2014

It's always hard for me to remember what we've done in the past year. Maybe it's because we move around a lot or maybe it's because I always think in school years from August-September instead of calendar years. But I'm going to try and be better about keeping track of our family adventures for my children's sake. So here goes my sad attempt.

In 2014 we spent the entire year in the same house! It's sort of a miracle, we spent two Christmases here! We love our yellow house.

We visited Utah in January for "Christmas." Josh got to come with us this time so that was extra special! Definitely a lovely change to have help for the plane ride!

We went to Seattle for fun one day in February and took Cooper to the aquarium.

We found out we were pregnant right after Mother's Day.

We all went for the first time to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma in May. It is a gorgeous zoo. Cooper wasn't too enthused by the animals though.

We went to Utah for the Gowans family reunion in June.

We went to Portland with our cousins in August.

We celebrated our 5th anniversary in August. Our last two anniversaries away from family have been pretty low-key. I guess that's what happens when grandparents aren't around to take your child for the weekend! I don't even remember what we did, poor Josh! But I am super grateful to have spent five years with my sweet Joshua.

We celebrated Cooper's 2nd birthday in August with a fun party with his friends.

We found out we were having a girl in September. The ultrasound tech just casually said, "you're having a girl" in the middle of a sentence about something else. At first I wasn't sure what she was talking about and Josh and I just sat there. It was a very anticlimactic announcement. Plus Cooper was super restless and trying to go stiff as a board while Josh was trying to hold him. Haha. But then once the news sunk in we were really excited, and really surprised! We both thought for sure we were having a boy.

Cooper had a very successful Halloween as Thomas the Train. We only took him to about six houses, because it's kind of embarrassing collecting candy for a 2 year old when it's obvious his pregnant mother is going to wind up eating it, but he loved getting candy from people and putting it in his bucket!! He wound up being a lot more excited about it then we thought he would be. It's so fun to experience holidays with little kids.

We went to Utah in November where Cooper got his first hair cut and discovered a love for jungle jims.

We had Thanksgiving at a casino in Ocean Shores which had all you can eat king crab legs. Josh and I gave Cooper the iPhone and a granola bar and then ignored him while we ate crab for two hours. It was awesome.

This picture made us late for our reservation. Something Josh will never forget!

And we had a wonderful Christmas in our yellow house.

It was a quiet year. I was busy gestating and Josh was busy working on his MPA (only one more semester to go!!!!) Cooper and I spent our days at book babies and music makers and at the park. And we spent our weekends at the children's museum, wandering Olympia, at the beach, and hiking around.

Happy New Years! We loved our 2014 and the sweet, little not-quite-toddler we got to spend it with! 

But I do hate it when people only share the highlights so let me also share our worst moment of 2014. It is not hard to decide! In November on our trip to Utah Cooper came down with an AWFUL stomach flu. It was a really bad one. It had been going for about a week when we were due to fly home and he hadn't thrown up in 4 days so we decided to take the risk and fly home, we made it through the plane ride and airport with no vomit (thank goodness) but as soon as Josh picked us up and we got all strapped into the car to drive our 2 hour drive home from the airport, Cooper barfed alllllll over the backseat, me, himself, his car seat, some of our luggage, I mean it was everywhere. And it was barfed up milk which is the worst. AH! Aside from the disgusting mess it was to ride home covered in milk vomit, I was just so sad for my sweet sick buddy. And I didn't know why he had started throwing up again and I was convinced he was going to be sick for forever and I was emotionally drained from a whole week already of stomach flu on vacation and didn't think I could handle another one. I think I cried all night! I HATE seeing my poor kid sick, it absolutely breaks my heart. So that was our worst moment of 2014. I'm very happy that Cooper is healthy most of the time!

Christmas 2014

This Christmas with Cooper was wonderful of course. The last two years we've visited family right before or right after the holidays because of the lowered ticket prices which is fun but a little sad on actual Christmas Day. But it is so sweet to see our mailbox fill up with gifts my family sends to Cooper. He is always well thought of and loved even though we're far away and that is so special.

Cooper loved our Christmas tree, the first thing he would do every morning was run to the tree, plug in the lights, and give it a hug. He also loved our stockings, he loved to point to each one and have me label them "Dada" "Mama" "Cooper" "Baby Sister."

We painted Christmas ornaments with our friends in Utah at Color Me Mine.

Lyla is a little more enthusiastic about taking pictures than Cooper!

We went to our ward Christmas party that Cooper had a blast at, leading all the Christmas
songs and cheering for the kids doing the nativity.

We also took him to a light show in town set to music and videos and Cooper just loved it. It was so fun to watch him dance around and be so entertained by Christmas lights! (We didn't get any pictures of that.)

Most of the season we were all really sick and I had pneumonia so we didn't do as many Christmas things as we would have liked. We didn't take Cooper to see Santa either but I think it was probably his preference, I really don't think he would have enjoyed it.

For Christmas Cooper got a new train set, a basketball hoop, a t ball set, a Thomas pillow pet, a potato head, two Olivia books, a Thomas book, a Thomas hat, a Thomas DVD, a Tonka trunk, and some other little things. Between us and our families Cooper got really spoiled!

(These pictures are of a sad phone quality but our camera batteries died after the second picture we took, of course.)

Christmas Eve in his new garbage truck pajamas.

Christmas Day opening his Olivia books.

Riding his poor Tonka Trunk.

We have a video of him seeing his new train set for the first time, it starts out with him so excited and playing happily and then ends with him getting frustrated at his trains and kicking his tracks over. Hahaha, wonderful Christmas memories.

Baby sister got a baby monitor and a sound machine, that's what you get when you spend Christmas in utero! I got a beautiful gold necklace from Josh with a C and a R on it. And Josh got a date with me. Lucky!

We ate our Christmas dinner and our Christmas cookies that my grandparents always remember to mail me and facetimed both of our families and that was it! Josh and I are so thankful to have our sweet Cooper to play Santa for. He gets so excited and is so fun to spoil! I love love love having young kids at Christmas time, surely these are the best Christmases of life!

Nursery #2

So Miss Thing's nursery is almost done. Which is good since there is only six very short weeks until she makes her arrival. Ah! How come second pregnancies fly by so fast? It's terrifying! I'm convinced we won't be ready! But then again that could be my crazy nesting overdrive talking.

We also did some work to Cooper's toddler room---

We painted a dresser for him so baby girl could have his changing table.

Before:

 After:

And we finally got some cuter curtains to cover the world's biggest window.

Baby girl's room: 

I embroidered a couple woodland-y things for her.

Don't you love her rug?! I know I sure do! I got it for a handsome penny too which makes me love it even more.

Her walls might get painted which would make it look a lot nicer. Oh white walls...

I love her little fox mobile and fox sheets.

She needs some more stuff on her shelf but it's pretty tricky to buy cute little things in small towns.

So there it is. At least she has a place to sleep! When we got her room all set up Cooper walked in and took a look around (we used to have some of his toys in this room) and I told him this was going to be baby sister's room, and he walked around and thought about it for a while and then finally said, "Otay." So she has Cooper's blessing to use this room which is good. Speaking of my cute Cooper, every time we ask him where baby sister is he lifts up his shirt and points to his tummy. Haha! He has the part about the baby being in a tummy down but I guess he's a little confused on exactly whose tummy she's in. Poor buddy, I hope he's not all freaked out by all the books we've read and talks we've had and is walking around thinking how he's going to get this baby out of his belly. Alright that's all for now! Time to take one of my last ever daily naps!

Baby Girl

So I am 21 weeks along with a sweet baby girl. And like a typical second child she is already quite neglected. I haven't even blogged about the poor neglected girl's pregnancy yet which I figured I'd better do so she has something written down about it that she can read one day. I love you baby girl, but your big brother takes up most of my energy these days. He's nuts, just you wait and see.

The first trimester...
Cooper came as quite the umm... surprise to our family and when I told Josh I was pregnant he said a curse word and then wandered the house silently with his hands over his face for a few hours. This time around the pregnancy was much anticipated and I really wanted a sweet special reaction when I told Josh I was pregnant, something along the lines of him sweeping me off my feet and whispering sweet words to my embryo. I took the test when he was at work and then that night when we sat down to dinner I said, "So I have some news..." And Josh immediately said, "You're pregnant." I said yes, and then Josh leaned over the table and gave me a high five. Hahaha 0 for 2 for pregnancy announcements.

The first trimester wasn't too bad. I was mainly just extremely exhausted, but luckily for me Cooper boy is an excellent napper so I got to take a nap every day. It was quite nice. It was also summer so Josh wasn't too busy with classes and could help me out more so that was nice! I did get the stomach flu once which is a cruel thing for someone in their first trimester. Cooper had it too so I was cleaning up his vomit with my smell sensitivity. Unfortunate timing. I was more nauseous and less starving than I was with Cooper which sounds bad but it wound up with me not gaining 12 pounds in the first trimester so it turned out to be very worth it! This time around I started showing at 10 weeks. Which I think was about 6 weeks earlier than with Cooper. If I had another baby my tired uterus would probably pop out at 4 weeks. This time around I literally craved carrot sticks (dipped in ranch of course.) I even got a really bad stomach ache one day and realized that I had eaten two pounds of carrots in two days and that was probably why. With Cooper, I craved Taco Bell, so the vegetable cravings were a nice surprise. I even craved a Costco salad so bad that I made us drive an hour to Olympia one night just for a Costco salad. Then when we finally got there they were sold out! I couldn't say anything to the cashier, I just stood there silently crying and Josh had to come apologize to the cashier and guide me out of the line. Luckily Olympia has two Costcos and the other one had the salad, but I definitely cried all the way to the other Costco.

The second trimester...
I felt the baby move extremely early it seems like, at 15 weeks. I don't remember when I finally felt Cooper but I know it was past 20. So far baby girl is much less active than Cooper was, who was doing such constant acrobats that even the doctors and nurses would comment on it whenever they listened to my belly. Even when we went for our 20 week ultrasound the doctor couldn't get her to wake up, she had me eat, drink water, empty my bladder, walk around, but baby girl just stayed sleeping with her little legs crossed.

We were very surprised to find out we were having a girl. We thought for sure it was a boy and we had already named him Graham William Beach. Aw... And I had all of Cooper's clothes washed and unpacked and ready to go. Then we found out a little girly was on the way! I was very nervous at first, I don't know anything about girls, and I am absolutely horrible at doing hair- for that reason alone I should never have a girl, her poor hair... I think I finally got over my anxiety when I bought my first little girl outfit. Oh my little girl clothes!! They are so cute and so fun to buy! I'm going to need to go back to work so I can afford my baby girl clothes habit.

So far this pregnancy has been much smoother than Cooper's. I'm about 20 pounds lighter than I was with Cooper at this point which I think is helping me feel more comfortable. I've even been running still! Though I will probably switch to the elliptical any day now. My belly's starting to hurt from all the bouncing around. I even have hopes that I might escape The Feet. I think without so much weight gain and the heat of the summer, my feet might be manageable enough to actually walk on! Hooray!

We are very excited to snuggle our little girl. We're already putting together her nursery and her wardrobe. And we already have a name picked out! We really only need a few more things and we'll be set! Much easier prepping than it was with the first baby. I wanted to get most of it done in this trimester so the next one I can work on making as many freezer meals as I can muster.

I don't think Cooper knows what's going on even though we talk about it and read books about it. But I do think he's going to be a great big brother. He is so sweet and tender with babies. He loves to rock their car seats and touch their tiny toes! He will have to learn to share his parents though so we'll see how that goes. *Funny story: Someone was trying to describe me to someone else at church and finally when the other person figured out who I was she said, "Oh yeah Paige! She has the little boy in nursery that has to have one arm around his mom and one arm around his dad at all times!" Yep that's me! Send happy thoughts Cooper's way that he may find a way to share his parents come January.

So far that's about it. It seems like with Cooper I spent so much time thinking about being pregnant and feeling every little kick, but this time around I am chasing after a crazy two year old and most of the time I forget I'm pregnant and wonder why I'm so hungry. It's kind of sad that she doesn't get as much attention but it does make the pregnancy go by much faster. January will be here so soon Baby R! I can't wait to snuggle someone that doesn't struggle to get away from me!

16 weeks

18 weeks

20 weeks

Josh at 20 weeks :)

We tried really hard to get Cooper to take some pictures with a pink balloon to announce the baby's gender. It's always difficult to capture photos of the wild man. This was as close as we got. 

That's why we opted for stationary pumpkins instead. They hold still better than two year olds.

Our beautiful baby girl!