Bump

We finally got around to snapping a picture last week.

I had hoped to keep it at the same scale as when we did it the first time, but we're already a couple of weeks off.

So here's me at 20 weeks!

Already halfway, woohoo!

And wow did that happen fast this time!

Kendra wasn't sure what we were doing, but she was pretty insistent to be held.

But as she had only just woken up, she was less than truly enthusiastic to have her picture taken.

"Shoooooooooes!"

One of Kendra's favorite words to say is "shoes".

Last week she took it upon herself to try a pair of mine she fancied.

She came all the way down the hall in them, too.  I was impressed.

(I bought these to wear in a wedding right after my mission and I'm pretty sure I haven't worn them since...)

And like all models, she struck a little pose at the end of the "runway".

It was pretty darn cute.

So squeaky CLEAN!

Kendra loves to hop in the shower.

And she looks really cute when she gets out.

This is the standard baby-burrito wrap.

But we decided that she's getting old enough to have her arms loose, too.

She seems to like it better.

And we're trying to teach her modesty...

...but she doesn't quite have it down yet.

A New Man in My Life...

Today was a very, very exciting day for us--our big ultrasound!  Grant was able to come with me so we could both see our new baby for the very first time together.  (There's usually an early ultrasound to confirm the due date and make sure the baby is doing okay sometime 6-10 weeks along, but we weren't able to get into a doctor that early so we had to wait until 20 weeks, which is pretty normal for the "big" ultrasound where they measure up everything and check out as much as they can--including the gender.)

It was a lot of fun!  The whole thing was surprisingly really different than the one we had with Kendra.  This particular ultrasound tech was just awesome in every way.  The one we had at this point with Kendra was very quiet and seemed like she was still learning what she was doing and didn't seem super sure of herself and she had to call in her supervisor for help, but not this time!  She's been doing this for 20 years and she told us every single thing she was doing and looking at and measuring and it made a world of difference.  It was really neat when she pointed out things like different parts of the brain (it blows my mind that they can see that!!), kidneys, even chambers of the heart and the blood flow from me through the umbilical cord.  It was even more cool to see our baby with all that knowledge and knowing exactly what we were looking at.

We also learned that everything looks beautiful, perfect and healthy--which is something we're incredibly grateful for...there is a very, very wide spectrum of bad news that can be determined at this scan, so hearing "Yep, this is perfect," over and over was a huge blessing.

And the BIG news?  It's a BOY!!  I can finally start cruising the clearance racks to start stocking up (now that I know I have to stock up a whole new wardrobe rather than just a few summer outfits)!  We are just thrilled!  Truth be told, we were both hoping for a boy, since our first was a girl, but we're just SOOO happy to be having another baby we didn't care too much!

Also, I had flat-out refused to take a guess.  I was so sure that Kendra was a boy, just absolutely positive...so when they told us she was a girl, I was blown away.  (I even thought that I was a horrible mother not in tune with my own baby because I had been so convinced...)  I did have a dream a few weeks ago that he was a boy (I had one that Kendra was a girl before we found out) and I was starting to get a tiny hunch--but I didn't put too much stock into anything.  But he did not leave any room for doubt at this scan--even the tech exclaimed, "Whoa!  That is definitely outdoor plumbing!"

We have a name in mind but now that we know, we're going to take some time to mull it over--we'll announce it when we figure it out.  :)

But, here he is!  We just couldn't be more thrilled for him to be joining our family!  (And he's measuring a little big--according to the scan my due date is May 29th instead of June 6th...but he could just be a big boy.)

We are just SO.  In.  Love!

Productivity

Insomnia is so awesome.  I'm exhausted but I haven't been able to sleep for quite a while, so I finally just got out of bed and did something productive.  Like take an old video from several months ago and play with my editing software to try to tweak so that it looks decent on YouTube AND doesn't take until THE END OF TIME to format and upload.  I'm not really that satisfied with what I came up with, but I'm just too tired now to attempt another different one.

The apartment complex we chose really caters to families.  There is a small but pretty good playground over by the office and this fall we hit it up often--especially during the slow times before all the big (and often rather obnoxious) kids got home from school to hang out there.  Kendra looooves it.  Like, when it was warm (and even not-as-warm, too) we really couldn't take her for the walk with us to get the mail unless we had a significant chunk of time to kill because she'd go straight for the playground and only leave literally carried away kicking and screaming.

It took her a little while to get comfortable going down by herself, but she really loves the slides.  It's pretty cute watchin' her go--and I'm not gonna lie.  This concept of sitting on a bench and having a breather while she does it is kind of awesome.

She pauses when she gets to the bottom of the slide.

She's waiting for applause.

Seriously.

So much fun!  I can't wait to take her back in a couple of months!

Cute stuff

Just a few random shots that never made it up.

I love her face in this one, "Mommy, we need to talk."

And then, "What are you lookin' at?"

And then I couldn't think of a clever thought bubble for her in this one:

But there's mischief in those eyes, sometimes, I'm telling ya.

A while back, we hauled all our sweet, sweet camera stuff over to H's house to take pictures of their kids.  However, Grant needed some test subjects to use to set up the lighting just right.

So naturally, he picked his two favorite ones.

One of them might have gotten a tiny bit clingy.

"Mom, don't let me fall."

"No, like, seriously here.  DO NOT let go!"

I guess sometimes we just need to hold on so tight.  :)

Thanksgiving

I know, I know, it's January.  It's a little late to be telling all y'all what happened for us during Thanksgiving.  But at least now I've told you why I've been such a slacker with posting things!  Also, in my defense, I was waiting to get some additional pictures from our festivities e-mailed to me (thank you SO much again, Connie!!) and I had totally forgotten about the pictures I did take because they were on my little purse camera instead of our usual DSLR.

The day after Thanksgiving, Kendra and I flew into Kansas City for the weekend.  For various reasons Grant had to stay behind.  It was a very lonely weekend for him.  We stayed with my Dad, Michelle (his girlfriend) and her daughter Adrienne and just had so much fun.


A Photo-less story

We stopped for some Mexican the evening we got in and as we were munching on chips and queseo and salsa, Kendra saw us dipping our chips and decided she wanted to try some, too.  Well, it turns out, this child looooves herself some spicy, spicy food!  She was pretty much just using the chips as a spoon to get more sauce into her mouth--and we had just commented amongst ourselves that even the mild had quite a bit of kick (which is what we gave her).  She didn't mind it, though...she just kept dipping chips and sucking it up by the gulpful until she had tears streaming down her face!  She'd take some water and then plow right on back in for more...she didn't even seem to have an upset stomach later.

I guess I need to add Tabasco to more things I cook.


Having FUN!

Kendra loves animals, so she had a ball with the three dogs at the house.  Unfortunately, I was having so much fun watching her I didn't go grab my camera.

I learned that she's a terrible bedfellow, though.  To make the trip simpler, I decided not to bring a portable crib (and I'm not gonna lie, I was terrified of Delta losing whatever I checked so I didn't check anything, especially since we were flying out of a teeny airport here in town that makes transfers necessary unless you're flying to Detriot, D.C. or Philly) so Kendra shared a full-sized one with me.  As soon as she fell unconscious, she'd swing herself fully perpendicular to me but with her head or her feet mashed up against my side.  Stinker!  But, I was just a little worried that she would have a really hard time sleeping at all, so I guess kicking me around (literally) is better than not being able to sleep.

While we were there, she did all sorts of helpful things around the house, like show everyone how to play the piano and pass any object she got her hands on from the table to the nearest person around.  And boy did she have some fun bumping down the stairs on her tush!  It was a really, really good weekend.


The Main Event

And while this is all very excellent stuff, the main reason we went was to attend a family dinner on my paternal grandfather's side of the family.  They've been doing their get-together the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the past several years and I finally got around to going--I'm so glad I did!  I hadn't seen my Grandpa in a very, very long time and it was sooo nice to give him a hug and introduce him to his great-granddaughter.

This little boy is Damen, my cousin's son unfortunately she had to work, but my Aunt came and brought him with her.  He was a very fun guy and of all the children there, Kendra totally latched onto him and followed him everywhere.  He was very sweet to her!

I also got to see my great-aunt Norma, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures with her.  I hadn't seen her in over a decade and it was so nice to chat with her for a while.  Actually, I haven't had many opportunities to meet that side of my family at all, so it was a lot of fun to spend the afternoon with all these awesome people and better yet to know that we're related!

As we left my Dad's cousin Connie, the hostess, grabbed a couple of shots of our branch of the tree--although we'd already strapped the kids into the cars, so we just opted for the 4 of us.

Dad, my Aunt Lynnie, my Grandpa and me.

I predict more trips to Wichita on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in our future--you becha, I do!

It was a short and incredibly sweet trip--if we've ever had a conversation about him, you know how much I really, really love my Dad.  And everything went pretty smoothly--Kendra was a super trooper in every sense of the word for the travels.  I think it's safe to say that we all had a really great time.

Funny Faces

Kendra cracks us up.

All.

The.

Time!

Especially when she does stuff like this:

Sometimes this face gets even more hilarious and expressive.

Kids can be expensive, but man, this is cheap entertainment!

Getting started young

Grant has been playing piano since he was a freshman in high school and has served as an accompanist in the church for various functions and organizations many times since.  I've been practicing a little also for about the past year, so Kendra is used to seeing both of play it throughout her life.

Apparently though, she is all too eager to get started taking lessons of her own (which is good because we want her to, too)...though from what we can tell she's more excited to master the greatest hits of Jerry Lee Lewis than she might be to go for hymns.

Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!