November 1...2 weeks and 3 days away!

November 1st will begin the first day of our family of four!  If all goes as planned I'll be having a scheduled c-section that morning at 7:30.  We're spending these last couple weeks doing things around the house to get ready for baby Owen's arrival....hard to believe that we decided on a name before delivery day:).  With Emery, her name had been on our list, we just hadn't decided until we were at the hospital waiting for her to arrive.  We're also enjoying our family of three for a couple more weeks.  I know Emery will be a great big sister, I just have all the normal thoughts and emotions running through my head....so excited to meet this little guy, but also so anxious at the same time.  I just don't want Emery to feel left out or no longer important to us....these are normal feelings, right?!??  But, I can't wait to see her face light up with excitement at meeting her brother that's she's been waiting to hold and help take care of!!

The weekend before last we took family pictures and a couple pictures of my belly since I hadn't done any maternity pics with Emery.  Mamie Woods took our pictures in Adriatica in McKinney....it's actually an area built to look like a Croatian village with pretty stone buildings, beautiful wooden doors, a church, and a small pond.  I think the pictures turned out great despite the really cold temps that morning!  Here are a couple pictures from that morning....

On Sunday we went to the Dallas Arboretum to look at the pumpkin patch and the Chihuly glass exhibit that they've had there the past couple months.  It leaves on November 5 if you're interested in going.  It was a beautiful day for walking and being outside!  Here are some pictures we took....

Emery loves picking up acorns along our walks to the park or anywhere else:)

August...the month of many firsts

This month of August has just completely flown by!  Our Emery is getting bigger by the day as is this belly of mine :)  Someone asked me if there was only one baby in there and someone else said I looked like I was about to pop....well, I still have 8 more weeks till he arrives!  Guess he may be bigger than Emery!

The many firsts of this month....
First #1:  Emery was a flower girl in her Aunt JuJu's and Mike's wedding.  We had the BEST weekend participating in all the festivities.  The girls got pedicures/manicures on Friday and we all enjoyed a yummy rehearsal dinner at Biaggi's, a local Italian place that Julia and Mike enjoy eating at in Champaign.

 The big day was full of hair appointments, make-up appointments, and hanging out before I DO!!                        

Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful bride getting ready...

Emery LOVED dancing at the reception, and especially with her cousin Zachary!

On Sunday, Julia and Mike had out of town guests and the wedding party over for brunch.  It was such a great end to the fun weekend....just can't believe that they had so many people over to their house the day after their wedding, but it was perfect!  The first picture is the couple with Julia's childhood friend Sarah and her husband Mike.

First #2:  The weekend after we got back from Champaign, we started the thing I have been dreading...potty training!!  I started with Emery that Friday with panties that she picked out and a pink potty that she chose at Buy Buy Baby:)  We set a timer and every 20 minutes or so she was on the potty, earned stickers for her sticker chart, and eventually picked out a new baby doll at Target!  She has been doing so well!  We stayed around the house for several days....something very hard for me to do, but well worth it.  She's still in pull-ups (or special night panties as we like to call them) at some naps and at night.  We're not completely accident free and have had some stubbornness to overcome, but she's doing so much better than in the beginning.  SO glad we got this tackled before the baby arrives.

First #3:  About a week or two after potty training Emery got to move into her new room with her new big girl bed!  We'll be using her room downstairs for the nursery and wanted to make this transition well before the baby arrives.  I asked her if she liked her new room and her response was, "It's pretty!  It's pink!"  Travis painted the room a pale pink and even painted a twin daybed and my dad's childhood dresser a light grey....he did a really great job on it.  She just looks so tiny in that big bed.  Where did the time go?  Our baby is growing fast....becoming more independent, drinking from a regular cup, eating with an adult fork, going potty by herself.  Yet, she still loves to sit in our lap and read a book or be rocked in her rocking chair that I still have in her big girl bedroom....love those times of the day!  Here are some pics of her new room: (still waiting on some pretty pillows for the bed and a couple pictures for the wall)

First #4:  And finally, I took Emery on Wednesday to get her first haircut.  It really was just a trim because I was trying to get her crazy curls evened out!  It looks better and I'm happy the curls are still there!  Her favorite part was getting her nails painted pink and the lolly pop afterwards :)

Guess I need to post more often....that sure was a lot going on in one month!  No wonder our little girl has been testing the limits a lot lately.  That's a lot of change for anyone!  Maybe September will be less busy around here.....

Boy oh Boy!!!

We went to my 20th week doctor's appointment today and got to watch our family's littlest one on the sonogram...and we are definitely having a BOY!!  It was just amazing to see the little guy moving all around.  We took Emery with us and she was glued to the television screen as we told her that she was looking at her soon-to-be baby brother.  It was pretty cute!  The pictures were so clear;  we were even able to see the four chambers of the heart...AMAZING!  We are so blessed with a healthy baby so far.  Here are two pics from today!

 Just love that little nose...looks a lot like Emery's did in her 20 week sonogram!

I purchased some blue today...blue nail polish to paint Emery's and mommy's toes tonight :)  And Travis and I celebrated with ice cream and cookies, of course!

After I downloaded some other pictures from my camera tonight, I wanted to include a picture with Aunt JuJu during the time she spent with Emery while we were in Hawaii.  It's a great picture of the three girls :)

Aloha!

Better late than never, I guess....I've been thinking about blog entry #2, but it's been rather busy around here!  Travis and I got back about two weeks ago from Maui...a trip that his company so graciously provided.  It was absolutely beautiful and I can totally understand why my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Paul love to spend so much time there!  My mom and sister came down to stay with Emery and enjoyed some Grandmother/Aunt JuJu time.  I'm so thankful for them taking their time off work to be here with Emery...it was much easier to leave her for a week knowing she was at home with them.  I know she loved it and I'm sure they were exhausted by the end of it :).  As an added bonus on the trip, I got to spend some time with my cousin Laura at the beach...so fun to catch up with her.  Travis enjoyed two rounds of golf and we spent a lot of time relaxing at our resort with some of the others on our trip.  We had some amazing meals and the fish we ate was the best I've had.  If only the flight wasn't eight hours from Dallas...

 Waiting on our rental car...it was crazy windy!!

 Our first night.  Trying to stay up to adjust to the time change by enjoying some dessert.  I, of course, ate dessert at just about every meal...I was on vacation and it's been a huge craving:)

 The first morning, we took a walk along the beach outside of our hotel.  So many pretty plants and flowers along the rocky shoreline.

 Yep, another picture at dessert time!

 My cousin Laura and I.  She's having a great time living and working in Maui...who wouldn't?!!

 Our night out at the Old Lahaina Luau.  They welcomed us with a real flower lei and a mai tai (non-alcoholic one for me:)

 We had a great table with our friends Lee, coworker of Travis, and his wife Jamie.

 The dinner served was a variety of local foods...pork, among other stuff I can't really remember.  Not my favorite:)

 The GDH awards dinner evening was great.  Beautiful setting on the grounds of our resort overlooking the beach, yummy dinner and dessert, and Travis earned his 10 year ring.  Very proud of him and his hard work!

 Our adventure outside the resort was a drive to Iao...we did a tiny bit of hiking and saw some beautiful landscape.  Should've brought a sweater because it was about ten degrees cooler up there!

 This was our view from our balcony.  The colors everywhere we went were so vibrant!

 Jamie and I at Mama's Fish House.  My aunt highly recommended we eat there and we were so glad we did.  The view and food was wonderful!

Took a couple pictures after eating at Mama's.  We left for the airport soon after to head home.

After we got back, we packed up and moved a couple miles down the road.  My mom stayed another week with us to help us with the move.  We truly couldn't have done it without the help of her and my dad who was able to take some time off work to help for a couple days.  On her last night here, we took my mom to Rick's on the McKinney square...one of our favorite places.  It was Emery's first time at a fancy restaurant.  She did great!

Yes, Travis has a mustache...didn't last very long, thank goodness:) 

 She insisted on eating the corn on the cob instead of daddy cutting it off!  She ate just about all of it too!

 Fun night out with my wonderful mom.

Emery sure loves spending time with Grandmother and Grandad...she was asking about them for several days after we left.  Good thing we'll see them again in July!