Aww shucks!

Just a few things...

* One of Joshua's newest phrases (courtesy of his daddy): "Aww shucks!" It makes me laugh every single time he says it!

* We had some of the Isgetts over for dinner on Saturday night, and the kids decided to watch "Cars." Joshua was, of course, in toddler-heaven: he got to eat pizza for dinner in front of the television while watching his favorite movie. I mean, does it get any better than that?

* Martha brought Joshua a little toy Lightning McQueen and he is in love with it! He calls it "race car" and takes it with him all over the house.

* Joshua is talking more and more all the time--he's starting to use lots of 2-word (and a few 3-word) phrases and I'm amazed at how many words he seems to pick up after just hearing them once or twice. He also fancies himself a comedian...for example, if I'm getting off the phone with David and I say to Joshua, "Tell Daddy bye-bye," Joshua will say "Bye-bye Papa" or "Bye-bye car." He'll do this over and over, and then as soon as I hang up, he'll say (with a big smile), "Bye-bye Daddy!" He also loves to snatch "Mommy's phone" and run around the house with it held to his ear. What a little monkey! :)

Friends sharing talents

I'm a really lucky gal. I have so many wonderful friends and I don't know where I'd be without them. They are a source of support and love for me, and I hope that I have been able to be the same for them. My friends are also extremely talented and generous in so many areas and are so quick to share their gifts with others, including me!

My friend Sarah took wonderful pictures of Joshua last fall that we were able to use in our Christmas cards and give as gifts to family members. My friend Amanda made a beautiful quilt for Joshua's room before he was born--he likes to point out his "blanket" on the wall every morning when he wakes up. So many friends from church, like Kristen and Melissa, made delicious dinners for our little family after Joshua was born (and Melissa taught me how to make bread when I was overdue with Joshua and bored out of my mind...David is extremely grateful for this one!) My friend Katherine and my sister-in-law Lisa have passed down so many beautiful baby girl clothes for our little one to wear once she arrives. Seriously, how did I get so lucky to have so many great women in my life?!

I was mentioning to a few friends at church how I wasn't sure where to look for a baby blessing dress. In our church, when babies are born, they are officially named and blessed at church, and they wear white for this blessing. Little girls always have these beautiful white dresses, and in some families, they are kept and passed down. My friend Jenny said she would love to make one for our little girl, as she had made blessing dresses for each of her two girls. I saw them yesterday--SO beautiful! So we went to JoAnn's to pick out fabric for the dress (we found some really pretty material with little white daisies on it), and I also picked out some fabric for a sling that my friend Nancy is making for me. With how active Joshua is, I have a feeling I'll be "wearing" my little girl a lot just to keep up with him! Sewing is one of those skills that I do not have, and I am so thankful that these great girls are sharing their talent and blessing us!

And finally...I am SO excited about this. A friend of mine from church named Erin has served as a doula for a number of women in our ward during their labors. If you don't know much about what a doula does, they assist the mother with physical and emotional support during labor. Studies have shown that doulas can help with shorter labors, less medication, reduced induction, and fewer C-sections...and they are a huge help for women attempting VBACs (me!). The midwives at UNC have mentioned at my prenatal appointments how supportive they are of doulas, and my friend Erin has agreed to help David and me during my labor and delivery. She met with David and me for a few hours last night and we are both really encouraged about her helping us during this special and important time.

Hooray for awesome friends and their kindness! I wish I had an awesome skill to share...couponing lessons, anyone? :)

I'm trying to change my blogging mentality

So after my prenatal appointment with the midwives this morning (Baby Girl is doing great! Good heartbeat and I'm measuring right at 32 weeks), Joshua and I visited with my friend Sarah and her two little girls (one is a couple of months older than Joshua, and the other was just born a few weeks ago). It was so nice to sit and talk with her (for almost 2 hours!) and catch up on life, motherhood, and families. She mentioned that during her newborn's late night feeding sessions, she checks out the blogs of her friends to see what everyone is up to. I apologized that I was so infrequent in updating mine, because I always feel like I need pictures or something really exciting to post about so that people would be interested in reading it. Sarah said that she tries to use her blog to capture not only the big moments, but also the little things that she doesn't want to forget as her girls grow up (and she is so good about updating often!).

*Light bulb moment for me!*

Joshua will be two years old in just a few short months, and he is growing up so fast! There are so many funny and endearing moments that I should take the time to record so that I will be able to look back on them as he gets older. And just like I enjoy reading the "little moments" that Sarah records on her blog, I'm hopeful that our family and friends will enjoy our "little moments" too. But my goal is to keep in mind that the most important reason for this blog is to have written reminders of this time in our little family's life, as Joshua is growing up and as we are adding a little girl to our home.

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So if previous posts haven't thoroughly convinced you that Joshua is OBSESSED with cars (and trucks and other forms of transportation), his most recent request should seal the deal. He's never been a big television or movie watcher--in fact, the only thing he has really paid much attention to is commercials ("Harris Teeter!" "Kroger!" "Walmart!"), probably because of the repetition. We've tried the free kids movies at the local theater a few times with friends this summer, and after about 40 minutes, he is DONE and ready to go. This all changed about 2 weeks ago. He discovered the DVD "Cars" in our collection and asked to watch it...and he was hooked. Now, every single day (I am not exaggerating!), I hear "I-wa m-vie Cars" (translation: I want movie Cars). We usually have stuff going on in the mornings, so I'm able to put this off until after his nap. Instead of being greeted with "Hi Mommy!" like I used to hear when I'd get him out of his crib, now I get the request for "Cars." Now, he doesn't sit and watch the whole thing from beginning to end--he's way too active for that! He's enthralled for the first 30 minutes or so, and then he does his normal playing, with movie breaks in between. He asks for so few things and we're so active all morning long that right now I don't feel bad about having the movie on in the afternoons. Plus, there is the bonus of it allowing me to get dinner ready and some cleaning done without having Little Man underfoot the whole time. So right now, it's working for us :) And it is really cute to hear him talk to some of the characters: "Bessie!" (the cement vehicle) "Mac!" (Lightning's 18-wheeler) "Bye-bye cars!"


We've also been doing lots of pool time this summer, which has been so fun! It has been unbearably hot during the days, so this allows us to spend time outside without melting into puddles of sweat. On Wednesday mornings we meet up with some of the other little guys from Joshua's nursery class (and their awesome mommies) at the neighborhood pool of one of Joshua's buddies. And we've met up with my sister-in-law Lisa and her kids to go to their pool in their neighborhood too. Joshua is learning to float pretty well in his little water-wing-floatie-thing (that's the technical term--haha), and it is always fun to hang out with friends (for Joshua and for Mommy!)

I'm trying my best to really enjoy this summer with Joshua, since it is our last hurrah before he has a little sister to share my attention. I can't believe that he won't be my "baby" anymore! But just like I tell him all the time, he'll always be my baby boy, no matter how big he gets :)

A day at the beach

Joshua had his first official beach trip this weekend when we visited my family for the holiday weekend. His only previous experience with the ocean was our Myrtle Beach trip this past fall, and the water was SO cold, he freaked out when it touched his feet. We had a gorgeous morning on Saturday, and we all loaded up after breakfast and made our way to Fort Macon. As soon as Joshua saw all that open sand to run and the ocean "wa-wer," he was in heaven!

Not the best picture of Joshua, but I loved this

shot of 3 of my favorite guys all together

(David, Joshua, and my brother Erik)

Joshua testing out the water (one of the few

pictures I took where he didn't run out of the frame

before the shot was over! He was a man on the move)

As you can tell, we got there pretty early, which

was great! Lots of room to run, and lots of people

were out walking their dogs...needless to say,

Joshua LOVED this. "Hi, puppy!"

Playing in the "wa-wer" with his boat

(Later, Joshua and David walked out to a sandbar

and "swam"...and said hello to a surfer)

Grandma had a number of sand toys for Little Man

to play with...he was a big fan of the shovel and

carried it up and down the beach with him as

he visited with the new people joining us on the sand

I was so happy to see that Joshua had so much fun at the beach! We grabbed "ice-keem" (ice cream) on our way home, which was the perfect way to wrap up the fun.

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Other quick updates on our family:

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We sold our Hyundai (which had almost 200,000 miles on it and the AC hasn't worked in over a year and half...hooray for Craiglist!) and got a 2006 Toyota Sienna, which Little Man LOVES riding in. He looks out the window and points out all the different cars he sees...he has learned, either through David or asking me what they're called, a number of different car makes: Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Mazda, VW, Acura, Infiniti...it is pretty hillarious to see how this car obsession is growing. At this rate, we'll never need to take him to a theme park for vacation...we can just visit our local Car Max and he'll be in hog heaven! We are loving all the room in the van (it was so nice for all 6 of us to ride to the beach together in one vehicle!) and it is SO much easier to get Joshua into and out of his car seat, especially with me getting more and more pregnant :) We figure that with our Accord and this van, we should be set for a good 10 years on cars, which is why we went ahead and got a van in anticipation of our growing family.

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I'm approaching 31 weeks in my pregnancy with this little gal, and she is quite the active one. She kicks me down low a lot, which I don't remember with Joshua. I've got a little swelling in my ankles and legs, but nothing compared to this same point in my pregnancy with Joshua. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will continue to be the case! I'm continuing to meet with the UNC Midwives for my prenatal care, and in a few weeks, David and I will meet with one of the doctors from UNC to go over some information regarding my *hopeful* attempt at a VBAC. As long as everything goes as planned, I will deliver with a midwife; the doctor will only be involved if there is an emergency. I'm doing everything I can to make this goal a reality, so keep up the positive thoughts and prayers for us. We are getting so excited to meet our little girl in 2 months, and yet, there are times that I can't believe I'm going to be the mother of TWO little ones! What a challenging blessing lies ahead :)