Here we go again...

Well, I think it's about time to break the news on the ol' blog.

We are expecting our third little one in early February 2011!
I am just a little over 12 weeks along now, and almost out of my first trimester (thank the Lord!!) These first few months have been pretty par for the course as far as my other pregnancies have gone...nausea (not much vomiting, just some dry-heaving, if you really wanted to know...), fatigue and weight gain. Somehow the third time around it's still hard to see my body go up on weight--and I seem to gain the bulk of my weight in the first trimester.

But, when we saw that sweet little baby moving and kicking on the ultrasound today, it made it all worth it. It really is amazing. I don't care how many times I've seen a baby on an ultrasound; it takes my breath away every time.

Here is the profile picture of the babe (head on the right, tummy in the middle, and little feet sticking out on the left.)

Here is the babe looking straight at us. (It looks a little alien-like right now...again, head on the right, belly on the left; two little arms in between.) What I love about this picture is that you can see his/her two little hands up by his/her face. He/she kept doing that the whole ultrasound.

And just for kicks, the nurse practitioner put on the 4D. Look at that sweet baby on its side! (This one up and down, head on top, body in the middle, leg and foot at the bottom.)

We decided to tell the kids tonight since everything looked ok today.

Joey's reaction was priceless. He looked at me and then at my belly with a look of awe on his face. Then he says, 'I can't believe you have a baby in your tummy!' (He's said that to me at least 5 times tonight already
He's already been very protective of me and my tummy---pretty cute.
He keeps telling me he loves me and the baby. Of course he wanted to know if it was a boy or girl and what the name was (maybe we will have to find out what gender this baby is so he will know what to call it!). He also wanted to know how that baby got in there and how it was going to get out. Hmmm...those were a little harder to answer. :)

Ring bearer

Joey was the ring bearer in Joe's cousin's wedding this past weekend.
He was quite the stud.

Here are Phylicia and Jud with their little people.

Joey took his job of walking down the aisle very seriously. He looked straight ahead the whole time, and had this same smile on his face the whole time.

I thought he was so handsome, and he did such a great job! He even stayed up on stage during the whole ceremony!

Kylah had quite the time dancing at the reception...in her mommy's shoes! :)

Joey and Kylah were out on the dance floor forever. They were so cute.
Joey even got to dance with an older girl. :)

We had a great time at the wedding, but I was quite exhausted after taking pictures all day. We headed home that night and had a nice relaxing Sunday at home together.

all things must end...

Well, we have had quite the non-busy week this week! Joey and Kylah have been staying with Joe's parents since last Friday. It's been so quiet here at the Manthe house.
The very first night they were gone, Joe and I went on a date...Olive Garden and a movie! It was great. I don't think we've been to a movie in at least a year or two. Joe even brought flowers for me!

The rest of the week we have been just hanging out. It's amazing how long our evenings seem. I've had two days off this week, and I spent them sleeping in, reading, and watching a lot of TLC. :)
We have Skyped with the kids a few times, and they seem as happy as can be hanging out at Nana and Grandpa's. Hopefully they will be happy to come home with us! :)
We are heading to Joe's parents after Joe gets off of work today.
We have definitely enjoyed our week off from parenting, but we are quite excited to see our kiddos. I miss the kisses and hugs the most!

Weekend with the Nunamaker's

This past weekend we met our good friends, Greg and Amy, and their kids Logan and Olivia in Kansas for the weekend.

Joe's parents let us bombard their house for the meet up.

It was a fun and relaxing weekend together. The kids had such a fun time playing together, and it was so good to reconnect with Amy and Greg!

We got there on Friday night, so the kids didn't really go to bed until 10 that night. But, that didn't stop them from getting up bright and early (like before 7!!!) on Saturday morning to start playing again.

Mid-morning we all headed outside to the pool and playground (yep, Joe's parents have an awesome set up at their house!) where we proceeded to pretty much spend the rest of the day.

The kids enjoyed popsicles. (You'll notice this first picture is a little blurry. That's not my focus...that's my lens fogging over because of the humidity outside!)

Amy and I got to just sit and relax and chat while the kids played. So fun!


The kids running from...

Joe spraying the hose at them! They loved this game, and I think Joe had an absolute blast just blasting the kids with the water!

Logan and Joey kept seeing rainbows in the water stream, so they were pretty excited about that.


Gotta love that chubby little 2 year old!

The kids are trying to escape up in the playhouse. But, Joe could reach them even there! Don't you love the little stair steps they make with their different heights?!

Logan and Joey jumping into the pool together. Joe rigged up a pretty cool platform for them all to jump off of, and they went to town.

And then someone had the bright idea of making Simba go down the slide (there was a little kiddie pool at the bottom of the slide.) But I won't name any names...joe... Joey was obviously pretty torn up about seeing his dog tortured in this way. You can tell by the huge SMILE on his face!!

And then all the kids got to help Joe give Simba a bath in the nasty pool water at the end of the day. They thought that was pretty cool. And then it was inside for them to have baths as well!

Kylah loved dressing up with all the beads. What a little girlie-girl! I love it!

So, apparently I didn't take many other pictures besides when we were outside playing in the pool.

We had an awesome dinner on the grill that night.

And then, the kids went to bed early, and the four of us adults got to sneak out of the house for a little bit. We had a scrumptious dessert! It was good to be able to have some adult time alone. So nice to have grandparents willing to monitor the sleeping children for us!

On Sunday we let the kids play for a while at the house, and then we took them to McDonald's to play for a while (we decided we wanted to stay in the air conditioning!), walked around at the Legends and ate at Chipotle! We don't have Chipotle here in Arkansas, so that's always a fun treat for Joe and me!

It was a quick, but super fun weekend with some great friends!

Now I have to get the kids' suitcase packed again because they leave tomorrow for a week alone at Grandpa and Nana's house! Yep, that's right, a whole week for Joe and I sans kids. On my agenda: sleep, sleep, sleep, maybe read a book, and sleep some more. Love it!

Jake and Katie time

Alright, I need to pick up the pace...I'm getting a little behind in blogging.

Last weekend Jake and Katie came to visit us! It was a fun and relaxing time with them.

They brought their new puppy, Red, with them. Joey and Kylah loved him (sorry Simba!)

Kylah giving Uncle Jake a kiss.

Joey loves his Uncle Jake.

And he especially loves his Aunt Katie!

The kids enjoyed some wrestling time with daddy on Sunday.

Thanks for coming to see us Jake and Katie! We really enjoyed our time with you!

To the doctor

Well, the kids finally saw their new doctor here in Arkansas for their yearly check-ups.

I do love our new doctor Dr. Keever (I actually met him because he took care of Matty when he was in the hospital with meningitis, and I was impressed with his care and bedside manner).

Anyway, the kids loved him too!

Joey was a little nervous going in to the appointment because he thought for sure the doctor was going to put things in his ears and swab his throat (all things I have done to him). After multiple---like hundreds---of reassurances, Joey was ready to go.

Nurse Terri checked us in. She checked all of Joey's and Kylah's vital statistics, and then took Joey's blood pressure. Joey thought that was pretty cool! Then she asked if Joey could pee in a cup. Nothing tells you your little boy is getting older like them having to pee in a cup at the doctor. Well, Joey actually thought this was pretty cool, so he was ready to go try that right away.

Success!

Dr. Keever came in, and Joey starts chatting it up with him right away.

The doctor looked up from the chart and at me at one point and says "well, I guess we don't have any language issues here, do we?" :) Nope, not my Joey!

Kylah slowly warmed up to him. After poking his stomach a few times (I have no clue...) she started chatting with him as well. She was quite the cooperative patient for the doctor!

Both kids got clean bills of health and no shots, yay!

Here are their stats:

JOEY

Height: 42.5 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 37 pounds (60th percentile)

KYLAH

Height: 35 inches (60th percentile)

Weight: 30 pounds (75th percentile)

So, to sum up, Joey's built like his daddy, and Kylah's built like her mommy! I'm still holding out hope that Kylah will get a few more inches on her than her mommy did!

4th of July

Ok, I know, I know, it took me forever to load up all my pictures from our 4th of July weekend. We were pretty exhausted when we got home. It was a full, fun, family weekend.

We started the long trek to Ohio from Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon after getting off work a little early. We made it to Terra Haute, Indiana that night and slept in a hotel. The kids did great in the car (until the last 30 minutes when they woke up and were overly tired...). The activity bags from Christine were a hit...thanks Chris!!
We woke up on Thursday morning, drove the rest of the way, and made it to my parents around noon. It was nice to break up the drive.

Of course, mom had fun toys for the kids to play with right away.

Joey got to go golfing with the guys on Thursday. He played an entire 18 holes with them. From what I heard, he did great, but got pretty tired the last 5 holes. While golfing, he somehow uttered the phrase, 'take off your skirt, Uncle Andy.' I'm pretty sure daddy told him to say that!

We loved getting to see baby Luca (Andy and Kelly's new baby boy) so soon after he was born. Kylah loved on him as much as possible.

Uncle Aaron got a little cuddle time with Luca.

The older Joey and Michael get, the better they play together. It's so fun to see them together.

Auntie G reads Kylah a book. Kylah knew all of her aunts and uncles names...pretty impressive!

What a sweet little boy!

Papa baking cookies with the kids (and talking them into taking a bath while they were cooking...)

Kylah is loving this baby stuff! We do have to watch her pretty closely because she's at that age where when she's done, she'll just start pushing the baby off her lap!

Joey found some Husker helmets (actually chip bowls) for him and Michael to wear to play football.

Kylah gets in on the action.

The kids are playing those fun 4th of July popping things (you know, the ones you throw on the ground and they pop?) with Papa. This is a small view of my parents' back yard. I love their backyard. This is their deck, and then at the end of the deck is a big fire pit. Off to the side is a nice hot tub. And then they have a huge flat yard as well. They've done awesome on the landscaping too!

I award Esther the "Best Marshmallow Roaster" award! Seriously, she has so much patience, and they are awesome!

Kylah thoroughly enjoyed her Smore!

What a cute little mess.

Joey enjoyed his too. He remembered smores and lightning bugs from our trip here last summer, and that's all he could talk about!

Me and dad!

Joey loved baby Luca too.

Papa got out his 'Rock 'em Sock 'em Robot' game for the kids. They loved it!

We had so much fun on our 4th of July get together with my family. I should have gotten a group shot of everyone! Joey got to enjoy his first big fireworks show on the 4th of July. He was in awe! I did have to cover his ears for him, but once we got that figured out, he was good to go. His favorite one was 'the green one.' Go figure! :)

Thanks for a great weekend Mom and Dad!