Spring Break, Easter, Farewell, and More!

Robert's sister Aly's farewell was Easter Sunday. Robert's spring break was the week leading up to it, so we got to take a week and a half long trip, be with our family for Easter, and be there for Aly's farewell. Triple score!!

The only people we had told that we were pregnant in our families were my mom and Robert's sister Jamie. We decided the way we'd announce it to the rest was we'd buy these "Big Sister" outfits for both the girls, show up with them wearing it, and see how long it took for them to figure out that Mary's also said BIG sister :)

We were staying at Robert's parents', but we stopped off at my parents' first to change the girls into their outfits. My sister, Bean, helped change Mary and when she saw that it said "Big Sister" she said, "Oh Heidi, this one's Lydia's." But then she saw that I had already finished dressing Lydia, looked at me for a second, and then started screaming and hugging me. The rest of my family had similar reactions.

Robert's family was a little bit slower. It was an hour or two before Aly was the one that said "Wait, why does Mary's shirt say big sister?" And I said, "Why else?" Then the rest proceeded to get it :)

Cute pic of Lydia playing with Aly's dolls.

Kind of a bummer, Robert had strep before we went to AZ. We didn't realize that's what it was until we got there. He toughed it out and drove the whole way to Mesa. Then I caught it from him too. So for the first couple of days of the trip we were bed ridden. Good thing was we were able to quarantine ourselves while Robert's family took care of the girls, so the girls never caught it from us. Then once we each had at least 24 hours of antibiotics in us and were feeling better, we were able to rejoin the fun and enjoy the rest of the trip.

Some adventures of the girls while we were nursing ourselves back to health...

"Look, I'm a knight!"

Playing at the park with Grandma, Aly, and friends.

And a little bit of lazing about. They were on vacation after all.

Richardson Easter Egg Hunt

The day before Easter at Robert's Grandma and Grandpa Richardson's house.

"So I have an empty bucket, I see the egg, now what?"

"Oh I get it!"

"And there's prizes inside???"

"AWESOME!"

Once the littles had their quota of eggs, watching the tortoises next door was
clearly more entertaining than watching the older kids find their eggs.

Easter Morning

Aly's Farewell

We were so glad we were able to be there for this. Aly was so ready and prepared to be a missionary and she is already proving that out in the field.

As always, we got pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses. They weren't as cooperative this year as last, but we got a couple okay pics.

We didn't coordinate which camera we'd look at, so here's one with the camera Robert's looking at.

And one with the camera I'm looking at... Oops :)

Kickin it in the grass with Aly

After church we dyed Easter eggs.

And once again for the 4th year in a row, Robert's nerd egg. I won't even try to translate it this time, but the answer is "eggs" AKA "x"

Aly made a Brazil egg. Representing her mission before she's even out in the field :)

Then it was off to my family's for Easter dinner. This unfortunately is the only pic I got.

Ice Cream Easter Eggs

So once upon a time Robert's dad goofed a text and instead of writing "Grandma will have ice cream and Easter eggs waiting" he said "Grandma will have ice cream in Easter eggs waiting." Of course Robert's mom took this as a challenge and Easter night we had ice cream in plastic Easter eggs.

We had all sorts of crushed cookies and candy bars we could roll the ice cream in.

The girls were definitely fans of this.

The Phoenix Zoo
And what would a trip to AZ be without going to the zoo with Robert's mom? The day before we came home we made the trek.

We had to get a pic of Aly and the girls in their matching bright green shirts.

And to close out this post, a cute picture of Mary playing with her Grandpa Richardson.

Pregnancy at 4 Weeks - As Recorded March 11th

First prego pose pic at my skinniest in 8 years - 147lbs.
It's gonna be a while before I see that number again ;)

How Far Along:

March 11, 2013 - 4 Weeks give or take :) Just got the positive test today!!!

Maternity Clothes:

Just got rid of a lot of them. I guess I'll be going shopping when the belly comes :)

Best Moment This Month:

Showing Robert the test this morning. It took him a second and then he just said, "Holy cow!!" He spent the rest of the morning pacing around saying, "Wow, 8 months is a long time to wait." He's such a good daddy. Also, we already told Lydia and she is really excited. We told Mary too, but she doesn't understand. Maybe she'll get more excited towards the end of the pregnancy when she can understand and communicate better. Anyway, Lydia at completely random times throughout the day since we told her will randomly point to me and yell, "Your tummy has a baby in it!! WOOHOO!!!!" It's too fun :)

Movement:

Seeing as how it's the size of a poppy seed right now, definitely not feeling any movement right now.

Food Craving:

Super snacky all of the time, but nothing specific.

What I Miss:

Nothing that I couldn't already not do because of the surgery recovery. Now it's just more worth not doing because I know I'll have a beautiful baby at the end :)

Sleep:

So tired all of the time! Sleeping great at night though. About 9 to 10 hours :)

What I Am Looking Forward To:

A baby of course! Also, telling all of our family when we go to Arizona for Easter and Aly's Farewell.

Symptoms:

Tired and snacky all of the time, but no nausea yet.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

As it says in the title, I wrote this in March, the day I got the positive test. I'll be 16 weeks along tomorrow. I'm hoping to get a new pic and write out a new update in the next few days.

Musical Doctors' Offices at 1661

October 3rd, 2012 - I had been seeing my chiropractor for headaches I was having. He sent me to Suite G at 1661 to get some x-rays of my neck. After 3 more weeks of treatment, my neck felt better but my headaches were much worse. So I went to see my PCP.

November 14th, 2012 - Considering my surgery history in the past, my PCP referred me to a neurologist, Dr. Brunelli. So I returned again to 1661, this time to Suite D. He had me get an MRI, and we know where that took me...

November 29th, 2012 - My first visit to 1661 Suite F, Neurosurgery with Dr. James Kohut. Been there 6 more times since then.

But now I get to go to the BEST suite of all!!!
1661 Suite A - OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY

First prenatal appointment - April 4th, 2013

Yep indeedy! On March 11th, we got this little surprise!

Excuse our bed head. It was 6 o'clock in the morning :)

We're going to be welcoming this little gummy bear to our family, due November 19th.

Ultrasound at 9 weeks

Truth be told, it wasn't a huge surprise. We were in the clear from when my neurosurgeon said it would be okay to get pregnant again and had decided that once my next cycle came we would put it in Heavenly Father's hands and knew that when it was His will we would get pregnant. Then the next cycle never came :) I guess Heavenly Father is more anxious for our little family to grow than we realized ;)

We are so excited for this next step. Although I'm still healing and slowly regaining my neck strength from the surgery, we feel it is behind us and this baby is the happy next step of our journey... and now I'm crying... haha! I just feel so blessed and know that Heavenly Father is watching over me and my little family.

Anyway, as is true to form from my past 2 pregnancies, I've completely neglected this blog for the whole first trimester. So please enjoy the ride as you are about to get a slew of catch up posts (at least 6 more) in the next few hours... or days, we'll see how long the girls stay napping right now :)

Henry Cowell Redwoods

We decided earlier this week that we would do a family friendly hike in the Henry Cowell Redwoods yesterday. Terrel and Jenn drove up from Monterey and joined us for the adventure.

Cute cousins starting off the adventure hand in hand.

We named this the "Tree Cave." The bottom of the tree had
been burned out a bit from a forest fire 100 years ago. Definitely
says something about the amazingness of Redwoods that it's still
standing after all of this time.

Our family +1

Terrel and Jenn's family +2

Terrel bet Jenn that he could walk out further on this fallen
tree than her. He started to get on and chickened out. Then Jenn
walked basically the whole tree. Apparently this is a common
situation in their marriage.

This tree is known as "The Giant"

Look how it towers over our girls. It's about as high as a 25-story building

Cute Couple

CHEESE!!!

Us with "The Giant" at an angle that makes us look giant ;)
I could have easily asked Terrel and Jenn to take a picture
for us. What can I say, old habits die hard.

There were 15 numbered stops along the mile walk and we had a little brochure that would talk about each one. We made it a game for the girls, "Who can find the next number first??" When we started getting close to number 12, Robert started making a big deal about how it was the coolest one and we had to take a picture of it. Then we got to it and couldn't see anything spectacular about it, especially after seeing "The Giant" a little bit before. Then we read the brochure. This was the stop that talked about Banana Slugs, Robert's school mascot. Robert insisted we take a picture because this was "his" stop.

Then we found a real banana slug!! We all thought a real banana slug was a little cooler than Robert the banana slug ;) This was actually on my bucket list of things I wanted to do while living in Santa Cruz - see a live Banana Slug in the wild. Check!

Such a weird college mascot to have.

Thanks for the adventure Henry Cowell! It was a fun time :)

March Madness

This post will just cover a few tidbits from the first part of March since it isn't quite over yet. :)

Early Church

I was very worried about switching to the 9:00am block of church this year, but we've LOVED it. We go, get there on time almost on time, then the girls normally fall asleep on the way home or shortly after (the only day Lydia semi-consistently naps anymore). Robert and I nap or play board games until dinner. Then we eat, and while we are eating Mary and Lydia usually wake up. We feed them and then we play all together or Skype family members. It's always the best most refreshing day of the week!

Beating Robert AGAIN at Settlers ;)

Surgery Recovery

Taken on March 7th, the 2 month mark.
Hair is coming in great. Soon it's going to be a fun,
noticeable, little poof back there when I put my hair up
in a pony tail :)

Copied from an email I sent my family and some friends March 3rd: "As far as where I am now, life is good! I had my 6 week post-op check on Feb. 20th where the doctor cleared me to drive and resume all my daily "mom" duties as long as I'm careful. I feel completely back to normal and have for a week or two. I go days at a time without having to take any pain meds and when I do it's just over-the-counter stuff now. My energy is almost to normal. I still have to somewhat pace myself. Like I try to switch off - one day super productive then one day kind of relaxed etc. But for the most part, I'm back to my old self doing ALL my motherly duties, Primary chorister duties, teaching piano, etc so Robert's not having to pick up my slack anymore. It hasn't been that way for a good 6 months, and it feels GREAT! Granted physically there are still things I can't do - run, jump, or anything that puts my neck at risk for whiplash. My neck muscles are still healing and won't be strong enough for me to do stuff like that for another few months, and even at that point I'm supposed to only slowly work up to full activity over the next year or so.

And that's where we are. We feel like it's behind us now and that feels great!"

Lydia's Gymnastics

We've enrolled Lydia in her first gymnastics class. It's a toddler class offered by parks and rec. She's enjoyed it so far and is a complete natural. She definitely doesn't get that from me :)

Apparently, bending over the side of the donut is the funnest
thing to do during free time at gymnastics. 

  

Out With the Old

I've been doing a major overhaul of the apartment. Completely cleaning out every nook and cranny. Getting rid of a ton of stuff and organizing the rest. It was much needed. Lots of hidden messes after me not being at 100% the past 7 months. I should have taken before and after pictures, but I didn't so suffice it to say our little apartment is starting to feel a lot more comfortable with junk gone and everything organized. It's great.

One thing that was thrown out was this old infant carseat. This carseat expired a few months ago. I demolished it so I could throw it away (I saw online that that's what you are supposed to do so that it's not used or sold by dumpster divers). I totally bawled the whole time! I brought both of my babies home from the hospital in this seat! It's amazing the sentimental value we can put into "stuff."

Long Marine Lab

The Long Marine Lab had a free community day a couple of weeks ago. It's basically a mini-aquarium with lots of interactive things for kids to do. It was a lot of fun and we snagged these pictures on the way out.

Cute girls!

And of course Robert wanted to be goofy and join in the fun too.