25th Anniversary

In my family 25th wedding anniversary's are kind of a big deal. I come from a long line of people who have chosen, and worked hard, to have longevity in their marriages. These marriages are not perfect, as people are not perfect, and there have been divorces within the family, but marriage is serious business to us.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending my Aunt and Uncle's 25th Wedding Anniversary. Long ago my parents started a tradition that when you reach your 25th anniversary you receive a silver teapot set that gets passed along from couple to couple. Everyone who is married in our family has their names and the dates of their anniversary stored inside this teapot. My aunt and uncle will be the 4th couple to receive the teapot since the tradition started. 

Daniel and I have 13 years to go until we receive the teapot set – there are 3 couples in line ahead of us to receive it. I know it is just a teapot, but it is something to strive for. It is a reminder that people before us have worked through difficulties and carried on in good times and in bad. I feel blessed to have this tradition in our family.
*Unfortunately I can't find a photo of the teapot. I will update the blog later with an image

One other thing I wanted to include in this post is a story my mom wrote many years ago of how my Aunt and Uncle met...

The Story of Malvin and Becky 
By Lois Voyles, Illustrated by Cheree Voyles Moore (circa 1989)

Congratulations Uncle Malvin and Aunt Becky on 25 years of marriage! Their children, Andrew and Moriah, did a fabulous job of throwing them a surprise party! We wish you many more years of choosing love and happiness!

Baby #2: First Trimester

So I don't know if I will document this pregnancy to the same extent that I documented being pregnant with Jack (weekly updates may be too much this time around), but I would like to track my experience, and my blog seems like the best place to do that.

It's really hard to believe that I am 14 weeks already. Like before, I am high risk for blood clots, so I get to give myself daily injections in my stomach. This is probably my least favorite part of being pregnant.

Minus a few scares in the first trimester, this pregnancy hasn't been too difficult. That being said, it is different. I have had about 3 weeks of mild morning sickness, I eat a lot of pickles to combat a metallic taste in my mouth that always seems to be there, and have had a decent amount of fatigue. Like my pregnancy with Jack, I am working out 4x a week and plan to continue until I give birth.

Here is a brief recap of my first trimester:

Week 3-4: Pregnant? 

Suspected I was pregnant when I had hip pain and an excessively strong sense of smell and a periodic metallic taste in my mouth.  

Week 5: Positive. 

Confirmed that I was pregnant. Had typical early growing pains and heartburn. 

Week 6: Nauseous. 

Thankfully no throwing up. I felt like I was starting to show right away, but I was probably just hypersensitive. Below you can see the start of a baby bump at 6 weeks (or maybe I was just bloated).

Week 7: Anxious. 

This was a week marked by lots of anxiety. At the beginning of the week, I had some brown discharge/spotting. This was very scary and I was convinced that I was going to miscarry again. We went to OB a week early and saw the baby and heard a strong heartbeat of 150, which was encouraging. There was also a potential blood clot in my uterus with the baby that was worrisome (though it explained my spotting). 

Week 8: Hopeful. 

No real spotting this week. I started to share my news and it felt good to let go of the fear. I had an ongoing metallic taste in my mouth – pickles seem to neutralize the bad taste. I have been eating lots of pickles throughout this pregnancy. The medical term for this is dysgeusia, and I have it bad.

Week 9: Peace. 

By the end of the week, I was feeling oh-so-very-tired! Which is a good thing, right!? Ultrasound at end of week showed a baby that was on track in growth and had a strong heartbeat of 182. We also saw what appeared to be a blood clot at 7 weeks was actually a mass with its own blood supply. This was cause for greater concern, but we did our best to be at peace with this development.

Week 10: Beach. 

Enjoyed a relatively relaxed vacation (for us). I discovered that walking on sand does a number on my pelvis and hips. Everything hurt! I was also extra tired all week and experienced some mood swings and the start of some mild morning sickness. It's a good thing I told my family beforehand that I was pregnant... there was no hiding a slightly pregnant belly in a swimsuit!

Week 11: Tired. 

This was the most tired I felt in this pregnancy so far. I also experienced several headaches, but that might have been from working out and then not eating or drinking enough. Working out felt really good this week. I thought it would be hard to come back after a week of vacation, but working out always makes me feel better. Continued morning sickness this week.

Week 12: Relief. 

We saw a high-risk OB after some concern about high hormone levels (coupled with the mass in the last ultrasound). There was talk of a partial-molar pregnancy, which is enough to scare anyone. Thankfully, our high-risk ultrasound showed us a perfect baby. No mole and no sign of the mass that was apparent in the 9-week ultrasound. We were incredibly relieved. God is good. We believe in the power of prayer. This was my worst week of morning sickness yet.

First Trimester Overview:

So far I have had zero weight gain, though I am starting to have a more obvious baby bump. I haven't had a lot of cravings this trimester – the thought of food makes me not want to eat. However, I am eating lots of pickles. I don't think this is a true craving, it just balances out the metallic taste in my mouth. So far I have had a lot less heartburn than I had with Jack. 

That about sums it up. I will have periodic updates throughout this pregnancy. 

Baby #2 First Trimester  |  Second Trimester  |  Third Trimester 

And Baby Makes Four

We're having a baby! Arriving around mid April of next year.

After our miscarriage earlier this year, we are over the moon. 

Jack is aware about the baby and says funny things like: 

"The baby is at the grocery store, we need to go get it tomorrow."

Chats with Jack ⎮ September, 2014

Jack is going to be three in less than a month. Almost-three has been a ton of fun. Jack says such sweet and goofy things. We want to remember it all. Here are some of the things he was doing and saying in the month of September...

When I ask a question and his answer is "No" he says, "Uh, no thank you" in a sweet, sing song, little boy voice that melts my heart.

Right now Jack has an obsession with trying to lasso things. He calls any rope his "yeehaw rope" and swings it proudly in an attempt to catch something.

At the beginning of September, Jack experienced his first gash in head. Thankfully he didn't have to get stitches. I did have to sign a waiver at the Y saying he ran into the gate on his own accord and it wasn't their fault. 

A few funny phrases Jack has adopted:
When we say something is "very big" Jack will tell us it is "a lot of big."
He also says "last-erday" instead if yesterday.

We finally got a bike with training wheels and a scooter, he loves both. A couple of weeks after having his new toys he said, "I'm so glad to have my new scooter. If it got lost, I would cry." I'm pretty sure we will have him out on the mountain bike trails in a couple of years.
 

Jack has invented his own new sport for in the house: He hits the soccer ball with his tee ball bat and then runs the bases – i.e. he runs around the kitchen island 3x.

 He also likes to do yoga at bedtime, for him this is always a one-legged downward dog.

Currently, Jack's favorite YouTube video is the Human Powered Helicopter. He asks to watch it all the time. Future mechanical engineer?

We have learned that Jack is too analytical for Dr. Seuss. Bedtime stories include a lot of questions including, "What's a Tuttle Tuttle tree? Why is she riding on a red rhinoceros? What's a zizzer zazzer zuzz?"

Jack has a fascination with marching bands. He loves to stomp around while playing a drum.

He is also enamored with sailors and pirates since our visit to the LST Floating Museum and our trip to the beach.

Jack loves the beach. I think he would spend every day of his life at the beach if he could. He called our beach house on vacation the "Pirates House on the beach."

His favorite church songs are "Lord's Army" and the "Days of Creation." One day in the car, he told me the words to a song, which I sang back to him (since I already knew the song). He proceeded to tell me, "you're doing great!"
 

Jack learned his first memory verse this month: "Children obey your parents. Ephesians 6:1."

I'm not sure where this came from, but one day Jack randomly told Daniel, "You need to buy a motorcycle with two seats. I will buckle on my helmet and ride behind you."

When we were snorkeling on vacation, Daniel dove under water with his feet above the surface. I asked Jack, "Where's daddy?" and Jack said, "He went down the rabbit hole." We have an Alice in Wonderland book that shows Alice's feet going down the rabbit hole. We love how he makes connections like that.

Jack has a fascination with our neighborhood and seeing our neighbors. One day he headed up driveway our driveway on this bike and said, "I want to go see my naaybor."

If I need to do something like cook dinner, I will tell Jack, "come get me if you need something." Now at random times he will say, "mommy, I need something!" But he never tells me what the something is without some prompting. This is funny but also frustrating. He thinks it is hilarious.

Funny conversation between Jack and one of our friend's older kids:
Jack to Andrew: I don't like carrots, they smell yucky.
Andrew: What do the smell like?
Jack: Carrots.

Me: Are you a big boy?
Jack: No.
Me: Are you a baby?
Jack: No. I'm Jack!

See Jack get his first bike. 


See Jack practice balancing on his bike (no training wheels and no pedals).


See Jack start the four wheeler. 


See Jack practice using a toy front loader.


See Jack pedal a bike for the first time.

Camping at Harrison Bay State Park

There is nothing like having a kid to change your style of how you do something, like camping. Sadly, the last time we went managed a camping trip was over a year ago when Jack was 18 months old. 

Since then we just haven't had the time we would like to devote to these trips that we would like, so I am very thankful it worked out that our small group from church was able to get together for a quick overnight trip to Harrison Bay State Park.

Truth be told, we almost backed out at the last minute (or least I was ready to throw in the towel). Our day started with a quick trip to Atlanta (that we hadn't planned on), and ended with traffic that made us late to the campsite. Arriving after dark is never a great thing, but it is more doable if you are car camping.

I'm glad we made the effort to meet up with our friends, even if we were late. It had been a rough week and I was grateful to spend some time in the cool, fresh air, and time around a campfire with friends really made my day better.

Also, at almost-three-years old, Jack would have been incredibly disappointed to miss this trip, so that was another good reason to go.

Jack is in a phase where he insists he is a big kid and wants to do big kid things. Our small group has big kids (ages 7-11) and little kids (under age 5) and Jack loves to follow the big kids around. I'm not sure that they always love it, but they typically humor him.

About 4 years ago, when Daniel and I were living in a camper, we invited our friends, the Reynolds, to come visit us at the camper to make S'mores. Evidently that memory has stuck with the Reynolds' kids, because to this day, if we are having S'mores, they always seem to talk about "S'mores with the Moores." Now there is an even bigger group of kids that has this memory!

Having 9 kids at a campsite can be a bit worrisome – it's dark, there's a fire, bugs, etc. – but the kids all did really great. They played together for the most part and no one got hurt (at least not seriously, I think one of the kids crashed his bike at one point, but nothing major).

Overall it was a great evening. The kids all slept well and we woke up to enjoy another campfire, with hot cocoa. I look forward to our next camping trip as a group. Hopefully one of these days Daniel and I can get our stuff together to take Jack on a backpacking trip!