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!