Its a ___!!!!

We found out today at roughly 11am that we are going to be welcoming a baby GIRL this coming April. We are so excited! The doctors say she looks very healthy and we couldn't be happier. Only 142 more days to go...we're half way there!!! I'm so thankful to Landon for helping me stay busy and making this second pregnancy go by faster ;) He's going to be such a good big brother. I kind of wish that the technician had gotten a print out showing the sex of the baby, but I guess this way I can keep my baby girl modest ;)

An Heirloom Tomato?

So according to BabyCenter.com the baby inside of me at 19 weeks is the size of an Heirloom Tomato. I think it's very interesting that they compare it to the size of certain fruits and veggies. We find out what we're having this Thursday morning. I have a gut feeling that it's a girl. This pregnancy is totally different.
I was sicker this time around. I don't have the acid reflux that I had so badly with Landon. I've started getting varicose veins in my upper thigh (GROSS!). And I'm carrying much smaller than I was with Landon at this stage too. I've gained 13-15 pounds so far and I'm at 19 weeks...Last time I had already gained 27 pounds at this week with Landon. If I try to flex my abdominal muscles it looks like I've just eaten a little too much. It's very weird not looking very pregnant and being just about half way done with the pregnancy. But who knows, one of my friends had two totally different pregnancy experiences and she had girls both times. Anyone have any guesses as to what they think I'm having?

Halloween Week 2009

We had a great Halloween this year. My sister Rebecca came to visit for the week and stayed until Halloween. It made Halloween week even better. This year we had playgroup parties to go to and we went to the pumpkin patch and to a corn maze too. We went to the cornmaze at night and I totally thought Landon would get scared but he had tons of fun running around in there. Its so much fun now that he's older and can understand the holidays a little bit more. We went to the movies and out to dinner a couple times too. Rebecca and I took Landon trick or treating on Halloween night. We had a great time and so did Landon. We taught him that he had to knock on the door first so then whenever we went up to the door he knocked on it and said "knock knock"...then they'd open the door and we told Landon to say "trick or treat"...it came out more like "trickeat!" Then he would either grab 2 handfuls of candy or when someone was getting the bowl, Landon would try to go inside their house. It was pretty funny. He was definitely an entertaining trick or treater. One thing he didn't like about Halloween was all the skeleton decorations. Everytime he saw one he would say "keton" and want me to pick him up and then he'd lay his head on my shoulder. It was actually pretty cute. I can't wait for next year!

21 Month Update

Landon is now 21 months old. He talks so much now. Saying 3-4 word sentences all the time now. He's a little copy-cat too. He always wants whatever I'm drinking or whatever I'm eating. He wants to sit where I'm sitting or lay where I'm laying. It's really funny. He's very interested in Halloween this year. He keeps pointing out every pumpkin that he sees. And he now knows what dark vs. light is and he always points out something dark and whispers "dark".


Latest Words: "night night time", "dark", "pumpkin", "sit doggy/bunny/giraffe", "swing the baseball bat", "throw basketball", "I see you", "Mommy, Daddy, Landon" (and points to each of us, or our spots at the dinner table), "2,4,6,8", "row, row, row your boat", "go to park", "drive a car", "shark", "polar bear", the lineup for Thomas the Tank Engine("Thomas", "Percy", "Gordon", "Toby", "Bertie", "Terence"), "bonkie" (whenever he bumps his head).


Favorite Things: Landon has always loved brushing his teeth ever since he got his first tooth, but I've recently noticed how much he LOVES Daddy's mechanical toothbrush. I really need to get Landon his own. He throws a fit if I take it away from him. Also his orange rain boots that he wears EVERYDAY. He won't wear anything else right now. He even wears them to church.


Favorite Foods: We recently discovered that Landon REALLY likes Cheeze-Its. He LOVES them. He'd rather eat those than string cheese, and he never turns down string cheese. He loves the lasagna that I make too.


Dislikes: Getting his diaper changed when he has a bottom rash. I don't blame him. He doesn't like getting in his carseat right now because he always wants to "drive cars", so I have to make a deal with him that if he gets in his carseat, we can drive the car when we get home. Usually it works and hopefully it works for a while.


Accomplishments: He can put his shoes on by himself and put his orange boots on by himself. I also caught him taking off his footie pajamas by himself when he woke up one morning, but he's only done that once.


Highs: When I let him sit in the driver's seat while the car is parked in the garage. His eyes just light up and he gets a big grin on his face.


Lows: When he has double ear infections (which he got a week ago) and then has to take an antibiotic that tastes really bad and gives him really bad diarrhea to the point where his bottom is so raw that it bleeds. I think its one of the saddest things I've seen him go through.


Tender Moments: The way he still looks for my thumbs to hold for comfort at night or when we sit on the couch and watch a show or when we're in the car. I also think it's sweet that when he bonks his head, he comes and asks me to kiss the "ouch".

Sorry for no picture right now, I'll upload one soon.

11 week Ultrasound

Here are a couple pictures of Shepherd baby #2. I had an ultrasound yesterday (at 11 weeks & 2 days) to test for any birth defects. I was so paranoid about the baby's health because of the scare that we had previously...and you can't feel anything at this point. But as soon as the technician put the ultrasound thing on my tummy, the baby was bouncing and moving around a lot. They say the baby looks good and healthy but won't know the definite results until the second test at the end of October. Ben says that "she" looks like me during my favorite pass time, which is curling up like a cat and napping ;) haha. We won't find out for at least 8 more weeks what the gender of this baby is, but obviously Ben thinks it's a girl. My gut instinct says it's a girl too, and I've been told that women who went with gut feelings on gender were 80% accurate. But who knows, I don't mind either way.

20 Months

My little boy is now 20 months old. That's how old I was when my sister Rachel was born...so weird to think about. This is a picture of him trying on his Halloween costume for this year(he's a spider!). He didn't want to take it off for a whole hour...which was kinda nice actually cause at least he's not one of those kids who won't wear their costume, right. Well, I guess we'll see on Halloween.

Latest Words: "Hold", "I love you", "show", "train", "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10", "rainbow", "sun", "bunny", "Landon", "monkey", "crying", "seahorse", "crab", "starfish", "push".

Favorite Things: baseballs...the other night Ben went in to check on him and Landon whispers, "baseball" in his sleep. It's so cute to know that he was dreaming about baseballs. Still loves going outside and playing basketball. Its going to be sad when it starts raining so much that he's not able to go outside.

Favorite Foods: baked spaghetti, italian chicken, enchilladas, quesadillas, bread, macaroni & cheese, regular spaghetti, still likes string cheese, pretzels, crunchies, McDonalds cheeseburgers and dipping fries in ketchup andjust licking the ketchup off, Garden Salsa flavored SunChips (he LOVES them).

Dislikes: Kidscare. He threw the biggest tantrum this morning and it was sparked purely by approaching the kidscare playroom.

Accomplishments: Helping me make taco soup by dumping the cans of beans and corn into the pot. He climbed up on the jungle-gym by himself the other day, which was pretty scary for me cause I seriously thought he would fall right through the bars. Eating a bowl of spaghetti by himself.

Highs: Throwing the basketball in the hoop. Holding his own cup without a lid. When daddy comes home. Watching football on tv. Playing "chase" with other kids.

Lows: When Mommy doesn't let him hold something that he's not old enough to hold by himself yet. Having to go home from the basketball court.

Tender Moments: When we ask him where the new baby is and he already knows to point to my tummy and then kisses it. It's the cutest thing ever! And those unexpected kisses while he's playing are the best too. He is also very intuitive. He knows when people are sad or happy and will point out and say "crying" if someone is crying. Sometimes he'll even say Elmo or his bear or giraffe are crying if he throws them on the floor and then brings it to me to kiss better. Its so funny how they pick up on things so fast.

Battle Wounds...

So about a week ago my little guy joined the official boy club. You know, the one where you get the scar underneath your chin. He fell in the shower just before church and hit his chin right where the shower slopes up. He had a nice split that was just gushing. Surprisingly, I was pretty calm about it and just called out to Ben to get Landon's towel cause he split his chin open...thank goodness it wasn't bad enough to need stitches.Then, on Thursday we were playing at the park just behind my house and I was sitting down and Landon was going down the slide. He's usually fine going down on his own. But I guess this time he decided to go down face first and must have banged his eye on the side where it winds a bit because he gave out a huge whale of a scream and would not calm down for like 10 minutes (which in crying time seems like forever). I looked at his face and asked him where it hurt but I couldn't find anything....and then I found the rug burn like mark just below his left eye. Now he's got a nice shiner. Poor little guy.