Baby Walker Texas Ranger

Before Jude was born some good friends of ours, Kara and Alan Davis, made a onsie especially for our little guy.  Because Kara and Alan live in Utah, we don't see them nearly as much as we would like and I realized that they had not yet gotten to see Jude in his custom made outfit.... so we took some pictures and I wanted to do a blog especially for them!  Here's some pictures of Jude showing off his onsie:

Thank you Kara and Alan!  The Walkers love you and miss you like crazy!!!

32 Weeks!

I am 32 weeks pregnant with Baby Walker #2!!  I'm still feeling good, but a bit more tired than previously.  Something new that is going on during this pregnancy that I did not experience when I was pregnant with Jude is Gestational Diabetes- I was diagnosed with it in my 29th week of pregnancy and have been learning what I can and can not eat and testing my blood glucose levels multiple times a day.  The good thing about Gestational Diabetes is that it will go away once the baby is born!  Following the diabetic diet is definitely a challenge, but it's getting easier as each day passes and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel that it will go away in a matter of weeks.  Another difference in this pregnancy as compared to my pregnancy with Jude is that when I was pregnant with Jude I developed Preeclampsia and so far I have shown no signs of that during this pregnancy!  Because I had a C-Section with Jude, I will be following that same route with Baby Walker #2 as well and am scheduled to do so on November 16th as long as this little one is able to stay put until then.  We are thrilled that the same doctor who delivered Jude will also be delivering Baby Walker #2 as long as everything goes as planned.  Here's a picture of me today, at 32 weeks pregnant:

For comparison sake, here's a picture of me back in April 2010 when I was 32 weeks pregnant with Jude:

So at this point, the countdown is on!  We've got 7 more weeks to go (at most) before our little girl makes her debut into our family and we've still got a lot to do before then.  I know what we'll be doing this weekend!  Ha Ha!

Nashville!

Sadly, there was yet another death in our family this past week.  My great aunt, "Aunt Susie", passed away at the age of 90 years old in Nashville, TN.  Aunt Susie was my grandmother's sister and I have very fond memories of yearly visits and huge family gatherings at Aunt Susie's house for Thanksgiving dinner all through my childhood.  To celebrate Aunt Susie's life, Ian, Jude, and I flew to Nashville along with my parents and were able to visit with many of our family members on my mom's side of the family.  Jude has flown on an airplane before, but he was 3 months old the last time he flew.  Needless to say, flying with a 16 month old is quite different than flying with a 3 month old!  At 16 months old, Jude has his own agenda and can be very opinionated about what he wants to do and what he doesn't want to do.  I will say that he did really well over the course of the trip and I was honored when a stranger who sat in front of us on our flight to TN came to me after the flight and said "your son is a wonderful baby and obviously comes from a structured environment to have done so good."  As we were exiting the plane, the pilot asked us if we wanted to take a picture of Jude in the cockpit.  Below are some pictures of Jude's flight to Nashville:

"I wonder what this button does?"

Ian had never been to Nashville before, so one thing we did during our stay was our own "tour of Nashville."  Included in this tour was driving by some of the houses that my mother's family had lived in.  We drove past the house that my mom grew up in, my grandma's house, on Clearview Dr. as well as my mother's grandparents' house (my great grandparents).  Here are some pictures from our "tour":

My Grandma's house



My Great Grandparents' house





My parents got married in 1972 at the First Baptist Church in downtown Nashville, TN.  Here is a picture of them standing outside of the church they exchanged their vows in 39 years ago:

While we were in Nashville, we ate at some really good local restaurants.  One of the places we ate was called Dalts and it was a diner.  Here's some pictures of us outside of Dalts:

Before we flew home on Sunday, we felt it would be a good idea to take Jude to Centennial Park, where he was able to play and explore on the playground.  Here are some pictures of Jude at Centennial Park in Nashville:

We definately enjoyed our trip to Nashville, but wish the circumstances had been different.  It was wonderful getting to visit with family who we don't see very often and I know that our Aunt Susie will be missed by everyone.  I will always cherrish the memories of the many Thanksgiving dinners spent at Aunt Susie's house.