It's a......

The one day we were in town between trips to Colorado and St. Louis (next post) we were able to find out the gender of our baby. We are happy to announce that in March we will be welcoming into our family a baby 

GIRL!!!

We are thrilled. Owen was not surprised when I confirmed what he's been saying for months. We are excited for the frills and glitter to flow, but we are trying to control ourselves at this point. My dear friend from St. Louis gave us these darling little socks to wet our appetite for the little girl that will be gracing us with her presence soon. 

Crazy October!

It has been a CRAZY month for our family. We have been all over the map this month and have some great news to share. We started the month with a job interview in Denver with Kaiser Permanente. The interview went great, we were able to see some dear friends from St. Louis, I got to visit Colorado Springs where I served my mission 5 years ago, and we fell in love with Denver. Not even a week later Ryan got a call from the chairman of the department who said "we will cancel all other interviews if you will accept the job!" What a blessing. So, next August we will be putting down roots in Denver, Colorado. This is very exciting for our family, but definitely came with PLENTY of tears and heartache for me. I was so looking forward to going back to the East Coast and being close to my family again. But ultimately, we feel like this is where God is leading us and wants us to be. You can't go wrong with that, huh?!?! Ryan will be working 40 hours a week/4 days a week. This is the least amount he's worked in 12 years. We are so ecstatic to have Ryan around so much and to have a "normal" family life together. All the pain will eventually be worth it!

Here are some pictures of our trip out west.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Littleton Historic Museum

Texas State Fair

Today Owen and I went on a special adventure to the Texas State Fair. It was wonderfully predictable and enjoyable. It had everything one could expect from a fair...just a LOT more than I've ever seen in one place before. There were rides, cheesey carnival games with overstuffed prizes that are impossible to win, all the fried food one could gorge themselves with, livestock, a fancy car show, and plenty of people watching (including a young pregnant girl who was wearing one of those bandana shirts that tie in the back from the early 2000's that hardly covered her bulging belly). It was a wonderful day!!!

 Big Tex (the Icon of the Texas State Fair)

 Fried Frito Pie Bites 

If you're from the West you'll know what Frito Pie is, basically chili served on top of Frito chips. This tastey treats are balls of chili rolled in crushed Fritos then breaded and deep fried. My friend said they were wonderful, so I had to try them. They were tastey with a little sour cream and salsa on them, but after 5 fritters I was done. I'm glad I ate them, but don't feel like I need to do so again. 

Owen enjoying a Frito Pie bite.

Fried Oreos, my favorite fair food!

And in addition to these two yummy delights I also had two corn dogs, one at the beginning of the day and one on our way out of the gates! The second one was to honor my mother who ate her very first corn dog at the Texas State Fair when she went to SMU. I'm hoping that eating this much fried food at once will cure my pregnancy cravings for fried food. My heart can't take too much more. 

The fair is largely sponsored or associated with the 4-H and FFA clubs of Texas and they has several displays and activities set up to educate kids on how food is produced, what products we enjoy from different animals like chickens, sheep, cows, goats, pigs, etc. And the youth in these clubs were also there with barns and barns full of these animals that they are showing this week. It was such a good experience for Owen, who has lived his whole life in the middle of a city! I felt like I was truly providing good educational experiences for him by taking him to these different demonstrations and activities. 

How Food is Grown

Picking apples

Watering the apple trees

 Owen and Ford (friend from school)

 Planting seeds

The fruit of his labor.

Gathering eggs from the chicken house

Owen shows off his treasure. 

Learning how to milk a cow.

 Owen discovers what his lunch money will buy someday.

Farmer Owen

Petting Zoo

 Camel

 Bison

 Owen LOVES Zebras

 The craziest 4 horned sheep I've ever seen. 

 Sweet sleeping little piggies. 

 The MOST aggressive feeding I've ever seen. Owen said with concern, "Mom, they're eating their mommy!" I then explained that is how they eat and that Mommy will feed the baby the same way, but not quite so fiercely. Just watching it made my boobs ache as I remembered those first few weeks of nursing Owen. Yikes! Not sure I'll ever be ready to go back to that again. 

Playing on the Farm

 Putting the cows in their house.

Giving the cows some "loves and kisses" before bed.

Dog Trick Show with Dobermans 

Rare albino Doberman

 Receiving sweet doggy kisses.

Cow Milking Demo

Phew....that's it. This is how our day ended.

Mamma Needs Some Quiet Time Too!

Last night I was given the best gift my sweet husband could ever give me, some quiet time ALONE!

Ryan has been working like a MANIAC since we moved to Texas. It is not at all unreasonable for him to be in the operating room until midnight a couple times a week. If he makes it home before 9:00pm I get really excited. This was a really hard adjustment for me when we moved here but now I'm used to it. Usually once or twice a week he will go a day or two without seeing Owen at all, but usually we try to stop by the hospital to see him if it looks like the day is going to end this way. Because of this crazy life we lead Owen often stays up late in order to see Ryan. That's just how we roll.

Yesterday started with Owen crawling in my bed at 7:20 (early for me because I went to bed after midnight in order to say "HI" to my husband before I collapsed in bed) and started crying because I wouldn't immediately turn the TV on for him. I knew at that point it was going to be a long day. Owen was a complete hyper chatter box ALL DAY and by 9:00pm when Ryan made it home I was exhausted! So after our initial greetings and getting Ryan something to eat I asked in my sweetest pleading voice, "Babe, can you please be Dad for a little bit and let me go take a bath and read for a while by my self?!?!" He was so sweet and said, "Of course" and after that he wouldn't let Owen even talk to me.

I wish I had a picture to show you what happened next but it would be pretty inappropriate but I did end up in a big bubble bath with a book in one hand and a mug of super yummy mint hot chocolate in the other. Ryan and Owen came in to check on me (aka: give me an update on the Cardinals game, as if I that was of real concern to me while in the bath) and I just giggled with delight.  On the way out Owen said to Ryan "what's she doing?" and Ryan explained, "Sometimes Mamma needs some quiet time too. Let's go." It was a great hour long bath, totally relaxing! It truly was a gift! Thank you Ryan!

Ryan + Ann + Owen + ???

So I know I'm a little behind in sharing our family's amazing news and most of the people in our lives already know, but for recording purposes I figured I might as well "post the news".

We are having a baby!!! 

We are thrilled beyond belief. It has been a long 14 month process, which we did not expect. Owen came quickly and without much effort at all (sorry if that is TMI). We always had this picture of what our family would be like and it never included our first two kids being 3 years a part, more like 2. 

I have the personal goal to run a 1/2 Marathon between each kid, #1- to keep myself fit and #2- to keep my weight loss between each kid in check. So I ran my second one at the beginning of May 2010, with my amazing friend Jessica who I must say is a trooper and a half because she ran 5 miles on her own at 6am before the race because she was training for her own full marathon then she ran my whole 1/2 marathon just a few steps ahead of me the whole time to keep me moving--it was the first time I'd run it without a group of girls running together. So shout out to Jess. You're the best! (sorry for the tangent) Anyway, the plan was to get pregnant right after the race and have a baby in February-ish of 2011. Well that obviously didn't happen and we were super sad month after month. We couldn't figure out what God's greater plan was for us. The timing would have been perfect as I was surrounded by friends and had a great support system in place in St. Louis. But for whatever reason, we were left babyless and sad. 

So after may months of no luck, and another 1/2 marathon behind me (I might as well keep running I thought), we consulted my OB who eventually put us on Clomid. After 3 cycles we are now pregnant and due on March 2nd, three days before Owen's third birthday. We are thrilled and relieved. Owen is super excited and has declared to the world that is is a girl. We are hopeful but would be equally happy to welcome a little brother. But in my gut I feel it's a girl. We find out on October 12th, if all parties cooperate. 

Side note: I know my mother is going to die when she reads this, she is much more private than I and will probably think sharing these details is wildly inappropriate in such a public setting, but the truth is the more we struggled to get pregnant the more I came to realize that there are A LOT of people in this world who struggle to get pregnant when they want. I firmly believe you have to find your own comfort level with talking about such private details but it was such a comfort to me to discover so many people, even some of my closest friends and a random flight attendant I sat next to, were going through the same thing I was. For so long I thought I was broken, or thought maybe we weren't going to be able to have any more kids. But the truth is.....I don't know! I have NO IDEA why some people can get pregnant when there husbands just look at them like my dear sister in law, mother of 7 kids, or two irresponsible teens wind up preggers. (Uhhh...don't get me started on that injustice!) Another sister-in-law of mine who is in her mid 30's and knows LOTS of people with kidos told me that she only knows 2 people in her whole life who have never struggled at anytime to get pregnant when they want. That is amazing. So for anyone else out there who is still playing the waiting game.......have comfort that there are many many many more people on your side of the court playing the same game. 

I told my family when we were 7.5 weeks along because I was home for a bit of a family reunion. My sis-in-law had made these awesome shirts for all the grand kids to wear during a family picture. 

The night before the pictures we were all sitting in the same room celebrating birthdays and graduations and talking about the pending photo shoot and admiring the shirts. I told Jennie, who made the shirts, "Now I wished I would have gotten you to make a t-shirt like this for me to wear," and I held up a paper sign to my belly with the same icon but that read "- 7.5 mo." It took most other people a few seconds to figure out what that meant but she jumped up with tears in her eyes and hugged me. She knew we had been struggling for a while and was so happy for us. Then my other sis-in-law Arwen did the same. My dad sat on the fireplace stunned....so happy but didn't know what to say. By the time everyone understood what was going on there were lots of happy tears and excitement. It was such a cool moment. (Thanks Jordan for the idea.) 

Ok, that's enough baby talk for now. Thanks for all the well wishes. We are so happy. 

Famous!

Owen and I made a little trip to the public library last Thursday just before close. While we were searching for books the art director asked if he could use Owen in a new campaign they are doing to promote library card sign ups this fall. Of course I said they could and they shot a few pictures of Owen by himself and a few of him with another little girl. These are the two the photographer sent me. Not the best, but they are still cute. I love the little gap between his front two teeth. Hopefully the ones they use will be better and of both kids. If it all works out he will be on a sign just outside of the library and on a big banner during one of their campaigns outside of the big fancy grocery store here in town. Owen could be famous! (We'll see....)

It's been a long time.....

Friends, family and anyone else who cares to read about the lives of our little family,

It has officially been over 10 months since I last posted anything. I know that is sad, I was doing so well. I told my friend Sarah, who convinced me to start a blog, that I felt too overwhelmed by all that had happened between last December and now to want to start again. She sweetly said, "Yeah, well you got to start somewhere." So...here we go. I'll do my best to catch you up on the fun things that have gone on in our family in the last 10 months another time, but for now the biggest thing that has happened is Owen started preschool. My little boy is so big!!! 

Our little boy has gotten so big! Doesn't he look like he's 5?

 Owen loves taking his lunch to school. He wants me to make him a quesadilla every time. 

 Rockin' the Elmo backpack. 

In front of his cubby.

He loves his teacher, Ms. Myra, and the 5 other boys in his class. I feel for his teacher sometimes with 6 2 year old boys for 3 hours. That is a lot to handle, but they all seem really sweet. He loves to paint, and play on the playground, and play with all the trucks and cars they have there. But his favorite feature in the classroom is the small sink. There is a small section of the countertop that is sunken lower and has a little sink and mirror so he can see himself wash his hands. He can do it mostly by himself. When I was checking out the schools in town they all looked much the same to me. But when we visited this school and he saw the small sinks and said "Mom look, it's just my size!" He said the same thing in all 4 classrooms we visited. Ryan tells everyone that I picked Owen's school because it has little sinks.  

I LOVE to pick Owen up from school. He is so excited to see me! He screams "Mommy"and runs to arms. I can finally feel a little of what it is like when Ryan comes home at night. He's been greeting Ryan like this since he could talk, but not to me because he's with me all day. Now those few moments around picking him up are so sweet and filled with enthusiasm that they have become some of my favorite moments of my day.