HELLO!

WARNING: Longest/Most unorganized post known to man about to happen here...

Read/decifer at your own risk.*

*we are not responsible for blurred vision, or the need to get a more powerful vision perscription after reading this.

This is the best way I can describe how I'm feeling at this point. I remember hating being the one my mom would ask to open the roll canister when we would have these for dinner. Why? Oh, you've GOT to know why!! About 1/3 of the way down unraveling the paper, it POPS open unexpectedly. You know the POP is going to happen, but no matter how much you might prepare, you're never quite ready for it to happen.

I'm due in 28 days.

*Hyperventilating*

Well, not really, because we are just sooooooo excited to meet our baby girl!!! This pregnancy has zoooooomed by, and now with just days to mentally and emotional prepare, I find myself trying to get myself together before I find myself doing the 3 hour feeding routine once again.

But yes, I feel like this canister for the reason mentioned above, and because I feel like I'm about to POP. This pregnancy has been different in a few ways from my pregnancy with Isaac, for example:

-I've carried the baby ALL up front (the swelling of face, thighs do not count, right?)

-I can still wear my wedding ring (which stopped at about 6-1/2 to 7 months with Isaac)

-I've worked out for this entire pregnancy, compared to hardly at ALL with Isaac (you should see the looks I'm getting these days at the gym)

-I've had a toddler to keep myself preoccupied

-I crave anything sweet. Not just sweet candies, but like TONS of fruit, crystal light, sugar-free popsicles...with Isaac, it was salty foods.

-I can still see my ankles

The similarities include:

-Heartburn

-Swelling (not nearly as bad as with Isaac, but yes, once you go through the pictures, you will see it in my face) lovely.

-BACK ACHES

-Forgetfulness

-Dropping EVERYTHING

-emotional

-EXCITED!!

I have waaaay too many friends who have spent the majority of their pregnancies throwing up, and so for this, I know how extremely lucky I am to have easy pregnancies.

Things that have happened in the past few months (in a major nutshell)

Sean was gone for both August and September doing out of state rotations at the University of Arkansas and Penn State. He was home for a total of 4 days during that time. He LOVED both programs (he's focusing on Anaesthesiology.) He got great reviews from both programs. Isaac and I are so proud of his hard work.

Although it STUNK having Sean gone during these last months of pregnancy, I have LOVED having all of this time with Isaac. There were moments where I wanted to cry my eyes out just out of pure exhaustion, or because I couldn't stand to look at all of the toys scattered around the house at the end of the day (hence, leading to bending down with a huge belly way too many times) but then Isaac would say or do the funniest thing in the world. For instance, his prayers these days are hilarious. He prays for everything from "green lights, and green arrows (traffic lights)" to BYU Cougars. The prayers of a child are so sincere and honest!!

If you didn't already know, we are having a girl. We are down to two names, one of which we are almost certain we'll go with.

I'm officially done with photography until the start of next year. I had SO much fun with it this spring and summer, I can hardly wait to start up again...BUT...I need to remind myself that I NEED this break in every way. It was getting tough towards the end of my sessions. Since Sean was gone, I was having to find babysitters to watch Isaac, and I was not able to contort my body into all of the positions to get great angles and perspective:) But please do me the favor, and check out my website. I'm not even asking for you to leave comments, but just take a look at what I've done for the past summer. I've loved it. I've learned so much, and I plan to do some changes with the upcoming year. Tell friends and family to check it out as well.

www.jnealphotography.com

I have finally decided to tackle this BEAST of a post, seeing that I took, what?...a four month hiatus from blogging. I want to be as close to up-to-date before our baby comes so that I can focus on the new pictures, versus always feeling behind. I'm warning you NOW, that these pictures are waaaaay out of order, so just try and just enjoy them! :)

I know that I mentioned our site is no longer private, but it is ONLY because it has been so long since I did my last post, I'm pretty sure it has kicked a bunch of people out from viewing the blog. We will be going private again in a month or two, so if you've already told me you'd like an invitation to be a part of our blog, you won't have to tell me again. If you haven't, you need to let me know via e-mail or by leaving a comment.

OK, so here we go with all of the pictures! These are all from my little point and shoot. I have YET to go through the ones I've taken on my bigger camera. I'll do those later!!

Getting ready to decorate some cookies! He wanted to bring cookies to all of his playgroup buddies:) So cute! We had to decorate them early in the morning (hence, the jammies) because he had gym tots at the YMCA with his buddies in just an hour or two.

My favorite park, Hess Hathaway with Isaac. He doesn't do slides the conventional way:) This was one of the more conventional positions.

This would be "Beary" the Bear (so creative, right??) sitting with Isaac at Costco. He goes through these funny little stages, and this particular week, we couldn't leave home without beary. I kept a very watchful eye over Beary, not only because Isaac was extremely concerned for the bear, but because this was the bear I received when I was a baby, 29 years ago. So, it holds a special little place in my heart!!

September and October are such fun months. The air is getting crisp, you can smell a change in the air...and CIDER MILLS!!! Oh my goodness, I just love them. We've been many times in the past few weeks. Here he is on a John Deere trike in the kid section at the cider mill.

So funny!

Isaac and I had a blast together. It was hard to have Sean gone for so long, but somehow I really feel Isaac understood the situation, and was such a good boy for me. I bought him a little scooter because he looooves watching other kids on their scooter. One of the two weekends out of the two months where Sean was able to come home, we put the scooter together, and took it out for a spin.

Helmet? Check.

LOVE this cute little smile.

Getting the hang of it. Of course we happen to live at the base of a HILL, so he had to learn quickly.

See mommy...I got it!!

The same weekend as the scooter, we went over to Muskegon to join a bunch of our friends from church at the beach. That would be Lake Michigan beach. It's amazing over there! We went over last summer and we were anxious to get back over there this September. The weather was perrrrfect, and so was the company!

A bunch of the families chillin' on the beach.

Sean and the Isaacman

During our trip over to Lake Michigan, Isaac and Sean had the chance to go kayaking for a bit. I just told Sean to not go out too far...something about Isaac being out that far kinda got me alittle jittery...he was sooo sad when he had to get out of the kayak after his time out on the lake.

almost ready!

Heading out

Look how beautiful Lake Michigan is!! (I'm trying to distract myself by the fact that Sean went waaaay too far out for my comfort. This doesn't even do the distance justice because I think I had zoomed in a bit.

Coming back in. You can see isaac starting to hyperventilate: "Noooo! Noooo all done!!"

"Gentle" is the word around here lately:) With our baby coming soon, we are practicing being gentle with everything from toys, to other kids, to little tiny ants and other little creatures. The funniest thing happened a few weeks ago when Isaac was with his buddy, Norah, and he bent down to look at two little ants busy at work, and said, "See Norah? Ants!" She bent down, looked at them for a second, and then proceeded to stomp on them to their brutal death! I wish I had a camera to catch Isaac's face when she did this. I had to do everything not to laugh my head off. He talked about those ants all night. "Mommy, ants okay? I be gentle, right?"

Here is Isaac practicing "Gentle" with little Penny. He does sooooooooooo good with little babies, I can hardly believe it. He coos and talks to them, "awwww, baby Penny (which he pronounces 'Pee wee') it's okay."

Kisses!

Favorite thing at the park lately, is not only to be chased endlessly (picture me, 36 weeks along, running at the speed of a turtle, playing chase) but also to do the "Superman" on the big boy swings. "Higher Mommy! HIGHER!"

Visiting his cousins Isabel, Michael, Janie, and Lilah at their house. He calls popsicles the same thing he calls bicycles...."Bi-cy-cycle"

Little janie girl. Love her.

Oh my goodness...are they not just so so so so so cute?! This trip to NY was total bliss because I had the chance to snuggle with two of my new nieces, Lilah (on the left, Veronica and Jon's baby girl) and Penelope (on the right, Fran and Josh's baby girl.) To top it off, my oldest niece, Isabel was baptized. I can hardly believe she is 8. It was such a wonderful experience, shared by all of our family.

Bliss. Not just me resting (hee hee) but that beautiful cuddly baby Penny who was fast asleep making all of those adorable newborn sleepy noises. My pregnant belly was the perfect perch (sp?) for the babies to rest on:)

This would be Isaac sometime during August after his memorable spill down our basement stairs (13 total stairs)...while on his scooter. Lovely. Thank goodness it was only a scrape!! Of course all of the good stuff happens when Sean is away.

Isaac's first Tigers game with Sean. So cute! The game went into 10 innings, and Sean proudly told me that Isaac sat through nearly all of it. What?!? How cool is that?

One of our many visits to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum.

Awww, my little Isaac actually smiling. He actually smiles all day long, it's just when I take a picture he turns on me:) During the summer, Isaac and I did a lot of picnics together at the park. So much fun.

Headed to NYC to visit a dear friend and her hubby, Marissa and Dres, as well as to take a break from things. Sean and I headed down on a Wednesday morning on the train from Albany and were able to go to a matinee of Mary Poppins. We did a ton of other stuff, I can hardly remember at this point:S The next day, Sean's sister, Carrie arrived to hang which was a ton of fun! She got us SWEET tickets (2nd row, directly behind left field, second level) We had such a blast!

Oooh, this is what we look like after an entire day of walking in muggy, HUMID, rainy weather. We were READY to sit down and relax and watch the game. Did I mention the game was against the Mariners, Sean's home team?? It was such a fun game!
The old Yankee Stadium. So sad:(

The unbelievably beautiful new Yankee Stadium.

Inside the new stadium

Heading to the top of the Empire State Building. We lucked out with hardly ANY line!

Sean holding the Empire State Building by the spire:)

Sean's sister, Carrie and Sean. This was one of those things that we almost didn't do because of the weather. It was kind of a crummy day, weather wise, and it was drizzling when we were about to walk the Brooklyn Bridge. But we decided to still do it. It was amazing! You definitely need to take the stroll if and when you go to NYC.

NY Stock Exchange

At Grandma and Papa's house in NY. I think this was in July.

Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. This is serious stuff, according to Isaac :)

Our new house we just purchased. Oh my goodness....SOOOOO kidding:) Just a really cool house that reminds me of the one from "Twilight." And besides that fact, it's just really beautiful!

Our trip to Utah (holy cow...back in JANUARY!!) Can you tell how often I download from my little camera?! But still, I love seeing this pictures with all but one sister. Fran Fran couldn't be there due to her teaching schedule:(

Horrible picture! Grr. My little camera was two seconds from dying when i was trying to grab this picture, so it didn't even have time to focus before it took, and then died.

Oh yeah, that would be Elton John on the left and Billy Joel on the right. It was amazing. I must say Elton John was better. My neighbor, Carol asked me to go with her. It was so much fun, and her company had a private suite with catered food, etc.

Tigers v. Yankees game. Our great friends Erin and Josh invited us to go to this game, and of course...we were all for it! Hello! Derek Jeter?!?! My home team, the Yankees?! A fun night with friends?! It was a great night.

Erin and me

Love these ladies!! A few of us from church went to a "Time Out for Women" conference together. It was so much fun! There is never a dull moment with these fun gals!

This park is just about two minutes down the road from us. Isaac and I go every week and either walk together, or go see the baby animals at the farm. Can I tell you how much we have LOVED living here in Milford? We thought we'd NEVER EVER say we'd consider living in Michigan (and we're still in debate because of the miserably cold winters here) but if we could find this same time in warmer area, we'd jump all over it!! :)

OK, that's it for now!! PHEW! I feel a huge amount of relief! I promise to do much much better!