what we've been up to...

Memorial Day weekend was quite the whirlwind of events for us.

Friday night we drove up to Portland for our first long car ride with both Malakai + Desmond. It could not have gone any better. Kai drew on his aqua doodle pad nearly the whole way up. I was pleasantly surprised that we never had to pull out the ipod for last resort video games! Desmond napped a big chunk of the ride and then woke up happy and watched Malakai for a while. He was pretty fussy the last 20 minutes, but nothing unbearable.

{I-5 NB}

After we settled in at Lindsey + Adam's place she and I left the boys to hang out (aka Ben got to do bedtime for both kiddos and he ROCKED it!). We went to downtown Portland for Carina's 30th birthday party at The Barrel Room. It was a lot of fun and I was so excited to be out with friends, I can't remember the last time I did something like that!

{Linds + Elvis, China Town, Carina + her fiancee Reid}

{Carina on the piano, me + Lindsey, Carina + I, Carina + her cake}

Unfortunately almost as soon as we got there my voice started to get scratchy and with the increased volume once the band started playing I was straining to talk loud enough to have a conversation with anyone. Linds and I were the last to go and got back around 12:30am. I found Ben in the guest bed passed out with Kai sprawled across the bed next to him. He moved Kai to his cot and we passed out until Des woke up at 5:30am, when my amazing husband woke up with him and let Malakai and I sleep in til nearly 7am. That's when I woke up with a very hoarse voice.

{Des + Linds}

We had breakfast with Linds + Adam before packing up to head home. We stopped to stretch Malakai's legs and have some lunch on the way down. Kai slept the whole way and Des fell asleep about halfway down after a bit of a meltdown that we had to pull over for. I drove so that Ben could catch up on sleep as well.

{Bridgeport Village}

When we got back to town, there was a whole crew at our place to greet us because it was phase 2 of our lawn replacement. Ben's parents had gifted us with a new lawn for Christmas and the weekend before they had tilled up and raked out all the old grass to prepare for trenching, laying pipe for sprinklers, filling said trenches, calibrating sprinklers, evening out the land, spreading base mix, grass seed and the like and then waiting for it to all grow. My brother, his friend, Ben, his brother and their dad all worked from 2:30 (when we got back) til around 6pm that day.

Sunday I had a rare day off of work, but I was sick so I didn't really get to enjoy it. My voice was even worse- I could barely talk. Ben and his dad got started in on the lawn again that afternoon and into the evening while the boys and I hung out around the house.

Monday rolled around and I had arranged for Ben's mom to watch the boys so I could get some things done, including rest! Ben, his dad, and his brother were back at the yard for the whole day. I ran a few errands and took my time, but when I got home to nap I couldn't sleep. I did a few things around the house before picking up the boys and having lunch with them and their grandma. Even though I didn't get the rest I was hoping for it was still a nice break.

{trenching for new sprinklers}

Once the boys were down for nap I still couldn't sleep and was now coughing. After they woke up we played in the house and checked out the new sprinkler system a bit. Ben + I were both so exhausted (he was sick too!) that we ordered in for dinner and took it easy.

Yesterday we both went into the doctor. Ben seems to have another case of bronchitis and possibly asthma? I don't know if I agree with the doctor's theory, especially since her remedy was a $40+ inhaler. Oy! My diagnosis is viral laryngitis, the advice- wait it out. My voice is coming back a bit but my throat is painful and my cough is worse. I still sound like a frog man.

Today I went to work- I don't want to fall behind and honestly it's easier to be there while being sick than to be home with my 2 energetic boys. It's better for them to have some time with Mima who is healthy enough to keep up with them.

As for our yard, it's a lovely field of dirt and grass seed for now, but over the next few weeks we should be getting some lovely new grass sprouting up!

I'm super behind on my photo blog, but I have some catch up to do at home and at work before that gets updated. It'll get done soon though...I hope!

our long weekend + 20 weeks

We spent all day Saturday at my in-laws house. Ben's sister Kristi and her boyfriend Nick came down from Portland to hang out. They hadn't been here for 6 months so we were really looking forward to spending time with them. It was supposed to be all of the family, but with the holiday weekend, Ben's brother David couldn't get the day off. Hopefully we can get all of us together soon!

Kristi brought her dog Jordan, who Malakai adored. They totally wore each other out. Malakai loved it when Jordan licked him and chased him. Kai even tried licking him back (blech!). He even learned Jordan's name "dordan" and told him, unprompted, that he loved him. It was pretty sweet to watch them interact.

Kai also spent a lot of time playing with his grandparents and their mr. potato head toys. Malakai became enthralled with a pair of mr. potato head glasses and put them on...

What I love about this is that my sister Amanda (now 20) did the same thing as a child...

{aunt nans}

We had a fairly normal Sunday with church, Kai's nap, some yard work,  and hanging out at my parent's place with them + my siblings. Malakai had a lot of fun running around with G'Pa. 

Today we had planned to get a TON of yard work done. First we got ready to head to the local garden + hardware store, Jerry's. Before we headed out the door Kai rolled his ankle. He fussed for a minute but it looked fine and he walked on it. However, an little over an hour later after being in his car seat and a shopping cart I set him down here at home and he wouldn't put any weight on his right leg. I looked again and it looked slightly swollen, but this little mister has some cankles on him so it was hard to tell. 

I called our pediatrician's office and spoke to the nurse practitioner who sent us to urgent care. We took our time packing up knowing it would probably be a very long wait. There were only 8 or so people ahead of us but somehow it still took 2 hours for us to be called back. The appointment took about 15 minutes.Thankfully it's most likely just a sprain and we didn't do x-rays, I'm still not looking forward to the bill though! Now we have the challenge of keeping him off of it and trying to ice it. If it's not better within 3 days we have to go back in, but to our doctor's office. We are praying for quick healing!

Kai passed out on the way home, so Ben + I were able to get some yardwork done after all. Ben finished transplanting our japanese maple while I prepared my raised beds for some veggies. I'll post more about that with some before + after pictures later. I got as far as setting up a "trellis" for climbing sugar snap peas, planting the peas, and planting pumpkins + some squash. I still have carrots and some tomatoes to plant. I can't wait to harvest some fresh veggies from our backyard!

__ _______ __ _______ __ _______ __ _______ __

Today I am 20 weeks pregnant! Halfway through already, I can hardly believe it. I'm feeling pretty energetic most of the time, but my body is still fighting me. Although I was sick for the first 3 months of this pregnancy, I still enjoy being pregnant. Feeling my son move and watching my belly grow is such a joy. 

How far along? 20 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: 12 lbs. and still weighing less than this point in my 1st pregnancy. 

Stretch marks? no new ones.
Maternity Clothes: yep and a few larger sized pre-pregnancy clothes still. The benefits of keeping everything!

Sleep: awful. Friday night I woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep! This has been happening quite often and is SUPER annoying. 

Best moment this week: finding out that we're expecting another boy and seeing his sweet features. 

Movement: more and more each day. On Saturday he had moved more that I had felt in any one day previously.

Gender: BOY!

Labor Signs: nope.

Food Cravings: nope.

Belly Button in or out? getting flatter.

What I miss: flexibility. It's getting harder for me to bend over or get over our baby gate. 

What I am looking forward to: registering and turning the 3rd bedroom into a playroom.

Weekly Wisdom: start exercising early. I keep putting it off still!

Baby Brain Moment of the Week: Today at the store I frantically asked Ben where Kai's hat was, thinking it had fallen off in the store...it was in my hand. 


Be sure to come back tomorrow for my biggest giveaway yet!

Weekend wrap up: Memorial Day '10

At the end of 2009 I made a photo calendar for 2010. Each month had pictures of our year so that in 2010 we could remember what we were doing a year ago that month. It has been fun to see how pregnant I was last year and how big our sweet boy is this year.
For May I put pictures of us at my parents' place over Memorial Day weekend. These two to be exact

 My mom + dad's wedding anniversary is on May 21st so they usually go away for Memorial Day weekend and we stay at their house to hang out with my siblings and keep an eye on things. 

This year was much different with Malakai. The lazy days turned into crazy nights. I was actually a bit thankful that the sun didn't come out this year, I would have felt like such a bum taking naps during the day to make up for lost sleep.

On Sunday it did warm up a little so I went hunting through my mom's swim suits to throw something on and soak up some sun. Instead I found this...

I know, I can't believe I just posted that on the internet either. You're welcome? I put these on to make my husband laugh...and then I walked outside in them to embarrass my 19 year-old sister who was shooting hoops with her boyfriend. She was pretty much speechless. 

I wish I had a picture of the whole outfit my mom used to wear, but it involves an equally bright red dress with a ruffled skirt. Ohhh dear sweet 1980's. 

It's also a bit funny to me to see how I looked posing in front of the pool last year, compared to this year. 

{Yes, I added both of these pictures twice in one post.}

Aaaanyway, the rest of our time there we napped and watched movies and played with Malakai as he climbed + chewed on everything in sight.

How did you spend the long weekend?

3 days

This past weekend did NOT feel like it was 3 days long. It was over in the blink of an eye. I guess that's what happens when the baby won't sleep all night and starts acting like he's hitting the terrible twos 14 months early.

sigh.

I'll update more tomorrow. For now we are getting ready for our first houseguest- yay!

Memorial Day Weekend

Last weekend we had a three day weekend for Memorial Day. Ben and I house sat for my parents, they went away to the coast for their anniversary and we stayed with my siblings at their house.
I spent a lot of time out by their pool and tanned pretty quickly. On Monday I was outside from 11:30am to almost 4pm and got a sunburn! The worst part is that I burned my belly! It's healing now, but it's so itchy I can barely stand it. Thank goodness for mary kay's after sun gel...it's awesome stuff.
I'll be out by the pool again this weekend for a family get together...I need a maternity tankini to protect my belly, any recommendations?
Here's a picture of Ben and I by the pool and that 32 week belly of mine before the burn.


and here I am with my mom's maltese- Bella. She LOVES to sit by my belly.