Big Ultrasound

   I think just about everyone knows this already, but we had our big ultrasound on Monday and discovered that Shawn is going to get his little princess next. He has actually known this from the time Oakley was just a few months old. He had a dream in which Oakley was holding his little sister. He had said that Oakley was older (2-4ish) and that she was a little bald, chubby toe head. We'll see how that turns out after she's born ;-) I was just overjoyed that her heart was beating and that everything looked healthy. After having had so many miscarriages, I still have these mini panics every time I go to the doctor's office that they're going to just do a quick check and then find out the baby doesn't have a heart beat or something like that. They're horrible thoughts, and I really wish they would go away! I do love that I can now feel her dancing around but even with that, the movements are quite sporatic at this point in the pregnancy. So, I'll go a while without noticing her moving and start to panic all over again. I know deep down that everything is, and will be, fine, I just wish I could stop my brian from overthinking.
   On a lighter note, I sure have enjoyed shopping for the little monkey! The day we found out we were having a girl, we immediately went shopping. Shawn went looking for shoes for himself while I picked out a few things for (Taylor Jean). When he saw the cart, he looked at it, then at me, and told me not to go overboard (I only had 4 things-booties, bibs, jammies, and 1 outfit). I'm still working on getting him to realize that once we have 1 of each sex, we will have to buy clothes for the kid ;-) I'm hoping somewhere along the line we find a hand-me-down donor, but everyone we know with girls are either still having kids, or they've already gotten rid of their girl stuff.
   Below are both Oakley's 3D ultrasound and Taylor's. Not that you can really compare features this early on, but I thought it was fun to see them side by side. I also loved that fact that in both of them, they each have one hand right up against their chin/cheek. and the other arm up almost on top of their heads.

TJ 21 weeks

Oakley 20 weeks

Speaking of Oakley, I still am so glad that he gets to be the big brother. He is such a sweetheart and is already looking out for his little sister.

He saw an outfit I had for her sitting on the piano, picked it up and said, "Awe, she's going to look so cute in this."

He reassures me any time he's about to do something that he won't hurt Taylor in my belly. (This, I'm sure, is sparked by the countless times I've gotten after him for jumping on me and elbowing me.)

He loves to talk to her. That's one of the first things he does when he comes into our room in the morning. He'll put his head right up against my belly and say good morning or something of the sorts.

He loves to listen to her. Just about every time, he tells me that she's either swimming or drinking or peeing. He gets such a kick out of the fact that babies drink the same liquid that they pee in...makes him laugh every time he listens to her. He also just informed me today of the reason she doesn't talk back to him. "She's just a little baby. Little babies don't talk yet. Only some big babies like me do" ;-)

The past few days, he has started singing to her. If he's singing, he just comes up to my belly without really thinking about it and finishes the song he started. I love it. He has such a sweet voice that I'm sure Taylor loves it, too.

Dyeing...faces?

 Oakley discovered an egge dying kit back in November and at least once a week since then, he's asked if we could dye eggs. Even after I rehid the kit, he still remembered and asked. Needless to say, this next year, we will be dyeing eggs whenever we please. He did, however, have to wait until at least March this time around. The kit we used this time was a paint on one, and I loved how vibrant the colors were. I think Oakley had a little more fun with it, too.

Oakley loved ever minute of it

Shawn was fine with painting on Oakley, but wasn't expecting him to retaliate...rookie move ;-)

Oakley had so much on his hands that he did a bit more damage wiping off Shawn's tiny dots than good.

That face explains it all ;-)

Easter morning was so much fun this year. Oakley's finally old enough to start getting into it. What was really awesome was the fact that the Easter Bunny(ies) came while Shawn and I were out on a date Saturday night. That meant both of us got to really join in on the hunt...and we're still finding things. Oakley usually comes straight into our bedroom when he wakes up in the morning for some morning snuggles. Sunday morning, he went straight into the living room, then came racing into our bedroom yelling, "The Easter Bunny did come to our house!" He'd find a few things, then sit down and act like he was done. Then he'd see something else and yell, "The Easter Bunny keeps tricking me." Every time he found something new, it was the Easter Bunny tricking him and making him think he was done...it made us laugh. After church, we got to continue looking for goodies but mostly just spend time as a family. It amazes me how quickly Oakley is growing up and how much he actually absorbs from what we talk about. We watched the He Lives video of Christ on lds.org and discussed some things and Oakley was saying words like resurrected  and sacrifice. What a great kid we have.

Caught

Oakley was in taking his bath last night while Shawn and I were in the living room. (I know, horrible mother... ;-) He had the shower curtain closed because he wanted to make "big splashes". After a while, he got really quiet. I immediately went in, said something that required a response, and got it. He was still really quiet after a few minutes, so I asked him something else. He said he was fine and that he was just playing with his toys. He could play in the tub for hours, so I just let him be. Finally, when it was time to get out, this is what I found.

Somehow, he had A) reached clear up and gotten the shaving cream off the shelf and B) figured out that the little safetly cap comes off. The pictures don't really do it justice because those mounds of shaving cream are like iceburgs...only the tips can be seen above the water! He managed to empty the entire can. The good news, he was now super clean and smelt really good ;-)

The good, the bad, and the very good

The good:

I've lost 15 lbs since Christmas!

The bad:

I lost all that weight because I've been sick...very sick.

The very good:

The reason I've been so sick...

SURPRISE!

 Today, I am 14 1/2 weeks, due the middle of August. Kind of a funny story about this ultrasound...the doctor had a really hard time getting a good picture of our little gummy bear. The baby was twisting, and turning, and jumping, and flipping, and frankly just spazzing all around the screen! The doc would get a great profile, go to hit the freeze button, and by the time she pushed print, we got a picture of a nice black circle. It made us both laugh.

Holidays in a Nutshell

This Christmas Santa left me a camera. It's not quite as nice as the one that we lost, but it has a lot of fun features and setting that I'm still trying to learn. Long story short, I finally have some pics to post, so here's a quick snapshot of our Christmas, New Year's and Valentines celebrations.

Oakley was quite excited. He still tells us that Santa is coming back to our house on random nights.

Enjoying some of the books he got.

Shawn got a book where he is the superhere from Oakley...it's pretty cute ;-)

It was fun this year to be able to spend Christmas with my family. They spent the night at our house so they could see Oakley first thing in the morning.

My dad always gets this "I'm deep in thought" look when he knows we're taking his picture...I think it's cute ;-)

Playing with all the loot that's been opened

He still will spend hours racing his cars around that tiny track...best $5 ever spent!

 Now on to New Year's...we had my parents, my brother (who lives with us), my sister and her hubby, and my aunt and uncle (their son came after work) over for games. It was pretty low-key, and Oakley crashed at around 9pm, so we didn't even use the noisemakers at midnight, but it was still pretty fun. I also learned how to cook a turkey for the first time.

Ummm...yeah

Oakley hitching a ride with his Aunt Rissa to catch all the streamers.

 Short and sweet, now on to Valentine's Day. Well, a few days after Valentine's ;-) Shawn and I have been called as the Wolf Cub Scout leaders. The first pack meeting we attend: The Blue and Gold Banquet. When was it? On Valentine's Day. I really didn't expect as big of a turn out, but I guess everyone was up for a free meal. We both worked all day on V-Day, came home and went straight to the pack meeting to help set up and chop food, then had to clean up after so we didn't end up getting home until after 8...which is when we start our night time routine. So, we both understood that we weren't doing anything for Valentine's Day.
The next day, however, my friend posted on FB about how she had made a ton of chocolate dipped strawberries that anyone could come get. I immediately went over a bought some off her, she added 2 little bottles of sparkling cider, and I thought, 'well, we can have a nice V-Day meal tonight!" Well, about 10 minutes after I picked all that stuff up, Shawn called and said he was sick and needed me to pick him up from work. He had the flu...yuck. No Valentine's dinner for 3 more days...but we did finally celebrate!

Oakley was so excited about the whole "special dinner". He rolled up all the crescent rolls, helped break up veggies for the salad, helped me light the candles (which was his favorite part of the evening), and even "helped" grill the pork chops.

He decided he wanted strawberry milk instead of cider, and I thought it was only fitting for Valentine's Day.

Here's a random sampling of some of our "bloopers" from our family pictures. Just for fun ;-)

CHOCOLATE DAYS 2011

 We went to PA for CHOCOLATE DAYS!!! Most people aren't aware that this is a national holiday, but my family treats this more importantly than Christmas sometimes. What is chocolate days? A period of about a week where my family and friends from VA get together and do nothing but make and dip chocolates to give out during the holidays. While the women dip, the hubbies and dads are in charge of playing and wearing out the kiddos. It makes for a great time.

My mom usually ends of making some sort of crafty thing for Chocolate Days. This year: aprons and PJ bottoms for the kiddos.

We tried and tried to get a good picture showing off their jammies.

this is what we got :-)

Shawn decided to stay back and work. He was originally planning on coming with us because he thought he would lose his vacation time at the end of the year. Once he found out he could carry it over, he decided he'd much rather have more time for next year. Oakley and I still enjoyed it there, though, and we got to talk to Shawn daily

While the girls stayed busy unwrapping their Hershey kisses,

My monster ate them all without them even noticing!!

Oakley loved rebuilding old friendships with his buddies he gets to see once a year.

PopPop took Oakley to the Crayola factory for the first time. He was a bit too young for the Crayola part, but he absolutely loved the exhibits at the Canal Museum because he could play in water and watch trains.

Watching them make crayons and markers

Stuck in the tunnel-Oh, no!

Dancing away to make laser art on the wall

The best part of this entire trip was the time we got to spend with family. Oakley has met his cousin Gwenyth (Gigi or Gwen for short) once before, but this trip they really got to know and love one another.

PopPop sure had his work cut out for him.

We like to train them in the art of chocolate making when it can really sink in to their developing minds.

Oakley absolutely loves his Gigi and still talks and asks about her.

Reading stories with PopPop

Blackmail...what else can I say.  Is she not the cutest little chunk?!?

Shawn spent some time working on the basement while we were gone, so Ian now has a bedroom downstairs WITH a closet. ;-)  It's nice for us and for Ian to have his own space. 

The flight home was quite interesting because of our 20 minute layover in MN, but we made it. Once we landed in SLC, Oakley asked if we were going to PopPop and Bopshi's house. I explained to him that, "No, Daddy's here to pick us up and take us to our house." To which he replied, "No, Daddy just has to come ride on the airplane with us!" He was quite upset that he wasn't going to get to ride any more planes that day. I, on the other hand, was quite glad to be home. Oakley adjusted so easily to the time change because we had several parties night after night when we got home. So instead of being able to fall asleep at 7:30pm like he wanted to, he stayed awake and ran himself ragged playing with kids and would sleep in for us. It was a nice transition.

 Our goal for this week now is to get the driveway cleared. We have 2 cars that need selling and a boat that needs to go in the garage after we make room ;-)