August Update

During the month of August, we went camping with families from our church, visited JuJu and PaPa, and ventured out to the Toledo Zoo with our good friends! It was a fun, hot month!















































We also sold our beloved Honda Accord and purchased a minivan! I couldn't be more excited!

Hannah really shocked me when she showed me her "cat" drawing below a couple of weeks ago. It was completely out of the blue and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that she had 2 well-aligned eyes, 4 legs, and a tail (which she explained to me). I had no idea she could even draw a circle! LOL















Almost every day now she asks what I want her to draw for me. Yesterday I asked her to draw me a lion (thinking it would look a lot like her cat). Here's what she came up with :) I love the mane!


















She's growing up so fast! I love how she surprises and amazes me all the time. What a fun age!

Baby #2 Update

(Above picture: July 23rd--13 Weeks)

My normal doctor is going on a service trip to Africa for over a year. We are very happy for her and her family to have such an incredible opportunity.

I don't know if she was distracted by this huge life change or what, but after the two heartbeat scares I was kind of ready to change doctors so this gave me a great excuse. At my 18 week checkup in August, I met with Dr. Moyer. She is the one that delivered Hannah by c-section (after I'd seen just about every other doctor from the practice on rotation at the hospital!).

It was interesting meeting her outside of the hospital environment. Dr. Popp had recommended a scheduled c-section at a date we set that is comfortable for our family and if I went into labor before then I could try a VBAC if I wanted to. She shared with me a lot of risks with VBACs and pretty much talked me in to the c-section.

When I met with Dr. Moyer she seemed to think a VBAC might be safer. We agreed that we have plenty of time to think about this and see what happens with my body and the baby. We certainly have a lot to pray about and I'm sure that God will reveal to us what He wants for our new baby!

(Hope the following isn't too much information....I just want to record it for journaling/memory purposes.)

At my 18 week appointment Dr. Moyer thought she felt a fairly large fibroid. She said that it would be checked at the ultrasound. Ugh. More nerves. At this point I'm wondering if I'll ever have a normal appointment!

Anyways, we had our ultrasound on September 8th (almost 20 weeks pregnant). The technician said that everything was developing normally and the baby looked healthy--and she didn't see even a hint of a fibroid. It was so exciting for me to see the kicks and punches on the screen that I have been feeling from the inside.












Hannah seemed a little disinterested, but looked at the pictures when we prompted her to. Then, the news was given about the gender. "It's a boy!," exclaimed the technician which was quickly followed by an "I knew it!" from me and an "Are you sure?!" from Caleb. The picture couldn't' have been clearer and Hannah couldn't have been more disappointed. However, she consoled herself by reasoning that mommy is going to have the boy baby and she is going to have the girl baby.















She's starting to get used to the idea and I think the more we refer to the baby as "he" and "him" the more she'll realize she doesn't have a choice in the matter. :)

We are very excited about having a little boy! I'm still getting used to the idea, but I think it will be fun to have one of each. It was so much fun finding out this time! Hannah's going to be a great big sister! I'll be 21 weeks this Friday and time is flying by! My next appointment will be Monday and I look forward to hearing more about the ultrasound results!

Deibel Visit

I don't know how I managed to go the entire weekend without snapping a photo of the Deibels all together, but I did. I did get this cute matchy-matchy one of Grandma and Hannah stimulating the economy at the outlet mall though!

















Fortunately, Aunt Lauren couldn't resist! She passed along lots of cute pictures of her and Hannah.































Glamour Girls














It's so hard living away from family sometimes. Visits like these make me wonder what it would be like to have all of our loved ones close by. Hannah adores each and every family member and enjoys spending time with them. I wish we could see everyone more often!

Visiting JuJu and PaPa

Hannah was so excited to visit JuJu and PaPa in New York this summer. We broke in our new-to-us minivan and it was fabulous! (It certainly helped splitting up the trip into 2 days, too!)














We discovered all kinds of fun activities to keep Hannah entertained. She fell in love with this rocking horse at a woodworking store and also enjoyed feeding the ducks at a local town. She had a riot watching the "birds" peck at the seeds.













We were also able to enjoy an afternoon at the zoo. Unfortunately, this butterfly is just about the only creature we saw there besides an elephant and a couple of monkeys.













Hannah found some interesting ways to keep herself entertained in the car. She is sporting a mustache just like PaPa in this picture. :)













JuJu took Hannah on the carousel at the mall. I think Hannah enjoyed the spinning, but JuJu got a little dizzy on that 2nd deck!













We drove by a local farm one day and stopped to let Hannah jump. And she jumped her little heart out. She kept up with the big kids and just couldn't get enough. Daddy had some fun, too!













It was sad to leave and think about returning home with family 400 miles away in either direction from Brighton. We often wish we had grandparents (and aunts and uncles!) closer to spend quality time with. Hopefully someday!

Knock Knock

The Friday Five: July Update

5. Daddy's becoming a pancake expert. Hannah's favorite concoction is his new "Dora" complete with a M&M eyes, a chocolate chip smile, and cocoa hairdo









4. We recently bought a slightly larger kiddie pool for Hannah and she LOVES it. There's only one thing to watch out for though, the hippopotamus that lives on the bottom! Don't know where Hannah comes up with these things, but the swim shoes were a must so it wouldn't nibble on her toes.













3. Hannah learned the joy of licking the beaters when mommy makes cookies! She also helped pour each ingredient into the bowl and turn the mixer on and off. I'm not brave enough to teach her how to crack the eggs yet!

















2. Hannah had a blast at Vacation Bible School! Whenever I went to check on her or give the nursery workers a little break she demanded that I "GO AWAY!" Hmmm. Is someone ready for preschool? She loved every minute of every day and reports that her favorite activity was the bounce house. We had over 150 children attend!









1. I went in for my 13 week check-up this morning and brought Hannah along. She was so excited to hear the baby's heartbeat. But....more scares. The doctor couldn't find it! We heard plenty of swish swishing but she said that was me because it wasn't fast enough. So....I ended up with an ultrasound and the baby is JUST FINE!!! I couldn't believe how much he/she had grown in just a couple of weeks! It was exciting for Hannah to see the picture of the baby and watch it's arms and legs thrashing about. We also got to see the flickering of the heartbeat which is always very reassuring. (Turns out that the doctor was listening too low--kind of the same scenario as my first ultrasound so I guess I'm carrying high! Boy?)

Sleeping Bear Dunes Camping Trip

Over the 4th of July weekend we went camping at the Sleeping Bear Dune National State Park. It was absolutely gorgeous with a million things to do and see. Our campsite was spacious and relatively private. The bathrooms were also amongst the cleanest we've visited while camping :)

















It took quite a bit of coaxing, but we got Hannah into the water this year. She enjoyed feeling the waves splash on her legs and even waded out fairly far from the shore with daddy.













I thought Hannah would be too young to appreciate the dune climb so I sent Caleb up on his own. What would mommy know? She ran chasing after him and made it all the way to the top! She decided that crawling was the best way down which landed her head first into the sand at one point so daddy carried her the rest of the way.













One morning we decided to try a float/canoe trip. The first hour or so was great! We were all having a nice, relaxing time and Hannah even sat in the middle by herself. Unfortunately, when we got to the lake portion of the trip, we tipped over. Hannah was mortified and I don't think she'll be going near a canoe for quite some time now. Thankfully, we were only in about 1-2 feet of water when we went over so it was pretty easy to get upright again. The last 2 hours of the trip were spent with me holding Hannahs' hands and trying to console her. We topped it off with ice cream so hopefully she won't have only bad memories of this trip :)











We spent a lot of time at the beach enjoying the beautiful coastline and perfect weather. Hannah loved her little turtle floaty that we got her in a cute little town nearby.














We will definitely be making another camping trip to this location again soon. It was one of the best campgrounds ever!