Kishe ne Shqiperi

I still feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to serve a mission in Albania from July 2003 through January 2005 for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church is growing, and in March the first stake was organized in Albania. Here is a great video that was put together. Listening to everyone speak Albanian is music to my ears, and of course it was wonderful to see so many I know in the video. O Shqiperi!

My Diagnosis

As many of you know I have been ill with flu-like symptoms since December. Consisting of nausea/vomiting/aches/sleep issues/overactive bladder/lack of desire to elevate heart rate/etc.etc. Well I went to the doctor last week and was diagnosed as being 'with child'. We also found out Baby Bates #3 is a boy! We're more than halfway there, less than 20 weeks to go. We're so excited to have this little guy in our family. He's bound to be cute (and rambunctious) like his older brothers. They're very excited about 'Koala'...baby #3's 'pre-name' courtesy of Sawyer.

We found out the morning we were leaving to drive to Colorado for Christmas (December 20th). I surprised George by quickly hanging another stocking up with the pregnancy stick poking out.

Not to be a 'Debbie Downer', but pregnancy is awful. I've never liked it. Yes it's a miracle, but I'm always amazed at just how terrible something so miraculous can feel. Zofran has helped. I actually went two weeks without throwing up, and then lost it again last week, dang it. But overall I've felt quite a bit better the past couple weeks. The nausea comes in waves instead of being constant. I was very blessed to spend most of January in Colorado surrounded by wonderful family that played with the boys and cooked. My sister, Abbie, made fresh loaves of sourdough bread almost every day. Toasted sourdough bread with honey. Mmmm.

I have my concerns about surviving a Florida summer while pregnant. Not sure if we'll be able to afford our power bill since I already have the a/c going...it was almost 90 one day and I was dying of heat stroke! Heaven help me.

The u/s tech kept commenting how cute he is and kept hitting print, haha.

Stretching out his long legs.

Here is his sweet face.

Ummm first time taking a 'selfie'. Awkward, ha! Documenting 20 weeks with #3

So excited for our cute little guy to be joining us the end of August. Due date is August 29, but according to the ultrasound could be August 19th. I'm planning on September just to be on the safe side.

Sawyer's Big News

We had such a fun Saturday. It started bright and early with Sawyer's big accomplishment of learning how to ride a bike! He's been great on his balance bike for about a year now. I picked up a pedal bike for him and the transition was a breeze. I still can't believe how fast he took off. We're so happy for him, and he's quite pleased himself :) He's not even 3.5-years-old yet...always amazing me! This makes him even more fast and mobile now. I'm in trouble!

Sawyer is BIG time now.

A quick pre-biking interview.

There he goes!!