My Helper

Ryann has a new job of taking the big trash and recycle bin back to the house after it is empty. She loves it. 

She also looks cute doing it!

Oh So Cute

I forgot about these pictures that we took at Hazel's birthday party.  Look at how cozy we are? I didn't realize this was a 6 person couch. Love you all!  Thanks so much for the birthday phone calls and love!

Girls Day

So I did have to work today (on my golden birthday!), but I got out at 3, so I rushed home, hurried to pick up my girls and we headed over to the nail salon. 

They each got to pick out their nail color, and they each got decorations on their nails. 

 Thrilled as usual. However, by night time Ryann had already bitten off one of her finger nail polishes. I gave her a stern warning, so we will see how things go tomorrow.  :)

 We were able to do fun girl stuff today because Daddy had to be in Nebraska for a work trip. Boo for us, but yeah that Auntie Devyn was able to pick him up and see him a little bit. I am jealous of that!

 Love my pretty nails!

Happy Birthday to me. What a fun day and I was blessed to have my family call all day long and sing me happy birthday over and over again. It doesn't get much better than that.

Early Birthday

So Rich is going out of town this week for work. He has to leave on my birthday so we decided to do a little celebrating today since we probably won't have time before then.  

I know Rich spent a lot of time on my birthday gifts and I was more than thrilled with what he got me. The first and my favorite present was my very first set of pearl earrings and a pearl necklace. They are gorgeous and I am excited beyond belief.

Thanks and I love them!!

Blast in the past: Pregnancy Edition

So I guess I am showing abou 4 to 5 weeks earlier with this baby than with the last baby!  And I am totally okay with that!

Here is an update from Cara's pregnancy at 20 weeks. 

Pregnancy Update

Every week I have Rich take a picture of my growing belly. I will be half way through with my pregnancy on Friday- but I am getting my 20 week ultrasound on Friday and I thought pictures of Cara would be a more exciting post for then. So I decided to update you on TEN pregnancy things.

First: Here is a picture of my growing belly. Not much to look at I admit, but the long torso thing helps. (taken a couple days ago)
Second: I have gained 10 pounds thus far, and hopefully I keep on the slow track because I am still running almost everyday. However... with the holidays coming up I am a little nervous.
Third: Cara moves a lot- not as much as her big sister moved, but time will tell as her movements get stronger every day.
Forth: I am getting some weird pregnancy skin changes. I have random patches of really dry, red skin that I have to put eczema cream on every day or they itch.
Fifth: I feel like I "popped" yesterday. This picture was taken a few days ago so I will take a picture tomorrow to confirm that I now am "showing" when I wear my clothes. (this is about 3-4 weeks earlier than last pregnancy)
Sixth: I started wearing maternity underwear yesterday. Yuck.
Seventh: My stretch marks are already making their reappearance from last time. I know this is normal, but with Ryann none showed up until 36 weeks! So now, the ones I had before are just becoming more apparent- no new ones yet, but still they are yucky to look at.
Eigth: I never had ligament pain or twinges or pulling sensations with Ryann so those are definately a new experience for me. It is funny that I tell my pregnant patients about these sensations all the time and I am just now experiencing them for myself.
Ninth: Did I ever mention her name is Cara Kay Hamilton? What if she doesn't look like a Cara you say? Well, if she doesn't, eventually she will.
Tenth: This has been an easy pregnancy thus far. I truly enjoyed being pregnant with Ryann and I am also loving this pregnancy with Cara. My sweet girls are nice to me.

16 Weeks

 I remember when I was pregnant with Ryann and I was 26 weeks pregnant. Someone asked me if I was pregnant... It was the best day of my life! I was thrilled that someone actually could tell I was pregnant. I know, I have been blessed, I have a long torso, and it was my first baby. 

With Cara, of course, it came earlier. I need to look back and see when it came, but I know it was closer to 20 weeks. 

Obviously 3rd babies show even sooner! My patients are now starting to notice. I have basically switched out to all maternity pants because they are just so much more comfortable at this point. 

You may get sick of my belly pictures during this pregnancy, and for that I apologize, but I want this documented, so here is another one... 16 weeks with little baby boy. 

Celebration

When I typed the title of this post I sang it... cellll e bration... like that old song that they used to play when I was in middle school and learning to line dance... anyway, Rich and I were fortunate enough yesterday to watch the 49er game and then celebrate with a fabulous ice cream cake for both of our birthdays. 

 Rich used his new birthday present (smart phone!! welcome back to the real world) to video tape us singing happy birthday. It was quite entertaining because he uploaded it right to facebook and man, it is bad. 

 This picture below I am laughing so hard because we counted 1... 2... and before we could say 3, both girls had already blown out our candles. Such a classic move by little kids. 

 Cara couldn't stop laughing because she thought it was sooo funny that she blew out the candles. Then we couldn't stop laughing because she thought it was so funny. 

Happy Birthday!

These pictures sum up the best moments of Rich's Birthday. 

I hope you enjoy 35 and all that it brings. 

It will be a year of adventures, with our sweet family bringing us more and more joy each day.

 Ryann picked out birthday cards from her and Cara for daddy, and then she wrote on them both, telling him to have a happy day and that she loved him. 

 Of course they were super hero cards, because what dad isn't a super hero?

The girls picked out Just Dance Disney for him... or for them... I am not sure who will play it more, but since Ryann lost our Just Dance 3, this is all we got for now. 

Happy Birthday Rich. I love you more than words can say. 

Thank you for bringing me so much joy and happiness.

And for being such an amazing dad to these sweet girls. 

Necklace

I am in need of a new necklace (hint hint... my birthday is in 11 days)

I recently gave away my fertility necklace.

My favorite necklace that represents my 2 girls is kind of outdated.

So here I am, wearing Ryann's horse necklace. 

I guess I will have to just wait and see what happens for my birthday and/or valentines day.

Wish me luck. In the meantime I will be hunting etsy.

Telling the Girls

Rich and I enjoyed keeping our little secret for a day!  That is about how long we waited to tell the girls that we were pregnant, so I guess we could wait a day to tell them if it was a boy or girl. 

I had envisioned a huge box full of blue balloons floating up into the sky.

 Yeah, not so much. It was too cold and the girls were being crazy silly and we didn't have a big enough box. So we compromised and really didn't get those adorable pictures that you see online. 

 Oh well, the girls were pretty excited anyway. We had to get 2 balloons because there are 2 girls... but at one point Ryann looked at me and said, "THERE ARE TWO BABIES???"

No Ryann, there are not two babies. Just two balloons. 

Gender Reveal to Family and Friends

For this baby I wanted to do something special for when we found out the gender. I didn't care boy/girl I just wanted to make a big deal out of it. Rich wanted to know why I was making such a big deal out of it.  I told him there were many reasons:

1. Pinterest

2. If it was another girl I wanted to convince myself to be just as excited as if it was a boy

3. It was the first baby that Rich got to find out if it was a boy or a girl with me!

4. It took a lot longer to get pregnant with this baby than our others

5. And seriously who doesn't want an awesome cake or celebration?

 So I made the cake and the girls decorated it with the pink and blue candies we got.

 Then we headed over to the Baker's house and had some family on facetime when we cut the amazing blue cake!

We are so excited that we are having a bouncing baby boy. 

15 Weeks

I kind of cheated to make my belly look smaller by wearing tights over my belly. :)

Don't tell me you haven't done that before!

Rock Climbing

 Here are some more rock climbing pictures from our trip to Napa. They are all off my phone. Ryann made it all the way to the top of the wall. My dad spent a lot of time pushing Cara back and forth on the "swing" or the ropes. They had a lot of fun and talk about it often.

Shopping Fun

My cute girls needed new sweatshirts so we headed over to kohls. This freeeezing weather (haha, 28 degrees, I know, not bad, but seriously cold) has made us need to vamp up our winter clothes selection. They found things they liked, but even more they liked pushing each other in the shopping cart. Made my life easier too!

Zoo Afternoon

My friend Meagan and I took the kids to the zoo for a couple hours today. She has seasons passes so we figured a couple hours here and there are perfect for the kids (and for us!!)

 They had a blast. The bigger kids liked looking at the animals and pushing to buttons to hear about the animals. 

 They liked to pose for pictures. 

 And baby Anna was the best, no fussing at all in her stroller the whole time. 

Headbanz

The girls picked out a Disney Headbanz game to give to my dad for Christmas. We decided that it may be a little old for Cara, but my dad asked if Cara can always be on his team.

(Cara on your team is perfect because she tells you the answer ever time!)

++another cell phone picture++

Soccer Attempt

Again, we tried another week at soccer. Cara had a fun time at first.

 Ryann was staying busy entertaining herself.

 Cara kicked the ball a couple times, but then some kid threw a couple elbows and hit her hard. 

 So it was not fun anymore. 

There were a lot of bribes and bribes and threats, and in the end, she cried through the last 5 minutes, but wasn't in my lap or holding my hand.  Hmmm... I think we will keep pushing on.

Post Bike Rides

This is what Cara's knee looks like after riding bikes in shorts for a couple days. Yikes.



Pretty shades of purple and red... soon to be yellow and  green.