23 weeks

Today marks 23 weeks. I am feeling great most days, there are times when i forget I am pregnant, until Iget a sharp jab. I have gained a total of 12 pounds so far ( as of my appt a coule weeks ago).  Just this week acid reflux has become my evening companion.
We are starting to come up with a plan of how to paint baby girls bedroom. I am super excited to actually be able to paint  her room and decorate her room the way I want ( now that I can). Having a house definetly has its benefits!

This is my picture at 23 weeks, not looking too big. I carry alot in my back. ( My uterus is tipped backward) which makes for alot of lower back pain and strain early on.

We can hardly believe that this pregnancy has gone so quickly and that I am more than half way through!

Christmas...

This year Christmas was a bit different for us. Moving in to a new house a week into the month, we had very few decorations up and not for very long before the holiday came. We have been soooo busy doing things with the house, that I didn't take much time to appreciate the holiday before hand. The actual day of Christmas and Christmas Eve were great. we spent alot of time with family. We spent Christmas Eve at Jessica's parents and Christmas day at Jeff's parents. We had an especially good time seeing Jeff's sister and her family who live in Ohio.
A few weeks before christmas we went toa  party where Abby had the chance to sit on Santas lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas. Her simple requests were a new blanket ( a pink one). and new markers. I heard those simple requests and thought we can definetly make that happen. I made a new blanket for her in record time ( 10 days) and we gathered the rest just a a few days before Christmas ( we are usually aolt more on top of purchasing gifts thatn we were this year.

Here are the few picture I got on Christmas morning.

New House..............

At the begining of December we closed on our first house!!! We promptly moved in on December 8th. It was a good thing we chose to move that Saturday because every Saturday since has been very snowy!  We have already done alot of work on the house. The insurance company wanted a small shed like structure ( it was probably a play house) that was unfinished removed ( we were planning to remove it anyway) and a few shingles were lifting. Jeff has been great to take care of these things. The house is older built in the 1960's or 1970's i can't remember now exactly which. It has quickly become a place we love to be. There are many more projects in the works.

Here are some pictures of the house. I dont have any of the outside yet, but will when the weather improves.

                                        Kitchen view from the back door

Kitchen view standing in the dining room

Utility / Laundry room, I absolutely LOVE having a normal( standard) size washer and dryer !!! the dryer is in the utility rooom and the washer is next to the stove/ range in the kitchen.

 

Dinnig room

Living room view from the kitchen

Living room

Living room view from the front door

                                           Baby Girls room ( a work in progress)

Bathroom

Abby's room

Our bedroom

It's A ...............

Today was the big day!!!! Everything seemed to lookgodd on the ultrasound, but i will go in for a normal dr appt on Monday and wil go over the results with the dr then.
Soooo when you have an anatomy ultrasound you have to drink 32 oz of water prior to the scan. And it should be finished( completly consumed) 45 min prior to the scan. I made the mistake of starting to drink it an hour before i needed to be finished, well you can only imagine how that turned out! Luckily I had Jeff with me and he was driving. I was able to make it until we were just a couple blocks from the dr office, and had to run into a wall mart panicking to find a bathroom. then still paniking I grabed a water bottle and we were off to the dr office. Thankfully my bladder fills up quickly and we were able to get al the pictures we needed!
A little sister is on the way, I was actually very relieved just because now our spending for this little one just became a bit less !!!

Family night at Temple Square...

This week we decided to have our family night on Tuesday. We stopped and had sandwiches at subway then headed downtown to see the lights at Temple Square.
Abby was more than thrilled to look at all the lights, and see all the great displays. She kept asking the entire time if we could go see Jesus. When we got to the visitors center we went inside to see the Christus. Abby has seen it before, but was pretty amazed to see it this time.
while we were sitting waiting for the short presentation to start she asked us if Jesus was going to give her a hug. It broke my heart to have to tell her that it was a statue and that it could not give hugs. But after ward we had the sister missionaries take a pictuer of us in front of it. That seemed to make her happy.

3rd Birthday

Abby had her third birthday over the weekend, what a fun day it was. we were able to have her party on her actual birthday for the first time, since it happened to fall on a Saturday.
We tried to make a big deal of it. We hung a bunch of ballons in her doorway ....

She was very suprised and a little worried about how to get out of her room at first, but then decided it was pretty neat.
We gave her a gift from mommy and daddy that morning...

An awesome princess castle! She has been playing with it pretty much non stop sonce then!  I forgot my camera for the actual party, but my mom got some really great pictures I wil have to post later.
We can't believe she is already 3 years old, how time flies.
Abby also had her 3 year check up with Dr. Vierra today. Abby weighs 30 pounds ( %45) and is 38 inches tall (%75), still tall and skinny. The dr also kept commenting on how smart she is! Thats our Girl!

First Snowfall......

A few weekends ago we had our first big snow fall of the year. Abby woke up and saw the snow, after that all we heard from her was "can we build a snow man?"  That aslo happened to be the Satruday that we were having the inspection done on the home we are planning to buy (YAY!!!!). So we headed over to grandma and Grandpa Poulters house , since they actually have a yard to build a snow man and we don't yet.

Abby had soo much fun getting dressed to play in the snow.....

 

 

On our short ride to Grandma and Grandpas she was telling us who was going to help her build a snowman. When we arrived she quickly rounded up Grandpa, daddy and uncle Brit. Off the went to play in the snow!

Halloween 2012

This halloween was lots of fun and a bit different than some of the past. I usually don't dress up but jeff usually goes all out with face makeup and such. I wore a fun halloween shirt and he did not dress up at all. Abby had wanted to be a scary witch and had a scary face all figured out. When it came time to look at costumes with her we decided against spending the money that a witch costume would cost. Soooo we made a quick trip to Savers and couldn't find a good witch costume in her size so she ended up with a Snow White dress instead.
Abby was sooo excited to go tirck- or- treating this year. She had been begging for the better part of a week prior " is it time to go Halloween- treating". Youcan imagine her excitement when we finally said yes it is time!

We also enjoyed carving the pumpkins that my dad grew. they sure were big this year!

 Super excited to show off her treats!

In action!

The story of a fish by abby.....

So this is not neccesarily happy story about a fish, but a couple weeks ago my parents were watching Abby while I was at work. she was helping grandpa winterize the fish pond and this is what she said happened.................

So the story is really this........... while winterizing the pond the water had to be mostly replaced. in order to do this my dad pumps the water out with a shopvac. Occasionally a fish or two or three gets sucked up also. in this case there were three. The good news is that two survived. Now the bad and pretty upseting( I was told Abby was pretty traumatized by the whole experience, but was ok with it in the end). The third fish was cut in half by the shopvac motor. Abby was pretty proud of herself for digging the hole in the garden to bury the fish.

14 Weeks...

I figured it was time for another picture update, since the last picture was from 10 weeks.

Don't mind the crazy hair, it had been a loooong day.

House hunting....

House hunting is a much more daunting task than I expected. We have been looking for just about a month which is really not that long I know. Our budget is very small and we have seen a bunch of really good homes. We have put in a few offers none of which were accepted. So we continue the search. We would ideally like to be settled into ahome before this new baby comes. Hopefully we can make that work. Here's to hoping for the best!!!!!!!!!!

Pumpkin patch...

This last weekend we went to a punmkin patch and for a ride up the canyon to see the changing leaves. The pumpkin patch was a bit soggy from the rain storm the day before, Abby still had a good time picking out a pumpkin that we will carve for the baby .My dad grew a bunch of pumpkins that we will carve but they are all really big ( none baby sized).

On our canyon drive we found a small stream, Abby loved throwing rocks into it, until it started raining. We had to drag her to the car to come home.

It was a bit of rock climbing to get to the stream so I chose to stay at the top and watch. There was no way I was going to try going down!

13 weeks.....

I will hit the 13 week mark officially tommorow. I went to my second dr appointment Monday, everything checked out great.My blood work came back great, i will be getting the lovely rogam shot again this time. I have gained 3 pounds so far( not too shabby) The baby's heart rate was a strong 164, Abby loved being able to hear it. After the appointment I asked her " what was the baby saying" to which she responded " it said I'm still in here" I thought that was sooo cute. She is always asking where the baby is, and is always kissing my belly. Abby has been soo funny about all this baby stuff. The other morning for example I was getting dressed for church and had closed the bedroom door, she came to the door and asked if the baby was coming out. ( she knows that it won't come out until spring time). When she gets really excited she wil tell us how good of a big sister she will be by helping to feed it with bottles, that she will change te diapers, and tuck it into bed. this picture was taken at about 10 weeks. I am already getting bigger much faster than with Abby. At this point I was already starting to wear materinty pants and quickly started wearing maternity tops. they are just sooooo much more comfortable. With abby I didn't start wearing materinty clothes until 5- 6 months.

Getting ready for colder weather...

Recently Abby and I have been trying to come up with "different" indoor activites that dont create a disasterous mess. I havent been brave enough to try out many of the ideas I have come across on pinterest. One day a couple weeks ago we decided to try out a playdough recipe, it actually turned out out great!!! We will definetly need to make it again soon.

The playdough turned out great and we colored it several different colors. Quickly after starting to play with it, Abby mixed it all together. I don't know why I put the extra effort into coloring it all. Oh well it entertained her for almost 2 full hours !

State Fair

Last month ( September) we went tot the state fair, a yearly tradition. Abby really enjoys seeing the animals and all the sights and sounds. One of her most favorite parts this year was the "little Hands on the Farm" ( I think that is what it is called).

Recently added to my Etsy shop

Here are some of the listings I have recently posted to my shop...... There are a variety of baby blankets, dish cloths, and hot pads!

SOOO check out my shop, Isimplycreate at etsy.com!