Tony Grove

Friday afternoon we were able to spend as a family, we decided to go up the canyon before it turns to cold to do such things. It was a perfect day to explore Tony Grove and take the nature trail around the lake. It was only about 65 degrees so many more weeks and this outing would not have been enjoyable, I always seem to wait for fall than it arrives so fast I seem to miss the transition days which are some of my favorite days of the year.
The grove is one of those place that a picture is worth a thousand words is very true so if you don't just want to see lots of pictures turn away now....

Here is your final warning that this post is going to be a picture overload, in a random order also...

 Fall is in the mountains

 Noah had been pointing out caves all day on the mountain so when he found one down low he had to go inside

 Mark asked Noah to smile for a picture his reaction was to run up the trail and do the above, children are strange

 I have decided next year I want family pictures taken up here, hint hint to my cousin Natalie...

Days when we all get to spend time together are by far the best days, when we get to explore something together it's even better.

Banana split

There are lots of things out there comparing unborn baby size to different fruits to help you grasp how tiny your baby really is. A few months ago a friend posted one comparing an unborn baby to junk food, since most pregnant women enjoy junk food this seems more appropriate. 

This week baby girl is 24 weeks, according to website she is the size of a bananas split. Of course we had to have banana splits to celebrate. We invaded grandpa and grandma H's kitchen and brought a sugar rush with us to enjoy this week/treat. 

At the doctor this week I got closerto my  prepregnancy weight. I have also been able to stomach small amounts of fish without to much nauseas after, other meats still aren't friendly to my stomach but I love fish so I am okay with this. 

Pregnancy makes me blunt, okay I am usually blunt it gets bad...really bad...in pregnancy. If you don't want to really know how I feel don't ask. Also just because I am sick and don't enjoy pregnancy doesn't mean I am not grateful, actually I am grateful to the point of tears often that this baby is growing inside me for reasons many will not understand. So unless you want the truth don't ask this pregnant lady how she feels or how life is...I'll tell you and chances are it won't be all positive.

Noah is still convinced that baby sister will be named Boo. Guess her nickname is decided even if we have no real ideas for her first name. To keep documentation in one place here are a few ultrasound pictures taken recently 

Thumb sucker 

And to end because we all need a little Noah in our lives, he just came and told me a joke great grandma H taught him and he actually got it right...

Noah "Knock knock"

Me "Who's there?"

Noah "Noah" 

Me "Noah who?"

Noah "No-ah everything"

Get it? Sure love our little man....he keeps us smiling and giggling around here and he is always learning so it might not be long before he does know everything. 

Long weekend

We had a fun long weekend in celebration of Labor Day. We spent Saturday hanging out with grandpa and grandma H. Noah and grandpa spent the day working in the yard, I am pretty proud of my little guy he did good at helping grandpa. The highlight of his day was driving grandpa's tractor up and down the hill.

He found a little friend while we were there, I am grateful or his cousins Gracie and Cora teaching him lady bugs are not scary because before their summer visit he would not have done this! 

Sunday after church we got have lunch with family before watching the opening game for USU. 

Noah loves when family visits, he especially loves when uncle Brian and aunt Kim visit because he adores their girls and loves having boys to play with. He and spencer are pretty close in age and always have fun together.

The game didn't end in our favor but it was still a fun evening and we still love out aggies!

Monday we headed to Bloomington lake with Grandma N, Jessie, Mike, Amelia and Eliza. 

Noah got carsick on the way up the canyon road, it was very bumpy from all the recent rain, at one point he said "mom I can't take this much longer" after that he got to sit up front while we finished the windy drive. Going 10-15mph I took the risk and let him. 

We had a little picnic before our hike into the lake. It was only about 55 degrees so pleasant and even wished we had a jacket at moments. 

And we are on our way to the lake, I took 4 pictures and my mom wasn't smiling in any she was talking...sorry mom

Noah was a very slow hiker, his awesome aunt Jessie helped speed up the process a bit on the way in

We made, it was beautiful. Noah kept talking about getting in the water, he took his shoes off as actually did get in for about 30 seconds before it was to cold. Being a glacier lake I had tried to warn him.

Proof that I made it. It's no secret pregnancy and I aren't great friends not with Noah and not this time, I am grateful that we get to have a little girl join our family but the throwing up and not eating much makes it hard to accomplish tasks that should be simple. But I did and here is my proof....

Eliza fell in and hiked out in only a way a toddler can and not be arrested for it :)

Grandma was amazing and walked at toddler/little boy pace being behind us most of the time, her grandkids sure love her and it's no secret why. 

Mark got off work Monday and actually beat Noah and I home from our hiking adventure.

After resting a bit we headed up to grandpa and grandma H's house to crash their neighborhood party. They rented a bounce house for the kids, brilliant because the kids actually let the parents visit, of course they were awesome and let Noah come play too. He spends lots of times with the kids in their neighborhood so he had a great time. 

Long weekends are always great fun, especially when they are full of family time! 

As time goes by...

Since this is the only way I keep track of anything I guess I had better write down things about this pregnancy so I can remember it someday.
Today is 20 weeks and 5 days, our preliminary ultrasound a few weeks ago shows baby was a girl so hopefully our "official" ultrasound this week shows the same thing :)
Noah is excited about becoming a big brother. He has already stated that he will give little sister his small curious george stuffed animal and he will keep the big one. If you know Noah this is a big deal, we'll see if he sticks to it. He has also informed us he will sleep in his room all night when sister comes because she'll need him to so she isn't scared, they will be sharing a room.
This pregnancy is very different from Noah, I didn't enjoy being pregnant with Noah and I still don't enjoy it X 10. I am down negative pounds, good I guess except that means I am not eating or keeping food down which makes it hard to have energy for anything beyond work and feeding Noah some kind of little kid dinner after work.... we have been watching lots TV, just glad Noah is such a good boy. Also I would never function without nausea medicine, the headache side effect is no fun but being able to be a mom/wife and work makes it something I can deal with.
Baby girl hates meat and most proteins, up until 4-5 days ago any meat that I ate was immediately rejected. I can now get maybe 2-3 bites of protein down a day and just feel sick after instead of losing it, more than that is a no go. I have discovered a love of Indian food, always enjoyed it but it's a craving now, luckily we have an amazing restaurant here in town and discovered Noah enjoys it too. I am lucky I have stayed hydrated so no IV's but I would love to just eat a full meal of meat, meat and more meat. Taking meat away from an Idaho farm girl is just mean, I don't really know how to cook anything else or enjoy cooking things besides meat.
Other cravings include;

mountain dew with mango puree, the syrup just isn't the right effect
nacho supreme from our Lee's deli, but they only have them once a week.

We pulled up the picture from my pregnancy with Noah at 20 weeks, I feel much bigger but seem to be only slightly bigger. Maybe it's the fact that I don't feel like I should be since I haven't gained weight like I did with Noah oh well.I hate pictures of myself but for consistency sake between pregnancies & documentation here we go.

 In other news Noah had his 4 year well child check on Friday he is 43.5 inches 97%,  40 pounds 79%. He got his last immunization to be ready for school and will be starting preschool the beginning of September, 3 days a week. He is very excited to attend school like the big kids at daycare. I hope to get a post about his birthday party up soon (yes I am 4 maybe 5 months behind in blogging) for now here is a picture of our big guy and his cheese grin.

Spring pictures

Last year we took Noah and the twins for spring/Easter pictures so when the photographer did them again this year we signed up and took Maxine along. 

My handsome guy

Cousins 

Amelia 

Eliza (she was not getting closer than this)

Maxine

Below is the best picture of the day...

Loved the outing with our cousins even if it was exhausting. We are so blessed!!