Welcome Chloe Faith!!!

**Well, finally posting this now that Chloe is almost 6 weeks old...where does the time go...hopefully I will be able to keep up with my blog better now!!

On Thursday June 11th...our second daughter Chloe Faith was born via c-section at 12:31pm and weighed an amazing 7lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 inches long. Everyone is doing great. We came home on Saturday June 13th. Adrianna has been loving being a big sister and has been a great help...I am so glad that she is transitioning so well. I am so thankful that Josh has been home for the past week to help out with everything...he has been amazing and I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. He has made the transition to two daugthers go as smoothly as possible with all of his help with Adrianna and taking her out for her activities and all his help around the house.
Chloe is doing great...we did have to take her back to get her heel pricked because of jaundice issues...but thankfully her levels continue to go down and she doesn't have to go back anymore. She is a big eater and doing great. She has her nights and days mixed up and has been sleeping more during the day and awake more at night...but that is to be expected at first...hopefully that will get straightened out soon and I will be able to get a little more rest...but thankfully this week with Josh's help I have felt pretty rested for having a new born in the house.
Since Chloe has been home, Adrianna has gotten to do some fun activities with Daddy. I have been feeling a little sad about missing out on spending time with Adrianna but I know it will all get back to our routine of activities soon. Adrianna has gone to storytime, saw a free movie in the theatre for the first time, been shopping,and is swimming at Greenbrier State Park with friends today. Even though I have missed doing these activities with Adrianna; I am glad that she has been able to still get out and about and not feel left out now that her baby sister has arrived.
Overall, things are going great and I can't wait to be able to drive and get back out and about again...we will see how it goes now with two :). I am up for visitors next week as Josh will be back to work and I won't be able to drive until after Thursday...so come on over.

Grandma and the girls...

A Wonderful Diaper Shower

**Not sure why I can't find any pics from this...I guess I will have to add them later..I think my Mom has some..

Today, after church I was surprised (for the most part...I was only a little suspicious) with a wonderful diaper shower from my friends and family. I am blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful and caring friends and family. I really didn't expect to be getting any showers this time with it being my second child and another girl as well but it was certainly very thoughtful to put one on for me and I had a great time today. We were blessed with many diapers so that we won't have to buy any for quite sometime which certainly saves a lot of money...especially with Adrianna still being in diapers (hopefully that won't be too much longer). We are so thankful for all of the wonderful gifts that we were blessed with for Chloe today and most of all for all of your love and support that you have given us and continue to offer to us. I can't believe that I only have 3 more days now until my c-section is scheduled...time is just flying by and we are very excited about Chloe's arrival and hope and pray that Adrianna will be very excited about being a big sister as well.

Thanks so much to Trish, Lindsay and Bekah for putting this wonderful shower on for me. To Becki for opening up her house for us to have the shower there and to my Mom for getting the cake and everything that she spoils us with:).

Thanks to everyone for being there today, your wonderful friendships, gifts and for making my day special.

MOPS and POPS Picnic

Today, we had our end of the year MOPS and POPS picnic and it was a lot of fun and a great success. There was tons of yummy food,

lots of fun to be had on the playground

and bouncing on the moon bounce,

handpainting

and a fun candy game. Adrianna had a blast and enjoyed every minute of playing with all of her friends.

"A Lonely Playdate"

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Yesterday, I had my 38 week check up and everything continues to go smoothly. I can't believe that I now only have 5 days until my c-section is scheduled and I get to meet my new little daugther Chloe. I am very excited and a little nervous as well. I think I pretty much have everything as ready as it is going to be.
After my appt. Adrianna and I headed over to Chick-Fil-A for our MOPS playdate. We were suppose to be meeting at Pangborn park to play and have a picnic lunch but unfortunately because of the rain we had to change our plans. Well, we got there a little late because of my appt and no one else came for the playdate...I guess they all wanted to stay out of the rain.

"Little Gym Graduation"

Today, Adrianna had her Little Gym Graduation....it was the last day of the winter/spring semester there. I can't believe how fast the 20 weeks went by. Adrianna has really enjoyed being in Little Gym and I have certainly seen a lot of improvement in her skills. She loved every minute of Little Gym today. She got to play with with parachute,

do a roll on the balance beam,

flip on the high bar, play with balls and bubbles

and get her medal for completing another semester of Little Gym. Of course with her little sister being due next week I didn't sign her up for the summer session or any other sessions at this point. I am not sure if we will be going back to Little Gym again or not.. Adrianna loves it and I have enjoyed it as well but it is pretty pricey and also I will have another little one to be taking care of then....so we will see what will happen...I might try out something different with her in the fall..I would love for her to still be in some kind of activity.

"Can't Get Enough of the Cars"

On Tuesday, Adrianna had a really long, busy but also really exciting day. It started out by her making up her last Little Gym class which of course she really enjoyed. Since it was show week she was given a medal so that she didn't feel left out and then didn't want to give it up...so I had to bring it back today for her actual Little Gym class.
Afterwards, we headed down to my parents house and Pappy treated us to lunch at Burger King and then it was off to swimming at my cousins house. I was happy to have my Dad (Pappy) come along with us to go swimming since I am so close to having my little baby girl I didn't feel comfortable really getting in the water and also not to mention the fact that I currently don't have a bathing suit to wear anyways. I didn't think it was really worth spending the money on a maternity one when I wouldn't be pregnant that much into the swimming season anyways. Adrianna wasn't so sure about getting in the pool at first...but then after she got in she loved it. She enjoyed riding in the crab

but wasn't too fond of the life jacket.

She was happy to have her cousin Morgan there to enjoy the pool with her. Thanks Joyce for having us over for a fun day of swimming and thanks Pappy for helping me to have a great time in the pool.


After swimming I tried to get Adrianna to take a little nap but no such luck...she was afraid that she would miss something. Well, when my Mom got there after work she was able to get Adrianna to fall asleep and she held her for about 1 1/2 hours for a nap...that is about half the time that Adrianna usually naps...but I was glad that she at least got a little nap so that she would be ready for her next fun part of the day...the Carnival.
Adrianna had a blast at the carnival!! We tried to get her to eat some dinner first...but didn't get much luck with that...she was too interested in looking at all of the rides, games, lights and sights around her to be interested in eating. "Mumum" bought Adrianna a wrist band so that she could ride as many rides as she wanted for one price for the night. This is the first year that Adrianna has actually been able to get on the carnival rides and even get on some of them alone. I wasn't sure how she was going to react to the rides and especially riding alone but she loved it and that is a big understatement. One of the rides there was cars that just went around in circles and up and down some....well lets just say she couldn't get enough of them...she must have rode them at least 15 times


....We couldn't get her to ride anything else except the helicopters one time with Mumum. They even had a bear ride there and she loves bears but she didn't want to have anything to do with even that ride. So needless to say she had a great time and certainly got her money's worth on the cars. I guess if we go to anymore carnivals this year she will be riding the cars for sure!!
She also enjoyed sharing some french fries with Daddy!!

Fun times at Chuck E. Cheese

Today, Adrianna went to Chuck E. Cheese to help celebrate her friend Jocelyn's Third Birthday. This was only the second time that she had been there and she certainly had a blast...loved it a lot more then the first time she went. She enjoyed playing all of the games and riding on the little rides. Her favorites were riding in Chuck E's car and getting her picture taken, riding the roller coaster and riding on the horse.

She also enjoyed "driving" the car.

She didn't like Chuck E. too much though...everytime we went by the stage with him on it she would kind of cling to me and fuss a little. Chuck E. actually came out and walked around a little and she ran over to me and didn't want to have anything to do with him. I guess I would be kind of terrified of a large mouse as well. Of course, they had pizza and cake of which Adrianna ate very little pizza and pretty much just cake icing...but I guess that is the way that it goes at parties...too many other distractions. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to charge my camera battery so I was only able to get some pics of Adrianna in the beginning and didn't even capture one pic of Jocelyn the birthday girl or her cake. Adrianna had a great time and now is worn out and taking her nap!! We had a great time Joceyln, thanks for inviting us and Happy Birthday!!

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I also had my 37 week check up this morning...everything is still going smoothly and the c-section is still scheduled at this point for June 11th...only 13 days to go!! I am not dilated at all yet so I don't think little Chloe will be coming too soon yet. I am really getting ready to be done...but I am trying to enjoy my last days of being a Mom of one and time with just Adrianna as well...I am a little nervous as to how she is going to react to her baby sister but I know she will be a great big sister.

Time to Relax and Get Prepared

Now that I am only 16 days away from my c-section being scheduled I have really been feeling a lack of energy again...especially when I have been outside on those hotter days this past weekend. So when talking with my Mom, Mom and Dad offered to take Adrianna for the day and night so that I could just get some time to rest and get things done and ready for Chloe's arrival. As much as I enjoy time with Adrianna, I was very grateful for this offer and took them up on it. So I drove about half-way and met my Dad in Frederick this morning with Adrianna and her stuff to spend the night and she is off having a great time with Pappy today and Mummum later when she gets off work. She wasn't upset at all and seemed happy to get into Pappy's Jeep which always makes me feel better about leaving her. I know that she will have a great time and be well taken care of like usual. On my way back home, I stopped by Target to pick up a few things that I needed to get before little Chloe arrives and it was so weird to not have Adrianna with me and it just makes the trip so much faster but of course i missed her being there too :). I have done some laundry here but otherwise just relaxing which is nice. I think I am going to try and get a few other things done around here while I have the time without Adrianna since it makes getting things done so much faster. I am enjoying my relaxing day but also looking forward to seeing her again tomorrow. I am hoping that Josh will not be too late getting home from work tonight so that we can enjoy some alone time together as well. Well, even though Josh didn't make it home until almost 8...we were still able to have a nice, fun evening together. I had made dinner but decided that I wanted to wait until he got home to eat. Then instead of eating what I made...we saved it for tomorrow night and decided to use a gift card to the Golden Corral that Josh had gotten from his b-day party and also a gift card to the movies. So we had a late dinner and a late night but it was so nice to have some alone time and enjoy it together. We know that those days will soon be even fewer and further apart but am greatly looking forward to having two little girls in the house. We had a great dinner and then went and saw Obssessed, which wasn't our favorite movie but we still liked it. Well, I am off to bed as it is already 12:30...I am thankful to have the chance to sleep in tomorrow and Josh is working from home tomorrow so he will get to sleep in a little as well. No pics from today since Adrianna wasn't with me...but I am sure I will have some to post when she comes back home tomorrow evening.

Memorial Day at Home

Yesterday, we didn't actually even leave the house for anything on Memorial Day but we did have some friends/family over to hang out. My sister in law and nephew came over to hang out with us the majority of the day to play and have lunch and dinner with us. Josh had gone to play golf with a friend so it was nice to have them here to hang out with. Adrianna and Alexander enjoyed playing outside for a while at the water table, in the kiddie pool, swinging and in the sand box.

They had lunch together and Alexander even did great with taking a nap in Adrianna's old room in her crib. Bekah and I go the chance to just hang out, relax and talk while they napped with was nice. Shortly after Josh got home, we had just a few friends come over (kind of a last minute thing) for some hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill and to just hang out and chat. The day actually went by fairly quickly for not going anywhere and it was nice to just take it easy.

We are very happy to have Aunt Bekah, Uncle Chuck and Alexander moving back into the area so that we can have time to spend together. I am glad that Adrianna and Alexander will be able to play together a lot :).

Land of Little Horses

So I know this is from over a month ago but still wanted to post...trying to catch up and get back into my posting..we will see how it goes...



On Saturday, Josh, Adrianna, myself, Josh's sister Bekah and her son Alexander made the trip up to Gettysburg to the Land of Little Horses. Adrianna and Alexander seemed to have a great time. They loved running around and riding in the wagon to go around and see all of the little horses. They got to enjoy feeding the horses,

watching a fun arena show with horses, dogs and even a llama,
riding a horse,


riding on toy tractors

and also seeing goats, emu's, ostrich's, and other fun animals. It was a hot day for me with being as pregnant as I am and I was very tired in the end but we all had a great time and I am glad that we went.

"Enjoying her new Ride"

Today, Adrianna enjoyed some time with her friends at City Park. It was a beautiful day and the park was very a pleasant experience this morning. It is amazing to watch how much Adrianna grows from one time at the park to the next. She has really started to enjoy climbing more and more on the play equipment and will finally go down the slide more often alone now. I think her favorite thing to do today was to just walk back and forth a million times on the bridge part. We did take a walk around the pond to see the ducks but she actually wasn't as interested in them today as normal...there really didn't seem to be as many either. We also got to enjoy a picnic lunch together.
Afterwards, Adrianna and I stopped by Toys-R-Us to check out the wagons...my Mom had been mentioning for a while how she wanted to get Adrianna one and then she called today to ask me to pick one out for her and she would pay for it....what a great deal :). We actually ended up getting a pretty good deal...we got a very nice Radio Flyer wagon with a canopy that was originally $169 and was on sale for $129. It was actually very simple to put together so I was able to do that while Adrianna took a nap and then after nap time I took her for a short ride around the neighborhood....Adrianna loved every minute of it. I think we just found her new favorite mode of transportation. I am looking forward to taking around places this summer...she did much better in it then a stroller. Thanks "Mummum" for a great gift...I love my new wagon :).

A Day to Myself!!

On Monday, I was blessed to have a day to myself. I first got to sleep in a little bit...then got a few things done around the house and then I was off for my day of "beauty". I had scheduled a hair appt finally (hadn't gotten anything done to my hair since October...way over due for a hair cut and highlights). I went to a new place this time and was very pleased with the results and the very reasonable price. I was referred to a lady from our church who does hair in a small shop connected to her house just one exit down from where we live and I was thankful that I gave her a try. I am looking forward to going back there again and now that it isn't so expensive I will go more often too :). I think I can pretty much go three times for the price of one time at the old place that I was going to in Frederick. It is so nice to finally have a hair cut. After I got my hair cut...I then headed to the nail salon to get my manicure and pedicure that Josh and Adrianna had gotten for me for Mother's Day...I certainly enjoyed my time there and am very thankful for the wonderful/relaxing gift...wanted to get it done while I still had a few weeks left before little Chloe arrives. I should have taken some pics of my hair and such...but I never end up taking pics of myself...don't really like to :).
So where was Adrianna while I was enjoying myself...my parents were excited to have her to spend the day with them. Some of my family was in from Tenn visiting with them so Adrianna enjoyed a great time with them. They went to the Green Turtle for lunch and enjoyed some time at a local duck pond. I know Adrianna had a blast. Thanks everyone for helping me to have a relaxing day....I really appreciated it and loved every minute of it...but was also thankful to have time to spend with Adrianna in the evening as well.



**I had some cute pics that my Mom took with Adrianna at lunch and at the duck pond but for some reason they won't post, ugh...I will keep trying...

A Weekend of Parties

This past weekend we stayed busy by going to two of Adrianna's friends 2nd Birthday Parties. On Saturday, we went to Sadie's birthday party which was held outside so of course Adrianna had a blast. Since the weather has been nice she has been constantly wanting to be outside...which is just fine with me. Sadie's Mom and Dad rented a moon bounce and Adrianna had a blast in there jumping with her friends.

I just watched from the outside this time...didn't want to bounce the baby around too much :). She also enjoyed the swings and pushing the lawn mower.

She couldn't wait to try a piece of Sadie's cute pig cake either. Happy 2nd birthday Sadie...I am glad that we could celebrate with you.


On Sunday, Adrianna enjoyed Adam's second birthday party. He had a balloon theme for his party and his Mom made a really cute balloon cake. Adrianna was asleep when we first got there but after a little while she woke up and enjoyed playing in their newly finished basement with toys and all the balloons.

Happy 2nd Birthday Adam...I am glad that we could celebrate with you too.


After Adam's party Adrianna and I headed down to my parents house to see some my family that was in town from Tenn and have dinner with them. Adrianna had fun playing with her little cousin Morgan who just turned 1. It was great to see family and have some time to spend with them. Adrianna spent the night with my parents and I came back on home for the night.

MOPS and Softball

On Friday, we had our last MOPS meeting for the spring semester and now will be having playdates over the summer until MOPS begins again with the regular meetings in the fall. I really enjoyed MOPS this year and helping on the steering team with it. I am blessed to know and have friendships with so many wonderful christian moms. On Friday, we had the opportunity to have a "Tea and Treasures" meeting where we had our own little "tea party" and were able to reflect upon the past year and how MOPS has impacted our lives and how God has been working in our lives as Mom's and women as well. It was a very powerful and fun meeting. We also made some fun travel trays to use in the car for vacation time with the kids this summer. I am greatly looking forward to the MOPS year starting back up in the Fall and plan on continuing to be the hospitality coordinator.
Friday night Josh played softball for church and we were able to go out and watch the game. Adrianna really enjoys seeing Daddy out on the field and the opportunity to just be outside.

National Zoo

On Wednesday, we headed down to the National Zoo with 7 other Mom's and 9 other kids. We met at the metro and rode down to the zoo. I was hoping to have Josh to go along with me considering that I am only a month away from my c-section being scheduled but it didn't work out for him to take off of work...so I made the adventure on my own (well of course I had several other Mom's with me) and everything went great. All the kids (and Mom's) seemed to have a blast and I know that we were all very tired at the end of the day.
Riding the metro to the zoo....


Stopping at the entrance to the Zoo for a group pic...


Walking to check out the flamingos....this is what Adrianna would have rather done the whole time instead of being in the stroller...but she still did well with the stroller...


Checking out the flamingos with Lexi...I think this might have been one of her favorite stops...she could get much closer to them then the other animals and there were so many of them...


Of course, everyone always loves the elephants...


Pointing to the gorilla who seemed to be posing for the camera


Having fun watching the monkeys with her friends


"Riding the tiger"



We had a great day and are looking forward to going back again soon with Daddy!!