SOOO excited

Only 36 hours till our newest little treasure joins our family, Lord willing, and we CAN'T wait!!! We are so, so, so very excited and are just about to burst!!!

Tonight was our last "normal" night as a family of 3 (my parents will be here with us tomorrow night and then the baby will be here!) and we treasured it and spent much of the evening dancing to my new music. :o)

We can't wait!!!!! I'm literally shaking with excitement as I type this!! Stay tuned for news of the baby's arrival. (we'll prob send texts and put it on fb as that's the easiest way to spread bulk news)

from start to finish

We're nearing the end of this pregnancy now! Only 1 week to go and little B will be in our arms, Lord willing! :o) It's so exciting and I find myself so eager with anticipation to meet our newest little guy. We've been very busy in preparation, but I think everything is ready now. Jasper and Andrew and I are all ready, the house is ready, the car is ready, the bags are packed, B "bought" gifts to give to J in the hospital, I have tons of meals frozen, we bought snacks for Andrew for in the hospital, child care arranged, the laundry is caught up, etc.

Last night I was thinking about the differences in the pregnancies between the boys and I was marveling at how everything about them is pretty different, from start to finish. For example:
- my health during the pregnancies is night-and-day opposite (felt pretty great the whole time I was preggo with Jasper, feel really bad the whole time with Brody)
- my blood pressure is opposite (horrible blood pressure with Jasper, perfect blood pressure with Brody)
- my weight gain is opposite (gained 66 lbs with J and only 30 with B)
- my home preparation is opposite (not very prepared with J for some reason that completely baffles me, completely and totally and obsessively prepared for B)
- had no idea what to expect with Jasper, I feel more prepared with Brody.
- thought I'd be having a natural birth with Jasper. Having a planned c-section with Brody.
- The day Jasper was born, it was 88 degrees and humid. The forecast for next thur is -30 with the windchill.

The few similarities between the boys' pregnancies:
- we prayed and prayed and prayed and begged God for both pregnancies
- with both boys, we found out we were pregnant with them the day we got home from a vacation (we had just got home from Louisville when we found out about J, just got home from Mexico when we found out about B). I keep thinking that if this trend continues in our life, we should plan our vacations accordingly. :o)

It was fun for me to see the differences and I found myself dreaming about what Brody will or will not be like. Will he be the spitting image of his daddy like Jasper is? Will he have red hair like Jasper did or black hair like I did or baldish like Andrew was as a baby? Will he be a non-stop talked and mover like Jasper is or will he be more chilled? Will he be skinny and tall like J or short and chubby and rolly polly? I am so eager to meet B and find out all these details about our newest son! Thankfully, we only have 7 more days until the dream becomes a reality! :o)

A few pics from the 2 pregnancies.

The day we found out we were pregnant with:
 Jasper (September 6th, 2010)

Brody (June 2nd, 2013)

The day we found out the genders of our babies (we were 14 weeks along with both) 

 Jasper (November 2010)

Brody (July 2013)

20 weeks pregnant with:

Jasper

Brody 

The boys' rooms

38 weeks preggo with the boys.

Jasper (taken on Mother's Day, 2011)

Brody (taken 5 days ago :o))

A few pics from Jasper's birth:

During the csection

Jasper's 1st second on earth

Getting weighed and measured

.

First pic as a family of 3

the day after the section and so in love.

Ugg.

Have you ever had one of those weeks?

You know, the kind of week that just. won't. end.

Where nothing goes right? In fact, everything goes WRONG. Very, very wrong. As in, "2 babysitters canceling, 17 unanswered phone calls, 5 un-returned texts, walking out in the middle of a dinner, horrible wooden benches, getting lost late at night in the downtown because I can't see through the cascade of tears" type of wrong.

The week where nothing's easy or fun? In fact, everything is HARD. Super, duper, crazy hard.

Where you almost deck a complete stranger just because she cut in line for the elevator at COSI?

The kind of week where your child is a terror and the best you can muster is to keep silent.? In fact, you count it a major victory that you kept quiet. Because you know that if you opened your mouth, all the ugliness in your heart would spill out on not only your child but also on the surrounding tri-state area?

The kind of week where your husband is from Venus and you're from Mars? No, no... that's not right. We're not even from the same solar system this week. Forget Venus and Mars. This week, my husband is from... oh say Jupiter. And I'm from... the mothership that abducted the aliens and took them to a galaxy far, far, far away with Luke Skywalker and the Avitars and the hobbits..

The kind of week that when you realize that it's Thursday and not Friday like you thought, you sit down and bawl for an hour.

The kind of week where you have pancakes for breakfast, waffles for lunch, chocolate truffles for snack, and wine for dinner?

Yup. I'm having one of those weeks.

Constant, horrible, excruciating back pain that keeps me up at night and miserable every minute of every day doesn't help with the horrible, no-good, awful, never-ending week.

BUT.... I still do have so many things to be thankful for.

1. My mom. Let me say it again. My mom. I sent her an SOS "I'm mad at the world and the world is mad at me" text today and she responded so utterly perfectly that it brought tears to my eyes.
2. My husband and his humility.
3. I won a silly little Scentsy contest today and it made me so utterly happy, you woulda thought that I won the lottery.

I have so many more things to be thankful for, but to be honest, I'm still just stuck on that mothership.

too quiet

I just went to the basement to start a load of laundry.

Lost in thought about the things I need to do before little B arrives, I didn't notice that the house was quiet.

Maybe a little too quiet.

I didn't notice until I was climbing the basement steps and coming up to the kitchen.

Fear, dread, and an overall sense of foreboding filled me.

I quickly went in search of Jasper and found him. Stark naked (definitely NOT the way I left him). Sitting in the bathroom sink. With water gushing all over. Smiling proudly and saying,

"Wook mommy!! I's a swimmin'!!!"

Water cascading all over, the bathroom floor flooding, a clean pile of laundry that I had left in the bathroom now soaked and ruined, and all I can do is cry laugh and grab the camera.

fyi- I did turn the faucet off before grabbing the camera. Hence, you don't get the joy of seeing waterfalls of water flooding my bathroom.

Jasper understands... sorta

Poor Jasper.

He understands some things, but not others.

For example, something he understands- Christmas.

In fact, he understands Christmas really, really well. In his limited understanding, Christmas is when he says "Happy birddday, Jesus!!" a lot, gets tons and tons of really awesome presents, and eats a boat load of sugar.

Something he doesn't understand- the concept of time.

So the poor guy has no idea when the next Christmas is. It's quite adorable, as every morning for the last 2 weeks when I get him up out of bed, he says, "Gowd mornin', momma!! Is it Mismas (aka Christmas) tuuday???!" and he says it was such hope and enthusiasm and expectation. Poor guy. :o)

I always respond, "No buddy. I'm so sorry. It's not Christmas today."

Jas- "Maybe Mismas is 'morrow?"

me- "no, honey. Christmas isn't tomorrow, either. Christmas is a looooong time away. We have a lot of things we need to do before the next Christmas, such as having Brody come out of my tummy, going swimming this summer, lots and lots of play dates, going to the library lots and lots of times. Lots of things need to happen before we have the next Christmas."

Jasper, however, is not daunted.

"Maybe itsa 'morrow."

me, "no, baby, it's not tomorrow."

Jasper perseveres, though. "Maybe yes, maybe no."

me, laughing, "definitely no, honey."

Seeing that he gets nowhere with this line of questions, Jasper always switches tactics.

J- "Maybe bor (for) da next Mismas momma cin buy Baber some purple snow."

me, laughing, "Maybe, buddy. I'll talk to Daddy about it."

at this point, I can see the wheels turning in his little head, trying to think of things that I can buy him for the next Christmas.

J- "Maybe bor da next Mismas, momma cin buy Baber a huuuuuuuuuuge beeeeeeeeeg esabator (aka excavator) wid da beeeeeg dinosaurs in it and Baber and da dinosaurs cin sit in da esabator an' dig an' dig an' dig an' dig awwwwll day wong and dig a huuuuge bwoo swimming pool."

me, laughing some more, "For the next Christmas, you want me to buy you a big, huge excavator with dinosaurs in it and you guys can dig all day long and dig a huge blue swimming pool?"

J- "Oh yes!"

me, chuckling, "Umm.. I'll talk to daddy about it."

J- "or maybe bor da next Mismas, momma cin buy Baber a weguwar cockwoach?"

me- "For next Christmas you want a regular cockroach?"

J- "Oh yes pwease!!"

me- "What kind of cockroach is not a regular one?"

J- "a cwazy cockwoach!!! Sillwy momma!!"

me, laughing- "So you want a regular cockroach, not a crazy cockroach, for next Christmas?"

J- "yes pwease!!"

me, laughing, "Maybe. I'll talk to Daddy about it."

J- "Or maybe da guy cin buy it bor me."

me, laughing, "Maybe the guy will buy it for you, but probably not."

J- "maybe yes, maybe no."

me, laughing, shaking my head. But, oh, he's not done yet.

J- "maybe bor da next Mismas, momma cin buy Baber a howse."

me- "You want a horse? Like a real, live, horse?"

J- "yes please!"

me- "no, buddy, I'm not buying you a horse."

J- "Momma, maybe yoo shoulda talk to Dadda 'bout it."

And that, my friends, is when I lost it and just started laughing and laughing.

This kid is smart.

9 days

Andrew took the week of Christmas off, and as a result, we got to spend 9 whole days together. And almost every single minute of those 9 days was spent side by side.

Me and Andrew... 9 days... side by side... with Jasper tagging along for the ride...
And after 12,960 minutes of being by Andrew's side constantly, I need to say the following things to my beloved:

beloved Andrew,
You are wonderful.

You are truly amazing.

The longer we're married, the more I am humbled by your love and the more I respect you. I'm humbled by your love for God and how seriously you yearn for Him, desire Him, and imitate Him. You have such a deep and passionate love for your Creator and you strive daily to live a Spirit-filled life that glorifies God and brings Him honor. This is not something I take lightly or for granted. It's something that I cherish and treasure, for I know that it's rare. And I know it's not easy. I know it takes a daily commitment to strive forward in your walk and I know it's something that you pursue above all other things; I'm so honored to be married to a man who loves and pursues our God so completely.

I'm humbled by your love for me. You love me so selflessly and so completely and so "fun-ly". You honor me with your words, you love me with your actions, you study me and relate to my interests. You are amazingly quick to close your eyes and turn your head when a skimpy woman comes on tv or walks past in the mall; and I know you don't just do it when I'm around. I know you turn your head even when you think I'm in a different room or not paying attention. You don't fake your integrity and moral purity; it's a real and true aspect of your character and one of the many ways you show your love for God and me.

Over our Christmas vacation, you made me feel beautiful. And let's face the facts: I'm as big as a barn, my fingers look like sausages, my wrists are so swollen I can't even latch my watch anymore, my ankles are but a distant memory, I waddle everywhere I go, I constantly have rivers of sweat racing down my face, I have a total of 2 pants that fit me, I only wear slip-on shoes b/c I can't bend down far enough to put on socks and boots, and my bangs are still recovering from their disastrous experience from 2 months ago. And yet you make me feel utterly gorgeous. We had several really beautiful waitresses at a few of our restaurants this past week and you didn't appear to notice them at all. In fact, you were actually rather abrupt with them, short in your answers, and didn't even look at them; but then you would turn to me and your face would light up like a Christmas tree as you talked and laughed and gave me your complete attention and affection.

That's one of the greatest gifts in the world that you could possibly give me and you give it to me daily, in our home and also in public where others witness your affection and love for me. Thank you, love. Remember when Heather Anderson approached me and told me that she loved watching you watch me during Sunday School and how any woman would give her life to have a man look at her the way you look at me? That was at least 5 years ago and you're still looking at me that same way today, when I'm 35 weeks pregnant and after 8 and a half years of marriage, 3 major surgeries, countless stupid fights, childbirth, motherhood, and the daily grind of life. I'm amazed at your love for me.

I don't mean to make you into a saint and make you feel like you can't make mistakes. You can. Please do. In fact, you certainly will. I want you to know that you have the freedom to make mistakes, to sin, to fall short, etc. Do not be perfect, do not feel like I want you to be perfect, feel no pressure to be flawless or a "super husband" or the "husband of the year". The last thing I want to do is make you feel pressure, honey, to be perfect. But right here, right now, I simply can't let another day go by without putting into words the amazing man you are and the depth of my love and respect for you.

So back to my main point. I love you. I love you so very much that my heart aches with the fullness and the richness and the overflowing depth of my love for you. I long to be in the same room with you. When you have to go to work (sigh), I'm like a school girl, watching the clock and counting the hours till you come home and I get to be with you again. I love so many things about you, many of them the "big" things in life (some listed above) but I also love so many of the little things about you, too.

For example, during our Christmas vacation, I simply love the following things about you:

I love that you call my fiestaware dishes by their official names (IE turquoise, scarlet, cobalt, lemongrass, flamingo, peacock, shamrock, etc) instead of simply "green, red, blue, yellow, pink, etc". I really appreciate that you stand with me in front of my Fiestaware cabinet and talk seriously with me about my colors and which side of the color wheel I need to buy my next dishes from in order to add a depth to my collection that I feel is missing.

I love that you got excited with me when I found steel cut oats at Yutzy's for $0.79/lb and you didn't bat an eye when I bought almost every single bag off the shelf b/c I was afraid someone else would come swooping in and buy my steel cut oats.

I love how much fun you have while playing with Jasper. And by the way, boy do you sure play with our little guy. You don't just play with him for 15 minutes then check your phone to see the newest deals on your "deal site". You play with Jasper, with no phone or tablet or computer present, for hours and hours at a time. You get down on his level and play and play and play with him; I often wonder how you can go so long playing with Jasper without going bonkers, as I often do.

I love your accessories. I love that you love your hats and scarves and vests and boy, you sure do look quite handsome in them, too.

I love your excitement with our fantasy football teams. I love that we talk at great length and in great detail about not only both of our teams but also both of our opponents' teams and we teach jasper to who to cheer for so we might get a shot at winning our game. :o) I love our football fever that we share together.

I love that you still hold my hand every time we watch tv.

I especially love that one evening on our vacation, I asked you if you could let me know when you have time to do me a favor and you dropped what you were doing and instantly responded, "Honey, I always have time to do favors for you. How can I help you?" It blew my mind that you were so quick to serve me. Thank you.

I love that you didn't bat an eye when I ripped off my heart monitor and threw it against the wall and then sat down and bawled for an hour. You gently and patiently held me and stroked my hair and then never spoke a word about the monitor again (smart, smart man).

I love that you are serious about getting our family to church on time. It's obviously a priority to you and Jasper is learning its importance, too. And I quite love listening to you read the Bible to me and Jasper.

I love how sweetly conscientious you are about making sure our special restaurants have calamari as an appetizer simply because you know how much I love calamari and crave it deep in my soul. I love the thoughtful and sweet gifts you got me for Christmas and the special gifts you got me in my stocking (*wink*). You are so considerate and thoughtful when shopping for me and it's so evident. Thank you, honey.

I really, really love your laugh. I love your eyes and your sense of humor and your quick, dry wit and the way you attempt to tell stories. There were a few other things I wanted to list, but I'm getting sleepy (I think it's the Sleepy Time Tea kickin' in) and I can't think of them right now. But when I do, I'll be sure to tell ya.

Sweetie, you are such an amazing man. I am daily humbled by your love and commitment to God and our family and after spending almost every minute of the last 9 days with you, my respect for you has sky-rocketed. When we married, I knew I was marrying an amazing man, but boy, I was barely scratching the surface. There's a depth to your character and integrity that's extremely rare to come by and I thank the Lord daily that you choose me, pursued me, and stuck with me. You blow my mind, babe, and rock my world and I'm so honored and excited to spend all the rest of my days with you. Thank you for your love.

such a glorious Christmas!!

Our Christmas was just so, so sweetly glorious; we spent much time talking about and worshiping Jesus and the redemption for sins that He offers as well as much cooking, eating, playing, giving gifts, playing with gifts, a special Christmas dinner with 10 people, etc. We had the most wonderful time ever!! We are so blessed and my heart is just constantly overflowing with thanks to God for everything- for the inheritance He gives, for our family and friends, for the sweetness of a simple life, for the joy Andrew and I get when we spend time together, for our precious little boy who loves to play with "all-uh-us-all-tugever" (all of us, all together), and for our little baby ninja.

A few quick pics from our Christmas:

We got Jasper a huge "monster dump truck" that he's been yearning for! Andrew and I were like little kids with all our excitement in giving it to him!

 We weren't disappointed! Jasper's crazy about it!!

I love his constant bedhead.

 We also got him a lifetime supply of altoids. We gave J one of them and told him he could eat them whenever he wanted without having to ask our permission. He couldn't believe it! On Christmas day, at any given point in time, J had 10 altoids stuffed in his mouth. Dream come true for him.

Also got him Playdough, which he loves!

my fav pic of Jasper from Christmas morning! He's getting ready to throw one of my Playdough "worm's eyes" at Andrew.... note the mischievous grin. :o)

 He's LOVES his blue firetruck! It rocked his world that there were different colors of firetrucks. 

 Tic-tacs... another love of J's. :o)

 A few days ago, J colored Andrew a bunch of purple pumpkins for his stocking.

Oh my gracious, my heart just bursts with the blessing of these two boys!!!

Coloring special pictures for our Christmas dinner guests. 

 We had Drew, Melissa, my mom and dad, my brother Cade, his friend Janille, and Andrew's friend and co-worker Prabakaran over for Christmas dinner. 

It was such a special, special time! We had appetizers, Andrew read Scripture and shared the "why" of why Christ came to earth, clearly gave the gospel, we ate, we talked, we laughed, we prayed, we talked, and we laughed some more. It was such a precious time!

"And she shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." Matt. 1:21

Praise God! What amazing love the Father has for us!