I am officially 30 weeks today so I thought it would be fun to post a weekly "countdown" picture. I know that the last 10 weeks or so is when the baby will grow the most & I would like to see just how much bigger my belly can get! I also plan on having Mark take a picture of my belly before we leave for the hospital so that this can be as accurate as possible. The shot on the right is a picture Lizzie took of me this last week, she really loves to take pictures! She looks at the little screen & pushes the silver button. SO easy!

Anyway, check in every Monday (at least!) to keep an eye on my (and baby's) progress!

Lizzie's 3rd Birthday

So these are just a few pictures of Lizzie & her cake from her birthday party last week. It was a really fun time with the family & Lizzie got so many cute new clothes that I don't think she even noticed that she only got a couple new toys. She is such a girlie girl that clothes were a perfect gift! We also got her this really cute Leapfrog movie Rachel has for Ian called the Letter Factory to get her going on learning her letters & the sounds they make. She LOVES watching it & will watch it over and over and over if we let her! She so far has been the most interested in wearing the new clothes that Grandma Dee made her but I think she'll get excited about wearing the stuff Mark & I got her & the TOTALLY cute stuff she got from Aunt Erika, Uncle Ken & her cousins. It was a busy couple weeks getting ready for her party & Mom (me) felt like she went a little overboard but everyone had fun, Lizzie was excited about EVERYTHING we did & no one cried (much!*L*). It kind of makes me excited to have TWO little girl birthday parties to plan next year & grateful that Jalen is happy as long as his party includes pizza & games of some type!

Lizzie Update

Here is a picture of Lizzie on Halloween in her Tinkerbell costume. She had been telling us for WEEKS that she wanted to be a Princess so imagine our surprise when she came home from costume shopping with Aunt Sarah & she had been VERY insistent that she wanted to be Tinkerbell this year. She looked adorable & she still puts on her costume from time to time to play around the house. She says next year she'll be Princess Fiona from Shrek but we'll see what costume strikes her fancy once we actually go shopping!

Quick Update

So, this is Jalen on the first day of the 2008-2009 school year. He is a first grader & he is doing SO well! He LOVES to read and he has been a "Star Speller" each quarter so far. He sometimes struggles with math but once we all calm down & talk about it he gets it SO quickly that I am astonished & so proud! We had talked about moving into a new home before the baby comes but that would have us moving to a new school district before the school year ends & I just didn't feel that great about doing that. We are SOOO blessed to have AJ & Marian for landlords & they have told us that we can stay in the condo until the end of the school year. HALLELUJAH! Anyway, Jay really loves his teacher & she really loves him so we are having a great first grade year!