Mama and Papa Mike's visit

My mom and Mike came for a visit the second week of March.  The goal was to paint and get the house ready for baby--and paint we did!  We went through 9 gallons of paint and were able to paint our hall bath, our master bedroom (with it's 15 foot ceilings!), master bath and shower room, and Mark's previously Bronco-orange colored office (pics will come soon!).  We also got plugs and light switches changed out in several rooms, the crib set up, the guest room moved down to Mark's office, and we went through all of Grace's old clothes and determined what we could use for baby and what won't be usable and organized it all!  It was an exhausting week and I am so thankful to Mom, Mike, and Mark for all their hard work.  Despite all the hard work, we did manage to have some fun!

The first day that Mama and Papa Mike were here, Grace took the day off of school and we took them to the "Bounce Place."  I think Grace thinks that they are her own personal play mates.  She loved pulling them along and making them go on all the bounce things with her.

So fast that they're a blur!

 

 

Saturday was Mama's birthday.  We had breakfast at LeMars donuts--yum! And then Mama and Papa Mike to Grace to the park for some play time.

 

 

That night we headed to Old Town for a birthday dinner at Sonny Lubick's Steakhouse. 

Someone was in a silly mood so not the best pics but you can tell we had fun!

After a hard week of work, we took the day off on Thursday and kept Grace out of school.  We headed to Denver for a trip to Ikea and then drove over to check out Red Rocks.  It was the first time I had been there and it quite a spectacular sight.  I can't wait to get to go to a concert there at some point!

Puzzles with Daddy and Mama

Making pizza for Mama and Papa's last night with us.  I made corned beef and cabbage for an early St. Patty's Day celebration and these two opted for pizza :-)

 

It was a fantastic 10 days and it went WAY too fast!  Thank you for all your help, mom and Mike!  We promise that we won't work you as hard on your next visit :-)

Hanging with Grace

It's amazing how grown up our little girl seems these days.  She is becoming more and more independent, making connections that surprise us daily, and really seeming more like a little girl than a toddler.   Of course the big excitement in life right now is the upcoming arrival of her little sister.  It's frequently a topic of conversation for Grace and she continuously assures us that she will be a good big sister.  The other morning she was standing on her stool in our bathroom as I was doing her hair. Here was the conversation we had:

G: "The baby can't use these hair ties, they'll hurt her.  She can use my other ones, they're softer." 

Me: "That's nice, Grace."

G: "And I'll let her use my stool."

Me: "Well, the baby won't know how to stand up."

G: "What?!?!"

Me: "She won't even know how to roll over when she's first born."

G: "Wow!  I have a lot to teach her.  You're going to have to tell me everything I have to teach her."

She's going to be a great help!  I have a feeling she is also going to be a bit bossy.  Whenever Mark and I try to tell her she needs to do something, she looks at us and says, "Shhh, my babies are sleeping!"  Her baby crib has moved into the baby's room and she visits it frequently.

Here are a few pics of what we've been up to lately:

Grace at the eye doctor--3 year check up and everything looks great!  She loved the eye doctor!

 

 Play date with Siena.  After Cool Beans we walked over to REI to get some sunglasses and evidently Grace isn't the only one who likes to try out the bikes.

 

 

Dinner at Lulu's.  The first two weeks of March is Great Plates in Fort Collins where local restaurants have special dinners to help raise money for the food bank.  It's a great chance to try some new restaurants and that's exactly what we did.  Lulu's is a yummy Asian restaurant and the waitress was fantastic--giving Grace a helper for her chopsticks.  Normally Grace won't eat Chinese but she certainly was willing to try everything since she was using her chopsticks!

 

 

Birthday party for Addie!  Addie is one Grace's friends at school that we hear about EVERY day.  She had a birthday party last Saturday and Grace looked forward to it for two weeks--a few times during those weeks I had to "call" Addie's mom when Grace was misbehaving to say we wouldn't be attending and miraculously Grace's behavior improved immediately ;-) The party was fun but Grace was very shy, opting to stay right by my side regardless of the amount of coaxing I tried to do to get her to play with the rest of the kids, most of whom she knew from school.  I guess she still had fun though because when we left she looked at me and said, "Wow! That was a great party!"

 Party outfit

  Grace, Addie, and Ellie

As you can see, she is growing up!  We had parent teacher conferences this past week and they confirmed for us that she is right on track developmentally and although she tends to be shy around us, they don't see that side at school.  In fact it sounds like she is quite the social butterfly :-)  We are so thankful for this little ray of sunshine!

100 days

The countdown is on!  100 days until due day!  Perhaps I'm being optimistic but I'm hoping we meet her a little earlier than that. It's been really fun getting to know this little one.  She is very active.  I started feeling her movements early--around 13 weeks and it has just gotten more and more strong.  In the middle of January I started being able to feel her kick/punch on the outside of my stomach and then yesterday I was able to actually see my stomach moving as she moved around.  She's active multiple times throughout the day which is much different than her sister was--with Grace there were a few times each day that I could count on her being active.  This baby is active at least 50% of the day.  She wakes me up in the middle of the night, reminds me that she's there multiple times throughout the day, gets really active around 5 at night (right when I'm teaching my grad class) and then does more dancing when I'm trying to relax at night.  I'm hoping this isn't a sign of a child that doesn't require a lot of sleep :-)  I am so excited to see what this little one will be like--What will she look like? What will her personality be like?  How will she like our little family?  Only 100 more days to wonder...

Baby Update

Today marks 25 weeks into this pregnancy!

We had our official ultrasound 5 weeks ago and we found out that Grace is getting a sister!  She is so incredibly excited.  We took her with us and she was very concerned that the ultrasound.  "Mommy, does that hurt?" 

 Look at that sweet profile!

 Baby bump at 20 weeks

Me and my girls!

Overall, I've been feeling really good.  I haven't been able to sleep well, but I haven't been getting too tired.  I am measuring right on time but can't imagine getting bigger than I already feel.  Baby (we're not sharing her name until she is born) is very active and I feel her moving multiple times throughout the day and night.  Mark was finally able to feel her last Monday but he hasn't consistently been able to feel the kicks and jabs that I am experiencing yet.  I have started to get heartburn but it's nothing that strategically placed bottles of Tums won't cure :-)

 Baby bump at 24 weeks--ready to head to her first conference

I love experiencing all the feelings of pregnancy again.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around what it will be like to have two little girls running around but I'm so excited that Grace will have a sister and I'm excited to get to experience all the first again.  She has been really fun, talking to the baby frequently, rubbing my belly, and every time she accomplishes something by herself (for example, getting her slippers on), she says, "See, I'm a big girl!  I'm ready to be a big sister!"

15 weeks +/- before we get to meet this little lady!

Colorado Springs

This past weekend I had a conference in Colorado Springs.  I headed down to do my networking and presenting on Thursday and Friday and then after work on Friday, Mark and Grace joined me.  The conference was at Cheyenne Mountain Resort which is a beautiful facility.  Grace was so excited to stay at a hotel and we had a great time Saturday exploring Colorado Springs.  We'll definitely have to head back there this summer (after baby is born) and do some hiking.

 

 View from our balcony at sunset

 This is the mountain that NORAD is in--crazy to think that there is a military operation INSIDE the mountain!

 

 Saturday morning we headed to the main lodge for breakfast where G found this new friend

 

 We also got to go swimming.  Grace loved having some time in the water.

After we checked out of the hotel we headed to Manitou Springs which is a small town at the base of Pike's Peak.  It's a cute little touristy town.  We wandered and found a fun place for lunch.  It was a bit fancy and Grace loved it.  She had the perfect manners and ate a great lunch.

She also snagged the camera from me and got a few shots of Mark and me...

Then it was off to the US Olympic training center.  It had some cool memorabilia but we were a bit underwhelmed by the tour.  I think it might have just been a bad tour guide.

 

The next three photos are "Photography by Grace."  Some pretty cool angles and shots, if you ask me.  Unfortunately she dropped the camera and it's now at Best Buy getting fixed.  She felt bad and kept telling me, "Don't worry mommy, you can use my camera!" (she has a little Fisher Price digital which takes some nice and fuzzy photos)

 Trying to meet the world record for the long jump

After the Olympic Center we were headed back home.  Grace fell asleep before we got on the highway and didn't wake up the entire 2 hour plus drive.  I think she enjoyed our day!