It's a ...

I thought this deserved its own post.

In case you didn't know yet, baby #2 is a BOY! Most of our family thought it would be a girl, including me, so we were all surprised! But we can't wait to have another sweet baby boy around, and I'm excited to bust out all Nick's super cute, barely-used baby clothes.

Nick is excited to have a baby brother, and when he's in the mood he likes to give the baby kisses :) When he's not in the mood, he says he doesn't want a baby. In which case we tell him it's not his baby, it's his brother and it's mommy's baby. Then he's just fine with it ;)

The pregnancy is going well. I feel huge and I get tired quickly, but I'm sure that has a lot to do with taking care of a toddler... and being pregnant. I'll be 26 weeks tomorrow, almost into the 3rd trimester. We haven't made a decision on a baby name yet.... I have one I like but we'll have to see if Jacob can warm up to it ;) I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year!

Well Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
We really enjoyed our holidays, especially Jacob's vacations from work. We hope you had a good holiday season as well :)
Nick especially loved being able to spend time with family at Christmas and opening all his many, many presents. This is a picture of him with all his loot, just from Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa Pierce's house:

We taught him all about the birth of Jesus and that it's special to give presents at Christmas time, not just receive them. So he enjoyed wrapping presents for his cousins and watching them open them but I didn't catch any pics of that.

My mom, step-dad and younger siblings all moved to Wells, NV just after Christmas so it was really nice to get some time in with them and help them move. We're all very happy for them because Robert finally got a job and they have really been needing this, but we will miss them. It will be different with them gone. Here is a pic of me and some of my sisters on a girls' night we had before Chelsea and Krista moved. We were sad Emily couldn't make it.

There are a lot of things to look forward to in 2012- one of them is that three more babies will be added to my side of the family! Emily, Rachelle and I are all pregnant :)

We have approximately 15 weeks, 24 weeks, and 35 weeks in this pic :)

Just a couple more pictures...

All my siblings at my mom's on Christmas day:

Nick with his Grandma and Grandpa Christmas morning:

And lastly... SPIDERMAN!

So sleepy...

Nick has always been notorious for not falling asleep anywhere except in his crib. As a baby he would rarely fall asleep at other people's houses, and he almost never slept in church. This was often frustrating for me and Jacob, but lately some of that has been changing. I want to post what he did today, it was so cute...

Earlier today I had been trying to put Nick down for a nap because he was acting sleepy. He refused so I continued doing what I needed to do.

I was upstairs doing something in my room and Nick decided to go downstairs. I called down for him a couple of times and he would respond. But the third time, there was no response so I came down to see what he had gotten into, and I saw this...

Apparently he had changed his mind, gotten his pillow and blanket, but couldn't come upstairs because he had shut the gate. Instead of calling for help or crying, he just plopped down and went to sleep there!

What you can't see or smell in this picture is his very poopy diaper... but he slept right through his diaper change. I guess he has learned that sometimes when you're tired you just have to sleep, regardless of where you are.

Halloween!

Well this year Halloween was a lot of fun for the Pierce's. Nick was overjoyed that he got to be Batman, and that he got to wear his costume often weeks before Halloween. We were invited to a trunk-or-treat for a different ward, and we had a great time! Nick loved seeing Hailey and Abby and Noah there in their costumes, and he especially loved trunk-or-treating and getting all that candy. He had a good time playing with Jason in the cars too. Unfortunately... I didn't take any pictures :( Brought the camera but forgot all about it. I need to get better at that.

On Halloween day we went out to Grandma and Grandpa Pierce's house for trick-or-treating. Nick was a little bit shy with the people at their doors but he quietly said "trick-or-treat" and "thank you." It was funny because he wouldn't get close enough to them for them to be able to put the candy in his pumpkin. They would either toss it in or he would take it from them and put it in himself ;)But he really did have a good time. He loved to tell people he was Batman and show them some Batman combat moves and he enjoyed seeing and talking about all the other kids' cool costumes. When Nick was all done and ready to go back to "Matma's" house, he said, "That's fun! All done! Lets go home." It was very abrupt, and very cute. He went trick-or-treating with Grandpa Pierce, "Catwoman Kitty-Cat" (me), and Robin (Jacob). Here are a few pics I did take:

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Win It Forward

A few people I know are doing this and after a little hesitation I've decided to take part! Tis the season of giving :)

Here are the tagging instructions: The first 3 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done by the end of the year if you're local, I'll give myself til the end of January 2012 if I need to mail it.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something unusual.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. OR, since I know there are some people who read my blog who don't have a blog of their own, you can win if you are willing to make something for three random people. The first 3 people to leave a comment telling me they will win it forward get a fabulous homemade gift by me! Oh, and if you have a blog, be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it.

Yay for cooler weather!

We have been loving this awesome weather lately...and that's about the most exciting thing to happen to us lately!
But I want to do a better job of updating this blog so I'll update anyway.
Things are great for us :) We loved General Conference...

... as you can see.
No we really did, this was just the very end of the second Saturday session. Love my boys. I enjoyed all of the talks, especially the ones on parenting, I thought were especially pertinent to myself. But the talk by President Eyring on the Book of Mormon was awesome. He invited us to drink deeply from the pages of the Book of Mormon daily. I appreciated his message.
The pregnancy is going well :) I wish I could get an ultrasound at each prenatal appointment so I can watch my baby grow. I can't get enough of the pictures I have from my 10 week check-up. I'm now 13 weeks and feeling good. I haven't dealt with a lot of pregnancy sickness, although I have had a cold and flu here and there. I never did get an ultrasound of my rib, but if it was fractured it's slowly healing. I took some antibiotics and that helped a lot with the cough, along with a blessing I got from Jacob. So I'm mostly better! Yay.
Nick had a bad flu last week. It had been circulating around our ward, but he's better now.
We'll find out the gender of the baby on November 28th! I'll be 21 weeks. That's later than I would have liked but it was between either barely 19 weeks or 21 weeks and I don't want to risk having a mis-reading, so I opted for the later.
Jacob is working, working, working! The first couple years as a teacher are the hardest because it's so much to get used to. But we're excited for the end of this first term because then he'll just be re-teaching all the stuff he has taught so far. And he already taught the second semester material during his semester of student teaching earlier this year. So we're going to celebrate by going to Apple Hill on the 15th! I cannot wait! I love Apple Hill because it brings back so many memories from when I was young and it's so wonderful to enjoy the fall season up in the Hills. And of course, I cannot wait for the Apple Pie! Yum, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
We were tempted to think about buying a house with these phenomenally low interest rates, but we decided it would be better to wait a couple of years, since a teaching job is not exactly the most reliable thing in CA right now ;) I had even found the PERFECT house and everything :( But we don't want to dig ourselves too deep too soon. The place we're at right now is great, and we love our ward. So I'll just have to be patient.
Life is great, we are so blessed! We're so excited for the festivities of this Holiday season, and for all the babies that will be coming to our friends and family within the next few months! It's a mini baby boom. Gotta love it!

A New Addition!

Pierce baby #2 is on the way! I'm 10 weeks, due around April 9th. I'm feeling a girl vibe, but we'll find out for sure near Thanksgiving.

Nick has mixed emotions about the baby on the way...

He's happy...



And sad...



And scared...



And crazy excited!





In other news, I may have fractured a rib from all the coughing I've been doing for the past month. I'll go in for an X-ray this week to see for sure. Lets hope the medicines I was given do help to clear this cough up! I haven't been able to sub because of it, so it's been nice to spend more time with my boy at home, but I do look forward to being well enough to work some.

But in all, we feel so blessed with everything that has happened lately. We found out I was pregnant two days before Jacob got his new job. So now we have a great benefits package that just started up this month. I was finally able to be seen for this annoying cough as well as for the first prenatal check-up. The timing has worked out well!