How Can It Be?

Hannah's THREE!!!













Dear Hannah,

Daddy and I are so proud of the way you are growing up and becoming such a polite and sweet young lady! Your expanding vocabulary amazes us and you continually bring smiles to our faces.

It is so hard to believe that you are three already! As I go through your baby clothes to get ready for the arrival of your brother I can't even remember that you were ever that teeny tiny! You are growing up so fast and we are enjoying every moment we can with you.

This year has been filled with fun memories of camping trips, dance lessons, family visits, play dates, and just day-to-day activities. You have become quite fond of shopping and look forward to going on outings each day (even if it's just the grocery store where you get to ride the 1 cent pony).

You constantly receive comments on your blond curls and sweet little doll face, but I am most proud of your behavior. You have been a blessing to raise. Being a people-pleaser makes you very easy to discipline! Often a stern look is just enough to get you to correct whatever you may be doing wrong.

We love you so much, Hannah. We also give praises to the Lord for the blessing you have been in our lives. You will be such a wonderful big sister!

Love,
Mommy (and Daddy)
XOXOXO


















P.S. On your third birthday, we took you to Build-a-Bear where you made "Teddy." We also celebrated with a pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. We hope you had a fun day! You deserved it!

Preschool!

My baby's all grown up!



















I debated so long and hard about whether or not to send Hannah to preschool this year or not. She didn't need it and I love being home with her so I was fairly adamant about not sending her.

Then, I started thinking about my responsibilities with FaithQuest (program at church), the baby coming, and Hannah just being a little bored at home. Caleb and I decided that Hannah would probably love it (especially the socialization). And...she does!

She has already met several new little friends that she talks about and I'm starting to get to know the other mommies a little better. It will be nice to get to know some families in Brighton since most of our acquaintances are from a neighboring town where our church is. There are two other pregnant mommies so hopefully we can be of help to each other through the year, especially once the babies are born!

Although I do think about Hannah a lot while she's at preschool, it hasn't been difficult to adjust to the couple of hours I get to myself twice a week. Since Hannah stopped napping at age 2 I had forgotten how much one can accomplish with a little bit of kid-free time. Our house hasn't been this clean in at least a year, I have been able to work ahead just a bit on Faith Quest, and it's been much easier to just keep up with the clutter, dishes, laundry, etc.

I thought that I would struggle with guilt and cry a river the first few weeks, but the peace that I feel is wonderful. I trust the teachers that are caring for her and I love the fact that it is in a church so that everything Hannah is learning and experiencing right now is through a Christian worldview.

I feel that part of my job as a stay-at-home mom is keeping up with domestic responsibilities. In the back of my mind I always feel so guilty that the house isn't kept the way I feel it should be. These few hours have allowed me to gain a little control over this. I've even had time to organize the tupperware cabinet and clean out a closet!

I also feel like I'm able to be a better mommy when Hannah IS here because I can get all of the "chores" done when she isn't here instead of barking at her to give me a few minutes to switch the laundry or empty the dishwasher. I find that I can accomplish much more and more quickly during these few hours when she is at preschool so I actually feel like I have more QUALITY time with Hannah because I know I will have that time set aside to do "stuff" later.

Anyways, we definitely made the right decision. Hannah looks forward to preschool and has already had several experiences that I couldn't have provided with her, namely, the BubbleMan! LOL We're looking forward to visiting the apple orchard next week with our new friends!

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