Prayers Needed

Please pray for my grandmother as she is nearing the end of her life. Grandma has put up a tough fight with her cancer, but it has finally caught up with her. Luckily she is resting comfortably, which is good. The nurses put her on oxygen this morning to help make her more comfortable. Matt and I were able to see her for a few minutes this weekend, and even though the moments of lucidity were short, I was able to tell her how much I loved her, and she reciprocated again and again. Oh how that made my heart swell with joy.

Please pray she continues to be comfortable and that my family can get through these difficult next few days/weeks.

Recent Happenings

It's time for an update! Here is what has been going on with us:

• I feel GREAT! Nausea has ended completely, and I finally feel good and energized! Woo-hoo!
• Our little peanut moves around A LOT. I forgot how wonderful it was to feel that little human being inside of me. Matt felt her for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I love being able to share that feeling with someone else too.
• Our little girl has a name: Macy. We love it. I hope you do too.
• Potty training has been hard core around here, and I am pleased to say that it's going exceptionally well. Abby stayed dry for 12 hours yesterday (even during school, which I was so proud of!) and she has been initiating more potty time, so that's great. It doesn't hurt that she has a Pretty Pink Princess Potty that plays a royal tune every time she goes. :)

Here is our little girl, all smiles.
We have taken advantage of the beautiful weather and hit up the park. Here is Abby cheesing it up before going down the slide. And here she is with her pal Ava, swinging. Oh to be two again!

One of Abby's favorite things to do: blow bubbles!

Our little Sweet Pea!Abby and I ventured to Longview for five days during Spring Break, and we had a WONDERFUL TIME! We got to spend real quality time with all of our family, which was the best. On Monday of Spring Break, we traveled to Mrs. Lee's Daffodil Garden in Gladewater for some picture opportunities. Here we are. With the famAbby and Nana


Abby's obsession with all things Princess continues, and she is fascinated with marriage and weddings. I promised her that while at BeBe and Pops' house, she could try on my veil. Here's our pretty little future bride (hopefully not TOO soon though!) :)
Abby with her new Stick Horse, Major. Thanks, Nana and Papa and Cracker Barrel! :)

OK, I'm off to get this little rugrat in bed. Wish me luck! :) Enjoy this beautiful weather! :)

It's a Girl!

We had our big sonogram this morning, and our Little Peanut was revealed to be a girl! Funny thing is that with Abby, it took her a while to cooperate, but this morning, we discovered her gender in the first 60 seconds. And more importantly, she is a healthy, active (go figure!), wiggly, perfectly beautiful little bundle of girl joy.

Poor Matt has always been surrounded by girls. Me, Abby, our dogs Millie and Winnie... and now our Little Peanut. I think he's already thinking about taking out a loan just to afford two daughters! :) When it hit him that he'd have to pay for two weddings, my dad gave him a piece of advice: "One word: Elopement." All joking aside, we are thrilled to add a healthy baby girl to our family. We are planning on telling Abby tonight. I can't wait to reveal the exciting news to her too. And I think she is going to be the greatest big sister!! Abby is so loving, sweet, compassionate, and as many of know, quite a rascal and independent at times, all qualities a Big Sister should possess. And while I am super thrilled that we'll be adding some more estrogen to this house, Matt is already talking about his need for a Man Cave. Hey babe, I think it's going to be the garage. Nothing better than drinking a Budweiser, playing darts, right?

She weighs about 10 ounces and is 7.6 inches long. Here are some pics from this morning. Seeing our little girl on that screen was such a reminder of how miraculous all of this really is. Do you ever feel blessed beyond belief?

Belly Shot!

Here is proof that I'm actually pregnant. My Baby Bump seemed to get progressively bigger over the past week, and for the first time, I feel like I actually look pregnant.

Here's me at 5 weeks:
And here's me today, at 17 weeks. Am I starting to look pregnant? I must admit, though, that my belly has been known in the past to swell to this size after a particularly good meal at On The Border. :) Only this time, it's full of amniotic fluid and not chips and salsa.

Thank goodness for finally feeling good and actually starting to look pregnant. When I was pregnant with Abby, it amazed me at how nice strangers were to me. Doors were held open, people smiled, etc. I, however, also walked into a lot of doors and seemed to get more forgetful as the weeks continued on. Hmmm. The highs and lows of expecting! :)

One thing that I absolutely love is that Abby is obsessed with my growing belly. She'll look at it and proclaim excitedly, "Your tummy!!!!! It's getting bigger!!!!" And she likes to lift up my shirt and "pet" the baby or kiss my belly. My heart swells with joy. Except when she tries to lift up my shirt in front of people. Not so cool. We're still working on concepts like "appropriate" and "privacy" at our house. :)

Only 10 more days until we find out the sex! We can't wait!!! I'm off to snack. :)

A night with Kids

A Typical Night BEFORE KIDS:

11:00pm-Go to bed. Head hits pillow. I'm out.
7:00- Alarm goes off. Slept like a baby all night.

Our Night Last Night:

11:00pm-Go to bed. Head hits pillow. I'm out. Looking forward to getting a solid eight hours of sleep.
3:00am- Wake up to Abby yelling, "Daddyyyyyy! Daddyyyyyy!" quite nonchalantly, I might add. I get up. Discover she has wet all over the bed. Awesome!
3:05- Diaper, PJ, and blanket change.
3:07- Abby informs me that she's "done going night night." I beg to differ, and the battle begins.
3:09-Abby requests a reading of The Three Little Pigs, to which I respond a resounding NO! The tears flow.
3:10- We rock. And rock and rock and rock. Girlfriend seems to be wide awake. My eyelids are getting heavier and heavier.
3:20- Success! She's almost asleep, but she re-requests The Three Little Pigs. We compromise: she can sleep with it in her bed. Matter resolved. Whew.
3:21- She's back in bed. A hug and a kiss later, I'm out the door. But not for long...
3:21:30- I'm not two steps out her door before she starts crying that she wants her Mickey Mouse doll in bed with her. Of course! Why didn't I think of that?!
3:22-4:05-I am now in bed, awake, and can't go back to sleep. Good times.
4:16- Abby sneezes. Loudly.
4:16:30- "Mommmmmmmy!" I go in her room. "I need to wipe my nose!"
4:17-I wipe her nose. A hug and a kiss later, I am out the door.
4:18-Back in bed, I finally fall back asleep. Woo-hoo! However, I will soon discover it is short-lived.
5:00- "Mommmmy! Mommmmmy!" This time, Matt gets up. Poor guy only has 60 minutes left before his alarm goes off!
5:02- Matt returns. Apparently Abby had lost her Bobby blanket. Crisis averted, thanks to good ol' Dad!
5:03- We're all back to sleep. Thank goodness. I still have two hours of good sleep ahead of me before my alarm goes off.
6:00- Fussing again. You've got to be kidding me! Matt jumps up, to which I say, "Be nice! Be nice!" (Not that he wouldn't be, but at 6:00 and being awakened three times already, it's always nice to have a friendly reminder, right?!) :)
6:03- Matt returns. "What did she want now?" I asked. Matt responds, "SHE WANTED A FREAKIN' CHEESEBURGER!" Seriously, folks. Matt doesn't bother getting back into bed. His day has begun. Poor guy. No rest for the weary. The shower turns on. I finally fall back asleep.
7:00- My alarm goes off. My head hurts and my eyes are heavy. No Slept-Like-A-Baby Sleep for us. Nosiree. Instead, we got the Slept-Like-A-Two-Year-Old Sleep!!

Just another unexpected night with a two year old! Oh, how boring was life before kids, right?? :)

We Heart Snow!

What a wonderful day yesterday was. Snow had been in the forecast, but no one, not even the meteorologists, could have predicted record snowfall like we had. How absolutely gorgeous it was! But first, Abby had her Valentine's party at school, and oh, how much fun it was! Here is me with my Little Valentine Roo.
Pretty in Pink

Here's our house yesterday morning when it had been snowing for a few hours. It snowed for the rest of the day and through last night too. Unbelievable!

After the fun Valentine's party, we ventured down the street so Abby could play with her good pal Ava. Abby loved stomping around the snow, throwing snowballs at Ava. Ava, not so much! I don't blame her. I'm not a fan of getting too wet myself! :) Here are the happy girls.

Roo looking like she's up to no good!

Getting her aim ready to hit Miss Mica.

A fun time was had by all yesterday! With no nap and a super busy day, we were all exhausted last night! But first, after Matt got home, he and Abbster went for a trek around the neighborhood. She had a blast...well, until she fell down in the snow!

We were back up and at 'em this morning because I told Abby we could build a big snowman. Here's the little Snow Bunny.

Diggin' the snow

Cheeeeeese!

And here is the saddest, most pathetic snowman that ever was built. Oh well. Had Matt not had to go to work, I'm sure it would have been much more fantastic. Maybe next year! Ha! :) I really wanted to take a picture of Abby with this pathetic snowman, but she refused to do so. Can't say I blame her really!! It is a little scary looking, I must admit.

I hope you all have enjoyed the snow as much as we have! Happy Friday everyone! :)

What we're up to today...

Abby still has a little bit of a cough, so we’re staying in all day in hopes of it being gone by tomorrow’s Valentine’s Party at school. And what better way to pass the time than play Princess? Gosh, I am loving this fun stage of Imaginative Play. It’s never-ending around here!!

Goings On

Sorry for not updating recently. Not too much has been going on here, but I'll give you the highlights:

1. I went to my OB last week, and we heard Little Peanut's heartbeat immediately this time, which was wonderful! The heartrate was good, and we're scheduled to find out the sex on March 2. We can't wait!! Luckily I had only gained one pound in the past four weeks. Now, some of you may be thinking that's not very much, but considering I gained TEN pounds from weeks 7-11, I'd say that one pound was sufficient.

2. I am...knock on wood...finally feeling much, much better. I don't want to use the term "back to normal" because, as many of you know, when you're pregnant, there is no such thing as "normal"! But the nausea is less prevalent, so that's great news!

3. Abby is SO excited about this baby. She gets giddy when she sees my baby bump and says, "Mommy's tummy's gettin' bigger!" So cute! However, she is DEAD SET on having a girl. If you ask her, she demands that it be a girl. Last week she even told me in a very stern voice, "I don't want a boy like baby Clarky (her cousin); I want a girl like Molly (her Nana and Papa's dog)"! Oy. We told her that God might have put a baby boy in Mommy's tummy, but that just made her mad. We've decided not to press it much further until we find out what we're having. If it's a boy, God help us all when it comes to The Wrath of Abby! :)

4. Abby is OBSESSED with princesses at the moment. She HAS to wear her Cinderella dress and glass slippers every day. In fact, she wears her glass slippers all day around the house. And because of her obsession with all things Cinderella, she only wears one glass slipper. Sometimes she makes me be the Prince and yell after her about her lost glass slipper. Many times a week you can find her with a shirt, diaper and glass slippers. (She likes to take off her pants a lot. When we ask her why, she simply replies, "I'm too hot in my pants.") We pick our battles. :)

5. Speaking of Cinderella dress, hers was thrown away this weekend in Longview. Of course, it had to make the trip with us to see the grandparents, but Abby started getting sick when we rolled into town, and on Saturday night, while wearing her favorite dress, she threw up all over it. It was not salvagable. Trust me. So now she tells me, "My other dress yucky. We need to buy a new one." And oh, how we have perused online at "beautiful" Cinderella dresses.

6. Abby's new favorite word is "Beautiful." I love this.

7. Abby has been So, So, So unbelievably good lately. I don't want to jinx myself, but she has been such a joy to be around. I hear that 3 is worse than 2, but I'm hoping that doesn't ring true.

8. The second I start thinking about potty training, I have a panic attack. I'm thinking Spring Break would be a good time to do this while we're at home. Also, we plan on moving Abby to a Big Girl bed soon. I feel like she is growing up SO fast; while I know these transitions need to come, it all seemed to have come in a flash.

9. I feel like the next couple of months are the calm before the storm. I feel pretty good right now, but oh a' change is comin'! I'm trying to soak up all the time I have with Roo right now before Little Peanut comes and our lives and schedules are changed.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure there's much more, but my brain is fried. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Try to stay warm! :)

What Else? More pics, of course!

Here's our beautiful little girl modeling a possible Easter dress. She just had to show it off for her Nana and Papa who were in town! Although most days, around the house, she can be found looking like this. The crown and earrings are a must. Of course, so is only ONE glass slipper. She's got to be just like Cinderella after all!
Here's Abby with her good pal Ava!
She LOVES bathtime!

Love this picture of her with her cousin Clark. Notice how she's opening her mouth too? Too funny! I think she could have fed him all night long if we would have let her. And I'm also certain Clark would have eaten all night too. He was one hungry little boy!

Miss Hollywood herself.

We both got our H1N1 shots last week, and Abby was not a happy camper. Here she is emulating how she felt when she got the shot.

Luckily the nurse gave Abby three stickers, and she requested a red lollipop, so that most certainly helped things! Here's our little Roo back to her happy, normal self. :)

I didn't mention to her that she has to go back for another round in three weeks. That will just be our little secret, ok? :)

I go back to my OB on Tuesday to hear Little Peanut's heartbeat. Hopefully she will have an easier time finding it than she did last time! And then, the first week of March, we will have our big sonogram to find out if Abby will have a little brother or a little sister. If you ask her what she wants, her answer changes daily. Hopefully she will be happy with whatever comes her way! :)

Stay warm, everyone! :)

I Promise She Has Real Friends!

Abby has found some new BFFs: the mannequins at Old Navy!