Busy, Busy, Busy

Okay, it's well past due for a family update—a lot has happened over the past several months in our family. I know we've seen or talked to most of you, but I'll still try and give a big update. I'm pretty sure everyone knows we're having a baby girl and we're naming her Abbigaile and I'm due on the 26^th of this month. However, unless she comes sooner on her own (which you never know) I'll be induced, yet again, next Wednesday on the 18^th. Personally, I'm itching to have this little girl . . . literally. I have Cholestasis, just like I did with Jack, and so I'm super itchy; my new doctor has been monitoring me closely each week with blood tests and we've decided to induce at 39 weeks. Although there's no guarantee that I won't go into labor before then, It's just nice to know that we have a concrete date that we'll have her by so we can finish preparing and getting things lined up for our little Jack-man.

Jack's doing well, but we think he knows the arrival of his little sister is fast-approaching; he seems to want us to hold him a lot more and wants us to give him more attention, too. Jack's still very into cars and trucks of every kind, the Cars movie, and trains. Jack currently has an interest in letters, shapes, and colors; although he doesn't always get them all right (he just turned 2) he likes to point things out to us wherever we go. I think his all-time favorite food right now is cereal of any kind, but he also really likes scrambled eggs. One big thing that has happened for Jack within the past couple of weeks is that Jack no longer uses the binky! He was only using it for when he slept, but we figured it was time for him to give it up; we tried to wean him by snipping a little off the tip at a time so he'd gradually get used to not having one at all, but that didn't work for him. He would just cry for a new binky and say the other "breaked," so we finally just took it away completely and dealt with crying for a couple of nights. Jack now has a "Twilight Turtle" that he turns on before he goes to sleep. The turtle shines stars, in a color of his choosing, onto his ceiling at night and that seems to have made the transition a bit easier for him. Jack's still very active and never seems to stop running and jumping on things—he's definitely a boy! Jack has become much more verbal and we're able to understand more of what he's saying to us, finally, so it's all pretty exciting. However, it makes things a bit more difficult at times because now he really knows what he wants! We love him to death, but there are some days when he's so defiant that I'll think, "What happened to my sweet little boy?" I know this will pass and is just part of the age—I'm very grateful for that. Oh, he's actually a very polite little boy—he thanks us for everything. He'll thank up for bringing him food, changing his diaper (the next thing to go), wiping his nose, reading a story, brushing his teeth, etc. it's actually quite cute and very nice to be thanked for everything.

I'm still coaching cheer, although not for much longer as Abbigaile will be arriving very shortly. We just had our first competition and took first place! The girls did very well and had a lot of fun performing. I don't know how much had really changed with me over this period of time. I'm pregnant, so I've obviously gotten bigger and a lot more tired than I was; it's hard right now because I can't run after Jack—my body just won't let me and it seems that he's gotten a lot quicker. I feel prepared for the arrival of our little girl in most aspects, but at the same time I don't. I love that I'm a bit more prepared for what happens after we all come home, but it's a whole new ballgame because now we'll have two little ones at home; that means no more long naps for me when the baby sleeps (bummer!). I just hope she's as good of a baby as Jack was because it'll definitely make the transition easier. I'm still trying to get the house more in order before she arrives, although if everything doesn't get done it'll always be there afterward. I'm getting into freezer cooking and have our freezer pretty well stocked for the next little while, although I need to take some inventory of all that we have in there (maybe I'll try to do that tonight). I've made a lot of new recipes and am still looking for more for the future. I figure if I can take just a couple of days to do a whole lot of cooking to make my life easier in the future. I may need to pay a sitter, or hire my sister, to come over and tend to the kids while I cook it'll save me a ton of time and money in the future as we'll be a little less tempted to go out and get fast-food. As of right now I have sloppy joes, chicken chimichangas, a lasagna, little mini beef pies, meat sauce (to be morphed into 3 different meals), pre-cooked ground beef (for another 3 meals), 3 chicken casseroles, and stuffed bell peppers all ready to go in our freezer. There may be more, but I can't think of anything at the moment. I can post the recipes later for those of you who want them, or I can email them to you too. I'm a little less stressed knowing that there's plenty of food in the freezer so my family won't starve ;-) I want to make some more food, but I think I need to do a bit of rearranging (or we need to eat some food) before that can happen. If any of you have any great make/freeze ahead meals please let me know.

As for Justin, he's started his last semester of school and we're so excited! He is taking about 4 classes and participating in the Business College's senior experience program. Because of this program, he and a group of other students get to act as a consulting firm for a local company. He's working so hard right now, not that he doesn't always, to make sure he has all of his school things in order before the baby arrives so he'll be available to help me with whatever is needed; I'm so grateful for that. Justin is still working at the Grand Tradition and, even though we've moved, Jack and I try to take Justin lunch once a week so we can see him during the day. Justin works so hard to support our family and make sure all of our needs are met (even before his own) . . . he amazes me and I love him so much! Oh, he's also applied for a volunteer position at the local fire station doing administrative work and he has an interview next week, so that may be one more thing he'll be doing.

As I'm pretty sure all of you know, we had the opportunity to purchase a home of our own at the end of October! It's was definitely an adventure, especially in the beginning when we were trying to get the other tenants to move out and then prepare and clean everything so we could move in. We are definitely blessed to have had so much help in getting our house ready. There is still plenty to be done, but the house has come a long way from where it was when we bought it. I'll see what I can post picture-wise of our home, but I may not get it all done today so check back again when I have a chance.

Oh, my computer crashed in December so if I didn't send you an email about the new blog please don't be offended. Also, you may want to email me with your updated mailing address, email address, phone numbers, etc . (and anyone else I may be missing) so I can update everything in my online email address book. Thanks for all you help.

We love you all and will definitely be posting a new entry this week after we get home with our little Abbigaile. If you want an update on everything with her, before we get to post a blog, and we haven't called you, feel free to give us a call on our home or cell lines. Oh, please forgive my grammar as I'm a bit scatter-brained at the moment (I actually started this post on Wednesday and finished it today). Again, we love you all and will try our best to keep everyone updated.