The Pod Swaddler Pattern GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

It has been forever since i have posted! I have kind of become more of a facebooker. Crazy I know! So what has inspired me to blog after so long? This super cute swaddler...The Pod Swaddler Pattern GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!. You can also check it out on this website, While They Sleep.

I am now 6 1/2 months along and the pregnancy has been going great so far! I am starting to feel the exhaustion a bit more, but other than that I've been doing pretty good. The little guy has been kicking a ton! We have been talking to Shiloh about it a lot, but the other day she got to feel and see him moving for the first time, and I think it has helped her understand a little bit more. She is talking about the baby in mommy's belly a lot lately, and sometimes she will just come up and put her hand on my belly to feel it. So cute!

We are in the midst of potty training, and so far she has been doing great! I'm still not brave enough to take her out of the house without a diaper, but we are getting there! Next step, moving to a toddler bed.

Boston

We had a great but exausting time in Boston! It was so fun getting to walk everywhere and take the metro, it almost felt like being in Europe again. We all stayed in my brothers apartment in Harvard square, so we were right in the middle of the action. I didn't realize how much being pregnant would affect me, but I was dragging as we went all over the place! Shiloh was such a trooper! She was so good, had so much fun with all the family and just took everything in stride. It was such a relief to get out of the Oklahoma heat and be back in high 60's to 70 degree weather again! Summer is not my favorite time of year! Andrew's graduation was beautiful and we were so happy that we got to be there to celebrate with him! Congrats bro!!!

I have started to feel our little guy moving a lot more, and this morning Filipe even felt him kick on the outside! It is so fun to know he is growing and it is all making it feel more real to me! We are more than half way there! I think we finally made a decision about a name, but I'm not sure if we are going to put it on our blogs yet. It just feels a little weird putting it out there on the internet. We'll see.

New man in my life

So this week we had our first official ultrasound and we found out that we are having a... BOY!!!

Here is his little profile. He is puckering his lips like he's giving a kiss. So cute!

Filipe has been certain through the whole pregnancy that it was a boy. It's going to be a fun new adventure since Shiloh is such a girly girl! Mostly I am excited to finally be able to buy some things for this little guy, just in time for Boston! H&M here I come!

We are still working on the name, although we are getting a little closer. It is so much easier to focus now that we only have to come up with one name instead of two theoretical names.

We leave for Boston in the morning (at 5 am!)! Pray for a good trip!

1 year ago....

A year ago we were visiting Shiloh,
our long awaited girl,
for the second time,
but this time...
to be with her forever.

It was a moment to remember,
knowing that the waiting was over,
that she would never be far,
but in our arms forever;
and knowing that that now
we would have all the time in the world
to be with her,
to know her,
and to love her.

Today, 1 year later,
there are so many memories,
and the bond between the 3 of us is so big,
that its hard to believe
that its only been 1 year.
I am so in love with this little girl!

and all I can say is
God is so good!

Update

Spring is in the air! Here that means that one day it will be roasting and the next day wet and cold, but we have managed to sneak in some outdoor play time. Shiloh is growing like a weed. She is so much fun right now! I am so smitten with her! Her imagination is really growing and it is so cute to see her play "house" with her baby and stuffed animals. Her favorite thing to do right now is rock all of her animals to sleep while singing to them and then she lays them all down to go "night night" in a row across the floor. She LOVES playing outside and loves rocks, birds, trees, clouds and the sky. It is so cute to see her in awe of these things that are so easy for me to take for granted sometimes.

The pregnancy is going well. I am 17 weeks along now. I never had to deal with morning sickness, thank goodness, though I am still waiting for some of that energy to come back, like everyone says it does in the second trimester. We will hopefully be finding out if it is a boy or a girl in the next few weeks! We still don't have a name, but at this point we have kind of given up until we know the sex. It was so much easier with Shiloh, knowing we only had to come up with a girl name!

We are headed to Boston at the end of the month to see my brother graduate from Harvard! We are looking forward to getting some time off and having some fun! If anyone has any recomendations of things to see in Boston, let me know!

A special day

Two years ago today we got to see this precious face for the first time. We had already gone through a lot of pain in our adoption process, and seeing this little girl for the first time brought us so much hope.


One year ago today we found out that we were finally out of PGN (one of the last, long, BIG hurdles to bringing Shiloh home). I can still feel the relief and flood of emotions when I remember back to it. It was probably one of my best days ever.

Needless to say, April 10th holds a special place in my heart! It amazes me that it was only a year ago that we were going through all of this! God has so fully healed our hearts and made us into a family that sometimes it is hard to remember the pain and the waiting, almost like I am living another life. Shiloh is so completely a part of us that it is hard to remember a time when she wasn't here.

I am so blessed and thankful that I get to see this beautiful, smiling face everyday! God has truly blessed our lives!

We have a 2 year old!!!

I promise, I will eventually get to putting up our Hawaii pictures, but first... Shiloh turned 2 this weekend!!! We celebrated on Saturday morning with a breakfast pajama party. All the kids came cozy in their pjs which was kind of nice because it had snowed the night before and was freezing!

We had a great time, but one thing I have learned is that 2 year old parties are CRAZY!!! We all had fun eating, talking and opening presents, but by the time the end came, everyone was way over-stimulated.

Shiloh in her pjs

Her cake was a towering strawberry short cake.

Here is a nice, calm pic we got of all the kids in their jammies...
...although we got about 10 that looked more like this.

On Sunday morning we woke up to hearing Shiloh laughing and playing in the monitor. Filipe had papered her room the night before and when we walked in, she had pulled some of it down and was playing with it. She got to open some more presents in the morning and then we went to breakfast before church.

After church we went to the park for a picnic lunch with the family. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day (and it had snowed the day before. Go figure.). Shiloh had SO much fun running and playing with everyone.

I think her first birthday at home was a huge success. That night, after we had put her to bed, we could hear her singing "Happy birthday to you" to her animals in her crib before she fell asleep. So precious!