Planes, Rains and Automobiles!

Alright ya'll. I am TEN WEEKS AND TWO DAYS PREGNANT! Oh my goodness. I cannot believe I'm already 10 weeks. I know it's not that far along, but I feel like I literally found out yesterday... Plus I'm not showing yet and haven't beens sick or really had any other noticable symptoms like that. I'm really excited, because I'm going to be telling all the rest of my family soon! :) We want to tell them a while before Levi's sister's wedding so that it kind of dies down and it doesn't take away from her moment, haha. My next appointment is in two weeks, so I'm excited for that! I'm trying to think up good ways to tell my parents. The first two times it wasn't really a happy thing, so I'm excited for them to be able to be happy for me and not worried for what'll happen.
Rafe is 10 months! It's insane. He's grown up SO fast, I cannot believe that he's about to be 1! He crawls so fast. Like, I've never seen a child crawl that fast. He gets up and then I look away for literally one second and then he's just in the other room! He stands really steadily when he holds onto something, and he can stand by himself for a little bit, but ends up falling, haha. :) I can't wait for him to start walking!
Bentley just keeps on learning at lightening speed. He recently found out he can jump, so he's always jumping around. His speech is REALLY good for his age, although his favorite word is "NO." Bentley, do you want to go outside? No. Do you want to play with me? No. Can you say 'blanket'? No. Can you say no? No. Haha. He just says it with a smile on his face! He's a really funny kid, too. He just laughs and says the funniest things. He's recently become really fascinated with planes, too. We went to the air show today and he was just like, "WOAH!" Haha. He kept saying it. It was adorable. He just lights me up every day. I can't wait for him to get big and get in school and all that, and then start playing football and stuff... But I'm getting way ahead of myself. I just need to enjoy the moment and the stage he's in, because I know someday I'll miss when the boys were this little.
We finally got some rain recently! :) It was amazing to have a day that was rainy for the first time in literally months and months. Although we still need like, 24 inches of rain to get out of the drought. All that rain didn't even put a tiny dent in our drought! I was so sad. :( And also, the weather is still NOT getting cooler and it makes me sad. I want it to be winter already! But noooo, it's still in the high 80s and low 90s! :'(
I still don't have my own car, and I cannot stand it anymore! I've been looking at cheap cars on carmax and stuff... I'm hoping that we can afford to get one. It'll just make it so much easier, and probably end up costing us less gas money in the end!

That's basically all for now. :) Talk to ya'll later!

Names?

Well why not, haha.
Just a few I've thought of, I haven't done any thinking about it yet, haha.

Girls;
Middle name will probably be Jillian (Julia+Lily for grandmas!)
Kadence
Ava (my grandma's name!)
Taea/Taya
Allie Ray
Lila/Lyla
Cheyenne
Savannah
Caroline
Molly
Felicity

Boys;
Middle name will be a traditional, strong masculine name, most likely with family significance. (Samuel, Levi, William, Elijah, Isaiah, Isaac)
Milo
Lyle
Cash
Hunter
Beau
Forrest
Paxton
Boden
Reilly
Easton

In case you haven't heard...

I'm pregnant! :) Yay!
I had routine blood work done earlier in the week and my doctor unexpectedly called me to tell me that I was pregnant! I wasn't expecting to hear it! Levi and I had just decided to not try not to have another until December, when we would start actually trying. But I was already pregnant! Haha. It feels good to actually have sort of planned this baby! As opposed to Bentley and Rafe who were complete surprises! It makes me feel responsible, hahaha.
I have an appointment on Monday to find out exactly how far along I am and when exactly I'm due! I was going to wait until after that to tell Levi, but I just COULD NOT wait! I knew how excited he'd be! So I dressed up Rafe in Bentley's old "Going to be a big brother!" shirt and put him in his crib and then I told Levi "Can you go check on Rafe?" And so he did. I couldn't quit smiling and I was trying to hear his reaction! Haha. All of the sudden I hear "OH MY GOD!" And he comes bursting down the stairs with a GIANT smile on his face and he was like "Aussie, are you pregnant?!" I started laughing and nodded and he just started freaking out! Haha. He's so so so so so so so so so so so excited! We're both definitely hoping for a girl this time and will be finding out the gender as soon as possible! It was nice waiting with Bentley and Rafe, but this time I just want to find out! Haha. Especially since I'm so anxious for a girl! But anyway... I'll be using this blog to update ya'll on my pregnancy and everything that happens as it happens!

xoxo,
future momma of three,
AUSTIN! :)

Hurricane Kit!

So I finally got Levi to actually go and get all our hurricane kit stuff ready, just in case. We've been lucky these past few seasons, but August and especially September are the worst, so we really want to be prepared. So we're going to get tons of diapers, a billion batteries, flashlights, lots of first aid stuff, battery powered lights and sandbags. We already have a really good battery powered NOAA weather radio, so that's one thing off the list. It goes off whenever there's any kind of tornado/severe thunderstorm/flood, etc watch or warning and when there's an Amber Alert or any other kind of advisory. And you get just get the normal weather when you press a certain button. It's really helpful to know when a storm is coming. I know that if it was a Hurricane coming here, we'd definitely leave, or at least make plans for someone to take the kids. After going through Ike, there's NO WAY I would put my kids through that! But we'd most likely stay for a tropical storm, and power can still go out and it can still flood, so it's still good to have supplies. But anyway. Thoughts&prayers go out to those going through Irene! It sucks!

I love weddings!

Levi's sister Rebecca is getting married on 11-11-11! :) They're having a vintage themed wedding, and this is the dress she chose!

My boys!

It's absolutely amazing how much children grow and learn in the first years of life. I still can't believe that I have a 2 year old! And Rafe is 8 months, and that's crazy, too!

Bentley is learning things so quickly! I swear he'll play sports, because he just wants to be outside 24/7! And I hardly ever see him walk anymore. He's always running! He loves to do arts and crafts, too. He used to do them a lot when he went to daycare, and they also do them a lot at Sunday school, so he's always asking to do them. His speech is really good. He picks up words probably every day, and he's getting a lot easier to understand. He speaks pretty clearly, most of the time. I'm probably going to start potty training him soon. I feel like he's close to being ready for that. We're also starting to learn the ABCs and numbers! :) He's pretty good with the alphabet for his age. His favorite letter is B (for Bentley! Haha.) and when we read our alphabet book and get to B, he's ALWAYS naming all these things that start with the letter B. He climbs all over everything and always gets scratches or bruises. He always comes to me and will tell me all about his new owie. I'm thinking that when he gets older, he's going to be very tenderhearted. He's a total cuddle bug, and he's very caring. He loves watching animals, too! He'll sit at the back door (it's got a really long glass window that pretty much makes up the whole door) and just watches all the wildlife that comes through the land behind our house. I really hope to be able to get horses soon. Levi and I both grew up around them, and it's really a great thing. I also take him to the pet store pretty often to look at all the animals - birds, snakes, lizards, etc. so that he won't be scared of them. So many parents freak out when they see a spider or a snake and then their kids get so afraid of them. We have a dog and he roughhouses with him all the time, but luckily Rebel is just as much of a sweetheart as Bentley is, so he just lets Bentley go crazy with him. Bentley also LOVES to help me and Levi do things. If Levi ever has to go work out at the barn or anything, Bentley begs to go and help. We have a little toy toolbox, and he'll always pretend to help Levi. It's so adorable.

Rafe is now 8 months old! Time has flown! But I feel like these months have gone by a little slower than they did with Bentley - but I'm not complaining! Now that he can crawl, he LOVES to explore. I have to keep an eye on him all the time, because he's always wanting to go and get into things. He's a bit clingy, but it kind of comes with the age. If we ever go out in public, he always wants me or Levi. He's definitely more a mama's boy. He definitely has seperation anxiety, too. He can stand while holding onto things, and he babbles all the time. He mimics syllables all the time. "bababababa", "mamamamama", "dadadadada", etc. He loves to pick things up and hold things. He'll just sit there and inspect it! He definitely keeps himself occupied a lot of the time. I see him being pretty smart when he grows up. I can't believe he'll be one in December. :'( Time sure does fly!

Money, money, money!

I seriously hate it. I hate that it rules everything and that people get so CRAZY about it! I just think it's so sad that you can't survive or live well without it.

Anyways. Now that Levi's job is the only income for us, we've had to do some serious budgeting. I brought in a good extra $700 or so every week, and without that it's really rough! Although Levi's job does pay well, that extra money from my job allowed us to not have to worry about budgeting so much. So now we're couponing, etc for groceries. It's a few hours work to sit there, make a list of what we need, look at what's on sale, make a list of what we're going to buy and how much it'll all cost. We're trying to pay with cash for as much as we can, to avoid future debt and spending on stuff we don't need. Giving away cash really does make you think more about what you're buying than swiping your credit card.
It's absolutely crazy how much a child costs. You really do not realize it until you have one. On BabyCenter, they have this Cost Estimater thing. I did it out of curiosity of what I spent for Bentley's first year. It has you enter in how much you think you'll spend, but since I already know what I did spend, It's probably somewhat accurate. Not including insurance/doctor costs, it was $11,684. That's A LOT of money. Especially for teenagers. And we were really frugal on what we spent. Like, if he really didn't need it or might not need it, we didn't buy it, the end. He didn't have a whole bunch of swings/play mats, etc. It's so hard to give your child everything they need and want when you're so young. It really is. Without the help and support of our families, there's no way we could have done it. I am SO thankful to them.