The Bump!

I've been meaning to post this "baby bump" photo for awhile now...it was taken Dec. 8th, so its not really recent anymore, but its pretty much the only one I've taken so far! I was just short of 21 weeks at the time and I'm now 23 1/2 weeks (a bit over 5 months along). This little boy is just a-growing and I'm feeling a lot more nudges and kicks now! Except for a bladder that's a bit cramped, I'm feeling great and full of energy, and am really loving the second trimester right now. It really does seem that this pregnancy is passing by quickly. For that reason I am already dreading the last couple of months, probably because this time I know what to expect! I'm really hoping my poor feet don't swell up into giant sausages this time around!

2,557 Days

That's 7 years of marriage! One week ago, on December 8th, Ryan and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. It really is amazing to me how that much time has passed...in one way, it seems there's no way its been that long already and that the time has just flown, but in another way, it feels like its been much longer than that! It blows me away to think that in just a few short years we will have been married for a decade!

Our anniversary was on a Monday, but Ryan took a half day off of work and my mom stayed with Thomas so Ryan and I could go on a much-needed date! Amazingly enough, we spent some of our time going shopping...quite unusual for Ryan, as he usually avoids shopping like the plague! But we both had a good time...first we went to a discount art gallery where we bought a beautiful painting for our great room, then we went to Michael's to get some Christmas decor. Amazing as it is that my husband was willing to go to a craft store, we've both just been really excited about decorating for this first Christmas in our new home!

After shopping we went to dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant, the Macaroni Grill. It was a real treat to go to that specific restaurant, because we never do anymore...it feels a little more fancy to me than a lot of other restaurants, and I can't ever bring myself to take Thomas there. Even though we sometimes do go to sit-down restaurants with him along, he's not exactly a little gentleman while we're there, as I'm sure you other toddler mom's can relate! So it was wonderful to go to one of our favorite places and enjoy the food and atmosphere, just the two of us.

After thoroughly stuffing ourselves we went to see the movie "Australia," and we both absolutely loved it. Its a fabulous, sweeping epic, and I thought it was the perfect date movie...it has both action and romance, and the historical elements of the movie were extremely interesting. I highly recommend it!

It was a wonderful day spent celebrating and remembering the day our life together started. Thank you Ryan, for loving me and putting up with me all these years! Here's to 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 (and so on...) more! I love you!

A Pink or Blue Bundle of Joy?

The verdict is in, its a BABY BOY!!!

Little Mister was not shy at all during his ultrasound yesterday! The technician was only a minute or so into the ultrasound...I don't think she was even looking for the gender yet...and she suddenly said "Oh - did you see that?" And immediately I knew she meant it was a boy! Ryan and I both kinda thought deep-down it was going to be a boy, and we are very excited! Everything else on the ultrasound looked good too, which is wonderful to know.

We are so excited to be the parents of two little boys! We have absolutely loved having a boy the first time around, and having two will be wonderful and lots of fun (though I'm sure, exhausting at times!)! I'm so excited about Tommy having a little brother to pal around with, and I love thinking about Ryan with his two little guys...rough-housing, doing all the boy stuff, riding dirtbikes together in the far-off future, stuff like that. Even though I said I was hoping for a girl, I'm very happy I get to be the mommy of another sweet little boy! Awhile back, shortly after Thomas was born, I used to say I wanted to have two boys in a row first (that's how it is in both my family and Ryan's). It will be great having two big brothers in the family to take care of all their siblings, like scaring off their future sister's boyfriends...haha! =)

My mom watched Thomas during the appointment, and when we saw him afterward and told him he was going to have a baby brother, his first response was a loud "NO!" which made us laugh. But, I still don't know if he completely grasps the concept. Even though I'm sure it will take some adjusting on his part, I think Thomas will be a great big brother!

After the appointment we went out to eat to celebrate. I wanted to go to Los Hermanos, a Mexican restaurant whose food I love and have craved like crazy during my pregnancy, and bless his heart, Ryan humored me and we went there, even though he doesn't particularly love it. Thank you honey!

So now I'm going to get out all of Thomas' baby clothes and have fun getting everything ready! I never really took much time to organize Thomas' old clothes and store them in tubs or anything...I actually have piles and piles of the clothes and shoes he's grown out of filling the shelves in his closet! Now I don't feel guilty at all for not having taken the time to store them away! And, I may just spoil myself a little and buy a few new things, just for fun. =)

On to the naming game! I have some names left over from when we were pregnant with Thomas, but I get a little stressed about choosing a name and need some more ideas. I'm one of those people who has to wait to see the baby before I can possibly decide on a name. I always fear that once I see the baby, none of the names I've thought of will fit, and we'll be sitting in the hospital, needing to leave, trying to decide on a name! Thankfully that didn't happen with Thomas...he was named almost immediately after his birth and Ryan and I both knew that he was definitely a Thomas! I hope it happens as easily this time around. =)

Also, I am exactly 20 weeks along today...halfway! This pregnancy seems to be going really quickly to me so far. I hope it continues to go quickly once I hit the third trimester! I'm excited to feel the baby kicking now, even though its just here and there and not consistent at all yet. Every time I stop and hold still to feel it, he stops of course! Feeling those little movements is probably my favorite part of being pregnant.

Though I'm nervous about the challenges of becoming a parent of two, I'm excited for the day when we'll have a new little son in our home!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my parents here in Utah County this year. One of the biggest things that I was grateful for was that every single one of my brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews were there! That doesn't happen much anymore and it was great to have all of us together (even if my Mom & Dad's house was a bit crazy and noisy!).

My brother Travis got home from his 4-month trip to Brazil the Friday before Thanksgiving, which was especially nice because he had originally planned to stay until right before Christmas. He served as a missionary in Brazil and returned home in March 2007, so it was interesting to welcome him back a second time! He came home with some crazy long, curly hair that I thought was pretty cool, but he's chopped it all off already.

Ryan, Thomas and I mostly spent the whole week at my parents house in Spanish Fork since everyone else was staying there, but a couple days before Thanksgiving we had everyone over for a barbecue at our house, since some of my siblings hadn't seen our new home yet. The boys got all geared up and went four-wheeling in the hills across the street from our house, and Thomas had a great time playing with his cousins.

Its always so fun watching Thomas buddy around with all his cousins (Anika-7, Aiden-4, Ciara-4, Zander-2, Dalin-1). He was in heaven with so many kids to play with every day, and even though there was a bit of bickering that went on at times, the kids were all so cute together. Ryan is so cute with his nieces and nephews too! For some reason, he's the uncle the kids like to climb all over. I love the photo of him holding four of them all at once!

On Thanksgiving Day we had a fabulous feast of turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, rolls, frog eye salad and snickers salad, and then later we of course followed all that up with pumpkin, cherry and apple pie! We had a fabulous time stuffing ourselves and then sitting around talking, watching the kids play and just being with family. My Grandma & Grandpa Kotter were able to come down from Logan to join us on Thanksgiving Day and it was wonderful to see them...though they only live two hours from me, I don't see them nearly as often as I should! They are sweet, wonderful people and I love spending time with them. I kept trying to teach Thomas to say "Great-Grandpa" or "Great-Grandma" but he mostly just stuck with calling them "Grandpa" or "Grandma." It was still cute!

My Mom & Dad's 33rd wedding anniversary was several days before Thanksgiving, and for a gift all of us siblings and siblings-in-law wrote some memories and letters that we compiled into a book to give to my parents. We had fun reading out loud from the book after Thanksgiving dinner and remembering lots of funny and touching stories from the years of our childhood, and also from the years since our spouses have joined the Kotter family. It was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving and I am so grateful for my parents and all my family!

It was also my brother Jared's 13th birthday on Thanksgiving Day this year. Its so crazy that he is a teenager now...I was 13 when he was born! We had a birthday cake for him on top of all the pie, and he got his first Ipod, which he was pretty stoked about.

It was a great week! The only sad thing was the way it ended...Thomas ended up getting a 24-hour stomach flu the last day everyone was here, which was eventually passed on to me, and has now been passed on to Ryan! So that hasn't been fun. But I'm just grateful the sickness missed us during Thanksgiving, and that we were able to have an enjoyable, memorable time together with all of our family!