Jack's New T-shirt!

With spring and summer starting, my son is out-growing all of his clothes!  I may have had one or two items in 2T or 3T, but I seriously need to go shopping.  He's officially out of all 18 month clothes (which he could barely pull of shirts) and his 24 month clothes are getting snug.  Great... I love shopping for his clothes most of the time, but I was most excited to make this purchase:

Forgive the blurriness of the picture but he's quite difficult to catch in pictures these days...

And in case you can't read what his t-shirt says... it says "BIG BRO"!!!!

We're proud to announce that Jack is going to be a big brother this fall.  Our due date is approximately October 26, 2011 (just in time for one of my favorite holidays).  Baby is looking healthy and growing right on track.  Here are some adorable pictures of our 8 week ultrasound:

Pumpkin's head is down in this photo, and the longer & thinner part up at the top is the umbilical cord!



Another picture of how big baby is these days!

For some reason these pictures, from approximately the same time we had an ultrasound with Jack, baby looks bigger or we could see more in these pictures compared to his ultrasound.  Just an interesting observation, but baby's measurements confirmed our due date and a couple of days at this stage are a big deal for baby's development.

As far as me, being about 10 weeks along I am dealing with standard 1st trimester sleepies and nausea.  Nausea isn't too bad most of the time, but I am wearing Sea-Bands [almost] around the clock that have helped to take the edge off.  Other than that, I'm feeling great and already outgrowing normal clothes... supposedly pretty typical with 2nd (or subsequent) pregnancies.  I am still kind of in regular clothes, but those days are certainly numbered as I'm using my belly band to keep my unbuttoned pants up!

And with all of my posts I've had in the past on NFP... yes, it does work :-)  We're so excited to be adding to our family and look forward to the excitement yet to come.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To all my Irish, and those who wish they were:
Happy St. Patrick's Day from Natalie, Matt & Jack!  Here's our adorable wee one:

Its kind of hard to read, but his shirt says "Mom's Lil Irishman"... LOVE it!

Lenten Sacrifice

As someone who has grown up being asked "What are you giving up for Lent?" it is hard for me to not make that part of my focus of Lent.  This year, Matt and I (and by default, Jack) are giving up going out to eat/getting take out.  Matt and I did this before Jack was around and we behaved well... now, we've slipped back into bad habits.

I'm looking forward to this Lenten sacrifice, because I know it is something we need to do for our family.  Not just the saving money part, but the part where we sit down for dinner together as much as possible and eat our home cooked meals and really use all of our leftovers.

I also want to be more proactive in my faith, I haven't decided what form that might manifest itself in (i.e. praying the rosary daily or doing a novena, or two), but for me those details aren't critical to line out.  While this isn't a sacrifice, part of becoming more faithful can involve giving up time you might spend doing other things!

I am most looking forward to the celebration of the woman I'm sponsoring through RCIA as she becomes Catholic this Easter Vigil.  I know it will be a beautiful celebration of faith and I'm so glad to get to be a part of it!

I wish everyone a reflective and meaningful Lenten season!

He's Tall!

Those were the words I heard when Jack was following the nurse down the hallway to his doctor's appointment this morning.  I guess since Matt wasn't there they couldn't see the other half of his gene pool, so yes, he is "tall" compared to me.  Over half my height at 20.5 months to be exact.  We got a new pediatrician this time around because our last pediatrician left the practice we go to without any notice to us.  When she asked me how many words Jack was saying, I blanked... "Umm, 40-50?"  Gosh, he's probably saying more than that... he says a new word or phrase every day or every other day.  His latest funny phrases "O.K." (similar to how a Little Rascal would say it), "Oh no" (which sounds much more like "oh mo"), and "I got you" when playfully reaching towards Matt or I as if he couldn't reach us.

Jack weighed in at 27 pounds 10 ounces and measured at 34 inches tall/long.  Both height & weight are between the 50% and 75% percentile for his age, a bit higher than he's been at the past so he seems to have had a bit of a growth spurt!

Here's my beautiful "baby" boy these days:

Playing with a lightsaber at Matt's grandma's house... Matt was SO proud!

Real boys wear pink bowls on his head and say "cheese" for his "mama"

Happy Monday everyone!

Someone is Ready for Summer!

Luckily I cleaned out his clothes and found two bathing suits that will fit him this summer!  Swim lessons, here we come... in a few months!

Day 4 in Germany: Skiing in the Alps!

On the Friday of our trip, we went skiing in the German Alps in the city of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (a.ka. Garmisch-P).  We went with my little brother and his friend from school.  It was an overcast day, depending on where you were on the mountain!  By the end of the day, we were scarily skiing in a cloud.  A little bit of stats about the ski area:  altitude ranging from 2,297 to 6,725 feet and 25 miles of runs.  It is also home of the World Alpine Skiing Championships this month (going on until February 20th).  Here are some of the picture from our trip!

My brother, me, and Matt on the gondola.

Matt and I on the gondola... just to get to the bottom of the ski lifts!

Matt in the gondola after skiing!  You can see how foggy it got!

Me on the mountain!

Matt on the mountain!

The ski lifts... I actually took this while riding which freaked me out!

Matt on the ski lift... pardon the foggy glasses, its a hazard of being a glasses wearer and skiing!

View from above the clouds... BEAUTIFUL!

The base of the mountain where the train dropped us off, you can see where we rented our skis and some of the runs over to the right.

The gondolas on the way down... it was SUPER foggy when we left.  Couldn't see 20 feet in front of us or to either side... not exactly prime skiing conditions!

Apologies

I am having issues finishing up my Germany posts because the online photo album I pull my images from is being strange.  I promise to get them finished up soon!

If anyone has any tips on using Picasa web albums, I'm having issues getting my album to load when I want to import the images to the post.