To Pau Pau's house we go - golfing

For Valentine's Day, we went to see Gran and Pau Pau. Once again, it was all about golfing and driving the golf cart. Pau Pau was impressed by his ability! Ha!




We also got to take Cody fishing at their lake house on Lake Fort Phantom. Cody was over it quickly and freaked out by the fish Gran caught. He found a broom and seemed to enjoy sweeping more than anything!

The big day will be....

May 21st! ...Maybe...Ugh! Here's the deal, my doctor is moving his practice and wants me to deliver at a different hospital and apparently scheduling is not so easy. They're supposed to call in a week or so to confirm, but until then I'm to "pencil in for the 21st".

Now for the deets: She's a "big girl" according to the nurse - which my doctor wasn't too thrilled about her saying. She is big, but not in a dangerous way. Cody was 9lbs 2oz, so it's nothing to be concerned about. The doc just thinks that she'll probably be a 9 pounder too - even though we'll be delivering a little early. I'm happy that she'll be big (yes, a c-section makes this easy to be happy about). I loved that Cody was so strong and "independent" very early on. He was lifting his head the day he was born and rolled from his stomach to his back (multiple times) at three weeks! He could sit up in his bumbo chair earlier than most and we weren't so worried about neck support, since he was lifting his (giant) head and turning it by himself. So Cody was born in the 90th percentile, but has consistently been in the 10th for his height since then...poor tiny boy. (Still in the 90th for his head, though!) We expect him to grow a lot in high school - that seems to be a Brady boy trait.

Anyway, baby girl looks great. According to the sonogram, she's already 4 pounds measuring in the 32nd week, but I'm actually 28 weeks! That doesn't really mean we're off on our calculations, just that she's on track to be big like her brother! Oh yeah! And she already seems to have lots of hair! Cody was born with a little and lost it until he was about 18 months. Maybe this means she'll actually keep some and look like a little girl!

We got the BEST video of her yawning! I wonder what this says about her? In Cody's final sonogram, he was flapping his little arm like he was waving at us. You think she'll be a calm one? Cody is definitely active!

Look who’s updating her blog!

I know, it’s been a while. Although, I have a feeling that updating this thing is only for my benefit. One day, I’ll print these posts out and put them in a book for posterity….

Okay – so going back to Halloween. A little trick-or-treating, but not much on the actually night. The majority of the festivities were at church.

Thanksgiving. A lot of eating. First time to have Thanksgiving (or any holiday) at our house, although, I still avoided having to do the cooking. Nancy (Jimmy’s mom) made most of the food and Jimmy fried the turkey. Fried turkey – by the way- is the ONLY way to go! I made sweet potatoes with marshmallows. I used the holiday marshmallows, so they had green Christmas trees and red stars, which all melted together, but yummy! Cody called them “green mash-pototoes” and asked for them multiple times in the days that followed.

So, wait – backing WAY up. We’re going to have another baby! I neglected to update here, because 1. I’m not good at it. (I can’t even keep in touch with friends in email or on the phone.) And 2. I told people at work first (so when I started pudging out, there wouldn’t be any speculation) and then wanted to wait awhile to tell the world…which I finally did on Facebook, in person and on the phone, but just never made it back here.

We’re having a girl this time and we’re really excited! To be perfectly honest, we would have been thrilled with another boy, though. Cody is so awesome and we already have the “stuff” so it would have been super easy for us. But, instead, we’re just going to have the perfect little family and we’ll get to experieince the joys of both! Cody is 3 (almost), so he kind of gets the whole “baby sister” thing, but at this point just asks where she is…he’s settled on she’s sleeping, will be here soon and that most likely she’s imaginary. A couple of weeks ago, on his way out the door one morning, he said “Come on, baby sister. I walk you to the car” and pretended to hold her hand all the way to the car. So sweet! We’re optimistic that he’s going to be a great and loving big brother.

I’ll be going to the doctor tomorrow for a (final) sonogram and the doctor will go ahead and schedule the c-section. I had to have one with Cody (many reasons), so we’re not going to risk anything this time and just put it on the calendar. Right now, my due date is May 27th, but we’ll likely have the baby between the 14th & 21st.

Christmas was split (as usual). This was an Abilene year, so we were there on Christmas Eve and day. Cody fell in love with Pau Pau, who took him to the golf course on the golf cart and of course, raked in the presents from all of this grandparents. Tons of cars – he was in heaven!!

That brings us a little closer to what’s going on now. My mom is living with us, as she’s just started a new job in Sachse and is trying to sell her house in Beaumont. It has been interesting, but so far pretty good. The only frustration is that I’ve been in limbo as far as getting ready for the baby. And I’m not a limbo-er. I’m just ready to have the room set up and ready for our baby girl to be here. Not to mention that I need to buy a TON of stuff (everything we have is far too boyish). I’ve decided to make our bedding and so far Nancy is doing it. I feel bad about that - I need to figure out how to get it done without it being her burden. Skill is what I lack.

There are a couple more things to report, but I think I might make those individual posts…do you think it will happen? We’ll see!!

My Monkey

Our church had a Family Fun Fest & Trunker Treat on Saturday. Of course, we took Cody in his awesome monkey costume! He wouldn't perform for anyone else, but we did manage to get him to act like a monkey for a picture. I think his favorite part was riding the ponies. He wanted to do it twice, but we only had time to do the hayride and he'd been talking about doing that all day, so we couldn't miss it. On Sunday, when we turned into the church parking lot, Cody said "There's no more candy." And then, walking up to the building, Cody pointed to where the ponies were the night before and said something about riding them....I told him that the ponies had to go home and he understood. This kid doesn't forget anything! I can't imagine that we'll actually take Cody out on Halloween, but this was better than trick-or-treating anyway!

Baseball in the Fall

Yesterday was the first wonderfully cold day of the year. We took advantage (and gave in to Cody's sweet request) and went outside to play ball. Papa Doc says he's either going to be an awesome baseball player or be burnt-out by the time he's old enough to play. He's quite the athlete and refuses to wear anything other than baseball or football "shirts"!

This is video of our evening...it's couple of minutes long and pretty cute!

Cody Classics

Cute video we took of Cody on Sunday. Please forgive my annoying voice....and yes, he put his hat on that way by himself. (I'm not sure where he saw someone do that.)

Also - notice his black eye! He ran into a shelf at daycare. It's a first!



He's so much fun!

I like John Mayer too! (And Thriller was my first album.)

Day 1 at Echo and I've been inspired to blog - and blog about something other than my gorgeous boy! I met these guys from Windsor Crossing Community Church, one of AD's projects. They seem to be really fun - even though they're trying to take credit for my Regent University hip bag (that's what I'm calling it). I know that only a couple of people will understand this post and only one will probably actually read this...oh well! (I found Monty Hobson's blog - he's one of the guys from Windsor - and he apparently is a John Mayer fan and has a post about the Michael Jackson "Thriller" album. So crazy that I would meet him today and find out almost immediately that we have things in common!)

Anyway, as I drove home today from the Echo Conference at Watermark Church here in Dallas, I realized that it is so cool that I get these opportunities. I mean, I spend almost everyday at work thinking about churches and how they desire to use what God has provided for them to reach people in the world. I research churches that have asked us to write proposals and churches where we've just completed work. I learn about them and what makes them special. THEN, I get to do things like go to church media conferences and meet other Christians, and in this case, fun, young, goofy, energetic, real Christians. The best part is that, because these are conferences for church leaders, I get to spend time in worship and hearing the word of God as a part of my work day! Like on a Thursday evening! Or a Friday morning before my day really starts! That is so cool!

It just makes me wonder again, why me? How did I get the chance to grow up in a Christian home, marry a wonderful Christian man and work for a company where I'm surrounded by other Christians? Why am I so lucky? I thank God for his blessings!

Okay, speaking of thanking God. Today Cathy suggested that I pray with Cody every night and start the prayer with a "Thank you God for..." Cody's only 2, but I gave it a shot. After we read our story (Veggie Tales Bible stories) and sang a few songs (tonight's hits: VeggieTales theme and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"), I told Cody that we should pray and thank God. He started with his dinnertime prayer ("God is great. God is good...etc...) Then I said "Let's thank God for baby (his bear) and I thank God for Cody." He said "Thank God for Mommy." I replied, "Thank God for Daddy." Cody finished our prayer like this "God for my books. God for my piggie [bank]. God for my cars."

It seems that he got the point! Amazing!

Yes, I realize that I've, once again, posted about Cody - but it was just too cool of a story to not talk about!