I want to tell you I love you and thank you and a message and love.

I have Critters and they’re fun and I love Baby George and all that and I think he’s cute and funny and all that and I think it’s neat that he’s taking his first steps.

And blog post and check my email and I was playing with princesses and I was playing with my princess sticker book.

And climbed a tree trunk.

And twinkle twinkle little star.  You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.  You make me happy when skies are gray.

I love you Mommy.  You’re silly.

And George is what?  Oh yeah, cute.

That’s everything, Mommy.

Guess how many babies are in my tummy.

If you guessed FOUR, you are correct.

I kid, I kid.

There are NOT four babies.

I repeat…there are NOT four babies.

I’m a jerk, I know.  I inherited my father’s sense of humor.

There is one little perfect peanut in there, though.  We saw its little heartbeat fluttering away yesterday and it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.

I got so incredibly nervous right before the ultrasound.  My mind was racing with all the possibilities of what we could possible see on that scan.

What if there are no heartbeats?  What if the embryos split and we see three or four little ones?  What if this?  What if that?

We had to wait forever in the waiting room and then even longer in the actual room until the doctor was available.

I tried to convince Trav to just pick up the wand and do the scan himself, but he refused.  He’s so not the adventurous type.  I was about to take matters into my own hands, but then they finally came in and got on with the show.

I really was surprised that there was not more than one, but was in no way, shape, or form disappointed.  How could I possible be disappointed???  I was just so grateful to see at least one healthy little peanut in there.

Here’s our little nugget’s first photograph. {Pardon the quality, I took a pic of the pic with my phone}

Arle went to bed tonight as a three-year-old.

She’ll wake up tomorrow as a four-year-old.

How on earth is this possible!!??

People always tell new moms that the time with your wee ones will fly by, but you don’t really believe it.  And then suddenly you wake up and the 6.5 pound little peanut you brought home from the hospital is suddenly turning FOUR.

I’m sitting here typing this and getting choked up.  I seriously can’t wrap my brain around this.

Four.

Four?

FOUR!

Craziness, I tell you.  Just plain craziness.

{The tears are really starting to flow now.  Hold on a sec while I ask Trav to bring me a Kleenex.}

On June 15th, 2007 at 1:11 a.m., Arle Elizabeth came into this world.  Being at the hospital for that incredible moment will forever be one of the most amazing moments of my entire life.

I became a mommy.

Trav, a daddy.

Arle, our daughter.

It didn’t matter one single bit that she didn’t come from my womb.  It still doesn’t.  The Lord blessed us with her and her with us.

{The tears, the tears!  Can’t. Stop. The. Tears!}

She has taught us more about love than I could have ever imagined.

We are so incredibly grateful that we were chosen to be Arle’s parents.

The first four years of parenting have been amazing and fun and crazy and stressful and stinky and hilarious and hard and lots of other stuff.  I can’t even imagine what the next four plus years have in store for us.

I’m so glad that we have 7 1/2 more months as our family of three.  It’s the perfect time to focus on our sweet girl and just soak up her sweetness.  I absolutely adore that child and can’t even begin to imagine life without her.

Her spunk and wit keep us entertained non-stop.  Her questions keep us on our toes.  Her energy keeps us running. Her honesty keeps us humble.

I love you, Arle Elizabeth.  You are my first child and, because of that, you will forever hold a special place in my heart. 

I’m pregnant.  I’m pregnant.  I’m pregnant.

I remind Travis of this approximately 892 times per day.

He smiles every time.

It still seems absolutely surreal, though.  I think that’s why I feel the need to say it out loud every 39 seconds.  I’m just trying to make myself believe it’s true.

I feel great, thank goodness.  I’ve been praying that I won’t have any of the icky pregnancy sickness business.  So far, so good.

Thank you so much for all of your sweet comments on my announcement post.  They made it that much more exciting:)

We’re only a week away from finding out just how many sweeties have made themselves at home in my uterus.  My money is on two.  What’s your gut feeling?

Arle will be crushed if it’s not two.  Remember back when I told you how she talked about her brother and sister being on the way?  She’s still convinced of the fact that there are two babies and one’s a boy and the other’s a girl.

She’s already named them, too…Darth Vader and Leia.

I kid you not.

She has a bizarro  Star Wars obsession right now and it obviously played a large role in her name choices.  She’s the girliest tom-boy you’ll ever meet.

She also has developed a strong affection for the Baby Center app on my iPhone.  She loves watching the video that shows how the embryo travels from the tubes to the uterus to hatch and implant.

Yesterday, while I was on the phone with my mom, she was playing with my phone and found a new video.

A video that describes how “front hineys” are formed on boys and girls.

I almost had a heart attack when I realized what she was watching.  I never in a million years dreamed that my phone would be the one to teach her what her front hiney is really called.

It went into all sorts of stuff about how all babies start with a small “bud” and how that bud turns into you know whats on girls and you know whats on boys. {I’m not about to type the real names into this post because the Lord only knows what types of Google ads would pop up on here and I wouldn’t want to make my mother blush.  Plus I don’t say those words.}

Anyway, the only question she had after watching the overly-informative video was, “Mommy, what’s a bud?”

I decided that I needed to be completely honest and straight-forward about it and answered, “I don’t know.”

Then I grounded her from playing with my phone.

Raise your hand if you’re in the mood for a cute new t-shirt?

Click here to order one of these uber-adorable t-shirts.  Proceeds help out a sweet friend and her family adopt a precious little bambino.

Hurry, hurry.  Chop, chop.  Time’s a tickin’.

I’M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s true!  I have the stick to prove it!

And, yes, that’s a positive test.  My friend, Christine, freaked me out when I showed her that pic.  She said, “That’s a NEGATIVE!”  But then I reminded myself that the directions clearly stated that a line in the circle is a POSITIVE.

I’ve never been a fan of these stupid sticks.  They’ve always made me sad.  This is the first one that’s EVER been positive.  In SIX AND A HALF YEARS, folks!

I was supposed to go in for a blood draw Sunday morning to see if I was in fact pregnant.

But, because I can’t stand suspense, I jumped the gun and did a home test Saturday morning.  BIG MISTAKE. BIG, HUGE.

When the doctor tells you to wait until a certain day to test and that it needs to be by blood, listen to the man.  He knows what he’s talking about.

The test was negative and I was devastated.  I tried to hold myself together and take it like a big girl, but it wasn’t easy.

Sunday morning rolled around, I went in for the blood draw, and prayed for the best.  4 1/2 hours later my nurse called with the results.

“You’re pregnant!”

Tears ensued.  Lots of tears.  Lots and lots of tears.

Duh.

6 1/2 years!!!

Arle was napping when we got the news.  The minute she woke up, we told her she is going to be a big sister.  She was SO excited and immediately went into planning mode…”Ummm…ok.  We’re going to need to buy some new toothbrushes.  And a new bedroom.  And we need to get the highchair out of the attic.  And my baby clothes.”

The girl’s a thinker. Good thing because her momma’s a scatter-brained mess.

I took another home test yesterday (above pic) just so I could have a positive test in my hands.  It worked that time.

I went in for more blood work today to make sure my hormone levels are increasing as they should.  They are.  Praise the LORD.

I’m officially official. 4 weeks and two days official, to be exact.

We’ll go in for our first ultrasound in two weeks to listen for heartbeats and see just how many bambinos are in there.

We’re continuing to give God the praise for ALL of this.  It’s such a miracle and we are so humbled to be a part of this story.  Please continue to pray for a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby(s).

Peace out.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for ALL of your prayers!

Everything went absolutely perfectly today.

I was super-duper calm and peaceful.  Praise the Lord!

Our two embryos thawed wonderfully.  So wonderfully that the embryologist said they didn’t even look like they had ever been frozen!  Both came back with 100% of the cells they had before they were frozen.  Praise the Lord!

Just before the actual transfer, they showed us a magnified image of them while they were still in the incubator right there next to my bed.  Trav took a pic with my phone.

We’re now back at our hotel and I’m on bed-rest for the remainder of today and all day tomorrow and tomorrow night.  We’ll be able to head back to KC.

So, the waiting continues to see if everything “sticks”.  I’ll go in for blood-work in a couple of weeks for a pregnancy test.

I’ll keep you posted.

***Note*** Trav just informed me that I posted the pic sideways.  You get the idea, right??

Well, folks.  The time has come.

Our embryo transfer is Friday.

Holy cow.

Please, please, please continue to pray for us.

Pray against stress, fear, and anxiety.

Pray for peace and calm.

Pray for wisdom and guidance for the doctor and nurses.

Pray that the embryos implant.

Pray that my body is perfectly ready for pregnancy.

Pray for a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby/babies.

We are so incredibly grateful to all of you who have been praying for us.  Your comments, e-mails, fb messages, etc. have been such a huge encouragement through this process.  I wish I could give each and every one of you a big, huge, honkin’ hug.

It seems so crazy to think that after 6 1/2 years of “trying,”  I might actually be pregnant soon.  Wowzers!

We’ve been back from Mexico for a week now and I’m just now getting around to blogging about the trip.  It was fantabulous.

The weather was absolutely perfect.

The wedding was beautiful.

The peeps we traveled with were super-fun.

And I succeeded in getting Trav to go dancing to some seriously fabulous ghetto music one night.  Definitely the highlight of the trip, in my opinion.

Here are some of my favorite pics from our Mexicana Extravaganza.

Despite the poor quality of the last pic, it might actually be my fave.  Every evening after we came in from the beach/pool, Arle would go to the mini-bar for a juice box and then hop in the jacuzzi tub to unwind.  I laugh every time I look at that pic.  She really has a tough life.  I want to be almost 4 instead of almost 34.

I wish I had the guts to do this to my stairs.