We love the zoo!

In less than a week we've already been to the zoo twice.... let me just say that breaking down and buying a zoo pass was totally worth it! Megan loves the zoo... and I love watching her have so much fun. Ok, truth be known, I love the zoo too! Monday we met up with some friends for our little zoo adventure. Here are the tykes - Caroline, Megan and Doss.

This time we actually made it to the petting zoo. Megan was so sweet with the animals. It gave me hope that maybe that "gentle touch" is starting to sink in.

She even gave the pigs a little brush - normally she avoids them. They seem to scare her. But not this time...

And of course, you have to go on the hokey train ride! It was Doss and Caroline's first zoo choo choo experience. Here's Caroline and her mommy, Suzanna. And Doss and his daddy, Scott.

Before we headed home (almost 2 hours after our normal nap time) we ran into some other little friends at the zoo playground. Here's Megan sandwiched inbetween Abby and Eli. Megan was so tired she was being very goofy.

And of course, no trip to the playground is complete without a ride on the airplane seesaw. Megan got Doss to hitch a ride with her.

And why do I love going to the playground with Megan (whether it's at the zoo or a local park)???? Just watch her enthusiasm!

Rough Night

The Offender.....

The Victim....

Oh my - it was a rough night for getting ready for bed. Little Twinkle Toes exhibited some of her mommys grace by tripping over her own 2 feet and smashing face first into Daddy's recliner. Gee - it looks so soft - but evidently not when your falling forward face first. Ugh. After lots of tears (and Megan was a little upset too), and a boo boo ice pack, we recovered. Megan even recovered enough to give me a "cheese" smile - goose egg and all.

Keep the racquet down....

So - what do you get when you give a Dad and a little girl a badminton racquet?

A "pre-tennis" lesson?
Or the new and improved method of swatting at carpenter bees?

Note Megan's look of complete fear... she's terrified of bees. It must be some innate fear that children have - insect quickly buzzing by them. Her most uttered statements right now go something like this..

"go bee go"

"bee gone"

"no thank you bee"

or my favorite - "mommy bee fly me"

This was just a cute picture I snapped from the kitchen window tonight. Tom was outside grilling with Megan, and Megan decided to go off-roading with her little grill. Maybe she was trying to find a bee-free zone.

It's warmed up!

Wow, it was a beautiful hot day today! The perfect day for a trip to the zoo!

Now I do have to say - it was extremely crowded. You know there are a lot of school groups there when you see kids from the elementary school you went to when you were a kid. I got off the highway at the exit with 10 school buses. I knew I was in trouble. But it ended up being a fun time with some friends.

Megan loved being able to hang out with baby Benjamin (this is how enamored she is with all babies).Megan and Macie in the birds nest... The walking and talking kiddos - Conner, Cole, Carson, Megan and Macie.

And what is a trip to the zoo without a corny ride on the train?

I have to say - by the time we left I was exhausted! And my sweet little girl fell asleep as we pulled out of the parking lot. When we got home she promptly woke up and refused to go back to sleep- about the same time mommy was looking forward to a little nap. Bummer. Of course, she had about an hour of "quiet time" because I was hoping she'd go back to sleep (usually she does) - instead, I just laid down and listened to her talk to her animals and sing and read them stories. It was cute - not the "relaxation" I had hoped for - but still heart warming!

The Facts

It's true - Megan is going to be a big sister! It's sweet because when we pray at meals and bedtime she has her little "routine" of who to pray for - "mommy, daddy, megan," and she's started saying, "baby." It makes me smile and tear up all at the same time. We've prayed for a little brother/sister for Megan, but didn't know if we would be blessed in that way. So it's a huge answer to prayer and we are praising God for it! The really cool God part of the story - we'd prayed that I would get pregnant by Megan's 2nd birthday, or else we'd go chat with the Dr's about what was up (again) - since I'm sooooo advanced in maternal age :^) and we knew our window of having another one was very short.... well, we didn't know it on her birthday, but that prayer was answered.

The nitty gritty.... my due date is November 13. We've already gotton to see the heartbeat twice and everything looks great. I just can't believe we are already 1/4 of the way through the pregnancy. We were waiting to spill the beans until we had a chance to tell our families at Easter.

And for all those who have asked... this pregnancy is moving along very similarly to Megan's..... However, this time around I got really sick, really fast. Officially my OB classifies me as having hyperemesis so they got me on an increased dosage of the anti-nausea medicine and it's working a little better. So I'm actually able to function now most days. That is why I've been a bad blogger lately.... I've been sleeping every chance I get to try to keep from getting sick. I'm praying that this all-day morning sickness starts to ease up quickly - and not last all 9 months like it did last time. So please pray for me to feel better - poor Megan gets hysterical when I'm sick and unfortunately that's been a lot in the last 5 weeks or so. Bless her little heart - there are days when I sit down and she brings me a trash can thinking I'm sick. It totally breaks my heart that she is worried about me - my sweet little sensitive baby girl!

But you know what...... It's ok! I'll take it with the little blessing attached. I wish that I was one of those really really really blessed moms who never really experienced the worst of morning-sickness (please if you are one of them, KNOW how blessed you are!), but I'm not (losing 15 lbs has been great - but I don't recommend this as a diet method) - and I know that God will give me the strength to endure this part of it. To be totally honest - I just want to be able to have the energy and stamina so that Megan enjoys this spring and summer. We've had a few weeks where I really couldn't leave the house because I was so sick - but at least with the medicine, it's not as extreme. So I'd totally appreciate your prayers for that one!

All in all.... we are so excited about this upcoming transition from 3 Blaisdells to 4. But also nervous and totally wondering what our new life together will be like. God's good and life is grand!

A Little Note from Megan

I can hear you!

Today we had our follow-up ear checkup. Everything looked great. Megan's ear tubes look good, no infection left, and she did well on her hearing test. Last month she failed the test on the right ear, and it showed much improvement this time. Yeah! We are thankful. Megan's been battling allergies (with everyone else around here), but we've seen a remarkable difference in her breathing as well. Our pediatrician had told us that she thought once we got Megan's ear draining, that her wheezing would decrease. It has! That's another huge praise!! She still has lots of "drainage" from her eyes and nose - but hey... I'd rather it come out than get stuck behind her ears. Here's hoping it doesn't get any worse once the pine pollen kicks up.

Grandma & Papa

The past week and a half have been somewhat of a blur as we spent lots of fun time with Grandma and Papa. We were so busy that I never even had time to post some of our fun pictures together. Megan made sure to show them the ropes on the playground...

She sure does love those swings! It was hard to get her out of them and onto other fun things. We had a cold and rainy snap so we only had a few visits to the park - if Megan had her choice, she'd be there every day for hours.

One nice day we headed to a local game ranch to meet up with Megan's cousins.

We had fun getting up close and personal with the wildlife...

Megan was pretty fearless with the animals - except for the buffalo. They were a little too big for her liking. One of my funniest moments from the trip was in the "farm" area. There were some pigs and donkeys and ducks and rabbits, etc... There was a teenager there who was trying to feed a rabbit a carrot. Megan walked up with her cracker to feed the rabbit too. Well, who knew rabbits prefered crackers or carrots? The little bunny took Megan's cracker (much to her delight). The teenager said outloud (to the bunny), "oh, don't you want to take my carrot?" And Megan (without a pause) said, "yes, thank you" and took the carrot right out of her hand and walked off. I was moritified and hysterically laughing at the same time. The teenager was also very very very amused. I was apologizing and trying to catch up to Megan to get the carrot away from her - and the girl basically laughed and pointed at her crate of animal food and told us to keep the carrot.

And Megan also got to help Grandma make her famous Buster Bar Ice Cream Dessert. Yum... I'm not sure how many Oreo's she actually ate during that adventure - but lets just say her face was covered in evidence!

Grandma and Papa we miss you already. Megan got up this morning and looked all over the house for you. Later today we were in the car and she sat in each of "your" seats and made sure that I knew you sat "right here". It was very sweet! We can't wait to see you this summer!

Happy Easter

From our family to yours.... We hope you had a very blessed Easter!

We had a lot of fun with all of Megan's grandparents, an adopted grandparent (my sister-in-law's mom), her aunt and uncle and 3 cousins. It was fun of energy, fun, food, and eggs....

Who knew Megan would be such a good egg hunter. Each child had 20ish eggs to find -and Megan found a lot of hers with no help at all.

Of course, what's an egg hunt without a little help from Grandma.

And some help from Papa to get the eggs that somehow found their way into trees.

It was so fun to watch her look for eggs (and watch her cousins run around looking for eggs).

Here's a few family shots...

Grandma, Granddad, Justin, Daniel, Anna, and Megan

Kevin, Kelly, Gram Anne, Justin, Daniel, and Anna

Grandma, Me, Megan, Tom, and Papa.

Ouch!

Well, It's been a crazy week with tons of things going on around here and once again, my blogging life has not really existed. And, I did "lose" my camera..... it's now found so I have tons of pictures to get uploaded and posted - so hopefully this next week I'll do a better job of getting on the computer. I can always hope...

Yesterday during a break in the rain, Megan and I were outside playing on the driveway. We were kicking and throwing a ball - and unfortunately the ball got the best of Megan.... causing her to do a horrible nose dive into the cement driveway. It was horrible and she cried and cried and I was on the verge. I finally got her nose to stop bleeding and was able to survey the damage...Yeah - huge scrape down the bridge of her nose, over the nostril, and under her nose - not to mention a black/blue goose egg on her forehead.

But I figure, hey - she's 2 and this was her first major fall - I guess we are doing pretty good. Unfortunately, it looks worse today. Today you can tell how deep those scrapes were. I'm afraid it's going to take awhile to heal.

Did I mention that we are having our family portrait taken tomorrow for our church directory.... great.