baby #2 is a...

We are beyond excited to welcome another GIRL to our family! She is measuring great and baby girl cooperated so well during the whole ultrasound exam. Everything they needed to look at and measure is wonderful. Our hearts melt every time we see our little baby on that screen and hear the heart beat.  She's such a mover/jabber so I'm really glad she didn't make the exam hard to get done and especially made it easy to see what gender she was!!!!! Steven was like, "Are you sure?!" when the technician first told us/showed us it was a girl. And she said, "Yes." We even looked several more times just to be sure ; ). She...oh we are so glad we can say that now! It's a girl. Another girl! I get choked up thinking about holding another daughter and seeing another precious life God helped us create.

There was probably only one person (my mom) who thought baby number 2 was most likely going to be a boy, everyone else was hoping for a girl! I had no idea or any intuition as to whether it was going to be a boy or a girl. However, on the night of October 4th, 2016 I had a dream we were going in for our 20 week anatomy scan and baby was in place right away to see the gender...it was a GIRL! After having that dream I still didn't have a feeling one way or the other. Though to be honest, the idea of having a boy kind of terrified me. It's just unknown territory. Seeing what our boy would look like would be wonderful, and bringing up a possible mama's boy would be sweet. I just know girl and even though she could be so different from Ellie, it's just a bit more on my radar, because hello, I'm a girl. 

Picturing Ellie with a baby sister makes us smile. She got super cute when I told her the baby in mommy's tummy is a girl; it's a baby sister. She responded with saying, "Excited!" She knows she going to be a big sister, but now it's even sweeter to say she's going to have a little sister.

19 weeks

How far along?: 19 weeks and 2 days

Movement?: YES!!!! This last week there's been definite movement! I could even watch my belly button area do waves here and there because of it-weird, but cool. And I've felt hiccups as well. These moments make me smile.

Total weight gain/loss?: No weight gained these last couple weeks. I actually lost a couple pounds. So now I've only gained 1 pound now since the beginning of pregnancy. Being active with a toddler this time around is helping I guess!

Currently craving?: Ice cream cake! I have it for my birthday whenever possible and it was my birthday the last week in December. And yumm, I had it and I want more!

Anything make you sick or queasy?: Nope. Thankfully.

Maternity clothes?: Still just a few shirts and I've mostly been living in leggings and sweatpants at home. But I can still wear my normal jeans!

Belly button in or out?: It's pretty much flush with my stomach.

Stretch marks?: No new ones!

Sleep: Sleep has been good! Despite needing to get up a several times to pee, I sleep really well.

Feeling: Anxious to find out the gender! I had a routine OB appointment this last week and the doctor took a look for fun to see if we could find out earlier than scheduled. However, the baby wasn't cooperating, I didn't have a full bladder and the machine wasn't one of their nice ones- no luck. So hopefully on the 19th, when we have the official anatomy scan, we'll see! It was so wonderful though to see our baby on that ultrasound screen. And what very little we did see/check out looked and sounded good.
Every once in awhile I have cramping/ligament pain. I also gets waves of tiredness, comes on quick and I just want to take a nap, but of course it's at an inconvenient time.

Working on/Thinking about: Praying that everything will look good with the baby at our anatomy scan. Everything went so well with Ellie and we are just praying for this baby to be healthy as well.

Favorite moment from this week: Feeling the baby move! I had been anticipating this and it was such a joy knowing for sure it was the baby.

December photo favorites

December...the month that has my favorite holiday - CHRISTMAS! I love getting the Christmas decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving, just so I can enjoy them as long as I can (the hubby doesn't want them up before Thanksgiving). We got a decent amount of snow this month and we had a white Christmas, which always makes me happy! When I was younger, living in Oregon, I would frequently pray for a white one, and would very rarely ever get it. Then when I lived in Alaska, it was of course a guarantee. Now, the last three Decembers we've been in Idaho, we've had one every time (insert a giddy kid happy dance)!! Ellie loves seeing the snow, talking about the snow ("Snow everywhere - fun!" she says), and playing in it! Now we just need to build a snowman...
The three of us went to Oregon for a week and got to spend time with some family and friends. However, I didn't get but a couple pictures during that time, whoops. (But my mom will be sending me some soon!) We hosted our Friends Christmas party. And celebrated the holiday a few more times as the actual holiday approached. It was so fun to watch Ellie this year. Last year she was barely a one year old. This time she was able to get more into it and got excited about things. She was able to open her presents by herself (for the most part) and loved the Christmas tree/lights every.single.morning! She would ask for the "misses tree lights" every time we would walk out of her room each morning. Having a little one makes each holiday more fun for me. Seeing the joy in her face and eyes, seriously makes this mama more sentimental.
Also, this month we potty trained Ellie! She has been showing a lot of signs for awhile that made us feel comfortable starting it so early. The first couple days were rough and the first hand full of nights were miserable. We were doing an underwear only method, day and night. But then we decided to do pull-ups for nap and night, which has helped us get our sanity back. We ALL need our sleep!!! She has been doing amazing with it and all 3 times she's been out since the start of training she has been accident free and has gone in her little potty chair we packed up in the car! Getting out has helped with our sanity as well...we are avid shoppers and staying home bound was rough, too!
I also turned 29 and even though it was spent at home, potty training I am proud to be a stay at home mom. This is what I always wanted!

^^ she'd admire those lights and ornaments every day

loving the first big snowfall of the winter

Friend's Christmas Party

^^ I spy some little piggies...

^^ Ellie got this little vacuum from some friends; she loves it. 

She would always want to "help" me when I would and now she has her very own!

^^ Christmas Eve!

^^ Christmas morning!

^^ hat for Christmas tradition. Last year on the left, this year on the right

^^ more snow fun...on Christmas! Makes me so happy...and Ellie!

^^ early potty training days...but success!