Ultrasound Results

Well guys, we had our ultrasound today and I know you're all itching to hear the news. I will first tell you that we have to have another at my next appointment (4 weeks from now) because the baby kept its hands in front of its face, and they were unable to get a good look at the mouth and nose. From what they did see, they saw a small black line through the upper lip (they say it's probably a shadow from the umbilical cord, but they want to be safe and check) and they want to rule out the possiblity of it being a cleft lip. We're trying not to stress about it because the chance is pretty slim, and they really don't think that's what they saw, but we have to consider the chance. So please say your prayers that we don't have such a problem to deal with.

Everything else was perfectly normal and healthy, and we got to see the little GIRL moving all around. So we can all look forward to Jordan Brianne being born somewhere around February 22-27 (my dates are still a little off). Mike's worried that he's going to be run out by all us girls eventually. I keep reminding him that he has a boy puppy and two boy kitties on his side!

For those of you who care, and aren't grossed out by girly things, my placenta is in the front again, which explains why I haven't felt anything from the baby just yet. Most gals feel the baby around 16 weeks (especially in a second pregnancy) and I have yet to feel anything at 20 weeks. The placenta (when placed where mine is) acts like a cushion to the blows from baby kicks, making them feel (when you can finally feel them at all) like butterflies. With Harlie I couldn't feel a thing until about 25-28 weeks, and I didn't feel her strongly until I had probably only 6 weeks to go. It's sort of a frustrating experience, because you worry more since you can't feel reassuring movement, but it's all I know at this point, so I can deal with it okay, with only a small panic between my appointments.

We are so excited to have another little girl. We would have been thrilled by a boy as well, but now we know and we can start planning. It will be so easy, though, to just unpack the boxes we have of Harlie's things. We don't really need anything else, except of course the diapers we'll be buying countless boxes of, and the play yard we need to replace the one we had that was recalled. Of course we spent that money long ago on bills since we didn't know at the time whether or not we could get pregnant again, but that's an easy thing to pick up.

Well, I'm off to watch some Clifford with Harlie, or to avoid the show completely, whichever she allows me to do. They do become our bosses, don't they?!

Thanks for reading if you got this far. Love you guys!

Recent Photos

Here are some recent photos I wanted to share. I'll try to caption under each one. Excuse the order - I don't feel like fiddling with them.

Har at her Aunt Jenny's Baby Shower. She's chowing on one of my chocolate chip cookies.

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Jenny finally looking pregnant. Beautiful, right?

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Being a cow at the Cambria County Fair. She LOVES poking her head through those things!

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In front of the cows at the fair. This was one of her favorite activities this summer. She's definitely my kid!

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Shaking hands with a "cow"
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Petting a bunny rabbit - her favorite part of the fair. She went from cage to cage telling us all about the rabbits - "White bunny!" "Gray bunny!" "Bunny's water!" Who knew bunnies could be so exciting?

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Calling a goat to come see her

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Look Mommy!

Sweet Child of Mine

I'm headed to work at the church in a minute or two, but I just have to post quickly about Harlie. She has learned so much, and I'm realizing I can't sneak anything past her. She just told me "Mommy bite" (some cereal). I said I was full, and pretended to bite. She ordered me "Real bite!" so I had to do it. It cracks me up, but at the same time I think of all of the things she knows at this point. Every day she learns new things - she's starved for knowledge I swear. She's become quite obsessed with Clifford (the TV show) which she has on DVD. The other day she informed Gloria (her Gigi) that before they went to visit Gram and Pap she wanted to "watch Clifford first". Where do they learn to talk so much and so well???

I have a ton of new photos to post, and I hope to do that today or tomorrow. Also, Harlie has moved into her toddler bed. She informed us that she needed "more light" to sleep in it all night, so we moved her nightlight next to the bed and we haven't had a problem since. So I hope to take some photos of her now completed Tinkerbell room to share with you as well.

Have a good day!

Update on Harlie (and don't miss large post below)

Hi again. My last post took so long to write, that I didn't want to add anymore to it. But I did forget to talk much about Harlie, and I know you are all interested. A number of you that don't see her on a regular basis have asked if she talks much, and the answer is YES! Actually, much like her mother, she never shuts up. She knows hundreds of words and is starting to put together some pretty good phrases. Sometimes I don't know how she learns things, like when I say I'm giving the cat his medicine, and she says it goes in "tuna". I so don't remember ever saying that around her. And just the other day we passed a gas station, and she said "gas". Who knows. She knows all of her colors and shapes, and we're working on the alphabet. She loves to hug and kiss, and she's learned that if she gets a boo-boo, she can just pick up a doll or stuffed animal and hug it and she feels better. We're very much the "shake it off" kind of parents. We don't fuss over little hurts, and we never give bandaids (unless of course we actually need to). She LOVES to "fwim" which is her way of saying swim, and anything involving water can keep her busy for hours. She is a freak for dolls and stuffed animals and has to carry them with her wherever she goes. She sleeps with at least 7 things at a time, and I swear I don't know how she even fits in the crib. And yes, she still sleeps in a crib. She has a toddler bed, but doesn't want in it now. I keep saying we have a few months before she MUST move to the new bed. The reason for that is in the post below, so keep reading. Bye!

I do exist!

Hi all! I bet you thought I'd disappeared. In some ways, I have. I have been working so much lately that I haven't had time to do much on the computer but edit. But it's been way too long and I really need to at least give a little post. I'll try to remember what's been happening this summer.

Father's Day - We celebrated the special day with a picnic with all of our family. It was a beautiful day and we all had such a great time. We are SO BLESSED to have wonderful family members.

San Diego - At the end of June/beginning of July, Mikey, Harlie, and I went to California for the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. We had a great time (except for the flights - never fly with a 20-month-old). We enjoyed the conference - Harlie spent time in daycare (she loved it) while Mike and I sat through a ton of business sessions that I found quite interesting. We were looking at some controversial issues in the church, and that caused some conflict, and you know that conflict makes everything interesting (I know I'm sometimes a little evil). But no fights broke out and we made some good decisions (I hope) and it was nice to have a say in such important things. After the conference was over, we stayed a few extra days in our BEAUTIFUL hotel (with over 6,000 rose bushes) and visited the San Diego zoo (great day) and the beach. The beach was nice - Harlie LOVED it and ran right into the ice cold water. I must say, though, that I like our east coast beaches much better. I think they're warmer and cleaner. But it probably depends where you go. We all loved the zoo, of course. And it really was HUGE. So worth it. All in all, California was a nice place to visit, but I don't think I'd pay to go back again. It's just not who we are.

Baby Shower for Shawna (er, I mean Rick) - Mid-June, my best friend Shawna went into the hospital because her water broke (her baby wasn't due until August 31 - technically still shouldn't be here). She was put on strict bed rest in the hospital until baby came. We'd thought we planned her shower early enough (July 5) but I guess we didn't do such a good job. Anyway we had to have her shower without her whether we liked it or not, so we did. Rick (her hubby) came in her place and even wore the dress she'd picked out for the special occasion. He opened presents and held them up for all to see, including Shawna who was watching via webcam from her hospital bed.

Asher's Birth - Just four days after the baby shower, we got a call that Shawna was in labor. He was born that afternoon, July 9 and weighed in at over 4 pounds, measuring 18 1/2 inches (great for a preemie). He did have to stay in the hospital until July 27, though, so most of us didn't get to meet him until after that. He's now growing at a wonderful rate and doing well.

Harlie's First Amusement Park - I'm a little out of order here, but I have a reason. Right before we went to San Diego, we took Harlie to DelGrosso's Amusement Park. She enjoyed the rides quite a bit, but was a little exhausted from some excitement the day before, so when we went again in July, she had a much better time. In July, we had planned an event at the park for our church, and so there were some kids Harlie could ride with as well. She had such a good time, that when we tried to leave at 8:00 PM she begged to do the boats one more time.

Family Visit - In July, Aunt Patty, Uncle Ned, and Jason came for a few days just to visit. We don't see them often enough, and it was great to just spend some time together, even though Mike and I were working through quite a bit of this visit.

Vacation Bible School - This is more my thing and Mike's than Harlie's. She came two days, but is really too small to participate in much. But Mike was in charge of special games (we had a game show theme this year) and openings, and I was in charge of crafts. I absolutely love helping with Bible School (in fact, I skipped the week of work at the church and just helped do bulletins at the end, so I was without pay, but I didn't care!). I think Janet (my right hand with crafts) and I will continue to take care of that aspect of Bible School from now on. Yay VBS!

Church Picnic - I don't have much to say about this event, because depressingly enough this year I had to miss most of it. We had a long morning at church, and by the time we made it up to the picnic grove for the meal, Harlie was getting tired. After lunch she broke down and we lasted maybe another 30 minutes before I had to take her home to bed. Mike enjoyed himself playing softball, though, and I'm really glad he did. Even though that day I was quite jealous and layed around crying because I missed the event I looked forward to for so long. Oh well. Life as a mom, right?

Various Family and Friend Get-Togethers - Even though we've been working a lot this summer, we have had a lot of time to spend with family and friends as well. I've not been scheduling work on Fridays after the church and we've been taking the time to have some fun. Just this past Friday we went to our friends (and Mike's cousins) John and Misty's house for a fire and some mountain pies. A number of "young" adults from the church went, and we just hung out relaxing and talking. It was great. And in fact, in a few hours we will be heading to Harlie's Mimi and Papap's house for our annual end-of-summer picnic. Yay family and friends!

In the midst of all of this fun, of course, has been a lot of work. My seniors are going strong, and we still have a wedding just about every weekend, so I'm farther behind on my work than I'd ever wanted to be, but business is good, and I'm glad.

One more thing, I think all of you are aware of this, but if not, I'll make it official. After a few struggles, we are successfully pregnant and are expecting our second little one sometime in February. We are SO excited about this and we really don't care at this point what we have, as long as it's a healthy little baby. But we will be finding out the sex if at all possible, because that's what we do.

I promise to try to update sooner next time, but fall does get busy with last-minute seniors, weddings and wedding reorders, and early Christmas pictures, not to mention my sister-in-law's Baby Shower, District Conference for the church, and Harlie's Birthday. It might be a long one next time as well. And if any of you have read all of this, you so deserve a prize, but I'm too broke to provide you with one, so I'll just say I love you!

Jess

Caution: When I tried to load these photos under their categories, Blogger did not cooperate (as usual), so these are in NO order whatsoever. I'll caption a few, but you'll have to figure out what goes where!

Aunt Max, Uncle Jerry, and Dad at Uncle Jerry's Birthday Party

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Uncle Jerry and all his kiddos (Randy, Roger, Mary Jo, Kevin, Jerry)

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Jamie and Crista

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Rick at the Baby Shower

Elise, Mike, and Lisa

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Sam

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Harlie's Pappy and Uncle Scott

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Harlie and HER kitty, Cassius

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Shawna and Asher

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Aunt Patty and Uncle Ned

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Jason, Mike, Aunt Bonnie, Elise

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Mike, John, and Misty at DelGrosso's

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Her first look at the ocean - look how excited!

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CoB Annual Conference Logo

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This was at our gorgeous hotel

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Father's Day with Family

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Kayla, Julie, and Scott

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How [Not] to Photograph Pets and Children

I have so much to write about, and so many photos to get up on here for you all to view, but not near enough time. I just loaded 800 pics onto the computer (in my personal folder, not business shots) and I have zero time to look at them. In fact, I should be working on things my customers ordered before I left for vacation, but I have no drive to do that tonight. I just wanted you all to see a hilarious photo I took today. I did get some really good ones that I'll share later, but this is what you get when you put a goofy dog and a goofy kid together and ask them to pose. Have a good laugh at my expense, I'll forgive you!

A day in my life....

Hey guys. I am sitting here playing around after working all day, and I figure it's time to give you all your fix of photos. Mikey is biting his nails while watching the Penguins play (game 6) and I'm avoiding the living room as much as possible. It's been pretty boring here lately, and I'm learning to enjoy that. We've gotten into a routine that involves me spending a lot more time playing than working, and I love it. I'm not sure if I'm in a slow period, or managing my time better. I hope it's the latter option, because that means things might stay like this.

We are in a long stretch of weddings, with two more to go before a short vacation. Our "vacation" will be spent in San Diego, for the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. We are going as delegates for our church. Neither of us has been to an Annual Conference, but we've only heard good things about them. Of course we will have to deal with business items and we will have to vote on some very controversial issues, but I am quite fascinated by church business, so it should be interesting. Of course, since we are traveling all the way to California, we are going to stay a few days after the conference so that we can go to the zoo and maybe visit a beach or something else exciting. We can't go all that way and not sight-see!

I may not have time to post before we leave, but you all know you'll hear about it when we get back. On to the pics!

Decorating a "cake"

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I came into the living room one day to find this. She stood Spike's things upright on the coffee table and made a little "forest" of dog toys.

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Memorial Day at Gram's camper. Gram made her an animal of some sort out of play-doh and they were cracking up over it. We're all so easily amused.

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Harlie and Mommy on Memorial Day (Yes, I know my shirt is old and ridiculous)

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This is my favorite picture as of late. My most handsome little boy. Doesn't he look sweet?

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She thinks she knows how to make a blade of grass whistle, but she really just goes around squealing while holding the grass near her mouth.

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Harlie and Kalee at Shawna's picnic
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No words necessary
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These shoes are too small for me (my feet grew when I was pregnant and they never went back to original size - like some other parts of me). I can't get rid of the shoes, though. She loves to walk around in them. So cute, right?
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This photo is for my cousin, Trishy, who made this dress. I don't have any great pics of her in it, but she does look absolutely precious. People asked if it came from Gymboree, which I think is a great compliment to Trish's skills.

Love you guys!