Abigail is now ONE and another baby on the way!

Pic from Abigail's 1st birthday shoot!

Will post more once I get them back from the photographer!

WOW, this year has just flown by!!! I can't believe our baby is already ONE! A little update since I haven't been updating my blog lately and keeping up with Abby's milestones... at 10 months Abigail took her first steps and at 11 months she started walking! Also at 10 months, Abigail finally sprouted some teeth! Her 2 bottom teeth to be exact. :) Now she has her 2 top teeth coming in too. SO cute! I'm proud to say Abigail was solely on breastmilk her first 12 months of life. Just in the past week, we've started introducing whole milk by mixing it in with the breastmilk. I'm happy I could give her the gift of breastmilk for these past 12 months, but I'm also excited to stop pumping soon so I can have a little break and feel somewhat normal again before the next baby comes! It's really been a sacrifice, but I'm happy I could give her that gift that only I could give. Anyway, these days Abigail can say hi, dada/daddy, mama/mommy, papa and even Abby! She nods her head yes and no (not appropriately but still cute!) and has the cutest grin where she shows off her top teeth and scrunches her nose! She's a little daredevil too... loves to be thrown in the air, pushed fast in her toy car and held upside down (only for a few seconds of course! lol). Her and Jasper (our dog) get along great too. He is so gentle with her, but sometimes he can get overly excited and knocks her over unknowingly or whips her in the face with his wagging tail lol.

So Jim and I have had it set in our minds that we would start trying for another baby once Abigail turned 1. But as that day approached, I started having second thoughts. Jim didn't, but he wasn't the one who had to be pregnant for 9 months! Hah. We prayed about it and I came back around, trusting it would happen in God's timing anyway if we started trying now or later. I haven't had a period since before I got pregnant with Abigail since I have been breastfeeding this whole time, so Jim thought I couldn't get pregnant yet, but my nursing side knew it was still possible. Maybe less likely, but definitely possible. Lo and behold, the first pregnancy test I took said POSITIVE! It's crazy how quickly we get pregnant! With Abigail, I finished taking birth control at the end of July 2012 and by August 2012 we were pregnant! If anyone reads this, please keep us in your prayers! Please pray for a safe pregnancy and healthy baby! Oh, and we'll definitely need the prayers once we have 2 kids under 2! Ahh! We are so excited of course, but I am also very nervous... our babies will only be 20 months apart! I know life is going to get so much crazier and we'll be even more sleep deprived, but hey that's being a parent, right? So happy to get into our new home now, so we definitely have the room for another little one! We have an appointment with our OB tomorrow... 1st ultrasound. Well, they actually did a quick scan last week, but said it was still too early on to see anything. Tomorrow hopefully we will be able to see something. :)

Dream house is now our HOME!

I haven't written a post since January! We've been busy! We just moved into our dream home a few weeks ago and are still getting settled in. I LOVE our new neighborhood so much! Marley Park is a master-planned community by DMB, just like their other master-planned conmmunities such as Power Ranch (Gilbert), Verrado (Buckeye) and DC Ranch (Scottsdale) just to name a few in the valley. You know how neighbors for the most part (sadly) aren't that neighborly anymore? Nobody knows their neighbors anymore (although we made a conscious effort to in our last home and of course will in this home), well Marley Park was made with a community-centered atmosphere and everyone is super friendly! There are awesome parks (called Marley Park because of the 14+ themed parks throughout the neighborhood), great clubhouse and poolhouse! There are also fun events throughout the year for the residents. :) We got in at an awesome time too! Since signing the paperwork on our home, home prices for the same models have already gone up at least $13,000! The 303 freeway is almost done (which will make getting to work so much easier) and there are future plans (2+ years away) for a mall just a mile down! We love living in Surprise!!!  Wer are now within WALKING distance from our church, which is awesome. We are only 2 miles from the Surprise spring training baseball field, Surprise Regional Library and Surprise Community Park (we can totally ride our bikes there)! We are only 5 miles away from Bell Road which literally has every store we could want to go to (the only ones I really care about though are Target and Ross and they are there!). And I love that we are only a few miles away from a Trader Joe's now! I am SO excited to raise our family here. :) If you couldn't tell already lol. When I tell people I'm moving to Surprise, their first reaction is always, "Woah! That's far!" But it's really not, especially with everything getting built up around it and all of Jim's clients here in the west valley. Almost every night since moving in, Jim and I have spent some time on our front porch at the end of the night, winding down and talking about our day or riding our bikes throughout the neighborhood. I love that we have a great view too... the park is right in front of our home with the mountains in the background. :) Also, no neighbors back up behind us (minor road separating our neighborhood from the next development over). So happy to own our dream home. But by dream home, I don't mean big. It's a good size for us (2200 sq ft) maybe a bit big now, but we are expanding our family (yes, recently found out we're expecting again! But I'll write about that in another post ;) and plan on being here for at least 20 years. :) Check out our neighborhood website at www.marleypark.com. Maybe I can convince some of my east side friends to move out west! ;)

Home!