Our first baby boy project

We decided to make a blanket for our soon to be newest addition. Of course we had to compromise since there are two "favorite" teams in our household. Here is the finished project. I am hoping to use Kendall's Steelers fleece with something else other than the cowboys :-)

Relay for life

Here are some pictures from last weekend's Relay for Life compliments of Lori. Hope that ya'll get to do this worthwhile walk at some point!!
Birthday wishes to Uncle Dave today!!

It's your birthday!!

Happy Birthday Grammy Heider! We hope that you have a great day! See you soon.

Slacking on my blogs

Ok,ok so here we are again! Let's see I think that I brought you guys up to date through Thursday. But........
We had a great time (Kendall and I that is) on Thursday afternoon with our group "playground pals." These ladies are so much fun and we have been getting to experience many new playgrounds that I didn't know existed here in J'ville. I have some pics but of course they are not downloaded like the ones from Aunt Cathi and Uncle Paul's visit. I swear I will get on it soon!

Friday, I had an appointment with the OB at Camp Lejeune. (I have to see them every 2-3 weeks until this whole thing is resolved.) He told me that the baby is big. His head is roughly the size that it should be at 22 weeks gestation. They are not changing my due date but right now the specialists ultrasound has me due at September 12 and Lejeune at September 14. What he seemed to be telling me was to expect earlier than the 18th or a very large kiddo! OUCH!!!
Friday night we went to Relay for life. We got to stay through the survivor lap but Kendall pooped through her pants so we had to leave. I was pretty bummed but gotta do the parental duty!
Saturday, I went to walk at relay at 0630. I have no idea what I was thinking signing up that early! It went well and it was good to be out at it.
Later on that day we went to Ben's Farewell from the squadron. It was both a happy and sad time. 269 is all that we have known so indeed it is not much fun to say goodbye to so many friends but we are definately excited to move onward to something new.
Other than that we did yard work and relaxes. Ben put a coat of paint on the first dresser for Kendall's new room but after it dried the paint was easily scraped off. Guess we will need to get the wood sanded down some more and try again. My goal is to have her in her new room before the end of May so we will have an easier transition time and time to do the nursery room.
That's about it for our gang right now!

Favorites for me....

Hanging with my favorite little gal!

One of the many reasons that I love this man!

A whirlwind!

Yes, that is what the last few days have been!

Let's see where to begin.......Our most important news was received yesterday. We found out that we will be having a BOY!!! Yikes! I am super nervous, excited, and scared. I think Ben is mainly EXCITED. Ben did not get out of his meeting early enough to make it so I had the ultrasound tech write the sex on a piece of paper. Ben called me when he left Cherry Point & there was no way I could wait an hour to open it. I pulled off the side of the road (thank goodness!) to open it, told Ben "you win" and proceeded to burst into tears! Lots of emotions. I guess we have broken the pilot/Heider/Beach curse of girls :-)

O.k. let me backtrack. Monday had me SUPER, CRAZY busy preparing for the wives coffee. (A monthly get together of the spouses from Ben's squadron.) I was in tears several times that day but it all turned out well.

Tuesday, I worked as usual and was preparing to pick Kendall up to come home and clean for Ben's family when.......OOPS! Aunt Cathi and Uncle Paul were here a day early! (I think that puts my arriving at Kennedy's bday party 3 hours early to shame!) They went to Wilmington for a few hours & I frantically cleaned the upstairs for their visit!! We had such a great time even though they were only here for one day. I will try to post pictures later on.

Wednesday was another busy day. I had my holter monitor (for my heart palpitations) put on in the morning, visited with Paul & Cathi, then went to see Dr. Wright (the maternal-fetal specialist.) He thinks that our little boy looks fine thus far so please keep praying for both him and I that are hearts are ok! If any of my test results come back that I have a genetic defect of the heart then the baby will have to have an echocardiogram. (How they do this is a mystery to me!)

Today I went back into Naval to get the monitor removed and have been doing a few things around the house. Kendall has a play group this afternoon so I am hoping to get a nap in before we go to that!

Ben is still plugging along with his job. He has been training pretty good as well. He will be watching a few dogs for the Young's this weekend so hopefully that will go well!

Stay tuned and we will let you know what else is new :-)

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

School Pictures

Kendall had her "school" pictures done for St. Anne's a few weeks ago. We just got the link for them. If you would like the link and password for ordering purposes please let us know. I am also getting her 2 year old pictures done so ya'll will probably get one of those coming soon. I had to get in the picture with Kendall at first to make her sit in the chair so here I am minus a shower!

Another Jamie moment......

For those of you that know me well, I tend to have some blonde/airhead/Jamie moments. Today was no exception. Our friends, Natalie and Aaron, were having a bday party for their daughter, Kennedy, today. When I read the invitation I thought that it said 10 a.m. We arrived right at 10 but there were no other vehicles to be seen. Turns out it was supposed to be at 1 p.m. LOL. We stayed until the party and fortunately were able to help Natalie with some of the preparations. It made for a very long day for Kendall but she managed to pull it out without a nap. Note to self... have someone check all invites for me! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kennedy!

Kennedy and Kendall

Kendall in Kennedy's chair
"Helping" Kennedy open presents

Grabbing some loot after the pinata

Girls night out

Well last night was our official send-off for Jess since her vacation came to an end today. Ben was gracious enough to keep our crazy Kendall bug so that I could enjoy some free time with the girls. Man it was way overdue! We had a great time hanging out at Lori's, (THANKS for hosting!!) eating pizza(Thanks Lori and Jess!! You didn't have to feed us all!), and of course gossiping. (What kind of girls night would it be without that??) Afterwards, we went out for a little bit to a local bar......it was quite interesting watching a few of the locals!! Now we can't wait another year until Jess gets back in town to do it again!!

Lori, Jess, and Jamie

Feeling the belly bumps
Comparing belly bumps. Jacqui has me beat right now!

OO gang

Cybil, Stef, Jess, Janice, Jacqui, Jamie, and Lori

Early in the evening

Continuing on with Jessica's visit

We had a blast yesterday getting together for lunch with Jess, her kids, and Warren. Kendall actually behaved fairly well. It is too bad that time goes so fast! But we have girls night to look forward to tonight.

I went and signed up to walk for our Relay for Life yesterday as well. It is not this weekend but the next. We will be pleased to be there for opening ceremonies and then I am walking 6 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning....should be interesting dragging my butt out of bed that early!

Happy Belated Birthday from yesterday to Becki and Uncle Johnny!

Girl power :-)

Jess, Jamie, and Kendall
One of our favorite guys!

Pictures from Jessica's visit last night

Update for our week

Here I am the slacker blog girl......lol.
Monday entailed me going to work until noon, then going to see the genetic counseling nurse at Naval. (Pretty much all she did was schedule my appt. with the maternal/fetal specialist) I picked Kendall up at the cdc then we went grocery shopping. Hmmm.....not my favorite thing to do esp. with Bug along!
Tuesday was more work for me. I can't really complain as it wasn't nearly as busy as we thought that it was going to be. Kendall and I then went to a few places to get plants for the back porch. (I can't wait until Saturday afternoon to work on them!) We also found out that we will get to have our ultrasound that will hopefully tell us the sex of the baby on Wednesday the 23rd when we go to see the specialist.
Wednesday was pretty low key. Kendall and I played, colored, and cleaned the house. We enjoyed a visit from Jess, Des, and Chance in the afternoon. It seems so crazy that it has been nearly a year since we have seen all of them. I so wish that we could keep Jess here instead of sending her home this weekend. I will post some pics when I get the upstairs computer to work! We will see when that happens.
Kendall and I will meet up for lunch with Jess, the kids, and Warren today so I am looking forward to that. Not sure if we will make playground pals park date this afternoon or not! I hope so as I miss you girls.
We found out that we will be getting a visit from Ben's Aunt Cathi and Uncle Paul next week. Company is always fun to have!
Ben is doing well. Training hard for triathlons. Yesterday he was pretty sick with flu-like symptoms. I only briefly got to see him this morning before he left for work but he said that he felt better.

Beautiful spring scenes from our house to yours

And now it's Sunday.....

which means work for both Ben and I tomorrow :-(
I agreed to come into work tomorrow because nearly every day has over 20 chemo patients on it. Crazy! I was going to stay until 2 but it looks like I will have to leave at noon to go back over to Naval Hospital for a few things. I will still work my normal time on Tuesday. Poor Kendall will have to make do with the cdc this week!
Let's see some fun stories from today (since the grandparents are always in need of good Kendall stories!! Hee, hee.)

• Kendall has really started to like prayer time at meals. She loves to say "a prayer" and seems to listen intently to Ben as he says our blessing. We sometimes get an amen out of her but it is really dependent on how hungry she is!
• The bell choir performed for our offertory today. I was super excited. (those of you that know me well know how much I love listening to the bells.) Ben seems to think that I should learn how to play and be a part of the choir......
• I am going to check out becoming part of the children's ministry at our church. The first meeting is the 23rd so please keep my in your prayers for guidance with that. (I think that it is my first step toward taking a proactive stand on what goes on in Kendall's life and the future Beach baby as well.)
• We had a blast at Sunday school again. What great company and lessons. We are currently working on learning about other religions.....some very interesting perspectives!
• We came home to find that Kendall had left her sock drawer open and that Kahlua had decided to make a bed in it! Our crazy kitty....always surprising us. Of course Kendall thought that it was great.

Other than that we spent the day on.....yep you guessed it household projects! Who would have guessed this much work went into being a home owner :-)

Beautiful, glorious Saturday

We woke up today to a yummy breakfast from BeeGee then got to work. The weather was in a cooperating mood since it was nice and sunny with a good breeze. We had the windows open for fresh air & enjoyed not having to put the a/c on.
Ben & Kendall helped me plant about 6 new shrubs/plants/roses out in our front bed. I am looking forward to working on the plants for the back porch next week.
Ben also worked on cleaning up the yard a little bit plus mowing the parts that needed done. We ran some errands into town. On our errands, we got more grass seed for the front yard but haven't started on it yet.
Mid-afternoon we had a nice family sit down on the front porch to enjoy the breeze and rocking chairs. Then had to clean out the garage (YUCK!!)
I think that tonight we will be enjoying some hot dogs and burgers on the grill.

Picture from our new play group

Kendall and her new friend Brady last week at the playground.

Daily bible verse

We have the daily bible verse at the end of our blog and I found today's very close to home. I just wanted to share it for those of you that might not scroll to the bottom of the page everyday.....

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! - Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

I am so thankful for my loving better half, our wonderful family, and our friends that are always there for us no matter what!

Here's the skinny....

on the past few days that is!
I have been having problems with what I think is my sciatic nerve since Monday evening. Thank God I have an OB appt this afternoon to see what I can do with it. I have been trying to get my things done around the house, Kendall's activities, my activities, and taking care of the family so the blog kind of fell by the wayside! Sorry :-)
Tuesday was a nice, steady pace at work. I enjoy having days like that when I can actually visit with the patients to see what is new with them. I got to see an old familiar face of one of my favorite patients as well so that was a bonus. He stopped in since he heard that I would be getting big & round again!
Wednesday was my echo. It went well. I don't have the results yet and won't until after the holter test so.....the tech said that he didn't have to do much writing so it was a good thing but he of course couldn't tell me anything officially!
Kendall went to her lap time at the library but we missed out on the rec center as it seemed that her teeth were really bothering her.
Thursday, Kendall had "class/school" pictures at her PMO. We will see how they turn out :-) I will be able to email our close family and friends a link with a password so that you can see them and order them if you wish.
I was misbehaving in the house yesterday. Of course since Jess is coming and I am going to be having the wives coffee here in a little bit I felt the need to start cleaning. I had Ben move some furniture for me so that I could steam clean the carpets. Everything went fine until I decided that I didn't need to wait until Ben got home to move it back.....I know!
I managed to get Kendall to the playground for our playgroup and she had a blast esp. with her one little "boy" friend.
That brings us to today....I am supposed to be going to a mom's morning out in about 15 minutes but since I am having problems moving I think that I will pass on it for this month :-( Bummed about that......plus I just gave Kendall some teething tablets and out her down for a nap so that kind of takes presidence right now.
We will be going this afternoon for my OB appt. I am excited as I will be able to get my appt scheduled for the ultrasound that will tell us what the sex of the baby is! I think that we have decided on a boys name but we are still working on the girls......

No rain Tuesday!

Painting has commenced on Kendall's furniture for her new room. Ben just put the primer coat on the media/bookshelf for her room. I am pretty pumped as is it looks so much better already. I cannot wait to see the complete finished product of her room. (Bess, the canvas that you made her is going to still match perfectly so I am excited to move that with her!)

Ben went on a swim today with JT. I said "ouch! too cold for me." I guess both of them are trying to get used to the whole open, murky water thing. They did get to see some dolphins up close so I guess that was neat....as long as it wasn't a shark!

I am anxiously awaiting my friend, Jess' arrival this weekend! It will be so good to get her back in town :-) (For those of you that don't know Jess was one of my great friends that also coached me in Kendall's birth. She moved to Iowa almost a year ago.)

I do my echocardiogram tomorrow so I would appreciate if ya'll would keep me in your prayers that there are no changes from my last one.

In other news, Kendall has figured out where the doggers and kitty's "butts" are and has no qualms about pointing them out. As much as I try to explain that "butts" are yucky and that is where poopoo comes from Kendall seems to think that it is fun to play with them. Oh what a girl!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to cousin Amy!! Hope you enjoyed your day :-)

Good military news.....

Our friend Eleanor just sent out this link for an article on her husband Ryan and his little brother, who are currently deployed. Ben and Ryan have been friends since they were at TBS & we have had fun hanging out with them in Pensacola and here in J'ville. I thought for those friends and family that enjoy "good and fun" military articles that this might be up your alley!

http://www.jdnews.com/articles/adam_55868___article.html/ryan_marine.html

We had a blast at Sunday school today so of course we are going to be go back. It is a much younger crowd now so that helps out alot! I was paged out of church today as it seems Kendall got punched in the eye. I am anxiously awaiting her to wake up from her nap so that I can see if she has a shiner forming or not!

I also wanted to clear up for those of you that have been asking about Ben's job. He is still with the squadron 269. The squadron has different jobs that they have to fill for the marines that aren't necessarily at New River. Ben is at the wing in Cherry Point doing a job for 269. He won't be at 467 until September. I know that it is kind of confusing so don't worry about asking questions! Sometimes I still take a step back and say "WHAT???!"

Pretty low key day otherwise for us! Ben is currently out on a run, I am taking a break from cleaning, Kendall is napping, and I think a family walk down to the Young's house is in order in just a little bit!

Weekend Happenings

• Friday morning breakfast with the ladies from playground pals since the weather has been so cucky!


• A MUCH needed haircut and highlights on Friday afternoon for me.


• Kendall's art show at St. Anne's on Friday night. Our little bug had 3 pieces there. (The classroom gets to keep the money that they make for improvements so we got all 3 of Kendall's art.)
• Saturday morning playing at the house since the rain didn't let us do anything outside! Ben did some work at the house too. He has the media shelf for Kendall's new room almost done. He is going to try to finish it up today.
• A Key Volunteer appreciation picnic Saturday afternoon. It was fun to hang out and say good-bye to some great girls! What great appreciation gifts we got from Ben's CO and wife!
• Watching the final 4 games at Ray and Jen's house. What a beautiful new home you guys have and thanks for having us!! (Sorry about UNC Jen!)
• Today is church and I think we will start back to Sunday school again.
• Other than that we are praying for a break in the rain so we can work on the yard and house but we will see.....if not then work will commence on painting the furniture for Kendall's new big girl room!

In other news.....we have been feeling the baby move since about Wednesday. I forgot how much I liked that part of pregnancy!!

We're glad to hear my sister, Jen, is feeling better after her bout with food poisoning last week!

Happy Birthday Jordan!!!

Happy 7th Birthday Jordan!

This month Jordan was born and abandoned in the PA woods close to my parents home. She has been such a great companion and dog. She will always be my first "little" girl. :-)

From the little puppy......

To our sweet girl today.....

Rain, rain, rain

Yesterday and today were pretty fun. We went to Kendall's playgroups yesterday morning. I met a really neat gal at the library. She is from Australia, married to a marine (in J'ville go figure!), and is due with her second child in August. What an interesting character! Thanks to Molly for introducing us :-)
Kendall had a great time at rec group as usual and they are possibly going to have a summer group as well so I am excited about that! She is also FINALLY getting her eye teeth. They have cut through the gums after about 9 months of waiting for them!
We had a break in all of the rain that we have been getting this week so we took the doggers and Kendall for a walk to the park in our neighborhood. Of course Kendall had a blast and the dogs were a hit at the park. There were about 4 boys who thought that them shaking hands was pretty funny.
We broke out her aqua doodle that grammy & pappy got her for Easter. Kendall is such a little drawer. She is constantly asking to color. I think that I am going to copy some of the pictures out of coloring books and let her go to town!I guess that our busy day took its toll on Kendall as she went down to bed at 6 p.m. Not bad in and of itself but then she was awake at midnight and stayed awake until nearly 3 a.m. Not very restful for any of us!

Today consisted of more RAIN.....day number 5 of 5 with Friday and Saturday probably more of the same! Fortunately, that was good for house cleaning and laundry!
The big thing from today is that I got my appts scheduled for my echocardiogram and holter monitor test. They are a little bit further out than the cardiologist wanted but still in April so I will keep you guys posted!

Kendall Bug

Kendall's favorite is snack time at the rec play group.

I love this car!!

Laptime at the local library

Kendall loves helping Daddy and here she is helping in her new room.

Too Tired!

I was just too crazy tired to post last night! We had another hectic day at work yesterday. I cannot believe the Janice is able to function when she does that on her own. Anyway, I am thankful that I can help out once or twice a week. I was thinking back on when I started my nursing career and how different my path has become to how I envisioned it. I don't think that I would change a thing and I am very grateful for the wonderful training that my gals at BHOT and Mama Victoria out in CA gave me! It has been coming in very handy these past few weeks!

My saving grace was that I had put meatball stone soup on that mornig to cook in the crock pot so I didn't have to cook at all yesterday!

Last night we slacked off on Kendall's room. Poor Ben was stuck chasing our maniac daughter around while I worked on a lot of Key Volunteer information for 269. I think all told I put about 2 to 2.5 hours into it! (That is the organization that provides info to the spouses while their other halves our deployed. Also messages from the CO and other fun activites while they are here.) I think that I still want to do it when we get to 467 in September but I want to make sure that with 2 crazy ones I will be fine!

Ben is starting to like his job at the wing. I think a big part of that is finding another guy that really like to do triathlons so that helps that they can train and motivate each other. Looks like we are going to be trying to get Ben to a triathlon in May as long as it doesn't interefere with the other activities that are scheduled!

Kendall continues to improve with potty training. She asks to go "poo-poo" (which is really urinating but for some reason she won't say pee-pee) about 2 times per day. She doesn't normally make it to the potty but she is getting better about sitting on it for longer times. My biggest frustration is that she sits through about 2 books gets up to run and pee in our bedroom on the carpet. Thank God for our steam cleaner!

Guess I better get off here as I hear my little princess calling! :-)

Happy Birthday Aunt Tammy!!