The word is out...

...so we'll put it out there even more...we are pregnant with our third!

We were quite surprised at first, but now we're just excited! We did want more kids, just maybe not quite so soon. Although, Jayna and this one will be almost 2 years apart, which is what Travis and Jayna are, and it works. Due date is April 3rd, making me about 11 weeks. Almost through the first trimester. One HUGE praise in all of this is that I have only felt a fraction of the sickness that I felt with the other two. With both of them, I had to take anti-nausea meds until about 16-17 weeks, and with Jayna, even that only kept the food down...I still felt pretty horrible 24/7. (and I promise I'm not exaggerating..it was bad). So I had kind of been dreading another pregnancy because I remember how physically, and thus emotionally, difficult it was to not be able to do anything when I was pregnant with Jayna...clean, cook, care for Travis, etc. He watched more TV/videos during those months than he ever has or ever will, I think. Anyway, this pregnancy, I am taking an over-the-counter combination of Unisom and vitamin B6 and notice a huge difference when I don't take it. But when I do, I feel great, as long as I keep food in my stomach and only eat a little at a time. I've only puked once, and that was before I started the meds. It's amazing! I never knew pregnancy could be like this! I have thanked God many, many times! Of course, this meant that in the early early weeks I was sure I had miscarried, but the ultrasound I had at 9 weeks showed a strong heartbeat (as amazing as watching it for the first time with Travis!) and a baby that looked exactly as he should! (Yes, I think it's a boy, though I won't put money on it:)

No, we will not find out the gender. We didn't find out with T, we did with J, and while I'm glad we did with J, it's just so much more fun to not know! And with the third one, we thought this would help keep it exciting. And practically speaking, we already have at least the essential clothing for either gender, and the baby will be in Jayna's room either way.

I am a little nervous about being a mom of three, especially when they will all be pretty young. But I know so many who have gone before me and were (or are) wonderful parents...my mom, some friends, several cousins. More than ever, I see the need to lean on God for everything...patience, strength, love.

I receive some weekly emails from babycenter.com that picture and describe all that is happening with the baby in that given week. Here's what was said about 11 weeks:

"Your baby, just over 1 1/2 inches long and about the size of a fig, is now almost fully formed. Her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under her gums, and some of her bones are beginning to harden. She's already busy kicking and stretching, and her tiny movements look like water ballet."

And these next two are in utero pictures I found online of babies at 11 weeks. It is still CRAZY to me that a tiny clump of cells turns into a fully formed human baby at all, let alone in such a short period of time. 6 weeks ago there was a heartbeat and a spinal column, and now all major organs are in place, as well as limbs and even fingers and toes. So cool.

I have no doubt that the next 6 1/2 months will fly, and we will meet our newest addition! We'll keep you posted!

Troublemaker

Our new nickname for Jayna is "troublemaker". Not in the sense that she is disobedient...actually, she is very responsive to correction and wails when given a stern "no". What I mean is that she gets in to EVERYTHING! She's explorative and curious (Mel-maybe she gets this from Ethan?!), which usually results in big messes. She is the reason our house too often looks like a disaster area (never mind the fact that I'm just not a good housekeeper, I've finally forced myself to admit). One of her favorite acitivities is to carry objects from one room of the house to another. For example, I often find tupperware (the tupperware drawer is the one thing in the kitchen she's allowed to play in) in our master bathroom. If you know our house, you know that's an impressive feat! Shoes, too...I can NEVER find a match because she carries them all over the house, one shoe at a time. And I have at least three sandwich bags of wipes from when she has pulled dozens out of the container before I caught her.

I'm sure if I looked back through all our pictures I could show you more examples, but I do have a couple of recent videos that demonstrate her amazing mess-making abilities.

In the first, she found a kleenex box and emptied it (almost) before Steve noticed. So he pulled out the camera.

In the second, which was just this week, we were just done with dinner and I had put leftover spaghettie noodles in a tupperware, but hadn't put it in the fridge yet. Apparently, Jayna decided to grab it off the table and carry it into the living room...and dump it out. I'm just grateful it wasn't the tupperware of spaghetti sauce! So we thought "what the heck" and let them play with it.

Oh yeah, we have a blog

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd update you on life in the Butts house...

Steve is still doing very well at the police academy. He has about 6 weeks left...time has flown! Graduation is on October 21st, and after that he has 6-8 weeks of classes/ride alongs/I don't know what else before he starts doing patrol. I'm looking forward to his 4-tens schedule...I realized over Labor day how nice it is to have him home for 3 days in a row every week. A two day weekend just seems to fly by so quickly. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago his class went through their pepper spray test thing, and a couple of our friends (one of whom is a police officer and has been through it himself) went up and taped it. For those of you who haven't seen it yet and would like to, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg2KFy642aQ. I'd tell you to "enjoy", but it's not exactly enjoyable (or at least it wasn't for me). But it will make you proud of him!

I have been busy, with the kids, of course, but also with MOPS. For those unaware, MOPS is Mothers of Preschoolers. We have one at our church, and I am one of two co-coordinators. However, my partner recently had a beautiful baby girl, and naturally, needed a break from MOPS stuff. I was more than happy to give that to her...that newborn stage is gone in a flash! This means, however, that I've had a TON of work to do in order to get the year started. Our first meeting happens on Sept. 16th, and I'll be glad to get past that point. You'll hear more about MOPS later...I'm so excited that the first weekend of October, I get to go to the MOPS national convention in Texas. Yee-haw!

Travis and Jayna are doing well. As September is now here (and almost half over) and we go back to certain activities/routines that only happen during the school year, we're starting to think about what things we want to be involved in as a family, as well as what our daily routine should look like. Travis has always been young enough that besides mealtimes and sleep times, we didn't need a ton of structure. Now, however, he's getting old enough - preschool age, really - that there are certain things that I want to be a part of our every day (or most days) routine...namely, "school" time, small chores, and Bible time (I'm talking 5 minute story/question time, here). But we also have to be pretty flexible, as every day seems to require it. So that's been on my mind...trying to think about how to make those things fun, and how/when to incorporate them into our schedule. As far as our weekly schedule...which Bible study to join, whether to start Travis in Awana, etc....it's hard to figure that stuff out right now because we have no idea what shift/days Steve will have once he starts patrolling.

We had a great summer, and I'm sad for it to end. It seems like everyone loves fall, but I'm not one of them. It means we have 9+ months of cold coming. Though there are certain things I do love...reading a book with a blanket by the fire (even if it is a fake fire), the colors of fall and playing in the leaves, visiting the pumpkin patch, Thanksgiving....I really don't like being cold.

I do have a short list of things to blog, so I won't be absent for so long this time around!