It’s a….

No big surprise there.  And I think pretty much everyone who reads this blog knows already because of phone calls and facebook.  We are very excited about having another little boy.  I just knew this one was going to be a boy.  I knew the last time too—although not as sure as I was this time.  I think God prepared me early on (before we even starting thinking about having another baby) so that I wouldn’t feel any disappointment about not having girls.  And I just think you have exactly what you are supposed to have.  We really don’t have much of a say in the matter. I think brothers will be a lot of fun.  Luke is going to be such a good big brother and teach this one all about Thomas and Spiderman.

Everything looked great on the baby.  He has a big head—just like Luke!  The other great news was that they actually have my due date as April 16—not the 20th like I thought.  So I gained 4 days and he is due on his PawPaw’s birthday!  But we will most likely deliver sometime around April 9 since I am opting for a c-section this time. 

We’ve narrowed it down to two names and are trying to decide.  This just makes everything more real and I am ready to start thinking about his room and all of that fun stuff.  Mark and I were laughing thinking about our ultrasound with Luke compared to this one.  We brought in our videotape and our parents came down to meet us at the house after the appointment to watch the tape and then we all went to lunch.  We didn’t even bring a tape this time.  But that doesn’t mean we are any less excited!! :)  We didn’t get any good pictures from the ultrasound—at least none worth posting here. 

We are just so thankful for this little guy and can’t wait to meet him!

Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween. Luke dressed up as Spiderman. He has been wearing his Spiderman costume every single day since I bought it earlier this month. I’m glad it held up for the big day. He’s wearing it again today. I’m glad we got our money’s worth! :)

On Thursday, Luke’s school had a fall festival. He got to wear his Spiderman costume to school—which he was THRILLED about! The kids got to play carnival games and we went on a hayride. It was a lot of fun.

On Halloween, we went to Temple to have a fun Halloween party with Jim, Sharon, Pat, David, Shauna, Jeff and Lily. The kids had a great time playing and then we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood Mark grew up in. It was fun for Mark to see people he knew and show off his little Spiderman. One house in the neighborhood had made a table full of baked treats and popped popcorn for all of the people who came by. It was so cute. Luke and Lily LOVED trick-or-treating. They had no fear going up to all the doors. Even Lily, who is usually pretty shy around new people, told people that she was dressed up as Pinkie Pie (from My Little Ponies). We drove to another neighborhood and someone had set up a sno-cone stand and we all got sno-cones. Needless to say, Luke was hyped up from all of the fun and sugar and didn’t even fall asleep on the drive home. He didn’t go to sleep until 11 that night. It was such a fun day!

Luke is pretty sad that all of the Halloween lawn inflatables (aka yucky men) have gone bye-bye. Our daily ritual has been to drive around and see all of them in the neighborhood. But Christmas will be here soon and we’ll have new inflatables to look at!!

Lots of Stuff

We went to a pumpkin patch with our Sunday School class last Saturday and had a great time. Luke would not pose for ANY photos. I just had to catch photos of him running around and looking into the distance. We tried to take a family photo but he would not stop for a second. Thank goodness for a fast camera so I could at least get a few photos of him.

I can’t believe I will be in my 16th week of pregnancy this week! It is going by pretty fast. I remember with Luke, I was just consumed with my pregnancy. It was all I thought about. It was all I wanted to talk about with people. This time is definitely different. This little bean is definitely on my mind all day long, but I am just not as consumed with it. I guess having a kid will do that to you. I feel like I need to make this disclaimer every few months: this blog is our family scrapbook. It is the closest thing we have to a scrapbook so it is how I keep track of memories. I know some people don’t care about some of these mundane details but I like going back and reading what was going on in our lives. I’ve gone back to a lot of the old posts from when I was pregnant with Luke.

So, with all that said---I am still so sick!! Ugh!!! I am ready for the sickness to end. I am writing this so I can remind myself if I ever decide I miss being pregnant. I throw up at least 5 days a week. Luke is so cute when I am throwing up. He comes over and says, “It’s okay Mama,” and pats on my leg. He also offers me Spiderman and his Monkey/Bear to make me feel better. He even brought me his chocolate milk one day. It is just so cute how he is so concerned. On Wednesday, I had the worst day yet. I couldn’t do anything but sit. Every time I was up, I felt so nauseous. So, Luke watched a lot of television that day. The next day I had my monthly doctor appointment so I got a prescription for nausea medication in case I have anymore days like that. On top of the nausea, I am experiencing DAILY headaches and have had several migraines. It is not fun at all. So, like I said, I’m not writing this to elicit sympathy (although I’ve never turned down sympathy), I’m writing this so I can look back one day and remember the good and the bad from my pregnancies. The good news is that we were able to have a quick ultrasound at my appointment on Thursday and see the little bean’s lips and nose and everything looked great. I made my appointment for my “big” ultrasound on November 19. I just know it’s a boy—but we’ll see!!

Last, I am so excited because this was delivered on Friday. I love Advent calendars and we have one that is a Christmas tree and every day you put a new little ornament on the tree. Luke loved doing it last year and every morning on the days leading up to Christmas we would do it together. Last year, I saw this on someone else’s blog but it was sold out before Christmas so I ordered it early this year. I think it will be such a fun tradition for Luke and the new little baby James to put a new piece of the Nativity on it on the days leading up to Christmas and we can talk about it every morning.

Day Out with Thomas

Luke’s love of all things Thomas is well documented on this blog. In fact, it was around this time last year that Ammy and PawPaw surprised Luke with his wonderful Thomas table. We were so excited when we found out several months ago that “Day Out with Thomas” would be in Burnet. We went a few weeks ago and had a great time. The train ride wasn’t as fun as I had hoped—we went backwards for about 15 minutes and then back the other way for 15 minutes—but I know Luke had a good time. We got to see a real Thomas engine up close. Luke did a good job but had a little meltdown in the “store.” They had tons of Thomas merchandise for sale and Luke didn’t want to leave without this. We’ve told him hopefully Santa Claus will bring it to him this Christmas.

The really embarrassing part that I have to share is that I cried when we first got there and started walking towards Thomas. I didn’t just tear up—I was really crying and trying my best not to let anyone see. Mark was laughing at me. I think I was just so happy that Luke was getting to experience this. This has been one of my pregnancy symptoms. I cry VERY easily. I also cried when the train started going. I know I looked like a weirdo. All I could do was laugh through my tears. Shauna thought it was hilarious when we saw them that afternoon and tried to get me worked up before the U2 concert so I would cry there too (I didn’t.)

Here are some pictures from the day:

U2

We had a wonderful time in Dallas for the U2 concert.  The concert was amazing.  Almost 80,000 people were there for the concert at the new Cowboys Stadium!!!  I know I’ve talked about it before, but I just love that they sing about Jesus.  Their music would be AWESOME even if they weren’t singing about Jesus in many of their songs, but the truth is they are.  Read this book if you have any questions about what Bono believes.  We also recently got this book written by a Baylor professor about the band’s faith.  They sang lots of songs from their new album, which I love, and lots of their greatest hits.  Mark recorded this video with his iPhone, it was one of my favorite moments of the concert:

We are rule followers and you were not supposed to be able to bring cameras in, so we left ours in the car.  Turns out nobody follows that rule.  We were able to take pictures with our phones. 

You can click here to see some more photos that Mark took.

Luke had a great time with Ammy and PawPaw.  He spent Sunday there and then the rest of the time at our house with Ammy.  They had a great time together.

I definitely hope it is not the last time we are able to see U2 in concert.