And a new baby makes 5

So they told us it would never happen, they said you couldn't ever get pregnant on your own. After taking clomid with my first daughter and having to go through IVF with my son in 2010 how could you think you would get pregnant on your own unless there was a miracle! Well that miracle has happened and we are now expecting baby #3 in August! Just six short months away we will be bringing a miracle into this world to join the rest of our family. We couldn't be happier, of course after the initial shock of how, what, when we are super excited to be growing our family and even more excited to be given a gift truly from GOD! It is crazy and amazing all in the same. We are truly blessed and thankful. So now we must upgrade our vehicle and change a room around to adjust but with all of this it brings us excitement to have a new little one in the house again.
On another note, I have been extreme couponing to save our family some money and amazed at all of the freebies that I have found and got. I bought 19 boxes of wipes at 85 cents a piece! These wipes were originally $4.99 a box each so there are deals, you have to have time, patience and be willing to drive around to find these deals and get these freebies!

It has been tooooooo long...

Where to even start, so my little man is finally 10 months old and he is officially walking! Yes, walking and that means mommy chases him every where he goes. He is into everything and his new facination is opening drawers and pulling everything out of them and throwing it onto the floor-so much fun for mommy to clean up let me tell you!

My little princess is 6 and is such a big helper. She is my little gem (um most of the time). She has recently been accepted onto her dance studio competition dance team so that keeps us busy between gymnastics, swimming and girl scouts! Where or where does the time go.... LOL

Mom and dad, we have been busy! Hubby has been working lots to close out the year and we are getting ready to go to Hawaii in January. YES a much needed vacation for the whole family and it will be nice to visit such a tropical place in the middle of WINTER. Well WINTER in California consists of, 60 degrees and sunshine so I guess we don't have much to upgrade too :) Wishing everyone a happy holidays and I hope to get back into doing this blog sooner than later!!!!

Trying to find the BALANCE

How do you find the balance?

2 Children, a husband, a dog and a part time business on the side! Where does one find balance for all of these things. As I sit on the computer with my 7 week old laying in my lap while I type I can hear my 5-1/2 year old in the background playing school. Both t.v.'s in the living room are going and I can literally hear my husband in the garage yelling at Michigan playing basketball while talking on his cell phone. Oh and the dog is at my feet asleep and my hair accessories are being made. Where is the balance? I laugh!!!!

I spend most days alone with Bronx while Jaden and Gary are at school and work. Our time together is rushed, he sleeps, eats; we nap (if I am lucky) and I shower (if I am lucky)! Dinner is at 5 and then it is homework time, bath time, reading and before I know it my husband is sound asleep on the couch and the clock hasn't even hit 8. There I stand in the kitchen, with Bronx in my arms; pacing no less because he and I are the only two awake in the house and I want to make sure he is quiet for the other 2 sleeping angels.

Our days and nights mesh together and before I know it April is here and my daughter is about to graduate from Kindergarten! I feel like a great wife, wonderful mother and yet I still try and perfect myself to make sure I haven't left anyone out and everyone is getting equal attention. However, my perfect demise doesn't seem to become my reality! Each evening as I sit flipping through the channels trying to find something to occupy Bronx and I while it is 2 a.m. I wonder if I spent enough time with my 5 year old and if I said good night to my husband and sealed it with a kiss.

Even if it is five minutes with my daughter while she plays school and I am her assistant, I have done my job as a mother to balance my time. Even if I said, "hi" to my husband as he walked in the door and gave him a kiss I have done my job as a wife to balance my time. While most of my time and energy is directed towards Bronx because he is so little taking some time out to put him down when he is sleeping and have a conversation with my husband or play with my daughter I have found the balance. I can't believe I don't even have time to be cranky either :)

HE IS HERE!!!!

Bronx Gerald-Michael Bates finally made his debut and while mommy is busy with two kids now I thought while he was asleep finally I would post his picture and share him with everyone. Delivery went well and we couldn't be more blessed with our beautiful baby boy!!!

Born January 28th @ 8:44 p.m.

7lbs 6oz

He is an amazing addition to our family and we are all over the moon with him. Big sister is just so happy to finally have her brother here and is such a big help. 

I don't even know where to start....

Should I start where I was in September or should I start by saying I am 7 days away from delivering baby boy Bronx!

I have been on bed-rest since September 8th, in the hospital with contractions September 25th, taking medication up the ying yang to prevent this boy from coming and now the time is getting closer. I can't believe how far we have come!!!

This is the long journey....took the 3 part test only to NOT have the ultrasound to measure the neck fluid for down syndrome (DO NOT GET THIS TEST-FALSE POSITIVE) my results after having an amino were that the blood tests were a false positive. After 8 long agonizing days of worry and the emotional roller-coaster just when we thought all was well, contractions started around 18 weeks nothing serious but serious enough to be put taken off of work; the real problem came around 20 weeks when I actually went into the hospital for 3 days. I was given mag to stop the contractions until I almost couldn't breathe, it was the worst stuff I have ever experienced! After 3 days of being in there with shot after shot, nurses coming in every 3 hours for pills they discovered a cyst which had grown 5" in diameter and leaking. The cyst which is a direct result of IVF did not absorb on its own like it should have instead it grew and was slowly leaking and continues to leak. I have had to take medication since 18 weeks of pregnancy to avoid going into full term labor, stay off of my feet and sit around! The cyst is still there and my OBGYN is hopeful it will rupture during labor and if it doesn't I have to go in after 6 weeks and have a laparoscopy done to have it punctured and destroyed.

Despite all this long journey we are forever blessed for this little man who is about to enter into our lives and know that baby Bronx is definitely a fighter! We look forward to the new challenges in this journey we have embarked on and can't wait to share our little guy here soon!

P.S. On a special note I got to be dolled up and treated like royalty for a maternity shoot the other day. The pictures turned out amazing, you can view them www.icecreamandcakephotography.blogspot.com

14 Weeks, 5 days - 3-1/2 Months

Summer is slowly coming to it's end and the growing seems to have to just taken off! Here my belly @ 14 weeks; all is well and we are anxiously awaiting the September 8th visit when we find out the babies sex.

14 weeks

Last weekend we drove to our friends house in Lake Arrowhead, it was such a relaxing night with them and such an amazing time on Saturday at the lake! Here are a few pictures from our weekend, Jaden sure had fun with her new friend Sara she met!

Rounding out summer!

I can't believe that we are already into August! I mean where has the last few months literally gone to. My baby girl is going into Kindergarten in a month and I can't believe she is going to be 5! They grow so fast, I literally blinked and she is 5 and I swear the next 13 years will go by just as fast. We took Jaden to Disneyland over 4th of July to surprise her and now we are getting ready to stay at Paradise Point Resort and take her to SeaWorld and surprise her! I love treating her to fun adventures, it is something I always got to do as a kid so we enjoy sharing with her. So I hope this is one summer she never forgets!!!

Mommy is growing too, I took this photo at 11 weeks pregnant; I am trying to keep up on the baby book and have lots of photos since I really didn't do that the first time around.