18 weeks with baby #2

I haven't posted any baby bump pics yet, but the bump has been pretty apparent since about 10 weeks which is when I announced it at work. Here I am at 18 weeks! I feel like May is a long way off, but I keep reminding myself that after Christmas break, I will only have 3 months of work before I'm off for maternity leave. I'm sure it will go fast!

We have decided not to go with a planned home birth this time around, mostly for financial reasons. We have selected the OB that helped to deliver Raegan, and after a very long discussion with my midwife, we both feel this is a choice we are comfortable with. The first trimester of this pregnancy was almost exactly the same as with R, but the second trimester has been totally different. I am showing a lot more, for one thing, but also I am not nearly as hungry. When I wake up in the morning, it can be a few hours before I even want to eat anything. Although I have eaten some sweets since second trimester, I can usually take it or leave it, and for the sake of health, I tend to leave it. We aren't going to find out the gender of the baby before the delivery, but my inclination is that it is a boy. Raegan also thinks it is a boy, and she thinks we should name him Matt. :) We have a (secret) boy name already picked out, too! We can not quite agree on a girl name. We also can't agree on where we will put this baby, since all of the bedrooms are currently taken. In the beginning the baby will sleep in our room anyway, but we need to set up an area with a dresser/changing table and rocking chair. This will be my project after the holidays!

Yee-Haw!

For Halloween Raegan chose to dress as a cow girl, which is quite fitting since she is just in love with horses! So I found her a cute pink cow girl costume, which went great with the pink and brown cow girl boots that Papa bought her over the summer. :) Its pretty safe to say that every day for the past week and a half Raegan has been asking to go trick or treating. She was VERY excited about the candy. The costume was really just a means to that end. Shannon, Carlee, Camden, and Shari came over on Halloween for some pizza and trick or treating. While everyone was finishing up eating, Raegan had a really good time helping me hand out candy. I was surprised because I thought she might not want to give away the candy, but turns out she thought it was pretty neat. At one point she was standing on the font porch with candy in her hands yelling for more kids to come.

She did great when it came to trick or treating, maybe a bit over zealous at times. After one neighbor let her choose the candy out of the bowl instead of putting it into Raegan's pumpkin, she was ready to grab out of any candy bowl that got near her. And she was fast. Before I knew what was happening she would have shoveled three handfuls of candy into her bucket. Luckily she's little and cute, so she could get away with that sort of thing. After every house, she would say, "Mommy, I need MORE candy!!" At the end of the night we came home and she dumped her bucket of candy on the floor and shared with everyone, which I thought was really sweet. When I was a kid, you would have had to pry that candy out of my cold dead hands. Happy Halloween!!

Fall Festivities

I heart fall! It is one of my most favorite times of the year, and living in Northern California makes it even better. One of my faves is going to Apple Hill for the harvesting of the apples. It is about a one hour drive up the hill for apple goodness of everything one can imagine. There are crafters and food vendors, and Raegan's favorite- Pony rides. It was a beautiful Fall day when we went up, just Matt, Raegan, Jasen and me. We walked around looking at the vendors and eating caramel apples. Matt and Jasen had what smelled like the most delicious apple fritter. We packed a picnic and ate at Rainbow farm on a picnic table outside. Before we left we were sure to buy some apple butter and apple cider from Boa Vista Orchard. Raegan certainly enjoyed eating all of the caramel off of the apple!

Part of our fall tradition is to visit Aunt Meg, so we did that in October as well! It was fun to hang with Meg and have her feed us delicious food all weekend. :) There wasn't much on our agenda, except eating and hanging out which was just fine with me!

The last weekend in October we went to Bishops Pumpkin Farm which is maybe the most perfect kids fall festival I've ever been to. The Farm is set up beautifully with picnic tables, lots of shade trees, huge pumpkin patches and lots of activities. Raegan rode the ponies there as well... and we all rode the train which takes you around the farm and the pumpkin patches. She also loved feeding the farm animals, particularly the goats! There is a hay jump, which is really a bunch of mattresses covered in hay the kids go bouncing around all over the place. Usually we go on the hay ride last, which takes us to the acres of pumpkins to pick one to go home, but Raegan had missed a nap and was too tired to finish it out. Maybe some day Grandma and Papa and will be here to go with us....it is the best time! The apple cider slushies and the salt water taffy are my favorites!