It's a ........

Girl!! We are tickled pink.

We had our 3D sonogram today. It was not a whole lot different than a regular sonogram, except that you got to see snapshots up close of the baby's face and little body parts. Our little girl was being quite uncooperative by sleeping in a little ball throughout the sonogram. She didn't want to jump around as much as usual. But Jared and I are thrilled to be having a little girl this time. Parker is so special and I know he will love being a protective big brother!

Now we have the daunting task of picking out the perfect name. It is really difficult to name a human being and know that this will be such an important part of their lives. Big Pressure! Jared and I both have commented before on how strange the emotion is when you find out the sex of your child. You spend 4-5 months picking out names for a boy and girl, planning nursery themes, and making plans for what life will be like with a boy or girl. Then, when you find out the sex.... you say goodbye to one set of ideas/dreams. So, it is mixed. We were both hoping for a girl this time, but it is still sad saying goodbye to your imaginary boy. Funny how God implants a deep love right away. We feel so blessed that God has decided to let us raise a son and a daughter together.

I promise as soon as the scanner is working I will post pictures of her sonogram.

Dumb Moments and Fun Times with Parker

Okay, so this was the sign that someone should have stapled to my forehead today! I swear that pregnancy causes exponential loss of brain cells. I was putting Parker in his car seat, while talking to my friend Heather (never multi task when operating with low brain cells) when I locked my kid in the car! He always grabs the keys from me, but I usually manage to wrestle them away before he hits anything, but today he locked it before I tossed them to the front seat. Luckily, we were next to an automotive shop and they felt sorry for me and helped me out. He was only trapped for 2 minutes, smiling the whole time, but I still felt like a horrible mother. He thought we were playing a fun peek-a-boo game. Oh, well. I am sure this is the first of many goof ups I will have with two kids.

So, Jared and I got to experience life with two kids this week. We had our nephew Brady stay with us for 6 nights while his mom was in Germany on business. It was such a joy in many ways because he loves Parker and is so good with him. It was challenging to make lunches, study for tests, do homework, keep up with soccer/baseball practices, and attend games. We are exhausted but had a blast. Parker has decided that he likes to watch baseball a lot more than soccer. So, here's our little slugger enjoying the game. If we were all inside Parker's head the recap would have sounded like this.....


When the other team was at bat.... "Batta, Batta, Swing Batta!"


Before Brady went to bat... "Okay Brady, keep your eye on the ball and your elbow up, and you'll be fine."

"Go Brady, Go! You can do it!!!"


Brady got a hit straight down the third baseline and batted in one runner!

"My work here is done. Time for a snack. I had no idea popcorn was so tasty!"


Be sure and vote on the sex of the baby. We will find out this Wednesday if you are right!

I'm a Big Kid Now!

I am sad to report that my kid has grown up. First, he quit wanting us to rock him at night, and now he gladly says goodbye when we leave to go somewhere. This weekend he moved to a "big boy bed" without much drama at all. I can't believe he's not in a crib anymore. I think Jared and I had ourselves worked into a frenzy thinking he would have a hard time saying goodbye to his crib. But he surprised us both by proudly showing off his new bed to all the grandparents and sleeping through the night. I, however, did not sleep at all. My neurotic brain was going all night long, thinking of all the scenarios of how he could get hurt. Thus, I listened to the monitor closely all night and never slept. So, today was a bit exhausting but I am soooooo proud of my little man. He uses a step stool to get up into bed and gets out quit easily. Once he ascends the step, he throws his hands up and says "Ta Da". He must have gotten his flair for the dramatic from his father.



His mountain room turned out even cuter as a big kid room than a nursery. We have a desk on one side and a dresser on the other side of the bunk bed. No ladder yet of course as he'd just get hurt.

Pray that Parker continues to surprise us by being easy and sleeping through the night. I truly think transitions are much harder on us than him.

My little Easter bunny!

Sorry there are a million pictures in this blog. I just couldn't narrow them down because we took so many. I love how handsome my two men looked this Easter. Parker said Happy Easter about twenty times to anyone that would listen.


It amazes me to think that this is Parker's 3rd Easter and he's not even two yet. (trying to figure out that math in your head aren't ya?) He was born Easter Sunday April 16th, 2006. He celebrated his second Easter when he was almost one last year and this is his third. Weird how Easter falls all over the map.


I have to say that this Easter was much more entertaining than the last. Last year he couldn't walk and just watched everyone else hunt. This year he made up for last by "double-fisting" it. He carried around 2 baskets and would scream "NO!" if you dared to try to take one away from him. He didn't care that the eggs contained candy that he couldn't eat.... he just liked finding them and collecting them. We hunted eggs over and over again all weekend in our house. It felt a little like playing fetch with a puppy at times, but much cuter.


We all commented on Sunday that we don't know what we talked about before Parker because he was truly the life of the party and the center of attention the whole day!


He had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday when it was still pretty warm outside and two hunts on Sunday with two sets of grandparents. Jared's family really tried to get my sweet little chubbers to eat candy last night, but my little guy refused. He is such a mommy's boy that he knows not to eat that junk without me even telling him. I was so proud!


Here he is sporting his "Mick-Mouse" ears. He loves Mickey Mouse clubhouse and won't take his new hat off!


Love this picture....It's like he's saying, "What, aren't I allowed to take all the eggs and not share? It is all about me, you know."


We had a wonderful holiday and really enjoyed spending time with our family. We are so blessed and thankful for our family. We know that God has blessed our family immensely.

Little Picasso

Well, it seems we have a little Picasso (or probably closer to Jackson Pollock) on our hands. This weekend I stenciled his name on his favorite rocking chair and he decided he wanted to paint. He grabbed the paper plate and held it just like a pallet of paint and went to town. He would paint, then stand back to observe his masterpiece, and then he returned to work. Too funny!

It seems that my child got some sort of artistic gene that I completely lack. I can't even draw a dog without it looking like a stick figure. He loves to color...on anything. Thank God for Color Wonder and washable crayons. And now we can add painting to his repertoire... he is a natural.

We are ready for Daddy to come home... he's been out of town all weekend and Parker has done fine. Mommy is going nuts. I need to have conversations that consist of more than 3-4 words! I have great admiration for single parents because I am whooped after one weekend of it.

Belly Kisses and Belly Laughs

Ok, so I know you moms out there know how this feels. I think I am 1000x more in love with my kid today than yesterday. How does one heart continue to expand so much? He is so hilarious, and he had me cracking up in the car. On the way home from the park this afternoon he got thirsty watching me drink from my water bottle. I was a bad mom and didn't bring his sippie cup, so I decided to let him try to drink from the bottle. He proceeded to dump it in his lap and all over his face. So I took it away, he then said "more water please." So I gave it back, just for giggles and he poured it down his face again and looked totally surprised. He really thought he would get a different result in the four times I let him try. I know this sounds mean to let your kid get soaking wet, but he was cracking up and I couldn't help but laugh at his persistence.

Then, our evening consisted of kisses, hugs, cuddles and belly kisses. He says "baby belly" now and kisses my stomach. Too cute! So I will embarrass myself by posting the pictures...just look at him, not my expanding waist line.



Some days parenting is pure bliss.

No Genetic Scare!

Hooray for baby #2. We got our results from the nucchal (sp?) translucency test/genetic screening, and our odds of having a chromosomal defect are less than 1 in 10,000! That is awesome news to us because our odds with Parker were 1 in 100 since we had a false positive. That led to a scary month in my pregnancy last time. This time I get to just enjoy the second trimester. I am only throwing up once a day (big improvement) and have so much more energy. I am starting to feel like myself again.

I am enjoying the heck out of Parker's new verbal skills and smarts. He now knows his colors, shapes, some numbers, some letters and so many words. The funniest thing he did this week was shouting "B, S" repeatedly in the grocery store. People probably thought I was teaching him profanity at home, but he always picks two random letters a day to say over and over. It is usually A,B or B,C, or D,E but for some reason he chose B,S in public. It was just to make me embarrassed, I am sure.

We are getting ready for his second birthday... mark it on your calendars. The Blue's Clues Bash will be on April 19th at 11:00. We will grill out again if it is nice.

On a side note.... can you believe it snowed like a blizzard last night and is so warm today that Parker is wearing shorts? Only in Texas!

I will leave you with the cutest trilogy of pictures... What happened to the poor fish?