Maternity Photos for Baby Brother

 Stephanie, from Seattle Flashing Lights, did another amazing job with our maternity photos!  We have used her several other times, and I think we love the photos more and more each time!  I had a share a few here from our session in July.  I'm 33 weeks along in these shots!  We took them down at Lincoln Park and it turned out to be a beautiful day for some lovely family pics :)

Happy 33 Birthday to me! (and other July happenings!)

I can't believe my birthday already came and went this year.  July flew right on by!  We have been busy doing all kinds of summer activities around town.  We like to go on walks, play at the beach and check out new parks.  There are lots of events in our neighborhood over the summer, so for the 4th of July, we definitely went to be a part of the big kid parade!

 We also got to go to the Woodland Zoo for the IBM Family day!  Anora got her face painted as an ICE TIGER!  RAARR!

And we celebrated 100 years of Boeing!

We even rode the water taxi one night just for fun and grabbed dinner down on the Pier.

Mostly, we just enjoy being together as a little family.  We are really soaking up time as just the three of us before our little man comes.  I really love life how it is exactly in this moment, and I know it's just going to get better. 

My big dream for my birthday this year was to go camping!  We had never taken Anora before and I knew she would just love it.  Well, she did love most of it!  We had a really fun day playing at the campground.  She loved getting in and out of the tent - pretending to take naps, etc.  She also loved playing down by the beach.  We made 2 trips to the beach, one before dinner, and one after.  The only bump in the road came when it came time to go to bed.  Anora really struggled to settle down.  It took her about 2 hours to finally relax, so it was at least 10pm before she fell asleep.  Then we woke up to her screaming and crying at midnight.  She had a scary night terror for several minutes.  It felt like an eternity since we were outside probably waking up all the other campers but couldn't do anything to calm her down except wait for her to wake up.  Once she did, she was kind of disoriented and couldn't settle back down.  We asked her if we needed to go home, and she jumped up and said yes, sleep in my big girl bed.  So, we did.  Ben and I threw everything in the back of the car and drove home.  Luckily we were only 40 mins away!  It was all good though - totally worth it.

Did you watch the amazing video Ben put together from our camping adventure?!  If not, it's a must see!


Did you hear, Momma got a brand new record player for my B-day, hurray!  It's amazing!

 

The morning before we took off camping for my Birthday weekend, we went to the West Seattle Grand Parade!  Anora got to see her bestie, Eleanor!  Aren't they the cutest?

 Sunday morning instead of waking up at the campground we woke up in our own beds, lol!  We decided to hit up the Alki Art walk down by the beach.  Mostly we played in the sand.

 July sure has been grand!  I cannot believe August is already here!  My belly is growing as an indication that my baby boy is almost here!  Here is the most recent view of my expanding tummy!

TYPO!  That should say 35 WEEKS!  Chalk that one up to pregnancy brain.  Boy, it's been bad this time around!

Baby Boy Bump Shots

Well - I have been pretty bad about taking and posting pictures of my baby bump this time around.  So, I thought I would post a few of the last several weeks.  I'm now in my third trimester - hurray!  Things are progressing smoothly.  My energy has been low throughout this time around, so working out has been nearly non existent, so that's been a bummer, but all in all I've been feeling pretty good.  But I am getting anxious to meet this babe. 

So here I am in week 29 counting down the weeks until I get to meet this sweet boy. 

23 Weeks

As an aside, I started the Specific Carbohydrate Diet about 3 months ago now to see if it can help my gut.  It's a diet geared towards those with autoimmune disease.  My hope is that I can someday get off my Crohn's meds.  It is a very strict diet to follow - no added sugars, no grains, no preservatives - almost no convenience foods are not allowed.  One of the few things I can buy pre-packaged is a Lara bar!  Needless to say, I've been eating a lot of nourishing foods, so I'm happy about that, and my sweets addiction is more under control (yay!).  Those my chocolate cravings still sneak up on me.  Hoping I can incorporate it back into my diet at some point - hehe.  For now, I rely more on fruits to fill that desire.  Anyhow, I hope this diet is benefiting baby too.  Lots of nutrient dense foods for him to eat as well :) 

Visitors from Wisconsin!

Last weekend, we had the good fortune of seeing G-ma & G-pa!  They came for a long weekend over Father's Day.  They were with us when we were first looking at buying this house, so it was fun to show them the house again with all of our things inside.  Our place sure is coming along!

When they came, Anora & Eleanor were finishing up their last day together of nanny share.  They have been together nearly everyday for the last 2 years, so it was a bitter sweet day.  I'm not sure they totally understood what was happening.  They will still see each other, just not as frequently. 

 G-ma & G-pa spend about 2 days working out in our yard!  They cleared out a bunch of weeds a laid down wood chips.  The yard is looking so lovely :)

I love these pictures of Anora - she looks so happy <3

  

On Father's Day, Anora & Papa got matching sunglasses that they wore to the Sunday market together.  Anora liked petting all the dogs, and dancing to the street performers down at the market.

We made a stop at Starbucks so Papa could get a coffee and Anora could demand a pouch :D

Stealing my Lara bars!

 Of course any celebration of Ben would not be complete without an oreo DQ ice cream cake.  We celebrated with ice cream after a nice grilled meal of steaks & corn.  Yum! 

A Few Father's Day Gifts fom Anora!












It was a fun few days!  Thanks for visiting, G-ma & G-pa :)  Glad we got to spend some time together.

Big Girl Bed!

Well folks, we've hit another milestone here at the Egan residence.  Anora has officially transitioned into a toddler bed.  We totally lucked out and got one for free from a neighbor.  She was very invested in the process and got more and more excited along the way. 
She came with to pick it up and load it in the car.  Then, she helped Papa put it together by helping with the screws.  Once it was together, we realized we needed sheets!  So she came with me to Target and picked out her own new set of big girl sheets.  There were many options to choose from, but she selected the ice cream cone sheets (even over Frozen!).  We came home and (after washing them) put them on her bed.  She was in heaven.  She has been doing great sleeping and staying in her new bed.  We are so proud of our BIG girl :)

Oh Crap! Potty Training

At the beginning of the month we decided to embark on the potty training journey.  Anora had been going pee in the potty periodically, but was getting to the point where she would only go if she wanted a treat!  She's too smart for our methods.  We decided to go a bit more hardcore and follow the book "Oh Crap! Potty Training" in order to get the job done.  She took to it right away!

You spend the first couple days totally naked around the house with the potty nearby.  She had zero accidents!  She definitely already knew how to hold her pee and was doing so for long periods of time at first.  Then we moved on to going commando.  She had a couple accidents when she was distracted - like at church - but after about two days, she was doing great.  The pooping in the potty is still an art form, but she is figuring out that she needs to stay on the potty longer and will even go and get her little leap pad computer and sit there for a bit so she can relax. 

I have been so proud and impressed at how quickly she has moved from going to the bathroom in her diaper, so going in the potty.  She is so quick to pick up on things, and so willing to try new things.  While we still have a diaper on her overnight, once we move her to a big girl bed, we will do away with it.  Most days she wakes up with a dry diaper.  What a smart cookie we have!

Happy Easter !

Hope you all had a nice Easter weekend. Anora got to spend some time with the Easter bunny.  She liked the bunny, and one even got a really nice hug!  Now, who wouldn't be jealous of that nice warm embrace!?

 Earlier in the week, we dyed some eggs.  Anora mostly like mixing the egg around in the dye, spilling the liquid everywhere...but her eggs did turn out pretty!  She liked eating the eggs like an apple too - straight up.  Ben's favorite part?  The invisible crayon!

 Saturday morning we went up the block to the park where they hosted a neighborhood easter egg hunt!  We arranged by age, then went off to collect eggs.  Anora did a nice job filling her basket full of eggs and treats.  We were amazed by all the kids in our area!  Wow!

   

 Easter morning was a delight, with hidden Easter eggs and a hidden basket.  The Easter bunny brought her lots of Frozen items like stickers, crocs, and socks!  Anora was also spoiled by both Grandparents with even more Frozen goodies.  It was like a second Christmas.  Her favorite part was certainly shaking, and opening all the plastic eggs to discover what was inside. 

 

Goodies from Gammy & Grandpa

 Showing off her new headband!  All dressed and ready to go to church.  Too bad it was raining :(
We had such a lovely Easter together.  Hope you all did too!