Remembering 2 years ago....

3/10/09...one of my favorite early pics of our new family:)
early morning 3/6/09 getting ready to go to the hospital to have John Harrison
getting ready to go home from the hospital.....3/8/09
3/7/09...early am....Dad with John Harrison....after a sleepless night.....
our sweet new boy
3/10/09...day of first doctor's appointment, first trip out of the house, and day when John Harrison first met his Aunt Lisa
I thought it would be fun to post some pictures from 2 years ago....although a lot of memories about John Harrison's birth are very vivid in my mind, many things in the days, weeks, and months following have become blurry in my mind.......chronic sleep deprivation will do that!! Thankfully, we have lots of pictures that help to make memories clear again. I truly treasure the past 2 years that the Lord has given us with our precious John Harrison.
The teaching elder at our church has been leading our church through the book of Hebrews. During our study of Hebrews 11, the famous "faith" chapter of the Bible, Louis talked in depth about the significance of Abraham's faith in being willing to trust the Lord with his only son Isaac's very life. One thing that I clearly remember from the sermon was Louis speaking of how Abraham clearly loved God, the giver, more than the gift, Isaac. The application is very far-reaching and I spent a lot of time thinking about my love for John Harrison, who is very much a gift from God, vs. my love for God Himself who gave John Harrison to us. My self-examination was quite humbling and I really have to submit my heart to the Lord to ensure that I value and love the Lord far above any thing He chooses to give to me. Christ clearly tells us that following Him must require that we be willing to forsake everything for the sake of the Gospel. David and I pray that John Harrison will grow up desiring to follow Christ with that kind of abandonment and obedience....we know that much of that will depend on what John Harrison sees in his parents' lives.

John Harrison is 2!

Mom and Dad with our birthday boy
playing with his new garbage truck from Uncle Jon
giving Dad a kiss
Reading a new scratch and sniff book from Great Grandmama
birthday smiles with Grammy and Grandpa

John Harrison's second birthday is today, but we had his party yesterday. Our little boy LOVES trucks so I made a truck cake and we bought truck mylar balloons to tie to the dining room chairs. John Harrison picked out Sesame Street plates and we also bought an Elmo mylar balloon at the store, so we kind of had an interesting mix of themes.
Grandmama and Grandad, Great Grandmama, Grammy and Grandpa, Uncle Jon, and Uncle Matthew and Aunt Sarah came to the party. For lunch, we had tacos/taco salads, fresh guacamole, and fruit salad. David and I tried to think of John Harrison's favorite foods and have them for him on his special day....he ate chips and guacamole, fruit, and honey-roasted peanuts (he thinks that peanuts are small almonds (which he calls "almees") and so he calls peanuts "babies"). When it came time for cake and ice cream, we sung to John Harrison, blew out the candle, and put the entire cake in front of him. John Harrison poked around at the frosting and quickly determined that he loved the chocolate frosting (the truck's wheels) on his cake, but really didn't care about eating the cake itself. He ate a decent amount of frosting and had a few bites of ice cream. Next year, I think I will make a cake with mounds of chocolate frosting:). After lunch, he opened gifts. I think he may be more excited about his new birthday toys then he was with his Christmas toys. After he woke up from his nap, we took John Harrison to Chuck E. Cheese. John Harrison liked a few of the games/rides, but the place was really, really crowded---I think we are going to wait a few months till he can enjoy it more and then return in the middle of the day on a weekday. We got John Harrison a kid's meal at Chick-fil-a and brought it home for a late dinner to finish the day. I guess we threw nutrition out the window for one day......birthdays only come once a year, though:). All in all, we had such a wonderful day with John Harrison and look forward to the same today!

Hi, Bye Bye!

Here are the most recent pictures of our sweet little boy (thanks to my photographer-mother:).
This morning, I woke up to a sweet voice coming across the monitor around 6:45 saying "hi, bye bye......hi, bye bye....." Thankfully, John Harrison is usually content to play in his crib and chatter for a while after he wakes up. I know that my days of being able to lay in bed in the morning for a few minutes after I wake up are numbered:) so I'm trying my best to enjoy them.

Baby shower cake

One of my friends from church hosted a baby shower for me two weekends ago. I didn't take any pictures at the shower other than of the cake I made. Since I don't really eat sugar or starches, I volunteered to bring the cake (ok, I'll admit it's a bit strange to make your own cake, but I wanted to be able to eat the cake at my own shower :). I made the cake while David was at a guys' game night at our lead elder's house. Watching John Harrison (who likes lots and lots of attention) and baking a cake at the same time wasn't very easy, but I cleaned up my HUGE kitchen mess and piped the cake once John Harrison went to sleep.

Spring Break...a few weeks early

34 1/2 weeks pregnant
Beautiful Cancun water
view from the resort
Cancun beach
Last week, David's parents watched John Harrison while David and I took a trip to Cancun. We had such a fun time and liked Cancun more than we had even imagined. The tourist area/hotel zone was really clean and safe and the locals seemed genuinely friendly. Several years ago, we had taken a cruise that stopped in Cozumel, but we had never vacationed in the Cancun/Cozumel area. Hopefully we will be back sometime in the next few years!! The water was absolutely beautiful, the sand powdery white (supposedly, the sand, which doesn't get hot, is made from crushed coral), and the weather was in the 70s and low 80s during the day. We stayed at the Marriott Casa Magna and loved the resort. David and I stayed for 4 nights/5 days and spent most of the time relaxing on the beach. We also got in the pool a few times, walked some along the beach, and of course, ate good food:). I always envisioned Cancun to be an endless party scene and I'm sure you'd have that type of atmosphere at some resorts, but the resort we stayed at was very family-friendly and classy (no night clubs, people weren't drinking excessively, etc.). I guess my traveling days are over for the next 4 weeks at least considering that I will be 36 weeks along on Friday. I went to the doctor today and all seems to be going well--I'm starting to dilate a little bit and Elise is head down :). I still have a long to-do list, but we will welcome our sweet little girl any time now. Even though I feel our baby move almost all the time now, it still seems surreal that we are about to have a second child. I am scared at the responsibility of caring for a newborn and a 2-year old, but also excited about having a little girl and about John Harrison becoming a big brother. John Harrison still frequently gives my belly hugs and kisses or lays his head on the "baby." We pray with him every night before he goes to sleep and always pray that the Lord prepares his heart to be a good big brother to Elise!

Pengiuns and Petting zoo

Chasing the geese at the petting zoo
Feeding the Emu
Hanging out in a fun swinging chair at an outdoors store
Enjoying the Penguin Playhouse at the Ripley's Aquarium
Taking a nap in the car (with favorite black bear stuffed animal)

Awesome jellyfish at the aquarium

Quite the change from last summer.....John Harrison used to quickly rip sunglasses off his face and now, he loves wearing them :)

The weather was beautiful two weekends ago and we took John Harrison to a petting zoo. I thought that John Harrison would get a big kick out of touching and feeding the animals, but in reality, he seemed to like the geese and ducks a lot, but mainly glanced at most of the animals and then just wanted to run around. David, Jonathan, and I had fun feeding the animals....especially the quirky Emu. We also took John Harrison to the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg---he really liked seeing the fish, marine life, and penguins!

Updates...

Updates....
1. Baby Elise is due in a little over 6 weeks now.....everything seems to be going well at my doctor's visits. I am going to the doctor every 2 weeks and will soon move to going every week. The waits are always long (yesterday I waited over 2 hours to be seen!), so I always try to take something to do so my time waiting is productive. I used to take my computer and get work done, but as of 12/31/2010, all of my work obligations related to the sale of our business in December 2009 are completed. YEAH! Yesterday I took notecards and wrote long overdue Christmas thank-yous while I waited...I finished almost half of the notes I needed to write.
Heartburn has been attacking with a vengance the past few weeks (much better than last pregnancy, though, when I popped Tums like they were candy from 14 weeks on!), I frequently feel and see little feet move across my belly, and I am having quite a few Braxton-Hicks contractions. Overall, I am feeling good and can't believe how quickly the weeks until March 25th are passing by.
2. We are recovering from a nasty bug. David got sick Sunday a week ago and John Harrison and I both got sick last Tuesday. David and John Harrison both ran fevers close to 103 for several days, and we all felt pretty awful until just a few days ago. Our energy and appetites aren't completely back and we all still have bad coughs, but are on the mend. It wasn't easy being sick and caring for a sick toddler (who becomes much like a baby!) at the same time. John Harrison was really sweet the days he was the sickest and let us hold him a lot. Then, when he felt a tiny bit better, he wanted to play....while all we felt like doing was crashing (which is not possible with as much as we had going on at the time and a child to keep up with).
3. John Harrison's 2nd birthday is in less than a month now. Our little boy is growing up so quickly and it is so fun to see his development. He was almost 100% potty trained before he got sick, but then went back to mainly diapers and pull-ups while he was sick, so we have been working on re-training....today has given me hope that we will be back on track in just a few days. John Harrison loves animals (especially horses), trucks (the bigger the better), and is saying new words frequently (such as "morning"). I am thinking about a truck-themed 2nd birthday party.
Recent pictures of John Harrison to come soon!!