Thanksgiving in Indiana

This year we decided to make the trip up north to spend Thanksgiving with Jason's family. We made a pit stop at my parents' house on the way up because their house is only about 8 hours away, while Jason's parents' house is about 11 hours away, and we definitely wanted to see my family for a little bit too. We left our house on Tuesday morning around 9:00 am, and we made it to my parents' house in Cincinnati, OH around 6:00 pm. We did take about a 45 minute lunch break about halfway through the drive to stretch our legs and let Ethan run around. Ethan was an angel the whole way! I couldn't believe how quiet he was!

We had dinner with my family, spent the night, and had breakfast with them in the morning. Then we hung around for a little while so my sister and her boyfriend could come see Ethan for a little while before we left. She hadn't seen him since May! Around noon we headed out on the road again to go north to Tipton, IN where Jason's parents live. We arrived at the Howell's at about 3:00 pm, and we plan on staying here until Monday morning. Then we will get in the car to drive all the way back to our home in Sharpsburg, GA.

Whew! We're blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with family this year! Below are a few pictures we took while we were at my parents' house...

We're having a baby....

I apologize it has taken me so long to blog about our baby on the way. We did have our big ultrasound on November 20th, and we now know which gender we are having! So, to avoid keeping you all in suspense much longer, we are going to be adding a baby GIRL to our family! That's right....we now have one boy and one girl! What more could we ask for right?! The tentative due date is still April 12, 2009, and everything looked good on the ultrasound. Please keep our sweet baby girl in your prayers, though, as she continues to grow and develop. Yay! God is so good to us! We're looking forward to experiencing life with children of both genders!
We do have a name picked out, but I'll mention that in a later post.

Ethan's Illness

Well, last week was a really tough week for Ethan and me. Last Sunday morning he woke up with a 102 temp. He was miserable, and I could only imagine what he might have come down with! The fever was pretty relentless, and it lasted for a total of almost 5 days. I took him to the doctor, of course, only to learn that his ears were clear, his chest sounded okay, his tonsils were swollen, but his strep test was negative. The doctor told me to call her back if his fever lasted 72 hours, which it did, so I called and ended up having to take Ethan for chest x-rays and to have his blood drawn. That was NOT FUN! I think it was more traumatic for me than it was for him! Because I am pregnant, I couldn't be in the room when they did the x-rays, so I had to leave my sweet boy alone in a room with two complete strangers! He was screaming "Mommy! Mommy!" the whole time. It was pitiful! Ah....after all of that craziness, we found that all the tests came back negative, which meant that he just had a really bad cold virus. By Friday, he was finally fever free. Praise the Lord!

He has been slowly getting back to his normal energetic and happy self these past few days. I don't think I could've survived much more of the sickness. It is so hard to have a sick little one!

Baby #2 Update/Ethan at 18 months

A couple of weeks ago, I went for my 16 week check up, and we heard the heartbeat this time. The heart rate was in the 150s range. As far as we know, everything is going well with the baby. We will be going for our "big ultrasound" on November 20th, which is next Thursday! That is when we will find out whether we are having another boy or a little girl! We are just beyond excited to find out! I am also anxious to see the baby's organs and all of his or her details. I have been feeling the baby move quite a bit this week. It is so wonderful! We will definitely keep everyone posted when we find out the sex of our baby!

Ethan is doing very well. We recently had his 18 months check up, and everything was great. He weighs 25lbs, is 32 inches long, and is doing everything and more that a little guy his age should be doing. He is very verbal ( I wonder who he got that from?), and he seems to learn new words everyday. We are so proud of him!

I wanted to share a cute story real quick with all of you: This past Sunday at church Ethan saw a new little boy come into the nursery, and so he walked towards him and said "Hello." Then, later on one of the little girls sneezed, and Ethan said, "Bless You". When Jason and I went to get him, all of the ladies in the nursery were telling us how sweet and entertaining he is. They kept talking about how he greeted the new little boy and was so polite to the girl who sneezed! It sure made me proud to be his Mama!

I want to apologize for the large gaps of time between our blog posts. We do not have internet access at home, and so it is very difficult for us to keep up with our posts. We hope to get internet/cable after Christmas, but we'll see what the budget allows! We love you all!