Yesterday

Doug was able to take the day off of work for the ultrasound but we had a few hours to kill in the morning so we went to the dollar movie together. Doug never gets to go with us to those so it was really fun.
After that we just had the time to get to the ultrasound.
I was so nervous the entire time. It felt more 'hospital' than the last one did as most things have with this pregnancy. Since I've only had the one pregnancy experience that is all I have to compare this one to. So, with Abi's first ultrasound the computer was turned to me the entire time and as she measured everything she explained it to us. This time the tech was really nice but did all the measurements first with the computer turned away and then at the end turned it toward me to see the baby and find out the sex.
I have no idea how long it took to take all the measurements but it felt like 15-20 minutes and the entire time it was all business. She hardly said a word. I was freaking out inside wondering if something was wrong. I watched her face and every time she made any kind of face I would get nervous... even though they were probably normal expressions.
Finally she showed us the baby. She said "well, from everything I can see and have been seeing this entire time I would say I am 98% sure it's a girl."
I was shocked and figured Doug was too as he has been certain it was a boy the entire time. He has even been referring to the baby as 'he' and as the name we had picked out. Turns out Doug wasn't as shocked as I was as he had heard her say "her spine" a minute before but I hadn't noticed that. Doug brought Abi over to get a closer look and Abi said, "It's a girl?" We said yes.
She then said, " I wanted it to be a girl!!!" It was so cute.
So, we got a few pictures printed out. This one is of her silhouette.

After we left we decided to do the same things we did after Abi's first ultrasound to make them into family traditions. My parents took us all to Red Robin last time so Doug, Abi, and I went to Red Robin for lunch.
Last time I had to drop Doug off at work and then my mom, sister, and I went shopping to buy a 'girly' outfit. So since Doug was really tired I dropped him off at home and Abi and I went to Babies R Us to register (you get a $10 gift card if you do that- with a coupon I had) and picked out this little outfit for her.

We are all very excited to have another little girl. I really wanted Abi to have a sister so that's one really great thing about this.
It was really hard to pick a girl name for us. After Abigail we didn't agree on ANYTHING! We each had names we loved and we both vetoed all of each other's names. It was insane. Finally Abi started telling everyone that if it was a girl we were going to name her Madeline (like the story book character).
I said to Doug, " I like Madeline." He wasn't sure. "We can call her Maddy." He liked that. You see I like long old fashioned names and Doug likes shorter modern ones so... that's why our names have to have a longer more traditional version (Abigail, Madeline) and a shorter more modern version (Abi, Maddy) so we finally agreed on a name. Amazing.
Madeline
Now we just have to figure out a middle name. I have a few that I really like but Doug doesn't seem excited about them so we'll see over the next few months what happens with that.
Anyway, thanks for all the congrats everyone. We are really excited and can't wait to see what she looks like.

Now for the moment we've all been waiting for....

It's a GIRL!

To all those who have asked

This is a silly post but over the past year or so the subject of celebrity crushes has come up on many occasions with friends. When I say my #1 celebrity crush is Henry Cavill no one seems to know who he is. I always list a few things he's been in: The Tudors, The Count of Monte Cristo, I capture the castle, etc but still no clue. I happened upon some clips on You tube soo to all of you that have asked me who this guy is... here are some clips for you.
First, his cologne ad-



Next- a sit down interview with him for the Tudors.


Now you know.

A little help needed for a friend

In response to many people asking what they can do to help my friend Margie has sent all of us the following email asking us to forward it and post it onto our blogs. Please take the time to read it in case you or someone you know can help them. They are a really great family.

***FEDERAL EMPLOYEES- PLEASE DONATE LEAVE TO RYAN HESS***
My name is Margie Hess, my husband Ryan was diagnosed on June 12, 2009 with a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since this is an aggressive form of T-Cell Lymphoma, his doctor has put him on an aggressive chemo regimen that will result in him being unable to work for the next 4-6 months and possibly longer. At the time of diagnosis he was finishing up his 1st year as a Podiatry Resident at the V.A. in Tucson, AZ. Ryan is a devoted husband and father of two children, Hallie (5) and Max (2). By the end of this month (June 2009), Ryan will use up the last of his vacation and sick leave and will have to go on unpaid leave. Ryan is the sole provider for our family; I stay at home with both the kids. Without him working we have no income. I need to stay home to help care for him, so I cannot get a job right now, either. As difficult as it is for our family to have to ask for help, we have realized that we must do so at this time. We were told that any federal employee (ie: military, Border Patrol, DEA, FB I, Dept of Justice, EPA etc. EXCEPT Post Office employees) can donate vacation time to be used as sick leave for another Federal employee. We would be so thankful for any number of extra paid days we can accumulate. Thank you so much.
How can you help if you ARE a Federal Employee?
Go to your HR department and request to donate leave to Ryan Hess who works for the VA. (Your HR person will know the form that needs to be filled out- each Federal agency has their own form to donate leave)
Once filled out and signed, the HR person will then need to fax or e-mail the form to:
OLIVIA McCLURE - Benefits Specialist (TUCSON V.A.)
Phone #: (520) 792-1450 x 6076
Fax # : (520) 629-1849
E-Mail : olivia.mcclure@va.gov

ALSO, for those who are federal employees, please print out this message and post it in break/lunch rooms to help get the word out as well as emailing it to co-workers!

How to help if you are NOT a Federal Employee:
PASS this along to ANYONE and EVERYONE that you know and then ask them to pass the message along. Post it on blogs, Facebook...whatever you can think of.
Thanks again everyone- this will help SO much!
GO TEAM RYAN HESS!

Natalie's sentiments giveaway

One of my favorite blogs is having a really fun giveaway! Check out her great blog and the giveaway here.

Unprepared

Last night I realized we aren't prepared very well for emergencies. Sure we have food storage but we haven't put water in our two huge water buckets yet and we don't have those bags of clothes and things for each family member they recommend. So, how did I come to this conclusion last night out of the blue?

Thursday night I woke up at 12:30. This isn't unusual. It would be unusual for me to get a full nights sleep. So as I'm starting to fall back asleep there was the weirdest thunder clap. It started and stopped and then resumed a minute later... or at least that was what it seemed like. I just laid in bed trying to go back to sleep but having a hard time at it with the loud storm wailing outside- we get MAJOR thunderstorms here that scare even me sometimes and I love storms. So, I'm starting to doze and the tornado siren goes off. I wake up Doug and Abi and carry her down into the basement. Luckily Doug had set up the bottom of the King sized bed down there so we had somewhere to hang out. He brought down the computer so we could check the weather reports (thank goodness for wireless internet) to find out when it was safe to come back up. We finally all got back upstairs around 2am.

All day yesterday it was stormy. It was that strange kind of stormy where the sun comes out for a few minutes and it stops raining but the wind is blowing like crazy and then a few minutes later the rain is pounding down like crazy and the sky is dark.

At around 6 or so (I'm not sure the exact time) Abi had just got out of the bath and I had her in her jammies and was brushing her hair. Doug was on the computer and we were all just hanging out together in our room. The siren went off again. Doug checked the weather web site and all it said was thunderstorm warning. I said I didn't care, we still needed to go down to the basement again. I carried Abi again along with some blankets. Doug brought down the computer. As soon as he was with Abi, I came back upstairs for a minute and looked outside. It certainly looked like tornado weather with the insanely dark sky and crazy clouds.

So, we set up the computer and put on a video to entertain Abi who was a little nervous. Then the power went out. I waited for it to come back on but it didn't. We have had it go out before but never longer than a few minutes. We waited and waited and nothing.

Doug ran upstairs to check on something (I don't remember what) and came back down with the cell phone we had left upstairs. We had a message from my friend Taylor telling us that a tornado had just touched down at the airport. The airport is right by our house... so I decided we needed a few things. I went upstairs to get a flashlight not knowing when the power would come back on.

That is when I found out that we have no batteries for our flashlight and it wasn't working. I grabbed a candle and matches and a bottle of water and rushed back down. I realized then that we need a tornado camp out kit down there with extra clothes and water and flashlights along with activities for Abi. It made me remember when I was a little girl living in Georgia and we had tornadoes and hurricanes all of the time. We would lose power and my mom would make it fun. One time I remember vividly is being huddled around the dining room table sewing Barbie clothes by candlelight. Minutes before that I had been rushing home on the bus watching tree branches fall all over the road around us and was terrified and when I got home my mom calmed me down and made it a good memory. So, today I think we'll put together some packs for that kind of situation.

Abi finally fell asleep between us and we all stayed down there for a few hours. Finally, Doug and I decided to just come back upstairs. The storm wasn't wailing as much and the sky didn't look so bad. We got Abi to bed and fell asleep on the couches. We woke up when the power finally came back on at 11:30. What a crazy night.

It really made me grateful for the safety of our home and for our basement which under normal circumstances I hate (there was a dead mouse down there once.Blah.) and reminded me that anything can happen at anytime and we better be prepared.

Overheard in play group

Alex: "I don't like my carrot sticks."
John: "But Alex, they give you power!"

Sara: "I'm going to marry my daddy."
John: "You can't marry dad."
Alex: "My daddy got married before."
Abi: "Me too!"
Sara: "Yeah, I'm going to marry my daddy when I get married."
John: "Sara! You have to find a boyfriend to marry."

Last day of school

Yesterday was our last day of school. I had thought of a few different ideas for the end of year party and finally decided on a summer/pool theme. Knowing it wouldn't be until June 16th you'd think it would be warm enough for it. The day before was really nice so I had high hopes. I let Alisse's mom know to bring her swimsuit.
Then the day came and it was in the low 60's and overcast. I decided we were still going to do it but just with a few alternate plans.
We had circle/story time and then I let them get into their swimsuits. They wanted to dress them up a bit. You can see that Abi's dress up glasses are on the right way. That's because Alisse saw they were upside down and fixed them for her.

She quickly put them back on the way she likes them.

I gave the girls a few options for fathers day cards.. some more creative than others but they picked a print out fold up card. They both had to do the same one of course.

Then I decided to blow up some balloons to put in the pool instead of water. These balloons were really hard to blow up so it ended up being only a few in there. I told them they could pretend the balloons were water and swim in them.
Abi immediately jumped in and started kicking her legs and throwing balloons around yelling out, "I'm swimming! Look at me, I'm swimming!"
Alisse stood there looking at her like she was crazy (as she has done so many times this year when Abi talks to her about imaginary things) and said, "There's no water in the pool."
I think it is so funny how different their imaginations are.
Abi finally coaxed Alisse into the pool but she wouldn't 'swim'. She would just toss the balloons. It was really fun to watch them.

It warmed up a teeny bit and we went outside for a few minutes to fill up water balloons. I figured that this way they would only get a little wet and then we could hurry back in to change into normal clothes.

It turns out only their shoes got wet anyway. They tossed the balloons back and forth catching some of them but missing most leaving them to pop on the grass.

Abi did get one right over Alisse's head. It missed though.

Then Alisse chased Abi with one saying she was going to throw it on her. Abi was screaming, "No! She's trying to get me wet!"
I just laughed and was like, "Abi, you are wearing your SWIMSUIT!"
You'll notice she put on church heels. What a silly girl.
Alisse missed by the way so she was able to remain dry.

After all the balloons were popped we went back inside and spread out a 'beach blanket' to have mini cupcakes and lemonade.

After being cleaned up they got back into their clothes for a picture.
Last day in school together....

I put together little goodie baskets for them. They just had a coloring book, crayons, a little wind up crab toy, and some treats in them.

They got their school year completion certificates.. which I noticed at the very end I had printed out with July instead of June. I fixed it with a pen so I feel kind of dumb but oh well.

Then shortly after, Alisse's mom got here so the girls ran around the yard for a few minutes while we talked.

I am glad to have a break from pre school now for who knows how long as I know that when the baby comes I'm not going to want to be doing it.... but we will definitely miss having Alisse around two mornings a week. She is such a funny and fun loving little girl and Abi ADORES her. They will probably enjoy being able to have play dates more anyway.. they can just play instead of having to do work.

Sassy girl

I got a phone call from my mom while upstairs and while we chatted I thought Abi had gone into her room (I wasn't on a wireless phone so I couldn't check) but when we got off the phone I couldn't find Abi. She wasn't supposed to come downstairs without me because earlier today when she did she got in the cookies and ate three. So, I found her running around and said, "Abi, you weren't supposed to come down here without me, remember?"
She cocked her head to the side and shrugged, "Well, you're here now."

Tip Junkie Birthday Bash

Tip Junkie has moved to Tipjunkie.com now. Go check it out. She is having some great giveaways!

Success! She finally did it!

Today Abi went to Primary in its entirety by herself. Last week we introduced a new 'bribing' program. She really likes Laffy Taffy so besides the tickets she earns if she goes by herself I bring along a Laffy Taffy to give to her when we get in the car if she has gone to the whole thing by herself.
Last week we thought she was going to do it. She really wanted that Laffy Taffy and went in all by herself but... we were late and she couldn't sit exactly where she wanted. She ended up being brought out by a leader because she wouldn't sit down. When I took her back in, she sat down but wouldn't let me leave.
So, today we waited to see what would happen. She took her friend Alisse's hand and they went in together. She got a seat next to Alisse and we left. The next two hours I kept an eye on the doors to my classes wondering if she would be brought to me. She never was.
At the end of church I went to get her out of her class and she was so excited. I told her how proud I was of her and she gave me the biggest hug. It was great. Her teachers said she was like a whole new Abi and even participated and helped in class.
So, she got her candy. Everyone was happy.

Our week in photos and videos

On monday I labored to get the upstairs in order and organized (and finally did! Yay!). When I began at around 630ish in the morning Abi was following me around making messes where I had just cleaned as usual and I thought I was going to have to give up and try again later but then she ran down the hall to her room and I could hear her in there making messes. I rejoiced and finished my work- it took a few hours. At one point I checked in on her expecting to see her playing with toys and got this picture. The toys are all over of course but I just love seeing her relaxed reading her Peter Rabbit books- so cute!

I've mentioned before my obsession with sorting colors and how I have noticed Abi does it with candy just like I do- on Tuesday I watched her do this with her magnets so I guess she does it with everything just like me!

Wednesday night we made chocolate chip cookies. I had been promising her this activity all week so she was so happy to finally get to do it. I love this picture because of the flour smeared on her cheek.

Thursday morning before pre school Abi stripped down and as running around the house. I am actually pretty strict about her climbing on furniture-it is one of my control freak pet peeves but I let this one be as I sat and listened to her. She had put that pillow there to be a steering wheel and she was pretending she was driving a train.

This morning I needed to go to the hospital to get a refill of my vitamins and since it was SO nice out Abi and I decided to walk there. It's an easy mile walk each way so we set out around 7:30. It was so nice. Abi was loving it.

On the way home she said it was warm enough to take her jacket off. Yay! This is the first time it's been warm enough so far for an outfit like this. It felt like Summer.

Blog slacker

I haven't been as good at updating my blog lately so I thought I would just jump on to say how cool it was last night when Doug and I were just relaxing and watching a movie and I finally felt one of those "for sure" baby movements. Now comes the part of pregnancy that I love. In a couple of weeks we'll finally find out if it's a boy or girl! Yay.

Interesting video

I think most of you know how I feel about abortion. It is really one of my biggest problems with President Obama because I truly feel that NOTHING justifies late term abortions especially and I can't understand his dedication to making them mainstream. Well, I was directed to a blog called United Families International and saw this story and video and thought it was amazing. The following is taken straight from their blog at unitedfamiliesinternationalblog.

the second set of videos are a woman that is actually a late term abortion survivor. It is truly amazing.

12-year-old “Lia” of Toronto has become a star at her school and on Youtube with her five-minute pro-life speech, crafted for a school competition. Despite discouragement and outright opposition, Lia’s presentation was so well done that she reportedly won the contest she was told she would be disqualified from, due to the “controversial” message of her speech.

Lia’s mother says that the topic was of her own choosing, and that she was determined not to back down, even after teachers told her it was “too mature” and “too controversial.”

“She was also told that if she went ahead with that topic, she would not be allowed to continue on in the speech competition,” Lia’s mother wrote in the email to the Moral Outcry blog. “Initially, I tried helping her find other topics to speak on, but, in the end, she was adamant. She just felt she wanted to continue with the topic of abortion. So she forfeited her chance to compete in order to speak on something she was passionate about.”

At the schoolwide competition, the mom said one pro-choice teacher on the judge’s panel “didn’t even want to hear” the speech, and stepped down from the panel before Lia began. After the speech, which Lia’s family said was well-received by both students and teachers, the judges initially told Lia she had indeed been disqualified. But controversy among the judges eventually led to a reversal, and Lia’s family learned the next day that the panel agreed the girl deserved to win the competition.

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!
Really cute dress giveaway! Check it out.

Saying Goodbye to Gabe

Abi's friend Gabe is moving away this weekend. It's hard to believe because they've been here longer than we have and it's hard to imagine our town without him (and his mom!)
Gabe was Abi's very first friend ever.
I thought I'd post some pictures of them through the years...
Halloween 2006 -look how little they are!!

Summer 2007- hanging at the park.

at the Ren. faire

Not only does Abi love Gabe but she has always loved his mom Emily and felt comfortable with her (this is not a small thing for Abi)

Abi playing a little hard to get..

having some snacks..

The pioneer day picnic- one of my favorite pictures.

Gabe can always make Abi laugh

picnic at the zoo

play group at the church

Halloween 2008

Abi's 3rd birthday party

hanging out on the climbing rock together this spring

at the Shedd Aquarium..

He has been such a special friend to her over the years.

Little Chefs

Yesterday Abi had play group at Julie's house which always has her asking before we go, "What am I going to make?"
Julie comes up with the cutest themes and activities- remember she is the one in charge of the amazing Primary activity as well.
So, she said she had planned on not having a theme because it was the last day for Gabe but it evolved into one anyway...
Here the kids are painting their aprons. Abi loves hers so much!

Abi and Sara posing. Abi always looks like a deer in the headlights for some reason when others take her picture..
You'll notice she has a little red star on her forehead. She got into the stickers drawer yesterday morning and just stuck a star on her head. I used to do that too.. although I think I was in high school at the time..

Mixing up the cookie dough..

A little taste...

The group shot
It's really sad that this will be the last one they have. Little Gabe is moving this weekend and Sara and John will be moving by the end of the month. We are SO sad to see them go.

if you want to see the rest of the pics, check out Julie's blog. They are so cute!

Potty mouth

I just told Abi that something she said was 'potty words' and she shouldn't talk about it. So, she says, "So, I can only say that when I'm going potty?"

I know I'm a geek.... but...

I am really excited about the New Moon movie coming out in November. My mom and I should be able to go together again just like we did for Twilight since it's coming out after the baby will be born..and I love this poster.

They also just released the preview and I think it looks pretty cool. YAY JACOB!