New Hairstyle

Last week I came home to a new hairstyle for Brody - thanks to his babysitter Jessica :)

Meeting new friends

Nana told us that Elmo, Dora, and Spiderman were going to be at The Learning Express near Jax beach a couple of weeks ago. She thought Brody would love it because he LOVES Elmo and is just now getting into Dora. I invited a good friend of mine, Kelly and her little boy Bradyn to join us as well. We weren't quite sure how they would react with these characters.

When we walked in, Brody was first greeted by Spiderman and then Dora. He didn't want anything to do with them. He wouldn't give them five or anything. I thought this was going to be a wasted trip. BUT then he saw Elmo he went right up to him and gave him five. Later we even got a hug out of him. Of course the only pictures I was able to get was Brody with Elmo since he didn't "hang" out with the other 2.

Over all it was a successful trip. Hopefully, he'll even get used to the others as well.

Here's the initial meeting.
Even posing for a picture.

Kelly and Bradyn. Bradyn wasn't so sure about Elmo.

The sweet hug from Elmo.

#2 Birthday Celebration

Since we celebrated my birthday at home Friday night, I really wanted to go out to eat for my birthday as well. It's something about going out to eat for your birthday. My mom, dad, Jason and I along with Brody went to Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse at the Towne Center. I was pretty excited to see how Brody would react to the live cooking show.

Of course before going to dinner I had to do some "needed" shopping. Who can go to The Towne Center without shopping - not me. At least the shopping was for Brody some shoes. Poor guy was in desperate need of some shoes. We got him sized the weekend before and he was in an 8.5. His current tennis shoes were a size 7. I felt terrible to have him in such small shoes.

After a little shopping we headed to eat. We knew we would have to eat fast because eating with a 2 year old - or at least Brody - once he's done eating he is ready to get down. We try very hard to practice keeping him in his high chair at home until we finish eating. It was so funny to watch him as our chef started cooking. He seemed to enjoy it except when the BIG fire came - that had him tears. The chef was very nice to try and put it out quickly. I'm not sure if he was so overwhelmed with everything because he didn't want to eat the food at all and he is usually not a picky eater. Thank goodness we weren't there that long - we were actually there a little over an hour.

The lovely "stare" expression.

He loves his NiNi.

Wow - 33 already!!!

How time flies. On the 15th, I turned 33 - go ahead and say it I can't believe she's that old. Jason's mom and I share the same birthday (yes, he has it pretty easy and better not forget that day)- I won't mention her age though. We usually celebrate by going out to eat but I guess with the addition of 2 children (Brody and Cale - Bryan and Tara's boy), we thought it might be easier to just eat at the house. At first I wasn't a big fan because who wants to cook for their own birthday. However, I went the EASY way- lasagna & pasta from Sam's - just pop in the oven. I LOVE to bake desserts - but a birthday girl should not have to bake her own birthday cake. Jason volunteered to take care of that for us - what a sweet guy!! He picked up a chocolate with chocolate icing cake from Edgewood Bakery - it was yummy!!

Nana and Poppy, Bryan and Tara, and Wendi (Jason's cousin) all came over the Friday night before our birthdays and we ate and played Guitar Hero. It was a lot of fun. However, I guess since I worked that day, I wasn't in a very energetic mood - actually I was exhausted.

What a great band!!


I'm not so sure what Nana is singing :)

Of course my little guitar player had to join in on the fun. Poppy is so proud.

Nana graduated from UNF in December with her Nursing degree and has really been wanting the UNF frame for her diploma, so Jason and I got her that for her birthday. She is so excited for graduating and so she should be. We are so proud of her hard work. I received a VISA gift card because of course being pregnant - it's quite hard to buy for me.

We had a great time and here's Nana, Brody and Jason trying to build a house out of Lincoln Logs before Brody knocks it down. You have to work fast!!

Date Night

Last weekend (I know I'm a little late), Jason and I had a date night. I would really like to try and do this once a month but something seems to always come up - we stay so busy. Anyway, my mom and dad agreed to keep Brody for us (and he stayed overnight). Jason and I met each other at Towne Center for a little shopping and to eat. When I got up that morning as always my clothes were already ironed and ready for me but when I put my shirt on I felt HUGE and FAT. The shirt wasn't very flattering and it wasn't even a maternity shirt but I sure looked FAT!!! However, I have a very small window of time in the morning to get ready and have to be very quiet to not wake up Brody so I had to wear the shirt anyway. All day I did not feel good about myself - hopefully some of you may understand where I am coming from. So as we were shopping, I kept explaining - probably complaining to Jason about it. I HAD to buy another shirt or I wouldn't feel good all night. Off we went to find something - here's my pick. I sure wished I had a picture of the before (or maybe I'm glad I don't).

We both did some more shopping - shoes and clothes. Here's my great shoes since it seems that buying shoes is a little easier for me right now.

Being pregnant I usually am very picky on what I want to eat or DON'T want to eat. However that night, for once I wasn't very hungry - maybe it was the huge lunch I had at work that day - oh yeah maybe it was the big piece of chocolate cake I snacked on ALL afternoon (this baby's going to be hiper for sure). I chose the Cheesecake Factory - probably for the wonderful dessert. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table but we ended up being in the restaurant for 2 hours. Our food was VERY slow BUT we got 2 FREE pieces of cheesecake to take home. I would say it was well worth the wait.

We then headed off to River City to watch a movie - Taken. It was VERY good. I thought I would fall asleep in a 9:30 movie seeing that I had already had my caffeine for the day and I only allowed myself to drink water, but it kept me on the edge of my sleep. I highly recommend the movie.

It was a very nice evening just the 2 of us. This definitely needs to happen at least once a month. Now the grandparents may think differently seeing that they were up at 7AM with Brody.

17 weeks

I had my monthly doctor's appointment on March 4 and based on the sonogram it said I was 17 weeks and 2 days - this was a little further along then I thought. The due date came up as August 10, but of course my doctor doesn't really like to change the due date so she still says Aug 19. I told her I'm saying August 10 - that's a week and half earlier - less heat. We could have found out the sex but Jason and I have decided to just wait until the baby comes - it makes it pretty exciting.

She said everything looks great. I am feeling great and I have been so blessed with no sickness. I still get pretty tired - I guess keeping up with a 2 year old and getting up at 5:30AM 3 or 4 days a week can wear on a pregnant girl. Thank goodness for weekends and my days off. Jason has really been great through all of this. He now has to get Brody out of the tub and put him in the bed - it's becoming a little difficult to pick him up. I really am trying to take it easy. This is a hard task for me because I am so independent and think I can do anything.

Here's the 17 week sonogram - we won't have another sonogram until about 32 weeks when we may get the 3D sonogram.

Here he/she is looking at the camera - yes it looks like an alien a little :)

Nice wave to the camera.
Here's the belly getting bigger.

Smile for the camera.

Brody has never been one to really smile for the camera so all the pictures we have seem to have the same "why are you taking this picture of me" look. I was determined to teach him the correct way to pose for the camera - not that I'm an expert or anything but it's got to be better than the stare at the camera with no expression look. Here are a few pics of our fun evening. Yes, he is modeling my new hat that he helped me pick out. I think he's getting the hang of the camera - he needs to with as much as the camera is in his face.

Granny's Birthday

About 2 months ago, Granny (Jason's granny) had surgery to remove a blockage in one of her arteries in her neck. The surgery went great and she was on her way to being able to come home in a day or so when she was sitting up eating one day and choked. They had to do CPR on her and boy how things changed then. She was put back on a respirator and feeding tubes - we weren't sure what was going to happen. However, she is such a trooper and is so full of determination that after a month of being in the hospital she was able to be admitted to a rehab center. She's been there for a couple of weeks now and so we all got together and celebrated her birthday there on Feb 22. Here are a few pictures of our celebration.

My little photographer.

Brody and Caleb had a blast playing with Granny's balloons.