And The Answer Is...

Blue!!! We are having a boy! I actually found out during our Thanksgiving vacation but had it verified today at my 20 week appointment. (The first time we found out it took two tries to be able to tell due to the cord so I've been a little hesitant to tell people) We are so excited. I was having the hardest time before we found out what he was because I kept trying to prepare myself for one or the other. I would then get my heart set on one gender for a while and then change my mind. Luckily when we found out he was a boy I had my heart set on having a boy.

I thought he was a girl until we got to the ultrasound and then once they put up a picture of his face I had a strong feeling he was a boy. I feel a little worried about what to do with a boy because I've been in girl mode so long. I've had a lot of fun getting him clothes. The first store I went to I had the hardest time going from the girls side of the store to the boys side. I got so flustered I left the store. It didn't take long for me to get used to it and now I can't get enough of it. Cole is thrilled because he won't have to paint the babies room a different color (it is blue from the previous owners). We've picked a name which is really nice and has taken away a lot of stress. We'll just have to wait to see if I can stay committed to it when he's born. (Lexi was going to be Kylie but obviously that didn't happen) I am feeling pretty good but get light headed a lot. I also feel a lot bigger this pregnancy.

Lexi

Just some things about Lexi I want to remember:
-She calls us Mamas and Dadas. For some reason we're plural now.
-She loves to sing! She sings all sorts of songs: Once there was a snowman, Do as I'm doing, The wheels on the bus, Clean up, Goodbye so long, Jingle Bells, etc. She loves songtime and pretends to have it by herself here at home.
-She calls the Christmas tree a Santa tree. We haven't been able to get her to use the word Christmas at all. Everythings Santa....we're working on it thought.
-If you ask her what she wants Santa to bring her she will tell you a bike.
-Snowmen are her favorite. She is dying to build one but hasn't got to yet.
-When we put up the Christmas tree she wouldn't touch any of the ornaments that had any fur on them. She told us they were caca. She thinks it's funny to ask us to touch them.
-She hides under her blanket when she wakes up in the morning and thinks she is so funny. She gets really excited to say peek a boo and poke her head out.
-She says, "like this" a lot and then demonstrates things to me. The other day when I went to get her in the morning she had to show me how she sleeps. She'd say, "like this" and then get into her fetal position to demonstrate.
-She will say, "hold the baby for a sec" to me and then make me hold her doll
-If she hears music she has to dance and then she will say, "shake it mama" followed by, "shake it baby" to her doll.
-Her favorite Christmas song is Jingle Bells so we got her some bells and made a necklace
-She loves to count. She used to consistently count 1,2,4,6,9,10 but now she can count to 10 perfectly.

Thanksgiving

I loved Thanksgiving! We went to Utah and got to stay for a week. We even left a day early to go because we were too excited to get there. I got to go have a girls overnighter with my Mom, Aunts, and cousin in Park City and had so much fun! I got a lot of good deals at the Outlets and loved getting to be around my favorite ladies. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and a cute fashion show after. Lexi wasn't quite sure what to do but she liked wearing her new Christmas dress and being with her cousins. We got to take Lexi to her first Princess movie, Tangled. She did really well. Lexi loved playing with Grandpa! She would climb on his lap and give him a kiss and then ask him for a favor. It was so funny. She's learned quickly how to get what she wants. We got to go to the Provo Christmas parade with Cole's siblings and enjoyed seeing them. One of my favorite things we did was go to Temple Square. Lexi loves the Salt Lake Temple and it was so fun to take her there to see it in person. Her eyes lit up when she saw it and all the pretty lights around. Thank you to everyone who helped us enjoy our trip so much!

Fall Pictures

These pictures were taken up by snowbowl. It was really beautiful and Lexi was in a great mood so we got some great pictures. Thanks to Ashley and Sarah for taking them for us!

Family Pictures

I had two different friends take some pictures of us this fall. They were so kind to offer to do them and we love the way they turned out. Here are some from one of the girls. I'll put the others up soon.

Pink or Blue?

In the next little while we will be finding out if we are having a girl or a boy . I had people guess with Lexi and it was really fun so please leave a comment with your guess for baby number 2.

27

My three favorite things that happened to me the day I turned 27:
1. Cole made me a surprise breakfast and fed Lexi for me
2. Lexi randomly decided to sing Happy Birthday to me and gave me a big hug
3. My family and friends were sweet and remembered me

Grandma's Visit

Grandma Chamberlain came to visit us this weekend. We had a lot of fun with her. Lexi was so excited to have her come. When she heard the knock at the door and we told her it was Grandma she said, "Yeah Grandma!!". She loved having Grandma around. My favorite part of the trip was listening to Lexi narrate our drives to Grandma. I'd hear this little voice in the backseat say, "Grandma, tree. Grandma, car. etc". It was really cute. Lexi was very sad the day after Grandma left. She would ask me where she was and I'd have to tell her she went home. We are so glad Grandma got to come spend some time with us!

Halloween

We had fun at our ward trunk or treat last weekend. Lexi was pretty expressionless the entire time and was a little scared. Cole teased me because you could hardly see her witch costume because I had her bundled up so much. (It was really cold) She loved her pumpkin bucket. When it was all over she told me she liked "trick or treat". On the way home we let her hold her bucket of candy. Soon I could hear wrappers opening. Her treat of choice were the succors. She would open one, lick it, say mmm, and then put it back and proceed to get another one. By the time we got home she had three opened sticky succors stuck to the rest of her candy. Lexi painted pumpkins and Cole carved a Frankenstein in record time. Lexi loves pumpkins and asks to paint them all the time now. On Halloween day we got a visit from Grandpa Chamberlain. It was fun to have him visit. Lexi was a little under the weather but enjoyed seeing Grandpa.

Happy Day

Lexi's birthday was so much fun! Her cousins Zach, Tanner, and Asher came to help us celebrate. Lexi loved having her "friends" there and I loved listening to her laugh and play with them. Lexi got a kitchen for her birthday and loves it! We had a hard time getting her to leave it long enough to open her other presents. She got a fun doll that talks and she has had to take it everywhere. She is in heaven with her new toys and we are in heaven having some new things to entertain her! She quickly learned that birthdays are really fun. She would sing "happy day" all day long. We love our Lexi Jane and are so glad she's part of our family! Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate.

Halloween Costume Birthday Party

For Lexi's birthday I threw her a little party. The kids all dressed up and looked so cute in their costumes. Lexi was a little unhappy that afternoon but in the end she loved her "happy day" as she calls it. The kids painted pumpkins, made oreo spiders, did a bean bag toss, and made ghost succors. We really enjoyed celebrating with her cute friends and their Moms.

Bon Voyage

Today is officially my first day in my second trimester (14 weeks). I am feeling so much better and am really enjoying this part of my pregnancy. This picture is from when I was 13 weeks.

End of One..Beginning of Two

The end of one the beginning of two is the theme at our house lately. It is an appropriate theme for two reasons:

1. Lexi is enjoying her last few days as a one year old.

2. Lexi is also enjoying her last few months as the one and only child we have!!! We're expecting our second child April 24th!!! We are so excited! I'm 12 weeks.

Some notes I want to remember about the past few weeks:
I could tell I was pregnant before I found out officially. It felt very familiar. With both pregnancies I've had a lot of ligament pain during the first few weeks. To tell Cole I was pregnant I put back on some pants I wore when I was pregnant with Lexi (that Cole hated) and told him it was time for them again. I also waved the stick at him to which he squinted and tried to read it. He was a little slow to realize what I was saying. We were both thrilled and so grateful.

I went to Utah three days later and was able to tell some of my family then. It is always my hope that I can tell them in person and was so excited to get to again. They knew this was something we wanted and were so happy for us. This pregnancy has been really hard to hide. My body is very efficient now and thus I've been showing really fast. As a result the day after I found out I was pregnant I already had to get up in the night to use the bathroom. My appetite was really poor for a few weeks so I actually lost weight even though I was getting rounder. I even had a little morning sickness with this pregnancy which was new to me. I was so glad it only lasted a week and a half. I felt so sorry for women that have it for months and months. It is especially hard when you have to keep up with a toddler. I was so grateful for Cole. He really stepped it up and was so patient with me. I've been tired and taking it easy but am feeling a lot better now that the first trimester is ending.

I am so excited about the timing of this baby. My kids will be exactly two and a half years apart. I really wanted a spring baby. I am excited for Lexi. She really loves babies right now and is really nice to them. (let's hope it lasts) She has a strong motherly instinct and likes to help take care of them. I feel so blessed and excited about this pregnancy.

Tornado

Yes, a tornado can happen in Arizona. At 5:30 on Wednesday I awoke to a nightmare. It had been stormy all night but it was getting worse and worse. Soon it was hailing and I was getting nervous. The power went out and then my entire house started shaking. Cole woke up and looked out the window. I asked him if it was an earthquake. He said no and then came back to bed.

Shortly thereafter a friend called me to see if we were okay. She then told me it was a tornado and that her windows broke. She said there were more on the way. Cole and I quickly got up, checked our house, and got Lexi. We prepared our bathroom as a shelter. We called our other neighbors to see if they were okay. They were all okay but they all had broken windows and roof problems. We waited for the next tornado to come but it hit north of us. Around 8 we left our house to go see the damage. The first picture is of our house. We were really fortunate. All of our windows were okay and we haven't had any roof problems. We drove down our street to see that our friends home didn't make out so well. They ended up with a sink attached to their home. It was from an RV store across the freeway. About this time the Sheriff told people to seek shelter because another one was coming.

We got home safely but luckily the other tornado didn't hit our area. Amazingly no one was seriously injured during the events. One of the tornado's derailed a train across the freeway from my house. When the freeway opened later that morning some men from our ward that lived in town brought out some wood to help board up windows. Cole went to help them. The frustrating part was that the storm was still happening through all of this. From 5:30 until 2:30 we had thunder and lightning and hail. All those men had to board windows and patch roofs during this terrible storm. It made me very nervous to send Cole. I was very glad when he returned home safe. Later he told me about a man that nearly fell off one of the roofs because there was so much hail on it.

The power was out all day and our house got power back around 6pm. We were so glad because it was going to be a cold night. Later that night we met up with members of our ward and heard their stories. They have been running through my mind ever since. They were hit extremely hard. Most of the pictures below are of members homes. They won't be returning to their homes for a long time. Each of them had a story of a way they were blessed during this experience. Even though terrible things happened Heavenly Father watched over their families. One woman told me that she felt blessed because earlier in the night her daughter came into her room because she was scared. The tornado hit that daughters room the hardest. She said there were chunks of glass stabbed into the mattress. She was so thankful her daughter wasn't in there. Everyone had a story like this to tell. I feel very blessed to have been watched over. I feel so bad for the people I know that have been affected.