Say Hello to Myles

On April 2nd we went in for a 4-D sonogram! My mom was able to come for the weekend to join us for this neat occasion. I was 22 weeks at the time. This was our 3rd sonogram and our 1st time to have a 4-D sonogram.

Matthew, Audrey, my mom and myself all piled into the sonogram room and we were amazed at how much we could see of our baby boy. Myles (our boy's name) kept his fists close and tight in front of his face. Matthew was proud of his pugilists stance. Myles means soldier, so what a fitting name. I like that name because I want our kids to be great advocates and partners for Christ. "Onward Christian Solider!"

After the appointment, Audrey went to school and showed all her classmates her brother's picture. She is a proud big sister who is excitedly awaiting her brother's arrival.

Sirloin OR Skipper?

Baby @ 15 weeks

Thursday Matthew and I went to my 19 week check up. I was so glad that he could go and meet my Doctor. We truly have been blessed with this whole pregnancy, especially with a really nice/funny doctor.

My appointment could have been done over the phone, since most of it was conversation but we did get to have a sneak peak in the oven. As we were being escorted back to the exam room the nurse asked us if we were scheduled for a sonogram that day. We said we weren't but would definitely accommodate them if they so chose to do so.

After we talked about traveling in the last stages of my pregnancy (to possibly Peltoro, CO. - which is out) and how if we did go to the mountains we would have a mountain baby and after we delivered we could bury the placenta under a tree beneath a full moon (too weird) we got to see our little boy!

(For sure a boy)

The doctor took a full 20 minutes probing my belly to get a "good" shot of our sons dingle-hopper. He said that although he knew what were having he still wanted a good view of it. The doctor said that we are going to have a stubborn kid because he just did not want to move from his comfortable, curled up position.

Spread them (arrow is pointing at penis)

As we were wrapping up we asked about how big the baby was and he said to Matthew, "10 o.z. for male talk, that's a good size steak and for the ladies, the size of Skipper, not quite Barbie".

So I hope you enjoy the pictures of our little steak!

Cuteness Caught...

We have been pretty busy this new year but I couldn't tell you where it went! Audrey amazes me more and more each day and I really enjoy our time together...most of the time. Here are a few cute cameos that I happened to catch.

No I don't want to take a nap, DADDY!

For the past couple of months we have been struggling with nap times. I will put Audrey down and then an hour to an hour and 1/2 later she is still wide awake, singing and talking. Well on this Sunday afternoon we all laid down for a nap and I was out like a light. Matthew on the other hand couldn't sleep with all the chattering going on, so he got up with her and they just sat on the couch watch a boring grown-up show and she slowly nodded off, sitting up, no less.

When I woke up this is what I came across. Too sweet. Moments like these melt daddy's heart for sure, especially since Audrey is a momma's girl!

Paintin' Picasso

About a year ago Audrey stayed with my folks for a long weekend and thoroughly spoiled her. One of the activities they did together was paint. Well ever since that weekend, THANKS MOM, she has been wanting to paint, again. So for Christmas Santa Claus brought a learning easel that is great for painting.

Here is a picture of my precious painting without making a huge mess! I was ready to clean up a big mess but she is very much like her dad, who doesn't like to get messy.

Being Corny!

Recently, Audrey has really enjoyed eating corn, especially off the cob. I even had one meal where she took my corn off my plate and started eating it! I am glad I can give my non-messy kid some corn and she will get messy. She will chomp and chomp on her corn til the corn kernels are ALL gone.

2 Cute moments

1.One day Audrey was waiting on me to head out the door and she and Joanie were sitting by each other like old pals. They get along but Joan is such a mature lady that she doesn't usually hang out with the kids. They were sitting so sweetly together!

2. A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasant surprise of having our niece Kristi in town. We got to have lunch with her and her new family! She has a sweet baby girl named Aumilynn (I think). Audrey was really impressed by the tiny baby and had a lot of questions about what the baby could and could not do. Audrey is researching for her baby brother to come!

1st Sonogram!

This pregnancy has been very different than my last. I have forgotten that I am pregnant occasionally and I didn't go see a doctor unitl I was 14 weeks! So within a weeks time I have seen the doctor and had a sonogram.
The purpose of the sonogram was to get an acurate due date. Our due date is August 5th and since the baby was measuring only a week behind we aren't changing the due date. We were also able to see what the gender of the baby is! The sonographer said she is pretty sure we are having a BOY, but to not to go out and buy lots of blue. Our next sonogram will be at 22 weeks and then we should know more definitely.
In the meantime we are thinking of names and are open to suggestions, it just doesn't mean we will pick the name you suggested! Keep us in your prayers.

Christmas Celebrating!

New Table and Chairs!

I know, I know that this is 2 months late but I wanted to share these great pictures! We decided to start some family traditions now that Audrey is 2. My parents came in from Waco and brought a great surprise with them.

I had asked my mom to bring some folding chairs to compensate for the lack of seating in our house. My mom came in and said she had forgotten to pack the chairs. After we had eaten dinner my parents went out to the car to get their luggage and surprised me with a new-to-me dining table and chairs!

The drunken Reindeer!

Mommy/Daughter matching necklaces.

Christmas Eve we played games and had great snacking! We also opened gifts from family. After the little one was all snug in her bed with visions of sugar plums...oh yeah on with the story, we (Matthew, my dad, sister and myself) commenced to assemble all the the Christmas toys.

Cool Dad

Merry Christmas!

Matthew and I were so excited for Audrey and enjoyed all the excitement. Audrey had so much fun Christmas morning playing with all her new toys. I think she was a little overwhelmed!

Look at all the loot!

We really enjoyed having my folks up and enjoyed having a less-stressful Christmas at home.

Christmas Princess Tea

Back at the beginning of December I schemed to get all the little girls in our circle together to have some girl time. Audrey has recently become enamored with dressing up and being a princess! So I thought that I would start a tradition that I can carry on until Audrey leaves for college: Christmas Tea time.

Miss J-Bug!

I think our little Princess Tea party went smashing! The girls were so well behaved and knew just what to do despite being so young.

Cookie Creations

We had playtime, lunch and then cookie decorating. Sadly to say there was no tea had by the little ones. I think all the mommies enjoyed watching our little ladies!

Little Ladies

Catching Up...

Okay so it has been a long time since I have posted...sorry folks. What can I say...I have been busy? So get ready for some posts that should have been posted several months ago but are too noteworthy to not post!

4th Album...4th Photo...Hum?

I was tagged....well let's just say a while ago to post the 4th picture of my 4th album. I recently got a new laptop so my pictures were not old but on our old computer we had a slew of pics. So I had my sweet honey send me all the pictures that I wanted.

This picture is of my sweet sister-in-law who is now in New Zealand! We were celebrating Christmas 2004 and this was our first Christmas together (as newly-weds). Jeremy, my brother, and Eliza were married 2 weeks after us. At the time it was hard to get her in a picture much less a decent one. So here is to black mail! I think she was tucking in her shirt and using the Christmas tree as a screen. We had all gathered in Kansas at my Aunt's house. We had a lot of fun and interesting moments.

All I want for Christmas...

"All I want for Christmas is..." A baby brudder or baby sisTer one day! (as Audrey says). Surprise! We are expecting. We have been praying for several months for a baby with Audrey at her bedtime prayers. We found out that we are expecting another little one come August!

Lately our family has been doing a lot of fun Christmas outings. The weekend after Thanksgiving we went to Marshall with some friends. Then Thursday we enjoyed the Longview Christmas parade from Matthew's 5th floor office. Friday we enjoyed some time at the church decorating and festivating. Last night we went to the courthouse lawn and enjoyed some free entertainment along with a visit with Santa Claus! Audrey was not sure what to think about Santa Claus but she liked the idea of getting candy from him. He was such a good Santa Claus! He was very cautious not to upset her and ruin her childhood. He took time to talk with her and find out some about her. He asked her if she wanted a doll for Christmas and she said that she wanted, "Toys".

We took several photos to make sure and get a good one. I was real impressed with Santa Claus!

Lately Audrey has been asking us in the car, on the way home from an event, "What was your favorite part of the trip?" She will ask this if we are just going around the block or after a fun evening out. Usually she will say that her favorite part was whatever my favorite part was. For example, on the way home from the Longview Christmas 'Carade' (that is how Audrey says parade) I said that I enjoyed the hot air balloon fire and she did as well!

Moses Pumpkin...

You have to admit that when the Bible is effecting your Jack-o-lantern's choice of face... your child is learning something from "Bible Study".

So Audrey has been going to Bible Study for some time now and is learning a lot about Moses. When I asked her what did she want her pumpkin to look like, she said, "Moses" then I said, "Baby in the basket Moses or older Moses" and she said, "let my people go!" So I took that to mean Older Moses.

Fall Harvest is my favorite time of year and I was really looking forward to our churches 'Farm Fair'...so I kind of rubbed off on my daughter. She had a blast and has been asking if we can go to Farm Fair again.

My Mom was able to come into town to join us for this weekend and I think she had a good time. I told my mom about several of the contests that our church has for Farm Fair and she decided to decorate a pumpkin as well to enter. Our family together ended up winning 4 prizes total due to the fact that we were some of the only entries!

As far as Audrey's costume goes...she really enjoyed being a Bumble Bee especially when she saw an episode of Wonder Pets where one of the characters dresses up like a Bumble Bee.

More Birthday Pictures!

Benjamin and his trains
Show us that finger puppet Alec
Looks like Luke is happy
Open wide Luke

Hudson and his Dr. Pepper
Julia bug
Randall in mid-wave

Alli is so sweet

Birthday Week!

Birthday celebrating with Papa and Mimi

I had a friend whose family celebrated Birthday Weeks, where you would get a small present each day of your birthday week. I like that idea! So with Audrey's 2nd Birthday this past week brought a lot of celebration.

To prepare Audrey for her birthday on Thursday and what comes with it we talked to her about what her birthday meant and what people would say and do. She really liked the "Happy Birthday" song, especially the part that goes "...and many more!"

We knew we wanted to get another dog for our family and what better time than an Audrey-birthday! So on Tuesday evening we went and picked up our new beagle puppy, Winston Chewhill. Also on Tuesday and Wednesday Audrey got to take Chocolate Chip cookies to Mothers' Day Out and Park Way.

So when Thursday came she was ready for her big day! In the morning we spent a couple of hours getting her pictures done with our good friend and photograher Josie (shameless plug: http://allforfunphotography.blogspot.com/). Boy those pictures are going to be really cute. Then we went to one of Audrey's favorite restaurants, Taco Beano.

That night...we had a blast with our friends at Audrey's Birthday. We had hot dogs, chips and the best ...cake and icecream. Audrey wanted to make sure we had candy too, which we had a Dora Piniata. I think fun was had by all and we want to thank all our friends for joining us in celebrating her birthday!

She's getting so big, especially in her new dress-up outfits!
On another note...Friday evening my folks came in late and we spent the rest of the weekend with them and a few friends camping. This was Audrey's first camping trip and I think it make a good impression on her. As we were driving home this morning she said, "Audrey, good Camper!"

September....time of remembrance

I want to echo what Jaime (http://rinehart4.blogspot.com/) had to say about this day, September 11th, as a day to remember. Where were you... 7 years ago? Can you believe it...it was 7 years ago? I was a sophomore in college. I was in a class that was my least favorite, AutoCad (architectural drafting). Every month we would celebrate classmates birthday's by having cake and that day, September 11th was the day we ate cake and watched a great catastrophe on the classroom projection screen.
It was so surreal to be eating cake, of all things, while there were many who were suffering.

Not to downplay the magnitude of that day but I want to also note some days in September that have had great significane to me:

My first date with Matthew...the day that started all of where I am: September 7th, 1999

Our first dog as a married couple, Joan of Barc came into our lives: September 7th, 2003

Our sweet daughter, Audrey came to us September 18th 2006.

And many more special dates/memories that I won't forget....I don't want to forget...maybe I 'll forget...why do our memories fail us.

Make a point to remember special days, people, memories because frankly all the stuff we have is nowhere near as important and special as the relationships we have/had with others.

Labor Day in Hot Springs!

Daddy's a Dead Man

As a family we got to enjoy one last Summer get-away to Hot Springs, AR with my brother and his lovely wife! We have been planning some time to get together at least one more time before they head off to New Zealand to do mission type work.

Jeremy's lining up the perfect putt

We haven't seen my brother, Jeremy and his wife, Eliza since Thanksgiving this past year...wow...has it been that long?

Hole in one, Mommy!

We decided to meet in Hot Springs because it is a fun place to go and it is halfway between where we both live. Audrey was real excited about seeing Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Eliza. At first she was not sure what to think about them but by the time we parted ways she really misses them.



Should I feed the gold fish MY gold fish?

We got to go to a children's museum, Pirate mini-golf, an outdoor garden near the lake, original bath house and lots of great eating places! On top of all that we, Matthew, Jeremy, Eliza and myself played the game "Settlers of Catan" several times into the wee hours of the morning...okay so it was late for me!
I think overall we had lots of fun although I felt like I was in the bathroom all weekend because Audrey is still potty training but doing awesome!Picture Perfect...Jeremy and Eliza

Swim Lessons and Best Buds

For the past 2 weeks Audrey and I have been taking a "Mommy and Me" class with a couple of friends through the City of Longview (http://www.ci.longview.tx.us). We had so much fun and saw steady progression.

The class was 30 minutes long and consisted of 3-4 songs, which included much splashing and dunking, practice time and shallow water play time. I think Audrey's favorite time was the singing and splashing time. We really enjoyed getting to take the class with our friends Luke and Ryan along with some new friends. Audrey seemed to be a great inspiration for our boy friends. Luke only blowed bubbles to show Audrey and Ryan really loved doing "Motor Boat" with Audrey. To tell you the truth...I think she could have cared less. I hope you enjoy these great pictures.

Trying to do Scrapblog...

Hey...to all of you who saw my blog in a shamble...please ignore what you saw. I have been playing around with Scrapbloging. I was working on it earlier this afternoon, wasn't sure what I did wrong, left it and went shopping and to eat pizza. Then when I got back home I realized how fast people check blogs by 2 comments posted on my lousy attempt at Scrapbloging. So hopefully now it looks mucho better. Let me know what you think...I'm asking for it *smile* *wink* and *all that good stuff*.