do you really want to say that to me?

I apologize to anyone who reads this, but I'm gonna vent a little on here. I am so frustrated by people coming up to me asking me if I'm sure I'm ready and if I'm gonna be able to handle another baby right now! I pray for patience with these people, but all I get is an anger that sweeps over me. I have never had any doubt in my mind that we can handle this! We knew what we were doing and I wish people would just get off of our backs about it! Nicholas knew before he married me that I wanted my children close in age and that I wanted to be done having them by the time I'm 30! (I'm 26 now) And he agreed with me that that was the best plan for us!! So personally, I wish people would let us live our lives, be happy for us and if they aren't just keep their opinions to themselves. I hear it all the time, "you sure are brave" "i can't believe your pregnant AGAIN" "all i can say is Good Luck" "i'm glad it's you and not me because I couldn't handle it" and so on, but those are the ones I hear most often!
Now yes, we did get pregnant a lot faster than we thought we would, but NO we were not doing anything to prevent it! We knew we were ready if it did happen! And quite frankly if I hear it again, I hope those people don't get offended when I start to defend myself. Because I AM TIRED OF HEARING IT!! Contrary to what people believe, this is not going to make us enjoy Ashalyn any less. The comment that hurts the worst is when people say, "don't you want to enjoy your time with Ashalyn while she's young." Trust me when I say this, Ashalyn is our life! We enjoy her to the fullest every day and will continue to when baby #2 arrives.
I have no doubt in my mind that Nick and I can and will be successful parents to two beautiful children no matter the age difference! I'm sorry, it's just super frustrating when people do not keep their opinions to themselves sometimes!!!

Ashalyn and her cousins!

Wow, what a weekend!! My sister and her husband left on Saturday with a few of their friends for Vegas and left Brett, Brandon, and Paris with us. We had so much fun with our niece and nephews and Ashalyn had a blast. They left this morning and may I say that my house is now trashed and looks like a tornado literally swept through my house!! But we sure had fun!! My day today will consist of cleaning now, but just a little recap of the week! Saturday night we packed them all in the car and made our way to the Pettisville Wauseon basketball game!! The kids love going to the games, so this I know they enjoyed!! Then Pizza Hut!! Sunday we went to my parents for a little and they played there! Monday I got a sitter (my mom) for while I had my ultrasound and then later that night Paris had gymnastics!! And Nick had church league basketball! So that was crazy and busy!! Last night was just a stay at home and play kinda day, although we did go to Walmart which the kids seemed to love the most!!! I'll admit, it was a little crazy around here, but now that they are gone, it's so quiet that Ashalyn and I don't know what to do!! LOL!! We will miss them being here all the time!!!

Our ultrasound went about as expected!! My OB thought maybe I was about 11 weeks along, since I've yet to have a normal cycle since I've had my csection with Ashalyn, but I was pretty convinced I was only about 8 weeks! The ultrasound showed me at 7 weeks and 3 days, making my due date October 9. Since I went csection, this one also will have to be done the same. So the scheduled date will be earlier than my actual due date, but not sure yet how much earlier. With Ashalyn I went 4 weeks early, so I'm sure he will take that into consideriation some! Even if we are looking at the end of September that puts Ashalyn and Baby 13 months apart so not too bad!! :-) Baby didn't really look like a baby yet, so tiny and just has little buds! But it amazes me even more seeing the early phases of how awesome creating a baby is! The whole process just amazes me more and more ever day!! How baby starts out and then just watching Ashalyn go from the 5 lb 5oz baby girl to our 14 lb 4 oz big girl who is sitting up, rolling ALL over, jabbering, attempting to crawl, and now standing up on her little feet (with help of course). Like I said, the whole process is a MIRACLE and AMAZING gift from God!! To compare our little 7 week 3 day baby in the womb to our 6 month old princess, really makes the birth cycle seem so much more incredible!!

I have been feeling pretty good! I've had a few days where I havent felt the best, but given the craziness I'm going through right now, it's understandable!! This one has been so different from my pregnancy with Ashalyn so far (just the first few weeks) so Boy, maybe? We will see!! Either way, we pray for a beautiful healthy baby!!

3+1=4

I know I said I was done blogging, but I just couldn't do it! I missed expressing myself and its so much easier to do here than on a piece or two of notebook paper! Things are so different now. Dad is doing better, but mom had an incident last week. I guess you can say our family is accident/health prone. On her way to church she slipped on their throw rug in the enterance way and fell to the ground in so much pain! They had to have a resuce squad come because she could not move from the laying position without an extreme amount of pain. She is bed ridden now due to a torn pcl, mcl, miniscis (spelling i'm sure is way off) and another pulled joint in her knee. She will go into the surgeon on Tuesday and have surgery in the week to follow. It has been kinda nice me not working because I have been able to do some cooking, cleaning, and even grocery shopping for them. Ashalyn has also been able to keep grandma company while over there because she is getting rather bored sitting around all day! we are just thankful dad is back to work now.

And as far as in our immediate family of Nicholas, Ashalyn and I, we are overwhelmed with joy and pleased to announce that our family of 3 has grown! One day I was feeling a little nausous and all I could think was man, not the flu! Please God! Then it dawned on me that I was over a week past my regularly ontime cycle and sure enough our cheap generic test had two lines. So once again we found ourselves on the way to walmart to buy a more expensive and more trusted pregnancy test.

After the initial shock and realizing Ashalyn was only 5 months old we were so grateful and very excited. Yes, there was the scared feeling of what our families would think, and a few people that were just flat rude with us because we just had a baby and told us we wouldn't be able to handle it and were crazy, but overall we were filled with excitement! I have always had a burning desire to have twins, but wanted it to happen naturally. Since my grandfather was a twinI just thought it'd be neat to carry on the gene. But maybe I won't be able to do that so this is God's way of getting me as close as possible....who knows!! My chances for twins are still pretty high because Nick's dad is also a twin...but having them close together like this could bring some of the same things that a multiple birth would! I have had the chance to be around several sets of twins and even triplets throughout my life and just find the whole process and thought of it absolutely amazing! So with this closeness in age, I look forward to the challenges we will encounter and all the excitement of watching them grow so close over the years! The only one challenge I could skip i think is that when Ashalyn finally gets all her teeth in and no more mouth pain it will start all over with the next one.

The teething process has not been fun. She has been chewing on EVERYTHING! Pretty much anything she can get her hands on becomes a teether. She gnaws on her hands and jabbers and fusses throughout most the night and day. She has been running a low grade fever now for about the past week. You can feel her front teeth and see where they will be coming in, her gums are all white, but no signs of them breaking through yet.

So far the pregnancy has been so much different than that with Ashalyn. I have only had one awful day so far but other than that have felt great!! I really have not had a desire to eat though so I've had a hard time making myself eat when its time. I find myself sleeping pretty heavy at night but havent had the need yet to crawl in bed and sleep my day away like I did with my first pregnancy!! Which is a blessing since now I have a little one to take care of during the day! She has really helped keep my mind off of being pregnant that I havent really had time to get tired i dont think!!

Ashalyn is growing so big and so so fast! In 3 days she will be 6 months. I cannot believe it! But at the same time, I don't remember life before those 6 months. She has truly changed our lives in so so many ways!! WHAT A BlESSING!!!

And just one more recent picture of our beautiful princess!!! This is one of daddy's favorite pictures ever I think!! Chris "Beanie" Wells from THE Ohio State University! We're hoping for a draft pick with the Cleveland Browns this year!! We will see!!