better together | ethma

Twenty

Emma
Four Months Later (September)

The whole summer was a blast. Ethan and I had a lot of fun with the girls.

We took a lot of family trips to the beach, spent some time with Grayson, Alex and Maeve, and Ethan and I toured some houses.

I think we found the one.

It's in the same neighborhood as Lisa and Sean's house, and it has four bedrooms.

Ethan loved it, I loved it, and Tenley loved it too. Taytum just squealed at the sight of the huge backyard. I was happy that it had a fence.

The house has a finished basement, brand new kitchen and bathrooms, and the master bedroom has its own walk-in closet and an amazing master bath.

There's a family room, a living room, and an amazing study. There's three full bathrooms and one half bath.

So, after some conferring, Ethan and I made an offer on the new house. The real estate company called us the next day with an approval.

Taytum has been growing like crazy, starting to learn different words and connect them to the meanings. Mama and dada are huge in her vocabulary, and baba for bottle, ba for ball, hi and bye-bye are also in her collection. She also says no, yeah and nye-nye for night-night. She also has six teeth, and she can pull herself up to a standing position. She's finally nine months now, and Ethan and I just started trying for another baby last week.

Grayson and Alex were a huge help in packing up everything we own and moving it to the new house, and Ethan and Grayson even painted and decorated both of the girls' rooms, and the master bedroom.

They did an amazing job.

After we were settled in the new house, we put our old house on the listings, and we had our real estate agent show it.

It sold within two days. Ethan and Grayson made some last minute repairs to some things before we put it up for sale, so it was worth quite a bit.

Tenley started second grade, and her dance season has started.

Ethan and I are both working from home, so it's given us a lot of time to settle into our new house and figuring out where to put things, and how to organize.

We also baby proofed the house because of how mobile Taytum is becoming. Crawling like crazy, and starting to stand up, holding onto things like the coffee table as she practices walking means she can reach random things now, and she gets into drawers. So we baby proofed.

I didn't expect to get pregnant so fast after we started trying because of how long it took to get pregnant with Taytum, but two weeks after the first time we tried the test was positive.

The biggest coincidence was that night when Grayson texted Ethan saying that Alex is pregnant.

Ethan called him right away to tell him about the test we just took. They found out a week ago, so the baby cousins might be only a few days apart.

We waited a few weeks to tell everyone, waiting until my first appointment before sharing our news.

I was two months along during our 2nd wedding anniversary, and we decided to share our news at Thanksgiving.

We put a big sister shirt on Taytum, and waited for everyone to notice. Of course Lisa was the first one to notice, and then the news was officially stated by Ethan.

From the way I've been feeling, I'm guessing that we're having another little girl because it feels almost the same as it did when I was carrying Taytum.

Ethan thinks it's a girl too, because—and I quote— "You look and smell the same as you did when you were having Taytum."

I've been having similar cravings, and when Ethan and I were laying in bed one day, he licked my neck and told me that I taste the same as I did when I was having Taytum. I just laughed and told him that he's a goofball.

The baby is healthy, and is due in July of next year.

We celebrated Tenley's seventh birthday by having a small little celebration at our house with her best friends from dance, and a few of her friends from school. Plus some family.

In December, we found out that we are indeed having another girl, and we kept our idea of naming our third child Reese.

Her name will be Reese Elizabeth.

Reesey girl is what we've been calling her.

We celebrated Taytum's first birthday, having a fun little family celebration at our house for her.

She's walking now, which has kept me busy, but Ethan and I are still working from home, so he's been able to help chase her around the house.

Luckily Lisa and Sean have been watching the girls about once a week, so Ethan and I have been able to enjoy date nights together.

We've been super happy lately, and being pregnant again has made us super excited.

Alex and Grayson found out that they're having a boy, so there's gonna be a little guy to protect all of the girl cousins.

Ethan and I can't picture what it would be like to have a boy because we're both so used to taking care of girls.

It's so cute how he's so proud to have all girls. He still wears his 'girl dad' shirt all the time.

Christmas went by and Ethan and I spent money on what we need for the new baby instead of getting gifts for each other.

We got an abundance of toys for Taytum, and we got Tenley a television for her room.

We also got Tenley some toys that she wanted, and some new dance attire, and she was really happy at what 'Santa' brought for her.

Ethan and Grayson built a playhouse in the backyard for the girls, and I helped make it super cute.

We made it safe enough for Taytum to play in, but also cool enough for Tenley to be interested  in hanging out in there.

In all, the last few months have gone by in a whirlwind, and everything is going exactly how it should.

At the end of the day, I love the feeling of Ethan's arms around me, always keeping me warm, and one of his hands always shielding the small baby in my stomach.

It blows my mind that it's been nine years since Ethan and I met, and now we're married with two kids and one on the way.

Don't settle. Always go for what you know you deserve, and if you manifest the life you want, you'll get it.

I thank my lucky stars that I never gave up on us, and that Ethan didn't either.

It brought us the beautiful life that we're living together, and I couldn't be more grateful.