Christmas 2016

This post is about 2 months late.  I would like to blame this on my two busy boys and the giant baby I'm carrying in my womb.  I have been writing a weekly blog post for my boss for a little over a year, I think maybe this has caused me to slack a bit in my personal blog writing.  I am going to make an effort to update my blog regularly.

So if I can get my memory to work correctly we did a lot of fun things over the holidays to celebrate this magical season with Owen and Grayson.

Of course once our elf, Dewey made his debut we knew it was time to let the Christmas fun begin...

 Owen watched a lot of Home Alone to prepare for this holiday season.  I think he perfected his Kevin face...

Our first real event of the season was the Carmel Christmas tree lighting.  We went with Allie and Nolan this year, both of our husbands happened to be out of town and this being one of my most favorite events, I did not want to miss it!

 Reindeer kisses with the elf...

Next we went to the Zionsville Christmas parade, this was our first year experiencing it and I have to say it came a close second to my other favorite event.  Fake snow falling from the town square buildings, hot cocoa, train rides, trolly rides and seeing so many of our favorite characters.  I am not sure why I don't have any more pictures of this night, except this one of my sister and I...

Our first real celebration this year was Christmas with the Drapp family.  They usually come to Carmel and stay for a weekend in December.  We have a nice dinner and open presents while enjoying our time together.  This year we celebrated a little early because Brian and Lauren are getting married the first week of January so they were in full wedding planning mode...

The day after the Drapp family left we had our neighborhood Christmas party at a local pizza place.  Santa came without his beloved Mrs. Clause, she was sick.  Santa still did a great job entertaining everyone but we definitely missed seeing his adorable wife.

It snowed a bit in December, which made me especially happy so of course we spent a lot of time playing in the snow...

 Building snow caves with our neighbors...

Going to Connor Prairie with our friend Hogan to see what Christmas was like on the prairie...

And sledding of course...

The following weekend our elf Dewey packed our bags and left us some very special tickets to go on our first ever Polar Express event....

Funny enough our neighbors, the Bell family and the Grelecki family were given the same tickets from their elves so we all got to go together.

We spent the night in French Lick, Indiana at a waterpark hotel and went on the Polar Express that night.  The boys loved the elves, and the train ride.  It was all very authentic to the book and real to them!

Next we celebrated with the Prather family in Martinsville....

 One of the boys got the Pie in the Face game, I think the adults had the most fun...

The next day was Christmas eve.  We went to mass at our church, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.  Again due to the huge crowds we were in the gymnasium for this service.  At this point I think unless you camp out in the church Christmas eve morning you don't get a seat for the 4:30 service anywhere but the gym.  We still arrived 20 minutes early and the four of us had to share 2 seats.  Which ended up being Brad in one seat and Grayson, Owen and I sharing another.  I don't think I will have room for another boy on my lap come next Christmas.

We came home, ordered pizza and the boys opened their presents from each other.  Then we left cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer next to the chimney of course...

 Grayson was exhausted and wouldn't cooperate for photos...

 Or for our annual reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas, so off to bed he went without reading books that night...

We woke up the next morning and Owen was super excited and could hardly wait until brother woke up to open their presents.

They opened presents, played for a long time and were so thankful for all that they have this year.

Then we left everything behind and set out for our last and final Christmas celebration in Lexington.

When we lived in Lexington we would celebrate with the Majors family every Christmas night.  We really missed doing that since moving to Indiana so this year we decided to go.  We left around lunch time and made it just in time for dinner and playtime with the cousins.

We stayed at a hotel in Lexington and let the boys swim with their cousins...

We even got to visit Kiki for a bit while we were in town...

This was our last Christmas as a family of four and I think we made the most of it.  I can't wait to have our complete family next holiday season.  Now still trying to come up with a name, all suggestions are welcome.  I want something that feels perfect because I just know this rainbow baby will be absolute perfection! 

Exciting news for the Drapp family

We have some exciting news to announce....

This announcement comes after a long time of trying to get pregnant and a heartbreaking miscarriage in between.  We are so unbelievably thankful to be pregnant with a healthy baby.  We now realize that this is a true miracle and doesn't come easily to everyone.  It took us three months to get pregnant with Owen and about 5 months to get pregnant with Grayson.  So I know that it can take some time but this time around the 15 month wait to get pregnant has not been easy.
If you have never experienced this kind of stress, count yourself lucky.  It is all I could think about day in and day out for 15 months.  The two week waiting period after my fertile window seemed to drag on like eternity each and every month.  I felt angry, frustrated, sad, hopeless and it was all completely out of my control.  We could never plan for anything because what if I did get pregnant and then I was sick we couldn't take that trip or go to that concert so we were always waiting until the last minute to plan anything.
After 13 months of trying we decided to take matters into our own hands and see a fertility specialist. The fertility specialist found that it was possibly an issue with Brad and we needed to see a urologist.  He told us it would be nearly impossible to get pregnant without intervention such as IUI or IVF.  He was also completely surprised that we were able to get pregnant last year although it ended in miscarriage and that we already had two living children.  But he said things can change with male fertility over time so maybe that is how Owen and Grayson were conceived.
While waiting to get an appointment with the urologist we decided to continue trying although I was ready to take a break until we got some answers and sure enough, this happened...

We were in complete shock and disbelief.  I was also so worried that I would have another miscarriage.  I kept the news very quiet and was struggling to be excited about this pregnancy.  I did not want to be disappointed again or let myself believe that a successful full term pregnancy was in my future.  So while I prayed, I also stressed and worried each and every day that I would lose this child as well.  We had a good ultrasound and another good ultrasound and all the blood work came in looking perfect.  I was feeling pregnancy symptoms this time (which was not the case for my miscarriage).  So I finally had to let go of the anxiety and believe that it would all work out the way it was supposed to.  We finally told the boys around 12 weeks...

They were excited and I think it answered some questions for them about why I had been so tired lately and not feeling the greatest.  I still didn't share the news with anyone but family and close friends, I just needed to wait until the 20 week anatomy scan but I was getting larger and larger and it was difficult to hide my growing belly.  Around Halloween we found out that everything came back great on the genetic testing and that we were also having a BOY....

Owen and Grayson found out during our family photo session...

Owen said he knew it would be a boy because if it were a girl, that would ruin everything.

I am much bigger this time than the last two times and during the anatomy scan the baby was measuring 2 weeks larger than he should have been.  Unfortunately that does not move my due date up at all, but it could possibly mean that he will be another big baby.  Delivering a large baby is the only thing I am currently concerned about.  

I am feeling pretty good as I just entered into the third trimester.  My sciatic nerve is bothering me and if I am on my feet all day, I will be in pain by evening hours.  I just had to make sure that when the boys lay down for nap time that I also take a break and lay on my side for an hour or so.  This cold and flu season has been tough on me.  I have had strep throat, bronchitis, multiple head colds and the stomach flu.  I am typically a healthy person, so these illnesses have been pretty awful to muddle through.  I know that relief will be here when the baby arrives so I am having a hard time not counting down the days until that relief comes.  

I am so lucky to have my next door neighbor Alli to go through this journey with.  We both experienced miscarriages a couple of weeks apart and it was not an easy process for either one of us to get to this point.  Her baby girl is due 6 weeks ahead of me and I am so grateful to have had someone to go through this lonely experience with.  We both went to a fertility acupuncturist at one point this summer and he said his goal was to get us pregnant at the same time so we can grumble together, I do also believe that acupuncture had something to do with both of us getting pregnant.  So while we may complain to one another about the not so joyous parts of being pregnant we both realize how fortunate we really are.

 My friend Jenna is also pregnant with her third and was due a few days ago.  She has two girls already and I can't wait to find out if she will finally get her boy.

The boys love their baby brother so much already.  They give my belly kisses several times a day unprompted.  They sing songs to their baby, tickle him and tell him how much they love him.  They talk about how they are going to take care of him and hold him when he gets here.  This baby will be so loved!  

I have 12 weeks remaining in this pregnancy and although it will be difficult to stay positive and patient, that is my goal.  Oh and we need to name this child!