired.  I could sleep like 9 hours a night and still feel like I'm going to snooze off during the day.

Brynlee is so cute.  I love how much she loves on her baby dolls and when I ask her where the baby is she'll come over and touch my stomach and say baby and blow it a case.  I have no doubt that it will definitely be a transition, but I'm really lucky at how much she loves babies and is just fascinated by them.  The only draw back is now when I throw up Brynlee imitates me.  Yea, you read that right.  She runs after me and says "potty yuck" and then proceeds to copy the yucky sounds coming out of my mouth.

I'm retiring!! Maybe retiring isn't the right word, but I'm not taking any more photography sessions (other than the ones I have booked) until I feel much better.  It's too difficult to find the time to edit and honestly the sessions are really taking a toll on me.  Newborn sessions take usually 3 hours and it's so hot.  I usually have to run out of the room at least once to throw up and I am just way to tired by the end and feel terrible the rest of the day and the next day.  It's not fair to clients and it's not fair to me.  So I don't know when I will start back up again.  But to be totally honest, I wont ever be working again as much as I have this year.  I did over 100 sessions and I'm totally burnt out from it.  I didn't pace myself at all and it took me longer to get people their pictures.  While I learned so much in such a short period of time I've also learned about what is most import to me.  My family. Taking a session once a week isn't bad, but you tack on the amount of time you have to prepare for it (emails, phone calls, etc), set up, clean up, actually do it, and then edit and follow up.  One a week right now is too much for me.  Somw people are amazing multi taskers- I am not one of them.  The last couple weeks I have slowed down has showed me that I need to do this for a while.  I feel so much less stress, I'm happy, Brynlee's happy, even Ben is happier.  The extra income is nice, but I barely make anything after you look into how much I have actually invested into it.  In hind sight I jumped in head first and went too big too fast.  Lesson learned!

Also Brynlee is turning 2 this week! Wait, what?  That can't be right.  Yep, my girl will be two years old this Saturday.  I'm going to weep all day probably.  She is just the best little thing in the world and makes us so happy and keeps us on our toes.  I can't wait to see Brynlee with him/her, hold another newborn, and try that breastfeeding thing again ;)

Ideas for Brynlee's Birthday

Okay, so how bad is it that we aren't doing a party?  We did a nice one last year for her first birthday but I feel like the worst mom ever, since we don't have any family coming up and not many friends around here.   Since Brynlee's birthday is December 21st we decided that we are going to do a half birthday party for her in the June when family can come out.  Every adult that I have talked to that has had a birthday really close to Christmas has expressed to me that they feel like there birthday always got combined with Christmas instead of being it's own celebration.  They also told me that growing up it was hard for parents to throw parties for them because people are so busy with the holiday and out of town.  I REALY don't want Brynlee to ever feel like her birthday is lumped in with the holiday because both are so important!  Birthdays are special and only happen once a year and Christmas is special because it celebrates the birth of Christ and is only once a year.  haha it seems like there may not be enough room for both of them!!

So since her second birthday is going to be a family celebration for the three of us this year I've been trying to come up with some ideas :)

• Birthday breakfast- have balloons and a birthday banner and do a fun breakfast like clown pancakes just fun little designs with food and maybe sprinkle bananas (seriously they are delicious haha)
• Play and have fun in the morning with the balloons and let her open a couple of presents 
• Nap time in our birthday pajamas 
• I-jump for wee-jump time 
• Probably McDonalds (her favorite play place haha) or Denny's for birthday dinner 
• Home for birthday cake, a couple more presents, and a birthday movie.  

I think like that sounds like a pretty fun day! Last year I kind of went all out with her birthday but it's been much more difficult this time around because of how sick we have all been.  I think she'll have a nice birthday though with lots of fun and love :) 

Life!

We are so excited right now!  Before this time next year we will be completely out of credit card debt (and will NEVER get back into it).  So we have been really productive with our finances right now and cut back our spending quite a bit.  Which is kind of hard to do around the holidays, but it's okay :) We are finally starting to start to save for a down payment on a home, haha in like three years.  We are still good with living in an apartment (or renting a townhome hopefully soon) for another couple of years to save up quite a bit.  We also don't really want to purchase a house in Idaho because we know that we won't be here for more then like 2 years tops. Brynlee will be just two years old still, so she will only see the magic of Christmas and not sitting there counting how many birthday and Christmas presents she got.  However, we did get her one big present for her birthday and one big present for Christmas.  I actually feel really bad for her that her birthday is just a couple days before Christmas.  We make every effort to not lump the two together, but unfortunately some of our family has forgotten that her birthday is not the same as Christmas.  Now I'm not saying that she needs double the gifts or anything. But simply taking one gift from Christmas and wrapping it up in birthday paper with a little birthday card is good enough for us.  We never want her to feel like her birthday isn't as special as others because it's right before a huge holiday.  We think that when she is a little older we are going to celebrate her half birthday in June with the whole party shebang, and then just do cake on her actual birthday....it's still in the works!

Anyways I've know become like addicted to looking at houses haha.  A little bit to far in advance, but if we stay on track with what we are saving (and that will just about double as soon as cards are paid off) we have a good budget to start with when looking for what type of home we would like.  It's funny to see how different two people are!  Ben would rather have an older home with a little bit more space and I'm the opposite.  I'd rather have a newer home that's nice and may not have as much square footage.  We have decided though that a basement is a must (finished or unfinished is still the debate), we need 4+ bedrooms, and we need a yard.  We'd both rather our kids have smaller individual rooms than sharing a room.

So enough with that.  I'm just happy that we are on track and life is good!! :)