World meet Eva

She is here! Born Dec. 29, at 6:34 am, weighing in at 6 lbs 15.5 oz and 19.5 inches long. We are so glad she is here! She has dark hair and a lot of it, in the back anyway. She has a little dimple on her right cheek, and her eyes look like they're going to be blue. Malachi loves his little sister, he especially likes smelling her, which is really funny. We are all adjusting well, and so thankful my mom is here to take care of us (ie-making us cinnamon rolls and other such treats and so much more!) Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers, we love you!

Seriously?!

Just found out my Dr. is out of commission for the next month, awesome. He was the only thing I felt comfortable about when it comes to having my baby here in this little town.

That's right mittens and a hat, it's getting colder!

He loves playing Andrew's guitar, he loves anything musical, it makes me happy.
Don't you just love that face? I do.

He really likes pizza, can you tell?

This is one of those embarassing pictures that we'll pull out when he's about sixteen and have on display for all his dates to see. (it's a tiny piece of tissue, at one point he had one in each nostril, he cracks me up!)

The journey of the bump

I mostly did this for me, to see how my bump has grown. We only have a little over 3 weeks to go! Next week I'll kick up the walking and throw some stairs in there, we'll see if we can urge her out early, fingers crossed.

Here is the bump at 19 weeks, so tiny really.

25 weeks, so very high, and kicking me in the ribs, ouch.

31 weeks, that seems like a long time ago, but really it wasn't. Amazing how much they grow in just a few weeks!

Today! Almost 37 weeks, by this point with Malachi I was dialated to a 4, the Dr. hasn't checked yet, but we'll find out Thursday if his sister is going to follow suite. She has definitely dropped, which is so nice, she is no longer punching me in the ribs. It's gotten a lot trickier to get up and down, especially in bed at 2:00 am when she's bouncing on my bladder.

I was telling Andrew the other day how blessed we are to be able to get pregnant so easily, and have really good pregnancies, thus far. I actually really enjoy being pregnant, the whole thing truly amazes me. The body is a miraculous creation! I'm at the point where the next part is becoming more of a reality, I'm getting excited to see if she looks more like me or Andrew, I secretly (well maybe not so secretly) hope she looks like me, Malachi is such a mini-Andrew, I want a mini-Aubri. I'm excited to see her little personality. I'm excited for Malachi to have a little sister. I'm excited to snuggle with her. I'm excited to watch her learn and grow. I'm even excited for the early morning feedings, is it horrible to love to feel needed so much, knowing that you are the only person who can give this little person exactly what she needs at any time of the day? I'm not in denial about how hard it is, I remember that too, but I feel a little more prepared this time around.

Future border patrol

For Halloween Malachi was a border patrol agent, everyone is always saying how he is a mini Andrew, so I decided to make him a mini Andrew at work. He had the belt, the walkie talkie, the night stick, and some handcuffs. I spent about 20 minutes during his naptime tracing the badges from Andrew's uniform on yellow felt, and then hot glued them to a cheap-o walmart shirt. It turned out pretty awesome. The other BP agents at the trunk or treat loved it.
He really likes the night stick, I think he thinks it's some sort of hammer, he keeps banging it on the walls saying he's fixing them.

Here are my two BP boys. I love that Andrew's hat actually fit Malachi, I just had to tighten it. Like father like son, big head big head.

Making sure our backyard was safe, there may have been a few illegal ants.

His face in this one is my favorite, so funny! He really liked all his badges, and had so much fun at the trunk or treat with all his friends.

Sidenote- I won the chili cook off! Thank you Paula Deen for providing a fantastic recipe!

Single digits

It's the final countdown, I love getting into the single digits in the weekly pregnancy countdown! Still feeling great, she is a lot higher than I remember Malachi being, so I'm actually getting some rib kicking, it's weird and a little uncomfortable, but no big deal. She kicks a lot harder and more vigorously too, which makes me a little nervous, is she going to be a wild a crazy kid? Probably. Today in church it was like a scene from Alien, my stomach was bulging on one side and moving in and out, too bad Andrew wasn't there to chuckle with me. Malachi still finds the "baby" (my belly button) on a regular basis, and shares his toys with her, he puts toy cars on my belly and says the baby is playing too, so cute. I've been getting some braxton hicks, no big deal, I'm sure they'll get more intense soon enough. I have definitely lost that second trimester burst of energy, good thing I got the baby's room all set up a while ago, because now I feel like I've accomplished a lot if I get the everyday stuff done, good thing Malachi and Andrew are good helpers!

So here we are at 31 weeks!

What we have been up to...

We have had a fun October thus far. We went to a park that we hadn't been to before, it was really fun. Lots of swings and slides for Malachi, it's by a "lake" so we saw some ducks and geese and even a stork. There was an old WWI airplane and a helicopter, Malachi enjoyed climbing on the airplane with his daddy. Here they are swinging together, so fun!

We also carved Jack-O-lanterns, I got one of those carving kit things, which Andrew was totally skeptical of, but I think it turned out pretty sweet, thank you very much, needless to say he was impressed with my carving abilities.

Malachi and I made some playdough, who doesn't love some good homemade playdough? It kept him entertained for quite a while, we made some tacos, a car, a giraffe, the possibilities were endless!

This is Andrew's mango tree, he is very proud of it, he grew it from a seed that he got out of a mango he ate. We were both very surprised when it actually sprouted, and it seems to be doing really well, we'll see, keep your fingers crossed.

And this is my latest craft, some little hairclips for the baby. They are super cute and really easy. I still need to make some headbands to clip them on, because if she's anything like Malachi she won't have any hair, poor girl.

There's our October in a nutshell, I know it's only half over, but the first half has been pretty great!

Fall does exist here!

• Found honeycrisp apples at the store!
• It was still 63 degrees at 1:00 this afternoon.
• We carved Jack-o-lanterns!

I guess fall has found us, yay!

Ultrasound #2

Here are some more pictures of our little girl. The ultrasound wasn't that great, so they're kind of weird. They're all looking at her face on which makes it a little tricky to see what things are, but it's kind of cool once you figure it out.

This one she has her mouth open, it was really fun to watch, it was like she was talking to us she kept opening and closing her mouth. You can kind of see her nostrils and her eyes are closed.


This one is kind of looking from the forhead down, so in the upper right corner you can see one of her eyes and then down and to the left a little is her nose and kind of her top lip then it gets shadowy. I swear you can almost see her iris, it's like she's looking right at you. It looked to me like she and Malachi have the same nose, which is great because he has a super cute nose. She is definitely a girl, which was a relief, I was kind of nervous they were going to tell me the last guy was wrong.

So there you have it, hopefully the next pictures of her she will in living color! We're just a couple days away from being in the third trimester, hurray! Time is flying by and we can't wait for her to be here!

Bedtime

I love putting Malachi to bed, because I love laying there in his little bed singing songs, getting hugs and kisses, and talking about whatever pops into his little head. It makes me wish I could just freeze time and keep him this way forever! No growing up. I want to tell him to not stop being curious, and don't stop dancing even when there is no music, and don't stop making up silly words that make just us laugh, and don't stop asking questions about everything, and don't stop telling your mommy you love her and giving her kisses and hugs, don't stop! This is why I love bedtime, because it reminds me everyday that I love being a mom, that I have the most amazing child in the world, that there is a loving Heavenly Father who loves me even more than this, which is hard to comprehend, but true. Enjoy bedtime, it is a special moment.

Uncle Zac comes to visit

Andrew's oldest brother Zac came to visit this weekend, it was really fun having him here. Unfortunately Andrew had to work from 11 am-9:30pm on Saturday, so he didn't get to play with us, but we had fun nonetheless. We went for a bike ride to the park and played with Malachi, then got some slurpees and gave Zac a tour of EP, we showed him the river and Mexico on the other side of the river. Then we mowed the lawn, he mowed and I trimmed and Malachi supervised, I think Andrew was excited, because now he won't have to do it. Then we had naptime and some dinner.
Andrew and Zac playing some wii while Malachi practiced his spinning skills.

This is the gecko Zac caught in our backyard, there were like 6 of them back there. Zac's son Garrett was disappointed that his dad wasn't going to be bringing the gecko home. Malachi loves the geckos, they stick on our windows at night and he watches them and makes sure they're ok.

Saying goodbye to Uncle Zac this morning, Malachi was sad, especially since Zac was taking the "cool car" away (he drove a jeep wrangler down here for his brother-in-law).

The Yoder boys (three of them at least), aren't they good lookin'?

A family picture we had Zac take, why do I look like a hunchback? I don't know, apparently I need to work on my posture/posing skills.

Thanks for visiting Uncle Zac!

Fun with flannel

Malachi really liked playing with the flannel scraps. If you can't tell he has one on his head, one around his chin, two around his belly and one around his wrist.

Here is the blanket I made for our baby, I think it turned out well. I figured out how to do the edge all by myself, from the pattern. Mary, are you proud?

So excited this game has entered our lives! Super fun, except I cheat on the jumping exercises, don't want the baby falling out too early!

Crocodiles, forks and ice cream

Here is what Malachi has been up to lately...

We found his Halloween costume from last year, and decided he liked it, and wore for a whole afternoon. He decided it is a crocodile, and if you said it was anything else he would correct you.

Having a little fun with his fork at lunch, here we have the fork eye patch....

and here is the ear accessory, he did this all by himself, it was pretty funny.

Enjoying some ice cream on a warm summer evening. It was melting pretty quick so he really had to snarf it down!

Mmmmmm, so good.

Malachi is growing up so fast! He speaks in full sentences all the time, knows some colors and shapes, can tell you what pretty much any animal says, enjoys sleeping in a real bed, shares his toys, blankets, etc with the baby, translates daddy's russian babble into english for me, and loves going to church and pointing out all the missionaries (we have 3 sets in our little branch)! He is getting taller and is so strong, he'll actually say "I'm so strong" when he's doing something that requires the use of his muscles.

Baby belly

Here is the baby bump, doesn't it look high, I think so. This was taken sometime during the 25th week.

Summer never ends in EP

While all you folks up north are saying goodbye to summer and the heat, we are saying hello. The evenings and mornings are finally nice, we can actually go outside and play and not melt away. I think July and August are like the winter up north, nobody really does much outside, but now we're finally seeing people going for walks, etc., which has lead to us meeting more neighbors, finally.
Malachi and Andrew playing in the yard, they're such cute boys.

Playing in the pool, I just got my feet wet, but it felt oh so good.

Fun with the hose! It was especially fun to spray Daddy.

And to get sprayed by Daddy. Look at that face, pure joy!

Fun with the boy + baby update

Here are some fun Malachi pictures, sorry I've been a blog slacker, there are several new posts so keep reading.

Fun in the tub, he was in there for a good 45 minutes, he loves the bath.

Andrew fixed our bikes, and we ordered a bike seat for Malachi, so we had to get him a helmet and he wouldn't take it off all day. I made him take it off for his nap, but he still held it in his hand.

He decided he needed his hat on, nothing else though, just a hat, it's a good look.

He found this headband in his toy box one day and wore it for a long time, it was really cute.

So baby wise everything is going really well. She is moving around like crazy, and definitely has awake time and asleep time. I swear she is standing up in there, because she jumps on my bladder and then punches me in the stomach, just making sure I know she's there I guess. I feel like I'm showing way sooner than I did with Malachi. Sorry no pictures of the belly, I've been sick for a while and haven't really felt too photogenic. Every time I go into the doctor and he listens to her heart beat he's like wow she's moving around a lot, to which I say I know. I'm getting close my third tri which is exciting, I have days when I wish she were here right now, and days when I think holy cow how am I going to handle two kids! But she's coming, and we're super excited!

Adventures in baking

As you all know I don't have a stove/oven, which means I don't do much baking, but sometimes you just need a yummy baked good every now and then.
These are a some cinnamon buns, they were delish! Just some refridgerator biscuits, butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, mmmmm.

This is the upside down cake before it was cooked, I thought this was a clever idea, putting the cake in a bread pan and then putting it in the crock pot, I found it online, I can't take credit.
(See finished product below.)

And the bread machine, I still haven't found a recipe that works really well, so anyone who knows about baking bread in a bread machine any tips would be greatly appreciated! Malachi liked watching the dough mix, it was really funny.