Connor's Birthday Weekend, May 2nd-4th

We celebrated Connor's birthday on a Saturday with a bounce house and pizza party!  The place we rent the bounce house from isn't open on Sundays, so if you rent it all day Saturday, you get to keep it until they pick it up on Monday!  My mom graciously came down for Friday night and Saturday morning to help us clean the house.  I was already feeling pretty sick from my pregnancy at that point, and Patrick had several hours of unexpected work that morning, so it was really amazing she could be there!  

Connor's family portrait.  Eamon inexplicably has a fire on his head.

Connor requested a chocolate cake that is blue with letters on it.

Lots of boys!

 Jessica was able to come down for the day with Riley and Catherine, which was awesome!  They seemed to have a lot of fun.

Riley.

Porter and Jerod.

Eating cheese bread with Amelia.

Collin, Aidan, Sam, and Porter.

Sarah came to town in the evening and stayed with us on Sunday.  We continued our tradition of going to Connors Steakhouse for lunch in honor of Connor's birthday.  I got so sick during lunch I had to leave and moments later, Eamon fell asleep on Sarah's lap.  He managed to stay asleep while we put him in the car and after moving him into his bed at home!

Monday was Connor's actual birthday and we had a good day.  Connor had school and we had fun hanging out together outside in the hammock.  That night we went to dinner at Mellow Mushroom with the Wootens, at Connor's request.  He fell asleep in the car on the way there and spent a lot of the meal asleep  on my back.  It was nice to snuggle with my sweet four year old!

New Baby!

If you read this blog, you most likely know from Facebook or personal conversation that we are expecting a new little babe at the end of the year!  Our estimated due date is December 23rd, so we could very well have a Christmas baby!

This pregnancy has been pretty different from my previous ones.  I have been much more emotional, and much, much sicker.  I feel like I can never fully regulate eating, since that's one of my main keys to not feeling sick and drinking enough is a challenge many days.  I'm pregnant and at a really different time of year than the first two times and that is proving to be challenging as well.

Since I hope to have a vaginal birth this time, I am traveling two hours to see a doctor in Anniston, AL.  He is amazing, and I'm so glad to have him.  He lets his out-of-town patients spread their visits out, which is great.  I'm only going every 6 weeks for the time being, so tomorrow will be my second visit, at almost 15 weeks.

Patrick and me at my first doctor's visit.

Rainbow spotted on our drive home.

Awesome outtake from our announcement photo shoot.

Baby bumps come quicker the third
time around!  Thirteen weeks.

This crazy baby has been kicking me since thirteen weeks!  I feel this babe all the time!  It's pretty amazing because I didn't feel Connor until 20 weeks and Eamon at 17 weeks, but they both had anterior placentas.  I have no idea if this one does or not.  If it does, I'm a little nervous for my future!  This kid is already crazy!

Trip to the Gardens, April 23rd

Just after the Huntsville Botanical Gardens launched their newest summer feature, awesome Lego sculptures, we took a trip there to see them!  It was a little too chilly to swim, so we went to play in the sand for a while before going to the butterfly house.

Hummingbird sculpture.

Looking at the beautiful model trains.

Lego gardeners!  Connor and his friend Amelia.

Fox hunting a rabbit.

Beautiful butterfly.

We weren't expecting their to be any butterflies in the butterfly house because the official release day was May 1st, but I guess they had started doing a slow release, because there were a lot!  And it was chilly enough that they were just sitting around, trying to soak up sun.  Our kids loved it!  Eamon especially loves butterflies.

Butterflies chilling.

Lego honeybee.

Sweet Porter.

I put this butterfly on Eamon's head
and it weirded him out.

Britni and Porter.

Sweet Connor fell asleep on the way home.