16 Weeks...Sound of a Beating Heart.

Today was my 16 week check up on baby 2.  And I had a surprised ultrasound.  My doctor seemed to be having trouble finding the heartbeat with her Doppler sound machine and as she kept pushing on my belly and we both made small talk, joking about this baby misbehaving already etc. I could see her face slowly become one of worry.  She finally stopped and said "Let's go get an ultrasound". 

Ok, I was semi-excited to have the opportunity to see the baby but then again a little apprehensive of the fact that we were in search of a heartbeat.  I was really doing fine until we got in the ultrasound room and my doctor said "I am just going to sit here with you".  GULP! This was my "oh shit" moment.  I had just talked to Andy on my way to the doctor and told him there was no need for him to come with me....and now, I was desperately wanting him there with me. 

Within a split second, the ultrasound tech put my baby on the screen and we instantly heard a heartbeat!! Wheeewwww! Thank you Lord!  Tears of relief rolled down my face and I quickly told the tech....if you can tell what kind of baby I have, Please do not tell me! I have to wait for daddy when I come back on the 22nd! 

Now of course, Andy tells me after I tell him what all happened, that he wouldn't have minded one bit if I would have found out without him....REALLY?!?!  I think not!

Baby #2 is looking great and is turned facing my back which is why we think we couldn't hear the heartbeat and man what a wonderful sound it was when I did get to hear it.



Good looking spine and a Jacobsen head with a beautiful heartbeat of 150.

Now that the ultrasound picture actually looks like a baby, I showed Sarah this picture when I picked her up today at school.  She was in love!  Then she said "Mommy you need to go to the doctor again tomorrow and another picture of my baby!"

Mike's Home!

After an almost two week journey from Alaska back to the great state of Louisiana, Mike is finally home.  Well....home for a month before he heads to England for his next assignment for four years!

Mom and Mike left Anchorage and headed "south" to Seatle and stayed there for a few days for site seeing and of course a ball game.  Then, one of Mike's roommates met them in Seatle and drove from Seatle to Louisiana....and mom flew back to Oklahoma from Seatle - got all that??? Any who, the details don't really matter I guess, all that matters is that we get to spend some time with Mike before he leaves again!



Mike and his roommate Ryan.  We, as all Louisianaians do, fed him well: crafish, fried alligator, raw oysters and then gave hime some Abita beer (not seen in pic)  to wash it down. 



We are happy, happy, happy to have Mike home!



LSU Baseball

Tonight we were fortunate enough to get tickets to the #2 LSU Tigers vs #10 South Carolina Gamecocks baseball game from a friend of mine at work.  This was Sarah's first baseball game.  We started the night with dinner at Coyote Blues (yummy Mexican food) with the hopes of not spending a fortune at the concession stand.  Then we headed to the game...7 o'clock start, and perfect weather! 

Sarah and I having a great time with the pre-game festivities.



Attempt at a family pic.



Sarah and her snowball.  Remember I mentioned about eating before the game so we wouldn't have many concessions.  Ummm yeah, not so much: Dippin Dots, Snowball, Strawberry Lemonade, Popcorn oh and a jambalya plate by the end of the night! Gezzzz!  Good thing we stopped to eat first!



At the start of the game, Sarah asked all kinds of questions: Where is our tiger team?  Who is the black team?  Why are those men in all black? and on and on and on.  So I gave my best shot at explaining the game of baseball to a three year old and in between trips to the concessions she would ask more questions or even ask: Did we get an out?.  But after a while she became less interested in the game in more interested in whether or not Mike the Tiger would be there.  After we spotted him, the search was on.  I grabbed her and we went to find him.  Andy came along in case we were able to take a picture with him.  And as I suspected as soon as we got close to him, Sarah was going to back away with her obsession (she comes by it honestly though - I was the same way!).  But I really didn't give her much of a chance to chicken out this time...



Yep!  As my child is screaming for her daddy to take her, I am telling Andy to take the pic - and quick!  And yes, that face is one of "Ummm, ok, I don't think I really like this at all"

After our quick pick with Mike the Tiger, Sarah was all about him again at a distance and wanted to basically stalk him as he took pictures with all of the kids.  We went back to our seats and continued to be on the look out for him as we watched the game.  We had such a great time...we actually didn't even leave until the 9th inning! On the way home Sarah had us sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and it's become her new favorite song...."Sing the song from the baseball game" she tells us now.

LSU basketball - Check

LSU baseball - Check

LSU football - coming soon!

Booster Seat!!

Woohoo!  We've moved up to the booster seat!  Sarah is so proud of herself and her new found freedom. We are learning new car rules....like no unbuckling until mommy unbuckles.  Sounds like a great rule until mommy breaks the rule rolling up the driveway, because I have to use the bathroom so bad and I get scolded by a three year old...."NOT UNTIL THE CAR STOPS MOMMY!"  Awww dang!  You're right kiddo! 

In addtion to enjoying the freedom of being able to unbuckle herself, I think Sarah has mostly enjoyed the cupholders!  She is big time with those cup holders.

Birthdays

April has turned out to be the month of birthdays!  Sarah has really enjoyed going to her friend's birthday parties.  I enjoy watching the kids play and just have pure fun.  Andy has enjoyed having the house to himself for a few hours on the weekend during most of these parties ;)

Olivia, Presley, and Sarah celebrating Olivia's 3rd birthday at All God's Children Play Center.



Sarah, Madden and Presley celebrating Madden's birthday at It's My Party.



Sarah giving Keaton a Happy First Birthday hug at her party at The Little Gym.



Gabby, Addalyn and Sarah enjoying snacks at Presley's 3rd birthday party at her house.

 Whewwww...I think that should cover the spring birthdays for a while.  Happy Birthday Kiddos!

Missy and Keith

It's wedding day!!  I absolutely love weddings...mostly for the cakes ;)  Missy and Keith got married today at Hemingbough in St. Francisville.  It was absolutely beautiful!!!  It was an amazing spring day and everyone was all smiles.  Extremely happy for you two love birds!! 



Mr. and Mrs. Leblanc!



The girls with Missy just before the cake pulls.  Missy had a cake pull for all of us...so sweet and thoughtful- that's our Missy!



Outside crew...there were so many people at the wedding that many of us were left to sitting outside, which was fine, because it was a gorgeous day and the scenery was beautiful.





Me and my groom...notice the maternity shirt- yikes!  almost four months and rocking it!

 

The Felders.



Me and the lovely bride.



Bouquet toss!



PJ, Scott, David and Clint joining in on congratulating the newlyweds!



How cute are they!?!?!



Riding off....Happy Trails my friends.

Such a happy, beautiful day!! So glad we were able to be there to see two wonderful people start their lives together.  Congrats to you both and we wish you many, many, many years of happiness!

Pj Night at Gymastics

The gym does a really cute job of having themed nights for the girls every so often to keep their interest and the girls just love it! Tonight was Pj night.  Sarah was excited to wear the Pjs that the Easter Bunny brought her in her basket.

Emery, Sarah and Addalyn....our three little monkeys!

Zippity Zoo Fest

The Baton Rouge Zoo held its annual Zippity Zoo Fest today, which celebrates the zoo's birthday....the zoo turned 43 today!! This was our first time to this event, so we were all excited to see what the celebration was all about. The weather was perfect and after a big brunch at Frank's Restaurant, we were ready to go!



Started the day with a train ride...always a favorite.

Andy saw in the publicity of the event that there would be face painting...he mentioned it to Sarah and it was must as soon as we arrived.  The line was crazy long, but Sarah didn't care....so we waited, and waited.



Cautiously getting her face painted. Notice how she's holding her shirt so paint doesn't get on it.



All done!  Two butterflies...pink and yellow.

 

Annnnd the face paint is gone!  HA!  It lasted about well, let's just say we waited in line longer than the paint was on her face. Oh well.

 

Posing on the metal giraffe.  For some reason all of the kids wanted to do this.

 Once again, the zoo did a great job with this huge event.  Lots of fun for the kiddos as well as the adults.  We had a great time and look to go back next year.

Missy's Wedding Shower

Woohoo!! Missy is getting married!! Missy has been a dear and wonderful friend for many, many years and I for one am super excited for her during the joyous occasion!  I had the honor of being one of the hostesses for her wedding shower today. It was so nice to see so many people share in Missy's happiness.



Missy with Keith's mom (R) and her mom (L).



Talli, Jamie, Wendy, Crystal and Danielle, enjoying the snacks.



Sarah joined me for this shower.  After the week of prom decorating and being away from home, we needed some mommy Sarah time and Andy needed a break.



Ready for presents.



Missy had lots of "help" opening her presents.

One happy group of ladies for our wonderful friend.



The little girls wanted in on the picture taking too...Missy was so sweet to include them all.

 Looking forward to the wedding day!

Prom 2013

I say it every year..."this is going to be my last year as Prom sponsor" and every year I am right back at it!  It's a love/hate relationship really.  30+ hours of work in 3 short days and gone after 2 and a half hours of sweaty kids dancing the night away.  Anyway...here are some of this years decorations....

Jacobsen....Table of 4!

After having a set back in August with a miscarriage, we are pregnant!! It's been a roller coaster of a few months, but we are all super excited.  Due to the fact that I did miscarry, I have been to the doctor a number of times already...February 6th and 11th for lab work, then again on February 18th for a first sonogram and then March 5 at my 8 and a half week appointment for another sonogram and check of the baby's heart rate which was great.



March 5th sonogram of our peanut! Heart rate = 155 (lots of people are saying we have a boy!)



Today was my 12 week check up.  After all of the positives from my previous appointments, my doctor and I felt safe in going back to the normal 4 week check up schedule.  Today I did once again get to hear our baby's heart beat and it was amazing!!  My doctor is pleased with my progress and I will go back to see her again on April 29 for a regular check up and then on May 22 we will have the anatomy scan and find out the sex of the baby.

As you can imagine, Andy and I have been anxiously waiting for the day we could tell Sarah that she will be a big sister.  We jumped the gun back in August, not knowing what was in our future, so this time around, we agreed to wait until the end of the first trimester.  In the meantime, Sarah has on a number of times asked me "Mommy, are you and Daddy working on my baby in your belly?" Sometimes it made me cry and sometimes I would laugh, but every time, I would assure her we were "working on it".

Well, tonight at dinner, we told her.  She was actually speechless...for a moment, then smiled and then the questions and comments began:

"I want a baby sister" (We've had to explain that God gives us what He thinks we need, and we will love a boy or a girl...she seemed ok with that- for now)

"Can my baby take a bath with me when it gets out of your belly?"

"I want my baby to jump in my trampoline with me!"

"What's my baby's name?"

"WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY IN OUR HOUSE!!"

Expected arrival of our new family member is October 10th.