18 week update and belly shots!

I've seen lots of weekly pregnancy updates on blogs, and I love to read them!  It's so sweet to see a family's life changing as they prepare for a new little life.  I'm not a scrap booker or a journaler.  Blogging is the only record I have of our family, so what better place than this to write it all!

18 weeks

Belly update: It's starting to pop out a bit!  I can still wear my jeans, and most days I can button them.  I've officially gained my first pound. :)
What's Baby Long up to?: The baby is about 5.5 inches crown to rump (an iphone is only 4.5 inches) and 5.5 ounces.  The baby can hear us now, and can move all of his/her joints.  I felt those first precious flutters one day at 14.5 weeks, but I must have been laying just right, because I don't feel them too often yet.  :)  The baby's favorite part of his/her day is when Landrie gives it sweet kisses. :)
Cravings:  Baby Long wants Easter candy like crazy!  The main ones are the pastel Hershey Kisses and Starburst jelly beans.  Well, we are praying that this child will love Jesus at an early age; I guess it's good that she loves Easter!:)  I'm also craving Coke.  I finally bought some caffeine free, and it's SO good.

Best part of this week:  I am so enjoying feeling 100% again!  I haven't had morning sickness in several weeks, but I still didn't feel like myself again.  Now I feel more rested and food tastes fabulous again!
I'm looking forward to: Seeing this little guy or gal in action this Friday at our sonogram.  I can't wait to see all of the little bones and organs developing and to hear that we have a healthy little one!  Of course, I can't wait to bite into my pink or blue cupcake too...

Here's the belly at 18 weeks!!

I'm totally copying this one from Vicky. :)  It was so neat to see the progression of her belly!  This week it looks higher to me.

2 days, 2 days, 2 days!!!!  

(The voting race is neck and neck!!!)

Birth mom Brianna & two cuties!

Landrie's sweet birth mom, Brianna, came into town on Saturday for a visit!  I love that she's close enough that we can do little visits pretty often.  

This is my new favorite picture of them!  Aren't they so cute?

Landrie, Brianna and Brynn (Landrie's bio half sister!)

Hugs!

After a little hang out time at our home, we went out to eat.  Landrie thought Brynn was HILARIOUS!  I think we might need to borrow her every time we go out to eat. :)  

And the girls are officially done with sitting still at the table!  :)  They were good for a really long time!

The front of the restaurant had beautiful flowers.

  "Look!"

Landrie had to smell them!  She almost face planted into them.

I love this one of them running and playing without a care in the world.

Good bye kisses!

And good bye hugs!

If you aren't in an open adoption, I know it can seem so weird and scary.  It sure did to us!  Then we met Brianna, and it just works beautifully.  If you are thinking about adoption, you'd be crazy not to at least consider an open one.  It's not always best for both parties, but when it is, it's such a great arrangement.  Brianna gets to keep in touch with the baby she loves so much and watch her grow up.  Brynn and Landrie get to spend time together as sisters, and Landrie gets extra people in her life who love her like crazy.  We get to know our own baby girl even better by knowing about her birth family, plus, we get to hang out with sweet Brianna and Brynn!

Potty Train a BABY??!

Okay, so the CRAZIEST thing happened.  I had already decided not to attempt potty training until after we'd adjusted to life with a new baby.  The baby will come near Landrie's 2nd birthday, so I was ready to train a few months after that.

Yesterday I got down her cute frog potty so she would just start getting used to it.  I sat her on it and...she went!!!  I started screaming and ran to tell Mark.  Landrie didn't really get what all the fuss was about, she was just happy with her Hershey Kiss.  :)

I thought it was a fluke, but I tried it 4 times Saturday, and she went 3 of those times.  What???  She's been a few more times today, and is happy to go.  She loves to flush the potty, then runs to the pantry for her candy. :)

Here's my question for all of you.  Is she way too young??  She's not telling me she needs to go, and she certainly can't take off her own clothes yet.  I mean, she just learned how to say "tee tee" yesterday!  I know some kids this age are potty trained, but I just don't know if she's ready.  If you think it's possible, what are your favorite methods or books/websites I need to check out?  I feel so unprepared!  :)

PS- Did you vote yet??  Only 5 days until we find out if Baby Long is a boy or girl!!

It's VOTING time!!

Nope, it's not November, but it IS time to VOTE!  This election is much more fun, and much less stressful. :)  We find out Baby Long's gender in just a few days, and we'd love to get your opinion!

PLEASE vote!!  It will be so fun!!  The poll is at the bottom of this post if you're too impatient to wait. :)  Of course you want to be an educated voter, so here's all the old wives' tales I could round up for you.

In this particular old wives' tale, if you are carrying your baby low, it is predicted that your baby's gender will be male. If you are carrying high, then, it is predicted that your baby's gender will be female.
Not a huge bump yet, but I think it's pretty low!


So, craving chocolate or other sweets during pregnancy would mean that you are going to have a boy, whereas if you crave sour things like lemons your will have a boy. 
I've singlehandedly eaten many bags of candy in the last few weeks...


If your husband gains weight, you will be having a girl. If he doesn't gain weight, you'll be having a boy.
Mark's gained a whopping 2 pounds!


Some people believe that if your baby has a fast heart rate, near 170 beats per minute, then that means you are having a girl, and that if your baby’s heart rate is closer to 150 beats per minute then you are having a boy.
At our 13 week appointment, the baby's heart rate was 156 beats per minute.  At our 8 week sono, it was 182...


If your face is round then you are having a girl, long and narrow means a boy.
Oh, I so win in the round category!


They say that if you eat a clove of garlic, and the smell comes out through your pores then you are having a boy. If no garlic is detected then you are having a girl. 
Okay, I really want to know the baby's gender, but not THIS bad!!  Ewww!


I think those questions and results will be REALLY helpful in determining the actual gender.  haha!  Here's the poll!  If it's not showing up, just refresh the page.  :)

If I would have known about this test a few weeks ago, I would probably have taken it!  You can get it at CVS or Walgreens, and for $30 you can take an at-home test as early as 10 weeks!!!  My friend Mandy took it, and her sonogram results were a match!

I got all those old wives tales from these websites:
http://www.babygenderprediction.com/gender-old-wives-tales.html
http://www.babiesonline.com/articles/pregnancy/genderoldwivestales.asp

nursery ideas!

I'm linking up with Lyndsie, a sweet girl who is waiting to adopt!  She's doing a day on nursery ideas, so check out all the fun links there!

I am so excited about decorating Landrie's big girl room (we'll be reusing a lot of her cute nursery things!) and the new baby's nursery!  Kids' rooms offer a chance to do something bold or whimsical that you could never pull off in the main part of your home!  I've been checking out some ideas....

Gender Neutral:
When we were adopting, I looked at a lot of gender neutral nurseries.  You never know if you'll have months or mere minutes to prep!  I liked ones that I could add in some girl or boy touches.



Green and black from here.


This one with orange stripes is fun, but I would leave the brown out.  I'd add in turquoise or hot pink when we got a baby!


I love the red on this one.

BOY nurseries:



Oh my!  I love the paint treatment and this shade of blue with the white!  You can see more pictures of the nursery (complete with gorgeous wood floors) here.


I like the nontraditional colors of this one.

GIRL nurseries:

I know this is the girl section, but the red walls look so cute with this bedding!


Here's the Pottery Barn bedding from the room shot above.  So fun!


I love the sweet femininity of the petal pink and gray here.  And of course, I LOVE the monogram. :)


How relaxing is this one?  There are lots more pictures at that link too.  That would make her sleep through the night, right? :)

Oh, and here's one more girl one.  It's Landrie's precious pink and green paisley nursery!  We had to put it together in just a few weeks after Brianna chose us!


It's always fun too look at ideas!!  Just 10 more days until we can start decorating with PINK or BLUE!

Fabulous Adoption Post!

No, I'm not bragging about my writing!  This is simply a link to a girl who wrote a really good post.  :)  Maybe you too when to Texas A&M around the same time I did.  If so, you remember Breakaway, a HUGE bible study with thousands of students.  Ross King led worship for it while I was there, and his wife Staci sang too.  They have adopted 3 beautiful babies, and I just love what she wrote.  Really, you'd be crazy not to go read it.  :)

Check out their family blog and see what Staci wrote here.

Belly Shots!

Okay, by far the most surprising thing about pregnancy so far is how long it takes to show!  Years ago I actually bought maternity clothes months before we ever even started trying, you know, so I'd have them ready when I started showing, minutes after we found out we were expecting.  :)  

The entire first trimester, I kept checking for a bump.  I would get so excited when I had a little one, then a few hours later it would be gone again. :)  I'm happy to announce, there's finally a baby bump!

Here's the proof!  It doesn't look so big from this angle, but it's definitely there! 

Here's what I see!

It won't be long before I look really, really pregnant.  I can't wait!!! :)

18 month cutie!

WOW!  I can't believe our sweet baby girl is 18 months old today!  Mark's sister Megan helped me take some adorable pictures of her last week.  I LOVE to look back on little things that I wrote on this blog.  I can't believe I've already forgotten about some of the things Landrie used to do!  Let's check out what this 18 month old is up to...

Landrie, you are still a complete joy to your daddy and me!  Well, if I have to be honest, you are a joy to everyone around you!  Your current favorite things to eat are Honey Nut Cheerios (a mommy-craving turned Landrie food!), yogurt, hot dogs, MILK, cheese (just like daddy!), and anything sweet.  

You are so ticklish and love to laugh.  You've started a new thing where you sneak up on your daddy and me and "scare" us.  I think you would do it 100x in a row, and you just belly laugh every time!

Landrie, you are so into your babies and lovies right now.  Each nap time and bed time, you have to have ALL of them in your arms.  As we hold them out to you and say, "Do you want Moomoo chickchick?" You nod your head furiously, sometimes say "yes," then squeeze the baby like crazy when we hand it to you.  :)  By the time we leave the room, you have 6-8 babies in your arms!  During the day, you put them in their bed and sometimes even cover them with a blanket, just like daddy does for you each night.  

Speaking of sleeping, you are still doing great with sleeping 7pm-7am, and many days it's closer to 8 by the time you get up!  For the past two weeks, you've skipped your nap about half the time.  Maybe it's time I start waking you up earlier... :)

You are talking up a storm!  You say 20+ words, but most of them are just similar to the real word.  We are always saying to each other, "Did you hear that?? I think she just said _______!"  These are our favorites:

tan oooo (thank you!)

eeeesssee (cheese for the camera)

'gin (again)

Mommy, Mom, Momma, Daddy, Dada (she says these perfectly!)

baby

duh (duck)

bye bye (of course, it's accompanied by a wave and lots of blowing kisses)

and, your favorite to say is "mil" (milk)

Your daddy's favorite part of this age is how mobile you are!  You are always running around the house, following us everywhere we go.  We never have to wonder if you're hungry.  You climb up in your high chair by yourself!  When Daddy says it's time for night-night or that he's going to change your diaper, you run right to your room!

You love to spend your days with Mommy, but you light up when Daddy walks in the door!  You two have so much fun wrestling together on the floor.  

Oh, the books!  How could I forget to mention the books??  You will bring me book after book and just sit and snuggle for a looooong time in my lap as we read them.  You are still a huge fan of the lift-the-flap books and love to point out all the things I ask you about and make all the animal noises too.  

Your daddy and I waited for YEARS for God to bring you to us, and during that time we dreamed about how much we would love a baby.  Our minds could not even wrap around the immense love we have for you!!  You are such a precious gift to us!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  

James 1:17

Big Sister to be!

Someone's getting excited about her new role!  

8 Days of ADOPTION- Never thought this day would come- our baby is ONE!

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner again!  This week is kids' birthday parties!  Click on over there for tons of fabulous ideas!!  I've updated the post from Landrie's party, and added even more links and pictures.  I hope you enjoy!

Well, folks, we made it!  If you're counting, that's 8 posts in 8 days, which is a new record for me!  I intended for some to be short and some long, but of course they are all novels. :)

So, today's post is "Never thought this day would come, but our baby is ONE!"  There were so many sad days when I wondered if I would be like Sarah and have to wait until age 90 to have a baby!!  Today we are living the dream of parenthood with our precious baby girl.  Landrie Grace Long, WE LOVE YOU!!  We waited and prayed for many years before we got to meet you, and our lives have never been better!

Well, this mom of one has been SO excited to finally get to plan a 1st birthday party for Landrie!  I may have been a bit over the top in my planning, because within days of my crazy emergency surgery, more than one person told me not to worry about the party and offered to help!  haha!

My mother-in-law made her ridiculously cute dress!  I tried to convince her (just a few days after surgery!) that I could walk around a fabric shop, but she wisely just insisted that I just close my eyes and go back to sleep.  I did. :)  She took the camera to JoAnns and took pictures of every pattern of fabric with pink or zebra on it and brought them home to me to choose from!  So sweet!  She sewed the dress

and these matching bloomers

then when Mark's sister Beth came over to watch Landrie, she took them home and added the cupcake and monogramming.  Seriously??  I considered this one on Etsy, but ours turned out so much cuter!!

When my friend Bethany heard I was going to send Mark to Hobby Lobby, she told me that was torture.  :)  She took my list and got all the party/crafting supplies I needed!  For the record, Mark had agreed to go.  He'll do anything for his girls.  :)

My parents came into town twice to help with everything going on and to help with the party!  My mom's a master party planner and did all the grocery shopping and helped make all the goodies.  

We went with the theme "We're WILD about Landrie!" because, well, we are!  These are the zebra chocolate covered pretzels that Landrie gave her friends.  When I was a teacher, Ruthie taught us all how to make these.  They were a FABULOUS fundraiser when we sold them (unwrapped and with rainbow sprinkles) for a dollar on Grandparent's Day!  See how to make them here.    

Then we used this tulle ribbon, slid the scrapbook paper tag on and just tied a knot .  We used the entire spool of tulle all over the party!  If you're doing a girly party, it's the best $2.99 you'll spend!!

YUMMY!!!  

The tiny tags said, "Landrie is WILD about YOU!"  I looked all over, and finally found the skinny cello wrappers here for really cheap!  I bought extra bags because I know I'll be doing this again!

Since Isaac and Landrie's Gotcha Day Party at the park was so fun, we had Landrie's first birthday at a park too!

I made these signs with 5x7s and scrapbook paper for Landrie's birthday banner!  Just click the picture to see them all close up.

Then we Mark and my mom hung it up in the gazebo at the park!  There's one picture for each month.  It got the idea from this blog.  Her Dr. Seuss party was so over the top, and I copied a bunch of her stuff!

Now for the FUN part, the part everyone loves about a first birthday party!

"That cake over there looks really tasty!"  I made her little high chair skirt too, but ran out of time to make a hat!  If you run out of time, you can just buy this adorable, personalized party decor pack here. (click here if that link is broken) Too cute!

I made her a strawberry cake (well, my mom made all the cupcakes and the batter for the cake, but she let me put the batter in the pans, so I could say I made it!), frosted it with vanilla and piped the zebra stripes out of melted chocolate.  She had a sparkly number 1 on top too!

"This is SO FUN, Mom!!!"

She dug her tiny fingers in, but couldn't lift the cake, so she just planted her face in it and chowed down!

"Dad, you're HILARIOUS!"  (a little sugar high about now)

Brianna jumped in for some pictures, but Landrie was WAY to focused on eating the entire cake to stop and smile. :)

A chocolate zebra stripe was stuck to her face.

Look how much she ate!!!  She was still shoveling it in her mouth when we finally took the cake away.  She's so petite; you'd never guess she eats like this.

"Daddy, you've GOT to try this stuff.  It's called 'birthday cake!'"

Meanwhile, her friends and cousins enjoyed cupcakes!

Landrie opened a gift from her friends, Lake, Smith and Thomas.

Checking out a gift from Brianna

It was a beautiful angel bracelet with her name engraved on it!  Brianna knows us oh so well!  On the back, she engraved Jeremiah 29:11.  Do you know why?  Read this.  So sweet!

Playing in the huge sandbox

Keri, Jessica and their girls drove up from Austin for the festivities!  It was so great to see you guys!

Friends and family enjoyed their lunch on tables with zebra print table runners (made from wrapping paper)! We put zebra and hot pink everywhere!! 

 I made the cupcake tower with her cake on top using this tutorial.  It wasn't hard!  I used tissue paper for the pink (so it was big enough to cover without seams) and cut strips of scrapbook paper for the edges instead of using ribbon.  

Tex has the best seat in the house! 

Click on the picture to see a close up of the cupcakes.  I spread white chocolate on waxed paper, then drizzled chocolate on top.  I broke it into pieces for cupcake toppers.  It was MUCH easier than my original plan!  The zebra cupcake wrappers were from Hobby Lobby too.

Lots of Landrie's friends are babies, so we had a "Baby Buffet" with Cheerios, pears and Puffs.  :)

Brynn is ready to float away!

We got home and realized we never took a picture with Landrie's grandparents!  We had lots of aunts, uncles and cousins at the party too!

I LOVED Landrie's party!  I could never have pulled it off without help from everyone around me.  At this point in my recovery from that crazy emergency surgery, I still was not even allowed to lift one pound.  Actually, even if I didn't have surgery, I never would have been able to do it alone either!  :)

Little Miss Landrie Grace Long, your daddy and mommy love you SO, SO much!!  You bring joy into our lives every day!!  We can't wait to watch you grow from our precious baby into a lovable little girl over the next year!!!  

**UPDATE!  Since we found out that our surprise blessing is on the way, and due just two weeks before Landrie's 2nd birthday, I'm already planning her next party!  I may have already booked the place... :)  SO, I'm debating between Mickey Mouse and Elmo.  She loves them both.  If you have good party ideas about one of those, please leave me a comment!  I want her to have a great party with her tiny new sibling!**