22 Weeks (Bump #2)

It's hard to see, but we snapped a snowy bump shot this week!

Total Weight Gain: Won't be stepping on the scale again until I'm back in Utah... Should be fun to see how I fair over the holidays...

Showing Yet?  For quite some time now, but two strangers finally commented this week! 

Symptoms: No complaints this week, feeling great!

Sleep?  Pretty great actually!

Food Cravings/Aversions:  No aversions, but my sweet tooth is out of control as is my fruit consumption!

Staying Active?  Managed to sneak in 2 workouts even with all the Christmas excitement and travelling!

Cries: 1.  Some serious travel delays on Christmas day and a cranky toddler made for an emotional pregnant mama!

Liam's Thoughts:  We received two books about preparing for the new baby which has sparked lots of fun conversations.  It's most fun to hear him talk about how the baby will nurse or have "NiNi"!

Looking Forward to: More family time in the PNW and possibly revealing baby boy's name!!!  We almost officially decided!

22 week bumpdate with Baby #1

Christmas Baking & Memory Making

Conor had a business trip to Europe last week, so Liam & I flew to Spokane to finish up our shopping and get in some special Christmas activities with Nana & Pops!  My mom's house is always so beautifully decorated each year; therefore, I will not miss an opportunity to enjoy it during the season.  It was a busy week, filled with endless cups of eggnog, wrapping paper & bows, and the sweetest baking session with Nana!

Baking & decorating sugar cookies was one of my absolute favorite Christmas traditions growing up.  This was the first year that Liam got to experience it all, and it was extra special to be able to do it with my mom at her house.  She pulled out her old wooden rolling pin that is missing half of the handle, and I'm pretty sure it has been around since before I was born!

He loved the using the mixer and adjusting the speed.  He would practically place his nose on the edge of the bowl to watch all that was happening, making both his mama & nana very nervous.  There were frequent requests for "just a taste", as he made sure that the dough met his approval!  Nana taught him that art of licking the beater, while the spatula got a fair amount of action too!  A boy just like his mama.  Usually the process is far tastier than the outcome...

I had to cut him off from the dough, just in time for him to fall in love with the frosting even more.  Eating the frosting that is; he wasn't overly enthusiastic about spreading it on the cookies.  He would put the tiniest of dabs on a cookie and then proceed to shovel a few spoonfuls in his own mouth.  Seemed to work great for him.  While the art of icing wasn't his thing, he was all about the sprinkles & red hots!  Red hots on all the cookies!  So.  Many.  Red Hots.  Good thing I'm a big fan of those.

It was quite the afternoon!  Same recipe from my childhood.  Same cookie cutters that my little hands once pressed into the dough.  Same kitchen.  Same incredible memories.  Flour was everywhere, fingers were sticky, & sprinkles were covering every imaginable surface.  Holiday perfection!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and are busy making memories of your own. I'm stepping away from this little space for a few days while I celebrate with family! Merry Christmas!

21 Weeks (Bump #2)

Total Weight Gain: 14 lbs.  That's 3 whole pounds of my mom's home cooking and sugar cookies!  Or perhaps the baby had a growth spurt...we will never know.

Symptoms: My back seems to be much more sore this time around.  No idea why.

Sleep?  Since I was in hometown of Spokane all week, I did not have my Snoogle with me so sleep wasn't quite as good.

Food Cravings/Aversions:  The aversions are staying away, yay!  Fruit is still the main craving, especially my mom's homemade raspberry jam!

Staying Active?  Not this week... 0 workouts.  I didn't even bring my running shoes to Spokane with me!  It felt nice to just relax for a week!  And with us traveling again over the holidays, I don't imagine that I'll get many workouts in over the next two weeks, but we'll see...

Cries: 0.  I'm just a happy girl this time of year!

Purchases:  I bought some newborn cloth diapers that were crazy on sale this week!  I can't wait until they arrive, and I can see just how teeny tiny they are!

Liam's Thoughts:  He frequently refers to the baby as "my baby"!  Swoon!

Looking Forward to: Christmas!  Our first spent together as our small family in our own home and then big celebrations later as we holiday in the PNW!

21 Week Bumpdate with Baby #1

Holiday Gift Exchange

I love receiving mail, especially this time of year, so I jumped on the opportunity to join a Holiday Gift Exchange with a few of my favorite bloggers!  Liam was lucky to receive a package from Sara over at Running From the Law.  She sent all sorts of holiday goodies are way...
First of all, I had a complete blogger fail and barely took any pictures.  At least I was living in the moment, right?  Then, the morning we let Liam rip into his package, I had been playing around in manual mode on my new camera and forgotten to switch back over to auto to snap these pics.  So, don't judge the weird exposure, etc.  Still learning over here!  Probably will be for awhile.  

So...  First the treats!  Sara surprised us with M&Ms (Liam is quite the chocolate lover) and an elf Pez dispenser (one of my pregnancy cravings which I reluctantly shared).  Liam has most definitely inherited my sweet tooth, so candy first thing in the morning is perfectly acceptable!

She also gifted us with a set of the Original Christmas Classic movies!!!  I have quite the Christmas movie collection but was missing Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  So happy to have these now, so that I don't have to stalk the TV schedule to try and record them.  And lastly, there was a copy of Little Blue Truck's Christmas!  We actually had already bought this book, but it has quickly become a favorite, so I am happy to have an extra copy on hand.  Especially with two boys in the house come next Christmas...now they can each have their own!

If you want to see what Liam & I put together for two sweet boys,  head over to A Tale of Two Maples.
And a big thanks to Megan & Elizabeth for putting this gift exchange together!

Keenan Family Christmas Card

While I started mailing out our Christmas cards the first week of December, I just recently finished the last one...I think.  So finally I can share our card with all of you!  I love how it turned out and am so happy with the design.  A big thanks to Sara at Simply Modern Design!

Liam has been much better about smiling for pictures lately, so we actually a few different cute ones to choose from.  So naturally, I'm gonna share a couple from our snowy morning at Wheeler Farm, that nearly made the cut ...

Now that our cards are mailed, I am anxiously checking the mail box each day! I love seeing all the Christmas Cards pouring in!

20 Weeks (Bump #2)

Total Weight Gain: 11 lbs.  On track to keep it under 30 lbs again this pregnancy (I was up 29 lbs on delivery day with Liam), and still behind my 1st pregnancy scale wise.

Symptoms: Had some hip & back discomfort this week, but a mile long swim in the pool helped out a bit.

Movement: Throughout the day, with frequent blows to my bladder.  I'm definitely carrying this baby low just like Liam (contrary to early thoughts), so I expect this to be happening the rest of my pregnancy.

Gender:  Boy!  And from the ultrasound pic, he looks just like Liam!  Exact same nose!

Sleep?  Liam had a pretty good week, so I did too!

Food Cravings/Aversions:  No real aversions anymore, which is so nice.  And fruit is still taking over as a craving!

Staying Active?  3 workouts this week, and since I have readjusted my expectations, I am quite happy with this! :-)  With Liam I was running 5 (11 minute miles).  This time around I'm only running about 3.5 (10 minute miles).  I like to think my extra speed makes up for the shorter distance.  I've found that 3.5 miles seem to be the perfect amount to still get in a workout but save some energy to chase around Liam.  Plus, I don't like leaving him at the gym daycare for too long, so this way I am back to him quicker!

Cries: 1.  I feel like I have been a bit more emotional this pregnancy.  As soon as I laid down for our ultrasound, I really started tearing up.  Before it even began!  I was just so excited to see our healthy baby!

Nursery Progress:  Now that we know the gender, I have been going crazy on Pinterest!  I'm wanting to go with a woodland theme (think mountains & trees, not cute little animals) and I want to have a decal wall.  You can follow my nursery Pinterest board here.

Liam's Thoughts:  He now calls the baby "baby brother" or "little brother"; it's so so sweet!  He knows the baby is in my tummy, but more specifically my belly button.

Looking Forward to: A week home with my parents!  I'm planning on lots of shopping, wrapping, baking, & eating!

I cannot believe I am already half way through my pregnancy!  

I love being pregnant and truly enjoy this special time!

20 Week Bumpdate with Baby #1

Our Grand Tree Adventure

Per tradition, the day after Thanksgiving we hitched up the ol' four wheel drive and set off just north of the city to find the Keenan Family Christmas tree!  After being a bit disappointed with the tree farm we tried out last year (and that whole massive tree debacle), we decided to try a new place.  It seemed quite promising, so I was ecstatic!  I love the whole tree cutting experience!

After an hour of belting out carols in the car, we arrived at our destination!  They had a beautiful tree lot set up of all the trees they shipped in from Oregon, but I was determined to cut down my own...  So I found a worker to inquire about said "u-cut" trees, she pointed me to a patch of trees on the side of a house that were 5 feet & under...  Womp, womp!  I needed at least a 9 footer (but hoping for 11), and was also expecting this "tree in my head" to be on a big open range farm, wagon ride & all.  Disappointed doesn't even cover it.  And not just because I was pregnant, my Christmas spirit was just shattered.  While I was practically pouting, Liam's Christmas spirit was quite high!  He loved being surround by trees, running every which way, and trying to pick one that would go on the car!

I stayed positive and told Conor I wanted to check out some other Christmas tree farms that I had heard about that were somewhat close (max 15 minutes away).  He supported my need to check out some other places, so we piled back in the car.  Poor Liam didn't quite grasp why we were leaving without a tree on top of our car, but I knew it would be worth it to wait for that perfect one!

I'll spare you our whole long & drawn out afternoon, but let's just say that we visited no less than 3 tree farms, all pretty pathetic.  And I use the term "farm" loosely, because really these places just seemed to be people's homes where they happened to grow a few Christmas-eque trees in their backyard.  I was losing steam (and happiness) and Liam just wanted a tree, SO...  We went back to the 1st place!  

Yep, all that searching to go back where it all started.  Conor made me realize that I really wasn't going to be happy with any of the "u-cut" selections, so why not just purchase one of the gorgeous trees for Oregon that were the perfect size and shape.  We would still get to enjoy the Christmas-y atmosphere of lights, bonfires, & candy canes.  We wanted to make this adventure exciting for Liam, and he cared about was a tree on the car.  Simple as that!  Perspective people; sometimes, I need it!

So we chose a tall Noble Fir that smelled so strongly I knew it would fill the whole house!  Liam continued his sprints around the lot while we careful eyed & finally chose a big one!  Candy canes were licked, fingers were stickied, & sap was everywhere !  Liam & I watched with big open eyes, while Conor & the farm owner strapped down our tree.  Just as we were about to leave, the owner thanked us and wished a Merry Christmas and I just lost it!  Tears were streaming down my face.  Tears of joy, but apparently I had saved up every emotion from that day to just pour out all at once!  Nothing like being pregnant over the holidays!  I expect many more happy tears in the days to come! 

And just wait 'til you see this beauty all decorated!

The North Pole Express

Last weekend we went on a big adventure.  A big train adventure.  A real one.  A Christmas one.   And the whole night was magical!

We had been reading The Polar Express almost every day & night for over a week and talking about how we would be taking a train ride soon.  Liam's comprehension of the book has truly amazed me, and he talks about it all the time!  Especially the sound of Santa's (or sometimes the reindeer's) sleigh bells!  Then as a big surprise, we watched The Polar Express movie the night before... Liam has very limited screen time, so this was a huge treat for him!  We all cuddled up on the couch in our Christmas pajamas, with a big bowl of popcorn, & watched together!  He loved every minute and surprisingly lasted through the whole thing.  That night he was full of anticipation for all the fun that was to come the next day!

He proudly handed out the tickets to each of us and held onto his for the entire ride!  Reading the book for days definitely helped him to "get" the whole experience and he just soaked it all up!  We rode through the mountains as the sun was setting & Christmas music was blaring.  There was fiddle playing & elves dancing in the aisles; Liam even busted a few moves!  There was a tad bit of chaos & noise, but Liam was wrapped up in the moment and seemed to love every minute!

There were tiny cups of hot cocoa, just perfect for little hands & freshly baked chocolate chip cookies made by Mrs. Claus herself!  Santa came aboard as well, and while Liam was a bit timid at first, he was completely in awe of the bell Santa gave him!  His very own bell from the reindeer!  That small bell with the red ribbon hasn't left his bedside since!

We took plenty of photos throughout the ride, but are still adjusting to our new DSLR camera.  Definitely haven't mastered the nighttime shots...  But some moments pass you by so quickly that you get what you get! These are still special memories we want to remember!  I am already looking forward to next year's ride and having an extra tot in tow!!!

It's a...

We are overjoyed to announce that Liam will be welcoming a little brother into this world in May!

We already love this new little so much! Happy & healthy!

19 Weeks (Bump #2)

Total Weight Gain: 10 lbs.  I am officially at my pre-pregnancy weight with Liam (which I consider to be my healthy weight) which tips the scales at 134 lbs.  Will be interesting to see if my weight gain is similar to my 1st pregnancy scale wise.

Symptoms: Another great week!  I had almost forgotten what it felt like to wake up and feel good in the morning for awhile there.

Movement: Pretty much throughout the whole day now, but especially while I'm lying down.  Both Conor & I have felt kicks from the outside, which is just the best!  Can't wait for them to get stronger & stronger!

Showing Yet:  No stranger has commented yet, but I'm definitely starting to get looks at the gym.  Some people's face seem to say "good for you" while others look at me with a "why the hell are you running with a big pregnant belly"!

Gender Predictions:  We find out Monday!  I'm really on the fence about the gender now, just excited to know either way and to start learning more about this little person.

Purchases:  Bought some cute clothes with all the great sales this time of year.  Some gender neutral, lots of girl stuff, eek!

Sleep?  Definitely improving!

Food Cravings/Aversions:  Fruit & sweets!

Staying Active?  Only 3 workouts again.  I think I need to realize that this is my reality for this pregnancy.  It is a far cry from my 5-7 days a week of working out with my first pregnancy, but I am becoming okay with that.  Toddler wrangling is a workout in itself, so there's that!

Cries: 1.  I found out that Liam can't come to my ultrasound appointment with us.  There is currently a ban on children visiting the hospital right now (this commonly happens during the winter season).  I am devastated.  Not sure how we will tell him the news now!

Liam's Thoughts:  My friend had her baby this week, so Liam has loved looking at pictures and talking about being a big brother!

Looking Forward to: Seeing our sweet baby on the ultrasound, making sure he or she is healthy, and finding out the gender!!!

And because I'm a sucker for comparison...

19 Week Bumpdate with Baby #1

Santa Photos 2014

I had been looking forward to our Santa photos all week and was really trying to build up the experience for Liam!  He's a new candy cane lover, so the fact that Santa was going to be handing them out like it was his job (which it is), made my little boy plenty excited!  We went back to the same place at Thanksgiving Point as last year, where Conor got to dress up as Santa to make Liam a bit more at ease.  I love this style of Santa photos and the unique poses.  Of course, I had to sneak my bump into this years photos... something to mark this Christmas by!

They also have a "real" Santa, so kids still have the traditional lap to sit on & candy cane reward.  There were no tears this year (yay for my brave little boy), but he was definitely shy & skeptical.  He would barely look up at us, and really his face was saying "I just want to eat my candy, must I keep sitting on this guy?!"  So we snapped a quick pic, the best we could get, and went along our merry way.

Last year, there was a huge snowstorm the night we did our photos, so all the grounds of Thanksgiving Point were just beautiful!  A true wonderland of snow.  We've had ridiculously high temps lately, so a bit of that magic was missing, but we still enjoyed a good reindeer viewing.  Liam has completely embraced much of this new "Christmas world" that we've been reading about in his books, so he's all about reindeer right now!  He wanted to pet them, but of course, they were just out of reach.

We finished the night with a drive through the holiday lights!  Liam "drove" while the Christmas music was blasting!  I just love this time of year and can't wait for all the fun still to come... like our North Pole Express train ride on Saturday!
Ho, ho, ho!