The Baby Reveal

Yesterday was an incredibly emotional day, and also a very long day. We woke up early to catch an 8am flight and make it to Kansas City for Cousin Samuel Chapman's first birthday party. Samuel was adorable and we had a fun time being part of his baseball themed cook-out birthday party. Chapmans, It was so wonderful to spend 6 special hours with you on Saturday. I think we made the most of our time together.

After the birthday party, we got ready for the big baby gender reveal! Grant and I went to the sonogram on Friday afternoon, but we had the sonogram technician write the baby of the gender on a card and, I swear, I DID not peek! But Grant did peek, he couldn't resist finding out the gender on Friday, but he didn't make any slip-ups and accidentally spill the beans. Everyone voted on a pink or blue slip and put their vote in the appropriate bag - it was pretty even. Then, Daddy Grant had two bunches of balloons and he released the balloons of the gender we were NOT having. It was so exciting! I was thrilled when he kept the blue balloons, but I was afraid he could be joking me so I had to rip open the envelope and look for myself. I can't wait to welcome our new baby Boy in October! I loved sharing this experience with my family in Kansas City and thanks to my mom for the creative Reveal.

Shortly after the reveal, I received a call from a friend and colleague that my sweet friend Lakeysha Greene and her two kids had passed away in a terrible car wreck on Friday evening and her husband was in critical condition. Lakeysha and I started working together almost 10 years ago at Accenture and we worked very closely together on a number of projects over the years. She and I stayed in fairly close touch and I had just had lunch with her on May 14 and she had brought me a baby gift. She was incredibly smart, kind, authentic and hard-working. Her husband, Wyndell, also worked at Accenture, then left for a period of time, and had just started working back at Accenture a few weeks ago so he and I had briefly connected over email and were planning to get together on June 18. My heart goes out to her family and especially to Wyndell. As soon as I told my mom, she asked me if Lakeysha knew Jesus. I knew the answer was yes, but that also made me start to think about all the people I work with and am friends with and I don't know that the answer is yes. This tragedy has been heavy on my heart since I heard the news.

It's a BOY!!!

Pictures to come! The verdict is in, we are having a boy. We had a big reveal this afternoon in Kansas City and it turns out my intuition was right and a little brother is on the way. We are so blessed.

We Love Mimi

What would we do without Mimi!?!?! She is kind, thoughtful, loving, gracious, an independant thinker and overall just beautiful. Cadie goes to Mimi's Tuesday through Friday and Cadie talks about Mimi and Sushi (Mimi's dog) all the time. Cadie takes Mimi her newspaper in the mornings and they have quite the routine together.

A few things Mimi has said to me that I don't want to forget.
- "Cadie is very advanced for her age because she might already be in her terrible 2's." -- Probably the nicest way anyone will ever tell me my daughter was being a pill :)
- I dropped Cadie off one morning and said that she must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed because she was in a moody state. When I went to pick Cadie up, Mimi said, "I am returning her in the same state in which you dropped her off." LOL

We love you Mimi and are so thankful for you!

Too Tired

Last Saturday we met some friends, The Boyers, for lunch and the kiddos looked almost like twins with their blond hair and sweet faces! So great to see you again Danny, and Shannon, it was awesome to finally meet you and Brayden. After naps, we met our friends the Riley's at Sandy Lake Park for some good old fashion carnival fun. The kids had a great time with the little rides and I was glad that Jacob and Ella Bray made sure the Cadie didn't jump out of the boat.

These ponies walked fast and Dad was pretty tired after about 30 times around.

Cadie enjoyed the trip around the park in the train. However, she thought we were on the train at the zoo and kept asking about the animals.

She was zonked after all that!

Is it a Boy?

People of many backgrounds seem to be confident I am having a boy. One of our tenants who is black had a dream/vision that I am having a boy with a full head of hair. My hispanic housekeeper had me lie down and she waved a chain over my belly and declared that I am having a boy due to the way the chain was swinging. My neighbor with an Italian background saw me walking in the neighborhood with Cadie and she announced that I was having a boy as soon as we walked up. She said my skin looked great and I appeared rested which means it must be a boy because carrying girls is much more tiring. Sounds true to me - any tiredness I am feeling right now is certainly being caused by my first baby. So there you have it!

The only person who has expressed confidence that I am having a girl is my Dad. He said we are having a girl because Grant and I are so great at being parents to little girls. While I can't argue with his logic, I am not sure it holds the same weight as a swinging chain over my belly.

All the guesses will hopefully be over in a week when I go in for the sonogram! I am so excited. I, by the way, also feel it is a boy. We shall see....

"Monk Monk"

Cadie loves the "monk monks" and she got an up close and personal experience last weekend at the zoo! She was about 3 feet from a huge gorilla and they were looking right at each other. It was pretty amazing. She likes to pick the animal she wants to ride on the merry-go-round. She holds on with a death grip, but still seems to enjoy it.

Maybe I shouldn't have let her eat her snacks so close to the gators!

Papa, Elmo, goldfish - does life really get any better?

Good-bye crib

The camera is missing, so no new pics. I think it is probably in Grant's car which is at the airport right now while he is on a business trip. Hopefully I will find it this week when he gets back and can post some of the adorable pics from our trip to the zoo this weekend with my parents while they were visiting us.

In other news, Cadie is now crawling out of her crib! Yesterday she had been napping about an hour and I heard a crash and then rushed upstairs to find her crying (but unharmed) and walking around her room. Then, she got out of the crib twice last night when she didn't want to go to bed. I was worried about her injuring herself so I tried to get her to sleep on a pallet on the floor in her room - she didn't go for that. She ended up sleeping (although not much actual sleeping) with me in the bed since Grant was gone.

I am going to see tonight if I can get her to sleep in the pack and play in her room. It is closer to the ground so hopefully she won't hurt herself if she crawls out and maybe it will give her the sense of containment she seems to need to be able to rest. I can't handle another night of no sleep!

Let me know if you have any advice! I sure need it. I was hoping to keep her in the crib much longer.