Big News.....

It is official! Adelyn is going to be a big sister on or around June 7, 2012.

As of today I am 12w3d pregnant. This has already been a completely different pregnancy than I had with Adelyn. Until a week and a half ago or so, I was unable to keep virtually anything down. Now it comes and goes, which is better. I have actually lost 2lbs since I first found out I was pregnant.
I have had two ultrasounds thus far. The most recent to determine the chance for down-syndrome and other chromosomal diseases. My results came back perfectly normal, which is good news :) Baby's heartbeat was 162bpm which is very healthy and strong. My next appointment is December 20. I will have a bunch of blood work and other fun stuff and then we will find out the gender around Paul's birthday in mid-January.
The problem with the first trimester ending and Thanksgiving coinciding the same time is that I cannot tell if this new pooch is Thanksgiving fattiness or baby bump. Either way, I am not a fan! And if it is a baby bump, this is WAY earlier than I did with Adelyn.
So, that is our big news of the year, for now :)

Happy Halloween

Adelyn has been looking forward to Halloween for FOREVER. Mostly because I told her she was not allowed to wear her princess dress before hand because I was scared she would mess it up. Wednesday was a beautiful day. We dressed in the first of two princess dresses, and went to the library for story time. All of the businesses downtown were doing trick-or-treating for the little ones. After story time, Adelyn and I took off down the streets to practice saying 'trick-or-treat'. She was very excited with each piece of candy received and told me every time more candy got added to her basket. After we went up and down the entire 8 blocks, we reluctantly went back home to rest up before the big event that evening.
We went out with friends to a neighborhood off island. We walked the whole night, and I was convinced that about half way through Adelyn would start to get fussy and want to be carried---- I was WRONG. She ran from house to house asking for more candy, saying thank you, telling us that she got more candy. We ended up with two baskets of candy (much to Paul's delight)! We could not get Miss A to stay still long enough to get too many decent pictures, so you will have to make due :)

Princess Adelyn

'Look at my goodies, Daddy!'

'Such a difficult decision'

Checking out the Haul

Trip to the Okefenokee

A couple of weekends ago we went on a fun weekend trip to the Okefenokee Swamp with Papee, Gram, and Aunt Anna. We stayed in a quaint two bedroom cabin in Stephen Foster State Park. We got in Friday night, enjoyed dinner, found frogs, listened to owls, ran around and then crashed. Saturday we rented a john boat and got out for a fun-filled day on the swamp. We saw turtles, alligators, birds and all kinds of plant life. Adelyn enjoyed every minute of it. We came in for a brief nap that afternoon and then went back out that evening for a sunset booze cruise. It was a very fun weekend and we cant wait to go back again soon!

By Request---

Aunt Anna has requested that I make a list of toys/books Adelyn has since Christmas and her birthday are both right around the corner. (Hopefully Christmas will be spent in our new house!!!)

Toys:

• Kitchen with LOTS of food, utensils, plates, cups, shopping cart, etc
• Tea set
• 2 baby dolls with accessories (stroller, high chair, bed)
• easel with coloring supplies (although we can never have too many coloring books or sticker pads)
• Fisher Price Zoo with the following animals: lion, tiger, zebra, killer whale, brown bear, polar bear, baby lion, giraffe, dolphin, ostrich, alligator, seal, penguin, leopard, rhino, elephant.
• tricycle 
• Princess car
• Mr. Potato Head
• more legos than you can imagine 

 Those are it as far as bigger items that she place with frequently. We also have a lot of stuffed animals, but more of those never hurt anyone :)

Books:

• goodnight moon
• almost all of Eric Carle's (author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar) books

We have tons. and tons. and tons of books. She has a new favorite everyday. Those two are some of the hot kids books, which is why i listed them. She is also very much into tearing pages out of books when left alone with them, so we try to get cardboard pages :)

The current 'must have' items:

• Anything Mickey/Minnie/Daisey, etc
• Disney Princess
• shoes
• cute girly clothes
• play doh

Anna, hope this helps. Comment below if you need more info :)

Terrible Two's?

I think Adelyn has officially hit the terrible two's stage. Not when we are around other people, mind you, she only reserves this joy for Paul and me. The past several days/nights she has thrown massive tantrums before dinner and bath times. I dont know if it is because she is tired, hungry, both? And it does not help that her memory has gotten so much better so she remembers things she was mad about from earlier in the day and brings it up. She definitely has a personality and knows exactly what she wants to do and how it needs to happen. She gets upset when I try to 'help' her (ie. putting clothes, shoes on in the morning, buckling her carseat, etc) and when I finally force her into something she just screams and lays on the floor. I suppose it is all par for the course. I just hope this is it and it doesn't get any worse!
In other news, Paul and I have been looking at houses. We found one that just feels like home. It is a 3/3 on .9 acres. It was built in the 80s and definitely needs a little TLC, but it is completely move in ready and can be updated as we can. We are planning on putting an offer in later this week and *hopefully* renting out the rest of our current home so we won't have to sell it. Wish us luck! We need the extra space!

Potty Training Follow Up

It has been just over a week since we began using the big girl potty. After a not so fun first weekend of mostly accidents and near misses, she has gotten the hang of things! She LOVES washing her hands, so often times she will tell me she needs to go just so she can wash her hands. We are now making it more often (including a couple of restaurants and Publix) and having much less accidents. I am so proud of our not so baby girl!
On another note, I realized I completely spaced on updating about swim lessons! She was a champ~ We only had about 3 lessons before her teacher said we could take a break for a while. Adelyn still hasnt gotten the hang of breathing yet, but she can swim underwater, push off walls, dive down and get stuff off the bottom of the pool. She is a real fish! We have not had a real opportunity to get back in the water since we have been home, but we will soon enough. And we will start working on that whole breathing thing!

Potty Training

It is time. We are here. Potty training 2012. Adelyn knows exactly what to do, wipe and flush. She has shown interest a few times prior to Vegas, but I didnt pressure it much. While we were in Zion, however, it was made known that Adelyn told Nana several times that she needed to go, and went, in the big potty. I then picked Adelyn up from school on Tuesday and was asked by one of her teachers how potty training was going. I was informed that she asked to go while at school as well. Apparently it is only around Paul and I that she does not want to go. I put her in big girl panties (which she is very excited about) last night after I picked her up from school and have not looked back. I can tell when she needs to go, but she still cant. I try to put her down every 5-10 min (with no luck) once she starts doing the 'potty dance'. She generally tells me about 2.2 seconds too late that she needs to go. At least she is recognizing she is going/needs to go. I figure within the next 3 days we will get the hang of things. Wish us well.... I will update on Monday!

Family Vacation 2012

Sunday we returned from the Moerman family trip to Las Vegas, with a side trip to Zion National Park for Paul, his sister, Kati, our brother-in-law, Nick, and me. We all landed in Las Vegas last Sunday, July 22, after a two hour delay in the Atlanta airport. They had determined we needed a new starter, after we had left the terminal, so we had to return and wait for the mechanics to do their work. We landed around 1:30PST and took a limo to the hotel (by way of a liquor store---- I am already loving this city).

 Limo ride from hotel

Upon first impression, the hotels are massive. Much larger than I could have possibly imagined. We stayed at the Flamingo Hotel because Daddy Joe has a time share there. It was right in the middle of town, between Ballys and the Venetian. Adelyn loved it because we were able to see the Bellagio fountains from our room. We ate dinner Sunday night at a little cafe in Paris. Monday was spent hanging out at the hotel pool, which Adelyn loved, and that afternoon Daddy, Mommy, Aunt Kati and Uncle Nick headed out to Zion while Adelyn stayed back with Nana, Auntie Lex, Daddy Joe and Mama Alice. (From what I have heard, they had a great time while we were gone :))
 Zion was amazing, and definitely the highlight of the trip, I am really happy we decided to take a couple of days to get out there as it was only 2.5 hrs from Vegas. The drive out was amazing, seeing various different areas of wash outs, around mountains, and the views at sunset. Amazing. 

An overlook point we found on the drive in

Does not seem as big as it really is!!

View from our hotel room

 Tuesday morning we got up and hiked Hidden Canyon Trail, which was a great 'easy' starter hike of about 2.4 miles or so.We then spent about 5 hours (3-4miles, is my best guesstimate) in the Narrows. Looking up at sheer 30+ft walls that the water carved out.... you can't help but be in awe. We ended up back at the (h)motel after an exhausting, but exhilarating, day. Wednesday morning we had planned on doing this hike, but it was closed due to 'trail maintenance' (aka, helicopters cleaning poop from the port-o-pottys at the top of the ridge). We were definitely bitter, but decided to do the Observation Point hike instead, which left from the same point as Hidden Canyon. It was a ROUGH 8 mile hike, with virtually 2.5+ miles straight up (we ascended 2150ft in 4 miles). It was well worth it, though, as the views were absolutely amazing. None of the pictures really do it any justice.
FYI- if anyone ever stays in Springdale,UT while on your visit to Zion, eat at Oscar's. We ended up eating there both nights because it was so good! Also, bring beer in from a different state because UT waters down all of their beer!! (Beer that is normally 5.3% here was 3.2% there)

Hidden Canyon

The Arch at Hidden Canyon

The chains at Hidden Canyon

The Narrows

We definitely had to 'wade' through waist-chest deep water

Where the trail splits Observation Point to the left, Hidden Canyon to the right

Top of Observation Point

We got back in town Wednesday evening, took quick showers and went to dinner at a yummy sushi restaurant in the Cosmopolitan hotel (I will say it was kind of a shock to go from ZNP to Vegas!). Anywho, for those of you who know anything about Top Chef Masters, the premier party was there that night because, unbeknownst to me, that is where they filmed this season. The party happened to be down the hall from the restaurant where we ate. As we were leaving, Curtis Stone (ahhhhh!) and a few other members of the show were right outside getting ready to head to the bar. Definitely the highlight of my celebrity sightings. I really wanted to get a picture with him (not something I typically want to do around famous people), but Paul informed me that would be uncool. (He later said that would probably have made their nights).  Thurs-Sat were spent exploring and walking around Las Vegas. Thursday we really only spent time in the Venetian, walking around with Mama Alice and Daddy Joe, doing the gondola rides, trying on an amazing pair of shoes and just hanging out. That night we went to the Blue Man Group, which was really really great, much better than I had expected, dinner, and getting lost trying to find the casino at Ceasar's Palace- in the daylight we realized we entered at the COMPLETE wrong end. Friday we went to a lot of hotels, including the shark reef at the Mandalay Bay. Adelyn really enjoyed that as well, though not as much as the fountains at the Bellagio. We went to dinner on Fremont St that night, part of 'Old Las Vegas', that was a lot of fun. There was a massive LED screen that covered the whole length of the street that lit up beginning around 8 every night. Saturday we walked the opposite direction, towards the Bellagio (probably my favorite hotel because of the gardens), and all the way down the strip.

Paul and Daddy Joe at an oxygen bar at the Venetian

Hanging with the cast of some performers at the Venetian

Bellagio fountains

View from Eiffel Tower at Paris

We headed out on Sunday, after a HORRIBLE travel day (cancelled flights, delayed flights, etc), we finally got home and are getting back into the swing of things. All in all, it was a great trip, and I can definitely understand the appeal of Vegas. There are a lot of interesting people. And everything you hear about nakedness and prostitutes thrown in your face? Not true. At least when you have a kid or are a female. There are (sorry) Mexicans that hand out cards/brochures of women, generally focusing on men in their 20s or 65+, you can choose to take them or not. No nakedness anywhere. And everyone tends to respect people with children. Until next time....

Random Musings and a Photo Montage (finally!)

Hello blogger family. My main focus on posting today is an update of pictures. Our card is full on the camera and we have not gotten a new one yet, so I have taken several pictures with my phone; being the lazy one that I am, I have not downloaded those to the computer in a while..... I finally did! :) In Adelyn news, she is growing by the day! I took her to the dentist on Monday, they weighed and measured her (34.2lbs and 37in), and told me her teeth look great- even her extra one! She is literally repeating every.single.word Paul and I say. And she seems to know what they all mean. Lately she has been giving me lots of kisses, and the other night at dinner I finally got an 'I love you, Mommy', though it sounded more like 'I wuv ouu, monney'. She has also decided that she LOVES broccoli. To the point that I actually have to cook two stalks because she will eat an entire one by herself. I have no idea where it came from, but I am glad to see it!
Potty training has kind of taken a backseat for now. She really is not interested and we do not want to push her or make her fear it. Though lately she has been telling me that she needs to change her diaper because she went 'stinky'. And occasionally she wants to sit on the potty, so I let her, but after 5min or so she gets bored so she gets up and then promptly pees on the floor. It will come soon enough!
Enough of that.... here are the much anticipated pictures :)

At the turtle release

'Are you sure you dont want any cake, Mommy?'

Watching the manatees with Daddy

Learning the benefits of 'helping' me bake

'Yummy!'

'You told me to say CHEESE'

'I love the pool'

'Blueberry dessert=heaven'

We are going to our first session of swim lessons today! I will let you know how they go :)