Kara Grace

Yesterday at 11:49am, baby Kara Grace made her debut into this world at 6 lbs. 9 oz., 20 inches long and healthy as a horse! Scored a 10 on her APGAR which the doc says she NEVER gives anyone. She's breastfeeding beautifully which is a relief.

First major booboo

Blake fell off the bottom step on his babysitter's porch last week and literally caught himself with his nose! Poor thing. Luckily it is healing very quickly. He keeps looking in the mirror, pointing to his nose and saying, "boo boo"

Cousins, Trains, and Halloween, Oh My!

Blake had a wonderful time playing with his cousins at Mimi's. A very nice family gave us a train table with LOTS of trains. Blake is so excited and all he seems to talk about is trains lately. Halloween was a smash! Couldn't get him to wear his lion's mane. He kept spitting because the fur would get in his mouth but he though trick-or-treating was great!

Time is flying!

This is my belly at 28 weeks exactly! Getting big!

This is the PG version of my belly. Looks bigger in a dress than it really is!

Blake loves his pudding! Can you tell?

This looks bad....the shirt says "Captain Stinky" and he's drinking water out of a Hooters shotglass. He takes after his dad!

Kevin's college buddies bought Blake this monkey. He loves reading to him, loving on him and taking him for rides on his fire truck!

Here I am one day shy of my 29th week of pregnancy! I can't believe my little girl will likely be here in about 9 weeks! I can't wait to see her sweet face and to watch her grow. Blake has brought us so much joy and amazement and I know baby girl will only add to that dynamic. Great news: Blake is now sleeping in a big boy twin bed so baby girl will have the crib all to herself when she arrives. Looking forward to December and staying busy in the meantime.

IT'S A GIRL!

Finally my mother-in-law will have a little girl to spoil and dress up! We found out July 30th that we are, indeed, having a little girl. I am quite frankly, scared to death. I am not quite sure how to raise a girl and I know from watching myself grow up that it's a CHALLENGE! I guess mom gets her wish that I will be getting "payback." More than anything I hope she is healthy and that she doesn't inherit any of my female health issues. :( I'd hate to pass those along to my child. Now we are in the process of argueing about what to name her and I really can't get settled on any one name anyway. Looks like we may be taking a list to the hospital and waiting until we meet her to give her a title. :)

Summer '09

This summer has been packed full of fun! We've been to Nags Head, Virginia Beach, Beaufort to visit Aunt Lindsey, and enjoy playing at Memaw and Papaw's often. Here are some updated pics of Blake.

SURPRISE!

You know God never ceases to amaze me in his plans for my life. First, he blessed me with an amazing husband (well, most of the time :) ) Then he blessed us with our beautiful baby boy Blake who is 16 months old already and amazes me daily. Now, low and behold, he has chosen to bless us with another child! We just found out last week that I am pregnant! It's truly a miracle as I haven't had but one menstrual period since October. I actually visited the fertility doctor in April to discuss doing the injections again this summer and even though the pregnancy test that day was negative, I was pregnant (just too early). When I continued to feel like crud all the time, I took another test last week and was SHOCKED! We are so excited! Had our first ultrasound on Monday to determine how far along I am---7 1/2 weeks already! The due date is December 24! So close to Blake's December 26 birthday! We're hoping he or she will be a little early like Blake so we can avoid Christmas this time but we will take the blessing when God delivers! We appreciate everyone's prayers!

HAPPY EASTER!

Blake was so excited about his colorful eggs, golf club and bubble blowing mower! He looks like Little Boy Blue in this outfit. I think it's going to be too cold to wear it to church though. :(

Update

It's been awhile since I've posted. Busy time of year with school and life in general. Blake continues to grow and amazes me daily with new stunts, etc. He now loves to tackle people and jump on top of them like a wrestler. He grabs your face and holds it straight so he can smash his nose against yours! ;) Sometimes he's a bit rough and mommy's nose feels broken! He has mastered his Power Wheels 4-wheeler now and even rides backwards! I walked in the room last week and he was sitting backwards, reaching behind him to push the button and grinning from ear to ear! Sounds like we may have a future Evil Kenival on our hands. (please ignore spelling) He LOVES LOVES LOVES being outside so we spend quite some time outdoors when the weather is nice. We're having so much fun watching him grow.

Blake loves his swing. We took advantage of the warm "winter" weather. His favorite new game is to "kick" you when he swings forward. So much fun!

Homestead get away!!!

Above is the JeffersonPools...famous hot spring mineral waters said to heal what ails you. It was too cold so they were closed b/c you are outside.

The picture to the left shows the warm springs steaming in the cold air and a view of the mountain down the road

Kevin and I had the pleasure of visiting the Homestead Mountain Resort for three nights and four days with his company this past weekend. We had a wonderful, relaxing time. I spent some time in the spa and lived the "rich" life for awhile. Four course meals, massages, facials, no care in the world...nice for a few days. Coming back down to earth has been stressful. Getting back to work, etc. I missed Blake something horrible though. Never want to leave him again! Being a mom has made me more rich than any amount of money ever could. Here are some pictures. The formal one is our last night at the closing banquet of the conference. Great fun!

Hair

So now I have justification for driving all the way to Richmond (1 hour) to get my hair cut. Just anybody cannot touch my hair!!! I've discovered over the years that very few beauticians know what to do with curly hair. I finally found someone but unfortunately she's all the way in Richmond. Anyway, I had an appointment with her on Monday (so I thought), got a babysitter, drove to Richmond and found that my appointment somehow was put on Tuesday. So, I reluctantly let someone else cut my hair....I mean I had gone through all that trouble. AGGGHH!! Big mistake, won't happen again. This chick butchered my hair and cut it as if it was bone straight (it isn't) so it frizzed up and seriously made me resemble Shaggy the dog. So, I ended up back there on Wednesday begging my hairstylist to do something. Now it is shorter than I like, and still has some issues but is 80% better according to my hubby. In spite of all this, we had a great New Year's Rocking out the Guitar Hero with Gene and Tia.