The Prodical Blogger Returns....

We are absolutely THRILLED to share our exciting news with you!!!!

But, before I say anything else, I just want to say thanks to all of you that sent such thoughtful emails to me!!! It means sooo much to me to have such loving, supportive, patient and attentive friends and family!!! I'll be better about keeping our blog updated :)

I had an ultrasound yesterday!! We've been waiting for our new insurance to kick in. I was almost considering just waiting to find out the gender until the end because we are 3/4 the way there anyway, but once we got to the ultrasound and I actually had a chance to find out, there was no way I could make it...we were just too excited!!! SOoooo, without any further adieu...we found out that we are expecting.....








Drum roll please ;) .....












A SWEET BABY GIRL!!!!!!

YEA!!!! We couldn't be happier!!! We are SO excited!!! The most important part was that everything looks very healthy and she looks so beautiful!! We can't wait to meet her!!! She was measured at 30 weeks 5 days and 3lbs 5oz so everything looks great so far :) My due date is April 18th. She's still in the breech position so hopefully she'll be flipping around soon. Anyone else have a late flipper? I'd love to hear your stories :)

The boys are getting excited about meeting her too. Forrest is all about having a little sister! He is just so excited. It helps a lot that he loves his little cousin Sydney so much :) I got a newborn diaper sample in the mail last week and he insisted on putting it on "our baby" (a toy baby doll that I bought before I had Forrest to help Andrew). So, we dressed the baby doll in the newborn diaper and swaddled it with a receiving blanket. Forrest held that little doll all night. He even picked up his cars to show to the "baby." I'm hoping that's all a good sign that he'll be happy to meet her. It will be interesting considering he's still my little cuddle bug and loves to sit on my lap all the time. It will be kind of weird for me when he's not the baby anymore. I still think of him as such a little guy. The hospital offers a sibling tour where the boys will get to see where our little girl will be born and they'll get to make a card for her. In theory these things will help, but we'll see right? ;)

Andrew on the other hand, loves the idea of another little brother. He still asks me how big the baby is every couple days and tells me the things he going to teach "him." When we shared the news that he's going to have a little sister, he insisted that it is a boy and that he'll be wearing blue. I happened to be wearing a pink sweater and told him that the baby will often wear pink, like Mommy. He happily disagreed. Funny. It will be sooo great to see how this all plays out. We do have some ultrasound pictures, but I still need to scan them. I'll try to get those up soon.

In other news, we had Christmas :) It was awesome. I figured as long as I got Christmas photos up before Valentine's Day I was in good shape....he he he...barely made it. Here are just a few holiday pics:
Here's a picture of the "Artic Blast" that hit the NW. The weather updates were broadcasted 24 hours a day for about five days in a row. This is probably mild compared to what many of you have seen this winter, but by Western Oregon standards, it was the storm of all storms.
We had a very relaxing holiday break. Dan was scheduled to work until Christmas which kept us close to home. Although we would of absolutely loved to see the our extended families, I have to admit it was nice just relaxing at home and not worrying about crazy holiday travel with these two little monkeys.

Santa got word that the boys were still totally in love with their trains. He made a special effort to combine their love of trains and space with this space train station. The boys had so much fun playing with it, that we actually took ALL day opening the rest of their presents. It was ultra chill. We actually really enjoyed the slow pace of it all. We had a big Christmas breakfast with the classic cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, hot chocolate, etc. Then the boys would open one gift and play with it for a long time before we opened another. There were actually a few gifts we didn't get to until the next day. It kept the whole day exciting. Dan and I were big fans of going that route again next year...if our boys will let us :)
Here's the gingerbread cookies/mega mess that Forrest and I put together. I spent way too much time getting those cookies finished only to have platefuls of cookies that the boys didn't want to eat. I should of delivered them to everyone nearby. Guess the boys aren't old enough to enjoy the fine taste of ginger. I actually put the effort in to making them for Dan who insisted on having gingerbread. I think next year I'll be tempted on opting for sugar cookies though. What kid doesn't like a good sugar cookie??
We enjoyed some high quality time with Kate, Josh and Sydney. They came over to enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner with us. Good times :)

So, onto Valentine's Day :D We have some fun things lined up for this weekend so hopefully I'll get another update in soon (well at least before St. Patties day, right ;) J