Zoe Grace - 2 Years Old!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Our Sweet ZOE GRACE!

Zoe turned 2 this past Friday, April 20. We had such a fun day celebrating and continued the celebration Saturday with an amazing Dora party with family and friends. On the actual birthday we had birthday donuts (which Zoe calls, "no-nuts" ;) with two candles. She loved blowing out her candles - or at least trying - and having Mommy & Daddy sing to her. She talked about singing to her all day/weekend long. Throughout the day, I'd let Zoe open a present or a card, which she as super excited about. When Daddy got home from work, she opened the rest. She had so much fun, but then proceeded to scream and cry for "MORE PRESENTS!!" Oh boy... For dinner we had some of her favorite foods: macaroni and cheese ("roni), green beans ("beanies"), and peaches. I think she asked us to sing to her at least five times. Ha! Finally, we ended the fun day by taking Zoe to Build-a-Bear. She chose a blue and brown teddy bear (Chuck's response: "That's my girl!"), and we named it Ishnala, the name of our neighborhood here. She calls her Nala. Too fun! She sure is spoiled, but isn't that what birthdays are for? We are so grateful for the two years God has blessed us with such a beautiful, healthy girl. I'd say that's reason to celebrate!

On party day, I finished making the Dora cake and getting the rest of the food prepared. Thankfully, Chuck helped out a ton and my parents came a bit early to help us out, too. When Zoe woke up from her nap to a decorated house, she was so excited! She particularly loved wearing her pink party dress (her "tutu"). That's our girl - pretty little princess!


The pictures below will help to capture some of the fun we had...

I'm 2!

Presents!

This used to be one of Mommy's favorite toys, too! :)

2nd Birthday Dinner - "Roni!"

Daddy, Zoe, and Nala :)

For Zoe's Dora party, we couldn't go without a Dora cake! ! I had so much fun making it.

Our little 2-year-old - so grown up!

Chuck came up with such a great idea to make a "Map" tablecloth to fit with our Dora theme - he gets 100% credit for the idea and the final product! So fun!

It may look like she's three with the three flames here, but it's really just a "2" candle with two stars. :)

She actually blew one out on the first try!

We love you, Zoe. Happy Birthday! :)

21.5 Weeks!

Ready or not, we are more than halfway through this pregnancy! Before we know it - Lord willing - we will be holding this precious baby in our arms. We can't wait.


Although I'm almost 21.5 weeks now, these few pictures are from 20 weeks. We were so excited to have our ultrasound to see the little babe. Everything went very well. He/She was quite stubborn, so we didn't get to see any awesome profile shots, but I still thought they were pretty good! We're still very excited to be surprised by the gender of this baby... :)

20 Weeks

Blue or Pink - what do you think?
Baby # 2 is about the length of these paint chips this week - 11 inches long! :)

Kudos to my creative photographer. :)

Baby enjoys keeping his/her arm smushed up by the face! Comfy?

Probably the best profile shot...if you can even tell what you're looking at. :)

Baby foot!

Cute little knuckles, we're told. :)

It's been difficult to choose names, but I actually think we've made some decisions in the past few days {let's hope I stay decisive, right Chuck?!}!


Let's not forget about our almost 2-year-old! Zoe is quite the ham. She loves to be goofy, tries to say {usually successfully} almost every word we ask of her, refers to every color as green {every number as 2 and every letter as 'I'}, throws crazy tantrums when she doesn't get her way - *sigh*, and brightens up our lives with her unprompted, "Love you!!"

Baby # 2 @ 13 Weeks!

13 weeks down...27ish to go! :) Looking at it that way, it sounds far off, but that little bundle will be here before we know it. Life with a toddler goes much more quickly, it seems.


We are super excited to become a family of four (Or is it 5? Our pup, Alli, might beg to differ...) sometime on or around - Lord willing - August 8, 2012!


To answer some of the more common questions I've already been asked so far about this pregnancy:

• I've been feeling OK. The pregnancy seems similar to my first with Zoe, but I've had a little more nausea than before. That seems to be getting better.
• I'm tired - ALWAYS! I'm pretty sure I could sleep at the drop of a hat, but circumstances don't usually allow anything close to that with little Miss Z. Needless to say, I do take a nap most days when she is napping in order to survive the day. Other than being tired, though, I really can't complain.
• I occasionally feel the baby "fluttering". It's not really moving, kicking, etc. so much yet. Just "fluttering". :) It's much easier to know what I'm feeling the second time around.
• No, we will not be finding out what we're having. We loved the surprise the first time, and I'm sure we'll love it the second time, too! We'd be perfectly happy with a boy or a girl, so no need to find out. As Chuck often says, "Anticipation is half the fun!" :)
• I think we'll be having a midwife this time around. I'm not 100% certain and have some time to decide, but we've been highly recommended to a wonderful practice by a good number of our friends. So far, so good. And really, I didn't know much about midwives - there really isn't much difference at all in what they can or can't do. I was happy to hear that!
• I don't recall really "showing" with Zoe until about 16+ weeks. Well, as the pictures below can attest, that certainly isn't the case (and our ultrasound would assure you that yes, there really is only one baby in there!) At this rate, they might have to roll me to the hospital in August! ;)
• Zoe is super excited to be a big "thiss-tuur"! I don't think she really understands it, but she loves talking about the baby, loves to hug and kiss my belly, and thinks it's just hilarious when Chuck talks to the baby. She's "aware" - but not really aware. Boy, is she in for a surprise in a few months!

13 weeks

Zoe loves giving kisses to the baby...or is it my belly button? :)

Baby # 2 is about 3 inches long this week...

...about the length of Zoe's little train! :)

"thiss-tuur"

...take 7...

...take 19...

...take 33...

No, really! She can't wait to be a big sister! ;)

Thankful Reflections - Days 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19

Oops! I'm getting worse and worse at this. :) It's been a busy week...thus making up for five days of posts in one tonight.

This past week, among many other things, I was particularly thankful for the amazing MOM's group I go to, for wrapping-up my first course for Northwestern (though I still have grading coming out of my ears!), for having two fun Thirty-One parties (one in Michigan!), and for having a great report for Zoe's 18-month (actually just 2 days shy of 19-months!) check-up at her new doctor's office.

Today, I was thankful to finally have a day at home to get things done and to try and catch my breath after a busy week. Chuck was super-husband and got tons done around here as well. We can finally fit both cars in the garage :) and have the Christmas lights hung (among many other tasks he accomplished!)

I am also grateful that my brother and his family are coming to visit from Atlanta to stay with us for a couple nights tomorrow. Can't wait to see them & to show them around Chicago on Monday!!

Lots to be thankful for as we approach Thanksgiving week!

Thankful Reflections - Day 14

Though it's never easy to move to a new place and "begin life anew", there are many things that have been so wonderful about coming back to the Trinity area. We still have many great friends and family that live in the area  - a couple of whom work at Trinity as well! This has certainly made the transition much easier and enjoyable. We love having friends nearby and we are grateful that Zoe will get to grow up with their kids as well.:) (P.S. It certainly goes without saying that we are missing our Michigan friends; we are just grateful for the friends we have here, too!)

Zoe, Cooper, & Quinn

TJ & typical Zo :)

Cousins! :)