Welcome Braelyn Olivia Marie!

Braelyn decided to grace us with her presence on September 26 at 6:04pm. Weighing in at 7lbs and 4.5oz, she was a bit bigger than her 5lb 10oz big sister. Shailah is absolutely loving being a big sister. We have to tell her enough hugs and kisses, or she would be loving on her all day long, and Braelyn wouldn't ever be able to sleep!

3 and a half weeks to go??!!

Well this baby apparently is not going to follow in her sister's footsteps and be a '36 weeker'. Which is a good thing, I really wanted her to be full term, but now I'm starting to wonder if she's going to come before my due date, which would be nice. We have pretty much everything ready for the new little jelly bean. I'm just trying to keep caught up on house work. I really don't want to bring the new baby home to a dirty house, although I know that most people find that my dirty is clean to them... keep in mind I have OCD! I am getting a little better, kids will do that to you.

The nice thing is that my mom will be around, hopefully, for a little while after jelly bean is born to help around the house, and with Shailah. She starts vacation in a little less than 3 weeks, so if this baby can hold out that long she will be here... I must admit, I would be happy if she comes next week. I will still need my mom around, but Ryan may have to take some more time in the beginning if her vacation is a week or 2 out.

Shailah is starting to fight naps, typical for a 2 year old I suppose. Now she's starting to delay them by saying she's hungry, wants to be rocked, etc. Which gets a bit annoying after awhile. It is nice to rock with her though, so I usually will give in for a little while. I figure that I won't be able to rock with her much longer without having another baby who needs a million things done, so I better take advantage of the snuggles now.

Hopefully the next post will be welcoming jelly bean in to the world!

Summer is almost over :(

It's crazy to think how quickly this summer flew by. I am now 33 weeks pregnant, Shailah came at 36 weeks, so this little one can come in just a few short weeks... what a scary thought! We found out that this one is another little girl, it will be interesting to see how the house stays afloat with two little princesses running around. I am very happy that Shailah will now have a girl to play with, she's always surrounded by boys!

Shailah just turned 2, and I actually made her cake! It turned out well, but was a lot of work. Luckily Ryan helped out a lot, as he's been doing with all the cakes I have been making lately. She is also now in her 'big girl' room, sleeping in her big girl bed, without a pacifier! It's sometimes difficult to get her to actually stay in her room when she should be sleeping, so we often have to put up a baby gate to keep her in, but she's getting better.

I probably won't post again until the baby is here. We will be having a 'Welcome Home Party" for jelly bean within the weeks following birth, so we will be sure to let everyone know the date for that... and yes, I will be decorating the cake, with Ryan's help!

Cake classes

Well my second set of cake classes are about to end. We have a two tiered wedding cake that we are working on for class Thursday, I have been trying to get the 30 fondant roses we need made by then... it's not going that well. I took today thinking I would have the entire day to work on them, but then Shailah suddenly got a fever of 103.5 shortly before 10am. She just wanted to snuggle all day, not giving me much time to work on my roses. Hopefully I get them made it time! Here are some pictures of a few cakes I have made so far. These are from my first class, I will upload some from my fondant class after Thursday.

Update

Wow... it's been awhile! I could say that I've been too tired, but that would be a lame excuse... honestly I've just been lazy. So here is a update to cover the past 3 months!

For all who have not heard, Shailah will be a big sister in October. We are so happy to be expanding our family, and for the most part this pregnancy has been easier than last. In fact it has had me worried at times that it was going too easy... well that is actually starting to change... but I will not be posting any details. My nerves were relieved Friday March 27th when we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I have decided to see the midwives this time, and Lori, my friend Sandra's favorite midwife, let Shailah 'help' her find the heartbeat with the doppler... the heart rate was 166, very healthy! So far my experience with the midwives have been great. There are 4 in the practice, and I will meet with all of them, that way whoever is on call when I deliver, I will already know.

Shailah will be moving into her 'big girl' room in the next couple of months. We will be converting the spare bedroom into her room, and we will be re-painting the nursery. So we have a lot of painting and moving to do soon. Ryan will also be finishing his '3 year project' of the master closet. Luckly we have awesome friends and family who have volunteered to help.

Shailah has continued to do well with baby sign, and has at least 20 signs that she can use. She's also talking... a lot... although we really have no idea what she's talking about! It's still very cute to listen to her carry on a conversation.

My friend Michelle and I will be taking cake decorating classes the next few months. I decided to do this, when the lady that made Shailah's BEAUTIFUL birthday cake last year moved away. This way I won't have to pay anyone to make anymore cakes, and hopefully I enjoy it. I just hope that I'm actually good at it!

We have our ultrasound scheduled for May 22nd and will *hopefully* find out if sweet pea is a boy or a girl.

That's all for now!

Not so fun Christmas

Shailah and I got sick Tuesday night from the stomach flu. We received it from the little boy that I babysit. So we spent Christmas Eve, which is my birthday, sleeping, as well as Christmas. I started to feel better Christmas, but then Ryan got a small bout of it. So we missed seeing any family Wednesday or Thursday, including Ryan's grandmother who came out from Arizona to meet Shailah. Needless to say, next year I will refuse to care for any sick children the week of Christmas... We will not miss Christmas twice in a row!

Friday and Saturday we did get to have some Christmas celebrations with family, including Ryan's grandmother, but everyone had to be careful because Shailah is still somewhat ill. She stopped having messy diapers yesterday morning, which is a huge blessing, maybe now her little raw bottom can heal. It has been taking two people to get her diapers changed, one to hold her down, because it hurt so bad. At times I would cry with her because I knew there was nothing I could do to help her. However, after many oatmeal baths and lot's of cream, the rash is mostly gone!

So while we are truly blessed that we have a home and food to put on the table, I hope we never have another Christmas where we are locked in our house for 3 straight days!

Shailah + Santa = Unhappy baby

We decided to go to the mall yesterday and figured that while we were there we would attempt to get Shailah's picture taken with Santa. While waiting in line, which was much shorter than I assumed would be, I was trying to get her to see the other kids sitting with him, thinking maybe that would help. When it was finally our turn, she was fasinated with him, but did not want him touching her. So Ryan and I got in the picture, with Shailah sitting on my lap. It actually turned out to be a really cute picture. When we left she even blew Santa a kiss goodbye. I'm hoping that she will do better with him next year! We then went to the play area in the mall and Shailah had a blast! I had the sanitizing wipes in hand though.

Potty Time!

Shailah went in the potty last night! She's done it once before, the night we bought her the potty chair, but I haven't been very good about putting her on it since. Last night I pulled it out and left it in the living room, while she had no diaper on, and kept asking her if she needed to 'potty', she just kept shaking her head 'no'. I was in the kitchen making dinner, and at one point I came out to make sure she wasn't playing in the Christmas tree. I looked in her potty and she had gone! I was so excited! I could tell that she was pretty proud of herself too! The only real experience she's had with it is with her diaper on, she will sit on it and go "pisssss", making the noise, it's really funny!

Shailah's First 9 Months