Mini Vacay

I took a quick trip up to DC this weekend to visit my dear friend, Sara.  Sara is my world-traveling/living friend, and she is now settled in DC (technically, Arlington, VA)... for the time-being, at least.  I flew up Saturday morning and back late Sunday night, and we had a fun, eventful two days.

Sara picked me up from the airport, and we went back to her apartment to drop all my stuff off.  It was a cold, overcast day. I think it only got into the low-50s.  We walked to a cute part of town and grabbed lunch at a pizza place.  Then, we walked into DC and went to the Smithsonian to see their art/picture galleries.  We walked around town a bit, hit up some shops, and then took the metro back to her place.

When we got home, I got to meet Sara's boyfriend, Daniel.  The three of us went into Alexandria, VA for a lovely dinner that night.  When we got back to Sara's place after dinner, we rented a movie and attempted to watch- but I totally crashed within the first 20 minutes.

Sunday morning, Sara and I were SO tired but managed to get up around 7:30.  We went on a 75 minute walk along the Potomac River.  It was lovely, and it definitely helped us both wake up and feel refreshed. 

We got dressed and ready for church- Capitol Hill Baptist Church.  It was beautiful, and it was interesting to see what a variety of people attend the same church.  I guess that's DC for you- a wide variety of people from all kinds of backgrounds!

After church, Daniel, Sara, and I walked to another part of town to eat brunch.  Then, we hit up these really cool markets.  I got Sydney a cool purse for a present. 

We got back to the hotel and made a last-minute attempt to finish the movie we started the night before, while I packed up.  Then, Sara took me to the airport and I was on my way back home.

It was a great trip and a wonderful visit! 

Oh, and yes, Stephen had the girls to himself for the weekend.  How did they fare?  I got several picture-updates each day, and here are some of the highlights:

They had all kinds of fun- picnics, playing with the neighbors, spending hours outside, playing dress up... and when I got home, several projects were done, the car was vacuumed out, and the house was perfectly clean!  What an awesome hubby I have!

Spring Pics

We got the spring pictures back from Sydney and Taylor's daycare today!  I got the one of the two of them together.  The individual ones of Sydney were good, but Taylor did not look like a happy camper.  She doesn't look too thrilled in this one, either, but I still wanted to get it. :)

Here are pictures of the girls and then both of their class pics:

Can you find Sydney?  It took me a minute.

(This is the bootleg copy I got from Facebook, where a friend scanned it in). I love Taylor's expression while riding on the horse.

Team Blue!

I totally wasn't trying to be dramatic by not following up on my last post until just now!  I had a few people ask me, "Well....??"  We found out that we will be having a sweet little BOY!  It sounds so strange to say because we literally are all girls in our family... there hasn't been a boy in my immediate family in 41 years! (Sorry, Bill, for ousting your age!)

Our friend who did the ultrasound yesterday was awesome- she got a good shot pretty quickly, and I heard her say, "It's a boy!"  Stephen and I were both like, "What??"  Tears came to my eyes- I think I just wasn't really expecting to hear boy, and I am so excited to be able to experience both sexes.  And let's face it, I'm hormonal, so it doesn't take much to make me cry. ;)

We had her double and triple check, and there really is no doubting this is a boy.  :)  Our friend spent great quality time showing us all the parts- the brain, the heart, the spine, the arms, the legs, the leg bones, and even the eye lenses!  Amazing.

We came home to the girls and the babysitter- we told Sydney she was going to have a baby brother, and she said, "I want a sister!"  But, she seemed to warm up quickly and has already picked out a name- Dinosaur.  It used to be Dora for a girl and Diego for a boy, but now it's Dinosaur.   Kind of catchy!

I spent about 30 minutes going through some of the bins of clothes that the girls have outgrown... our stash that would work for a boy is extremely minimal.  I mean, there are some khaki pants that I was excited about, only to see hot pink stitching on it.  Come on, people!  (will it be bad if a boy wears that??)   So, I'll definitely be hitting up the stores this summer so Dinosaur will have something to wear.

Stephen and I are over the moon. We really would have been super happy either way, but I think I was secretly pulling for a boy.  This will be a new adventure, for sure!

Here's a pic of me at 16.5 weeks:

Pink or Blue?

Stephen and I are headed in today to get an ultrasound done to see if we can find out if we're having a boy or a girl!  A friend of ours from church does ultrasounds at a high-risk doctor's office, and she offered to have us come in for her to do a scan.  I am 16 weeks, 2 days along now, so hopefully I'm far enough along to see. :)

It's funny- with this pregnancy, when someone finds out I'm pregnant, the first thing they say is they hope it's a boy.  I really am happy either way- I just am so excited to find out.

If we have another girl, we literally won't have to do a thing.  The baby can be in Taylor's current nursery, and we have more clothes than we would ever need.  And the baby being born in the fall, if it's a she, she would fall right into the same sizing of Taylor and Sydney.  The girls could be buddies, do the same activities.. we would have hand-me-downs galore (she would be the 6th granddaughter for my parents).  All we would need is diapers!

If we have a boy, my mind would have to be completely warped into a different way of thinking.  It would be awesome to experience both girls and a boy, but I am SO used to anything estrogen-related that anything "boy" would seem foreign for a bit.  He would definitely stick out in our family, being the only boy out of 6 cousins/siblings.  We would have to start from scratch with clothes... let's face it, girls' clothes are so not able to be translated into boys' clothes.  Even if it's a pair of jeans, there's always some kind of heart or flower or something on the bottom of the pant leg.  Luckily, Stephen and I bought any big-ticket items in neutral tones, so car seats, strollers, pack n' plays, etc. would work either way.

So, we are excited to (hopefully!) find out!  What do you think it is?

Que Pasa?

What's happening?

I feel like I haven't been updating the blog enough lately.  You all may not care about what we've been doing lately, but I do use this blog to help me remember things when my terrible memory and crazy schedule collide and leave me with few functioning brain waves.

We have had a busy few weeks, including two weekends in a row of driving 5+ hours each way to go out of town.  It was all worth it though.  Other things include:

• Going to a wedding.
• Going to a family reunion.
• Having a wonderful Easter with family.
• Sydney having her first bloody nose.
• Taylor throwing a complete tantrum in Cracker Barrel.
• Sydney's new obsession with collecting rocks. 
• Sydney is so smart- counting to 100 with little to no help, counting to 100 by tens, spelling words, learning about phonics.  Today, on the way to school, somehow we mentioned Africa, and she said, "Mommy, we've seen Africa on the map at school."  I said, "What else have you seen?"  She said, "Georgia, United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Australia... and... Fiji."  ha!  I though, Fiji?  Yes, please!  I couldn't believe how much she knew off the top of her head.
• Taylor is really talking up a storm!  About 85% of it is unintelligble, but she's saying a bunch of words now.  Plus, she's really showing us she understands exactly what we are saying. 
• Taylor is ALL about being outside.  I think that girl is going to be our little tomboy.  She cries when we bring her inside.
• I am 15-1/2 weeks pregnant and growing by the second!  I have a doctor's appointment this week.
• I made a neurologist appointment for Sydney about her tics.  Praying it is just something she is doing, or something kind of typical for a 3 year-old to do. 
• I'm "Mom of the Year" and forgot that Taylor should've had a 15 month check up.  I thought it went from 12 months to 18 months!  So, she will be going this week at almost 17 months. :)
• Staying super busy at work, though I'm hopeful that the next 2 weeks with all the testing going on, I will be able to get a lot done.  Although today was day #1 of testing and I wasn't very successful at getting a lot accomplished.  Boo.

That is about it from the K-Bash household.  Just busy beavers, as always.  And I don't see that slowing down anytime soon.  Except for possibly in 28 DAYS when the kiddos are done with school. :)

Taylor the... Tsunami

I went to get an over-due cut and highlight at the salon, and Stephen was sweet enough to leave work early to work from home so he could watch the kiddos.  As they were playing in the dining room (the next room over from Stephen), Stephen said he could hear them playing and everything seemed normal. 

Then, Sydney came in, and calmly said, "Daddy, you have got to see what Taylor did."  So, Stephen said he calmly walked into the dining room, thinking maybe she had done something cute/silly.  This is what he found:

Yes, she managed to climb into the dining room chair, and then up to the table.  Stephen said she was just sitting there, playing with an Easter Egg.  We are in for it.  This girl is EVERYWHERE.  Another example- she got Sydney's stool out of the downstair's bathroom, carried it over to her chair, put it down, stood on it, and tried to climb up the back of her kitchen table chair.  I think we may need to invest in one of those leash things for her.

I also wanted to share this sweet picture of Sydney from today. :)

Sad Week

This past week was one of those weeks where you are reminded how thankful you are to have healthy children.  Yes, my kids have had a rough week in regards to their healths... but, I would take that any day than what 3 people I know of have gone through this week.

First of all, a lovely family from our church lost their sweet 7 year-old daughter.  She had a disease called mito for short, and she was in a wheelchair and was non-verbal her whole life.  However, she had a smile that radiated every room she walked into.  About 3 months ago, she had to be in the hospital, due to having a fever and being sick.  They then put her on hospice so she could be treated at home.  Sweet Laura lost her fight last Sunday.  Here is their family blog, in case you're interested in learning about this precious girl:  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lauraw/journal

Another family, living in Monroe, lost their little 2 year-old daughter to leukemia.  I didn't know this family, but a lot of my local friends did, so I heard a lot about the situation.  The sweet little toddler, Piper, had been diagnosed with leukemia shortly after birth, and had been fighting for 30 months.  Please keep the Needham family in your prayers.

The last thing that happened this week is a sweet couple that Stephen went to Tech with, and worked with at Acuity Brands (until the husband decided to become a minister).  That was about 7 years ago.  Now, they have 3 little girls and just had their 4th, Eden.  She was diagnosed with having Down's Syndrome after birth.  She has heart defects and digestive tract issues.  She has already had to have one, if not two, surgeries.  They are tracking Eden's progress on their blog:  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/edenstegall  Stephen asked me, "Why would a good family like them, who takes care of themselves and are loving people, have to go through this, when others get pregnant, do drugs, drink, etc. and have perfectly healthy babies?"  While that is often times true, I told Stephen that God must know what families can handle a baby with challenges, and who would take the best care of these babies.  The Stegall family is definitely a family who will give that sweet baby a wonderful life full of love.

Stephen and I talked about how this was a very depressing week, and I don't mean to be so depressing in this blog.  I just hope to remind you, just like these things did for me, that be so thankful for your health.  And your children.  I know that I am! :)