A Post Without Pictures

I very rarely post without pictures, but I'd rather post without pictures and have part of our life documented than not post just because I (oops) forgot my camera on our little road trip last weekend.  Yes, we took our last road trip before our new baby comes to visit family in Bend, Oregon. Jacob took a couple of days off work so we could truly relax and enjoy - it's a 6 hour drive, so just long enough that it makes a short weekend trip feel hectic. So, we got there late late Thursday night and came home late Monday evening. I was thinking through all that I had packed as we were leaving the city, and about the time we hit Portland all of a sudden I remembered I forgot my camera! Blame it on the pregnancy hormones, I almost broke down in tears. I had a special goal to take some pictures of the kids with their grandparents since I almost always forget to when we're all together. I know someday they will cherish having some pics of them, so I had thought I'd make it a priority...and then I forgot the tool. Bummed! But not the end of the world. In fact, my sister let me take a handful with her camera one afternoon while visiting at the goat farm where she works - so once she sends me a few, there will be a little proof we actually took a trip :)   In all honesty, I still feel super crappy so we didn't do a whole lot but just hang out with the fam. My brother and his family recently moved back to Bend, so the kids had a BLAST playing with their cousins, getting reacquainted with Uncle Dan, Aunt Kristen & Aunt Jamie and her boyfriend, Brandon. The weather wasn't as great as we'd hoped for, but it was still decent enough that one evening after a family dinner (delish Salmon, my fave! Thanks, Mom!) all the kiddos were running around playing tag in the backyard with pretty much everyone but me and Kristen (both of us are in the preggo condition). It was so fun to see them free to run around the big yard and just laugh and play with family. A rare treat! We also brought their bikes and Sawyer found a dirt trail to ride his bike in this loop and over a little mound of dirt and he thought it was the best thing ever. Other highlights were seeing all the goats Aunt Jamie works with at the Goat Farm (they milk them and make high end cheeses), and also feeding hay to Grammie's horses. We are so lucky our kids are such great travelers! No DVD player needed in our car ;)  It was a nice visit and I'm glad we were able to go. We're hoping to make it back again one more time this summer when the weather is nicer - let's hope Hazel is as great a traveler as her sibs!

baby update:

On a completely different note, I had my 32 week check up today. I think I mentioned it before, but I keep measuring "small" - as in more like 29 weeks. I didn't gain any weight in the past 3 weeks. So...most likely Hazel is just going to be a tiny baby - I mean, Sawyer was a 5-lber and Aspen was a 6-lber so I guess that is to be expected. Next visit they will see how things are going and if she's still 3 weeks behind then they might consider doing an ultrasound to check for growth restriction (less than the 10th percentile for size). We had to do that with Sawyer at 37 weeks and learned he was perfectly healthy and just very small. So, no one is too concerned since I just tend to have very small babies. No complaints! Of course, being me and being a mom, I do tend to worry a bit - I just hope she is growing healthy and well and I don't care what size she is as long as she's just plain healthy and happy. I actually really love the teeny tiny babes...they stay little just a little longer, and don't grow out of their clothes as fast (Aspen still wears a sweater that is 6-12 months and I'm sure it will fit for another year!) Anyway, that's the start of the baby updates. I'm a little behind on my other pregnancy journal/blog because I need to get a couple of pictures up...but hanging in there. Seriously, just hanging in there...trying to be positive but hating that I'm still so sick and tired. But we're getting closer!