Memorial Day Weekend

We had such a great Memorial Day weekend! Much of it was filled with preparations for Kirsten's baby shower (pictures to come in another post), but we enjoyed a lot of time with family as well. Praise the Lord for beautiful weather all weekend!

On Friday, we were in Richmond and Papa took Pierce and Sierra for a ride around the neighborhood in the wagon. Pierce was even still talking about it today!

On Sunday evening, we had family visit us at our house. The kids played outside and we had a yummy dinner.

The teenagers sitting at the kiddie table coloring. :)

We were blessed to have Nana stay with us for a couple of extra days this past week. We loved having her!

We're having a ...

... perfectly healthy baby!!! We had our mid-point ultrasound yesterday afternoon and everything looks great. This is such an answer to our prayers and we are praising the Lord for this gift!

The baby was being quite stubborn yesterday as s/he was very comfortable in his/her position, which was face down towards my spine. I got up and moved around at least 4 different times in order to try and wake him/her up and encourage him/her to change positions so the sonographer could see the face a little better. It did not work, however. I think she was able to see what she needed to, but the baby wasn't in the most ideal position. Because of this, the pictures we got are not that great as we couldn't really see a profile or the baby's face at all.


Some stats from yesterday: the baby's heartrate was 137 bpm and s/he weighs around 14 ounces right now. The tech said she knew what the gender is, but we are waiting to be surprised at the birth!

I have started looking through our baby name book to make some lists of names. This was a long process for us with Pierce and I'm sure it'll be the same this time around. Shaun and I are both picky about names and want to have equal input in the choosing of our child's name. Once we've narrowed it down, it will remain a surprise to you all until the birth as well. That's how we roll! But don't worry, it's really not that far off at this point. I'm 22 weeks, so we've got less than 18 weeks to go. It'll go by fast, I know!

I am feeling really great these days. The second trimester really is the peak of the pregnancy. I've got my energy and appetite back, am feeling the baby move regularly and have definitely popped as you can see from the pictures below.






I've been working in our guest bedroom to get it cleaned out and ready for Pierce to move in. He'll be transitioning to a big bed soon and we're excited about that! Once he's out of the nursery, I'll get to work preparing for this baby to move in. I'll be sure to share pictures and stories as we make all these changes.

As always, thanks for reading and thank you for all your prayers! We are beyond thrilled about this new life God has so graciously given us!

Strawberry Pickin' 2009

Wow...we had an absolutely full and fabulous weekend!! It went by too fast, as always. I have lots of pictures to share from Kirsten's baby shower and other fun times spent with family, so stay tuned this week.


Yesterday, we went strawberry picking at a farm about 30 minutes from our house. Their yield has not been as great this year due to the very rainy, cool spring, but we were able to snag almost 7 pounds worth of berries. Not as many as last year, but enough to snack on and they are very yummy!

Pierce did not eat one single strawberry while we were picking and was having trouble picking the "good ones," but was still such a fun little pickin' partner!

We could see a train going by from the berry patch and I think this was the most exciting part of the morning for Pierce!!

And we topped the morning off with a bit of frozen yogurt before we left.

The Freezy Pop

I have such a fond memory of these from my childhood, and I insisted on stopping at the grocery store to find them one Sunday after church a few weeks ago (can we say pregnany craving?!). Of course, Pierce really likes them, too.

As you can see from Pierce's clothes in the pictures, it wasn't exactly hot, balmy weather to be enjoying a cool treat, but it's yummy just the same!

Pierce has trouble keeping the popsicle pushed up. Here he is telling me "I can't!" (something I hear a little too often these days).

We're gearing up for a busy weekend. Tomorrow, Pierce and I are headed to Richmond to spend time with family and get ready for Kirsten's big baby shower on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to all the preparations for the party as well as visiting with friends and family.

Shaun and Pierce will be with Grandma & Granddaddy Arnold on Saturday and I've encouraged them to take Pierce somewhere fun like the zoo or Maymont's petting zoo. Hopefully, they'll get some pictures for me to share. We're also planning our annual family strawberry picking excursion on Monday morning.

As for a baby update, I'll be 21 weeks tomorrow (half-way...it's going fast!) and we have our big mid-point ultrasound next Wednesday. We're not finding out the gender, but we're just as excited to see our little one and make sure that all is well with him/her. I'll share more of a pregnancy update and u/s pictures next week.

I wish you all a wonderful and safe holiday weekend!

Mulching, again

It's fun to go back and see when we did certain things last year. You can see our mulching post from last spring here and notice how different Pierce looks!! It seems that we're about a month later with our mulching this year, partly due to Shaun's very busy work schedule for much of the first part of this year, but mainly due to a much cooler and rainier April than I remember us having last year.

I know this is true of every little boy and Pierce is no different. He LOVES to follow his daddy around and watch him work. He's also getting to that point in which he really wants to help. Shaun is a true "do-it-yourself" kind of guy and I'm thankful that Pierce will learn so much from him over the years!

Thankful

I've been thinking a lot lately about a message I heard about a year ago in which the speaker talked about not turning our blessings into burdens. Aren't many of us so good at doing that: complaining about things that others would LOVE to have, that many would consider a blessing?! The Lord has been laying this on my heart recently, and it was really driven home to me over this past Mother's Day weekend. In honor of that theme, I wanted to make a list of the things for which I am so very thankful:

• the fact that my living room floor is almost always covered in trains and train tracks


• having to be careful about everything that I say because little ears are listening to (and repeating!) it all
• a 2-year old who wants to do everything himself even though it takes three times as long


• that I hear "Mommyyyyyy, what are you doing??!!" shouted many times a day when I am not within eyesight of said 2-year old


• playing peek-a-boo while I'm trying to use the bathroom :)


• stepping (and tripping) over little cars, trucks and bulldozers that are scattered all throughout the house


• stains on my furniture and carpet from sticky hands and accidental spills


• fingerprints all over the television, mirrors and glass-top tables


• crumbs on the floor that I just vacuumed


• varicose veins in my legs as a result of pregnancy - lovely


• getting up to pee multiple times a night


• maternity clothes that hang on me like a tent and "regular" clothes that won't button


• buying and changing diapers over and over and over and over and over again


• reading The Little Red Hen and Puss in Boots over and over and over and over and over again
• a pantry full of "toddler foods" such as goldfish, fruit snacks and animal crackers


• a home full of love and life!

I truly am thankful that the Lord has me right where I am this very day, among the messes and the tasks that I do again and again with what seems like little result or success at times. I don't ever want to take any of it or these precious moments for granted. I feel abundantly blessed and would not want it any other way!

A Birthday Wish

Today is my man's birthday and I praise God for another wonderful, fun and memory-filled year! He is such a blessing to this family and I am so thankful to have him by my side.

Thank you, Shaun, for all you do for our family and most of all for loving us so much. You're the best! Happy Birthday, babe!

Take a few minutes to watch the slideshow I did last year to celebrate Shaun's 30th...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Overheard at my house

After Pierce's nap today, we were rocking while he drank his milk. He stopped drinking, looked oustide and said:

It's yucky outside (It had been raining most of the day).

Me: Yes. The sun needs to come out in order to dry up the rain. But the clouds need to go away in order for us to see the sun.

Pierce: Mommy needs to climb the tree and move away the clouds so we can see the sun.

Me: Only God can make the clouds go away.

Pierce: God needs to climb the tree and move the clouds.

******************************************************

Before bed tonight, we were reading God Gave Us You and there's a part in the book when they talk about the mommy's tummy getting bigger and bigger (because of the baby growing inside of her).

Me: Does Mommy have a baby inside her tummy, Pierce?

Pierce: Yes. Kirsten has a baby in her tummy, too.

It seems like nothing gets passed this kid!!

Painting Project

We had a productive weekend painting our two front rooms (the playroom and the dining room). I believe these rooms had the original paint on them from the house's inception (~15 years). We painted most of the house before we moved in 5 years ago, but never got around to these two rooms. They really needed some fresh paint!

A before picture of the playroom...

Working...

And the after...

I failed to get any before pictures of the dining room, but here are some pictures of us working...

Some of our church friends joined us in the afternoon to help.

The finished dining room...

I like the way it looks with natural light better than with the chandelier on.

I am really happy with how everything turned out and it feels good to have this project complete! Now to add some curtains and wall hangings...

My parents blessed us by keeping Pierce ALL weekend. While Shaun and I were able to get a lot of work done and enjoyed the time together (even had a date night on Friday!), we missed our little guy desperately! This was his first weekend away from us and I was kind of a mess before he left. It was quite strange being home without him and we were so excited to see him again this afternoon! We know that he had an absolute blast with his Mimi & Papa. Thanks, Mom & Dad for taking such great care of him and loving him so!