Such a Girl

Before I get to the pictures, if anyone had quit reading Andy's blog or took him off your Google Reader because he took a really long blogging hiatus, he's back with a post you can read here.

It's all good in the hood...

Climbing in and on things is the newest hobby around here...

And she also likes to put accessories and clothes on: scarves, hats, etc. And then she likes to look at herself in the mirror, pose, grin, and say "hi" to herself. I try to tell myself it's positive self image and not vanity. :)I think she looks so grown up. [Sigh.]

First a pregnancy update...

We are at 17-18 weeks. A few more weeks, and hopefully we get to find out whether he or she is a boy or a girl! (If you get a chance, submit your vote for what you think it is!) How exciting. Baby continues to look healthy.

As for me:
They don't know what's wrong with me. How fun is that?! Basically, my anemia is not caused by iron deficiency, so the tests that they would do next they can't do on a pregnant woman (like bone marrow biopsy, etc)... so the rest of my pregnancy, I will wait. Patiently. (Or not.) If my levels get any lower, we will talk blood transfusion, which hopefully would lead to me having a little more energy.

It is SO easy to get discouraged because I am not myself, and the thought of not being myself for the rest of the pregnancy and who knows how much longer afterwards (until they actually figure it out and hopefully fix me) is quite a downer. God's in control though, and I still am thankful that the doctor is not concerned it is anything too serious (i.e. my white blood cell levels are good, so it's not leukemia, etc), and I'm thankful that the baby sucks everything he/she needs from me, so the baby is fine!

And our other changes...

Since Annika was born, God has been changing my heart... from a goal of working mom (which I always planned to be) to being a stay-at-home mommy (something I NEVER thought I'd be, let alone long for!). Thankfully, my husband's heart has been changed too. Today I put in my notice at work, to be done mid-February.

It feels so surreal. I think I imagined it would be more of a celebration feeling. After all, this change is simplifying my life- as in, how easy to have only one job to juggle, right?! And no more 6:00 am start time... But I know being home is a huge job, a huge responsibility...and if it's my only job, I can no longer just survive it all- I want to do it well. I'm also leaving a great company, a job I like (most of the time), and some coworkers I love behind.

I don't have any idea the sacrifices and the changes that are yet to come for us. I do know that we're doing what God is asking us to do right now. There is peace in that. And hopefully I'll be a little less exhausted? We'll see. :)

Some Annika pictures

I haven't been great at taking pictures lately, but here's a few...(Daddy is so funny)

This is one of her dance moves- think more praise singing style rather than raise the roof. :)

Enough with the pictures already.
Seriously, no more pictures. :)

And a few more random Christmas...

For Christmas, we ("we" being some of the men; I didn't get up on the ladder because I'm pregnant and pretty ungraceful!) put this Uppercase Living expression on Grandpa and Grandma's wall. I love it (oh, and the NEW catalog came out and is very cool if anyone is interested- you can see it on my website, linked here. A tantrum. The drama can get pretty ridiculous... I can't help but laugh. And capture it to show her husband someday. :)
The chef

How cute are we in our matching presents?!

We are thankful that our Christmas and New Year's holidays were full of lots of relaxing and downtime. It was much needed! All three of us got colds, so we spent New Years recovering from that.

Pregnancy update, in case you're interested: about 13 or 14 weeks along...

-right away they told me to start my gestational diabetes diet (to which I responded that I would first wait until I got past the being nauseous all the time stage before I could go there!)

-I am super anemic (which also means super exhausted), and they can't quite figure out why- it's not iron-deficiency anemia, so I was referred to a hematologist. So far, the hematologist isn't sure either- more blood tests will hopefully reveal more. He doesn't think it's anything too serious, so that's good news, but hopefully we'll get a real answer so we can fix it and I can be myself again!
-The baby appears healthy, so we are thankful...what a gift. :)

Some of my favorite December pictures...

And once again, I discovered I didn't take many pictures this month either!

Don't hate me because I have great hair. :)

Yes, it was almost two months ago

I am determined to catch up on what I missed blogging. I've been reminded that I need to update because it's been awhile!

We were in Marco Island over Thanksgiving with some of the family. I was mostly (pregnancy) sick most of the time, so I was not the most fun vacationer ever! But thought I'd share a few cute swimsuit pics of Annika... and since I didn't have the energy to take them myself, they're borrowed from Mom and Dad's camera. :)