Our recent adventures

Last week we got to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon with Anthony's parents. After dinner they realized that they had never actually seen the town we live in or the beach so we went for a drive and a walk!

 Anthony's dad took a picture of us taking a picture :)

 We walked all along the boardwalk over the dunes next to the beach in search of animals and gopher tortoises. We finally found one!

 Then we took a walk farther down the path to see if a geocache we found last year was still there. It was!

Last Monday I was on the phone with my mom when James came running up to me asking for the vacuum. He was covered in dirt and had apparently tracked it in the house and wanted me to clean it up. I had to get a picture of the filthiness! (He is saying "cheese" in these pictures :)

Look at those feet!!

Last week Anthony seemed to have a lot of plans/commitments away from home so I had even more time at home alone with James. He has recently been nap-striking and just playing in his crib during nap time which makes him a joy in the time between dinner and bedtime. So when Saturday came around and I was faced with another full day and night with just us (Anthony had work and then a priesthood meeting right afterwards) I was desperate to find something to do! Luckily I stumbled across a flyer for a spring fling at the Humane society. Animals plus a bouncy house? We were in!

The event didn't start until 10am, so we had some time after breakfast before we could go. James was not a fan of waiting! He found my shoes, put them on, and stomped around the house repeating, "Ready go, ready go!"

Almost as soon as we got to the event, they announced that they were starting the pony rides. When I brought James over to the field I was surprised to see full grown horses! I was imagining small horses and I was a little worried about how James would react to these big guys. He was definitely nervous at first as we approached them and he was gripping me really tight like he didn't want me to let go of him. The guy in charge said that they just put them up on the saddle really quickly and that they will get used to it. So I quickly put him up there and he was right! As soon as James got both legs over the saddle, he loved it!!

Every time he would pass by me he would tell me about the "steering wheel" (saddle horn) he was holding.

They held him still at the end so that I could get some better pictures of him. He was so focused he didn't want to look at the camera and smile until one of the volunteers jumped behind me and started waving her arms and making silly faces. It was so nice of them!

After our horse ride, we went inside of the building to see all the animals they had for adoption. Of course, the kittens were the favorite! I don't know why, but James loves him some kittens :) He definitely prefers them over big cats and dogs. Which is funny to me because our cat never lets James get close to him at home and our dogs always let him abuse them.

He kept getting excited and telling me that the kittens were "going night night":

Right before we left we spent a good amount of time in the bouncy house. This was James' second time ever in one of these things, but he definitely remembered it! He was such a good sport, nothing phased him! One little boy was even being a little bit rough with him (he would purposefully bounce next to James so that he would fall and even bounced on his back one time!) and James would just laugh and laugh!

I don't know why, but for some reason he decided that he was going "night night" in the middle of the floor. I was certain his head was going to get bounced on. I felt a little bad because the other kids would almost trip on him and their moms would yell at them to be careful for the baby. I say, let James learn that when you lay down in the middle you are going to get jumped on! It is always a bit awkward for me in those situations because on one hand I don't want to interfere with someone who is trying to teach their kids to follow rules that they set (like telling them that they have to be careful around younger kids) but on the other hand I want to let them know that I don't mind.

Jumping shots!

I could not convince this kid to come out when it was time to go. I even used the "let's go see Daddy" card (since we were planning on having lunch with him) which usually works to get him in gear but not this time. I had to haul myself through the tiny kid opening to grab him and get him out. All the rest of the day he would randomly start talking about "jumping" in the "bouncy house". I think we can add jumping as one of his new favorite activities!

James and his favorite things

If I had to list James' top 5 favorite things it would be: Daddy, Mommy, Boats, Trucks (or anything with a steering wheel), and Grandparents. Thursday he got 4 out of 5 all at one time!

Anthony was just getting back from a fishing trip with his dad Thursday afternoon when I had to leave for a stake leadership training. So I took James outside so that he could help clean up the boat. Of course, he loved every minute of it!

Anthony gave him a bucket of old bait...I'm not exactly sure why. 

 Here he is, showing Anthony's dad the fish:

 At some point he got to sit in Daddy's truck. I can't get over how big he looks in these pictures!

 I love his expression in this one, he just looks so happy!!

Pregnancy Journal: 20 Weeks

There is not much to report pregnancy-wise, just growing and growing! I still need to figure out where to find some good, comfortable, knee-length maternity shorts. Any ideas? I can still wear my regular shorts pretty well, but some days I really feel like having that extra give and stretch and the support from the big bands at the waist.

Saturday was my official 20 week mark and I celebrated by doing my first 5k in over 3 years!! A few girls from my ward are serious runners and they told me about this fun 5k that was being held at a u-pick blueberry patch about 20 minutes from our house. Even though I do not run, it sounded like fun so I said I would do it with them. That was 2 weeks ago, so not too long to train :) I tried a practice run around our neighborhood last week pushing James in the stroller and it just about killed me. My back was hurting the entire day afterwards and while I was running I felt like I could feel the joints in my hips scraping against each other (which is what has been causing my insane hip pain). I kept thinking, "what did I get myself into??". Each time after that was much better though, so I was still looking forward to the race. I decided to take it easy, walk when I needed to, and just have fun, and I did!

Here we are after the race. The two girls I came with finished about 20 minutes before me. They are so fast!!!

Since the race was Saturday morning and Anthony was working, I brought James with me in the jogging stroller. He loved it, of course! There was only one other person pushing a stroller in the race so I felt extra tough :) I also didn't notice any other pregnant women so I have declared myself the fastest pregnant woman at the race! The first two miles were around a nearby neighborhood on the pavement and went really great, I averaged about 13 minutes for each mile. The last mile was brutal!! It was on a trail around the farm, made up of deep white beach sand!! Can you imagine pushing a 27 pound toddler in a stroller through deep sand?? All of the walkers I passed during the first 2 miles ended up walking right past me as I inched my way through the sand. It was probably pretty hilarious to watch! The last mile took me about 20 minutes and I finished right at 47 minutes. I was just so happy that I finished! Afterwards all the participants got to pick a pint of blueberries to take home, but of course all James was interested in was their farm equipment :)

Here is a picture of all of us that showed up from our ward:

I was really impressed, one woman got 1st place overall for women runners, and the other two got first place for women in their age group. And I wasn't even last place for my age group, so woohoo! We all came out winners :)

More swim lessons and a train ride

At our last swim lesson, I forced Anthony to be the one to get in the water with him. I just couldn't make myself get into a swim suit again. It was not happening. Anthony really didn't want to do, he kept trying to convince me that we should just skip it all together. It was pretty cold and overcast, but I wanted to try to go as much as we could since the instructor cancelled 3 out of the 8 lessons (she said she would call us to reschedule but she still hasn't called...)

I was trying to convince Anthony to act a little less unhappy to be in the pool so that James would get used to it faster. Anthony couldn't stand the water!! I think it was 72 degrees that day!

James was not feeling lessons today. Almost everything Anthony did he was unhappy about.

 They brought out noodles for the first time for the kids to use and James was not happy about having to let go of Anthony's arm to hold on to the noodle.

Once they got into it, he started to like being pulled around in a circle by Anthony. He would laugh and giggle and then seem to remember that he was unhappy (or was supposed to be) and start crying again.

At the end of the lesson they have the kids pretend to be monkeys and inch their way along the wall towards the shallow end where they can touch their feet. For some reason James hates this part. Pretty much every time he has been like this:

Once they get to the shallow end they spend the last 10 minutes playing with diving toys, having us throw them in the deeper water so that the kids will bend down and get it and (hopefully) put their face in the water. James will get close but then he just tries to get it with his feet. He also really liked doing elephant bubbles with the noodle:

 There's a happy face!! I think he was happy because he was getting out of the pool!

My mom came to visit last weekend right as we got a bunch of stormy weather for a few days in a row. I am so not used to having so much all day rain! I was at a complete loss over what to do with James, all of my activities we do to get his energy out involve going outside. Finally we decided to head to the mall in Daytona Beach to do some window shopping and have James play in the indoor playground. He loved playing in the playground with all of the kids, but as soon as we told him that we were going to ride the train later he was ready to go! He immediately rushed over to the shoe rack, got his shoes, and was trying desperately to put them on so he could go on the train. It was so cute!

Once he picked a train car for us and we all got inside, this was his face. Total awe:

 Checking it all out:

 My mom taught him how to wave out the window at all of the people walking in the mall and he loved it! He waved whenever he saw someone out the window.

 Look at this precious boy!! I just want to gobble him up!

Pregnancy Journal: 19 Weeks

Picture taken at 18 1/2 weeks

Anthony felt the baby move for the first time last night! Since it seems like this baby doesn't move around or kick me very much, the opportunities for Anthony to even attempt to feel the baby have been limited. We've tried a few times, but each time I couldn't feel anything, much less Anthony! Last night while we were reading scriptures, I felt some moving around so I took Anthony's hand and put it on my belly. He was in the middle of reading a verse when he felt a strong kick and stopped mid sentence to say "Whoa, I felt that!".

The heartburn has gotten seriously bad. Tums and Maalox weren't doing  a single thing for it and one night I even woke up in the middle of the night choking and vomiting on stomach acid that had made its way all the way to the back of my throat! My throat was on fire and burned so much!! I had the raspiest voice the day afterwards and it was so scary. The next day I started taking some over the counter once a day preventative medicine for heartburn and it has been soooo much better. Plus, I've started sleeping with my wedge pillow again so now I sleep very propped up. On the plus side, since I've started doing those things I have been sleeping a lot better. I didn't realize how much my heartburn was waking me up at night because I always assumed I was just waking up to use the bathroom and happened to have heartburn at the same time.

I had a funny pregnancy brain moment a few weeks ago! We had some friends over for dinner for hamburgers and hot dogs and while Anthony was in the back yard working the grill, I decided to toast the hamburger buns in the oven. I put the oven on broil, turned the light on in the oven so I could watch it through the door, put the buns in the oven, closed the door, and immediately forgot that I had done all of those things! Seriously! I walked away and started reading a book!! I have no idea what I was thinking. I remembered it 10 minutes later and as soon as I opened the oven the smoke detector went off, they were that charred.

Only 2 1/2 weeks until our gender ultrasound!! I am counting down the days!!