13 weeks

Heres to the 2nd trimester and waving good bye to constant nausea and vomitting!

I SAID IT IS GREAT TO BE AN AUBURN TIGER...

I cant believe Kev hasnt hijacked the blog yet and posted this because in this family we bleed orange... the right shade of orange that is! Auburn went undefeated this season and beat Oregon for the National title in an awesome game, final score 19 Oregon 22 Auburn! We couldnt be prouder, WAR EAGLE!

SNOW!!!

the girls are finally old enough to enjoy playing in the SNOW! And boy did they, Sofie only lasted about 15 minutes before she was far too cold and Averi only lasted about 25 but those few minutes were a blast! We took their slide outside (it has been living in our living room since christmas waiting for warmer weather) and let them slide into the snow which they loved! Sofie tried a few bites of snow which she did not love and Averi learned how to make and throw snowballs courtesy of Daddy, mommy taught her how to make much sweeter snow angels!

SOFIA PEARL YATES

This baby brings us so much joy, but she is quickly leaving the baby stage behind and heading full force into toddler hood. We went to her pediatrician for a check up and she was barely 20lbs and only in the 20th percentile for both height and weight (funny since we used to call her sofie mcfat fat when she was nearly 16lb 3 month old!) she is a petite bundle of energy who thinks she is as old as her big sister! She sings, dances, plays baby dolls, cooks in their play kitchen, likes to sit at the toddler table with Averi vs her highchair, waves says momma, daddy, nana, papa,sissy, I love you, bye bye, "cheese", yes maam, please, thank you and about ten million more words Ive forgotten...it seems like she is saying something new every day! She is a Mommas girl to the T and I am savoring it. She gives you the best deepest hugs that include a head on your shoulder and a pat on your back -they are so sweet you never want to put her down. She will still let me rock her to sleep if she is particularly tired and is all about the baby einstein DVDs for 18 month olds, especially animal ones...she can tell you where her nose and eyes are and follow simple commands. She smiles easily and melts down with the same ease,she is a bit high maitnance but her smile makes up for it! We love her, she is a joy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY

Daddy,
Thank you for all you do daily. For getting up with us in the morning and greeting us with hugs, kisses a kind greeting and dry diapers/pull ups. Thank you for always working so hard and going above and beyond to provide for us. Thank you Daddy for loving us unconditionally. Thank you for holding and cuddling us, for reading us stories, thank you for kissing our tears away and getting up with us when we wake up at night. Thank you for praying with and for us and thank you for teaching us Gods love for us not only by your words but by your actions! We love you daddy.
Love,
Averi,Sofie and baby number 3

Kevin,
I love you. I love you with the deepest part of me. You are truly my very best friend. Thank you for always holding my hand through good and bad. Thank you for being my partner through life, through moves through babies through jobs through transitions. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for pushing me to be my best. Thank you for being so passionate about your family and your love for the Lord. I love you Kevin Michael. Thank you for being the man you are, I am thrilled to meet our sweet baby number 3 and watch you love it like you do our girls!
Rachel

december in pictures...

we celebrated Papa Yates birthday...




we took a quick trip to louisville to see friends

and we celebrated christmas with our family...

Averi lately...

so after a pretty frusterating month with Averi I was at my limit. She was in constant fit/whine mode. She screamed over everything and she was constantly throwing fits. It was exhausting, I was to the point where I didnt want to take her out of the house for fear she would have one of her moments. So Kev and I regrouped. We reminded each other that we are the parents, that God has given us a responsabilty to mold Averi and to teach her what glorifying God means and that includes with her behavior. It is so easy to act as if you are doing it all right and justify your own slacking and saying it is all your kids fault... I believe we are all created as sinners and that God saves us by his grace and by his grace alone... so I know Av is as sinful as the next kid but I also know she has been taught better. So we started focusing on what we were saying and lots of consistancy as well as what we were doing per her offense. A week later and our sweet baby is back. She is not perfect but she is behaving a MILLION times better...consistancy pays off that is all I can say!

small groups...

Kevin and I have had the AMAZING opportunities to each host a small group of college kids in our home once a week for bible studies, he has around 4-6 guys, I have between 8-12 girls. God richly blessed both our studies this semester, I think I have learned as much from my girls as they learned from me. God has been so good. We ended the semester by hosting a christmas potluck which was a HUGE success, I cant wait to start up again in february!

the sweetest thing...

I had my first appointment with the midwife yesterday, by my dates I was 9 weeks and 6 days a long. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting our new midwife, her name is Lauren! She is young, knowledgeable, easy going and easy to chat with! She told us she wont typically even try to hear the heart beat with a doppler until 10 weeks because you often can't hear it but since we were a day away from 10 weeks she was willing to try! So she tried, and tried and tried... yet could not seem to find the heart beat. She kept telling me it was normal, and that the more babies you have and the closer together you have them the more stretched your uterus becomes which makes it harder to find such a tiny babies heart beat... but they found them with ease even earlier in my pregnancy with both Sofia and Averi, so needless to say it did scare me. Knowing what my sister had been through with losing Pepper and losing the other babies in miscarriage and probably by the panicked expression on my face she said, "I absoloutly DO not think anything is wrong but to put your mind at ease we will go ahead and do an early ultrasound, if you want"... I said "YES!!!Please"... so off to the ultrasound we went, all 30 minutes between her trying and seeing this little beauty in my belly on the screen I was freaked out, sure something was not right... Kev holing my hand, reassuring me that there was no sign anything was wrong and us both saying silent prayers that there really wasn't...all fears were erased when the ultrasound tech showed us our little one, wiggling like a wild person with a heart beat in the 180s...as healthy as can be. PRAISE GOD! Just that tiny tiny tiny scare made me remember again how blessed I am to have 2 healthy girls, and how blessed I am to be carrying a 3rd baby, may I continue to remind myself none of these babies are mine, they are the Lords and may I truly place them in his hand daily. The ultrasound tech informed us we were a little further long then we thought, 10 weeks 3 days vs 9 weeks 6 days, which puts the due date as July 29th although since I have no plans of being induced I would say this baby still wont arrive until August!

ten weeks...


7 weeks...