All About Baby #2

We are so very excited to be welcoming another precious baby into our family!! We can't wait for November to get here! We found out on March 16 that baby Taylor #2 was on his/her way.

I had a terrible sinus infection and was achy all over. I just plain felt terrible. I knew there was a possibility that I could be pregnant, so I was afraid to take anything and suffered for a few days. I told Derek I would just wait and see if I was "late" before taking a test. I didn't want to go wasting a whole bunch of pregnancy tests because I was testing too early. The day I finally took the test I just couldn't stand it any longer....I was so miserable that I just had to take something. I was also just anxious to know if we had a baby coming! Luckily I was working from home that day, so before taking any cold medicine I took a pregnancy test. I took the test, went back to get some more work done, and came back fully expecting it to be negative. Much to my excitement it was positive!! About two seconds later I realized that meant I was left to suffer until I could get a doctor appointment for all of the yuckiness I had going on. I wasn't expecting my monthly "friend" until the next day, so Derek had no idea I took a test when I did. I didn't want to call and tell him over the phone that I was indeed pregnant, so I waited until he got home that afternoon. Can I just say that that was the longest day ever. The time seemed to drag by.

I wrapped the test in a gift bag and put a few Reese's peanut butter eggs on top so he wouldn't see it immediately. When Derek got home there was a gift bag on the table. I told him I had a gift for him. He was excited when he saw the eggs because those are his absolute favorites!! I had to tell him there was something else in the bag for him because he totally thought that was his gift. When he pulled the pregnancy test out he looked at me and his mouth fell open. He then asked, "does this mean you're pregnant?" I wanted to say, "well no, sweetheart, I just thought I would surprise you with a negative test....ha!" I of course told him YES!!!! I had been dying to tell someone all day! (I did finally get a doctor appointment that week and got some antibiotics that kicked my infection to the curb!)

I'm feeling pretty good. I haven't thrown up at all!! I've had constant nausea since week 7, and I am very much looking forward to that going away...hopefully soon. I'm starting to get a little energy back now that I am in my second trimester. There for a while I was good for nothing. Derek was doing all of the grocery shopping...ha! He has been really good to me and has taken on more of the household responsibilities for me. Joshua doesn't really have a clue what's getting ready to happen in his little world. He knows there is a baby in mommy's belly, and he even kisses from time to time. He also thinks he has a baby in his belly sometimes, which is just too cute!

My doctor appointments have gone well so far. I have to take the dreaded gestational diabetes test at my 16 week appointment on June 8th. I am not looking forward to that or looking forward to being on that diet for 5 months. We're praying I won't have developed an early case of it and that the test will come back negative. And then we should hopefully find out what we're having at the end of June or beginning of July!

The baby is due November 22, 2010!! Hopefully we won't be celebrating Thanksgiving in the hospital....but I guess having a new baby around will probably trump Thanksgiving....ha!

Please pray with us for a healthy baby! We praise God for the miracle of life and for giving us the opportunity to raise his children! What a blessing it is to be parents!!

It's still hard to believe that this sweet little guy is going to be a big brother!

Like Daddy Like Joshy

Mother's Day 2010

We celebrated Mother's Day with our families on Saturday. It was an all day event! We started with lunch and play time with my mom, Granny, and my sisters. Joshua thoroughly enjoyed ALL of the attention my family gave him. They seriously don't tell him no, ever, and my mom almost always has a helium balloon waiting for him. He now sees balloons and asks for YaYa because he associates her with balloons.

Holding his balloon while YaYa loves on him

Being silly with Granny :)

We left Concord and headed to Albemarle for family time with Derek's mom's family. It was a sweet time with grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles, and cousins! Joshua loves playing with his cousins, especially Hudson! We had dinner and hung out until dark and then headed back home. It was a great day trip that will be remembered for a long time!

I LOVE this picture of Derek and his mom!

Hudson had to hold them in place for a picture.....ha!

We are so blessed to have such wonderful mothers and grandmothers! On Mother's day we kept it low-key and just enjoyed some family time just the three (or four!) of us. My boys presented me with the sweetest photo book with special pictures of my time since I've been a mother! What a great weekend!!

Red and White Football Game 2010

We haven't been to the Spring football game in a few years. We decided to go this year because we figured that Joshua would enjoy it, Jeff Knapp came up to go, and it was a beautiful day! Derek went for the whole game while I stayed home with Joshua to get a little nap. I got him up early, and we headed out to Carter Finley. We got there just as the second half started and stayed until the end. After the game was over they let everyone go down on the field where the coaches and the players were there to meet us.

We tried everything to get Joshua to look at the camera for this picture, but he simply would NOT turn his head around. Please enjoy the back of his head!

Joshua got to meet Mario Williams, but he was a little more interested in what was going on on the field.....ha!

Joshua just enjoyed being able to run around the football field. It was a fun time! We also had a great time getting to see Jeff! Too bad we didn't get any pictures of him.

Addison's Birthday

We celebrated Addison Hankins' 2nd birthday at Monkey Joe's! Joshua is a huge fan of that place. He absolutely loves bouncing, jumping, sliding and the like. It wears him out, but he he hates to leave. Needless to say, he had a blast!

She may look like she doesn't like his hugs in this picture, but she really does love hugging him and tried to several times that day....ha! We don't see them enough, but the kids love it when we do!

Easter 2010 (along with Grandma's Birthday)

It was a lot of fun this year to get into some of those silly little traditions people do for Easter now that Joshua is big enough. We know the real reason we celebrate, and we are so very thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, who died and rose again for us. We tried our best to help Joshua understand that. But we also wanted him to have a chance to participate in all of the fun things we got to do growing up. Joshua participated in three Easter egg hunts this year. Well he really only got to do two of them. Nichole had one for the kids at her house, and I got to go and be a part of it. Joshua was so cute as he picked up every egg and declared it was "ellow". He's gotten better with his colors since then, but we're still working on them. Side note....he now names most things as red first before he'll tell you what color it actually is.

Nichole's neighbor saw us out there and showed up in a full out bunny costume. The kids loved it, but we adults were a little shocked that her neighbor actually had a bunny costume on hand!

I couldn't believe Joshua was actually willing to hug the bunny....

This picture doesn't show their excitement.....

On Good Friday we headed to Albemarle for the day to celebrate Easter and Grandma's birthday. Joshua enjoyed playing with all four of his cousins. We also got to enjoy some time with Ma and Poppy (Derek's grandparents) where Poppy has been staying at the rehab center. We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids at the rehab center, which was loads of fun, and we also treated Grandma to lunch for her birthday.

Joshua and Hudson on the hunt for some eggs

After our hunt.....unfortunately they were not willing to look at the camera

David, Pamela, Hudson and Katy

Tabitha, Riley and Taylor....we missed Ben since he wasn't able to come

Grandma and GaGa with all of their grand babies

On Sunday morning we put a little basket together for Joshua. Derek made a trail of eggs from Joshua's bedroom to his basket in the living room. Most mornings Joshua is happy as a lark once we rescue him from his crib, but on this morning he was ill as a hornet. He did NOT want down, nor did he want to follow the trail of eggs. We had to pull everything out of his basket for him to show him there was actually some great stuff in there including some M&Ms! After he got a few of those in him he was much better. We enjoyed an awesome service at church and then followed it up with an egg hunt out in the courtyard. That is the one he kind of missed and didn't get to participate in. Since our church is a satellite campus and we meet in a high school we have to break down and pack everything up afterwards. By the time Derek and I finished packing up in our rooms we serve in and got Joshua out there all of the eggs were gone. They had chocolate in them, so the kids wasted no time collecting them. A little girl was kind enough to give Joshua one of her's, which he could have cared less about. We ate Wendy's for our big Easter lunch. That's what we get for not living close to family to enjoy a nice meal with.

Joshua standing there with no eggs and none to be found......:(

And the new picture of our family up in the right hand corner is our family picture from Easter.

Joshua's BIG Announcement!

Joshua's title will change come November 2010.....

Momma Went to Texas

At the beginning of March I was blessed with the opportunity to fly to Texas to see Johanna! Derek graciously told me to go and have fun and that he didn't mind at all keeping Joshua for the long weekend. He didn't quite know what he was getting into. Joshua ended up running a high fever all weekend and was not much fun. He ended up with an ear infection and Derek got the chance to take Joshua to the doctor twice in one weekend. I think he deserves an award for putting up with baby fussy pants. I had an absolute blast in Texas, although I was worried about my boy and missed both of my guys all weekend.

I got to Texas Friday afternoon and left Monday evening. It was so much fun to just have time to hang out with Johanna! We pretty much talked, and ate, and talked, and watched tv, and talked some more, and ate some more. One of our goals for the weekend was to sit and watch a Lifetime movie since we haven't done that since college. Saturday morning we accomplished that goal, although the movie we chose was absolutely awful. Don't worry, we watched it through to the end anyway. After our movie we went on a roommate date to Chick-fil-a like we used to do in college. It's the simple things in life! We also went and walked around Baylor where Johanna will be starting grad school this summer. (yay Jo!)

Going to see the actual Baylor bears....too bad they were sleeping in a cave and we didn't get to see them.

Then we went shopping, and Johanna bought me a cute skirt for my birthday! On Sunday we went to church, ate some Rotel, went to see an afternoon movie (what? who are we?) and stopped by Sonic for some cherry limemade goodness and FRIED PICKLES!!! I haven't stopped thinking about those fried pickles. They were so good! Our Sonic here doesn't have fried pickles.....sad day. You can feel sorry for me if you want. I guess I'll have to fly back to Texas to get some more. That sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

Us with our Rotel....yyyyuuuuuummmmmmm0000000

Sunday night we played Mario Kart on Wii. I was pretty terrible, but it was oh so fun!

On Monday we went and got pedicures!! It's been a year since I've done that. Afterwards I had to go pack up so that we could hit the road to the airport. The weekend was much too short. I can't wait to go back!

Derek and Joshua survived the weekend. Little man was still sick when I got home so I got to take the day off on Tuesday and snuggle with him at home. By Wednesday he was back to his usual bouncing off the wall self. It took him a little while to realize when I left him to go to another room that I wasn't going away for good. I have to say I enjoyed the extra mommy love! I missed Derek and Joshua like crazy, but I am so thankful for a weekend away with my bestest good friend. Love you Jo!!

Lake Weekend with Small Group

I'm still catching up. I think it's become a continual theme. I guess you'll just have to get used to it!

The last weekend of February our small group Bible study headed to Lake Gaston for the weekend. Beth and Stephan, a couple in our small group, were gracious enough to invite us. Stephan's family owns a GORGEOUS house on Lake Gaston. There was so much to do there and plenty of room for all of the families. Total we had five couples and four children. We left Friday night and rode up there with our friends Brian and Becky. Saturday consisted of eating lots of yummy food, playing, and Bible study time. We took shifts so that we could fit in some girl and guy time. The guys went outside and played disc golf for a few hours in the morning while we ladies kept the kids inside to play. After lunch all of the kids went down for a nap and the adults got some Bible study time in. Once the kids got up from their naps the guys took them outside to play while we ladies got some much needed girl time. It was so nice to actually have conversation that went beyond surface level and to really get to know each other better. We played a game called Life Stories which was kind of silly but turned out to be a really neat game. We basically had to answer questions about ourselves and then at the end we each got a chance to go around and build each other up. I think the Lord knew what we all needed that weekend. Once we had dinner and got the kids in bed we all played Mexican Train. It's a really fun dominoes game, and if you've never played it you need to! We got up Sunday morning and cleaned up the house before heading home. It was such a fun weekend and such a special time to have with our small group. Thanks for hosting us Farrell family!!

The whole group

Our cute kiddos!

All of the ladies. I love these girls!

Our handsome men!

The back of the Farrell's beautiful lake house!

Happy Birthday Grandma and YaYa

Grandma and YaYa are another year older......but we won't say which year this is! Happy birthday you two! We couldn't ask for better moms/grandmothers!!!! We love you bunches!!!

(Sorry Grandma....we have got to get a better picture of you and Joshua)

(And I had to use this picture with YaYa again b/c I think it's so cute!)