Farm egg hunt

Saturday we went to a local farm for an egg hunt.  It was a quick one, but a lot of fun for the kids with a tractor ride, treats, and jump time on the bounce pillow.

Coloring eggs

Friday night we colored Easter eggs at Jon's parents' house while watching college basketball.  The boys loved it and are getting better about not making a disaster.

Easter 2016

We started our Easter morning early, so we could get to church on time.  We had to wake up Graesen (typical), while Jace was up and ready to get started.  The boys looked in their baskets and had a quick egg hunt before heading to church.  After church we did brunch with Jon's family then a late lunch with my family.  It was very rainy out so all egg hunts had to be indoors.  I was feeling extremely tired and very uncomfortable if I stood for more than a few minutes, so there aren't as many good pictures as I was hoping to get.  Maybe next year.

Pregnancy this time around

So being pregnant at 30 with 2 kids already in the house is much different than being pregnant at 23 with my first. First off after years of abdominal pain and many visits to both the GI doctor and the obygn, both doctors decided it was time for surgery.  We needed to check for endometriosis, which the doctor had suspected for years.  I went in for surgery in mid August.  We did find endometriosis on my abdominal wall, and while it is/wasn't the sole cause of the pain I have experienced, it is good to know that that is one of the things we were dealing with. 
Now within a couple weeks of surgery our house went through closing and we needed to pack up and move.  I overdid it many times, because I get anxious about getting things done fast.  Fast forward a few weeks to my follow up appointment.  My doctor asked if I had taken a pregnancy test yet.  I hadn't, and told him I didn't want to because I just knew I wouldn't be pregnant yet, and didn't want to be disappointed.  Well I just couldn't quit thinking about it after the appointment.  I decided to grab a test just to get it off my mind, fully expecting it to be negative.  I was beyond shocked to see a positive result. 
The beginning of pregnancy was filled with lots of nausea, lots of food aversions, and exhaustion.  Poor Jon...I would come home from work each day and just lay down right away.  Many nights I could not even make it through dinner without needing to lay down.  Since I was so much more miserable than I had been with Graesen, we all assumed it was a girl.  Two days before Christmas we took our boys with us to the big ultrasound.  Within probably 30 seconds, the ultrasound tech was able to confirm it was actually a boy.  Our boys had been wanting a girl, so I was worried they would be disappointed.  Well, Caedmon won them over right away by peeing during the "gender shot."  Being first grade boys, they thought it was hysterical and have been excited ever since.
The very next day was Christmas Eve and I started to experience a lot of back pain similar to the pain I had when I had kidney stones.  It progressed throughout the day and I wasn't feeling Caedmon move much.  We ended up heading to the hospital where I was seen in the ER rather than labor and delivery, since I was only 19 weeks 4 days pregnant, and the cutoff is 20 weeks.  They tested everything and did an ultrasound on everything.  There was absolutely no sign of a kidney stone, but I did have low potassium.  The ER doctor thought it was uterine irritability, the obgyn wasn't so sure.  I'm still not entirely sure what happened.  However, I have had contractions several times a day since pretty much that point in pregnancy.  They aren't as bad as during full blown labor, but they do hurt and happen more and more all the time. 
I am now 32 weeks pregnant (tomorrow).  I have a lot of hip and back pain, plus a spot on my right side where I get severe pain that lasts for hours if I do too much.  It has not been a comfortable pregnancy, but I am still very grateful to be pregnant.  After a miscarriage, and then so many years of being a single mom, even a painful pregnancy is such a blessing. 
Now I am just trying to get through the last bit of work.  The plan is for me to stop working at 38 weeks and stay home until fall.  At that point I will go back to substitute teaching, because that will allow me the flexibility to work a little, but not too much.  Jon and I both agree that the best thing for our family is for me to only work part time so I can be more present for all three of our boys.  I'm very thankful that we are able to do this!
And to wrap it up, here's my big belly at 31 weeks:

Caedmon's woodland nursery

Caedmon's nursery is all finished and ready.  I will be adding some picture frames and a canvas of him after he's born, but other than that it is complete.

The kid for whom the blog was created

Since Graesen was the theme of this blog was 4+ years, I thought I should do an update on who he is today.
Graesen is a pure joy to parent.  He's one of the funniest people I've ever met.  Last summer we attended a wedding with a photo booth.  Graesen kept disappearing and coming back with gems like these:

He's told me many times this pregnancy that I'm getting shorter.  He says I'm shrinking down to make room for the baby, but not to worry because I will stretch back out after the baby is born.
Every day the kid has us laughing.  He spouts off the silliest ideas and asks questions before thinking.  And most of the time he's really good natured when we laugh at the things he says and does.
Graesen is very full of life.  He loves everything and everyone.  He loves piano lessons and has loved every sport he has tried.  To Graesen to world is an exciting place and the tiniest thing will make his day.
Graesen teaches me things all the time.  He loves God and wants to share Him with everyone.  He thinks that church is the greatest thing and absolutely insists upon wearing a tie. 
Graesen also amazes me with his spirit and maturity.  Due to issues with his legs and feet he has a life time of orthotics ahead of him.  He also deals with some lower muscle tone (we went through several months of physical therapy when he was 5).  Sports are definitely harder for Graesen.  In baseball he struggled to catch and throw, and rarely hit the ball.   Yet he stood out in the field cheering for his team nonstop.  During cross-country I had a parent approach me and tell me how much they loved watching Graesen.  He tried so hard and smiled the whole time.  He was usually last or one of the last kids in each race, but he never gave up.  One race I cheered for him to try and stick with a teammate who was a little ahead of him.  Graesen looked at me (all while running his race) and said, "This isn't about me.  Some of my friends are having really great races and I'm happy for them.  This is about my friends."  His love for others blows my mind.
As much as I hate how fast he is growing, I love watching Graesen grow.  Everything he does in life he does with passion.  He works hard and brings a lot of joy to a lot of people.  I am so proud of the person he is becoming, yet I don't feel as though I can take credit for it.  God created him to be who he is and I'm just blessed to be a part of his life.

Biggest catch up ever

In the 2 years since I stopped blogging, there have been a lot of things that happened.  I figured I would do a recap of the major things...
So back to spring 2014:
We celebrated Easter with egg dying, a big egg hunt with friends and Jon's family, and visiting Jon at the fire station after church and family time.

Spring 2014 was also filled up with some very cute T-Ball:

We had a great summer with a camping party for Graesen's 5th birthday, lake time, hikes, a trip to spend the 4th of July with cousins, and a trip to see a baseball game and visit a science center.

In fall 2014 I started a new job, Graesen and Jace started kindergarten (same school, but different classes), we visited local farms, celebrated Halloween, took some pictures with family, got Christmas trees together, and Jon and I became engaged.

Winter to Spring 2014-2015: We celebrated Christmas, prepared for the wedding, had a great wedding (pictures on the last post), went on a short honeymoon to a hot springs, squeezed us all into Jon's 2 bedroom house, had a fun Easter, and the boys played baseball.

Summer 2015 Graesen did a triathlon, the boys played soccer, we celebrated Graesen's 6th birthday with a firefighter party and a bouncy water slide, the boys fished, we did some camping, visited the hot springs, went to an amusement park a couple times, visited cousins to celebrate the 4th of July on an old Navy destroyer, spent a lot of time outside, and bought a new house:

Fall 2015: The boys started first grade at a new school, we found out I was pregnant, we visited farms, celebrated Halloween, and the boys did cross-country.

Now for more recent times...We celebrated Jace's 7th birthday in November with a nerf gun party, I hosted my annual gingerbread house/Christmas breakfast for all the kids in the family, we found out that our next child will be another BOY...Caedmon Isaiah, we celebrated Christmas as a family, and we started preparing Caedmon's nursery.