Christmas with the Jones' this year

Well we had a great Christmas this year! Benjamin seemed to really enjoy opening presents and has had a blast with everything he received! We spent Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family which was nice. After Annie's house, we went home and attempted to go to sleep. I haven't been sleeping at all, and on Christmas Eve I only slept for an hour and found myself watching A Very Brady Christmas at 6:30 in the morning - waiting for Aaron and Benjamin to wake up.

Here are some pictures from Annie's house...

Here's Annie with one of her gifts

Taylor, Nikki and Tim just hanging out

Don, Marianne and Don David

Mom and Dad - love this picture

Ben playing with Uncle Tim

Christmas morning when Aaron and Ben woke up we did our stockings and then the presents from the Haroldsen side of the family. It was very relaxing to have it just the three of us. This was the first time Aaron and I had ever NOT spent the night with one of our families on Christmas Eve. It was pretty fun to just take it easy and enjoy the morning. Here are some pictures of Ben opening his stocking and playing with some of his new toys...

Opening his stocking with daddy


Playing with the drill that Grandma & Grandpa Haroldsen bought him

Helping Dad open his stocking


Little dinosaur that was in his stocking

Magnet toy from Aunt Emily

After we opened our gifts at home, we went over for breakfast at my mom's house (yummy breakfast tacos... my FAVORITE) and then we opened gifts with them. After opening presents, I started to feel the effects of not sleeping and so we left for a few hours to take a nap. We went back over for Prime Rib dinner and some good Karaoke fun! Nikki got a karaoke machine for Christmas so we all had to get up and sing. Here are some pictures from the party at their house...

Lounging on the couch

Mom and Dad singing Karaoke

Benjamin attempting to sing :)

Nikki and Taylor singing

Aaron and I ATTEMPTING to sing haha

Overall we had an AWESOME Christmas and want to thank everyone for contributing to our Holiday! We had a blast with the Jones side this year! We missed the Haroldsen's and hope we can make it up there next year!!

As an update for the unborn baby - it looks like we are back to having Pre-Term Labor problems. I spent the night in the hospital on Friday Dec. 19th with contractions and the doctor has pretty much said there is nothing they can do to stop this baby from coming early. I have already begun dialating so it's just a matter of how long I can hold out before he joins us. We are hoping to make it til Feb 5th at least, as that will be the "safe zone" of 36 weeks. My contractions are worse with this one then they were with Benjamin, and I began dialating 4 weeks earlier than I did with Ben. So we will see how it goes! We are hoping everything works out and that little Tyson is healthy when he arrives.

I hope everyone has a great New Year! We love you all and hope you had a great Christmas!

Can we say "HANDFUL"??

As many of you know... Ben keeps me on my toes on a daily basis. However yesterday was a special kind of behavior. We were eating breakfast and when I got up to get him out of his highchair, he decided to stick his fingers in his mouth and gag himself, resulting in throwing up all over the place!! Which by the way - I don't do well with apparently. Well after cleaning it up, I put him in the tub to get him all clean. I decided to take some pictures because I don't have any of him in the bath. Well as you can see in this picture... we has a water bottle that we use to rinse out his hair. He enjoys playing with it in the faucet and then dumping it on him...

Well yesterday, he thought it would be funny to fill it up in the faucet and then throw it outside of the bath tub. So then I had to clean up ANOTHER mess in the bathroom. Let's just say, that was the beginning of an extremely difficult day. =)

On top of learning how to gag himself, he has also learned some other fun things. Such as... he can roll down the window in the back seat; he has learned to grind his teeth; he has figured out that he LOVES to spit; if he doesn't get his way - he throws himself on the ground and has himself a huge temper tantrum; and instead of sitting in shopping carts - he likes to walk behind it and push it. Those are just a few of the fun things he's learned.

He's not quite talking yet but can say a few words. Some of his favorites are this, that, mama, dada, and kitty/doggy (same word for both - sounds like kitty). When we get ready to go bye-bye he blows kisses and walks toward the door holding either my purse or his diaper bag. When he wants to go outside he will bring me his shoes to put on. He also can point out several body parts, such as his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly button, toes and hair. He especially likes to point out mommy's belly button. He is not very gentle when he does this either... which his little brother is not a fan of.

I realized today that we haven't taken any pictures of this pregnancy, so we thought we would take one today. Here's a couple of pictures, please don't make fun of the hair or lack of make-up. I just stepped out of the shower. This is me at 28 weeks.

We had an ultrasound last week and learned that the baby is doing VERY well. He is bigger than Ben was at this stage. He is measuring in the 71st percentile and weighing in at 2 1/2 pounds. The doctor said everything looks good and I haven't been having any pre-term labor which is awesome. I had told some people that we were planning to do a C-Section to avoid any complications during the delivery. However, after speaking with the doctor a little more about it, we feel there is not much of a risk of having the complication again, and even if we do - we feel that the doctor would be able to keep it under control. So we have decided to go with a normal delivery and hope for the best.

We put up our Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. That was fun until Ben decided to take an ornament off the tree and bang it on our coffee table breaking it. So - now all the ornaments are on the top half of the tree. :) But here's a couple pictures of Aaron and Ben putting up the ornaments.

Anyway - that pretty much sums up what's been goin on down here. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holiday season!!

It's a boy!!

We found out last week that baby #2 is going to be another boy. It really surprised everybody because we thought for sure it was a girl. We had a name picked out and everything! We are extremely excited to have another little boy though. We are glad because it will give Ben a little buddy to grow up with. It is for sure going to be a handful to have two little ones so close in age, but we are ready! So we are still trying to decide on a name but we have a couple in mind. If you know of any good boy names that sound good with Haroldsen... suggestions are always welcome! =)

Our busy day!

Well, today was quite the busy day. We decided to go down to the Cuero Turkey Fest with Nikki & Tim, which was about a two hour drive south of Austin. We got there around noon and we walked around and tasted some of the BBQ cook-off (delicious). Then we grabbed some lunch and listened to a live band.

After that we rode the carousel with Benjamin, and then Nikki rode the little train with him. He enjoyed the rides I think.

That was about all we did there, however, the Budweiser Clydesdale horses were there which was neat! Here's a couple pictures of them...

It was really fun but would have been so much better if it wasn't SO hot!! We could barely stand it though so we headed back to Austin around 3:30. We got back just in time to see Taylor off to homecoming!! She looked beautiful!!! Here are some pictures of her and her date...

It took them about 30 minutes of trying before deciding to give up and go without the boutineer. It was pretty funny.

So overall we had a pretty busy but fun day!

Our House

I will be posting several blogs today to catch up with what's been going on for the last little while. To start off... some people have been asking for pictures of our new house, and I have been really slacking on getting them up. Here are some pictures of I took of most of the house. I took pictures of our kitchen, living room, master bedroom, Ben's room and Ben's bathroom. I hope you enjoy!!

The outside of our home... it sits on a corner lot.

Front porch and our new furniture :)

Back of the house - notice the new shed that Aaron and his dad put together!

Our living room looking from the front door into the kitchen

Living room looking from the kitchen to the front door

Our kitchen

Master bedroom & new bedroom furniture! :o)

Ben's room... a little messy

Ben's bathroom

Well, that's pretty much the tour of our new home! Visitors are always welcome so come by and see us!! :) I will be posting more in a little bit, as soon as I get a chance. I hope everyone has a great week!!

Watering the lawn

Benjamin has an obsession with the hose and today Craig and Kathie took him outside to play in the backyard and they made this video of him playing with the water... ENJOY!

I will update more about Craig & Kathie's visit tomorrow.

The Nail Test - Explanation

Okay, everyone keeps asking me what the nail test is. It is where you tie a nail to the end of a string and hold it over the pregnant belly. You hold it still and then while it's hanging there, it starts to move. If it moves side to side - it's a boy, and if it moves in a circle - it's a girl. It's something my grandma has done with her kids, and my aunt and mom have done it with all of their kids. It's just a fun little test to see if you can predict the sex of the baby. It hasn't been wrong yet! So if it's right this time, I'll be having a girl!

WE'RE EXPECTING!!

Well it's official... we are expecting our second baby on March 5, 2009. We are very excited about the new addition to our family. I am approximately 12 weeks along. We are still unsure of the sex of the baby... however we did the nail test with my family today and it said we are having a girl. The nail has YET to be wrong. So we will see what happens!! If anyone has any good ideas for names that sound good with Haroldsen... we are open to suggestions so send them our way!

I will keep everyone posted on how the pregnancy is going and how the little baby is doing. So far I have experienced a completely different pregnancy than the first time. I wasn't sick at all with Benjamin, just at night a little... but with this one... I am sick all the time and have to eat like crazy in order to avoid feeling nauseous. Somehow - I seem to be losing weight... it doesn't really make sense to me. I also have been having some cramps that the doctor said drinking a lot of water should take care of. I have a really hard time drinking lots of water... but I am doing the best I can!

Anyway - that's it for now! I just wanted to make the official announcement! I hope everyone had an awesome weekend!

Been a while...

Well it's been a while since I've written, so let me catch everyone up. I will start by finishing up our trip to Utah. After Ben finally got over his fever, he developed a rash on his torso and face. Turns out what he had was Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. We are thinking he got it from the Airport on that little toy or the other kids that were playing with him. We are not sure exactly how he got it. Here's a picture of his little rash, it's kinda hard to see...

We went to the park with Aaron's family on Pioneer Day and had a great time! On that Friday we did a combined birthday party for all of the July birthdays. Here's all the birthday boys and girls...

We spent the rest of the vacation just hanging out with the family. It was a very nice vacation (minus the sick baby part.) We are so glad we got to see everybody, and can't wait to see everyone again soon.

When we got back to Texas we celebrated Benjamin's 1st birthday! I started an evening job, so we had to do it over the weekend. The party was a little bit after his first birthday - but I figured he doesn't really know the difference. :)

He LOVED his cupcake!!

Anyway - since our trip to Utah, we have just been back to work and relaxing at home. We have had several visitors here in Austin, including my aunt Jamie and cousins Kade and Loni (visiting from Washington) It was great to see them!!

Tonight we had a BBQ at the Jones' with my mom's aunt Carolyn, uncle GD and cousin Becky. It was great to meet them! I don't know very many family members on my mom's side, so that was a treat to meet some of them finally!

In about a week we will have Leslie Turner here visiting, and then after that, we are very excited to have Craig and Kathie come see us!! It's been a busy summer, but a great one!!

Fun with the Family in Utah

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AARON!!

The big 25 this year! Aaron has been SO helpful on this trip with Benjamin. I seriously couldn't have done it without him. Ben has been sick with a fever since Sunday, and just finally got over it today. He has been super high maintenance and Aaron has pretty much done everything. It's been so nice to have a break!

On Saturday we made the long flight to Utah with a layover in Phoenix. Ben handled the trip pretty well. He got a little fussy in the Airport until we finally found a play area. Here are a couple pictures from him playing in the airport... the ladies behind him really got a kick out of him!

We finally arrived in Salt Lake around 2pm and went to Emily's house to visit all of his sisters. Then on Sunday we headed up to Idaho to catch the end of the Family Reunion. They had a big get together for Aaron's grandparents 60th Wedding Anniversary. It was really fun to spend time with his family! Here's a picture of us with Aaron's grandparents...

On Monday night we went over to Mark & Kendall's house, and Ben ended up bumping his head on the stairs and got a nice bruise.

As you can see, he is NOT very happy with us.

Here are a couple more pictures of our vacation so far...

Grandma & Grandpa Haroldsen's 60th Anniversary Party!

Ben was SO sick of the carseat after 3 days of traveling

Benjamin with Aunt Angela

Sick boy sleeping with Dad

Tonight we plan on going to dinner with Aaron's parents for his birthday! I'm not sure where we are going yet, but I'm sure it will be yummy!

I will put up more pictures after the vacation is over! I hope all of you are having a great week!