J

I'm trying to put James down for a nap.

First, he coughed. That was pretty cool, so he fake coughed a few times, just to be sure I got the memo.

Then, he took his pacifier (a.k.a. Night-night) out and pretended to throw up in my lap. Lets just say he's got the choking / gagging sound mastered.

Then, he stuck his pacifier on the end of his finger and starts waving it in my face, with one eyebrow cocked up and a smirk. He stage whispers, "See? Wow! A night-night" gives an evil little chuckle and pops it back in his mouth.

He's still not asleep. I wonder why?

A Name for Walnut

Walnut finally has a name! We've always liked this name, but wanted to keep looking... You know, just in case. So, Tony and I were sitting around rejecting discussing names, when Cadence piped up. "*Sigh.* Why don't we just name her Ruth Ellen like you guys said you liked. We like it. It's pretty. And we won't have to call her Walnut anymore."

Ok.

So we did. Her name is Ruth Ellen Chancellor.

We plan on calling her Ruth Ellen, all together. Of course, we planned to call James... James, and he somehow wound up being J.

We mostly named her Ruth Ellen just because we think its pretty. But it also happened to be my Nonnie's name. And as you may know, Nonnie has always been one of my biggest heroes. May our little darling be as sweet, loving, and gentle as her great grandmother... And may her sheets always be as soft ;)

There is one drawback. Cadence's initials are ACC. Ruth Ellen's are REC. We seem to be setting a disturbing trend for our poor girls!

Pssst, Guess What?

We had our ultrasound yesterday, and guess what?

 

It's a GIRL!

 

We are so excited! We get another sweet little bundle to snuggle. I get to pull out all the cute, teeny tiny girly clothes, and the soft, frilly blankets. Cadence will finally get the baby sister she's been wishing for. James will still be my little snuggle puppy, and I can spoil him all the more, since he'll be my only little buddy.

I think it's a good thing she's a girl - Poor Daddy has really been struggling with how fast his sweet baby Cadence has been growing up, and he needed to be reassured that he'll have another little princess coming along soon!

 

Plus, we don't have to give the new baby to the neighbors... which is what Cadence had decided we should do if it was another baby brother.

 

She is stubborn though. It took about forty minutes to find out she was, indeed, a she.

 

When we first started the ultrasound, she was curled up in a little ball, with her knees pressing her forehead, and her ankles crossed.

 

 

She would not budge.

 

We poked, we prodded, I turned on my side. Nothing.

 

After thirty or forty minutes she finally uncrossed her ankles and straightened her legs. A little. The tech said - Quick! Let me look! Um... I'm 98% sure it's a girl. Let's get the other tech in here and get her more experienced opinion.

 

It was. Definitely a girl.

 

They still couldn't get a head measurement, which is one of the main measurements they want, so... they tilted the bed until I was lying upside down. It was great. Cadence's reaction - Coooooool!!!! Mother, that looks FUN!

 

Little miss finally cooperated and scooted where they could measure her properly.

 

After that they showed Cadence the blood flow in the umbilical cord, her skull, her heart, and her spine. Cadence loved it. She was very disappointed though, when we left without any pictures of the blood flow!

 

All in all, it was a good time, and I'm so happy and thankful God is giving us another healthy little girl!

Birthday Wishes

Happy birthday to my sweet baby! She's four today, you know. And I just can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Cadence is sweet, spunky, talkative, creative, and funny. She loves to perform, pretend, and learn. If she can find a willing reader, she will sit and listen to books for hours. This is the only pause in her movement on any given day.

So far today has gone something like this....

X Jump on the bed for thirty minutes, with intermittent pauses to 'fall' on Mommy for snuggles

X Help make scrambled eggs for breakfast, sitting on the counter and adding lots of salt and pepper

X Drink chocolate milk from a boot shaped cup, with a twisty straw

X Recieve several happy birthday phone calls

X Listen with delight as Daddy's band plays "Happy Birthday" over the phone

X Pretend to be a polar bear cub, abandoned in the Arctic with no mother or father

X Be fed bites of turkey for lunch, while driving tricycle around kitchen pretending to go to Sonic

X Make cupcakes

X Play upstairs unsupervised (I tried to be good in the closet, Mother, but instead I pulled everything out)

X Skip nap in favor of quiet time

Coming up soon on our agenda:

____ Switch car seat for big girl high-back booster seat, and let James have old car seat

____ Ice cupcakes

____ Bacon and pancakes for supper

____ Open gifts sitting on the table

____ Eat cupcakes

____ "Tell Daddy I am four!!!!!!!!!!!"

A Wee Bit of News

We have a wee bit of news again - we're going to have another baby!

 

FAQ's:

Due August 5th, 2013

Cadence will be 4.5, James will be 23 months.

We will call him/her Walnut until we found out a gender and can name the baby for real.

I have not been sick yet, which is an improvement over James' pregnancy, and we are praying this continues!

 

After we took the announcement picture (which was part of how we told Tony, so obviously he couldn't be in the picture!), we went ahead and took a few more just for fun! 

(He saw an airplane)

4 Weeks :)

National Weather Service Center {I Blogged!}

Tuesday we went to the National Weather Service Center in Norman, OK. I was planning to not tell Cadence, our little weather addict, about it unti it was time to leave, but it somehow escaped Monday night. Yikes. It took her an hour to fall asleep, then she was up 2 1/2 hours in the night because she was too excited to sleep.

 

We went with a big group of family, and took Will, Karlea, and Rylea with us. The kids all did a great job being quiet and keeping with the group. Cadence loved it. She paid rapt attention to the tour guide (except for the long, "What did he mean, Mommy?" whispered conversations we kept having).

 

Afterward we asked everyone in our van what their favorite part was. Cadence said, "The elevators!!!!! No, wait, wait, wait, EVERYTHING!"

 

So here is your guided tour - The weather trucks and our tour guide. Cadence told me last night when she is big enough to drive, this is the kind of truck she wants. Our tour guide was very nice and even answered Cadence's questions, which she loved.

 

 

The group - I think I got everyone in the picture - ish. 

The observation room - the 360 view was totally not as cool and the super speedy fast, glass sided elevators we took to get there *eyeroll*.

 



Karlea - 

Jake and Will (who mostly hung out with Uncle Dwight, so I didn't get very many pictures of them) - 

Checking our some posters... Cadence is hiding between some of the big kids - 

The forecasting center, where Cadence wanted me to explain what every single color on every single moniter meant, which satellites they were recieving images from ("From the ones on the trucks we just saw, or the ones flying around in orbit in the atmosphere Mommy?"), and whether or not we would get to see a storm while we were there. Good thing the tour guide was right there to tell us what all the colors meant - I'm pretty clueless about such things!

Abby, Cadence, and Rylea "Squishing Heads" - 

This was Will's favorite part. You can't really see him because the glass is reflecting on his face, but they are looking at a model of the building we toured. 

Holding up the world / doing a gymnastics pose - (You can't see it, but her right foot is all bent back and she's grinning like crazy!)

The girls working together to hold up the world - they loved this part, the globe was really neat, it had realtime weather being projected all over it, and gave the appearance of rotating. 

And... that's all the pictures I have to share. We also got to see the truck bay, which was neat, and some radar camera shells that had been blasted by lightning and hail - which was Karlea's favorite part. 

Cute Things

I thought I would just share some random cuteness from our kiddos, since it's been a while :)

The first is from Cadence's journal yesterday -

"Mommy, what is S-A-L-V-A-T-I-O-N?"  (It's in one of their kids songs at church)

"Salvation."

"What's salvation?"

"Its when you ask Jesus to come into your heart."

*pause*

"No, no, no, Mommy, salvation is when there isn't any food, and you get really, really hungry and die."

 

 

The second is that, for the very first time ever, someone in our family has a lovey. His name is Raffi (as in Giraffe, not like the singer), he's very soft and snuggly, and he is greatly loved.

 

My J buddy snuggles him while he's sleeping, and brings him out of the crib with him to hold him up against his cheek while he drinks milk in the mornings. The other day I found them just lying on the floor together, while J played with his tag. So cute!