Grandma & Papa T Come to Visit!

My parents came out to visit a few weekends ago and we were so excited to have them in Colorado!  Chase was sooooo excited he could hardly wait.  Every morning, with about 5 days to go, he would wake up and say "5 days till Grandma & Papa T get here....4 days till Grandma & Papa T get here, etc."  It was pretty darn cute!

They got in on a Friday afternoon and we went out to lunch together and then headed to daycare to pick up the boys!  We headed home and enjoyed the warm weather we were having with a game of football and some soccer out back :)

Relaxing with Grandma. 

Chase is holding 1 of MANY MANY gifts that Grandma brought with her in her suitcase.  I actually think my Mom's suitcase has more toys and presents for the boys, than clothes for her, when she comes - lol!  Chase loves it and keeps asking her for presents throughout their whole stay.  Spoiled?  Yes :)

Coloring new activity books

Papa got Brady to sit still for a second :)  This is about as cuddly as he gets - lol!

Saturday I woke up feeling horrible with a bad bad sore throat.  We were supposed to go to Carson's birthday party at Boondocks so Craig, Dad and the boys went to the party and Mom came with me to the Dr.  A strep diagnosis later, we headed to the party to pick up Brady and bring him home for a nap.  Chase had a blast at the party though and Papa managed to get them in a wreck on the bumper cars AGAIN!  (He made Chase crash last time they visited and we always give him a hard time about it!)

That evening we took the boys to the park for some slide and swing action...

We are definitely living in a technology world!  Nothing like a 4 year old and his Grandpa playing racing games on iPads and iPhones :)

Sunday we headed to breakfast downtown at a place called Syrup and then spent the rest of the morning at the Denver Children's Museum!

Watching coins spin....

Doing some grocery shopping

Chase the Builder

Bubble Room!

Painting Time

That night the boys put on their matching new jammies from Grandma & Papa!  My Mom sent my Dad up to our room (where they were watching a show) to get a cute sweet picture of the 2 of them.  Haaa!  Good luck Dad!  Here is the best he could do....

Trying to get a group shot.  The boys were being crazy and would only make silly faces!

Monday, MLK day, I had the day off but Craig had to work.  We decided to head to Monkey Bizness and the boys had a blast playing all morning long.

Brady taking a break and having a snack with Grandma

Brady's #1 obsession is reading books so Grandma got her fill of narrating quite a few books over the weekend :)

Getting a few group photos out back on our last night

These boys absolutely adore their Grandma & Papa T! 

(They adore both sets of grandparents - we have some lucky kids, that's for sure!)

Playing Star Wars before dinner on our last night together

That night we had to take my parents back to the airport and Chase came with me.  He cried as soon as they left and cried the whole way home saying, " I really, REALLY miss Grandma & Papa T!"  Poor little guy!  It gets so much harder to say goodbye as he gets older and understands what is going on.  It is so hard to live far away but we are so thankful that we do get a chance to see eachother a lot throughout the year.  Looking forward to our next visit together!

Baby Makes 5!!!

We are entering the world of being outnumbered and we could not be more thrilled about it!!!  We are getting our family of 5 - yay!

Craig and I have always said we wanted at least 3 kids (he says we are done and I think we are too, but hey we could always win the lottery so it's not 100% over!)  Lol - Craig probably just fell off his chair reading that but he knows what I mean :)  Anyway, we have been anxious and excited to bring another baby into our house and the time is finally here!!

Here is our journey...

We decided to start trying last June and we got pregnant right away!  Unfortunately, like many other couples we suffered the devastating experience of a miscarriage at 9 weeks along.  We found out at an appointment on Aug 14th and I had a D&C procedure done on August 16th.  That weekend was my birthday and, as horrible as the timing was, it was also sort of perfect and definitely therapeutic to get away with just my boys to Breckenridge and have a weekend showered with love from them.  The whole experience was a completely horrible out of body experience and I pray everyday for people that are going through it.  For me, it is more healing to be open about it and it has been incredibly eye opening and sad at how common it is and how many of my friends have been through it.  It was a tough time in August but I believe God gave me this challenge to help me understand the struggles of others around me.  (Thank you to everyone who was so supportive during this time and a special thank you to the most amazing husband in the world.  He always knew the right thing to say and the right times to just not say anything.)

Fast forward a couple months and Craig and I got VERY lucky and were able to get pregnant just a few months later.  November 14th in the middle of the day I just had a feeling so I went upstairs, took a test and started crying.  I was so excited, yet skeptical, worried, afraid and everything that goes along with realizing how fragile a pregnancy is.  I couldn't hold my excitement in and called Craig right away.  It was a lame way to tell him but we had done all the cute stuff before and this time I was keeping it simple :)  

I had an appt 2 days later, at 5 weeks, to see if everything was going ok.  At 5 weeks they can't really see anything yet but we could see a black circle in the right spot so that was the first step and good news so far :)   The next week we flew to CA for Thanksgiving and we were able to share the good news with my family over dinner one night!  We told Craig's family the next weekend on the Santa Train in Georgetown. 

Since then I have had unltrasounds at 7 weeks, 8 weeks (because baby was measuring behind at 7 weeks, talk about a LOOOOONG week) but everything looked great at 8 weeks, and then most recently at 12 weeks & 2 days.

Baby at 12 weeks, 2 days

Love the angle we got of his/her sweet hands folded up in front of their face!! 

There are 10, so far so good :)

Not a huge fan of this angle.  It is a front view of the face but it always freaks me out, looks like a skeleton.  I remember getting this picture with Brady and thinking it was a little weird too - lol!  Obviously our babies face will be much cuter than this :)  The right picture is neat though because you can see baby's left arm is bent with it's hand touching its face.  So amazing that they are almost fully developed this early!

We did a Harmony genetic test at the 12 week appointment that came back with everything 99.7% normal and the doctor said " you are getting another healthy baby soon!"  Best words I could have heard :)

After this appointment we went full force with telling our friends and family the news!  I did my very best to make sure they heard it from us and not on Facebook, so I gave it a few weeks before turning to social media :) 

We also decided to tell Chase after our 12 week appointment that he was going to be a big brother again!  He is so excited!  Brady doesn't understand but I am thinking as it gets closer and my belly gets bigger he will at least say "baby" or something.  Good thing we waited to tell Chase because the first thing he did was tell his teachers that he and Brady would be sharing a room soon to make room for baby...man did THAT news spread like wild fire through the daycare - lol :)

2 amazing Big Brothers to be for our sweet baby!

2 of my favorite Chase baby quotes thus far:

1) Lori: "Chase do you think the baby is a boy or a girl?"

Chase: "A girl because we already have Brady so we don't need another boy."

2) Chase walked into our house and saw a pink baby outfit I had bought for a friend.  He asked me if it was for our baby.  I said no.  He said we should get one for our baby.  I told him that we don't know if ours is a girl yet.  He says, "We should have a girl because Brady is a boy and he just whines all the time." 

Too funny - this kid can crack me up!

Our next appt is at 16 weeks and then we will find out the sex in March - woo hoo! 

We will continue to pray every night for our baby to stay healthy and we can't wait for our family of 5 to be complete on July 10th, 2013!!! (I'm assuming scheduled c-section a week before my due date of July 17th but we'll see as it gets closer)

Hello 2013!!

New Year's Eve we held our 2nd annual kid friendly family party at our house!  We had Craig's parents, Jill & Don and the kids, and Brad and his kids over.  Unfortunately Melissa was stuck in bed with the flu - boo :(  Craig and I decided to have a martini bar and also have make-your-own Boboli pizzas for dinner!

Marvin getting the martini's going!

Our martini offerings :)  The espresso one was sooo good, we will have to remember that recipe!

Craig getting in on the action

The kids getting their pizzas made!

All the cousins having dinner together!

What's New Year's Eve without a rockin dance party?!

Celebrating with Brady bear before he headed to bed early!

Almost midnight and all the kids (except Brady) made it!

 

Happy New Year!!!

We had such a fun night and started 2013 off with a bang! 

Can't wait for what this year has in store for the Hoeltings!!!