It's a BOY... and a BOY! :)

No, no, I am not having twins, but my sister Justine found out she is also having a boy three days after I found out that we are! :) So that means our parents are going to have 3 grandsons and no granddaughters! This is particularly weird in our family because my brother and my cousin Harrison are the ONLY boys in our generation, so starting out the next generation with all boys is definitely new and exciting for the whole family. :)

Here is our little man! :)

The ultrasound went great and he appears to be healthy and growing right on schedule.

It's a bummer at the same time though because Justine and her new baby will be stuck in Germany until 2013. :( So her baby will be Kaden's age before they can move back to America and we (the family) can have a real relationship with him. That makes me sad since I never really missed much of Justine's life and I wish our little guys could grow up living close to each other and being friends, but that doesn't appear to be in the cards for us.

As far as our busy life goes, it's still going. It's been harder to leave in the mornings lately because Kaden is so vocal and expressive now. He tells me every morning, "Don't go to work Mommy, please!" And it takes everything I have not to cry and just give in to his simple demands and stay home with him. The other morning I said, "But Mommy has to go to work so we can have money to buy food to eat." And he said, "I'll buy money Mommy, it's ok." MELT. My sweet, sweet thoughtful boy. :(

The positive side of being so busy is that this pregnancy is FLYING by. By this time with Kaden I was already sick of being pregnant and just wanted a beer and to sleep without someone kicking me in the ribs. This time, partly due to an anterior-lying placenta, I rarely feel the baby and when I do, this baby more likes to roll around as opposed to violent punches and kicks like Kaden preferred (thought I still want that beer:)). And here I am at 22 weeks and I barely feel pregnant most of the time (except the nuisance my ever-growing belly presents when I want to do such things as tie my shoes).

Also, Stu has been so much more helpful and supportive this time around. It's so much nicer being older and "wiser" with this one because now he thinks to help me out without me asking for help, and does things to make my life easier. And on the flip side, I care so much less about the little, unimportant things, that I find myself so much more relaxed and happy this time around (while still be constantly overheated, sore, and tired :)). Because it isn't "new" to us, we're both able to just be excited about our new family member instead of being scared, apprehensive, etc. like we were with Kaden because it was ALL new and we had no idea what to expect.

So things have been going pretty good. We're both chugging along with school and it's going ok. My English class is without a doubt still my hardest (if anyone has read For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, or Light in August by William Faulkner, and wants to chat about it, lemme know. :)) but also my favorite by light years. I hate my Art History class with the fire of a thousand suns (or the professor, rather... who looks EXACTLY like Moby, as a helpful fellow student pointed out to me, and I can no longer take him seriously), and Math is typical dreadful Math, 'nuff said.

Stu is doing pretty well in his classes (and has a test in one today actually!). He studies hard all the time and is really working for the grades he has. I am so proud of him! If I had to guess, I'd say he probably likes his Psychology class the most and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if we had a change in major in the next few months. :)

It has been so nice outside here lately and I LOVE it. We got Kaden a swingset (thanks Granddad and Momma E!) for the backyard and he is the cutest thing out there on it. He and Jasper are the best of friends and they act just like siblings, playing sweetly one minute, hurting each other the next. Little crappers.

Nostalgia.

It's amazing how much life changes so fast. Before we left Abu Dhabi, it was something we'd both been dreaming about for a LONG time. Now that we're back in America, the UAE seems a million miles away. And I don't mean that physically because obviously it is not very close to Idaho, but mentally. While we were there, America and getting home was all we could think about it, and it feels weird that we don't think about Abu Dhabi more since we've been back. It was our home for a long time after all.

But now we've been away long enough that the bad things don't seem so bad and the things we miss start to nag. We talk about going back all the time, for the money, the simpler life, the shawarmas :). I think we both finally appreciate what we had there, when we can look at it from a distance. Living in America again is every bit as good as I'd hoped, but we fit there too. I was looking back at pictures of how much we did and accomplished while we were there and how much of Kaden's development happened there, and I know Abu Dhabi will always hold a special place in our hearts and memories as we move forward with "real" life now.

Speaking of real life now, I am freaking exhausted! Haha. Maybe that is why remembering the days when ALL I had to accomplish was keeping my son alive, and having dinner ready for my husband, seem so fancy. In all honesty, it is absolutely harder to be away from Kaden all day than I thought it would be. I always miss him and regret that I am not there to share his day with him. Not to mention with the pressures of school and that little part about growing another human, and my days are pretty tiring. But soon this semester will be over, a new baby will be here, and we will fall into yet another new routine with our new addition and I'll probably miss these days. :)

Speaking of the new baby, I had my 20 week check-up yesterday (half-way done! :)) and everything looks great. I am right on track (if not a little behind) with my weight gain, MY vitals are perfect, and baby's heartbeat is 151 and super strong. We go in this Saturday (only three days! woot woot!) to find out what we are having and do the anatomy scan to make sure everything is growing as it should be. While I still FEEL like I am having another boy, I can't help but hope for pink! :) Plus Kaden is adamant that he wants a sister and not a brother, so who am I to dash our hopes until we know for SURE? :)

School, et al.

So, I opened up a window for Blogger early this morning when I got to work. Then I realized how behind I was in reading my many favorite blogs and the reason and desire to blog were suddenly lost.

Now, I am back from class and I am feeling only slightly more interested in it, but I feel like the world's worst blogger and I can't help but feeling like I have become exactly like every other blog I used to read, whose owner went back to America and dropped off the face of the blog-world.

Determined to not be so cavalier with my blog (heh :)), I am here to recap what's been going on.

We still have Jasper, though after a few days of him being a particular pain in the ass, I found myself silently wondering if it would be SO horrid to cash in on their "30-day policy". Doubts aside, he really is a great dog and Kaden just loves him. They play together so much longer than Kaden used to play by himself. And although they do find double the trouble to get into, they are two of a kind and have become the best of friends. I'm glad we got him (and have kept him! haha)

School is going fine. There are some days when I get home (night class days in particular) where I fall into the nearest comfy chair and feel sorry for myself for having left before the sun came up, and gotten home after it went down. It can't last long though, because I have a husband and toddler to cuddle, and typically a crap-ton of stuff to get done to prepare for the next day to do it all over again. I do try to remember, in my darkest moments, that there are so many people out there less fortunate than me, and while I envy my husband's ability to stay home with Kaden and only have to focus on school, it could really be so much worse (I could live in Haiti...). I have a good breakdown about once every two weeks or so for now though.

Work is fine as well. Again, working full time and going to school and growing another person, is really all hard work by themselves, together they are downright debilitating some days, but I just keep telling myself, "tomorrow will be better" and it usually is. We've been taking full advantage of the time we DO have as a family and it has made those moments even sweeter.

For example, last night we got to christen our new fire pit we got this weekend. It was great. We made frozen pizza for dinner and had a "picnic" (which Kaden ALWAYS thinks is the coolest way to eat a meal... and let's be honest, isn't it???) outside by the fire. Then we made s'mores of course! I did take some pictures but didn't have a chance to upload them yet, so I will post them later.

Yesterday was also Joslyn's baby shower. For those who aren't on Facebook, or don't keep up, Joslyn and Aaron have had a hard time having a baby. After several miscarriages, this one is a keeper after Jo underwent a cerclage, but he is likely going to have some trouble with an arm and possibly a leg. The neonatal surgeon won't know the extent of the surgeries the baby may have to undergo until after he is born. For now, Jo has a scheduled c-section on February 22nd. We're hoping everything goes well and he is not as bad off as he could be. But the party went well, I think everyone had a good time, and it's always nice to see people you rarely get a chance to see.

That's about it from me for now. Back to the grindstone! :)