Summer Fun

Our summer is off to a great start so far.  Each morning we try to get out of the house to do some type of activity and then in the afternoon, I spend my time resting and cleaning while Tyler sleeps. Most of my time has been spent cleaning out my craft room preparing for our new baby girl! I plan on spending a lot of time this summer getting very organized so I don't go crazy trying to raise two children on top of working full time.


We've hit up a few water parks so far.  Here Tyler is playing at the El Mirage Splashpad.  These splashpads work out really well for Tyler because he can get cooled off but doesn't have to worry about getting his face wet (a big fear of his).

One day, we went to the Marley Park Splashpad and met up with Nana and Brendan for some water fun.

We've also spent a day swimming at Nana's house.  I'm hoping to get Tyler a little more comfortable with the water before summer is over.  Unfortunately this day, he spent most of his time on the edge of the pool.

Friday's is our movie day.  The movie theater near our house has $1 movies for the kids.  This has been a great way to get out of the house but to stay cool as well.

And of course we have to hit up the Surprise Park once in a while.  Tyler loves feeding the ducks and playing on the playground there.

Fetal Echo

We went to the cardiologist today to have a fetal echo done on our little girl.  Since Tyler had a VSD they wanted to check her heart to make sure everything was okay.  Tyler's cardiologist told us that his heart condition was not hereditary and it wasn't likely for us to have another child with this condition.  So we went into the ultrasound feeling pretty confident that everything would be just fine.  So it was quite a shock for us to hear that she has a hole in her heart as well.  After we were told the news I spent the rest of the visit trying to keep my composure, so I don't understand all of the details yet but her hole is smaller and in a better location than Tyler's. Her hole is in the muscle which in most cases, it will close up all on it's own as the muscle tissue is able to grow back together.  It is also in the lower chamber of the heart which is a plus because it isn't near any of the valves.  We will go back to the cardiologist in 7 weeks so they can check her heart again.  The doctor gave us three scenarios that can occur; the hole can close sometime during the pregnancy, it can close shortly after birth, or she can live with it her whole life without any complications.  This was a relief to hear but it has been a real emotional time knowing that my poor girl has a heart defect.  We will be praying that this is resolved for her before she makes her entrance into this world.

This image shows where her VSD is located.

Camping at Point of Rock

Last week was the last week of school and a very tough week.  I had to move my classroom from one room to another which was not easy being 23 weeks pregnant.  By the end of the week, my body ached and my emotions were running high.  I spent Friday in tears for no reason other than being completely exhausted.  So after a horrible week, we decided to take a trip up to Prescott to go camping.  We went to Point of Rock.  The campground itself wasn't that interesting, but there were some great trails that we went hiking on and really neat boulders all around the area.

Tyler was our tour guide on the hikes.  One trail was marked with little white dots and he really enjoyed hunting around for the dots and showing us the way.

Daddy and Tyler were adventurous and climbed out on many of the rocks.

King of the Rock

We can't go anywhere without some kind of vehicle to play with!

This was the most relaxing trip I've had in a long time and it was the perfect way to begin my summer vacation. We are really enjoying our family time together in our new camper and I'm looking forward to many more of these trips over the summer.

Tyler Humor

Today I was scratching my ever growing and stretched out belly when Tyler looked at me with a shocked expression and said, "Mom, stop scratching!  You're going to hurt your baby."  Silly guy.  Can you tell he's been warned a few times about jumping on me and not hitting my belly?

It's a GIRL!

That's right!  We have a new addition joining our family around Sept. 23.  We are so blessed to be having another child.  It has been such a shock that it's really been hard to believe until we got to see this wonderful image on Thursday. During the ultrasound we got to see her little belly shake with hiccups, she turned her head back and forth, and we even got to see her yawn.  The ultrasound tech said she is healthy and she doesn't see any concerns with her heart.  We will have an ultrasound at the cardiologists office around 22-24 weeks to have a special fetal echo done so they can get an even more thorough scan of her heart.

I am 19 weeks today and things have been going smoothly so far.  I had morning sickness up until about 16 weeks but now that that has subsided, I've just been super tired!  Getting through each day has been tough trying to go to work, take care of my family, and keep up with a three year old.  By 8 o'clock I'm exhausted and ready for bed!  We have only four more weeks left of school and then I can finally take it easy and enjoy my time off with Tyler. 

Tyler knows I have a baby in my tummy but I don't think he quite understands what that means.  He is going to be such a great big brother though.  He is such a gentle boy and great helper that I know he will do well with having a sister.  I'm really looking forward to watching these two grow up together.

Tyler's First Trip to See Snow

We took Tyler up to Flagstaff today for his first experience with snow. Not a true experience when it's 50 degrees and sunny but it made a much more enjoyable day since we weren't freezing.

Tyler had fun shoveling the snow and liked throwing snowballs the best. Grandma Smith packed snowball after snowball for him to throw at everyone.

His favorite target was Grandpa Smith :)

The snow was pretty dry and icy so it wasn't very good packing snow but we did attempt to make a snowman for Tyler (even if it was only a foot tall).

With the perfect weather and beautiful scenery, it was a great day!