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!

Camping with the family

Every year, my family has made it a tradition to go camping together on the first weekend of August. So far, we've gone a different place every year...Birch Bay, Oregon coast, Lake Wenatchee, Timothy Lake (Portlandish), Yakima, Hawaii (okay, that wasn't camping...we took a family vacation that year instead of camping), and this year, Dash Point State Park in Federal Way. We always have a ton of fun, and this year was no exception! Kyle, my youngest sister's husband, as well as my brother and his wife, were not able to come, but the rest of us were there.

When you look at a map, it looks like Dash Point is in the middle of the city, but it really doesn't feel that way. Though it was a bit strange to be camping 1/2 hour from home, we saved a lot on gas! And Steve and I thought this would be a good option for our own little family for future camping trips.

Anyway, I liked the fact that the campsites were very private, as opposed to some state parks where you might as well be sleeping in your neighbor's tent. We had some great weather, and the beach a lot of fun, too. It's not exactly a place to swim, but when the tides were low you could walk quite a ways out (on sand, not rocks), play with the sand, find sealife, etc.

I was a little nervous about how Travis and Jayna would do, especially in terms of napping, but they had a great weekend! I think Travis was in heaven, having so many "playmates" around and so many things to keep him busy. Jayna got incredibly dirty because she chose not to walk on all the uneven ground, but I didn't mind. That's what camping's for!

Some picture highlights...

Travis had his own little camping chair...notice him using Aunt Becky as a leg rest. What a life!

I was so proud of Travis....he got dirty!! But not too dirty...he would only hold the clam in the shovel, not with his hands.

All tuckered out. Sleep actually came quite easily for Travis. Jayna--not so much. It didn't help that I forgot to pack her beloved blankie. All is right in Jayna's world when she has her blankie.

It started out much smaller...cousin Ethan would push Jayna in this giant dumptruck we brought along. She loved it! But then the men (yes, including Steve....maybe even initiated by Steve?) decided to let her go for a bit of a longer ride. It was hard for me to watch the first few times, but after I saw that she was okay, and even enjoying it, it was pretty funny. I like how you can hear us all laughing, even though I sound like a total dork.

All in all, it was a great weekend!

Just call me Picasso

This weekend I finally finished painting/putting together Travis' room, and we love it! It is camping-themed, complete with a tent, camping chair, glow-in-the-dark stars, and trees on the wall. I think Steve was a little doubtful that the trees would turn out looking okay, but they're not bad!(?) Travis showed lots of excitement every time a new element was added to the room, especially when we added the final touch of the stars. He kept bringing me in the room with him, turning off the lights, closing the blinds, and laying on the bed to look at the stars. So sweet. Oh, and he's been sleeping in his tent for every nap and every night. I'm glad he likes it, because we plan on sticking with this decor for a while!

Adding several "small touches" really added to the overall theme...here is a set of 3 bear pictures I found at Ikea for $4 (on the closet wall, for those who know his room), and he also has two bear paw towel hooks, a bear (piggy) bank, and a lantern that Steve will hang from the ceiling.

The kids playing in the tent.

And she's off!

On Saturday, July 19th, Jayna started walking! She's been so close for so long, but this weekend she really took off! In many ways, Jayna is still very much a baby, but more and more all the time I am seeing her turn into a little girl. It's bittersweet for me, though more sweet than bitter. It's so much fun to watch your kids accomplish new things. Anyway, here she is! Oh, and for the record, as soon as I turned the camera off, she did in fact say "Hiiiii, mama". Stinker:)

P.S. I'm super annoyed that this video is sideways. I need to either figure out how to turn it or start remembering not to hold my camera vertically!

The end of my rope, poo, and laughter

It all started when I went in to retrieve a squealing but very stinky Jayna from her nap. Realizing that there were no wipes upstairs, I took her downstairs to get her changed (with, I might add, a very whiny, "I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and nothing can make me happy" Travis in tow). So I laid Jayna on the ground, stripped her clothing since some of it was wet, and proceeded to undo the thingies (I can't for the life of me think of the right word here) on her diaper. Here's where everything thing went quickly downhill on a very steep slope.

I swear, in the 1/2 second it took to reach over and open the wipes container, Jayna reached down, grabbed her diaper, and pulled it directly on to her face, poop side down. With a look of sheer disgust/horror/urgency, she then flung it face down again, this time on the carpet. I should explain here that we're not talking the nice, solid poop that is relatively easy to clean up. We're talking....okay, you probably don't want the details. But you get the idea.

This all happened so quickly that I sat dumbfounded for what seemed like a minute. Do you ever have one of those times where somehow a hundred thoughts flow through your mind in what turns out to be only a matter of seconds? I didn't know where to start with cleaning things up. It was everywhere....her whole forehead and right cheek, her eyebrows, some of her hair...then when she put her hands in it, she smeared it on her belly, arms, legs...everywhere. Then there was the carpet. Again...everywhere. I'm ashamed to say that one of my thoughts was to first clean up the carpet, but that thought was quickly smothered by the reality that while I cleaned it up she would just be smearing more. So, after wiping some of the larger globs off her body, I carried her a foot in front of me to the kids' bathroom upstairs to get her into the bathtub.

Meanwhile, the whole time that I'm dealing with cleaning Jayna while she is screaming (not crying, screaming...hey, you would be, too, if your face was covered in poo), Travis is in the background whining about whatever he can think of. "Mommy, don't want to come downstairs". "Mommy, me thirsty". "Mommy, need a cup". "Mommy...mommy...mommy.....". It was constant, and incredibly grating on the nerves when the Jayna situation was obviously a bit of a higher priority.

Okay, so I get the bath started, put her in, cover her in soap, and scrub. And she's still screaming, louder by the minute. We're still trying to figure out ways to make her enjoy bathtime again....this ordeal definitely did not help. I really had to scrub. I finally get her clean, wrap her in the towel, and take her to the changing table. She's still screaming, Travis is still whining despite my telling him to stop, and I'm doing some serious deep breathing. And while I'm trying to wrestle her into a new diaper, Travis decides to slam a toy airplane into my ankle.

And that was it. I didn't even get mad, I just started crying. Partly because he really hurt me, but partly because that was the last straw. This situation was certainly stressful, but I had had a somewhat frustrating day to begin with, and I felt defeated.

But now, when Travis sees me crying, he covers his face with his hands and starts crying, too, saying in a hysterical voice "I'm sorry, Mommy, I'm sorry!" Can you picture it? All three of us, crying our little eyes out. And at this, I admit, I had to let out a small giggle.

Thankfully, the story does end. Travis bent down to kiss my ankle, apologized again after I told him that he hurt me, and Jayna settled down. And though I still smelled a hint of poo in parts of her hair, I was not about to put her (or myself) through another bath. Oh, and I spent a fair amount of time cleaning the carpet. We were thinking about having some of our carpets cleaned sometime next month...this event solidifies that plan!

Steve got home shortly after I had cleaned everything up, and I was still a bit disheveled. I told him the story and could see the smile forming, but he was kind enough to stifle his laughter (or at least most of it).

In the midst of it, this was one of those moments that makes me wonder if I could actually handle any more kids. It seems like the crazy stuff always has to happen all at once. But looking back, even I can't help but laugh a little bit. I suppose sometimes it is the laughter that keeps you going!