20 Weeks, FINALLY!

So I thought that I had already reached this point... I went in for an ultrasound the monday after Christmas and we discovered that I was really 4 weeks behind and so then only 16 weeks. I am now officially excited to be 20 weeks and will be having an ultrasound on Monday! I will let you know what I will be having! I am not as sick as I was with any of my other children, but I still have queasy moments and am definitely not eating much, but all is good. I think that overall, I have lost about 35 lbs, but I will confirm that on monday as well. Not so much is new. I have been feeling the baby move since about 16 weeks, and we as still a split decision on boy/girl. Dewey's grandpa has a relative named Archer Bowman and so Dewey has decided that we should follow suit to name our boy that. I have proclaimed that is must be a girl because that name is REDUNDANT! I am torn because as much as I want Joë to have a sister, with Ephraim being the youngest and three years behind in school, I think he would do well with a little buddy to play with. So I am content for either. We do know it is only ONE baby, so we can relax a bit! Until MONDAY...

Mom is Growing up too!

A while ago, Ben decided that he wanted to start walking to school by himself. As my first child, I had been having a hard time with that decision. I trust Ben to go to and from school safely, but it is the unknown factors that I have a problem with! The first day, I walked Ben to the corner and then watched him as he walked the straight stretch to the school. That afternoon, I drove to the school, but Ben wanted to walk home, so I drove home and let him walk home. The next morning he told me he wanted to walk to and from school. He was so good to his mother, when school let out he actually ran home! He knew I would be watching for him (and yes, worrying about him) and came straight home as quickly as he could! He has now been walking regularly, unless it is really cold or bad weather. He even has walked home with friends who live in the neighborhood too! It is fun to watch him grow up even though it is hard on mom!

I know it is January... Christmas update!

So I am only a few weeks behind! I thought I would update and add Christmas pics and what we have been doing since! Dewey's work schedule changed, and so we were able to go spend Christmas Eve at Gramma Tami's house! We went early and Dewey took the kids sledding.

They were having so much fun!

I think they would have stayed all day in the snow!

They actually found a nice road to sled down, but they would slide off the road into the weeds! They didn't care, it was all good fun!

I think Willard and Joë loved making snow angels more than hiking back up the road to sled down again. :)

Dewey took a bazillion pictures... Here is superman!

And here is where superman ate the snow!

FUN TIMES! Willard and Joë would go down together, her sitting on him...

I LOVE THIS...

KEEP WATCHING...

But they made it out alive!

Back at Gramma's house they made more snow angels right outside her front window.

Then we got some festivities started.

We mostly played with the uncles!

And ate lots of food.

And Had SO MUCH FUN!

We also acted out the Nativity. Gramma had outfits!

Craig and Holly were Joseph and Mary.

Joë was the Angel.

Ben and

Willard and

Ephraim were the Wise Men.

Brad was the Inn Keeper.

Mom and

Keith were the Shepherds.

And we acted out the whole story a few times changing costumes!

The next morning we had to wait on the stairs before we could go down to see what Santa had brought. Brad was so excited, it was hard to keep him from going down first!

Dewey liked blinding us in the wee hours of the morning!

Here are the kids looking for the stockings.

The first thing Joë did was look for the chocolate... but she did ask first before she ate any.

It was so much fun to watch them get so excited! This was my bargain item (I know, only one, but I am trying!!) At Costco, these are $65. I found it on craigslist for $5!!! It is also ALL she wanted for Christmas. I think she was hinting at a real horse, but she loves this one too!

Eph just wanted to eat something. He had a stomach bug and had been throwing up on Christmas Eve. We had had a long night, he and I, but thankfully it was a 24 hr thing!

We then started opening the slew of presents. You should have seen the tree. Dewey and I had decided that we would do one Santa gift and one gift from Mom and Dad. But thanks to Grandparents and Brittany and Brad, our kids were opening things FOREVER!

It was fun to watch them open things. We didn't want to open all the toys at Gramma's because we were afraid of losing things, so we ended up stacking most of them. The kids would open something, and wait for Gramma to hand out another something to open! NUTS!

Ephraim got a Thomas the train and he wanted to lay and play with it all day. (I don't think he was 100%  yet)

More and more presents...

And the boys playing with their toys on the stairs...

Then Dewey decided to take the family sledding again. Eph and I decided to opt out and take a nap instead to recover from lack of sleep the night before!

Holly who is 7 months pregnant, went too...

They all had so much Fun!!

Here are the rest of the Christmas Day sledding!!

Needless to say they were cold and tired when they returned, but it made for a very nice QUIET ride home in the car! I love having my birthday right by Christmas because I always get to have the best birthday wish...spending it with FAMILY!!!