Drive to PA

We had to go back sometime. After Michigan we stopped in Toledo to see Diana and Jacob one more time. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures this time, we got in pretty late and pretty much just went to sleep. Then we were off to PA! Brooklynn did GREAT again, but sadly with about 3-4 hours left my AC went out AGAIN. (I had just gotten it fixed before we left.)

Brooke took two naps I think and played and was great again. A perfect angel. I was so glad she didn't cry and freak out. I think she likes road trips, finally.

We stopped at the Hess's house to see Julie and Owen! It was such a nice change from another rest area, especially so Brooke could run around and play for a little bit. She LOVES Owen, kept giving him lots of kisses. I'm going to have to watch out for her. It was great to see them, too, we don't see them that often. Thanks for having us!

Uncle Josh

Everyone loves Uncle Josh! :)

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, honey! You are such a great father to Brooklynn. I am so blessed to have you in my life. Thanks for all the help you give me with her, I love how involved in her life you have been. I'm excited to see you become a father for the second time and I know it will be more challenges but also so much fun. I love you!

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 came out on my birthday. I really wanted to see it and we all went to see it on Saturday (technically the day after but that was fine.) It was so cute and I cried several times. I think I cried even more than I did at the first two. (Yeah, I cried at those, too.)

Special Cousin Time

More cousin bonding time! I love when Brooklynn gets to see her cousins. They are so cute when they play together. Whenever she sees pictures of her cousins she gets really excited and points and babbles their names. "Addy" is one that we can understand the most so far, probably because it's kinda close to "Daddy". Even though we try to see family as much as we can, it still is never long enough and we miss everybody. We can't wait to see you next time!

My Pregnancy So Far...

May 22: So...I'm pregnant! (5 weeks) So far I feel way less pregnant than I did with Brooklynn. With her I knew right away, even before I took my test. This one kind of came as a surprise. (Which we wanted...we were sort of planning for a surprise.) I have so many mixed emotions right now, our life as a family of three is almost over and for that I'm a little sad. I will miss having just the three of us. I'm sad I can no longer focus all of my attention on Brooklynn. I'm really excited for her to have a baby brother or sister to play with, though. I can't wait to give her that wonderful gift of being a sibling. It will be so fun for her to have another little person for her to play with. I'm both dreading and looking forward to the pregnancy again. I'm already out of breath most of the time, feeling nauseous a lot and peeing more often. I'm already showing a little bit, why do I have to be one of the ones who shows like INSTANTLY? I'm so excited to feel the baby start moving and kicking and feeling so close to another person for 9 months. I'm dreading going through childbirth again, but also hopeful that it will, in fact, be easier the second time around. I'm really nervous to raise two children now instead of just one. I am already so busy and I feel like I'm just keeping my head above water all the time. I don't know how I'll manage being pregnant and do it, let alone raise a 2-year-old and a newborn. I know God will give me the wisdom and the strength, it's just a little crazy in my head right now.

We're keeping it a surprise for now, Josh really wants to tell his family in person, and I want all of our family to know before we start telling other people...and so we are keeping it hush hush. It's so hard. I don't know how people wait so long. Plus, since I'm already showing a little, I want to tell people so they aren't thinking I'm just getting fatter. I really hope I can hide it for another month.

May 31: (6 weeks) Two nights ago I woke up at 2 am for a middle-of-the-night pee. I was so annoyed. Its officially starting.

Yesterday we had a wedding that so many of our friends were at. I really thought someone was going to ask me, but no one did! So I made it through one of the rough spots where we saw everyone. Just a few more weeks of trying to hide it!

Also, Brooklynn is getting really good at pointing to different body parts when you ask her. I ask her "Where is Mommy's nose?" and she points to my nose. I ask her, "Where is Mommy's mouth?" and she points to my mouth. I ask her "Where is Mommy's baby?" and she points to my belly. It is so cute. I think she is getting excited about it. She definitely realizes more than I thought.

June 6: I can STILL sleep on my belly at night! This is very exciting to me because when I was pregnant with Brooklynn I had to stop sleeping on my stomach before I even knew I was pregnant; I kept getting sharp pains in my gut and it just hurt! I am very excited that I can still enjoy this; although it's sadly ending soon, I'm afraid. :(

June: 8 (7 weeks)

On vacation this week...kinda slipped by me that I'm even pregnant.

We went to the zoo today and met up with Erin and Charity. I was so nervous that they would guess that I was pregnant and I'd have to tell them yes before Josh was with me, too. Luckily they didn't say anything.

(8 Weeks)

June 17: I saw Janelle today! She is pregnant, too. She is 18 weeks. I felt as big as she was. Here we are posing with our bellies. :)

June 18: We finally got to tell Josh's family! Woohoo!

We put an "I'm a Big Sister" shirt on Brooklynn and drove up to Michigan with her in it. When we got there we turned her around for her to model her shirt and let everyone kind of "figure it out". It didn't take too long before people were saying, "YAY!" and hugging us and actually making little Brooklynn cry because of all the excitement. She really only slept for about 15 minutes and we woke her up when we got there so she was really out of it. Pretty soon she warmed up and realized that she got to play and do her own thing again so she was happy.

June 22: 9 weeks and my first Birth Center appointment! It was a little crazy to be back but also fun. It turns out I do get to get two ultrasounds this time so I will get one in a week or two? I still have to set the appointment with the ultrasound place. Anyway, I had Anne who is one of the midwives that I had several times with my pregnancy with Brooklynn. She did a pelvic exam and said I felt more like 8 or 9 weeks than 11 or 12. (I was a little nervous I was more pregnant than I thought). She gave me the due date of: JANUARY 29! I think it will probably still be February this time but you never know! Brooklynn was completely all over the place. They are very kid-friendly and are open to your bringing your children to get them exposed...but it was not fun at all. I'm going to probably make most of my appointments later in the day so Josh can come, too and help watch Brooklynn. My favorite part was when she screamed and cried when they took my blood. It reminded me of HER getting her shots....although my arm is the one they pricked. She is so protective. It's so cute.

After my appointment we went to the nearby duck/coy pond. Brooklynn has never been there, which is hard to believe because I've been so many times with kids I've babysat in the past. She loved it and kept pointing at the fish and the geese. We even saw two turtles. We are going to have to go after every appointment now which is fine. Such cheap entertainment.

Yup, It's About That Time Again...

So I went to the store and bought Honey Smacks cereal. Harmless, yes. But when I got home I looked at them like, "Hmmm....I haven't bought these since I was pregnant with Brooklynn, when I ate them ALL THE TIME." Then I looked at the calender....yup, 4 1/2 weeks, almost 5. I didn't think I was actually pregnant, but since my parents were in town and we were seeing all of the Ashleys, I convinced Josh to let me take a pregnancy test. (I had to convince him because he hid them from me in February when I just KNEW I was pregnant...I wasn't. He was trying to make me wait until I missed a period before we kept wasting money on pregnancy tests.)

Anyway, the first test had a line going up and down but the one crossing it was so faint that it looked more like an invalid result than a positive. So then I wasn't completely sure...but by now I just KNEW that I was. So I went downstairs to get a nicer kind that I got on sale a while ago. I saved it until I had to pee again but then I was right back in there ready to take the test again. Josh was in there with me and I was reading him the instructions, that it will blink for about 3 minutes and then will give an accurate "yes" or a "no" and how if you get a "yes" it is 99.9% accurate. Sometimes they are inaccurate but those are usually false negatives, not false positives. Right in the middle of this explanation it changed from blinking to "YES"! Just then I got a rush of "WHOA...am I ready to do this again?" But then we hugged and congratulated each other and were happy in just another rush.

We weren't sure what to get my Uncle as his graduation present, so we wrote him a card and he got to be the first to know, and also announce it to all of the extended Ashley Family. It was a fun surprise for all of them to find out at the same time.

We wanted to try and tell as many people as possible in person this time so as I write this Josh's family still doesn't know and the suspense is killing me. I don't want to tell anybody else until all our family knows so hopefully my belly will slow down growing, I already have a tiny little bump and I am hoping I can hide it for another month.

Actually we are at the Bean's right now and now they know, too! We borrowed my neices "I'm a Big Sister" shirt and had it on Brooklynn on the drive up. When we got her out of the car we were greated by all the Beans and they all found out together! So now that all our family knows we can officially start telling people, and so...WE'RE PREGNANT!

Grandma & Grandpa Bean's House!

Our next stop was in Olivet, MI to Grandma & Grandpa Bean's house! Everyone was there when we got there (which we planned so that everyone would find out at once that we're pregnant) and right away we started playing and catching up.

Addy can do all her letters and letter sounds now and here are most of them...(I didn't grab my camera for the beginning)

Saturday morning we had a yummy breakfast of homemade donuts that Adeline helped to make, and french toast and bacon. Mmmm.

What a good trip, it was just over too quickly!

Big Sister!

So we finally get to tell Josh's family that we're pregnant! We tossed around several ideas but finally decided to borrow Marisa's "I'm the Big Sister" shirt and have it on her when we got to Michigan. Getting her to take a good picture in the shirt and still read it was really tricky, but you get the idea.

It actually worked out really well, we had such a rainstorm that we got to pull right into the garage and go in that way, so everyone saw the shirt at once. Brooklynn was a little overwhelmed but she got over it. Everyone was really excited, especially me that I didn't have to keep it a secret anymore!

Drive to Michigan

We stopped in Fort Wayne to see my parents one more time but only stayed for a few hours. It was good to see them again and for Josh to get to see them. Then we drove up to Michigan. We drove through quite a rainstorm from Angola up to Olivet. (About an hour 15 minutes or so?) I took some video because it just kept getting worse. Josh and I agree that it's a little redundant, but also funny as a sequence so I had to post all of them.

Brooklynn & Mommy

I got lots of snuggle time with Brooklynn while we were gone. She slept in my bed every night and it was so fun. I love you, Baby Girl!

Reunion with Daddy

After a whole week of being away from Josh, we got to see him an extra day EARLY! His original flight got cancelled so he flew into Indy instead of Detroit so we picked him up. It was so good to see him, and even though it cost us extra money, I was glad it worked out this way. :)

Brooklynn was so excited to see him and kept touching his face all night.

Time with Janelle

We got to see Janelle while we were in Fishers. Janelle actually lives really close to my sister! It makes it really convenient. :) It was so good to see her, I haven't seen her since last August.

Janelle is pregnant, too, so we took a pregnant picture together. It will be fun to take a picture with our babies together someday. :)