Baby #3

The title says it all!  We will have another little baby Prentice blessing our family later this summer.  We found out we were expecting the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday!).  Even though we very much planned for this baby, it was still such a shock to see the two lines on the pregnancy test.  Such a miracle!

November 28th, 2014 (Chad went in to check it and came out and told me I needed to come in.  I think I screamed when I saw the second line.)

November 29th, 2014

December 2nd, 2014

December 4, 2014

On January 5th, I had my first OB appointment and saw the baby on the ultrasound machine screen.  The doctor and nurse were surprised that the baby was moving around so much at such a tiny size.  We kept the news to ourselves until I hit 15 weeks, which corresponded with Luke's birthday party.  We really wanted to tell our family in person at the same time, which didn't happen with Luke or Meredith's news.  We knew the Grandparents and Uncle Derek would be coming for Luke's birthday, so we thought that would be the perfect time.  We bought Luke a "big brother" t-shirt and had it be the last gift he opened.  I think people were excited, but not necessarily super surprised.  We texted a few friends with the news, then posted it on Facebook.

We were going to use this picture as our announcement since he was smiling so well, but it was hard to read the shirt :)

Ironically, the baby's due date is 8-8-15, which is my Dad's 60th birthday.  It would be so neat to deliver on that day, but due to another c-section, I would imagine the delivery date will be late July or very early August.

We are so thankful to God for this blessing.  Though it would be neat to keep the gender a surprise for D-Day, I don't think we can wait that long again.  Plus, we don't have a set baby name (like we did for Luke), so it would be nice to not have to struggle with coming up with two names.  We can't wait for the gender ultrasound on March 13th!

Luke is TWO!

As of Monday, we now have a 2 year old little boy running through our house.  Unbelievable!  I thought I would get used to the idea since his big sister already hit this age, but no, I'm still in denial my "baby" is two!

This is how our newest 2 year old likes to watch cartoons :)

We had a nice little party for him on Saturday (Valentine's Day) at our home with both sets of Grandparents and Uncle Derek in attendance.  When he woke up from his nap and saw all the decorations and food out, he was extremely excited even through his tired eyes.  I tried to have most of his favorites for his birthday - strawberries (made them chocolate covered in honor of Valentine's Day) and orange/banana salad.  He is not a fan of sweets at all (just the opposite of Meredith), I still made jello cake cupcakes with blue frosting, sherbert punch,  and had some birthday cake-flavored ice cream.  Low and behold, he gobbled up the cupcake and ice cream!

Enjoying lunch before the party.

He's awake from nappy time!

2!

Paw Patrol themed cupcakes.  He loves Paw Patrol!

He loved the balloons!

Sissy had to help him blow out his candle.

Digging right in.

He doesn't like to be messy!

Best picture I could get with him in his new STL hat from Mommy and Daddy (well, mainly Daddy) :)

We are so proud of our little Luke and blessed each day of the past two years we have had him in our family.  He is such a funny little guy.  He started saying lots of words around 20 months and in the past few weeks, he has begun forming phrases.  Some of my favorites are "nigh nigh mama" (night night, mama) and "mama peas" (mama, please).  He says "bapa" for Grandpa and "mamoo" for Grandma.  He has said "sissy" for Meredith as long as we can remember.  You will always find him holding something in one of his hands; Nowadays it is always a marker.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for this little guy.

Luke on 2-16-15: Mr. Birthday Boy

Love this one - He's so ticklish!

Elizabethtown

This year, Chad and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary!  We haven't changed much since then, have we?

We tried to celebrate our anniversary while in New York City this past July, but it just didn't work out.  We were in group settings most of the time and never had a chance to get to a nice restaurant to celebrate.  Given that we have taken honeymoon/anniversary trips to cities (Europe for our honeymoon and Chicago for our 1st year anniversary), I really wanted to take a getaway to a cabin, lake, or bed and breakfast.  Other than our first year anniversary, this was the only other trip we have taken to celebrate our anniversary.  Must be because Meredith was here by our 2nd anniversary and Luke by our 4th anniversary :)

Three months late, but in October we celebrated with a weekend getaway to a Bed and Breakfast in Elizabethtown, Illinois which sits right on the Ohio River (we could see Kentucky from our view) and took a brief hike through Shawnee Forest on the way there.  It was just what we needed!  Picturesque, unseasonably warm Fall weather, and beautiful vibrant colored trees.  The kids got to spend the weekend with Grandpa and Grandma Perry and partake in the local Fall Festival and Halloween parade.  It was a win-win for everyone.

As a child, I went here several times but this was our first time together.  

Camel!

On the way from Shawnee Forest to Elizabethtown, we stopped at Cave-in-Rock to eat at a local cafe and watch the ferry take people/vehicles from Illinois to Kentucky.

The Ferry.  Really neat and peaceful to watch.

We were a little unsure about staying at a Bed and Breakfast, but it exceeded our expectations!  The owner was super sweet, breakfast was delicious, and we had great conversations with the couple from Evansville at our table.

This Bed and Breakfast was built in 1914.

There was a huge porch we could sit out on and look out over the river.

Family Room.

Entry into Bed and Breakfast.

Staircase leading up to our room.

The "Elvis Room" just outside our room.

Another view of the Elvis room.

Our room, "The Captain's Quarters".

This tree was well over 100+ years old.  If it weren't for the Japanese beetles, we may have sat around it.

We frequented this floating restaurant during our stay.  It had a deck you could sit out on that overlooked the river.

Sunset

Sunrise