Thanksgiving

In everything give thanks... So happy we have friends that are like family not too far away that we have been able to spend thanksgiving with the last two years. 

Finally got to meet pickles. He was a hit with baby peter!! He couldn't get enough of him. 

Thankfully pickles still wasn't in the seat at this time. This gave me a little glimpse of how he will be when we bring Chloe home. He's so goofy. 

The weather wasn't too bad so the boys all played outside. You can tell who is a firstborn out there. Peter was all bundled and Nathan had short selves and a diaper. Haha. 

We started the preparations the day before. Lesson learned- don't cook the potatoes ahead of time. They were slimy and starchy but I still ate way too many. 

Oh look- another baby seat, perfect to get cozy in and eat my graham cracker. 

These little pieces of manna were the highlight of my week. Pumpkin pie donut from Dunkin. They were sooo good. We made daily runs to get them!! 

Just in case I forgot I was eating for two, we made it official! 

Yummmmmm. Everything was so good. The turkey was smoked and tasted like none other. The mashed potatoes also tasted like none other...but we already covered that. Gravy helped! 

Tradition calls for looking through ads after the feast. 

Then it called for a walk. This little guys first real walk. 1/3rd of a mile! He was so excited! 

My best friend and my baby. My heart melted. 

Speaking of best friend- the walk demanded desserts immediately. Yum. Haha. 

The day of traditions continued with shopping the sales at kohls- love their Black Friday deals!! 

Then we came home and ended the evening with a Sherlock Holmes mystery movie. 

What a special day it was of counting our blessings, feasting, and fun traditions! 

We are so blessed!!! 

Close call

This thanksgiving weekend, our little Montoro family has moved life to the very top of our thankful list. A miracle just happened on our travels back home from Austin, in that our lives were spared. I don't think I have ever been so close to dying. We got side swiped by a large pickup. We spun twice around in 4 lanes of traffic and ended up off the road. We'd been reading the bible and I saw us get hit out of the corner of my eye. As we were spinning I was screaming to God asking him to save our lives. I can not believe we were not hit again. I just kept thinking I will never get to meet Chloe. Cars were swerving everywhere to miss us. Had a semi come we would have been crushed because for a moment we were facing traffic traveling over 70.  Also, If we had not had a big grassy spot between exits that we landed in we would be gone. Peter pointed out that we were right in between 2 barricades that would have ended our lives. The police got in touch with the other driver. He didn't even know he had hit us but his sister was in a vehicle behind him and called him to tell him he had just run a vehicle off the road. He called the police then to see if we were ok. After quickly exiting the car, doing several safety checks, and filing the police report it is amazing to me that we are back with only cosmetic damage to our vehicle.  Now we are back on the road in one piece with no one harmed and several hours of travels remaining.God is sooooooo merciful!! 

This cute face made the best of the situation by eating (of course). 

Pregnancy weeks 15-20

 Can't believe I am already halfway. Can't believe I still have 20 more weeks before we meet Chloe! I had a newborn shoot of the sweetest little baby girl this week and it made me so excited to think of being able to have my own little doll to dress up soon. I'm still feeling great, which is a blessing seeing as I have a very busy 18 month old now. Still cleaning houses, and doing photo shoots, chasing around my little crazy head, and enjoying my time with just my little guy. It seems like he changes by the day right now. It seems like Chloe is changing just as fast. This week I felt some really strong movements- I forgot how that felt. Feels like someone is working on growing their muscles! Peter has even been feeling her move this last week. 

Nugget

It was getting close to the BIG ultrasound for our little nugget. We have a strict policy that we don't EVER find out what we are having...well at least that's what we thought was our strict policy. As time got closer to our 18 week appointment I found it harder and harder this time to not find out. Lame, I know! But I couldn't stop thinking pink with how different my pregnancy has been...so if it was blue in my growing bump I really wanted to know. It didn't help that one of my besties was here the week I was second guessing my strict "policy" and she encouraged me to find out. And the husband was pretty easily convinced after the tenth time I begged, too. Haha. 

We decided to keep it a surprise that we were finding out- I thought it would be fun to just announce "it's a ______" so we kept it under our hat the last two weeks. 

Well, yesterday was the big day. I couldn't sleep! I had dreams that my brother ruined my surprise by eating my cupcakes, that the ultrasound lady wouldn't play along with our secret, etc... 

I left for my appointment which is an hour and a half away at 8 am. First was my regular appointment in the morning, then lunch with my newly married sister in law, then go back to the hospital in the afternoon at 2:30 for the ultrasound. 

Well because it was going to be such a long day, the husband and baby couldn't come. 

(Him being super cute at devins house) 

Baby Peter went to my friend Devins house and because my husband couldn't come I didn't want to find out all alone, so I had the ultrasound lady text Devin who is a crazy good baker. Then when I picked baby Peter up I would bring our chocolate cupcakes home and we would cut them open to see if they had blue or pink filling. 

During the ultrasound the little acrobat inside me wasn't cooperating at first. Nugget was curled into a tight ball with feet over head. It was really funny! 

After a while I got up and moved around hoping it would encourage baby to so the same and it worked. When I came back for part 2 I asked Chelsea the ultrasound tech if she knew yet and she said yes. She was perfect and didn't give out any hints. At the right time she had me turn my head and printed out a picture and put it into a sealed envelope and texted Devin and then deleted the text. 

(That profile looks a lot like big brother- big head and forehead!) 

What started next was the longest few hours ever. I had to go pick up a family for our missions conference this week and them start our long journey home. The picture in the envelope was burning a hole in my purse. Ha! It was so fun to have a big secret and surprise to announce soon! When I finally got back home and headed to pick up the baby I asked peter- what do you think, pink or blue? He said pink. I said pink too. 

Then I drove safely and slowly (?) to go pick the baby and the cupcakes up. Right before I got home one of my other besties wrote to me that they were so proud of me for staying strong and not finding out...that it motivated them for next time. Haha. Oops. 

Peter ran out to meet me and grabbed the little guy and I grabbed the cupcard and a present Devin sent home with me to open after the cupcakes. We wasted no time- seeing as it had already taken forever!! 

We cut open our cupcake...and then cut open one more to make sure it wasn't a mistake. 

Pink filling!!!!!! It's a girl!!! 

We can't wait to meet our little Chloe Faith sometime in April! 

We feel so blessed to be given one of each! And I can't wait to get all my little girl clothes ready!! 

(The gift that Devin sent home to open after the cupcakes! Chloe is destined to love chevrons!) 

Pregnancy week by week

I am the world's worst blogger. I admit it. I have soo many things I would like to post on here about, but I never do it. Thus the reason I have 1400 pictures on my iPhone. Because someday I really will blog faithfully. Someday. 

Anyway, I know no one reads this anymore so it's basically a personal journal for me of how this pregnancy is going. Yes, we found out July 28th that baby "nugget" will make an appearance around April 5th. I was going to be traveling quite a bit this summer so I was nervous that I would be super sick again, but I have actually felt great! One night I got sick but it was because I totally overdid it that day. It was fun to be able to tell all of our family in person seeing we were going to be seeing them all. We told my family when I was 6 weeks with baby peter wearing a big brother shirt when he got off the airplane. He grew out of the first shirt so we quick made a new one when daddy joined us in NYC so we could tell all of his family at Sarah's wedding rehearsal when I was close to 8 weeks. 

            You can tell he is *thrilled!!* 

 Today marks the start of my second trimester and with my new skills of being "calorie aware" since trying to lose all my baby peter weight- I have done a lot better this time and gained my first pound this week. It didn't help that I made homemade donuts for the first time this week also. 

We had our first prenatal appointment this past week also and got to meet our nurse midwife at OU and see our little nugget for the first time. She/he was sucking her thumb and kicking around. Sooo sweet! Of course it was love at first sight. 

I can't eat enough cucumbers and dried apricots this time. I guess I am needing potassium! I also love love love potatoes again. Mmmmmm. 

The zoo

I wasn't sure if I was overexcited the other day about going to the zoo with my ten month old. I mean, would he even notice the animals? I figured even if he was oblivious it would be a fun day with my little guy and with the friends we went with. Whether he was excited or not, I was! Haven't been to a zoo in so long, and the weather was perfect. I had a huge mountain of supplies for our outing- amazing how much longer things take to do when you have a kiddo in tow. And how much you have to bring!! 

We forgot that it was spring break, so the parking and lines were crazy, but we had a membership so we got to walk right in! 

Baby Peter got to pet goats, 

he loved watching the monkeys,

The monkeys were thrilled! 😛🐒

Haha. They crack me up. There was a baby monkey, too, and it was fun to watch him get in trouble and then the mother run and grab him. 

We saw an elephant show that baby Peter watched the whole time, 

and then he was so tired that he fell asleep in his stroller which is adorable to me because Mr doesn't-want-to-miss-anything has never done that! 

It was such a great day!!