I also had Gary take some pictures of me today to show off my growing belly. I'll include the one from Christmas morning to compare....

Expensive Date! Gary had Stephanie watch Tyler this afternoon so we could have a date! We had lunch with Gary and Stephanie then cam eback to the house, put Tyler to bed and left. We decided to go to the mall to walk around and we found Ohio State players were there signing autographs!!! of course we ran into 3 players, bought the autograph of Antonio Pittman and a picture for him to sign. Then we walked through the rest of the mall and realized there were a bunch more!! Including #7 Teddy Ginn Junior!!!! So we just had to get that one too! I think we would have only gotten Ginn if we'd have seen him first but we didn't . Then of course we forgot to ask Ginn how his ankle was and we kicked ourselves for that. Pittman shook both of our hands, thanked us and told me congratulations on the baby!!! They were both nice but I thought Pittman was nicer. Of course I was all upset b/c we could not afford to get all the signatures... and I think most of the people in the mall were the same way because several guys just sat there and I felt bad for them. Anyways it was so awesome to meet someone we actually spent so much time watching all winter. It was rediculous how much we had to pay for the autographs and of course, the first time I did NOT have my camera in my purse so I didn't get a picture. BOO! It was still fun.

Have you ever been undescribably happy and devistated at the same time about the same thing? I have. Apparently pregnancy only makes it worse. Wednesday night we were "out on the town" because we had to take back library video's and were looking for a toddler airbed we saw online. The site indicated our target had it in stock- not true. In fact it did not look like they had ever had them. Usually when something is out of stock there is a big empty space on the shelf and the item's price thingy is there all alone- not the deal. Furthermore no one seemed to know if they ever got them or if they'd ever get them again. "We get a truck every other day and no one knows what's on it until it gets here and we uload it." HUH?! Apparently I have no buisness savvy because that sounds rediculously stupid to me. Or, huh, here's a thought, the lady did not want to bother finding us real answers. ANYWAYS we've been talking about buying Tyler a big boy twin bed now instead of for his 3rd birthday- not because he needs to be out of the crib but because he's grown out of his playpen. We do enough traveling overnight that he needs to learn to sleep on the floor or a bed so we decided to bite the bullet and look for a bed. Gary's mom had coupons so we went to a mattress store (they should let you rent those places out for sleepovers!) and found the one we liked and bought it. 90 SAC baby! :) last night gary and his dad went to pick it up in big Gary's van and they brought it home. Gary also went out yesterday on his way home from work (yup- snow day and he went into work. ONly for 2 hours though) and got the rails we had seen at big lots. So Gary's dad leaves after dinner and we are playing and Gayr's like- So, we going to do it? I"m like "What?" "Put the bed up" At this moment it hit me how much I really was not prepared for it! Thankfully Gary is more adventuresome and prepared for change than I because sure enough, we took the crib apart, moved the pieces into what will be the baby's room, and put the big boy bed together! I just happened to have a set of twin sheets because my mom was going to get rid of my favorite set from when I was a kid at a garage sale and I took them. We still need a mattress pad and Tyler needs his own sheets that are more exciting than plain old white, but it works for now. I cried when Gary took it apart. I was so sad. I remembered him and my dad putting together my old crib when I was pregnant with Tyler, then someone giving us a much newer one and us switching them... I remember when we moved out of the Mansfield house and Gary took it apart... putting it back together here... and now taking it apart again because he's a big boy. :( I was not prepared for how emotional i'd be about it! I mean I got 10 inches of hair hacked off and didnt' cry yet putting my baby to bed in a BED made me lose it. We did our regular routine, and put him to bed just after 8:30 and he cried. That's when my heart just broke. My poor baby was up there scared! I let him go about 10 minutes and then we went back and re-tucked him in and he went to sleep! He slept all night! I had the monitors on and the gate up in case he got out and so I heard him every time he rolled over or made a small crying sound.... i've not listened to him so intently since he was a baby. It made me think of the nights ahead where I'll lay awake listening for the new baby... anyways he woke up at his normal time this morning and waited in bed until I went to get him! He just called for me like always! I was so proud of him last night and this morning. So proud and happy and thrilled... yet a piece of me is still a little devistated. I keep thinking about sending him off to school and other things ahead that I don't allow myself to dwell on in the day to day routine. It's a small step and a small thing, I know, and there is plenty of room for craziness in the future (like nap time in an hour) but for this moment I wanted to share just how happy, sad, proud, and devistated I am. Most of all I'm thankful to have a strong husband who made me do it!

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Whew! I'm exhausted already! My brother came home last tuesday evening and Friday when we got to my mom's I FINALLY got to see him! He looks so good I must say! So friday night we had dinner just the 5 of us- yum. I've always loved my mom's cooking but now that I have to cook myself it's even better when someone else does it. We just pretty much relaxed and hung out, did Christmas and I got fabulous earings and some other things, Gary got the wireless mouse he wanted (this thing is freaky i gotta tell you but Gary will NOT be slamming it into the desk like the old one!) and we, together, got TIVO!!!!! i've not figured out how to use it yet but it's neat so far! Tyler got a tent, a puzzle, book and a BIKE! it's so cute. It's a tricicle that has this handle in the back that raises up so you can push him and he has to steer and then he can pedal to but dosn't have to. He's not got the steering thing quite down yet.... but he loves it! Saturday we got up and went to look at a house my brother had seen and it was really cute. I love giong to look at houses. I"m not sure my brother's all that serious about buying in that area right now but it was fun. Then we got back to mom's and mom and I left for me to get my hair cut! I did it! I donated 10 inches to Locks of Love and it was SO short in the back!!!! She did this massive ponytail, braided it and then snipped it off! I seriously lost like 4 pounds. It was longer in the front and short in the back so she did some long layers and kept the front long and razored it and then gave me side bangs to frame it. My hair seems SO much darker this short! Ineed to get out in the sun man! You can't tell but the front kind of curls under and the back and sides all flip out and it's pretty fluffy on top. I love it. I took a pic of myself and it's not great but it'll do... (I should have powdered my nose first! whoops!) I washed it last night when we got home from my mom's and it took like five seconds and hardly any shampoo... i totally over conditioned it, it feels like silk. You don't realize how unhealthy the bottom 10 inches of your hair are till you are left with the top 10. :) I love that it's drasticly different and also a STYLE. I've not had a style in ages! It was so nice to go and be pampered. The lady even gave me a lip gloss to try. I didn't get it though.. $13 for a lip stain gloss? Sorry... not right now! Later that day Gary went to the mall to talk to the Altell people because on Friday when I got done talking to him on the phone I shut it jus tlke normal and the screen went blank. No time, no contacts list... no display at all! Do you know how hard it is? My dad is like "yea, all phones used to be like that" and i go, "Yea, and people used to have all thier numbers written down on paper too!" Gary went and somehow got a new phone but we have like 4 numbers in it now. :) That evening we had dinner with friends of my mom and Julie and then went to Dave and Busters where we saw the other Julie! It was SO MUCH FUN to get out without Tyler!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus I had my hair all done fancy- I kept thinking, If I were with Jackie (myspace jackie) she's be running around introducing me to people going "This is my friend Heather. Isn't she the shit?!?!" (you know you would!!!!) Tyler was left with my friend Danielle adn of course he was not at all interested in bedtime so she let him stay up and watch Thomas and was sleepign only like 30 min before we got home. :) It was so weird to get into the car to go out at 8:15. How sad that going out at 8:15 is late now! The last time i was out that late was driving to the Kelloggs after seeing Lori at the mall at Christmas! We are so pathetic- us old married people with kids. But we love it. Sunday morning is a bit of a fog- they let me sleep in instead of all of us going to church... i'm not happy that it was blamed on me but it was nice to sleep in! That afternoon the Pierre's came to visit and Julie again- her family was supposed to come but her brother had a little accident at work.... the story we got was that he cut half of his thumb off and they lost it in the salad where he works but by the end of the night it was that he just cut it deep and had to have it stiched. It was a fun evening regardless adn then of COURSE at 8 we had to watch 2 hours of 24 (not my 'cup of tea') as usual when someone is diong something fun without him Tyler would have none of going to bed so I was with him most of the first hour and read a Glamor magazine the rest of the time. Gary and my brother were in Heaven. My mom FINALLY got a real TV and also got DISH so we got to watch more than 3 channels the whole weekend. No, let me rephrase that, we had the OPTION to watch more than three channels... however I doubt that the 4 football games, one hockey game, and 6 doses of SportsCenter were on more than 3 different channels. Thankfully my brother is a big old softy and when Tyler got crabby he was happy to put on cartoon.s :) ok, so we watched like 5 channels... out of 300 or so... :) Monday my mom worked in the AM and we had to leave to go to mansfield to get the house listed with a realtor in another attempt to sell sell sell! The roof was leaking AGAIN so we got a new guy to fix it. He came right away to look at it, gave us the estimate, said he'd be back tomorrow (today) and have it done and bill us. SWEET! I wonder if he's there though.... It's always nice to have friends help out when they can but this time we needed someone in and out and to get it done quickly. It turned out to be a small thing but we were freaking out when we first got there. :) We finally got home (after a pit stop at Best Buy to buy the 70$ gizmo we needed to make the Tivo work), ate dinner, hooked up the Tivo, gave Tyler a bath and got him to bed. Whew! I have not even unpacked because this morning was my ultrasound! SO exciting!!! But, that's another blog....

I don't remmeber if I mentioned this but we came home from my grandma's on Christmas eve and went to the evening service with Garys parents at thier church. It was mostly singing with a drama and a small message. They offered no child care and we decided to take Tyler anyways. He seems to love music and I thought since he'd been hearing Christmas music for a month maybe he'd enjoy it and kind of sing along. I thought... famous last words! He did love the singing... especially the fact that his very own Pops was one of the singers on stage! Oh and they had drums! You could just see that he wanted to be up there so badly, not in the back row playing quietly, eating crackers or coloring! I had been thinking before this that it was time to begin taking him into church with us for the praise time so that he could begin to learn to be seated around other adults, experience the music, and maybe learn a thing or two about being quiet. Today, we finally did it. We took him into the service. He was enthralled by the little pencils but didn't wnat to color. He liked trying to figure out why when he sat back in the chiar it folded on him. And then the music started. I was right! My boy loves music! I had him stand between us and he could see fine and as I began clapping he looked up at me, and around at others and began clapping too. It was too cute. My little mimic. Then he happened to spot his dad who likes to sing with his hands in his jeans pockets rocking on the balls of his feet. SO, little Tyler busied himself shoving his little hands in his pockets and bouncing as well as he could without falling over. He was just too cute. After the first song someone sat in front of us so I held him and he clapped and I tried to point out the drums and piano and guitars. Then Gary held him some too ( that extra 30 pounds got to me!). He folded his hands and was totally silent throught the entire prayer time between songs- and it was longer than usual. He also enjoyed looking at the TINY newborn seated in front of us (which of course made me cry- saw about 10 babies- cried at every one...) but didn't yell to the baby or rock the baby's chair or anything... maybe there is hope he won't hate his baby sister/brother! As it turned out he did really well and I think he really liked it! He also went into the nursery just fine like any other week! yea! As I left to take him to nursery it was greeting time and it turned out that Gary went to school with the girl who was behind us and he told me she said Tyler was the cutest little boy she'd ever seen! Awww!! That totally made up for a hot chick talking to my Gary without me there.... ;)

We are going to California!!!! We purchased the tickets yesterday! Can you belive Gary found tickets for under $250? We are so thankful!!! It will be so nice to spend time with Joshua and Mom! This will be Gary's first time west and my first time in Cali. Yesterday was my first day babysitting a little boy named Matthew. He and Tyler played REALLY well together! They probaly wouldn't do so well if it was every day but I think the once a week will turn out to be just right. :) It was nice to see Tyler interact with another kid again- it seems so long since he's played with other kids and me get to see him. They always tell me in nursery that he's really good, but I know they just say that so you'll bring them back and stay at the church. :) Yesterday also was the first time Gary could feel the baby's kicks through my belly! For a week I did not feel any kicks and got very anxious that something was wrong. I'm also not growing much and my belly is not hard like it was with Tyler. However now my littel girl/guy is on the go quite a bit. "she" seems to especially like story time at night when we put Tyler to bed. It kind of makes it feel as if we are already a family of 4. I'll be 20 weeks on Saturday- halfway! 6 days till Joshua comes to OHIO!!!

We spend the last day of 2006 and the first day of 2007 at the Bush Cabin on Leesville Lake. It was wonderful. Praying you all had a safe, happy and healthy New Years Day! Sorry you didn't Hannah! :)

Tyler and Grandma playing with the new train table Tyler playing with Tyler, Lauren and Michaela (my cousins) Tyler and Daddy playing with new recorders Christmas morning. Our Christmas tree Christmas morning. WHY IS IT SIDEWAYS?!?!?! Marie: I could not get a good picture of the whole living room like you posted awhile back. I did try though!

As you know, my grandpa has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Since he could have weeks, months or even a year, I wanted to be sure to get some photos of him and Tyler. We added me for one and intended on getting one including Grandma and Gary and my dad but we forgot. Hopefully when my brother comes home we can get a few good ones of all of us. These will still always be cherished.

We went for a weekend in Pittsburgh to see friends and Josh and Jackie took us to a train display near their house. Tyler loved it, especially the area that had Thomas stuff. :) Here are just a couple photos- on of Jackie and I (both of us pregnant and sick!) and one of Tyler watching the larger Thomas train.

Here is a cute photo taken during one of Tyler's bubble baths. I just like the expression. :) I'm not sure why it's sideways or how to flip it!

These are some photos from early December when we went to a Christmas party for a young couples small group at the Bush's church. We went to the local Fire Department and got to see and get inside all the trucks! As you can imagine Tyler LOVED it! My camera died but my friend Melissa took over 100 pictures of the group! These are my favorites of the ones we were in.