Pictures and stuff...

Hey Hey Blogland!
I have some photos from the last few days that I have been slow posting. So, I will share them.....now!
Here are some from our annual trip to Calloway Gardens. This year was a LOT different than usual. We were plus one adorable almost 2 year old, but minus 3! Adam's brother Robby and his wife Carrie were of course, in WA, in their own ACTUAL winter wonderland. Also, my MIL, Alice was sick that day. We really missed having her there, especially me, being the only girl and all. :) It was also the DAY I found out about the pregnancy, so I was in a bit of shock. It was a great day, and Charlie had a blast. He was mesmerized by the lights. What a great tradition.








Okay, time for little boys to get to bed, which means I am out of time! I will post more later.
Happy Almost New Year!!

The busiest time of the year? I think so, too.

Let me start with Charlie Fekadu. Oh, how he is growing. It is amazing and scary and beautiful to witness. In the last couple of weeks, I have seen him become even more comfortable with us. He has been a total sweetie(most of the time, hehe...) He even sings Jingle Bells, and can pick out Christmas music on the radio. He calls it Santa song. His language is, as usual, out of this world. And he totally has the puppy dog face down. As soon as he sees he has done something that will most likely get him in trouble, he lays it on with the "I sowwy" and the eyes. It's almost impossible! Charlie is becoming more affectionate on his own, giving big hugs and lots of kisses. Although he does usually wipe the kiss off and grin at you. He is all in all just the most fun I have ever had.
Okay, on to his Christmas gift. I KNOW that Charlie is not even two yet, but the kid loves dogs. He LOVES them. And Adam and I have been wanting to add another being to our family...apparently we just can't have too many! Haha. Soooo, after some research and internet-ing, we found an adorable Weimeraner pup about 2 hours south of us and made the drive to pick him up. As soon as Charlie saw him, you could see love in the air. Now they are best pals, but we have to keep an eye on them to make sure neither one gets too rough. So far, so good. Adam has been great about starting to train him, since I am avoiding poop at all costs right now. Yep, Adam is now the offical diaper changer/pooper scooper. What a guy!!
Here are some photos of Charlie and his new buddy, Reese:
(For the record, it is almost impossible to get CF to smile for the camera. So, here is his smoldering look...)





Also on the agenda for the week was a special night I had planned for my best friends. I wanted to have some fun with them, so I made our destination a surprise...well, some of them figured it out, but it was still funny. We met at my house at 6, headed to Moe's for yummy football sized burritos, and then on to Centennial Park for ice skating. Now, some of my gals had done this and some had not, but it all made for hilarious pictures and great bonding time. I sat out to be on the safe side, and Joy sat with me. Thanks for being my co-cheerleader, Joy!
Here are a few of the pics from our night:















This group of women is truly one of the greatest gifts in my life. I love all of you to the core, and I look forward to next years outing! Maybe no Krystals this time though. Ouch.

ALSO in the week, we had our first ultrasound! How nervous was I? After 45 minutes in the waiting room, I had dreamed up all sorts of awful news they were sure to tell me. Two heads? No heads? All totally rational fears, I am sure.
As soon as I could make out the little splotch on the screen, I instantly felt better. Because inside that little splotch was a tiny, fast beating heart. It was amazing and emotional and such a relief. It is really too soon to make out any features in the photos, but I want to share our first pic anyway.
Our gorgeous little jelly bean:


And in other pregnancy news, I still feel like %$#^@*@ most of the time. I actually puked in the yard yesterday. Yeah, that's gross, but you know you wanted to know. Haha. I am tired, nauseated, and yes, cranky and emotional. I keep hearing, "Oh, this will all go away in about 4 more weeks!" Yayy. 4 weeks. Ahem. I have got to send a big fat thank you to my hubby and my sister and my friends whom I KNOW are tired of me whining, but are all completely making this much easier. Adam is Superdad, playing with Charlie and Reese, doing the dishes, making cookies, doing laundry, bringing me snacks. I know this is hard for him, but it means the world to me. I love yoooooooou.
More soon. Hope everyone is having a magical holiday. :)

I'm a believer...

I always wondered if morning sickness (ahem...all day sickness) was really all that bad. Um, yeah. It is.
Thank you, sweet hubby, for bringing me Ramen noodles with no juice to bed in the middle of the night. I love you.

News. I mean NEWS.

After thinking and thinking about it, I finally decided to announce (for real this time) that we are expecting Baby Beauchamp #2! AHHHHHHHH!!!! I have taken 4 tests, and all of them were positive. I have been feeling SO awful for the past couple of weeks. Finally, I concluded that I either had some unknown awful disease OR.... 4 positive tests later, we have a doc appointment on Monday for our first ultrasound. PHEW! I really really did not expect this, and so I am still in a bit of shock. This only happened yesterday, and I realize it is very soon to be telling the news, but if you know me well, you know I suck at keeping secrets. And anyway, this is my blog for my updates...and this is one hell of an update!
Now time for some blunt honesty. Today in the midst of sharing our happy news with a very good friend, I realized what the nagging in the back of my head has been for the past few days. Is it guilt? Not exactly, but it is something like it. Maybe it comes from the amount of time I KNOW we are going to hear this phrase:
"Ohhhhh, you JUST adopted and NOW you are pregnant! Well, that's the way it goes!"
Or something to that effect. I REALIZE that most people do not say this in a mean or insulting way. But when I think of what that implies of my sweet Charlie, it really upsets me. Imagine if he could understand what they were saying. I think it translates something like this:
"Ohhhhh, look you already went and got that little boy, and now you get to have your OWN baby like you wanted!"
Ouch, right?
Now, I am in no way trying to take away from the excitement of what is going on. I am grateful for this pregnancy just like I am grateful for our adoption process. Neither is or ever will be more important that the other. I am sure I will be a better mother for both. I think the shakiness I feel inside is my own fear of people assuming that only now will I feel like a mother. I really hope my friends and family are not reading this thinking, "Wow, defensive, much?". I know everyone in our lives ADORES Charlie. It does seem like a bummer to announce such happy news with all these "buts". Part of me just wanted to type up an excited "WOOOOHOOOOO" post, but I did feel the need to put this out there first. Today has been an emotional day for me (pesky hormones). Prepare to read something really silly: There was even a moment when I wondered if my friends I have met and bonded with through adoption were going to, you know...oh, I can't even type it.
So, maybe I should have gone with the short and sweet announcement post. Maybe by defending my family I am implying that there is indeed, something to defend. I hope not. There are many ways to build a family, we all know that. Our first came to us through the miracle of adoption, or second will come by the miracle of birth. (Oh, sweet Jesus, I have to BIRTH something!!!!!) Our third...Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. So, here we go, from a family of 3 to a family of 4 in less than a year. You won't want to miss this. I sure don't.
:)

More soon.

For those who saw my earlier post, all is fine, just thinking a little. I'll repost soon. :)

O, Tantrumbaum....

Tonight was out first tree decorating experience as parents. I have been so excited about this! This holiday season is already far more magical than it has been in years. So, after dinner, we cranked up the light rock favorite station on the radio for some holiday tunes, made 3 cups of hot chocolate, and got the boxes out.

The lights were around the tree ONCE when we realized that (of course) most of our lights were not working. We are not those prepared folks who have extra bulbs on the ready. So, Adam suggests that we take a trip to the store to get some new lights. Then he gently throws in (as he does EVERY year) that we should go for a new look this year. Now, in the past, I have been very into having the tree look as beautimus as possible. I pick a color scheme every couple of years. The one we had was purple, blue and silver. With little silver bows, white lights, and silver beads. Loved it. Adam is always gunning for BIG colored lights, no bows, no beads, and as many random ornaments as possible. I opened my mouth to protest (as I do EVERY year) and instead the words that came out were, "Okay! That sounds like fun!" After all, it IS just a tree, and it will be beautiful no matter what.
After returning home with our fabulous new big colored bulbs and a plastic candy cane full of M&M's for Charlie (I think the Christmas spirit is getting out of hand now)...we begin to decorate. Up until this point, Charlie was having a ball helping untangle the lights and open up the boxes of goodies. See? I'll prove it:



Well, maybe the lights can be scary...? He quickly recovered.



After Adam and I got all the lights on (we added some white ones, to mix it up, and so I would not cry...haha), we were excited to show Charlie how to put the ornaments on the tree. We began with the special ones my mom had given each of us this year. Adam's is a TV that plays the ESPN music. Ahem. Charlie's is a snowman. We walked him over to the tree and directed him to hang it up. He looks at us like we are crazy and just goes nuts. We let him keep it for awhile, but by this point he realized that we were putting all these cool things up on this TREE and ummm how is he supposed to play with glass balls and wire hooks when they are way up there?? SO he sits and watches us, howling louder with each ornament that goes up. It's like he was crushed to discover that these pretties were not, in facts, toys... I was explaining to him the whole time about what we were doing, but this tantrum was one for the Dr. Phil show. Am I evil for snapping evidence to share when he is older?



After a few moments, he calmed down and decided to help. We got the snowman up, and we laughed at our reflections in the large glass balls. He was especially happy when Mommy let him unpack the box of house decorations.

Meanwhile, the tree did get finished, finally, and I have to say, I really like it. It's time for new traditions, handmade ornaments by our little one, and fun stories like this one to hand down to him.




Tonight was fun. We have been busy the last few days getting the house in order, and it is looking great. I love it here. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Even that damn floor is growing on me. YES it is the floor in the tree room. Can you see it???
And finally, the sweet hubby gets a break:


Hope your season is starting off as happily (well, mostly)as ours is!
;)

Shop with a Cause!

I was so thrilled earlier this year when one of my best friends in the world, Catherine, told me about their decision to adopt from Ethiopia. I know they will be amazing parents to a special little girl that will be thier daughter some day. I am honored to be able to offer support and advice throughout this crazy journey...Not to mention that our Charlie Fekadu will have another amazing connection to Et, right down the road from us. So, let's help this baby girl come home! Catherine and Dustin have registered with One Cause, which means when you register with their email address and shop online, a portion of our purchases will go toward thier adoption fund! How cool is that? Amazon.com is on the list, and you know you can get everything you need from there!
Please click HERE to view Catherine's blog, and their One Cause info is on the top right of thier blog...Please join in...Even if you are doing your shopping later, remember to log in first! It's easy, and it will really help!
Happy Shopping!!!