Good Times on Saturday

Eli helped Daddy clean his golf clubs.

Eli gets a bath.

Family Goings On

I had a few minutes and thought I'd share some thoughts from our life with you. Things are unusually calm and quiet in our world right now, which is nice. Jason and I both feel we had a 'lost weekend' this past weekend as we were both tired and worthless. I think the craziness of the past month caught up with us. We did manage to do some fun things, though. Friday night was our traditional pizza and movie night with our boys. Hugh & Grant decided we would watch the Garfield movie. We usually trade off weeks on who decides what we watch. Jason and I have been introducing H&G to some of our favorite movies like Field of Dreams, Rudy, and The Princess Bride, which they always enjoy. Saturday morning we had our family pancake breakfast, chocolate chip this time. Eli joined us for that tradition for the first time ever! I served him a silver dollar sized pancake and he quickly tore off a bite that was too big and nearly choked:) Fun family memories.
It rained Saturday morning so the boys' soccer game was canceled. I think the rain didn't help our laziness. Mid morning Jason had a bit of a runny nose and he was really groggy. I got nervous when I saw a bottle of NyQuil on the kitchen counter...and sure enough I found Jason passed out on the couch. I roused him long enough for him to confirm he took the NyQuil and that he'd never taken any before. I told him a shot of that stuff will take down a 300lb man! I asked him if he even bothered to notice that it was over a year expired. (now, exactly whose fault it was that we had a year old bottle of medicine in the house is yet to be determined). Needless to say he was good for nothing for a while!
My folks dropped by for a visit. They had a good friend in town and she wanted to see Eli. Per usual he was good to entertain everyone. We ate leftover pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches and enjoyed the company.
I am pretty sure that I felt new baby Walker moving around for the first time this weekend. I'm somewhere around 18 weeks, so that is about when I could feel Eli. One week from today we find out if we're having a boy or a girl. Isn't that exciting?! I am definitely a big fan of finding out the gender. I love being able to pick a name and begin using it for the baby (versus calling it 'the baby') and it's easier to envision the baby once you know the gender. It will be fun to know if our big brood of boys is going to remain just that...or if a little diva is going to enter our world and turn it upside down. We are just thankful to be able to add another child to our family. I will let you all know the verdict next Tuesday...stay tuned!

Just because it's so sweet

The funny part is everyone told us we were going to regret getting a lab. We were told they are so wild and crazy, that they destroy everything in sight, and never slow down. Well, if this doesn't prove them wrong I don't know what would.

Family Album

We got some family pictures done today...I love the one of the three boys. Won't be long before there's another Walker in the picture.

Eli on Easter

If It's Not One Thing...

Well, you'll be glad to know that my pregnancy-induced nausea is gone - YEA!!! Isn't that wonderful? It did, however, give way to a nasty cold which had me down for the past week. So, yesterday as I was finally coming out of the fog I was carrying Eli through the den and by some freak accident that I couldn't recreate if I tried, I got my pinky toe caught on our stone fireplace and snapped it sideways. Yes, now I've broken my toe. Crazy. I knew instantly it was bad. Something about the snap, crackle, and pop I heard clued me in that this pain wasn't going to go away any time soon. I went into the next room and put Eli down and tried to hope the accident away to no avail. I think it is always a bad sign when you can bend your toe out sideways. The doctor confirmed the break today with some xrays. Since it's just my littlest piggy, there's not really anything you can do for it. So, it's taped to it's little piggy neighbor and I'm supposed to stay off of it and keep it elevated for a few days. Hmmmm, wonder how Eli is going to do while I'm staying off my foot! And, like with the cold, since I'm preggo I cannot take any medications other than Tylenol for what ails me. Where's the hard stuff when you need it?
Now, as for that pesky mass the doctor has been tracking. I had my UAB appointment today (yes, it was a medical marathon day for me). The UAB doc agrees with my doc -- I have a benign tumor on my right ovary. Neither doctor feels it necessitates any procedures to biopsy it or remove it at this time. However, it must be removed -- but that can be done in September when I have new baby Walker. Apparently this is not that uncommon and absolutely nothing to be concerned about. All good.
Although I am just 14 weeks along, the doctor today told me she could find out the gender of new baby for me since she had such high tech equipment. I asked her not to peek and tell since Jason wasn't with me. So, it shall remain a mystery for a few more weeks. She did say the baby looked great - thick neck and bone in the nose which apparently are good signs of a healthy baby. Who knew.
That is it for now. As soon as I can find the charger for my camera battery, I'll start sending out some pictures for your viewing enjoyment. Hope you are all well and loving life!

Is Anybody Out There?

Yes, I am still alive (barely) and am so sorry I haven't been blogging lately. It's hard for me to blog from my horizontal position on the couch, barf bag close at hand! Last week I was sure I had reached the end of the sick and miserable 1st trimester of pregnancy road. But, alas, better days elude me.
I am 12 weeks now. Had a sonogram today and Jason and I got to see new baby Walker jumping around like crazy. We could see the hands and feet so clearly, even the lips! No news on gender yet...that won't happen for a few more weeks. I would attach a picture from the sonogram...but I'm sure you've all seen one at some point in your life and I assure you that my little blurry black and white baby doesn't look any different than all the others you've seen.
One hitch in our otherwise wonderful pregnancy is that the doctor found a solid, golf ball sized mass in my right ovary. He is not sure what it is (it is not a cyst). We've been watching it for a few weeks and fortunately it has not gotten any bigger. My doctor feels that we do not need to do any testing on it since it hasn't changed, but just to have someone back up his decision he is sending me to UAB for a second opinion. If they feel a biopsy is in order then we'll do that asap as the window of safely doing such a procedure closes in a few weeks. Otherwise, we'll wait and take a look at it in September.
As for the rest of my wonderful family, all is well. Jason is in the process of re-doing our back porch. I'll send out pictures of that project soon, you will be impressed. It is going to be so wonderful to have a nice place to enjoy the great outdoors this spring!
That's it for now. Don't give up on my blog just yet! I'll be back in the swing of things very soon, ranting and raving about all the things people say to pregnant women that DRIVE ME CRAZY...stay tuned.