Ultrasound day

Today I went in for my 20 week ultrasound and we confirmed that this baby is a girl! Yippee!! We love boys, but we were really hoping this last kid would be a girl so we are happy. Alison, of course, is completely thrilled to know that she for sure is getting a little sister.

Needless to say, I am going to have to come up with something different for the name of my blog.

It's a girl...?

Why the question mark? Because I am only 17 weeks pregnant but I still had a quick ultrasound in my doctors office and because the baby is still a little small (but normal size for the gestational age) and was breech, we had a hard time getting a good look at the gender. HOWEVER, we got a quick look and didn't see any "boy parts" so we are hopeful that it is a girl. I will have my big 20 week ultrasound on February 19 so we will be able to confirm the results!

Alison is very excited and I am, too. I have already started buying girl clothes and making pink and purple blankets!

So now I guess I will have to change my blog name, I'll have to think about what to call it now!

January 10

Things are going well. I am now in week 15 of my pregnancy and still taking drugs for nausea. (That should end soon.) My energy is definitely returning and it's great to feel much more normal again!

Peter's birthday is this month and we have typically been doing friend parties only every other year. He had friends over last year so we will more than likely skip this year. But we always take the kids out to dinner for their birthday and the entire family tags along. Tonight Peter informed me that he wants Garr to take him to The Olive Garden for his birthday so they can eat some calamari! Who knew a 9 year old would eat fried squid? This is a monumental year for Peter as he will be a decade old (10 years!) and no longer be in the single digits!

Alison will be 8 years old soon and we are preparing for her baptism in March. She is looking forward to it and so are we!

We had a nice break for Christmas but the kids wanted more time off school. Who can blame them? I enjoy having them around and we are looking forward to being off-track at the end of this month. We'll probably be doing some Valentine's Day crafts and things like that to keep ourselves occupied for 3 weeks and 3 days of no school.

Michael has been so cute lately - but he is also a 2 year old terror! He is into everything! But he is talking more and copying what Garr and the kids and I say. It's really cute.

I guess I should say something about Jacob. He is so fun to be around. He and I are reading a lot of the same books right now and it's fun to have someone to talk to about the stories.

Poor Garr has been working so much and ran himself into the ground. He got sick right after Christmas. The thing is that it takes a lot for Garr to get sick, but when he is, it lingers in his body for about 2 weeks until he finally feels better. Thank goodness that is rare.

Well, it is a new year, so maybe in my next blog I will share a few of my resolutions with you.
Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

This year our Christmas card will be online. I already mentioned in the previous post that I am not sending out cards this year. But I wanted to get this up anyway.

Garr and I are busy parents and we love our kids. We can't believe how fast they grow.

Jacob is 12 and was ordained a Deacon this past October. He loves being in Young Men's. He is so fun to be around and is always making us laugh.

Peter is 9. He has been in the school choir this year and enjoys that. We attended his Christmas concert last week and had a blast. He is always positive and helpful - a great kid!

Alison is 7 going on 13. She is a beautiful girl and a joy to be around. Alison is a great artist (she takes after her dad) and very organized. She gets great grades in school and loves helping the other kids.

Michael is 2. Need I say more? He is actually very sweet and funny! He does typical two year-old things which makes me both crazy and happy. He loves cars and trains and his older siblings. He is spoiled with love and we are all happy.

We are looking forward to the birth of our 5th child sometime in June 2009 and know that he/she will bring us as much joy as the rest of our troop.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you. May you find much joy and happiness this Christmas Season as well as in the New Year.

Love, Garr and Jennie Ovard and kids

• Here is a link to a photo of us that was taken in October. http://garrcreative.com/family/ovards-2008-sep.php

Christmas Cards

I was just reading a friends blog and commented on something she wrote so I decided to expound here. She was talking about whether to mail or e-mail Christmas cards. She pretty much said, why bother? That's what blogging is for. In a huge way I agree with that. I mean, there's Facebook and blogging. People read about your life and see pictures all year long, so why do you need to send a Christmas card? I think it's nice to send one in the mail to people that you almost never hear from. But I don't need a card from most of my friends and family because I read their blogs and keep updated on Facebook.

Another thing is that cards can be very time consuming and even costly to mail out. Every year I stress out about getting pictures printed (and if I even HAVE a current picture of my family, it's a miracle), getting envelopes, colored paper to print the letter on and who knows how many stamps! Not to mention what to write about in the Christmas letter. I write and rewrite and wonder what to say and what not to say.

This year I told myself I wasn't doing Christmas letters or neighbor gifts. Not because I am being a Scrooge, but because of my morning sickness. Now with neighbors bringing gifts to us I am feeling a little bit guilty but I just can't stress about it this year. I can only do what I can do.

I know we will receive cards from people that are not on Facebook or that blog, and that is wonderful. I will probably mail a letter back to them and tell them about my blog if they want to see pictures of my family.

For those of you who may disagree with me about this, I totally understand. Christmas cards in the mail are a great tradition. It's fun to get them, but if you want me to read your blog instead, just shoot me an e-mail. It's great to hear from friends anytime of the year, not just Christmas!

Exciting news

So I had this great exciting news that I wanted to tell everyone and then Garr said, "Let's wait awhile." So we did, but we told the kids. They, of course, were so excited that they started telling people, which was fine, but we were still going to wait.

So yes, I am pregnant which a lot of people found out on Facebook. I haven't gotten onto my blogs for a few weeks because I am sicker than a dog. I don't mean to be a wuss, but I really get very sick and if I don't have drugs to help me, then I am in bed or throwing up all day for 8 weeks. Even when I do have drugs, I still have days when I can't hardly move.

So I guess I am going to start every paragraph with the word "so". I wanted to wait awhile longer to tell everyone in the world this news because I wanted to hear the baby's heartbeat, etc. Yesterday was my first appointment and Garr and I did hear the heartbeat and it sounds wonderful! And there is just one baby. :)

So this is going to be the last child and I am really hoping for a girl and so is Alison. I'm getting too old and it's just too many kids, you know? he he.

So this is the last paragraph and if anyone wants to donate to my eating out/craving fund, please send a check to my address.

Now it's November

The only reason it has been so long since I have posted a blog is because the kids are off-track and I am always extra busy during those times. Besides the fact that the kids often want to play on my computer and I have limited time to use it myself!

I'm sitting here thinking about all of the things that are happening in our lives right now and not wanting to write about them yet. There are going to be three major changes happening in the next little while, but I'm openly discussing them at the moment. So, I am sorry for the short and boring blog post, but there will be more info coming very soon. Stay tuned!