Our new house

A couple people have asked to see pictures of our new house, so I figured I'd post them here. We moved in on Monday (the 16th). Moving is so much work! I'm exhausted. But it's been fun to decorate and feel settled. The house is about a year old. The original owners just moved to Camas, WA, which is where we just came from. Small world!

I didn't take a picture of the exterior, but this is our house on zillow...

 Image from zillow.com

 

 I need to find some chairs for this table, obviously.

 We're going to mount the TV above the fireplace. 

It's nice having a loft/play area for the kids. 

4 bedrooms upstairs

Kate's room

 Paige's room (they will share a room when the baby comes)

Halle's room

So there you have it. We're liking our new place!!!!

It's a BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, April 23rd was the big ultrasound day. I was so nervous about it. First of all, I was just hoping that the baby would be healthy. I always get nervous before ultrasounds because there are so many things that can go wrong. I kept imagining getting really bad news. I guess I'm a pessimist/worrier. 

Second of all, I had put a lot of pressure on this pregnancy because I really wanted Nate to have a son. He has told me all along that he is happy with girls, and it's not a big deal either way. He has never talked about wanting a boy really badly, but I just know that most men would really want a son and I think Nate is no different. I wanted to have a son also, but it has never really been a huge thing on my mind. I think girls are so fun.

However, the second that the ultrasound tech told me that it was a boy, I started to get emotional and I realized that maybe I wanted a boy more than I even thought. I was just so shocked and amazed for some reason. Nate and I both completely expected it to be a girl. I always thought that if I was pregnant with a boy, my pregnancy would be much different (maybe I wouldn't be so sick) or something. I thought I would just "know" that it was a boy or something, I don't know. 

Nate stayed home with the girls, so it was just me at the ultrasound, which was fine. I actually wanted to go alone because I was so sure that it was a girl, and I was afraid that if he came, he would be super disappointed and then I would feel bad. I'm dumb.

Anyway, it was a fun ultrasound. About 10 seconds after the ultrasound tech started, you could see a clear shot between the baby's legs. I thought, is that what I think it is? And right away, she said, "You have a boy!" I said, "Are you serious?!!! Holy cow!"

Crazy. We are so excited. I called Nate right away and I could tell he was really shocked and really excited, even though he doesn't seem to show emotion quite as much as I do. ha ha. The girls are super excited too. They really wanted a boy, so they're happy. 

I can't even imagine a boy in our house. It's just crazy. But I'm so excited about it!

This is not a great picture, I know. You could see it pretty clearly on the screen. 

Baby #4

This was taken at about 17 weeks I think. I am 19 weeks now and definitely larger. "They" say you show sooner with each pregnancy. For me that seems to be true. I feel like I'm growing at a very rapid pace this time around. That could have something to do with the fact that I'm always so hungry though, and I feel like I need to eat constantly. I don't remember feeling hungry as often as this with my other 3 pregnancies.

I'm feeling OK-ish now days. I still get nauseous sometimes, which is frustrating. Normally the nausea is gone by now. I was so, so sick during the first trimester. It was truly miserable. I'm very thankful for Zofran (anti-nausea medication) though. It really helped a lot. I'm just happy to be out of that horrible vomiting stage.

20 more weeks to go!! Yikes.

Catching up

I miss blogging! I wish all of us in blogland would get back into the habit. It was fun, right? Here's my attempt at catching up...

 

A few weeks ago we explored downtown Spokane and the Spokane Falls. We rode the gondola, which was pretty cool. I have a fear of being near rushing water with my kids though. I thought I might have a panic attack at any moment. 

That rock wall is higher than it looks in the picture, don't worry.

 

Paige, Kate and Nate all get really nervous with heights. It doesn't bother me as much. 

This is happening.

 

Carter baby #4 will be joining our family in September!!

 

We're so excited!

Moving

We've lived in Camas, WA (Vancouver) for over 18 months, and now it's time to say goodbye. Nate will be transferring with his company to take over the Spokane territory, so we are moving back to Liberty Lake. We are very, very excited about it. We've really missed Spokane and all of our friends and family. We can't wait to settle down there.

At the same time, it's always so hard to leave great friends and a great ward. We really have liked living here. It's such a beautiful area!! Moving is so hard. That's why I really hope this is our last big move.

We will move into a rental home on February 1st. I'm not sure how long we will be there though because we're currently looking at homes to build, and we're hoping to get that process going soon.

Now I get to pack and pack and pack. And clean. Yay!  :)

 

 

(All of this may sound familiar because we almost moved back about 9 months ago, but it didn't work out.)

Mexico Cruise

So... I hate to say it, but Nate and I just didn't enjoy our cruise at all. We did a 4 day cruise to Cozumel with Carnival Cruise Lines. I guess that wasn't the best choice. We didn't want to leave the girls for 7 days, so that limited our choice of cruise to just the shorter ones. Also, we had to go out of Galveston (we dropped the girls off at my parents' house in San Antonio area), so that also limited us. But I had heard how awesome cruises were, so I thought it would still be great.

I don't want to go on about all the things we didn't like about it, but I will just say we won't be doing a cruise again. I realize there are better cruise lines and better destinations, but we decided that we
 prefer to just fly to a destination and be free and on our own. Not surrounded by thousands of random people. It's just not my kind of vacation.

But here are a few pictures...

 

Thank you so much, Mom and Dad. The girls had a wonderful time with you!!