catching up.

i haven't been blogging much lately...life has been busy and full. but, i have missed blogging and hope to start spending more time in this space again.

we got home last night after over two weeks away. we were in wisconsin for a few days visiting my family and then we left our little one with my mom and headed out for a three night getaway with just the two of us. it was wonderful. we stayed at a bed and breakfast located just outside of a small town about an hour away from where my mom lives. we had quite picky standards when i was looking for a place for us to stay - we wanted a place that didn't allow kids, where we wouldn't have to eat breakfast with a bunch of people we didn't know, and that had a fireplace and jacuzzi in the room. the place where we ended up going had all of those things as well as comfy bathrobes for us to wear, a very comfortable bed that had silky sheets, and our own cabin where a hot, gourmet breakfast was delivered in a picnic basket to our porch each morning. we enjoyed our time together, had intentional and uninterrupted conversations, slept in, played yahtzee, read books, went out for dinners, and even went bowling together for the first time! we returned refreshed and very ready to be reunited with our little one, who did really well while we were gone.

our cabin

breakfast: day 3 (they were all this amazing)

 bowling!

the next day, we left for california for a visit with family. it was a fun, loud, crazy memory-maker of a trip. our girl had a great time seeing her papa and playing with her cousins, and we enjoyed family game time, warm weather, laughs, and being together with all of jeremy's siblings and his dad.

our girl and her papa.

 

and her daddy. such a daddy's girl.

 

love this little face.

this morning we woke up to a snowstorm! we had already planned to stay home from church because our girl is quite under the weather with a cold ("vewy sick" as she would say), but we did have to go out to get groceries as our fridge was literally stocked with wheat germ, a few eggs, a sweet potato, an old garlic clove, and maple syrup. we did the water float test with the eggs to make sure they were still okay, and they were, so we had those for breakfast with some bread that was in the freezer. we waited out the snow and then stocked up on groceries. we had delicious roasted vegetables with roasted garlic-yogurt sauce and a simple salad for supper. yum.

a few other recent photos...

baking with grandma. a favorite event.

sledding with daddy.

and our little kicker keeps growing. 

oh yeah...and we found out that is it a BOY!

we have heard from several people that now we are going to have the "perfect family". we think that our family would have been just as perfect with another little girl, but we are excited to add a boy to the mix. i'm 25 weeks along and am starting to finally feel pregnant. i can tell that the third trimester is right around the corner! i am again delighting in the kicks of a little baby growing inside of me - i love that part of this experience. he is very respectful with his kicks - so far he kicks a lot when i lay down to go to sleep, but settles right in and falls asleep when i do. let's hope that pattern continues outside of the womb. our daughter frequently talks about her "baby bwodder" and today she was finally patient enough to wait with her hand on my belly - and she felt him kick - that resulted in big smiles!

tomorrow morning jeremy begins his final semester of seminary. eek! i'm trying not to be anxious about what the future holds for our little family.