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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

And her name is....

Callie Ann Pierce


We are excited to announce our little girl's name!  It took us much longer to decide on a name this time, but we finally did it!  We had been keeping a running list of girl names that we liked, and just slowly eliminated them over the last few months. Callie was a name we liked all along, and the one we just kept going back to.  But we wanted to really make sure before we made it "public."  After still considering other names, and going through the entire baby name book, Callie was still our favorite!

We did not have our hearts set on choosing a "C" name - just because Caeden's is a "C" name.  I think we actually only had two "C" names on our list.  But this just ended up being our favorite, and we thought Caeden and Callie did sound really cute together!

The middle name is Ann is Ashley's middle name, and Ashley's mom's middle name.  Again, I wasn't determined that we HAD to use "Ann" as a middle name, but since it went so well with "Callie," we thought it was perfect!

Meaning
Callie literally means "beautiful or lovely."  The biblical meaning is "Fortress."  
"But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble." Psalm 59:16

Ann literally means "grace, favor".  The biblical meaning is "Graceful."  One place expanded saying it meant "He (God) has favored me."  "Then that person can pray to God and find favor with him, they will see God’s face and shout for joy; he will restore them to full well-being."  Job 33:26

Our sweet Callie,
We are looking so forward to meeting you!  We know you will be beautiful and lovely in God's eyes, and pray that you truly depend on GOD as your forever fortress!  We pray God's grace over you, and that you might pass that grace onto others.  May God truly show you his favor, so you may see His face and shout for joy!  We already love you so much and can't wait to hold you in our arms!!!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Pregnancy Update: Month 6

I have just concluded the sixth month of my pregnancy and am now beginning my third trimester!  Only 3 months to go!! We are feeling lots of emotions in getting ready for our baby girl.  Of course, there's the excitement of having a baby GIRL this time!  But it also makes us nervous to have a baby, while still raising and making quality time with Caeden.  We're trying to really cherish this summer, and savor each moment we have together as a family of three.  Even though we have a lot of logistical things to do to get ready, we're trying not to become consumed with it - I don't want to look back on my pregnancy and regret time I didn't spend with Caeden.

As far as symptoms I experienced this past month, it was mainly just feeling sluggish, and starting to feel "uncomfortable."  It's hard to bend over, and get up & down off the floor.  My favorite part is feeling our baby girl's body parts rub against me on the inside - it's still just the coolest feeling.  She's most active in the mornings, and when I lay on my back.  I've also been feeling her hiccup on a daily basis lately - but not at the same time of day.  And my belly button is definitely an "outie" these days!

My belly already feels so big, I'm nervous for how uncomfortable I'll be when I'm 8 & 9 mos pregnant.  The dr said my uterus is measuring right on track, but it's just that my belly is more stretched out from having Caeden. I miss having a "normal" smaller belly, and being able to move around easier.  Someone recently said, "When are you due? Any day now?"  Uh....no!  I still have 3 more months!
**Sorry!  No belly picture this month - we honestly just kept forgetting to take one, and then the month was over!

My dr's visit this month was the normal, shorter kind, and everything went well.  By the end of my 6th month, I had gained 9.5 lbs.  The baby's heart rate was 154 bpm, which is exactly what it's been every visit!  When the nurse was listening to the heart beat, our little girl kept sticking up a body party - it was like a pointy thing sticking out of my belly, and she just kept doing it.  We were all laughing and it was fun to watch!  I'll do my glucose screening test next time, so I'll keep you posted!

We got signed up for our Childbirth Refresher Classes, but won't be starting them for a few more months.  And we're still thinking about baby names.  We thought we had it down to two names....and then we started thinking of a few more we liked.  I'm REALLY  hoping we have this decided soon!!

The beginning of this month was rough, emotionally.  When I got pregnant, I got off my anti-depressants, and it definitely set in this month.  I cried a lot, was very irritable, and was very tired.  I started taking some iron partway through the month though, and saw the biggest difference!  I was anemic during my pregnancy with Caeden, so I was suspecting I might be dealing with the same thing.  I have seen a huge difference since I started taking Iron.

Caeden is still excited about his baby sister!  One morning he woke up and the first thing he said was, "Mommy! Did my baby sister come out yet??"  And he finally got to feel her move this month.  His first time to feel her was when we were reading a book during beditme.  She was very active, and he kept smiling, saying, "She is moving a lot mommy!"  He still loves to talk to her in my belly, and is pretending a lot more often with baby dolls.  Typically, Reid would not be happy with this, ;)  but we know it's good for him to role play what it will be like to have a baby in the house. We've been reading lots of book about babies too!

We also got a lot done in baby's room.  My mom came down for a few days to watch Caeden while we go the baby's room COMPLETELY cleaned out!  (We then had a big garage sale, and made lots of money!)  We finally ordered the baby's bedding, and got her room painted!  Here is Caeden helping with the paint job!





We're getting so close!  I know I still have 3 months left, but I also know it will fly by!  I've been so lucky to have Reid home this summer to help take care of Caeden and get the kids' bedrooms ready.  I'll definitely be missing him when he goes back to work in a few weeks!!!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Caeden: 35 mos!!



This is so hard to believe, but Caeden is only one month away from being 3 years old!!!!  Here's an update on what he's been doing lately:

EATING
The beginning of this month was rough.  Caeden went through a very picky stage where he would hardly eat anything.  We also dealt with massive tantrums at every mealtime.  He decided that he could be the boss, and tell us what he would eat, when he would eat it, how he wanted it served, and where he wanted it on his plate.  This was too much, and was unacceptable in our eyes.  So, we decided he no longer had choices.  We decided what he had for every meal (including snacks), and didn't give him options.  This is what we used to do anyway - but as he got older we gave him more options at breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  We realized this was too much freedom for him.  Those first two weeks of not giving him food choices, were tear-filled (for all of us), and were extremely exhausting!  But we survived, and at the end of this month, he is now eating whatever we give him, whenever we feed him!  Thank you Jesus for giving us the strength to stick that out!!

PLAYING
Caeden's favorite toys right now are his Little People toys, cars, and the POOL!  We go swimming almost every day, whether it's in our neighborhood pool or small backyard pool.  He is loving to pretend with his Little People sets, and it's so fun watching his imagination!  He will make the characters talk to each other and everything. :)  He also loves to dig out his cars and push them throughout the house, race them in the kitchen, and race them down his race track!  He truly is a boy at heart!
Note: There is a few times this month Caeden was sighted with a baby doll.  We have two here for when I keep Ella.  Caeden is usually disinterested in them.  But a few times, he was pretending it was his baby sister and was taking such good care of her!  He has also started putting babies (and animals) in his belly and telling me there's a baby in his belly!  One time he said "I'm going to doctor and she will take her out!"  Wow!  That's a lot for an almost-three-year-old!

SLEEP
Caeden is still sleeping great!  He usually sleeps around 11 hours at night, and has been taking a 1.5 hour nap each day!  Being in the summer, there have been several nights that his beditme has been a little later, and he has been doing GREAT at adjusting to the schedule!

LANGUAGE
Caeden's language is great!  He speaks in complete sentences and is constantly adding to his vocabulary.  Today he was telling me he wouldn't take a certain toy in the water and he said, "I promise!!"  I'd never heard that one!  On Sunday, we were running by Walmart after church to get 2 things.  Reid & Caeden stayed in the car while I ran in.  I told Reid "Just drop me off at this door, and pick me up at the other one."  Caeden then said, "Mommy!  Why is Daddy going to drop you?"  Ha!  The mind of a little one!

SUMMER ACTIVITIES
As I mentioned earlier, our summer has been in full swing!  Caeden had a hard time transitioning at first, but is now doing great!  Reid is home every day, and we get to do lots of fun things as a family!  Caeden has had friends over, we've gone to the library, gone to the pool LOTS of times, had  surprise birthday party for Nana, celebrated the fourth of July, and had a garage sale!!  Caeden has been very involved in all of these activities and has done adjusting to our "new normal."

DISCIPLINE
Like I mentioned above, this was a rough month for Caeden as far as tantrums go.  He reached a peak at being "difficult."  Reid and I were both at the end of our ropes and were desperate.  He was pushing us both to lose our tempers, and end every day exhausted.  There were some fits that would literally last hours without stopping.  No discipline method was working...  We sought out counsel from several other "older" adults. And the best thing we did - recruit prayer warriors from our community group.  They started faithfully praying for Caeden (and us), we continued praying, and maintained our consistency.  A few weeks ago, we started to see improvement, and we thank Jesus - and give him all the glory!  Raising a child is HARD!  I knew it would be hard, but I never imagined some of what we had dealt with this past month.

We love Caeden so very much, and I feel tugs at my heart when I know he will be 3 years old in less than a month.  We love watching him turn from a toddler into a little boy!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Fireworks & the Fourth!


Leading up to July 4th, we had been reading some books about the patriotic holiday.  "Yankee Doodle" became Caeden's favorite song, he pointed out every flag we saw, and he was SO EXCITED about fireworks!  He knew we couldn't do fireworks until the fourth of July, so every day he would wake up, and say "Is today fourth of July?"  Finally, on June 30th, we said, "YES!"  Even though it wasn't, it was the day we were getting to shoot fireworks at Nonni's house, so in Caeden's mind...it WAS the fourth of July!

We drove to Missouri that day after church, had a GREAT lunch that everyone pitched in on, and then he finally got to shoot fireworks that night.  

Serious about pulling his confetti popper!


Lighting a smoke bomb with Mommy




Lighting his first "firework" (a smoke bomb)
by himself!!

Helping Daddy light a firework!

When Uncle Rhett started lighting the REAL fireworks, 
we looked over and this is what we saw!


Watching the snakes grow...

On Wednesday, Ashley's parents came down for the day.  We went to a party at some friends' house where we had a big cookout and went swimming in their pool.  After we came home and ALL took naps, we headed to eat dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings!  We then headed to a local event called "Fourth at the Field!"  It's held at the NWA Naturals baseball stadium.  They had inflatables and games set up for the kids to play with the few hours before the fireworks started.  




And finally, came the BIG fireworks!! This was Caeden's first real firework show to watch and he calmly sat through the entire thing!


We had a GREAT fourth of July celebration with both families, and our friends!  And we are forever grateful for the freedoms God has granted us in this country!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Summertime Memories!

We've been filling our summer with lots of fun things to remember as our small little family of 3 before baby arrives!  I've been really bad at taking pictures, but here are a few that have captured some special moments we've had in the Pierce household!

Caeden has been really into musical instruments lately.
So we've had lots of family bands!


Here is Caeden and his friend Darby (our neighbor)
eating a snack in our playhouse. They always
have lots of fun outside together! 


One night, I came home from my women's Bible study, and found this!
Reid had strung lights onto our trees, lit our firepit, and
made some sweet tea.  We just sat outside for a 
long time and enjoyed each other's company! Loved it!


Caeden helps Daddy in the garden everyday!
This is a pumpkin that Reid is not growing on purpose.
Apparently it started growing after we threw our rotted 
pumpkin out last year.  Too bad it will be ready WAY before Halloween!