Congratulations

For those of you who don't know, Will ran cross country in college and was quite good. Before we moved here he was still pretty active in the running community and won most of the races he entered. He has been asked to coach privately for as long as I have known him. Well, one of the people he has been coaching is a man from South Africa, Marius. He made it to nationals this year and did really well. He got the gold in the 800m, and silver in the 400m and the 1500m. He now moves on to worlds and we are so excited for him. I am also excited for Will, who I think is such a great running coach and should really do it for a living! So congratulations to both Marius and to my husband. All of your hard work is paying off!

Pool Time

It has finally gotten warm enough to pull out the pool! The girls had a blast playing in the pool after church on Sunday. Nonna sent the bathing suits as a Valentine's present and they are just now getting to use them. The water was so cold that Emma kept getting out to be wrapped in her towel to warm up before she would return to the pool. Page, however, would swim in a pool of ice cubes and it wouldn't bother her, lol!

Who Ate the Jello?

This morning I opened the fridge and found what you see in the picture. I figured Will had eaten the jello last night after I went to bed. I went to ask him why he left the fork in the fridge and why he had been eating it in the fridge in the first place. He laughed and said that he hadn't. So Will looked at Page and asked her if she had eaten the Jello yesterday. She denied it repeatedly to which Will responded with another question. "Was the Jello good?" She shook her head and said "YES." We both started laughing so hard we couldn't punish her for doing it!

Presents For Liam

Will's parents sent this pillow for Liam. Both of the girls have similar pillows with their names on it too. Thanks Nonna and Poppy




These are pictures of Liam's first baby shower gifts. My friend Hilary from church is going to be leaving for China to pick up their new daughter and wasn't going to be at our shower so we got it a little early. I just love the bib!

Liam's Coming Home Outfit

We took the girls to the Galleria on Saturday and while shopping I found this outfit for Liam. For both of the girls I had special coming home outfits and my mom framed them for me after they wore them. I am so excited that I found Liam's outfit so soon especially with the selection they have for boys!

Ultrasound

I had another ultrasound this morning and things are looking great! They are estimating his weight to be between 4 - 4 1/2 pounds right now with an estimated weight of right around 8 pounds if I go full term. This is just above average and not looking like a really BIG boy. I was happy to hear this with the exception that the extra weight means it is on me and not on him! Oh well, breastfeeding will do wonders for that extra weight soon enough. We could also see a head full of hair on the ultrasound, it is kind of spiky and soooo cute. I also made them check for boy parts again, just in case, lol. He kept his arms over his face the whole time, so it was hard to get a good picture today. It was almost like he was trying to hide behind his arms so that we couldn't see him, so cute! His heart rate was 133, which is what it usually is. Since I have been having some pretty intense Braxton Hicks contractions daily now they decided to check my cervix for any changes and I am starting to dilate already. Not much, but the process has begun! I stayed dilated 2-3 centimeters with Page for almost 2 months so I wasn't too surprised to hear that had begun. I start having ultrasounds weekly now until he is born to monitor the placenta for clots. I am really feeling the pressure now to get his room finished and some things around the house done. Luckily, I am feeling the benefits of the iron pills now. My energy levels are picking up again and I am able to do a little more each day. I also have a great recipe for Bran muffins which are helping with some of the side effects of the iron pills if you know what I mean.

Pictures From Last Week

Here are some pictures from last week at our church's ground breaking ceremony. The church has grown so much that they are packed out for all three services and are now in the process of building a new home. The property is beautiful and the ceremony was really fun. The weather was so perfect and a lot of people turned out. They had plastic shovels for all of the kids and lots of food for those who came. Page was very interested in a little girl named Isabelle so once she ate she spent most of her time playing with her. That is Page's back you see in the second picture becuase I couldn't get her to come back over to our blanket for a picture. Will was able to make it and that made it so much nicer.

Happy Birthday Paw Paw

Happy 53rd Birthday Paw Paw! We wish we could be there with you to celebrate, but we are having cupcakes over here in honor of your birthday. We love you, enjoy the crawfish!

30 Week Appointment

I made the 30 week mark on Sunday but didn't have my appointment until yesterday. I gained another 3 pounds, in 2 weeks! The grand total so far is 18 pounds. The doctor asked me if I was still exercising after she saw the weight gain. I said now really, I am anemic, 7 months pregnant, not sleeping at night, and have 2 toddlers. I have absolutely no energy to exercise any more! She laughed and said well try to cut out the sweets and juices. The reason she was concerned about the weight gain is because I am measuring at 37 weeks by the fundal height. I don't know much about this measurement, but I know it is supposed to correlate to the number of weeks pregnant that you are so this is much bigger than it should be. Other than being told how huge I am we discussed the iron supplements. She gave me a prescription for some iron that is absorbed into the small intestines instead of the stomach to see if that helps and a higher dosage than I had been taking with the over the counter pills. I have heard from others taking this kind of iron that it really does help so I am hoping it will work for me as well. I see the specialist next week for another ultrasound and am getting excited about seeing our little boy again. I hope to get some pictures up this weekend of what's been going on around here.

Emma Likes To Talk

We snapped this picture of Emma while she was near us as she talked on the phone. She loves to talk on the phone and will wander around the house just jabbering away to anyone and everyone. She will throw fits if someone calls and I won't let her talk to them. I have images of her as a teenager just wandering around the house talking to her friends for hours on end.

On a side note, I got some blood tests back on Monday and I am severely anemic. I kind of thought something might be going on, but never having had anemia before I had no idea what it was. They checked for anemia when they drew blood during the glucose test, which I passed with no problem, and sure enough my iron levels were very low. I really feel for anyone having to suffer from this because it is kicking my butt! I can barely keep my eyes open, my heart races all the time, I can't concentrate on anything and now with the iron supplements I am feeling quite sick again like I did in the first trimester. If anyone has any suggestions to help with this I would love to hear them! Also, I am now as big as I was when I delivered Emma, yikes! I still have 2 months to go!!

Happy Easter!

I hope that everyone had a nice Easter. We spent the morning at church and then went to our neighborhood egg hunt that afternoon. We missed being with family of course, but it was nice having a lazy day around the house. (Well as lazy as you can have with 2 toddlers running around!) The girls wore their Easter dresses from Nonna but since it was so cold they also had to wear tights, sweaters and coats to church. I could not get a good picture of the girls together because Emma refused to stand next to Page. I don't blame her, Page kept trying to steal her jelly beans every time she got close. The one I posted is of Page asking for the jelly beans instead of taking them. The biggest news for our household this weekend was the switch from crib to toddler bed for Emma. We asked her if she wanted to sleep in a big girl bed like Page did and she said "YES!" So we made the switch. I have to admit that I was a little more than nervous as to how it would go since every other change Emma has had to make has been met with extreme hostility. While it is not going as smoothly as it could go, it is definitely one of Emma's easier transitions. Here are the pictures of the girls in bed tonight. Emma does like to sleep sideways no matter where she is and her new bed is no exception!

New Dishwasher

Will installed our new dishwasher tonight while the girls worked on their eggs. After they were done with the egg dying they played in their "new house" as Page called it. The girls had so much fun with the box that I think we might keep it around for a little while. Will did a great job putting in the new dishwasher. It was a real headache, as those chores usually are, but he did it with only one trip to Home Depot.

Easter Eggs

The girls dyed eggs this evening. It didn't go very smoothly to say the least. Emma was so excited about the dye itself that she spent most of the time splashing the dye all over the table and herself. I gave each girl 6 eggs. Emma cracked 4 of her 6. The only reason she didn't crack all of hers is because I just took them away from her after she threw the 4th one on the floor. Page was really into decorating her eggs with stickers. The first picture is of Page explaining why she couldn't smile for the camera. She said "mommy, I am working really hard and don't have time to smile." It was so cute.

Shadow Boxes

I started doing the shadow boxes for Liam's room tonight. I could only get 2 of the 5 done because the needles kept breaking and I ran out! I started out the morning cleaning and polishing the pewter. The girls were so interested in the planes that I had to wait until they were in bed to begin. The pictures don't really show the detail of the planes, but I am happy about the way they look. I can't wait to get the other ones done and hanging in the nursery! By the way, the first picture is of the planes covered in the cleaner. I found a recipe on the internet for cleaning antique pewter and it was so easy. I just dipped the planes into the cleaner, which consisted of salt, vinegar and flour, and let them sit for 1 hour. Then I washed them in warm water and polished them with a soft cloth.

28 Week Check Up

I had my 28 week check up this morning which included my glucose tolerance test. My doctor was in a delivery so it was an hour past my appointment time before I saw her and then they wanted to do a nonstress test. I was one hungry woman by 11:30! Everything is fine with Liam. He turned sideways again last week and has not moved much at all since then so they wanted to do a nonstress test just to make sure he was okay. His heartrate was 140 and with the glucose drink surging through my body he put on a good show for the test. The big news is that in the last 5 weeks I have put on 8 pounds! I knew I had gotten a lot bigger, but I wasn't prepared to hear that I was gaining almost 2 pounds a week. I start seeing my regular O.B. every 2 weeks now and at the end of the month I start seeing the specialist every week! I feel a little overwhelmed at the thought of so many appointments right now after being at my last appointment for over 2 hours. Thankfully I had a baby sitter today so it wasn't hard on the girls being in that little room for so long. I will get Will to take a belly picture this weekend.

Pictures From This Weekend

Emma was exhausted and laid down under the table to cuddle with her blanket.



Emma was trying to do what her big sister was doing!



Page doing puch ups between the sofa and the coffee table!



Page walking our neighbor's dog and loving it!



Will and the girls during our picinc at the college. I don't know why Page was pretending to be asleep. By the way, Will dressed the girls that day so try not to laugh too much at their outfits!

What A Day!

I promise to upload pictures from this weekend this week. We took so many pictures that it will take me an hour to go through all of them. The above pictures are ones that I had taken back in January and just recently got back due to some problems with development. They are Page's 3 year picture and Emma's 18 month picture. Next week we are going to take Easter pictures of the girls in the adorable dresses Nonna brought up on her visit.
Anyway, today was jam packed with activity! We managed to get our act together in time to make it to 8:30 service at church. We usually go to the 10:00 service because it just takes forever to get everyone fed and dressed. When we got home we planted the tomato plants and basil we had gotten yesterday at the nursery and had snack time outside. Will took the girls for a walk through the neighborhood while I cleaned the kitchen and made lunch. (Page walked our neighbor's dog while they were out. The pictures are adorable!) When they got back we loaded up the van again and headed to the local community college for a picnic and duck feeding. The girls had so much fun with the ducks, birds and squirrels that it was near impossible to get them to eat their own lunch. After about an hour we headed home for nap time. Emma fell asleep quickly, but Page refused to nap today. She did lay quietly in her bed and read books until nap time was over and I was thankful for that. Usually when she refused to nap it is a nightmare. After Emma woke up we had snack time again and then we headed to Sears to buy a new dish washer. Ours has not been working well for the past month or so and it finally broke yesterday. Will stayed home and cut the grass and trimmed the bushed while we were gone. Since we were out by the mall we headed to Target to get diapers for Emma and shorts for Page. She still fits in her 2T shorts, but they are VERY short on her long legs. By the time we got back it was time to make dinner. The girls played outside with Will finishing up the yard and going hunting for dogs while I cooked dinner. Then it was bath, a little Cinderella and bed! I am taking a break from ironing and then going to bed.
I am 28 weeks today and really feeling exhausted. I haven't slept well in a while due to some leg discomforts and a very active little boy. Heartburn has gotten a little worse and I am having bouts with Sciatica. I am, however, enjoying being pregnant and ever so grateful for a healthy baby boy who continues to grow stronger every day. I can't believe I am in the 3rd trimester already. These past 3 months have flown by! I was supposed to have my appointment tomorrow for the glucose test, but it got moved back to Thursday by my doctor. I will let you all know how that goes.