Time is so weird. It seems like time is standing still right now, and that we are repeating the same day over and over again like the movie Groundhogs Day. However, here we are…already in May. It is officially baby month AND moving month! Never in a million years did I think we would be quarantined at home during a global pandemic homeschooling our kids, all while preparing for a baby and a move to another state. Life is crazy. And just when I think things will calm down, it often gets crazier and harder. We are so grateful for our family, and most importantly, our faith to get us through day by day.

Here is a recap of our month…

Quarantine Life

Overall, our every day has consisted of pretty much the same stuff. Wake up, have breakfast, let the kids play or watch a show, do schoolwork, find something to keep them busy and happy for the afternoon, have dinner, go to bed, repeat. I am on complete survival mode with being 9 months pregnant, so I’ve tried to give myself grace about not doing all the exciting Pinterest-worthy projects and activities that I see other moms doing right now. When it’s nice outside, we go outside. When it’s not, we stay busy inside with modeling clay, FaceTime with family, coloring, and building box houses. Overall, the kids have been fantastic throughout all of this. Yes they fight more, and yes they get extra emotional about things because they don’t know how else to let out their frustration with this crazy life we are currently living. But overall, I have been so impressed with how they’ve handled everything.

We try to go on small, random adventures when we can. Every once in a while, the director of Brax’s school will put out the treasure box in front of the school so the kids can come by and pick a treasure. Sometimes we go get slushies during Sonic Happy Hour. Any small errand to give us a change of scenery is good for our souls!

We’ve had lots of nice days, but every so often we get a small dose of summer weather. We’ve had a few swim suit, sprinkler and water table days. The kids love it, their large pregnant mama struggles with the heat. It makes the kids happy though, so I manage with lots of water, shade, and the large fan in the garage.

On other nice days, the kids find all kinds of random games and activities outside. Cornhole, nature scavenger hunts, climbing trees, you name it. They have great imaginations so they can pretty much stay busy in any environment.

Grateful for Easter

Ryan’s sister’s family was originally going to visit for Easter, but obviously everyone’s travel plans changed. Luckily, Ryan still scheduled Easter weekend off so he could spend that time with us.

Easter Cookies

Usually this is an activity I do with the kids when Ryan is working…just for something to do. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do this tradition this year since my carpal tunnel syndrome is so bad. Instead, we just made the cookies with Ryan so he could help!

Another one of our favorite Easter traditions is to dye eggs. The kids got extra fancy this year and even added some extra sparkly paint!

We knew Easter day was supposed to include lots of rain, so we planned our big Easter egg hunt the day before. We stuffed them with treats and hid them around the yard and the kids loved hopping around like bunnies finding the eggs.

The kids loved seeing their surprises from the Easter bunny on Easter morning!

Even though we didn’t go anywhere, the kids (mainly Kinsie) wanted to wear their Easter clothes that I originally bought them. We took the opportunity to still take a few Easter pics! It definitely wasn’t the Easter we were used to or planned on, but we still got to spend time together as a family, watch a wonderful and much-needed Easter church service, and be reminded of the good news of Easter. To be honest, it couldn’t have been more perfect timing for that good news!

Other Big Events

Kinsie had been working hard on her second wiggly tooth for a couple weeks. The day before Easter, she decided she wanted to lose that tooth that day so that the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny could both come to our house that night (she got this idea from her cousin Briggs, who did the same thing on Christmas Eve) That tooth was quite stubborn and took us a while, but Kinsie was determined. She finally got it out and was so excited to see her money and a note from the tooth fairy the next morning!

We officially closed on our home! We move out at the end of May and will be headed back to our home state! We will live with my parents for the summer, then live in a rental while we build our dream home. It’s a lot of planning and extra chaos, but we could not be more excited!

Pregnancy Updates

We are coming down the home stretch! For a little while, I honestly thought this might be an April baby. He’s still cooking though, and I’m hoping he stays put a few more days so that Brax still has his own birthday! Overall, this pregnancy has flown by…until the last few weeks. I am currently 37 (almost 38) weeks, and I am READY. My sister always told me that her third pregnancy was the hardest on her body, and I can definitely relate to that!

Updates/Symptoms:

• I am very physically uncomfortable. Like…all the time. This includes heavy pelvic pressure and severe ligament pain.
• I’ve had pretty consistent Braxton Hicks contractions the last week.
• I’m guessing baby is putting more pressure on my bladder…because I need to use the restroom about every half hour.
• Carpal tunnel syndrome is still a problem, getting worse. Hoping I can get a cortisone injection soon to help this problem because it is hard to function.
• Lots of hot flashes, especially at night.
• I am very emotional – hello hormones!

In this photo, I was 36 weeks – baby is about the size of a small watermelon.

I’m not usually much of a mirror selfie person, but this could be my last pregnancy (we haven’t made any decisions about this yet), so I figured I’d try to document as much of this bump as I could.

34 weeks

Easter Day – 35 weeks

My mom has been planning for a while now to come help us when the baby comes…mainly to watch the big kids while Ryan and I are in the hospital. With my level of physical discomfort and the fact that I haven’t been able to use my hands much without hurting, she decided to come early and we were SO grateful. The kids have been loving their Yaya time, and she has been helping me so much, especially when Ryan is at work. Here is a sweet video of the kids’ reactions when she arrived.

Most of the time, I’ve been trying to just take it easy and relax as much as possible. However, I’ve also been trying to “loosen things up” and help the process along, and enjoy the lovely Arkansas spring weather one last time, so we’ve been going on short walks when I’m up for it. The kids love walking with me, and they often use it as an opportunity to have nature scavenger hunts and watch the ducks and turtles.

It’s only a matter of time that this little boy will be making his grand entrance into this world and into our hearts. Stay tuned!

A Month of Loss

March was hard. Then April came along and said, “Hold my beer.” I genuinely did not expect April to bring about even harder and darker days than what we were already experiencing.

Abuelita

The day after Easter, my sweet and beautiful Abuelita went to heaven. Her mind had been trapped by dementia for the last decade, so even though it was hard to lose her physically, it’s at least refreshing to know that both her body and mind are free now. She was the absolute epitome of love. Whether she knew you or not, if you were in her immediate presence, you could feel her love. We always said she “threw love at strangers,” so I’m sure you could imagine the love she poured on her family. Some of my favorite memories of her included her many lipstick-marked kisses, her homemade authentic Mexican meals she often cooked for us, her serenading us in Spanish, or giving us the earrings that she was wearing because we told her we liked them. We were also lucky enough to go on many vacations with her and my Grandpa Beto, and the memories made on those trips will be cherished forever. It’s hard knowing I’ll never see her again here in this life, but I rejoice for her that she is free in Heaven with the love of her life, Beto, and her Heavenly Father.

Addie

Two days after my grandma passed, our sweet family dog Addie passed away as well. This one really blindsided us because her sickness came so quickly, we really did not have time to process or prepare for what was about to happen. She was throwing up for just one day, and we even took her to the vet and they assumed it was just a stomach bug. The next day, she passed away. We were all devastated and really struggled to understand what happened to her. She was not even 10 years old, and she recently struggled with arthritis, but we think something in her stomach or bowels developed, and there really would have been no time to do anything about it even if we would have had labs and blood work done.

 

We had Addie since before we were married, so we have many happy memories with her. She was the sweetest, most loving pup, and she had SO much patience for our crazy kids. With the quarantine in place, we spent all of our time with her during the last month of her life, which is exactly what she would have wanted. Her favorite place in the world was wherever we were!

Addie was the best snuggling buddy!

Here is a picture that Kinsie drew at the end of our rough week. From left to right it includes her fish Hedwig (who died last August), Jesus, Grandma Graves (Ryan’s grandma who passed away in December 2017), Addie, and my Grandma Vargas. Of course when she showed me, I immediately started crying!

It was important to all of us that we bring Addie with us when we move, so we found a pet cremation company. We got back a beautiful box with her name engraved on the top, and my personal favorite, a heart with her paw print imprinted into it. You can tell its definitely her paw print, because it includes her long fingernails that she would hardly ever let us cut!

Like I said, it was a harder month than we expected, but we are sticking together as a family to help each other grieve. We still miss our Addie every day, and it has been tough finding our new normal without her companionship. We have so many wonderful memories with her so we try to focus on those to help get us through.

We are hopeful that May will be a month filled with joy and good news…we definitely need it!

Here is our April 1 Second Everyday video. Still lots of love and laughter to fill even our difficult days.