Father's Day and Family News. . .

This Father's day, my mom and dad arrived in the evening. My dad had a work meeting in the area, so it was an added bonus that I got to see him on Father's Day. I have more recent pictures of my dad and I, I'm sure, but I like the one above, taken six years ago at my wedding. I am grateful to have such a wonderful dad. He is such a great example to me in so many ways. My dad is dependable, responsible, a hard worker, an outdoor enthusiast, helpful, traditional, patriotic, a fantastic grandfather to my kiddies, and much more. Love you, dad!

I am also grateful to be married to a man who is seriously the greatest daddy ever to our bambinos. The picture below is from October 2008, and I love it. Happiness all around when Anna and Benjamin are with their daddy. Not only does he actively and creatively plays with the kids all the time (something I think he loves just as much as them), but he changes diapers, gives baths, gets up at night with them, takes them out for fun whenever I need a break, cleans up yucky kid things, tucks them in with a song, reads stories, and the list could go on. I am one lucky wifey. (I of course do the things above as well, except baths, but when Ethan is home, he is super helpful, and takes over a lot of the kid things.) Thank you, Ethan, for being such an amazing father to our kids. Love him!

So, that brings me to my last bit of news, that most of you probably know about, but which I have not officially mentioned on here. Ethan gets to use his amazing fathering skills on another little Rayhorn baby, due to join our family this November. We are super excited for the third (and final :) addition to our family!

So, we have felt like there was one more little one that belonged in our family, but just couldn't decide on the timing. It made sense to wait until Ethan was done with school, but we didn't want a huge age gap. Most importantly, for health reasons, I didn't want to wait too long. Pregnancy just does not agree with me. :) Physically I feel fine when I'm pregnant, besides the typical queasiness, and being a little less motivated than normal. However, I had pre-eclampsia with both Anna and Benjamin, and there is a greater risk for it the older you get. That has already proven to be correct with me. So, this pregnancy has already had it's fair share of complications, additional appointments, extra testing and lab work, etc...and that should only increase as the pregnancy goes on...bleh. (I am 16 weeks right now.) Luckily, we'll be moving to Marquette at the end of July, and then all the extra appointments won't be so stressful because of all the family around to help out.

Anna and Benjamin were both full term when the pre-ecplampsia occurred, so it was not really a big deal. They were simply delivered immediately, at 37 and 39 weeks. So all of this pregnancy drama is kind of new to me, and it's a little scary. And to clarify, I don't officially have pre-eclampsia yet, just high blood pressure that needs to be closely monitored. It's pretty inevitable though. So we are hoping, and praying, I will get as far along as possible before it happens.

Some exciting news - earlier this week I had an appointment with a high risk OB. Little did I know that an ultrasound would be part of the appointment. So, on Wednesday, without any warning, we found out we are having another baby BOY!! Before we found out, everyone was asking what we were hoping for. Obviously, I would be happy with either. Benjamin is a little more of a handful right now than Anna ever was. So I would occasionally think, "Oh, another sweet little girl would be so nice and easy...not to mention all of her adorable clothes that could be handed down." (And yes, I realize that all types of personalities come in both genders...there's no guarantee. :) But, from the beginning I felt like I was having a boy, and was hoping for that. I really liked the idea of Anna always being my only girl, and that the boys would be close in age instead of a five year age difference between Anna and a little sister.

Anna was really hoping for a little sister, but she took the news well. I pointed out all the reasons it would be nice to be the only girl, like having her own room. And even though we will now be outnumbered, Anna and I have already decided that we will still be in charge, of course. :) It's so fun that Anna is older now and really understands the pregnancy, and is so excited for the baby. We were at the store to pick up a few groceries the other day, and happened to walk by the baby section. Anna was just drawn in, and wanted to buy EVERYTHING in sight for her new baby brother. I let her pick out one little thing, and she chose an adorable little teddy bear. I have saved all of Benjamin's things, so we are pretty set. However, he was born in April, and this little guy will be born in November, six months later in the year. We might need a couple weather appropriate things for the time of year, but we'll wait and see.

Oh, one last bit of info from my appointment with the High Risk OB. My due date was moved up to December 6th, and the OB recommended I deliver at 37 weeks, if I make it that far without pre-eclampsia. That puts the approximate time of arrival around the 23rd of November, the week of Thanksgiving. Mark your calendars. :)

WAIT! Baby names. Ethan and I can't decide on one. I think it'd be fun for a 'C' name, then it would be A-nna, B-enjamin, C-____. But we're not going to force it. We're considering Caleb, Elijah, Isaac, Jacob, Charlie, Joshua. The middle name will be Jones. Suggestions, anyone?!