We're having another BABY! We are so blessed and so excited to meet our new little one. Our due date is March 10th, which means that I'm at 10 weeks along today. We saw our sweet baby for the first time earlier this afternoon. "Baby Tummy" (Jada's name for baby) was very active - moving everywhere and waving hands all around. We scheduled our anatomical ultrasound too - October 15th is the big day! Can't wait to find out if Miss Jada is having a little brother or a little sister!

Here's our sweet baby -

What a fun week we've had!

My dear friend, Brianne, and her husband Matt welcomed their sweet baby girl into the world last Monday. Jada & I were honored to be able to visit baby Charlotte on Wednesday morning then take her big brother home with us for the day for a super fun playdate. Jada & Rowen chased each other up and down the hall, played with puzzles together, rode on Jada's Dora car together (& when I say together, I mean both sitting on the seat at the same time - ha ha!), and even took naps at the same time for me! Whoo hoo! Here are pictures of them hanging out.





Gabe & I decided that we want to get back into riding our bikes this summer, so we picked up a bike trailer for Jada this past week. She absolutely loves riding in it. She chooses a new little friend to sit next to her each time (Monkey is pictured here, but Elmo and Baby Sarah have also taken a ride). She's even in love with her "bike hat" (helmet), which she personally picked out at the store. :-)





These past few days have been so gorgeous and sunny; we are soaking up every ounce! Yesterday, we went for a long walk around the neighborhood; Jada wanted to hold Kaya's leash, so I tied it around the bar first, then let Jada hold the handle. She thought she was pretty cool.



Today, we headed over the the park where Jada proceeded to pretty much run from one dog to the next. I'm pretty sure I asked "Can we pet your dog?" about 10 times this afternoon. ha ha. She loves meeting puppies. :-)

Here she is throwing rocks into the creek (also a favorite activity):



Finally, I just wanted to share this sweet video of Jada saying "thank you for the water". She's really starting to put words together and it is so amazing to watch her and see what she comes up with.

Jada is completely in love with Elmo. It's pretty funny because she doesn't watch Sesame Street; in fact, she doesn't even watch TV. She just fell in love with this Elmo doll that we walked past at Target a couple weeks ago. When she saw it she asked, "What's that?" (which sounds like a single word - "Wussat?"). We answered, "Elmo". She held him in the shopping cart & hasn't let go since. From then on, this bright red, furry baby doll-thing was her precious Elmo.

As you can imagine, when we saw that our favorite coffee shop/indoor playground, Munchkin Playland, was hosting a "Meet & Greet with Elmo" party, we simply couldn't pass it up. We signed up right away and counted down the days until Miss Jada would meet the real Elmo in person.

At first, she was a little concerned with this large Elmo fellow. For the first 20 min, she wanted to look at him and blow him kisses, but didn't want to leave our arms. After a while, she warmed up to him & sat on his lap. She wanted to share her little Elmo doll with him on various occasions (we're pretty sure that her love language is giving gifts - she's always sharing her food, toys, and water with her dolls - that's our thoughtful little girl!).

Here are a few pictures from this fun little Elmo party:

Why spin lettuce when you could spin the letter V?



After spinning her letter V, she, of course, wanted to sit inside of the salad spinner. :-)

This is my absolute favorite phrase that Jada says. "Oh boy!". Here's a cute video of her practicing her new little phrase.



She also loves animals. Here she is practicing the names of animals & their sounds.

Jada loves to read us stories. Yesterday, she wanted to read right after she woke up.
Please excuse her crazy hair and lack of a shirt - we hadn't quite gotten there yet. :-)

What's a VaStay, you ask? It's a hybrid of a vacation and a stay-cation and it is amazing. Gabe took this entire last week off of work; we headed over to the coast for a few days (the vacation portion of our week), then relaxed at home for the rest of the week (the stay-cation portion). I would highly recommend this combination. Sometimes, after traveling, it's difficult to return to the usual schedule of life. It's such a treat to return from traveling with the knowledge that a few more days of nothingness lay ahead.

From Monday through Wednesday, we stayed at at the WorldMark resort in Seaside, OR (thank you Nana & Papa for giving us some of your points for Christmas so that we could do this for a very affordable amount!). Jada fell in love with the swings on the beach. We fell in love with the sight of our happy girl and the beautiful ocean.





"How old are you, Jada?"
"ONE!!!"

 

 

 

Snacks & Playtime with Daddy...

 

Time to go swimming! (Although it was a pretty quick swim; even a 97 degree pool seems pretty cold outdoors in April at the Oregon coast).





On Thursday, we enjoyed a fun morning at the Children's Museum. Jada's favorite activity was probably splashing in the Water Works exhibit; she is quite a fan of the splashing.



Now, we're just relaxing at home for the rest of the weekend. A few errands here and there, but the majority of the time is being spent playing at our neighborhood park, enjoying a casual dinner with friends, playing cards and Settlers, and just spending time together.

What an incredible week.