25 weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 25 weeks

Size of baby: About a pound and a half and the size of an eggplant!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 12 pounds

Maternity Clothes: I'm wearing maternity shirts but since I'm carrying high most maternity pants still don't fit. Thank goodness for the bella band!

Gender: Boy!

Movement: I feel him all the time now! Its funny because I would only feel Mason move during the day. With this pregnancy I pretty much only feel him move at night and first thing in the morning.

Sleep: I'm really missing sleeping on my back but other than that I'm sleeping okay.

Symptoms: Starting to get heartburn pretty frequently. I'm just thankful I have gone this long without it getting too bad!

What I miss: All these holiday parties are really making me wish I could just have a glass of wine!

Cravings: Spaghetti, all sweets

Best Moment this week: Reaching the 24 week milestone. Its comforting knowing that if something happened and he was born early he would now have a chance to survive.

What I am looking forward to: Delivery day!!! Wow its probably too early to be wishing for that!

"Mason-isms"

So 19 months is definitely my favorite age so far. Its the most challenging but that is worth is for all the laughs and love we get from our little guy! He has done so many funny things lately that I don't want to forget about so I thought I would make a quick post about some cute "Mason-isms."

- The other day I asked Mason if he wanted to go outside and kick the ball. When he knows he is going outside he always grabs shoes for him and for me. I had some heels on the floor that I wore to a wedding a few nights before that. Mason runs over, grabs the heels and excitedly shouts "Mommy!" I couldn't help but laugh picturing me six months pregnant kicking the ball in high heels.

- Jared has been teaching Mason a few new words a week. One of those words is dark. The other night he put him to bed and instead of shouting our names like he normally does when we leave, he just started shouting "DARK!"

- We told Mason last night that we wanted to go buy him some boots. Before we knew it, he took off upstairs. I go up to find him in our closet holding up one of mine and one of Jared's boots. He was so proud of himself that he found boots without us having to buy any!

- Mason loves loves loves Elmo. Any time he is in the living room he will tell us "mote!" (remote). When we get the remote he then promptly requests "Melmo!" and will ask over and over until Elmo comes on the screen.

- The other day I was getting him dressed and told him to find his pants. He didn't find his pants, but instead found his shirt and was trying with all his might to get his legs through the arm holes.

I love how much joy and laughter this little guy brings to our lives! It definitely makes the rough days all worth it!

My attempt at Christmas Pictures

A few days ago I decided that I would dress Mason up and attempt to get some good pictures of him for Christmas. Anyone who has a toddler understands that this is not an easy task! As a matter of fact, I don't think I have tried to do this in a few months just because I knew I would fail! It seems like every time I get out the picture Mason either looks away, won't smile, walks right up to the lens, is running around so the picture is blurry.....I could go on and on! This time however, he actually cooperated somewhat! The pictures didn't turn out exactly as well as I hoped but definitely better than I was expecting! So with that said, here are some recent pictures of our little man!

20 weeks!

I can't believe that I am at the halfway point of this pregnancy! In less that 20 weeks we will meet our precious new baby boy! Now that we know what we are having it is really starting to sink in that we will have two kids! Here is my 20 week update!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 20 weeks

Size of baby: About 12 ounces and the length of a banana!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 8 pounds

Maternity Clothes: I'm wearing a mix of regular and maternity

Gender: Boy! No name yet but hopefully soon!!

Movement: I feel him move every day now! This is my very favorite thing about being pregnant!

Sleep: I'm really missing sleeping on my back but other than that I'm sleeping okay.

Symptoms: Not many....I'm so thankful to sweet baby brother for making this such an easy pregnancy! If it was not for my growing bump I would forget I was pregnant!

What I miss: Now that it is getting cold, I would really love to have coffee in the mornings! I've been making decaf but its just not the same!

Cravings: Hamburgers, all sweets and pineapple

Best Moment this week: It sounds silly but finally finding a pair of maternity jeans that are not too big in the waist! It is so nice to be done with the Bella Band!

What I am looking forward to: Mason meeting his baby brother for the first time!

Mason is getting a baby.....

BROTHER!! Last night we had our gender reveal dinner and we cut into the cake to see blue! I'm a little sad I won't be buying bows and dresses but so thankful for another precious little boy and even more excited to watch Mason and his brother grow up together! The funniest thing is that this is now the 12th boy born in a row in our family! Jared's dad had a brother. Jared's parents had five boys and now there are five grandsons! At least I know that there will be no shortage of boy playmates for Mason and baby brother! We don't have a name yet...we have a few in mind but can't seem to agree. Hopefully we will come up with our choice soon so I can start personalizing stuff in the nursery! They did say that my due date looks to be about a week earlier than I originally thought so we should meet this little guy at the end of March! I can't wait for this new addition to our family! Here are some pictures from last night!

Showing off pictures of our new little one!

The cake!

Here we go!

If only he understood what was happening!

Today's Ultrasound!

We just got back from our anatomy scan for baby #2! Everything looked great and this little one was really hamming it up for the camera. We got so many cute shots of it sucking it's thumb and resting its face on it's arms. We will know the gender tonight!! We wanted to do something special to find out this time so we had the tech write down the gender in an envelope which I then took to a bakery. The bakery is making a cake that says "It's a ......" on the front, then has pink or blue filling on the inside. Tonight we are meeting our families for dinner and will cut the cake and find out with everyone there!

With that said, Jared and I are both thinking its a boy! A few things the tech said just made us think that so we will see tonight if we are right. I am just thanking God that we have a healthy baby and honestly will be happy either way! If we have a boy- obviously it will be so cute to see Mason have a brother and best friend so close in age. I would love watching them grow up together. Not to mention we have all that we need for a boy so we wouldn't have to buy much! I feel like such a boy mom now and totally know what to expect with boys!

If it's a girl we would be so happy to have one of each! I would love buying girly stuff, decorating a pink room and getting an experience that is completely different than I had with Mason. Tonight we will know! I can't wait!!!

Halloween Weekend

We had such a fun Halloween weekend! We had things planned Friday, Saturday and Sunday so Mason's costume definitely got a lot of use! On Friday, we had our playgroup Halloween party! All the little ones looked so cute in their costumes! Here is a picture of all the moms and toddlers!

On Saturday, we went to a joint 1st and 3rd birthday party for my two nephews. Mason loved playing with all their new toys! Later that day our neighborhood had a fall festival complete with bounce houses, a petting zoo and pony rides! I'm so thankful to live in a neighborhood with so many fun family activities! Mason loved riding the pony so we will definitely have to find a way to let him do that again soon!

Finally on Sunday we went trick or treating! Mason did great! He was a little unsure at the first few houses but once he warmed up to the whole thing, he was grabbing candy on his own and saying "bye!" as we left every house. I can't wait until next Halloween when Mason will have a little brother or sister to trick or treat with!

Mason and his cousin Liev

All ready to go!

Mason and Daddy at the first house!

Who really needs a basket for candy anyway?

Happy Halloween!