Joy School

This past September, Owen started joy school. He has three friends that are all within a couple months of his age, so the four moms figured they'd love doing "school" together. We only did it once a week, and we just switched who hosted it, so we each hosted once a month. We did a different letter every week until we got through the alphabet. We really didn't have a curriculum, we all just winged it the best we could! Owen loved it!
Once we got through the alphabet, we had a few random lessons, then the kids started doing swim class together.
We're planning on keeping this joy school thing going another year. I'm excited to see how it goes! Here's a few random pictures from Owen's "school" year!

 

Pregnancy Round 2

Just for documentation purposes, or in case I get baby hungry again in the next 6 months, I'm going to record all my pregnancy complaints here. 

My pregnancy with J 
(and comparing it to my pregnancy with Owen)

Weight gain: 25 lbs from prepregnancy weight to end weight. Technically more though because I lost a few pounds from being sick in the first trimester. (I think I gained around 30 lbs with Owen, so not much of a difference there.) I lost weight in my first trimester, put the pounds on like it was my job during the second trimester, and hardly gained any in the third. (Last pregnancy I put on over 50% of my weight gain during my third trimester). Luckily, I didn't gain too much weight in my face or swell too bad this pregnancy. I pretty much stuck to getting bigger in my belly and a little bit in my arms. (My face got pretty puffy last pregnancy!) I am happy to say I think I looked a lot better this pregnancy compared to last, just based on where I gained my weight!

Sickness: yup. I spent many days puking my guts out from nausea/morning sickness again this time around. I never found medication that helped without putting me to sleep. I was very negative about the ordeal because every morning I felt like I had to pick my poison. A: Don't take meds and puke all day, or B: Take meds and sleep on the couch all day. B sounds like the winner except for the fact that I have a three year old who is terrible at playing by himself, and a husband who would probably just wear dirty clothes if I didn't do the laundry. haha, love you! I was consistently nauseas until about week 18. After week 18, I still experienced some nausea, but it would come and go quickly and sporadically.(I was suuuper sick with Owen's pregnancy, but was able to manage it with meds. I had to take meds every single day my whole pregnancy otherwise I'd puke, but I was very grateful for zofran that go-around!)
To continue my rant about sickness, I also had acid stomach which also caused me to throw up now and again. This was the worrrrrsssstttt! This acid stomach thing lasted my whole pregnancy. 90% of foods tasted bad and/or gave me stomach pains and heartburn. Another pick-my-poison situation where A: let my stomach get pretty empty between meals to relieve acid stomach, but spike nausea, or B: keep food in my stomach to relieve morning sickness but still feel sick because of my acid stomach. (heartburn was only a problem with my first pregnancy during the first and last few weeks)
Man, pregnancy's rough! I keep saying my baby weight isn't going anywhere anytime soon because I'm just so happy to be enjoying food again that I want to eat everything in sight!

Cravings: The first couple weeks of pregnancy, like weeks 4-6, I wanted spicy foods! I have never been one to seek out anything hot and spicy so this was a funny one for me. I wanted my mouth to be on fire! Hot cheetos and spicy tacos were hitting the spot! I have a theory that this is what caused my acid stomach to be so bad- since I had never eaten like that before in my life. Other than that, no cravings, because food was gross. I ate a lot of sugary/starchy carbs because interestingly enough, those were the only foods my stomach didn't freak out on. (no real cravings with Owen either).

Aches & Pains: Randomly, month seven was really hard on my feet. For a few weeks I was icing, rubbing, epson-salt bathing my feet every night because they ached so bad. Somehow, it only lasted a month, thankfully! and I am singing grateful praises that I didn't have sciatic pain this time. (Owen's pregnancy I dealt with sciatic nerve pain from months 5-9. I literally carried around a foam covered toilet seat to sit on, plus went to physical therapy the pain was so bad. I also got those painful but also funny charlie horses in my calves all. the. time. It's odd that I didn't have those again either!)

Activity Level: Normal running and hiit workouts until about week 16- I know, I'm a baby for quitting that early! Yoga almost every day until about 32 weeks. Coached lacrosse consistently until week 35. (Pretty similar to my pregnancy with Owen but I think I was slightly more active this time.)

These boys are obviously so worth it, but that should do the trick on keeping me from another one for a while!

Father's Day 2018

Thanks for being a great dad, Gav <3

May 2018

Our big event for May was a little Arkansas getaway for Gavin and I. That trip deserves its own post. My mom came out to stay and play with Owen, so it was exciting for him too.  

We celebrated Mother's day. I love hearing the kids sing in church on Mother's day, and I think this is the first time I got mother's day gifts from Owen, which is exciting! He picked out the game "slime ball" for me, and painted me a picture at church.

Owen went hit balls at the driving range a few times this month and he is just the cutest little golfer. He's pretty good too! 

Our friends Troy and Jazmin came up from Houston for Memorial Day Weekend. We went to Joe Pool Lake and a dinner date with them and the Knaras's. Kalie is due with her second girl in July!

We are about out of the perfect weather and into the heat of the summer, but we've been taking advantage of it with pool days, splash pads, and bike rides. 

And a few more pictures of Owen being cute, funny, and preparing for a baby!