17 Months & 20 Weeks!!!

that's right! yesterday my 2 babies turned 17 months and 20 weeks on the same day! they are both getting so big!.....

a little bit about Piper...

*the words she says are...mommy, daddy, ball, baby, bath, book, puppy, duckie, piper, diaper, pretty, bubble, cheese, apple, nannie, pa,papa, "t", night night, peepee, poopoo, stinkie, bible, cookie, uh-oh, please, up, yellow, blue, purple and a lot of "words" we are not sure about yet ;)

*she still signs for...water, hungry, bird, more, all done & cracker

*foods she loves...cheese, apples, veggie burgers, PB sandwiches, ice cream, eggs, green beans, goldfish crackers, any dried fruit, bagels & cream cheese...she has really gotten into wanting to "dip" her food, like pieces of bagel into cream cheese, or french fries into ketchup ;)

*she weaned, basically on her own, at 15 months, when i was 12 weeks pregnant...all i did was a lot of distraction, we stayed really busy, and if she would ask to nurse i would offer a snack or an activity, and eventually she just stopped asking for it!

*she is a champ at going to sleep in her own bed now....staying asleep in her own bed is a different story. we honestly at 8pm (after bedtime routine of bath, book, prayer and a minute or two of rocking) can just lay her down awake in her crib and she doesn't make a peep and goes right to sleep....but she is up by 1am and we just bring her to our bed then...not sure how that is going to work when #2 comes??

*she has her first "chore", that she started all herself, when we leave the house it is her job to "put the puppy in her room"....she have even got doing the latch down...and when we come home she goes straight to annabelles cage to let her out...she gets pretty frustrated if we forget to let her do it ;)

*the girl loves her sesame street and praise baby video.

*our favorite activities are, the 2 library programs we go to, our playgroup, the science museum, and the play area at quail springs mall!

*after about a month, a lot of crying, a lot of comforting from the teachers, and probably a lot of crackers, she FINALLY loves going to church nursery!!!

of course i could go on forever about all the little quirks of Miss. Piper, but I'll stop there :)

a little bit about #2...


*our first belly photo!! everyone keeps telling me that i don't even look pregnant...well that's because its winter people and i wear a lot of sweats and jackets...so here is the belly....see i told you it was there!!!

*i have only gained 2lbs...but that is on top of the 2lbs that i lost at the beginning...so i am back right where i was when i first found out...although i already feel SO much bigger then i felt with pipe...but i think that's typical for your 2nd.

*I made it to 20 weeks without one moment of sickness!!!!!!! but a lot of back pain.

*we had our ultrasound last week and everything looks perfect and healthy! he/she is 10oz and moves all the time! he/she is so cute and looks like piper did at her ultrasound :)

*EVERYONE thinks the baby is a boy, i guess because my 2 pregnancies have been night and day different.

*starting to remember the pain of labor and birth...trying to focus on the beauty of labor and birth.

*I have been craving tomato based foods....pizza, spaghetti, and salsa.

I absolutely can not WAIT to meet this little one and learn his or her quirks and get to know him or her like we know Piper!!!!
I love you my little ones!!!!!!

what the hail....

yesterday, while jake was at the church for meetings, Piper and I were woken up from our nap right at 4pm with the sound of what i thought was someone braking into our house! with my heart racing I grab Piper and run into the living room and see glass and hail flying all over our little house. Then I look to the left out our big front window and could not see anything it was so dark and loud! Since I had not been awake or watching tv I just KNEW there was a tornado right on top of us...with piper in my arms and my stomach in my throat, I start pulling things out of our coat closet and Piper, I and Annabelle squeeze into the dark closet. About 5 minutes later it was quite so i thought it would be ok to come out...there was no tornado but we at least protected ourselves from all the glass...it could have been much worse...and I feel so gratefull that we are all safe...but our little house has 3 windows broken...our garage door is torn up as well as the siding on the north side of our house and of course both our cars have damage, but no glass out and we will be needing a new roof. I have honestly never seen anything like this or been so scared...but thank God that it was not a tornado and that we are all safe :)

pipers very own live doll...

since piper was born and we knew she was a girl...we have been dreaming of they day that she will dress up and carry around our little 8lb dog as her "play doll" (annabelle will hate it by the way ;). piper and annabelle have hardly payed attention to each other and i could not wait for piper to finally realize that she has a fun fluffy big sister and reach out to her....well i guess that day has come...jake caught this moment the other day ;)

I am thankful for....

1.my best friend and love...jacob
2.my heart outside of my body...piper
3.the grace and forgiveness of my savior
4.two paid for working cars
5.pipers nap time
6.e-mealz
7.my super cute and cozy home
8.my parents happiness
9.dave ramsey
10.the dr.sears book series
11.pipers smile
13.piper and i's playgroup (aka...adult conversation)
14.moby wraps and slings
15.redbox
16.cloth diapers, breast milk, hand me down clothes...and everything else that makes having a baby cost practically nothing!
17.my sweet doggy...annabelle
18.midwives
19.modern family, afv, the office, the middle, big bang theory...
20.the fact that i have wonderful in-laws (and sister-in-law!!)
21.james taylor
22.jacobs job
23.white noise application on jakes iphone (it has saved us from a lot of screaming car rides)
24.the fact that i can easily stay at home with piper.
25.blogger...having so much of piper life documented is so amazing!
and much more then i could ever list....i am very blessed...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FRIENDS!!!!

baby shower!!

these are my dear "childhood" friends, that drove up from stillwater to come to my shower on Saturday....these girls mean so much to me, and even though we dont see each other or even talk to each other a lot, i hope they know how dear they are to me!!!! btw, i am the last of them to have a little one....but im working on catching up :)

since it was a "girls" shower, jake and i were up late Saturday night going through all the fun things we were blessed with...annabelle was pretty tired, and took advantage of the pile of soft, fluffy things to lay on :)

on a side note, my baby shower was on Saturday, which was April 25. April 25th happened to also be the one year anniversary of the loss of our first little one...its crazy the healing our God can do in a year. We are so blessed to have a healthy baby coming into this world in the next 8ish weeks, but i will never forget the little one that i will get to meet someday in heaven!!

our first baby...

Birthday Part five...

My birthday present from Jake was...a new front yard!!! Friday afternoon and Saturday morning jake slaved away (i helped as much as i could) at our front beds and porch...its looks amazing..."after" pictures comming next!! :)
Before:



We could not fit herbs in the raised bed garden, so we planted seprate herb pots...

Annabelle trying to get out to join the fun! :)

Bellie gets a bath and hair cut....FINALLY!!

Annabelle had needed a bath/haircut so bad lately i swear i have heard her say..."ummm mom...dad...when are you going to have money in those envolopes for ME??" ;)
before:

after:

Happy Valentine's Day!

make sure to love on the ones you love.... XOXOXO

We are on YouTube!!!

We got a video camera for Christmas...We have had tons of fun with it...so we thought we should get a YouTube account and share our videos....this is just the start!!! ;)

*make sure to pause the music

1-2-3 catch up ...

1)The day after thanksgiving we went over to my in-laws to eat left overs...rhonda happen to catch this moment with Deuce(rhonda and steves wiener dog), Snuggles(heathers pitbull), and Annabelle(our little fuzz ball ;) hoping to get a little morsel ;) I promise this was NOT choreographed!

2)Mom and i went on a girls trip to branson this weekend...We saw some great Christmas shows!! We went to a "dinner, Christmas lights tour", The Branson Belle showboat, and the Dixie Stampede...they were all so fun!! And thank you Jesus i did not feel sick the whole time!!! Im pretty sure my sickness has worn off!! *knock of wood!*


3)I know its a little late...but baby is the size of a Kumquat this week :)
this is what is happening with our little bean...How your baby's growing:
Though he's barely the size of a kumquat — a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature.

He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.

If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.

In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord. Your baby's forehead temporarily bulges with his developing brain and sits very high on his head, which measures half the length of his body. From crown to rump, he's about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches.

just practicing....

Thanks to our Peruvian baby wrap heather and rhonda got us last summer we have already been practicing our babywearing skills :) poor Annabelle, (she actually LOVED it, she would have stayed there all night) i have a feeling this will be the first of many things that Annabelle will be our guinea pig for ;)

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!!

We pray you will find yourself well rested :)




our little Belly bridge-sandwich ;)

shhhh...dont tell jake....i have a boyfriend...

his name is Carsten(dr.tam's son)!!! Dr.Tamatha dropped my boyfriend off to play while she (unsuccessfully) tried to find a place to get her hair done. It was much fun!! We played "chase annabelle" and "pick-a-boo" and had a snack...





while Carsten, Annabelle, and I played inside...jake worked on a project for childrens church outside :)

debt is normal....be weird!!!...

Jake and I officially became debt free in June!!!! We started Financial Peace University in August 2007...(BEST $85 WE HAVE EVER SPENT!!!)....Dave Ramsey truly gave us the tools and plan so that WE could change our lives!!! We didn't have near as much debt as most people start with....but in 10 months we completed our Step One: $1000 in the bank and our Step two: Pay off all debt(except the house...which happends in Step six!!!)...which was...

one credit card (you know for "emergencies" ;): $2,000
Toyoda Prius (you know because i "deserved" it ;) :$20,000
GMC Yukon (a now payed for car that I feel so blessed to drive!) :$10,000

Our first step (September 2007) SOLD EVERYTHING IN SITE...(annabelle was hiding, thinking she was next!)...Craigs list was our best friend and after a fall garage sale we had Step One ($1000 in the bank) done before we knew it. Our credit card didn't take much time either....then it got to the 2 big ones... $30,000 total! I know we could have worked longer and paid the 2 cars off in about 2 years....but GROSS!!! We were SOOO MAD at DEBT...it made us sick to our tummys!! We had total (what dave calls) gazelle intensity...and I said "bye bye prius!!". Even thought we only had the prius for about 9 months we "got back" about $6,000 back from the $7000 that we had "put down" on the Prius and with that we bought (WITH CASH) a RAD truck for jake....fast forward about 8 months the yukon was paid for!!!

So to clarify...WE DON'T BORROW MONEY... not for cars, not from our parents (anymore:), not for furniture, not for "10% off my first purchase", not for tickets to the latest concert, not for groceries (hey...people do it!!),not for camera equipment or music intruments, not for gas...we don't borrow money. If we dont have the cash we dont buy it...

Yes, people think we are totally weird...but you know...God called us to be weird...to stand out.... And I feel so completely blessed!!!

"Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other"
-Romans 13:8 (the message)






Our "plastectomy", October 2007 :)

We're not Soi....but we're free ;)

We usually take Annabelle to this cute litte pet salon called "soi's" and even though Soi always does a great job....its like $45 after tip to get a hair cut and a bath. So we thought we would give it a try...so belly got a home made hair-cut this weekend ;) doesn't she just look pitiful! she was pretty much out the rest of the day after that adventure!!!