26 weeks

 I am now 26 weeks and a few days and I am getting a little terrified/anxious to meet our handsome little man! I only have 14 more weeks left and it just seems like the time is flying and before I know it Christian will be here. Chris has been telling me that the closer I get to my due date the more excited he's getting too. He is going to be the best daddy to Christian I can't wait until he's old enough to go fishing and hunting with his daddy. The birth of her brother is all Sienna ever talks about as well she doesn't have the best concept of time so she just knows the baby will be here shortly after her birthday and she is definetly counting down the days. Speaking of Sienna's birthday I can't believe our baby girl is going to be 7 in March! She is getting so close to being 8 and Chris and I are trying to help her understand what it means to be baptized. I have started to have so much fun being pregnant Christian is getting big enough that I can distinguish his little body parts when he is trying to escape from my belly :-) I LOVE eating I never thought I could love food so much! And I am gaining healthy weight, Chris and I went shopping last night and I grabbed 2 pairs of maternity pants but I almost put them back, I kept thinking to myself "these are so huge they will never fit my tiny self"  I tried them on and they were snug! I guess I still don't see myself as getting big?!

We got to go to the doctors on the 29th to see Christian and he is measuring right on time! We got some more 3D pictures, I still think he looks like me but I guess we wont truly know until April 12th. He has Chris's little chin and I already think he's the most perfect baby on the planet, I seriously can not wait for April to get here!!!!

Christmas

Christmas this year was wonderful! We all got everything we wanted and then some :-) I'd have to say my favorite presents besides my family were the outfits that Chris bought me for Chrisitian, Chris picked them out all by himself!

I do know one thing for sure and that is that Christian is going to be one SPOILED little boy!

Chris got big smooches after all my awesome Christmas presents.

Another favorite part of Christmas that I love is being able to watch Sienna open all of her gifts, I can't wait for next year when her and Christian can open their presents together, I can't help but feel so blessed for being able to have my wonderful family!

Just some cute pictures

Rachael and Nixon he is soo adorable!

Me and my little princess

I love her SO very very much!

I feel so wonderful being pregnant I almost want him to stay in there forever :-)

This is one of my most favorite pictures of all time Sienna was showing off her little belly too

Home Again Home Again.....

Chris and I are finally home and it is so good to be back! I really loved the oppurtunity to be able to experience Washington and to get to spend 5 months alone with my husband but to be able to have Sienna again is priceless! I am 22 weeks tomorrow and it just seems like the time has flown, I am finally starting to get noticeably bigger and I am not sure if it's the baby (he already weighs over a pound!) or all the awesome stove cooked meals I am able to eat now that we are back home. For those of you who didn't know, we lived in a hotel for the 5 months we were in Washington without a stove so I am officially a skillet and microwave master! I can not even begin to tell you how much living in a hotel made me appreciate the simplist of things like stove top ramen and paces popsicles :-) Sienna is so happy that we are home she holds my hand everywhere we go and loves to just cuddle with me I feel so bad for having to leave her for as long as we did but I can assure you that will never happen again we are here for good and never plan on leaving her. She is getting so big and she looks so darn cute without her teeth!

She is my little princess and she is just so much fun at this age! She is doing really good in school but she likes to talk too much which reminds me alot of myself :-) Now that we are home again I get to go back to my doctor at Circle of Life in a way I feel like he is the reason we are having this baby since he prescribed the medicine that helped this pregnancy stick. I had my appointment with him on the 4th and I must say I love the Circle of Life because we get an ultrasound of our baby every appointment! The baby is healthy and all is well with him, I on the other hand have run into a problem with my right kidney, I have some blockage and I may have to get a stint to clear it, I will know tomorrow hopefully. I went to the imaging center to get an ultrasound on my kidney and the sonographer asked me if she could practice doing ultrasounds on the baby, I of course said yes, so we go a really cute 3D picture of Christian and a cute one of him sucking his thumb! I already think he looks so much like me and so does Chris but he still has 18 more weeks of growing so we'll just have to see. We go back for more 3D pictures on the 29th so there will be loads more of pictures to come! I can't wait for Christmas having Chris and Sienna in my life make this time of year so much more enjoyable, I can't wait for next year when Christian will be able to share in on all of the holiday fun. Happy Holidays to everyone!!!

My big fat 21 week belly :-)

Me and my handsome hubby

Our litte prince charming

Christian sucking his thumb

I love this one because his little mouth is open

It's A Boy!!!

Our precious baby boy!

We had my appointment yesterday and the doctor told us we are going to have a baby boy! It's funny because just about everyone has been telling me they think I am having a girl Chris's mom was positive I was having a girl and he says that she has not been wrong until now :-) The appointment was one of the best experiences of my life besides marrying Chris of course! We went in for the ultrasound and it was SOO long the doctor took just about a million pictures of the babys heart and bones and things like that to make sure everything is progressing well, which he is, and to be honest I was just there for her to tell me if we were having a boy or girl, I am a little impatient especially after drinking a gallon of water and having to hold it! So about an hour into taking all these pictures she looked at Chris and said it looks like you're having a boy. Chris was so shocked! He was kind of in a bad mood because I had scheduled the appointment so early, neither of us had gotten any sleep, and he was so sure like everyone else that we were going to have a girl. He would have been happy with a girl but we already have a daughter so he thinks it's only fair that we have a boy :-) After she told him we were having a boy he still didn't believe her so he made her check like 6 more times and get his boy parts from every angle just to be sure lol! He teared up and I think it was the sweetest moment I have ever had the pleasure of sharing with my husband. As everyone knows I really wanted a boy too so we could honor my dad by having the babys middle name the same as his so our son will be named Christian Douglas Volkert. It's funny because whenever I would think about Chris and I having our first baby I wanted a girl sooo bad because I am so close with Sienna, I love fixing her hair, dressing her in the cutest oufits, all of our snuggle time, and let's face it there are so many more cute things to buy for girls! But the moment I found out the baby was due in April having a boy just seemed right. I don't really know the first thing about baby boys except that hopefully they will be alot easier to get ready in the mornings ( I am not a morning person and it takes me awhile to make sure Si looks just perfect before going to school :-) ) but with Chris's help I'm sure it will be a piece of cake, he is such a wonderful daddy already. We could not be happier and we can't wait for Christian's arrival! On another note, we will finally be going home next week! We leave Tacoma on Sunday to start our long journey home. We will be spending Thanksgiving with my mom so that splits our trip in two which will be nice, we will also be stopping by my grandmas Friday after Thanksgiving to visit my family for the weekend and my older brother will be there. I am so excited to see Jeremy and his fiance Charlie, she is pregnant too just 5 weeks behind me so we'll get to compare bellies :-) Thanksgiving is definetly my most favorite holiday this year because I have SO much to be thankful for, we are finally having a baby, I am married to the most amazing man, and we finally get to go home and be with our daughter! Sienna has missed us so much, I talked to her yesterday to share the big news and she was very happy, she is going to make the best big sister! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Christian Douglas Volkert ( He looks so squished! )

Week 16

16 weeks

We had our 16 week doctors appointment today and all is well with baby Volkert! My doctor was out with the flu so I just got to go in and listen to babys heartbeat it was 150 beats per minutes, I was a little dissapointed because I wanted to see if we had time to get an ultrasound and maybe find out our babys sex but my doctor was out so we set an ultrasound date for November the 18th and we will find out the sex then. I am so anxious to learn the sex of the baby! I keep hoping that this 3 weeks will go by fast and I'm sure it will because it seems like before we knew it I was 16 weeks. I am feeling pretty euphoric at this point I can't believe that we are really going to be having a baby, 3 years in waiting I just keep thinking FINALLY. This baby is definetly my blessing and I am so in love. This week I have started to feel the baby "flutter" I guess the technical term for this is quickening, it's pretty amazing to know that our baby is really in there, and Chris can't wait to be able to feel the baby move too! My belly is finally starting to "pop" and I love it I swear I just sit for hours rubbing my belly and imagining the day in April when we finally get to meet our baby. I will write more in 3 weeks to let you know if we are having a Christian Douglas or an Alexandria Marie :-)

Our mini vacation!

We had a somewhat nice trip to Utah, Chris' little brother and sister were sick so we didn't get to spend much time with them or his parents since we were trying very hard not to get me sicker than I already was... The Friday we left I started getting a really bad head cold which I am still not fully over. However I enjoyed my time with Sienna to no end and we got to go visit my nephew and neice in Idaho which I always enjoy! They are getting so big! Kaeden (my nephew) lost his first tooth! I can't wait until Sienna starts to lose her teeth, I always love the school pictures where the kids are missing their teeth.

Chris and I the day we left

Kaeden and I minus his front tooth :-)

My neice Amara is such a princess!

Sienna with the kitty my mommy made her

After our trip to Idaho and on our last night in Utah we finally got to spend time with our family! We all went on a ghost tour, which to my delight was very uneventful despite the fact that our large family was in it :-) The thought of seeing a ghost is exciting but if it actually ever happened I think I'd pee in my pants!

Ash and I (the flash was REALLY bright)

Kelly, Carolina, And Trevor

Frank, Gail, and Kelly :-)

My wonderful husband

Ash and I

The last part of our trip I briefly got to stop by and see my mommy in Ione Oregon. I love staying with her because she always cooks me whatever I want to eat and she is an amazing cook among other things!

My momma and me

Chris and I had such a busy 9 day trip that when we finally got home on Sunday I felt I would go to sleep and never wake up! I miss everyone so much already and I can't wait until we get to come home in November. Although we love Washington I miss Sienna like crazy and being with her for one week a month is just not enough time. Besides by the time we finally get back to Utah I will be halfway through my pregnancy and we will know the sex of the baby! My next appointment is next Wednesday, I can't wait! I live for my doctors appointments I swear :-)