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Friday, December 12, 2014

A Growing Family

We are so excited to finally announce and start to get prepared for our growing little family! We are preparing to welcome our newest little baby girl, due April 29th.

I already feel bad because I have not been taking pictures and blogging or writing down everything I feel or crave this time around, but I think baby girl #2 will understand that I was chasing around her crazy sister for the past 4 1/2 months as well as trying to grow her! Weeks 6-14 were pretty tough since I wasn't feeling well in the mornings and would be so exhausted by night time that I could barely even take care of Jordan.

I found out we were pregnant on my own even though Chris told me to wait for him. Oops! I ran to the store after work and bought Jordan a 'Big Sister' shirt and put her in it for her nap. When she woke up after Chris got home, I told him to go get her and this is how he found out:



I cannot imagine loving another person the same way as this girl, but I hear that somehow it just happens! Glad to hear too, considering I was a 3rd child! :)


Things got a little easier after about 14 weeks and I remember how much fun the second trimester was the first time. I've been feeling well and already showing about 6 weeks sooner than i did the first time. We just went in for our 20 week ultrasound and Chris and I were talking about what an overwhelming experience it is. You're sitting there watching God's little miracle growing inside you on the screen and just have this realization followed by a peace and utter joy that this is exactly what He planned for our little family all along. We are so excited to have another little girl...maybe this one will at least look like me a little bit! :)

Watching Chris' expression when we found out we were having another girl is something I hope I never forget. Not that I think it would have been any different if it had been a boy, but the pure joy, love and excitement in his eyes just reminded me of how much I love him and how much he loves these two girls already. I married someone with the softest heart for the women in his life and his daughters will be no exception. I have loved watching him be a daddy to Jordan over the past year and a half and I have no doubts about how sweet and loving he will be to this new baby girl. I tell him all the time that God has been preparing him his whole life to be the father of daughters and it's so true. His heart melts for these little girls and I am so lucky to watch this kind of love in my own house!

I also have such a special place in my heart for sisters! Don't get me wrong here, I love my dad and brother so much and they definitely keep our family balanced and sane, but I do have to give a small shout out to the girls in my family. I have seen how special a relationship between sisters and a mom can be. I can only pray that my girls will one day realize that the best friend they can have is the one God put in their life for them to be their sister. I know there will be fights and teenage drama along the way, but one day...when they're all grown up, I pray they realize what a special relationship they have right in their very own family. My relationship with my mom and big sister is something I am grateful for every day and if I'm lucky enough, maybe my girls will one day call me a best friend too! :)

I must be quite hormonal and excited about this news since I'm being a little emotional today! Bottom line is that Chris and I and our families are so excited and cannot wait to meet this new sweet baby girl. We're still working on names, so may be a bit before we settle on one. 

Jordan is so excited to be a big sister! I mean, as excited as a 17 month old can be. She doesn't understand completely but she does kiss Mommy's belly and says "BBY". I have no doubts that she will be so sweet with her baby sister. It's a little hard to believe since she still seems so little to us!


These were taken in September, so Jordan was just over 14 months old. She changes so quickly!




Thursday, December 4, 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

We had such a great Thanksgiving and got to spend some time with a lot of family! We started off the trip to College Station with a little Santa's Wonderland!

Looking like such a big girl next to sweet Parker!

Checking out the lights with Poppy and Daddy!

Hanging out with Mommy on the train!


 Sisters and our firsts! This is Jordan's new "smile"
                                 

Showing Gamma how it's done!
                                   

Trying to capture these 4 blue eyed babies on Thanksgiving!


Where's Poppy?

Seesters and our littles...and Barrett's cookie of course! 

I am so happy that Aggie Football is back on Thanksgiving Day. We all bundled up and took Jordan to her first Aggie football experience! Jordan sitting with her Poppy just like we used to sit with our Paw Paw in these same seats! Love this! :)

Selfies aren't his favorite, but he humored me!

Alli, however, LOVES a good selfie.

This girl and her hat!

I may have shoved Jordan out of this picture! Note her pink hat just outside of our sister selfie!


Why do Mommy and Aunt Alli take so many pictures and keep asking me to smile?

Playing with Aunt Alli!


Kyle may disagree, but we don't get pictures of just the 3 of us very often!

I'm totally stealing this from Alli's blog, but she made me cry so going to include it here so I'll always have it! With only 4 tickets, we don't normally all 5 make it to the football games so it was special to have all of us there in the seats my family has had since before I was born. I made fun of Alli for being so emotional, but walking to these same seats every game since I can remember is part of our little family Aggie Tradition. We even have our "spot" where we all go to get up during halftime and not watch the Aggie Band. (Yes, that makes us bad Aggies!) 

My grandpa used to sit on the seat on the aisle. Same seat every game. And when we rounded the corner to walk up the stairs to get to our seats, his face would light up. He never knew exactly who was coming to the game each week, but he loved spending time with us there. My grandpa has been gone for a while now, but the memory of him and those seats will always be there.

Very few of the memories here have anything to do with actual football. Clearly. Just family memories. Now Kyle Field is going through a (much needed) renovation. Next year our seats are going to be gone. Next year our seats are going to be new, and exciting, and the place where our kids will make memories going to games with their grandparents. But this is the last time that I will sit in these exact seats. And I love that all 5 of were there for the last game of the season. So we may have gotten a little picture happy.


Ok - Isn't this blog supposed to be about Jordan! Back to this girl:


Nani, Aunt Lissa, Terry, Maddie and KK came to visit us at home on Friday to spend some of the weekend and go to Daddy's game with us. We had fun at the park and went to visit the giant Christmas Tree at Market Street taking some pictures along the way!


I was trying to tickle her to get her to smile for the group picture, but this is what we got instead. Oh, how I love this girl!

Playing with Mommy during Daddy's game! And hiding a mexican food stained shirt with Nani's scarf! She didn't want us to take it off. 


 I didn't have the car mirror up on the way home since Jordan was watching a movie. So at stop lights I would put my camera on to face forward and point it back there to see how she was doing....this is the face I captured! She clearly, was doing great!


Happy Thanksgiving, my little turkey. Your daddy and I are so thankful for the beautiful, sweet, and smart girl with a big personality God has given us. Your giggles, big toothy smiles, hugs and kisses make us thankful every day to be your parents. 

Busy Girl!

Jordan has been super busy learning new things every single day and making us laugh so hard with every new little game she finds to play. One of her current favorites is playing with Mommy's hair and pulling it each direction to find my face. Then she just laughs and laughs...somehow it's funny every time.


She loves to read her books...ALL the time. I love that she will grab a book, hand it to you and crawl in your lap for you to read it. Then she gets up and gets a new one and starts all over again. Sometimes the only way we can get her diaper changed is to give her a book!

We took our first trip to the Children's Museum and this girl loved every second of it. She played so hard! The giant light up peg board was probably her favorite, she loves to pack and unpack anything, so could pack up all the lights into the cubbies next to it and then unpack and put them right back again.


She also liked pushing the cart and shopping like mommy!


Little stinker kept taking her shirt off in the middle of the street, and it was cold! 


Helping Daddy rake up all the leaves!



Went to Daddy's work to shoot some hoops and work on her game. 

Her perfect triple threat position made for one proud coach/dad!

So, this one time, Gamma went to the mall and bought Jordan a hat because Mommy just happened to be on the phone with her when she was there and realized maybe she could use a hat for the cold weather. Little did we know it would be her new favorite possession. This girl LOVES her hat and doesn't like us to take it off of her. Not to mention that Jordan has started to work on her smile. The picture in the black an white is the face she makes right when we tell her to smile! Oh my! She's gotten unusually good at selfies too...Oh, how I love this little personality! 


"Jordan, smile!" (HA, I can't get enough!)

Visiting cousins in Fort Worth! She LOVES Barrett, it's so fun to watch them play!

     

She won't really keep bows on her head anymore, so I had to snap this one real quick while she wasn't looking. Just thought she looked cute :)



Eating always seems to be an adventure. The second face is the "FREEZE" face! 

    

This girl is fearless and wants to climb on everything, so naturally, we signed her up for gymnastics!






Our friends Luke, Wyatt, Mattie and Levi came to visit. Have you ever tried to take a picture of 5 kids 3 and under? This is the all we got!


So in love with this face!


Every month there is a new first. Never thought this girl would pass up on a meal, but definitely fell asleep eating lunch.


Putting on make up, just like Mommy

Always better when Daddy gets home for a story!

And of course, we started decorating for and celebrating Christmas! I cannot wait to share this Christmas season with this girl. She is still too young to understand much, but watching her face light up with Christmas lights or pointing out Santa is already so much fun! I love the way she says "Ho Ho Ho". Gotta start them early!
              


Things we don't want to forget:
- Her hugs and how she wants to pull both Mommy and Daddy in for a group hug
- Her love of books
- Her signing "help", "more", "hat", "please", "thank you"
- We could probably forget that she's getting her molars and they hurt her
- Points to herself when she says "ma ma" or "da da" because we point to ourselves. Makes sense!
- How she's starting to follow directions like shutting the door or put your toys away
- How she puckers her lips now when she gives kisses
- She loves helping with the laundry and holding as many things as she can hold

More pictures we love: