He's an Old Man Now!

Jim officially turned 30 on Saturday. He was funny about the whole thing. He has been dreading turning 30 for a while now, since he said he apparently feels like an "old man", so we decided to make his birthday fun! We started the day off by going to get donuts with Anna Lee. I guess it was more a treat for Anna Lee than Jim. While we were at the donut shop, Great American Cookie Company called me to check about the cookie cake I had ordered. Jim got a suspicious look in his eye and started questioning me after I came back from taking the call outside. I just pulled the pregnancy card. "Jim, seriously? I am two weeks away from having a baby! I barely make dinner anymore (which is true). Do you really think I would throw a party for you today?" That did it. He was convinced there was nothing going on. (I guess it says something about how much I make dinner...) That morning, Anna Lee and I gave Jim his presents.Jim got some "boring" stuff as well as a framed handprint picture from Anna Lee with pictures of the two of them in it. But my favorite gift by far was the picture frame I made for J.D.'s room. I found this picture of Jim's Granddaddy in his bedside table and secretly had a copy made. I thought this scripture, Psalm 100:5 "For the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations." was perfect. We will obviously put a picture of little J.D. (in just a few weeks!) in the open space. The frame is already hanging in J.D.'s room. It made me even more excited to name him J.D. He is being named after a wonderful man.
So...our friends Michael and Abbe were the best! After a lot of plotting, Michael called Jim at 11:30 and told him that he was at work and his car wouldn't start. Abbe was at home with a sick baby (which was actually true---that helped sell the story), so she couldn't come and pick him up. He asked if Jim would run and pick him up and take him home. Michael was so great for driving all the way to work on a Saturday...just for Jim to come and take him back home! Jim totally bought the story. He told me everything that was going on and high-tailed it out. As soon as he left, our house became the party zone. My parents, Jim's parents, and my sister Kasey had all picked up the food that morning and were waiting around the corner. We had about 30 people show up in a matter of minutes. It was great! Here is a picture of some of us waiting in the kitchen.

When Jim got home, he sat in his car waiting for Anna Lee and me to come out to take him to lunch. He actually honked and waited. He had no idea. But after a little coaxing to come in, he was completely surprised. It was so much fun!

Anna Lee didn't quite know what to think about everyone yelling "Surprise!" at her daddy.

A chocolatey "Cheese!"

So after a lot of food, friends, and fun, Jim had a much more eventful birthday than he had planned, and we got to go out on a nice date that evening (one of the last for a while!) because of babysitters who were in town.

Jim, I am thankful for you more than words can express. You are such an amazing husband and father. I am thankful that we are growing "old" together, and I look forward to what the next 30 years have in store! I hope you had a fun 30th birthday!

Before and Afters

We finally have the kids' (that is still strange to say) rooms finished. I thought I would post some before and after pictures. We moved Anna Lee to a new "big girl room" and kept the baby furniture in the nursery. It was easier to move Anna Lee than all of that furniture!

Here are some "Before" pictures of the guest room....

And After... Anna Lee's new "Big Girl Room"

I think this is Anna Lee's favorite part of the whole room...her princess stickers on the back of her door. Kasey, it was a perfect present!

Here are "Before" pictures of the nursery, when it was still Anna Lee's room.....

And "After".... J.D.'s New Room. One of our close friends has a sister who does nursery art. She came and did the frames on the walls. I love them! It was such a strange mix of sadness and excitement when the walls went from pink to khaki. It was hard to believe that Anna Lee was no longer a baby in that room...but even harder to believe that we were soon going to have a new little boy living there! I am so excited and ready!

These Days are Fun

Well, I thought I would post some random pictures of Anna Lee I have from the past month or so. We have been having such a fun time with her! She is a fun, happy, very talkative little thing...and moments are never dull with her around!

The other day Anna Lee and I were about to run to the store and I told her to come get in the car. She said, "Wait just a minute, Mommy! I be right back!" She ran to her room and came back with this get-up. Couldn't leave without her necklace, bracelet, ring, purse, and sunglasses! How did she get so girly???Anna Lee loves having 4 cousins. She has so much fun each time she gets to be with them. She and her cousin, Kasen, seem to have the most fun together at this point. We will see how it changes over the years...especially as she learns that Brynlee knows more about princesses! Kasen turned 3 a couple of weeks ago, and we went to his Build a Bear party. Anna Lee had fun at the party, but had much more fun with Kasen. The two of them were hilarious. They were hugging, holding hands, and chasing each other around. I am so thankful for the little friendship they already share.

Last week, a couple of my close friends went with our church group to see Disney on Ice. It was fun to go together. You can't tell from this picture, but we think our kids actually had a great time.

Anna Lee spent a good bit of the show like this....covering her eyes. I didn't blame her, though. There were some really scary parts- including a 3 story high Ursula from The Little Mermaid. We had to talk about her a lot when we got home. Several times during the show, Anna Lee said, "Mommy, I want to go back to the car!"

Scary, huh?

Overall, the fact that she got to see Tinkerbell and Ariel fixed all the fears.

Anna Lee is 100% pure and simply obsessed with all things Disney Princess. I mean, really. Anyone she talks to gets a full description of the princesses and questions about which ones they like. She came in the other day and begged to get to wear her princess dress. I had no objection...especially since her plan was to wear it to clean the house! Apparently she was going for a Cinderella look that day.

My mom has been busy at home working on cleaning out closets lately. I am very impressed. She found this old pair of shoes of mine and brought them to Anna Lee. Anna Lee loved them! For some reason, it really got me tickled to see her wear them. Maybe it was their out-of-date style, maybe it was the fact that I used to actually wear them, or maybe it was the Christmas candy pajamas (and necklace of course!) to complete the outfit. Whatever it was, it made me laugh!

Anna Lee is quite the busy body. She is hard to keep up with! Jim has to bring work home every now and then. A few weekends ago, Jim was in the dining room working on a document and Anna Lee decided she needed to join him. She went into her room, got her Elmo computer, set it up on the table, and started working next to Jim, like she had a legal issue that was very important she needed to solve. It was very cute.

That is all the pictures I have for now. I will be posting nursery pictures soon! The count-down has officially begun...J.D. will be here in less than a month! Anna Lee has been talking about him like she fully understands. Oh how much she has to learn! She says he is not here...yet. And that when he gets here, she is going to "help." She imitates how he will cry, and says she will give him his paci. It will be so fun...and such an adventure...to see how she adjusts to the big upcoming change in our family. We were talking about it in the car the other night and I was telling her how she was the most wonderful girl in the world, and how Mommy and Daddy love her so much. I told her how we will still think she is the best girl in the world and love her so much when J.D. is here. It was one of those sweet moments you hope your child will respond to and maybe even remember. Her response was priceless: She looked at me and thoughtfully said, "Can I listen to Pocahontas now?"

A Sweet Shower for J.D.

My mom and sisters threw a little shower for us last weekend. It was so sweet. Kasey had it at her loft (which is super fun and trendy), and it was so special to me. We had just a few girls there who are some of my closest friends, and I felt very "showered" with love, gifts, friendship, and blessings. It was so fun to open little boy things and to think about having a little boy (in less than 5 weeks!) who will use them!

Kasey, Kara, and my mom worked so hard on preparing everything for the shower. It was perfect! My mom even made this precious diaper cake.

It was so fun to have Jim's mom there too!

Here are a few of the girls who came. For some reason, we didn't end up getting a picture of everyone. They are all so special to me. I was honored by each and every friend who came.

One of my favorite gifts was from my mom (please ignore my fat face in this picture!). When I was opening it, she told me that it was a "used gift." That seemed confusing to me, since there are no boys in our family who could have originally used something. I opened this precious pair of jeans....and she told me they were my dad's when he was little! They have a leather tag on the bag that has "Bubba" etched in it.
I am not usually very sentimental, but what a special gift!

Kasey probably worked the hardest on her gift for J.D. It was this amazing afghan...that she crocheted! My grandmother tried to teach both of us to crochet...and Kasey was the only one who ended up learning how. I didn't ever catch on. There is no telling how many hours she spent on this beautiful blanket. Thank you, Aunt Kasey! I love it...and I know J.D. will too!

What an honor to have such special family and friends.

I am so thankful J.D. will be loved by all of these special people!

Amazing

On Tuesday, we had a 3D sonogram done. I was looking forward to the sonogram, because we hadn't had one in almost 4 months, but I didn't know what to expect with the 3D kind. It was amazing. We could actually see J.D.'s little face. Being the wonderful mother that I am, I have already lost the CD that has the pictures on it...so I had to take digital pictures of the printed pictures to be able to put them on the computer. (What mother loses the first pictures of her child?!?) So if these are a little extra blurry, that is why. We were amazed at how much J.D. looks like Anna Lee. I guess you expect siblings to look alike, but it was incredible to be able to see it in a sonogram picture. Having this sonogram made me even more ready for him to be here so we can see him in person!

Look at the picture above and then look at this next picture that was taken of Anna Lee as she was leaving the hospital. Anyone else see a resemblance?

We are so excited that we will get to meet our new little guy

April 23rd at 8:30 am!

There's Nothing Quite Like Good Friends

We had the most wonderful weekend last weekend. Some of our best friends, Paul and Ericka, came with their two kiddos to visit us. We had been planning on going to see them a few months back, but because of some random medical issues with this pregnancy, I wasn't able to travel. We were so bummed...but Paul and Ericka saved the day and came to see us instead! We had so much fun with them! They are the kind of friends you pray for and with, and hope that your kids have friends like them someday too. It was so fun and easy to be together, and the time flew by way too fast. It was fun to watch our kids play together, and even more fun to get to meet their new sweet baby girl, Blake.

Each year, we send each other Christmas presents. This year, we decided to wait and give our presents to each other in person. The kids had a blast! It was fun to have a random Christmas celebration in March. After all the presents were opened, they had even more fun popping all of the air out of the bubble wrap with their dancing feet.

Riley and Anna Lee became fast friends. Even with their two year difference in age, they played together really well. Anna Lee was of course a little too bossy for my taste, but Riley handled it really well. They played and played all weekend, and by the end of our time together, Anna Lee's room was a true disaster zone. I really had never seen anything like it. We decided we needed some pictures of the destruction. The two of them had worked diligently at getting every toy out of every drawer, cabinet, closet, and shelf to play with. It was great!

On Saturday, we decided we would all take a fun trip to the zoo. Too bad it was freezing outside! Ericka and I were determined to make the trip, while the guys kept saying it would be too cold for all of us. We being the strong-willed women that we are, decided they were wrong and we would all be fine. As we were all freezing our tails off at the zoo, Ericka and I worked really hard to act like we were warm...we just weren't ready to admit they were right! By the end, though, the boys' wisdom had won out. We didn't see many animals because they were all inside due to the cold weather. Apparently they were smarter than us.

What a great weekend! Paul, Ericka, Riley, and Blake, you are welcome to Dallas anytime! We love you and loved having you here!