Justice, Party of...FOUR

It's time to make the official announcement! Sometime around September 5th, we will be growing from a party of three to a party of four! In case you didn't get that, yes, I am pregnant and we are expecting Baby #2. I will go ahead and answer the question that seems to be on most people's minds when we share the news. Yes, it was on purpose! Travis and I have always said we wanted our kids to be close together in age. There are many reasons for this. He grew up being only 15 months younger than his brother Alex. They were, and still are, the best of friends and I think he recognizes the special bond between siblings so close in age. Travis and I aren't old - but we aren't in our twenties anymore either. Considering we aren't sure how large of a family we want to have, we decided we wanted to go ahead and grow to a family of four and go from there! We were very blessed to find out on December 23rd that we were in fact expecting this New Baby!

We have been calling he/she just New Baby. Real creative, huh? We called Campbell "Baby J" until we met her. I kinda thought we'd call this baby the same thing, but it hasn't stuck! It's like Baby J was Campbell's name, so we needed a new nickname for this kiddo. New Baby is all that we came up with!

I am now 13 weeks along, happy to be finishing up the last week of my first trimester. I have been much sicker this go round, which is quite challenging when you are home with a 14 month old! Campbell has spent many mornings leaning over the toilet with me. It has also been very challenging NOT to blog about this! I am not the best secret keeper in the world. And this is BIG news! I have been sick and tired, literally, and wanted so badly to complain to all my blog readers. :) I also wanted to share when I went grocery shopping in a snowstorm and came home with $165 worth of groceries, consisting mostly of things like guacamole and Cocoa Pebbles.

Campbell and her new little brother or sister will be about 21 months apart. We will have 'two under two' for a short time. I am very excited to have a fall baby. The summer may be a bit miserable being so big when it's so hot outside. But it will be worth it to have a newborn in a mild season. It was no fun being trapped inside during the cold winter months when Campbell was itty bitty. Hoping that this fall, we'll be able to take walks or at least sit outside a little when New Baby joins us.

Last Monday was our first ultrasound and our first opportunity to hear the heartbeat. I was so nervous, going 12 weeks without any confirmation that my belly was in fact growing because of a baby, and not just because of the guacamole and Cocoa Pebbles! Travis and Campbell came to the appointment and we were all thrilled and amazed to see a perfect, tiny baby moving around. There was a perfect heartbeat at 162 beats per minute. We were shocked at the 4d pictures of the baby - even at 12 weeks, the features were so clear and we could see our sweet baby.

Life is going to be wild and crazy and wonderful at our house and Travis and I could not be more excited to become parents of two. Thanks for sharing in our excitement!

I spent last week in Virginia with my family so there will be a big post to come with many pictures of my new nephew and our trip!