We are thirlled to share...

That we are having another baby GIRL!!!!

We found out today at our appointment, and are 100% sure that our sweet babe is a GIRL. Todd and I both had the hunch in our hearts that we were having a girl, but it was still such a sweet surprise. Our baby was beautiful, healthy and measuring along perfectly. We are officially 21 weeks pregnant. Her heartrate was 165. She even let us see a big sleepy yawn during her sonogram. My ob/gyn said that we were having a perfect pregnancy and things could not look any better! Praise the Lord for this wonderful news!

We are 99% sure that we know her name, but will save this for another post...just to make sure it is the right name for her. Maggie is gonna be such a sweet big sister!

Love to all,

Todd, Leah, Maggie and Baby Girl!!!!!

My precious Grandpa...

Two years ago today, February 14th 2008, my precious Grandpa went to heaven. He was a wonderful man! He was a joyous example of Christ-likeness, love, generosity, and sincerity. He loved and adored his wife, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. He led a long and well lived life and died at the age of 89. I think of him often, and am so thankful for the legacy he left behind to all of his family. A legacy to love God and keep him first in your life and a legacy to love and care for your family and all of its members.

Today I remember you Grandpa. Today I love you just like I did when you were still alive, and praise God for the time I had to know you. I am thankful for memories.

I am also thinking of you today Grandma. I know this week has not been an easy one for you. I know you miss Grandpa dearly. Thank you for continuing to encourage us all to remember Grandpa and speak of him often. You yourself are a precious lady to me, and I am so thankful that we still have you to enjoy and make more memories with. I love you very much!

Below are some very special pictures to me of our Maggie with Grandpa when Maggie was about 2 weeks old. This was their first time to meet!

Life is precious, family is precious!

Maggie...say hello to your sweet Great Grandpa, and I do mean GREAT!


She was so quiet and content while he was holding her. I think she knew she was in the presence of a special person!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; his love endures forever." Psalms 107:1

Allergy shots...

Our sweet girl has been seeing an allergist for about 4 months now for help with her allergy to fire ants. We absolutely love her allergists and feel very confident in this therapy. The good news about it is that it is highly effective (meaning she will be de-sensitized to the fire ant venom, and therefore not respond as severely when bitten again)...but the bad news is that the therapy can take anywhere from 2-5 years. This means that our girl will endure anywhere from 2-5 years of shots, depending on how well her body responds.

I have to say "so FAR, so GOOD". Maggie goes to the allergy clinic twice a week for a shot. We have to do the shots at the clinic, and not at home due to the possibility of a reaction with each injection. We get the shot, and then have to wait in the waiting room for an observation time of 30 minutes and then we are released to go. Maggie does exceptionally well for a 2.5 year old. She rarely cries, if you can believe that! The anticipation of the experience upsets her far more than the pain of the injection. So, I have learned not to discuss where we are going before hand. Most of the time, I just tell her we are going to run "errands". It also helps, that we now have a treat bag that we only dive into for shot days...a bag full of gummy bears, suckers and gum!

To tell you the truth, Maggie has actually bonded with one of the nurses at the clinic. Her name is Ms. Stacey. She has helped make this process much easier. Maggie runs in the door, and starts saying Ms. Stacey, Ms. Stacey...and they give each other a hug. I feel very strongly that God put sweet Ms. Stacey there in that clinic just for our Maggie. I am so thankful that our God, is in all of the details of our lives. HE is so good!

The plan is to go to just once a week shots in about 1-2 more months. We will do that for 3-6 months, then go to one shot every 2 weeks, then once a month shots for the duration of the therapy. They draw blood work every 3 months or so to measure her antibody levels and judge her response to the therapy.

We are so thankful for modern medical therapies such as this. We are so hopeful to never have to go through another terrifying anaphylaxis episode ever again...but never fear we have enough Epi Pens in house to endure many!

Maggie and her pal Ms. Stacey

Our allergy clinic in Southlake

Loving the snow-ey weather!!!!

What a BeAuTiFuL winter wonderland today!!!!

Thank you God for the gorgeous snow. Maggie loved it! For my 100th post, instead of revealing the gender of our sweet new baby (had to change our appointment to next Monday because of the inclement weather) I decided to share some pictures of our sweet little snow bunny!!!

Hope everyone is staying warm and being super careful out in the weather!

Love to all,
Leah


Maggie...all smiles! She LOVED the snow and would have stayed in it for hours....poor thing turned into a popsicle rather quickly!

Maggie and her "snow-maam" as she says it!!! So cute!

Trying to make her first snow angel...didn't quite have the concept down!

This is her...WOW...life is good face! Ha!

Mouth open wide...giving it a taste test!

Laughing out loud at the flakes hitting her face and eyelashes! Priceless experience!

The snow is soooo deep, seriously she is buried in it here...at least 8 inches!!!

A view of our neighborhood....covered in white!

There used to be shrubs and pansy's under there...wow...I haven't seen this much snow in Texas in at least 10-12 years! Love it!!!

Warming up in her robe after all that cold fun in the snow! Loving her some Valentine's day shades!!!!

Half way there....

Woohoo...we are half way through this pregnancy! 20 weeks pregnant I am! Praise the Lord for a healthy, strong and enjoyable pregnancy so far!

I am astonished at God's miracle of life. It is incredible to think of all that our sweet babe has accomplished in these last 20 weeks. Now, he or she is formed perfect and complete in every way from 2 cells to millions now. From now on...from 20 to 40 weeks our babe is just packing on the pounds and growing in size.

At this stage of 20 weeks our babe is around 10-12 ounces and 6-8 inches long...one book said about the size of a coke can. Finger nails, hair, finger prints...all of the organs, bones, nerves...etc. is all complete and formed. Our babies eyes have not opened yet, but will likely open in the next month. Our babes hearing is developed and he or she is practicing thumb sucking and facial expressions. This baby is practicing eating by swallowing amniotic fluid, and also is already making urine. Our babe is developing sleep patterns/habits, and favorite positions to be in already too.

This baby is much more active than Maggie was while she was inutero. I am loving that he or she is so active, now. I feel the baby move at least 5-10 times a day right now. It is such a special reminder about it's presence and place in our family.

I am feeling really good, and have gained about 5 pounds. I love being pregnant. I definitely "look" pregnant now too. My baby bump is growing every day and I am loving wearing maternity clothes now almost exclusively. I mean who doesn't love stretchy waist bands???

We are sooooo excited for Friday to get here. We will have a doctors appointment that day, as well as a detailed sonogram. We are hopeful that our babe is a bit more revealing on Friday, than at our last visit. I noticed that this is my 99th post since joining the blog-o-sphere. How fitting that my 100th post will be to reveal the gender of our babe (hopefully)! Can't wait!

Stay tuned for the fun news!!!

We love you so much sweet baby #2!!!!

Vacation!

Beautiful Taos, New Mexico was our destination! This last week Todd and I and our good friends The Carpenter's left town for a little time off from Mommy/Daddy duty. We left all of the kiddos with their grandparents (God Bless them) and headed for the mountains!

We had a really wonderful time. The weather, the snow, the accommodations and mostly the company were all great! With both Todd and I...we are always soooo excited and ready to get away on a trip...but then soooo excited and ready to get back home. We were overjoyed to be back home in our plain ole, boring normal life with our sweet girl, house, jobs and pets. Ha! Anyone else feel that way???

We had gone to Taos last year with my Mom and Dad, and really had a great trip (click here to read about the trip). So we decided then and there that we would be back. It had not even been a full year and we were back! We loved the town, the mountain and especially the house we rented and stayed in.

This was Todd's second time to ski---and he did absolutely wonderful! I am so proud of him, and am thrilled that he loves to ski now as much as I do. Everyone that knows me, knows I am NOT an athlete---at all! But, put me on skis, either snow or water, and I love it! I have been skiing since I was about 5, so I think that helps. I have really fond memories of ski fun on family vacations all during my growing up years. And now...I think we will continue that tradition with our little family!

We enjoyed the fellowship with our dear friends, some fine cooking and food, snowmobiling, spa treatments, super skiing weather and snow, hot tubing and most of all some quality time away with our spouse! I am so blessed to be married to my best friend and dream guy. I love him dearly and am so thankful for times like this trip to focus on each other!

Enjoy some pics from our trip!

Love to all,
Leah

Beautiful mountain view...at an elevation of about 11,700 feet.


Proof of all of our fresh snow (a view from the car). It snowed on us for about the last 5-6 hours of our 12 hour trip up to Taos. Great job, Wade on driving in pretty awful driving conditions. We only had about 3 near death experiences...haha! Praise God for traveling mercy and safety.

Sarah and I...love my precious friend!!!

Todd and Wade...great pals too!

Todd and I...and baby #2...under all those 15 layers of clothes! Ha! Love Mountain pics! Does a back-drop get any better???

My cute snow bunny in action! Doesn't he look like a pro!?!

Just a cool pic of the tallest ridge around on the mountain. That is actually the sun behind a big cloud. So pretty! Believe it or not, skiers actually will hike to the top of the ridge and ski down....CrAzY!

P.S Sorry for the lack of post lately....not much exciting going on. Stay tuned for some updates, though!