the five of us (kinda)

Pretty much the minute we found out we were expecting, I called Christian and said we needed to take family pictures very soon. This is my fourth pregnancy and from my previous two pregnancies, I know my baby belly pops out the moment that test turns positive (my uterus has already been stretched out a lot). I wanted pretty pictures to mark this sweet season when we were just five (though I am actually 6 weeks pregnant in these pictures).

We loved all the pictures and I think Christian captured this season so perfectly! Can see tons more here.

I am heading into my tenth week of pregnancy, feeling as crappy as ever, but God is still oh so good! We are overjoyed by this blessing, though my initial feeling did include shock at the idea of having 4 kids, 5 years old and under. Can you believe it?!

I still have a couple more weeks until I am out of the first trimester and I hope that this vomiting, tiredness, nasty taste in my mouth, and constantly nauseous self will leave as soon as the second trimester hits! Hoping and praying. My house is a mess (as you have seen) and I lie in bed almost all day while the girls play around me. I hate being around food cause most of it stinks and I have made Ben do runs for barbeque ribs, in-n-out, wings, chinese food, strawberry ice cream, kfc, pollo loco, and whole lot of other things that I normally wouldn't eat. I miss being normal, but I am very glad for the baby cooking inside me!

This is for sure our last. We have no aspirations to go for a fifth (4 is it and we will make sure no more oopsies happen!). Emotionally, mentally, and physically four is all we can handle. I am going to enjoy this pregnancy (once it gets fun) as much as I can. I can't wait to officially look pregnant (the belly has no doubt popped) and not just look like I ate a lot of dinner. I can't wait to feel the baby. I can't wait to find out the gender. Most especially, I can't wait to have a name.

To keep things interesting this time around, only Ben and I will find out the gender, but we won't be telling until the baby is born! It will no doubt be a hard secret to keep. I know most think we automatically want that boy, but honestly we have no strong desire one way or the other. Ben was never one of those "I need my boy kinda guys" and actually the idea of a boy makes us nervous because it is uncharted territory. On the other hand, having a little boy that looked just like Ben would be quite dreamy. Ben was a really cute kid!!! Boy or girl, we are just excited at this new blessing!

Thanks for going along this journey with us. We are blessed by all of you and your very warm welcome at this new season of change we are going through. We know right now it will be a whole lot of crazy raising 4 kids so close in age. Their teenage years will look like this... 13, 15, 17, & 18 year old. Oh boy! It will be chaos no doubt, but it will be a whole lot of fun too! We will definitely need extra grace, extra strength, and extra patience, extra a lot of stuff, but good thing I have a God that freely supplies all of that!

and cause some of you have asked...

on ben: shirt, american apparel. bow tie, forage. jeans, diesel. shoes, kenneth cole. belt, vintage.

on me: dress, vintage from here. shoes, vintage. belt, thrifted. hair, my sister did it.

on true: dress, vintage. shoes, siaomimi via gilt. bow, my trim stash.

on brave: dress, vintage. shoes, vintage.

on soul: dress, vintage. shoes, vintage. hair clip, cakies.

props: umbrellas, vintage. cameras, vintage.

* all pictures taken by christian cruz (having a photographer dating my sister is kinda nice). he can take your picture too, he did danni's. her wedding is finally being shared on her blog and design*sponge.