Today marks exactly four weeks until expected due date. I’m ready. I’m ready to meet my new little girl and to hold her in my arms. I’m ready to see my feet again and to walk without waddling. I’m ready to wear normal clothes again and to enjoy a glass of wine.

There are things I will miss about being pregnant, however, especially since this will quite likely be the last time I experience it. It is such a surreal and awesome thing to be growing another human being inside of you; one that is impossible to explain unless you’ve gone through it yourself. Again I will say that I have been very fortunate, with both pregnancies, to have been able to just enjoy it all without the discomforts and pains and issues that many women seem to have during or throughout their nine month gestation.

I wonder if at some point down the road I will want to be pregnant again, because I do enjoy it (not love, but enjoy), because it is an amazing journey, and because my body acclimates to it very well. I guess we’ll cross that bridge if or when we get there, but for now, I’m ready to move on from being pregnant to being a mom of two and remembering what it is like to have a newborn.

In the meantime, we’ve been trying to get a little more serious about getting our house sold. This Sunday will be the third in a row that we’ve had an open house. We’ve lowered the price, but not by much and had a home inspection done. It turns out we need a new roof, but other than that they told us we should have no problems selling it as is. It’s gotten a lot of looks and we have come close to getting an offer on several occasions, so I’m very hopeful that it will sell in the next month or so. It needs to sell in the next month or so.

As of today, our new house is still just foundation and a poured basement, but our builder’s schedule has them starting the framing next week. Matt and I will be spending our afternoon picking out our granite, cabinets and hopefully all the flooring. All of the exterior stuff like the siding, stone, and shutters has already been decided, and here’s the inspiration behind our choices:

So far, Matt and I have agreed on most everything (there was some back and forth on the stone choice, but that’s really it), and it helps that we do seem to have very similar tastes, for the most part. I’ve also been able to share some of my ideas and inspirations with him ahead of time (thank you Pinterest!) so going into these things we have some clue of what we are looking for instead of being completely indifferent, which is why I’m expecting that this afternoon will be relatively painless and with minimal argument.

Like I said, we’re moving right along, with everything. It’s a little stressful trying to get all of the pieces of this puzzle to come together nicely, but it’s also exciting at the same time. A new baby, a new house: these are some pretty major changes in our lives, but change is good.

We rang in the New Year snuggled in bed, asleep. We, that is Kendal and I (Matt was already snoring) almost saw midnight, but finally turned off Monsters Inc about 11:00 PM and called it a night.

The three of us were at a wedding and reception for our daycare lady’s daughter earlier in the night.  Kendal danced and ran around and laughed with all of her daycare friends that she had not seen in over a week. She most definitely missed them over the holiday break, however, she did get a little teary as I was getting her up and ready on Tuesday morning (her first day back since December 22^nd) and told me that she was going to miss us. I think she was more tired than anything, but it certainly tugged at my heart strings thinking that she really loved all of the extra family time we had. After some consoling and reassuring that I would come and pick her up as soon as I got off work she seemed to be okay, and I didn’t hear that she shed any more tears when her daddy dropped her off either, so yeah, I think she was mostly just tired.   

It’s those little special moments though that I am trying to enjoy and remember as our final days with “just Kendal.” I want to give her all of the extra love and time that I can before her sister arrives and steals some of my heart and attention away. I’m not afraid that I don’t have the capacity to love them both, I’m really not, it’s just going to be different for all of us. I know there will be challenges, and adaptations, and adjustments but I’m also sure it will quickly seem normal and natural as we welcome our new baby girl into our lives and become a family of four.

With a little over a month to go until Due Date, we have entered final preparation mode. The crib is up, the bedding and newborn clothes are washed, and the car seat bases found. The anticipation is growing and I’m absolutely certain that our new arrival will be much more celebrated than the arrival of the New Year.

Christmas with Kendal was so much fun this year. She’s at the age where she gets it. Well she got the Santa part anyway, maybe not the Jesus’ birth part so much, which is probably our fault for not emphasizing that more.

Even though we didn’t go to the mall and “see” Santa this year, she did get a personalized video from him, compliments of Portable North Pole. She was soooo excited to hear that she was on his Nice List, which we were then able to use to threaten her with when she was not being so nice. Now that it’s over and Santa has come and gone we have resorted to threats of calling Santa to take her presents back. It’s mean, I know, but it’s amazing how well it works! I’m not sure what we’re going to do come mid-January when even that begins to seem like a meaningless and empty threat.

Probably my favorite part of the whole Christmas experience was to see how excited she got opening each and every present. With each gift she opened she’d say, “Oh! Just what I always wanted!!” She was so gracious and appreciative and said “thank you” many times without being prompted.

I’ve always thought that Christmas is a magical and joyous time, but it has become even more so getting to see it through my daughter’s eyes.

Here’s some pictures from all of our celebrations.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Santa Came!

It's a Lalaloopsy Doll! She quickly learned they don't sit or stand or talk so maybe not as cool as she thought!

Matching shirts for her and her sister.

In her Christmas dress on Christmas Eve at Grandma Lynn's and Papa Glenn's

Grandma Eli and her grandkids and great-grandkids

Sitting with Uncle (almost) Rusty opening presents.

Candyland from Krissy and Rusty and baby stuff from Grandma and Papa.

Cousins in their Christmas jammies

A kiddy i-pad from Grandma Rob.

A recorded book from Dee Dee.

And a trampoline from Grandma Rob. She's already twisted her knee jumping on it.

A talking, dancing, egg laying, dragon from Papa Gene. And Toy Story Operation. Finally what she was asking for (one of the many things).

Last week they dug a hole, this week we have a foundation!

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