Colorado Girls Trip

Oh my goodness, this trip was SO NEEDED!! First, I missed my friends and second, it is SO GOOD to get away and recharge! It was also nice to just be JILLIAN and not mom or whatever someone needed me to be! I'm so grateful for all those hats I get to wear, but it's nice to put those aside and have some down time!

Goodness, I've missed you!!

Love these ladies and check out that AMAZING breakfast!!!! SO GOOD!!!  Shoutout to Denver Biscuit Co! 

You are so pretty!!! LOVE YOU FRIEND!!!

Wine, cheese and bruschetta night! Seriously so yummy!!! And of course we had to get a picture of someone taking a picture of someone taking a picture of the spread! We also had some fun times playing a game and not following any of the rules! Ha! Nichole was totally the winner!! :) 

A little evening walk!

On Saturday we headed to the Maroon Bells Hike. It was FREEZING when we got out of the car. Like, in the TEENS!!! I didn't think we were going to make it very far! Haha! 

Laughing because it's so cold! HA!

It was so pretty right around where we parked, so we had to stop and take some pictures before we chickened out because of the cold! HA!

By the time we were done with our photoshoot, ha, it had warmed up a little, so we decided to brave the hike!

At one point we actually got a little hot!

I was about to die on some parts of this hike! Haha! I was already having trouble catching my breath without hiking (weird pregnancy problem) so when we started hiking and climbing in elevation, it was rough! At one point I had everyone check their heart rate and mine was in the 130's and everyone else's was in the 80's! HAHA! So, I was proud of myself to finishing!

We went to Aspen after our hike, ate lunch and did some shopping. We then drove to Carbondale and ate dinner at a cute little pizza joint that was started by a guy that went to OSU. Go Pokes!!

It was great just relaxing and hanging out with AMAZING friends!!! Ladies, I'm ready to go back already!!!! Or we can go to a beach! Haha!

So long Colorado!

Sweetest husband award goes to my guy!!! I got home and him and the boys had picked out Sunflowers for me!!! My FAVE!!!! Seriously, I need to go on more girl's trips so I can get this first class treatment again!!! :) :) :)

Gender Reveal

As we got closer and closer to finding out the gender, I was getting more and more set on hoping this baby was a girl. We had all intentions of finding out WITH our family, but I was getting a little afraid of my reaction if it happened to be another boy. Haha! This child would be SO LOVED either way, but for some reason my heart was becoming more and more set on a girl. To be honest, before getting pregnant, I loved the idea of having 3 boys, so my heart change was a little odd. Anyway, I told Trevor a few weeks before we found out that I really wanted to find out with him alone and then that night we would do something fun for our families. He didn't love the idea, but I came up with a fun way so he was okay with it. 

I knew I didn't want to just find out in the doctor's office, so we had our doctor put it in an envelope and we went to this cute little store in Utica Square called Lolly Garden. We picked out a boy outfit and a girl outfit and then had the lady working look at the ultrasound and only ring up the one that matched the ultrasound gender. We went and waited outside so we would have no idea which one she rang up. She even wrapped it up for us and made it so special.

What will it be???

SO excited!!!

We planned to go to a Mexican restaurant to open it because this baby is due on Cindo de Mayo (HA) but I didn't want to drive all the way to BA to go to Los Cabos which is where Trevor chose, so we just went to Peppers at Utica Square. This was perfect because Peppers was our first date almost 15 years ago! 

I honestly thought it was going to be a boy and was COMPLETELY shocked when I opened it up and saw the cute girl onesie and bow that we picked out in the bag!! We got the whole thing on video and you can totally see the shock and complete JOY on my face! I couldn't figure out how to add a video here.

A few weeks before this I was talking to Trevor about a cool, totally made up, cake idea on how to surprise our family. The next day I'm on Instagram and this ad shows up in my stories with a Surprise Cake ad. This is basically what I was describing to Trevor and I didn't know anything like this even existed. I of course bought it! Haha! The day before the reveal I made the cake and got everything ready, so all we had to do was stuff the cylinder in the middle with something blue or pink after we found out. 

We first had a couple twists and turns for our family. They didn't know we had a cake, so we initially sent them on a scavenger hunt looking for clues which led them to this cool cake. 

The cake was just a vanilla cake, not pink or blue, but this cool cylinder popped out when you pulled the lever. We stuffed the cute onesie and pink bow in there. 

Brooks has been telling me since the beginning that he wants a sister. He always said "I already have a brother, I don't need another one!" I'm so glad I didn't have to disappoint him!! HAHA! 

We are so excited to meet you sweet girl!!!

We had such a fun day finding out together and then getting to tell our families! We can't wait to meet you Holland Rose!!! 

First Trimester - Baby #3

With Brooks I documented things weekly and I couldn't really keep up with it when I was pregnant with Rhett, so you can only imagine how I feel about this one! Haha! Chasing two little ones, running a business, leading worship at church, being a wife, etc. Life happens! So here is a general overview!

Baby Size: If I'm being honest, I copied and pasted all of these from my blog about the first trimester with Brooks and Rhett! Ha!
Week: 5-Appleseed, 6-Sweetpea, 7-Blueberry, 8-Raspberry, 9-Green Olive, 10-Prune, 11-Lime, 12-Plum and 13-Peach

My Symptoms: I've had some of the same symptoms and definitely some new ones this go-around. Nausea has been brutal! Definitely thrown up on a few occasions, but most of the time nothing really sounded good other than carbs. I didn't really love eating only carbs for weeks, but it was about the only thing I could keep down. I have terrible headaches and start feeling really down in the afternoons. That's usually when I get stuff done for Usborne Books and More, so it was a little rough for a few weeks. I basically took September off because I couldn't kick these awful headaches. I'd attempt to work out, but it actually made me feel worse, so workouts were pretty nonexistent most of 1st trimester. Tiredness is crazy, but I can't give into that because of two toddlers. Some days when Trevor got home, I just went to bed, but most days I could power through till the end. Another odd symptom is, my mouth constantly has a metal taste. It drives me CRAZY! I usually just chew gum or eat a quick snack to override it, but it comes back pretty quickly. I'm hoping that goes away in the 2nd trimester. And now the craziest symptom. I am COMPLETELY out of breathe. It constantly feels like someone is pinching my lungs. This has been a real problem when I'm trying to sing. I can barely make it through one song without needing to take a breather. This has been a real challenge for me. I even tried an inhaler, but it actually made things worse. So, I had to tough it out. Hoping that gets better in the 2nd trimester too!

Weight: I think I've gained about 5 pounds. I'm sure it's because of only eating carbs for weeks! Haha! But I was thankful to be able to keep those down, so you win some, you lose some.

Gender: We find out November 14th and I.CANNOT.WAIT! Trevor thinks it's a girl, but I am not putting any bets on that! HAHA!

Maternity Clothes: Not yet. But a couple pairs of pants are definitely getting tight.

Movement: Since I kind of already know what I'm feeling for, I have felt little flutters a couple times when I lay down for bed. I'm excited to feel movement again. That was one of my favorite parts of being pregnant with the first two.

Sleep: Sleeping is good. I'm a GREAT sleeper, thankfully! I usually get up to pee once or twice but I easily fall back asleep.

Cravings: Carbs! HA! I also do NOT want sweets. I rarely turn down ice cream (lol) but that's not really what sounds good. I'd rather have something salty...popcorn, pretzels, etc. I also want iced coffee. Hot coffee sounds pretty terrible, but I'm always up for an iced coffee. Trying not to drink too much caffeine, but it usually helps a little when I get those afternoon headaches.

Work Outs: These were pretty nonexistent in the first trimester. I was actually advised not to work out when I was pregnant with Rhett because of some crazy complications, so to be honest, I had a little fear going into working out after finding out I was pregnant. I did work out a couple times, but sometimes a nap was more important. I'm hoping to start up again in second trimester.

Best Pregnancy Moment: Honestly just finding out I was pregnant because of trying for over a year. And getting to tell our friends and family who'd been praying for us for so long.

Goals for next trimester: Work-out and eat less carbs!

Thoughts: Before getting pregnant I was really set on wanting all boys. But now after getting pregnant there is a big part of me that wants this one to be a girl! I'll be GREAT either way, but I am definitely anticipating the day we find out!

10 Weeks Preggo! Not really showing, but I definitely see a little pooch! And a crazy cluttered closet! Ha!

Even though I was completely short of breathe even before we started, I was proud of myself for doing the Maroon Bells Hike when I went on a girl's trip to Colorado.

The most EXCITING NEWS!!!!

WOW! This baby was PRAYED and PRAYED and PRAYED for! Trevor and I knew we wanted a third baby and we actually tried for over a year for this. We really liked the idea of having all our babies pretty close together because we saw the bond that Brooks and Rhett had. So last July (July 2018) we started trying. After months of nothing I went to my OB/GYN and was told there were some issues. We were basically dealing with a REALLY small chance of getting pregnant. So, we tried a couple things and nothing seemed to work. By the end of it, we were told there must be something more wrong because the medication should have worked and if we wanted to investigate further we'd need to see a fertility specialist. This was back in February 2019. I kind of came to terms with if God really wanted us to only have 2, then so be it. And if he wanted us to have 3 he would make it work without having to spend an arm and a leg at a fertility specialist. I know fertility specialists are amazing and are working with so many of my friends, but in my head, I already had 2 beautiful babies and I was really okay with giving that desire for 3 to God. To be honest, we stopped trying and we really came to terms with having only 2. I was actually getting used to idea and loving the next stages of life we were entering with Brooks and Rhett, but I would occasionally have that thought again that I really wanted 3 kids. I tried to just pray in those moments and trust God with whatever the outcome might be.

On Sunday, September 1st I sang at church like any normal Sunday, but I was TOTALLY out of breath! I was leading the last song and it took everything in me to get through that song when normally this is not an issue. I chalked it up to being tired. Trevor and I stayed up really late the night before watching some show that we got into, so I really just thought I was extra tired on Sunday. Fast forward to Monday night and I had to get up to go the restroom about 3 times during the night. Now, this was WIERD because I'm an amazing sleeper! Haha! Tuesday, the boys and I went for a walk and then I needed to go to the grocery store after. On our walk I went back and forth 100 times on whether to buy a pregnancy test or not. I really didn't want to take another test and see a negative result. That really wore on me in the months that we were trying and it was the last thing I wanted to do again. Ultimately I decided to go ahead and buy a test, but a REALLY cheap one because I didn't want to waste any more money on those darn things. To my surprise, a positive test came back and I'm pretty sure I cried and leaped for joy! Haha! I was SO excited!

I debated all day on how to tell Trevor and decided to write a funny saying on our text board. The back story behind this is I tried ALL SUMMER to get rid of our baby clothes. I tried to have a garage sale on 3 different occasions, twice it got rained out and once Trevor said he didn't want to do it the night before, so we still have all the baby things! So, I wrote this on our text board.

We got to go to the doctor for the first time on September 11th and see that sweet baby and it's heartbeat!

It's been such an exciting pregnancy! I am TIRED and have been pretty sick, but overall, I'm just feeling extremely joyful and blessed!!! What an amazing answered prayer!!!!

Always more than a month behind! HAHA! Rhett's 24 Months!

I'm happy I can stop talking about my kids in months now! HA! My child is officially 2! We had the cutest birthday party which you can read about here: Look Hooo's Two

Here is the month leading up to that fun party!

The most snuggly thing! 

I'm horrible at keeping up with these! 

This melted my heart. Rhett usually loves to be held and it was just this month that he decided he wanted to walk more. These two started holding each other's hands! I can totally get on board with that!

Coweta Fall Festival was a hit with these two! They loved riding all the rides!

If only you could see Rhett's HUGE smile in this one! 

Sometimes he wakes up earlier than brother, so he joins me while I'm getting ready! Always with 5 books in his hand! Haha!

So pretty!

The coolest interactive book! They have been really into dinosaurs lately, so this has been a super fun read! They get to come nose to nose with a diplodocus and wear the spike plates of a stegosaurus! 

My guitar playing crazy kid! 

Learning to count! Rhett is up to about 5 right now.

Cousins...or cousins kids! It's all the same! Haha! 

Since we are eating breakfast, we might as well read a book about our book eating monster Nibbles!!

I love seeing all the deer around our house!

Zoo Day with these crazies!

Fennec Fox

Obligatory train ride of course!

They were fighting over the stroller, they either both had to be out or both had to be in, so we made it work! HA! 

Seriously the SWEETEST smile! 

This boy has REALLY gotten into books! Every day when he wakes up from his nap, I have a huge stack in the living room for him. We usually read the whole stack and sometimes twice! 

Fun Halloween read!

Sometimes this is what work looks like for me. I try to get  most stuff done when they are napping, but sometimes it's a family thing. And when little one wants to sit on your lap, you let him sit on your lap because that's the perk of having a home based business! <3 

Magic Painting Books for the WIN!

We are also loving these new Listen and Learn Books! We have the Spanish one but I think their favorite is the musical instrument one!

In preparation for Rhett's birthday party, I put these boys to work! Haha! They were amazing helpers that day and I think they really enjoy cleaning!

Such a cute party!!

The evening of Rhett's party we went to the Oxley Nature Center and had some fun hiking! Gosh, these two are so cute!

For Rhett's actual birthday, my mom and I took the boys to Carmichael's Pumpkin Patch! They always have a great time feeding the animals, petting the animals and climbing all over the pumpkins.

We even did a pony ride in honor of Rhett's birthday! They had SO MUCH fun! 

Camels are so weird!

When I ask Brooks to smile and he is over it, this is the new smile he gives me! Great! Ha!

He exudes joy!!!

CUTIES!

Wild and Crazy! 

Birthday kisses for the Birthday boy!! 

What a fun month! And now my baby is 2! Well, actually he is already a month older than that, but who's counting! HA! One day I'll be all caught up on here! I'm so thankful for my family and thankful for the time I get to be home with these beautiful babies! Life is sweet! <3 <3