82 Days To Go

   We only have 82 days to go until we meet our new little daughter. Brandon and I were just comparing my pregnancy for Emma Grace and now with Brinley Rose. I found a picture that was taken on January 30, 2011 with Emma (left) and we took one today (February 1, 2013) with Brinley (right) to see how different I look. Aside from looking older, I guess my size looks exactly the same! I still can't believe our girl's birthdays are only a couple of weeks apart...I guess that makes it REALLY easy to compare my size through pictures! You decide...

We Are Floridians....Again!

   Yes, I'm aware it has been months since I updated the blog, but I promise we have been extremely busy! Besides, I have admitted to being a horrible blogger a few posts back! ;0)
Okay, so where do I start? How about where I left off? Are you ready? We have a lot of ground to cover!

July:
   We took a really fun trip to Michigan to visit my sister-in-law and her clan. In fact, Brandon's Mom, brother Ryan and Ryan's wife Charlene all went as well. It's a rare occurrence that we are all in the same city at the same time since everyone lives all over the nation. We spent the week boating, water skiing, knee boarding, wake boarding and swimming on Lake Mickey. We also took a ride to Lake Michigan. No swimming in that lake for us, it was way too cold! Aside from the heat, we had such a great time! I would love to do this every year!!

August:
   This month we were excited to find out that we were pregnant with our second child! I actually thought I was pregnant the month before after being 4 days late, but the stars aligned for another July conception and we will be expecting Baby Vreuls #2 on April 24th. We now have Emma's birthday on April 8th, mine on April 22nd and the new baby on April 24th. It's starting to look like that is going to be an expensive month!

   Brandon also accepted a new job this month working for SAIC in Orlando. I was so excited to move back and at the same time so sad to leave my father-in-law, Jean, and my mother-in-law, Nancy. I feel so lucky that we have had the chance to spend so much time with them over the past few years. They are such wonderful parents and they have done so much for us. We love them immensely and wish we could all live in the same location. Maybe one day. 

   On a good note, we took a week long trip to Orlando and bought a house!

September:

   When we got back to Tennessee, we didn't have to pack very much! We had a moving company pack, load, haul and unload all of our stuff! And when I say stuff, I mean a LOT of stuff...24,000 pounds of it!!! I didn't even realize we owned so much. It's amazing how much you accumulate over a few short years.

   Now we are owners of 2 homes. We are, however, over the fact that we have to pay for 2 mortgages and we really need to sell our Tennessee home. Prayers would be greatly appreciated for it to sell soon!

October:
   So a few things happened during October...
   Emma turned 18 months old. I can't believe it, our baby is pushing 2 years old!

   We celebrated Brandon's 32nd birthday with his favorite chocolate cake from TooJay's. They don't have those restaurants in Tennessee. Emma was so kind to loan her bib to Daddy!

   We also got to visit with Brandon's cousin Meredith and her husband Jonathan and their little boy Xander. They live in Virginia so we never get to see them.

   We decided to take a break from unpacking and spend a day at the beach. It was a beautiful, but windy day. Emma could care less about the wind though, she had a blast playing in the sand!

   We had another ultrasound today (October 16th) since I had to find a new doctor here in Orlando. The tech said that her guess is a little boy. If it is, I think we are done having babies! This is the 1st 3D image I have ever gotten in either pregnancy. The detail is amazing! Baby is 12 weeks and 6 days old.

   We finally got the approval from our home owners association to plant some trees in our back yard. We loved the green giant thujas that we planted in Tennessee and they grow really fast, so we decided to plant them here as well. We hope they will grow faster and longer now that we are in a hotter environment!

   Now that we are Floridians again, we decided to become Sea World seasonal pass holders. I love that we get to go whenever we want now and it's so much fun taking Emma and watching her reactions to all the animals!

   We also had a fun Halloween this year, now that Emma is a year older. We went on the annual trick-or-treat hayride that I used to go on when I was a kid and we went to my cousin's Halloween party where we watched Emma shake her butt to the DJ's music. This kid REALLY loves to dance!! I dressed her up as a garden gnome this year, she looked so stinkin' cute!

November:
   Mom and I decided to spend a day together with Emma at Sea World. They had all their Christmas decorations already up, so we got some pretty pictures by their aqua Christmas tree. Emma was also able to go on some of the kiddie rides. Nonna (my mom) had to take her since pregnant women can ride. She was having so much fun that every time she got off a ride she would cry to get back on.

   Here I am at 16 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I'm getting bigger much faster with this pregnancy!

   So, somehow, I didn't get any pictures from Thanksgiving and I don't know how that happened. We did have a wonderful, but completely filling Thanksgiving after eating one dinner at my parents house and then a second dinner at Brandon's Mom's house. 

   The day after Thanksgiving we found out the sex of Baby Vreuls #2. I was completely shocked to find out we were having another little girl!! Excited, but shocked!! At my 12 week ultrasound, the tech said she couldn't be sure, but that it looked like a little boy, so I never thought anything different. Needless to say, my entire family was just as shocked as I was. Brandon's family, on the other hand, kept saying it was going to be a girl. I guess if there is a next pregnancy, I will be leaning on their theory!! The baby is 18 weeks and 5 days in this picture.

      A few days later, Mom, Dad, Emma and I took a short trip to New Orleans to visit some family. Mom and I actually dropped Dad off in Apalachicola for a hunting excursion and then we went the rest of the way to New Orleans. We spent the next four days visiting family and eating mostly! But we had a lot of fun and it was so great to watch Emma meet several people for the first time. I actually forgot to bring my camera with me. I know, I really dropped the ball this month!! But here are some of the photos from my iPhone.

December:

   I couldn't wait to get the tree and lights up this year for Emma!! I kept wanting to put it up, but we always get through our Thanksgiving celebration and then put the Christmas decor within the next couple of days. 

   We went to a surprise birthday party for (this is going to be a mouthful) my brother's girlfriend's mom, Molly. It was really nice and Emma found some babies to play with.

   We also got some pretty family photos. I am also 21 weeks and 3 days along in my pregnancy. I am more than half way there!

   We opened gifts early with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins since they were going to be spending Christmas in New Orleans. Emma got some practice on how to open gifts on Christmas morning.

   We spent December 23rd in Mount Dora. We used to go every year when I was a kid and this was the first time I got to go again since I had moved away. I was so excited to bring Brandon and Emma this year and my mother-in-law and Brandon's aunt also joined us. The lights are always so beautiful and this year we got an awesome sunset as well!

   For Christmas Eve, we went to my mother-in-laws house. She made an great dinner and we opened our presents.

   We had such a fun Christmas with Emma. We couldn't wait to see her face when she walked into the living room that morning. She got about halfway through her presents when she opened crayons and coloring books. As far as she cared, Christmas was over and she was ready to color. We had to draw her attention away from them so she would open the rest of her gifts. She didn't like that too much, but it only took a second for her to get over it when she saw her next gift.

   We celebrated with, once again, 2 dinners. The first with Brandon's mom and the second with my family. Emma also opened her gifts from my mom and dad. She even helped my dad surprise my mom with her gift of a kayak. Nonna and Emma had a lot of fun in it.

   For the first time I got to have New Years Day dinner at my house. My family and Brandon's family came over and we all made dishes to eat. Once again, I was having to much fun and didn't even think about taking out the camera until later that night when everyone had already left. But I will always remember what a nice day we had.

   So here is the low down on Miss Emma Grace these days. The child talks constantly and even though we don't understand half of what she says, we do understand enough. It amazes us at how much she has learned and absorbs. As far as her baby sister goes, she has no clue whats going on. I try to get her to feel my belly moving, but even the though the baby kicks right on her hand, she doesn't realize it because watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is way more interesting! We are excited to see how she will react when the baby gets here, however, I am just really trying to enjoy our time with just her. She will turn 2 the month the baby is born and I just can't believe that almost 2 years with her has gone by. I always remind myself to take in and appreciate every second I can with her!

   I have yet to see everyone since we have moved back, but maybe now that the holidays are over we can start scheduling our play dates. I can't wait to catch up with everyone!

   Oh yeah, and maybe now I can keep up better with my blogging since I'm all caught up! At least until the baby is born! ;0)

So, what's been happening since May you ask?

   So things are pretty busy over here in Emma World!! I have been wanting to update the blog a bit and move some things around, so that is what I am currently doing. I've posted some videos under the "videos" tab and I'm trying to get some pictures on here too. It might take me a few days since the videos are taking forever to download! In the meantime, here is what we have been up to since my last post in May...

   Emma has been learning and teaching herself how to do all sorts of things! She can feed herself now, but she still gets food in her hair sometimes. Behold, this is what it looks like after you rub eggs in your hair...

   Every weekend we have been heading over to Papa Jean and Mimi Nancy's house to go swimming and we discovered what a water baby we have. She LOVES the water and even sticks her face in it! We can't wait to have our own pool someday!

We went to the zoo for the first time in Nashville! Boy was it hot, but we had a lot of fun!

  

We also had a quiet but fun Memorial Day, just the 3 of us! Well, the 5 of us if you include Kaley and Titian!



   She is becoming more and more interactive everyday. She is now starting to like story times and says "duh, duh", and holds out the book every time she wants us to read to her. We enjoy wearing our bunny ears for reading or just playing and she's a cool chick in her sunglasses!

Emma loves giraffes and while Nonna (my mom) was visiting they found one that she wouldn't let go of. She was so excited to have it, we had to take it into Red Robbin with us for lunch!

She can now drink out of a straw, but sometimes gets a bit cross-eyed trying to look at what is on her cup!! There is just too much to see!

Mimi Nancy painted Emma's toenails for the first time! She was so cute just sitting there watching what she was doing and of course wearing Mimi Nancy's hat too!

   Mom came to visit us for 2 weeks! We had a lot of fun, but our time always goes by so quickly! It sucks!



We celebrated Mother's Day...

And Father's Day...

And as an added treat on Father's Day, Nancy took these awesome photos of Emma gardening! I just LOVE them!

We had a fun 4th of July and Mimi Nancy took the cutest pictures of Emma in a wash tub. We also played around with the camera and got some cool shots of the fireworks and sparklers!

Yesterday, we made Emma a forward facing baby in the car. I would have liked to keep her facing backward until she turned 2, but she is just too tall! She was so excited about the new view!

Our next big adventure is a road trip to Portage, Michigan to visit my sister-in-law Katie. In fact Brandon's  whole family is going! So we can't wait and it's going to be a ton of fun!! Stay tuned for pictures of that later!

So, lastly, here are some things Emma is saying and doing...

• She shakes her head 'yes' and 'no'
• She knows what a puppy says and goes "woof, woof"
• She is walking like crazy
• She says 'Mama' and 'Dada'
• She uses her pointer finger and says, "Stay" and "Go"
• She knows how to blow and helps me cool her food when I start to blow on it
• She sucks out of a straw and loves eating smoothies that Daddy makes
• She blows kisses
• She knows where her eyes, nose, toes and belly button are and where Mommy and Daddy's are too
• She is a dancing fool! She really knows how to shake her booty! (check out the videos!)
• She gives kisses to us and her babies (stuffed animals/dolls) and she gives Eskimo kisses too
• She does 'pretty eyes', that is where she blinks her eyes...it's too funny!
• She gives hugs
• She pets Kaley and Titan

That's all I can think of for now, but there will be more to come soon enough!!

I hope everyone is having an amazing summer and can't wait to see everyone soon! Love to all!