Time Flies!!!

Wow!  I can' hardly believe that we are quickly approaching the holidays!  We are busy preparing for visits with family and celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas in the following few weeks.  It will be an exciting Holiday season this year!  I can't wait to see the excitement in Jonas's eyes as he experiences Christmas and winter time!

The past few months have been busy with lots of little things around out house!  We have spent some time visiting with great friends, visited the zoo with Jonas, and our biggest project was reclaiming the messy spare room.  Over the past two and a half years that Steve and I have lived in our home, our third bedroom has gradually grown more and more messy and cluttered.  Unfortunately, I have heard that this happens even more once you have children!

With our little three bedroom home, we have our room, the nursery, which will be Joelle's room, and now we have transformed the spare room into Jonas's room!  I won't be sharing a 'before' picture, as it is quite embarrassing how it looked before!  Here are a few photos of how his room looks now!  I still hope to put up some more pictures on the walls and get some curtains to cover the windows, but you get the general idea of what it will look like!

        

Jonas is not yet sleeping in his toddler bed, as he is only 14 1/2 months old.  We set up his room so that he will get used to everything and start to attach to this room more than his 'baby' room where he is still sleeping.  We only have one crib, so we intend to switch Jonas over just after Joelle is born.  I found an inexpensive bassinet in the past few months that will work wonderfully for Joelle for her first few months.  So far, his transition into his 'big-boy room' has gone very well!  Every morning when I get Jonas out of his crib, he wiggles out of my arms and runs into his new room to play!  

On Monday, I will have reached my 30th week of pregnancy.  I can hardly believe how quick this pregnancy has gone by!  It seems like it was just yesterday that Steve and I were praying for the possibility of a second child, and here we are nearly 10 weeks from welcoming our daughter into the world.  The pregnancy is going very smoothly, and there are no medical complications to be concerned with.  I am amazed, though, how much more tired I am this time around!  I think that chasing a toddler around has added to my tired-ness!

Here are some photos of Jonas these past few months.  He is growing up so fast!  

Please continue to keep us in your prayers over the next 10 weeks as we continue to prepare for Joelle's arrival.  There is still a lot that needs to be done before she gets here and I am hoping to finish the major things this month!  

It's a Girl!!!

Steve and I are so excited to announce that our baby due January 28, 2013 is a little Girl!  We are so thrilled for Jonas to have a baby sister and feel so blessed by this little one already!  The Ultrasound went really well.  All of the information still needs to be confirmed by the OB GYN, however, the Ultrasound Tech who performed the exam said that everything looked great!  The baby's heart beat was strong and has been consistently at 150 beats/minute over my past exams.  Her heart looks healthy and she is measuring almost exactly at my due date!

We have picked out a name for our little one also!  We will be naming our daughter Joelle Rose.  Joelle is pronounced "Jo-ehl".  We are excited to use this name for our little one!  Steve's middle name is Joel, so she is named after him!  We chose "Rose" as a middle name because we really just like the name!

Our little girl is very active these past few weeks and I have enjoyed feeling her move around.  She is positioned very similar to how Jonas was during most of my pregnancy with him; her back is down the left side of my belly with her feet kicking toward my right rib cage.  So far, I have been thinking that she is less active than Jonas was, but I am only really remembering those last few weeks of my pregnancy with Jonas to compare to!  I guess it isn't a good comparison!  The Ultrasound Tech said that she was quite active today.  While trying to get a nice profile view of her head and torso, she did a few flips around!  It is so incredible to see them moving around at this stage!

Here are a few pictures of baby Joelle from today's Ultrasound.  We are eagerly anticipating her arrival and hope you are all as excited as we are!  Thanks for checking in!