Sweet as Sugar

As it is now public knowledge that Ruth is pregnant, it won't give anything away to say that she has not been feeling well for about three weeks now.  It is bad enough to feel like junk for weeks on end, but it is even tougher when there is a busy little bee requiring attention.  Today was particularly bad for Ruth, she woke up feeling sick and it only got worse throughout the morning.  The raging hormones were a little overwhelming at one point so she laid down on the couch for a short cry.  Brenna is obviously not accustomed to seeing her Mommy crying, but never fear, she had a plan.  She strolled up to Ruth, puckered her lips, and gave her Mommy a kiss.  Then she scampered off to her bedroom, got her comfort blanket, and gave it to Ruth to make her feel better.  Brenna may not be talking yet, but when her Mommy needed her most she didn't need to say anything at all.

 

Big News!!

Sneak Peak! Sshhh!

 Emily did a wonderful job capturing our family's love and made us look dang good, too!

Financial Responsibility

Its hard to believe that it has already been two months since we have moved into our house, it has flown by in the blink of an eye.  We have been so busy with various tasks that all home buyers encounter (painting, decor, etc.) that it has been very easy to let other things fall by the wayside.  In our case, one of those things was our finances -- and when you are trying to make your house a home it is VERY easy to buy everything in sight.  My brain must have subconsciously known this because I have lately taken an interest in the Dave Ramsey radio show.  His views on personal/family finances have started to rub off on me which led me to this video.  I can't sum up our responsibility to our Lord as it relates to money (and all possessions for that matter) better than Dave does so just click play...

  

Back in action!

Hello, all!  Sorry it's been so long since we made a post, but a lot has been happening around here.  My first excuse for a lack of posts is that I lost the cord to our camera and couldn't get the computer to read the SD card, so I had no way to get pictures off the camera and onto the computer.  But, what once was lost is now found and the camera a rearing and ready to go.  My second excuse is that in the span of about two weeks these things took place:

-Closed on our house
-Spent a weekend in Traverse City with Brenna at Geegee and Papa's house
-Came home to pack/move and Brenna got a fever for 3 days
-Moved (despite the sick little one)...(and found the camera cord under the couch!)
-Grandpa Blaxton passed away (the very night that we moved)
-Applied about 15 gallons of paint to the walls/ceiling of our house (much thanks to Mom and Dad Leikert)
-Attended the viewings and funeral for Grandpa
-Got new carpet and moved into the rest of the house

Everything has definitely settled down since the move and our house is slowly starting to feel more like a home.  Our families have been amazing through the whole transition and we TRULY could not have done it without their help.

In the weeks since the move, Brenna has had an explosion of development.  I swear, in one week she went from little baby to toddler.  She is now walking confidently and has successfully stood up with no assistance one or two times.  She eats three meals a day (of solid food), which is a HUGE improvement from her erratic bouts of liking/disliking solids.  She claps, sings, says "Dada", "Mama", and "Uh-oh".  She loves stuffed animals and anything soft and cuddly, books, music, dancing, and being outside (especially cross country meets where she claps and squeals for the runners).  Everyday she changes and picks up on some other little noise or skill.  And at 20 lbs she outweighs her 4-months-older-cousin by almost 4 pounds now.

I can't believe she'll be one in less than a month.

 

Hopefully soon our house will be put-together enough to post some pictures or a video.  Until then, here are a few more of Miss B.

Beach!

We had our first outing to the beach a few weeks ago!  Two of our best friends are training for an Ironman Triathlon and wanted to get some experience swimming in the open water so Chris, Brenna, and I went with them to Grand Haven and had a nice walk down the pier while they swam.

Fathers

They say that a girl is likely to marry a man who is similar to her father.  I would say that this is true in my case, and it is becoming more and more evident as I see Christopher interact with his baby girl.  The way he looks at her with so much love is the way I've seen my daddy look at me.  The way I can see his pain when she is in pain - I've seen that in my daddy's eyes when I've been hurt.  When she does something for the first time and Chris is so proud, my daddy has looked at me with the same pride on his face.  And when I can't handle Brenna's crying for one more second, Chris patiently rocks and calms her.  I've been the crying, fit-throwing girl, who my mom I'm sure couldn't stand, but my dad came in and patiently calmed me down. 

My dad and I have always had a special bond - not just because I'm his only daughter, but because we understand each other and we speak the same love languages; words of affirmation and quality time.  It's so easy for me to feel loved by my daddy because he loves me exactly how I need to be.  I can see this bond forming between Brenna and Chris.  We can tell already that one of Brenna's love languages is touch...guess which love language is Chris' primary?  Yep, touch.

Being a mother changes everything, obviously, and one thing that has changed for me is my perspective.  I appreciate so much more about my childhood now that I have the responsibility to try to create that same opportunity for my child.  But, having an earthly father who, in so many ways, reflects our Heavenly Father is never a bad start.  I'm so beyond happy to know that my baby girl will grow up having such a loving, caring, patient, fun, level-headed daddy just the way I did.  I know that Christopher will be her constant.  He will be able to reach her when I cannot.  She will confide in him when she's mad at me.  She'll hear his cheer above everyone else.  He will be the first man that she falls in love with.  His hugs will be more special than any other hugs...until she marries a man like her daddy.  And when she has a baby of her own, she'll really understand how much her daddy loves her and how stinkin' awesome he is.

I love you, Dad.  I love you, Chris.  You're two really stellar dads.

Piggies Grilling Piggies

Brenna and I grilled some teriyaki pork chops last night.  Let the grilling montage begin!

  Proof that I wasn't just making an excuse to have a beer.

Proof that grilling is better with a beer and Pistons Coozy.

 The grillmasters!

Sampling my work :)

Here's to summer grilling!

Friday Photo Favorites

Brenna wanted to try on my socks when we were folding laundry.

Christmas...a little late

Wow!  What a whirlwind the past month and a half have been!  First, Grandma and Grandaddy came in early December, then the Christmas parties started, then Christmas day with the Leikerts and visiting Stephen and Tim while they were in Shepherd for break, New Years, Chris's 25th Birthday, and finally, Brenna's Baptism and the Amarillo Blaxtons coming to Michigan to round out the festivities.  I already made a post about Grandma and Granddaddy's visit, so that leaves...everything else!  (Plus, I had a few photo shoots with Brenna amidst all the action)

The Leikert family Christmas party was a highlight because Brenna is the first great grandchild on that side.  It's always special for everyone to get together and I think Grandma Leikert really enjoyed having Brenna around.

Four generations of Leikerts

Well, of course, the week before Christmas I forgot BOTH cameras in Shepherd so we had no way to document Brenna's first Christmas day.  I was so upset, but thankfully Momma L was able to take a few shots of the three of us after mass on Christmas eve.

We spent Christmas day with the Leikerts and it was so much fun.  Believe it or not, this was the first time I've woken up on Christmas day away from my parents house.  Weird.  But it was awesome to see the traditions that Chris grew up with.  One of my favorite things was the way they label their gifts.  Instead of writing "To: Chris" or something generic, they make up creative titles.  For example, "The oldest Leikert CPA" was on one of Dad Leikert's gifts.  Or, "Cross country conference champ" was one of Anna's.  I loved it and fully intend on adopting this tradition! 

More posts coming!  Stay tuned for some adorable cousins!

Sleeping Beauty

As most newborns do, Brenna sleeps...a lot.  We have a lot of pictures of her snoozing, mostly because it's not very often that she's awake.  But, we've gathered quite a collection of pictures of Brenna napping on Daddy. 

As of late, Brenna has found a position that she finds more comfortable.  Whether in her bassinet, on our laps, in our arms, or on the couch, she squirms her way into this cockeyed position.  We'll move her head to be straight but she'll just grunt and move right back.  Last night we got quite a kick out of moving her and watching her wriggle her way back.  She just melts my heart :)

 

Like Mother, Like Daughter

When Mom came to stay with us, she brought a photo album from when I was born...and we settled the debate of who Brenna looks like.

It's unreal looking at myself as an infant and looking at my daughter and seeing such similar features...

 

I just thought this one was cute :)

Brenna Jean Leikert

Our blessing arrived at 7:29 PM on October 19th! She was 6 lbs. 5 oz. and 18.5 inches, a pretty good size for staying in Ruth's "hot tub" for only 35 weeks. The last 5 days have been such a whirlwind physically and emotionally. Wednesday was a very anxious day because of the two extremes that the doctors presented: It was possible that Ruth could have an emergency C-section or we could end up just going home. Even though Ruth ended up having a C-section, everything turned out so well. I continue to be impressed by how tough Ruth is, so much has happened these last 5 days that she could have totally freaked but she has been amazing. I think Brenna has taken after her mother in this respect, she is well above average in terms of her health after only cookin' for 35 weeks. It is tough to put into words at this point exactly what we have experienced since Brenna joined us, maybe that will become clearer in the next couple of weeks but I know three things:

1) My wife is is absolutely amazing.
2) Holding Brenna is indescribable.
3) Our family is so generous and loving, we could not have done this without them.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from today. Go ahead, try not to smile when you see this little miracle!

She likes to be held to fall asleep

Brenna, ladies don't pick their noses!

Ruth & Brenna napping



Well hello Brenna Bean



Her first "bath" at home


We will try to keep the pictures coming the next couple of weeks!

Nuggetta Has a Name

The decision has been made!  We're naming our little lady Brenna Jean.  Brenna - a small tweak from Brennan, a Blaxton family name and my dad's middle name.  Jean - after Chris' mom.  I'm feeling very at peace with the decision.  We were tossing some other names back and forth for quite some time and nothing seemed exactly right, but then we came back to Brenna and we're convinced that this will be the perfect name for her.

She continues to grow and squirm more and more every day!  While writing this post I'm trying to catch her moving on video to post.  Of course every time I grab the camera she stops moving.

We've moved to doctors appointments every two weeks now instead of four.  At my last visit they did the glucose test and apparently mine is on the "high end of normal".  They say I don't need to come in for further testing for gestational diabetes, but I need to start avoiding carbohydrates and sugary foods.  Every time I want some pretzels or a different salty/carb snack I think about how much I don't want to deliver a 9lb baby and it usually works to diminish my craving.

We also started our baby classes this week.  Last night was the breast feeding class and the next three weeks will be the labor/delivery class.  We learned a lot of really cool things about the benefits and the whole process of breast feeding last night!  Chris was talking about how surprisingly interested he was in all the information and concluded that he wants to become a lactation consultant.  He was obviously joking, but I'm glad he's so interested and supportive :)

The nesting instinct has started to kick in for me and I've taken on a new project to satisfy my urge to get ready for Brenna.  A couple weeks ago I picked out fabric and a pattern to make all the bedding for her crib!  I'm confident that following a pattern consisting of mostly rectangles will be easier to follow than a dress pattern.  My friend Emily came with me to the store to help pick out the fabric (with Chris' permission) and it's a good thing she did because I would have been there for literally HOURS if I had gone alone.  Here is a picture of what we chose...

I'm really excited to get started on it and see how it turns out!

Well, that's all I have for now with Baby Brenna updates!  Now we just have to wait it out until we get to meet her!

Sugar and spice and all things nice

That's right, baby Leikert is A GIRL!!  We had the ultrasound this morning and it was so cool to see our little girl!  The tech. said that she was measuring a few days further along than we originally thought.  She weighs 14 ounces and we got to see her heart, brain, arms, legs, stomach, bladder, kidneys, spine, and face.  Here are some of the pictures...

The little arrow at the top right of the picture shows that she's a she!

Her head is on the right and body on the left.  The bubble is the umbilical cord.

And her sweet little face! 

She was throwing punches throughout the ultrasound so I know she's my kind of girl!  Get ready Colette, your best friend is on her way! 

Baby Leikert

So, as promised, I'm doing a baby update post!  Nothing too exciting to share (like ultrasounds photos or the sex), but after getting a number of posts of FB and a few emails I broke down and took a picture of my baby bump.  This picture was taken last Friday when I was 17 weeks and 5 days.  I'm now 18 week and 2 days and I feel  bigger than I look in the picture.  It feels like I get bigger each day and it also seems like something else aches every day (this scares me a little because I'm still in the 2nd trimester and that's when pregnant ladies are supposed to be the most comfortable...I can't wait to see what all hurts when I'm 8 months along!).  The first 12 weeks or so were pretty rough as far as nausea and morning sickness goes, but after that things got a lot better.  I lost about 7 pounds during the first trimester and I'm now 3 pounds heavier than where I started and the doctor seemed pleased with this progression.  I'm eating fairly normally now.  I have to eat smaller portions more frequently because I seem to get full quickly, then hungry again shortly after.  Aside from my feet/ankles swelling and hurting and my hips/back aching, I'm feeling really good.

We had a pretty huge milestone on Father's Day - I felt our little nugget move!  I'm sure that I had felt it before, but didn't realize what it was.  On Sunday night, though, we were watching a movie and I was still enough and aware enough to know what I was feeling.  It was really awesome for me - I just can't wait until Chris can feel it, too. Since Sunday, I've felt the little guy or gal squirming every day at least once.

Our baby is now about 5-5 1/2 inches from crown to rump (I love the measurement terms :)) and weighs a little over 5 ounces.  Chris and I love reading about the development each week!  On July 7th I'm scheduled to receive my first ultrasound and we are planning to find out the sex of our baby and if there really is only one in there :).  I'm sure there will be a post about that once we know!  I'm still crossing my fingers for twins, if not this time, then sometime down the road.  You all know me and how I love deals...I see twins as not only awesome, but a bargain - two babies and only one pregnancy!

That's all for now.  We'll keep everyone updated after the 7th!  Until then, Chris is running a race on Saturday and studying his booty off.  I'm getting settled into my new job at Gazelle and really enjoying it.  Oh, and we moved.  That was made possible by our fantastic families who did most of the grunt work while I pointed and made the food.  Our new place is so much better than the last...maybe that will be the next post...

Life Is Good

There have been so many fantastic things happening in our lives the last month or so and we have so many happy things to look forward too, as well!  First of all, Chris found out that he passed his second section of the CPA exams!  He has now passed what he thinks will be the two hardest exams for him, so even though he has two down and two to go, he is considering himself 60% done.  It's such a good feeling to know all of his hard work is paying off!  And, there are only 9 days left in the tax season!  It will be such a relief for Chris to be finished with this busy season, but the end of tax means the start of more studying as he'll be taking another section at the end of May.  It will all be worth it though when he's a Certified Public Accountant at the age of 24 - a huge accomplishment!

A couple weeks ago the track season started.  I am coaching the middle school boys and girls this season and it's going to be a big challenge, but a lot of fun.  There are about 85 7th and 8th graders on the team so the biggest challenge will be getting to know all of them and managing the huge number.  Thankfully, I have some awesome assistant coaches who I can totally trust to take groups of kids and I don't have to worry about what they're doing.  It should be an interesting and exciting season!

The past two weeks I've also been going through some interviews, looking for something to do after my class and part-time job at Aquinas end, and I landed a job at Gazelle Sports.  It's a locally owned sporting goods store, mostly running related, and they are very involved in the running community in Grand Rapids.  So, I'll obviously be working in the store doing retail, but I was also asked to coach some of their 8-week training groups that they host all year round.  I'm really excited to work with the training groups!  As I understand it, most of the runners that join them are beginners, training for their first 5ks and things like that.  My training starts this week, so I'll be super busy until the beginning of May with class, work, coaching, and training.

So, on top of all the good things that have happened already, we have Eric and Andrea's wedding to look forward to on May 14th!  We're so excited!  It's going to be such a fun weekend and it's rapidly approaching!

AND! as may of you know already, we're expanding from a family of two to a family of three!  With the recent announcement and making this public knowledge, I think Chris and I have gotten even more excited ourselves and it's really starting to sink in.  Personally, I think it will be really real when I need to start wearing the pants with elastic in the front :)

We are so blessed to be able to bring another life into this world.  It's such a miracle and we are going to be experiencing it first hand.  Hopefully the rest of the miracle will include less nausea and more appetite. Chris mentioned the other night that it isn't fair that the mamma is the only one that has to feel sick, but I said, it isn't fair that the mamma is the only one that will feel the baby kicking and squirming.  So, we'll take the bad with the good and thank God every day for trusting us with one of His children.

Life is just so good!