Life and Family Update

It has been quite a while since my last update and a lot has happened between now and then!

First off, little miss Evalyn Jane is gearing up for her big arrival! I'm 36 and a half weeks pregnant and she is about 6 lbs and 18" long by now. I had an OB appointment yesterday and I am a fingertip dilated and 50% effaced. I was more dilated and effaced this time last pregnancy with Jaxon, so she might stay in there longer than he did. She is quite the little dancer still, always moving and bouncing around. Unfortunately, her head isn't as low as expected and she's sunny-side up, like Jaxon was when he was born. That means if she doesn't flip over soon I am going to have horrible back labor again, which I wouldn't wish upon anybody! Her nursery is slowly coming together nicely. I have sewn her curtains and one crib sheet for her. I have yet to even start on her crib skirt, and I'm not sure when I'll find time to with Jaxon running around! I should probably start packing my hospital bag, but I've been procrastinating on that as well. Ready or not, she's coming soon!

A lot has been going on with Jaxon since the last update as well. Some people may know this already, but Jaxon was evaluated after his 18 month check up and found to have a speech delay. He was at a 12 month old level and was recommended to start speech therapy. We have a lovely lady come to our home every Wednesday to work with Jaxon for an hour and he has progressed so much in the last 5 weeks! Jaxon went from only saying "dada" to now saying dada, mama, ball, bubble, dog, and poop (which is extremely helpful!). He can also say some other words, but really only Jake and I know what he is talking about when he says them, such as: Leila, truck, and duck. Jax is also signing a lot more words now too like: please, help, more, eat, and shaking his head yes. We are so proud of Jaxon and the progress he's made lately. He is quite the chatter box now and will tell everyone he sees his life story, which is a world's difference compared to a month ago! He still isn't technically caught up to his age yet, but we expect him to be there soon. Also something we've been keeping under wraps lately is that Jaxon has a mass on his back. Jake and I noticed it around 15 months or so and I forgot to mention it to his pediatrician at his 18 month check up. Well, it started growing a bit so we took him in to get checked out. Neither pediatrician at his office knew what it was so we were referred to a surgeon who could tell us whether we needed an ultrasound or MRI to look at the mass closer. The surgeon thought an MRI would be best, so on August 1st Jaxon went into the local children's hospital and had an MRI done. He was such a good little boy that I can't speak highly enough of him. His MRI was scheduled for 10:30 am and he wasn't allowed to eat any foods after midnight the night before and no more liquids after 7:30 am. Oh, and we had to check into the hospital by 8:30 so I was just imagining this horrible day where I had the grumpiest toddler in the world that I had to keep restrained in a little waiting room for a couple hours. To mine and Jake's surprise, Jaxon was a complete angel!!! He did start to get cranky a little but we were able to easily distract him. I would've been way worse than he was if I were in that same situation! Well, finally around 11 we went back to talk to the anesthesiologist because they had to put Jaxon to sleep in order to keep him still for the test. The nurses told us that all kids hate when the mask is put over their face to make them go to sleep and to expect a tantrum to occur, but of course our little boy was a trooper and did fantastic! I'll admit that that was one of the hardest things I've ever had to watch. As Jaxon was breathing in the gas he started making weird noises and just before he fell asleep he turned to look at Jake and I. Geez, I'm crying just replaying that memory in my head. Jake and I were told to leave at that point while they gave him the anesthetic through an IV. A little over an hour later Jaxon was done and awake and as happy as could be! He was such a brave little boy and we couldn't be more proud! As far as results, we won't know until the 19th, but we're thinking that must be a good thing because if it was serious we'd be seen much sooner. Overall, Jaxon has had a very busy last 6 weeks and we're hoping things will calm down a bit soon.  Hahaha! Joke is on me! We're about to have a newborn!!

Jake's unit left for deployment in mid July so he is now with a new unit until we leave for Japan in January. In a way, he got a promotion at this new unit, just in terms of more responsibility but not in pay. darn! He is the head crewchief in the shop and helps write up the flight schedule for the whole unit. Pretty much what this translates to is working a ton and leaving often. It is so sad that he barely sees Jaxon now because he doesn't get home until after I put him to bed. Right now he is gone for the week, but hopefully this is the last time he leaves out of town until after Eva arrives. We are just taking things day by day and hope each day that Jake will be home in time for dinner or bed.

We had maternity pictures done last weekend and I should be getting the CD back of those within a couple days. I do have a couple sneak peeks to show you all that I'll add at the end of my post.

All in all, the Lester family has been extremely busy and things are about to become more hectic in the next couple weeks as we finish preparing for our daughter's arrival! I hope everyone is doing well and I'll try to remember to update more often. (I say that a lot, don't I?)

Lots of love,
Lester family

Third Trimester!

Well, we've finally made it to the third and final trimester! Evalyn is a little over 14" long and weighs over 2 pounds. She's blinking now and putting on some fat for her big debut. She is still a little ballerina who likes to practice all day, every day. She definitely reacts to Jaxon when he is squealing or kissing her. She is in love with her big brother already and Jaxon is already in love with her. I bought some fabric to make her bedding since I couldn't find anything that I was in love with that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I still need to purchase a ruffler foot for my sewing machine so I can make her ruffled, tiered bed skirt. I'll be sure to add pictures of it all when I'm finished. I keep putting it off but I realize Eva can really come any week now so I need to get myself in gear.

Jaxon has his 18 month check up on Friday. I can't believe my little man is almost a year and a half! I think we're going to give him a cupcake for his half birthday. Let's face it, who wouldn't want a cupcake on their half birthday?! Jaxon is quite the sprinter. He can run pretty darn fast for his age. He's also mastering all other motor skills. He can climb onto ANYTHING and he has recently learned how to do a somersault, so he likes to do those a lot.

My family surprised me the other week. I thought my Dad and Debi were flying out to visit Jake, Jaxon and I but it turns out it was my Dad, Kyle, Missy and the kids! Everyone was a part of the surprise and they all kept it for a long time. I have no idea how they pulled it off, but it was a dream come true. We went to the zoo and Disneyland while they were here. Everyone had a great time and left with amazing memories.

We officially got our new Japan orders. We'll be reporting to Okinawa in January 2014. We have a few months to get all of Eva's paperwork and passport in order before we leave, which is great because I was really stressing about not having enough time to do that. It's still surreal that we'll be moving to another country, let alone continent on the other side of the world! Our good friends, the Schmidts, leave in two weeks for Japan. We'll miss them a lot, but we'll see them in a few months. I'm glad we'll all have at least one friend out there before we take the plunge! I better start brushing up on my Japanese and Kanji now. The plan right now is that me and the babies will fly home in early December and Jake will stay back at the house with the dogs until our house is packed up and the movers come get our things. Jake will then drive back to MO with the dogs and we'll all be home for a little while before leaving for Japan at the first of the year.

We just participated in a garage sale with our friends to get rid of some of the things we don't use anymore. This effort to downsize for the move helped a little bit, but it really just made us realize how much stuff we really own! I have no idea how we accumulated so much. We'll have another sale when it gets closer to moving time.

Baby Eva is telling me she's hungry so I better go feed her.  ;)  We love you all!

28 weeks with Evalyn Jane

Halfway there, sweet baby!

First off, I'd like to say that we all need to say a prayer for the people in Boston today. I can't believe something like this has happened on US soil again.





Next, we are so proud to announce that Jaxon is going to have a little SISTER! We had an early elective ultrasound done on March 7. The ultrasound tech knew within 30 seconds that we were having a sweet little girl. I cried, of course. Jaxon couldn't have cared less at the time and Jake was overjoyed as well. Here are some pictures we took to announce that baby Evalyn was on the way:

Here are a couple of the ultrasound pictures. None of them are great quality, but we will have more ultrasound pictures in a couple weeks as I have my level 2 ultrasound on April 30.

Well, today marks 20 weeks of pregnancy. That means I'm halfway there to meeting our baby girl and can't believe time has flown by so quickly. Little Miss Evalyn Jane Lester weighs about 10.5 ounces now and is about 10 inches long from head to toe. She is quite the little squirmy wormy in my belly! I started feeling her move around 15 weeks, but I wasn't 100% positive it was her until 16-17 weeks. She is also such a little kicker that Daddy can feel her already!

Jaxon and I visited Jake in Yuma over Easter weekend. He only had Sunday off, but we arrived Saturday evening and left Monday morning. It was great for Jaxon to see Jake again since he had been gone for several weeks at that point. He is due back April 29, just in time for our next ultrasound. Also over Easter weekend I started getting lovely Braxton Hicks contractions. I got them frequently with Jaxon starting around 22ish weeks I believe, but they started earlier this pregnancy.

I signed up to compete in my first race on May 19. It is a 4 mile run over the Coronado Bridge. Once I started training for it, I realized something wasn't right when I went running. My uterus would get so sore and crampy after only a minute or so. It would then be sore the entire next day, sometimes two days- just like a sore muscle would feel like after a workout. I talked to my OB about it and she said that I was going too hard and that I shouldn't be running or jogging anymore. So now I'm back to doing low-impact exercises and will be pushing Jaxon in his stroller on race day.

Still no official word on Japan. We turned in a Naval message to delay our orders since Eva is due right after we're expected to arrive on the Okinawa island. We're hoping it pushes our orders back to December/January time. We will be putting the house up for rent at that time and pray that we find good quality renters and that our house isn't vacant for long.

Mr. Jaxon is such a big boy now. He was 23 lbs 9 ounces and 30 3/4" tall at his 15 month check up. He turned 16 months old yesterday. He is so smart and understand so much of what we're saying. He can follow some simple 2-step instructions too. He is a little behind in his speech. They wanted him to be saying one word other than mama and dada consistently at his 15 month appointment. He still calls everything dada in one form or another. At his 18 month check up if he doesn't have 3 other words besides mama or dada they're going to get a hearing test done and look into some options for us. So far everything is still dada but he is using mama more frequently. No new words besides that, though. Like I said, his comprehension is terrific, he just has trouble with the vocal part of it all. One thing Jaxon is great at is being a big brother! I can ask him where his sister is and he'll lift up my shirt and give my belly a big kiss. Well, lately, he's been blowing raspberries on my belly instead of giving Eva kisses, but I'm sure she loves it either way. He's only got a few more months to practice until she's really here!

I'm planning our first trip to Disneyland. We had it planned out to go in early November, but Jake just got word that he might be back at WTI in the Fall to be an assistant instructor. Hopefully that is not the case because he would be leaving shortly after Eva is born and returning late October, early November. Sometimes I think the military has an evil plan to always keep us separated!

My school is going well. The two classes I'm taking now end in May. I am wanting to take 15 credits this summer to get as much out of the way before Evalyn arrives, but Financial Aid will not be disbursed until July, so I may have to scale back on those 15 credits since we'll be paying out of pocket for them. I'm hoping to graduate in the Spring, as long as I can juggle a toddler, newborn, husband, dogs and a house. It won't be the end of the world if I have to finish up during the summer, but I'd really like to get my Bachelors degree ASAP.

Little Miss Eva and Jaxon both woke up from their naps. I've got one kicking me telling me she's hungry and one standing up in his crib throwing his stuffed animals out in protest. I really will try to keep this updated as much as possible. I'll leave you with a couple pictures. The first is of my belly today with Evalyn and the second is a side-by-side comparison picture of my belly 20 weeks pregnant with Jaxon and Evalyn.

Love and miss you all,
Mommy, Daddy, Jaxon and Eva

SURPRISE!

Jaxon is going to be a BIG BROTHER! Yes, as a surprise to us all, God has blessed us with another bun in the oven. We found out the night of my last blog post, but have been keeping it a secret until we knew baby was healthy and doing well. I'm currently 12 weeks pregnant, as of Monday. I've had one OB appointment and little one has a strong heart beat and looked great during a quick ultrasound. The baby is measuring a full week behind, which is okay. The doctors aren't wanting to change my due date though, so September 2 (or probably earlier) we will be expecting the arrival of a little brother or sister.

Speaking of brother or sister, I'm pretty sure this baby is a boy. So far everything with this pregnancy has been really similar to when I was pregnant with Jaxon. I even crave the same foods: Wheaties and oranges. Yumm! Excuse me while I go fix myself another bowl of cereal. The only thing that has been any different this time around is that I have been breaking out on my face like a teenage boy. I have about the same amount of nausea this time, but I have actually thrown up once this time. So who knows, maybe I am just one of those lucky people who don't really get sick during pregnancy and I am actually having a girl! Jake and I are getting an early elective ultrasound done right before Jake leaves for Yuma, AZ. I'll be 14.5 weeks along during the ultrasound so we're hoping they'll be able to tell us the sex of the baby.

Speaking of Jake, he's going back to Yuma, AZ for WTI in early March. He'll be gone for 7-8 weeks again, but he's hoping he'll be able to come home for Easter weekend and I'm sure Jaxon and I will go out there to visit him again. The new baby will change our orders to Okinawa. It seems like the date we will have to leave is getting pushed back and we're hoping it'll be after the holidays. We are still trying to get our orders cancelled in all though, but so far it's not looking like that's going to happen. We'll be sure to keep you updated on everything.

Now onto big brother Jaxon!! He is growing like a weed! I'm guessing he weighs about 24-25 pounds but I'm not sure how tall he is. He is finally WALKING too! He is almost done crawling 100% but every once in a while he'll fall when he walks then just continue to his destination by crawling. He's already trying to run and we have to constantly remind him to slow down or he's really going to hurt himself. He already loves his baby sibling so much too. We can ask him where his baby is and he'll rub his belly. We'll then ask him, "Where is Mommy's baby?" and he'll kiss my belly and lay his head down on it. He's so stinkin' cute! He is still babbling away and talks all the time. He says dada, mama, bye bye and ni-ni (for night night). He still calls many things dada consistently too, like the doggies are both 'da' or 'dada' and he likes to dip his food into ranch, bbq sauce, ketchup, etc... and he calls the dipping sauce 'dada' too. He understands so much of what we say it's crazy. "Hey Jaxon, go let Lucy inside" and he'll walk over to the door where he can see Lucy on the other side and bang on it trying to let her in. We are very proud of the little boy he is becoming and the BIG personality he has already.

I'm sorry I don't update as often as I used to. It's hard work keeping up with Jaxon, taking college classes and keeping the house looking decent with the dogs and toddler. I'll try and do my best to keep you all in the loop through the blog.

Talk to you all soon,

Love,
Mommy, Daddy, Jaxon and Baby

I'm ONE!

Sorry for such a hiatus from my blog. It's been pretty crazy around here lately. My "little" boy turned one in December and now is almost 13 months! He has done nothing but bring joy to our lives this last year and I can't wait to see what this upcoming year has in store for us.

At Jaxon's one year appointment he weighed 22 pounds 3 ounces. He finally grew too! He was 30.5" long which is a huge sigh of relief since he was "stuck" at 28 inches for many months.

We're still working on Jaxon being able to stand by himself. He gets jello legs when you hold him up to stand and he just refuses to try. I think he's just perfectly content with crawling and he's going to stick with that for a while. Jaxon did say Mama a total of 3 times now! Everything is still Dada around here. He primarily says Dada and Ya. He understands what we say to him but he just isn't good at communicating back with us. He does finally have down the ASL sign for "all done", which is what he'll do when he's done eating and sometimes he'll do it during bath time. All we can do is continue working with him and hopefully he picks up some more words, or at least sign language soon.

I want to thank you all for such a successful birthday party! Jaxon had a blast and the pictures prove it! His airplane theme turned out so fun and I'm glad so many family members and friends were able to attend. I'll add pictures to the blog down at the bottom.

Well, it seems as if Jake's orders for Japan are here to stay. It'll be a crazy, stressful, fun, and overwhelming time in our life. We're set to leave in August and be in Okinawa for 3 years. Jake does get 30 days of leave before we're supposed to check into his unit, so we'll be home in July for at least a couple weeks. I am extremely nervous about a 15+ hour plane ride with an 18 month old. Hopefully he sleeps most of the time and realizes he can't get up and run around.

I should find out if I'm accepted into nursing school here within a couple weeks! So if by some fat chance we don't end up going to Japan I'll be able to go to nursing school here. I plan on getting an online Psychology degree while we're in Okinawa and then when we come back to the States I can attend an accelerated nursing program. (fingers crossed that that plan works out)

On a totally different note, Jake and I are remodeling our kitchen! We bought new kitchen cabinets and granite countertops this past weekend. Hopefully install will happen later this week. We're so excited to spruce up our old, outdated, damaged kitchen and ugly tile countertops. I will definitely post before and after pictures after renovation is complete. We also are installing new flooring for our whole downstairs. We also bought that yesterday. Jake is installing that himself, so it'll be more than just a weekend project. I'm so excited to have more countertop space and more storage in our kitchen!!

I'll end this post with some pictures from our trip home and Jaxon's birthday party. Thanks for hosting us, KC!

Until we see you again,
Alycia, Jake and Jaxon