Number 3 is a girl!!

On Friday, March 28 we had our ultrasound to find out the gender of baby #3! This was only my third visit to the doctor and actually was my third ultrasound as well. At my first appointment I was 8 weeks along and they had the standard ultrasound to determine if things look ok and to determine the due date. While at that ultrasound the tech thought she saw some abnormalities in my placenta. I was a little bit worried at first, but they said it was just something that normally goes away within a couple weeks.

A couple weeks later I actually had another doctor call me and inform me that they took a second look at the ultrasound and determined it was actually fine, and that the tech had made a mistake in interpreting the ultrasound. But they still wanted to do another ultrasound at my next appointment just to be safe. This made me feel a whole lot better about things :) So I went back in in February when I was just about 14 weeks along and had a perfectly normal ultrasound and heard the beating heart. After this appointment is when we publicly announced the pregnancy.

I scheduled my next appointment for 5 weeks later, which put me at just almost 19 weeks along and in the perfect "find out the gender" period. We scheudled it for a Friday morning so Jackson was at preschool, Abbie was at her friend Mariah's house and Tyler was able to leave work for a bit to come join me.

OK So my thoughts going into the u/s were pretty mixed. At the start of the pregnancy I had thought it was a boy because I got pretty sick early on. While in Utah I was only 6 weeks along and starting to feel nauseous after eating certain foods, especially in the morning. Tyler's mom also did a little body test with me and thought it was a boy. But then things really calmed down and it was reminding a lot more of my pregnancy with Abbie. The entire first trimester I had weird food cravings but there wasn't once that I was completely grossed out by seeing or preparing food, like I had been with both earlier pregnancies. But yeah, I ate cheese a lot - just like I did with Jackson, so that led me to think boy too. The other thing that was new about this pregnancy was caffeine - I haven't been a soda drinker for 8 years but all I wanted was Diet Dr. Pepper for weeks! I have now cut that out of my diet again luckily, but still enjoy it sporadically :)

So anyways - what will this baby be??? Jackson thinks its a boy, Abbie thinks its a girl. Tyler went back and forth but near the u/s date he was beginning to think more that it was a boy. I was clueless. I went back and forth but I think deep down I always thought girl since it was such an easier pregnancy than I'd had with Jackson. Although it wasn't identical to Abbie's, it was much more similar to hers than his.

But let's be honest - we have one and one - so either way we're good!!! Well the results came in and...

IT IS A GIRL!!!

I guess I must have been still having some thoughts of boy because it still surprised me to see it and hear it that morning! I think Tyler was really surprised. But we are now so excited to have two little girls in a row!

From the appointment I went to the grocery store and got a bouquet of pink balloons to show to the kids when we got home. I had Jackson and Abbie go sit on the couch and then I brought them in from the trunk of the car. Abbie was so excited and Jackson was disappointed, and then cried. "I don't want pink balloons! I wanted blue balloons to play with! I thought it was a boy, I was wrong and Abbie was right? Daddy was wrong? I don't like girls." Were the things he said at first. And honestly I think he was just as sad about being wrong than he was with it being a boy.

And now I know, next time I bring home pink doughnuts instead because at least he'll still enjoy that :)

A sad little boy at first

But then he decided to have fun with Abbie and play with the balloons. He's such a good big brother to a little girl, I'm excited to see him with a baby too :) I also feel that this is going to make the relationship he has with Tyler grow even stronger, sticking together as the boys of the house ;)

We tried to take so many pictures with the kids and balloons but seriously none of them were working so this was about as good as it got!

Jackson at age 4

Age 3 was so much fun with Jackson and I'm even more excited about having a four-year-old! He went through so many changes this year and is now a big boy in so many ways.

Since his last birthday he was potty trained (very easily), he stopped taking naps (but still takes a quiet time), he moved into a big boy bed (and never gets up in the night), he started preschool (which he adores), he started going to Sunbeams (which he also adores) and his mind is growing and eating up spelling, numbers, and geography.

His Favorites, I asked him today:

Color-     Green (and gray, which is his assigned color for his preschool song for graduation)
Letter-     J
Number- 25
Toy-       T-Rex Race Track
Game-     Settlers (own version that involves rolling dice, finding numbers and building roads)
Snack-    Pirate Booty and Ritz Crackers (what he happened to have for his snack at school today)
Book-    Curious George and the hot-air balloon (recent library check-out)
Day-      Friday (because it's boys show and tell)
Shape-   Circle
Song-     I Stand All Amazed
Movie-   Frozen & Despicable Me 2
Thing-   Daddy
Animal- Spinasourous

The kid was way too addicted to sippy cups and he would never drink water out of them, which meant he was drinking a lot of flavored water, juice or chocolate milk aka way too much sugar. I told him when he turned 4, no more sippy cups, and he totally went along with it! I wasn't sure it would stick but he even reminded me on his birthday, no more sippys mom! He now drinks only water out of his new camelback water bottle and he keeps that in his room for quiet time and at bed or will drink out of a normal cup (no straws either) for meals.

So I'd say that was the biggest change that happened when he turned four. But his mind is seriously always going and it's been so fun to watch him learn and grow.

He now is fascinated by numbers, and is always counting things and is starting to be able to recognize not just 1-9, but 25, 42, etc putting the 2-digit numbers together. When we're at a red light he'll figure out what number car we are (aka how many cars are in front of us) and then try to track those cars along the road - passing number one is always fun for him.

He is getting much more interested in putting letters together to spell words and reading. He recognizes all his letters and now we point them out and sound them together when we read books. He is able to memorize and identify some words which has made reading a whole new adventure. I am hoping to help him start reading this year. Thanks to some apps on the iPad for helping with this I think, yay for quiet time learning!

He enjoys typing on the computer and spelling different words, normally his friends' names.

He is completely fascinated by the map of the United States and a few weeks ago could correctly identify all of the states. He has 3 map puzzles, 2 apps on his iPad and a map placemat he studies at every meal. Some of his favorite states are Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Washington (probably because they are cool shapes or fun to say I'm guessing) Tyler went on a work trip to Nevada and he thought it was so cool that Daddy went to that state because it looks like a diamond :)

His puzzle of choice, and he does it in just a few minutes

He still loves playing with train tracks and now enjoys building more intricate tracks on his own. I don't have any pictures of his recent big ones but this one below was a "little track" he made for Edward. He used to get really frustrated while building tracks when they didn't match up just right but now he has figured out how to manipulate them that he can make it work on his own. 

He still also loves playing with race cars, trucks, planes, legos, and dinosaurs. He is starting to get into super heroes a little bit but I'm enjoying this innocent little boy stage while it lasts. His imagination is really cute and he loves playing games with Abbie, they play either the zoo game, the preschool game, the restaurant game or the toy store game at least once a day. He comes up with the game and luckily she normally always enjoys playing whatever he comes up with. She is normally the purple baby hippo in the zoo and he is some type of alligator, frog or snake. She is the little girl and he is the daddy dropping her off at preschool where I am the teacher. He then will take her "home" and put her down for a "nap" and watching him read books to her and tuck her in with a blanket on the couch is one of the sweetest things ever.

He really is so sweet and such a good big brother to Abbie. He loves giving my tummy kisses and talking about the little baby. He got a doughnut one day and wanted me to take a bite of it so the baby could taste it and would say it's yummy :)

Doughnuts for baby!

 Since being in primary, he has loved learning the new primary songs and now the primary cd is what we listen to often in the car. He loves He Sent His Son, and I Stand All Amazed since those are the ones we've been learning. He requests me to sing either I Love to See the Temple or Families Can Be Together Forever at night. He rarely wanted me to sing songs at bedtime before primary. 

 After being in the hospital with Kawisaki's last April, he has not been sick since. Like seriously, we've never been to the doctor for a sick visit, it's kind of amazing. He's had a runny nose or a slight cough here or there and has randomly thrown up at night a couple times (he's got a tender tummy like the Christensen family) but nothing that prevented him from going to school or playing like normal. We are so blessed.

 He is such an obedient little boy and I love him so much. He loves snuggling with me on the couch and sharing the blanket on cold mornings. He always remembers to take his vitamin every morning and reminds us about family night multiple times a week. He never fights bedtime, and wakes up happy every morning. Abbie is his best friend, Daddy is his hero and I'm lucky enough to be his mom.

Jackson's 4-year-old Paw Patrol Party

Jackson's party this year was pretty low key but fun! We had discussions for weeks about what the theme of his party would be. He changed his mind several times and then settled on a dragon party. Seriously? He doesn't own a single toy dragon and had just started being interested in them that week but I wasn't sure it was an idea worthy of a birthday party. He stuck with dragon for a few days and finally I thought of something that might trump dragon in his mind - Paw Patrol. This is a new show on Nick Jr. all about rescue dogs who drive different trucks - perfect combo for this boy! He got introduced to the show while we were in Florida watching tv at our hotel in the mornings. They also happened to have a paw patrol marathon on Valentines Day so he got to watch it the whole flight home from the trip. We don't have Nickelodeon so he hasn't been able to watch it here but he still talks about the show and we discuss which dog is his favorite.

So naturally when I introduced paw patrol for a theme he was really excited about it. I figured I'd just get some paw patrol decorations but mostly stick to dogs for the theme. We bought him one episode through Amazon that he got for his birthday, so he watched that every morning before his party on Saturday.

We had the party Saturday, March 29 from 11 - 12:30 and just had it at our house since it was still cold outside and actually had a forecast for rain that day. He invited Levi, Nate, Eleanor & Audrey from his preschool class and they all came! He also invited Brinley & Devin from church (James, William & Aaron couldn't come) but we still had lots of fun and plenty of friends!

We served different types of hot dogs, watermelon, apples & veggie sticks. Tyler grilled all the hot dogs and luckily we made a lot since most of the moms stayed and ate too.

Jackson with the food table

Thanks to nickjr.com for providing all of the paw patrol party decor. Since it's such a new show, there is nothing available to buy in stores. There is literally not a single toy on the market yet so party supplies weren't happening. Luckily they had lots of free printables we took advantage of, including a poster now hanging in Jackson's room. The other dog themed decor came from the dollar store and I ordered the balloons from amazon.

The cupcake toppers was as fancy as we got

Each friend chose a puppy to adopt for the take home treat of the party

We played pin-the-fire-badge on Marshall

Nate, Eleanor, Levi, Brinley, Devin, Audrey, Jackson

All the friends (and a couple little sisters) picking their dogs name and coloring on the adoption certificate

The gang eating lunch (notice Abbie sharing a chair with her brother)

The gang eating cupcakes

Jackson got some great presents from his generous friends!

It was a great party that we threw together pretty fast but I'm sure the kids all had a great time :) There were no injuries or tears even, the kids had fun but weren't too crazy so seriously it couldn't have gone much better!

Jackson the 4 Year Old!

Jackson turned 4 on Monday, March 24th and we had a great day! Daddy was able to stay home a little longer that morning and helped make Jackson his recent favorite breakfast of pancakes and bacon. He woke up to balloons, a birthday banner and he even got to open a few presents too. He got a new outfit, shoes and dinosaur camel-back water bottle along with a couple toys. He had been asking for Chug from the movie Planes and he opened a new v-tech dino, T-Don the Pteranodon which was a huge hit.

After just about every present he exclaimed, I love it!

No more sippy cups for this boy, just water bottles and big boy cups!

Gotta love chocolate chip pancakes!

And the lucky boy was able to go to preschool on his birthday and Daddy got to drop him off which was a special treat. He got to see all his friends, wear a crown and be the line leader of course. I dropped Abbie off at her friends house and was able to bring a treat to Jackson's preschool. He was also supposed to pick a favorite book that we could read to his class, so we brought his special book, Frogs that he got from Nana. He was so excited to have me read it to his friends and point out all his favorite frogs (bumblebee frog, red eyed tree frog, strawberry and blue dart frogs and the big African bull-frog) The treat he requested was donuts, and not the big ones the baby donut balls aka chocolate munchkin donut holes from Dunkin Donuts. We included his favorite food of strawberries too and put them on skewers so each kid got a skewer with donuts and strawberries. Of course I forgot to take pictures of any of this but his teacher was taking photos, I'll have to get copies later :)

After finishing his donut and strawberry treat.

In his new birthday outfit looking way too old.

Since Abbie was already at a friends' house, I was able to take Jackson to a special mom-son lunch date. I was hoping he'd choose something else, but I should have known he chose McDonalds! He got the chicken nugget kids meal with lemonade and couldn't help but bring in his new favorite dinosaur toy too.

Say "French Fry!!!"

My four year old and me!

And while I'm not a huge fan of their food, it was kind of perfect that he got to play at their play-place since it was actually a really cold day and he wouldn't have gotten to run around and play outside anyways. A special surprise was his friend Emery from preschool was also at lunch! They were able to play together for a bit before we left to go get Abbie.

Pretty sure there's a little crush going on here actually...

During Abbie's nap I let Jackson open another present - the movie Frozen! It came out on DVD just a few days before his birthday so it was the perfect present for my Frozen lover and a perfect special quiet time activity for us. I felt a little bad for Abbie when she woke up and the movie had just ended so we watched a few of her favorite scenes again together.

Cuddle buddies

After Daddy got home he gave Jackson his big present. We thought he kind of knew he was getting a bike since we'd had him test out different sizes at stores the week before, but he hadn't mentioned it on that day and I guess he had forgotten about it! There hasn't been much bike riding going on this winter so luckily it's just spring time weather so he can start trying it out!

He opened the rest of his presents that night after a yummy dinner of fruit, sweet potato fries and cheeseburgers grilled by daddy! His other presents were a zoo lego set, an IronMan Action Figure, State Puzzle, Airplanes and a race car. 

Abbie was so excited that she got a present too, a snow white!

When I asked Jackson what kind of cake he wanted, he changed his mind several times. But he always was clear what he wanted on top (blueberry, strawberry, blueberry, strawberry - like a pattern) So we went with the classic chocolate bunt cake with his fruity request. 

Seemed random but he loved it!

Abbie is a serious cake eater

We had such a great day with our four year old and are so lucky to have him in our family!

Weekend Trip to Rhode Island

The second weekend of March we headed out to Rhode Island for the first time. Tyler had a free hotel night with Marriott that was about to expire so we thought we'd put it to use! We planned to hang out in the coastal town of Newport and booked our hotel the closest one we could find to there, which ended up being about 25 minutes outside town. The weather looked promising for both day but ended up being a little rainy Friday afternoon and windy Saturday morning but the temperatures weren't too low and we had a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

We really didn't do much research or planning before this trip, we just knew we wanted to see the mansions in Newport. I started looking up "activities to do with kids" literally as we were driving there. We got to town in the afternoon on Friday and went to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. We didn't want to spend the money to go in the actual museum with our kids so we ended up just touring the grounds. It might have been a bit more enjoyable if it was warmer, but it was still fun. Then we checked out the Redwood Library which is the oldest continually operating library in the country. It was founded in 1747 and while it didn't have much to do for kids it was neat to see and it was basically like a free museum. After that we drove around the coast and did an outside tour of the mansions. It was beautiful but pretty windy so we stayed in the car the whole tour. But there was some beautiful views and it was fun to be by the ocean again, we hadn't seen it in a while :)

Pictures from the library and tennis

Silly Face Jackson after dinner

We were all pretty hungry so we got an early dinner at the Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant. Tyler had heard about it from the Cooks and it was a fun family friendly place. Jackson loved the Motorcycle hanging from the ceiling and the old truck parked next to the salad bar behind us. Tyler ordered the Chicken Saltimbocca which came 2 sides and an unlimited salad bar, bread and soup (that basically fed all of us). It was the weekend before St. Patricks Day so they had all these Irish specials I was tempted to get but I ended up getting one something cheaper and smaller since Tyler and I were sharing his. I went with a small pizza and it ended up being one of the best I've ever had! It was a fig & prosciutto (thank you spell check) with a balsamic glaze. Seriously was not really what my pregnant self had been craving but glad I got it! I even took the leftovers back to the hotel and had some for a late night snack and with breakfast the next morning.  Anyways, I would totally recommend that place!

After driving around town for a bit we headed to our hotel, a Residence Inn. We got the kids to bed pretty effortlessly and crashed. It was March 14th aka "Pi Day" so I had Tyler run to the store and pick us up some pie for dessert. But after that we both ended up falling asleep on the couch watching TV - go us.

The next morning we took full advantage of their complimentary breakfast and then started to head back to Newport. When we checked the Google map we realized there was crazy bad traffic driving into town because of the St. Patrick's Day Parade. We then started talking options and realized that the kids would not really have fun at the mansions anyways and it might not even be worth the drive and money. So we totally had a change of plans and drove up to the Providence Children Museum instead.

So glad we did! It was a little pricey, we normally get discount passes from our libraries before going to any museums but we spent our whole morning there and both kids loved it. It was probably one of my top museums I've been to with kids!

Construction Worker Abbie

While there we were trying to find a place to get some good sea food or clam chowder for lunch. We settled on a place in Warwick down right on the Bay. We went to Iggy's Doughboys and Chowder house. I got clam chowder, Tyler got a fish sandwhich and we got the kids fish and chips but told them it was chicken nuggets. Abbie didn't end up eating too much but Jackson had quite a bit of the "chicken nuggets" and at the end of the meal Tyler told him he ate fish, he just laughed luckily and thought it was cool. It was a fun casual place right on the beach and the chowder was good but not as good as the kind I got in Cape Cod!

 We played around on the park and rocks down by the beach but then decided to drive back to CT so Abbie could take a nap. Well she never fell asleep so we ended up stopping in Mystic, CT right on the coast also. The weather was great so we strolled around the little downtown shops. We got a slice from the famous Mystic Pizza and then shared an ice cream on the bridge.

Walking across the bridge

Silly Faces!

Abbie and I walking to Mystic

Now she's starting to get in on the silly faces!

Happy boys after eating their pizza!

Now at this point it was about 3 pm and Abbie was very overdue for a nap although she was still acting ok. But she luckily fell asleep quickly after that and slept the whole hour drive back to our house. It was totally unplanned and random but we loved our little 30 hour vacation :)

The rest of February

Welcome back to New England...

This should have been what I posted at the end of the Florida trip post, because this is literally what we came home to. It had snowed just a bit while we were away! We flew home on Valentines Day but we didn't do anything too special that day honestly. We got the kids inside, fed them lunch and had nap and quiet time while Tyler and I (ok mostly Tyler) tackled the snow in the afternoon.

The next day was still ugly and a little snowy but we managed to get out of the house for a family valentine lunch date to cheesecake factory. We all wore our valentine outfits, thank you grammy!

Cheesecake Cheesy grins

Then the next day (sunday) was our 7th wedding anniversary. I really don't remember what we did. I think Tyler made greek food (my favorite) and I made some dessert of his choice. This is what happens when I blog 6 weeks later. Our Florida trip counted as our anniversary presents to each other that year. But maybe the other reason I can't remember many details of the day is that was the day the Bishop called me in and asked me to be primary president. A little overwhelming, especially since I'm replacing his wife, President Monson's grand-daughter.

7 years ago :)

The next week Tyler was off to SLC for a work trip, the first time ever he had to go there for work! It also coincided with the big Qualtrics Summit and since Tyler's company is a customer he was asked to be a speaker. (It also helps that Troy works there and Tyler knows the CEO) But it turned out to be a huge crowd that Tyler spoke to!

Front Row for Boys II Men!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But for the rest of us when we got home, we got back in the routine of preschool, play-dates, puzzles, libraries and even a couple museums. There is a children's museum in Bristol (where ESPN headquarters is) so Jackson got to check out their interactive exhibit and try his hand at the SportsCenter desk!

In case he changes his mind about being a police officer...

His obsession with the USA map started these weeks...

We finally bought the kitchen!

She loves her puzzles!

Had to be big enough for them to play nicely together of course

Since we traveled so much this winter, Jackson hadn't done any other activities since soccer ended in November. So finally I signed him up for a 6 week basketball clinic that started up the end of February. It's called the Little Dribblers (same place as Little Kickers) but Jackson always pronounces it "Little Jigglers" and it makes me laugh. But I think he would prefer soccer as it's easier for 3 year olds to get the hang of, but he enjoys this too! He definitely improved his dribbling skills over the weeks. He gets frustrated with it though because he knows he isn't doing it right.

Stretching before his first practice

He really liked Coach O

There were a couple days where it got warm enough for outside play :)