37 Weeks!!!

Holy cow!! Has it really been THAT long since I posted to my blog?? What a total slacker I am!

Anyway, I am 37 weeks pregnant today! I can hardly believe how fast the time has flown by! On one hand I want time to slow down so that I can enjoy every moment, but at the same time I am so anxious to meet my little girl!!! I can't believe that in about 3 weeks I will be holding her in my arms!!!

At my 36 week appt. last Thurs. I was 75% effaced and 1-2 cm dilated. I have my 37 week checkup tomorrow and I am anxious to see if I have made any further progress. I have certainly felt like there has been a lot of progress in the past couple weeks by way of tons of uncomfortable contractions. I guess it's just my body practicing for the marathon ahead!!

Greg bought me an awesome camera for my birthday (Nikon D3000), so as soon as I figure out how to use it I will be posting more pictures!! And I have decided to make my blog public for now, to make it easier for everyone to access!! I may have to change this if I get any unwanted visitors, but for now, we're going public!!!! :)

Sorry no pictures today, but more updates soon!!

18 Weeks!!!

I am 18 weeks pregnant today! It seems like this pregnancy is flying by. I almost forgot to record the info from my appt. last week:

4/22: HB-161 bpm; +5 lbs!!!

Met with our new ob, and she seems really nice. I hope that this is a good fit and that everything goes smoothly with our labor and delivery.

I have an appt. in one week with the peri, and hopefully we will get to find out the gender of our "mystery baby" then!! Can't wait!!!

In the meantime I've been keeping myself busy with planning Abby's 3rd birthday party! Gosh, when did she decide to grow up!? She is turning into this little lady who uses manners and correct grammar (sometimes) and she cracks me up daily with the things she says! She is still pretty adament that this new baby is a boy, so we'll see next week!

And I am enjoying Ethan's babyhood, while it lasts. I am trying to treasure every moment and not rush him to get too big too fast, because these moments are fleeting.

Gosh. Mom.of.three....in 5 months....or less! Yikes!

I'm Baaaaaack!!!

Well, after a really long hiatus, I'm back and ready to start blogging about our adventures again! I started this blog partly to chronicle not just our family, but also our move into a new house and my pregnancy with Ethan. So much has happened in the past year, but as they say, the more things change the more they stay the same! We've just moved into a new house (in Little Elm this time!), and SURPRISE! I'm pregnant again with our 3rd child!! So I hope everyone will continue to join me on our new adventure! :) Now for some updates and pictures....

Abby
She is still our little firecracker! She never ceases to amaze me with how intuitive she is, and her funny, quirky little personality is starting to emerge. She loves Dora, and hairbows, and her favorite color is pink!


Ethan
He is our rough and tumbly daredevil. He walks (more like runs) all over the place now, and he climbs and gets into EVERYTHING!!! And when you tell him "No" he takes it as a dare! He definitely keeps us on our toes! He claps, waves bye-bye, and says nigh-nigh and dada. He loves water, and anything he can put in his mouth, and his favorite color is dirt. :)

EASTER 2009:

EASTER 2010:
Mystery Baby #3
I am 16 weeks pregnant today!!! I have an appt next Thursday with a new OB, since we live too far away for me to deliver at Presby. Hoping to find out soon the gender of this little miracle so that we can start planning for his/her arrival. I am still guessing boy, but only time will tell! :) Our due date is September 30. The stats so far for this pregnancy are:

1/26: 4 weeks; sono; beta: 2795! Holy Cow, we're pregnant!!!!
2/12: 7 weeks; sono; HB: 142 bpm; 0 ib weight gain;
2/25: 9 weeks; sono; HB: 161 bpm; 0 lb weight gain
3/18: 12 weeks; HB: 171 bpm; NT scan (sono)
3/25: 13 weeks; HB: 151 bpm; + 3 lbs.

HOLY COW!! 6 MONTHS!!!!!

I just can't believe that Ethan is really 6 months old already! I get all weepy just thinking about how quickly he has grown. It is incredible watching Ethan and Abby grow and learn new things every day.

Abby's favorite things right now are: yogurt, playing "tea party," building castles and towers and tunnels with blocks (and then knocking them down), playing "monster" with Daddy, and playing with play-doh. She also loves to sing songs, read books, and mix (cook) with Mommy. She is amazing and brilliant and funny, and I love to smell her sweet little curly head.

Ethan is doing great too!! Our little man is rolling over both directions, and in fact is always on his belly grinning ear to ear when I get him out of his crib in the morning. He loves teething biscuits, wagon wheels, and his TOES!!! Changing diapers takes forever these days because as soon as I get his diaper off, he grabs both feet and starts cramming his toes in his mouth!! It is so adorable. A few nights ago in the tub he discovered SPLASHING!! My oh my, he is in heaven. He thinks it is the funniest thing in the world! He is getting pretty good at scooting around on the floor, and he is well on his way to crawling.

We decided to take advantage of a cool, overcast morning here in Houston by having a morning picnic at the duck pond.

So apparently I am lazy, with a HUGE baby

Usually when I go to get Abby out of her crib in the morning I am greeted with a cheerful "Hi Mommy!!! Good Morning!!!" But not this morning. This morning I was greeted with "I wanna go bye-bye with Mommy!!!!" You see, I had to water the front yard this morning, which meant throwing some clothes on so that I didn't have to run around my front yard in pjs. Normally I would just throw on some shorts and a t-shirt, but today I decided to go all-out and just get ready for the day. Abby is so used to seeing me in either my pjs or lounge-around-the-house clothes that she of course assumed that dressed like this I MUST be going somewhere!! Ahhh, nothing like the innocence of children to point out my laziness. So it looks like we are getting out of the house today!

In other news, I took Ethan to the pediatrician on Tuesday for his 4 month check up. My little chunk weighs 17 lbs. 12 oz!!! That puts him in the 97%ile for weight!!!!!!!!!!! He is about 3 1/2 lbs. heavier than Abby was at 4 months, but sadly, he is about a 1/2 in. SHORTER!!! The Dr. said that we could begin solid foods, and Ethan is enjoying rice cereal twice a day now! :)

Bueno Dia!!!!

This is what Abby cheerfully said to Carmen this morning!! Then she turned to Ethan and said "Bueno Dia Ephin." That kid is So.Stinkin.Cute!

So, did I tell all of you about my little garden? I am growing myself a few vegetables, and apparently they don't know about my black thumb! I am so excited! It looks like I might really have tomatoes!!

Can you believe that Ethan is 4 months old already!?! I realize looking at him it looks like he is 6 months old! Look how my sweet boy is growing! It is so fun watching him grow but so sad at the same time. The babyhood goes by so quickly that I just wish I could hold onto each of this precious moments forever!

Poop & Jam

Man, I always hate when I have gotten away from blogging for too long. There are always 100 things that I want to discuss, but that would make for a really long blog entry. So instead, I am going to skip over all of the stuff that I want to discuss from the past few weeks and hope that I will be able to cover them later in detail.

Instead, I would like to brag about my Betty Crocker moment!! On Sunday we went to a farmer's market right next to our house. While Greg and I were wandering around, Abby got into a bag of strawberries. The ladies behind the counter were laughing, but I was so embarrased! I offered to buy the bag, but they told me not to worry about it....until I looked in the bag and realized that she had taken a bite out of a dozen or so strawberries and then put them back in the bag!!!!!! So I insisted on buying this giant 4 lb. bag of strawberries. Luckily they were bruised strawberries (strawberry rejects?) so it only cost $1.50!

Once we got home, I had no idea what I was going to do with this huge bag of strawberries that were on the verge of going bad. So, I looked up a recipe for strawberry jam, and that's what I made!! It was really fast and easy, and it tastes great! But I have waaaayyyy to much jam now!

The other fun story I have to share happened today. Some days being a stay-at-home-mom is the most rewarding job on earth, and then there are other days that are....less....rewarding. Today was one of those days. Ethan was jumping in the jumperoo in the living room and all was well with the world until Abby said, "Mommy, Ephin made a mess!" And I look over and see this...

If all you saw in the top picture was a cute, happy baby, LOOK CLOSER!!!!

What does it say about me that the first thing I did when I saw what happened was to run and grab my camera?!? I figured the poop wasn't going anywhere, and I have to document this for later for when Ethan brings his first girlfriend home! :)

For the record, Greg does not endorse this post nor does he support the use of the pictures.