Christmas Tree Cake

Saying that Brendon, LOVES Christmas Tree Cakes, would be an understatement. They are made by Little Debbie and are shaped like trees and only come out during the holiday season. The description says....A fun holiday snack that everyone will enjoy! A tree shaped yellow cake with creme filling that is decorated with white frosting,

green sprinkles and a red garland of frosting.   Apparently Elias has the same tastes as his Dada :) He had his first Christmas Tree Cake and devoured it.

Double the BLUE and 20 weeks

E has something to share...come this March we are gonna have double the BLUE.

Yes, thats right, little Baby 2.0 is Baby BOY 2.0.

And he def wasnt scared to show off the goods. Ha!

Cute little baby nose. I am already in love <3>

Here is Big Brother Elias at 19wks 5d

Growing up I always thought that I would be the Momma to boys and looks as if that is becoming a reality. I cant say that I wasnt a tad bit disappointed that we wont be buying pink and everything that is frilly, but we are SUPER excited to have BROTHERS.

Elias stayed with his "Aunties" while Momma and Dada went to the appointment...this is how they thought he should reveal his baby brother to be :) HA!

LOVE this cute face.

I am 20 weeks and feeling pretty great. I can't believe we are already half way there to being able to see our sweet little babys face. Some days it seems as if this pregnancy is dragging but for the most part it is flying by with how busy we are. I am hoping that all the holidays coming up will help the time go by even faster. At our appt (18wks 4d) everything was good with both baby and Momma. I haven't gained a single pound yet but Baby Boy was right on target at 18wks 4d, so obviously he is getting everything he needs. My crazy craving this past month has been chicken (which I HATED when I was pregnant with Elias and Mt. Dew. I am NOT a Mt. Dew drinker, I have always LOVED my Dr. Pepper, but these days I want that citrus-y goodness.

For your entertainment...Here is whats going on with 2.0 at 20 weeks.

Baby's digestive system is busy creating meconium (a tarry black substance made of swallowed amniotic fluid, digestive secretion and dead cells), which will fill the first diaper after birth. And, speaking of the diaper situation... baby's genitals are now fully formed!

Best Friends Forever

"Life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, forgive freely, and love like you've never been hurt."

I must say that Elias and I are pretty lucky. Here in Alabama, we have some of the best friends that anyone could ever ask for.

The Babies.

Elias, Addie, Walker, & Will

The Mommas.

Lauren, Lindy, Alison, and Me

fence converstations.

"It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?"
-- Winnie the Pooh

Boo at the Zoo

Our Zoo puts on a special event for Halloween called Boo at the Zoo. You dress up the kiddos (and adults if you want) and trick or treat through Candy Land, ride the train through Jurasic Park, play lots of fun games for prizes, and a ton of other fun scary things. Elias had a love hate relationship for the event. He LOVED the trick or treat, but wasnt a fan of the blow up scary things. (Or getting his picture taken. ha) He and Addie dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the Cat in the Hat, and they were a HUGE hit.

Met up with Walker, who was a Nugget Burger :)

Riding the Train through Jurasic Park with Dada

Elias LOVES the carousel, he unfortunately was not a fan of this one. They turned the lights off periodically and it went backwards instead of forwards. Needless to say, he clung to his Dada.

Thing 1 needed a bath after all the fun, so we could get rid of the blue. Ha :) Cant wait to go again next year!

School Picture Day

Today was school picture day. The outfit was thought about and planned, but then sickness found its way to our house and I was unable to go buy planned outfit so we did a last minute shop last night. Even last minute, I must say we have quite the cutie :)

He was still on partial quarantine from other kiddos so he didn't actually go to school today, so we just dropped by the school for a quick photo.

New Milestone...our little sicky

We hit a new milestone...but not a good one. This past week has been the first time our little munchkin has been sick. Sure he has had the occasional runny nose, and fever from teething, but nothing other than that. This week we go to experience our first sick visit to the pedi. Even Dr. M commented on how she has never see Elias on any other occasion other than well visits.

It started with a cough that we pinned on drainage from the 4 teefers he had coming in, but then the cough turned into a persitent nag that kept the baby boy (and Momma) up all night. Then came the fever and a little boy that wanted to lay around and sleep all day rather than play. We went to the pedi where he was diagnosed with a double ear infection and strep. (WOWZA! He wanted to go BIG with his first time.) She was concerned about pneumonia with how fast he was breathing but she said that was most likely from the 104 temp (yikes!) that he had. She prescribed him a wide range antibiotic and told us that it would mend all 3.

Remember the yummy bubble gum goodness that you got when you were sick as a kid? Its the same that Elias has. Who knew I would have the ONLY kid in the world to hate it, trying to get him to take it exhausts us both. But we all hope for our sanity and sleep that he is on the road to recovery :) And while I hate that he has been sick and pitiful, I will say that I have enjoyed all the snuggles :)

Guessing Game

A fellow WTE friend did this little guessing game, and I thought it was fun so we thought we would give it a try. Click on the link to guess what you think Baby Jewell 2.0 will be :) No prizes to be won, just bragging rights. Thats just as fun, right? :)

Click Here

16 weeks and an US

Elias is just sooooo excited to say that we have scheduled THE ultra sound that will tell us whether or not he is going to have a baby sister or a baby brother. Its scheduled in about 3 weeks and we are sooooo excited.

16 week appt today, strong little heart beat for the baby, and no weight gain for the Momma.

And in case you were wondering, at 16 weeks, 2.0 is the size of an avocado.

Watch what you say... tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean the little one can now pick up your voice. Eyebrows, lashes and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. And, if you're interested, an ultrasound might be able to determine gender.

Adios 1st Trimester and Good Riddance: 14 weeks.

See you later 1st Trimester, dont let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out. I am soooo not sad to see you go because you have been hard core mean for the past 8 weeks. I am pretty sure that if I had felt this way while preggo with Elias, then there would have not been a 2nd thought about having another baby. He would be an ONLY child. I am NOT a good sicko person, I am a HUGE baby and hate it as I am sure everyone else does too. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but morning all day sickness has been my worst enemy for the past 8 long weeks and I am hoping this 2nd Trimester brings back non nauseous and more energy days. (soooo please hurry on up. please and thank you.)

14 weeks. Yay! This pregnancy is kind of sort of dragging but kind of sort of going fast at same time, I guess its hard to explain. At this point in pregnancy we hadn't even been to our first Dr's appt with E. The first appt with him was when we were 15wks 5 days preggo with him, so that seems to make the pregnancy draggggg. It seems crazy that we have known 2.0 is on his/her way for 2 months now, so that has made the pregnancy seem to fly by.

With Elias, I craved fruit and lots of it. (and in the end much to my brother and sister in laws happiness, I craved cupcakes and made them weekly. ha.) With 2.0 I crave cold things, ice cold things. Like popsicles and ice cold water. I am not a water with ice kind of girl, I like bottled water at room temperature. Well apparently 2.0 has other tastes, because my water now has to be with lots and lots of ice. I also could care less about anything chocolate, because I think it tastes weird. Chocolate? Tastes weird? WHAT?!? Yeah, I am not liking that little side effect. I crave sour candy, like sour patch kids and sour skittles, which is candy I barely rarely eat. I still love cupcakes but instead of my usual fav red velvet or sea salt mocha, I am in love with this strawberry cake with strawberry icing from a local place called Ashley Macs. Yummmmm. I also crave plain cheese pizza with thin crust. So very different from with Elias.

We went to our 12 week appt and had a clean bill of health with no weight gain. Yay! And we will have our 16 week appt on the 29th. We were on the fence (or butting heads) about whether or not we wanted to find out the gender of our little 2.0 but I am pretty sure we have both decided that we are eager to know if we are adding a baby boy to our little family or a baby girl. :)

And for a little entertainment...here is a little info on our little 2.0

Your adorable little fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, and (not so cute but equally amazing) making urine and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys and spleen continue to develop. Lanugo (thin, downy hair) is growing all over the body for warmth.

brought to you by thebump.com

Intelligender

"A fun pre-birth experience of Moms who can't wait to know..." With an advertisement like that, how could you resist? Especially since you can use this test as early as 10 weeks. As soon as you get that little + on the pee on a stick (POS) some of your first thoughts always seem to be, is it a boy, or is it a girl? And it is definitely a question that is asked by many when they find out you are knocked up. One of my friends saw the Intelligender test in Target and texted me informing me of how badly I needed to take this test. B said no way to the $25 dollar price for a pee cup. L & A were VERY insistent, so much so that they showed up at my house and kidnapped me with an Intelligender in hand. We were on our way to lunch and YES I was going to pee in a cup: AT QDOBA. We had no shame. We ordered our lunch, sat our food down, and I went to the bathroom to pee in my cup. When I opened the package, at first I was a little intimidated because this is what you were met with....

A pee cup, another container filled with a bead like substance (in which L&A thought my pee was crystalized. ha) and a turkey baster/syringe.

After peeing in the cup, abstracting it from the cup with baster/syringe and inserting it in to container with bead like substance, I brought my lab experiment back to our table and sat it on the chair next to me. We carried on with eating and convo (only after L set the timer on her phone) and waited the 5 minutes to find out if I was having a boy or a girl. 5 minutes was up and we examined my pee. (True friends handle/examine your pee over chips and salsa.) First of all let me tell you what the instructions say.

1. Fill the collection cup with your first morning urine ONLY. It is very important to use first morning urine when collecting your sample. Failure to do will likely result in incorrect result. Once collected, set aside and get the test kit read for use. Remove sticky tab from the top of the lid, exposing a small hole in the middle. You are now ready to perform test. Epic fail. It was lunch time, I had already peed twice prior. It also said to not consume an excessive amount of liquid and I had downed a large sprite in order to make myself go.
2. Placing the tip of the baster/syringe into the collection cup, "pull" 20 ml's of urine up into the baster/syringe. Ummmm. Ewwwwww.
3. Place tip of baster/syringe into the hole on top of the test's lid and gently inject your urine. Double Ewwww.
4. Immediately replace the sticky tab over the hole.
5. Pick up the test kit and swirl rapidly for 10 seconds in a circular motion. Do not shake. Set aside where it will not be disturbed. How does one swirl really? I mean without shaking.
6. Read your gender result promptly at 5 minutes. If your urine has turned green to dark/smoky green, you have a boy result! If your urine has turned a deeper yellow or orange, you have a girl result! Please note, after 8 minutes your results may change and are no longer valid. I feel as if this was the only direction that was properly and promptly followed. Ha.

You must read the test at eye level without picking it up and disturbing it. Do not hold the kit up to a light source, such as a window, to read the test as it will distort the final result. Also a BIG FAT EPIC FAIL. First of all I carried it from the bathroom to our table. Second of all, I picked it up from the chair to examine it. And third and last of all, we were sitting outside in direct sunlight.

Needless to say, while it was fun to pee in a cup over lunch with good friends, we did the test wrong and were completely confused with results. I was bound and determined to get a correct and accurate result from this little lab experiment so I went that evening and bought another test to do first thing the next morning with my FIRST MORNING URINE.

The results....

While I would love to go out and buy everything pink, I am not holding my breath :) I know of 3 other friends who have done this little experiment and all came out with the results of BOY, and all 3 are having (or had) a GIRL. However, while doing all the research on the results of this little test, I did find that more often than most, BOY results were wrong more so than GIRL results. Reason being some kind of chemical that a woman has in her body.

It was a fun test, and even if its wrong I think I would still do it again if given the chance. We should find out in about 6 weeks if we are good little scientists :)

not pennys boat***

As a woman (and man) you spend all those years spending money on birth control and other contraceptives trying to PREVENT pregnancy for various reasons of not being "ready" to become a mom or a dad and when B and I got married I think we were on a 5 year plan of having children. Our rambunctious baby boy E, had other plans for us and made his debut into this world 2 months shy of our second wedding anniversary. Although we were married (and on the birth control pill I might add) we were not ready to have a child yet, so were definitely shocked when we got that + sign on the pee stick a little over 2 years ago. Even so, we couldn't imagine our lives without our little Baby E and wouldn't change ANYTHING. It seems that as soon as you have that first baby (sometimes even your 2nd or even 3rd) the golden question is, "When are you having another?" I know that with E, I wasn't even healed from the 22 stitches of craziness that his big head caused before what seemed like everyone was asking that question. I always knew that I wanted to have my children close in age but it wasn't a concrete set in stone decision and it most certainly wasn't a decision I could make after just birthing an 8lb 3oz watermelon sized head baby out of a hole the size of what I imagined to be the size of a grape.

Our sweet baby boy was cute and very loved but NOT an easy baby. He didn't sleep in his own crib/room nor did he sleep through the night until he was close to 8 months old and didn't get on a solid nap schedule til after his 1st birthday. My thoughts of having another went straight out the window due to exhaustion and frustration. THEN his first birthday came and went and it was bitter sweet and baby fever started to kick in especially with so many that we knew either having babies or being pregnant. In March we decided to "officially" start trying for Baby Jewell 2.0 but I knew that it wasn't going to happen right away because since having IUD out in Nov my monthly visitor had yet to show her face. I went to the OB/GYN and he gave me prescription to jumpstart things which it did, but no baby the first month and again no "aunt flo" the 2nd month. I was then sent to an infertility clinic where a series of tests, bloodwork (LOTS OF NEEDLES. EEEEK) and ultra sounds were done. With this intense and thorough testing it was found that I ovulate spontaneously and that E was conceived because the bc pill regulated my system. The plan was to jumpstart my system again with a shot of progesterone and then start the infertility drug called Clomid. The shot of Progesterone didn't jumpstart my system like they had hoped so I was brought in for MORE needles and MORE bloodwork the day before my birthday and was told they would call me the next day to tell me what next step would be to jumpstart things. On my birthday I spent the day at the pool with one of my best friends sans baby, just hanging out enjoying my day. While there the infertility clinic calls with my results. She tells me that the reason I havent gotten my period is because I am PREGNANT!!!!! Not the call I expected but definitely a call that I will never forget. BEST.BIRTHDAY.EVER. A week later we went in for an ultra sound to confirm Baby Jewell 2.0 and got to see our little dot on the screen :) (our nurse pointed out that baby 2.0 looked like a diamond ring....does bling bling mean a baby girl?:) :) :)
It has most certainly started out differently than my pregnancy with E. We didn't find out I was pregnant with him until I was 8 weeks and didn't have our first dr appt/ultra sound until he was nearly 16 weeks! With E, NO morning sickness, with 2.0, CONSTANT ALL DAY morning sickness and fatigue. So bad in fact I had to get a script for Zofran. I am sooo looking forward to our 2nd Trimester that shall begin in a week and a half. With E I didnt start showing until week 20 or later and I could wear almost all of my clothes until end of pregnancy....this time around, I am already growing out of my clothes and am starting to show some. YIKES!

So there you have it, our baby boy is going to be a BIG BROTHER and we are going to be the parents of TWO :) We are soooo super excited for our upcoming addition and maybe slightly a tad bit nervous to have a 2 year old and infant but I am sure it will be an amazing journey. I will say it was a bit crazy for us as to how uneasy it was to just get pregnant. Back to what I was saying at the beginning of the post...you spend all those years trying NOT to get pregnant you don't expect for it to be difficult to actually get pregnant on purpose.

E was a Christmas Baby, 2.0 will be a St. Patty's Day Baby. Due Date 3.18.11 give or take. Apparently our babies like holidays :)

***side note...if you dont watch LOST, then you def wont get the title nor the big brother picture. ha.

For bonus pics...here is one of the ideas we had for sharing the news.....

Too Cool for School

In February we decided to start scoping out "schools" for Elias. (Who knew there were waiting lists and you had to jump on the wagon wayyyy before school actually started?) We thought it would be good for him to have the structured environment and interaction with other kids. We wanted something that had a curriculum and wasn't a "day care", not that there is anything wrong with that but just not the fit for us. We wanted him to go somewhere to learn and have fun and not just be baby sat. We found the perfect one and registered him and he started a few weeks ago. He has only had two days of it due to our vacation but so far he has LOVED it. His bff W is in his class with him and his little gf A is in a class down the hall..

Cute little name tag on the table.

Look Who's in Toddler 3

Found the cars right away. (Meet and Greet night)

Little cubbies <3

Getting a lift (and kiss) from Dada

Cute backpack with his name on it :)

E and W in their backpacks looking at the fish pond at school.

A and E

Cutie <3

E and W checking out the place on the first day.

Coming back for one last hug :)