I am thankful for....

1) Jesus Christ-- my savior who died for me so that I can live!
2) My husband--our provider, my rock and the best daddy to our son.
3) Jackson-- my little man, you bring such joy to my heart with your sweet smile.
4) My parents-- without them to have guided me through life who knows where I would be today.
5) My brothers and sisters-- I love each of you for many different reasons, and I can't wait to see what life has in store for each of you.
6) My friends-- as I get older I feel my number of true friends goes down but the relationships get better and better.
7) And all the other blessings in my life to numerous to list.

I hope each of you has a very happy Thanksgiving!

SO...

...its a girl for sure. My next appointment is in a couple of days so I am going to have my Dr. confirm just one more time before we buy the bedding. Boy parts are so much easier to see than girls I feel....I feel with a girl at any time they can be like...whoops...its actually a boy! We are pretty confident its a girl though. The good thing is that I feel great and am loving the cooler weather around here as I continue to get bigger. I am getting a bit anxious on the logistics of having two children and how life will be but I am thinking that is completely normal. I am sure it will work out just fine....or be a complete nightmare...but I will be positive and hope for the first! Nothing too exciting going on around here right now, just wanted to give this a little update for now!

Will we ever know...

...for a 100% what this child is?? I have no clue. I had another ultrasound this last Tues and still no definitive answer. The tech said if she had to guess she would say it was a girl. The planner in me is screaming at the seams to know what this kid is either way. But never the less we have to wait again. The baby seems to be healthy and measuring ahead like my children seem to do which makes mommy look like she is farther a long than I am! (lucky me eh?!?!) I tried to upload a picture of the newest doodle but the link wasn't working. I will try again some other time.

Rick started night shift this last week. He likes it because 1) its not as hot out 2) time actually seems to go by pretty quickly. Right now he is working 4-10's with 3 days off. I am not super fond of the night shift because I don't sleep well with him gone. But its only for training right now so its temporary and then he will go to afternoons. He sleeps till about 130pm on the days he works and seems to transition well on the days he is not. I think it helps that we have two layers of blackout curtains in our room now so it looks like a night in the middle of the day. I also think since our house is newer it has pretty good sound barriers so he says he doesn't hear a thing.

Jackson has been doing great at school. The school I had him in over the summer turned into a major cry fest everyday that I dropped him off so I switched him back to his old school and he is back to waving me off as if I am never any fun! A little story from today....we had playgroup at a local park and one of Jackson's friends fell down and started to cry. Jackson so sweetly went over there and gave him a big hug and told him it was going to be okay. Its so funny how one little being can have so much of each parent in them. On one side today Jackson was being his usual social butterfly self mingling with everyone not being too attached to one or the other (like his daddy) but super attentive of others and how they are feeling (like his mommy). Have I told you already how much I love this age?!?! I really do, its just such a fun time in his life. Next goal for us really soon it the big potty training. Everyone is telling me how they think he is ready....I have just been dreading loosing my security blanket of him in a diaper while we are out and about. SO...I think its coming soon and trust me I will blog about it...stay tuned!

Its probably...

...a little girl growing in this belly of mine. Before I was preggo with Jackson I thought I have to have a little girl to get my girly fix in. Then came precious Jackson and this boy couldn't fill our hearts with more joy! With this one I was thinking two boys would be easier since we already had all the "boy" things in the house....and we would probably go broke with all the matching hairbows, shoes and leggings that come with every dang outfit out there for girls! But regardless as long as it was healthy we couldn't care less.
So we went to our apt. the other day and the Dr. did an ultrasound. Everything looks perfect, the baby was lying on its belly (probably already shielding itself from its bowl in a china shop big brother) and the Dr. was trying and trying to get it to give us a good "between the leg" shot and he finally got one. The Dr. said "I don't see any boy parts there"....Rick has been thinking all along that this baby was a girl so he was puffing his chest up like "see, I am super awesome". The Dr. said we will wait until my big ultrasound in 3 wks to officially confirm, but he's thinking its a pretty good shot we have a little drama queen...I mean princess on our hands! So.. I will confirm in a few weeks as to 100% what it is...then its really a girl....oh bless our pocketbook! On an ending note, we give thanks to the gracious Lord for this healthy growing baby and pray that everything continues to go smoothly throughout the pregnancy.....well and that Jill could some how make it back here to deliver my baby (wink wink...hint hint);0)

WHAT WHAT WHAT....

That is all I hear from Jackson lately...what is that? what does it do? etc. If I try to explain something to him and he doesn't understand he will continue to say what until I say it in a way he can understand. I love that he is so inquisitive and I always try to keep me patience even though he might say "what" 65 times (some days that's easier than others)! Like last night in the bath he had a cement truck that he was pushing around and he asked me "whats that momma??" to which I said "a cement truck" which I thought would have sufficed, but nope he looked at it for a minute then looked back at me and said "what??" to which I repeated myself. This when on probably 10 times while I was trying to figure out in my head what else to call it. So I told him "it was a truck that holds rocks" to which he said "OH...and it goes round and round and round (meaning the barrel)". SO, he knew what I was talking about, we see them quite a bit around here with all the construction of houses in our neighborhood he just didn't like the term "cement truck" for it!

why do I do this....

...to myself and not post anything for ages and then I feel like I am playing catch up!!! I used to be great about keeping up with this blog, now not so much!! It has been over a month since I posted anything and my last post wasn't even that exciting!! SO.... I guess I will go through the month in a short synopsis. At the end of July Rick graduated from the Houston Police Academy. It was 6 months of classroom and training combined. I am so glad that Rick finally feels like he has listened to what God has intended for his life. He graduated on a Wed. night and started work right away at his new station. Rick's parents were here for the week before graduation through graduation. Then my dad and sister came in town. My dad only for a few days but my little sister, who is 9 and Jackson admires her so, stayed for the next week with us. Then we flew out to California with her for a week. While in California we went to Disneyland for 3 days, which Jackson enjoyed every minute of!! So, to say the least we have had a very very busy last few weeks. Also, in those three weeks we told all who didn't know that we are expanding our family...that's right Jackson is going to be a big brother!! We are very excited and nervous at the thought of our family expanding. Just when Jackson is such an easy place in life we are going to add another to the mix!! We will find out soon what it is and I will be sure to sing from the roof tops to let everyone know. Right now though, I am glad to be home and get back to a normal routine with our little family. Maybe getting back into a routine means I will blog more?!?!? We shall see!!! My God's blessing flow to those who read this, and know God is good!!

Manners....

... I don't think something could make me more proud than when Jackson uses his manners. (His love for Jesus already and his little voice saying every 3rd word of the Lord's Prayer sure does top it all though, but I will stick with my original posting) The other night Jackson and I were paying ball (shocking I know!) and every single time I would hit the ball Jackson would say... "nice hit mama" or "wow" or something else positive. To which I would follow with a "thank you" and it never failed he would always say "you're welcome". Not to mention that when you sneeze he will say "bless you". I must say, Jackson is really good about his manners. But its something that Rick and I have been very adamant about teaching him. We use "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome" in our daily conversations with Jackson, but I guess just the other day it really hit me how much he actually uses them and uses them properly. I know this is quite the random posting, just thought I would share, since our blog is called a window into our lives!