Baby bump-20 weeks

20 Weeks!  I am half way!  Well I am probably more than half way, but whatever we will go with half way.  I am feeling so much better, I can actually eat and not be sick.  All of my blood work continues to come back with low results which is fabulous.  Our ultrasound is on Friday and I can't wait to find out what we are having.

North Shore Trip- Day 1

We got the chance to stay in an old train car hotel on the North Shore of Lake Superior.  We went up Sunday night and stayed, it was so much fun.  It was amazing for me to see Lake Superior... I've seen the Great Salk Lake of course, but that is like a puddle compared to Lake Superior.  It felt like we were on the shore of the ocean, except it didn't smell like the ocean.  We stopped at the shore just north of Duluth so that we could go and put our feet in.  

On the North Shore of Lake Superior

Right after this she fell right on her butt in the water.  She got soaked but didn't even care.  

Ashton trying figure out how to skip rocks.  

After this little stop we checked into our hotel.. we stayed at Northern Rail Hotel which is a bunch of remodeled train cars.  I should have taken more pictures of the inside, which was mostly just like a regular place, just only as wide as a train car.  The kids thought it was really cool.

The we had dinner at Betty's Pies.  SO YUMMY! 

After dinner we found Gooseberry Falls State Park...

The kids at middle falls

Lower falls

This feeds right into Lake Superior.  The view from the bridge.

We played in the water and hiked a few of the easier trails.  

After leaving the park we found a little beach that had pink rocks that made a really cool clinking sound as they washed ashore.  We were there as the sun was setting and it was really cool.  The camera died while we were there, I did take a couple with my cell phone....

and Ashton did take this one for us.

That was pretty much it for the first day, day two tomorrow.

Lexie's Adventures

Lexie left for Utah on the 24th of June.  She is spending time with my parents and getting to hang out with her Texas cousins while they were visiting Utah.  I am not sure all of the things that they have been doing, but here are a few pictures that I have gotten emailed to me of their adventures....

At Deep Creek riding horses and four-wheelers on the fourth of July.  

 This picture ended up a little hazy for some reason but that is Lexie and Drew on the left horse, with Grandpa Brent holding it.  Justin and Grandma Vee on the four wheeler, Grandpa Lyle standing in the middle.  Jackson on the other horse, with Rhett holding him and Hannah on the other four wheeler. 

My little cow girl. 

Then today they went to the conference center for a tour.

She had been having a ball and the rest of us can't wait to join her in 2 weeks.

Bedtime Story

Lexie normally reads Abbie a bedtime story every night after they are tucked in and settled for bed.  Since Lexie is visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Utah for the next few weeks, Abbie has been missing her bedtime story reader.  Ashton volunteered to be the reader of the bedtime story and I had to snap this quick picture the first night because it melted my heart so see how cute they were together.  

I am so proud of Ashton because he can read well enough to read a story to his little sister. He has worked really hard for the last year and a half to be able to read.  I am also glad that he is so persistent and kept bugging me to teach him how to read when he was only four. 

Things We've Been Up To

Two weeks ago we broke in our new fire pit and had smores as our treat for FHE.  It was fun, except for the wind.  But the kids really enjoyed making and eating the smores.

Last weekend, Jake's mom got to come and visit for a few days.  We had fun showing her around our new home.  We picked her up from the airport on Saturday and headed straight for MOA (Mall of America).  We did a little shopping, rode a few rides and had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings.  Here are a few random pictures of the kids being silly while we were shopping.

The weather didn't want to cooperate with us for most of the time she was here and it rained a lot.  But on Monday we did go to the Eagle Center down in Wabasha and that was pretty fun.  

 The kids got to participate in part of the program, they were pretending to be birds.  Then they had their "wing spans" measured to see what kids of bird they were... I'm the proud mother of a loon and two turkeys.  Fits them pretty well.  Lexie was just a bit short on being an eagle, she even surprised the presenter with her long arms.

After the presentation the guy asked Ashton to help him get the eagle back downstairs to where they keep them.  He felt pretty special being able to help.  The eagle is in that animal carrier. 

The rain, I can't end this post without talking about the rain.... We got 8 inches of rain in one day, no that isn't a typo 8 inches in one day.  In about 10 hours really.  And then a couple more a few days later and a couple more a few days after that.  All of the rivers were at or above flood stage for a while.  It's dried out mostly now, but there is a lot of damage from all that water.  Too bad we couldn't share some with Utah it sounds like they need it badly there.  

This was the water fall we got after the second rain.

This was what it looked like during the next rain.  There are 8 places where the water is leaking through the wall.

Baby Bump

I am 17 weeks today and I thought it might be fun to see how my belly changes with this pregnancy.  I have a few pictures from each of my other pregnancy and sometimes I look back and wish that I had more. So I am going to try and do a better job of documenting my baby bump.

Last Day of School

Tuesday was the kids last day of school, and all I can say is thank goodness.  I was DONE weeks ago and I know that the kids were too.  It has been really hard trying to keep a positive attitude about school so that the kids would too.  After a year of traditional schedule I think I have to say that I prefer year round schedule to traditional.  I may change my mind after the summer, but for now I have to say that year round works better for me.  It might also have a lot to do with being pregnant and not feeling well so I may end up changing my mind later but for now that is my opinion.
Anyway back to the last day....

Ashton's school had a picnic for lunch on the last day and parents were invited.  I think it was a nice way of saying to the kids that they weren't welcome in the freshly cleaned lunch room until next fall, but it was a good excuse to go and have lunch with my little man.  Don't worry that I nearly forgot and had to rush to get there just in time to eat with him. We were lucky enough to get a spot in the shade to eat.  After lunch we went back to the classroom to get some of the papers that Ashton had to bring home from the year and he ended up talking me into taking him home too.  Here he is with his teacher

Mrs. Fagerlund...

and some of his friends from class.  And yes he really is that much taller than almost everyone in his class.  

In middle school it is not cool to get your picture taken by your mother, but Lexie had a fun filled last day of school too.  They watched a movie, went bowling and just generally messed around on the last day.

Take Your Daughters (and Son) to the Range Day

It all started in Christmas of 2010 when I got Jake a shotgun for his Christmas present.  Well, really I know his love affair with guns started much, much earlier than that but that gift gave him the permission he needed from me to start taking the sport of shooting much more seriously.  Unfortunately his schedule for the last two plus years has left little time for actually going out and shooting.  But I think that times are changing in that regard.  During the outage he bought another gun and I know that he has been itching to go shooting for a long, long time.  Red Wing had a local gun range that is actually really close to our house that he got a membership to this month so since today is national take your daughter to the range day we made a family affair out of going and breaking in Daddy's new gun and some old ones too.

Each kid got a chance to shoot the 22.

And then Jake starting shooting his 30/30 which of course is much louder packs a bigger punch than the 22.  Abbie didn't last long once the big guns started firing so I took her home and let Jake stay with Lexie and Ashton.  Both Lexie and Ashton did get a chance to shot the 30/30, I think Ashton is going to end up with one heck of a bruise, but they had lots of fun.  I think they are going to be spending lots of time on the range.

Lexie looks like she feels right at home with a gun, don't ya think?  

Good News

Today I had an appointment with the Maternal Fetal Medicine clinic that is affiliated with the clinic her in Red Wing, it is an hour away in Burnsville (which is near the twin cites).  Anyway, I had the appointment as a consultation for the anti M and while I was there I asks them about the parvovirus.  After checking my results they decided that I am already immune to it, meaning that I have had it sometime in the past (which I don't remember having and neither does my mom.)  Anyway that is GOOD news because that means that it can't hurt this baby because I am already immune to it YA!  And getting more info on the anti M helped me be a little more calm about that too.  Hopefully my levels stay low like they are right now and things will go smoothly, I just wish that there was something that I could do to control it, but I can't.  All I can do is put it in God's hands and have faith that things will work out for the best.

Stressed Out

Two weeks ago Ashton stayed home from school one day because he was sick, I didn't think much of it, kids get sick all the time.  Well then last week he was sick again and this time he had a fever, rash  and red checks.  After a couple of days he wasn't getting any better and Jake and I decided that one of us needed to take him in to the urgent care to see if there was something that could be treated.  I was tired, really tired, and I didn't want to have to be the one to go, but then at the last minute I decided that I needed to be the one to take him (mostly because I had been the one home with him for the last few days) so off we traipsed to the urgent care.  Luckily for us they were not very busy when we got there and we were taken right back.  We were seen by a PA and he walked in the room, took one look at Ashton's red cheeks and said "you have fifth's disease".  He did spend some more time more carefully checking Ashton, but stuck with his original diagnosis of fifth's disease.  Something that I had never heard of before.  He talked to us for a while and told us more about it and what to expect, namely that the rash and red checks can come back off and on for up to the next three weeks.  And then almost as an after thought as he was gathering up his stuff to leave, he said pretty casually, " oh, and you should probably keep him away from pregnant women for the next little while just to be on the safe side."  Um, excuse me what?  I am 14 weeks pregnant I explain and he turns and looks at me with this look of total astonishment on his face, "really?" he asks.  Yes, really truly.  So now what do we do.  I have already been exposed to Ashton when he was contagious because he was contagious clear back the first time that he was sick.  He had no idea so he goes out and pages the OB doctor on call.  She says that the first thing we need to do is have my blood tested to see if I have parvovirus B19 antibodies.  That is what this thing Ashton has is really called.  So the PA writes orders for me to have my blood drawn and I am the one getting poked and prodded even though Ashton is the one that is sick.  Then I had to wait ALL weekend for the results.  I am not a patience person that was hard.  I tried not to think about it, but really how could I not?  I got my results back this morning and I have the antibodies in my blood.  I don't know exactly what it means for the baby.  From what little info I got that night in the urgent care, these antibodies can do the same things that the anti M ones can, if they get high enough.  Basically the short answer is that they cause anemia in the baby, which can lead to so many things.  Everything from having a miscarriage/stillborn baby to needing intrauterine blood transfusions for the baby to having a baby born with hydrops, to nothing.  I am so stressed out it isn't even funny.