A Baby Sister?

At dinnertime last week, Clayton wanted to say the pray. "Thank you Jesus for Daddy, Mommy, Doggy, and BABY SISTER." I was a little shocked by his words. We had talked about a baby brother/sister but didn't know yet what we were having. My ultrasound was a couple days later and we decided we were going to find out. Here is a picture of me the day of the ultrasound at 21 weeks. I feel huge, but then I talk to some people and they are shocked to know I am pregnant, so maybe it is just me.

Yes, we are indeed having a baby girl! The ultrasound tech was pretty sure of it and she even got a pretty good picture. Our little Clayton really did know. I am in awe at how our Father uses our children to help us as parents to love, honor and serve him more. I am so thankful for our boy and the love he already has for his heavenly father. He is going to be a great big brother. These days he is surrounded by lots of little girls and I see a great gentleness in him towards them. I now know the Lord is preparing him for a baby sister. He loves to play dress up with his cousin Jolena and wear mommy's lipstick and make-up. I know he will out grow the dress up thing, but I can see him playing with his little sister one day just because she wants him to.

Clayton picked out this little outfit for his sister this week. (sorry for the sideways pic) The butterfly is on the butt, perfectly suiting since I love butterflies. He was so excited to show daddy the outfit when we got home. He said, "Look at the butt dad", as he was laughing.

So 17 weeks and counting for our baby girl to arrive. I just started to read a book a friend recommended to help us with this transition, From One Child To Two by Judy Dunn.

A vacation to Nuevo Vallarta

Relaxing by the pool. Before we ever knew we were moving; we planned a trip to Mexico to my parents timeshare with my family. So we got settled into our new home and Brody his new job and then we got a little vacation from it all. We sure enjoyed every bit of the sunshine and warm weather! It hasn't been much above 40 degrees here since November. It was just beautiful and so peaceful being at the ocean! I could have been perfectly content relaxing on the beach listening to the waves and building sandcastle with Clayton the entire time. Vacations before kids was defined at sleeping in, an afternoon nap in the sun and a nice quiet dinner filled with good conversation and any sight seeing/adventures we wanted to do. Now they are defined as rising with the sun, playing in the water and sand, indigestion from eating too fast and to bed with the kids. We did do a couple adventures: whale watching and went with the family zip-lining and Brody, Clayton and I hung out by the water. Next time we will do without the adventures because Clayton had to be confined to one spot so we had an unhappy boy and unhappy parents. By the end of the week, we realized we all had the best time at our resort, in the pool or down by the ocean.

Clayton and his cousin Logan. These boys had so much fun!

Brody had to quickly overcome his fear of snakes because Clayton really wanted to hold one! My little man has no fear of anything.

The boat ride out to see whales. We got to see dolphins and whales on the trip. It was short lived fun for Clayton because he couldn't run all over the boat with wide-open rails all the way around.

Clayton loved playing in the sand! Who needs shovels when you can use your head?

He is a little fish; he was jumping in and going under.

I wanted some pictures of us walking down the beach. Of course, I waited until the last day and Clayton wasn't too excited about pictures then. You take whatever you can get with kids.