woah, baby :)

It's been a while since I've posted any updates of #3. Rest assured he is still baking away in this (not so) little oven of mine.... Tomorrow marks 34 weeks of pregnancy which means we are getting close, hallelujah. I really can't complain, I have enjoyed this pregnancy (minus a few setbacks) but of course I am ready to meet this little guy.
Last time I posted about the baby we had just had our gender reveal and discovered he was, in fact, a little "guy". We are still thrilled about having a boy and yes, we do have a name picked out so far-- with a backup in our pocket just in case! Since then, a few things have happened. For one, I was diagnosed again with gestational diabetes. I wasn't totally surprised since I knew once you've had it with one pregnancy, your chances of having it again with another pregnancy were fairly high, but it was still a bummer. I was determined, however, to make it work this time without any meds or insulin but unfortunately that wasn't the case either as my hormones just wouldn't allow my body to properly do what it is supposed to do. About a week or two after finding out my testing results, I was put on insulin. Today I take a fast-acting insulin shot 3 times a day before each meals, and one slow-acting insulin shot before bed. In addition to this, I test my blood sugar on a meter 4 times a day, once right away when I wake up and then an hour after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I follow a 'gestational diabetes' diet where I count carbs at every meal and journal them everyday for my dietician to look over every week/two weeks. I exercise (usually just walking outside, or prenatal yoga/pilates) almost everyday for 30 mins, and try to drink water like it's going out of style. The diet I follow is not hard, but it does take a little effort to learn and get used to. The main thing is that to keep my blood sugar from crashing and going too low, or too high, I have to eat fairly consistently every 2-3 hours. Sometimes life gets in the way and I forget to eat. When that happens, my blood sugar goes too low and I get super fidgety, extremely hot and sweaty, shaky, irritable, and dizzy. I know right away when it starts to go low and I can usually bring myself back up to a normal range by having something with sugar in it right away. Basically, I have to pack an adult diaper bag everywhere I go. I have to have snacks that are within my carb limits, water bottles, and all my testing supplies everywhere I go. Not the end of the world, but certainly something I am ready to be done with. I'm fortunate to be able to know that at the end of this pregnancy, the chances of all this going away within 6-8 weeks after I deliver is in my favor... I know too many people with diabetes who can't say the same so I try not to complain about it too much. With that being said, I also know that my risk of developing type-2 diabetes at some point later in life is up to 60% more likely now since I've had gestational diabetes as compared to someone who hasn't and so those thoughts are usually running around in the back of my mind as well.... All the more motivation to eat clean and keep working out after baby is born I guess! :)
As for everything else, baby is looking great. We had another ultrasound a few weeks back to check on a few things and everything was right on track. Baby was measuring right around the 50th percentile and we got a few really good pics of him. Meeker Memorial now has 3d ultrasound equipment as well so every once in a while we get to get a sneak peak of what this little guy looks like, his features, etc. We think he is quite handsome, of course :) He is a really active baby most of the time and is always wiggling around. Ryder and Piper love to feel his kicks and are both really excited! Our next doctor appointment is next week at 35 weeks and then we will go weekly from that point on which will hopefully make this last month or so go by quickly!
Until then, we are enjoying the last bit of our time as a family of four! We just had the busiest and best memorial day weekend and were able to relax, spend time at the cabin, get some yard work done,  and visit with many friends and family at various parties :)

{my favorite 7yr old}

On April 28th, my (not so little) Ryder Scott turned SEVEN. Yeesh! I feel old, but he feels cool, so it's all good. Seven is a big deal these days, apparently. At least to a first grader it is....
I went back and forth a million times about what to do with his birthday this year. In the end, we decided on a 'kids only' cousins party and he had SO. MUCH. FUN. :) It was by far one of the easiest birthday parties I've ever had to throw because the kids just did their own thing, ate kid-food, and ran around outside and did what kids do. All Ryder wanted for his birthday this year was his very own tree fort, so that is what he got! I am so proud of Max for the work he put into building the tree fort (and our awesome friends for helping out!) and Ryder loves it. I can already tell it's going to be a place where he spends a great deal of his time as he grows older...

ryder's invite---sent via email, because i'm lazy :)

posing by his favorite feature--the pulley, of course!

mom was in charge of signs.... :) 

smokey campfire chatter 

cool kids wear face paint. and have missing teeth

waiting on s'mores!

and s'more for later--take home goodies!

Easter with the Johnson Cousins- 2014

cute cousins :) 

egg hunt! 

hanging out with dad :) 

the final hawaii post--finally! (Part 3/3)

Thursday:
This was the first full day of no sessions/workshops for Max so we took advantage by waking up early and heading to beat the crowds at the Pearl Harbor Memorial. I was a little stressed because I had wanted to get tickets in advance and we weren't able to, so I wanted to make sure we got there in plenty of time to aboard the Arizona Tour at a decent time. We ended up having plenty of time to walk around and see the other exhibits/museums while waiting for the next available tour to start. As we walked around I remember everyone being fairly quiet...As you can imagine, there wasn't a lot of giggling and running around by anyone. It was a somber place, as it deserves to be with the weight of what happened there and everyone was paying their respects....

Waiting in line for our tour to start :)

We waited in line for our tour to start and once we were allowed in, we were ushered in to a theater where they played a short documentary about the events that happened in the Pearl Harbor Attack. Following the documentary, we were put on a ship and taken over to location of where (parts of)  the Actual USS Arizona Ship remains.

remains of the ship destroyed by the attack

One distinct thing I noticed (and realized other people were commenting on as well) was the strong smell of oil... You can see oil still leaking in this part of the water from the original ship. (Pictured below)

the entrance of the pearl harbor memorial

beautiful memorial built on top of the remains of the Arizona Ship.

Remnants of the Arizona... Sad to think of how many bodies of  US soldiers still lie under those waters

I am so happy we took the time to visit the memorial and if we ever make it back, I would love to check out the other tours offered there as well. 

Once our tour was finished however, we pretty much had the rest of the day free to do as we pleased so we hopped in our rental car and decided to explore more of the island since we were already out and about. It was nice to get out of the city of Honolulu and see what else Hawaii had to offer. We somehow ended up finding our way to Lanikai Beach. We didn't really know much about this beach or the quaint little town it falls in when we got there but we were swept away by the white sandy beaches, bright blue water, and crazy views. (After this trip, we discovered that Lanikai Beach has actually made  various rankings of the world's best beaches--and for good reason!!) We found a good place to sit and enjoy the view for quite a while before checking out the rest of the town, Kailua. The shopping was great, they had major stores, along with cute little local shops and the town was kept so beautiful and clean. We asked the locals where to go for lunch and we were pointed in the direction of Crepes No Ka Oi. I had never had a crepe before and was excited to check it out. We were happily surprised to find them being super savory and really delicious! I had a veggie crepe and Max had some meaty/cheesy/herby concoction and we both ate them up pretty quickly! 

pulling up to the beach...such a beautiful day!

a nice view if you ask me :) 

Following some more shopping , we headed back to the hotel, checked in with the kids via facetime, and then went to a stellar dinner at Duke's right on Waikiki Beach. We were able to enjoy an amazing sunset there for our last full night in Honolulu. The food was great (I finally got scallops, which I had been (and still am) craving throughout my whole pregnancy!!) but the view was even better :) 

final night sunset at Duke's on Waikiki Beach

Friday: Nothing too exciting went on other than shopping ALL. DAY. LONG. Now, if you know me, you would not think this would be an issue at all, but spending all day on my feet at 22 weeks pregnant was not exactly ideal. However, since we had to check out at our hotel at 11am and our flight didn't leave until 10pm that evening, we didn't have much of a choice. Had it been nice out, we could have laid out on the beach soaking up the last bit of sunshine before heading back to Minnesota, but it was a cloudy/rainy day so we walked the streets of downtown Honolulu, then made our way to Ala Moana Center, the largest open air shopping center in the world :) We were a little out of our league here since we walked by stores where I wouldn't have been able to afford ANYTHING in, but it was still a fun experience to check it all out. Eventually though the day went on and we did make our way back to the airport to make the long journey back home. It was a long night of flying and we arrived in Minnesota Saturday afternoon tired, but ready to see our kids!! They were also happy to see us (thankfully!!) and once we made our way back to our house, we sadly packed away our summer clothes and said hello to our winter attire once again. 

Hawaii was an adventure we will NEVER forget and we are so grateful for the opportunity to have been able to go and have a kids-free getaway before #3 joins the picture :) Thanks to everyone who helped out in any way taking care of our home, our kids, our Mickey dog, and everything else! We couldn't thank you enough!!

peace out, honolulu! --until next time!!~ 

'lulu (Part 2!)

I'm baaaaack :)
Picking up where I left off on our Honolulu trip--

Tuesday: We were so excited to wake up to SUNSHINE and HOT weather!! Unfortunately Max had a couple hours of classes in the morning so he took off while I took advantage of the sunshine and headed down to the beach. Of course once I got there and saw everyone running along the sidewalk adjacent to the ocean I couldn't help but jog back up to our room and lace up my running shoes to join them! It was by far the prettiest run I've ever been on....As for me and my belly, I can't promise that WE were a pretty sight to see, but oh well :) (Sidenote: I do believe this was my last 'official' run= 22weeks preggo and it left me pretty uncomfortable!)

My running path/view Tuesday morning-- such a beautiful day!

Afterwards, I treated myself to an iced coffee and laid out by the pool for a while soaking up the rays. After grabbing a quick lunch, Max was done with his sessions and we had a tee time to make at Ko'olau Golf Club. I am not a golfer, but if you know my husband then you know that he was in heaven at this course. I can't even begin to describe the views we were able to enjoy since the course was literally in the middle of a rainforest! Crazy beautiful....

Cheers to our first golfing outing together in (almost) 5 years of marriage!

isn't he cute?? 

I was so obsessed with how the sun kept peaking in through the mountains :)

unreal!

Following our golfing adventure, we hurried back to our hotel room to shower up so we could attend the ICBA silent action and drooled over all the fancy stuff that we couldn't afford :) We stayed for a bit and then had a late sunset supper at Tropics on our resort overlooking the ocean. The food was great, the ma tai's were even better (so I hear!) and Max got to creep on Karl Rove, who was also there dining with his wife... Life was good!

Wednesday:
Blessed with another beautiful day! Max had his final day of sessions for a few hours in the morning so I lounged around reading by the pool and also discovered the BEST protein smoothie I've ever had at Lanikai Juice and Smoothies. Look it up. They are SO good, I had a 'choco loco' every day from that point forward!! After he finished up with work stuff, Max went for a long run and I got to facetime with little P (who, along with ryder, was having a blast soaking up all of her grandparents while mom and dad were away)! In the afternoon I indulged in an hour long prenatal massage at a little place up the road called Red Earth Massage and Wellness.

Have I mentioned I LOVE massages?!

I had read so many good reviews about this place that I knew it was where I wanted to schedule my appointment with. They were SO friendly and my massage was perfect. I left so relaxed and found my hubby waiting for me so we could do lunch! We found a little grocery store right next to the spa and discovered their deli makes pretty awesome sandwiches so we loaded up on some goodies, lathered up with some sunscreen, and made our way to Manoa Falls for an afternoon hike! The hike itself  was definitely doable, and there were plenty of people on the trail, but the waterfall and scenery were pretty amazing!

Our view as we entered the beginning of the hiking trail.... Amazing!!

a small portion of the waterfall-- not sure where my panoramic pic of this went!! 

Afterwards I made Max drive out of the way to go to a shaved ice place I had read about from a blog that I follow and I knew I didn't want to leave Hawaii without trying it out. SO WORTH IT. If you think shaved ice is like an icee or a snowcone, that is what I was thinking as well. All I can say is: not. even. close. Uncle Clay's House of Pure Aloha is unbelievable. They make their own organic syrups out of real fruit, then top it with their own homemade organic vanilla bean ice cream (which is out of this world) and then top it off once again with their shaved ice. I believe we got passionfruit/guava or something to that nature, and it was the best thing that has hit my lips in a long time. We still talk about this place.

TAKE ME BACK!!!

After our blissful trip to Uncle Clay's, we layed out by the beach for a while and then got ready for the annual banquet. This was probably the fanciest event I have been to in my measly little 26 years but we had a fun table full of bankers from all over the states to chat it up with and delicious food to munch on as well!

it's a....

Late post, obviously. 

Moving right along though....

One of the highlights of our San Diego Trip was finding out the sex of this little babe inside of me! Thanks to Kristin for orchestrating the whole gender reveal, it turned out to be such a fun experience :) And we are THRILLED with the outcome!

Following our 20 week ultrasound, this is what we were left with. An envelope sealed by our ultrasound tech with a circled "boy" or "girl" on the inside....  After the ultrasound, Max took the envelope to his trusted coworker at the bank and had him open it, and text the results to Kristin out in San Diego. --Thanks, Ben!!  We could have just had this card mailed to Kristin, but since we were leaving for San Diego the next day, we didn't want to risk it not getting there in time! Kristin received the exciting news and was forced to keep her mouth shut until the time came to share the news with us. We decided to find out at dinner on Saturday night since we already had reservations at a really nice restaurant. The anticipation was killing us and we kept going back and forth the whole time with what we all thought the baby was.... By the time we finished our meal, we had a little surprise come to us. 

A desert plate with card. A card in a PINK envelope, that is.... That was my first clue that we were obviously having another little girl. 

The card seemed a little boyish, but since it was more of a periwinkle blue, I figured it could go both ways.... We opened it up and immediately I skimmed over the whole wording in the card to what Kristin had written in at the bottom. She had created a sweet little poem:

Since I was so antsy to figure out what this sweet babe inside of me had for 'goods' I read it so quickly that at first I told Max "It's another girl!" --but he didn't really respond, he just kept looking at the card as if he was reading it over and over. It was then that I read it again, slower, and realized that my eyes had tricked me and we were not, in fact, having another girl. 

Our excitement, as we realized that we were getting the little BOY we had (secretly) been hoping for! I love how excited Max looks in this picture :) Don't get me wrong, I would have been so happy to have another little girl to love on, and for P to have a little sister (because little sisters are obviously awesome--right Mellissa?!) but I knew Max wanted a boy to pass on his name, and I just felt it was a boy the whole time! The most important thing, of course, was finding out that baby looked great at the ultrasound and so far, everything continues to look healthy and beautiful-- finding out it was a boy was just icing on the cake! We are so thankful and blessed to have such amazing friends to orchestrate this, and to celebrate with :) 

The Long Overdue Hawaii Trip Recap :) (Part 1)

So, just how far I am behind in my blogging is unreal. I refused to let anymore time pass without finally posting a recap of our Hawaii trip. So, here we go!

In a nutshell, we arrived back 'home sweet home' on a Monday from San Diego, only to pack up once again and leave on the following Saturday for Honolulu, Hawaii. (Gosh that makes us sound like these trendy little jetsetters-- I promise you, we are not! Haha!) It was a whirlwind of craziness but believe it or not, our kids survived (and had so much fun spending time with their grandparents/aunts/uncles, etc) and so did we....

As I was saying, we flew out Saturday, March 1st. The plane ride to Hawaii is LONG. It's kind of a bummer, but since our connecting flight was in LA it worked out to be a nice little 'halfway' break to get up for a bit, grab a bite to eat, and stretch our legs. Especially important to me being pregnant and what not.... I think the first stretch was close to 4 hours and the flight from LA to Honolulu was another 5 hours. We were extremely lucky to have the seat next to us open which was amazing for such a long flight. I will say that by use of our tablets, the flights went by MUCH faster than I imagined. I don't watch much tv at home, as in, at all most days- so it was nice to have NOTHING to do but read on my kindle, and watch movies with the hubs. We arrived late Saturday night and by the time we got settled into our hotel room at The Hilton Hawaiian Village it was around midnight, so 4am Minnesota time! Ouch!! To be honest, we had a hard time adjusting to the time change for the majority of our trip. 4 hours difference can really take a toll on a person, but we managed! The rest of our week went as follows:

Good morning, Honolulu! The main beach at our hotel....

Sunday: We were bummed to wake up to a rainy day on our first day in Honolulu but we decided to tackle some of the 'banking stuff' that we needed to do that day anyway. We were up early (of course--time change) and grabbed some yummy mochas at "Lamperts" on our resort and did a little walking around/exploring before we had an orientation meeting at 9am for the bank convention. Following the meeting, we did a little shopping/exploring in our village (I don't even know how many shops the resort has, but its ALOT. They range from convenience marts/souvenier shops, to Louie Voitton and everything in between. Unreal! We grabbed lunch at the Pronto Pickle (great lunch food!) and relaxed for a bit in our hotel room before deciding to venture off the hotel property. Thankfully, we chose to rent a car for our entire stay in Hawaii. It's a decision we are so happy we made and we definitely made use of it everyday.... We drove up the beach and watched some surfers for a while and then made a spur of the moment decision to hike Diamond Head Crater. It was still sprinkling off and on and overcast, but it made for perfect hiking conditions.

We made it!

Seriously, those views..... 

After our hike, we trekked it back to the hotel to shower up and get ready for a welcome reception sponsored by the ICBA. We were so exhausted by the end of the day that we ended up turning in really early after snuggling up watching the rest of 'Captain Phillips' in our hotel room!

Monday: Max had a few hours to put in right away at the morning for some trainings, so I leisurely made my way to the beach for a bit and then to one of the many pools on the resort just to relax and enjoy my coffee. I also managed to find my way to the Mandara Spa where I treated myself to a manicure and enjoyed learning lots of fun hawaiian traditions from my manicurist, a Honolulu local. She had a lot of interesting things to say including an old hawaiian tradition of being able to tell what the sex of your next baby will be depending on your youngest child's hairline. Crazy stuff, but it was definitely entertaining! :) I met up with Max shortly after and we hung out at the beach for a while, despite the fact that the weather was still not all that great. It was a little windy, but no rain so we were happy!

Stud :)

I think I could handle that job..... ;) Side note- I SO badly wanted to hop on one of those paddle boards, but my balance is so off when I'm pregnant that I"m pretty sure it would have been a disaster! 

Each of the pools on the resort were so different and unique!

Max discovered there was an Outback Steakhouse just up the street from us so guess where we had supper that night..... Yep. He is obsessed with the wings there and since he rarely gets them back home since there isn't a convenient location near us, I decided to let it fly and boy was he happy, happy, happy! After supper we went back to the resort and spent the evening at the Tapa Bar because they had live music playing and by then the weather was perfect for some outdoor drinks! Max tried his first 'mai-tai' and quickly became a fan of them! Perfect end to a great day!