Swimming Lessons

Yesterday, Brody started his first week of swimming lessons! We are doing the swim babies class so I get to do lessons with him, which is a lot of fun. I taught swimming lessons and was a lifeguard all through college, so I love swimming lessons! :) It's very weird though to be on the other side now. I'm always used to being the teacher and not the parent. I know I could teach Brody everything he is learning this week but I am pretty positive he wouldn't listen to me at this age, plus lessons are so much fun and we want him to experience them.

Here is our big boy before we left the house for lessons. He decided to play peek-a-boo while I was taking pictures of him! This is right before lessons began. We got to our lessons 15 minutes early so we watched the class before us finish. Brody kept asking to get in the water as soon as we got there. He was really excited, although he doesn't look that excited in the picture. Ha! Tired after a fun morning! He did really well yesterday and today. I am so proud of him! We have had sooo much fun!

One funny story, they teach the children the correct way to slide into the pool, which is going down feet first on their bellies. They ask the parents to also get in the pool the same way so that your children see you getting in the correct way. Just imagine me sliding in on my big, pregnant belly. :) His teacher did tell me I could use the ladder to get out since I was pregnant. I took her up on the offer!

31 Weeks

I am one big pregnant girl this week! :)

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 31 Weeks
Size of baby: 16 inches long and weighs almost 3.3 lbs. Jillian is the size of four navel oranges!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 17lbs
Maternity Clothes: Yes-all maternity clothes except for dresses.
Gender: Girl!
Movement: Yes, she is moving all the time! We can really see her moving a lot these days. She is constantly moving and we love to watch her!
Sleep: Some nights I sleep well and some I don't, but it really is sooooo much better than a few weeks ago when I was only sleep about 3 hours a night.
Symptoms: Crazy dreams, heartburn and reflux, hot flashes/always hot.
What I miss: Being able to bend over easily! :)
Cravings: Just food!
Best Moment this week: Brody has been so proud of Jillian's bedding. Every time someone has come to our house this week he wants to show them her room. He also knocked on her bedroom door this week (we keep it closed) and said, "Knock, Knock, Sissy!" I just hope he loves her as much once she gets here.

What I am looking forward to: A fun weekend with Brody!

I have been meaning to show y'all the shirt I am wearing in this picture but I kept forgetting! This is the side you didn't see in my picture above. My friend, Laurie, ordered this for me from a friend of ours who is selling them. It has both of our sweet babies names on it and an "F" for Francis. Isn't it so cute?? It's not a maternity shirt but I have been wearing it as one. I love it because I will be able to wear it after Jillian is born, too! And these funny pictures are from tonight, also! Brody loves to look at his reflection in the dishwasher. He was flexing his muscles at himself. :) He was saying, "Hi Brobee!"

Hope y'all had a great day!

Our Weekend

We had a fun weekend in Benton with Josh's family. My doctor had told me at my last appointment that she didn't want me to travel after July, so we decided we needed to make one last trip to see Josh's parents since we will not be back down until late fall.

We went to Josh's parents house on Friday night and spent the night, then got up and headed to the lake around 9 Saturday morning. Their boat is in the same town that Josh's grandpa lives in so we had breakfast with him at a little cafe in town. All 3 guys together. After breakfast, we headed to their boat slip and got on the boat. Brody didn't waste anytime taking over the boat! ;) He loved standing at the front of the boat so he could see. I got out my life jacket so that I could swim and realized it was a little more snug than it was last summer. Ha! There was no way it was zipping at almost 31 weeks pregnant!
We brought Brody's little blow-up car for him to "drive" around the lake. He only rode in it a few minutes. He preferred just swimming around instead.

Brody tubed with his daddy! Josh couldn't get Brody to sit-up. He just kept laying back every time the boat would start going! Josh tubed a lot by himself. I missed getting to tube, but enjoyed watching the boys.Every time Brody finished swimming or tubing, he would climb back on the boat out of breath and say, "Diet Coke! Diet Coke!" Ha ha! He is obviously his mother's child. I think he was about to sneak a drink of Diet Coke in this picture. The 3 of us swimming. Brody was worn out by that afternoon so he took a 1.5-2 hour nap on the boat.

He woke-up ready to play again! (He didn't tube alone...he was just hanging out!) We were all so exhausted by the time we got home that night. I was feeling really pregnant and tired by the end of the day, but we all had such a great time!

We spent a little time Sunday morning by Josh's parents pool before we had to head back home. The boys swam and I just watched. Brody called the raft a "boat". He liked getting on it and then rolling off into the water. He has no fear!

The ex-lifeguard/swimming lessons teacher in me came out while they were in the pool and I made Brody swim across the pool several times. :) He did really well. He actually started swimming lessons today so I will share more about that this week.

Hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Brody Reading

Brody and I spend a good amount of time each day reading books, playing with picture flashcards and going through word books. One of Brody's favorite word books is First 100 Words. Brody has been learning words from this book for several months. He really just likes the "things that go" page because it has the truck, tractor, and airplane on it, but we manage to make it through the entire book most days. :) Here is a little video of him going through some of the pictures in the book. I am sure it's only entertaining to me, Josh, grandparents, aunts and uncles, but feel free to watch if you would like. :)

Things that make me smile...

Watching these two play outside together.

Josh's sidewalk chalk art. I love seeing all four of our names together. Spending the day at home with this cutie playing. Playing with a beach ball in the living room and praying the lamps don't get broken. :)Brody wearing his Target sticker on his forehead. He would not wear it on his shirt. Ha!Lastly, girly bedding in our house. I love it! It's just perfect for our sweet girl. (Inside bumper, outside bumper, and bed skirt)

The crib sheet will be turquoise. There is a little turquoise in the bumper fabric so I want to pull that color out.

Hope you had a great Tuesday!

30 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 30 Weeks
Size of baby: 15.7 inches long and weighs almost 3 lbs. Jillian is the size of a head of cabbage!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 17lbs
Maternity Clothes: Yes-all maternity clothes except for dresses.
Gender: Girl!
Movement: Yes, she is moving all the time! She seems to like to hang out in my ribs these days because my right ribs are hurting a lot!
Sleep: It's optional! Ha! Some nights I do, some night I don't. :)

Symptoms: Crazy dreams, heartburn and reflux, hot flashes/always hot. And my fingers got a little swollen two times this week when I got really hot, but I can still wear my rings so I'm happy!
What I miss: I miss a few silly things but I love being pregnant and I love Jillian so much that it's worth every minute of it.
Cravings: Food! :)

Best Moment this week: I slept for 9 hours one night and only woke-up 2 or 3 times!
What I am looking forward to: Jillian's bedding is supposed to be delivered tomorrow! I'm SO excited to see it!

Our Weekend

We had a fun weekend, but I'm not sure how it went by so quickly! I always feel that way on Sunday evenings.

Saturday morning, we got up and went to the farmer's market. I love the farmer's market in our town. It's really big and there are always tons of people. I love people watching while we are there! It's my favorite thing about going! Brody looks really happy about being there but I promise he had fun! There were so many dogs for him to see so that kept him very happy!
Getting tickled by daddy!

We bought a lot of vegetables while we were there. I plan on totally depleting them of their nutritional value this week by frying them. Ha!

Once we got home, Josh and Brody changed clothes and headed to swim with some friends from church. (Josh had Julee buzz his hair this week when he went to get it cut!) They had a great time swimming and were both exhausted by the time they got home!

While they were swimming, I met up with my friends, Hillary, Amanda, Kelly and Harper for a girls' lunch. Hillary was in town visiting friends so we planned lunch before she headed back home. I had not seen Hillary or Amanda since we all went to Atlanta in April. It was sooo good get to see them and visit for a little while. All of these girls make me laugh so hard! They are seriously some of the funniest and sweetest people I know! (Laurie we missed you!) After lunch, I went to Target with my mom and then we went to get pedicures. I headed back home and ate dinner with the boys. I went to bed a little early because I was exhausted! I'm definitely feeling very pregnant these days! :)

We went to church this morning and on the way out, I stopped by the bookstore in our church and bought this Bible study. I have been wanting to do it for a while. Ruth is one of my favorite books in the Bible so I'm looking forward to this study. I know it's the summer study on Beth Moore's blog right now so I figured several of you had started it recently. If you have, let me know what you think about it! Hope you all had a great weekend!

I Love You

Here is another video of Brody. I guess I'm in a video posting mood this week. :) This video is of him saying, "I love you!" He has been saying this to us for a month or so and we think it is just precious. It honestly melts my heart every time he says it! We just love him so much!

Cute Videos

We had a really laid back day at home yesterday. Brody stayed in his pajama top most of the day, and I stayed in workout clothes, and we just hung out. Throughout the day, I kept hearing Brody say, "Stay Oeo", "No! No! Stay!". Oeo is what he calls Julee's dog, Romeo. He had recently heard Julee say these things to Romeo so I guess he remembered and was repeating the same thing all day long. Since it was so cute, I decided to try and get it on video. This first video is of him telling Romeo to stay. Right before I videoed him, he dumped his rice from lunch into the bowl on the kitchen table so when you see rice in there, just know it wasn't me who put it there! Ha!

The second video is of him reading a book. He goes through and names all the animals. It's really sweet! My favortie part is when he says, "frog" because he calls it a "prog"! Such a cutie!

Have a great Thursday!

29 Weeks

Brody walked over and just stood while Josh took my picture. I thought it was so sweet!

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 29 Weeks
Size of baby: 15 inches long and weighs 2.5 lbs. Jillian is the size of a butternut squash!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 17lbs
Maternity Clothes: I am mainly wearing maternity clothes except for dresses.
Gender: Girl!
Movement: Yes! She is moving all the time!
Sleep: I have been getting between 4-5 hours a night. I guess my body is getting ready to be sleep deprived with a newborn! :)

Symptoms: Crazy dreams, heartburn and reflux, hot flashes.:)

What I miss: I don't miss a thing except for being able to stay cool and being able to shave my legs easily! Ha!
Cravings: Food! :)
Best Moment this week: Brody tried to feed a cracker to my belly and said, "Eat sissy!"
What I am looking forward to: Hanging out with Brody while it's still just the 2 of us during the day!

And because I always tell you I have crazy dreams, I thought I would share just a few from this past week so that you understand why I am always talking them.

• I dreamed Josh left me at a gas station while he went to a doctor's appointment.
• I dreamed my mom, my sister and I were staring in an action movie and Justin Bartha was in the movie with us. The 4 of us were in a car shooting a scene for the movie and there was this really muscular guy chasing us in another car. We thought it was part of the script but then we stopped the car and he pulled Justin Bartha out and started to bench press him in the air. It turned out to be some crazy fan that got onto the movie set.
• I dreamed a friend of mine was having a baby and refused to buy a baby crib. She said babies didn't need cribs and that her baby would be in a regular bed by 3 months old.
• I dreamed that I heard fire trucks and they kept getting closer and closer to our house. When I looked outside I saw them in the subdivision across from ours. When I looked up in the sky I saw an airplane with a helicopter hanging from it. It kept getting lower and lower and it crashed into a house in that subdivision. The firetrucks were there to put out the fire.
• I dreamed one of my high school friend's cat died.
• I dreamed Josh sold steroids and there were bodybuilders chasing us with guns trying to get the steroids from him.

These dreams started the week before I found out I was pregnant (at 3 weeks). There has not been a single night the entire pregnancy that I haven't had a crazy dream. I usually have 2-3 a night, which is part of the reason I sleep so badly. I'm stressed out in my sleep all night long!! :)

She said, "YES!!!!"

Last night, my sister got engaged! We are so excited for Brandon and Jill! I thought I would share the story from their exciting night!Brandon and Jill had planned to go eat dinner in Rogers when Jill got off work yesterday. When they started heading towards the restaurant, Chris, who is on our church staff, called Brandon and told him that he was at our church's north campus and needed help shooting a video for church service Sunday. He asked if Brandon could stop by for a couple of minutes to help. Since the church was very close to where they were eating, they planned to make a quick stop to "help."

Jill had called me a little earlier that evening to see if Josh, Brody and I wanted to meet them for dinner. We said yes. Once Jill found out they needed to run by the church, she called to tell me they were going to be a little late to eat. I told her it was no problem at all because the wait at the restaurant was 25-3o minutes. Little did she know I was not at the restaurant talking to her, I was actually standing inside the church with our family waiting on them to arrive! Brandon had planned to propose outside the church at the foot of the crosses so we were all able to watch from inside in the choir loft. The windows are tinted from the outside so there was no way for Jill to see us, even though we could see them.

Brandon walked Jill down to the crosses and Jill soon found out and that they were not at church to meet Chris. Here is the video of the proposal. Sorry for the sniffing and the constant shaking. I was so dang nervous!! Haha!

I was so relieved the first surprise of the night was over! I had been so anxious about it for 2 weeks. Jill said she had absolutely no idea anything was going on until they got down to the crosses and realized Chris was not there. Excited sisters! Jill was telling us her version of the story. She was so funny and so excited! Josh and Chris were back on their iPhones as soon as the proposal was over!

After a few minutes inside, we headed back outside to take some pictures at the base of the crosses. These crosses are huge and are so beautiful! Here is the few from underneath them. The weather was perfect that evening which we were thrilled about since it had been cloudy and raining all week long. The happy couple!

A bug was stuck in her poof! No joke! Our family! We have gone from 4 to 8 in less than 3 years! I love that it keeps getting bigger! Brandon, Jill and Brandon's parents. They are soooo sweet!

Chris, Melissa and Caedmon with Jill and Brandon.

Jill and Brandon actually met at a singles' retreat/event that Chris put together when he was the singles' pastor at the time. They also go to Bible study each week at Chris and Melissa's house. They have been such wonderful friends to Jill and Brandon.

All of our families visiting outside. Brandon's sister,Natalie, is the one to the left. She is having their second child, a sweet boy, on Friday! Jill and Brandon will be very busy with 3 nephews and 1 niece!

The beautiful ring! It was a total surprise. Brandon picked it out by himself and she seriously had no idea it was coming!

Brody with his aunt! We stayed and visited at church a while and then slowly everyone started to leave to go different places...or at least that is what we told Jill. We actually all headed to Danielle and Adam's house to join some of their friends who were waiting to pull off the next surprise, which was an engagement party! Jill thought she and Brandon were going over to show Danielle and Adam the ring.

Here is a video of them getting to the house. Jill was so clueless again. We had all hidden our cars so she had no idea anyone was there besides Danielle and Adam. There were actually 25 of us there to surprise her!

We had a cute engagement cake made for the party!
I loved the engagement ring on top! My mom picked this out and I thought it was perfect! We also had sandwiches, chips and dips. Jill, Julie and Danielle. Jill had been texting Julie and had no idea she already knew and was waiting on her at the party!
Julee, Jill and me.

I knew about the engagement 10 days before I was finally given the ok from Brandon to tell Julee. It was the longest 10 days! Then, Julee and I could hardly talk to Jill all of this week because we thought we would slip-up about something, but we made it without her ever knowing a single detail!

Jill was so cute showing off her ring in pictures!

Reading a card from my parents. They got them a wedding planning book. I know Brandon cannot wait to read it! Ha! Congratulations, Jill and Brandon!

We are sooooo excited for you and so thankful that God put you two together!