Standing on the Edge

The year of Avery has come. As I write, it's Epiphany, which is the day of the church year where we celebrate the presence of the baby Jesus being made known to the world. And I can't help but think about our baby girl, Ms. Avery Kathleen, who is probably doing gymnastics in her mommy's belly.

This pregnancy has been unusual in every facet and measurable statistic.

Avery is super active, especially at night. She likes the low tones of my voice and will kick the very spot that I spoke from. A few weeks ago she kicked me right in the mouth. She moves a lot, sticking out body parts and sometimes pushing her butt to the back of Ashley's belly button.

Other notes of difference, aside from being the girl we've been waiting for:

Ashley's heartburn level has been high the whole pregnancy, and her nausea is higher too. She still can't look at chicken the way she did pre-pregnancy.
Avery is the first child of ours to be born in North Carolina.
Avery is most active at night
Avery is carried mostly in the front, people comment to Ashley that the cannot tell she is pregnant from behind.
Ashley feels huge. She almost won't let me take any more pictures, (even though we both know it can't be worse than when she was pregnant with Jacob)
Ashley is smaller overall except in the front.
Avery seems to be carried high compared to the boys.
Avery has two older brothers, one, who is today 5 3/4 (he told me when we were waiting for the bus) who will almost definitely remember bringing his sister home. And Thomas, who just turned 3, is nesting. We bought Avery a bassinet last week off of craigslist, and when Thomas saw it, and every day since, he says, "I like Avery's bunk bed"

Needless to say, we are all excited to meet her.

I was meeting with Pastor Rinn last week who said it best, "I know you love your boys, but just wait"
A little girl is a blessing I've never known. And I can't wait.

Ashley and I also talk a lot about how exciting it will be to have a completed family. A family of five has always been our dream, soon to be realized. We feel so blessed. From the support of the families and friends we know that love abounds.

What else can I tell you? Ashley loves her job working at the WIC Clinic in Mocksville. Things are going great at the church.

Jacob is smart and sassy. On one hand he will impress with his reading skills- he learned to read in about three months of Kindergarten and is exceptional at it. His real love though is math where he is usually working on math in his head and asking to learn more. He has his first piano practice this afternoon. He plays basketball at the Y and enjoys that too. For all his smarts, his common sense seams to be pushed to the back burner. He does things that he 'forgets' will get him in trouble and he doesn't know when to give up on an argument he's losing. But he's getting there. He has a lawyer's persona much of the time.

Thomas is classically three. Fun and hilarious, snuggily and imaginative, and then seconds later throwing a tantrum because he hates wearing a coat or using the bathroom or he wants dessert at 2pm. He got Spiderman pajamas that have webs sown between the arms and the torso, and he wears it every night. He loves to play superheros and he loves to sing. Sometimes they are songs we know, and sometimes he makes them up on the spot.

All told, we're one big, happy family. We have much to be excited about in 2014. We will strive to keep this blog going in order to better get our thoughts down and track swiftly-moving time. Love to all.

23 weeks and Perez Family!

The Fair

Last week after school we went on an all boys trip to the Dixie Classic Fair here in Winston Salem. The boys enjoyed seeing the animals, riding the swings, the giant slide, and having their first funnel cake! They slept well that night!

The

Jacob the Kindergartner

Here's a video of Jacob's site words that he can read!

14.5 weeks

As promised, here's pictures of Ashley and baby. 

And just for fun 

Pictures of Summer

What have we been up to? 

Hmm. We bought a house in April, and closed May 20th. Then we went to Tennessee to be with the Pughs from far a wide. That week Thomas went to the Hospital for asthma. We've got that hospital visit down to a science. He has now visited ERs in four different states. The doctors gave us some new medication-this time for allergies, which we think was the trigger for this flare-up. He handles everything like a trooper. He is so. darn. cute. 

Here he is in Green Pond, NJ on the Fourth of July, spraying the smoked ribs with apple juice. 

Here he is carrying his minion to the movie theater to see Despicable Me II. This movie and its minions have been a large part of our summer.

We moved into our new house on May 26th. Unbeknownst to us, Ashley was already pregnant! She is currently 13 weeks. I will make sure to take a picture of her belly and the sonogram for a post later this week.

Here big brothers Jacob and Thomas stand by the "12 week" model of a fetus at the Science Museum.



After Grayson Camp, Ali camp, Pa camp, Science camp, and Daddy camp, the boys were ready for Vacation Bible School. Jacob once chided his fellow campers for not paying attention during rehearsal.


A great part of the summer was spending time with world-famous uncle Luke! Here we are getting Fro-Yo.




Ashley also started a new job in May. She is the Nutritionist at the WIC Clinic in Mocksville, NC which is about 30 minutes from our new house. She loves her job, the work that she does, and the people she works with.

Since she just started, she got no time for vacation- so we made time. On July 20th we took the whole weekend to visit Ashley's BFF from high school Ashley Eckert and her parents, who spoiled us all. Here is Jacob, Thomas, Kennedy (Ashley E's daughter) and Ashley.




So happy to take a brief vacation together.



On August 1st, I traveled to Chicago for the Justice for Women consulting committee meeting. I asked KD and John and Eric and Megan if any of them could make the 3 hour drive to the city- and they all did. Here's a picture of my favorite little Roman drinking chocolate milk. It made her well- happy.




Here his her little sister, Berkeley, with her momma.

Last week we decided that the boys were growing up too fast, so we started a "measuring wall" The top mark was where Jacob was, right above 3ft. Thomas, the wonder-boy who weights the same at 2.5 as he did at 8 months, took a while to measure due to squirming and trying to get an accurate reading through all his hair. 

Now that Little Pugh is on the way, I'll make sure that we blog more regularly. This has been Ashley's venue in the past, and will be again once she's up for it, but between her job and being pregnant and the boys, she's beat. She has fallen asleep every night this week on the couch before 10pm. In general, she feels pretty good. She's had some cravings lately, which are a good sign. For a while nothing sounded good for dinner. Now that she's in the second trimester (13 weeks as of this posting), the nausea has dissipated somewhat. The heartburn ( like with the other kids) is still there. She is showing, and i'll take a picture soon, but hasn't gained much weight. 

The next sonogram (with potential to know the sex of the baby) is September 13th. Little Pugh is due on Valentines Day, 2014.  

Ashley is such a joy to be parent with. Her knowledge of motherhood is vast and deep, her understanding and ease of caring for our two boys is uncanny. 

I am excited to enter this phase of life one last time, looking to the miracle of birth to count my blessings on those little fingers and toes. More soon!

Journey South

After Holy week, all 4 of us were itching for a chance to get refreshed following the eventful season of Lent and Easter. We loaded up and headed to GA for a night with Emily and Josh, then to Mississippi to visit our beloved Chase, Steven, and baby Wake (just about 8 wks old at our visit). While the camera was never where it needed to be to catch the 'good stuff', there are a few nuggets.

Things I learned on our trip:
-We have amazing friends and family.
-Seeing anyone transition to parenthood is so special and being able to visit Steven and Chase (seriously, having a family with 2 young kids come stay at your house when your firstborn is 8 wks, WOW) was something we 4 are so grateful worked-out.  Little Wake is getting some awesome love.
-And last but not least: I get way more stressed-out with 2 noisy, curious, sweet but rambunctious boys when I'm overly aware of every single move they make. As in the case of not being at home. Whew.

On APril 6th Jacob turned 5! We'll do a devoted post on that sweet boy.

On April 7th my sisters(Emily on the left, Grayson on my right) and I ran the tough mudder. It was 11 miles and 25 obstacles. It was the muddiest location that they do...and it. was. epic.  'Ma' was our cheerleader and photographer; the spectators didn't really get to see the mud as it was all in the woods. We army crawled through mud and under barbed-wire, we ran through dangling electrically-charged wires, and we climbed over 8' tall walls.  And we bruised, we laughed, and we showered several times before the water ran clean.

Pre-mudder

Mid-mudder

Tough Mudders!

 I would absolutely do it again- gotta have a team, though. Gotta love my Chellax team.

That's just about catching us up on life!