Wisco Love

June 13, 2016 was another day that will forever be etched in my heart and mind. I took a pregnancy test, a few days early, and found out Nick and I were going to be given another gift from God. Just as I did when I found out about Eleanor, I couldn't help but fall to my knees and praise the Lord for this blessing. In this incredibly dark world, I cannot believe I get to experience this joy of being a mother again.

Because one is never enough.

The first person I told was, of course, Eleanor since Nick was at work. She didn't really care ;). To surprise Nick when he got home, I told him that I rearranged Eleanor's room (something I had been threatening to do). He laughed as it was only the first week of summer break and we went upstairs. When he opened the door, he saw Eleanor's crib decorated with a banner that said "#2 Due Feb. 17" with balloons! He was shocked as we had only tried for one month, and started jumping up and down! Ha! It was so stinkin' cute and fun.

Not too excited at this point ;)

I told my sister by Facetiming her. As soon as she opened her screen, I had it on the positive pregnancy test! I told my Mama by pretending like I wanted to show her something I bought for Eleanor from Carters that I thought was really cute. (It was a onesie that said "best sister ever!") Both she and my sister knew I was beginning to try but both were so so excited! Nick told my Dad by trying to slyly asK him what he was gonna do when he has two babies to take care of...Papa was thrilled!

The first trimester was the exact same as it was with Eleanor. Extremely tired and nauseous. I hated coffee, meat, and vegetables. I wanted all of the carbs in the world! It wasn't until week 14 that I started to feel more like myself again.

The very beginning.

Its true, you do pop sooner with the second!

16 weeks.

17 weeks

At 19 weeks, we had our big ultrasound! Baby looked great and we found out we're having a BOY!!! To say we were surprised would be an understatement. From the beginning we've both thought it would be another girl (even though lots of people didn't agree!), so we were quite shocked when we saw the opposite! At the same time though, we were SO STINKIN' EXCITED! Guys, I have a SON! We got to go out to dinner by ourselves afterwards (Thanks Grandma!) and we celebrated with tacos and a virgin margarita!

on our dinner date!

Over dinner is when we decided on our name for our son… Henry Edward. Before we even conceived Eleanor, Henry has been our top name for a boy with no specific reason. I technically picked Eleanor's name so I wanted to leave this one up to Nick but thankfully we both love it. Going into the ultrasound though, and even before he was conceived him, we knew our son would be Henry.

Edward is after my Dad. Like Eleanor, we wanted Henry to be named after someone we both deeply love and adore. My father has been my lifelong teacher..always answering my hundreds of questions and showing me how things work. The biggest lesson he taught me, however, was the strength of his love for me through his generosity and thousands of acts of service towards me. It because of this love that I felt like I was able to grow up confident in who I was because I had him in my corner…and I felt comfortable to expect that same type of love and service from my future husband. Enter Nick. My dad and Nick are extremely close (and very similar!) Dare I even say best of friends. My dad has taught Nick hundreds of things related to cars/houses/building/decks/tools/everything! They love to golf and enjoy delicious beer together. They've had exactly one fight in the entire duration of their fight (which they love to joke about) and really get along like two peas in a pod. Best of all, my dad is absolutely hilarious. Truly the funniest person I've ever known. Even on days when I've been extremely sad, he's always known how to make a joke to turn the mood around. Not to mention the fact that Lucas and Eleanor are completely OBSESSED with their Papa. They both constantly ask for him and love to play with him as much as they can! We are so honored to name our son after a man who brings us so much joy and love!

To share the news with our family, we tied pink balloons to Eleanor and blue to Lucas (with a bit of a fight!). Everyone turned around, and we cut the pink balloons to show only the blue ones remaining when they turned around! It was such a fun surprise and I'm so glad we captured it on film because pictures don't do it justice!

Waving bye bye to the pink balloons!

HA! I was a little excited

Papa!

Feeling so complete with my family of four

21.5 weeks

To my little Henry,

I'm sorry I don't take beautiful belly pictures in front of carefully crafted chalkboards. This definitely does not reflect the excitement your father and I have for your arrival! You are an answer to a thousand prayers. We've dreamed about you forever and cannot believe we get to be parents to you, our son. We dream about what you'll be like everyday! Will you be wild and crazy like your sister? Will you love sports like your Daddy? Will you have blue eyes and curly blonde hair too? Whatever you look like or act like, I love you. Your mother is absolutely crazy about you. I already think you're perfect. I cannot wait to meet you. I cannot wait to hold you in my arms and show you how much I love you. You have a mommy, daddy, and sister who cannot wait to have you as a part of our family.

I love you little baby,

Mama

p.s. your sissy loves you so much already!

Hi Baby,

You are officially a year and a half and for some reason, this milestone has made Mama extra emotional! You've grown up so much in the past 3 months and time has gone by faster than ever. You say new words and new tricks every single day and I can barely soak it all in!

It's impossible to write down all the words you say, but you are still only saying one maybe two at a time. The only time you put two words together is when asking for help "help please", more milk, or when you say "hi baby" (which you say to me, because I always say it to you..ha! It is so so sweet and I love it).

You're still a pretty good eater, great napper (down around 11:30 - 12 and sleep for 2-3 hours) and sleeper at night (bedtime 7am, up by 6-630am)! Dada and I wish you would sleep a little longer in the mornings…but we've been cuddling with you in bed while you watch an episode of Sesame Street (which you call See-See) which gives us another 20 minutes ;)

This summer was a blast with you, despite being sick and tired for the most of it. Thankfully, you were such a trooper. We had plenty of playdates with your friend Bronson and cousin Lou, but we also had plenty of low-key days with lots of Sesame Street and playing around the house. Although I wish we could have had an action packed day everyday, Mama needed lots of rest to grow baby sister/brother. I think the best part of the summer, or the biggest blessing, was how much you and I grew closer. You've always been a Mama's girl, but this summer we learned so much about each other. We definitely pushed each others to our limits ;) but also fell deeper in love and had more fun than ever before. I miss you so stinkin' much when I'm at work, but our weekends together are always jammed packed with fun..and I'm already counting down the days until we get another long break together! You are my best friend, sweet girl.

I realize this post is just a string of random thoughts.. but I've got a lot to say about you so I'm going to just keep going ;)

A list of some of my favorite things you do: dance to any music (even if you can only hear it faintly in the grocery store), get frustrated when I pretend to sleep so you try to yell "Mommy" and kiss me until I'm awake, pretend that jumping from the couch to ottoman is an extreme sport, pull a blanket (or anything) over your head so you can't see and walk around the house, lock yourself in dark rooms and wait for me to come get you (I'm telling you, you love to be in the dark and unable to see!), point out every puppy/airplane/bus/truck you hear, get so excited when you have a visitor (mainly lou lou) coming over/waiting by the front door, call cups 'pups' and insist on playing in the water with them at all times of day, kiss your baby dolls and push them around in the strollers, say 'weeeee' on the swings at the park, get so nervous walking into church (still crying just a little when we leave you) but you try to act so tough (and I am SO proud of you for that!!), not even kiss or wave goodbye to me when you get dropped off at your sitter's because you are TOO excited to see your friends (but then run into my arms with the biggest smile when I pick you up!), the way you love everyone in your family (always asking for Mama/Papa, flirting with your Unco, laughing at your Teetee)..and really, so so so much more!

I say this every post, but my love grows for you every single day. You bring your Daddy and I so much happiness. You are our world. You are all that we think about, worry about, pray about. You are the sweetest, most beautiful little girl. You've completely stolen our hearts and we cannot get enough of you <3