So – I see that I have a LOT of catching up to do on this blog! Now that I’m a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom), my intention is to keep this thing up-to-date on a weekly basis! Life just changes for us far too quickly these days not to!

So – what’s happened since last time I wrote? TONS! I’ll just post the Halloween pics at the bottom of this post for your entertainment…

But in November, we found out that we are expecting a girl this time around! I know that some of you did not know that yet. It wasn’t for a lack of trying to let you know… I had tried to post the video that the clinic gave us at the 20-week ultrasound that showed the information (the sonographer typed it out on the image – you weren’t expected to be able to read it yourself…), but after trying to load it for about 8 hours on several different occasions onto the blog, I gave up entirely. If you have access to my facebook profile, it was posted there.

We’re pretty excited, though. I mostly felt vindicated because, while I didn’t care what gender the baby was (I’ve discovered boys are pretty great critters, too), my intuition kept telling me it was a girl. I didn’t have much more to go on than that – but I had a lot of naysayers telling me that intuition really didn’t count for much. Well, after a lifetime of listening to it, I’ve learned to believe my own. And it was right again!

No – we don’t have a name picked out, yet. Unfortunately for subsequent children, I find myself far less uptight about the whole thing. With Adam it was about 30 seconds after I found out I was pregnant that I worried about picking out the RIGHT name for him – even before I knew for sure it was a “him.” This time around, I admit that even at 7 months along, I still feel like I have all of the time in the world before having to worry about that.

As for Adam, he’s beginning to suspect things. Occasionally he’ll pat my tummy and say “nice tummy” or just take general notice of the fact that it is there at all. He was laying his head on my tummy last week when all of a sudden his little sister kicked the spot his head was on. It was enough to get his attention and he sat up and asked me, “What was that, mommy?” I just told him it was his baby sister kicking him in the head for the first of probably many times. J

He really has gone through a language explosion. It’s probably about 50% still garbled, but 50% completely understandable. And he repeats EVERYTHING he hears. Having had some language development classes, I recognize this “parrot” stage as his attempt to un-garble his speech, and it must be working. He comes up with the most interesting stuff.

Two weeks ago at church, Mom, Karla and I were hanging out with Adam in the nursery because his nursery teacher didn’t show up to church. (And, yes, it does take all three of us to watch one toddler at play…) J While we were in there, he began doing his fake sneezes (something that he picked up on when watching one of his favorite TV shows – “Jungle Junction”). Anyway, he would start each one with “ah, ah CHOO!” and we would all respond with a “bless you.” After a few of these in quick succession, he began, “ah, ah, ah…” then as we were all poised and ready to offer a “bless you”, he said, “maybe not!” We all about died laughing!

Then, after sacrament meeting, mom and dad were talking to a woman investigating the church and as she left, said to Adam, “bye-bye, baby.” I prompted him to say goodbye to her, too, to which he said “bye-bye…… sweetie.” I guess it was the best he could come up with when he realized that he didn’t know her.

He’s also picking up on songs pretty well and always is surprising me by singing something I didn’t know that he knew. For example, after only hearing “Jingle Bells” a couple of times over Christmas, began to sing it one morning to himself to entertain himself in his crib. A couple of days ago, I told him that he’d get to see Grandma Bryan “tomorrow” and he began to sing the song from the movie, Annie! We have only watched that movie one time and that was at least 6 months ago! But he rang out with “tomorrow, tomorrow, I wuv you, tomorrow…” and continued that way every time I reminded him that we’d see Grandma Bryan the next day.

As for our children’s parents (let’s be honest – our blogs are all about showcasing our cute munchkins, right?) we’re doing well, too. We’re settling into our new schedules pretty well. As I mentioned, I quit my job at UNMC on Dec 21. While my house isn’t quite as well put-together as I had intentioned after the first month of being home, it’s greatly improved and I LOVE it! I’m busy organizing my food storage and learning to make more nutritious and filling meals, as well. Not to mention getting ready for the new baby.

David loves his new job. It keeps him unbelievably busy, but we know it’s a sacrifice that is necessary for now, but not forever and that it is helping us meet our personal and family goals – not the least of which was getting me out of the workforce and home. I love the confidence that this job is giving him, and love the fact that I have amazed myself by loving all of the things that go along with being home – including the cooking and cleaning part. Something that 7 years ago I never saw myself doing, let alone actually LIKING.

I particularly love the opportunity to develop greater relationships with our neighbors (who are faithful women of God and who stay home with their kids) as well as hopefully complete the books that I have begun writing. After giving it much prayer, I felt that the book I should focus on for this year is one that may become a series of books highlighting the lessons women can learn from the examples of the faithful women in the scriptures. Each morning, after David leaves for work (around 6:30) and before Adam gets up (usually around 8:30), I am able to spend about an hour or so reading scriptures and then writing my reflections on the lessons there. I realize that this schedule may get put on hold once the baby comes, but for now, I’m really loving this and the lessons I’m learning, right now.

Well, this is long enough – enjoy the series of pictures from the last few months!