Tuesday, November 29, 2011

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Sunday, October 23, 2011

It's a GIRL!!


Last Tuesday, we had our sonogram to find out the sex of the baby and our suspicions were right....we're having a girl!  And we couldn't be more excited.  Everyone kept asking me what I preferred, and honestly I thought I wanted another boy.  It would have been pretty convenient to have all of those boys clothes already (even the right season!)  But when the lady told us it was girl, I was beyond ecstatic.  I think it will be so fun to have one of each and get to experience what each one is like.  Plus, we all know shopping for a girl will be FUN FUN FUN!!  

I'm now 21 weeks along, which means we are officially half way there.  February will be here before we know it and boy do we have a lot to do.  Because our house only has two bedrooms upstairs, the kids will be sharing a bedroom.  This means A LOT of reorganizing.  Right now, Carter's clothes take up a dresser and the entire closet and we all know this little girl is going to have tons of clothes herself so we will be getting a second dresser and reorganizing the closet.  We also have to buy a new bed for Carter, since his toddler bed will have to be converted back to a crib for the baby.  One thing we don't have to do is repaint....thank goodness!  The bedroom is two shades of green which can work for both a boy and a girl.  Carter's half of the room will be more boyish and the baby's side will have some pink thrown in.  The biggest thing we'll be doing is converting the basement living room into a toy room.  Which means we'll have to rearrange more furniture.  I think we really just need a bigger house!  

Everything seemed to look great on the sonogram.  Little Miss has two legs, two arms, and a healthy heart and she weighs 14 oz, almost one pound!  She was very cooperative with us too (unlike her brother)!  The sonogram tech was able to tell immediately that she was indeed a girl.  With Carter, we almost didn't find out what he was because he refused to turn over....he was as stubborn then as he is now!  This little girl is VERY active.  I think she moves more than she stays still!  I feel her moving almost constantly and she is the most active at night when I lay down to go to sleep.  Already keeping Mommy awake at night!

Carter is very excited that he is getting a little sister.  He's been saying this whole time that there is a girl in Mommy's tummy and that he wanted a baby sister.  He even helped us pick her name!  Brent and I had it narrowed down to two names so we let Carter pick.  We've told our parents the name, but I'm thinking it might be fun to keep it a surprise from everyone else.  We'll see if I can keep under wraps that long :) 

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Mini Family Vacation

Last Friday, we loaded up and headed to Kansas City for the weekend....for a couple reasons actually.  

First off, my Grandpa Granger was a member of the 35th Division of the Kansas National Guard.  Every year, the Division has a reunion, which he and my Grandma religiously attended.  Since Grandpa passed in 1999, my Mom has been taking Grandma to the reunions every year.  The past few years, the reunions have either been in Kansas or in close proximity, so I have attended a few with Mom & Grandma.  It's been a real pleasure getting to know some of the Vets from Company C that my Grandpa fought with in WWII and their families.  There aren't very many Vets from Company C left, mostly just their families who come each year.  These folks have all become very close and even though they only see each other once a year, they're like a little family.  Lots of great people and lots of great stories to share.

This year, the reunion happened to be in Kansas City at the Airport Hilton.  Brent and I were already planning to take a weekend trip to Kansas City sometime this fall so that we could take Carter to the zoo.  So we thought this would be a great time to do it so we could enjoy the reunion as well.

On Friday, Brent, Carter and I followed Mom & Grandma up to KC, got checked into our hotel, visited with a few folks at the reunion for a little while, and then Mom, Brent, & Carter and I headed out to the Legends outlet mall for some shopping.  Carter was in desperate need of some new shoes and what better place to buy shoes than at an outlet mall!  He hit the jack pot with 2 pairs of tennis shoes and a new pair of cowboy boots from Cavenders.  After Legends, we headed next door to Cabelas.  Carter loves all the animals they have to look at and shooting the toy rifles in the kid's shooting range.  But his favorite thing to do at Cabelas is to feed the fish!


On Saturday, Brent, Carter & I got up early and had breakfast at IHOP before heading to the Kansas City Zoo.  We've taken Carter to this zoo every fall since he was just a little baby.  But this year was by far the most fun because Carter is finally old enough to actually enjoy seeing the animals.  His favorites were the snakes and the chimpanzees.  





After we left the zoo, we went to the Bass Pro Shop to look around.  Carter had the most fun testing out all the four wheelers they have on display!




We got up Sunday morning and ate breakfast at the hotel before saying our goodbyes to everyone.  Then we headed home to watch the Chiefs game and they FINALLY got their first win of the season!!


It was a great weekend, but we were definitely ready to come home and sleep in our own beds!  Looking forward to doing it again next year, rumor has it the reunion will be in Kansas City again in 2012!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Weekend Bliss

Ahhh, the weekend has finally arrived.  What a long week this has been, although I think I say that every Friday!  I started out the week with a horrible migraine.  Just when I thought things were looking up, bam, here comes another one.  What gives?!  

I'm so excited for tomorrow, as my mom and I will be hitting the annual fall garage sales at Lake Sherwood in Topeka.  This is something my mom and I started doing a few years ago and we always come home a with a car FULL of goodies.  Toys, clothes, furniture, you name it, we probably bought it!  And this year will be especially fun since my friend Amanda will be joining us!  

Not a whole lot to report on baby updates, except that I've been feeling lots of movement all week, which is very exciting!  I can't remember when I started feeling movement with Carter, but I know it wasn't this early.  I have read in several places that you are prone to feel movement a lot earlier with your second baby because you know what to expect.  I'm 17 weeks today, which means only THREE more weeks until we find out the sex of the baby!!

In Carter news, we had a bit of a problem on Wednesday with him cussing.  Anyone who knows Brent and I knows that we have a tendency to say some choice words and shockingly, we've been known to use those words around Carter.  However, Carter is always quick to scold us telling us, "Don't say that word!"  (I often times call him the swear police for this reason.)  But something got into him on Wednesday and he felt inclined to tell my mom that her Durango was a piece of shit!  (He was quick to correct himself and rephrase with "piece of junk.")  Then later that night, he informed me that he was going to whoop my ass.  I had to turn around so he wouldn't see me laugh.  Parent of the year here!  But seriously, when this tiny little 3-ft tall person tells you that they're going to whoop your ass, you can't help but laugh.  After I composed myself, I calmly told him that those were words that Mommy doesn't want to hear him say ever again.  And luckily, I haven't had any further ass-whooping threats this week! 

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Great Expections

Wow, I can't believe it's been 8 months since my last blog entry!  For some reason, I just got out of blogging.  I've always loved it, but it just seemed to take up so much time and let's face it, time is something us parents don't have a whole lot of.  But just recently, a friend/former co-worker of mine wanted to know if I would be starting up my blog again.  She wanted to know if I would be blogging about my pregnancy.  Yes, we are expecting our 2nd baby!  I'm sure this is not news to any of you, as most of you are my friends on Facebook and have either heard on there, or from my mother :)  So I got to thinking and you know, maybe I should just start MAKING time to blog again.  I didn't actually start this blog until the end of my pregnancy with Carter, but it might be fun to start earlier with the second baby.

Yesterday marked my 16 week mark, which means we're getting very close to being half way to meeting our baby!  I found out I was pregnant on July 15.  And even though we weren't exactly preventing, it was still quite a shocker!  But none the less, Brent & I (and our parents) were very excited.  When I first found out, the doctor wasn't quite sure how far along I was.  According to my last period and HGC levels, they were estimating I was close to 9 weeks along.  I had a sonogram on July 27 so they could determine my due date, which they set at March 2, meaning I was actually only 7 1/2 weeks along.  So we waited until I was about 11 weeks, when the doctor said I was out of the clear, to tell the rest of our family and friends.  Even though my due date is March 2, I will have to have a c-section this time around as well, (normally done 1-2 weeks prior) which means we welcome this baby sometime in late February.

This pregnancy has gone pretty smooth, which the exception of one thing, HEADACHES.  I experienced the normal exhaustion during the first three months, but I never experienced headaches like this when I was pregnant with Carter.  From about 9 weeks to 15 weeks, I was getting a headache on average 3-4 days per week.  Let me tell you how miserable this is when the only thing you can take is Tylenol and you happened to be a person who Tylenol does nothing for.  My doctor even prescribed me some Tylenol 3, which didn't work either.  The only thing that provided any relief was sleep.  But obviously when you work full time and have a 2 1/2 year old to take care, sleep isn't always an option!  Thankfully, (like my doctor predicted), the headaches have started to subside since I hit the 15 week mark.  Let's hope they're gone for good!


As for the baby, so far everything is looking just great!  It's heart rate has been in the 160's every visit, even as high as 166 last time!  Carter's heart rate was never this high, usually in the 140's-low 150's.  Everyone is telling me that the higher the heart rate, the better chance it's a girl.  We don't have too much longer to wait until we find out!  We have our sonogram on October 18 so we can find out if Carter will be getting a brother or sister.


Speaking of Carter, everyone is always asking me if he's excited about the baby.  And truthfully, I don't know!  Some days when you ask him about it, he's very excited.  Other days, not so much.  Although, one good sign is that every time he sees a baby or is around a baby, his eyes light up and he tells me he wants to see his baby.  I asked him last week if he would share his bedroom with the baby, and he very happily said yes!  I think he's going to be a great (and very helpful) big brother.  


So for now, I'll leave you a current picture of Carter (since it's been SO long) and the first preggo picture of me.  Brent took this picture of me at 13 weeks.  (It's amazing how you grow so much faster the second time around!)