16 weeks finally!

Monday, September 21

Instead of playing a game on her DS, Mara decided she wanted to play her Little Einsteins game on my old Game Boy Advance tonight.

Tuesday, September 22

Yum! I've been wanting meatloaf for a couple of weeks now, but it's been too warm to turn on the oven for very long. We were finally able to fix it tonight and served it with mashed potatoes and gravy (Mara's request) and broccoli with cheese sauce.

Wednesday, September 23

Mara wore another one of her new outfits to school today. After resisting wearing any of her new clothes, I think she's having fun with all of the attention she's been getting from her teachers over her new outfits.

Thursday, September 24

While I missed the beautiful sunset tonight, I was able to get this neat picture of the flags. When we went outside, we noticed it was a lot cooler. That's because the wind that's making those flags stand out so much is coming from the north. I can't wait until the cooler weather is here to stay!

Friday, September 25

We went to dinner tonight at one of our favorite places – Chick-Fil-A. After we ate, Mara and Lani posed with one of the signs at the restaurant.

Saturday, September 26

Today was a day for birthday parties. We started off the day taking Mara to Chuck E. Cheese for a party for her friend Emily. It was the first time Mara had been there since she was a year old, and she had a great time. Then, we went to Mike & Myra's to celebrate John's birthday with my family.

Sunday, September 27

I finally took my first pregnancy photo today at 16 weeks exactly. While I had been waiting to take this picture for many different reasons, I was 16 weeks when I took my first picture when I was pregnant with Mara too. Speaking of Mara, she wanted to pose with me for a couple of shots. We're not sure where she's learning these different poses, though. :)

Tiny movements

Last week, I started feeling some movement in my abdomen, but I didn't know if it was the baby or not. Partly because I didn't want to get my hopes up in case we didn't get good news at my appointment last Friday. In addition to hearing the heartbeat during my appointment, my doctor also told me that I should start feeling some movement in the next week or so.

Saturday night, we were laying in bed, and I started feeling the same movement I did earlier in the week. I felt my abdomen, and I could feel a hardness where the baby was. Then, I would feel the movement go from one side to the other, and I noticed that the hardness moved as well. So, I guess I have been feeling the baby moving.

It still comes and goes (mainly late in the evening), and I usually have to really concentrate to feel it. But, it's nice to know that soon I'll be feeling the baby moving all the time. I'm really looking forward to John and Mara being able to feel the movement themselves.

Happy Birthday, John!

Monday, September 14

I know that yesterday's picture was of snails, but when we came home today, we had snails that insisted on riding on our garage door. Mara also got to try on her Halloween costume tonight.

Tuesday, September 15

Several weeks ago, we bought Mara a couple of dresses for school. The only problem was that she refused to wear them until fall. Since the weather has been a little cooler (in the 70s and 80s and not the 90s and 100s), I was finally able to convince her to wear one of her dresses today.

Wednesday, September 16

I was playing with Mara's hair the other day and discovered it was long enough for a French braid. So, that's how I fixed her hair for tonight's rhythmic gymnastics class.

Thursday, September 17

While trying to get a picture of Mara's other "fall" dress, I captured this great picture of her. It's amazing how big she's gotten.

Friday, September 18

Today is John's birthday, and we celebrated by going to Buca di Beppo. It's been a while since we've been there (Mara hadn't been before), and it was a nice evening out.

Saturday, September 19

We took Mara to another LEGO event at Wal-Mart today, and she got to build a pencil holder. Afterward, we spent the day with John's family. We even got to watch Hannah play in her first soccer game.

Sunday, September 20

Since it gets so hot during the summer, Mara hasn't ridden her bike or gone to the park much recently. Even though it was a little warmer today then it has been, we did both. Mara really enjoyed being able to get out.

Missing pictures

You might notice that I have skipped our daily picture for July 6. That's because I wasn't quite ready to share the picture for that day, but here it is.

We are happy to announce that we are finally expecting again, and I will be 15 weeks tomorrow and due March 14. I guess we're meant to have March babies. :)

While we've already told our families and some of our friends, I wanted to wait a while to share the news here on our blog (at least make it through the first trimester). Plus, we've already made it past the mark where I had both of my miscarriages as well as the dreaded 15-week mark where we found out about the first loss.

I took my first test on June 30, which was the day of my yearly appointment. I thought there might be something on the test, but I wasn't going to get my hopes up. Besides, it was still too early to really tell. I expressed my concerns to my doctor about having difficulty getting pregnant since we had been trying for eight months, but little did I know that I already was.

I took my second test on July 4, and there was no denying it that time. It was still faint, but I was still one day shy of being 4 weeks along. I didn't tell John until I took the third test confirming that I was indeed pregnant on July 6.

We took our family picture the day before, so I created something with that to tell John our good news. I laater used it again to make the announcement to my family.

And just because I had some extra tests, I kept testing to make sure the line was getting darker. The first picture below is from July 12, while the second one shows my tests from July 6, 9, and 12.

I've had all of the symptoms so far – fatigue, nausea that lasted for more than a day, headaches, pains, and food aversions. The nausea is new to me since it lasted no longer than a day with all three of my previous pregnancies.

I went to my 6-week appointment on July 24. (I was actually a couple of days shy of being seven weeks.) I added a post here that goes into details for that appointment. It also includes the picture for that day. :) My second appointment was August 24, and the post about that appointment is here. I went back for my third appointment yesterday and posted about it here.

I hope and pray that this is it. That I'll get to feel this baby move inside of me and that we'll get to find out the sex of this baby. I'm still a little scared of what might happen, but I know that there's nothing I can do – it's all in God's hands.

And now that I finally made the announcement, I can go back and post some blog entries that I was holding off on until I felt comfortable posting this one. :) Here are the links to the various entries:

• Exhausted
• It's about time
• 6/7-week appointment
• Additional picture
• Still exhausted
• 11-week appointment
• 15-week appointment

15-week appointment

While I'm technically not 15 weeks along until Sunday, I went in for my 15-week appointment today. It went really well. We had to wait a little bit, but the overall appointment was fairly quick. I asked my doctor a few questions, including some weird pains I've been having, and then we listened to the baby's heartbeat. She found it high and to the left, and it measured in the 150s. It was such a relief to hear it at this appointment because this is the farthest along I've been since I was pregnant with Mara.

John went with this appointment with me since I was a little nervous, and we were able to record the heartbeat. Listen to it here.

Now, I have to wait five weeks for my next appointment. That's because my doctor wants to wait until I'm 20 weeks before we do the "big" ultrasound. So, I'm going back on October 23, and hopefully we'll find out if we're having a boy or a girl. :)

Fall is almost here...

I am so ready for fall to be here. I've decided it's my favorite season with the cooler weather and all of the fun and excitement that time of year brings. Plus, it means the holiday season is right around the corner. :) Luckily, we got a bunch of rain at the end of the week, which really cooled everything off. Now if it only stays that way...

Tuesday, September 8

We had dinner at my dad's tonight to honor my mom and dad's anniversary. Mara and Lani really enjoyed the pizza. We also gave Lani the kitty Mara made for her at the Precious Moments Chapel.

Wednesday, September 9

Mara really likes the feather grass outside of the rec center where she has her rhythmic gymnastics glass. After class, we allowed her to pick up one of the "feathers" that was on the ground.

Thursday, September 10

Eight years ago today, we closed on our house. It's hard to believe that it's really been that long.

Friday, September 11

It's been raining almost nonstop for the last 24 hours, so the spillway just south of our house is full of water. Typically, there's hardly any water in the spillway.

Saturday, September 12

Today we took Mara to Toys R Use for a play date with Thomas. She had a lot of fun playing with the train table.

Sunday, September 13

The snails are really enjoying all of the rain we've been getting the past few days. They are covering our front walkway right now.

Labor Day Weekend Part 3 (Precious Moments Chapel)

Since Lani had school on Tuesday, she went back with her parents. So, we went with my dad and Diane to visit the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri, before we left the area. We had been there before, but each time Sam Butcher (the creator of Precious Moments) visits, he changes/adds something on the mural in the chapel. On the tour, we found out that he came back for the 20th anniversary of the chapel in June and added his mother (the girl in purple) and his signature to signify that no more changes will be made to the mural. He also added a mouse and resized the angel in the painting of Daniel in the lions' den. We also found out that the little boy in the washtub pictured in the mural will be the legacy piece when he dies. Before we left, Mara made a cat for her (Cassie) and one for Lani (Callie).