Here we go again!

In case you missed our recent facebook announcement....


Yep, we are very happy to announce that our family is growing!  Brenna's new brother or sister will arrive around October 16, 2011.  We are very blessed and lucky to be expecting especially since I know that the process of growing one's family does not happen so easily for everyone.  With Brenna, I got pregnant right away.  With this one it took slightly longer than immediately so it did give me a little bit more understanding for anyone who feels the disappointment in wishing they were pregnant.  So we are very thankful and I am trying my best to savor this pregnancy knowing that this will most likely be my last.  Sooo, how am I feeling you ask?

LIKE CRAP, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ASKING.

I am not one of these people that love being pregnant.  In fact when people tell me "oh I just love being pregnant", I think "really?  come on...are you serious? do you want me to punch you?"  In fact some of my friends are on baby #3 in less than 4 years and I honestly don't know how they are doing it.  Did they have very easy pregnancies?  Are they as tired as I am all the time?  Do they feel nauseous morning, noon, and night?  Have they had to get up from bed to puke?  No?  Just me?  Ok then. 

But at least I know what to expect this time around.  I feel pretty much exactly the same as I did when I was pregnant with Brenna only slightly less crazy. I still feel very hormonal but not as straight up crazy as I did the first time around...probably just because I know what I'm feeling is normal.  Another difference is that while I was nauseous all the time with Brenna in the first trimester, I never actually vomitted.  This time my dinner has come back up to say hello quite a few different times and I hate throwing up.  So disgusting.

I am hopeful that by week 14, my nausea will be gone and my energy back up.  That's what happened the first time so fingers crossed that I'll be feeling a lot better soon. 

Brenna is excited and insists on 2 things:  1) that she has a baby in her belly button and 2)  the baby will be a girl.  If we tell her that we don't know if it's a girl or a boy she breaks down and sobs that "Nooo, it's a girl"  Hmmm, she'll either be super excited or heart-broken. 

But despite not feeling well, I am truly so excited and happy to be expecting again. I found out I was pregnant after I had gone to NYC to visit Schecky for the weekend.  I tested when I got back and to my happy surprise, I got the 2 little lines 3 different times. So I went to the library and got a bunch of children's books about being a big sister and expecting a new baby in the house.  When Brett got home from work, I told him that Brenna had picked out some new books from the library that she wanted him to read to her.  He got it right away from the first book he pulled out and was very excited.  Yay!

Our little blueberry at 7+ weeks


Our little "large plum" at 12 weeks



2011 will be the year of the baby boom, with my brother, Jeff, and his wife, Jackie, expecting a baby boy in early August.  Cheers to new babies!!!

Brenna's Favorite Things: Dance Class and Merry-Go-Round!

Two of Brenna's favorite activities right now at amost 2 1/2, is surely dance class, which is every Monday morning and riding the new Merry-Go-Round at Downtown at the Gardens.  Here she is strutting her cute stuff at dance...

Her favorite part of class is when you get to hop like a frog on the colored spots.  She also loves when it's time to clean up the spots and she tries to pick up as many as possible and rush them back to Ms. Jessica.

And if we pass Downtown at the Gardens without stopping at the Merry-Go-Round, I will surely hear about it for hours on end.  I estimate that in 3 months the carousel has been there, we have probably ridden at least 40 times.  But look at how happy it makes her.  Thank God, Brett's coworker gave us a bunch of free passes or I'd have spent a fortune by now.

We recently went to Trey's 2nd birthday.  You can read all about it on my other blog (Click here).  It was really something.  Here are a just a few pics of Brenna from the party. 

This one was taken by Brooke.  She's so talented.  Not only are her pictures gorgeous but I admire her for how it seems like she never gets burnt out.  It takes A LOT of time to edit these and she is always posting new pics of Maren and Maren's friends for everyone to enjoy.  Some of my all time favorite pics of Brenna have been taken by either Brooke or my friend Lauren.  It's great to have friends who are great photogs!

Professional Photos - Holidays 2010

I live for Christmas cards.  I love getting them in the mail.  I especially love the ones with a nice coordinating and sometimes awkward family photo so I can see how everyone's families have grown and changed in a year's time.  The more perfect the families appear, the funnier I find the picture.  That goes for my own family pictures as well.  I love displaying the cards I receive and when I go to someone's house during the Holidays, I almost always look through their pile of cards even if I have no idea who the families are. I love it!

And yes I totally get that it's a little narcissistic to get the family all dressed up in coordinating outfits and get professional photographs done each year but I don't care.  Call me vain, roll your eyes at what is the adorableness of Brenna's Ralph Lauren ensemble (Thank you, Aunt Schecky) but as long as I have the littlest of strength left in my body in the month of December, I will schlept my family out to the beach or some grassy knoll and get a picture taken.   Because for that one second, it appears that we have it all together and I find that delightful and amusing.  I probably have residual snot in my hair and I may be bribing my kid with a lollipop or the empty threat of NEVER RIDING THE MERRY-GO-ROUND AGAIN, but you will never know that by the looks of our photo. :-)

My very good friend and photog, Lauren Donovan, of Lauren Donovan Photography took these pics.  Kudos to you Lauren.  I love them!!!  Thank you for your patience and beautiful work!

Christmas 2010

For some reason, I've been really burnt out with the blogging lately so I took a nice long break to just enjoy the moments themselves without hopping to the computer to record them right away.  I hope I can get back into it on a semi-regular basis because I know that I will love to look back and read all about our lives "when".  I also do this because I hope Brenna and any other future kids will also look back and see a glimpse into what life was like when they were little.   So without further adieu, here is our Christmas 2010 Recap!

We had such a nice Christmas this year.  We started out by baking cookies for Santa...

Pouring some milk for him and leaving some carrots for the reindeer.

Before bedtime, we needed to taste for quality-assurance.

In the middle of the night, Santa arrived and even left snowy footprints.

Brenna woke up around 5am and I brought her in our room past all the presents (which luckily she didn't even notice) and we all slept a few more hours in our bed.  Brett and I got up and started breakfast before Brenna came stumbling out.  She was half-asleep so didn't have a huge reaction to everything but she did enjoy playing with all her new toys and discovering new ones all throughout the morning. 

Daddy and Brenna playing with Mr. Potato Head in her new Monkey Tent.

Dress Up Time

One of my favorite memories was skyping with the grandparents and Brenna showing them all the goodies Santa brought her.


Christmas Eve at the Bloom House

Grammy fixing Brenna's hair....there's always a lot of this going on.

Our 24 hour playdate with Marina

Brenna's pal Marina's mommy, Keri (who has become one of my great friends) is a labor and delivery nurse who works 12 hour shifts from 7pm to 7am.  I am tired just thinking about how hard she works and the hours in which she does it.  Marina's dad is a firefighter who works 24 hour shifts.  So every once in a while when these shifts overlap, and when her grandparents are unavailable, Marina needs a 24 hour playdate with a pal and Brenna and I were happy to host :-)

Brenna had been giving me a lot of grief over the past week so I was a little nervous about how having 2 would be, but honestly Brenna was so much better behaved with Marina here.  They didn't fight at all.  They had so much fun playing and after having Marina for 24 hours, I think I might venture to say she's the easiest of everyone in the playgroup. 

Marina is like a little monkey and can climb in and out of Brenna's crib in 2 seconds.  She loved taking all of Brenna's stuffed animals, throwing them in the crib, then climbing in the crib, throwing them out, and climbing out.  She did this over and over again to Brenna's amuzement and delight.  Brenna just kept looking at her climb in and out and wanted so badly to be able to do it too.  She kept saying to me "I want to do it all myself...Momma help."  And I'd help her get in the crib with Marina.

We took the girls to the carousel at Downtown at the Gardens where we met up with Ella Kate and the girls had so much fun running around and playing. 

Marina didn't want to ride the animals.

Next was the wishing well/fish pond.

Round 2 Carousel Ride

After lunch, we were driving home and the girls were both looking really tired.  Just as Brenna nodded off, Marina yelled "WAKE UP!!!!" At which point Brenna woke up and thought that was hysterical and they had a shouting/giggling match for 5 minutes yelling "WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP" back and forth before Marina fell asleep. 

After perfect naps by both girls, we went to the park and then ended the night looking at Christmas lights.  Everytime we'd see a Santa, Marina and Brenna would go "HO, HO, HO"

In the morning, we made breakfast and played for a little while before Marina went home.

Later that day, Brenna woke up from her nap and said "Where's Rina?"  I want to go play with Rina." She obviously had fun with her buddy.