19 Weeks/Memorial Day

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along:  19 Weeks (if I have this baby around the same time I had Jack, I'm half way!!)

Size of baby: The size of a large heirloom tomato in size and weighs 8 1/2 ounces. (length: 6 inches, head to bottom)

Total Weight Gain:  I'm done with this question now.  I'm only drinking water, I'm eating very healthy, yet I continue to gain at an unreasonable pace. 

Maternity Clothes: Everything is maternity.

Gender: We don't find out!

Movement: I'm feeling the baby kick, mostly at night.  Not much during the day.

Sleep: I've been sleeping really well!

What I miss:  eating whatever I feel like, and not thinking about how much protein I'm getting, or thinking about if what I'm eating might be harmful to the baby.  

Cravings:  cupcakes, but due to not having any butter, I have been unable to make them.  I may never buy butter, because I do not need to eat cupcakes.

Symptoms: right now, my biggest symptom is this big round belly I have developed.  I have had some heartburn (not regularly though, thank goodness) and some tailbone soreness (again not regularly).  Both symptoms I do not miss from last time.  

Best Moment this week:   John was able to feel the baby!!  That is amazing to me, as I couldn't feel Jack til 22 weeks, and then John couldn't feel him for a few weeks after that!!  

On to Memorial Day!  

We had a great day today!  We went to the Memorial Day Parade in Ferndale in the morning.  It's the longest running Memorial Day parade in the state!  (93 years, I think!)  We always go to Bryant and Rachel's house because it goes right down their street.  

The boys were very serious about waving the flags.  I don't believe Jack smiled once during the parade.  He enjoyed it, he waved that flag the whole time, but he was very serious about it.  I guess that is appropriate for Memorial Day.

He was REALLY serious here.

This is what he was looking at.  

This is how Marcel spent a lot of the parade...he's not a big fan of noise.

Jack had his flag on the ground, and Rachel said, Jack keep your flag off the ground, keep them in the air.  So, this is how he spent the next few minutes.

Then we walked home (a really long, hot walk home) and tried to fill up our pool for some swimming.  Turns out, we had a leak, that we tried to repair with duct tape, but it didn't fully take care of it, so our swimming time was limited, but Jack had a good time anyway.

Jack had a really good time filling up the pool.  He was also very serious about this job.

Then, we went to Bryant and Rachel's house for a last minute BBQ!  

As soon as we got there, Boden saw me and gave me a huge smile, so of course, I picked him up.   He then grabbed my face and tried to eat it, which Kelly said is how he kisses.  hahahaha!  It was very sweet! He is such a happy baby!! 

Jack and Marcel played in the sprinklers.

And the boys had watermelon - even Boden!  Marcel would not let me take his picture, so that is why he is not pictured, but he ate more watermelon than everyone else combined, I think!

Big News/old Ice Festival photos

So, part of the reason I haven't been blogging lately was that I was super busy being mom, running a store, and working to become a La Leche League leader!  And, today, I am an accredited La Leche League leader!  After the difficulties I had nursing Jack, this means so much to me.  I love my LLL group, and I don't know what I would do without them.  I wish I had known about it when were having our problems in the beginning, but at least we found them when we did!   And now I get to help other nursing moms with their struggles.   I'm very excited!

Back to our regularly scheduled catch up post....the Ferndale Ice Festival. 

Here is our ice sculpture, in front of the store. We had a live carving done...this is how it started out.

Jack with the finished product.

John and Bryant took Jack and Marcel around downtown to see Santa and the live reindeer!

The sign on their lap says "Santa will return at 2:00."  So, they sat in Santa's chair instead of on his lap.

Later that evening, we walked down the street to see the tree lighting!

birthdays/Ferndale Chamber Gala

Last weekend Rachel and Bryant hosted a party for John and his dad's birthdays, which are 4 days apart.  His mom made pasties (YUM!) and we had a nice get together, as always.

Here are the boys blowing out candles.

And, of course, sweet baby Boden

That weekend, we also attempted family/2 year pictures again at Mill Race Park in Northville. This time, Jack was great, but we got kicked out because someone paid for the whole park to get married in.  I have never heard of closing a public park for something, but whatever.  The lady was really rude to us too.  Hopefully Katie was able to get something!

This past Thursday, John and I went to the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce Gala.  It is a an awards event with dinner, and dancing for the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce members.  Not to sound vain, but we were extremely disappointed to see that we weren't even nominated for any awards.  New business of the year?  I wonder who brought more business to Ferndale than us, since they opened?  There was a LONG list of nominees, and we weren't on it.  I don't think we should have won, as as the winner was very deserving.  But I do believe we should have been nominated.  Oh well.  I think we will still qualify as a new business next year, so maybe then!

The Future of Ferndale Schools

We went to a Ferndale Public Schools Meet and Greet today, and we were so happy that we went.  We have been wondering about the quality of Ferndale schools ever since we moved here 6 1/2 years ago, and today we have decided that there is no question that we want Jack to go to Ferndale schools.  They sound fantastic!   All of the parents there are thrilled with their experiences in the schools.   It's so exciting!  I love the sense of community we have here in Ferndale, and it's even stronger with the families with school age children.  It really sounds like parents are super involved in the schooling of their kids here, and I think that is so important.   I truly believe in the "it takes a village" kind of mentality and I love that we have found that here in Ferndale.  I think the support of the parents here is amazing, and as much as I don't want to send Jack off to school, I'm excited to be a part of such a tight, strong community. 

 We realized that we really should be seriously thinking about preschools now, since some of them have waiting lists...

Jack got this t-shirt today, it's a little big on him.  He's calling it his dress.

Halloween!

Ok, I missed a day.  But, I'm impressed at the rate I'm blogging!  Of course, I'm still blogging past events, so it barely counts, but you may not have seen Halloween pictures til February at the rate I was going!

Ok, so we love Halloween, as you all know.  (all, 6 of you! heehee)  What we are doing is finding the cutest costume we can for my mom to make Jack, and then me and John try to coordinate with him...  It's not been easy. 

This year, Jack was an elephant.  So, the best we could come up with was a circus theme.  John was going to be a ringmaster and I was going to be the lady that rides the elephant.  Making John a ringmaster, was proving to be difficult.  One day, at Target, I spied a "Circus Cutie" costume, aka an adult female ringmaster!  It looked great, so we gave up on homemaking and then I was the ringmaster.   Now, John was not going to wear a tutu, so we had to come up with a costume for him.  We though a pooper scooper would be funny, because circus's have them right?  Someone has to clean up the elephant messes!  What does a circus pooper scooper look like?   A clown.  So we gave up on the pooper scooper idea and just make John a clown.  We bought a few pieces and thought we could put together a decent clown.  We were wrong.   We are not good at clowns.  Oh well.

Our first Halloween event this year was the Downtown Ferndale trick or treating!  We go every year, it's fun to show Jack off !

 Checking out his competition in the window of Pinwheel Bakery.

And, how did we get him to keep his head on?  The promise of a piece of candy...

Later that evening, we had a Halloween party at our house.   Some of the yummy food....

The hosts...you can see this is our worst clown.   The makeup was terrible.

The guests:

Barney, Betty and a stegosaurus.

Dr. Trouble and Medusa....

 Kermit and Miss Piggy:

 Kelly, the Milkmaid (heeehee, that is totally what I should have been Jack's first Halloween!) 

A monk, a nun, and Zorro...

 I hope this doesn't make Jack scared of his 2 year well check next week.

Boden did NOT like my flashes in his face.

It is impossible to get a good picture of a 2 and 3 year old in costume. 

And then, the next day, of course, Halloween and trick or treating!

This time, we did not do the makeup and changed the outfit around a bit, yet it still is not very good.

Our next door neighbors... 

He wanted to go right into this lady's house!!

The loot!