Deciding On Paint

Today we went to Home Depot to get paint swatches, so we can decided on paint for the nursery. The bedding all came in today! I was so excited to get and I love it. We are having a really hard time trying to decide what to do with colors and texture. Right now we are leaning towards doing one solid color of blueish grey over all of the walls and then painting some clouds and planes on the walls. I am kind of thinking that that might be a little over kill with the theme. I really like the one decal from Pottery Barn that can be personalized and leaving it at that. We have also thought about moving Christian's room to what we are thinking to be the nursery and leaving the nursery where Christian's room is now. I absolutely love the painting in Christian's room and it is perfect for a nursery. Neither one of us are crazy about having to rooms that are blue with chair rail right next to each other. I feel like it will just be too much and then they both will look like nurseries. I love chair rail for a nursery, but I also love Christian's room for him. Jason and I have both thrown out pros and cons for every way possible on doing it we just have to decide what way we like best. I am going to ask my sisters and Jamie what they think for more opinions. We are buying paint next weekend and painting then and that next week, so we need to decided fast!

19 Weeks

I am 19 weeks pregnant today! I am almost half way there. I feel like it is starting to go by really fast now. I know with Christian the second trimester flew by and the first and third took forever! I weighed in today at 137 lbs. I am really hoping to not gain very much this time. If I can stay away from eating out I would be fine. When I was pregnant with Christian I didn't eat that bad, but I consumed very large quantities of food at a time. I think that is what made me put on more weight with him. I don't feel like I have been eating very much it's just that I haven't been eating very healthy. A lot of that comes from not feeling good for so long. Now that I am feeling so much better I am taking advantage of things that sound good to eat. I still have some moments of nausea, but not very often. Maybe just once or twice a week and it is usually from something that smells bad or if I haven't eaten breakfast yet. One thing that has made a big difference too has been the weather the last couple of days! We have had hardly any humidity and it has been in the upper 80's to low 90's. It has felt awesome out. I am so ready for fall now! I love being able to play outside with Christian and not feel miserable while doing it. Plus I love all the decorating that comes with fall! Jax has been moving around like crazy all the time now! I think I am going to have one active boy on my hands. I didn't feel Christian start moving until around 20 weeks and those were just flutters. I was probably more like 22 or 24 weeks before I really felt him moving around all the time. Jax was going nuts last night when we laid down for bed and I had Jason put his hand on my stomach so he could feel him. Right before I had Jason put his hand on my stomach I had my hand on mine and I could feel him so good and then when Jason put his hand there he calmed down. Jason got to feel it a little bit, but not a real good kick yet. Maybe tonight he can feel him better. I have been having so much fun this past week cleaning and organizing all my baby stuff! I have been making lots of lists of things we need to stock up on and new things to buy. I can't wait till the bedding comes in and we can get started on painting his room. We are have a hard time deciding what we should do on the paint part since Christian's room is blue we were wanting to do something a little different, so we wouldn't have two blue rooms. I really think blue is going to look the best with the airplane theme though. It will be easier to decided when we can see all the colors in the bedding. Once we get back from St. Louis I am going to stock up on some cloth diapers to make into burp cloths. I am going to try this anyway. If they don't turn out right I am going to order some off of Etsy. They have so many cute things like that on there. I am wearing more and more maternity clothes now. My belly is getting pretty big and I feel huge. Most of my long shirts are getting to be too short for me now. I feel like if I am already this big now, and I still have 21 weeks to go. I am going to be one big pregnant lady when I go to deliver. I have already started booking my clients up to my due date, so I can plan ahead! At my next appointment I am going to talk to my doctor about when I could possibly be induced if I haven't gone on my own. She knows how crazy I am about planning everything, so this will come as no surprise to her. If I had my pick I would like to have Jax on the 17th of January. We were married on the 17th only it was in September Christian was born on the 10th of November and I was born on the 10th of May. I always have thought that was kind of neat. I went three days early with Christian, so I am thinking that if Dr. Leinenbach is on call she will have no problem inducing me three days early with this one. All though she may not have too, I might just go on my own. That is what I would prefer anyways. I have started making my playlists for the delivery. Hopefully I won't have to be pushing for two hours again. They say that with your second it is much easier on that part. I have decided on not even attempting breast feeding. It was such a disaster last time and I really see no point in stressing my self out like that again. Christian has done more than fine and he was only breast fed for a week. I talked to one of my clients yesterday who is a nurse at The Women's Hospital and she said so far she hadn't heard anything on the swine flu thing where there will be visiting restrictions and restrictions on who is allowed in the room for delivery. I know I want Jason, Alisann, Becky, my Mom, and my Grandma all in the room for sure. I would love to have Jamie in the room with me too, but Jason is questioning the amount of people already. I think if he could pick it would just be him, me, and Alisann. I say Alisann because he knows better than to even think about questioning weather or not she could be in the room. Plus I think it makes him feel better to have someone I am so close to in the room with us other than him. He knows if I have a melt down Alisann will know what to do. I'm sure once the time comes he won't care who is in the room with us. My client told me yesterday that they did start a new thing that from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. people are not allowed to have visitors, it is supposed to be quiet time for the Mom to relax and nap. I thought that was kind of a good idea. I am getting really excited for Christian to meet his little brother for the first time also. I want to do something special for this, but I haven't quite figured out what yet. I want it to be fun and exciting for Christian! I still have to figure out what 'new Daddy' present to get Jason. When I had Christian I got him a complete set of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard CD's. He loved them and when we got home from the hospital he would sing the songs to Chrisitan. It was really sweet! We also have to decide what movies to bring with us to watch on this stay. With Christian it was the Chevy Chase vacation movies. We both think they are hilarious! we need to be thinking about that also. I think on the way to St. louis we will be able to talk about a lot of these things. I also want to get matching outfits for me and Jax while we are in the hospital. I did this with Christian and it was really cute! I love planning all these things. I will say I really need to get motivated to get back into my photobooks and organizing those things. I am just so into baby mode right now. I am sure that will be wearing off a little soon and I will get motivated again.

Something In The Water

There must be something in the water around here for having boys! Everyone here in our family is having boys! It started back in February when Becky and John had there first boy and named him Eli. Then in April my cousin chris and his wife Ali had their first boy and named him Luke. Then Alisann and Justin had their second boy in June and named him Patrick. The next in line is Josh and Brittany and they are having there first boy in early November and are naming him Ty. Then my cousin Amie and her husband Stephen are having there first boy in late December and I haven't heard a name yet for there baby. John and Jessica just found out last night that they are having their first boy and they are due three days before us. I haven't heard a name yet for their baby either. Then last but not least Jason and I will be having our second son in mid January and we are naming him Jaxson. All these little boys are going to have so much fun growing up together. Us parents are going to love watching them all be best buds! It is so great that we are all close to each other and have so much fun hanging out together!


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Getting Things Ready

I spent the good part of the day yesterday going through all of Christian's old clothes and all of my baby things. I actually filled up 6 bags of things to get rid of! I couldn't believe it! Whenever I packed up Christian's clothes as he outgrew them I just through them all in totes and didn't sort anything out other than the size and the season. Yesterday I went through and made a separate tote for things I wanted to keep for Christian. There are some outfits that I remember him wearing and I want those to stay his outfits. Then I went through and put all the outfits together along with matching shoes and hats for Jax to wear. After I finished with all the clothes I started in on all the totes of blankets, sheets, and bath accessories. Some of the things were really worn, so I got rid of those and some of them I kept for just Christian. The others I packed back up for Jax to use. I then started on the tote of all the bottles. When I had Christian I was super annal for some reason about only using Dr. Brown bottles. You would die if you new how many I had. I went through and put all level 1 nipples on all the 2 and 4 ounce bottles and put level 2 nipples on all the 8 ounce bottles. I put all the caps back on them and organized them according to size. They were all just thrown in the tote with level Y nipples and a lot of the nipples were cut so Christian could eat easier as he got older. I threw away all the cut nipples and bagged up any nipples I wasn't using and labeled the bags I also went threw all the many passies Christian had. There were only two kinds that I liked to use, but I somehow ended up with a ton of other ones. I got rid of all those and bagged up the passies that I liked. I feel really good to have gotten all that stuff cleaned out and organized. I also now have a better idea of what I need to get for Jax. I am planning on cleaning out all my diaper bags and reorganizing and washing all of them today. I have four different ones from Pottery Barn that I love. I tend to get obsessed with things easily and end up buying one in every color. I have used all of them though and the styes are all a little different. I got a little addicted to some things on Etsy this morning and I ordered bibs, burp cloths and onesies that are so cute I can't wait to get them in. I am really going to try and not buy anymore clothes until our St. Louis trip. I still have plenty of time to buy things and I still have lots of things I need to buy before Jax gets here, so I am trying to control myself. I am not doing a very good job!

The Nursery Theme

We have decided on going with a vintage airplane theme for Jax's nursery. I think this will compliment Christian's room and will be really cute when we are all finished with it. The bad news is that Pottery Barn was sold out of the quilt for the nursery bedding set. The good news is that I actually found the whole set brand new on Ebay. Unfortunately it was more expensive since you can't get the set anymore. At least it was all brand new and it's what I like. It is so hard to find baby bedding that isn't to baby-ish or too theme-ish. I like to just kind of accent with the theme and not go crazy with everything being airplanes. I still need to order the mobile and I am probably going to do that today. If we could decided on how we want to paint and how we want to spell Jax's name I could order the wall decal also. It looks like I am going to have to wait on that one for a little while and hope that it is still available when we decide. The other bad thing about not being able to order through Pottery Barn is that I will have to take everything to get embroidered. Luckily I have a lady that lives down the road from me who has all the Pottery Barn fonts for embroidering and she will be able to do it. I actually think she does a better job than Pottery Barn sometimes. She does everything really big which is how I like it! I am really excited to get the bedding in and start painting the Nursery! I am going to go to some antique shops and see what I can find also to go with a vintage airplane room.

Little Shopping Spree

Yesterday I went on a little sopping spree at the mall for Jax. I was so excited to buy him something since I hadn't bought anything for him yet. As soon as I walked into Gymboree I knew I was in trouble. The entire store was 30% off! I took advantage of it and bought him quite a few outfits for when he is born! I love buying baby clothes. Everything is so cute! Today i got online and found that Crazy 8's was having a sale! They were offering 25% off everything. I bought several outfits for him here today online also. I didn't buy Christian anything in Gymboree because I'm not crazy about there clothes for his age. I feel like they are too cutesy or something. I did buy him several things from Crazy 8's today though. I am going to try and control myself until we go to St. Louis. I have a feeling I am going to get out of control there. Christian needs a whole new fall and winter wardrobe and I am going to go through all of Christian's old clothes and see what else I need to buy for Jax. Jason said he was surprised I didn't buy more on Saturday. I told him I bought everything in his size that I liked and if he knew how much I spent he probably wouldn't have said that! lol!

Christian's Name

We came up with Christian's name from a TV show called Nip/Tuck. We used to love to watch this show and one of the main characters on this show was named Christian. I loved the name Thomas for a middle name and I knew that no matter what I wanted our first boy to be named after my Dad in some way! Christian also is named after my sister Mary whose middle name is Christine. Christian means a follower of Christ 'anointed'. Thomas is after my Grandpa Shetler, My Dad, and my little brother whose first names are all Thomas. Thomas means 'one who is a twin'. Jason and I both loved the way both of the names sounded together and we both thought this was a perfect name for our first son!

The Name

We have decided to name our baby Jaxson Kenneth Pickerill. His name comes from several special people. Jack is a diminutive of the name John. He is named after his Uncle John Shetler and after his Uncle John Clark. He is also named after my Great Great Uncle whose name was John Freeman but everyone called him Jack and my Great Great Grandpa whose name was also John Freeman and he went by Jack. I also Have a Great Great grandpa on my Mom's side whose name was John. Jackson means 'son of Jack or John'! We actually came up with his name from a TV show that we love to watch. It is called The Sons of Anarchy. One of the main characters in the show is named Jackson and they call him Jax. We really like that character and the name to go with it, so that is where we came up with the idea. His middle name is after my father-in-law whose name is Kenneth and Jason whose middle name is Kenneth. Kenneth means 'a handsome man' or 'born of fire'. I think both of these names will suite him great! We are still trying to decided if we want to spell his name Jackson or Jaxson. I think we are going to have to take a poll and see what everyone likes the best. We like it both ways, but we think spelling it with an 'x' makes it a little more different. Either way we spell it we will call him Jax since we both really like that name for short!

The Gender Reveal Party

Tonight was our big gender reveal party! It was a huge success and everybody had lots of fun. Jason grilled all different kinds of pizza on the Big Green Egg. I had fun making all the decorations and setting everything up. Our raffle totaled up to $67! The whole evening was full of fun surprises and excitement! I loved getting to visit and talk with all of our family and friends.I loved getting to share this excitement with everyone also. I love that we have our reactions to the news all on video tape along with tons of pictures. There was definitely more people wearing blue shirts for a boy than pink for a girl. LeeAnn made the cutest onesie for the new baby that says 'Made In Mexico', since we conceived while we were on vacation in Mexico this past spring. Aunt Susan got us the cutest Boyd's bear figurine of a pregnant wife and hubby. When we opened the envelope Jason whispered in Christian's ear what it was and we had Christian tell everyone. I loved that we were able to make him a part of the whole announcement! I can't wait to be able to tell our new little baby all about this someday!

The banner that took Jamie and I six hours to make!

Cards labeling all the different kinds of pizza.

We had chicken florentine, Barbeque chicken, supreme, Hawaiian, pepperoni, pepperoni/sausage/banana peppers, Taco, meat lovers, and a dessert pizza!

Yummy appetizers! Homemade guacamole, salsa, taco dips, and chex mix. We also had pink lemonade and blue punch to drink!

People filling out the raffle and what baby names they liked best for us!

The pizza got ate so fast as they came off the grill I had a hard time getting a picture with more than just a few slices!

The activity table!

I put pictures of the ultra sound in the photo album so everybody could look at the pictures. Of course the one telling the gender wasn't in there until after we took it out of the envelope!

Jason working hard grilling pizzas!

I love his new plaid shorts he has on!

Aunt Susan enjoying baby Patrick!

The three pregnant cousins! Jessica (due January 17), Brittany (due November 7), and me (due January 20).

Holding the envelope with the ultra sound picture!

I was so nervous to hear! not that it mattered or anything I had just built everything up so much!

Hear it comes!

Christian telling everyone......

It's A Boy!

He said it quiet at first so we had to have him repeat it a couple of times!

Everyone cheered and was so happy and excited!

Me looking at the picture for the first time!

It's definitely a boy!

Our happy little family!

Talking with everyone and celebrating the awesome news!

Now it's time for the raffle!

The winner is.......

Kenny P

Kenny was so sweet and split half of the pot with us to use for the new baby's nursery!

Showing off our bumps!

Everyone who thought it was a boy (minus my brother John)!

Everyone who thought it was a girl (minus my grandma and grandpa Folz, and Mary)!

Christian was so filthy after the party that his Aunt Jamie gave him a bath before bedtime!