Merry Christmas Eve and see you later, Rick!

Every Christmas Eve our tradition is to spend time with my side of the family. We have dinner, hang out, and wait for the clock to turn midnight to open our presents. This year was no different. Brandon was so excited to see his cousins. They played and Brandon even introduced his elf Rick to them. We had to explain to them why there was this little elf hanging from one of our light fixtures. 

They thought it was the coolest thing ever! Piper wrote a note to Rick asking him a few questions and Rick replied back by sneaking a note into her jacket pocket, she turned bright red when she found it as they were leaving. Her, Skyler, and Prue were so amazed and freaked out all at the same time. 

For dinner we let them make their own pizza! 

And for dessert they made gingerbread houses (which was not easy to make at all!)

I was just telling josh before bed how much fun they are right now... Experiencing Christmas with these kids makes us truly happy. 

So since tomorrow is Christmas our first tradition with our elf Rick is officially over. I was a little skeptical on whether or not Brandon would truly understand the meaning behind the elf, but he really surprised us on how much he truly loved Rick. Every morning he would wake up with so much excitement to find him. Both Josh and I loved having Rick around as well... It even became very competitive at times, we would try to 'out-rick' each other by seeing who had the funniest idea on where we would find him. Once Brandon found him he would always say 'Ah, Rick is so silly!!' 

We will miss you Rick, thank you for introducing Brandon to the meaning of Christmas and magic. We are also thankful for bringing Brandon's naughty level down to a minimum. until next year! 

Happy birthday, Brandon

Where does the time go? I don't even remember how my life was without you in it. You are the best thing that I've done thus far, and I know the next one will be giving you a baby brother.  

Brandon you manage to make mommy and daddy's life so full joy. We love experiencing new things with you everyday. You humor us with all the funny things that you say everyday. You're a very passionate child who knows what he likes. You're also kind and loving kid who loves making people smile. We love you so much! Happy birthday Brandon! 

Weight: 33 lbs

Height: 41 inches

Favorite toys: Disney Cars, Thomas the train, and guns. 

Favorite foods: Sinigang, Tinola, Mac and cheese, and oatmeal for breakfast 

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite shows: The walking dead, Disney Cars, Thomas and Friends, and Monsters University. 

Favorite books: The giving tree, Pout-Pout fish, Going on a bear hunt, Disney Halloween peek-a-boo book

31.6 weeks

Henry had his monthly ultrasound today and so far everything is still checking out perfectly. He's growing nice and plump. He's still head up and is quite the wiggle monster.  The tech told us that he's currently weighing in at 4lbs 10oz and his noggin is measuring at 34 weeks! As a comparison to his big brother, Brandon weighed 6lbs 11oz when he was born and Henry still has 2 months to go! I should start saying my condolences to my vagina now... 

Brandon and Henry bumpies

4 years ago today I was pregnant with Brandon... On the left I was 28 weeks with Brandon on the right is Henry today at 23 weeks. 

I'm much bigger with Henry this time around maybe he'll be bigger than his big brother? We will just have to wait and see ;) 

A year ago today...

A year ago today we moved into our first home. I remember feeling so excited and nervous all at the same time. 

The past year we were able to make this house into our home, celebrate birthdays, Christmas, thanksgiving, and now adding another member to our family. We have been so blessed to have this opportunity to continue to grow as a family... Here's to many more laughs, loves, and celebrations in our home. 

Is it the weekend yet?

It's been a rough week for baby Henry and I. We had a trip to the hospital early this week due to some contractions. It started late Subday night and lasted all through Monday evening. I figured it may have been something I ate, but the sharp pain kept coming and going. I worked through my whole shift... Probably not the best idea, but I figured that since I was feeling Henry kick throughout the day there really was nothing to worry about. I called my Dr and she said that if the cramping doesn't stop after a few hours then to come in and be checked.

I went straight to the hospital after work since it didn't go away. I was there for a good 3 hours. They hooked me up to check for contractions and they also ran  my urine to check for infections.

I was having contractions when I got to there, so they ordered me to push a lot of fluids and just lay down. Which really made me feel much better! 

The urine came back clean and the contractions stopped. My Dr said to just take it easy and that I did the right thing by coming in to get checked. These things happens sometimes and for the most part it always ends up being ok. 

I kept Josh in the loop as I told him that he should stay at work since they were so busy. I really didn't want him to worry too much, although he wanted a play by play every chance he was able to get to his phone. 

Today we had a little bump on the road. With a few people being sick at work it was inevitable that I too would come down with something. Just your typical head cold and congestion. I'm so thankful that one of my good friends work at an ObGyn clinic. So she knows her stuff! I constantly go to her for any questions or concerns that I may have. I thank you Bree for being so wonderfully patient and always looking out for baby Henry and I. 😘 

With this rough week I'm really looking forward to getting back to feeling somewhat normal! 

Daddy sure knows how to make mommy feel loved 

Named!

For some reason naming our new boy was more of a challenge than we expected. Josh and I both had our favorites, but we just couldn't find a name that we could both could agree on and with how differently I was feeling with this pregnancy we both had a feeling that this one might be a girl.  Josh has had a name for a girl ever since we were having Brandon, so we decided to just wait to figure out a name if for sure this one was going to be a boy...fast forward to today...

I really wanted something more different and unique since Brandon's name was more on the traditional side. Josh agreed to this, but with some limitations of course. 

So here are the list that we came up with: 

Brooke                                 
Harrison
Knox Kelly
Finley
Rhett
Bennett


Josh
Wesley
Easton
Weston
Jacob

Sawyer

Brandon:

Cheese

After a few months we finally decided on a name.... I was really surprised that I ended up falling in-love with this name as it is a very classic and traditional name. We asked Brandon what he thought about that name and just hearing him say the name HENRY just made it sound even sweeter. We have been referring to baby as Henry for the past month and I think it's official. Along with an updated ultrasound of him from last week here is 

Henry William Roque

I may be biased, but doesn't he have the cutest profile?

It's a...baby reveal party!

We had our gender reveal for our close family and friends last week and it was successful!  With everyone excited to know what the gender was they all arrived on time lol.  It seemed like everyone guessed for baby to be a girl (me included)...either way we were all surprised!

Nobody knew the gender before the reveal which made it even more exciting...so without further ado...

Thank you everyone who attended our little reveal and a special thank you to Justin for capturing these wonderful photos!

Now to mentally prepare to have a house full of boys...let the adventure begin :)

19 weeks update... Just a little late

I haven't been very good at keeping a progress photo of baby, so here we are last week at 19 weeks.

Symptoms this week are still headaches, but they have gotten so much better ever since I turned to alcohol acupuncture. I've had 2 of my good friends recommend acupuncture to me recently and they both had amazing results from it. I really had nothing to lose at this point. I was getting multiple headaches daily. They were debilitating and began affecting me at work. I tried taking Tylenol, upping my water intake, you name it I did it. Now after finishing my second week of treatment I can definitely tell that my headaches have decreased tremendously. My insomnia has gotten much better as well. Over the past few months I would just randomly wake up in the middle of the night and have a hardest time falling back to sleep. It sucks so bad, because I have to wake up so early in the morning for work. Growing a baby is tough business! 

Current cravings...

I have the best husband... Good looking out Josh! Craving satisfied! 

Halfway 19-20 weeks

We have our gender reveal party today and we can't wait to see everyone and find out what baby will be!! 

We had our anatomy ultrasound yesterday where they check baby from head to toe take measurements and make sure baby is growing properly.  We decided last minute to bring Brandon with us and we are so happy that we did. Along with mommy and daddy he was very excited to see what baby looked like. 

We had a wonderful tech she was so good to Brandon and was even better at not dropping any hints. 

We will keep you all posted once we find out! 

Ryan's epic 3rd birthday party!

We woke up late Saturday morning to howling winds outside.  I took a quick trip to the bathroom before I decided to make breakfast. As I was sitting there the lights went out...good thing I was just going pee! The first thing that went through my mind was  'Oh man did we forget to pay our electricity bill??'  my next thought was maybe it was just Josh fooling around with the power, but quickly realized that my husband has no handy bone in his body, so I knew that we just lost power.

We made plans that day to attend Ryan's birthday party. I spoke with Merrie that morning and it looked like the power was still on and they still had power. Brandon was super worried that the party was  cancelled, but I assured him that it was still on... 

On the way to the party I get a text from Merrie saying that they had just lost power. The party was scheduled to start in 30 minutes! Thankfully Ryan's birthday was baseball themed so most of the food were being prepared on the grill and the weather was on our side, so it was easy to move the party outside! 

The kids had a blast playing outside and halfway through the party the kids got a big surprise. A fire truck pulled up to the cul-de-sac! I guess one of the neighbors called because they were worried about one of the trees falling over. The firefighters were kind enough to let the kids sit in the truck and  handed out hats for the kids to keep. It was awesome! Talk about epic party! Brandon still talks about that fire truck! Happy birthday, Ryan and thank you for the amazing party! 

14 weeks and pre-season football

Here we are entering our second trimester. I'm surprised how quickly it's gone by especially with all the not-so-fun symptoms I've experienced. I'm no longer feeling nauseous thank the lord... Still feeling tired though, but am randomly getting spurts of energy here and there which is a nice change! 

Baby is a size of a 

I just love this new app! I remember when I was pregnant with Brandon my theme was fruits. These pastries are just too cute and fitting now that I have a major sweet tooth! 

Yesterday baby got to experience his/her first ever Seahawks game. Although we lost it was still great to spend time with Nikki and Annie. It's always a treat when I'm with them. Thank you Nikki for the invite. It was a great kickoff to what I feel will be another amazing season and an even better trimester! Go Hawks! 

This little macaroon...

I've realized that I haven't really updated on our new baby on the way. We are thrilled to start another new adventure in our lives. Josh and I were talking about how we get to experience another round of '1st' again. First smile, first time rolling over, and first time walking. Those were all the milestones that we loved with Brandon and know that it will still be as exciting if not more this time with Brandon experiencing it with us. 

Baby is going to be 14 weeks tomorrow and is currently a size of a 

So cute! What's not so cute was how hard this first trimester was. This pregnancy is different in every way for me. I was more sick this time around. That was what triggered me to take a pregnancy test the second time... Well that and realizing I was 2 weeks late for

my period. My bump also made an a super early appearance this time which I was a little self conscious about, because fitting out of your normal pants after only being 8 weeks pregnant is super normal right?! We announced our news a little early this time, cause I couldn't hide my bulge anymore, oh and I quickly realized wearing a sweater in the middle of summer makes people wonder even more. I also got the 'oh my gosh you look pregnant, but don't want to ask you cause maybe I could be wrong' look  👀 A LOT! I usually would just tell them just to save the awkwardness. 

Along with the nausea and awkwardly getting big super fast... I'm also super tired, always, all the time, every second. I'm sure that raising a toddler also plays a big role in why I wanna take a nap under my desk at work sometimes. Any day that I can get a nap in is a great day. I am super thankful that Brandon still naps. The best thing he says to me lately is 'Hey mommy, wanna go upstairs and relax?' Oh my sweet little Brandon. Yes, a thousand times, YES! 

Brandon the marine biologist

Brandon's new favorite show is currently The Octonauts.

 So he's been very curious about anything that swims. Josh and I are currently being challenged on our marine biology knowledge. Which we have realized is not so well. This week Brandon has been really wanting us to take him to the aquarium. The last thing you ever want to do as a parent is to disappoint your child, but with our crazy schedule it just wasn't going to happen. So we decided to take him to our local petsmart and carkeek park! Petsmart have a huge section of fish, frogs, and turtles to look at. He was pretty excited about it. 

We also decided to take him to carkeek park where they had this awesome salmon slide that he loved!

It was a great day yesterday. We were sad that we had to cut it short cause Josh had to go to work, but non the less it was a great afternoon!