Busy Spring!!

Things have just been rolling along quickly lately. The Williams household has been busy, busy, busy!! I am working this month full time for my cousin, Nicki at a mothers' day out program in the North Park Mall area. Nicki is the director at Northway Christian Day School and one of her workers had to leave for a 6 week maternity leave, so I'm filling in. Cade absolutely loves going to "school today." I think his favorite thing is all the new girlfriends he's made!! Ha! Last night at church, he and Abbie (Amber and Justin Robinson's daughter) literally walked around the church lobby and hallway for five minutes holding hands, parading around. Everyone was laughing at them. It was absolutely adorable. I think a few pictures were taken on several cell phones.

I am feeling great for the most part. I have certain days when I feel a bit sluggish, but what can you expect when you're in your 8th month. Woh. That sounds pretty far along!! I can't believe Marin will make her debut in about 2 months! I feel so much better than I did when I was pregnant with Cade. For a while, it almost had me worried that I felt so good... I was thinking surely something was wrong if I have this much energy and can just get on and off the floor and on and off the bed and on and off the couch easily... but apparently feeling good is a good thing according to the doctor.

Speaking of the doctor, I'm starting to go every 2 weeks now! It feels like all we do is go to the doctor. I am sure Mom feels that way, too, since she's the one that has to watch Cade when I go for my visits. I could just take him with me, but it's nice to be able to just concentrate on me and ask questions without being distracted. My last visit was a big sonogram. It was pretty cool. With Cade, I only had a 20 week sonogram. Well, this one being 29/30 weeks along, you could see A LOT more. it was WAY cool. I mean, you could see her face. Not just a skull/embryo looking face, but a real, chubby, baby face with eyes that were opening and closing and stuff. It rocked. She is obviously going to be adorable! Right! :) Apparently, her head is measuring pretty small compared to her tummy and legs. So, doc says I"m gonna have a long-legged, big-bellied baby with a peon head. ATTRACTIVE!!! :) In summary, what the sonogram told us was that she is healthy and perfect. But my due date is now up for speculation because her legs and tummy show that I am on track to delivery end of April/beginning of May... but her head shows May 10... so first half of May, she'll be here for sure. I just assume keep her cooking as long as possible -- they are easier to take care of when they are inside your body versus outside. MUCH EASIER.

David is doing well. He is going on a mens' retreat this weekend with a large group of the men from our church. The theme is "The Power of a Praying Husband." I think he'll enjoy it. If not for anything other than the fact that he will be able to spend some fellowship time with good guys. Bryan and Justin (a few of our good friends) are going, so that will make the weekend a good one. He's been doing some good mountain biking lately. He's caught a few afternoons with Bryan after work and goes on Sundays a lot with the guys in our Young Adults class. I am only mad because I bought a brand new mountain bike about a month before I found out I was pregnant, so no biking for me!! I have a new bike just sitting in the garage begging to be ridden. I tried riding once while I was only about 4 months along and took a "head over the handlebars" fall... David benched me from then on. Woops.

Cade turns 2 tomorrow. Wow.

BTW -- Kelsey and Derek come home at the end of March!!!!! I am so excited, I can hardly contain myself. It will be great to have them back home. Keep them in your prayers as they transition back to America!!!

Finally a name!

Well, we have officially decided to name our baby girl Marin Anne Williams. We like it and if you don't, I don't care. That's her name. Marin is just because we like it and Anne is because it's my middle name. So that's pretty cool. Keep all of us prego people in your prayers right now if you think about it. I just read on Tracey's blog that she had a scary fall and had to stay in the hospital (and she's due when I'm due) and an old friend of mine from high school, Kevyn (Pascoe) Yuditzky, just gave birth to her and her husband's first baby boy 2 1/2 months early (she was due when I am due). Luckily, everything is turning out okay for everyone, but it sure gives me the scares!

God Bless!

Baby #2

We've known the news for a little while, but we waited until a second sonogram just to be sure that IT'S A GIRL!!!! We are almost sure we know the name for her, but when David commits 100% and gives me license to start monograming things :), we'll share it with you, too. But until then, you'll just have to wonder... and congratulations to Tracey Shepherd for finding out that she and Brian are, too, having a baby girl! I tell you what, I've already bought a few outfits for her and can already tell that this is going to be the end of me. It's LOTS more fun shopping for girls -- there are just a lot more choices! And you get to have fun with bows and hairbands and tights and all that stuff. Boys just require jeans, khakis, maybe some navy pants and lots of different color polo shirts and such.... but girls, WOH.

We feel so blessed to have a wonderful, healthy boy. I can't wait to meet our little girl that will complete our family. Yes, after this one, we're DONE... God willing...

Have a blessed day!

Big Boy Bed!!!

Well -- Cade officially took his first nap today in his new big boy bed. We got his new room set up (we still have quite a bit to do in it, but the basics are done) for Christmas. We figured, better to get him used to and transitioned into a big boy bed now before the new baby comes along. I don't want to have to be getting up 4 times a night to feed our baby and 2 or 3 times to deal with Cade's transition into a new room/new bed. So, there you have it!!!

I'll be posting Japan pictures soon -- our trip was awesome back at Thanksgiving and I am a bum because I haven't posted it yet. But with Christmas and our recent trip to Seattle, we've just been busy busy busy!

Halloween!!!

While this was technically Cade's second Halloween, it was the first one that he actually was aware of. He made his official trick-or-treating debut as a chicken. I found it hilarious. He loved walking around holding his juice and his pumpkin trick-or-treat bag... but he didn't want to go to the doors and get candy. We would walk up with his cousins (Kamryn & Cullum (4 yrs), and Brennan and Breckan (2 yrs)), and when the person opened the door and started handing out candy, Cade would very matter-of-factly just say, "No. No," and walk away. He never got upset or cried or anything, he was just like... "This is wierd. Who are they? Why am I here?" But he had a blast watching everyone else and just walking around the Plano neighborhood.

Can't wait til next year!! Enjoy the pics.

The Texas State Fair

Well, Cade was finally old enough to actually enjoy the fair a bit this year. Last year, he couldn't care less. But this year -- woh. He was ALL over it. We didn't make any formal introductions to Big Tex, because frankly, Big Tex scares me. He'd certainly scare Cade. But Cade LOVED the barn animals. I mean LOVED. I wish I could post video, because he was literally shouting random words across the petting zoo to try to get the attention of the goats. He's psycho.

And now a word to my crappiness -- I have been the worst blog updater on the planet. I deserve every bad word and every vulgar thought about it. I am not in denial.

Anyway, here's to a better future in blogging for everyone. I hope you enjoy the fair pictures.

OH! And I know that everybody probably knows this by now, but I figured I'd also just throw out there that David and I are expecting kid #2. Woh. I am due May 12... so I'm just now about to end the first trimester. Why the heck would anybody have ANOTHER BABY???? And this time, we did it on purpose!!! :) Just kidding. .... Well, kind of. :)

I'll let everyone know when we find out if it's a boy or a girl -- probably close to Christmas.

Happenings Lately

We have been up to A LOT the last few weeks, so instead of just writing a huge post about what we've been doing...I just decided to post a bunch of pictures. That's cooler anyway.

This is a new rug we got for our living room. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it's a deep red/brown/tan long shag rug. We like it a lot. We're putting wood floors down in the living room in the next month or so... so we have been kinda looking for a rug -- and found it!

We painted and laid wood floors in our guest bedroom. FINALLY! Dad and David did all the work and it looks amazing. We painted it a nice pale blue b/c this room will eventually become Cade's bedroom whenever we decide to have another little monster.

Here is Cade "helping" us pull the tape off the wood floors the day after we laid the wood down. He at least thinks he's helping...

We finally painted David's grandma's dining room cabinet. The hardware and doors still aren't put on...but I needed a project break, so this is the state it's in now... We think it looks awesome!

We went to Hot Springs last weekend for a nice, relaxing getaway. It was fun to spend time with Carol and Terry. Cade loved going outside and exploring CONSTANTLY, while David and I got to take in a movie and do some morning mountain biking. We love Cade, but it's great to take some breaks! Cade obviously enjoyed some La-Z-Boy lounging one morning -- in Terry's chair!

Cade's friend Abbie left her bow over at our house one night. Well, I found it the next morning, so I decided to let Cade wear it a while. I thought it was funny. David didn't. :)

This is Cade's new game. Every morning, while I get ready in the bathroom, he is just not happy UNLESS he's in the bathtub throwing everything he can get his hands on into his little bathtub with water in it. I have no idea why this is fun, but he loves it. What we didn't get a picture of was when he climbed into his little bathtub with all the floating paraphernalia in it. It was hilarious... and he was soaked head to toe!

That's all we've got for now! We'll update after the 4th of July with new pictures! God Bless!