Half Way There

This Saturday will mark my 20 week point.  This time around I will be scheduled, so we're already pretty sure we will be meeting our baby around December 2nd.  That being the case, I only have 19 more weeks to go...provided that she stays in there the whole time and doesn't follow in her sister's footsteps!  It's funny how I am praying for her to make it the whole time this go round.  I did almost everything you could to supposedly make Lainey come early, and it worked!!  With this one, I want as much time as possible to spend with Lainey, get everything ready, and not miss work!  Funny how things change...

This picture was taken a week ago, and I have since grown!  It's amazing the difference a week makes!

We go to the doctor Monday for the official anatomy scan and what not.  I'm really hoping this ultrasound confirms what we saw a few weeks ago, otherwise we are going to have one sad Big Sister!

Lainey is SOOOOO excited to have a sister and loves to talk about all the things she is going to do when she is a big sister.  It cracks us up!  She will walk up to my belly and talk to Lilly, and it is about the cutest thing we've ever seen.  I have just recently (like within the last year) started to want another girl, and I was honestly shocked when we found out what she was.  We will be terribly shocked if there are some parts there that we did not see a few weeks ago!  We'll see soon enough... :)



What a Difference a Year Makes...

So this Saturday marked our one year anniversary of our major life change/leap of faith.  We decided last April to take a leap of faith and move to Omaha--no jobs, nowhere to live, no friends, etc.  God absolutely had a plan for us, and He has continued to show us throughout this year that He is in control! 

Moving Day
July 16, 2010

Our first rental house

Now a year later I can look back on all our milestones: renting our first house, teaching public school, SNOW, losing a much needed 35 pounds, buying our first home, and finding out we'll have a new member of our family in time for Christmas!  This has been one roller coaster ride of a year, but we have made some unforgettable memories along the way!

Our new, permanent home :)

Papa Pictures

So my dad has always loved photography.  It's been his hobby for as long as I can remember, and there are tons of amazing pictures of us as kids as proof of his talent.  I now just get to take advantage of this talent and harrangue him into taking pictures of Lainey every time he's in town!  Here's a couple of my favorites from July 4th (Beth, I'm with you on the multiple 4th of July posts, but there's just too many cute pictures!). 

She's off to the farm this week hanging out with Nana & Papa.  She's been gone a day, and we already miss her like crazy...pathetic, I know!  She is at such a fun age, and we truly enjoy her company (most of the time!).  She has been so cute lately with this Big Sister business, and I can't wait to see what the next few months bring!



Happy 4th of July!

Well it is officially my most favorite day of the year, and this year has certainly not disappointed!  My parents came in this weekend to celebrate as we always do.  Our weekend started out Friday night when the whole family went for my ultrasound to find out early what the sex of this baby is.  For all like three of you that actually read this, I've probably already told you!  For the rest of you...we're not really making it all too public for a couple more weeks!  Anyways...that was our eventful Friday night followed by hanging out on our "upper deck."  We call it the upper deck because we are lucky enough to have a patio on the lower level too. 

This picture makes me laugh.  Clearly I went for the candid look, and everyone kinda looks a hot mess.  Oh well!  We were enjoying the absolutely amazing weather we get at night here!

Saturday we just hung out and did a little shopping.  Our local outdoor malls here have concerts on the weekends, so we went and took one in Saturday night.  I didn't get any pictures, but Lainey was quite the dancing machine in the middle of everyone dancing to EVERY song!

Sunday we went to church and then got ready for our block party.  One of the first things we were told when we moved in to this neighborhood was how big they celebrate the 4th of July.  They were not kidding!  The whole circle gets together to grill out, talk, and shoot off an ungodly amount of fireworks!  I really wish I would have gotten an "after picture" of the street and all the fireworks remnants.  Omaha made fireworks legal this year, so we have heard/watched fireworks every night for the last week.  I told Jovan that people here are just as nuts about the holiday as I am, and he really didn't believe me.  I kept telling him that Omaha was very different from Memphis, and while there are some July 4th nuts like me there, EVERYONE in Omaha is crazy about this holiday.  He has since retracted his statement and admitted that I was right! :) 

Today we were going to participate in our neighborhood parade, but I fell behind on wagon decorating, so we decided we would save that for next year!  We went to the Ralston parade this afternoon.  This was probably my 23rd or 24th parade there in 28 years.  I love the fact that my kids will get to grow up with this tradition now too!  Seeing as I am preggo and pretty tired, we didn't last the entire parade, but I tried! 

Tonight we went swimming and then I left the rest of my family to watch fireworks and Lainey and I went home.  I'm pretty sure she hasn't been to bed before midnight this weekend, and I figured that she may need a little more sleep for school tomorrow!  All in all an exhausting weekend, but I wouldn't want it any other way!  I'm already looking forward to next year!  Happy 4th of July!