It was even more fun because Josh stayed home with Eliza and I got to take Marion and have a special morning with just her. It was the first time we’d done something with just the two of us since baby sister made her arrival, so we had a lot of fun together.

Marion and Leo share some playground bark

The birthday boy

Marion ran off with this baby doll. I guess it’s because we won’t let her push Eliza in the stroller.

You will take that pacifier!

Marion’s BFF, Tracey

If she takes after me in height, this is as close as she’ll ever come to being able to dunk

She had pizza for lunch

Even in the midst of this “rebuilding” year, we’re still Gator fans

We still let her play with Leo, even though he’s a Wisconsin fan

You can’t hold it against that cute face

Photos by the amazing Jessica of Jessica Bishop Arts who is just an all around wonderful photographer and person.

It was next to impossible to pick just a few favorites, so this post is pretty photo heavy.

Enjoy!

My awesome necklace is from Michabella’s Etsy shop. Completely gorgeous!

The quilt in these photos is a quilt I got from my grandmother, that her mother made. It’s the one thing I’d take with me if I were ever in a house fire (apart from Josh, the girls and the dogs, of course.)

(video embedded in this post)

The bags were all packed
By the door laid with care
In hopes that the baby
Soon would be there.

Big sister was nestled
All snug in her bed
While visions of baby sister
Danced in her head.

With mama in her pjs
And unable to sleep,
All she wanted to do
Was weep and weep!

When out by the door,
There arose such a bark
She sprang from the bed
Stubbed her toe in the dark!

She sat down and cried
Oh what do I do?
I can barely care for myself
Much less for girls too.

Her mind was a mumble
A jumble, a mess
She felt no excitement
Only lots of stress.

Of a life full of changes
A life turned upside down
Of problems, of messes
She sat with a frown.

Then the moon through
The window it showed
And helped light the way
For her poor swollen toes.

When what to her poor
Tired mind did she see?
But a vision of sisters
And a life full of glee!

A life full of curls
And tea parties galore -
Pink and purple,
And fancy dress stores!

Fairies and princesses
And knights on white horses;
Sterling silver and crystal,
dinners of seven courses.

Mixed in with frogs
And spiders and bugs
For these girls will surely
Love them some mud!

Fights and squabbles
Will sometimes never cease
For never did girls
Exist in perfect peace.

Mama could imagine
Two sweet little girls
And for a very short time,
She’s the center of their world.

Her heart filled with love,
Her eyes filled with tears
And she suddenly could not wait
For tomorrow to be here.

To see that new, little,
Most perfect face
And to know that there
Is no more perfect place.

Ten little fingers
And ten little toes
Will she have her mama’s
Or her dada’s nose?

Mama’s heart nearly burst thinking
As the moment arrives
Of seeing sister hug sister
For the first time of their lives.

She knew it wouldn’t be easy
Not a walk in the park
But as she sat there thinking,
Alone in the dark

It would all be worth it,
It was a dream come true
To be the mama of sweet girls,
Numbering two.

So she climbed back to bed,
Closed her eyes, said her prayers
Her mind free from worries,
Stresses and cares.

Her last thought was quiet,
Still and true
Happy (almost) birthday sweet baby,
Happy birthday to you.

If you’ll remember last time, there was this little thing called Hurricane Ike and two weeks without power that hindered my finishing efforts. That, and the fact my sewing machine went nutso on me until I (a year after she was born) literally, literally, fixed it by smacking it with a hammer.

This time, I’m determined to get the project done before Baby Sister is born and another hurricane hits and my sewing machine is unfixable with a hammer.

With seven(ish) weeks left to go, I’m proud to say I’m halfway done! That’s a pretty big accomplishment for me. Marion’s bed is completely done and really, the only must do projects that are left are Sister’s crib rails and bed skirt. There are a few other little things I’d like to do, but those are just icing on the proverbial cupcake.

(Apologies in advance, but this room is really hard to photograph and often the best pictures are with my camera phone, so there will be a mix of good and not so great photos.)

Before we even moved, we picked out fabrics for the new nursery and picked this mix of fabrics from Michael Miller

And this is what we started with after we moved (at least on Marion’s side of the room)

And this is what we have now! (That thing in the bottom left corner is my ironing board)

One of the first things we had to do was to get a new blind for the room! The girls’ room faces due east and so the sun comes up bright and early.

So we bought this dark gray blackout shade from Ikea, and it was wonderful, but in the end, it didn’t work with the drapery rod we chose.

Which meant, not only did I have to make curtains for the first time, I had to make curtains lined with blackout material.

I think they turned out pretty good! (I promise there are two of them, it’s just really, really, really hard to get a picture of them both straight on.)

This is my favorite little spot in the room, Marion’s little reading nook

It’s constantly in use! (And yes, it’s meant to hold books, but she usually just has them scattered on the floor.)

A rare moment of cleanliness

And even though she’s pretty well past teething (we’re just waiting on the two year molars), I still did her a set of teething rails just because I like the way they look

She’s been sleeping with a pillow for a while, so I made her a pillowcase to match

Well, she got two actually. I think Mr Brown Dog likes the bird better than the polka dots

Along with two new changing pad covers and a bow board. However, I realized with TWO girls, I’m going to have to make a much larger bow board!

One little storage basket (we need a few more of these, but that’s a scrap project for when I have nothing else to do, hahahaha!)

It’s only taken me three and half months since we moved in to get this stuff done, we’ll see what else I can knock out in the next seven(ish) weeks!

For a look back, last year’s Father’s Day post

So, without further ado, 20 weeks gestation.

She’s doing her runner stretches already!

She was breech during this ultrasound and apparently bored as she kept playing with her toes.

This might be one of the coolest pictures ever. She gives us the thumbs up as parents already

Because of her position, we weren’t able to get good facial shots. She’s looking at us in this picture, forehead to the left, body to the right.

Same position as the above picture, but in this one, she’s trying to suck her thumb. It’s so cool to see how different she is than Marion already. They say if they suck their thumb in the belly, they’ll be thumb suckers when born. We never saw Mar even try to suck her thumb and she never really took a pacifier when born. It will be interesting to see what Ginger does when she’s here!

Alien baby!

Another amazing photo. She’s about 12 ounces in this picture, almost a whole pound! And exactly what Marion weighed at this age too.

And yes, she’s still a girl!

Because she was in such a funny position for that ultrasound (and stubborn enough not to move) they couldn’t get very clear pictures of her spine and legs. Which just meant we got an additional ultrasound at 24 weeks. Two ultrasounds actually, the same as Marion. When I went in, I drank my nasty glucose drink for the diabetes test, then went for the ultrasound. She was just chilling, being non cooperative. But it let us get some great profile shots!

It might look like she’s blowing bubbles, but she’s not.

The bubbles are actually the umbilical cord. It was apparently tickling her face and so she was trying to move it away by blowing on it. Silly girl!

She’s got a super cute nose, doesn’t she?

The glucose had definitely kicked in by the end of my appointment and she had flipped back down to head first, so they were able to get the measurements they needed. She’s still perfect! And just like with Marion, I was measuring 26 weeks instead of 24. It’s funny that they have very different personalities already but are also so similar in other ways. I guess that’s what happens when you are sisters!

And for fun

Marion is on the left, Ginger on the right. Both at 24 weeks.

Tuesday afternoon we had our NT scan and blood work; we did the same with Marion. It’s such a super cool experience; our scan was in the same room that we had Marion’s scan. That was pretty cool And of course, the pictures are always so neat!

Ginger’s arms. In the left picture, it’s like s/he’s saluting us! The right picture is kind of shot under the baby, the left arm is up by the head, the right arm is pointing straight down.

This makes it clear as mud, doesn’t it

Ginger’s profile. Such a sweet little baby already

And for fun, compare to Marion’s profile!

The greatest picture, between the legs! The ultrasound tech said it looked like a girl to her! She clarified it by saying it was just a guess, but in a few more days, it won’t be just a guess! Our genetic center offers early gender determination by bloodwork (the mom’s, not the baby’s) that is 99% accurate. So by early next week, we’ll know if we’re team pink or blue!

Either team, we’re just happy to have a healthy, ACTIVE little Ginger bean! S/he was such a little mover! Ginger would swim over to the one side, plant her feet and just push off! We saw her do little rolls (probably because the tech was poking my belly and annoying her!) and s/he waved at us a ton. It’s so cool to already see a little bit of personality come through!

My attention and energy as of late has been focused on growing this little one

Internets, meet Ginger. Ginger, meet the Internets.

Ginger with labels.

We’re due September 27th so Marion will be getting a baby brother or sister for her birthday! We’re so excited and so blessed to be expecting this new little one and we can’t wait to welcome Ginger into our lives!