Big Day

Today was a big day for the Bolander house. We had our 18 week anatomy ultrasound. Rick's mom & stepdad flew out for the appointment & of course to visit the boys so with them & my dad in tow we headed to my appointment. The baby was very active the entire appointment & as the doctor took all the measurements, the legs remained tightly together obscuring the view of the sex of the baby.We got great views of the perfectly formed heart, stomach, limbs, kidneys, brain & after some pushing & jiggling of my belly we were finally able to see who would be joining our home. So the sex of the Bolander baby growing in my belly is a GIRL!!!! And here is our ultrasound proof. As her daddy puts it imagine she is sitting on a photo copy machine. HA! And this will be the 1st & last photo I will ever be showing of my lil' girls' private parts. It's hard to believe a baby girl will be joining the ranks with the Bolander boys. She will be very loved, very protected & hopefully very tough to keep up with her 3 older brothers! Thanks friends & family for all your excitement! We are so excited & love our baby girl so much already!

Sharing

A few weeks back I shared a sneak peek of our family shoot. I have now received all the photos & just loved them all so much that I wanted to share some more of them. Some of the photos now pepper the blog but some of the others are in this post. Johnnie was so great. He actually enjoyed his time in front of the camera. And happily showed off some of his skills.Joey was his normal, ornery yet playful self. And of course his happiest moments were spent in daddy's arms. Jimmy absolutely loved the camera. He not only gave the camera some smiles but he gave some intense gazes & daddy got some squeezes too. I'm really happy that Erin was able to capture this photo of me & my hubby & our baby at 12 weeks. And last but not least was this family photo of all of us laughing. I just love how much all the boys are enjoying themselves.

16 Weeks

I am now 16 weeks pregnant with baby #4. The baby is growing well & had a fast heartbeat at my latest appointment of 160. The boys are really excited about having another baby. Jimmy just keeps kissing my belly & saying baby inside. Joey loves to tell me that the baby inside is Jimmy's buddy. And when we ask Johnnie if he wants a brother or sister he says a sister because he has enough brothers who already takes his toys. We try to explain that the baby will probably be a boy (judging from past experience.) Then he replies "We can just take the baby boy to the circle store (Target) & exchange him. HA! Funny kid.

Here is the photo of my growing belly from 2 weeks ago.

Jimmy's Celebration

I wanted to capture Jimmy's birthday celebration in this post. This year his birthday was only celebrated with a family birthday party. There was a cake. And of course his brothers showed him how to eat it starting with the frosting. And then after staring the candle down for a little while he blew it out & then opened up his presents & played with them. Two days after his birthday he spent the entire day at Disneyland alone with his mama. He was excited to have me all to himself. But he didn't just have me. He had his good friend Lorelei there celebrating her birthday as well. And Jimmy was so happy to have her there. He couldn't stop hugging her the minute he saw her. She likes him too but it takes her a little longer to warm up to him. And having her there added to his day where he enjoyed rides on the carousel the Dumbo ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Pinocchio ride & lots more but his favorite was It's a Small World. I'm so happy your first time (not including your visit at 2 months old) at Disneyland was enjoyable & I look forward to our next trip back. You did so well all day with no nap, no complaints & no crying. But you were definitely wiped. Within minutes of us starting to walk to the front gates to leave you were fast asleep. Happy Birthday again baby boy!