Our trip reminded me of blueberry picking 2 summers ago with my friend, Jenni, in Washington. Although also pregnant then, I had an active munchkin to help with me this time! She was quite the help and did not even try to eat one! I was shocked…

Ready to go!

Well, 1 of the 5 was…

Katelyn has taken quite the liking to picking flowers, so this outing was perfect for her! I was able to direct her to the red ones (mostly) and attempted to direct her away from the mud (mostly).

“Look! A strawberry, Papaw!!!”

I think she was actually more excited about the bucket than anything.

Then, after shopping for more vegetables and fruit in the market, we headed home to celebrate my dad’s birthday! This yummy cookie cake was the perfect topper to an awesome day!

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On a completely separate note… I had to share a fun pic from the week before I left Bellingham. I’ve been waiting and waiting to post this photo until all of the news been made public. So, here it is… my last picture with my sweet accountability friends as a Bellinghamster… all TWELVE of us! We are all pregnant again!

Sarah, Calvin & ? (due end of October); Me, Katelyn & Ellyana (due August 24); Jennifer, Analynne & Kyrie (due July 4); and Sarah, Will & ? (due end of September). It was super special to be able to take this picture right before I left since these girls were very instrumental throughout my pregnancy with Katelyn and beyond!

The weather could not have been more perfect for our first zoo excursion!

The elephants were the first stop… one of the baby elephants, Tupelo, will be 2 in October and weighs almost 2 tons! I think the irony was lost on Katelyn that they were the same age, but we thought it was fun!

We were able to get pretty close while they were taking their baths. It was great!

Hello, Ms. Elephant!

Making sure Dad didn’t miss out on all the fun…

The cats were next. Katelyn meowed at them all!

A Clouded Leopard, in case you were wondering…

… who was apparently quite funny to Katelyn!

Next stop, the lion!

The giraffes were our last stop for today. They were the most visible (of course) and active, which ended our trip on quite the high note (hehe)!

Almost as tall as the giraffes…

Love my sweet girl!

The day, albeit short (2 hours), was a blast! The benefits of zoo membership is that we did not feel rushed to see everything in one day… quite nice since Katelyn was asleep in the car before we were even out of the parking lot! We will be back quite often, I am sure!

Prior to heading out, my parents were able to give their Easter Basket to Katelyn (actually, just prior to Ellyana’s Breakfast Party!). She loved her cute gifts, as you can see her taking the dog out of the picture!

I think she was particular to the Goldfish Crackers. We are working on portion control, as you can see…

On Good Friday, we headed east to Ryan’s family (about 2 hours away). Katelyn enjoyed riding in the mule and four wheeler with her Nana & Gramps!

Gramps & Ryan even took us ‘fishing’ in their neighbor’s pond. I have only been fishing once with my grandfather (maybe when I was 8? I mainly remember my pink fishing pole, if that tells you anything). When I did not catch anything, I gave up. Well, here is documentation of Katelyn and me fishing!

Katelyn: “Fish! Fish!”

Of course, she would grab the fish with her left hand! Yuck…

My first fish!

One of the highlights of the weekend for Katelyn was seeing baby chicks and ducks that Ryan’s Dad has raised. Here is an adorable video of the process! Its a bit long, but cute! Just to ease your mind, the escapee duck at the end was found and returned safely…

Ryan’s Mom handed out the kids’ Easter Baskets on Saturday. They were all full of fun surprises! Katelyn definitely liked her bubbles!

Katelyn: “Book!” (translation: Nana, read me the book!”)

Katelyn (1.5), Cade (10) and Cole (almost 3).

Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious birthday dinner for Ryan’s Mom at Tokyo, a Japanese Steakhouse, then onto a Candlelight Vigil at Ryan’s family’s church for Easter Mass. His aunt joined the church that night, which made it even more special!

Sunday afternoon we went to Ryan’s sister & brother-in-law’s house for a Crawfish Boil. Katelyn did try a bite, but promptly gave it back to Ryan. It is one of Ryan’s favorite dishes, though, so he was a happy camper!

Now, for the reveal… I get so much joy out of creating these gifts! After what we did for Katelyn, we had to do something unique! So, I found this idea on Pinterest and had a great time creating the design and rhyme. The reveal turned in to quite the Breakfast Party! Mom and Dad came with Kolache Factory (my absolute favorite!!!), Traci came with her 4 babies and Amber joined via phone! It was so much fun to reveal in person/on the phone this time!

The full rhyme, in case its hard to read:

He or She?
Inflate to see!
Only one has a name…
Then you will know
What this baby will be!

Traci: You mean I have to blow up balloons?!? Are you having twins?!? (Me: NO)

The balloons inflated…

Its a GIRL!!! Her name is Ellyana ___ Riley. We are still working on a middle name. Ellyana means “God has answered”. We thought it quite applicable for this sweet one with the roller coaster this pregnancy has been. We’ve come a long way from being excited we could get pregnant without injections, to potentially losing the baby due to being a partial molar pregnancy (thankfully not the case!), to a possible heart-shaped uterus which could mean high risk due to pre-term labor, to NORMAL (baby and me)! We are thrilled and hoping for smooth sailing the rest of the 20+ weeks!

Here is a funny video of the process as it took place! You can see Amber joining via my cell phone on the table.

Chloe felt left out, so here she is joining in on the fun!

The Rileys could not wait to open their card, so we told them via a video phone call. Needless to say, they are excited to add another girl to the mix, too!

Here is my first Baby Bump photo! We turn 20 Weeks today, on Good Friday, and the bump is finally starting to show! Her kicking has been quite reassuring these last few weeks, too! All nausea from the first trimester+ has subsided and I’ve continued to be able to work out regularly. This, along with keeping up with a very active 17 month old should help prepare me for the Fall!

My Dad (Papaw) was able to keep Katelyn for us when we went to our appointment. Since she LOVES outside, I thought they would have so much to do until storms and hail came through. Clearly, they figured something out…

Onto to celebrate our Savior’s Resurrection this weekend! More Easter pics to come!

Bringing Mom a flower!

Sniff! Sniff!

‘Outside!’ is Katelyn’s new favorite word and activity. You would think she had never been outside before! It’s quite cute (at least now, before I’m uber-pregnant and it’s 100+ degrees outside)! Thankfully, Papaw (my dad) is quite willing to take a walk…

… and ride! Here they are in his Mule. She loved honking the horn and ‘driving’. Her steering skills would make most people motion sick, but it didn’t seem to bother her!

Traci & her babies had some fun in the flowers, too!

In new baby news, we are 19 weeks along! We finally have an appointment this week for the Anatomical (i.e. Gender) Ultrasound! We are looking forward to seeing this little one again and making sure all is going well!

We headed down to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo that week. I grew up going to this Rodeo, playing in the Rodeo Parade and competing in the Rodeo Art Show, so it was fun to see it again!

Katelyn received her first ‘brand’ in the form of a stamp. She didn’t love it, so it was short-lived, but cute at the time!

Katelyn, who has always been obsessed with animals, loved the petting zoo!

Katelyn: “Whoa!”

Katelyn: “Baaaaaa!”

The baby chicks were the next favorite stop! She waved and chirped to these little guys for the longest time!

Katelyn: “Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!…”

Cousin Love!

We left the others in time to have dinner with Ryan’s parents. They stayed and carnival’d until late that night! Quite the troopers!

No more big updates on the new baby yet. I’m 17 weeks along and awaiting an appointment with a midwife group here in Houston. We hope to get in within the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, the ‘bump’ is finally starting to show!

All of our stuff is moved in and most of the boxes are gone. We both LOVE the house, its location and all of the conveniences around it, which is a good thing since I saw it for the first time the day before (and Ryan a week after) we closed! Dad & I spent some time the first week painting a few accent walls and other odds & ends. Here are the accent walls painted!

Mom & Dad helped a ton by watching Katelyn during all of the times I could not have her with me. I think she was quite content!

More fun with Nonna & Papaw while I was at our Closing one morning…

She can be quite the ham!

While at their house, my mom needed to practice an upcoming song for church. Katelyn was thrilled to hear her play and had to join in! FYI – those who don’t know how talented my mom is… she is sight-reading this piece (i.e. playing for the first time)! Unbelievable!

Our things arrived Thursday of last week. Mom, Traci, babies, Dad and I unpacked Friday, and Ryan came on Saturday! The timing was pretty perfect!

A very welcomed sight!

That’s a lot of babies! Katelyn was coming our way, so we took this quick! In order from left to right: Olivia, Emma, Chloe, Luke.

That is right! We are pregnant with our second baby! We found out on New Year’s Eve in TX when I took an extra pregnancy test my sister Traci had. With the birth of her quads, she had no more need for it! Needless to say, we were thrilled and surprised to see the word ‘Pregnant’! As most of you know, we had to use fertility injections to ovulate and get pregnant with Katelyn, so we were not sure we could ‘spontaneously’ get pregnant. Praise the LORD!

Two weeks later (8 weeks along), when back in Bellingham, we went in for a blood test. There were some indications, in conjunction with an ultrasound that same day, that we might have had a Partial Molar Preganancy. We had no clue what this was, but essentially it is when 2 sperm fertilize 1 egg, resulting in a baby with 23 extra chromosomes. If this were the case, the baby would not have sustained and we were told we would have miscarried in the following weeks. It was extremely tough to hear this news and wait for the pregnancy to continue (or not). By 10 weeks, however, we were thrilled to find out, via our weekly ultrasound, that the baby and my uterus looked perfectly normal and showed no sign of this anomaly! We visited a specialist at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle at 12 weeks, and they confirmed that we, in fact, did have a normal pregnancy! We are praising the LORD that all is well and this little miracle baby is growing perfectly normally.

Kisses from Daddy!

And, some cuddling with Mom…

The due date is August 25, 2012 (2 days after Ryan’s birthday!), which means I’ll be 9 months pregnant in the TX heat…

So, for those who don’t know yet, we are headed back to TX! Ryan’s company, Logos Bible Software, has given him a wonderful opportunity to work remotely. We are excited to be closer to both families and avoid having to travel with two squirm-buckets. We are set to close on a house in Pearland on March 1st, so are looking forward to the new adventures awaiting us these next few weeks! The move is VERY bittersweet for us, as we have thoroughly enjoyed our friends and life up here, but we will be back to visit often, I am sure. And, we will have a guest room for anyone looking to visit warmer weather (hint, hint)! Although I may suggest avoiding summers in TX!

Much has been happening in the Riley household, so although life is busy, we are trying to enjoy every minute! How can we not with this adorable face!

New toys are serious business!

Relaxing with Dad after opening gifts…

My older sister had the brilliant idea to give her girls old iPhone 3s (now iPod Touches), available after she and my mom upgraded to iPhone 4s. They LOVED them and didn’t ask to play with our phones! Aren’t they adorable?!?

My Dad (Papaw) came up with a wonderful idea to create mini versions of his plane, WindRunner, for each of his grandkids (all seven of them!). They turned out absolutely amazing! It was supposed to be a surprise for all of us, but he needed my help with the paint scheme and personalization of each plane. Each plane has the grandkid’s name under the pilot, the last name initial insignia on the tail and their birth dates as the ‘N Number’. He created all the pilots on his own, though… scarves included!

Our family of three!

The rest of the week was filled with spending time in the NICU with the Dvorak Crew, shopping, ice skating, coloring pictures for the Dvorak Crew, and chasing Katelyn around the house.

While in Texas, she has mastered several new skills! First, she officially started walking! She has also picked up a few new signs (‘help’ being the most common), she recognizes people, waves at anything (living or not), gives big hugs, blows kisses, and mimics animal sounds. Needless to say, she has enjoyed practicing these new-found skills, while her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins have enjoyed seeing them!

All in all, we are so blessed and thankful to celebrate our Savior’s birth and be with our families this year!

Here are a few photos of the unwrapping mayham that ensued…

*Yawn* Tough work, opening gifts…

Our cute cousin, Cole, was Katelyn’s favorite!

One of Katelyn’s adorable new ‘things’ is giving BIG hugs… whether or not they are well-received. Here is Cole being *quite* the good sport!

Our family of three!

A blank canvas of a cast is waaayyyyyy to tempting! Ryan requested ‘Wolverine’, so here is the artwork he adorned for the remaining weeks of having his cast!

The cast was removed replaced with a walking boot on January 2nd. He will keep that until early February… halfway healed!