Latest Family Update

I appologize in advance, couldn't again get the spell check working :-( and didn't have time to check well !!!

I am sorry that I have not had time to update on here much but with the family being in town and Amber keeping us busy, being on the computer doesn't even come into my top 5 things to do in a day ... so I am going to try and keep this as short as possible but post as many pics as I can coz I think that's all you want anyway :-) so here goes !!!

During Ambers first week, we visited the doctor a couple of times because she was very jaundice, to me she looked like she has been on a tanning bed in my tummy for 9 months but apparently like yellow, the red is also a jaundice color. Thankfully a bit of tanning on Jades bed helped and after a week she was fine :-)



Then we had Jades parents observation day at gymnastics, Jade did really well actually, I took a little video of the walkover she did that she got right for the first time at this session. Unfortunately by the time I got her on video she was really tired and this was not a good one at all but you will get the idea and I will take more video later :-) Also we didn't get great pics of her with her little class, sorry, I had my hands full !!!

This was Amber on the 21st of May ...





Then I was excited to have my folks here for Speedstreet as we always have such a good time there but this year really was a little disapointing, they didn't give away as much free stuff as they usually do, I guess the ecconomy really showed it's face this year around. Anyway we took this little video of Jade climbing the wall.

Picturs and video taken of Amber on the 25th of May.

Jade used to lie this way too :-) They look so different but sometimes there is something that reminds me of what Jade was like when she was this little.



I totally love little hand and little feet pics :-)



This is one funny shot for the books, with my feet in the way, it looks like she is a reindeer (hehehe), I need to show Jade this one :-)



My sleepy girl, she has about 2 hours worth of awake time in a day now, thats one long stretch and then before feedings she is awake for a short period of time too. After her 7pm feed she spends time with Dave but he is so busy doing stuff all the time that she gets so irritated with him, it's quite funny, she voices herself loudly as to say ... Daddy, pay attention to me !!!



Tummy time, she is such a strong little girl, way stronger than Jade was this early, she pulls her neck up easily and doing tummy time, it's funny, she looks like she wants to crawl already (hehehe), and when you are burping her if she is on your tummy, she pushes up like she wants to stand, it's weird, I know Jade was not this strong at this age. Also look at her eye color here, I have a feeling she is going to have green eyes which I would love, one blue eyed blonde and one brown haired green eyed girl :-) Very different color to Jades right now, well I guess we have blue, brown and green eyes on both sides of the family so who knows, we will have to wait and see, she has more my coloring, skin wise etc. so we will see :-)



Here she is waking up from a nap ...

More tummy time ...

My parents are actually lucky to be here at this time of the year because it is at the end of Jades school year so they have a ton of things on for the parents to attend which my folks are getting to see too. Here they had their Blue and Gold day which is a little sports day, nothing like our school sports days when I was at school but they had fun anyway. These were just the kindergarten kids, Jade was Gold and Blue won the kindergarten round, Jade will tell you that Blue cheated that is how they won (hehehe), she is her dads child as far as that goes, they both are bad losers !!!

This is them all warming up ...



And these two are just of Jade and her class playing games ...





Then they had a day later a 15 odd minute little musical called Frog and Toad, it was very cute, here are two short videos to give you and idea :-) We got lucky with Jade being in the front.

This is just a picture of all kindergarteners that took part.



Ok and these are the last few pictures of Amber that I took yesterday the 28th of May, she is going to be another chubby little baby with all that she is eating right now, I am sure you can already tell how much she has grown but I would rather have her chubby and happy now not to mention sleeping well :-)















Ok that's me for now, Jade has a party today and another one tomorrow but we don't have too much else planned for the weekend but I am sure we will go somewhere on Sunday. 8 more days of school and then it's vacation time and we can plan a little more :-) can't wait. I will try and update again as soon as I can, Amber has her one month check up next week, can you believe that so I will let you have another update around then, today is the 29th which was her original due day, golly how things can change in a flash :-) No regrets !!!

Happy Mothers Day !!!

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there !!! Firstly thank you to everyone for all your comments on both my blog and on Facebook, they are all so special and I appreciate them more than you can possibly know.

Ok so I look terrible, I know that is what sleep deprivation does but it's Mothers Day and the first Mothers Day with baby Amber so I had to have a few pics taken. Look at those rings under my eyes, oh golly ... my age is definitely showing here that is for sure !!! But anyway there you go !!! That's mainly for you mom !!! Gosh in one week you will be here, we all can't wait !!!

I had not planned on going out today but the hospital called and told me I had to come sign Ambers birth certificate which the nurse had forgotten to do at discharge, oh dear so out we went, Amber 4 days old and already on her first trip out. We had a quick lunch, might as well right, stopped at the store and then we headed home. Not too bad for a first trip.







Day 4 with Amber, she is still eating very well, eating almost too much I think but we have our first trip to the paediatrician tomorrow so we will talk it all over there, hold thumbs, Amber gets shots, oh no and I have to do that by myself !!! She already has a diaper rash with all her pooping, I am worried her formula might not be the right one although she is eating well, not throwing up or anything, just pooping a lot. Hold thumbs we can get that all sorted out pronto !!!



Ok, that's me for now, just wanted to add these quickly.

My Three Most Favorite People In The World !!!

Two pics which have now become my absolute favorites !!! I cannot believe how alert she is for at this stay 3 days old !!!

Welcome Amber Hope Kropman

Well believe it or not ... she is here, our precious little baby girl Amber Hope Kropman !!! Before I go on ... I couldn't get this silly thing to spell check so I am letting you know ahead of time, oh dear, sorry about the spelling !!!

Tuesday late morning I went in for my normal OB check up which included an ultrasound considering they were watching my fluid around the baby, well ... surprise surprise, my fluid was really low, just over 4cm and the lowest they like to see it is at 5cm so my doctor suggested I be induced that night which totally freaked me out, I wasn't ready !!! Yeah, yeah I know what you are all thinking, me not ready but I really wasn't ready !!! Anyway so I asked her if Amber was in any danger right now and she said, no it could wait till morning if I didn't think I could do it that evening so Tuesday afternoon I ran around like a crazy person trying to get all my ducks in a row. Thank God for my BFF Tina who had always been my plan B if Amber came before my parents arrived, she took Jade from that night till now, Dave's actually on her way to get her. Tina has a full time nanny so Jade got to skip school for 3 days and hung out with the nanny and little Layla, sounds like she had a ball, she always does there, Tina spoils her rotten and I am always told what a fun house she has :-) Anyway so now Jade has the weekend to get used to Amber before she goes back to school so it has worked out well I think ... anyway back to Amber.

So Wednesday morning we had to be at the hospital at 6h30 but I think they only really got me started on induction after 8 ish, they didn't break my water early like they did with Jade so I knew that this labor was going to take longer than Jade. Things progressed very slowly and at about 11h30 my OB came in to break my water and slowly but surely they increased my medication to push my labor along. I had my epidural at 14h30 not that I felt like I needed it quite yet, things really weren't that bad by my OB said, why not, it didn't slow down labor at all so why not go ahead and get it done and get some rest before the big push so I went ahead. I totally did not like the doctor that came in and did that but at least after a good dose of crying he was done and it seemed to be working BUT then ... I was lying too flat and instead of the lower half of me being numbed up, my chest got numb and I felt like I couldn't breath, my blood pressure went scary low and I felt like for a short time I lost touch with reality but after yet another medication they got that under control, thank Heavens. Unfortunately the epidural only lasted about two hours and then it wore off, I got topped up twice more and again had the same blood pressure issues so I really was too scared to have anymore after that so I pretty much felt the rest of labor and all I can say is ouch ... and thank God it didn't take too long !!!

The afternoon went quicker and I progressed from 4 - 8cm quite quickly and again from 8 - 10 quicker than they thought I would and before I knew it, it was time to push and all it took was about 5 pushing sessions and they told me to stop since the nurse gets you that far and then she calls the doctor to deliver the baby, now ... obviously at that point not pushing is hard and the contractions are really ouch and you think they could find my doctor, well I almost got up and tracked him down myself, that was an aweful few minutes but thank God he eventually arrived and in two pushes she was out, not too bad at all. Also they said I really got lucky and did a good job since she came out face up which is very unusual and often pushing a face up baby out takes up to 3 hours ... oh my gosh, thank Heavens I didn't have to endure that !!! Dave got to cut the cord which he missed out on with Jade so I was very happy about that !!!

Ok so she was 7 pounds 5 ounces so just .2 less than Jade, so thankfully I didn't have to carry her too much longer or she might have been a harder labor for me, she was born on the 6th May at just short of 37 weeks. She was 18 1/2 inches at birth. They had to run a bunch of tests of her because she was pre term but thank God she passed everything with flying colors :-)

Anyway here are some pics taken over our two day stay in the hospital.

This is one of the first pics of Amber, she was getting her first bath in the nursery, well her sister screamed just as loud when she had her first bath and now she is our little fish so hopefully Amber follows in her footsteps.



This is the first pic of she and I taken shortly after her birth. Look at all that hair, Jade also had dark hair but nothing near as much as that !!!



What I didn't tell you is my OB went off duty before Amber was born which was really sad coz she delivered Jade but anyway Dr Solomon once he finally arrived did a good job at catching Amber on the way out, here is a pic of him and her for Ambers scrapbook which hopefully I will get to some day.



Another one of Amber and I.



Here Jade is meeting Amber for the very first time, she was so excited and looked so cute in her Big Sister shirt which Tina got her, Tina got Amber a Little Sister shirt too which I will definitely take a photo op of later when I get my act together, mabye on Mothers Day, gosh yeah who thought that she would be here for Mothers Day. Thanks Tina for the great shirts, you are of course the best !!!



Jade holding Amber for the first time, what a proud moment !!! Jade got so emotional and excited to be holding her sister that the tears just ran from her eyes and Dave was overwhelmed with all the hormones in the room (hehehe) coz Jade brought Tina and I both to tears as well :-) So cute.



Jade wanted to see Ambers entire body, little did she know Amber didn't like to be uncovered like that :-)



I love this one, Daddy and his two girls !!!



Here Jade was fascinated that Amber could already open her eyes.



Amber trying to figure out what all the noise and fuss is about.



Here Jade asked Daddy to hold her like she was still the baby ... oh dear !!!



So it's Friday and I am home, wanting desperately to go take a nap since I really didn't sleep at the hospital like I thought I would but I wanted to get this blog updated quickly to send out to everyone as I knew there are a bunch of people waiting for pics and with all the love that was shown our way during this pregnancy, I didn't want anyone to wait a minute longer :-) Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone, you guys are the best.

Here are two last pics of her that I just took before updating the blog, she is in her bassinette with her little pink hat on from the hospital. I need to cut her nails already can you believe that, she is already starting to scratch herself.





I am sure I will update the blog a ton over the next while so if you want to see more, keep the link handy ok :-)

One last big thank you to Tina, for all you have done, I don't know what I would have done without you. Love you lots !!! Thanks for all the emails, calls etc. I got while in the hospital, I know I have a couple of you still to get back to, I will soon I promise, just want you to know that Dave and I appreciate all the outpouring of love for our new little one.

Until next time ... Happy Mothers Day to all the mom out there.

Great Weekend !!!

Hi All

Well another 18 days and counting, two weeks today and my folks will be here, so there's much to look forward to, that is for sure. I am starting to get very nervous for the birth, all my friends think she is going to come early but as uncomfortable as I am right now, I just feel she has hung in there this long, now she must wait for my folks to arrive but I guess only time will tell.

Having said that some days I just want her out, she has dropped and well walking is now a challenge, also she keeps on pressing on a nerve in my lower back or hips which leaves me crying half the time, I feel like she has to be bigger than Jade was but the doctor says she will be around the same size from what the scans show. I go for another scan this coming Tuesday, after that I will see the OB once a week ... not long now, hold thumbs all goes well !!!

Anyway this past Thursday at gymnastics I managed to video Jade doing her back handspring, she has only started doing it unassisted the past 2 weeks and she has a long way to go to get it right and perfect but she is so proud of herself that I had to share this moment with y'all :-) Jade only has two or three more weeks and then her gym season is over for the Summer, I think her last day might actually be the day I am being induced so my folks will have to take her, that will be fun for all three of them :-)

Then yesterday my BFF Tina gave me a 'surprise' baby shower. This was my 3rd baby shower so I feel totally spoilt. I work with two different groups at Church At Charlotte and both of them gave me a shower to surprise me, I really am blessed to be around all these wonderful ladies that have been the best support I could possibly have asked for the past 9 months. I hope this little girl inside me grows up to know just how much she was loved long before she stuck her head out into this world. Anyway yesterdays shower was suppose to be a surprise but a couple of people unfortunately let it slip so I knew about it, that being said, I didn't know whether it was Saturday or Sunday or where or when it was going to be held or who was going to be attending so much of it was still a nice surprise. Tina went all out to make it a fun occasion for all attending which was so special of her, much thought and planning went into it, that is for sure !!!

Tina is also so talented that the tables were decorated so nicely, it was held at a local restaurant but there was a menu just for my shower as you can see below :




One of her girlfriend baked this special cake as well, it was really a masterpiece and was very yummy, very different as it was kind of like a marble cake with two different layers, with a yummy caramel layer in between and frosting like I have never tasted before, that was a real treat !!!



As you can tell I am getting bigger by the day ... oh boy !!! Or I should say oh girl right ???



Then the tables were decorated with this cute little flower pots with three flower in them, the flowers were chocolate and of course Tina made them all, what with three kids and working most of the time, I don't know where she found the time, this is so her kind of thing to do though but I hope she knows how much it meant to me that she spoilt me so rotten !!!



Can you believe this, this was the center piece on my gift table, it is a 'diaper cake' not a real cake but a layered cake shape made from diapers, obviously one day I will use the diapers but it's so cute I don't want to break it apart, maybe after my folks have seen it for real :-)



We played a bunch of game too which was such fun, here we had to chug down water from a babies bottle, it was too fun, yuck but funny. Heather won that one which was good considering it was her 30th birthday and she had taken time out of her busy day to attend my shower, now that I am thinking, I wonder if it was water in her bottle (hehehe), Tina had prizes for all the winners, so I am glad that Heather got one.



There were two things, one at this shower and one at my work shower that I thought was really cool, at the work shower what they did is they opened a pack of diapers and everyone got to write me a message on a diaper, I have been told not to read the messages till I use the diapers but I did sneak a peek at three of them and they were really special messages which I know I will enjoy reading as I use them, what a great idea. Then at this past shower, Tina organized some blank bibs and some fabric paint or pens and every lady got to make the baby a bib, how special is that and what a great idea ... here is a pic of one of them, one of the only ones that didn't have the babies name on it so as not to give away the surprise for family :-)



Three of the ladies actually also bought Jade a gift which I thought was very thoughtful and sweet of them, here is Jade getting her gifts before she and Dave left after dropping me off.



Here's a picture of most all that I got at my showers, what a spoilt little girl this little one is !!! I got a good few gift cards too so tomorrow I am going off to the store to try and get a few must haves that I didn't get, like a bath, a nice diaper bag, some drop ins for the bottles, maybe a mobile and well we need a stroller but after selling all the baby stuff when we moved, I have money for all that put aside so that's cool !!! I am excited to go get all that tomorrow, then I will be totally ready !!!



Oh one last thing, while I was at my shower, Dave took Jade to a local Fair kind of thing in Downtown Matthews, it was a lot like the Matthews Alive but smaller, but at least she got to have fun while I had fun, it was a beach party theme, here is one of the sand sculptures they had there, is this not amazing ?



Jade also got to hold this beautiful big bird, only shame I wish she had a t-shirt on as she has the scratches to prove she held it ...



So that's it for this update, work is slowing down now thank Heavens, this week I only work Wed and Fri and then the follow week only the Wed and then I am done, I might work some in the Summer but for the most part I have a break while Jade is on vacation so that's pretty cool :-)

Hopefully I get to do one more update before the baby comes, we will see :-) Oh I wanted to say, I might add a few more pics of the shower later, Tina has some pics on her camera but the copies I have of them are very bad quality so I will rather wait for the originals.

Bit Early For A Mothers Day Background I Know But This Was Cute ...

Well I don't have too much to report on but thought I best do a quick update before too much time passes altogether ...

Firstly and most importantly, it looks like this little girl is going to hang in there for the duration, for her sake I am happy since I know every day she is in there she grows stronger but on that note, golly I think I have another gymnast on my hands, she is making me very uncomfortable right now. She is well into 5 pounds in size and apparently about 17 inches in length, that's like a ruler and a half, gosh now wonder I feel so gosh darn uncomfortable, anyway it won't be long, another three and a bit weeks and she will hopefully make her appearance, I am scheduled to be induced on the 21st of May so I shouldn't say hopefully but that's when she will make her appearance at the latest !!!

On the 18th, I took Jade for a sibling tour at the hospital the baby is going to be born at, this is the same hospital Jade was born at, anyway there were a bunch of other parents with their kids there too and it was all very cute to watch. They didn't give as much information as I thought they would and covered more on jealousy of a sibling than the safety of the baby which I thought was weird but anyway, it was well done and the kids got to make their new brothers or sisters welcome to the world cards which was nice. They also got big brother or sister t-shirts which you will see below in their group picture. Jade was a pro at putting on a diaper, she has been practising a while now already :-) I definitely think she is going to be a good second mother and not just a big sister.





What was funny though, is how outspoken she is, when they were getting the talk about how much time mommy and daddy will be spending holding and loving the baby and how little sleep mommy and daddy might get and how tired they might be, Jade said ... yeah and if my mommy doesn't get enough sleep she gets cranky (hehehe) she is not wrong there, that is for sure but I have a dream child in Jade, she is so good and has been so wonderful during this pregnancy, if I needed to take a rest, she would give me the time to rest, she really has been amazing and so loving and caring, thank God coz her dad is so not that kinda guy so getting it in huge doses from Jade made things easier.

Another thing she said in the class that was funny is that they were talking about the baby moving in mommy's tummy and Jade said, yeah and my mom thinks that is gross, she does not like it !!! She's right of course but it was embarrassing for her to blurt out like she did, at least she didn't say that mommy said it's coz she has watched too many alien movies (hehehe). Anyway it was a nice mommy and daughter experience since daddy didn't want to go.

Ok well, I think we are finally into the warm weather now, well into the 80's, I wonder if it is here to stay though, the mornings are still fresh and cool but the afternoons especially this weekend have been really hot, I have definitely taken big time strain. The kids have had a ball though, playing out in the sprinkler and on slip and slides, the water is still frozen as far as I know but they still have had fun :-) Our pool opens on the 23rd of May and well I will most probably if all goes well, be in hospital, so will miss the big pool opening and of course the big party with entertainment and free food and drinks, I will have to send my folks with Jade so they can have fun, Jade cannot wait for the pool to open and for Oupa to go down the slide with her (hehehe), hoping you are ready for that Oupa !!!

On Saturday morning we had a yard sale, our neighborhood had one so we joined in, I made some good money on the stuff I was getting rid of and the rest I just dropped off at Goodwill since I didn't want it back in the house again. I let Jade sell her soft toys and told her that whatever money she made was hers to spend on whatever well ... she was so excited to be in business as she said but she didn't make too many sales, mostly coz anyone that was interested in buying a soft toy eventually got it for free, she is such a giving child, I was so proud of her !!! The funny thing is she gave stuff she was suppose to sell away free but then the little boy across the street was playing with an empty box in Daves garage and Jade sold it to him for a dollar (hehehe), totally impressed her dad of course (hehehe).

After that we quickly had lunch and then went off to a local radio stations little fair they were having at a local shopping area, there was a lot for Jade to do there but she was only interested in one thing, in the middle of this shopping area there is a big water fountain and there were so many kids playing in the fountain, which of course is not allowed but they were still doing it all the same. Initially I told Jade she could roll up her pants and wade around but that didn't last long and eventually she was swimming and having a ball. I told Dave she was having an out of Africa experience, swimming in the fountain fully clothed waiting for the cops to come chase her out ... which eventually did happen but anyway, she had lots of fun before she had to get out. We obviously had to go home after that as she was cold and sopping wet but it made for a fun afternoon.

Yesterday was hot again, I went and did my monthly grocery shopping which really took it's toll on me, pushing that heavy cart was no fun but at least the job is now done. I then sat outside chatting with a neighbor until it was time to come in and make dinner. Jade was so exhausted from playing outside all day that she went off to sleep quickly but still took strain getting up this morning.

Well I am sitting her now waiting for the electrician to arrive, he has to come and install our ceiling fan on the roof of our two story great room, which is like 24 feet up, gosh I am glad that Daves ladder doesn't get up that high as I would have hated to see him do that ... Then its off shopping and probably another afternoon outdoors.

Not long till my parents come, 3 weeks maybe, we are all getting excited now !!! Take care till next time.

Happy Easter Everyone ...

Happy Easter Everyone ... it is still only just after 12 here so midday and I don't think Jade has stopped eating candy from after breakfast. She is actually outside playing with your two neighbors, two little boys, Vincent which is 5 and Gabriel that is 3 I think, the have become her new BFF's :-) even though there are tons of kids around here, we moved in around the same time and they seem to be outside playing similar times to us so Jade is really enjoying her time with them. She is also sharing all her candy with them so I am not complaining the quicker she gets through it all the better.

It is a great day, not hot, it's only 13 degrees outside but he sun is shining and it is very warm, a typical Spring day I guess. Dave is outside painting the deck which seems to be a never ending job, poor guy. My mom keeps on saying he should have left it for when my dad comes but in all honesty I think as much as he would have loved that, he had to paint the outside of the deck which is like 14 feet up in the air so climbing up the ladder that high and hanging on for dear life while he paints, well let's just say that I think it was best he did that ... sorry dad !!! Anyway he is almost done although the deck part that you walk on looks like it might need a second coat but I think that is the easy part, well I hope so.

I am inside just tidying up which also seems to be a never ending story really but I guess that is what happens when you move into a nice big house. I am not complaining, I totally love my house but there is still lots to do, much to unpack, sort out and of course decorating will happen in time but we are going so which is so not my thing but I haven't really had an option being so far pregnant at this point.

On the subject of my pregnancy, at this point we are praying that this little baby girl hangs in there and comes more later than sooner. I had my regular trip to the OB last week, I am now going once every two weeks and soon I am sure I will be doing the rounds with all the doctors in the practice to meet them all, that is standard practice here. Anyway you know that we had decided that my date of induction would be the 21st of May well that already would be a week and a half early due date wise, my due date was May 29th well ... and this scares me half to death !!! They were not going to do another ultrasound for the remainder of my pregnancy, because everything was measuring right and all seemed well, there was apparently no need but it was starting to worry me, it was just such a long time since my last scan which was at 19 weeks, what if something was wrong and they didn't pick it up ... not that we even wanted to go there but being pregnant you can't help and think these things, also I was having weird dreams that I was having a boy and my gosh I have so much pink stuff, way more than I had with Jade it was just freaking me out that if I had a boy, oh my gosh I would have to change everything and start from scratch so, at my last check up I asked my OB if I was allowed to having another scan which she agreed on but at my next check up which was last week.

So the good news is that we are definitely having a girl !!! Thank God for that !!! But the bad news is that the fluid around the baby is borderline low, it needs to be at least 5cm and I was 7.5 which is ok if it stays there but if it goes lower it would not only make delivery very difficult but it could be dangerous for the baby. Of course my OB told me not to worry but what did she think I would do. She said on my next visit to her office we would scan again and if the fluid stayed at 7.5cm we were ok but if it decreased or went below 5cm she might have to induce me then, that would be the 22nd of April and 5 weeks early, did I say I was scared to death.

Anyway I did the wrong thing when I came home, I researched it online and of course there you hear all the nightmare stuff all the things that can go wrong with baby and mom ... developmental problems and OMG just so much I wish I had not looked, but I have to keep telling myself that the OB said, not to worry so I am trying very hard to stay calm and not to worry. She said that if I had to deliver at 35 weeks the baby would be fine, and that I believe because I have spoken to many people that have said that or even experienced that but still, the longer she stays in there the better so we are hoping and praying what is meant to be will be and we will just wait and see what happens on the 22nd. We are pretty much ready for her if she came now but I really would want my parents to be here but I know we have good Friend here that would help us out with Jade so I am not too concerned with all that. I would need to run out and buy one or two things last minute but we will be ok, I just pray the baby is ok. So that's the latest on the pregnancy.

Back onto a lighter note ... Easter :-) Jade has been on Spring Break this past week, she and I didn't do anything too fun unfortunately but at least she had yesterday to look forward to, it was our yearly trip to the big Easter Eggstravaganza that is always held at the park close to our old house. It had rained big time on Friday so we figured it was going to be a mess but it wasn't too bad, Jade still got to do her big hunt which I normally video while Dave helps her collect candy but this time, he has not locked the car properly so went back to lock it ... that sounds weird I know but we take a bus from a near location that drops us right at the Eggstravaganza, it's part of the fun and he had seen from the bus so needed to take the trip back and then meet us later, so sad but anyway. Here is a pick of all the candy she and I picked up :-)




Then we stopped to get her face painted which would have been really pretty had she not had a fringe but anyway ... she was happy and that is all that mattered right :-)



She went on a bunch of rides but the lines were really long this year which was terrible as it was warm and standing long periods of time in the sun was not something that I enjoyed but anyway it was all part of the fun I guess, here she is on a surf board that moves that you have to balance on, she did pretty well actually, I am surprised that she didn't ask for a surf board afterwards she had so much fun on it. I guess if we lived close to the ocean she would be more inclined to want one right :-)



We took two video's as well, one is of her on this elastic thingi, it looked like a lot of fun but was totally exhausting I am sure :-) The other is on this trampoline thing which I knew she would be good on since she had done it before, only I think she was so caught up in doing the back flips that she forgot she needed to use her feet to push herself up so the guy helping had to do it the entire time, poor guy. She did a front flip too but I did not get that on video, oh well.

Afterwards we went out for a quick lunch then we came home, Dave continued on the deck while Jade played outside with the neighbors, I was lucky enough to take a quick nap and then joined her outside, so we had a nice day :-)

Well it looks like we might go out this afternoon after all, Dave just came in quickly and I said it would be nice to go out and enjoy the sunshine, even though he really needs to finish the deck, it's Easter, we should get out and enjoy it, so I have no idea where we are going but maybe a trip to the lake or something, we will see, maybe we can get some pics while we are out too. I actually didn't take any pics this morning while Jade did her hunt around the house and we need to do some Easter pics since we missed out on the bunny yesterday the line was just too long. So we will see, she has some Summer dresses I would love to do some pics in but it really isn't weather for that yet and with her two front teeth being out well ... mom isn't excited to do pics either (hehehe) but I will see what I can do but don't hold your breath !!!

Added a couple of hours later ...

Ok ... just to add in here we did go to the Lake so I thought I would add these quick pics, we had a good time watching all the boats go in and out, and Jade enjoyed skipping rocks with Dave and attempting to fish with a fishing pole Dave put together for her, it was really cute, she said she can't wait for Oupa to come and fish with her :-) Anyway here you go ... big fat tummy and all !!!









Anyway hope y'all had a great day or are enjoying what is left of it :-) Until next time :-)

Run Up To Easter ... Welcome Spring !!!

It feels like forever since I updated my blog but I don't think it's been too long anyway here I am, I am going to try and keep this as short as possible ... TD says I write way too much but I keep telling him it's not for him but for family but maybe I do write too much.

I think when I last updated we were having a rough time with Jade health wise, I am happy to report that thank God she is doing much better now. I was starting to think that the good man upstairs was just getting me in training for a difficult baby, oh golly, Heaven forbid !!!

Friday was Jades last day of school before Spring Break which is really only a week long here, it's not long at all but we are all looking forward to sleeping in a little in the mornings, most of the sessions at the Church follow the school calendar but I am still working Wednesday night and Friday morning but still it will give me a bit of a break which I so need at this stage, I feel like time is running out before this little girl arrives and of course my parents too and the house is far from ready, livable of course but far from ready.

There isn't too much that needs to be done but the baby room still needs some work, I am almost done with washing all her clothing and oh my gosh, I go for a scan on Wednesday but if this turns out to be a little boy, it is going to be so scary because everything and I mean everything is pink and purple, he would be so in tune to his feminine side, I don't know what we will do. I actually wasn't going to have another scan before the birth but really was starting to worry that it would be half of the pregnancy that I would not have had a scan in so asked my doctor if she would scan on my next visit. It will be Spring Break too so Jade will get to tag along and see the baby too which will be a treat for her :-) Hold thumbs it remains a girl !!!

So yeah that's the baby room, Jades room is almost done, still a few touches I need to do in there, the media room remains a mess and well the spare room is ok for now. Our room has a few boxes in it that I have to sort out this coming week and then hopefully I will feel more ready for visitors, hold thumbs I can pull that off.

Anyway so as I was saying, it was Jade last day of school so she got her school report and thankfully everything looks good, she seems to be progressing as she should :-)

Me, I am plodding along feeling like I am getting bigger and more uncomfortable by the day but thankfully that is not really true, uncomfortable yes but according to the doctors records I am in way better shape this time around than I was with Jade which is hard to believe given all the years since being pregnant with her but I guess all the work is keeping me on my toes. I am 32 weeks pregnant now but will be induced either the 20th or 21st of May so not too long here at all, about 5 - 6 weeks, gosh !!! I am starting to get a little nervous now but I guess that is normal.

Dave is Dave ... same old same old, you know how it goes. He is dealing with a lot of stress at work which doesn't make him a happy chappy at all but what can one do right. He said he might take Monday off and make it a long weekend and then Friday he is off too, so hopefully the break does him good. He is actually painting our deck right now which is a huge job so I probably won't see him most of the weekend.

Jade had her first Easter Egg Hunt at school yesterday but today we had one in the neighborhood too. This pic was taken before we left the house, as you can see for those that don't see Jade much, yep, she has lost her two front teeth, it looks terrible and yep, you won't be getting too many pics over the next while until they grow in ...



Anyway the kids did a little bit of a parade from a block away from the clubhouse to the clubhouse, considering there are so many kids in this neighborhood the turn out was really bad, shame their organizing was pretty good but the turnout must have been disappointing for them. Here is a pic of some of the kids before they started their parade.



Once they got to the clubhouse, the kids had to find 3 eggs what were hidden in the forest and then go to the table and turn them in, in exchange they got to chose 5 treats which were either candy, or pencils and erasers, stickers or tattoos and they got a ticket for the drawing of 6 Easter Baskets. They then had to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar for another basket. Then they got snow cones and popcorn and got to play on the playground. Oh and they got their face kinda painted ...



Jade won the guess to the jelly bean jar so she won a basket which she is thoroughly enjoying as you can well imagine, oh golly ... Spring Break with way too much sugar, maybe it's not going to be so much fun !!!



Next week she has the 107.9 The Link big Easter Eggstravaganza that we always go to so we are looking forward to that, the weather is getting warmer now, it was great this morning but hopefully it doesn't get hot too quickly.

Then the following week the 18th, Jade is going to CMC Pineville where she was delivered and where the baby will be delivered and there she will be given a sibling tour and lesson, I am looking forward to that as I believe it is very cute, hope Dave will go with us :-)

That's all from me for now, Happy Easter everyone.