Home at Last

Our family was recently called to visit and eventually become members at Jersey Village Baptist Church. While at first we didn't quite understand the direction and plan He had for us, we were obedient and kept our hearts and minds open. Everything He had planned was perfect! We have reached an all-time high in our spiritual lives both individually and as a family. God is so awesome and I'll forever praise him for his beautiful work in my life. We are home at last and flourishing in the love and new friends that we have made. Thank you, Lord! I pray that I am able to share this graciously with those that I love.

The girls are growing up so quickly. Charlotte is 5 months old and has sucessfully made it into the clothing that Harper wore when she was 12 months. She is so chubby and loveable; you just want to squeeze her. Her giggles and smiles light up my world all day long. Harper is such a smart little girl and always testing her boundaries. I am working hard to not have the word "no" come out of my mouth every few minutes of her life but wow, that is a challenge. Please pray for patience throughout our journey in year number 2. Potty training has been going wonderful but boy can we can breeze through underwear like no other. Almost there!

Sweet girl and her ponies

Pretty Blue Eyes

Sweet Cousins

She Gets Some Wild Hairdos

A LOT has occurred since my last post. Our sweet baby girl, Charlotte Louise Nail was born on Wednesday, May 24th. Charlotte because it's a name we love and Louise after my awesome mama.

Although I had a scheduled c-section for that same week, she decided to make her debut a bit early. Almost on Pawpaw's birthday! On the morning of the day I went into labor, Mom and I were at Harper's school for splash day. I kept having contractions but nothing out of the norm. I didn't think anything of it. We decided to meet Grandma Lou for lunch and it was there that mom said, "I think you need to call your doctor". I started to time my contractions... 30 mins became 10 which became 8 mins and then I came to the quick realization that this may be it! Of course, I denied it stating "I'm not in active labor" "these are just Braxton Hicks, nothing to worry about", "I can't be in labor -- my doctor is out of town - eek!". I made the call and sure enough given my surgery history and symptoms the on-call doctor scheduled a c-section in just 2 short hours. What? I didn't have my bags packed, I was sweaty and gross form being outside all day with Harper.... Not what I had planned for on my delivery day! I called Grant and said it was time. We zipped home to grab my things and off we went to Women's Hospital. I was bummed that my doctor wasn't in town but no time to worry about that. By the time we arrived my contractions were 4 minutes apart and I had a lot of pressure. She was coming whether I was ready or not. At 4:35 pm Charlotte Louise was born. Another sweet girl!

All along everyone had told me that the baby was a boy. My pregnancies couldn't have been any more opposite so I can see why but for some reason I always told Grant that we were having a girl. In fact, I told him the next one would be a girl as well! We shall see!

We brought Charlotte home on May 27th and couldn't have been any happier!

Moving Along

I have been TERRIBLE about updating the blog. Where does my time go?? I'm sure having a 16 month old, or being pregnant or working full-time has nothing to do with it! Amongst all of the chaos, I love my life and wouldn't trade it for the world. Some things will just lag behind a little bit :)

Grant and I took the plunge and moved -- again! We doubled our square footage, are closer to my mom and Harper’s MDO and both of our offices are right down the street so it has been a nice and easy transition. We aren’t quite settled but getting there.

Harper is changing every day. At her last check-up the pediatrician told me that she has the vocab of a two year old so we must be doing something right! He was impressed and so were we. We knew she was a little more advance than children her age just from observation in the church nursery or at school but it made us proud to hear it from our pedi. If you say something to her, she repeats it to her best ability. Things like the word school are “scoo” and sitcker is “sicker” but all-in-all she seems to be a pretty bright kid. She had her first visit to the dentist a month ago and received a good report. No more bottles, not a big juice drinker and we are okay with our paci timeline. The dentist agreed that it would be a challenge to wean from the paci with a new baby on the way. How could you explain to a 16 month old that the baby can have one but she can’t? I would feel bad but then again…. the parents are probably more heartbroken from the weaning than the child. I will be the first to admit that I am not ready!

Harper doesn’t quite grasp the idea of having a new baby around. She will point to my belly and say “baby” but I know that this is no indication to her of what really is to come. I think she will be a great helper as she does a pretty good job with her baby dolls. Sure she can be a bruiser at times and the words “gentle” and “easy” will be used 100 times a day but I think she will really enjoy it. We have started to introduce the potty and so far she has done a great job. She pretty much uses it every day and we praise our little souls out to her. I am not yet ready to take on the every 30 minute thing but I’m sure that will come soon enough.

My pregnancy has flown by and it has been so easy. Now, being pregnant with a toddler has not been the easiest task but we’re here and we’re doing it so…. there you go. I can’t imagine not having Grant around. He helps me out so much and I couldn’t do it without him. Having a supportive and understanding husband is such a blessing. There isn’t a task that “isn’t his job” etc. He is a man that wears many hats and I would bet not very many women can say that.

We were able to see our sweet baby yesterday on ultrasound and yes, the sex still remains a surprise. It really hasn’t been that challenging to not know the sex of the baby but I will say for the planning portion it has really put me behind. We really haven’t done much for this little one. I did go out and buy a few blue things just in case but that is about it. I plan to do the nursery after the baby gets here while I’m on my 12 week leave – woo hoo! We are schedule to deliver in 6 short weeks and can’t wait!

A day at the Beach


Hanging out at Mimi and Pawpaws


Baby Nail

Miss Chatter

Harper is changing so much lately. She has always been a chatter box and pretty outgoing but now she is starting to make sense and it is awesome! Some words that she says:

pease - please (although she thinks she can have whatever it is just because she says please- Grant and I can't resist!)
mommy or mom at times
hey!
hi
bye bye
Babu - blueberries - her absolute favorite food
Baby - this has been going on for a while. Everything used to be a baby.
Boy
Mo - more
bi - Bite

She goes to school now at JVBC a couple days a week and loves it, I'm sure. It is a great way to get her socialized after being at home with a nanny for the first year. Although that was great while it lasted it is nice to get her in with other children her age and allow her to learn and absorb it all in. Although sharing is not really on a 14 month old's agenda, she does a pretty good job at it. Harper has such a kind spirit and heart that she generally will just give what she has to the other kids. One exception is her cousin Walker, now those two can go at it. They fight for Gigi's attention, snatch toys from one another... you name it. They are just like siblings!

As for the pregnancy, we are smooth sailing. I start my progesterone shots this week and will continue those until 37 weeks. I feel wonderful and have zero complaints! Can't wait to meet this sweet little baby in 4 months.

Catching Up

Three months have flown by. Blogging is last on my agenda as you probably have noticed but I had a few minutes and thought I would write a little to our friends and family.

Harper celebrated her first birthday and we had the perfect day and weather for her party. She had LOTS of guests and more presents than you can imagine. Her favorites lately have been her baby dolls. She will carry them around saying “awwww” while she pats them on the back – it is so sweet to watch. We are also using these sweet baby dolls to teach her about her new baby brother or sister that will arrive in May. She hasn’t quite grasped the concept but she sure knows the word baby! Everything has become baby, Santa is baby, any kid is a baby…. You name it…. It’s a baby. She has a few others that she says like “bi” for fish, she knows woof woof, moo, baaa, she will also mock us when we say “I love you” one word at a time. So stinkin cute~ Before we know it she will be speaking in full sentences.

Thanksgiving came and went and can you believe that Christmas is next week?!? We surely cannot. Most of our shopping is done so that is good!

My second pregnancy has been an absolute breeze. I was tired at the beginning but have had no sickness, no food aversions…. Basically I feel awesome!! What a difference from my 18 weeks of sickness with Harper. Although I have not had inkling on what the gender might be Grant and I are leaning towards a boy since the pregnancies have been so different. And, no, we are not finding out!! What a neat surprise for us in May!!

We are still on the hunt for a new nanny that fits our family just right so if you know of anyone or maybe your maid or whatnot knows of someone, we would appreciate the referral. Bilingual, English, whatever – we are open to interview anyone who is interested in the position.

Ready for the Cool, Crisp Air!

Every year Grant and I look forward to the fall and winter seasons. The weather cools off, the leaves turn beautiful deep shades of red, oranges and browns and there is a lot family time to be had. Labor Day has come and gone so let's get the cooler weather show on the road!

Grant and I are in our busiest months at work so we have had a lot of late nights, some weekend working – you name it! Harper is growing up so fast with her first birthday approaching soon. It feels like we were cautiously driving down the highway from the hospital about a month ago with our sweet baby girl. She is almost walking, talking a ton and has a wonderful personality that really shines for the world to see. She is truly such a happy baby and that makes things a little easier on us. We did have a visit with both the dermatologist and eye doctor at TCH and things are progressing well with her hemangioma. Some days it looks better than others but the good news is that it has completely stopped growing and it should be downhill from here! Harper’s vision continues to be perfect so we are grateful for that as well. Thank you so much for the continued thoughts and prayers.

We have a lot of activities coming up in the near future so we will have lots of pictures to show. Here are some recent ones for you to enjoy….





She has 5 teeth and three more on the way!


She absolutely loves her baths!


Emptying her toy basket


She can reach everything now

So Long Summer!

Summer has come and gone so quickly for us. We had a nice vacation, enjoyed lots of pool time and have really enjoyed our time with Harper. Grant and I are entering our busy season at work so both of us will be buried probably until the New Year is here.

Our little sweet pea is growing up so much. She amazes me with her brain power and diligence to get something done. She’s very inquisitive and an absolute busy-body. Her favorite thing to do lately is empty her toy basket. She stands in front of it, tossing each item out over her shoulder without ever looking back. Definitely on a mission I’ll tell you. Harper is really into playing with her toys now. She can hold a phone to her ear, push her new stroller/walker a few steps and hit the nails on her workbench with the hammer. She talks and talks all day long – I wish I could make out what she is saying. Grant and I can’t wait to hear what her little voice is going to sound like. Harper’s newest accomplishment is waving and saying “bye”. Sometimes when she wakes up in the morning it’s the first thing she does when you get her out of the crib. You can tell that she is so proud of herself. Lately she has also begun to sing so in the car I turn the radio off and listen to her sweet, songbird voice sing away. It’s all in “German” but it’s still cute! Mom still keeps Walker and Harper each week so they get to see each other often and they are pretty funny together. Although Walker is 6 months older, Harper seems to win the battles over toys etc unless he runs off with them. She has a strong grip and a strong will! She has become kind of feisty when it comes to sharing so I guess we need to begin working on that.

That’s all for now… toodles!