One of the busiest weeks of the year

This week of June is always busy & a lot of fun... Why? Because we get to celebrate Anthon's birthday, our wedding anniversary, & Father's Day all within one week!

Anthon's birthday was Tues, the 14th. He & Roman came back from Rocky Point that afternoon & so we had my family (since Anthon's family were all still in Mexico) over for pizza, cake, & ice cream
The party was a lot of fun! Roman's been getting into Spiderman lately, so here my brother Peter is helping him be Spiderman by walking on the ceiling :) Another exciting thing we got to do this week was take little Sterling to a urologist. He was born with a condition called hypospadias- basically his little urethra formed in the wrong spot. He has a pretty mild case of it, so he can pee fine and everything now but potty training will be a challenge if it doesn't get fixed. 1 in 300 baby boys are born with some form of the condition, so it's fairly common, surprisingly. We just have to wait for him to get a little bigger before they can do the surgery (they'll do it somewhere around 6 months to a year). It was nice to meet/ talk with the Dr. who will do the surgery- I'm confident he'll take good care of our baby.
BTW, I think Target diapers are the cutest!

Yesterday, we went to the Sea Life Aquarium at Arizona Mills Mall. My sister Gwen, brother Peter, & their kids all met us there & we all had a really good time!

They have all kinds of animals & really cool exhibits! They have touch tanks with star fish, hermit crabs, & other nice animals you can "pet". Then they have tanks with the big, really cool animals.

These crabs were probably my favorite- so gross, but really cool!

Here you can see how big they are in comparison... Like as big as Roman's head! Can you imagine running into one of those in the ocean?! SICK!

A lot of the tanks had these fun interactive window/ bubble things you could go into & it was like you were inside the tank with the fish... very cool for the kids!

Today is mine & Anthon's 6th wedding anniversary!! Where has the time gone??

To celebrate, we're gonna go out to dinner- maybe a movie or some shopping too. I don't know, we haven't planned it all out yet, but I'm just excitd to leave the kids at home & go out on a date with him!! Being married has been the most challenging, rewarding, exciting, frustrating, wonderful decision for me! Anthon is the best partner/ friend I could ask for... actually, he's better than anything I could've asked for! I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to be seald- Being married 60 years wouldn't be enough for me!!!

Memorial Day...

We decided Saturday evening to head to Show Low for the long weekend, & I'm so glad we did! It was SO nice to be home & out of the heat! Anthon's dad is the branch president of the Cibecue Branch (a little reservation town) & one of the members out there made him the little bed/carrier Sterling's in, so he wanted to get a picture.Monday, Memorial Day, we went to Anthon's great grandparents cabin and family cemetery to plant flowers & have a picnic.
the weather was PERFECT! 70º & no wind!
Roman loved helping his daddy & Grandpa plant the flowers

And playing baseball with his cousins & Uncle Jason!
Sterling enjoyed soaking up some sun

Anthon bought a new toy Saturday before we came up- it's a remote control helicopter.
He spent most of the trip playing with it...
I still love him though :)

Another week's gone by...

Roman's been having some fun this week... playing with cousins, going to the park, and constantly getting into things he shouldn't in his bathroom! Yep, a whole roll of dental floss, tangled around his little hand. Oh, I love this boy, but this little stint (and unrolling a whole roll of toilet paper into the toilet then flushing it) earned him a child lock on his bathroom door nob!
Sterling is starting to look more like Roman to me :)

I decided to bust out the camera today & try to take some fun pictures of him... Here are a few: He weighed 8lbs 8oz this week
I Love this little hat! I thought this shot showed his actual size pretty well... Kinda fun to "add" him to our family wall of pictures, in a way!

What we've been up to these past 2 weeks...

A whole lotta nothin' but enjoying this little man!

Sterling is such a chill, easy going baby. He hardly makes a peep, much less cries, and is just as content as can be. He does look like he's concerned about something a lot of the time, so maybe he's just trying to take it all in.
We have gone on a lot of walks to a playground that's close by. Poor Roman & I are getting sick of being home 24/7, so walks are a nice way to avoid catching cabin fever!

Sleep... a lot! Nap time is oh so glorious! Not only is it my one & only break for the day, but it's the perfect time to capture these candid, heart warming, moments!

Baths- Oh I love the smell of a new baby! Sterling's hair gets greasy very fast, so I look forward to bath days when we get to give him a good scrubbin' and then spend the rest of the day cuddling & sniffing his freshly cleaned head of hair!

That pretty much sums up our activities for the past 2 weeks at our house... & probably many more weeks to come. Just living the day-to-day life, and enjoying watching these two boys grow!

Sterling Anthon Perkins

Our baby is a week old today, so I figured it's about time I posted about his birth. This delivery was SO much easier on me than Roman's was! With the exception on one MISERABLE hour (after they broke my water, before I got the epidural) labor was a cinch. I was induced Thursday, May 5th, @ 10pm and Sterling was born just a short time later- May 6, 2011 @ 1:33pmHe's itty-bitty (compared to what Roman was at birth)! He weighed 7lbs 3oz & was 21 inches long. He's a super chill baby & just darling!

Here we all are meeting each other for the first time... I was a little worried about how Roman would respond to him, but it's all been positive! When Roman 1st came into my hospital room & I showed him Sterling, his face literally LIT UP and he exclaimed, "It's my baby!"
We're not sure who Sterling resembles yet- some people say he looks just like Anthon, some say they can see Roman in him, and some say he just looks like a little old man... maybe we should've named him Benjamin Button :)
One thing's for sure, he got my family's cursed finger toes! Look at the length of those babies! He did have to spend one day in the ICU under the bili lights because he was jaundiced, but that was ok. Remember, we thought he had Trisomy 18 for the first few months I was pregnant & thought he wasn't going to live, so we're thankful any little hiccup he has to go through in this life & that we get to have him as our son!!

Just a heads up: Most of the captions below have nothing to do with the pictures :) The pictures are from our last day at the hospital/ 1st day home.

We got to come home the afternoon of Mother's Day, May 8th, which was really special! I'm not gonna lie, life with two kids is harder than I thought it would be, but thankfully we're all adjusting to the changes & enjoying the time together.

This little man had his days & nights mixed up for the first few nights we were home, but we've nipped that in the bud & aren't so sleep deprived now.

I was a weepy mess for the first few days we were home, too. The smallest thing would open the water works and they just wouldn't shut! I don't know how husbands deal with their emotional, postpartum wives... it's so pathetic and ridiculous sometimes, but I'm thankful Anthon's understanding of my irrational emotions!

Seeing our 2 boys interact together is probably the greatest joy I've felt in my life, thus far. Roman is always asking to hold Sterling and loves to help me bathe him, change his diaper, or anything I'm doing with the baby. It's really nice that he likes to help me, and helps put my conscience at ease because he's included in almost all of the things we do for the new baby.

I took some pictures to use for Sterling's birth announcements yesterday; here's one that didn't make the final cut, but that I still love, so I figured I share it on here... enjoy :)

The end is in sight!

This picture pretty much sums up how I'm feeling these days... Tired, swollen, & just plain OVER pregnancy! Ever since last weekend, my poor feet & legs have been like elephant feet everyday... SO swollen! I didn't have hardly any swelling with Roman, & I didn't realize just how miserable this common "side effect" of pregnancy can be!
The good news is there's light at the end of the tunnel! I saw my Dr. today & I'm 70% effaced & dilated to 2cm... that's exciting,but not as exciting as my scheduled induction!! I'm going in next Thursday at 10pm to be induced, so hopefully our little man will grace us with his presence sometime on Friday, May 6th! Ah, only 7 more days- I can hardly wait! I can't wait for this bump to be GONE (well, smaller at least... I'm not delusional enough to think that the pudge will EVER go away)!
Just for kicks & giggles... here's what I looked like 7 days before I had Roman... YIKES!

My Boys

I realized my blog as been pretty selfish lately- mostly about me & the pregnancy, so I wanted to do a post about the 2 main men in my life (before I add the 3rd in a couple weeks and the blog is totally all about him again). Anthon: He is super busy these days!! Work gets increasingly busier as the weather gets warmer, but he enjoys his job so it's a good thing. I don't know how he works outside in the heat, but I'm thankful for how hard he works to support our family- he provides like 98% of our income... the only thing I work for is insurance, since my take-home is practically nothing after taxes, insurance, & retirement are taken out! Anthon did get an insulin pump on April 8th- WOOHOO!! It's been wonderful, but a definite adjustment for him at the same time. He says it makes him really "feel like a diabetic" since it's attached to him 24/7, whereas before he'd just take his shot & then once that was over he was just like everyone else. His nurse (who's really great, by the way!) has had to change his dosages several times to try & get his sugars where they need to be. For the first day or 2, he was running low and then after they adjusted his dosages he was running high, but he seems to be more stable now and he's getting more & more comfortable with it as time moves on. This semester i drawing to a close & I think he's looking forward to the little break that he'll have from school before his summer class start. He's been working really hard this semester & I know his fall classes are going to be really time consuming too, so hopefully the one math he takes this summer won't be too stressful for him. I seriously can't imagine my life without Anthon...It would literally be HORRIBLE! He helps me so much!

Roman: Oh how I love this kid! He has been so fun to be around lately! His new thing to do is bring us something that he likes (like a toy or book or snack) & as he hands it to us he sings, "Apy birday, to you!" He has been extra independent lately too- he likes to push his bench from the dining room table everywhere in the kitchen & use it to climb up to any cupboard he thinks he needs to get into. Thankfully, he likes to clean up his messes, too :) & sings the song from nursery "Cean up, cean up, erybody share." Of course, some of the things he does are far from cute- like when he put a Capri Sun in the microwave & turned it on till it was sparking everywhere! Or when he got a hold of my mascara and painted his toe nails and my bathroom floor with it! Thankfully nothing has been permanently damaged... yet. He LOVES basketball (or "shoot it" as he calls it) and baseball (or "I hit it") right now... wrestling is not at the top of the priority list for him, much to Anthon's dismay, but he does oblige his dad in a take down or two. The phrases we hear him saying most often are, "What you doing?", "Where it go?!", "Oh, no! What append?!?", "Wuv you! See you later.", & "I want ki ceam cone." (ice cream cone). He can count to 10 now and likes to count his toys or food. We took him to see a movie in theater for the first time last night- We saw "Rio" and he really enjoyed it. He's also excited for the baby... well, I'm not sure how much he comprehends about a baby coming to live with us, but he likes to touch, see, & kiss my belly. I took him to my 37 week check up & my Dr. was so GREAT with him! She pulled up a chair next to the table for him to stand on and let him help her measure my belly and she let him use the Doppler to hear the heart beat (squeeze the goo out, hold the little microphone, move it around, everything). It was really fun for him to be included!! I'm excited to see him in his new role as a brother!

Well, I think that about catches you up to speed with these 2... they're darling, I love them, and I'm so thankful that they are mine!

I've always hated the waiting game...

I have 4 weeks left in this pregnancy, and the "waiting game" for this little boy to arrive has officially begun. I saw my Dr. this morning & she said that everything is looking good... I gained 5lbs in the last 2 weeks (HOLY CRAP!!) so that puts me @ 20lbs total. Ick. I'm over being pregnant & all that it entails. I got heartburn for the first time last week & have had it pretty much every night since then- I could've gone my whole life without experiencing heartburn & been ok with it! The good news is that my Dr. said if I make it 3 more weeks without having him she would induce me if I wanted her to. I was induced with Roman, so I know how truly horrible inductions can be, but I'm due the week of Anthon's finals & can only imagine how horrible it would be if I was ready to deliver at the same time he needed to be at school for a final! So, I'm thinking I'll take her up on her offer & shorten my sentence one week, if nature doesn't take its course before then.

Little of This & A Little of That.... or a lot

So, I know I posted back at the beginning of the year about us redecorating our living room, but I never posted pictures, so I figured I'd do that now...

This is our old entertainment center. We just busted out the middle section that was a TV cabinet to accommodate Anthon's TV, added the 2 shelves at the top, and painted it brown (it use to be black)

The magnet board on the left was my inspiration for the colors of the room. I liked the brown, but wanted just one of the accent colors- since our kitchen is mostly green & I'm not wild about orange, we went with the turquoise. All of the turquoise decorations were things we already had (like the LOVE sign, picture frames, & toy buckets) we just painted them. Same here... just painted the wall decor we already had. I found the throw pillows at Goodwill for $2.50 each & they match perfectly! The mirror by the door use to be red & black, & was probably the biggest pain in the butt to give a "face lift" to, but I'm happy with how it turned out. This is "my little area". I wanted a rocker recliner to nurse the baby in (since I hated the glider rocking chair I had for Roman) & found this beauty on Craigslist for $50. Then I decided I wanted a little table that I could store nursing things in & this table came with some bedroom furniture we bought off of my friend. Since there was only one of them I opted to use it for my "nursing table". I was really nervous once I saw it completely turquoise- like I was with everything else I painted!! Bold makes me nervous... I'm more subtle :)- but once I got in inside & saw it among everything else I was pleased with the outcome. So, that's our living room now. It's been the easiest, cheapest room re-do I've ever done & that makes Anthon happy, so I guess it's safe to say we're both happy with the new look :)

Onto me & the growing gut! I'm 34 weeks now & feel like I'm as big as I was full term with Roman. I haven't gained more weight with this pregnancy than I did with Roman- in fact I'm at about the same (I've gained 15 lbs with this baby & with Roman, I had gained 16lbs when I was 33 weeks), but I started off this pregnancy bigger so I'm sure that's why I'm feeling like such a beast! I did discover my 1st stretch mark on my belly about 2 weeks ago... that was pleasant. But seriously, why should I care?! It's part of the process, I'm never going to have a bikini body again, & even if I ever do it's not like I'm gonna prance around in a skimpy bathing suit in front of my kids... I'm trying to think of it as Heavenly Father's way of reminding me of how blessed I was to become pregnant, and ensuring that I stay modest :). I went to the Dr. this morning & it's funny how this pregnancy is so similar to Roman's... The baby is measuring ahead still, but now my uterus is measuring a week behind. They said if I'm measuring smaller at my next appointment they'd do an ultrasound to check the fluid levels (which is exactly what they did with Roman). I feel a lot more impatient with this pregnancy though... it feels like my last 6 weeks will never be over!