And Baby Makes Four

You guessed it...Chris and I are expecting baby #2! We found out on January 22nd that we were pregnant. We did not want to spread the news too fast until we were able to go see the baby and hear the heartbeat to make sure everything was okay. We feel so blessed and we are so excited about this new bundle of joy. Hayden does not quite grasp the concept of being a big brother yet, but he will soon learn. He does like to talk to the baby and try to look through my belly button to see if he can see the baby, but I don't think he will understand the full impact this baby will have on him until it gets here. The estimated due date is October 1st, but I fully expect this baby (like his/her older brother) not to show up until about a week after that! I did not feel too bad during the 1st trimester, just a little nauseousness here and there and just very tired. It is a lot harder the second time around when you have a 2 year old to take care of! Now that I am in the 2nd trimester, I am feeling a lot better and seem to have my energy back. We will find out the sex of the baby on May 14th and we are so excited to know what we are going to be blessed with. I will be sure to blog about that when it happens! Please just pray for this little one and for Chris, Hayden and myself as we go through this new phase of life. Below I have posted a picture of our new little one! I still can't believe I am going to be a mommy again! YEA!

Baby Young #2 (11 weeks)

Colorado...How I Love Thee!

It has been forever and a day since I have done any updating on my blog. It is now the middle of April and I am just NOW blogging about our family trip to Colorado in the beginning of March to see my sister, brother-in-law and new niece Piper. I guess its better late than never, right?!?! Anyway, Chris, Hayden, my brother Scott and I packed up the Tahoe and headed out early Tuesday morning March 3rd on our 14 hour journey to Littleton, Colorado. We were definitely excited about going, but not so excited about the drive! I do have to say that Hayden was such a champ and he did such an AWESOME job being the best child ever on a car trip. He did AMAZING! We got to my sister's house late that night, said our hellos, held our new niece and then we were off to bed to catch up on some much needed rest. We had such a great time in Colorado. It was a great break from the monotony of everyday life. Chris and my brother got to do some skiing in Breckenridge, my sister and I got to spend some quality time together shopping and just hanging around, and Hayden got to spend lots of time playing with his new cousin Piper. We got to visit and tour the Coors Brewery in Golden, Colorado which is really fascinating and fun. I highly recommend if your ever near Golden, Colorado to do the Coors tour. You don't have to be a beer fan to enjoy it. Trust me, I am not a beer drinker what-so-ever, but I thoroughly enjoyed touring the brewery both times that I have gone. My sister also took us to downtown Denver to eat dinner at the Aquarium. I have to say this was probably Hayden's favorite part of the trip. He was completely mesmerized by the enormous fish tank that we got to sit next to while eating dinner. He just watched the fish the whole time and got excited every time a fish swam by, which was literally like every 30 seconds. Needless to say we all got to hear "fishy, fishy" more times than we needed to but, oh well! We once again packed up the Tahoe and left early Tuesday morning March 9th for the 14 hour journey back to San Antonio. Unfortunately, we woke up that morning to snow and ice with temperatures in the teens. I was NOT up for driving in the snow and ice and I voted to leave later in the afternoon, but I got voted out by the two alpha males. Praise the Lord that we made it through that mess, and when I say mess, it is not an exaggeration...it was awful. We had to drive about 20 mph for about 3 hours til we got in the clear and that, of course, tacked on another 3 hours to our 14 hour trip. We arrived safely in San Antonio late, late, late Tuesday night and we were all eager to get into our own beds and sleep! We had an amazing time in Colorado and we feel so blessed to have been able to take a family trip there to see our new niece...and of course my sister and brother-in-law. Thanks to the Goodenows for letting us stay at their house for the week and putting up with us! We hope to do it again soon, but next time we might be traveling by air instead of land! :) Below I have posted a few pics from our trip. Hope you enjoy them! :)

Missy and Piper at the Coors Brewery

Daddy and Hayden at Aunt Missy's House

Chris on the slopes!

Hayden admiring the fish tank!

Hayden posing in front of the fish tank!

Piper Ann Goodenow

I know this is coming rather late in the game, considering it has been almost three weeks since she was born, but Piper Ann Goodenow is FINALLY here! She was born via c-section on Monday, January 19th (two weeks before her actual due date of Feb. 2). Piper weighed 6 pounds and 6.6 ounces and was 19 in long. She has beautiful light blonde hair like her mommy and we think her eyes are going to be blue like her mommy's as well. Piper is just the sweetest, most beautiful little baby girl I have ever seen and I can't wait to hold her in my arms, but all in due time! Chris, Hayden, my brother Scott and I are going to go visit the three of them in the beginning of March, so we don't have to wait too much longer. Missy and Grant are doing well adjusting to parenthood and they have been blessed with a very content and happy baby who likes to eat and sleep with not much fussing! (Believe me...that is a BLESSING!) Below I have posted a picture of little miss Piper! Isn't she beautiful?!?!

Engagement News

Well 2009 is going to be quite a busy, eventful and exciting year! Along with 4 new babies (one niece, one nephew, and two second cousins), and 2 new cousin-in-laws being added to the family, now we get to add a new sister-in-law and nephew-in-law! :) My brother Scott and his girlfriend Justina got engaged during the Christmas holidays and are planning on a June 26th wedding at Los Patios. Not only do we get the blessing of having Justina join our family, we also get to add her son Drake to the family as well. Chris and I are so very excited about having Justina and Drake join the family. Justina is an incredibly smart, outgoing, intelligent and beautiful girl whom my brother loves very much and has been in love with for years! I know they are going to have many wonderful years of marriage and hopefully a couple more nieces and nephews for Chris and me! :) Please just keep the three of them in your prayers as they set out on this new journey in their lives. Hope your having a blessed beginning of 2009!

Scott and Justina

"Keep Your Eye on the Ball"

This week l learned a valuable lesson and in the process of learning that valuable lesson I laughed probably harder than I have ever laughed before. I know when you get done reading this you will probably think to yourselves "what an awkward sense of humor she has" but it is okay, I know you will not find it nearly as funny as I did, number one because you were not here to see it or hear it and number two it was not your child who did it...but I digress. The valuable lesson I learned was that children, no matter what you say, take EVERYTHING literally! Let me explain. My wonderful mother came over to our house on Thursday to help bake and decorate Christmas cookies. After we got done Hayden was so excited to finally be able to play with his "GaGa" (that is his nickname for Grammie) since he was having to play with Daddy all day while GaGa helped Mommy with the cookies. My mom and Hayden were in the computer/toy room playing and I was at the computer desk just watching and listening to the two of them. Well, Hayden was carrying around a little trophy looking Lego toy that he got as a gift and on top of it he was balancing a bouncy ball. He was walking around the room trying really hard not to let the ball fall off of the trophy toy. My mom, being the wonderful encourager and helper that she is thought it would be wise to use the old saying "Keep your eye on the ball" so that Hayden would have better luck keeping the ball on the trophy. So, she leans over to Hayden and looks at him and says, "Hayden, keep your eye on the ball!" Hayden then proceeds to keep walking forward with the ball on top of the trophy but at the same time he pulls the ball toward his face and places the ball right on the pupil of eye and continues walking. My mom and I both fell to the floor in laughter and had tears almost running down our faces. It was the funniest, most precious thing I have ever seen. Hayden did EXACTLY what my mom said, he kept his eye on the ball. Wow, children are truly amazing and I look forward to the many lessons Hayden is going to continue to teach me throughout the years.
I hope this story brought you little laughter, and if not that, maybe at least a little smile! Have a blessed day! :)

Christmas Portraits

We took Hayden to Portrait Innovations on Thursday and had some Christmas Portraits done. Chris and I always fear going to get pictures done because Hayden is not the most cooperative picture taking child. He usually just looks at the people like they are crazy and goes about his business. Much to our surprise Hayden did GREAT! He smiled more than we have EVER seen him smile (when getting his picture taken) and he seemed to love every minute of the portrait session. Needless to say that did not make picking a picture very easy for Chris and I. We usually struggle to find one picture where Hayden looks somewhat happy to be alive. This time there were way too many pictures to choose from and we were quite perplexed as to which one to choose. We finally decided on two that we liked best and I posted them below. Chris and I still can't believe how much he has grown and continues to grow. We looked at his picture from this time last year and were shocked and a little saddened by how quickly he has grown up. We are cherishing every moment of his life and thanking God for what a blessing he is to us! :)

Trick or Treat

Here are some pictures from Hayden's second Halloween BUT first time to go trick-or-treating! It was quite a new experience for him and he was a little hesitant at first but caught on and actually had a lot of fun as the night went on. The cutest thing was Hayden's way of saying trick or treat which was "tick teet" and just when we thought our little man could not say anything more cute than "tick teet", out came his lion roar. Words can't even describe how cute it sounded...maybe if I get motivated enough and daring enough I will post a sound clip of him roaring like a lion! Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures!

Hayden's first stop was the neighbor's house!

Showing Mommy what he got!

Papa was delighted to do some trick-or-treating with Hayden!

Daddy was proud of his little lion!

Hayden didn't have time to pose with Mommy, he had more candy to go get!