Baby update.....10 weeks down, 30 to go or so.....

We had another ultrasound and check up today and baby Dennis #2 is doing well. You can now clearly see arms and legs, resembles a tiny baby now instead of a bean. Heartbeat looks nice and healthy only he/she would not cooperate to get a reading......nor hold still to get an accurate measurement or a clear profile picture, go figure huh! He/she is VERY active already and believe it or not growing at a "normal" rate of growth, not at the typical "Dennis" rate (we will see how long that lasts). I have about 2 more weeks and I can come off of one of the medications I have to take and then we get to have once every 4 week check ups. When we hit around the 20 week mark we will find out if we are having a boy or a girl and the more accurate size monitoring of the baby will begin!

and a one and a two......

Tonight was Gracie's very 1st performance, dance recital that is. She did magnificent and looked cute as a bug of course! She is growing up so fast and getting all girly on me.......

Bear Necessities dance (from Jungle Book)

I See The Light (from Tangled)

A job well done, finished off with a candy cane!

Snow fun

It's December in UT and it has not snowed much at our house we got tired of waiting and went up the mountain where there is snow, just not as much as there should be..... but still enough to have a little fun!

Uncle Justin and Gracie hanging on and trying to push each other off! Oh and did I forget to mention when we play in the snow our idea of fun is tying ourselves to 4 wheelers and going fast!

This picture only tells half the story..... Dad went down so guess who else had to go down....she did not see dad hit a tree but dad and the rest of us did see her come off, cartwheel down and have face full of snow! Don't worry she was laughing as hard as the rest of us!



We did find a decent sledding hill free of tree's for Gracie to get her fill of "need for speed" and Sadie too!



Needless to say we stopped here......but does not mean we didn't have fun getting to here!



Turkey in the oven!

A Thanksgiving surprise is in the oven!

"Hey, listen up! This li'l turkey has something BIG to say.....I'm gonna be a BIG SISTER!"

That's right! We are expecting baby #2, I will give you all a minute to pick yourselves back up off the floor for those of you thought we would never have another........ Well with the big "30" next year we decided we had better make up our minds and get busy or get fixed! So we set a time frame and a mindset of if it's meant to be it will be, and well I guess it was meant to be!

We had a plan up our sleeve's to break the news to our parents and thought what a perfect time over Thanksgiving. So I got Gracie this adorable shirt (pictured, words on it above) she got to wear it to each house we visited and could not say anything, just had to see how long it would take everyone to figure it out. Here are the reactions.......

My mom....

My dad & step mom....

Brian's mom....

I would say the overall reactions were a mix of stunned, shocked, and excited!

We spilled the beans early but given our past pregnancy history we need all the prayers and support to make this baby grow into a healthy baby boy or girl! All of the same precautions are being taken as they were with Gracie and careful monitoring of my health and baby. And now......

Meet baby Dennis #2

Many more postings of course to follow our progress! :)

Live and learn....

Some people tell me that Gracie should have been a boy because of the things she does and I look at them and tell them "no, it's just a Dennis thing." The family "Dennis" gene I am talking about pushes the limits as far as they can reach (literally). Sure they come back bruised, scrapped and sometimes bloody.......and MOST of the time they learn from their falls, sometimes not and they try and try again!

It took me some time to adapt to the let them live and learn theory, and to accept that I have a half monkey for a child. I would watch my nephew do things that I thought were "just a boy thing" until I had Gracie and watched her do the same things later on...... Gracie and her cousins may not choose the exact same dangerous adventures, but they can sure can give us a few extra grey hairs!

You want what?

Gracie finally agreed to get her ears pierced

and immediately after asked if she could have her

bellybutton and nose pierced too........

(I of course let her & then took her to get a tattoo) :-)

Apples, and a lot of them.......

We had some friends from Washington visit us last weekend and they brought us 2 very large boxes of apples. The one thing we do miss about the Yakima valley is the fresh fruits and veggies (and a few friends a family)! But we make due and grow our own now (veggies that is). Anyway, with about 40lbs of apples on hand I knew that the inner Martha Stewart in me had to get busy! However there are a few basic steps that one must know before embarking on such adventure.......

1.) One must first have a qualified assistant (safety orange optional)

2.) Apples of course

3.) Peeler, bowl for sliced & bowl for compost

4.) Waalaa! This is what you get!

Lesson of the day,

40lbs of apples sure does not look like much at the end,

but it tastes amazing!