2010 in Review (as written by Karen)

Jim: Well, 2010 was marked by too much work and not enough travel. I guess that is the way life is with young children. I have enjoyed good health this year and continue to enjoy working out and running Mini-Marathons. I have reached my personal best (under 8 minute miles) and now have told Karen I will run for pleasure. I did enjoy a wonderful trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas. The hike was nice and quiet! Since having Jacob our house is quite loud now. I play with the kids as though I am one and continue to feel very blessed to have such a beautiful wife ;) and three healthy children.

Karen: This year has been a full one for me and I feel very blessed in deed! The beginning of the year I felt like a tic being pregnant with Jacob. I felt worse and worse as his due date approached but that didn't stop me from staying active with the kids. In fact, in March I took a girl's trip to Orlando and got some much needed relaxation. Jacob was born in June and the labor was fast (4 hours from start to finish) and luckily the whole process was painless! Jim teases me because I was shopping on the Internet while the OB doctor waited for me to finish so I could start pushing. Pajamas were on sale and James needed a pair...what can I say? Since Jacob's birth, the house has gotten loud and I have had to check my patience at the door. I always tell myself, God doesn't give you anything you can't handle, right?! While having three children under three is a lot of busy work and my house isn't as clean as I would like for it to be (and there is always laundry to do!), I do feel very blessed to have three beautiful, healthy children. God Bless!

Sophia: I turned 3 years old this year with a fun party at Monkey Joe's. It was so much fun and Mom made me a Princess Tiana Castle cake. I got lots of Barbie stuff, which I love! School has been fun. I am learning a lot. At the beginning of the year I was at one school but now I am at another. I have lots of friends but I have trouble remembering all of their names. I love to help Mommy, especially when taking care of Jacob. I feed him his bottles now at the table and I am good at feeding him his food too. I can't wait for Mommy to have more babies. I want a sister names Cecilia and maybe some more brothers but Jamesie yells a lot so maybe just two more brothers and two more sisters. I have decided that I want to be an ER doctor just like Dad. I think being a doctor is cool and I practice looking in Jacob's ears with the otoscope. I have lots of growing pains but that is just part of getting big.

James: I continue to try to rule the house! I am the big brother now but I want to still be Mommy's baby but just as a big boy, not a baby. I have decided to stop going pee in the potty so I can still be a baby like Jacob, only a big boy. I don't like to be told what to do but all I want is to have fun and play. I really like it when I get to go somewhere with Mommy or Daddy by myself. I also like to try to do things by myself but Mom says I can't do all the things I want by myself. I love going to school and I know all of my friends names. I have lots of friends, except one of the girls keeps biting me. I have learned lots about God this year at school and now I know that God is my friend and He is with me always. I don't want to learn to ride my tricycle yet but maybe next year. I moved to my big boy bed this year (a toddler bed) and can count now. I am also good at singing songs now and I like to play the piano. I like playing with my cars and trucks and love playing dress up. Today I rescued the princess and slayed the dragon while being a knight. Playing is fun!

Jacob: Sleep, eat, play. That is what I like to do. My Mom is awesome and I love smiling at her. She tickles me on my ribs and it makes me laugh. I also like it when she plays pat-a-cake with me. She gives me lots of kisses. I love looking at Sophia too. She makes me smile. She tries to talk like Mom and I like that. James makes me want to be a big boy. I want his cars, except I tasted one one day and it didn't taste good. I can sit now and stand while holding onto the ottoman. I really like it when Daddy puts me to bed at night. He tells me stories and sings songs to me while I have my bedtime bottle. Yummy bottle! I get excited when I see my friend Bottle and I am not going to like it when Mommy is going to take it away!

Jacob is 6 Months Old!

Well, my little baby is 6 Months old. I don't know where the time has gone. I do have to say...I LOVE this age! I always do. Around 5-6 months old, in my opinion, is when the babies become fun and enjoyable. They usually start to sleep through the night by now, they can sit but can't crawl. They can entertain themselves and don't have seperation anxiety yet. They laugh and are so darn cute! I love it! If babies could be born at this age, I would have a million of them! :)

So at Jacob's 6 month check-up, he weighed 19 lbs. 15 oz. and is 28.5 in. long. Big Boy! Here are his latest pictures:

Our pictures of the kids have always been taken by Celebrity Kids Portrait Studies. In fact, all of the kids have been in their advertisements! Anyway, we got a call last night that they are closing their doors. I am very sad. Hopefully we can continue with one of the photographers there and keep have adorable pictures and great Christmas cards.

Broken Tailbone

Wow, it has been a while! Sorry! I will have more updates tomorrow because Jacob is now 6 months old (where does the time go!) and he has a doctor's appointment. I can't wait to see how much he has grown. I think it is always so much fun to find out.

Anyway, I am writing with a surprise on me. When I had Jacob, my tailbone was extremely sore for about 2-3 weeks after his birth. My OB thought I had just bruised it. Well, it still hurts. I had Jim take a little peak and surprise...it is broken. Apparently Jacob broke my tailbone when he came out. Now, every time I sit for too long or if I sit in a booth or on a seat that is really soft, I rebreak the tailbone because I am not giving it enough time to heal. Let me tell you...sometimes it really hurts! Aaaaah, motherhood is always surprising!

Halloween Pictures

We had a great Halloween except Sophia got a fever. We still let her go Trick-or-Treating though (she didn't act like she was sick). I have also found that she is a bit of a hypochondriac. If we told her she had a fever she would have told everyone and then complained the whole time. Instead she had a great time and slept well that night. James got sick then and is still sick. In fact I had to get him from school on Thursday (he had a fever of 102.7) and now has a stomach bug. Yuck! The stomach bug has been pasted onto me now. Hopefully Jim won't get it or Jacob. So, other than the sickness that has been running throughout our house, we had a fun Halloween. Here are some pictures:

Jacob is sitting now. He can't get there by himself but if you put him up he will stay there.

Morning after Halloween

Sarah Bielski (dressed as This And That), Sophia, and James

Buzz Lightyear and Jessie

Jacob (My Little Peacock)

First Cereal

Jacob had his first cereal today. I will post a picture later or at least have it on Snapfish. He really liked it. It didn't take long at all before he was opening up his mouth to take more when he saw the spoon coming. I think he is going to be a pro! Hopefully he will be a clean eater like Sophia was. She always has eaten well. James is more of an expressive eater and a picky eater and sometimes a non-eater. :)

The Beeson Castle

Well, last week we got our playset put in. We choice a Rainbow Playsystem from Recreation Unlimited. The specific one that we selected was the Super Rainbow. It is Super too!! The kids love it and so does Jim and I. It is actually big enough that Jim and I have fun on it. Jim works out on it. I love swinging on the buoy ball, climbing the Jacob's rope ladder, and sliding down the slide. The playset is cool. There is a racing car tire that is actually from a real Nascar race car. It is the left front tire of the number 6 car. You can tell it has been driven on too. Very cool! Here are some pics:

Here is the set being installed. Two men did it in 4 hours.

The kids and I watched all morning.

Here is the finished product from our sitting room window.

Here is a view of the back of our house and the playset.

Jacob is 4 Months!

My little Jacob is now 4 months old! It is hard to believe but thank goodness we made it through the first 3 months. Wow, those are hard! Jacob is now 16 pounds 9 ounces and is 26.5 inches long. So big! He is wearing 6-12 month clothing perfectly now. I love his little laughs and smiles. He is full of them. He also loves to talk but his talking has decreased some lately becuase he has an ear infection. Jacob is handling it pretty well though. He is rolling over both ways now and gets his body all contorted. He is so much fun to watch. He loves his Gymboree class too. What a joy he is!

When I compared Jacob's size with Sophia and James at this age, it stacked up like this:

Sophia 15 lbs 10 oz, 25.5 in.

James 15 lbs 15 oz, 26.25 in.

Jacob: 16 lbs 9 oz, 26.5 in.

Looks like in our family, the more kids we have, the bigger they get!

The pictures above are from his 3 month photo appointment. So Cute!!

Field Trip

Today was Sophia's very first Field Trip. I went as a chaperone. Since the kids go to a private school, there are no school buses. If there is a field trip, the parents are expected to drive the kids. This trip each child had a parent go with them so we did some carpooling. We had Sam and his mom Susan ride with us. Sophia and Sam play quite a bit with each other so they were excited to ride together. It was very cute to see them in the back together. Apparently Sam taught Sophia how to sword fight last week. It is very cute to see them interact. Anyway, back to the field trip, we went to a pumpkin patch. Everyone got to pick out a pumpkin. We also rode in a wagon, went through a hay maze (which the kids didn't really follow, they just climbed over the haybails), jumped in a bounce zone, and played on a playset. The kids had lots of fun. On the way back to school Sam and Sophia were very tired. I enjoyed going on my first field trip with Sophia and meeting some of her classmates and talking to some of the parents.

Stay tuned for tomorrows post. Jacob has his 4 month doctor's appointment tomorrow and I can't wait to see how big he is!

New Blog

This blog is going to continue because it is a good way for family to keep in touch with the children and Jim and I . Have just started a new blog www.mythreelittleducklings.blogspot.com

It will be an honest view of motherhood to three children, all of which are currently under 3. It is more of a venting avenue and will probably be very amusing to some of you. Anyway, just wanted to share.

Some Summer Pictures

So I need to finally start putting photos on the blog. Since I have my new computer (yippee!) and it is so much easier to use, I should be able to post more. Not to mention it is much faster than my 10 year old old laptop. This first photo is of Sophia, James and Kara standing in front of our tomato plant. The plant is still giving us sweet juicy tomatoes and is now more than twice the size that it is in the picture. I think it is going to take over the whole deck! For those of you who do not know Kara, let me introduce her. Kara has watched the kids since we had kids. She was Sophia's first babysitter, James' first babysitter, and now Jacob's first babysitter. She came twice a week this past summer and we love her. Hopefully next summer she can some three days a week. The kids have a great time with her and she helped us a LOT this summer.
This is a picture of Jacob around 2 months old. James loves to kiss on him and here he is kissing on his feet. James has become very affectionate with Jacob.
Okay so Jacob looks really goofy here but this is a photo of all three playing together.
Can you feel the love?

Since these pictures, Jacob has grown a lot. He is getting close to 15 pounds and is definitely the baby in the family. He smiles all the time (started smiling around 4 weeks) and blows raspberries too. He will even imitate raspberries. He is starting to poop more than once a week but still doesn't sleep super great during the day. He did nap for three hours in the bouncer today but forget about it in the bed. 45 minutes is the most he will do in his bed during the day. At night he will sleep for 11-12 hours and wake up once for a business feeding. He is holding his head up well and meets his hands at midline. He is starting to try to reach for items and LOVEs this (kind of ugly) red bird Carol got him. For the past 2-3 weeks he has been drooling up a storm. Way earlier drooling than the other kids. He has crazy hair (must be a male trait in our household) and his eyes are still blue.

My New Computer

I am in love once again. This time with a Mac. Jim and I got new computers and we went with Apples and we very very happy with the decision. I got a MacBook Pro. I do not think we will ever go back to a PC. We signed up for a year of personal service called One to One. It's like the Help on the computer only in person. Tomorrow I am going in to the Apple Store for a class on using iPhoto. I am taking Sophia with me. They have a station for kids where there are about 4-6 computers set up just for kids to play on while their parents take classes or get help. I think she will love it. If anyone is getting a computer soon, I would recommend an Apple. Did you know you can run Windows from an Apple and there is also Microsoft Office for Windows? I didn't know I was so far behind the times!

Quickie

Here is the quick new around our house:

Our two year old (James) had a stand-off with his Daddy tonight. He wanted to use the keys to open the door, he did not get to and as a result he screamed in the garage so the whole neighborhood would hear his complaint. In return, Daddy held his milk for ransom. It was an ugly battle but Daddy won and James is in bed with no milk, no stories, no Bible and a quick goodnight kiss.

Jacob is 11 weeks old and weighs in at 13 lbs and 8 oz. He is looking a little like a linebacker and is oh so cute. He laughed today for the first time when we played pat-a-cake. I love it!

Sophia started to randomly do math problems at dinner yesterday. She is actually pretty good and can do simple math like 2+3, 8+1, 45+0, etc. I don't know where she learned this (I asked her teacher and she said they haven't done addition yet) but I am assuming it is just the natural genius that she inherited from her mother :)

Jim is nailing down his details to Big Ben National Park. He is getting excited about the trip while I am getting anxious that he is going to be gone.

My update is that I have a cold, a yucky green gunk in your lungs cold. Cough Cough.

Another Month

Another month has flown by. It is amazing how time speeds up with the more kids you have! Here is what is new:

Sophia has graduated from Gymboree this past week. She has loved it and so have we. She will have her last soccer lesson next week. She doesn't really like soccer and wants to try swim class again. Swim begins next week. Ballet will begin in September and she is already practicing her twirling. Sophia has a "meet the teacher/practicing school day" next week. Mom and Dad are very excited for that! Sophia continues to be a great help around the house. She has started to chew on her hair (a stress issue that has developed since Jacob's birth). Tomorrow we are getting her hair cut to her shoulders.

James has definitely reached the Terrible Twos! One moment he is sweet and fun and the next he is screaming and mean. He is super cute though when he says, "I sorry Mom. I sorry." What a sweet innocent voice!! He knows how to push my buttons though and I realize I have been giving in too much. So, we are going to start sticking to what we say and that's that!! James is moving on up in Gymboree and is continuing with soccer. His "meet the teacher" is next week too. We are very excited and hope he doesn't get kicked out of school....just joking!! (kind of) Ahh, to be the middle child...wait... I am!!

Okay, so Jacob. My sweet sweet Jacob. He had his two month checkup today. He is 12 pounds 13 ounces and is almost 24 inches long. He coos all the time (his favorite is "Ah Goo"). He loves smiling at faces and rolls from belly to back. He loves his bath time and you can lay him down completely awake at night time and he will put himself to sleep. Napping during the day is slowly starting to take place, although he will only nap for 45 minutes at a time in his crib but will nap for 3+ hours in his car seat. He is ADORABLE! Now all he has to do is to sleep through the night (he still gets up twice to eat). Needless to say I am tired every morning! On the bright side though, he has reached the 8 week mark which means we can take him out in public now. (For those of you who don't know, Jim has a strict policy of keeping newborns away from the public for the first 8 weeks. He has too many bad stories from the ER of newborns getting exposed to too many bad germs at an early age).

I am doing well. I see my cardiologist next week so hopefully he gives me the all clear and I can start working out to shed all of the baby weight I have gained over the past 4 years. Bedtime by myself when Jim is working has taken on a routine and isn't stressful any more (as long as everyone cooperates). I just bought my first coffee maker which I am really excited about. Now I am just counting down the months for when I stop nursing and I can have caffeine and wine again.

Jim is hanging in there as well. He is doing great when he is off of work but on weeks when he works he is dog tired. The ER continues to be extremely busy which I guess is good because it means Jim will always have a job but it is wearing him out. One night this week he had to work a double because there were so many people to see he couldn't go home when the other doc came in to relieve him. He finally made it out of there after working 13 hours. YUK! He did give an interview to the newspaper this week so that will be interesting to read the article.

Other family news...we are thinking of taking the kids to Disney this year (James and Jacob are free so that is helping with the decision). But we might decide to take a more relaxing vacation back down to the condos at Marco Island. We don't know! We did take a trip to Holiday World this past week and had a WONDERFUL time. Thanks Mary for the food and lodging!

Time Flies

Time certainly flies by now that there are 3 little ones running around the house. I will do a little catching up. Jacob is one month old now and he had his check-up today. He weighs 10 pounds 8 ounces and is 22 1/2 inches long. That means he has grown 2 1/2 inches in a month! He is eating great and sleeping well at night, only getting up twice to eat. He is starting to smile at us and is getting spoiled already by everyone!

Sophia is at science camp this week and loves it. She only has 2 more weeks of summer ballet and she loves ballet too.

James is loving hanging out with Mommy and Daddy. He has become my little shopping buddy. When I run errands, he comes with me and Sophia stays home to help take care of Jacob.

I go back to the doctor in 2 more weeks. Otherwise I am fine.

Jim is working like a dog lately. More and more people are coming into the ER for care. It has been busy but he is hanging in there.

In the next two weeks we are getting irrigation put into the yard (Finally!) and a new cabinet insert in the pantry. That's about it for the house projects for the year. Now we can start saving for projects for next year, which includes the laundry room.

No vacations scheduled yet except for Holiday World but Sophia and I are working on Jim for Disney World. It doesn't look promising though.

Jacob Henry Beeson

So in case you haven't heard or haven't received any Snapfish pictures (which if you do please send me your email), Jacob Henry Beeson arrived on June 12 at 5:11 pm. He weighed 8 pounds and is 20 inches long. He has lots of dark brown hair. He is very cute! Labor was super easy and quiet/relaxing. We sat around and talked until it was time to push. Even the OB doc sat with us for 45 minutes (it was slow on the OB floor) and we did some shopping while we waiting too. All very relaxing. James and Sophia love him very much. James kisses him all the time and Sophia is a great big helper.

James is 2!!

Well, my baby (soon to be my baby no longer) has turned 2. I can't believe it! He is talking up a storm and is soooooooooo cute! My favorite thing he does (because his voice is so cute) is walk around the house going, "Mom, where are you?" and "What are you doing?" . I love that little sweet voice. Anyway, his doctor's appointment went great and he doesn't have to go back until he is 3. He is 37 inches tall (99%) and 29 pounds (65%). Basically he is Jim Beeson all over again. He got one shot and cried until he realized he gets a sticker. He has definitely learned how to cry to get attention.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and ultrasound. Everything looks good. Jacob is about 7 pounds and is measuring about a week ahead of schedule in head circumference and length. He is crammed in there! I am only 1.5 cm dilated (boo) but there is a full moon tomorrow. I am hoping he is delivered this week because my OB doc leaves on vacation after that until June 7. Now that I am full term the waiting begins. With this heat, I am hoping it is sooner rather than later. This heat is making me hot, tired, and grouchy! Well, I need to run because today I am having my eyebrows trimmed, my eyelashes and eyebrows dyed, and a pedicure. I can't wait for the pampering!

Father's Day Questionaire

Sophia and James' last day of school was yesterday so Sophia came home with her Father's Day gift. She didn't want to wait until Father's Day to give it to Jim because there was a 100 grand bar that came with it and she said that Daddy would share it with her. Here is what she says about Jim:

My Dad's name is... Jim.
My Dad is ...19...years old.
Dad's favorite chore around the house is to ... do stuff outside.
Daddy likes to watch ...American Idol...on TV.
Daddy likes to cook...carrots..on the grill.
My Daddy's favorite color is ... purple.
Daddy has...brown...color hair.
Daddy's favorite thing to do when he is relaxing is to .. watch TV.
Daddy and I like to play...blocks...together.

Mother's Day Questionaire

At school on Monday, Sophia's class did Mother's Day activities. She made me a cute flower pot with candy inside (that she ate by the end of the day:) ). There was also a piece of paper. On the top of it read "MY MOM". The kids then filled in the blanks. Here is how Sophia's went:

My Mom's name is...Mom Beeson.
My Mom is ...11... years old.
My Mom's hair color is ...blond.
My Mom's favorite job around the house is...to do supper.
My Mom's favorite TV show is...the volcano show (one evening when I didn't feel well, Sophia snuggled on the couch with me and we watched "How the Earth was Made" and it was about volcanoes. I guess it left and impression with her.)
My Mom's favorite thing to cook for me is...macaroni.
My Mom's favorite thing to do with me is ... to cook with me.

Very cute! It is funny to see what perspective the children take. Apparently she see me in the kitchen a lot :)

As a side note, this baby has a lot of hiccups!! Right now he has some very strong hiccups and it is making it difficult to sit at the computer.

Yard Sale Season is Here!

Okay, so I am not a huge yard sale fan but yet...I am. I do not want to have another yard sale, although I have a Peg Perego Double Stroller for $300 if anyone is interested. I also have a wagon that we want to get rid of. Anyway, saw our neighborhood is having a yard sale and I can't wait to take James and Sophia out to it. I am looking for another baby stroller for the kids to play with (a nice one, not an umbrella stroller) and other toys. I never ever look at the clothing. That is just my rule. It would be good to find puzzles and books too. Anyway, 'tis the season!!

Today's Events

Today was a fun day. We woke up early with Sophia yelling that she had to go pee. So I took her and then James woke up and started yelling pee. (What one does, the other has to do too). So I got James up and sat him on the potty and what did he do right away...Pee in the Potty! Now, this was not the first time he has done this but it is the first time that he woke up and yelled that he had to pee. I was so proud of him.

Jim had to work today so I took the kids to Holy Spirit's Easter Egg Hunt. It was fun. The kids were limited to 10 eggs which is fine with me because they don't eat candy anyway. The Fishers Fire Department and EMT came with a ladder truck and ambulance. The kids were WAY more excited about this than the Easter Bunny and Egg Hunt. Sophia immediately went up to every EMT and said, "Do you know my Daddy? My last name is Beeson." It was very cute. Then she went up to every firefighter and said, "My grandpa is a firefighter." It was DARLING!! I took pictures so be looking for them on snapfish at some point.

We then went to see Jim at work. A nurse held the kids up to a patient's room while Jim worked on them. The patient was really sick too. James was in awe and Sophia was clapping and giddy just to see him work. You would have thought Santa was in the room! Again she announced that she is going to be a baby doctor. Sophia then showed all the nurses her boo-boo on her tongue (she bit her tongue yesterday when her chin landed on James' head). James had to show the nurses his boo-boo on his head from 2 weeks ago. Sophia helped out by picking through his hair like a mommy monkey. Again...DARLING!

Sophia also started asking very good questions lately. She has asked things like:
What makes a sandwich?
What's in a pretzel and how can we make one?
Where does food go after you swallow it?
What makes glue sticky?
Daddy, if you run 14 miles, how will you get back?

Then she asked the BIG question...."Daddy (I was not home at the time) how is Jacob going to come out of Mommy's tummy?" Jim told her how Jacob will come out and luckily we have always used correct anatomical name for our body parts so that wasn't that difficult to answer. Then she asked, "Is it like pooping?" (Where does she come up with these!?! She just turned 3!!!) She then wanted to clarify all of the different holes in the body and what function each one served. Then followed all of the questions like, "Will it hurt Mommy?", "Will Jacob cry?" etc. I know I am her mom and I think she is awesome but what amazing questions for such a little girl to ask!

Birthday Party Pics and Updates

The Birthday Cake!!

I haven't blogged in a while but a lot has happened. The biggest event was that Sophia turned 3 and had a party at Monkey Joe's. It was a lot of fun and Sophia got waaay too many gifts...thanks to all for the gifts. She surprises me everyday with her knowledge and maturity. She is so much fun and a mommy's girl and daddy's girl all at the same time. Here are pictures of her party and of her new big girl room. She chose everything in her room...thanks to Pottery Barn Kids for the decor.

Giving Monkey Joe a High-5

Sophia and her friend Lola (in the blue) with her sister Ruby.

Sophia's friends Cole and Lily

We put butterflies on the canopy.

I love the ruffle bedskirt!
Butterflies and tulips everywhere.

I just got back yesterday from Orlando from a girl's trip. It wasn't the Caribbean like we normally do but it was still relaxing. I had to stay in the US per doctors orders. I definitely got lots of rest. We didn't do Disney :( but we did see Cirque de Soleil in downtown Disney. It was good but the Vegas shows are better in my opinion. We also did lots of outlet shopping. I forgot how much fun shopping can be when you are without children. I got Sophia a really cute outfit from J Crew and James got a Nike outfit that matched the outfit I bought Jim. I didn't get anything for Jacob though...oops. That's okay though because he is just going to wear James' out outfits since they were both born in the same season. I did have to throw some of James' old outfits out because he was a messy baby but most will work again.

James suddenly grew up while I was in Orlando and turned into a little boy. He definitely is acting like a 2 year old and is STUBBORN!! He is going to need an attitude adjustment. I think it is time to refresh my memory on the behavior books I have. He is super cute though and is talking sooo much more. Adorable!

Jim had fun with the kids while I was gone. He said they tested his patience and wore him out but he loved every moment. He is the BEST daddy and husband!! He bought me all new maternity clothes to go on my girl trip. SOO nice. After being pregnant for 4 years I was tired of my old clothes so the new clothes were a great change.

Jacob's room is coming along. We still need to put up an airplane mobile and an airplane lamp should be in this week. We also need to by the rocking chair yet. It is looking good though!!

Swim Lessons

Sophia has started swim lessons this week. She is taking them at Fishers High School at the recommendations of Beck. So far I really like it. It is a really nice facility and I don't have to get in the water with Sophia. The problem is that Sophia doesn't really like the lessons...actually she likes them as long as she doesn't have to get her hair or face wet. She says she keeps getting water in her nose. I have come to the conclusion that she likes the fashion better then the swimming. When she met her instructor Matt, she said rather quickly, "Hi. I'm Sophia. I have flowers on my bathing suit. I have a new bathing suit too. It's blue with flowers on it. I'll wear it for you on Thursday." It was really cute but I hope that she doesn't want to try all these new sports just for the clothing. She is really excited for ballet, which starts in a month and she already has her outfits for it. I am wondering if she is excited for ballet because of the pink shoes with the pink leotard with the pink tights. Oh well, she is my mini-me after all.

Jim surprised me this week by saying that he doesn't think that the baby looks like a Joseph. For those of you who don't know this...we have always said that our second boy would be named Joseph Andrew. When Christian was born we decided not to go with Joseph because Christian seemed like a better fit. So I assumed that when we found out this next baby was a boy, we would then name him Joseph Andrew. Well, Jim said when he saw the ultrasound he said it didn't look like a Joseph and he decided that he didn't like the name Joe. He said when he is coaching his basketball team, he was trying to envision himself saying, "Go Joe" and he didn't like the way it sounded. So now we are looking through our family histories for a new name. We are also looking through the Bible and at the meanings of names. So far most names Jim likes, I do not and names I like, Jim does not. I know we have some time before we actually need a baby name but I like to get things done now so finding a baby name has been added to the high priority list.

And Baby Beeson #4 is...

A BOY!! We were both surprised and happy. Many people thought the baby was going to be a girl so we kind of were expecting that but the first thing to pop up on the screen was a penis. Surprise! Sophia was quiet about it for the first 5 minutes but now she is on board. James doesn't really care...for right now anyway. I didn't really care as long as the baby was healthy. Everything on the ultrasound looks fantastic. They couldn't see the four chambers of the heart because my belly button was in the way so in 4 weeks I get another ultrasound just to make sure. They are also watching a fibroid which keeps getting bigger with every child and now resembles an orange. Other than that everything looked great. The brain was the correct size and the lips and nose looked normal. The bones looked good and everything measured great! 11 oz., height in 52%, and heart rate 140. Right on schedule. Here are some pictures:

The Foot

The Face with his mouth open:

An Arm:

More proof that it really is a boy:

This is what I REALLY want

Sophia has a new request for her birthday. She told me that this is what she REALLY wants. She came up to me and said, "Mom, I want a Mini." I asked her a mini-what? She said, "A Mini Cooper Mom. They are so cute and little. I want one really badly."

I thought she is starting young asking for a car already. I told her when she is 16 or 18 and she has all A's, she might get one then. I have a feeling she won't forget that I told her that.

Birthday Wish List

In the car on the way to get haircuts (It was Sophia's first haircut by the way. I will post pictures of it later. She got an inch or less cut off but James got 3-4 inches cut off. He had really long hair.), I asked Sophia what she wanted for her birthday. It went something like this:

Karen: Sophia, what would you like for your birthday besides an American Girl Doll?

Sophia: A Tiana Barbie and a Barbie doll....Barbie stuff....Princesses....Mmmm...a race car...a beauty salon...Oh and a pink TV for my room with a pink DVD player with a pink remote with brown buttons, NOT pink buttons Mom, BROWN buttons and a red button on top. That's what I really want.

Very cute conversation but Sophia can keep dreaming. She is NEVER getting a TV for her room. Sorry! I thought some of the other ideas were pretty funny too, especially the race car. She wants one that you can actually drive. I can tell already what she is going to want for her 16th birthday...Daddy's Porsche!

Picks from Christmas Time...just a little late

Pure pleasure with the new Geo Trax.

This is supposed the be his big and happy smile but it looks hilarious!

Grandma and Grandpa Tempel with Sophia and James.

One of Sophia's many, many, many new dress-up clothes.

Santa brought a roller coaster. Fun Fun Fun! Too bad there is a weight limit...I have been wanting to try.

Baby Check-Up

We had our 17 week check-up on Tues. Everything looks great and sounds great. The heartbeat was found quickly....I only gained 2 pounds over the Holidays....all new symptoms are normal...3 weeks until we find out if it is a boy or a girl! I can't wait!

On another note...James had his first accident on Tuesday evening. His head hit the corner of a doorway....while he was running....and then being pushed. It was not pretty. Thankfully Dr. Jim was home and the corner of the door has crown molding around it so the corner was rounded. He acted confused though for about 20 minutes and his head looks REALLY bad! Jim got concerned, which if you know Jim, he doesn't get excited about medical things that easily. We had to wake James up every hour for several hours to make sure he was OK. Not fun to do in the middle of the night but James was a trooper. He will probably get a big black eye out of it once the swelling goes down and gravity takes over the bruise. Even today the bump on hid forehead is still huge.