Julianna Update

It's 10:45 pm here....I am 37 and a half weeks along....God know's Julianna's perfect birthday....and it will be tomorrow, April 1st.....

Kinda funny because I remember telling people that the "one day" that I didn't want her to be born was April 1st just because it is April Fools. When you play sports, you tend to be a little suspicious about things...especially when you are dealing with numbers all the time. Anyways, I think God has a funny sense of humor....Because it looks like tomorrow will be Julianna's birthday.

I had my routine doctor's appointment today at 11am and it was also our annual "Race for Education" run for school. My friend Kim and I decided to walk around until I had to leave for my appt. She pushed the kids and we made a total of 4 laps. At my appt. I actually had dilated a little more than I was last week. I was now a solid 2, almost a 3. My doctor could tell that its getting a little tough with the two kids at home, and so she stripped my membranes.

I guess it worked!! We started having solid contractions and they were about a minute apart for 3 hours before I agreed to go to Labor and Delivery. The reason I didn't want to go is becuase it seems I just don't dilate much and it doesn't matter how close those pesky contractions are....

So, what do you do?? Pray!!! I prayed that somehow there would be a change in dilation from this morning, or that the contractions would be strong so that we would stay. At first check, I was still a solid 2. I though for sure we were going home and that I would just have to "deal" with the contractions until my water broke. God heard my prayers!!! An hour later she checked again because she could see that I was getting strong contractions every minute and was hoping that I had changed. She checked, and I changed to a 3!!!!!

We were admitted tonight at about 9:30pm, so hopefully in a few hours we will have a new baby in our family!!! Well, I am going to go back to working on these contractions

All grown up...

My "little baby boy" is now 2 and a half years old....I can't believe it. Seems like yesterday that he was born and so small. Now he is growing tall, has a mouth full of teeth and such an extensive vocabulary! He is very smart too...takes after daddy with the mechanics and mommy with liking to write and draw. He goes to school with me and Jenna where he has learned all his colors, numbers, shapes and tons of animals (not to mention their sounds too).

What does a 2 and a half year old like to do? Well, he likes two movies: Nemo and Cars....LOVES to play outside and run....likes to play with Jenna and always is taking care of her....he likes to draw and color....and of course, my favorite thing - he likes to help mommy with the dishes and the laundry. :)

Of course there are those "testing" times when he is learning to exert his independence, but for the most part is is an excellent little boy. You definately cannot leave him alone though! For nap time we have to take everything out of his room except for his bed and dresser because he pushes his bed over to climb on top and get the radio to see how it works....and then there's the incident of last Friday where taking out the trash to the back yard cans resulted in mommy being locked outside!

Needless to say, he keeps us on our toes and continues to amaze us with his learning. He is a wonderful big brother and loves to talk to baby Julianna...you're growing up so fast little man!

Here's a video of he and Jenna playing one evening....

Spring Break 2009

This year for spring break we stayed pretty much low-key. I spent the week home with the kids and also trying to prepare lesson plans and materials for school in the anticipation of Julianna's arrival. We had fun though and it was the PERFECT week for spring break as the weather was gorgeous! Highs were in the upper 70's and it was bright and sunshiney every day. The kids got to have a "grandma" day on Monday which allowed me to get some house-work and school-work done... Of course I didn't get near as much done as I wanted to! Oh well.....

Josh had fun carrying "mommy's purse around too....Jenna had fun, until she got stuck in the exersaucer....

We also played outside with bubbles and on our slide for a while....Played at the park.....Played in the playroom upstairs.... play, play, play, whew - I'm warn out!

We had a great week, although it went by entirely too fast! Guess we will look forward to summer time!! I can't wait for our trip out to California for everyone to meet Jenna and Julianna. The last time we were out there was when Josh was 6 months old....too long ago!!!

16-Months

Our little monkey is going to be 16-months old next Wednesday (no April's fool!)...Its hard to believe that she is almost a year and a half old already!!! We nick-named her "experiment 6-2-6" since she likes to "seek and destroy" anything in her path.....Actually she's a very good baby, just VERY dramatic with things. I am excited for her to be a big sister though as she is very nurturing towards little babies. Sometimes though she can be a bit "smothering" towards them in wanting to give them a hug or kiss so bad that she squashes them....LOL....

We had her 15-month check-up today (a little late, I know), but its hard trying to schedule things around 2 kids and having only 3 weeks left until there's one more in the mix. Anyways, Jenna is almost 20 pounds!!! She is in the 5th percentile for weight (not unusual since Joshie is 2 and a half and weighs only 26 pounds), but is in the 50th percentile for her height - she is 31 inches tall! She'll be catching up to Joshie soon!

The biggest milestone for her by far though is the appearance of her first tooth!! Yes, you read right, her FIRST tooth! A little late in getting pearly whites, but they are all coming in at once...There's the front left tooth poking through and she will no longer be a "gummy baby"...LOL....

Here are some recent pictures of our little monkey from this past week :)

Has to have her blankey...just like mommy did

So dramatic!!!

Hmmm....let me think about it.....

Spring Portraits

Since Julianna will be joining our family soon, I figured I had better get the kids' spring and Easter pictures done. And of course it's always good when you have a coupon for free pictures!! We took these pictures today...Jenna was actually quite cooperative this time!