The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I realized today that I'd never posted about our Christmas, so I figured I'd go ahead & play a little catch up...

We spent Christmas with my family this year & it was really nice! We slept at my mom's house Christmas eve and most the the day Christmas. We always do the traditional Christmas jammies on Christmas eve, so here we are:
I found a STEAL of a deal on a big screen TV for Anthon this year and was amazed that he didn't find out about it/ figure it out before Christmas! I love when surprises turn out! I wrapped the remote by itself & had the TV hidden in my mom's room. He didn't quite understand what the remote meant when he opened it. He told me after that he thought I'd gotten us cable or satellite.

His initial reaction once he saw it... "HOLY....!"

Needless to say, he was surprised & likes it :)

My brother Peter drew my name this year... I LOVE him! This card made me laugh SO hard! Fat, Loser, Fag, Dork, and several other derogatory terms are all pet names my brother & I use for each other, so even though the card may seem really mean, it's not!
Here are all the little cousins together Christmas afternoon (minus Lincoln who was asleep).L-R: Avery, Sydney, Ellie, Drew, & Roman. Even though they don't look very thrilled it this shot, they all love each other! It's so cute to watch them all play!
My handsome guys in their Christmas ties the following Sunday. I love dressing them up & I love that they let me... without any complaining!
I got the flu Christmas night, and was useless for the next 2 days. I came down with the bug not even 24 hours before this was taken, so judge sparingly :) Other than that, our Christmas was wonderful! Anthon & I had the whole next week off work, so we got to redo our living room (with his new TV & my new couch, some changes had to be made). It was GREAT to be together that whole time and de-junk/ beautify our house! Life's pretty much back to normal now, but it was wonderful to spend time with our family & each other!

A Little Random Update...

Just thought I'd do a little post about the other things that have been going on besides the pregnancy & baby. This month has been SUPER busy, but a lot of fun! I love this time of year when our magnet board is filled with greetings from our friends & family- Just thought I'd through this picture in :)

In addition to me working DOUBLE the hours I normally do,we also had both our family Christmas parties last weekend, and both were a lot of fun! But I'm a dork & didn't take one picture at Anthon's family party (& probably the only reason I got this shot at my family party was my sister kept on me about bringing all my camera stuff to get it)!

Mind you, this isn't even half of my siblings & their families... there's a LOT more that we missed!

The thing I'm probably most excited about (& the most recent) is, through some wheeling & dealing- my specialty you know ;), we were able to score a new couch with ZERO $$ out of pocket! We even had $50 from our profit left over that hopefully I can buy some fabric to make curtains with :)!

Anyway, my brother, Peter, came over the other night to help Anthon put the couch together & here are the kids having a hay day in one of the boxes. My sister-in-law & I were seriously tempted to return the toys we'd bought the kids for Christmas and just wrap up these enormous boxes... they seriously loved them!

& here's the finished project... aw I love it! Anthon says it's my Christmas present & that's fine by me :). Now if he'll only let us sit on it... he's so OCD about new things getting dirty or ruined that he almost doesn't want to use them. Haha, love him!

Ok, that's it. Like I said, little random update. We're heading over to my mom's tonight to have a slumber party & celebrate/ reflect on the birth of our Savior. Hope all of you have a beautiful Christmas!!

Half way!

I'm half way done with this pregnancy! Other than feeling like a TANK, I'm good- have plenty of energy and haven't been sick at all. It hasn't all been smooth sailing though... we had a worrisome last month or 2 because, at my 1st trimester screen, they told us the baby might have Trisomy 18 (a fatal birth defect). I had a level 2 ultrasound today to make sure he was ok... well he looked beautiful! All his organs/parts looked the way they should and he's growing perfectly (actually he measured 20weeks 4days today & I'm 19weeks 6 days- almost a week ahead). The only abnormality was 2 little spots of calcified muscle on his heart- like grains of sand in the muscle. The condition (which has a really long, technical name that I don't want to type) can be a sign of Trisomy 18 or Trisomy 13, but my Dr. said if he had either syndrome they would have found other abnormalities. It doesn't effect the development or function of his heart and there are lots of babies born with the condition that are completely healthy. They did another blood draw just to be safe, but we feel very peaceful about the whole situation- and SOO thankful!! Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and love... we've felt so blessed! Anyway, here are some pictures we got of him today :)

I LOVE his little legs & butt!

We got to see a little bit of his face :)

LOVE these boys!!

Thanksgiving

We went to Show Low this year to spend Thanksgiving with Anthon's family & woke up to THIS:

Snow!
Roman had a blast playing in it & helping Uncle Jason get wood for the fire!

We tried to take family pictures, too.

I'm not a professional by any means, but what we got will work for our Christmas cards.

& I took some of everyone else too.

Shauna & Garet

Aren't they cute?!

Shannon's kids: Landen,

Sydney,

& Josiah
(Shannon, I'm still working on editing your family shots-sorry!)

The whole family!

It was SO nice to spend time with everyone & enjoy the cold for a change!

Too Girly??

So, a lady was giving this car seat cover away for free on Craig's List, & it just happened to be a cover that would fit my car seat... & I LOVE zebra print! So, I picked it up!

Plus, This is the cover I was planning on using for the new baby, so I was excited that they would match (not that that's important, but it's fun)
Sooo... too girly for 2 boys??
I hope not, because I pretty much love them!

A Day at the Park!

Always teasing...

If you know Anthon, you know he's a tease...

& if you know Roman, you know he's a sweet heart!

To answer some of your questions...

We started trying for baby #2 last November, I started going to a new fertility specialist in February, and we had some "trial & error" for about 6 months. Then, he prescribed me Clomid, and bam! First cycle, I was pregnant! We found out on September 1st, but decided to wait til the 2nd trimester to share the news because my progesterone levels were low, & you know... it's what we do. My due date is May 12.

I had an ultrasound last week & the tech said she could give me her best guess as to the gender since the baby has a gender "prominence" at this stage (Girl prominence points down, boy prominence points up). Her best guess was... BOY! We'll double check when I go back in for my 18 week ultrasound, but for now we're planning on adding another mini-Anthon to our brood!

In case you can't tell what's what in the 1st ultrasound picture, I labeled this one for you :)

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...