blowing rock 2012.

we had a snowy, relaxing good time in blowing rock over the long mlk weekend. may have been our favorite b.r. trip yet probably because sarah kate is two and so expressive. she's fun and is now able to tell us all about things that she was just loving while we were there.

she loved the snow.





she loved the "christmas house" which is what she called our cabin.


she loved helping trey build a snowman.




she loved making snow angels.


she loved going to boone for lunch and she loves loves loves giving her mommy and daddy kisses.

she loved going into the town of blowing rock for lunch.



she loved going to dinner at our fav restaurant in blowing rock...twigs.




she loved eating breakfast each morning in the christmas house (and i love her daddy for always cooking us breakfast on the weekends).


she loved her first cup of hot chocolate.


she does NOT love for me to touch her hair in the mornings...this is a real problem on school mornings. i had just put her hair in a ponytail in this pic and she was ticked even though i didn't even comb it out or anything...just tied it back...no big deal, sk!!!



she loves that her big brother gets to go on this trip with us each year (can't you feel the love?)


she loves being with her family so so much although she did think that jon-jon and his family should have joined us! she pretended that trey was jon-jon, i was ashley and she was ava/bryce for an entire day.

she loved watching her morning shows in her cozy pjs.

she did not want to say goodbye to her christmas house.

i hope she'll always love and look forward to our yearly trip to blowing rock. family vacations are so fun and i'm thankful for them and the memories that we are creating for our little family. next year will be a bit different with a 3 year old and a 5 month old, but a good kind of different. sk will be old enough to go snow tubing with trey and i look forward to baby hayes snuggles by the fire;)

on an entirely different and sad note, if anyone is reading this then please take time to pray for the rowland family. this is a folkston family that i grew up with - a family with 4 kids and the youngest (at 21 years) was just killed in an automobile accident. i'm so sad for this close-knit family. i know his siblings are devastated and i can't even imagine how his parents must feel - nobody wants their child to die ahead of themselves. that is something that i can't even bear to think about. folkston has actually had several tragedies lately - i always feel like when it rains it pours down there and of course the effects are felt through the whole town since it's such a small, close-knit community. anyway, i pray for peace for the rowland family especially during the next few really difficult days.

AND on a completely different note (although not uplifting - i should end with something uplifting!): i realized tonight that i never did a potty-training update after our week of training right after christmas. the short story is - sarah kate is back in diapers. the longer story is - although she did great with her frog potty and was using it very well and having minimal accidents, when i sent her to school the tuesday after our week of potty training she had 3 accidents (tinkle thank goodness) because she was terrified of the big people potty!! i didn't realize that this was the case when i sent her. so we had a HUGE set-back. i couldn't just say "okay sarah kate on tuesdays and thursdays you are going to wear diapers and go in your diaper since you hyperventilate when we put you on a big toilet, but the other days of the week you need to be potty trained and use the frog potty." SOOOO....i decided to put her back in diapers and train her again in about a month on the big potty. the good news is she is no longer afraid of the "big girl potty" here at home. i don't know what made the change, but she came to me one day last week and said she wanted to sit on the big girl potty (then she told me who all uses the big girl potty. papa - you use a big girl potty by the way). she wants to use it and no longer cries when she goes near it. but i'm still giving her time because she still hasn't showed any interest in using the one at school. so that's where we are at. actually worked out so nice for our trip! no stopping to potty. no stripping off 3 layers of clothes....so that's a silver lining. i love my little bug! she has always always always just done things in her own little way and own little time. she'll get it. ;)

"baby hayes".

at first trey and i were about 90% positive that we were going to call this baby "hayes" no matter the sex of the baby. now i guess we're 100% because sk calls him/her "baby hayes" anytime she talks about the baby. it has just really become the baby's name for sure!!

sk and her smoothie:


hayes is after my grandma hazel who i was so close to. if the baby is a boy (and i'm about 99.9% positive that it is) then his name will be thomas ernest lucy IV but we'll call him hayes. trey's not budging on the given name and i don't blame him since he is the only living lucy and would like to keep the tradition going. if the baby is a girl then her name will either be "mary hayes" or "mary hazel" but we'll call her hayes either way. mary is for my mom (rosemary). mary was her grandmother's name, too (my great grandma gowen who was my grandma hazel's mama!).

(we've been playing outside ALOT...glorious weather!)




so, all that being said about the name, i wanted to remember some things that sk has said about "baby hayes" lately.

sk: "mama, you see my smiling face?"
me: "i do! i love your smiling face, watcha smiling about?"
sk: "i love baby hayes!"
me: "that's so sweet sk, you do?"
sk: "yes. i do."
me: "and baby hayes loves sarah kate so much!"
sk: "yes. baby hayes loves sarah kate. ashley and jon-jon love sarah kate, too mama." (ha! just thinking about who else loves her i guess.)
melt my heart.

sk: "baby hayes is in my foot, mama."
me: "i thought baby hayes was in mommy's tummy."
sk: "no, he right here (pointing to the bottom of her foot)."
i have no idea where she came up with that one.

sk (with her hands on her cheeks and the most worried voice): "oh no mommy, we not have any bottles to feed baby hayes!"
me: "we'll get some!"
ha! she's a worrier.

sk: "baby hayes still not walking yet!!"
me: "no he's not. he's not even here yet."
sk: no he sure not.
(yes we refer to the baby as a "he")

me: "do you want a baby sister or baby brother"?
sk: "a man." (she has answered this question in all kinds of ways but saying she wants the baby to be a man is my favorite. typical...she loves the men in her life so much!)

that's all i can think of right now. she randomly brings up "baby hayes" each day. i wish i had started writing it down earlier. "baby hayes" has been in everybody's tummy, too. baby hayes is in my tummy, daddy's tummy, her tummy. baby hayes has been in mimi's tummy. my...ahem...chest has been poked at and been accused of being "baby hayes." when i told her that what she was poking was mommy's chest she said, "well that part of it anyway." ha!! she's got a point there.

sk loves her train now!!!! she rode it alot today.


beau is very concerned about the train.


all the pics that i posted above were taken with my new iphone! that's right....i finally gave in and decided to get with the times. i was due for an upgrade on the 26th of december so trey bought an iphone for me. i'm enjoying it!

on a completely unrelated note....2 things....number 1: i have been so sick with a sinus infection since last wednesday and i'm ready for it just to go away so i can sleep at night! i'm alright during the days when i'm standing up but as soon as i lay my head down my nose gets completely filled and i can't breathe. so annoying....can't remember the last time i've had any sort of cold and of course there's not much i can take for it.
number 2: we are headed on our 4th annual lucy family trip to blowing rock this friday. we've had such a mild winter and i don't think they've gotten any snow at all yet up there. we've never not had snow on the ground on our trip! our weekend temps look to be absolutely freezing....highs in the 30's and lows in the 20's....sunny so no snow. burrrrrrrr!!! we may be spending a snuggly weekend by the fire in our cabin! we'll see.

blowing rock 2009 (i was about 15 weeks pregnant. i'll be 13 weeks this trip.)


blowing rock 2010 (sarah kate was 6 months old!)


blowing rock 2011 (sarah kate - 18 months old.)




blowing rock 2012: coming soon!

first beach day of 2012.

digging

"look mama, i make snow angel"

soccer with daddy

lunch. and if this is the wrong way to eat a wrap then i don't want to be right.

kisses

kick!

fun!

and afterward at ila gray's first bday party....












nice little saturday;)

silly giggles.

sometimes when you're blowing bubbles.....

and you put your finger in your mouth then quickly pull it out while making a weird noise......like this...i know you can't hear it, but see how i have my finger in my mouth???


it is like, the most hilarious thing you'll ever do. seriously, it cracked.me.right.up.


let's see it again. finger in mouth.....


sometimes i get so tickled that i can barely make the noise that gets me...well...so tickled...


i mean, if there is anything funnier than this then i have yet to discover it....


i think at one point i almost fell forward i was laughing so hard....


and then wouldn't you know the very next second the giggles nearly threw me backward...


oh goodness, thank God for bubbles, for this spring like weather we're having today and for weird noises that i can make with my mouth using my pointer....






sarah katherine lucy - 2 and a half years old TODAY - has the silly giggles.

"All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other." ~August Wilson

2012: an extra special year for the lucys!!

this sweet little blessing is due to arrive around july 20th. about 2 weeks after we celebrate his/her big sister's third birthday!

we are beyond thrilled. we wanted this baby so much! we are excited about becoming a family of 4. (sk wore this shirt to tell both sets of grandparents.)



i am sure sk will be a little jealous at times, but i definitely think she is going to be an awesome big sis! she's excited about helping us feed the baby and change the baby. she does not want to be the big sis though...she said she wants to be the little sis. she also says that the baby is in her tummy, not in mine. she does NOT like for me to hold babies. she had a meltdown when i held our new baby cousin on christmas day. she has told me that she loves the baby. maybe by july she'll be okay with me holding the new baby. hmmmm......

the ultrasound pic above is from my 8 week appointment. trey and i were just as blown away by seeing this little bean and hearing the sweet little heartbeat as we were when we first saw/heard sarah kate! i had my 12 week appointment today and got to hear the heartbeat again. it's strong and fast....in the 160's. everything seems to be going well and all the first trimester nausea has begun to subside!

we can't wait for sk to have a sibling and can't wait to snuggle with our little bug!

i'm not going to be doing any weekly pregnancy posts about my progress. i've seen lots of people do that and i like reading it and all, but i'm not going to do it. i'll document some things along the way though.
for now....
some things to note or remember:
**we will be finding out the sex of the baby - that appointment will be around 20 weeks when i have my big anatomy scan which will probably be late feb. or very early march.
**i 100% think it's a little boy!! but here again, i thought sk was for sure a boy so what do i know.
**i feel the same as i did with sk. the only thing that has been different is my skin has been broken out with this one and wasn't at all with sk. today at my appointment my dr. prescribed me some safe meds to help with it. i may have felt a tiny bit more nauseous with sk and for a little longer.
**no cravings really. i'm a big fan of cheese! i'm having some aversions....peanut butter is the main one.
**my energy level is improving a little but not much. the dr. told me today that she tends to see the energy improve more between weeks 12 and 14 so hopefully i'll get a little "pep in my step" here soon. and we'll start exercising alot more soon too.
**we found out that we were expecting on november 8, 2011. it was quite early so i thought twins were a possibility since i knew my hormone levels were high. i was a little relieved to hear "there's only one" at the first ultrasound. i love twins, but i already have a toddler so just one at a time will work just fine for me!
**zofran was my friend at disney. it helped keep the nausea at bay so that i could enjoy the trip.
**i'm not really showing but my waistline is starting to change a little. i'm so excited about being pregnant at the exact same time that i was with sk! i can wear all my old maternity and "size up" clothes since the seasons will be the same. and if this baby is a girl then she's all set in the clothes department too.

mimi & papa gave baby #2 his/her first gown for christmas. just like they did for sk and this one is unisex like hers was, too.




so that is the number ONE thing we are looking forward to this year!! we feel so blessed! we will continue to pray for a smooth & uneventful pregnancy and a healthy baby.

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. -1Samuel 1:27