~ Fireworks, Family, and Potty Training ~

What a week it has been!

Last Sunday was Independence Day.
We decided to take the girls down to Benson to see the fireworks there. We had never been to the ones in Benson, so we weren't sure what to expect. We drove the 30 min there, during which Carissa fell asleep. As we were driving into town, we saw people along side the road to watch the fireworks. We then saw a big field that had people parking in it. So we pulled in there and went to the back part and found lots of parking. So we parked and waited for the fireworks to begin. Carissa woke right before they started. We set up our blanket and got ready to watch the fireworks. We had an awesome location. They were directly in front of us and at times almost seemed above us. Because Carissa had just woken up, the noise seemed to scare her at first. She clung to us at first but watched them the entire time. After a while she seemed to warm up to them, and loosened her grip. She even started to point to them and show to them to "Daddy" and "Kafryn." By the very end, she had turned around and sat in my lap and was fascinated with them ... just as the finale started. After they finished, she said "more." She soon moved her attentions to the fact that a train happened to be going by as we were getting back in the car. I sat her on the roof of the car so she could see the train as it went by. It is so fun to take my girls to the little pleasures in life that I enjoyed so much as a child. I am thoroughly looking forward to next year when both of them will be able to enjoy them better than they did this year! Each year just keeps getting better and better!

Also on Sunday afternoon, Carissa was surprised with the delivery of her very own house (that she will someday share with her sister)!!

GiGi and Papa found this house on sale through Ebay. The people selling it lived near us, so instead of having it shipped they delivered it to us after church.
Carissa LOVES this house. She asks to play in her house every day. She opens and closes the doors and windows. Walks in and out of it. And even insists that Mommy "get in there." Of course, as soon as I go squeeze in the house ... she leaves and shuts me in. What's up with that?

I wish we had some shade in our yard though. Morning time is really the only time feasible to take her outside for long periods of time. The sun rises behind our house, so we do have shade until about 10:30am. After that, it gets HOT. Even if I take her outside for a short while during the afternoon, her slide and toys are too hot for her to even touch.
I have been trying to make sure she at least gets to go out in the mornings while it is still shaded enough and cool enough for me to take Kathryn out and sit with her while Carissa plays.
Last Monday, after some play time in the front yard, Carissa wanted to go "walking" (I love how she has started adding "-ing" to all of her verbs!). We left Daddy and Kathryn at the house, and Carissa and I walked around the block. As we walked she named the birds and the cars as she heard them. We talked about the birds in the trees. We discussed the color of the trees, the grass, and the sky. She even remembered that on a previous walk we had seen a cat on someone's porch. She kept saying that the "cat" was "sleeping" and needed a "blankey." If she didn't see where something was, she would say that it was hiding. (She would ask for Daddy and Kathryn, and when I said "Where are they?" she would say "hiding." She loves to play hide and seek, so "hiding" has been her new response when she doesn't know where something is.) We completely enjoyed our nature walk! She even picked a blade of grass to bring to Daddy.
Shortly after our walk, GiGi came to visit for the day. Carissa just loves her GiGi! Of course she had to show off her new house so GiGi could take lots of pictures :)
We went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and ordered Carissa a mini taco salad off the kids menu. She wasn't fond of the sour cream, but she LOVED the "matoes". In fact she got upset when she ate all the ones in her salad, so the waiter brought her a little bowl of tomatoes.


Wednesday thru Friday Mema and Uncle Dan came to visit. Mema is MY Great-Grandmother ... which makes her the girls' Great-Great Grandmother. Not many little girls can say they visited with their Great-Great-Grandmother. The extra special thing about this visit is that Kathryn is actually named after Mema. (Mema's name is Elena - Kathryn's middle name :-D) AND Kathryn was also born on Mema and my Papaw's Wedding anniversary (Papaw passed away when I was a baby). So overall it was a very special visit. (Will add pic when I get one.)
The last time Mema was here was for Carissa's first birthday, so she didn't remember her. But in no time, Carissa warmed up to her and just LOVED her "Me-naw." Uncle Dan was just up recently with my Grandpa so Carissa remembered him. The girls both got new clothes (they really aren't spoiled haha). It was super great that they could spend time with the girls. Carissa just loves when family comes over. She gets really attached to people (mostly people who spend extended time at our house). It is so sweet to see her excited to see them, and to always look for them. But it breaks my heart when she realizes that they are gone. She gets this sad look and says "[their name] ... home?" Hopefully they will be able to make the trip back up here for Carissa's birthday in September!

This week has also been another milestone in Carissa's life .... we officially started serious potty training! She's had her little potty since December and has even used it a couple times. But she just never was ready, so we put it off until after Kathryn was born. Lately she has started saying "potty" - as she was going in her diaper. So I decided to jump on board with actively training her. We decided to use the "naked method." We let her run around the house without any pants on. The first day she just peed and got upset, and we'd rush her to her potty. Only once did she pee in her potty that day. Day 2 she would start to go, get upset when it ran down her leg, so she'd stop going and finish once I got her on her potty. Day 3 and 4 she started holding her pee. She would act uncomfortable or start dancing around, and would go in her potty when I encouraged her to sit on it. Day 5 she started saying "potty" in addition to her dances. Once she even ran to her potty saying "potty" all on her own and peed. Day 6 we decided to try panties ... but she just peed in them. So Day 7 - today - I decided to let her master the naked method a little better before embarking on adding panties full time. She had no accidents!! Said "potty" if she had to go (or sometimes she says "ducky one" - because we have a little seat that sets on top of our big toilet that has ducks on it ... and she likes to use that one occasionally). Most of the time we still have to help her get to her potty quick enough when she tells us she has to go, but she has had a number of occasions today that she just sits down and pees without prompting! It is so cute to see her walk over, sit down, and say "yay! .... flush it." AND we have now had 3 consecutive days where she says "potty" and sits down and actually POOPS on her potty! Yay!! It took us 4 days of starting to poop on floor before she did ... but now she's got it figured out!!
I just can't believe she is doing so well with potty training! I was really not looking forward to potty training, but I knew it was something we needed to do (esp if we didn't want 2 in diapers forever). I am so glad that we waited until she was ready though. I am extremely proud of her! She is such a big girl! Our next tasks will be to work on transitioning to panties ... and of course, public potty use! ... Honestly not looking forward to taking her out in panties lol. But pull-ups are too much like a diaper for her, so once we go to panties I don't want to backtrack.

As much as she is growing up though, she is still my baby girl who loves cuddling with her mommy. She has recently started coming up to me frequently through the day and saying "hold you" (She means "hold me" but she doesn't distinguish between "you" and "me" yet. She has heard me ask her "Do you want me to hold you?" so she says "hold you.") I just love it because it's no longer putting her arms up, or saying "up" ... She is telling me she wants to be held. It is so sweet. She has also started coming up to me while I am sitting and saying "lap." She just wants to be close to me, and it melts my heart. I am so glad that I am able to give love to both of my girls, and even though she loves to be close to me ... she is not jealous at all. In fact, if I am holding Kathryn, she wants to be the one to hold her. She is always saying "hold her."

Of course, another word that is popular in her vocabulary is "later" (although sounds like "laay-terrrrr"). If she asks to hold Katy while I am nursing, I have to tell her "later" ... so she repeats it. Other things are asking for a cookie, and I say "after dinner" so she says "later." She also gets a gummy vitamin once a day - that she asks for by name ("bite-a-min"). So if she's already had one and she asks for it again, we tell her "tomorrow" and she says, "later." Any time I tell her "in a minute" she knows that means "later" as well. She is just so smart!

She is starting to learn shapes and colors now! She pretty consistently knows "triangle" (and yes she says the word properly!!), "square" "star" and "circle" (all said with NC accent). She loves the color "purple" ... and is learning "pink" and "blue" quite well. Of course everything that is "blue" she calls "blue one" because we gave her a choice between balls and she chose the "blue one."
We're trying to work on counting. Right now, she likes to "count count count" by saying "one, one, one." Every now and then she says "one, two, one."
She just blows me away every day!
I can't believe we will be having her second birthday soon! Although, I think she's beyond a 2 year old developmentally.
I just love her so much!

Getting out ...

Carissa has developed a love for going "bye bye." Doesn't really matter where we go, she just likes getting out of the house - but hey, who can blame her. The poor girl has been cooped up this week, so we decided to get out of the house this morning. Last night she had been asking me to go "walking," so I told her we'd go today. I had some coupons for Target's new grocery department that expired today, so we decided to make a family trip to Target. After Carissa was dressed, I took her outside to play while David took his shower. Wow, the weather was beautiful this morning - a wonderful 70 degrees!! Kathryn and I sat in the rocking chair on the porch while Carissa drove her car, played on her slide, and kicked her soccer ball. It was rather peaceful sitting there, watching her play, Kathryn sleeping on my chest, and hearing the sounds of birds and bugs in the stillness of the morning. Makes me appreciate living outside of the big city.
We loaded up and headed to Target for our "big outing" haha.
Because we promised Carissa a "walking" trip, she got to walk the store instead of riding in the cart. She tried to "push" the stroller, but was a tad too short to reach comfortably. It was cute watching her try to stand on her toes to reach the top of the stroller. She gave up on that task rather quickly.
Of course we had to make a trip down the toy section ... and Carissa found the balls! Now, she didn't just find any ball. She found the balls that are supposed to bounce super high and she had balls bouncing all over. It was amusing watching Daddy play "goalie" to keep the balls from going all over the store. And the softies that we are just had to buy Carissa one of these super bouncy balls. She chose the "blue one" and had to show everyone she passed her "blue one."
We started down the grocery section and happened to pass the section with the cooler doors. Well, our brilliant child remembered going with me to Dairy Queen on Father's Day to by David a cake (which Carissa called his "Birthday" cake). So as we happened to pass the alcohol she started pointing to the coolers saying "Birthday" .... hmm. lol What can I say ... she got a "birthday" from a cooler just like that before. :)
I had a coupon for some grapes, so we headed to the produce. Right under the grapes were some apples ... and our darling just loves "apples", so we obliged. There were a couple guys who worked there standing in front of that section as we were leaving, so Carissa doubled back to show these guys the "apple" and her "blue one." I think she's a little too young to be talking to random guys ... little flirt. There is always an adventure when we take Carissa somewhere. I guess it's a good thing she's so cute, most people just smile at her.
And the whole time we were on our outing, Kathryn slept. :) She opened her eyes a little to check out where we were when we first arrived, but then decided it wasn't worth staying awake - smart girl. :) I wish I could sleep in a stroller while someone pushed me around the store haha.

It was nice getting out of the house as a whole family. The rest of the day consists of playing at home! :) Right now, the girls are both napping while I get in some relaxation and blogging.
Forgive me if my blog entries seem monotonous to you. My plan is to try and write a little something each day to journal about a peek into our daily life. Mostly I want to write about the cute things the girls do so I can look back on them as a way to remember the little things they do. They grow so quickly that I want to hold onto the special little things. And everyday, they seem to do something worth remembering :)

20 "Mommy Loves"

In no special order, here are 20 things I love about being a Mom.

1. I love being called "Mommy."
2. I love being able to meet my girls' needs.
3. I love nursing!
4. I love the sweet smell of a breastfed baby's poop.
5. I love having a sleeping baby on my chest.
6. I love cuddling on the couch, eating popcorn, and watching a movie with Carissa.
7. I love hearing the sweet cry of a newborn.
8. I love watching Carissa give lovins to her baby sister.
9. I love cuddling with my hubby while our girls are fast asleep.
10. I love the quiet feedings in the middle of the night.
11. I love the smell of freshly bathed little ones.
12. I love how Carissa has to pray for everything little thing before we can eat our food.
13. I love watching my girls sleep.
14. I love watching Carissa's nurturing side develop with her baby dolls.
15. I love taking naps with my girls.
16. I love how my kisses can make Carissa's "boo-boo" all better.
17. I love having "conversations" with both my girls.
18. I love talking through everything I am doing so my girls learn words.
19. I love singing all the fun kid songs because it makes Carissa giggle.
20. I love bragging about my family.

*What Love Is*

Three weeks and 2 days ago, I became a mother to two. I knew in my heart that I would have no problems loving each child equally, but actually experiencing that type of love was something I had never done. I wish I could explain how it feels, but I am at a loss for words. All I can say is that my heart feels as if it has grown to an overwhelming size, and when I think about my little girls I want to cry happy tears. I am so madly in love with two little girls who are complete individuals, and I am so in love with their daddy. I have the most wonderful life and I could not be any happier.

I definitely feel that bringing Kathryn home was an easier adjustment than bringing Carissa home. I feel like I have a good handle on keeping up on my housework (while I will admit that it is not perfect, it is kept up and presentable), and I feel I am able to give my girls the attention they need from Mommy. Surprisingly enough, I feel very balanced and adjusted for 3 weeks postpartum.

I am amazed everyday with how quickly my girls are growing up.



*Carissa blows me away daily with her profoundly accurate vocabulary, her thoughtful sentences, her developing manners, and her love for her family - especially her little sister. I just love how when she wants something she says "Puhhhleease" .. ie. When she wants to hold Kathryn, "Hold her ... puuhhleeeeeease." She definitely has a NC accent, and draws her words out with extra syllables! Love it! It also melts my heart to hear her say "Bless you" when someone sneezes or coughs (including herself), and if we say "bless you" she says "Nank you .... welcome." And of course, it is adorable hearing her say "scuse you" when someone burps or toots. I really don't think there is anything this child cannot say! She is definitely one smart cookie. Our next big task will be potty training!! I do believe she is ready to start getting serious about it! Wish us luck - it would be nice to only have one in diapers :)


*Kathryn is one great nurser and is growing like a weed. I already feel like she has gotten so much bigger since we brought her home (I believe she is closing in on being 2lbs over her birth weight). She is so strong and can already hold her head up quite nicely, and likes to push herself with her legs. If we lay her on her belly, she scoots herself up some. And if we lay her on her back, she rolls herself up onto her side - it looked like she was almost gonna roll all the way over yesterday. It is neat to see her already developing her own schedule. She nurses about every 2-3hours. After nursing during the day she generally stays awake and plays with us for about 45min-an hour. Then she will nap for about 1-2 hours before waking to start all over again. At night, she generally goes down for the night around 10:30-11, then sleeps three hours, nurses and goes right back to sleep then repeat until around 8-9am. Last night she actually slept 4 hours between 11-3! Her routines seem to be following what Carissa did. And they even take a nap together in the afternoons. (Kathryn takes shorter naps through the day with 1 longer nap - which I got lucky enough that it is at the same time Carissa takes hers ... although lately Carissa has been cutting her nap shorter than usual!) Kathryn has also started "talking" to us. I just love her little "Oohs" and "Ahhs" ... and lately, when we talk to her, she talks back with an accompanied smile! :O) Oh I could just melt seeing her smile and talk when I talk to her.

Being a mom has definitely turned this lady into a big sap! Everything they do seems to bring tears to my eyes! And they definitely make me beam with pride! I am so proud to call them my daughters. And I also am so proud of the man I married. God could not have blessed me with a more perfect man to be my husband and these little girls' daddy. Just seeing the love in his eyes that he has for them makes me fall in love all over again. My heart smiles big seeing him play with Carissa ... one of their favorite games lately is hide and seek! And he lays on the floor with her and she "flies" on his feet/legs or he gets on his hands/knees and she "rides" on his back. I love hearing her just full out giggle when they are playing. It is also very sweet to see Kathryn and Daddy cuddle time! :) Oh my I am so in love!
Being a mom is definitely what I was created to be. God knew exactly what He was doing when He created me and my family.

***Welcome Home, Kathryn Elena***

One journey has come to an end, and another is just beginning!
We are very excited to announce the birth of our second daughter, Kathryn Elena. She was born on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 9:39pm. She weighed 8lbs5oz and measured in at 20.5 inches long. She is absolutely perfect in every way.
The following is Kathryn's Amazing Birth Story!! :)

Starting around 37 weeks my body began to practice for labor. I began nightly regular contractions that were usually gone by morning (although still managed to keep me away at night despite taking Tylenol PM). I was so sure that she was gonna come a little early like her big sister Carissa did. (Carissa was born at 38.5 weeks). 38 weeks comes and goes. I had a couple nights that contractions were strong enough to make me time them and even consider whether or not to call the midwife. Of course, I ended up falling asleep before calling and they were gone or irregular by morning. I just knew from how the contractions were feeling that something had to be happening, so at my 39 week visit, I requested to have my cervix checked. I was 2cm, and really soft.
Saturday night June 5th, I felt like contractions were starting to pick up again (as usual), but surprisingly they never left or became irregular by morning time. I began to wonder in the back of my mind if we were getting close to being real this time, but didn't want to get my hopes up. Went to church, out to lunch, and walked the mall for a short while. The contractions were getting stronger that it was really starting to bother me to walk and talk. The drive home they seemed to still intensify yet and were coming often. I decided to lay down and drink water at home and time them. They came every 5-6 min consistently for an hour. So I called the midwife. She had be take a bath and try to rest and call back in a couple hours with an update. After taking a bath, and doing a couple other things, I laid back down to time contractions again. They were now coming every 4-5 min. I called the midwife back and she had me come in. By the time we got there contractions were coming every 3-4 min.I was 3cm, 25-50% effaced, but baby was still high. My midwife gave me a shot of morphine to help me sleep through the contractions since I hadn't been sleeping through them. By morning, I had made no cervical changes - but baby had dropped to 0 station! It was promising progress ... but her head was still a little off to my right (much like her sister!)!
So we were sent to breakfast and to walk, and did all kinds of exercises to convince my angel to move her head over a little bit. Contractions were stilllllll every 3 min, couldn't walk or talk through them. Walked about 3 hours and came back to find out I made ZERO change! I was starting to get really worn down.
They decided to send me home to wait out early labor, and gave me a prescription for Ambien to help me sleep through contractions. Of course, my next question was: "okay, so how do I know when to come back in because obviously painful contractions every 3 min wasn't my cue". At this point I had not had any bloody show (midwife said I was super soft on the outside of my cervix but the inside was still firm). She said that having bloody show would be a good sign that the inside of my cervix is making progress. So off I went to return home.
So Monday night and Tuesday I tried to stay busy and walk to keep encouraging Miss Kathryn to decide to put her head in position. Finished each day with a nice relaxing bath and Ambien to help me sleep. Well, the bath and Ambien worked Monday night, not so much Tuesday night. By this point I was forcing myself to walk and talk through contractions just so I could get through a day without stopping every 3 min to deal with the contractions. (Of course, this was no easy task.)
Wednesday June 9, 2010 .... The day all the early labor came down to. This is the story I will love to tell over and over. This is the day that made all the practice contractions and early labor contractions worth it!
My mother-in-law came in town Monday night to help with Carissa. She has a friend in the area who has a grandchild Carissa's age. So we met them for lunch and a play date at the park. It was a hot day, but Carissa was thrilled to be at the park (poor girl has been deprived since Mommy was too pregnant to try and take her to the park by myself). Well, she decided to be independent and climb all kinds of things with drop off edges and other things that made Mommy's heart jump. And she even got stuck going headfirst down a slide. Needless to say, Mommy ended up following to help her along. Yes, the day before my due date I was climbing a playground, crawling through tunnels, and even going down slides. I am sure it was quite the site to see (I do have a couple pics for proof haha). We figured maybe having fun at the park might be the thing to encourage Kathryn to come. We left the park around 2 and boy did my contractions change. I don't know how to explain the change, just that they changed.
We got home, put Carissa down for a nap, and I "napped" between contractions for a bit. Around 4:30 that afternoon, I went to the bathroom and had bloody show. I called the birth center, and waited for the midwife to call back. Talked to her around 5:30. She decided to go ahead and have me come in to be checked. I called David at work, and he came home and we left for the birth center. Along the way, my contractions got even stronger. In fact, they felt much like the contractions I had with Carissa around 6cm. I was hoping that was a sign of progress.
Got to the Birth Center at 7pm. I was STILL 3cm ... but was 90-100% effaced. Baby was still at 0 station, but I had a bulging sack of waters. They don't normally admit patients until 4cm, but she was afraid that that bulging sack meant my water could easily break soon and she was afraid I'd go too fast to get the antibiotics for group B strep. So I got admitted. I hydrated so they could find my vein and give me an IV by 8pm. Over that next hour my contractions got SO strong and I started getting hot and cold and feeling much like I did during transition (8-10cm) with Carissa. I was getting really discouraged thinking this was how it was gonna be all night and that I was just being a big wimp about the pain. Got my IV in on the first try (yay!). And David suggested I try to change positions and maybe walk around a bit. So I did. I was able to manage the contractions okay standing but the unbearable pain was in my hips and legs. I just couldn't stay on my feet anymore. So I got back in bed. Around 9:20pm, my water broke. Within a few minutes I started feeling urges to push, but I thought I must be having trouble knowing what my body was saying. There was just no way I went from 3-10cm that fast. The urges got so strong that I could no longer NOT push. I made David go get the midwife. She came in and checked me. I was 9 cm. She said to push the next time I had the urge while she felt what my cervix did. I pushed and she said "good. we're gonna have a baby." I was in complete disbelief!! I began pushing, and I heard comments about her head full of dark hair, then almost there, was told to do half pushes, and then told to look. Next thing I knew they were handing me my gorgeous baby girl!! 19 minutes from the time my water broke she was completely delivered! I was only at the birth center for 2.5 hours and went from 3-birth!! (And no tearing worth even stitching!!) No wonder the contractions were horrible, and I was not being wimpy after all. All that "practice" paid off.
My first thought and words were "She's so tiny." To which, the nurse and midwives laughed saying that she is a big baby. But compared to my 32lb toddler, she is so little!! :)
After her cord was cut, they took her to weigh her - 8lbs5oz. Then while I delivered the placenta and got sat up, David got to have some skin to skin with Kathryn. Once I was ready, I took her back for our skin to skin and first nursing session. David handed her to me in a cradle position; and while trying to adjust her comfortably and get a good look at her, I passed her in front of my nipple and she lunged for it - latching on first try. I had not had her in my arms longer than 15 seconds and she'd already latched herself on! She was hungry from birth and a natural nurser! Once she latched she nursed on each side back and forth (per her demand) until 4am ... minus a couple Mommy-demanded breaks for potty and food.
Things are just perfect! Carissa loves her quite a bit and we are so happy to have a beautiful family of 4! :)

*My Sweet Family*

Where has the time gone? 2010 seems to be flying by in a hurry!!

Today is my sweet husband's 24th birthday! It's so hard to believe that we were both 14 when we met almost 10 years ago!!! When I met him in July 2000, I honestly never would have thought that in 10 years we would be so happily married, completely in love, raising one smart and beautiful daughter, and about to welcome our second precious daughter! It is so amazing to think about how far we've come and to see God's hand through it all.
Yesterday, we were talking with David's mom about when she gave birth to David and Jonathan. David had been in the birth canal and the plan was for him to be born first, but Jonathan pushed his way through so he was actually born first. But the plan was that the firstborn would be named Jonathan.
So they started saying things that I would have actually married Jonathan - who would still be the same person with a different name. So weird. BUT then the thought occurred to me that things may not have turned out the way they did if that were the case. World Changers 10 years ago, we were assigned certain crews randomly based on names. So DAVID Gunter was put on the same crew as me. Had the boys been born in a different order and been given opposite names, I would have been on a crew with the opposite brother. Soooo .... even back at BIRTH God had his hand in it to make sure that 14 years later I would be paired up with my wonderful husband! :) Amazing isn't it?

Our sweet Carissa is growing smarter and smarter everyday. I have lost count of the words she says, and I can't keep track of how many new words everyday she picks up. She tries to say almost every word we ask her to say, and she says so many things with meaning! It is so wonderful to be able to communicate with her. She blows me away!

• Currently she can NAME and IDENTIFY correctly her: head, hair, ear, eye, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, cheeks, belly, arm, fingers, hands, belly, knee, toes, foot, back, bum.
• She has become fascinated with letters. We've been reviewing "A B C" lately. She can say them all, but not quite able to pick them out all the time yet. But she LOVES them!
• She absolutely LOVES her baby "Sissy, Katie"! She gives her kisses and pats. It is so precious. I can't wait for her to be able to meet her in June!
• She is learning "please." Although, it either comes out "pee" or "peez." Anytime we tell her she needs to say "please" first, she does. But if she wants a bite of whatever we are eating, she will come up and say "peeeeeez." It melts my heart!
• Our little girl has become a fearless daredevil. The world has become her playground. She climbs on everything, wants to go down the "sliiiiiii" by herself, climb the stairs by herself, etc. Although, there are times where she knows she needs help, and she will stick her hand up to us and say "hand!" so that we will hold her hand to help her!
• She has become Mommy's Big Helper! She loves to push the Swiffer around; help me push the laundry basket to the laundry room; put the clothes in the basket, washer, and dryer; unload the dishwasher; put ice in drink; cook; clean up etc. Whatever it is she says "help help" and proceeds to help Mommy or Daddy! Love it!
• 
• She loves to "play"! And we have to "play" with her. She will come and grab our finger and say "play" and drag us to her toys and pull us until we sit down with her. Of course, if we are unable to drop what we are doing to go "play" at that moment, and her attempts to pull us fails, she will let go and try to pull our other hand. I guess apparently if one of our hands doesn't work, the other is supposed to. Toddler logic is absolutely adorable! :)
• Her favorite past times are puzzles, books, coloring, play dough, playing with babies, teddies, balls, slides, playing "ousii' (outside), and dancing!
• She loves "choo choo"s, "mouse" (Mickey and Minnie), and all animals and the sounds they make.
  

I could go on and on. I am quite proud of our little munchkin and love to brag on her.



In other news, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our precious Kathryn Elena Gunter (aka Katie)! I was quite confident from the ultrasound in January that she is a girl, but something about these hormones kept making me wonder "hmm ... what if it was wrong? what if we do all this girl stuff and she turns out to be a boy?" Those thoughts have been put to rest! Since then, our little girl showed her parts to the world in an ultrasound so I am 105% sure she is a girl!

Which is a REALLY good thing ... because our nursery is pretty much set!! :)



































I still have much to do, but I am loving the way the nursery looks!!
Now that the "big projects" are done, I can work on catching up on everything else in my house that has gotten behind due to exhausting myself with big projects. My goal is to have the house caught up soon, so that I can work on keeping it up. I am hoping to not start out life with 2 kids being behind on housework! :)

The closer we get to due date, and the more fun I have with Carissa, the more excited I am to have two sweet, silly girls!! I am really looking forward to watching them grow up together and become two peas in a pod! :) As we are quickly approaching the end of this pregnancy, I am able to learn Kathryn's patterns already. While there have been aspects of this pregnancy that have been different than with Carissa, the two girls' activity patterns are identical! Both of them had active periods around 10pm-3am. They both liked to lay with their head in my left hip (although Kathryn has decided she needs to snuggle much lower than Carissa did), and kick my right side. I do hope though that Kathryn decides to move her head out of the hip and into the birth canal long before I've been through 4 days of labor (unlike Carissa!). She has already started on a 2 hour sleep/wake cycle. I notice she is active for a little while, then rests, and is active again in 2-3 hours. I didn't pay much attention to the time with Carissa, but once she was born that is the cycle she had herself on. Both of them had some vicious kicks and were/are very active during their active times. While sometimes it is somewhat painful or uncomfortable, I love every minute of feeling and watching my insides be turned into a punching bag!
I just know that one day my life will be so full of excitement having 2 nonstop active little girls! I look forward to tea parties, dress up, and sleep overs!
Although, I think Daddy is going to be in for trouble! He already is wrapped around one little girl's fingers ... just imagine when he has two wrapping him tightly around their little fingers!! :)

Yesterday we were able to go for a 3d/4d ultrasound. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and loved watching our little Diva on the screen!! She already knows how to smile and pose for the camera ... practicing for when she is born! :) She showed us so many facial expressions... including pouts, mad faces, a devious face, smiling faces, and her sweet resting face! Looking at her features compared to Carissa's newborn photos, it is safe to say that they will look a lot alike. I would not be surprised if one day the two of them are mistaken for twins. :)















































































It is hard to believe that I will complete my 29th week tomorrow. Anywhere from 8-12 weeks left - WOW! This pregnancy definitely flew by! I am looking forward to June.

In final news, please continue to pray for us as David is STILL searching for a job. He has had some interviews and prospects that seemed like great opportunities, but sadly was turned down due to "not enough experience." Someone, somewhere has to be willing to take a risk on someone with little experience so he can gain more experience. I know God has something in store for us, but it does get hard to wait without knowing. I guess that is what faith is all about!

Psalm 25:5 (New Living Translation)

Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me.
All day long I put my hope in you.

~Counting down to Baby Girl #2~

I apologize to all who check in on my blog often. I am sorry that I have not been as diligent as I should to keep you all up to date on how the wonderful things happening! (As you see how long my posts are, you will understand why I have put off sitting down to write. As much as I want to write, I know it will take me more time than I have to write!)

I am now officially working on my twenty-third week of pregnancy. We've made it to the top of the hill for our halfway mark, and now we are making our trek down the hill for the last half homestretch. I absolutely cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going by. I have mixed emotions about how quickly this is going by. Part of me wants it to keep passing by so I can be that much closer to holding my precious little baby, but the other part of me is saying "slow down!!" I want to cherish every moment of this, and I feel I have SO much to do to be ready for D-Day!

Since I posted last we did find out the gender of our growing bundle of joy. Most everyone reading this will already know the results when you read this, but for the sake of journaling I will write about it anyways. :-D
Other than the crazy morning - I mean - all day sickness, everything about this pregnancy has been so different than with Carissa. Everyone swore it was a boy and I finally gave in to that same notion. But I still wanted to think about girl names, just in case. We went for our big ultrasound on January 12th. It is still so amazing to me all the things we can see. The lady was super nice and explained everything we were looking at. We saw all the little organs working properly, the fingers, toes, legs, arms, spine (vertebrae by vertebrae). Heart was beating a strong 150+ bpm. She had previously asked about whether or not this was our first, and if we had a girl or boy already. It had been hard to tell what we were looking at on the screen until the lady told us what we were looking at. But at one point she asked us if found out what we were having with our first, and if they showed us a picture of it. As soon as she asked that, I looked at the screen and immediately saw the 3-lines indicative of the girly parts that I recognized from having Carissa. Without question I said, "It's a girl!" before the tech even had a chance to type "It's another girl!"
The funny thing is I don't remember feeling surprised about it at all. I did laugh and think it was hilarious that everyone swore it was a boy though.
David said he was surprised at first ... but the first thing I remember him saying was "Well we definitely have to try for three now." Although, now that I question him about what he really said first, I do recall that he said "I'm being outnumbered!" first. And then a little later he said we have to try for three so we can get a boy. :)
We are both super excited about having another girl! It is going to be SO great for Carissa to have a little sister close in age. She already loves her little sister and knows she is in Mommy's belly. And of course, I think she is definitely starting to notice that mommy's belly is protruding a lot more lately! :)
Because we had a boy named picked out since before Carissa but not another girl name, we had to decide on a name. My great-grandmother (our kids' great-great-grandmother) is still alive, and her name is Elena. Her grandmother has that name, and her granddaughter - my mom - has that name as a middle name. I am thinking it also goes back another generation, but I can't remember accurately. But it occurred to me that it is my turn to use that name if I were to keep the tradition going, and my Mema pointed it out to me as well. We decided that if we used it we would use it as a middle name. We had such a hard time finding a name we liked to go with it as a first name so we toyed with looking at other names. We narrowed it down to a few, but none that we felt like were just that "perfect name." David is a lot more picky than I am, and one morning he got out of the shower, came out, and said, "I thought of a name to go with Elena." As soon as he said that and it registered that he said "...with Elena," I just knew it had to be "it" because of how picky he is. So I asked him what it was and he said "Kathryn Elena, and we can call her Katie for short." Hearing that name I just knew it was perfect. So we are proud to say that our second precious little girl bears the name Kathryn Elena. I want to use Kathryn and Katie interchangeably. I don't want to only call her Katie though. (My parents only called me Missie unless I was in trouble, and actually got to where I HATED being called Melissa - I obviously like it now haha.) But I want to use both names and let her pick her preference to tell her friends and teachers etc. The more and more I use the name, read it, or hear it ... the more I love it.
We have taught Carissa that her name is Katie (it is easier for her to say) and it comes out as "Kay-E" or "Kay kay." She wakes up looking for "Kay-E" and has to pat my belly. She has to show other people "Kay-E" and even gives her kisses. It is so precious and I just know she is going to be a great big sister!
Now that know our little baby is a girl named Kathryn Elena I have become much more motivated to prepare for her arrival! We have a three bedroom house. Our third bedroom used to be our "office/study," but we moved our desks out to the living room area and that room turned into a "storage/junk room." I finally got motivated to clean out that room. We've decided to have a yard sale so that we can declutter our house! It's been very refreshing to see the progress and to think about how much better it will feel having a house that feels more spacious after getting rid of stuff we don't need. (Anyone in the area wanting to shop at our yard sale, come on by on March 6! :)) We also were able to buy Kathryn's bedding! It's so cute and exciting! It will be various pinks and purples with ladybugs and butterflies! We can't really do much else in that room until after our yard sale though because we are storing the yard sale stuff in there for now. Can't wait to paint and set everything up. My goal is to have our entire house decluttered before the yard sale, and then to have the nursery painted and set up by the end of my second trimester. I don't want to be trying to do a lot of work during the third trimester, but it is my hopes to stay on top of keep everything else organized and clean during that last trimester so I am not starting off behind on house work when Kathryn arrives. So I have until March 6 to declutter my house and I have until March 18th to have the nursery set up.
I have already gone through all of Carissa's old clothes, washed all four loads of laundry we are keeping (ranging in size from nb-9month), and folded and put them all away. Feels great to have that accomplished. Also helps me know what kind of things we still need. I am really looking forward to being able to get things to help me organize the nursery!
Oh yes, and we bought a pretty little outfit for Kathryn to wear when she comes home (Daddy picked it out! :-D). We bought a little baby for Carissa to give Katie when she first meets her. And we bought her first box of NB diapers! :) We are trying to think about buying a box of diapers for Kathryn every time we have to buy diapers for Carissa.

On another note, this precious little baby has been making herself so much more known! Her little flutters I was feeling the last time I posted are now full on soccer kicks!! I told David I think we are working on creating a girls' soccer team! She is very very active. I feel her move about off and on throughout the day, and at night around 10-11 - when I relax for the night - she really begins her late night party habits. I absolutely love feeling her kicks .... although I would rather them not hit me square in the bladder or ribs, but I still smile. She stretches out from my ribs to my bladder, and moves all around. Sometimes she is moving more up higher, and sometimes down, sometimes right, and sometimes left. All over! It is also neat feeling her press against my belly so much that if I press back I can feel her (not sure if I am feeling her bottom, head, etc) but it is definitely her. I can usually feel her for a few seconds before she moves away.
She has finally started letting Daddy feel her, although he still has somewhat of a calming effect on her. There have been a few nights that I make him lay with his hand on my belly so she will calm down so I can fall asleep. :)
I am definitely feeling more and more pregnant, and am starting to get to used to hearing other people comment on my being pregnant. It doesn't bother me when others comment - in fact, I think I beam when they do because I love that others know I am pregnant! It used to surprise me when people commented because I wasn't used to hearing others recognize I was pregnant!! :-D With Carissa, I think I had a watermelon belly ... but this time, it is completely a basketball all out in front. I love my belly!! It is so cute and I feel so cute being pregnant! I have also been told that I really "glow" when I am pregnant. I had someone I was talking to stop mid-sentence to tell me that because he couldn't help but notice it. I think I was meant to have babies :-D and therefore, pregnancy looks good on me! (The picture to the left was taken at 21wks2days.)
Right now I am definitely at the "honeymoon" of pregnancy. And this is the time of pregnancy that I remember most in between pregnancies. It is my favorite time ... slightly uncomfortable but not TOO uncomfortable, still able to do most everything, feeling little one move around, and done with all of the nausea!!! :-D Although ... I do not enjoy the frequent sudden urges to potty from my sweet girl kicking my bladder, or the feeling that I need to go immediately after I just went because KatieBug is sitting on my bladder!! But before I know it, all of this will be history and I will have two bouncing little girls filling my house with joy! I simply cannot wait! From how active Kathryn is now, I have no doubt that she will be just as active as Carissa - and she is a ball of energy and always has been! It will be so much fun having my two girls!! :) I am so in love with being a mom to daughters! :)