Diaperless Macaroni Head

What have we been up to the past few days??? Oh, we've just been very busy putting macaroni in our hair and taking our diapers off at night!

Precious pictures! And oh, so funny!

14 Months Old & Pregnancy Highlights

Check out this happy little girl! Madison has been a pretty happy baby this last month. She is really growing up. She turned 14 months old on the 19th. Anytime I get the camera out and try to take a pic of her, she runs toward the camera and sticks her face up in it. She likes my camera.

Madison, What are you up to these days?

*generally quite happy

*getting tired of baby food, but not quite sure about "real food"

*morning and afternoon nap, they've been around 2 hours long these days

*alernates whole milk in bottles with baby food throughout the day

*sleeps mostly through the night, but usually cries for a bit early in the morning

*LOVES to go outside

*LOVES to take long walks in the stroller- we walk 50 mintues every day around the neighborhood

*LOVES Daddy! Follows him around the house and loves to play outside with him. He lets her play in the street, when no cars are coming, of course!

*Has really become attached to the childcare workers at church- she holds onto them real tight whenever I come to pick her up.

*Pretty clingy still- doesn't play with her toys as much, would rather be held by momma

PREGNANCY HIGHLIGHTS

21 Weeks

How Far Along: 21 weeks...
Size of baby: three-quarters of a pound and approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot
Total Weight Gain/Loss: 10.5 lbs at 19.5 weeks

Maternity Clothes: Wearing my summer maternity gear and lovin' it! Working on my tan!
Gender: It's a BOY!
Movement: I feel movement all throughout the day. It's sweet.
Food Cravings: Anything, but especially DONUTS & CHOCOLATE MILK, baked potatoes, sweet tea, and cokes! Did I mention DONUTS?
What I miss: being skinner and now that it's warm, being able to go tan. I've been walking with Madison in the stroller everyday now for about 50 minutes around our neighborhood. I'm working on my tan daily!
Sleep: I sleep just fine. Need more of it.

Symptoms: lower back pain and now that I'm walking consistently I get aches in my legs/strained muscles. That's just part of toting around extra weight!

MOMs, baby showers, & good deals!

Friday morning, we had our April MOMs meeting at the church. Connie Campbell, on the left in the pic above, was our guest speaker. She spoke on "Teaching Your Children to Love God's Word." It was such a blessing. Such an emotional and important topic. I heard lots of sniffles in the room and I wiped lots of tears off of my face. Don't we all want our children to learn how to love God's Word? It's such a huge and somewhat scary responsibility that we have as parents.

Our craft this month was so fun, but a little stressful. We made magnetic boards. We covered a wooden picture frame with scrapbook paper/modge podge. It was very time consuming and tedious. Then we inserted a piece of metal (magnetic board) inside the frame and added cute magnetic close pins and other decor to the board. I think we spent an hour and a half on this project. I was a little afraid we wouldn't get to everything, but we did...thankfully!

Oh, wow! Doesn't this look so good. Well, it was. This chicken berry salad is one of my favorite meals that our church kitchen prepares. It had cashews, water chestnuts, strawberries, grilled chicken, and bacon on it, topped with a homemade blueberry vinaigrette dressing. YUM!

Oh, and this chocolate cake was soo good. The icing had to be homemade. The pieces were huge. I ate every bit of mine and think I could have eaten another.

This morning I helped host a friend's baby shower. Lydia is expecting a baby girl named Harper in June. She is 31 weeks along. She had three miscarriages before Harper...her miracle baby. Lydia has been such an encouragement to all of us. Throughout everything, she has kept such a positive attitude and had such strong faith in the Lord. I cannot wait until she gets to hold her precious baby girl in her arms.

GRACO DUO GLIDER STROLLER

Retail Price $129.99

Okay, I'm so excited to tell you about my great find. I just became excited about it today, because I was afraid that I messed up. Gabe happened to come across this used stroller in town. I went and looked at it and noticed there was mildew on both of the seats. The "for sale" price was $80. Seriously? I mentioned the mold and the lady came down $30 bucks. I said, I'll take it. I thought I could spray the seats, scrub a little, and get the mildew out no problem. Well, that didn't happen. The sprays didn't really do anything and I was left feeling a little ripped off. I should have only paid $25. Well, my MIL said to try Clorox spray. I tried it today and it got rid of every bit of the mildew. It did change the olive green shade to a light kiwi green, but you'd never know it because it lightened perfectly evenly. I spent about an hour and a half on it, but am so proud of our great find. It just made my day!

A Day at the Park...

My "big" little girl all dressed up for church. Isn't she getting so big? It almost makes me cry to think about how big she is. I think she enjoys being dressed up. Especially when she has her fancy church shoes on with the "slight" heel. She just prances around the house like she's a princess. Well, she is!

"Please, let me go outside!!!"

We visited the city park for our first time this afternoon. I just knew Madison would love it. She wasn't into it so much. We were only there for about 15 minutes and then I think we had both had enough. She cried on the swings and didn't want much to do with the playground. She's a little too small for that still. She like rocking on the chipmunk and motorcycle and walked around some. I took some cute pics, but don't think we'll be back for a while...

handing me some rocks...

enjoying the motorcyle...

enjoying the chipmunk...

Tonight I made a yummy dinner...chicken parm, a great salad, garlic bread, and to top it all off, a homeade chocolate pie. It was soo good.

Pregnancy Highlights & Tear Jerker

*Not the best picture in the world, but hey, it's a Saturday!

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 20 weeks...WE'RE HALFWAY THERE!!!

Size of baby: 10 1/2 ounces, 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 10.5 lbs...not too bad for halfway???

Maternity Clothes: Wearing my summer maternity gear and lovin' it! Now if I could just get tan!

Gender: It's a BOY!

Movement: Again, I have felt lots of movement this week. I know feel this baby boy throughout the day, not just when I lay down to go to bed.

Food Cravings: Anything, but especially baked potatoes, donuts/chocolate milk, sweet tea, and cokes! I bought a few apples and grapefruits this week, and have enjoyed them as well!

What I miss: being skinner and now that it's warm, being able to go tan. I've been walking with Madison in the stroller everyday now for about 50 minutes around our neighborhood. I'm starting to get a little sun on my bod. Hopefully, I will develop a tan soon. :)

Sleep: I sleep just fine now that Madison is sleeping better. She was sleeping through the night great until we made our long road trip to TX. I think she's getting the hang of it again though.

Symptoms: lower back pain...I had this during my last pregnancy, but I wasn't toting a little girl around. Madison is going through a very clingy stage right now and really wants to be held a lot. It's hard on Momma.

So, Gabe and I had a great date night last night. Our steak dinner was wonderful and the movie was great...but, no one told me it was going to be a tear jerker. OH MY!!! I cried like a baby throughout that movie. Sandra Bullock did a wonderful job and I loved her role. It seems like lately in her movie she is very put together and pretty. I loved her in The Proposal and I loved her in this movie.

Great movie, but definately shed lots of tears!

Date Night

Gabe and I are having a date night tonight. We were already planning on grilling steaks tonight and watching "The Blind Side" after Madison went to bed, but my mom called this afternoon and wanted to know if she could pick Madison up after work. I, of course, said sure! So, it looks like we will have the evening to ourselves.

After much, and I mean, MUCH, searching on the web for baby boy bedding, I have finally decided to have the bedding made again like I did for Madison. Back before I was pregnant, I saw these cute sports decorations at Kirkland's that I just "had" to have. No, we weren't even pregnant with a baby, much less pregnant with a boy, but I just "knew" we would be someday and these decorations would never come around again. Well, it just so happens that Kirklands still has them, and Hobby Lobby even has a variation of them. They are somewhat rustic metal decorations, sort of vintage looking. Anyway, I've looked at every sports bedding online that exists and there's just not one that's cute enough. Either the colors are all wrong or it's just too babyish. So, here's the fabrics that I've chosen...stripes, argile, and polka dots. I know of a few other boys who have this cute fabric displayed in their nurseries. It's basically the only cute boyish fabric from Hobby Lobby, but it's oh so cute and sort of vintage looking.

I'm going to wait a while before I have the bedding made, but I have it all planned out in my mind how I want it. (Imagine that???) Striped curtains, polka dot sheets, striped crib skirt, argile/brown minky dot bumpers with the ties done up in ribbon with green and blue argile that matches the fabric perfectly! Sigh! So, there you have it.

With all that said, I think I'm going to hop off of here and start putting together a garden salad to go with our steaks. Have a great weekend!

Payless... who would've thought???

So, I haven't shopped in Payless Shoe Store in forever...since before I was married. I stopped by Hobby Lobby this morning for a quick look at their fabric (for baby boy bedding) because you know me, I'm always way ahead of the game. Always planning, always preparing. But, that's just me. I decided to take a look in Payless real quick because Madison needed a pair of white sandals. I really didn't think that Payless carried baby shoes, but guess what??? They have a great selection of baby shoes from size 1 and up! And, they are having a sale right now. Of course, the girls' selection is better than the boys, but I still saw some cute boy shoes. I will definately be shopping in Payless for Madison's shoes from now on. They just outgrow them way too fast to pay big money for their shoes.

If you're in need of some baby shoes, check them out!

It's a...

BOY!!!

Gabe and I are excited to announce that we are having a baby boy! I had said all along that this baby would be a boy simply because I was nauseated for a longer period of time than I was during my pregnancy with Madison. Then, we had a sneak peak ultrasound. The view was super fuzzy, but we left thinking that our baby was a little girl. Today, it was clear during our ultrasound that our little "girl" has goods, so it looks like it's a little boy after all! What a day!

The heart beat was strong and baby is healthy. Praise the Lord!

Which will it be??? BOY or GIRL???

So, we're all just dying to know!!! Will baby Frey #2 be a baby BOY or GIRL? Tomorrow is the big day! We have an ultrasound at 1:30pm on Wednesday afternoon. This is probably one of the most exciting times of a pregnancy. It's so fun to share the big news when you first find out that you're pregnant, but it's even more exciting to share with others the gender of the baby.

So, what do you think???

Which will we be announcing tomorrow afternoon???

OR...

Can't wait!!!

Pregnancy Highlights...19 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 19 Weeks
Size of baby: 8.5 ounces, 6 inches, the size of a large heirloom tomato??? What the heck is that?
Total Weight Gain/Loss: I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, so I'm not going to say this yet. I'm just not quite sure.
Maternity Clothes: Wearing my summer maternity gear and lovin' it!
Gender: Official ultrasound is scheduled for this Wednesday at 1:30pm! Can't wait to find out!
Movement: I have felt lots of movement this week. Even Gabe got to feel some kicks.
Food Cravings: Anything. Sweet tea and cokes!
What I miss: just being skinnier...
Sleep: I sleep just fine now that Madison is sleeping better. She was sleeping through the night great until we made our long road trip to TX. I think she's getting the hang of it again though. Symptoms: None really.

Best Moment this week: Feeling movment and letting Gabe get in on the action!
What I am looking forward to: Finding out if baby Frey is a he or she!

Happy Easter!

Doesn't she look thrilled? Happy Easter from our little bunny to yours! If looks could kill!

Our Family on Easter's Eve

We headed to Grandma & Grandpa's house for some good eatin' and egg huntin'. Grandpa hid the eggs WAY too hard this year. I had to go inside to "check on the rolls." I don't like to find his eggs. You have to dig in the dirt, climb trees, open dirty lids, etc...basically GET DIRTY! I don't want anything to do with all that! We ate a great meal...ham, sister schubert's rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes and ham gravy (oh so good!), deviled eggs, creamed corn...MMM!

bunnies on her collar...

Madison givin' Grandma some lovin'

*I had several more beautiful pics taken at my parents' house on Easter's Eve, but I accidentally deleted them! I'm so sad about it. At least I have a few.

Easter Morning

After church, we headed to Grammy & Poppas (Gabe's parents' house) for Easter lunch. YUM! Ham, green beans, macaroni, broccoli & cauliflower salad, deviled eggs, croissants, sweet potatoes...mmm, mmm, good!

Our little bunny...notice her basket is empty. The little toot wouldn't pick up a single egg!

Gabe, Madison, & cousin William

Trying to get her to hunt eggs...Gabe helped her add a few eggs to her basket.

Aunt Tom and Uncle Joe gave Madison her very 1st Build-a-Bear bunny! It is so girly. Check out the hot pink shoes and daisy hair clips! Way cute dress, too! Madison of course likes it...it's girly! Thank you Aunt Tom & Uncle Joe

1st time on the trampoline...absolutely loved it!

"Whatcha got, William?"

She was more interested in William's basket than hers...He had to open up her present for her. She's a little scared of particular bunnies!

The duck was a big hit!

"Looking" at her easter basket from Grammy & Poppa. She wouldn't touch her goodies.

Happy Easter from the Freyaldenhovens! He is Risen!