Baby Stuff

This past Tuesday Mikal and I dropped Carter off with Neenie so we could go do our baby registry at Babies R Us. On the way to BRU I think we finally decided on a name for our baby girl....Madelyn Reece. A little background behind the name...A couple days before my aunt was incoherent from the cancer, she showed me a page in her journal. On the page was the title, "Baby Names", and below the title there was a list with only three names on it, all of which were girl names (note we had no clue at this point in my pregnancy what gender the baby was) Anyways, Madelyn was one of the names on that list. As for the middle name, Reece, it's my grandfather's middle name; he passed away in 2003. Even though she won't ever be able to meet these wonderful people here on earth, we know they'll be looking down from heaven watching over her.


I'm officially in the home stretch! Today, I'm 26 weeks along and have now started my 3rd trimester. Oh, we have a set date (unless she decides to surprise us) for my repeat c-section....looks like Madelyn's birthday will be April 24th! (sorry Nana T she won't have your birthday but it's pretty close :) ) I think that's all for now! Blessings until next time.

Our visit to the Lone Star State

About two weeks ago we packed our bags to head down to Texas. Once Mikal got off work we left for the Richmond Airport. We grabbed a bite to eat at the airport since we were traveling right around dinnertime. Carter was a wonderful little traveler. He did much better than I expected. He LOVED being on the airplane and wasn't scared at all. He said,"we fly to the moon Mommy!" During the flight mommy and Carter fell asleep while Daddy read a book. Our family (Mikal's mom, sister and our nieces and nephew) greeted us at baggage claim and it didn't take long for Carter to start enjoying the company of the other little people. We made it to the house and crashed after an eventful evening of travel. The next day, we hung around the house while the kids played, Joanna took us by her work and we took Mikal's mom to our FAVORITE Mexican restaurant for dinner. We had a great day. I was in for a surprise on our third day. I thought we were meeting up with extended family in the afternoon for a cookout, but was shocked to find out when we arrived that not only was it a "get together" it was also a surprise baby shower. I was so surprised I actually asked who are the gifts for and thought why didn't anyone tell me to bring a gift. Needless to say, I thought it was a very nice gesture and enjoyed getting some girly stuff for the baby :) We all enjoyed seeing family members that we hadn't seen in quite some time. We had our "Texas Christmas" the following day, it was so much fun watching the kids open thier gifts. On our final day, we made a stop by the Arlington National Cemetery; it was our first time there since the funeral, we then headed back to the airport for our trip back to Virginia. Carter was a bit more energetic on the trip back but was still a good little boy. It was a whirlwind of a trip but we had a blast and enjoyed visiting our family. We can't wait for our next trip to the lone star state!

Mommy's belly is growing!

I'm getting bigger and bigger which is to be expected; I'm gaining weight everywhere, which is different than with Carter where I gained most of my weight in my belly. Carter loves patting, smooching, and most of all talking to my belly. He randomly says without being provoked, "I want to talk to your belly"...he cracks me up because he seems to think that my poked out belly button is the place where baby sister can hear him best. So, pressed up against by belly button his favorite sayings are "HELLO" and "I Love you too." He is such a sweet and cuddly boy and I know he is going to be a GREAT big brother. Baby girl is getting more active and I love feeling her kick and punch. She is still without a name...if you didn't get to vote in our baby name poll here is the link again http://www.babycenter.com/403_name-for-our-babygirl_9006832_165376780457.bc

We can't believe that she will be making her arrival in about 4 months!

We had a very merry Christmas

Well it's been a busy last couple of weeks full of shopping, present wrapping and spending time with family. I was very happy that Mikal and I had started wrapping presents early because we would have been up till dawn if we hadn't. Carter went to bed on time and left out some milk and cookies for Santa (Mr. and Mrs. Claus really enjoyed the treat!). Mikal found some Thomas the train Christmas PJ's for Carter...he looked oh so cute. Mikal and I actually enjoyed wrapping presents together Christmas eve and watched the first Narnia movie. I didn't think I would enjoy watching it but I was pleasantly surprised.

I was so excited for Christmas morning...I felt like a little kid again...I couldn't wait for Carter to open his presents... I had the cameras charged and setup and ready for Christmas morning action. I woke up early waiting for Carter to wake up. Daddy was still asleep. I heard Carter making a few noises so I ran up stairs with video camera in tow...but no Carter. Of course, like usual I wanted to capture the perfect moment. So, I went back downstairs waiting oh so patiently (NOT:) ) for Carter to wake up. So, after several attempts to capture Carter's Christmas morning it finally arrived. He was in a good mood and excited to see what Santa had left him. I took him downstairs and his eyes lit up! Mikal was now awake and we asked him if he wanted to eat breakfast or open presents first...he of course picked presents. So, the unwrapping began...Carter was SO excited for the first 20 minutes then he started to get overwhelmed. We had to coax him to open up the rest of his gifts. I think the lollipops and other candy didn't help the situation :) After all the presents under the tree were opened we headed up stairs to the playroom for the "big" gift...Carter's train set and train table (when we asked him what he wanted Santa to bring him he would say toys and a choo choo train). He loved it! He has spent many hours since Christmas morning playing with all his new toys but most of all the trains.

Later, Christmas morning Mikal made blueberry pancakes, eggs and hash browns Carter and I really enjoyed the yummy food. Mommy had a little nap then we got ready to go to my parent's house to celebrate Christmas with them. We had a wonderful time!

Now, that Christmas in VA is over Carter has been sick with a cold. He seems to be getting better. We are hoping he gets better and we don't get sick before our trip to TX. We are all very excited about seeing our family in TX despite it being a short trip, we can't wait to spend some time with everyone.

We hope your Christmas was as merry as ours!


PS~pictures hopefully coming soon I'm having problems uploading them onto the computer

WOW...what a weekend

Despite having to work all weekend we did several fun Christmas activities. Saturday morning Mikal, my mom and I took Carter on the VRE Santa train. The train ride included Santa and Mrs. Claus walking through all the train cars to see the hundreds of children riding the train. Carter seemed to enjoy the ride but was a little scared of Santa. Carter was more interested in the little boy behind him that had several fun toys. Sunday the moms group that I'm in had a family holiday party. Carter had a blast with all the games and crafts. He made a cotton ball snowman, decorated gingerbread cookies, and played pin the nose on the snowman. We had a very busy weekend but it was fun to participate in some holiday activities! Today we went with my mom and sister to get a Christmas tree...we needed one and they did as well so we just went together. We found a beautiful tree! We hope to decorate it tomorrow. I will try to post pictures from the weekend events and our Christmas tree soon.

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

We can't believe that we're going to have a little girl! We are so thrilled to experience the joy of having a baby girl. Carter still seems to think he is having a baby brother but was excited when we told him the baby is a girl. The ultrasound went well and the baby girl looks healthy. We are still deciding on a name. We are so blessed!

We find out tomorrow if Carter is going to have a sister or a brother

We are so excited about our ultrasound tomorrow. We are praying for a healthy baby..boy or girl, although big brother is insistent that he is having a baby brother. We are looking forward to the holidays and have been a bit more productive with shopping this year as opposed to most years when we are among the "last minute shoppers". We still have to get our Christmas tree, so not completely ready for Santa yet. We have told Carter that Santa comes to bring presents on Christmas to celebrate Jesus' birthday; he seems to take to that idea. It will be nice for mommy and Carter to have daddy home during his Christmas break (I'm sure he is ready for a break from the stress of teaching middle-school kids). Well, I will try to post soon with the results from our ultrasound!