We survived the wedding week! It was a great week at home spending time with family and friends, but whew! We're tired! My boss was joking this morning that I really need a vacation now that I'm back. Now that would be my dream world... never-ending vacations...

I will have to make a mondo post about the wedding, but I am going to wait until I get a few more pictures from the wedding. That way it isn't just a big boring paragraph of text. I know you really want to see the pictures. While I took next to no pictures, many friends and family were snapping away, so I'll get copies of those and post them later.

A quick summary is that the food all came out great. I was pretty proud of myself for that one! Kaiya was the best little flower girl EVER! I'm gonna steal a couple pictures from my friend Connie's blog to put here -- she was a great photographer during the wedding and ceremony so you can at least see what we looked like and how cute K was.

Kaiya decided to wave at the entire audience when we were coming up the path. She walked most of the way and then she started to stumble so I picked her up to speed things along. It was adorable.

Memorial Day was an incredibly relaxing day even though we had plenty to keep us busy. Around lunchtime friends of ours who are moving to New Mexico came over for the afternoon. We shared lunch and then just hung out. In the afternoon we took Kaiya outside on the back deck for some swimming and sprinkler time. After changing her out of her wet swim stuff she decided she wanted to wear my shoes! She even gave walking a good try in them. Was able to get a great picture of the little squirt in the shoes. I'm sure she'll kill me for this later...

After our fun afternoon and sad goodbyes to the Tebbano's we got the stroller all loaded up to head to the park behind our house to meet with our small group. We grilled meat and shared side dishes and dessert, played some Bocci Ball, Kaiya played at the park and as you can see, loved the Lehman's puppy dog. :)

Here are a few pictures from our weekend in Indiana. I always wish I had taken more pictures. We even spent a whole day with Tony's mom and I didn't get a single picture. What? We'll have to get some this next week. Anyway... Here is a picture of Brent & Bekah reading to Kaiya before bedtime. I'm so lucky I have a little girl who loves to read books! Hoping it will last!

This is Kaiya and Papa on the lawnmower. Kaiya was really excited about it until she heard the loud noise. Such a contrast from my friend Connie's boys who love to ride the lawnmower with their Daddy. I'm not sure how well it will show up here, but she has a very sad little face in this picture. I rescued her after the picture was taken.

Well, the car ride to Indiana wasn't the best trip. Kaiya cried for a little over half of it. It was her bedtime and she couldn't get comfortable in her carseat. She was still using the infant carrier and was 8 lbs and 2 inches away from out growing it. However... after that horrible ride I decided we would upgrade for the ride home. So Kaiya's sweet Nannie bought her the next stage carseat that will be just right for her for quite awhile. She thinks she is such a big girl riding in it and the trip home was a breeze! Here are a couple pics of her in it when we first got it and you can see she is delighted! Thanks Nannie!

Here is Kaiya's favorite moment of mischief. She loves digging into my purse and unloading my wallet. This is definitely off limits to her, but she just can't help herself.

Okay... this is the cutest story. This morning I was getting ready for work and I usually just pen Kaiya up with the baby gates in the living room. I had gotten my lunch together and packed my bag for work. I noticed it had gotten quiet in the living room. A sure sign that Kaiya is into something she shouldn't be. I walk in and find this:

Yep, that would be my oatmeal chocolate chip bar previously wrapped in saran wrap, in my work bag for lunch.

Busted!! Tony and I were cracking up. And she was in hog heaven because she's never had this much sugar in her life. :)

And this is her when mama took the bar away. A mini-tantrum that was soon over when Daddy started tickling her silly.

These are the moments I live for. She has this little busy mind in her tiny body and I love to see it in action. Anyway... we'll remember this one forever.

Official Due Date

We had our first doctor appointment yesterday afternoon. I was excited to be able to see a little glimpse of this peanut. These ultrasounds are really hard to see, but I'll explain each one as best as I can. The first ultrasound is the measurement to determine our due date. As you can see in the bottom right of the picture, the length of the baby measures just a little over 1.5 cm. So small! Based on that we determine that I am approximately 8 weeks, making the baby due December 18th.

This picture is really tiny, but the doctor focused in on the heart and below the picture you can see the heartbeats. The heart rate was 171 bpm, and the doctor smiled and said -- It's a girl. :) I know it's still too early to tell, but Kaiya's was about that too.
And our final picture. This one probably gives the best look at the baby. Head is on top, little body below. It's so tiny... and no legs yet, just kind of curled up.
So that's the photo gallery. Always so precious to be able to see the baby inside. I'm feeling pretty good. These were my most difficult weeks with Kaiya - weeks 6-10. And I have to be grateful because even though I say difficult, never any throwing up... just a little bit of nausea if I don't eat when I need to and tiredness of course. :) So I'm hopeful that this will be similar -- if so, only 2 more weeks of it.

The only thing we are going to be watching closely is the chance of delivering pre-term again. The biggest indicator of delivering pre-term is that you have delivered pre-term in the past. So my chances are pretty good. Although this time we will be paying a bit more attention to things. Start doing internal checks at 30 weeks instead of the normal 36 weeks.

We have a lot of exciting things going on. All of our exciting things are stressors though! :) My sister, Rebekah is getting married in 2 weeks! Ruthie, Kaiya & I are heading home Thursday night for a shower we are giving Bekah this weekend. I'm exciting about going home, haven't been since Christmas! It's funny how we used to go home so much when we first moved here and now the visits are few and far between. We will spend the afternoon with Tony's mom on Friday, I'm hoping to see a few friends here and there and then we will head back on Sunday. Then... about a week later we'll pile in the car again and come back the week before Bekah's wedding. And I'm organizing the food for her reception. WOW!! It's going to be a lot of fun, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. We've had a few changes at the last minute after I found out they only have one oven in the kitchen. HA HA! But with help from family and some good brainstorming we have a plan. This will really be fun -- I'm excited to do this and I think it will feel like an accomplishment when its all over.

We are also still praying for direction after Tony's graduation. Please be praying that God clearly directs Tony. As for me -- I'm content to go wherever. And so thankful for the peace that I have about that. While that makes me not a lot of help to Tony in the decision process, at least I'm not being really opinionated! So please pray with us! :)

Big News

Here it is folks! We took it two times just to be sure... :)

Baby #2 is on the way! I don't know the exact due date yet, guessing to be sometime in Dec. My first doctor appointment is next Tuesday.

Here are some other cutie-pics of Kaiya and her big weekend. It's been really hot here -- in the 90s all weekend, so Mimi & Papa (as they are now known) had plenty of trips to the park and fun in the sun w/ the pool & sprinkler. Kaiya LOVES walking under the sprinkles from the hose. She gets the cutest little expressions when she goes under. I was delighted to catch it w/ the camera.

And I now have a Master's Degree in Counseling! Hooray!

Our Night Out

Here are pictures from our evening out on Friday. The party was really nice, and we just enjoyed getting dressed up and going out. It's been a long while...

Getting ready to leave

Rachel, Jen, Maurine & Sanda

Tony, Rachel, Jen, & Jason
Tony, Rachel, Maurine & Nate

Alli, Maurine, & Rachel

Tony was voted "Most Likely to go to Medical School"

Tony & Rachel

Dress Dilemma

Okay, so here's the dilemma. Which dress should I keep? I have to go to a party for Tony's school being finished and it is formal -- like cocktail party formal. So... the black dress is crinolin, strapless, with little black peekaboo netting underneath. It was $60, really $120 but I got it half off because it was on the wrong rack, so I had to get it tonight to get that price.

This is the other dress. It is red/pink-ish and can be worn with or without the straps. It was $40 at H&M. The fabric is a thick cotton with a lining underneath and you can see the satin trim on it too. If I wore it to this party I would wear it without the straps.

Some extra notes that add to my dilemma. Part of me leans toward the red dress because it is cheaper and I have more occasions to wear it to down the road. It can be dressed down or up. I feel like with the black one I have to wait for the special occasion to come up to wear it to. And I'm thinking that down the road when something special comes up I will be able to afford to go out and get something at that point. Wondering if I should save my money now??

Anyone have an opinion?

Hallelujah!

I submitted my final draft of the research paper today. He told me to reduce my use of pronouns and then it would be an "A" paper. So I went through and fixed that and just sent it in. It's a good day. :)

I have one last project to turn in. I finished most of it at work today. That will be turned in on Saturday! Hopefully life will return to normal soon.

By the way... Sunday is my exciting Celtic Woman Concert that I have been waiting for since September. See my post on September 15th of last year. :) My friend Bethany is as excited about it as I am, so we are going together. Tony was more than happy to oblige... and now it works out great because he's leaving for Florida Sunday morning anyway.

Another week gone by... Time for an update!

Update on Paper: 23 pages right now. I'm hoping to wrap it up today so that I can send the rough draft in for feedback. Once that gets sent in I have to start on my portfolio that is due on Saturday. I'm probably about a third of the way through it.

Update on Life: We'll be looking for cheap plane tickets for Tony to get down to Florida. He is ready for the in-office interview. So... we should find out date options today and then Tony will decide what works for him. Please pray that we can find reasonable tickets for this trip. It is basically a 24 hour trip... fly down Sunday evening, spend a full day at the clinic and then fly out Monday evening.

Here are a couple Easter pictures: She was a cutie, but much too busy to get her picture taken! We tried...

Wow... it's been a week since I blogged anything! Time is really flying by. Which at the moment, is not such a good thing. If I'm lucky, I may have a moment to blog some Easter pics... but more than likely you may not hear from me for awhile. I graduate on May 1. Grades are due April 23. Somewhere in between there, I need to write a 25 page action research paper. The topic I have chosen is: The effect of symbolic gesturing on language development with infants. So basically, how does infant sign language affect normal speech development. Fortunately, I don't have to do the actual research, I just have to write everything else. Why did I put this off? No idea. I blinked and all of a sudden it is April. AHHH!!!

So I'm doing a small bit of freaking out currently... Thankfully, Ruthie has offered her babysitting services. And Tony is being very helpful as well. So one way or another I'll get this thing done. I may not have any hair by the end, but that's the least of my concerns! :)

American Idol -- Sanjaya Craziness

Just came across this link today. What a devoted person this is to tally up states population to determine a plan to get Sanjaya off American Idol. Click on this link to check out her page.

http://www.voteagainsttheworst.com/

Maybe, just maybe it will work tonight. We can only hope...

1 year pictures!

More Chatter

Sorry, I haven't posted pictures lately because I have temporarily lost the battery charger to our digital camera. I think I actually put it back where it belongs and can't remember where that spot is. :) AHHH!!! Anyway... pictures will be returning sooner than later, hopefully. We had a good weekend. I went to a few yard sales on Saturday morning and found a bunch of maternity clothes! (NO, I'm not hinting at anything!) Maternity clothes are just so expensive, so when I find cute ones for 50 cents & $1 I just have to get them. And surprisingly, Tony understood my logic on this one. Normally he is not a fan of me buying things that we have to store. :) That was really the only thing I got -- had to head home early to help our friends move. Jason and Jen (Kaiya is at their house when I am at work) moved into a house this weekend! They were so excited to get in a bigger place. And it worked out perfect because Sherry (Kaiya's babysitter) watched AJ & Kaiya at my house so that we could move without having to worry about them getting in the way. :) I got home in time to play with Kaiya a little bit before bedtime and then just chilled the rest of the night. I think Tony & I fell asleep at 9:30. :)

Sunday was a good day too. Kaiya played a great April Fool's Day joke on me. While I was getting her into her carseat I let her hold my keys. Once she was buckled in, I grabbed the keys from her and tossed them into the front seat. I shut her door and went to open my door and *GASP* the door is locked. She had locked the car w/ the remote buttons. My cell phone inside the car, my keys inside the car, my BABY inside the car. Fortunately, my neighbors were still home and I was able to call Tony. Only I tried like 6 times and he didn't answer. He was on his way to a seminar at school. I got ahold of Ruthie and had her try Tony's phone. I was afraid he wasn't picking up because he didn't recognize my neighbor's number. Ruthie got him and he came home to rescue us!

I had a productive day after church. I visited with a friend I hadn't seen in about a year, went to Trader Joe's, got Kaiya down for her nap and headed outside to work in the yard. I was able to pot a couple planters for Ruthie and then attempt to plant some petunia & allysum seeds that I bought. I haven't ever planted from seeds before, so we'll see if they grow. :) But for 10 cents a packet I don't have much to lose if they don't come up. After that I had time to mow about 3/4 of the front yard before Kaiya woke up from her nap. We went for a walk through the cemetary next door -- which I know is weird, but it has the perfect balance of hill & straight and nice paved path for the stroller. And it's really quiet. :) After Tony got home we convinced him to take us to the park and had such a good time. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but Kaiya was so wide-eyed and giggly the entire time. She loved watching the big kids, going on the swing with Daddy, and the merry-go-round with Mama. It was great. I think it was just as much fun for Tony and I seeing Kaiya so happy.

We have made it halfway through the cleanse. And I'm happy to report that I am wearing one of the pairs of pants that I couldn't get on last Sunday. I've also lost 7 lbs! So I'm glad that I decided to do this with Tony. It's been a great exercise in self-control and discipline that I really needed. And I really do feel better. I was able to go without make-up several days last week (I think because of my skin looking better and glowing a bit more because of my healthy body). But I forgot to ask Tony about that. Anyway, one more week of veggies and fruits and then we will add a small portion of meat for the third week. Oh! And I thought this was neat -- Tony has discovered that he really likes sweet potatoes! I made some oven-baked sweet potato fries and he seasoned them with southwest & cajun seasonings and LOVED them. He said even when this is done he wants those instead of the normal potato wedges we have. :) So that has been fun to learn something new & healthy that he likes.