Why I can't sleep.

I am very very tired!! Not sleeping is part of being pregnant, especially towards the end when you are up using the bathroom anywhere from 2-4x a night, and trying to use a dozen pillows to find a comfortable position because you are sore and have aches and pains everywhere. And having Jacob decide 2 or 3x a week to come in our room at 1:45am (always the same time) and try and come snuggle with me doesn't help. But most of all what keeps me from sleeping is shown is this video.

Yes I am grateful for this miracle of life, and having a little one moving inside you can be neat at times (mostly earlier on when the baby is smaller and much more gentle with your organs), but it can also be sorta annoying I hate to say and very very uncomfortable too when they are doing somersaults. But I will try to enjoy these last few weeks because I never plan to do this again.

milestones

In the last 2 days there have been a couple of milestones hit by the Brigham children. Sunday morning I woke and found that the baby had hiccups for the first time. Josh and the kids took turn feeling them, and the kids thought it was really neat. Even though this is my 3rd pregnancy and I've felt them 100x before, feeling them with this little guy is just as special. And then Sunday evening Emma lost her first tooth. I knew it was about to fall out and told her to work on it throughout the day so it didn't come out the next day when she was at school, and that night with a gentle pull from Josh it came out easily, no bleeding and no pain, it was definetly ready. Emma of course was super excited about it. For some reason it made me sad and I actually teared up. Just another sign of her getting older and a reminder of how fast they grow up. The toothfairy came and brought Emma a dollar (alot more than I got as a child, but I guess with inflation it makes sense), along with a "First lost tooth" certificate. Then after breakfast as Emma was brushing her teeth she came running to me that her bottom teeth were bleeding. Both are loose and I thought "Oh great, another is going to fall out??", but instead to my surprise I found that a new tooth had popped up behind one of the baby teeth. So she loses one on top Sun at 7pm, and then 12 hours later she has a new one but not where she's lost one of course. Both my kids teethed early, and got a whole bunch at the same time, so I guess that's what's going to happen with the permanent ones too. At least Emma is thrilled with all of this, it's big deal in kindergarten and she couldn't wait to go to school this morning. And not to leave Jacob out of course, he did get his 3 year old pictures taken by a friend from highschool who is starting a photo side buisness. I've seen one picture and it was really cute, so I cant wait to see all the rest next week. I'll post them as soon as I get them. We never did 2 year pictures because he kept getting bumps and scratches on his face, so where we hang the current pictures of the kids, his 1 year picture still hangs.

Jacob turns 3

I can't believe my baby has turned 3!! He was so excited about turning 3, been talking about it since Christmas. It's been over a week and he still likes to tell people "I'm not two anymore, I'm three now." We didn't do anything big this year, had some close friends and family over for cake and ice cream and he got to open his presents of course. He's still very much into Thomas the Train and so he received a couple more of those, they keep coming up with new ones so it seems as though his collection will never be complete. My dad, "Papa Kim", came over the night before and gave him a Thomas scooter and he totally loves it! My dad has tried explaining to him several times that his middle name is Thomas because my dad and brother's middle name is Thomas, but Jacob insists that he's named after Thomas the Train.

Jacob is such a sweet boy, I cant imagine my life without him. He has the best smile, and loves to make people laugh. He's always very concerned with our feelings, will give us hugs and kisses if he thinks we look sad, and then will say 'You're not sad, you're happy now." I feel so blessed to have such caring son, and hope that his little brother will take after him in that way.

And it's a.......

BOY!!! Woo-hoo, I'm soooo excited!! I knew since the day I brought Jacob home from the hospital that I was going to have another son after him. I have dreamt of this baby boy for 2 years now, so it's like I a lready know him, although funny thing is when I got pregnant I thought it was a girl for some reason. Poor sweet Emma was not very happy though. I told the girl doing the sonogram to please not say what it was, just to show us. When she brought up the money shot I gasped and said 'I can't believe I was wrong", and then asked Emma if she could see what the baby was. Emma stared for a second and then said "It's a boy?" with a confused look on her face. She then sunk back into her seat and began to silently cry. She cried all the way home too. I then started crying because I knew she wanted a sister really bad. She has been praying asking for a sister since Jacob's first birthday, so I felt like I kinda let her down in a way, even though it was never up to me. Later she went shopping with me for some mother daughter time and brought over to me this really soft blue and brown blanket and she wanted to buy it for the baby. I had to get it of course, even though I kinda have this rule about not buying anything until I'm at least 24 weeks, but she was being so sweet I couldn't say no. Since then she has told me she loves the baby and is glad he's a boy, but just really wants me to try and make her sister after he's born. She knows I have no plans of doing this again, but says maybe I'll get pregnant on accident and it will be a surprise. Little does she know putting that thought into my head pushes me closer and closer to making it medically official! But anyways we're all really excited and seeing that little face of his has made me fall in love with him already. I feel truly blessed!

Oh and I also feel alot better, thank goodness for that too!!!

Party of Five

Ok so I'm so overdue on posting about this but I haven't been in the mood really. Not that I'm not super excitied but when you feel like crud all the time it's hard to act all cheery. Well I guess it's no surprise to anyone who would be reading this, since everyone knows by now, but yes we soon will be hearing "Brigham Family, party of five". I'm 14 weeks pregnant, baby #3 is due this July. I am very thankful for the gift of another chld and do not take it granted because I know so many others who struggle with ferility issues, my mom was one of them, so I know I'm very lucky in this department. But this does not stop me from feeling sorry for myself (which for the next several minutes I am going to do by having a whine fest so feel free to skip ahead, but it's my blog and I'll cry if I want too) when I'm throwing up everyday and walking around feeling like I'm falling short if being a mom to the 2 childen already here because there are days where I just dont function right. I of course knew it was a possibility to be this sick since I was with Emma, and I knew it was a possibility for it to go past the first trimester cause it did with Jacob, but when I got both the worst sickness ever (ok not worst ever, some people are hospitilized for months due to dehydration from their sickness, I know 2 people personally who went through this but whatever it's my complaining time) and it going on and on with no end in sight so far, I was not prepared. But still it's totally worth it in the end, and I would do it over to have the awesome kids I have been blessed with. But I do hope if I get the crazy idea in a couple of years to do this again, that I read this first and remember the daily throw up sessions, the constant headaches that Tylenol just doesn't cure and of course there's the indegestion and digestive issues that don't need going into. But once again I am very happy and can't wait to meet this little one. I think it's a girl but we'll see because my mom and a few others who are usually right at predicting baby's genders seem to think it's a boy. Jacob seems convinved it's s girl, and my friend's son who is usually right says it's a girl so it's all so confusing. With Emma and Jacob everyone was on the same page and we were all right so this is just strange! And no it's not twins, the doctor has looked around and after 3 sonograms in the first trimester we're certain there's just one! Well we'll find out in 2 weeks, and who knows maybe I'll be feeling better then. To be continued.......

Kindergarten!!!

I have cried the last 2 nights about this, but luckily not today as I dropped Emma off for her first day of kindergarten. I have purposely not blogged about this before because it would have been through tears and would have been over the top emotional. I never saw myself as a parent who would cry over this. Preschool was exciting and I was never sad about that, but that's probably because it was voluntary, and it was just 3 half days a week. Emma will be in school from 8am-3pm, 7 hours each day, that's more than I have ever been gone from her. Emma got into River Oaks Charter School (ROCS) which is an Aspire school. There were almost 300 applicants and there were just 32 spots left since there were 28 siblings of kids already at the school and they get first priority. So basically we got very lucky that Emma's name was pulled during the lottery. This mean Jacob is automatically in when it comes his turn. The drop off went well this morning. Emma did make the comment that there were alot of kids on the playground, but I told her that she will only have recess with the Kindergarteners and 1st graders. It ended up not mattering to her, she went and played with no problem. I was a good mommy too, and only stayed until the whistle blew to line up, and after she was assigned a seat in class I left. There were several parents crowding the hall so I felt proud that I was able to leave in a timely manner! Probably the fact that I love Emma's teacher had a lot to do with it. I had several parents tell me she was really good, and I instantly felt comfortable with her when I met her, so I know my Emma is in good hands. And because these schools do what's called "looping" kids keep their teachers for 2 years. I love that!

Aspire's motto is "College For Certain" so they go by the kids college graduation date, instead of the highschool graduation date. So 2027 is Emma's college graduation date, in case you wondering.

One thing I am looking forward to is having some time with Jacob. The 2nd kid doesn't get nearly the attention the first does, so I feel it's long over due for him. Now I will have to remember how to entertain a 2 year old all day. Having an older child is great because they do all the entertaining, and honestly I think Jakey would rather play with Emma.

Not the best picture of Jakey perhaps, but I had to wake him up and rush him around so he was a little out of sorts. Holding his trains always brings his comfort though, he wouldn't take this picture without them.

Emma's 5th birthday

I know I say this every year, but I can't believe another year has gone by. It still amazes me every birthday one of my kids has that time is going so quickly and that I'm losing the precious time I have with them, the time when they are little and actually want to hang out with me. It can drive me to tears in an instant so lets move on before I lose it. Emma has been talking about being 5 for a few months now and how she will be so much older and she will be much better behaved. She would say when she got in trouble "I'm only 4, but when I'm 5 I won't do that anymore" I don't know where she comes up with some of these things. This year we let her pick 2 friends and we went to dinner at Chuck E Cheese. It was actually a present from my mom, and it was Emma's favorite by far! Her birthday was on a Tuesday so we missed the crowds, we will never go on a Friday or Saturday, we've made that mistake once before.





The kids all had fun, and after we had cupcakes at our house. Emma was very happy with her gifts, she's pretty easy to please so it's always fun shopping for her. Boy do I love having a little girl! Just like last year most of her gifts had a princess theme. Even the bat and ball we got her had princesses on it.




I feel like I really hit the jackpot when I got Emma. She is the sweetest little thing in the world. She's kind to animals, has a huge heart for them just like both her parents. She's the best big sister ever, she is a 2nd mommy to Jakey really. She is very affectionate and gives us all hugs and kisses all the time. She is very smart, picks up on new skills easily and is good at memorizing things such as our phone numbers and our address (which came in handy this week, I'll post about that later). She is very inquisitive too. She's really into knowing how our bodies works, and the functions of bones, skin, blood, muscle, etc... If we are flipping through channels and come across a show where they are doing a surgery, she wants to watch (yuck I know!) Many people have told us she'll probably be a nurse or a doctor. She loves to sing and dance. We often will put music on and just dance around the house. In the car we have our favorite songs that we like to sing together. Even Jacob has been joining in lately, and asking for Lady Gaga when we get in the car and Emma includes him without having to be asked. She's kind to others, we've had teachers tell us stories of how she was kind to children in both church classes and preschool. Emma brings so much joy into our lives and I can't believe that I spent the first 26 years of my life without her. She is like the sun to me, she's radiant and brings warmth and light into my life. Happy Birthday Emma, I love you so much!!