I forgot to mention the BEST Christmas present!

Ok, so maybe I didn't forget, but I was waiting a little while for it to sink in before I made the announcement!  And EVERYBODY knows now anyway, SOOOOO just for posterity's sake..

WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER BABY! 

It was a HUGE surprise to all of us!  I had been feeling a little off, and took a pregnancy test on Christmas Eve.  To my amazement, the test was positive!  I wrapped a red bow around the stick and put it in a Christmas bag for the kids and Brian to open.  Brian pretty much knew what I was doing, but we had to explain to the kids, "Mommy has a baby in her belly!"  They were so excited, and without missing a beat, Nate said "This is the BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!".  

The kids' excitement helped me feel excited, but if I'm being totally honest, as much as my heart felt it was a miracle, a blessing.. I had a really hard time getting my brain wrapped around it all.  I mean, we kind of thought we wouldn't be able to have any more kids naturally (without fertility treatments), so we were very content with our little family and had grown very comfortable with the fact that we were complete.  So comfortable, in fact, that we had given away or sold 95% of our baby stuff just a few months earlier (of course, right?)! 

Fast forward to now.. I'm about 14 weeks pregnant, starting to feel a little better (this pregnancy has been a little rough on my now-five-years-older body), and starting to really feel attached to this sweet surprise baby.  I'm picturing all of us together, a family of FIVE, and I'm getting so pumped to see my sweet older babies bonding and helping take care of our sweet new baby.  I feel like it has been a lifetime since I took care of a baby, but I hope it will all come back to me.  At least this time it's only one and I will have some clue what I'm doing!

My due date is August 30, so until then I'm going to keep working (taking photos) when I can, and keep munching on Nate and Lilly and trying to spend this valuable time with them while it's still just the four of us. 

In the mean time, expect at least a couple of sentimental posts about how special my big four year olds are to me.. They are growing up so fast and I feel awful there are so many sweet and funny (and maddening) things they do and say that I don't have time to post.  We've been having so much fun, and they've been trying new things and I could not be prouder of them!  They were ring bearer and flower girl in Uncle Danny's wedding a few weeks ago (that should be my next post), and they did AWESOME!!  We got a membership to the FW Children's Museum, and they have fun meeting friends and exploring there.. We went to our very first play (Rapunzel) at the Casa Manana Children's theater, and they payed attention and seemed to really enjoy it!  We go to Tiny Tot Time at Chick-Fil-a where they listen to stories and get to sing and dance with friends (and the yummy food doesn't hurt)!  We do play dates at friends' houses when it's cold, and we are ALWAYS at a park when it's nice out!  They love riding their bikes to the park by our house and meeting new friends there.  They are both getting so brave (Nate is a lot more outgoing and adventurous than Lilly right now, but Lilly has more fun with people she already knows and is really comfortable around).  We even went to a bowling birthday party and tried BOWLING!  Lilly was doing well, but she is so sensitive and started crying when she felt like some of the adults were laughing at her (because she was so darn cute, of course), and she didn't want to play anymore.  Nate did awesome and played the whole game.  I could tell he loved it and was very proud of himself!  It is so fun for me to watch them trying new things, especially when they enjoy themselves.  But as much as we all love getting out of the house, some of my favorite moments are the snuggling in, in our pajamas all morning.  I'm trying to soak up as much as that as possible right now!  As tired as I've been in this first trimester, I'm so grateful for morning cartoons (and, who am I kidding- afternoon cartoons), that hold their attention and make it possible for me to sit for a second or enjoy a quick snooze (pass out) on the couch! 

Ok, so I feel a little bit better just mentioning a tiny bit of what Nate and Lilly have been up to the last couple of months.  I mainly just feel like I need to write things down here, because I want to remember!  I have already forgotten so much about when they were babies and I love looking back to 2008 and reading about things they were doing and how I was feeling at that time.  I have so much more to share and I hope I have time to blog about more soon! 


Whew!!!

First Dentist Appointment!

Don't judge me!  This is something we have all been dreading, due to the kids' MASSIVE shyness and being scared of practically everything.  But they did GREAT!!  We went to an awesome pediatric dentist, where they took a lot of time to warm the kids up and showed them exactly what they were going to do, so the kids wouldn't be scared.  They really made them feel like they were a part of the whole thing, which was great! 

Lilly was excited to go first.  She got some cool sunglasses so the bright light wouldn't bother her when she leaned back.

 The dental hygienist let them hold each little "tool" she used to clean their teeth and explained what it was used for.

 Nate got some cool sunglasses too!!

 

 Bub's turn for X-rays!

 They both handled the X-rays like pros!

For right now, everything looked good- no cavities!  The dentist seemed concerned that it looked like some of the adult teeth may be missing on the X-rays (same ones for both of them), but I am just not going to worry about that for now and hope the missing teeth show up SOON!

SO PROUD OF BOTH OF THEM FOR DOING SO GREAT!  NOT ONE TEAR SHED! SUCCESS!

All things Christmas!

I'm sorry, these pictures were taken from different places on my computer, so they kind of go back and forth, but just hang in there with me! 

 

A couple of weeks before Christmas, the kids had their Pre-K Christmas recital.  Aren't they so cute all dressed up (I made them wear the same thing to church Christmas Eve, too!)?   These were just a few shots I got before we hurried out the door!

Sweet peas!!!

 

This was our first Santa sighting this year, at a bank in downtown Mansfield.  He was very sweet, and even had a real reindeer with him!  He told the kids that chocolate chip cookies were his favorite, so we had to make those instead of sugar cookies this year (which was ok, because we had already decorated Christmas sugar cookies at our neighbor, Donna's, and chocolate chip are much easier for Mommy)!

  Here is a very lame picture of their Christmas recital.. They are just to the left of the right-most microphone stand, second row from the top!  They did SO GOOD, they sung all the words and even had some sign language incorporated into the songs.  We were very impressed!

 We also had another "breakfast with Santa" event, where the kids wore their jammies and got to visit with another Santa.  I got a lot of questions, as this Santa was not nearly as.. "authentic".  From now on, we will only be visiting one Santa per season. :)

 And on to a fun and super easy Christmas craft- home made flour dough Christmas ornaments!!!  Here they are painting them after we got them out of the oven..

 Just in case Santa forgot something, we sent him some Christmas lists with our names and what we wanted.  I told them how to spell and they wrote out everything themselves- it took a WHILE!

 Just a sweet peanut butter jelly face

 And another sweet face :)

 Our gingerbread house wasn't NEARLY as frustrating to make this year as it was last year!!  They had fun, and I think it turned out pretty good!

 Here we are on Christmas Eve, next to the chocolate chip cookies and milk (and they LOVE this little people Nativity scene that Grandma got them last year!).

 Christmas Eve- after Santa came!

 Here are just a few I got on Christmas morning.  I hate that I don't ever get many, but there is just too much going on and I want to watch and enjoy instead of messing with my camera!!

 Half-asleep Daddy helping Nate unwrap some toys.

 New pink boots!

 A BARN!!

 Furniture for my DOLL HOUSE!

 

 These were taken at a little Christmas party/gift exchange we had at a friend's house.  The kids had fun frosting ice cream cones and decorating them like Christmas trees!

 

 Back to Christmas Day- WE GOT SNOW!!!!  They went out with their brand new umbrellas!

 This is their Pre-K "Happy Birthday, Jesus" Christmas party, in their little class room. 

 Here is a close up of their sweet little lists they made for Santa. LOVE!!!!

 

 Back to Christmas morning- new jammies and slippers!!  Bonus!

 

 More of our snowy Christmas Day..

 

 Playing on the Kindles they got for Christmas!  These things are AWESOME!

 Watching snow fall on Christmas Day..

Whew.. that was a lot of Christmas!  And I'm sure there were some things I missed, but this Christmas was so wonderful- the kids are at the PERFECT age of being so excited and not asking too many questions.  I hope it lasts a little longer!  Already looking forward to next year!!!