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!!

Confused State

Fall or Spring?? Florida doesn't know, but either way we're having lots of fun in our backyard.

September NY Wedding

Twas the end of September 2013 and we hopped on a plane...to Albany, New York!

Yes! Mom was SO happy not be flying solo with the boys. 1:1 ratio is so much better.

An incident in the airport left Sawyer's shirt wet...Jack was happy to loan Sawyer his extra jumpsuit. The 'tails' of the jumpsuit tucked in nicely, lol. This is how he posed, he is such a ham!

The reason for heading to upstate New York was for my cousin's wedding! Jason was marrying his high school sweetheart, Jessica. We were lucky enough to attend. My cousin (if you want to get technical it's my cousin's son) got married on the 28th of September. It was a beautiful storybook wedding. They seriously thought and planned out every detail, including an impressive firework display! All that planning paid off and everything went off without a hitch (as far as I could tell!)

Jessica & Jason :)

Congrats to the happy couple!

Love this good-looking family!
(Adam, Jason, Lisa, & John Drake)

Aunt Sue & Uncle Don during the 'Grandparent's Dance'. They're so cute. It was fun to see Don up dancing :) I would love to get my hands on some of the video footage of my cousin John's dance moves at the reception. He was awesome!

We got to ride the party bus (stretch bus limo!) to the church for the wedding. The boys LOVED not having to be in their carseats and enjoyed free reign with the abundant snacks. There were lights on the ceiling and along the floor...dancing ensued of course. 

I was worried we'd have to leave during the wedding ceremony, but the boys quieted down once the music started and everyone was walking down the aisle. (Not a very becoming photo of Jack, but I love my sis!)

Unfortunately my cell phone didn't capture very good photos in the church, but it was beautiful.

 I was so impressed with all the detail that went into their planning. They were so thoughtful -- even put little boy toys in our goodie bag that was left at our hotel room. I was amazed!

We stayed with Uncle Don and Aunt Sue in Cherry Valley. The weather was amazing. SO perfect. Sunny and clear with temps in the 70's.

The leaves were changing colors...green, yellow, orange, red. We bought fresh maple syrup from just up the road. What beautiful country!

The boys loving on Aunt Sue. It was a gold mine of vintage toys around Sue & Don's house. The boys were in heaven. It's true, they just don't make toys like they used to. No batteries and no noise coming from these toys...it was great.

Jack, our little farmer, 18-months-old in this pic.

So happy Nancy was able to make it to the wedding!

In the evenings everyone would gather in the living room to sing songs before the boys headed upstairs to bed. Thank you Sue and Don for letting us ransack your home!

Dinner spread, great company and delicious food!

Love you dad :)

Remains of Aunt Sue's tomatoes from her garden smeared across Jack's face.

The fantastic weather had us outside running and stretching and leaping and playing. It felt SO nice!

We visited Lakeview Camphouse the morning before we left. Although it was numbing, David, Mom and I took the plunge and jumped in the water. I'm guessing it was about 65F.

John and Lisa fed us a delicious meal before we hopped on the plane back to Florida. And shortly after we got home we received a package of the crab apple jelly that Lisa slaved over. It was delightful! Thank you, thank you for such a wonderful weekend. It was wonderful to be there for the spectacular wedding!