Baby news!

Here is the most recent picture of our new little one!  We had the ultrasound this morning and found out we are having another girl!  It was really cute, for nearly the entire ultrasound she had her feet over her head.  Finally as the lady was about to wrap things up our little missy straightened out a bit which gave us a couple more minutes of getting to see her, which was wonderful!  I think we got a little more of a clear profile shot with Jordan but we will be having another ultrasound in 8 weeks so I'm hoping for some more pictures then too!  

This of course is a picture of little ol' pregnant me.  I was thinking at first that it is weird that my belly is smaller the second time around but then realized that the first time I had a slow desk job in which I could sit and eat to my hearts content but now I just don't think about food nearly as much as I did during my desk job days (I weighed more on a regular, non-pregnant basis when I worked there too) and I think that is pretty much what the difference is.  I could certainly be wrong.  

Dancing Baby

I LOVE feeling my baby move inside of me.  I know by the end of pregnancy I could be very tired of it if this one is anything like Jordan, who would really get to wiggling as soon as I'd lay down for bed at night and who would catch the hiccups what felt like at least twice a day but for the time being I am loving every second of it.  To be quite honest, after having a miscarriage in March (this may come as a big surprise to many of you as we only shared with very few close friends and relatives) I really faced major ups and downs.  I never realized the roller coaster ride that I would face after a miscarriage.  I'd always felt for women before who had lost a baby but never totally grasped the pain they were experiencing until I went through it myself and man was it a struggle.  Even after getting pregnant two months later, I still dealt with the pain and suffering.  I had a hard time getting excited over this baby, plus I wouldn't allow myself to get excited the times that I wanted to until I had reached the second trimester.  But even after being three months into pregnancy I still struggled with my emotions because I had told myself for so long NOT to get excited just in case we lost this one too that it was very difficult to reverse those feelings.  But it seemed as though all those feelings were wiped away once I felt my baby move.  It all finally felt real and I can finally get to know my baby by learning this little one's movements and actions.  I've been feeling the baby for about a month now and each week the movements get stronger and stronger as my little one grows and I'm loving this baby more and more with each movement.  I will never forget the baby that we lost and I will grieve as the due date comes and goes next month but God has His hand on everything that touches our lives and He has provided us with two wonderful blessings of children that we will celebrate our entire lives with.  This Wednesday we get to see our new little one during it's second photo session!  I am so excited to see the little one during our ultrasound.  I'll be sharing pictures hopefully Wednesday afternoon and if we can I'll also post the video of the ultrasound too.

Two quick stories

-Jordan grunts just about every time she bends over to sit down or to pick something up...please tell me I don't do this!

-Tonight at bedtime I was sitting beside Jordan's bed reading her a book.  She "sneakily" puts her blanket over my head and then throws herself back to lay on her pillow and closes her eyes as if to say "I didn't do it!  I've been laying here sleeping the whole time!"  Once I started laughing (because, seriously, how could you NOT laugh at that?!) she busts up laughing super hard.  She has become SUCH a goofball lately and I LOVE it!

Craft time

I got this awesome "craft" idea from the Childhood 101 blog a couple weeks ago and stored it in the back of my mind.  Luckily for Jordan we had to make a trip to Joann's Fabric last Friday for something else and I remembered to pick up some pipe cleaners while we were there for this fun project.

This has become a great way to keep Jordan entertained while I am busy cooking dinner!  Which is always a major blessing!!  I showed her how to slip the beads onto the pipe cleaners, she discovered that she could also bend the ends sticking out and poke them through the holes on top of the container and Daddy loosened the lid and showed her that if she put beads inside and put the lid back on and shook it that it makes a fun noise!  There are so many things that she can do with this project and that means it keeps her entertained for that much longer and who can complain about that?!

Here she is proud of her work and pointing to make sure I see and take a picture.

Bed time story

The other day I was making dinner in the kitchen when Jordan managed to grab the Frosted Mini Wheats off the table.  She brought the box to the kitchen with me, sat down and started chowing.  Then a couple minutes later I realized she was no longer in the kitchen with me nor were the mini wheats.  I went searching for them both and this is where I found them, laying in Jordan's bed.  I laughed, took several pictures then told her she can't have food in her room and took it away.  Such a funny moment.

Speaking of Jordan's bed, we found an awesome deal on a toddler bed back at the beginning of spring.  At the time she was much too little to make the switch from crib to bed so we'd been storing it.  Well with another little one on the way we decided now is the time to make the switch as we want to give her plenty of time to adjust.  We wanted her old room to become the baby's room because it is closer to our bedroom so we packed up all my crafting supplies that was in the spare room and hauled it to another room (which is where it still rests in piles and piles) about a month and a half ago.  I got her things all moved over and her new room situated.  She loved the room to play in all throughout the day but when it came time to actually sleeping in there she wanted nothing to do with it!  Realizing that we still have plenty of time, I didn't force it.  I'd ask her before laying her down where she wanted to sleep and she'd always tease me and run to her new bed and hop in only to then jump up and run down the hall to her old room and want in her crib.  I was dreading the day we would actually have to dive in and make her sleep there, but I really should not have dreaded it at all!  Last week a friend of mine asked me to watch her two daughters, ages 2 and 5.  Jordan LOVES and admires big kids especially GIRLS!  So when all the kids laid down at nap time the youngest slept in Jordan's toddler bed and Jordan knew it.  So the rest of the day I kept reminding her at random that Savannah had slept in her big girl bed.  When nighttime rolled around that night I laid Jordan down in her big girl bed again reminding her that Savannah had slept there.  Jordan wanting to be just like those girls (which I have no problem with because they are wonderful examples for her) slept there ALL night long!  And she's been happy to sleep in it every nap and bedtime ever since!  Thanks girls for doing the dirty work for me!  Now I need you to come back over to teach Jordan how to go potty!  ;)

Tomato lover

(18 months) 

(11 months)

My girl LOVES tomatoes, probably more than any other food she has tasted.  Whenever she sees them anywhere, be it the grocery store, garden or kitchen counter, she immediately starts signing please and if I tell her she can't have one she has a minor meltdown.  I've learned that if I really do not want her having a tomato then I need to hide them completely out of her sight.  I had about seven tomato plants in the garden this year.  Every time we stepped foot in the back yard, straight to the garden she would go and start picking any tomato within her reach.  And if I tried to stop her because I didn't want tomato guts on her clothes she'd take off running!  I should be happy that it's something so good for her that she loves so much and I am I just wish tomatoes weren't so messy!  One day we had come in from picking an armful of tomatoes and I had set them on the counter.  I guess they were a little too close to the edge because I couldn't find Jordan so I set out to her "secret" hiding spot, the dark corner at the end of the hall in front of the bathroom and there she was tomato in hand as soon as she saw me she took off and we had a wild goose chase around the house until I finally caught her and put her in her chair at the table with a bib.  She cracks me up!

Every time she sees I have the camera she immediately starts following me around the house because she wants to see all the pictures I've taken of her (she loves looking at herself!) so it can be a challenge sometimes to get pictures of her in her natural habitat.  This day she trapped me against the wall and I was running out of floor to back up so I could continue snapping pictures so I leaned against the window sill in the dining room and was taking pictures from that angle.  It must have looked fun because Jordan comes to stand in front of the window, turns around so her back is to it and then starts backing up until her little tush hit the wall and she was standing just like I was.

And this picture here I just think is goofy.  She had finished her tomato and had juice all over her face and was trying so hard to get to the camera so she could see the pictures I had been taking the whole time she'd been chowing down.

drawing with Nana

Sometimes to keep Jordan occupied for a little while I give her a huge pad of paper and one crayon, but I kept finding that it never actually would entertain her for long.  I usually like to write her name and date at the top and finally realized that there were always more scribbles around that than anywhere else on the paper.  That really got the wheels turning so I got down and drew several pictures on her pad of paper and that seemed to make her happy.  She colored every picture I drew (duh!  I really should have thought of this sooner!)!

Later the same afternoon that I made this discovery, Nana came over.  Jordan showed her the coloring she had done and wanted Nana to color with her.  Nana is a wonderful artist and drew an entire scene for her!  She loved and still loves it!  She will pull out the pad and just look at that picture signing everything she sees.

I just love the way she is laying while they draw and color together!  Jordan has found this new position and lays like this all the time nowadays.  One day I looked over and she had somehow figured out how to get the graham crackers off the table (ha!  I know exactly how!  This kid is such a climber these days.) and was laying on the floor like this with her snack, watching a movie.

That reminds me, we have recently begun letting her watch movies (Sesame Street) and while we have major restrictions as far as how much she can watch, it has become a major life saver!  Jordan is quite a quality time girl and wants my constant attention all day long.  I have tried many other approaches but so far nothing has been too successful.  But this movie watching thing has really come in handy!  I can actually step over the gate to do laundry without her having a meltdown on the other side!  I am now able to make dinner without a little girl pulling and crying at my ankles!  Sometimes I can even sit on the couch and get a tiny refresher of a nap or even some reading done in a book!  It's amazing!

Blueberry girl

My friend Amanda made an AWESOME blueberry pie for our Bible study one night a couple months ago.  Normally I do not like pie, much less fruit pie but this was amazing.  Actually I quite LOVE pecan pie, but other than that I'm not a pie lover.  I got the recipe which turns out to be Pioneer Woman's blueberry pie recipe in case any of you out there in bloggie world are interested.  The best thing about this pie is she allows the blueberries to do all the work.  There is no more than two tablespoons of sugar in it and barely any other ingredients to get in the way so it ends up being this really healthy pie and that easily gives me the excuse to eat it for breakfast!  In fact all three of us here in the house have eaten it for breakfast!  Jordan thought it was wonderful and ate nearly two pieces!

She obviously made quite the mess and even got some in her hair, but it is hard NOT to when they're hanging in your eyes so much!  We are growing her bangs out but it is quite the process, let me tell you!   On a completely different note, Jordan just saw this picture as I'm writing and is now wiping her face with her hand to show that she had a messy face and is laughing as she does it.

One more story.  Jordan was sick for about a month with mostly diarrhea but there was some nausea as well.  By the end of it she weighed less than she did 3 1/2 months prior at her 15 month check up.  It was awful for both of us but I cannot imagine what she was going through.  Especially seeing her now that she is all better, her goofy little personality has come back and she seems to be laughing and giggling all the time nowadays.  It makes me feel even worse for her being sick after seeing this major change in her personality.

Picture overload!

I have not posted on here in such a long time (besides the giveaway).  I'm sure you didn't need me saying that for any of you to have noticed!  I am planning a picture overload since it has been such a long time so be prepared!  I haven't for surely decided yet whether it will be a series of posts with all related pictures together or if I trust myself enough to go that route; I'm afraid if I do that I won't get much farther than two posts!  Regardless of how they come I'm sure you'll all be happy with SOME type of post from me!  I do not have any belly pictures yet; for some reason I have not gotten around to taking any with this one but one of these days I will do a side by side comparison with my belly now and my belly when I was pregnant with Jordan.  AND in two weeks from today we have our ultrasound!  Hopefully we will be able to find out what we are having!  If not, I'm not quite as concerned as I was with Jordan.  With her I felt like I just NEEDED to know and prayed and prayed that it would be clear.  This one, I just don't feel the urgency to know.  It's so strange how very similar the pregnancies are but how different my mindset is!  

My grandma gave this adorable hat to Jordan for Christmas last year but she hasn't really gotten a lot of use out of it until now....for a couple of reasons.  One, her hair was too short and it just looked kind of silly, but now that her hair is getting longer it looks absolutely adorable on her!  Her hair has some natural wave to it that just flows perfectly out of the hat.  I love it!  And two, she was terrible about pulling out all the ribbons and I couldn't get her to stop!  Now she is old enough to explain why she should not do so and if she does that there will be consequences.  It's great!

The winner!!

It's time to announce the winner of the Macaroni Grill prize package!  I selected the winner using a random number generator at random.org and the number selected is......commenter number seven!  Amanda, that's you!  I have sent you an email letting you know as well.

Thank you everyone for playing!