BABY # 3

i posted about two weeks ago that we found out that we are having a GIRL!! i just want to make sure that i document this incase she comes out a boy like the initially had thought! plus it's a new year and i'm doing an awesome job at "blogging every week" for one of my new years resolutions :) at least i'm not too hard to myself when i break those. i try to be realistic with them. as for health wise - i've run once this year. yup - once this ENTIRE month haha! i'm pretty proud of myself. i have had more green smoothies than french fry runs to mcdonalds so that's a win, right?

anyways... another reason i want to document this pregnancy and baby better than i did with the boys is because it may be the last. when do you really know!? i keep hearing that "you just know." but i'm scared that my body is just crapping out and i won't "just know" and i'll kind of just be forced into it but HEY i've got two healthy boys and baby girl cooking and that's a whole lot more than a lot of people and i couldn't be more grateful that my body has been able to do all of this so far! good job body!

well lets see, where do i begin?? i guess when i got off my birth control. i had one of those rod things inserted in my arm. i know, i know... i'm crazy and how could i do that and you know what?? i LOVED it!! i'm totally planning on doing it again! i wasn't crazy or moody and i was already super irregular due to only having one ovary anyways. 

dev and i had discussed that we wanted to start "trying" (i use that loosely because i'm an idiot and don't really know when i ovulate and all of that lady stuff bla bla bla) for baby number 3 but figured it would take a few months for my body to get back into baby mode and figured after having my ovary removed during my last pregnancy that it might be a lot harder anyways. we figured, lets give it a go and when it happens, it happens. well, a few weeks later we were visiting family in utah and i asked my sister in law if i could borrow a pregnancy test - mostly as a joke but my boobs hurt and i hadn't had a period yet but i hadn't had one in like 9 months anyways so i just figured i was getting regular again. well, i walk out of the bathroom with a pee stick in my hand and announce super shocked to my brother in law, his wife, and devin, "IM PREGNANT?" 

i think they were more excited than devin and i were. i just looked shocked and devin looked like he was going to crap his pants. so, he gave me the next best thing - a high five. A FREAKING HIGH FIVE! seriously devin!?!

so fast forward a few more weeks - THIS GETS PERSONAL AND GIRLY -- so if you are a dude -- just leave now!!

i was having a lot of bleeding. i had a terrible feeling i was miscarrying. my sister had literally JUST had one a few weeks before and it was all the signs. i never bled at all with either of the boys and so i was just sobbing. i called my OB and she said i probably was and to go to the ER because they were closing. i waited for devin to get home and off we went. 7 hours later and an ultrasound later -- THE BABY WAS OKAY and we found out what was going on. it was a tear or something between the uterus and the baby's sac. something like that. i can't remember what it's called. anyways, they said people hardly miscarry from this and it will most likely go away on its own in a few weeks especially if it starts this early in the pregnancy.

i'm so glad we went in! it made me feel SO much better. the whole time at the hospital, i kept telling devin how badly i wanted this baby. i was stressed not to exercise or do anything that could cause more bleeding or stress on the baby. so i gladly took that to the extreme and ate lots of ice-cream and watched movies the next 3 weeks while my morning sickness kicked in and i was puking. 

the best part about having baby girl so far - i was literally only sick for 3 weeks!!! i threw up a lot but not nearly anything like with the boys! with both of the boys i was barfing my guts out for more than halfway through my pregnancies and lost 15 pounds in the first trimester. let's just say... the ice-cream has stuck around this time and done it's damage but i am SOOOO grateful to not be so sick!! i don't know how i would do it with my crazy boys right now if i was that sick.

so i went in for my 12 week ultrasound to see the babe! i was so excited and then it turned out to be another scary one. they said gently that the baby might have a chromosomal defect and i needed to go to a specialist the next week for them to look at the baby more closely. the next week was probably the most emotional of my life. i was trying to prepare myself of a life with a special needs baby and would even find myself grateful if this was the case. i know the baby might have more health issues and more independent on us for their whole lives but i was just grateful to continue my pregnancy with this babe. well, ultrasound time came again and the tech immediately ruled out every possibility of any defects!!! as grateful as i was to have the baby in any conditions, i just started crying for a healthy baby!!! 

the tech also said it definitely looked like a BOY!!  i just started laughing and called devin and told him! he was so incredibly relieved and kind of ticked at himself for only making boys HAHA. side note: devin has wanted a girl all 3 times. he said he was okay with the last 2 being boys in the end but he REALLY wanted this to be a girl because it might be the last one. literally, this guy has been pining for a girl. whenever he sees little blonde girls - he always looks at me and i know what that look means! it's not MY fault -- it's the woodruff genes. they only make girls!! when i married into the family, they said good luck with having all boys because that's all you will have now. i thought, HA i will prove them wrong! haha so far that has not been the case!!

we have just been telling everyone we were having a boy because the tech was 90% sure and it sure looked like something between her legs!!! we were just happy that the baby was growing and healthy!! so, i was scheduled for my 19 week apt. but it was just a check up because i had missed my last appointment so there wasn't an ultrasound planned. devin and i already KNEW it was a boy so there was absolutely no reason for him to be there. well, after my blood work and talking to the doctor he asked if i knew the gender yet and i told him no but i REALLY wanted see for 100% sure, ya know? he just smiled and said, well my daughter is learning how to be an ultrasound tech and she is here for the afternoon - would you mind if she practiced on you and told you the gender? I STARTED SCREAMING AND WAS LIKE, YESSSS!!!

so, i go in there and his daughter was in there and the regular tech with her. they were so cute and asking about my boys and i told them about my last ultrasound and how it's a boy anyways and how my husband is pissed that he can't make girls and how he would do anything for one. they just laughed and couldn't tell me what the gender was because the baby was swinging on the cord and had her legs crossed. a few minutes later the doctor's daughter thought she knew what the gender was but didn't want to say until the other tech looked and checked, so the tech looked at me after 3 or 4 LONG minutes and said, well it looks like your husband is getting that little girl after all! 

I TOLD THEM TO SHUT UP AND STARTED BALLING!!! i cried at both of my other appointments finding out they were boys but out of disappointment hahahaha. i couldn't believe it!!! my own little girl!!! my little pal to gang up against the boys! devin would get to spoil her and she would have big brothers to protect the living day lights out of her! the techs were scared that i was sad about it but when i could catch my breath, i said -- i really didn't realize how badly i wanted this baby to be a girl! i wouldn't even let myself go there! they checked for literally 20 more minutes to show me it was a girl because i did NOT believe them!!

they printed off pictures and said "GIRL" on all of them. i had 2 hours til devin came home so i went immediately to the store and bought a frilly little swimsuit and had the ultrasound pictures laid on the counter for him to look at as soon as he walked in the door. i wanted to surprise him! this boy is impossibly to surprise anyways so i thought this would be my ONLY chance! 

he walked in the door, looked at the picture and me and said, "ash that's just a mean joke." i told him for like 5 minutes that it was REAL and i got squeezed in for my ultrasound and the other tech was wrong! he kept saying, "no, is this a joke??" FINALLY after convincing him, he just kept smiling and cupping his mouth and saying, "REALLY, WE ARE GETTING OUR GIRL???" 

ah, it was seriously the sweetest surprise. those whole ride so far has been one big surprise. we love you baby girl! keep cooking!! we are all getting ready for you! your big brother brighton puts anything and EVERYTHING pink in my cart when we are shopping, "it's for my baby" he says. it's really so sweet! the whole time they have been telling me they were getting a little sister, even after i told it was a boy after the 12 week ultrasound. i guess these boys know what's up!! all of these boys are going to love you something fierce!

crew keeps saying that he is excited to teach you to walk and ride your bike. we cannot wait sweet thing!! JUST STAY A GIRL!!  we can't wait for you to come join the crazy :)

HAVING BOYS

let me walk you through a really average day with my family. i'm not sure if it's just having boys or if it's my boys being particularly active. but the other day devin had the day off and we had planned to get quite a few things done. so, i got the kids ready and clicked on the garage door. as it was going up i didn't realize brighton was attached to it. he had grabbed hold of the bottom and rode it all the way to the top.... and it broke.

literally, we have to manually open the door with our hands. try that being new in your neighborhood and prying it open from the bottom. i don't look suspicious at all!!

then we went shopping for couches right after we had eaten at costco. bri was riding devin's shoulders because he was jumping all over the couches and so we needed to contain him. well, he proceeded to barf all over devin's head... he definitely ate the polish dog meal so the smell was something awful. there were chunks on devin's head and oh man, now i know why dev's days off stress him out. but try having this be your typical day!! haha

honestly though, this day to day thing of being a mom to darling boys makes me want to cry. most of the time i can realize how incredibly ridiculous it is and i can't help but laugh. i just wish it was someone else so i could laugh at them!! i just hope these boys have just as "darling" of children as they are for us. but seriously, when they are ON - they are the funnest, cutest boys that are smart and overly charming for their own good.

well, after a few couch stores i finally decided to go in one last one and i found THE ONE. well, devin needed to check it out too but he had taken his shirt off due to hot dog chunks and putrid smell. so he told me to give him MY shirt so he could go in and look. i looked down and i am wearing a TIGHT hot pink work out shirt. HAHA so, i had to run over to target and buy him a shirt just so he could go in and look at the couch. ah man, life with little kids.

is this anyone else's typical outing with their kids or are mine extra special???

but look at their cute faces!! i just could eat them up.

PICS OF THE HOUSE

so remember that cute house we bought? i figured i needed to post pictures up of it. these were taken before we moved in. so here we go ...

i'll get to posting more about the updates soon!! but for now we love it so much! we love having our own home and it is so fun making it our own. the backyard has seriously been a godsend for the kids. when they are being crazy, i just shove them out the door and they go and have adventures. i love it.

YAY for having a home :)

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!

yes, it's true! we bought our first house and couldn't be more thrilled :)

it's in such a cute neighborhood, safe area, a few blocks from my bestie, and has a dreamy backyard!! we are so pleased with this house for the first week of living here ha! i want to try to be good about posting updates on the fixer-up projects so dev and i have it documented and mostly for my mom. let's be honest here...

so far we have:

-painted the fireplace
-painted the kitchen cabinets
-put most of the hardware on the kitchen cabinets
-painted the walls in the entry, boys room, most of the kitchen...
-fixed the boys shelves
-trimmed all the tree branches that were hitting the house
-took off the first layer of AWFUL wallpaper in the guest bathroom
-raked up the front flower beds

it's a work in progress. but it is so fun having a place to call our own!

we have had our music up as loud as we want without neighbors on both sides of our walls, ran around in our undies, and the kids can be naked in our backyard as much as they want without peeping tom neighbors. pretty much it's all about the freedom of nudity over here, i guess. that's life with 3 gross boys for ya.

this week we are hopefully getting some couches and chairs for the kitchen table. i scored this sweet 7 foot long/ 3.5 foot wide wood table for $100!!! i love it! i just need to get some sweet chairs to go with it now. the only problem is chairs cost so dang much!! i've already gone to ikea and didn't love anything there. i've been watching craigslist like a hawk and gone to as many thrift stores as i can find. i know what i want so it makes it worse! i'm sure i'll find something though. the hunt is what is so fun to me!!

BESIDES THE HOUSE --

we have been up to lots of hiking, some camping, dev bought a beater commuter car which is super hideous but he loves it, i went with the boys to virginia for a month to be with my family (which was the best trip everrrrr, i'll write more about that later), lots and lots of swimming and taking family pictures.

that pretty much sums up our lives the last few months.

^^is he not the cutest dad you have ever seen???

^^this is about the closest we can get to a family picture, nose picking and all

^^facetiming when we were apart for a few weeks

yeah.... we're pretty cute.

half marathon

about a month ago i did a half marathon here in phoenix. so why in the world would i run 13.1 miles, you ask?? i decided to do something crazy in my new year's resolutions and hey, i figured that if i can pop two nine pound babies out of me - WHY NOT!?!

i started running with a good friend of mine in late november. we would run several times a week, only 2-3 miles at a time and i pretty much thought i was going to die. i am NOT a born runner. i will tell you that.

well, the more we started running - the more energy i had with the boys and it was a place that was all  my own. i could run all my frustrations of being a mother out. it was awesome. it was "me" time. (granted, we run at 5 in the morning so who else would really want that time?? HA!)

we decided to do something that was absolutely ridiculous. we signed up for a half marathon. at the time we were only running 4 - 5 miles at a time. boy, were we in for an awakening! but luckily, the more i ran, the more i loved it. i started to crave it and it began to be one of the highlights of my day! i swear there is something to be said once you hurdle that 6 miler, i felt unstoppable.

anyways, the day of the race finally came. we decided to sign up for this race that was called pride for health and wellness. well, it turned out to be LGBT pride race haha. there were rainbows everywhere and the funniest costumes. it was so funny! it definitely kept me going and something entertaining to watch during the race.

the race was supposed to start at 7:30 which is still pretty warm in phoenix but it ended up starting after 8, which kind of ticked everyone off because heat is the biggest killer (at least for me)!! all my long runs i had done really early in the morning or late at night. i was a little nervous about it.

the first 4 miles, i was pacing myself too fast but was loving it! around the 4 mile marker, i saw the cutest little blonde boys on their dad's shoulders and THEY WERE MINE!!! they were waving at me saying, GO MOMMA GO!! seriously, it was one of those sweet moments that you just want to curl up and die happy.

the race loop had us go to the start/finish line for the half way marker. i saw my little guys again with dev and my in-laws. i was so grateful they were there taking pictures and videos! they were the greatest cheerleaders!!!

around mile 8 or 9 i started to BOIL!!! it was starting to get so hot, i was nervous. at every water station i started pouring the water on my head to cool down and that definitely helped. but my pace had slowed WAY down.... i think it was mile 11, i saw devin loop around on his motorcycle to come give me a high five and cheer for me. how cute is he??? he's seriously been the greatest and most supportive husband in this racing business.

unfortunately, seeing him didn't cut it. (that sounds terrible huh?? haha) i had to stop for a second to regroup. this was my biggest regret that i had to walk for a second just to keep it together but i'm glad i did because i was able to keep going. oh, and while i was racing - i kept popping jelly beans for extra energy which was good for me but i was about to barf rainbow jelly beans everywhere by this point.

i was so close to the end. i could see the finish line and everyone cheering. i was really hoping to break 2 hours because in all my long runs i was pretty close to that and honestly, had it not been for the heat i think i could have. i ended up getting 2:10 which bummed me out a little but whatever!! i just wanted to finish alive!!

i wanted so badly to start sprinting at the end, and for a second i thought i was HAHA but my legs were like jello and i wasn't moving very fast! but as i came up to the finish line, i saw my family waiting for me and my running buddy had just finished and was waiting too. as soon as i crossed it, i threw my hands up in the air and hugged my friend and we both started crying. it was such a sweet moment for me. i had just accomplished something i never thought i would ever really do. i was so proud of myself! my boys ran over to me and started hugging my sweaty legs and handing me all these weeds they had picked for me (t"flowers" haha) and it was so sweet to see their dirty little faces. they had just seen their mommy do something hard. i felt like a good mom in that moment. then of course was my favorite person waiting for me. he gave me the biggest hug and told me how proud he was of me. it was such a good feeling. that, and knowing that i could beat his butt in a running contest any day now feels pretty good too :)

i definitely want to do another half, just in cooler weather. i think my favorite part was the snack table at the end HAHA. food is always my favorite. i grabbed like 5 handfuls of awesome granola energy bars and oranges and went back for seconds and thirds. i'm pretty sure they were about to cut me off. is that how it works at bars too?? overall, it was a fantastic experience and i am sold on running races. it really is empowering mentally and physically.

it just feels good.

SUNDAYS

sundays are usually my all time favorite day of the week. i get to dress my little humans up and they are not grimy and covered in a questionable film for a few hours and i get to learn about my savior, jesus christ.

i always grew up in the mormon faith and have never wished to believe anything else, especially the older i get. this church believes in families and eternal families at that. to me, that is everything. i don't want to part with my sweet family after this life is over. i want to be bound to them forever, through the next life after death. through our religion, we know this is possible.

my heart is so full with gratitude to know what i know. i absolutely love being a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. it is who i am. i hope my boys see me as the woman i am trying to be that has been molded from self less service and honesty. i am working on it.

at church, we receive callings which are pretty much our jobs at church. and i have the best one! i get to be with the primary kids which range from the ages of 3-11. they are so fun!!! usually things don't always go smoothly as planned but it is so sweet and hilarious.

just today, we had one of the sunbeams (age 4) being held on the teachers lap because he was a little out of control and he just started screaming "YOU'RE KILLING ME! YOU'RE KILLING ME!" hahahaha. it's always entertaining and dramatic. 

i freaking love it.

CHURCH STYLE

dev's work schedule had turned kind of wonky lately, but it's kind of awesome. he's basically working  4 day 10 hour shifts but random days of the week except sundays, which is great. so he has today and tomorrow off in a row. i love it. we are able to plan out fun filled days which keep us busier than we probably should but we're both such busy bodies, it works out just fine.

this morning we took off and attended the phoenix temple. it's been a while since we had a baby sitter and could go so it was seriously a piece of heaven. every time i go, i find peace. i learn something new or remember something. i feel the spirit. i love this church of mine. it reminds me of this cute song the kids have been singing in primary--

"i belong to the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. i know who i am. i know god's plan. i'll follow him in faith."

it's pretty cute, especially when they botch all the words up. i eat that crap up.

anyways, i got to go with my honey buns and had a great time. if you want to know about what we do at the temple -- ASK ME!!! i would love love love to tell you more about temples. devin and i were married in the washington dc temple which is incredibly stunning.

we picked up the kiddies and took naps while dev had a work lunch with some investing guy bla bla bla... i didn't pay close attention to who he was actually meeting with. HA! i'm such a good wife :)

we all went grocery shopping. always an adventure with the kids. they only knocked over a whole row of food so that was good. 

i picked up this cute little lady from church and had her over for dinner with us. the kids took off their clothes and climbed up our stair rail. i'm not sure if she will be coming back for a while. i hope she will look past my weird humans.

and lastly, we just got back from the church. i have really been trying to teach the kids about serving others and i made them sanitize all the nursery toys. i'm such a mean mom hahaha. 

so pretty much what you can go away with is - i don't know where my husband went for a few hours during the day with who knows and not only do i make my kids clean up at home non stop but i make them clean other people's toys. 

awesome.

my job is done!!