Aunt! AGAIN!

So, i'm already an aunt...and my only born nephew is this one:

LUKE!

(stole from Ann's fb.)

And in May, i'll become an aunt to a little girl via this lady:

(stole from lindsay's fb)

then, in august, i'll become a MOMMY for the 2nd time! and this little man will be a big brother:

and in October, (drum roll please)....

i'll become an aunt TIMES 3 via these people:

:)

wahoo.

congrats Timmy&Kimmy.

Babies EVERYWHERE!!!!

i'm excited!

a little honesty...

So this pregnancy has been discouraging. Much like the last one. Due to sickness. Its funny because somehow I thought this one would be much different. I hear the words of women saying "oh I never get sick!" Or "I don't even know what morniing sickness is!". And I think oh yeah!! That can be me, and it has thoroughly disappointed me that I am not that woman. My first reacation is to get angry. Be angry at women who don't get sick, be angry at God, and be angry at my body. I need to sit back, get off my high-horse, and realize that God never promised this would be easy. God gave me a baby! And for this, I need to be praising, not pouting. Secondly, I tend to get mad at myself, thinking that I am so weak! If only I could be stronger. This too, is not a truth. The truth is that my body is making a human...does that seem like an easy task?? I think not! People ask me a lot how I'm feeling, and a lot of times I don't even want to be honest, for fear that they don't understand. " Why, your 16 weeks, you should feel good by now!!"

FALSE.

All this to say, God is checking my heart right now. Here's what I do know...
Babies are a blessing from the Lord. To be given such a huge blessing and to be bitter and angry about it, is selfish. Especially when there are people out there who's bodies cannot have children. This is just a huge reminder to myself. I need to re-check my heart frequently so I can come back to this place.

This doesn't mean my discouragemnt is gone and I'm thrilled with how sick I feel! This does mean that I'm human, and I need to re-evaluate where my heart and attitude lie! Hopefully this blog will remind me!!!


All of that said... I'm 16 weeks today! In 1 month we get to see if this blessing is a BOY or a GIRL. That also means in 1 month ill be half way through!!! :). Were anxious to know this little person better!!!!

front view:

Attitude

You'll recall earlier in this blog, and this winter, I posted about remaining positive about all this snow.  I knew, and still know that it's the only way i'll make it through Indiana's winters.  So...with that said...i'm still sticking to that goal, but it's proving VERY hard.

Especially when a few days ago it was like this:

and 2 days later it's like this:

so instead of blogging about how my "positive attitude" is slowing fading away ;)   I will blog about the things I'm DREAMING about right now.  The light at the end of the tunnel:

you get the general gist, right?

what 15 weeks pregnant means...

1.  Babe is at least as big as an apple.

2. only FIVE more weeks til we get to find out if this baby is a BOY or a GIRL.

3.  only FIVE more weeks til the halfway mark.  Is it just me or is this pregnancy FLYING?

*side note* Mark and i have STILL NOT agreed on a name.  Oh boy.  This time is proving much more difficult then last time with the whole name thing!  Make no mistake...i have names, and mark has names...but to agree on one...hasn't happened yet!

Happy Monday!

Happy Presidents Day!

:)

Our 40 hour Valentines Day get-away

So, my husband is awesome at what he does.  And because he is so awesome, he won a sales competition at his work.  The prize was a paid 2 night stay in down town chicago at a beautiful suite, plus spending money!  Happy Valentines Day to us! :)  So, this week we dropped Owen with my parents, and headed to the same place we got engaged and fell in love...Chi-town!


Our drive up was beautiful, and so good to just sit and have 2 hours of un-interrupted talking time.  We got to the hotel and it was BEAUTIFUL!  When we checked in the front desk dude told us that we had the nicest room they had in the hotel!  We walked in and were amazed!! This room was WAY bigger then our apartment in Nashville!  Full kitchen, dining area, living room, bath and a half, and bedroom.  2 HUGE t.v.'s.  Awesome workout room and pool and hot-tub which we utilized all of those things in FULL...including the 24 hour coffee.

The next morning, we woke up at 6am chicago time....and NOT on purpose! ha!  Let's just say, we are NOT used to sleeping in the middle of a busy city.  Talk about LOUD!  This was the view from our window.  The picture really doesn't do it justice...it looks gloomy out and nasty...but it was 6am!

night time view:

we couldn't of had more perfect weather!  It was beautiful and sunny.  We took the public transpo and headed to the Shed Aquarium.  And had a blast.  Our favorite exhibit was the "wild reef"  where we saw lots of sharks.  We've been semi-obsessed with watching shark week on netflix, so it was perfect.  Ate lunch there too.  That night we got  giordano's pizza. (oh my yum) and just R-E-L-A-X-E-D.  A little swimming, some t.v...and so perfect.  This morning we poped in at trader-joes...i love that place, and go ANY and every chance I get.  Next time will probably be in May when we head to Nashville..unless of course we get to chi-town again before then :)   Some walking around down-town, some much needed starbucks and then came home :)  

what a beautiful trip.

(Owen had a great time at Grammy and Pappy's as you can see below! My mom always sends me cell pics while we're apart from him, and it makes my heart so happy....)

I am so blessed.  Blessed to have a husband that loves me enough to surprise me with romantic get-aways and alone time.  Blessed to have a family that loves my little boy.

:)

What a successful Valentines Day!

Here are some additional trip pics :)

shed aquarium:

view from lunch at shed:

our huge bed in our huge room:

me in our kitchen and you can see the dining and partial living room too :)

awkward pregnant.

Well, I've reached that point in my pregnancy where i feel awkward.  Things fit weird, i feel fat, people that know me can tell i'm pregnant but people at the grocery store probably just think i'm tubby.  Not comfy in my own skin.   This part is hard.  And for me, harder with baby number 2.  I've offically made the switch from regular jeans to maternity jeans.  However, I found LONGS!  Which is a miracle! :)  I'm happy to feel comfy in my pants.

Things are certainly changing...including my view when i look down:

but at least i can still see my toes! for now! 

:) 

I'm so anxious for warm weather.  I'm going to stock up on tons of maternity skirts and sun-dresses!

Also,

a very happy valentines day to all of you.   I hope your loved one makes you feel extraordinary today.  I know that this holiday is hated by people who haven't found the perfect person.  Today when i was looking on facebook a single guy friend of mine wrote this,

"Instead of being depressed that I am single on V-Day, I would like to thank all of the wonderful couples in my life who I look to as examples of what love, sacrifice, and selflessness, looks like. Thank you for being in my life. I will be well prepared when my lady comes along!"

that's the spirit! :)

It's part of the job description.

My goodness today has been a test of a day.  It started early.  As SOON as he came down the stairs from waking up, he was in naughty spot.
Then, he spent a few hours with my mom as I was working.  She reported that he wasn't naughty, but he was un-happy and whiny the whole time.  "It's got to get better after nap time" i thought.  And I thought WRONG.

After nap, I took Owen to the mall playground to meet up and play with his buddy Kyle.  I thought for sure, that would help.  Get him out of the house!

It started out okay, but within minutes owen was pushing and shoving Ky down...time and time again.  We chatted about it, sat down in time-out, hugged ky, said sorry, gave nice touches, you name it...but he just wouldn't stop!  So, we went home.

It didn't stop there.  Coming home and feeding dinner was a nightmare.  Let's just say two things:

1. Praise the Lord that Owen is sleeping.

2. These are the days were I can't believe i'm having another doober.

Hello February.

It's february.  That means a few things going on in our household:
1. valentines day.  As cheesy as it may or may not be, Mark and I really enjoy this "holiday"  It's great to go out together for a night.  And we cherish it even more now that we have a kiddo.

2. My sister's birthday.  She turned 20~!  We celebrated this past weekend.  Owen had fun sporting my sisters birthday crown...oh boy....

3.  We got to see our baby.  In ultra sound form.  The tech said that baby was SOOO active and squirmy that she could barely get a decent picture!  We are happy to hear everything looks okay with babe.  He or she is measuring small right now, but that's not a issue.

Here baby is WAVING!

13 weeks and a few days:

When we were having Owen, after we got the 1st ultrasound, when went out to lunch to celebrate and to call and tell people we hadn't told yet, and we did the same this time!  I love our little ultrasound lunch tradition...too bad this will be the last time we do it...Lord willing!  (and yes, that means i don't want any more babies!)

excuse owen's runny nose.  :)

we went to a pizza place called Barnaby's.  YUM.

4.) Owen's officially been in day care for a month now.  He seems to really be enjoying his class, and he runs around saying his friends names all the time!  He also runs around saying "aunt ann" and "lukey" because he gets to see them at day care too!  

Here he is showing off his daily sheet:

(he's very proud of himself and his good little report from school)

5.) and the one that is making me go crazy....MY LITTLE GUY TURNS 2 in one month.  2.

2.

2. 

I'm kind of in disbelief!  March 10th is the big day! Say a prayer for me! ;)

and i'll leave you with a quick and cute story.  The other day i was in the kitchen doing dishes or something productive ;)  and I heard owen in the living room kind of whining/crying saying "mama stuck! mama stuck!"  I went into the living room to help him of course after hearing him say he was stuck and this was the position I found him in.  Look closely.

Sorry for the quality...I snapped these quickly with my cell phone:

Heres why this is hilarious to me.  He obviously wasn't physically stuck.  He just couldn't figure out how to get himself down from this leaning position while he was juggling crackers in the other hand.  Maybe it's just a mom thing, but I think it's funny that THIS of all positions was how he got "stuck."

...until next time!

♥