It's a.... Baby!!

I'm sure you are all just dying to see pictures of me in all my pregnant glory, but if there's one thing I've learned with William it's that Baby is always more important than Mommy. And since I have pictures of WEBS (William Edsell's Baby Sibling), I figured I should share those first. But don't worry--eventually I'll get my pregnancy photos up--all ten+ weeks of them. Maybe I'll even pull out some from William's pregnancy to compare!

Kind of hard to tell, but that's both feet side by side. According to the ultrasound technician, though, baby didn't keep his/her feet together for very much of the ultrasound--whenever the technician was in the area (and Darrell and I had our eyes closed), baby had his/her legs spread open wide. Apparently finding out the sex would not have been a difficult task

"Hi Mom!"

Looking just like Big Brother William with a hand up by the face

Memories

I probably don't utilize this blog enough period, but I definitely don't use it enough to jot down and remember some of the cute/ridiculous things William does on a day to day basis. This is by no means a promise to change that behavior, because let's face it, I never have as many hours in the day as I would like, but I can't resist recording what William did last night because it was just too cute.

Just about every night last week Darrell went outside after dinner to do some yard work (before the inevitable first snow falls). Most nights William went out with him because A) William is not content to be in the house if someone is outside and B) I wasn't around because I had soccer so Darrell had no choice but to take William with him. Well, Saturday night Darrell and I were both home, and we were enjoying the opportunity to chat over dinner. William finished before us and was playing in the other room while we continued to chat, when all of the sudden William walks into the kitchen dragging Darrell's jacket. He carries it over to Darrell, puts it on his lap, and then walks to the back door and picks up Darrell's shoes. He then proceeds to bring those to Darrell as well, and even makes an effort to put them on, a la Cinderella-style. Apparently he had decided that we had been chatting long enough and that it was time for us to go outside and do more yard work--despite the fact that we hadn't exactly been planning on going outside because the weather wasn't kind of yucky and we didn't really have anything to get done. But after William was so cute about wanting to go out, we really couldn't tell him no. So outside we went. And what do you know--we enjoyed ourselves plenty despite the cooling temperatures and even found a few projects to work on. I guess William really does know best (just don't ever let him know that!).

Too Early....

Dear South Dakota:

I should not be able to see my breath when I am out for a morning walk on September 12th. It's too soon for that nonsense--I don't even have a winter coat for William yet! Please return to normal fall temperatures ASAP so we can do normal fall things like go to the apple orchard and have bonfires.

Love,
Jess, William, and Baby

PS Thank you for not dropping six plus inches of snow on us like you did cities in the western part of the state. I am most definitely not ready for that.

More Wedding (Photobooth) Photos

The two weddings over Labor Day Weekend had drastically different, but fairly standard, photobooth set ups. Backdrop, goofy hats, fun props, etc. And while the pictures are nothing remarkable, they are pretty much all we have to show (as of right now) from the weddings, so I'm going to share them anyway. Maybe once some of the professional photos come back I'll share some of those as well; I know the photographer from my brother's wedding got some pretty great shots of William!

We Survived

One weekend. Two weddings. 550+ miles apart.

We survived, we enjoyed it, but man did we need a few days to recover (and I definitely feel like I could use a few more!)

Saturday my brother got married (finally!!), so we started the festivities on Friday night and then were up and out the door by eight to start preparations for the big day. I was a bridesmaid, Darrell was a groomsman, and William was the ring bearer, so we all had responsibilities to tend to throughout the day (although pretty much all William had to do was look cute, and of course he nailed it). Even though it was pretty busy, it couldn't have been a more perfect day, and we are soooo glad that these two finally made it official!

Sunday we were up bright and early (to the tune of 3:15 am) to drive to Sioux City to catch our flight to Chicago for the wedding of one of my close high school girlfriends. And as if the whole situation wasn't crazy enough, I was also the Maid of Honor. Thankfully, we had no issues with flights or public transportation, and I made it to the hotel in plenty of time to partake in all the pre-wedding festivities (which included getting my makeup professionally done--a must after the early morning we had!). Even though we were exhausted, the dance at this wedding seriously rocked and we stayed out on the floor until midnight--and I daresay we would have stayed longer if the DJ hadn't had to shut things down. I wish these two fools didn't live in London, but we couldn't be happier for them!

I do have some photos of us from the weddings (although right now they are all photo-booth photos because you're kidding yourself if you think we actually remembered to take our own camera out and take photos), but I'll post those tomorrow or next week so I don't completely overload this post. And maybe at some point I'll update things with my pregnancy, considering I'm almost at the halfway point (which--by the way--how is that possible?!?!?). Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!

The Craving Monster

(written July 9th)

It's officially happened. I've had a craving. A "I must eat those now or I will quite possibly be sick" craving. When I was pregnant with William I never really had any major cravings. I had foods that sounded good (and definitely foods that sounded bad), but nothing insatiable. The closest I think I ever came was wanting a Butterfinger one time--but that was mostly because I saw one, realized I hadn't had one in forever, and decided it sounded good (and when I mentioned that in an email to Darrell, he picked on up for me on his way home). But tonight? Tonight was different. It started the same as the Butterfinger story--I was reading an online article that casually mentioned a particular food item (that I probably haven't eaten for close to ten years), and I thought to myself "That sounds delicious". Then, when I read the article a second time (it was pretty funny so I read it out loud to Darrell), I got to the same reference and immediately had the food item ingrained in my brain. Ingrained in a "I may not be able to go to sleep tonight until I get that food in my belly" kind of way. So, at 9:00 at night, what did Darrell do? Head to the nearest DQ to fulfill my craving. Which--for the record--wasn't for ice cream (although the article DID mention ice cream). No, I sent my husband to Dairy Queen--less than an hour before bedtime--for a chili cheese dog. Yes. A totally unhealthy, probably super terrible for you chili cheese dog. And I can barely wait for him to get home. I may or may not have pulled up a picture from Dairy Queen's website to temporarily stave the monster off.

Update: Chili cheese dog has been consumed. And it was FANTASTIC. I probably could have eaten four more.

Update 2.0: So I've constantly been playing the comparison game between this pregnancy and my pregnancy with William, thinking that somehow I will be able to rationally deduce the sex based on the similarities and/or differences between the pregnancies. I was all set to chalk this craving up to a "difference" (and ergo a tally in the WEBS is a girl column), but then I remembered something. My grandpa died when I was about four months pregnant with William, and after the visitation a lot of the family went to the local bar to get some food and drinks. Since it was fairly late, most everyone just ordered an appetizer or two to share. Me? I ordered myself a Chili Cheese Burger (exactly what it sounds like--a cheese burger topped with chili) and polished the whole thing off. And it was delicious. Which I guess means that this craving is probably more of a similarity than a difference.... Chalk one up for WEBS being a boy. (Oh, by the way: WEBS=William Edsell's Baby Sibling).

Update 3.0: I've officially had more chili cheese dogs in this pregnancy than I've had in the last fifteen years combined. We're only talking like four or five, but considering I never used to eat them it's definitely a change. And I could definitely go for one again. Mmmm......

One More...

I did find one more photo from the beach that I just had to share... It's too important not to :-)

Coming in February!!