It's a .........

I had my ultrasound appointment this past Thursday to determine the sex of our baby. I was very excited to have an earlier appointment as our original appointment was scheduled for June 23rd! We arrived at the Radiology department located at Kaiser in Folsom shortly before 2:30pm. I felt pretty calm given the news that would be shared with us very shortly. We were welcomed in by the ultrasound technician; she was warm and friendly. I shimmied myself onto the table and exposed my belly, waiting for the warm goo (lubricant) to be slathered over my exposed bump. Like a ketchup bottle almost out of salty goodness, the goo splattered on either side of my navel. I will never figure out why the doctor's office is always nearly out of goo when I am examined.

The technician started with her schpeal, "this is baby's first physical exam, etc." ... right off the bat, she asked if we wanted to know the sex. Hardly able to contain ourselves, we answered "yes!" in unison! The wand waived sweepingly over my belly and finally rested; we looked up to the screen in anticipation, not quite sure what we were looking for. After what seemed like minutes passing (probably closer to about 10 seconds), she announced that we are having a girl!! I simply couldn't believe the words that came out of her mouth. I wanted to ask her, "are you sure?!?" ... She took the pointy arrow on the screen and showed us the absence of an apple stem ... Tears welled up in my eyes as I was sure we couldn't POSSIBLY be this lucky!! I am still in denial .... 

When toying with names for Mason, Tim and I decided on our "girl" name (had Mason been a girl). We have decided to name our little girl, Makenna May Brown (spelling of middle name is yet to be determined, pending my grandma Rita checking her birth certificate!). Words can't possibly explain my excitement. Tim's response was, "I will need to know how to wipe her nether regions properly" ... yeah, that's my man.

My mom and I are already a tidder in how we are going to decorate. We have decided to keep the nursery the same for Makenna with the exception of the wall paint and a few accessories. We will paint the wall shades of purple (instead of the current shades of blue) and will probably accessorize the "dreaming" theme with fairies and butterflies and take the little bizarre stuffed monsters out of the room. For Mason's room, we are pretty much settled on a jungle theme. Mom and I envision a giraffe-print rug, and hints of the Serengeti .... who knows what our decorative imaginations will produce!

Besides our exciting news, everything else is prodding along normally. I plan to post at the end of June with pictures of this past month. Mason is doing fine and has no clue that a little sister is going to rock his world in about 5 months!

We hope you are all doing great!

Love,

Jenn, Tim, Mason and baby Makenna!

April / May 2009

A lot has happened since my last post. Our family has encountered miracle and tragedy..... 

Sadly, my Grandpa Jim passed on May 8th. He lived until he was 93 years old and passed one day before he and my grandmother's 67th wedding anniversary. We were blessed to have many good years with him. Mason and I went to see him in the hospital the day before he passed. I will forever remember him waving at Mason with his pinkie finger saying, "hey little guy!" We celebrated his life on May 22nd at the Masonic Center in Chico. He will be dearly missed.

On the miracle side, Tim's grandmother has made a great recovery from her stroke. She is back at home and has somewhat regained her independence. Although she won't be able to drive, she is happy to be in her own home and sleeping in her own bed.

May has been a busy month for us. Emily and the kids came out to California to visit while Jon is in Bahrain ... we enjoyed the company and had a blast watching the kids play together. Mason was slow to "warm-up" in playing with Rudy ... but they were pals by the end of the trip.

Mason is doing well. We have had our trials with him the past weeks as he has been teething (again) ... he cut two new teeth and both came through at the same time. His little obstinate personality has emerged and we have officially been welcomed to the "terrible two's." We have had to discipline him for throwing toys at the dog (and everything else) and hitting ... you know, the typical two-year-old stuff.  Even though we are met with our "challenges,"  we are reminded how BLESSED we are to have a healthy boy when we hear about the struggles of others. I thank God every day for His watching over our little family. 

I am starting to have a little more energy these days (thank goodness). I am now able to keep up with Mason, work, house and husband. I am very fortunate in that Tim has helped me with many of my first-trimester struggles. He has gotten up with Mason, helped me with the chores and has catered to my Cinnamon Toast Crunch cravings in late night trips to WinCo. 

I recently had a prenatal appointment where I inquired with the doctor about already feeling some of the same ailments from my last pregnancy (i.e. inguinal hernia and periodic sciatic nerve pain). Unfortunately, the Doctor informed me the hernia will probably return sooner and be worse than it was before ....joy! On the up-side, she (and my friend Kelly who is a physical therapist) have been able to suggest back strengthening exercises which should help with the periodic sciatica. We will be very excited to find out the sex of the baby on June 18th! 

Anyhow, I have included pictures for the past two months. I hope this finds you all doing well!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbMnDJi3ZN2Tjw

Love,

Jenn, Tim and Mason

It is early in the morning and it is a rainy cold day outside. I am nestled in the warm covers of my bed hoping that Mason decides to sleep in late this morning. As I lay here, typing away, I am grateful for the blessings of my life. Life has been a bit of a bumpy road in recent history; bumpy with beautiful scenery, however. It is truly amazing how one can be at the top of the highest mountain peak and then fall suddenly to a valley, only to return to the top of the rolling foothills! Ok, enough with the metaphors! .....

The highest mountain peak .....

As many of you have already heard, Tim and I are expecting our second child! We are excited about our pending new addition and are happy that Mason and baby will be so close in age. I am due November 11th. We will be able to find out the sex of the baby in about seven weeks (my big ultrasound appointment is June 23rd). I have been feeling relatively OK; I was queasy and consistently tired the first weeks. Thankfully, the queasiness has subsided but unfortunately, the exhaustion still remains. I am hopeful that in the coming week or two, I will hit my stride and ditch the "first trimester tiredness." When announcing the pregnancy to our immediate family, it was revealed that Tim's sister, Kara, is also pregnant!!! I nearly tackled her in excitement when we found out the great news. Kara is a week and a half in front of me (her due date being October 28th). We couldn't be more excited to have another cousin that will be so close in age to our coming addition (Mason is two weeks older than his cousin, Rudy - my brother's second child). So as you can probably understand, we were standing on Mt. Kilimanjaro there for a while ....

The valley ....

In the past two weeks, my Grandpa Jim has been in and out of the hospital with complications arising from congestive heart failure. My Grandpa is 93 years old (almost 94) and has lived beyond the years his myriad of doctors ever predicted. My family is very blessed to have had him in our lives all these wonderful years. He is the origin of the spark, orneriness, wit, stubbornness, humor and cunning nature that flows through my veins. It is hard to see 

him so altered and I am forced to remind myself after talking to him (or about him with Grandma) that no one is immortal and we need to be grateful for each and every day that God gives us!

 

Well, when it rains, it pours, and I am not talking about the  downpour that is occurring as I type. This past Thursday, Tim's (and my) beloved Grandma Susie (more commonly known as "GG" for "Great Grandma") suffered from an acute hemorragic stroke.  She is currently in the ICU receiving treatment; although she has been responding well to the treatment, she is heavily sedated which clouds any potential progress she may be achieving. It is hard to say how GG will recover from this episode as it is too soon to tell what lasting effects will remain after her release from the hospital. Tim and I are praying for the members in our family that are suffering from ailing health. 

Back to the foothills ......

So amidst all the emotional turmoil, we were excited to celebrate Connor's (our nephew) first birthday last night (although he does not officially turn one until Monday the 4th)! He had a Finding Nemo / beach theme party complete with bubbles (in the rain), chocolate fountains, trampoline jumping (during a break in the clouds), and face painting. All the kids were running around late into the night while still high on the mass quantities of sugar pumping through their veins. Mason had a great time, but hit his wall around 9pm.

We are also very excited to meet our newest 2nd cousin, Ainsley, this coming weekend. (Tim and I will be traveling down to Paso Robles to visit family and see GG.) Although Ainsley isn't scheduled to join our world until Wednesday the 6th (via C-section), we are eagerly anticipating her arrival and can't wait to meet her.

We are also very excited to see Emily, Ella and Rudy as they are heading to California this coming Wednesday for a visit. Mason and Rudy will have such a great time wrestling around and playing with each other. Mason always learns new things from Rudy as he tends to be a little ahead of Mason in learned skills (he is lucky enough to have a sister to emulate). We are very excited to spend some much-needed time with them.   

Even though we all have our struggles in life, it is important to recognize the blessings we have each and every day. Often times, it is tragedy and sadness that forces us to recognize how fortunate we really are! I challenge you to take a moment every day to be thankful for the family, friends and loved ones that care about you. Tell those people that you love and/or care about them, too; as you never know what curve-ball(s) life will launch your direction.

Another post will follow with the Mason update from April.

I hope this finds each of you blessed and grateful!

Love,

Jenn, Tim, Mason, and Baby "B" 

Our Growing Boy ...

Mason is now 19 months old! He has definitely grown into a toddler complete with the attitude. Although he remains mostly mellow, we see his "streaks" during mealtimes, when we bring him in from outside, and when it is time to get out of the bath. Although, I must say that we have developed an ingenious tactic in ending bath time. We use a blow-up tub that sits inside our larger tub. When bath time is over, we open the plug and slowly let the water out of the blow-up bath. Before he knows what is happening, Mason's water is gone and he doesn't seem to pitch as large of a fit to get out of an empty bath. We're so clever ... or at least, we feel that way!

Mason is definitely solar-powered like his daddy. He LOVES to be outside! We frequent the park on the days I am home with him. His new favorite past times are swinging and going down the slide. 

This last month, our little Peanut learned to use 

his fork and spoon! Self-feeding has its upsides and its downsides; although we are glad to see he is progressing, he makes a holy mess when he self-feeds. He also becomes very defiant when someone tries to help feed him .... "NO!" he says! Nahla has never been happier with all the floor scraps she cleans-up from Mason's missed attempts ..... The other morning, Tim gave Mason some yogurt and went down the hall to put something in the bedroom, when he returned, there was yogurt ALL OVER the place .... the floor, Mason, and the walls were covered in blueberry delight! He is slowly getting the hang of it, but for now ... I am just glad to have tile floors!

Mason now has 11 teeth! He is cutting teeth like crazy! Poor little guy has had a swollen mouth for the last 6 months with as many teeth as he has popped through (11 teeth in 6 months)! That is almost a tooth every two weeks!  The other night he pitched possibly the WORST temper tantrum we have ever seen. I called it his "Grand Mal Fit" ...It was the middle of the night and he was PISSED OFF! He was rolling around the floor screaming, absolutely refused to be held by Tim or myself, and would occasionally swat at my legs and robe in defiance. After both trying our hand at being the loving, comforting, understanding parent, Tim and I decided to let him work out his issues in his crib ... alone. After 30 minutes of hysterics, Tim went in and picked him up. Mason collapsed in exhaustion on Tim's chest; he had his fill of drama and was ready to finally sleep .... as long as it was on daddy's chest in the recliner (reminded us of the good-old days of sleepless nights). The next morning when we woke up, I checked his mouth and Mason had a new molar poke through! Poor little guy, that can't be comfortable!

Anyhow, I (as always) have included some pictures of this last month ...unfortunately, I haven't been all that good using my camera. I hope you all are doing well! Video will follow in the next couple of days when I can get to another computer ... 

Love,

Jenn, Tim and Mason

Getting Up ....