Back Again:)

Hello All!

Well as you can tell by my lack of posts, I've been just a little busy this summer:)
Growing a baby and keeping up with a 2 year old, plus work, lots of family time and several trips have kept me hopping!

Things are going well these days as I have gotten through the worst of my pregnancy sickness. (I was vomitting all day for the first 18 weeks:( But praise God that so far, everything looks great with baby!! I had an early ultrasound at 6 weeks and 9 weeks to check on baby as I had 2 early miscarriages in between Emma and baby #2.....both scans looked normal. Then 2 weeks ago I had my anatomy scan at 19.5 weeks and we got a good glimpse at baby's gender:) It looked to be pretty obvious to us and the tech who confirmed that what we were looking at most definitely looked to be a boy:) Mommy was not surprised as this is what I had been feeling the whole time:) We are so excited to get to experience both and feel that God is truly blessing us with this second miracle!!
The only causes for concern in my heart right now are the fact that we were not able to get a very good look at baby's spine, so my doctor ordered another scan in a week to try and get a better look just to make sure everything looks ok. The other slight concern being that I have a very low-lying placenta this time which can cause bleeding and could end in bedrest or a c-section. But the important thing is that it poses no real risk to baby! It is also something that often times will correct itself as the pregnancy progresses so just something to keep praying about:)

Now a little on Miss Em!
2 1/2 years old and crazy as ever:) She has more personality than any other little gal I know! She is halarious, opinionated, sweet, helpful, detailed, stubborn, and has a widely growing imagination. She is so fun to just sit and watch and listen to! All in all, she's a great little girl. She has given us several challenges as parents all ready with her routine protests about nap and bedtimes, and with our attempts at potty training. But I try to remember that she loves people and being active, so settling down to spend any amount of time in solidarity is not going to be something that she enjoys. And as far as going potty goes....she remembers probably 40% of the time, goes 90% of the time that we remember to take her, and is still only 2..:) I am also pledging to do a better job at consisitantly taking her and trying big girl undies more now that I don't spend a large portion of my day being sick:P
In other news, she is learning her shapes and colors, loves her magnetic dolls, littlest pet shop pets, and Alvin and the chipmunks. She still is a music fanatic and has developed an interest in cheerleading after going to her first football game with mommy and daddy.
She's exhausting and wonderful and we wouldn't trade her for anything in the world. She's such a blessing and we can't wait to introduce her to her baby brother sometime around the end of January/first of February:)!!!

Hope you all are loving fall as much as we are!

Much love from the Van Dykes