Christmas 2009

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did and enjoyed spending time with many family members. Tyler thoroughly enjoyed all of our Christmas festivities. Ben was off all last week (except Monday) and only worked Tuesday and Wednesday of this week so Tyler and I are loving all of our time with Daddy!

This is how we celebrated Christmas this year:

Lucinda and her boyfriend, Trey, came over to see us on Saturday the 19th before she flew out to spend Christmas in Phoenix. Tyler just loves his Aunt Lulu!! He really enjoys spending time with Lulu and sometimes "calls" her on his play phone when she isn't here ;-). Tyler even gave Trey a goodbye kiss all on his own as they walked out the door!

One of my best friends, Heather, was in town visiting her parents so we got together a couple of times. We met for dinner and a movie one evening and Heather came over to our house another afternoon so she could spend some time with Erin too. Erin & Bo stayed with us on the 22nd & 23rd. For those of you who don't know, Heather introduced Ben & I our freshman year at Clemson. Heather and Erin were close childhood friends, living in the same neighborhood and being only one grade apart in school. I lived next door to Heather in our freshman dorms and one day she introduced me to Ben - isn't it amazing how God's plans are so perfect!

As I previously mentioned, Erin & Bo stayed with us on my birthday and the 23rd. We enjoyed their company and had lots of good conversation. We ordered in Japanese food for my birthday because I was feeling a little tired and didn't care to go out for dinner. Bo retired early since he had gotten up quite early that morning and Ben, Erin, and I made white chocolate covered peanut butter balls until 11 pm that evening. Heather came over on the 23rd and spent several hours with us. Then, we went to church for our Christmas Eve service. It was a nice service and we were glad that Erin & Bo were there with us.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Greenville for the annual Gaines Family Christmas party. We all met at Ashli's house this year. We had some yummy food, exchanged gifts, and visited with everyone. We came home that evening and got all the Santa stuff ready and prepped for Christmas day!

Tyler woke up around 8 am on Christmas morning. We had all his Santa stuff set up in the family room by the fireplace so he could play with all those toys before delving into the wrapped gifts under the tree in the dining room. Tyler played with his Santa stuff all morning. After his nap we started with the wrapped gifts and we finally finished unwrapping around 6:30 pm. We had to space the gifts apart so he wouldn't get overwhelmed. We decided to stay home this Christmas and loved being able to relax and go at our own pace. For dinner I made a ham, homemade mac & cheese, glazed carrots, sugar snap peas, cranberry bread, several desserts and appetizers. Tyler played basketball all day and was exhausted by bedtime.

We went to Greenwood on Saturday the 26th to visit with my parents and Trent, Shauna, & Kaleb. Mom had planned to make a nice family dinner, but she developed pink eye, what seemed like overnight, so we all went to Outback instead....which is always good with us! After an early dinner, we all exchanged gifts and watched the boys play together with all their new toys. Enjoy the pictures!

Here's a peak at Tyler's unwrapping skills....he's a pro now

our family Christmas picture


Tyler showing Aunt Lulu some of his favorite ornaments


Aunt Erin & Uncle Bo spent a couple days with us!

look at the excitement on Tyler's face!

(Christmas with all the Gaines family in Greenville)

he had lots of fun with the paper too

this is what Santa brought for Tyler
(he wasn't too interested in his wrapped gifts from Mommy & Daddy b/c he was too busy shooting hoops all day ;-)

the basketball goal was his favorite gift hands down

our nice stockings that Erin made for us this year

Christmas morning

showing Tyler how he's going to cut his hair with the new clippers

he LOVES "singing" in the microphone of the "Jammin Band" from Aunt Sue & Uncle Jason

posing for Mommy

he had so much fun on the bike from Nana & Papa

Tyler and Kaleb playing together

Ben with the boys

Guess What??

(he's so excited)

(but still reminds us that he's #1 ;-)

Tyler is going to be a BIG brother!!!!

We are thrilled to announce that Baby J #2 is on the way! Our due date is June 28th so I’m currently 11 weeks along and will turn 12 weeks on Monday. We’ve known about the baby from the start, but wanted to wait a little while before announcing it. My original due date was June 24th, but the baby measured 4 days younger in my first ultrasound. This was too funny because Tyler measured exactly 4 days younger in his 1st ultrasound, but they let me keep my original due date with him for some reason. We all know just how well Tyler grew in utero and they suspect this baby will be even bigger since he/she could be in there slightly longer and most babies get bigger with each subsequent pregnancy. With this knowledge, the OBs tentatively have us scheduled for a c-section delivery 1 week early on June 21st. It is really cool though that Baby J #2’s due date is June 28th because that was Kaleb’s due date too. How amazing is it that 2 sisters have the same due date for 2 out of 3 babies?! Tyler and the baby will be 2 years and almost 2 months apart in age!

This pregnancy has been completely different from my pregnancy with Tyler!! I have been so sick and nauseous, and with Tyler, I was only sick 1 time the entire pregnancy and hardly experienced any nausea. I have very strong food aversions this time and cannot eat meat. One week the morning sickness was so bad that I could only eat chicken noodle soup, saltines, and bananas. I have drank gallons of ginger ale and tried to eat many ginger snaps because ginger is supposed to help. I feel much more tired, emotional, and moody this time too. I know that the 1st trimester is almost over and it will all be more than worth it when our precious baby arrives! Ben has been very supportive too and gone out of his way to try to make me more comfortable so we can focus on the amazing miracle growing in my tummy. One thing that is the same as with Tyler though – my quickly expanding waistline! I am already wearing maternity pants, and started at 8 weeks. I don’t necessarily need “maternity” yet, but my pants are way too small and I didn’t see the point in buying larger sized pants when I can wear the maternity clothes I already have. I’m definitely showing now. I’m so excited about expanding our family and having a newborn again. I think we both miss some of the newborn experiences and will be more prepared with this baby since we will be veterans this time ;-).

Ok…ok….so we’ve already been asked if we want a boy or girl for our 2nd baby many times and the initial and basic answer is very easy – we want a healthy baby first and foremost! I am indifferent this time around because I think there are many pros to having either gender! For example, I think Tyler would like to have a brother to play sports with and go do guy stuff together. Plus, we already have lots of boy stuff! Then, on the other hand I think it’d be neat to experience raising a girl and think that Tyler would be a protective big brother to his little sister. Now, if you ask Ben the same question he’ll immediately shout that he wants a little girl!!! If you ask him, he’ll tell you that we are in fact having a girl and that her name is Taylor. He even asked me to start buying Tyler more gender neutral clothes so that they can be hand-me-downs for “Taylor”. So, after the most important answer of having a healthy baby I guess I’d have to lean towards a girl for my husband’s sake. Honestly, I know he’s half joking and would be very happy with another little boy, but then the other half doesn’t want to see his reaction when we go in for our anatomy ultrasound at 20 weeks and they tell us it’s a boy…..ha ha ha! Oh, and I asked Ben if he wanted to keep the name a secret again (since it was more his idea with Tyler) and he said………we could probably go ahead and announce it ahead of time with Baby J #2!

I had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday and got a good report. So far all my blood tests have come back with good results. My blood pressure, weight, and thyroid are all good, and the baby seems to be doing very well. The baby’s heart rate ranged from 156-167 bpm when we listened to it for the first time Wednesday. Dr. Hood said, “sounds beautiful and like a girl”. There is an old wives’ tale that suggests a baby’s heart rate can indicate gender….it says 140 bpm and above is a girl, and below 140 bpm is a boy. This tale isn’t accurate and is just for fun. Tyler’s heart rate was usually high and never got below 150 bpm (and he’s definitely all boy).

So there ya go……we are happily expecting baby #2 and Tyler is going to be a BIG brother!!

He Loves It!!

Tyler loves, loves, loves our Christmas tree! We have it set up in the dining room, as usual, which is gated off so Tyler can't get to the tree by himself. We make many trips over the gate to visit our tree every day. Tyler repeats "tree" and holds his arms up in the air for me to pick him up when he wants to go see it. Tyler has been very gentle with the ornaments so far....most likely because every time he reaches toward the tree we say "gentle...be careful". We also made sure to put all our breakable and most special ornaments on the top of the tree.

Tyler has already picked out all his favorite ornaments. He has learned the names of 14 ornaments so far and proudly says each ornament's name as he points it out to us. His favorites to say are "candy cane" & "mouse", then "santa", "snowman" & "shoes" come in as close seconds! It is so entertaining to listen to Tyler talk to the tree and do his ohhhs and ahhhhs as he points to all the pretty ornaments. We are so excited to see his reactions to all his toys from Santa on Christmas morning!!

Christmas Tree!

Here's a couple pictures of our Christmas tree. Isn't it so pretty?! I love looking at it all lit up when it's dark. Tyler and Chloe really like it too.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday and hope that you did too! We went down to my parents' house, in Greenwood, on Wed. afternoon and spent the night. My mom's sister's family also joined us which was nice since we hadn't seen them in a long time. Tyler had a good time playing with his big cousin, Kaleb! On Thursday we ate a delicious dinner together and then drove to Ben's brother's home, in Anderson, later that evening to have pie with all Ben's siblings. It was good too see so many of our family members! I just realized that I don't have a single picture with Aunt Sue because she was in the kitchen cooking the whole morning....sorry Aunt Sue!

Kaleb & Uncle Trent posed with Daddy & Tyler

Uncle Jason & Nana

Our cousin Derek & Aunt Shauna

Uncle Jason & Papa

shopping for groceries

our cousin Corey

Kaleb

having lots of fun out on the deck

Doctor's Office Fun

It's been awhile since my last post and even longer since I posted a picture...so here ya go!

Recently I went to see my endocrinologist for a routine thyroid level check. Thankfully, it's been in the normal range for the last 6 months!! This is great news to me since it took over a year for them to get my levels back in the normal range after Tyler's birth. Anyway, Tyler was quite the social one at our visit! It all started when we walked in and he insisted on telling everyone in the waiting room "hi" one by one. Soon after we were seated someone was called back by a nurse and of course Tyler just had to tell them " bye-bye". He did this every time someone's name was called. He would wave his hand and say "bye-bye" until they did it back. Also, he felt compelled to tell everyone that walked into the office after us "hi". Pretty soon everyone in the waiting room knew what to expect anytime someone entered or exited the room, and luckily everyone seemed to find it amusing and not annoying. To top it off.....Tyler also decided to play peek-a-boo with several people in the waiting room. When Tyler plays peek-a-boo he says "see you" instead of "peek-a-boo" so he'd crane his neck around his stroller and find someone to play with. He'd cover his eyes and then throw his hands in the air and say "see you" really loud. Luckily there was an older lady who really liked Tyler and she played along. Then Tyler chose a young man to play with and he wasn't as interested. His remark to Tyler's "see you" was "yes, I'm still here"....lol.

Finally, we get called back and Tyler greets the nurse with a warm "hi" and lots of waving. She immediately asks how old he is and proceeds to tell me she has a 15 month old so I knew she would be a fun nurse for Tyler. Tyler must have picked up on this too because he decided to show her his body parts. His favorite new body part to say is elbow. So he repeately said "elbow" and pointed it out until she reacted. Unfortunately for Tyler she was taking my pulse so he had to say it a good 5 times before he was acknowledged. Tyler talked her ears off for several minutes and then we went into a room. The nurse couldn't believe how well Tyler communicated - she thought he was advanced for his age. Surprisingly, when the dr. came in he was quiet and we were out of there in no time. So, it turned out to be a fun and entertaining trip for me (and Tyler too).

New Tricks

[*Disclaimer: this blog was written by a very proud mother!]

The newest additions to Tyler's vocabulary are: purple, "Deeder", Bible, wheel, and five. Ok...so I know I need to explain Deeder and probably wheel too. Deeder is what Tyler calls himself - it's how he pronounces Tyler! Anytime he sees a picture of himself or we point to him and say "who's that" he proudly says "Deeder". Tyler's favorite tv show is "Wheel of Fortune" and whenever it comes on he yells out "wheel" over and over. He also claps every time the audience does....he's hooked! Tyler is learning his colors and numbers and so far he likes to say purple and five the best. When he says "five", he holds out all his fingers to show us how many fingers equal 5. He also can identify the colors purple, blue, and green best. When we ask him to show us one of those colors he usually comes back with the correct color block.

Tyler enjoys playing hide and seek. He always picks the same hiding spots, but we act surprised to find him in his spot every time. Tyler is still doing the "Your Baby Can Read" program, which he loves. It's amazing how many words he can read now. I've lost count it's so many. Tyler has learned to recognize the Clemson tiger paw. When he sees it he is quick to point it out to us. We don't think he understands exactly what it is, but he knows it's important....so we're on the right track!

Sunday Afternoon Trip

We decided to take a little trip on Sunday afternoon. We went to Stumphouse Tunnel, Issaqueena Falls, and the Walhalla State Fish Hatchery. We enjoyed seeing all the beautiful colors of the leaves during our scenic drive. Stumphouse Tunnel was originally started to connect Charleston to Knoxville, but it was never completed. Clemson University bought the tunnel in 1951 and used it to cure their famous blue cheese. The University doesn't age their cheese there anymore, but they still own the tunnel. One interesting fact about the Walhalla hatchery is it's the only state hatchery that cultures trout. They raise brown, brook, and rainbow trout for stocking SC public waters. Tyler loved watching the fish swim!!

beautiful view overlooking Oconee County

Issaqueena Falls

inside the tunnel

Walhalla State Fish Hatchery

nice trout!

Homecoming & Halloween

Clemson's homecoming fell on Halloween this year! Clemson easily defeated Coastal Carolina (49-3), as expected. Unfortunately, we had yet another rainy game so we left at halftime since the game was already won. After the game we got ready for some trick or treating.

got a picture with The Tiger

giving out candy

Downtown Trick or Treat

On Thursday evening we met Lucinda in downtown Clemson for the annual "Downtown Trick or Treat". All the shops on College Ave. gave out candy. Tyler went dressed up as Scooby Doo. He loves dogs so we thought it was fitting. Afterwards we all had dinner at Moe's.....yummm!

cutest Scooby Doo!

getting some candy at Hallmark

Aunt Lulu giving Scooby some water