A little confused...

Abigail loves playing with her baby dolls. If she doesn't have one handy, don't worry, she will just pretend she does.

And TRUST me... Katie bar the door if you sit down on one of her imaginary babies.

The other day I heard her in the kitchen calling for me to push her in her stroller. I went in and found things a little flip-flopped from normal.

PROOF

Some things are much more exciting the first time.

Don't get me wrong. I am thrilled to death that we will soon be blessed with another sweet baby girl. That hasn't lost its luster in the least!

When I was pregnant with Abigail, it was much more exciting to watch my body change, and watch my belly grow and grow... and GROW. I took pictures almost weekly to document the beauty of it all.

This time its been a little different. I have basically avoided the camera for 9 months. So, now that the end is near, I thought it was time to take a couple pictures... just to prove that I was in fact pregnant.

Do you think it is possible that she learned that look and the placement of her hands from how I have felt and acted the last couple of weeks??

Nah, I didn't think so either.

It took us a few months longer than we would have liked to get pregnant this time around. We had things planned out, and thought we knew just when the right timing would be. When that wasn't panning out, I quickly got frustrated.

Funny how slowly I learn to put my trust in the Lord's timing.

If you would have asked me 2 months ago if Abigail was ready for Miss Ellie, I would have told you how nervous, and down right scared I was. She LOVES attention. She is 100% independent, in a way that requires my attention all the time as well. I still haven't quite figured that out, but that is Abigail. She wants to do everything by herself, but wants me right there watching her and holding her hand.

She would FLIP out completely any time I held another baby. She would try to be sneaky and push over or bite other kids that I gave attention to.

You can imagine my nerves.

The last month or so, I have seen a huge change in her. We talk about Ellie every day now. Abigail talks about wanting Baby Ellie to come out. She tells me she is going to help change her "bipers." The other day she rested her head on my stomach and said, "Ellie, I wuv you." And kissed my belly.

I am so thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows better than I do. I try to remember that, and put my faith in His plan for our family. Ultimately, I'm glad He had the final say in this one.

NOW, we are ready.

Growing up, I had ONE friend that never, ever stopped being a friend. From the time we were itty bitty, through high school, college, marriage, and now kids. She's the kind of friend, that even if we don't talk for a while, things never really change between us.

Until last night, the last time I had seen her was at my wedding. Almost four years ago. Since then- she's had two kids, I've had one, and am about to burst with another. Our husbands had never met.

Now that we are back in Texas, it was only a matter of time before that ended. So, last night Emily and Luke drove 2 hours to come have dinner with us for my birthday.

And we never skipped a beat.

Thanks Emily and Luke for coming out with us last night. I can't wait to do it again :)

The big 25

Yesterday I turned 25.

Weird.

All in all it was a pretty good day. Besides having a sick little one, we had a good day. Actually, I did some shopping and that made it a GREAT day.

There is something you should know about me. I love to shop. Something else you should know is that I am totally and completely, incurably- CHEAP. I cannot bring myself to pay full price for anything. ANYTHING. I haven't always been that way, but boy am I now.

So for my birthday, Charles gave me a gift card for a massage :) The big debate there is, prenatal, or postnatal massage???

He also gave me some money to buy furniture for the nursery. I have been needing to get a dresser, so I can unpack her boxes of clothes... and I really want a comfy chair for those late nights.

Anyway, he came home early from work and we headed to Ikea to get the dresser I have had my eye on for a while. I'd searched craigslist for weeks trying to find it second hand, but to no avail. At my doctor's appointment this week, he said he doesn't think I'll make it to my due date. That got me thinking... I better get some sort of nursery set up soon! So I decided to bite the bullet and buy the dresser new, from Ikea.

First of all, NEVER take a sick 2 year old to Ikea thinking you will just make it quick. You might want to die before the trip ends. As I was taking Abigail to the car, she was screaming and crying and trying to tell me through wails, "Mommy, Abi's sad! Abi sad!" As if I didn't gather that bit of info.

Back to the story- right before we checked out, I decided to run over and check the "As-is" section. They sell furniture as-is that they have used on display or that has scratches or different minor defects. Sure enough, there it was. The exact dresser that I wanted, for 50% off. A few scratches on the top, but I planned on putting a changing pad over the top anyway. PERFECT. I was stoked. Not that I got the dresser... but that I got it for half the price.

Then, in true ghetto Texan style... we strapped that bad boy to the roof of our car with twine and the help of a man who spoke no english. This is where the night started getting really entertaining. First, as they tried to get the fully assembled dresser into our sedan, with a carseat in it. Then as they strapped it down to the top.

It got even better when Charles went to open his door to get in, and realized that he had twined the door shut, with the window down. I loved the looks of the people in the car parked next to us when he climbed through the window. I drove home so that Charles could "hold on" to the dresser out the window.

Ok, yeah... I asked him if he really thought he could hold on to the dresser with one arm going 50 mph. He informed me, he had a really good grip.

As we were pulling out of the parking lot, Charles told me about 90 billion times to take it easy because it wasn't on very well and that actually, he'd be surprised if it didn't end up on the highway.

Comforting.

Well, we made it to about a mile from our house without any hiccups, and then Charles just about jumped out the window as he said, "WOAH!! We are loosing it, it just slipped back about 2 inches." He opened up the sun roof and readjusted it for the last little bit of our drive, and we made it safely to our driveway.

All thanks to my He-Man.

Like I said, it was a great birthday. I failed to mention that it has actually been a week long celebration. We got to have my parents, sister, and nephew here to celebrate last weekend. I LOVED having them here. And to top it all off, we have the best birthday present EVER, tonight.

We are going to dinner with one of my very best friends who I have not seen in almost 4 years. Stay tuned for more about that.

Punkin' Peach

We went to a couple of Pumpkin Patches in WA before we took off. One was awesome- it had a hayride, and petting zoo, and a few fields of pumpkins. Abigail went crazy there. We did two hayrides and visited ALL the animals.

I didn't have my camera.

The other one was fun too, we went with Grandma's preschool class and had a lot of fun. AND I took my camera. Little grump wasn't in a very picture taking mood though.

They had fun games for the kids like bowling, a bean bag toss, and fishing.

After we left, Abigail kept talking about the punkin' peach and asked to go back again.

We're Back

I've been a very absent blogger lately. So absent that some of you might not know the big things that have happened for us the last couple of months. Two weeks ago, we packed up all of our things- put them in a trailer, and sent them to Texas. We followed (by air) to Austin, TX where we took up residence in three hotels within one week and started a frantic search for a more permanent residence for our family before Charles started his new job at Bazaarvoice a week ago.

Thank goodness we found something quickly, and were able to move into a house last weekend. Spending time couped up in a hotel is no life... but try to explain that to a two year old who got to go swimming, and who watched more TV than I would like to admit.

We are now totally unpacked and even had our first visitors this weekend, YAY! We got to spend the weekend with my parents, sister, and nephew. We had a lot of fun and are glad to have them so much closer now. Abigail loved all the attention she got, and had to wear the backpack Mimi gave her to church today.

We really like Austin so far. The area around where Charles works is really pretty. Lots of green, trees, and hills. We live in a new neighborhood that has lots of kids and lots of friendly families. Our first night we laughed that we had talked to our neighbors more here than we ever did in two years before. Our ward seems really great too. They have a lot to compete with after what we just left, but already we have been welcomed with open arms and lots of love and support. The best part of the ward so far... THE NURSERY. Abigail goes right in, and stays and has a great time. I can't tell you what a relief that is.

Abigail loves the park that is close by. We love the sunny weather that allows us to play outside almost every day. It has been a little chilly last week, but still really nice weather for putting on some cozy clothes and going out.

Charles new job is looking like a really great move for him. So far he loves the company and the culture they have there. He spent all of last week doing orientation and getting to know more about the company itself, and will start training for his position this week. They had a company party friday night, and I got to meet a lot of people he'll be working with. That was fun. I'm really excited for him and the opportunities he'll have there.

Aside from all of that... we are doing good. All the craziness didn't put me into labor :) I'm still on the hunt for a doctor here. I'm hoping to get in this week- we are getting down to crunch time. Now that I am up to date on where we are now... I will back track for a few posts to fill in our last few weeks in Gig Harbor.