And so begins my 29th year!

We celebrated my 29th birthday on Sunday the 9th! Ian took off Sunday & Monday, and was already scheduled to have T,W, Th off work, so having him home for 5 days straight was a huge gift in itself!! It was pretty low-key which was nice & relaxing! Spent the first half of the day with our best friends, the Ratliff's, and the second half with Mom Mader who brought me red velvet cake & a huge bouquet of gorgeous flowers! She watched the girls for us in the evening so that Ian and I could go to a nice dinner at Christopher's. I got a beautiful ruby ring from my husband and I an incredible vacuum(Dyson/Animal) from my in-laws(I LOVE to vacuum!)!! Also received very sweet cards from friends & family...some enclosed with thoughtful surprises; and a plethora of well wishes via facebook from family & distant friends, and that always makes a lovely day more special!

I asked the girls to come take a picture with me and with no further prompting, this is the preciousness that turned out! Great capture of their personalities...Kare's always the dramatic love bug & Kels, the expressive ham!

 Holding my priceless gifts from above...all 3 of them!

 Pregnancy shared between best friends! 

Baby boy Ratliff & baby girl Mader will be 2 months apart!

 My hott date & endless love! Oh, we took the baby along :)
(22 weeks)

 Hooray for birthdays!! I'm off to eat more cake!

"Princess Dy". 

You would not believe how much nastiness this thing sucks up out of the carpet!! It's unreal! Love it! 

Recent tid bits

Wow! It's been a while. Sorry about that blog fans.

For those that don't know, Ian and I had a baby appointment on Aug.28th and we decided to find out the gender of our baby! We originally didn't want to know and if Ian had his way, we still wouldn't. He & I had discussed that if this one was a boy, we would probably be done having kids. That being the case, I really wanted to know pre-birth if this was going to be my last pregnancy so I wouldn't have to deal with that emotion postpartum. Ian understood, and the more we prayed about it, the more we came to the mutual decision that it would be best for our entire family to find out. We're really glad we did so that we can now make it more real for the girls. 

It's a Girl! 

We are excited to meet our li'l jewel come January! She definitely had us fooled. Ian and I were both thinking it would be a boy since this pregnancy has been so different than my first. First trimester had me nauseous all the time, she is constantly moving, way different food preferences...but we are grateful to know that she is exactly what our lives need!! I am 22 weeks along and other than fatigued, feelin' great! Instead of calling the baby "baby Bert", we've been encouraging the girls to call her "baby Cinderella" or "ella". ;) 

Karis & Kelsie have been doing great with potty training. It's been over a week with no major accidents! Very proud of them! They love any Disney Princess and can name all of them. They also sing most of the songs they hear. They are very helpful and enjoy assisting me with chores. They also have made a habit of cleaning their room before bed, picking up toys & books. They are growing up so fast! I know they're going to be great big sisters! 

Here's a couple of my favorite recent pictures.

Feeling very blessed!