Everything about this day was perfect!!

Tuesday, August 31

We woke up, extremely excited to know that this would be the day that we would share our gender-reveal with all of our family and close friends.  The day could not have been more perfect....more magical.  It was amazing.  We got up early, and headed for our OB appt, which was followed by the ultrasound.  We told the ultrasound tech that we did not want her tell us the baby's sex, but instead write it in a sealed envelope.  We took the envelope straight over to our friend Katie, who made our precious cake!

We had all of our family and some close friends over to celebrate the big news with us.  After tons of snacks, and kids playing on the jungle-gym...it was time.  I can't begin to describe the love, excitement, and nervousness that overcame me at this moment.  It was amazing.

It's a BOY!!!  We could not have been happier!

How gorgeous is this shot??

Proud Mommy and Daddy!  So excited to bring in some blue!

And let me just say one more time how very special this night was to me.  Everything about it was perfect!  Thank you to all of you that shared in our special occasion.  We are so blessed!

Dream on

So, my last post said that I thought it would be a couple of months before Rich started his next "project".  I was wrong.  It only took ten days.  I came home from work to be confronted with this diagram, that he had spent who knows how long drawing.  This, my friends, is a schematic of the back-yard.  I wish that you could see just how much detail he put into this drawing....and how much dreaming.  Look closely.  We've got it all folks.  Two decks, a hot-tub, a Koi-pond and river, a waterfall, a bridge, a trampoline, a sitting-bench, a stone-path...the list just goes on and on.  I have also been made aware that we need a "focal-point" for the back-yard.  Of course we do.

I love my husband for his vision and excitement for yardwork.    But this went a little far.

It is finished, and it is good.

The pergola is finished!  I would not believe it if I didn't get to stare at it all day!  We have been talking about this for more than a year now and now that it's done, I keep asking myself why we waited so long to get it started.  I love it!  I don't want to get super-sappy, but I am so proud of my husband for doing this.  He designed and built the entire thing by himself.  He spent 8-10 hours per day in 100 degree weather, and loved every minute of it.  I will never again question his creative-capabilities.

So, here are the step-by-step pictures...

He even worked in the dark...

Don't mind the chalk all over the side!  Hopefully we will get a little rain soon.  This is pretty much the finished project.  The only thing he has left to do is wrap the footings.  Isn't it awesome?!?!

I'm pretty sure that he is addicted now to building projects.  He is walking around with his head hung low, he's lost his appetite, and I might have heard a little whimper coming from his side of the bed last night.....almost like he has lost his best friend.  I give it two months before he has come up with a new building project. :)

What we've been up to.

Well, since the last time I posted, we found out that we are expecting baby number two!!  This pregnancy has been so much different than my first.  I have been WAY more tired, and WAY more hungry this time around.  I am almost through the first trimester, and am praying that I get a little energy back in a couple of weeks. 

We had our first ultrasound today.  This is our baby at 12 wks.  Heart-rate 168.

We went on vacation to Myrtle Beach last month with some very dear friends, Jared and Casey Cox.  We have been talking about vacationing for more than 10 years, and finally got around to doing it!

Enjoying the Beach

Sandcastles with Dad

Addi and Christian

We have also made about a million trips to the zoo.  Addi gets so excited the second we pull into the parking lot.  She has decided that giraffes and monkeys are her favorite animals.  (Why does there have to be a five-mile walk to get around to see the giraffes anyway)

This guy was pretty entertaining.  Right about this time, he started relieving himself.  Totally made the day of about 10 little school-boys standing next to us.

Whoa.  That is some crazy hair.  Does everyone know about Will Rogers Park??  How is it that I have lived here my whole life and have never been to these gardens??  Absolutely gorgeous.  If you have a good camera, you might just never leave.  Seriously made me rethink my choice of profession.

Feeding ducks with cousin Payten

Masterpiece in the making.  Poor thing....she is going to be devestated when her playroom is transitioned to the new nursery.  Wah.

She does paint a pretty picture though.

Addi at her friend's birthday party

Loving her Gampa's homemade chicken noodle soup.  This girl is so happy.

And this is what Richard has been up to.  Building a pergola!  You would think that he would have waited until it got a little cooler outside, but I'm not about to stop him.  Please don't anyone tell him that it isn't normal to drink four quarts of gatorade and not pee.  Okay, that maybe crossed the appropriate-line.  I apologize...or maybe I don't.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a fun summer!!! 

Yard work and veggies!!!

This year, Rich promised me that he would build me a raised vegetable garden.  Some of my best memories growing up were the times I spent with my grandparents, harvesting vegetables ALL summer long.  There's something about being able to go produce-shopping, right in your backyard!

So, here was the finished product.  I wish that I had taken pictures during the building process...but I didn't, so just get over it.  This picture was taken in March.

This picture was taken this afternoon.  We are growing broccoli, yellow bell-peppers, jalepenos, and several types of tomatoes.

Well hello there...

Holy Broccoli!!  These guys are HUGE!

Sorry guys, you're headed to the steamer.  You will be eaten very shortly.

Can anyone guess what this is????

Summer-time makes me SO happy.  Scratch that...sunshine and flowers make me SO happy! 

I have gone crazy this year with the Knock-out Roses. 

We have these planted all over the yard.

Mmmm...Gerber Daisies.  My favorite.

But these are a close second!

"Sit down Gi-mo, and let me read you a story!"

Addi has become extremely bossy these days when it comes to wanting to "read" other people stories.  Poor Gizmo (Gi-mo in Addi-language) takes one for the team pretty frequently.

Here he is waiting patiently.  Apparently he wasn't close enough for her satisfaction...

"Come sit right here Gi-mo."

The story is riveting...I can assure you.

"Look, look, look Gi-mo!!"

Dude...I'm outta here!

I love this girl!!!

Why I love my husband??

He took this...

And turned it into this...

Now if only we could get the girl to come inside!

Wish you were here...

These are my two entries for Mandy's photo-contest this week. The theme is "Wish you were here".

This first picture was taken in Anchorage. We had just come in to port from an amazing cruise up the inside passage.

This picture was at sunset on the beach in Maui. By far, the most amazing vacation I have ever taken!! Can't wait to go back.

Ice storm...Sleep-over-style!

I have lived in Oklahoma my entire life, and never have I seen a winter quite like this one. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the winter-weather. I HATE to be cold. However, if it is going to insist on being 5 degrees outside, I would prefer it to at least be beautiful and white. Anyway, last month was my friend Mandy's birthday. She was totally bummed because her entire family was supposed to come in to town for a birthday celebration. Of course, Mother Nature seems to hate Mandy's birthday :) so much of her family were unable to make it that weekend.Rich and I both had the day off, so we decided to head over to Matt and Mandy's house to take her a birthday lunch, and play Scategories. For six hours, we played, ate, laughed, and continued to watch the sky fall! It was definitely becoming evident that the snow was NOT stoping anytime soon, so we decided that we should try to make it home and suggested that we move the party to our house. Before we knew it, we had a big Adult-sleep-over planned. I usually am not a very spontaneous person, but this was SO MUCH fun! Everyone got packed and ready to go, and we all headed back to our house.

I wish that I had taken more pictures from that night, but we laughed ALOT, and played Wii until 1am. All the babies went down great. Addi was so excited to have Viv and Vi in the next room! We all got up early the next morning (I say all...not Matt. He got up around noon or so. JK), and i made huevos ran cheros and muffins. We kept sending Viv in to the guest bed to drag Matt out of bed. It was pretty cute. Anyway, once he was finally up and around, he and Rich had the most brilliant idea. "Let's take off our shoes and socks and see if we can run all the way around the back yard". Let me remind you that there was 1 inch of ice and 6 inches of snow on the ground. Pretty ambitious, not very realistic. It was pretty amusing to watch.

Started out pretty cocky. You know, kind of strutting...


Quickly turned in to a run, and a bit of a whimper.

And then a full-out sprint.

Because they failed miserably in proving their masculinity in the snow, they resorted to physical contact. Pretty sure Matt won that one.

Viv and Addi had a blast dancing.

And then headed for bath-time.

Viv being such a good-helper.

After all the precipation finally ended, this is what we were left with.

Pretty, right??

Sat night, we finally were able to go out to celebrate miss Mandy's birthday. We went to Sumo which was YUMMY! Here is the delicious cake that we got for the birthday girl.

Addi very intent on watching the chef.

Matt and Mandy being silly, and trying to sneak in on my picture.

Aidan, Vivian and Addi...dancing and showing off for everyone.

The Birthday-girl hat.

The birthday-girl with her birthday-cake. It was AWESOME. We even had several random people come up to ask us about Katie's cakes. One guy even asked for a bite.

Anyway, that weekend was so much fun and spontaneous. I wish that I did things like this more often, and would encourage all of you to do the same. Hope you guys all had a wonderful February. I have so much more to blog about, but will have to save it for another time.