We had a crazy weekend filled with lots of travel to and from both Mt. Vernon and Springfield. It was busy, and I am glad to be home with no plans of going anywhere this coming weekend!!

The boys are doing well. Justus is going through a little growth spurt...at least I think he is. He is eating really well and seems to really be needing his sleep these days. Something new he has started doing is telling us "no" when we ask him to repeat us...not usually in a defiant way (at least not yet). We will ask him to repeat the alphabet and also ask what sounds animals make and he will say..."no". I guess he's getting to that terrible two age.

Matthias is still cutting teeth, but isn't nearly as cranky as he had been a couple of weeks ago. I'm looking forward to him cutting the teeth, so that he will go back to his normal eating patterns. He has been a little picky lately and not wanting to eat a whole lot. I guess it could just be a stage and not his gums, but he usually isn't so picky. I guess we'll see what happens once his teeth come in. He is doing really well with repeating sounds and words. I'm constantly impressed by his ability to repeat words to us. I know it is probably because he hears his older brother doing it so much, but I'm still impressed.

The pregnancy is continuing to go well. I have a doctor's appointment next week with another ultrasound, so we are pretty excited about that. Charley is pretty active, which I just love! I'm beginning to get heartburn on occasion, but usually only after I eat a big meal or anything tomato based. I'm hoping this is as bad as it gets, but we will have to wait and see. I had heartburn throughout most of my pregnancy with Justus..pretty much everyday non-stop, but if that is the worse thing I have to go through than I think I'm doing pretty good. Another pregnancy related problem....leg cramps. I get them almost every night! They are pretty uncomfortable...but not too bad.

Here are those pictures from spending the afternoon outside. I hope you enjoy!!

So we had a little bout of running noses and coughs last week...at least the boys did. Everything has returned to normal now, which is good. The boys were pretty cranky last week, which wasn't very fun for me. They both wanted me at the same time last week, which got very overwhelming at times. They both had a loss of appetite and would hardly eat anything. I'm just glad that they have returned to their normal selves now!!

Justus is doing well, and his vocabulary is continuing to grow. I think he learns at least one new word a day and is getting good at saying little phrases....like "there you go", "it's alright", and "there it is". It's definitely an exciting time for us to teach him new phrases and words. He's also been eating a little bit later which makes me think that he is going through a growth spurt. He seems to always be hungry and is able to eat quite a bit. He ate a whole corndog today, which I am still shocked by. That's a lot of food for him considering he usually just picks at his food. Justus is also getting to that "terrible two's" stage. He will throw himself on the ground and kick his feet when he doesn't get his way. Thankfully it hasn't happened in public...but I know that will probably soon change.

We've officially moved Matthias into our third bedroom. Only his crib though...not his clothes. We were getting sick of moving the pack n play around, and figured that if we were going to keep him in the third bedroom that we might as well move his crib as well. So we did that this week and moved the twin sized bed into the boys' room. Matthias I think likes sleeping in his crib a lot better than the pack n play. Anyways...Matthias is teething right now. He has been a little cranky lately and his gums are pretty puffy. I think he is cutting all four of his canine teeth and a couple molars as well. Poor little guy!! I'm hoping they all come in and we can be done with it. We've been giving him tylenol about once a day...usually before bed time because he hasn't been sleeping that well...I assume because his gums are hurting. The doctor actually suggested ibuprofen though since it is anti-inflammatory, so we are going to pick some of that up tomorrow.

I'm currently 21 weeks pregnant. Still hard to believe I'm halfway done...and that we are expecting a little girl. I'm feeling her move around now and have felt many kicks and even a little case of the hiccups. I usually feel her at night when I am laying in bed or am sitting really still. So far things are continuing to go great. We have another ultrasound March 5th, when I will be 24 weeks. I can't believe we will be welcoming baby #3 in about 4 months!! We are planning on buying some clothes at garage sales once they start up in the spring. We have already gotten a few things thanks to some of our friends who were getting rid of their baby girl's old clothes. We really haven't bought anything yet besides the one little dress and I got a little onesie that says "Daddy is my hero". I'm sure we'll get a few things though. We just don't want to go overboard, which I'm finding may be hard with a little girl since they have so many more clothes to choose from than little boys do. Today I made a baby sling. It's very cute! I need to take a picture of it. I'm pretty excited about using it already. I wish I would have made one a long time ago for the boys. Too late for that now I guess.

Anyways...I have lots of pictures to upload from our time outside in the 70 degree weather we had. I'll have to do that some time next week!

Justus helping make cookies. He soon got bored and left the table.

He came back when the cookies were done though.

Justus and his clown nose.

Jonathan and Justus having a little fun playing the guitar. I'm not sure which one enjoyed it more.

Charley's first dress. I'm super excited to buy little girl clothes...and for garage sale season to start!

My first sewing project. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Things have been a little crazy the past couple of weeks...or at least it has felt that way....maybe it was just all the anticipation leading up to our ultrasound. I'm not really sure. But, things are going great! Jon has just started a very busy week of working at the Scottrade Center. He is working Monday Night Raw tonight, Celine Concert Wednesday, and Blues games both Thursday and Friday. He is going to be exhausted, but then he only has to work one more Blues game towards the end of the month. He knows it will be pretty miserable but at the same time he will probably make double this week what he would have made valeting for a whole month. It will probably be a rough week for all of us, but we know it is all worth it.

Anyways...the boys are doing well. Justus is getting so good at repeating words and has now mastered most of his animal sounds. His newest phrase he says is "I yah you"...which of course is "I love you". It melts my heart almost every time he says it. The other day after having a pretty rough day with the boys (they were both super cranky all day), Justus was playing and I was eating a bowl of cereal and he climbed up next to me, gave me a kiss, and said "I yah you". I almost started crying! It was unprompted and much needed. Other than that he is really good at repeating the alphabet and sometimes even knows the letter that comes next before I even say it. We are trying to work on numbers, but that isn't going as well because he has had his own little way of counting to 3 for quite a while, and isn't wanting to change it. So when I say "1" he says "do dee" but will never say one..it's all like one word to him. Oh well...maybe we'll move onto colors for the time being.

Matthias is talking a little more as well. He knows no, thank you, duck, nose, ball, and banana. He may know more, but these are just the ones I have picked up on. He is doing pretty good with switching to a sippy cup, but it is still going to be a while before he uses one exclusively. We bought a new sippy cup..the Dr. Brown's one. He really likes it, which is good because he wouldn't really take the ones we already had. Hopefully we can switch him to the ones we have once he is used to not taking the bottle.

The pregnancy is continuing to go well. I am almost 20 weeks. It's crazy to think that I am halfway done!! Jon and I are pretty excited about a baby girl. We are looking forward to the change. I think that Jon is a little more stressed than I am about raising a girl, but he's more excited than stressed. One of the fun things I have got to do is make Charley a blanket. Side note: Now would probably be a good time to say that we've decided on a name...Charley. Thanks to my parents I now am the owner of a sewing machine. My first project was a baby blanket for our baby girl. It turned out pretty good...not perfect, but I'm okay with it. Next up I am going to make a baby sling. I'm pretty excited about that as well. Eventually I will tackle a bigger project...like a quilt, but I'm starting small.

I have a bunch of pictures to post, but need to get some stuff done before heading to bed. I'll try and post them later this week!!

It's a...

We had our ultrasound yesterday and are pleased to announce that we are expecting a baby GIRL! We were super shocked when we found out, but we're looking forward to a change of pace. Everything looked great and the doctor said she is the right size for my due date, so that isn't changing. We are still discussing names, but we'll have one picked out soon. Everything else is going great! Nothing new to report.

Things here are continuing to go well. The boys are doing great. We have split them up at night, which has just been great. Not only are they sleeping better, but it is a lot less stressful for Jon and I since we no longer have to worry about them keeping or waking each other up. It's wonderful!! We have no idea what we are going to do when baby #3 comes, but we'll figure that out when the time comes.

Justus is still doing really well with learning new words. It's a lot of fun to teach him new words. He is even putting little phrases together, which is also good. I think he is also in the middle of a growth spurt...that or his pants are shrinking : ). I'm just hoping he stays in his 2t pants through the winter so that we don't have to go buy anymore pants. I'm looking forward to garage sales this summer to get some 3t and 4t clothes for him.

Matthias is doing well also. He is starting to put more sounds together and I'm pretty sure he can say "thank you" now...although not in context. He's getting really good at imitating sounds as well, so I'm sure it won't be long before he is saying a few new words. I'm thinking that he is teething right now, which isn't very fun. He hasn't been very cranky, but he hasn't wanted to eat much of anything. He is usually a very good eater, but I can't get him to eat hardly anything right now...except for bananas. He is definitely due to get some new teeth. He only has 5. Justus' teeth came in pretty late as well, but his started coming in all at once. I'm hoping that might be the case with Matthias as well. I would rather him be cranky for a few days and get it all over with than spread it out. I guess we'll see what happens.

In pregnancy news...I am currently 17 weeks. We are getting super close to our ultrasound...it's scheduled the last week of the month. We are very excited to find out the gender and to also pick out a name. We thought we had names picked out, but I keep changing my mind. We decided we would wait until after we find out the gender to look for a name...that way we are looking for one instead of two. I'm not sure if I have felt the baby move or not. In the next couple of weeks I'm sure it will become more obvious.

I hope you enjoy all the pictures from Christmas and from the past couple weeks!

The boys enjoying a little Christmas morning candy.

Justus' new guitar. He loves it and dances when he plays it.

The boys got a gumball machine for Christmas. We are going to use it as a reward when we start potty training.

Stacking pegs...he did that all by himself.

The boys love climbing on the high chair.

Things have been pretty busy, but have finally settled down. Christmas was wonderful. The boys really had a great time and loved getting new toys! Christmas Eve was spent in Mt. Vernon and Christmas day was spent at home with Jon's dad and sister. We really had a wonderful time relaxing and hanging out with family.

The boys are doing great. Justus is starting to repeat words after us, which is kind of exciting since he hasn't really done that in the past. We can get him to say a variety of new words and we're even trying to teach him the alphabet! We've also been working on new animal sounds, which is going pretty good. He can do cat, dog, pig, cow, sheep...but for some reason has a problem with remembering what the horse says. He'll get it eventually though.

We have officially taken the pacifier away from Matthias. We weren't sure how it was going to go, so we had been putting it off, but we decided with the new year we would get rid of it. It has actually been a pretty easy transition. The first night he didn't like it too much and cried for at least 30 minutes before finally falling asleep. He woke up a couple times in the beginning of the night and cried, but by the time we went to bed he was out for the night and didn't wake up until the next morning. Since that first night he hasn't cried a bit, so we are excited that he has adjusted well. Next up is the bottle. That one is going to be a little harder, but we're hoping it will only take a few weeks. We are going to try to eliminate them one at a time. As of right now he doesn't care for the sippy cup too much, but we know he will get used to it.

The pregnancy is continuing to go well. I am almost 16 weeks now! It seems to be going so fast! I had an appointment last week and the doctor said everything looks great and the baby's heart rate is 150. Our next appointment will be midpoint, which means we will get our ultrasound!! We are super excited to find out if the baby is a boy or girl. Our appointment is the last week of the month...I can't wait!!! I still haven't felt the baby move, but the doctor said it is still early, but should start to feel the baby within the next couple weeks. That by far is my favorite part of being pregnant!

I need to update with pictures from Christmas. I'll try to get to that sometime this week!!