Chase in his newly painted room

He's very excited about some color on the walls

First corn on the cob this summer, and oh boy does he LOVE corn on the cob!

Finishing up his chocolate cupcake

Black mail picture for later on in life

No, still no baby. I just thought it was about time that I update our blog, especially since I probably won't have the time to for awhile once little man decides to make his grand entrance. I am getting "checked" every week now, (and those of you ladies who've had kids know what a pleasure that is) and I am dilated to a "tight one" and there's definitely some thinning and effacing going on. She could feel the baby's head, and we will be doing an ultrasound this week most likely, to see how big little brother is and get a better idea of when he'll be arriving. So we'll keep you udated on that.

On other news Chase is going through this knowledge growth spurt. He surprises us every day with new words and sentences he's saying. He understands that I have a baby in my belly now and he'll come and point at my belly and yell, "BABY OUT!" and he loves listening to baby brother's heart beat at doctor's appointments and goes, "baby?" every time we are listening. I think he's excited for a baby in the house. He knows many of his letters now and likes to sing his ABC's. He loves books, he'll go and grab piles of books and just sits on the floor and looks through them and "reads" them out loud. We have a bed time routine of reading him 4-5 books before bed. I'll put a stack on our side table and get him a cup of milk to sip on while we read to him. Well, the other night when I was getting him his milk Kyle came into the kitchen and told me to look at what Chase was doing. He was going mach ten, gathering as many books as his little arms could carry and adding them to the pile. Needless to say we ended up reading A LOT of books that night. We're so proud of the sweet little boy he's become.

We've been very busy this weekend and decided to get some painting done. We desperately needed color on our walls. I've never painted before and I was really excited for the whole process, but I realized about 1/2 an hour into the sweaty, and painfully dull experience that painting is NOT fun. We've painted both of the boy's rooms though and just have little touch ups to do before they're complete. We'll tackle our big rooms over the next couple weeks little by little to hopefully finish before the baby comes. Kyle told me yesterday, and I quote, "Jess, you are a trooper painting alongside your husband at 9 months pregnant!" and to that I say oh so true! There were many times when I wanted to play the pregnancy card, but I just would've felt too guilty.

The prego aches and pains are defintely coming on. I have been so lucky to make it as far along as this and really not have too many discomforts. I've been jogging throughout my entire pregnancy (yes, jogging and yes it's safe according to every doctor and nurse practitioner at my office, and all the research I've done online. As long as you were doing it before your pregnancy and you listen to your body). I've felt great getting some good cardio in 4-5 days a week. Last week that all changed though, my body would get fatigued about 20 minutes into my jog, whereas I used to be able to go for 30-40 minutes no problem, and my hips and pelvis would kill for the rest of the day. So I've relented jogging and I just do various dvds that aren't as much impact and pressure but still give me a great workout. It'll be nice to work out after delivery and just feel good period.

Anyways, this post is long enough and it's story time now, so I'm calling it a day! Here are some pictures for now. Enjoy!

Showers, and baby drama

Baby brother is definitely going to be rocking some stylish frocks!

At the beginning of this pregnancy my good friend Jamie asked me if I thought I would be having a baby shower for this one. I really didn't think too much of it but figured I wouldn't, because I wouldn't be throwing one for myself, and we already had one for Chase, right? Well she being the angel of a friend that she is, planned a girl's night out to Oregeno's, one of my favorite restaurants and invited all my closest friends. All but one friend, who'd just had a baby of her own, was able to come and we had such a fun night. It was so nice to get away and just kick back, catch up, laugh, and have a good time with the girls. I made out with some wonderful gifts for baby boy and had great food and the best company to boot. Thanks so so much girls, you really are the best! The only regret I have is that I don't have a single picture! I brought my camera and everything and having the brain that I have right now, (ya know "mommy mush") I forgot to take a single picture. I guess that just means we'll have to get together again very soon so that I can get my pictures of all my lovely girlfriends. Here are some pictures of the adorable gifts baby brother scored.

On a second somewhat related yet totally unrelated note I have had a whirlwind of doctor visits and tests this past week, ugh. I went in for my regular ob appointment last Tuesday and my protein was high. They decided to do some blood work to make sure I didn't have preeclampsia, everything else looked great. Blood pressure and swelling are usually two big things to watch for with preeclampsia and both of those things were excellent. Blood pressure was 114/68 and no swelling or any other symptoms. The blood test came back negative the next day, but they were still worried about the high protein that was still presenting. So I had to go back in and get a 24 hour collection container and, you guessed it, collect my urine over a 24 hour period...all of it. As fun as that sounds it was not. I went back in today and everything checked out wonderfully again, aside from high protein, again. They did more blood work again, but my doctor said that it's just precautionary and that she really thinks that because no other symptoms are present that it's just due to strain on my kidneys due to the pregnancy, and it will go away after I deliver. Drama, drama, drama!

Have a magical day!

Having a splashy fun time at the park...

Before the big show...

During the show! Elmo and the gang! Sorry I didn't take very many pictures because of the quality I was getting.

The stage before the performance started


One of Kyle's co-workers has a parent that works for PBS. Elmo and the gang were in town this last week for Sesame Street live, and she had a few extra tickets which she offered to us and we graciously accepted. Needless to say it ended up being a "magical day," as Abby Cadabby would say for Chase!

We started the day out by going to a nearby park that has a big duck pond, play ground and a splash pad all withing feet from one another. Of course Chase being the water baby that he is, was mostly interested in the little splash pad. We'll have to take him to a real splash park sometime this week so he can really have some fun. Then we went to Mc Donalds and Chase and I shared a happy meal and played in the play place. Then we went home where Chase took a 3 hour 45 minute nap! He must've been super tired. I had to check on him a few times to make sure he was still alive. Then we met Kyle and work at drove to the Dodge Theater for Sesame Street Live, "Elmo's Green Thumb". It was an excellent performance, and Chase had a ton of fun. He stood up on my lap and danced and clapped his hands the entire time with a huge smile plastered on his face. The only time he was difficult was when I had to drag him back to our seats before he got on stage and mauled all the characters. He would just smile and yell "EMMO!" "COOKIE!" or "OBBY!" (Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Abby, his 3 bffs) the whole time! We topped our day off by stopping by Barro's on the way home, and getting a scrumptious pizza pie, YUMMY! It was a really fun and exhausting day, we all slept really great that night. Here are some pictures from Chase's day of fun!

Craving confusion?

Not in the order I wanted, but whatever. I don't have time to fix it!

34 week belly pic per request. It just keeps getting bigger!

Singing for Kyle's birthday!

Frontal belly picture at 31 weeks, I think

Chase ready for the day, hair still not done and somewhat still sleepy eyes, but excited because we were going over to his friend Caleb's house to play.

Pregnancy just baffles me. How it can be so different each time, how a woman's body just grows a baby, and so many other things. So what's my problem you ask? I have a little predicament with this pregnancy. You see when I was pregnant with Chase I craved a lot of refried beans (weird), red meat, pizza, and anything sweet (this may have something to do with why I gained 80 pounds during that pregnancy). With this baby I have the same craving for proteins (carne asada meat specifically) and of course pizza, mmm Barro's pizza with everything on it...Anyways! The whole point is I still crave sweet treats during this pregnancy, however sweets make me violently ill! Is that normal? It's like my body's confused. First it craves something in particular like a cupcake or cookie or cadbury mini eggs but whenever I give in I feel so nauseous for a good long time, like I'm being severely punished. I never threw up once in my pregnancy with Chase, and I've quadrupled that with this one. EVERYTIME I've thrown up it's been after eating something sweet a few minutes to hours before. I didn't even think it was possible to throw up after 30 weeks, but indeed I am wrong as I was shown today. I am not complaining really, just confused. I do have to say that I would take throwing up all throughout the pregnancy over swelling, excessive weight gain, tingling hands and fingers, etc. ANY DAY! I just wish I wouldn't crave something that ultimately makes me a vomitous mess the rest of the day.

Anyways, onto bigger brighter things. Tax season is officially over, thank heavens! We had a blissful 4 day weekend last week and it's so nice to have our lives back to normal. We celebrated Kyle's 28th birthday on Friday and had delicious crepes, scrambled eggs, and fresh fruit for breakfast. Then we spent the day relaxing, going to the park and enjoying the beautiful day. We topped off the night with a yummy dinner at California Pizza Kitchen and then headed home for german chocolate cake (Kyle's favorite) and ice cream.

Other than these bits of news, not much more is happening with the Whites. Here are some pictures that we've taken recently. I haven't been the best photographer lately, I guess I need to keep the camera on me more often!

Why do we need titles anyway?

Chase doing his FAVORITE activity, playing in the car!

Chase enjoying an ice cream cone. I think he really liked it!

Chase and daddy in their easter outfits that I made them wear early. Such handsome boys!

Our sweet little boy.

I don't know what this post should be titled, and I don't have the patience to sit here and try to come up with something, so that will just have to do! Not too much new is going on around here, just chugging through the remainder of tax season, and now I understand the phrase "death and taxes". I'll bet some tax accountant came up with that, or maybe the wife of one. This year has definitely been THE worst tax season for Kyle as far as being grueling and utterly draining goes. We try to make the best of it and have started doing weekly picnics where Chase and I come to Kyle's work with a yummy picnic lunch and we kidnap him for an hour of Kyle/daddy time! I think all of us, even Chase really enjoy this little tax season tradition we seem to have made. Chase gets so excited all morning as I put together the lunch and tell him we're going to go see daddy at work. We go to a beautiful, quiet park by Kyle's work and just play and eat! We're excited to finally see an end in sight for this tax season in only 2 1/2 weeks.

With tax season coming to a close we've been thinking of the house projects we want to tackle as soon as Kyle has the time. He's actually really excited to get things done around the house, he loves working with his hands and getting projects done. We've shopped for trees this past weekend and have decided we want to put a peach tree and an orange tree in our backyard for sure maybe two of each. I also want to plant a vegetable garden and I'm excited to get that started. My mom grew tomatoes, lettuce, basil, and bell peppers in her garden when they lived in Arizona, and she said they grow wonderfully here. So, I'm excited for that because we buy most of those veggies almost every shopping trip we make. We also hope to paint our main rooms and the boys' rooms before baby brother comes because I don't think it'll get done any time soon after a new baby arrives.

The pregnancy is going superbly. By this time in my prgnancy with Chase I was pretty miserable and huge! I was swollen by 24 weeks during that pregnancy and it never fully went down until about a month after delivery. I had numb hands almost all the time, sore ankles, hips, and back and a weight gain of 80 pounds by the end, YOWZA! Fortunately I have been spared all of that this pregnancy, and I've really enjoyed being pregnant quite a bit this time around. No swelling, no numbness, only occasional hip pain, all in all I cannot complain. I'm down to appointments every two weeks now, and at each appointment I ask how much I've gained, to keep my weight gain in check. Well, at my last appointment my doctor said she'd be surprised if I gained more than 15 pounds this entire pregnancy at the rate I'm going. So, I'm definitely ok with that.

The baby is doing excellent also. He is SO extremely active and strong too. I've been doubled over a couple times due to some impressive jabs to the ribs, and he still has 9 or more weeks of growing left! We're so excited to meet him soon. Even Chase seems to be coming around to the idea of a baby brother. He seems to like babies a lot more now, but he doesn't quite understand the concept of a baby inside mommy. I'll ask him where the baby is and he'll point to himself or to his belly. He is still our baby after all.

Chase is growing into such a sweet little boy. He's so gentle and loving, even to other kids. He gets worried when other kids are sad, and he is the best little kisser. He doesn't get mad or upset when other kids take the toy he's playing with, he just finds something else. He loves going up to other kids and talking and smiling at them. He's always been a pretty tender hearted little boy, but we thought nursery might change that and possibly make him agressive, but it seems to have done the opposite. I think he gets it from Kyle, and I absolutely love that about him.

Well, I believe that concludes White family news for now. Hopefully we'll have more exciting updates after tax season ends and we get back into the swing of things!