We have a date!!!!

Baby C will be "officially" joining our family July 1st... that is of course if she doesn't decide to arrive early. Everything is looking great with baby and that's what is important!!! Mommy on the other hand has been pretty emotional lately, and just feeling downright overwhelmed with life in general. Our family is going through a pretty difficult and stressful time within our "extended" family and we could definitely use some good thoughts and prayers. We all have faith that we will get through it all. To those of you who have been actively praying for us... THANK YOU!!!! Your thoughts and prayers mean the world to us!!!!

It's so weird for me to think that Baby C will be here in 10 weeks!!! OMG (oh my goodness) where oh where has the time gone??? Big C and Little C are doing well and are looking forward to having mama home everyday... (so is mama)... and the best part is that it's less than 4 weeks away!!! That's right... as of May 9 I will officially be a stay at home mama. I'm hoping to get a lot of things accomplished before Baby C gets here... hopefully some energy comes knocking on my door once I'm not working full time.

Well... I could probably go on and on... but this mama is ready to put her big old swollen feet up and catch up on some TV... until I head off to LaLa Land :)

Adventure's with the wind...

Over Spring Break we took the girls out behind Jon's parents to fly a kite... it was A LOT of fun. I'm not sure who had more fun though... Claudia or Daddy... LOL!!!

Daddy's 30th Birthday!!!

Daddy turned the big 3-0 on April 5. We went to g-ma & g-pa's for lunch. G-ma made Prime Rib... it was YUMMY!!! We all enjoyed celebrating daddy's special day!!!

~ Constance LOVED daddy's new boots ~

~ Claudia had a blast coloring daddy pictures ~

~ The Van Dyke's ~

Never a dull moment...

Our life has been pretty interesting the last few months and things just continue to, do I dare say, overwhelm me. There is seriously never a dull moment for us. Today while Jon was unloading a load of wood at our house he ended up getting his finger stuck under his dump box on the back of his truck... yeah... can you all say OUCH!!! It was bad enough that we both felt like he needed to have it checked out. Well, it turns out that he indeed did break his finger, pretty much the tip of the bone just cracked right off... and then pushed through breaking his skin... yeah... again... OUCH and YUCK!!!! Unfortunately there's not much they can do for him, but they did splint the finger and that definitely helps with the pain. Even though he is in a lot of pain we are SO thankful it wasn't worse... if he wouldn't have had his gloves on he would have definitely lost his finger. Thank goodness that didn't happen.

After spending 3 hours at the lab yesterday and then the morning at Prime Care I am hoping and praying that our next visit to a "hospital setting" is in June when Baby C is joining our family. We could definitely use a few "boring" months :)

YAHOO!!!

Well today was the dreaded 3 hour Glucose Test and I can thankfully say that I passed with flying colors!!! I am SO excited to know that I don't have to worry about that right now... all I can say is PHEW!!!

The girls are doing well. Little C is getting some more molars and is nothing but drool. Big C I swear is getting taller by the minute. She is tall and thin... she definitely does NOT get that from me... LOL!!! We are all getting Spring Fever and are anxious to get outside and get some fresh air... to bad the weather isn't supposed to be great this weekend. Next week is my last week of work and then I'm on Spring Break for a week. I am really looking forward to spending some time home with the girls and my fingers are definitely crossed for some good weather!!! Jon is still busy at the hotel, in fact this week he's been called back in twice (can't say I always enjoy him being "on-call", but can't do much about that)... I'm sure with Tulip Time quickly approaching he's going to be spending a lot more time at the hotel... oh well it's all part of the job.

Baby C update...

I had another appointment today. At this appointment I had to drink the lovely orange drink to test for Gestational Diabetes. Once again I didn't pass the test... I'm so bummed and ticked because now I have to have the 3 hour test and have to waste an entire morning, not to mention feel yuck... I really could just cry about it. The thing that gets me is that the test result has to be 140 or under and mine was 143, so it's not like I failed it bad, but still it's over so I have to do the next tests. I remember doing it with Constance and really didn't enjoy myself at all... oh well... could be worse.

Baby C on the other hand is doing GREAT!!! She's measuring a little big, but that doesn't surprise me at all. Her heart rate was awesome... the "whosh whosh" sound came in loud and clear today :)

Other than that... not to much new going on here.

Growing up too fast...

Since Baby C will be joining us in a few short months it was time to start looking at bunk beds for the big girls. Big C and Little C will be bunking up together until the new baby is ready to share a room with Little C. G-ma Rozema took us girls out shopping on Saturday and we found the perfect bunk beds... not to mention g-ma worked her magic and got an AWESOME deal!!! This afternoon daddy worked hard and put them all together. The girls couldn't wait to play on them... and of course I had the camera ready :)

Here's the new bed... I just LOVE it... although I have to admit, making the top bunk is not the easiest thing in the world.

Claudia LOVED the fact that she could touch the ceiling...

she was a little nervous about sleeping so high up tonight...

but as I type she is fast asleep...

fingers crossed she stays that way!!!

We're waiting to move Little C in yet...

but I think when the time does come she'll go just fine!!!

Constance not only loved the new beds...

but she loved the boxes they came in!!!

Baby C Update...

Baby C is growing perfectly!!! We are SO blessed!!! Last week we received a call from my doctor, she wanted to have me come in for a 2nd ultrasound to check the 4 chambers of her heart. Baby C was in breech position at my 1st ultrasound and the tech had a difficult time getting good pics of the heart. We were scared and stressed that something could be wrong, but God is good and after seeing our little beauty today we know that everything is looking great!!! All 4 chambers of her heart were right where they needed to be and it was busy beating away. She already looks so much bigger than she was 2 weeks ago... it's absolutely amazing how much they grow in a few short weeks. The tech also did another quick check of "the goods", and she is definitely ALL girl... there was nothing hiding out in there. She's just perfect!!!

Here's some new pics of our newest addition... we are head over heels in love!!!

Guess who...

used the big girl toilet today!?!?!

That's right... Constance did!!! She wanted to sit on the toilet the other day so of course we put her right up there. She was so cute... you could see her pushing. She pushed so hard she actually tooted and was quite proud of herself. Well today Big C went to the bathroom at g-ma's so we thought we'd get Little C up there too. She sits there and toots... we clapped and made a big deal of it. Then she starts pushing more and the next thing we know... she actually is going to the bathroom!!! We were SO excited for her... it was great. I'm definitely not holding my breathe that this is going to stick, I'm sure we have a LONG time before she's "trained"... but hey it's a first and I'm definitely going to relish in my proud mama moment :)

It's a GIRL!!!!!

Today was the BIG day!!! We were SO excited, I don't think either of us slept last night. Baby C was not too thrilled about having her picture taken today... but the ultrasound tech was able to get all the measurements she needed and everything looks GREAT!!! Baby C is perfect and VERY flexible. For most of the ultrasound Baby C had her little legs and feet up by her head... she's going to be our little gymnast. As for the pictures... they aren't great, but that will change in a hurry once she actually gets here :)

Here she is...

And for your added enjoyment... here's the latest belly picture...

Feeling the LOVE...

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, and what a better way to capture the moment than an evening at the studio with friends. We had so much fun, of course once we actually got there. A HUGE thank you to Michelle for getting the studio, can't wait to see the pics she took (we let her be in charge of the "good" camera), but here's some of the shots that I was able to get... keep watching because there will be more to come, but this is all I had time to edit.

Like I said it was a great time once we were there, but it was not an easy journey getting there. On the way to the studio my Tie Rod in the van went out... yeah... that was NOT fun!!! Thankfully 2 nice guys helped push the van out of the road... but definitely added some stress to my day... not like I don't have enough of that in my life right now. Needless to say there were NO pics taken of this mama... the tears washed all my makeup off... but that's alright... the kids are what is really important... so ENJOY :)

Baby C Update...

Today I went in for my 16 week appointment. It was a tough afternoon. At my OB appointment my doctor couldn't find a heart beat with the doppler... thankfully everything is OKAY though!!! Here's how the appointment went...

I get to my appointment and my doc is in surgery so they had to push my appointment back an hour. Thankfully my g-ma had Little C, I tried getting Big C to stay with her too, but she was set on hearing the heart beat, so she tagged along with me. So Big C and I run to Target to kill some time. I get back to the office and the doc just called and is on her way from the hospital. So we wait, we finally get called back and then we wait some more. Big C definitely kept me entertained during the wait. So she finally comes in and seriously tries for what seemed like 10 minutes to find the heart beat, meanwhile inside I'm beginning to panic. She finally decides to do an U/S, however there is someone else in the U/S room, so back out to the waiting room to wait. At this point I just want to bawl, but I held it together because I didn't want Big C to freak out... instead Big C sat there asking me a billion and one questions... she would NOT stop... and at the time was driving me CRAZY!!! All I could think about was that I lost the baby... it was horrible. Finally I get called back and my doc comes in. As soon as she put the wand on my belly I could see the baby, the next thing I saw was the heart beating away... and the baby trying to actually eat something. It was such a HUGE relief, not to mention cute the way the baby was chomping away in there. Baby is hiding out towards my back and really low in my uterus which is also tipped, so that is why my doc was having so much trouble. Little stinker... it must be a boy... LOL!!! My doc was super busy, so she didn't really spend a lot of time poking around to "see" things, so at this point this baby is still a surprise, but we will definitely be finding out on Feb. 18!!!

Words cannot even begin to express how happy I am that everything is okay. I know this baby was a total surprise to us, but today made me realize something... this baby is and always will be a part of our family... amazing how I can be so in love with someone that I've never even met before... God is GOOD!!!!

Winter Swimming?!?!

That's right... winter swimming!!! We get to go swimming anytime we want at the hotel, that is of course as long it's not busy at the hotel :) It wasn't busy last night so we dusted of the lifejackets, bundled up the girls, and headed to the pool. It was SO much fun!!! All of us enjoyed the 85 degree water, and the best part was we had the pool all to ourselves.

15 week belly...

I'm definitely growing :)