Six weeks to go

As ready as I am to meet our new baby, I have to admit I am getting really nervous. I keep remembering the things I said right after I gave birth to Topher without pain meds, "I will NEVER do this again!" Now sometimes I wonder why I've changed my mind. But I guess I know why. As bad as the pain was, and oh...my...God was it bad, it was everything that happened right after giving birth that made it all worth it. So these days, I'm trying to focus all my thoughts on those memories. How it felt when they placed Topher on my belly immediately after he came out. Being totally awake and aware of everything that was happening the entire time. Being able to go home 5 hours after he was born. And recovering from the entire ordeal in no time at all. But even with all that in mind, I think a little freaking out on my part should be expected over the next few weeks.

Anyway. A little update. I went to see the midwife last Thursday. I was at 33 weeks gestation and the baby was still measuring 2 weeks ahead at 35 weeks. So I was told to lay off all sweets and cut way down on carbs so that the baby wouldn't get too big. My weight gain is still going great. Total amount is 15 pounds so far, however, I lost 2 pounds this week after getting a mild version of Topher's stomach bug he had last week. So I'm back to 13 pounds total.

Other than all that, I think I'm entering the first stages of "nesting". I'm getting all my lists together and am planning to get things cleaned and organized over this weekend. I'm actually looking forward to this so it must be nesting because everyone knows how much I hate to clean.

I have another midwife appointment next Thursday (3/13) and then I'll go every week after that since I'll be in my last month. I'll keep you all posted.

My Perfect Valentine's

Oh, how I love my husband. He is such the perfect husband and perfect father. I got the greatest gift of all from Bryan and Topher yesterday and I will always cherish it...

Welcome to the world, Jack

Our newest nephew, Jack Charles Morris was born today. Proud parents Chuck and Michelle and big sister Averie couldn't be happier. He is just perfect and I can't wait to meet him. Bryan, Topher and I will be making the trip to Houston next weekend. Here's a picture of the sweet angel. And a video message to him from Topher...

Birthday Celebrations

We had a play date at the park for Topher's birthday last Friday. Topher's friends, Lydia, Pete, and Luke all came to play and then we had a picnic. We had a great time...until the boys found the mud and got filthy...

Then that evening, we had a nice quiet dinner at home to celebrate his birthday. I made his favorite dinner; hot dogs & mac & cheese (mommy and daddy had chili-cheese dogs...YUMMY!). Then we topped it all off with cupcakes. What a great day.

The end of this video is so cute. Listen to what he says after the candle finally gets blown out...

Happy Birthday, Topher!!!

Friends and Family, we welcome you to post a birthday message to Topher for him to read some day. Thanks so much!

Dear Topher,

I can not believe it's been two years already. Time is going by way too fast. Before we know it, you'll be all grown up. And as I can't wait to see the wonderful man I'm sure you'll grow into, it makes me sad in so many ways. But I know there are so many special occasions and wonderful memories still to come. Your daddy and I look forward to each and every one of them. You are the most special thing in our lives and it would be impossible to tell you how much we love you, so we'll just have to keep showing you every day.

You're going to be a big brother soon and I know you're going to be the greatest. Your little brother is going to love you so much and he will look up to you in so many ways. I know he's going to learn great things from you.

I just wanted you to be able to read this one day and know how wonderful we think you are. Your personality is shining so brightly already. You have an infectious laugh and smile, a super sweet disposition, and you give the best hugs ever.

Happy Birthday, my angel. I love you so very much.
Mommy


2 years old, and already you're teaching me things I never knew. Humans can drink dog water on all fours. Farts are hilarious (actually I already knew that one). Ink will sometimes wash out of a sofa cushion. The only thing better than being happy is being happy outdoors. Hot dogs are better than all other foods put together. Dogs will play with anyone given the right initiative. Falling a distance equal to your height doesn't hurt if nobody saw it. And pretending to be a flying space ranger is truly one of life's little gifts.

Happy birthday son! You're getting way too big way too fast. You never cease to amaze me with your unconditional love for everyone you meet. I hope that is a trait that never leaves you. Your world is about to be turned upside down, but you should never ever doubt how much your mother and I love you. Now stop feeding your little brother cat food.

Love,

Dad

Braggin' on myself

Had another midwife appointment today. I'm 30 weeks along and I am super proud to say that I've kept my weight gain down to only 13 pounds so far. By the 30th week with Topher, I had already gained 21 pounds. YIKES!!! I owe it all to the walking. With any luck, I'll weigh less than I did when I got pregnant after this little fella comes out. And I'll be completely ready to start training for the half marathon in November. Fingers crossed. Speaking of the little fella, he's measuring a little big. I'm at 30 weeks gestation, but he's measuring at 32 weeks, so I'm thinking he might be bigger than Topher was when he was born...in other words "OUCH!!".

13 weeks to go

Well, I'm 27 weeks along. That means I'll start my 3rd trimester next week. I'm feeling really great. With my last pregnancy, all the swelling started in my 7th month, so I'm hoping that won't happen this time. I've gotten used to having my ankles back and would hate to lose them again. The really great news from my midwife appointment today is that I've only gained 12 pounds total so far. I am thrilled about that. My goal is to make it through these next 13 weeks with gaining only 8 more pounds (or less). We'll see how that goes. :)

All is well with baby, too. He's growing perfectly. I sure can't wait to meet him. Won't be long now.

Oh and one more thing to mention. Topher went with me to the midwife this time. He behaved so well and everyone just had a fit over him. Then when it was time to go, he went up to each of the ladies that worked there to give them a kiss and say "dye-dye", which in Topher talk means "bye-bye". He is the biggest flirt ever!

Christmas 2008

We spent Christmas at home this year. The Padgham's made the trip down to Dallas to spend it with us. It was a very fun and busy holiday vacation. Started off with a wonderful Christmas Day full of presents, cooking and eating. Then over the next several days, Bryan, Bruce and Jon (with a little help from Topher, of course) built a couple of really beautiful cedar fence's and a gate in our backyard (fence/gate designed by Padg himself...he's so talented). Shari and I did most of the staining. Ain't it pretty? ;) They also laid a brick patio outside the shop. And in addition to all that, Bruce and Shari still found time to do some work on our kitchen floors. We stripped the old linoleum off a couple of months ago and needed to get the old glue off to get it ready to be sanded and stained, so they spent a lot of time doing that for us. We sure do appreciate all their help.

An Early Christmas in Houston

We headed down to Houston to spend the weekend before Christmas with my family. We had such a great time. I just wish we could have stayed a little longer. I also wish I had gotten a few more pictures, but I was just too busy eating the Mexican Fiesta we all cooked instead of the traditional Christmas dinner. :)

Cheap entertainment

It's all fun and games until somebody tips the baby out of the laundry basket. Note: No children were injured in the making of this video.

Topher's little brother...

Here he is. Our beautiful baby boy. I had my sonogram yesterday (11/19) and all is going wonderfully with the little man. He was moving around quite a bit. At one point, it looked like he was playing peek-a-boo with us. Very cute. We are so thrilled that Topher will have a brother to play with (and boss around). Anyway, just wanted to share the photos. I'll try to explain what you're looking at for each pic...

Picture him on his back with his butt in the air doing the bicycle exercise...
This one is simple enough. He's on his back looking up...He's got his hands on either side of his face as if he's playing the "boo" part of peek-a-boo...And the money shot. Took him forever to show us the stuff, but he finally did. You're looking from the bottom part of him.

18 Weeks

Well, I'm 18 weeks pregnant now. Feeling bigger than ever. I had a midwife visit on Wednesday and all is going well. Shockingly, I've only gained TWO pounds. I don't know how that's possible because I look like I have a small pig in my belly. I had Bryan take a picture so I could compare it to the last pregnancy. Turns out, I'm as big at 18 weeks as I was with Topher at 24 weeks (maybe even a little bigger). I've posted both pics so you can see for yourself...

18 Weeks w/baby #2...
24 Weeks with Topher...

A Spooktackular Halloween

What a fun-filled week we had. We started off with a Halloween party at Topher's school on Wednesday...

Then on Halloween Day, we went to Luke's 2nd Annual Halloween Party...

And of course, we had to do some Trick-or-Treating Friday night. After that, we headed over to the Line's home for a little more festivities...

I love these pics...

Another visit to the Pumpkin Patch

Got to go to the Arboretum's Pumpkin Patch yesterday with my friends Luke, Ethan, and Peyton. Had a great time...

Take me out to the ballgame...

These pictures are from a few weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to posting them. Bryan and I got free tickets to a Ranger baseball game and got to take Topher. I think he had a pretty good time. And so did we. We don't get to hang out with these friends often enough, so it was great to spend some time with them.

Big boy bed

Well we finally got up the nerve to try Topher out in his big boy bed for nap time today and I am so happy to report that as I type these words, he is sleeping like a...well, a baby. It took a little while to get him to actually lie down. He kept wanting to get up and play with all his toys. But finally, after about 30 minutes or so, we noticed he wasn't making any noise and we knew that he had fallen asleep. So I crept in to get a picture and noticed that he brought a few of his toys into bed with him. He's just too cute...

13 Weeks

Well, I am finally out of my first trimester and still feeling pretty well. I had my first midwife appointment last Wednesday and got to hear the beautiful heartbeat. That kind of made it all "real". My tummy is already getting bigger and let's face it, it was pretty big to start with so at only 13 weeks, I already look as though I'm 6 month's preggo. ;) I'm scared to see what I'll look like when I actually am 6 months along, not to mention 9 months! YIKES!! But my friend Allison and I have been walking 3 miles most days of the week so that's helping a lot. I'm hoping to keep the weight gain down to a respectable amount. My midwife said I should only gain 15-20 pounds and I think I insulted her when I laughed in her face. But we'll see. I'll do my darndest. If only those stupid cakes, pies, chocolates, candies, etc. would stop calling my name. :)

Bryan and I have decided that we'd find out the baby's gender this time around. We loved the anticipation and surprise of not knowing with Topher, but since we've already gone that route, we thought we'd give the other way a try. It'll be fun to know what to expect this time so we can plan accordingly. I'll have a sonogram in 6 to 8 weeks to find out if it has a wee-wee or a hoo-hoo. I'll be sure to post the results as soon as I have them...hopefully with a few sono pics as well.

Hippie boy no more

Topher got his hair cut today and boy did he ever need it. Here's a before and after picture. He looks like such a little man now, instead of a hippie. ;)

Where has the time gone?

Wow. I got on the blog today to do a quick update and started looking at all the old posts. I am sitting here in complete amazement at how fast time has gone by and how big our baby boy is getting. He's growing up so fast and is changing so much all the time. I'm finding myself missing him as a baby, but also beaming with pride at what a wonderful person he is becoming. He's such a happy guy (most of the time). :) My favorite part of the day is when Padg and I wake up and hear Topher in his crib singing to himself. It cracks us up. Then we'll go in to get him and he'll put on a little song-and-dance show for us. He is quite the morning person. Padg asked me the other day as we were watching him play if I ever thought I'd love anything so much. Actually, I never knew that so much love even existed. I guess I know how God feels now. :)

I'll get back to the original reason for this new post now. I am so very excited to announce that our beautiful little boy is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!! April 15th is the date and we are thrilled. I can't wait to go through all the joys (and pains!) of a tiny baby again and also be able to experience all the wonderfullness that I'm sure Topher will be as a brother.

Colorado Camping Trip

Oh boy! What a warm welcome home...literally. You just don't realize how hot and humid Dallas really is until you get away from it for a week. But I guess it's good to be home regardless. Though I sort of wish I were still at the camp site where it barely reached the mid-70's while we were there. At any rate, here's a short summary of our trip (I've divided the pictures into 3 sets so it won't take forever to view them all. There's also a video at the end.)...

We arrived around 5:30pm or so on Saturday, the 19th. Topher went straight for the shovel and dirt and hardly stopped playing in it until we left over a week later. He had the best time. I've never seen him more happy. He was definitely in his element. He's a true outdoorsman, that's for sure. Besides playing in the dirt, he enjoyed running around the camp site, going for walks around the campgrounds, feeding the chipmonks and squirrels with Grandpa, and playing with his toys in the camper with Grandma. Following are all the "Topher pics" from the trip...

As for the rest of us, I think we had just as much fun as Topher did. We got to do some hiking and fishing and general sight-seeing. Bruce, Jon, Padg and I hiked the Weminuche (Wem-in-ooch) Trail on Wednesday (http://www.coloradowilderness.com/wildpages/weminuche.html). It's about a 6-mile hike and a really good part of it is uphill. But once you get to "the meadows" (see pics) there's great fishing. I'm getting better and better at fly fishing. I caught about 8 fish that day. None were very big, but that's ok. Jon caught about 35 and Padg caught about 15 so it was a pretty good day. The guys also hiked up the "Ute Creek Trail" (sorry, I didn't go so there are no pictures). Padg caught a bunch of fish but also slid pretty far down a steep slope. He escaped mostly uninjured though, thank goodness. I rode up to "Sawmill Canyon" with the guys to watch them gather firewood. It's beautiful up there. And it was fun watching the strong men in action. ;) Jon, Padg and I left one morning and went in search of a new river to fish up high on Sawmill Canyon, but when we finally found it, it was only about a foot wide, so it turned out to be a bust. But it wasn't a complete loss. It was a fun and sometimes scary 4-wheel drive ride up there. And we ended up following a suggested trail high up on the mountain that overlooks our campground (called 30-mile campground). So that was pretty cool, too. Some of the other fun we had included going into town (Creede, Co. www.creede.com) for some shopping (after doing the laundry). There's a store there that has the best fudge you've ever eaten. YUMMY! Creede is about a 45-minute to an hours drive from the campsite. And of course we had to stop at Freeman's General Store for some of the tastiest cheeseburgers and home made ice cream in the world.

Finally, I've got a great video for ya. And there's a story behind it so here goes. One day while eating at the table, Topher leaned over and...well...let's just say he passed gas. We all thought it was pretty funny that he leaned over to do it and so we laughed. Well, he figured out that we were laughing at what he did, so he leaned over and tried to pass more gas. It was priceless. Well a couple of days later he did the same thing while eating with Grandma and Grandpa while Jon, Padg and I were out and about. So Grandpa decided to teach him how to lean over and make a "gass-passing" noise with his mouth. So here's Topher doing his "Grandpa trick"...

And that's about it. The weather was perfect aside from a little rain with slight hail most afternoons around 2pm. A couple of days the rain lasted into the night. But we didn't mind much. It's pretty cool sleeping in a tent and listening to the rain and the fast-flowing creek behind us. It just doesn't get much better.