My little diver!

What a difference this summer has made for Jackson and his swimming skills, he has become quite a fish! Especially in Grammy's pool, when we are all there we don't even need to put on wings or his life jacket anymore...crazy!!! (although, i am truly more at ease when he has it on!)

This weekend, after my mom gave him some pointers, he was "diving" into the pool. Many of his attempts were actually belly flops, but it was still such great effort! :)

We also celebrated Aunt Kiki's 28th birthday! Her and her boyfriend Mike were in town to celebrate! It was a great weekend of family time, pool time, and yummy steaks Josh grilled! Happy Birthday Kar - love you!

20 weeks along...20 more to go. :)

Today we had our 20 week checkup and ultrasound!

I was convinced today would be a huge revelation of weight gain bc the past month i have been so hungry and just eating so much more than in the beginning. But that is all part of it, which i have come to actually enjoy. :) thankfully tho, the scale only revealed a 5 lb increase...which i'll take for now. i know, we still have a long ways to go tho. :)

The ultrasound tech printed some pics, and i don't have a scanner, and can't post them, i am so sad! It was just so fun to see our sweet babe...he/she was all cozied up and at one point had his arms moving and was rubbing something out of his eye...ahhh!!! It was hard also bc our tech totally said he knew the sex...and ahhh, it would have been oh so easy to just find out...but alas, much to the sadness and frustration of my mom, sis and many friends, we didn't cave and find out. it was tough tho, i can't lie!!! i was tempted! Hee hee...

Jackson was carrying the pics around all afternoon, and kept showing me and laughing saying, look at his head, hee hee. (it was super sweet, not like making fun, just cute!)

I will say, it felt so much more real today...and i am smitten with my sweet unborn babe. We cannot wait to meet you!!

Thank you Heavenly Father for a healthy checkup and that all seems to be going as it should - you are GOOD and we give you all the glory for this miracle!!!

Day 2

WHY oh why does he prefer the floor?

For the 2nd day in a row, see how i found Jackson napping:

oh well, at least he is taking a nap right?? :)

Whatever works...at least he's sleeping!

So i have been grieving the fact that i think my 3 and 1/2 year old is giving up his nap. :(

I have been making him have at least an hour of quiet time in his room, bc mommy needs it too, but he just hasn''t been falling asleep. Today was an exception tho, check out what i found when i went to check on him today:

And check out his bed...no wonder he slept on the floor, his bed was just too crammed full cars, ha!
I am grateful for his nap today... and i guess we'll see what the rest of the week holds!

Josh's Bday Surprise(s)!!

Well, Josh and I are officially BOTH 30 now. :) Man, we're getting old!
Josh had not one, but 2 good surprises for his 30th bday!

The first was that his parents and sister drove in from New Orleans to surprise him and celebrate his bday last weekend. We really got him...it was fun!

It was a great lil visit with his parents and sis Aunt Beebee who we hadn't see in forever!! thank you guys for making that quick trip to Waco...it meant so much to Josh!

And then...on his actual bday, August 11th, his suprise dinner at Ninfa's with a some of our Waco friends was a success!! I was so nervous in the days leading up to this that all the details would fall into place...thankfully they did and i truly believe he didn't know a THING about it...yay!!!

How cute is Cilla?? How do i look with a baby girl?? :)

the baby picture on his cake didn't turn out right...it looked like he didn't have an arm...it was funny!

Jackson also had a ball waking up early and saying Happy Bday to daddy and helping his open some of his presents....he has been waiting for daddy's actual bday for weeks!!

We also decorated his car...we HAD to go all out, 30 is a big birthday!!! :)Josh, I am so thankful for your 30 years of life! May there be many more birthdays to share together in our future! Love you! Hope your day was the best bday yet!

BUH paci...for good FINALLY!!

AHHHH, so many of you have known that Josh and I have been struggling with the "paci" issue for a few months now.

I honestly didn't have a problem with it at all until he turned 3...then i started thinking, he's getting to be too big for this thing. BUT...we were still in such transition with our move that I thought...it's such comfort for him during all this change, i'll let it slide. And mind you...it wasn't constant...but he did want it during naptime, bedtime...and when he was just tired. Still, it was still a nuisance keeping up with it and let's be honest, it's gotta end sometime!!

Well, then we move into our house...and we've been in here for 3 months now...and he'll be 4 come December: it's time to say BUH to the paci. :)

As silly as it sounds...i asked some friends to pray over this for us bc i was totally dreading the cutoff process...bc yeah, it helped me too when he was tired ...it'd soothe him to sleep quickly.

So...after consulting multiple friend's advice, and looking at strategies online, i combined all this advice amd knowledge into a plan that would work for us. :)

Since we do have a baby on the way, that was a great segue...to tell him that we need to say bye bye to our paci bc the baby is going to need them (maybe...who knows if this next one will even take one, ha!) and he is the big brother now, and he doesn't need it any longer.

So...we talked about this for a few weeks...telling him soon he'd hafta say BUH to it, and there was some tears and you could tell he was starting to grieve it...ahhh, it was truly so hard as a parent to watch your lil one so sad and sensitive over this innocent little thing...(sigh) but such is life and growing up i suppose.

So...one morning last week...i had to ship some stuff and had to run to UPS and asked him if he was ready to ship off his paci's...he shockingly said yes. So we decorated an envelope and drove to UPS and "shipped" them off. (hee hee...the young guy that worked there thought i was a loon i am sure...but who cares!!! Off they went...freeeeeedom!!!!) Here he is...still not truly understanding what he was doing i don't think. :)
I knew it truly wouldn't hit him till later...but, so far so good. he seemed to truly get it....until naptime that day. UGH...tears tears tears...it was hard, i'm not gonna lie. But, after about 30-40 minutes...he was asleep. whew....

That happened again that night...and Josh and I learned that the paci truly soothed him to sleep...and it quieted him and settled him quickly. We were seeing that he wasn't falling asleep as quickly, and was in there singing, yelling, talking etc...shall i say, the paci shut him up??!!? He aslo clung tighter to both of his blankies, and blue bear, and zebra and giraffe, but i didn't mind that so much. But truly, each day that went by, it got easier and easier and the long loved treasured paci seemed to be forgotten. AHHHH! Have my prayers been answered? Lord, you are faithful even in these little trials of parenthood!

Part of the deal was that if he gave up the paci, he could go to one his all time favorite places, Chuck E. Cheese, and bring a friend. (thanks for that great idea Kimbo!) :)

So, he chose his buddy Izak from MDO (they have just been instant friends! too sweet!) and here they are hyped up on sugar and pizza, trying to get as many tickets as possible. How cute are they together? AHHHH, my baby is getting so big...he and his lil friend were like all on their own, running around and having their own lil conversation.

Ok, Jackson was really good at skiball!

What to choose with our tickets? Decisions Decisions!
Out of all the choices, they choose laffy taffy and air heads candy - classic!

Ben and Daddy were just as excited about their candy - HA!
*To my Jackson - i am SOOO proud of you for taking this huge step. I watched your lil brain at work as you truly rationalized this big boy decision, and what it would mean. I sat and grieved it too, and now I am convinced that you are truly ready to be a big brother....as you're growing up and becoming such a BIG BOY. I love you and am proud of your big choice son!

Thanks to those who covered this in prayer for us...i truly believe God was a part of this whole process.

Until next time...

Sal

7 years ago....

....Josh and I were married at First Baptist Church, New Orleans, on August 3rd, 2002. AHHH, i cannot believe it's been 7 years. We were contemplating all that has happened in 7 years on our lil anniversary date this weekend...we've been in 3 houses, had 2 kiddos (well almost!) and 2 pets later....here we are. :)

(Sorry for the horrible photo quality above...7 years ago my photos were NOT digital.)

It's been a heck of a ride, and i have to admit, i feel sooo very blessed to be married happily to my best friend, the leader of our home, and a fabulous father to my children. I couldn't ask for much more. Thank you Father, the Giver of ALL GOOD GIFTS!

Here are some pics of us going on our annual anniversary date...we always like to go somewhere really nice, that we wouldn't go otherwise, and just take our time, order whatever we want, and take as long as we want. Jackson said he was "part of the family too" so he had to be in the pic before we left him at grammy and dubs' house. :)

We save money in an envelope literally each month for a YEAR and go out and celebrate guilt free, and just ENJOY! Hee hee, here is a pic of me being so excited that the money for our fine dining experience was "already there!" (Thanks Dave Ramsey!!) and that cheesecake was SO yummy can you believe it? this prego was so full i couldn't even finish it...i was so bummed. :(
In other news...the longer hair requires so much more time and effort and is getting kind of old. HA! Also, some pieces are getting real loose and i am thinking it may be time to take them out. Update on that soon. :)