Big 'Ol Belly

Here I am with my gigantic belly in Luke's room. It's just about finished & I promise we'll take pictures to post soon. The pregnancy is going well. Besides running out of energy & needing to cut salt way down in my diet, everything is going peachy. We had an ultrasound last Saturday. Didn't get any clear pictures, but Steve & I enjoyed seeing his chubby cheeks : ) I'll see the doctor again tomorrow & I'm curious to hear how big she thinks he'll be & if I'm going to make it to my due date on the 29th. Time will tell.

32 weeks down

32 week belly!

 Andrew loves to do his math work.  He can do addition & subtraction with the blocks.  He also learned to skip count through 15 with his Classical Conversations curriculum & Steve has taught him how skip counting is also multiplication, so he's pretty stinking good at multiplication trivia now too.  He also still loves books & is doing well with beginning reading books.  His favorite books right now are I Love You Through and Through & I Love My Mommy Because (he 'reads' these from memory : )  He is such a fun kid!  When we ask him about Baby Luke he pats my belly.  Sometimes he'll even mention Baby Luke on his own.  It will be interesting to see how he feels about Luke once he is out of my belly.

Falling asleep with Daddy

Wrapping up the 2nd Trimester

26.5 weeks

Andrew is such a sweetheart!

Starting to figure out the RC car.

Sorry we haven't kept up with the belly pictures so well.  As you can see, Luke has grown quite a bit in the last month.  It seems like this 3rd trimester has snuck up on us & I'm feeling like we should be much closer to being ready for a new baby to come home (as every expecting mom probably feels about this time).  Steve can testify that I've been harassing him more about working on the former music room so it can turn into Luke's room.  It's all pretty exciting though!
Andrew is as sweet as ever!  We just love him to pieces.  He is learning so much lately.  He can now add & subtract with blocks and is learning how the skip counting he memorized though school is multiplication (numbers are his favorite 'subject).  He is still doing beginning reading with his BOB books which is adorable.  I'm even learning a lot of history facts through his school memory work - it's amazing how much this boy can retain.  He is starting to eat much better & gets about 1/2 of his calories by mouth with encouragement.  He also continues to make progress with using speech for communication.  I love that this weekend he changed his 'no!' into 'nope'.  It's much easier on the ears time after time.  He likes to tease us & make us laugh.  He especially likes to make me say, 'be careful' or 'hold on tight'  He & Daddy have a good old time making mischief.
I guess we could say we are very blessed!

Our Heart

      Luke & Mommy at 22 weeks.  We went today for our fetal echocardiogram & the cardiologist said everything looked beautiful.  We are very excited and thankful for the awesome report on our littlest sweetheart!

     Luke's big brother goofing off with me at bath time.  Andrew us such a fun kid.  Doing great learning all kinds of new things with school.  Still working on eating more by mouth, but we notice progress little by little in this area too.  We sure do love this sweetheart!

This day...

19.5 week baby belly

January 6th.  It's kind of a big day in our family's history.  It's one of the best days of my life - 12 years ago when I FINALLY got to marry my other half.  It's also one of the darkest days in our life - the day 5 years ago that Andrew went into cardiac arrest when he was only 2 weeks old.  It may seem strange to bring up the latter.  Maybe that's the kind of thing best forgotten.  But today as I reflect, I am overwhelmed with thanksgiving to our God who so richly blessed our family in the absolute best as well as the absolute worst times in our lives.  I'm sure it's evident that we wouldn't trade Andrew for the world.  As much as we love and adore him, it's obvious that God loves him all the more.  I am amazed at how each need in Andrew's life has been met (a tall order, no doubt) - I thank God today for Harun, Patti, Angela, Dr DeCampli, everyone who fought so hard that day 5 years ago for Andrew's life.  What a miracle!  And this is just one example of God moving in big ways to make a way for Andrew to live.

So now, in 2013, I have this great husband - not perfect, but he manages to put up with me and I just love him!  We have this amazing miracle boy, Andrew who brings joy to our lives everyday.  And on top of ALL that we are now expecting another son, Luke!  How could I possible keep from praising the Lord?

Luke Thomas

18 week belly

Beautiful baby boy!

Yesterday, Steve & I went over to Winnie Palmer Maternal Fetal Medicine to get a look at our baby.  We're excited that Andrew will have a little brother.  We decided on the name Luke Thomas - Luke because it's the one name we both liked & Thomas after his Papa (Tagye).  His heart & other organs all looked good to the doctor - we praise God for the good report!  Luke was such a good boy for the whole ultrasound.  When we finally got a look at his profile, I said, 'it would make my day if he swallowed right now.'  I explained that I was a Speech Therapist to the sonographer & literally a second later the boy swallowed for me!  It was adorable & beautiful!  What a blessing this little 9 oz baby is already.

Andrew is FIVE

5 year old Andrew, first thing in the morning on his birthday.

Shaving Cream Mountain

Isaiah

Iris

Andrew had a blast swinging

Snuggling up with Mimi

Very Hungry Caterpillar cupcakes by Aunt Katie

Andrew loves singing Happy Birthday

Andrew putting on a singing concert on Christmas Eve

Checking out his new writing desk with Amy

The gift Molly made for our mom

Emma playing boo...

...with Isaiah

Corn hole

Baby bellies : )  Me 4 months & Jessi 6 months

Molly, Betsy & Katie with our Locks for Love donations

Minus One Tooth

Andrew lost a tooth today!

He's just as fun without it : )

16 week baby belly

Can't believe our boy is big enough to have lost a tooth.  I was in shock last Saturday night when I discovered it was loose and was a little worried about how Andrew was going to handle the actual loosing process.  That will teach me to worry because Steve said it just fell out today when he was eating his cereal bar.

15 weeks

Our shoes out, ready for St Nick's Day

15 week baby belly & our almost 5 year old boy

I got to hear the baby's heartbeat today at my OB appointment.  It was such a sweet sound!  December 26th we have an appointment with the specialists at Winnie Palmer Maternal Fetal Medicine.  I will be 18 weeks then, so we should be able to find out if we're having a girl or a boy.  All very exciting!  Thank you for those praying with us for the health of this child.

14 weeks