Half-way Point

I'm 20 weeks today! I can't believe I'm already half-way through this pregnancy. I hope the second half doesn't go as quickly as the first half did! For one thing, I'm not sure if I'm ready to juggle 3 kids at once! But I also just want to enjoy this time. I'm in my 30's and this is my third baby, so I fully realize this may be my last baby. And that makes me sad. I love this time of my life. I love being pregnant. I know that sounds weird; yes, I was sick the first trimester and yes, I remember how miserably uncomfortable I was during the third trimester, but I just love feeling the baby move and just the anticipation of the whole experience.


And while this picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post, I had to put it in here. Is he the cutest little guy or what? Dave and I both had errands to run today, so we each took a child with us. I took Lacey with me and Dave took Tanner. I got home and Dave looked at me with a sheepish grin. He then proceeds to tell me that he made an impulse purchase (and this, right after he initiated a discussion on how we really need to stick to our budget). "What was it?" I inquire. He goes on to say that he was at the store "and we passed this" (he takes out this HUGE tube full of 70 little cars all different colors, etc) "and Tanner just went crazy. He wanted it so bad and I just gave in and got it for him." Dave was smart; before I could launch into a lecture about what would happen if I gave into him every time he threw a tantrum for something he wanted when he was with me, he pulled out the camera and showed me this picture. How could I resist that face? So, Tanner..... if your dad doesn't buy you a car for your 16th birthday, we'll pull out this picture and remind you that he bought you 70 cars right after your second birthday!

Thomas Point

My parents left Monday morning, but I have one last post of something fun we did while they were here. We went to Thomas Point Lighthouse! This was my mother's one and only request of what she absolutely had to do while she was in town - see a lighthouse! Well, Thomas Point Lighthouse is a cool lighthouse, but it sits in the middle of the water, so it can only be reached by boat. I've lived here for 5+ years and have never seen it. So, Dave volunteered to stay home and watch the kids while my parents and I boarded a boat for a 90 minute "cruise" to see Thomas Point.


Look how happy my mom is as she catches her first glimpse of the lighthouse!

And here it is up close. My mom loves, loves, loves lighthouses, so this was a fun thing for the three of us to do together. Thanks for coming to visit us, Mom and Dad!

My T is Two!

Tanner's party was last Saturday, but with so much going on, it has taken me a few days to post it. But here he is in all his cupcake glory at his 2-year old pictures. The photographer gave me the idea to bring him in his nice clothes I wanted for the picture, then hand him a cupcake "with bright frosting" and let him go to town. That's exactly what I did and this picture just makes me laugh!

Here is all his unopened booty.....

And here we are playing the "dirt game." We decided to have a dirt-themed party. We talked about what the things Tanner loves as we were deciding on the theme: Trucks, cars, etc. (but we did cars last year), Diego (but we just did Dora for Lacey in January), anything boy like mud, dirt.... Dirt! We could have a dirt party! So, for the game, I crushed up a bunch of oreos and put candy worms, bugs, trucks, etc in the "dirt." The kids had to use shovels to scoop out the candy and whatever candy they got, they put in their bag and that became their party favor/goodie bag.

My oh-so-talented brother-in-law, Jack is seriously a Jack of all trades! He's always working on some project! And this summer, he is digging up the entire backyard, so this huge pile of dirt is currently in their back yard. So, what better place to hold the party than in a back yard with a bunch of dirt!

And here's the Dirt cake, compliments of Dave.

Here he is about to dig in. And if you're noticing my soaking wet hair, it's because we literally had 20 minutes from the time we got home from our 10-miler until his party started, so I jumped in the shower and raced over to the party! Needless to say, the man of honor was about 15 minutes late for his own party. Whoops!

He loved all the cars, trains and toys he got.

But no annual post is complete without a few stats from mom. Tanner is such a sweet little boy. Don't get me wrong... he's two! So, he has his tantrums and his strong opinions, but he has an overall sweet disposition. He's my cuddler. He regularly comes up to me, looks up at me and just says "hug." This means he wants me to hold him. I pick him up and he just rests his head on my shoulder and wraps his arms around my neck. Best feeling in the world.

He talks a TON. He's been talking in full sentences for many months now and it just amazes me how verbal he is! (Maybe just because Lacey wasn't nearly this verbal at his age). He just cracks me up. On his birthday, I picked him up out of his crib, laid him down to change his diaper and started singing "Happy Birthday to You." He interrupted me and said "No singing the birthday song, Mom!" Then, today, we were outside and he proceeded to walk down the walkway and into the street. Me: "Tanner - come back!" Tanner: "I'll be right back, Mom. I'm going for a walk." Cracks me up! Every time he says good-bye to anyone or anything (park, slide, truck, etc.), he says "Bye bye. See you later. Have a good day!"

2 year check up: 36 1/2 inches (90th %ile) and 33# (90th %ile)

I love you, my sweet Baby T!

We Did It!

We got up at 6am on Saturday and headed to Baltimore for the Baltimore 10-miler. We did this race last year and decided to do it again this year. We signed up and paid for it before I was pregnant. I decided I still wanted to do it and I'm glad I did. It was a lot of work training for it because we have been having consistent 90 degree days, but we did it!


Here I am with my 4 1/2 month pregnant belly after I crossed the finish line. I think I'm going to take a break from the distance running now and just work out in 30 minute increments in the air conditioned gym down the street!

Friday

We did so much while my parents were here (they left this morning to go back home) that I feel like I have to post a day at a time to get it all in. On Friday, we started off the morning by going to the Amish Market. The Amish (from Lancaster, PA), come down every weekend on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and sell all their homemade goodies. They even have a little restaurant and we had breakfast there which was delicious! They're not big on having pictures taken of them, so I kept my camera tucked away during that portion of our day. From there, we drove to downtown Annapolis and boarded a boat. It was a beautiful day for a boat ride and the kids loved it!


Here's Lacey with my folks as we pull away from the dock for our 40-minute harbour cruise.

Poor Dave had to go to work and miss out on all the fun during the day, so while my mom stayed home with Tanner so he could go to bed at a reasonable time, the rest of us (Dave, his parents, me, my dad and Lacey) headed to the local AA minor-league baseball game, the Bowie Baysox!

They have this great little kid area with a carousol that only costs $1. Awesome! There were even fireworks after the game, but due to wanting to get Lacey to bed and due to the fact that Dave and I had our 10-mile run early the next morning, we bailed during the 7th inning stretch. Go Baysox!

It's Our Birthday!

On Thursday, June 17th, Tanner turned 2 and I turned, well, older than 2! I wanted to do something that day that would be fun for both of us, so I decided to go to the Zoo! My parents, Lacey, Tanner and I all spent the day at the zoo together and had a fabulous time!


Lacey and Tanner loved the tree house slide. They spent lots of time going up......

and coming down!

We went to the petting zoo.....

And we even got to feed giraffes! How cool is that?!

You know, on the way home, I turned to my parents and I said "Do you realize I just took pictures of the kids all day and we didn't get one single picture of me with the kids or either of you with the kids?" What was I thinking?! Anyway, we had a great birthday! We had Tanner's birthday party this afternoon, so more birthday celebration pics to follow....

Ultrasound Results: It's a............

Baby! Now, do you really think I was going to find out IN ADVANCE? No way! I didn't find out with either Lacey or Tanner and I wasn't about to find out with this one. Now, people that know me can't believe that I don't find out the gender in advance because my personality is such that I like to be in control of the situation, plan ahead, etc. Yes, that is all true. But, I also love, love, love anticipation. I was never the kid that looked ahead for her Christmas presents. I wanted the surprise on Christmas morning. I'm also the bride that let her husband plan the entire honeymoon and had absolutely no idea where we were going until we got to the airport and were stepping on the airplane. And this, to me, is the ultimate anticipation, the ultimate surprise.

Since we weren't finding out the gender and Dave already went to the first ultrasound several weeks ago, he didn't come to this one. Instead, I brought my Mom! It was perfect because she and my dad arrived last night from Chicago to spend the next 5 days with us. We are loving having them here and it was so fun to have my mom with me at the ultrasound seeing little baby move all around.

5 Years Ago.....

We got married!


To celebrate, we went out to dinner at the Chart House, a great restaurant situated right on the water in Annapolis. Dave took me here the night he proposed to me.

When we called to make our reservations, they asked if it was for a special occasion and we said that it was for our wedding anniversary. Well, we showed up and they handed us our personalized menus as they showed us to our table!

Well, here we are 5 years and 2 1/2 kids later. I have so many wonderful memories of that day 5 years ago. I loved being surrounded by so many wonderful family and friends. I loved the warm, sunny weather. And I love being married to my wonderful husband!

Mini-Olympics

Here is our Mini-Olympian in all her glory! Once a year, Lacey's gymnastics class has a Mini-Olympics where family is invited to see the mini-olympians show off all their skills. Lacey loved getting her first medal!

Here she is doing one of her favorite things - the bars.

And here she is doing her other favorite thing - the trampoline. This whole past year, we've had Lacey in "Tadpoles", a class for kids under 3 1/2 that they do with their parents. But now that she is nearly 3 1/2 and she passed off all her skills, she moves up to "Guppies" starting next week. So, as you can see, the real Olympics is just around the corner for us..... :)