DRUM ROLL PLEASE

IT'S A GIRL! (hahaha) So all you who voted were right! I kept asking the tech if she was sure. She told me to quit asking. I sorta knew it all a long but was willing it to be a boy ... obviously it didn't work. Jeremy is super excited as he has wanted a girl for a while. I'm nervous about having a girl. I feel all I know is boys but in time ... I'll know girls as well! I'm excited though ... don't get me wrong. It will just take some learning :) Ryan is so excited to have a sister!

We are not sure about the name yet. Thought we had landed on a girl name. Now that we know it is a girl we aren't so sure. OH well, we have plenty of time to figure that out. I'll scan in the pictures later. Although, they were not very good. My placenta was in the way and she couldn't get a good shot of her face. I get another ultrasound at 27 weeks so maybe then we will have a better shot of her face.

Now I just need help to "think pink" and not blue! :)

Today is the day

Today is the big day. Our ultrasound. We decided to find out the sex of this baby so that we can plan accordingly. If you know me at all, you know I'm a planner! So is Jeremy to a degree. So we will find out in just a matter of hours.

Bear with me as it may take me a while (especially if I faint b/c it's a girl) to post what it is. We want to tell our families in some creative ways and since they read this blog we will have to wait to post until they as well as close friends have found out. I'll try not to leave you hanging tooo long :)

Ryan sayings

Friday it was GORGEOUS here and so Jeremy checked out of work 30 minutes early and met us at the park near our house. Ryan was playing and he was going through this tunnel to get to a bigger slide. There was a bigger boy in there eating an apple who got pretty perturbed that Ryan kept coming through. On Ryan's 4th time through I heard him tell this little boy ... "It's ok Jesus will take care of me." I have no clue what the little boy said to Ryan but Ryan let it be known that his Jesus would take care of him. Gotta love these moments!

A few final Disney Pics

Jer & I at MGM

The whole Crew ... Poppa, Jojo, Pace, Jer, Ryan & I

It was such a fun trip! Thanks Poppa & Jojo for

making it possible. We love you guys!

Monday's coming!

Monday is THE BIG DAY! It's the day we find out what the sex of this baby is inside of me. I'm excited. Our OB here even does 3-D ultrasounds at the 20 week appointment so that is even more cool! I didn't get this with either of the boys so it will be extra special to see it this go round.

My best friend, Whitney, reads this blog, she lives in TX (cry) ... she never comments but she will read and then call me and it kinda freaks me out that she knows so much without me telling her and then I remember ... The blog told her :) Like last week we didn't talk much b/c we were away and when I called her on the way home she was recounting my week and I hadn't told her about it. Anyway, all that to say she's in GA this week visiting her parents and may have to come pick me up off the floor if this baby is a girl. :) So Whit, make sure that your parents will allow you to borrow the car. If you haven't heard from me by 11:30 ... COME QUICKLY! just kidding I think :)

The infamous "why"

Ryan has landed in "why" land. Each and every time we ask this child to do something or more specifically ask him NOT to do something his very first response is not "yes momma" it's "why". This is driving this momma insane! I'm trying to work on this but even that gets a "why". I've used phrases that my mom and dad (gasp) used that I swore I'd never use ... guess I should have never said never b/c I've used them.

Now I should say that he asks "why" about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Those I don't so much mind. It's when I'm asking him to not do something or to do something that he doesn't want to do that it grates my nerves. We are working hard to have the first thing out of his mouth being "yes ma'am or yes sir" but so far our efforts have been met with "why".

So as I think about his why's I must examine my own. How many times does God ask something of me (us) that I (we) ask him "why" on? If Ryan's "why's" grate on my nerves what must my "why's" do to the heart of God? something for me to ponder.

Magic Kingdom - Day 3

Well, day 3 was our final day. The boys by the middle of this day were starting to break down from no real naps and late nights in bed. We still had an awesome day. The park was a bit more crowded this day as it was Good Friday but we still managed to do all the things we wanted to do for the kids. Now, Jeremy was a bit disappointed as he wanted to ride Space Mountain ... but the stinkin ride wait time was 2 hours. So he and his dad opted not to stand in line and we had already used our fast pass on another ride.

Daddy and Pace waiting in line to ride Buzz Lightyear.

Ryan shoots the laser Gun. He did great for someone who couldn't see what he was shooting. :)

Mommy and Pace riding the carousel.

Waiting in line to ride a ride. Thanks for getting in line with us Poppa :)

Pace kept his 3-D glasses on for a while. Doesn't he look so cute?

The boys with stitch.

Ryan loved meeting Buzz!

I leave you with Ryan's favorite character from the day.

Epcot & MGM - Day 2

Day 2 was spent between Epcot & MGM - Mostly Epcot. I have to tell you that our God did an amazing thing on this day. The weather was forecasting rain for Thursday in Orlando. We began praying that it would rain through the night and NOT during Park hours. And God granted our request. The rain was tapering off as we woke up and by the time we finished breakfast and entered the park ... GONE! Thank you Jesus!!!

Entering the Park ... They had these new sculptures out front of Mickie, Minnie and Goofy .. Really cool!



Riding Nemo the ride. Ryan didn't really want his picture made at all.

For about 2 weeks Jeremy's mom and I had been talking about having lunch in Japan. There is a really cool place where they cook in front of you there and we enjoy eating lunch there. When Jeremy's mom called to make reservations before we ever left their house ... they were booked solid and had been for a while. SO, we kept calling and got the same answers ... booked solid. We decided to just show up and see if they had any open spots for people who just show up .... and wouldn't you know it they did! We got there right as they opened and they sat us right down. So cool!
Ryan and Pace were more interested in putting Cheerios on their forks than they were watching the man cooking in front of us. Those are our boys ... all about food and nothing else :)

We scooted over to MGM and this was the highlight of Ryan's trip. We didn't get there in enough time to get in line so he could get up close and personal with them but he didn't know the difference. He was so excited to just sit and stare at his favorite cars!

Animal Kingdom - Day 1

Disney was awesome! We had a wonderful time and the boys were out of this world excited. They spent the whole time in wide eyed wonderment. It was so fun to try to see it through their eyes. Everything "belonged" to Ryan while we were there. It was his show, his tram, his ride, his ... well you get the picture.

Ryan's Face on the tram to the gate .. he was so excited!

Pace taking it all in at the front gate.

On the way to lunch ... taking everything in the Double stroller and reading the map telling us where he wants to go first.

Ryan Got to be IN the Lion King show. I was surpised that he actually went down but he did and was so excited to get to be a part of the show. Timon shook his hand during the show but I wasn't ready with the camera.
We were walking to the Nemo the Musical show and we walked past a character patch. The lady at the front of the line told us there was no wait so we decided to go down. We were 2nd in line Pooh and Eoyre were just minutes away ...





As we were leaving ... In walked ...

The boys couldn't have been more excited. Even Pace gave him a BIG bear hug.

It was a great day and we closed down the park having dinner at 7:30pm - two hours later than the boys are used to but they did great! Tommorow I'll post pictures from Epcot & MGM.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from our family to yours

Christ is Risen!

Home again

We are home again!

We are tired!

I'll post pictures and stories soon!

My blog lines =139 (that's Wed-Today!) I'll catch up with you all ... Promise!

Busy day...

Today we are packing, washing clothes and getting ready to go to Disney tomorrow. I'm so excited. We were hoping to do lunch in Japan but they have been booked for 2 weeks now! STINK! I'm so disappointed. That place is so much fun! Maybe they will have a cancellation!

I got low lites today in my hair ... so excited about that. It's been far too long since I've had color in my hair. Somethings go out the window when you go to one income! :)

Jeremy's mom is tipping his hair right now. I'm not sure what color it will come out though :) We will see.

Can't wait to go to Disney tomorrow. Praying that the weather will be nice!

Beach Photos

We made our way over to the beach today with the boys. It was the first time Pace has been ... both boys had a ball ... Enjoy the photos.

Date Day

Yesterday, Jeremy and I had a wonderful day. Jeremy's parents got an afternoon with the kids and we got an afternoon without the kids :) Win win for all!

We made our way over to a game place. It was full of mostly "young-uns" but we still had fun. We played a round of miniature golf and I won't mention the score. You see I'm really competitive and I didn't win. Then we played a game of air hockey ... again I didn't win. My husband is really good and also competitive. We make a good pair b/c we never go easy on the other one. After playing air hockey we had some extra points left on our card so we played the arcade version of "lets make a deal" ... we won over 300 tickets together. We turned our tickets in for whales for both boys.

After playing a while we headed over to the beach and took a small walk on the beach. We cruised the strip looking at all the fun hotels. We landed at this restaurant where we thought we would have dinner. We had to get there in between lunch and dinner just so we didn't wait in line forever to get a table. So we got there and ordered a couple drinks and looked over the menu while we waited on our table. Once I saw the menu, I was surprised to see that this Seafood restaurant mainly served seafood. Imagine that! So I kindly looked at my husband who was looking so forward to the atmosphere of this fun restaurant, and had to tell him that I didn't like anything on the menu. We were both a bit disappointed as we were really looking forward to sitting and watching the ocean while we ate. We finished our drinks and left, winding up at Longhorns.

After eating a nice dinner without having to eat in 10 seconds or share any food with a toddler :) we left and somehow found ourselves shopping in The Children's Place. I'm not sure how this happened!

It was a great day and a wonderful time to be away. Today we are excited to get to visit with all of Jeremy's family who are in this area. There are a few other family members that live in another part of the state that we won't be able to see (sad) but are excited to see the ones that are in this area! Should be a fun day.

In just a few more days we are off to visit some old friends of Jeremy's ... Mickey and Minnie Mouse!

We made it!

I have to say a PRAISE THE LORD ... we made it and it was a good trip. Now, we did have 2 kids with us but they were perfect angels for that long of a car ride. I couldn't have asked for them to be any better. We left our home at O dark hundred that I didn't even know existed since my kids started sleeping through the night. It worked really well for us because we were 1/3 of the way here by the time the boys woke up and it was breakfast time!

Wouldn't you know it we hit traffic 10 miles from our destination. A wrecker had landed on the concrete barrier and traffic was S L O W going. Ryan was in the back seat saying "hurry Jesus move the cars" I was in the front seat praying he would part the waters just like he did the red sea. Eventually, he did and we were able to go the next 7 miles to our destination.

Pace is teething so he was generally unhappy the whole way but for a teething baby he did great!

Besides Ryan stating he wanted to be a fish when he grew up ... he decided instead of sitting to go potty (training is easier with a boy if they sit first) that he now wanted to stand. Anyone want to sign up to keep my bathroom clean? Just kidding. I think we will use cheerios for target practice :)

Well, I'm off to breakfast ... have a great weekend y'all!

Siesta Fiesta Tix

Do you know anyone who needs a ticket to the San Antonio Siesta Fiesta? I have mine that I cannot use b/c well, I'm due that weekend and I'm sure the Living Proof team doesn't want me to go into labor during the event. (my husband and family might not be too fond of that either)

So if anyone needs a ticket ... e-mail me and let me know!

Cloth Diapers vs Disposable Diapers?

So how many of you have used cloth diapers? both? Which one do you prefer? Did you do the all in ones or did you buy specific sizes? How many did you buy and what brand did you know to go with?

I'm seriously considering cloth diapering #3 to save money but I just don't know what brand to go with or even if it is worth my time and effort. Any advice would be helpful. Pros and cons that you have.

Grace

Grace is a gift from God. "God’s unmerited favor." It is undeserved on our part, but freely given to all.

Sometimes in our parenting we will give Ryan grace. We try to explain to him that God has given us grace through the cross and our response to his gift of salvation is to accept it. (the easiest terms possible for a 3 year old) So there are times when we may have taken a favorite toy away for the day and we will call him to us and explain that we are going to give him grace and allow him to play with said toy or whatever was taken away.

Yesterday, Ryan had told me "no" one too many times. So I took something away from him for the afternoon. He was oh so upset about this. After he had calmed down a degree or two, he came over to me and through tear stained eyes asked me if I could give him some grace. He has never done this before. How could I say no to that? It was a very sweet moment. As my boy may not understand the meaning of grace he understood enough to know that it gives him a second chance.

Grace does not always give us back what we may have lost but it is always given when asked, consequences still occur but in our world for yesterdays moment, grace gave back what mommy had taken away.