Thanksgiving

     We hosted our very first Thanksgiving at our new home this year and it was so cool! I don’t know how to feel more grown up than inviting your own parents over to your house to serve them a holiday meal. My uncle was super nice and drove all the way up from Eugene to be with us. He’s a total sweetheart and we’re glad he came up.
     We learned just how much really goes into a big meal and how hard it can be to juggle everything coming out at just the right time. Addie definitely loved having guests to play with and she ate a pretty good amount of food at the feast. As to be expected, we took plenty of pics :)

Here’s me with my mom, isn’t she cute?:

My dad and uncle waiting for the food to be ready:

Addie getting ready for the feast:

Sam dorking around while cooking:

Me and Sam posing for a shot while we were cooking:

Addie was positive she needed to have some sparkling cider. Usually she doesn’t get to have fizzy drinks, but we made an exception for the holiday. She LOVED it, even drank like a pro with her pinky up in the air and everything:

Though the turkey was fantastic, the best part of the meal was probably the mashed potatoes:
 

Yes, you’re reading it right… it says “Lori’s Prego” in the top. This is our sneak surprise way of telling my parents (and now all of you) that I’M PREGNANT! My parents were totally surprised and way cute about finding out from their thanksgiving food. It was too fun.
     We only found out last week and we are SOOOO excited! We were going to wait to try to get pregnant again until January or February, but we got beat to the punch! A summer baby wasn’t really in my plans, but I am just giddy as could be that God is blessing us with another baby.
     The due date is August 1st, so we’ll probably have a July baby. I’m just 5 weeks and 2 days along, so it’s all very new. At this point I’m just assuming I’m pregnant with Addie again because she is the only pregnancy and baby I can comprehend. Sources tell me that there is an entirely new baby in my tummy right now though, so I guess only time will tell! I am amazed that in these last 3 weeks, my itty bitty bean already has a heart, brain, and circulatory system and has grown the first phases of a nose, pancreas, lungs, liver, and stomach. All of that in just 3 weeks time! It even has flippers!!! lol Okay, so I suppose flippers isn’t a huge accomplishment, but it’s dang cool all the same :)
     For those of you who don’t trust messages written in mashed potatoes, here’s the actual proof:

     I know it is early by most people’s standards to make a public announcement, but we waited until 13 weeks with Addie and it wasn’t fun at all! I felt like I was keeping a secret and couldn’t talk about my experiences day to day, and by the time we did tell people, it was all anticlimactic because most people figure it out by then. So this time around, you’re all in on the secret good and early and fun times will be had by all. 
     As for the normal questions, I’m feeling great. I just got hit with a bad cold all week last week, which isn’t uncommon for the newly-pregnant types. I’m more tired than usual, but I’m still making it through each day just fine. I haven’t had a touch of morning sickness or anything else, but it’s still early in the game. I never got any with Addie, so I’m just hoping this will be a repeat. Mostly I’m just excited and totally blown away that there’s a new baby on the way.
     If you can’t tell, I’m THRILLED. I wasn’t even really in a baby hungry place at all, but the second I saw that positive test, I became instantly baby-enthused. I even took my first belly pics today. You can see them here at my PREGNANCY ALBUM.
     So in closing, I am deeply grateful for my family this Thanksgiving. Even more so than I could have comprehended a month ago. I’m so grateful to our heavenly father for sending us everything we’ve ever hoped for, and I pray that I can repay the blessings by being a good mother and showing the Lord’s love to others in any way I can.