Christmas 2011

We've had a great Christmas in Utah.  We went to the Christmas concert at the conference center right when we got to Utah a couple weeks ago.  We went to This is the Place Heritage Park and rode a train and saw reindeer and froze our bums off.

 It was cold enough that Debbie had to bust out the linx fur coat. haha.

 Davis loved watching Noah, Yaya, Grandma and Grandpa dance in the old school house at the park.  It was pretty funny.  I wish I got a pic of Noah dancing.

 We had an early Christmas Eve dinner with Grant's family, then later met up while my family ate at Little America.

 Noah and Davis had a great time opening gifts and we will somehow have to "lose" the whistle that Santa brought Noah, because boy is it loud.

 Ray couldn't wait to get the post-Christmas bonfire going in the fire-pit with all of the wrapping and boxes. 

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Tomorrow we celebrate Davis' first birthday!

And if one more person tells me on this trip how big I am, I might punch them in the face.  Yes, I've been showing since like 7 weeks this time around.  It's pretty crazy.  I'm hoping the nausea lets up soon since I'm almost 12 weeks.  Here's to hoping.

Kellogg {northwestern} graduation

 



Make this

This is so delicious and is a perfect holiday cake.  It would even be a great breakfast cake.  I promise you won't be disappointed!

  

http://katesplateii.blogspot.com/2011/12/cranberry-streusel-cake.html

Phew

I went back for another ultrasound today.  Only one baby, thank heavens.  One baby with a strong heartbeat.  I'm still shocked there's even one in there!!

I flew to Utah last weekend for a quick trip.  At the airport I went to get a stroller tag for Davis' stroller and the gate agent said to me, "Oh, and you're pregnant, right?"  Um  hello... she totally caught me off guard.  Yes, I am poking already, but come on stranger, what if I weren't?!  Sheesh!  She then told me I could pre-board since I had a "temporary disability" and proceeded to take me to the front of the line and announced to everyone that I would be pre-boarding because I was pregnant.  My face turned beet red as people looked at Davis in the stroller, then at me.  Little did they know I had another one at home with dad.  Come on, people!  I'm not the Duggar lady with 20 kids and counting!  I feel like I have to explain my situation.  That or just move back to Utah.  ;)

Take Two

We happen to run into another Santa today and they were taking and giving away free pictures with no line, so of course we took advantage.  Davis clung to me with a death grip as I tried to hand him off to Santa.  Poor guy.  He's such a big and tough guy until he's placed in Santa's arms.  :)

He acted like I betrayed him or something handing him off to Santa.  Noah reminded Santa that he's still hoping for that race car track and whistle.

First off, Grant is DONE with school!!  Yay!  We couldn't be more excited.  Well, excited until the student loans start to hit us, then booo.  But anyway, he has worked so hard for the last two years to get his MBA from one of the top business schools around.  Congrats to my Northwestern Kellogg school of business graduate!!  Grant has gotten up at about 4 or 4:30 a.m. for the last two years.  He gets up, does homework, runs on the treadmill, then gets ready and goes to his actual job.  Many nights he would come home from work and just do more homework.  We are glad this phase is over and are hoping he will be able to get a better job closer to family.  My vote is for Utah or California, but I guess it will be where the right job is.  Congrats again to my hard working hubby!

Second, we had our ultrasound today.  We saw a tiny little flicker right away, so the heartbeat looked great.  Once I saw that, I said, "well, I'm glad to see there's only one in there." and the ultrasound tech said, " wait a minute, I'm not so sure about that yet.  I may have seen another, I have to check a few more things."  My heart started beating so fast and I thought I was going to start hyperventilating.  After she kept looking at what she thought may have been another fetal sack, she couldn't find a heartbeat or yolk sac, so was pretty sure it was a blood something or other (blood clot, I don't know).  Anyway, so they're pretty sure it's just one.  I told them to make sure and call me once the doctor looks at it next week if he thinks otherwise.  They kept reassuring me it was just one, but I just want that call.  :)  She had me scared way too badly!!!  That was my biggest fear about doing IVF again would be having multiples, now that we already have two busy boys.  And the risk is pretty darn high with IVF.  Anyway, I"m just glad it went well today and I think I am now fully believing this is really happening.  The nausea has set in a bit and I have been queasy at times, but manageable.  Right now I'm 6.5 weeks, still really early, due July 15th.

Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm cooking my first turkey tomorrow... wish me luck!

O.M.G.

This is going to be long.  Oh.my.gosh.  I cannot even believe I'm typing this post.... Where do I even start?  How do I even say it?  Because it still seems surreal.  I'm pregnant.  There.  Eight and a half years Grant and I have been married.  I was on birth control the first year of our marriage, and have not been since then.  Five IVF's later, we have two miracle babies.  Well, baby number three will now be our third miracle baby because somehow we managed to get pregnant on our own.  And no, we weren't trying, but weren't preventing either, because why would we, right?  I didn't think we could get pregnant on our own.  We never were diagnosed with a reason as to why we couldn't get pregnant, but I figured by this point if we were going to have any more kids, IVF would be the route again.  And we still have four frozen embryos.

Last Thursday I had to run to the post office, which is right next to the dollar store.  I told Noah I'd take him in and let him pick a toy.  Aren't I so nice?  :)  Well, I happen to be late on my period, and as I passed the aisle of $1 pregnancy tests, I figured why not take one to ease my mind?  I just knew it would look like every other test I've taken in the past.  One line.  And I wouldn't have thought twice about it.  Until I took that test at home, and the second line started to appear.  What the?!  This has never happened to me.  I showed Grant what I bought at the dollar store.  He didn't believe it either, so of course we went straight to Target and paid for a $15 pack of three.  Sure enough, double lines, right away.

I called my doc Friday morning and asked if I could come in for a blood test because I wouldn't believe anything until they could confirm it.  Sure enough, they called with the results today.  Positive, and my hcg and progesterone levels look great.  Shock.  I'm in total shock.  I told my nurse when I was there that when I did IVF in the past, they would do an ultrasound really early to make sure there's a heartbeat and that everything looked good.  Apparently the risk of miscarrying is really low if they're able to see a healthy heart beat.  So, I go back on Wednesday to do another blood test to make sure my hcg level is still rising, and if so, she said they would do an ultrasound next week.  I still feel like I won't fully believe it until I see a heart beat.

One crazy thing about all this is I just did a half marathon.  Pregnant.  I would have been pregnant when I did that run with Grant recently.  And I've been planning in my mind when I would be doing my next full marathon again, but that won't be happening!  I'm glad I got that one out of the way last month....right before I got pregnant...

I'm trying to figure out if I'm excited or what.  Grant is thrilled.  I'm excited we don't have to do IVF anytime soon, even though I wasn't planning on doing it any time in the near future... But when I went in for my blood test last Friday, I felt like I was just there having a prenatal visit for baby Davis.  He will be 19 months.  Thank heavens he is the easiest, sweetest baby.  And thank heavens Grant is done with school this weekend!  This will be his graduation present from me.  haha.  And my car... I can't fit three car seats across the back.  I don't want a mini van!  Oh man.  For those of you with three, what do you drive?

Anyway, so there's that crazy news.  It is still really early, but there you have it.  Total shocker.  I'll report back after the u/s.  But until then, Happy early Thanksgiving.  Right now I need to give some major thanks!  :)

It's beginning to look a lot...

Yesterday was the big tree lighting day at Macy's downtown.  We missed the Bill and Guilianna appearance, but made it later that evening.  It was so nice and not crowded at all .  It was also the first day unveiling the Christmas window displays, and the first day Santa arrived.  I like going right when they do this because it gets me in the spirit nice and early, and there's never a wait to see Santa!

 Davis did not like Santa, and although Noah was so excited to see him, I think he was a little unsure as well.  He made sure to tell him he's been a good boy and that he's hoping for a race track for his cars and a whistle for Christmas.  Yeah, a whistle.

 The Walnut Room is on the 7th floor with the big Christmas tree, and this is where we had dinner last Christmas Eve, only a few days before having Davis.  Which, I can't believe he'll be one soon!

And here in the Cellar Noah wrote Santa a note, reminding him what he told him he wanted for Christmas, and reminding him we'll be in UT.  :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, now!

Halloween has come and gone.  Here are some shots of our cute little cowboy, penguin, and yours truly, Justin Bieber (it was a last minute idea, otherwise I could have done a better job with the right shade of purple and the hair).  :)

 Halloween night we went to a very crowded park where Mr. Singer was performing and Noah was lucky enough to get called up to the mic to sing along for a song.  He was in heaven.  No penguin that night for Davis... he would have been too cold, so we bundled him in the ergo carrier and he had a grand ol' time staring at everyone else in costume.

Grant ended up running the Halloween 1/2 marathon with me and he did great.  Although it started out freezing, we stripped off our jackets about 5 minutes into the run and it was so nice.  It was fun seeing all of the costumes people dressed up in.  I can't believe what some of the people ran in for 13 miles though....props and all.

Now let's get right on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

30.

Yesterday was the big 30 for me.  As I was entering my info on the treadmill this morning at the gym, weight and age, it felt weird putting in the numbers 3-0.  But here I am!  I will embrace my 30's.  Although today I literally caught myself holding back a piece of paper as I tried to make out the words and get them into focus. What the?!  30 equals bad eyes now, or what?

Grant and a dear friend of mine, Debra, threw a fun surprise party for me the other night at a great pizza place.  I was shocked when I went up the stairs to see lots of our friends!  We had the top floor to the restaurant all to ourselves and the kids were able to run free.  It was nice not having to corral them in and worry about them sitting in their chairs and being quiet.  It was the perfect place and lots of fun.  They spoiled us with Pinkberry, Molly's cupcakes, and Scooter's custard cakes!  Holy cow, they really went all out.

I'm so sad I didn't get more pictures, but I'm glad I even had my camera in my purse!  Here's a shot of just the ladies.  Thanks again to those that came out and to Grant and Debra for pulling of a great birthday party I will never forget!

My car was broken into about a month ago and my sunglasses were stolen.  Grant was nice enough to replace my Ray-Bans for my bday present.  Yay!  Now my sensitive eyes can see while I drive again.

Here's to the dirty 30!

Howdy pardner

Noah's preschool class had their Halloween party yesterday since they don't have school on Fridays and no school next week.  He was the cutest cowboy around and loved showing off his guitar.  He's excited for Halloween to come so he can dress up some more!

fun weekend

A friend recommended the cutest place for us to check out, and it happen to be on groupon recently, so we snagged a spot and checked out "Make a Messterpiece" in the suburbs today.  It was such a neat place and Noah had a ball.  We stayed for a good couple hours while Noah went to town doing arts and crafts and they even had a few classes for him to enjoy.

 His favorite part was he got to go in this enclosed room and drum like a guy in the Blue Man Group while water splashed all over them while drumming.  Noah has really been into drumming lately with some chopsticks he's been saving from Pei Wei.... unused of course.  He is now thinking he's going to ask Santa for a drum set this year.  Ha.  We'll see about that one little buddy.

 While we were in the burbs we hit this cute mall with a fun outdoor play area to wear these guys out a little more.  Needless to say they both were pooped and went to bed as soon as we walked through the door.

 Noah was half laughing, half crying here... he was so tired by this point in the day.

Cheers to the freakin weekend!  

does anyone else like that song by Rhianna?  noah especially loves singing the yayayaya part.  :)

Smells like home

If you want to bring fall to your home, buy this.  Or the wall flower plug in, spray, etc... anything in this scent.  Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin is my absolute favorite fall scent.

"Spiced Cider" and "Autumn" are my close runner ups.
I am obsessed with Bath & Body Works fall and winter collections.  Bring on the holidays, baby!

(but once they're over, please bring warmer weather asap!)

How it went down

I woke up yesterday morning thinking that I was sick and wouldn't have to run the race afterall (darn), then I realized that was just in my dream.  Ugh.  I still have to go through with it.  Literally as I was about to walk out the door to leave, I start my period.  Double ugh.  I get terrible cramps.  At least I knew before starting the race and I could plan ahead.  I took a leftover ibuprofen 800 from when I had Davis and was on my way to the train to downtown.  I could not believe how crowded the train was at 6 a.m.!

When I got downtown, I kind of started to freak out.  What the heck was I thinking?!  It looked to me like I was the only person there without a running buddy and would be doing this alone.  Panic.  Then I kept seeing old people, etc, and I kept thinking, okay, if they can do this, I for sure can do this!!

 The gunshot went off at 7:30 and it took me 30 min. to get through the starting line.  It was crazy how many people were there running this.  45,000!

 I honestly went into this thinking I would not finish the whole run.  But at about mile 15.5 I turned off my ipod and called Grant to tell him I got this, meet me at the finish line... this is cake.... I haven't even had to walk yet, blah blah blah.  Then at about mile 17 my crazy cramps started to kick in.  I was in a lot of pain, so I had to walk for a couple minutes.  After that, I was good to go again.  Again, thinking, I got this.

Around mile 20.5 I started to understand why people  say the last 6 is a killer.  My feet and knees all of a sudden were killing me!!  I had to walk a minute at mile 21.  Mile 24 I thought I was going to die and had to walk a little bit again.  Each step hurt, and downtown (where the finish was) still looked so far away!!  But there was no way I could give in after going this far!

Once I finally crossed the finish line, I couldn't talk.  I still had to walk a little ways off of the course to find Grant.  I literally had tears in my eyes as my feet and knees were so sore and I almost lost it when I found them.  Thank the high heavens this dang thing is over!

 

It was a great weather day, almost a little too warm though for a long run like that, but luckily they had water spraying us all throughout the course.  My gps watch said I went 27.15 miles, and I think it's from me running from side to side of the streets getting shade on one side, then off to the other side to get sprayed.  I was weaving the whole way.

I think anyone can do a marathon.  Really, you should have seen some of the people running and walking.  And thank you to the crowds of Chicago for getting me through it!  The spectators really helped keep me going and motivated.  I loved reading the signs as I jogged along.  Some of my favorites:

"Don't poop your pants!"

"This is worse than labor - what were you thinking?!"

"Your toenails will miss you"

"Chafe now, brag latter"

"Don't quit now, we're all watching you!"

Yesterday I was really sore.  The hot bath I took right when I got home helped a lot.  I'm not nearly as bad today, but my knees are still sore and it hurts to go down stairs!  We'll see if I decide to do another one.  Maybe next time I'll sign up for it more than 5 days in advance and do a bit of training!

People that say, "i'm not a runner, blah blah blah" are for the birds.  No one is just a natural runner.  It may take a while to get into a groove and feel like you can go farther than a mile, but everyone can become a runner.  It just takes work and motivation.  So sign up for a 5k, 10k, 1/2 marathon, whatever.  Something to motivate you.  I dare you.  :)