Here he is!

Finally got our sonogram pics uploaded. Here's our boy:). I spared you the FOUR shots of his, little boy part. Yes, I said FOUR. I'm ready to meet him. I remember doing that with Parker. Taking a few days to think about life with my baby, and then you just can't wait to see them & hold them. Anyway...

Tucker Brooks Mershawn

Picture #1: His profile

Picture #2: His face (eyes, nose, little mouth)

Picture #3: His chest with his arm & fingers sitting next to it.

He kept moving his little fingers all around. Then when we were looking directly at his face, his mouth was moving a lot. Crazy to think about what's hanging out inside of me. A whole tiny person. (emphasis on the tiny...) Second time around, and it still seems so amazing. So that's him. 

I've already started getting into boy shopping....his bedding has been ordered, he has a few little onesies (one all the way from Alaska, thanks to Grammy & Poppy), a pair of blue pants....it's getting exciting. 

Now, if he'll just come on time, and not run into Christmas, & be perfect & wonderful, it'll be awesome. hehe

Florida: Day 2

I'm doing good so far:). Day 2 was a Sunday....see what we did?! Just hung around the house, and played at the beach. We grilled burgers that night, and just didn't leave to do anything. It was awesome! Good family & friend time.

Mikah, Parker, & Skylar. All up early, playing away. No sleeping in on vacation with kids. That's okay. They're tons of fun.

On the beach....again. Me & P this time. There was a lot of seaweed in the water that day. Didn't bother me until we got back home & cleaned up. It was ALL over us. Mmm...

Parker & Mikah

Parker's forced best friend :) Skylar.

She's 5 months older than Parker. They are good buddies.

Daddy's are so very fun.

This picture cracks me up. Great 2 year old play.

Good friends...umm...

Mikah's looking at me like, "aren't you going to stop them?"

I did. I think....

And, then there was Tropical Storm Claudette. She rolled in that night. Wild wind & rain. But through it all, the electricity stayed on (yay!) & we had a nice relaxing day together the next day off the beach & out of the rain.

Florida: Day one afternoon & evening

As promised...beach pictures. This was Saturday. We climbed out of the car, unloaded all our stuff, threw (that would be the correct spelling...hehe) on our swimsuits, and headed down to the beach. It was so great....ahh. I miss it. Oh well. Parker got some good practice with her shovel in, and then hit the water with Mitchel.

Unloading.

We found a "pre-dug" hole & stuck her inside:). She thought it was funny, but wasn't quite sure what was up.

My big kid:). He was so happy.

Sand lesson from daddy.

Then the water. The waves were pretty strong the whole time we were there. She got knocked down a few times, but it never upset her. She did learn fast that ocean water does taste terrible.

Ugh. Yes, he's throwing her. Made me nervous, but I can just hear them laughing away. She's so much like him...

We cleaned up after our beach stint, and headed to the Mellow Mushroom for pizza. We were starved & tired. Good times:).

Poor girl.

Big stuff eating your own WHOLE slice.

Made her happy.

Walmart was next on our list, but, we skipped pictures at the local Walmart.

We were home & had our beach kid in bed by 9ish. Way past her bedtime.

She was up at 7 the next morning....

Ahh...life at the beach;).

Really cool links

I was hanging out on a favorite blog of mine....and stumbled across 2 new sites that I wanted to share.

This one is a girl who serves the Lord in Uganda. She's only 20 & has her own ministry. Crazy, unimaginable...hard to wrap my mind around someone who gives up so much. Anyway:), click here to read her blog.

These people apparently are in the middle of an adoption & posted this really good video on adopting bi-racially. I'm really interested in adoption, and for whatever reason thought maybe one of you might be too:). Click here to watch.

Florida: On our way

To spare you all from having to see all 345 pictures of our Florida trip at once, I've decided to break it up. This was our trip down. We left Friday morning, drove 6 hours and spent the night in Lafayette, LA. Parker cracked us up because she was so excited about staying in a hotel. She even giddily got in the "hotel baf" (bath) that night.  It's fun having a kid that gets so easily excited:).

Park & I, packed in & ready to go. See her piggy? I love him...

The excited husband. He's like a big kid on a trip. Very giddy himself.

It was hard explaining to a 2 year old how long it would take to get to the beach. She got a little frustrated until we wised up & started talking up the hotel. So, after lunch, we explained that if she took a good long nap;), when she woke up, we'd be there. As you can see, she followed through with our plan. hehe

Her toes were painted pink, especially for the beach. I couldn't resist how she had her foot all propped up. Cracked us up...

Got to the hotel, unpacked just a few things, changed, and went to dinner. We were excited to eat at Landry's in Louisiana, but sadly, it was NOT good. Weird...

We were a little disappointed, but we knew what we had ahead of us, so we got over it:). Cool building though.

FREE breakfast at the hotel, and then we were off Saturday morning for the beach!

One of our landmark pictures....Louisiana swamps. I think they're so cool. I know that's strange, they just look really interesting. Of course, I would NEVER want to be in them, near them, smell them, fall in them....you get the picture. Nice from a distance:).

Lots of silly moments in the car...

Really cool bridge almost to Mississippi.

Really pretty rainbow after it rained. I like those too...and not so strange.

The trip starts to get exciting when we start crossing borders...

Welcome to Mississippi!!

Welcome to Alabama!!

And finally welcome to Florida!

Yay! We had another hour drive after this point, but that felt good.

We stayed in a house in Miramar Beach 15 minutes outside of Destin. Walked to the beach everyday. Pool right around the corner. Perfect:).

That's it. We stayed with our good friends the Dobberstein's. It was great, just for us.

Beach pictures tomorrow...

Well, the results are in

We're back from the beach. 

Had an awesome time.

Over 300 pictures to sift through. 

*laughing*

But, on to the big news.

Today was our big visit to the doctor.

Yes, I wore my hose. 

Yes, I gained weight. 

Yes, more than I wanted: 4 lbs. :( 

Yes, I was praised for wearing my hose & not gaining too much. :) 

Then we saw the baby.

Fingers, toes, head, face, legs, arms.....definitely a baby. And, this kid didn't hide from us.

Are you ready.....

It's a  BOY !

I'm still a little shocked. 

Didn't think I cared or was convinced of having one "kind" of baby or another, but evidently I was expecting a girl. I was pretty shocked when he showed us that this baby is a "he." I really thought he was kidding. He was not. We have pictures, but I forgot to have Mitchel take them to scan so, sorry. You'll just have to take my word for it:). 

So the Mershawn household just got a little less pink, and little more blue. I'll let you know how that feels once I've recovered...

Gone Beachin...

We're off to Florida. Talk to you in a couple of weeks.

Pray for our travels. We're driving.

12 hours.

With a 2 year old.

Who LOVES to talk. 

Don't know who she gets that from:).

This was the last time we were there.

Isn't that amazing?

Just 2 short years ago, we had a 3 month old.

So amazing...

Exciting times

As a treat for Mitchel a few weeks ago before camp, Parker & I took him for ice cream. Now, she'd never been taken out for just ice cream alone with the 2 of us, so this was so very new and extremely exciting....apparently. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

And...yes we were dorks in Braum's taking pictures like crazy. hehe:)

She got her own bowl. Don't tease me over the bib....I was nervous.

And, then she decided it was family style.

She helped herself to plenty of mine, as well as Mitchel's, and her own.

Like my face??

Oh, and, evidently sitting was over-rated. She marched, sang, and hopped down that bench as I grabbed and tried very patiently to remind her we were in PUBLIC.

She behaved....mostly.

Little Mitchel.

Really. A lot of him is in that girl.

Too much personality to be my kid...

See?

Don't you just want to wipe that face then give it a big squeeze & kiss?

She makes me so happy.

Kids Camp

A couple of weeks ago, Mitchel headed off to Dry Gulch for a week of fun at camp. With 7- 12 year olds:). We have a running joke about how many years it'll take before he stops going to kids camp. I think he's missed one since he was old enough to go as a camper himself. 

Each year when camp rolls around, I try to pack something from home to surprise him with. This year was really fun, because Miss P got into the surprise part & had lots of fun helping me. His favorite cookies are Lime Meltaways, & I decided those were the best choice. So along with some cards and pictures for everyday, I felt like I could send my husband away for a week with a guarantee he'd miss us:).

He did.

You make these little rolls, chill them, cut them up & stick them on the pan. They don't spread, so you can really pack those puppies on there. 

It was great temptation for those 2 year old hands touching all that dough....

Looking sweet. There's a reason: she had just stuck an entire cookie dough slice in her mouth. What can I say? She's my daughter...

That's how they look all cooked. Not much different. Ha. That's funny.

I didn't remember to take a picture of the finished product. Sad.

They're really pretty. All coated in powdered sugar. I put them inside a jar with a note attached. Then we snuck them in his suitcase with the letters below.

He called me that night, excited, happy. It feels good to make your man happy:).

He had a good time. No problems, kids had a great time. 

Now he's home until hunting season...ugh. 

But...we made it.