2009 Beach Vacation: Part three

The last three days have been lazy beach days on our vacation. We've played in the sand and sun each morning and then had restful afternoons while Isaac enjoyed his naps. We've eaten dinners at Ella's (Wednesday), TBonz at Broadway at the Beach (Thursday), and Cinelli's Pizzeria on Ocean Isle (Friday).

Isaac is an official beach bum. He loves the ocean, the sand, and the shells. He could sit and play in the sand for half an hour before getting restless. Yesterday we flew a kite that we'd brought with us, and Steven and I had so much fun! Isaac was a little preoccupied with his sand bucket and rake, so he didn't get too excited about the kite. That made for a funny sight - two adults flying an Elmo kite and their kid wasn't the least bit interested!!

Here are some pictures from the past couple days:

Isaac sitting on the beach:


Our sand fort (Steven worked hard on this!):


Isaac walking through our sand fort:


Isaac glances at the kite above (see the excitement?!):


Our Elmo kite (one of the best $1 purchases I've ever made at Walmart!) That kite flew as well as any $25 one would!!


Steven flying the kite. Isaac is obviously still focused on his sand toys. :)


Dinner on the gazebo at Cinelli's:



Lunch at Sharky's on Ocean Isle (one of our favorite places for lunch here!):



Off to have some more fun!

2009 Beach Vacation: Part Two

Yesterday was a beautiful day, so we took advantage of the sunshine and spent some time on the beach. We played with Isaac in the sand for quite a while, and he didn't get tired at all!

He did sleep well last night! He went to sleep at 8 PM and didn't wake up until 9:15 this morning.

Here are some pictures of Isaac and Steven playing in the sand:








We love the beach!

Beach Vacation 2009: Part One

We're having a great time at the beach so far! We drove to Ocean Isle Beach on Monday and arrived in the afternoon. To our surprise, we have an Internet connection in our room, so I'm able to post some while we're here!

On Monday we took a stroll on the beach, and Isaac loved it! He kept saying "water, water" and didn't want to leave when we came in! For dinner, we ate at Ella's of Calabash, which is one of our favorite seafood restaurants. Steven had yummy crablegs, and I ate stuffed flounder. Isaac enjoyed a cheeseburger since we're holding off on seafood for him until he gets a little older.

Yesterday (Tuesday) it was rainy in the morning, so we took a drive to Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach. We ALL enjoyed this trip very much! Isaac was fully attentive the whole time! He did get a little scared of the sharks, though! Here are a few pictures of our time at the aquarium:




Once we got back from the aquarium, we took Isaac on the beach to play and then to the pool to try our his new floaties! Here are some pictures of our time together:




More to come!

At the beach...

We're at the beach this week on our vacation!

Have a wonderful week!!!

The men in my life...

There are four generations in this picture! Steven, my Dad (Gramps or Glenn Gurley, Jr.), Isaac, and my Pawpaw (or Glenn Gurley, Sr, who just celebrated his 81st birthday!)

I love these guys!!!

Isaac is 18 months old!

Isaac celebrated his half birthday yesterday! He is now 18 months old!

We had a nice visit with his pediatrician and, thankfully, he didn't need any shots. She said he is developing very well and she was pleased with how he's growing. Here are his stats:

Weight - 26 pounds (50th percentile)
Height - 33 inches (75th percentile)

It's amazing how much he has grown and learned in the past month! I think he's surpassed 50 words in his vocabulary now, and he seems to be picking up words at a much quicker pace these days.

He is also very mobile! He loves to run around the house and climb on the furniture. He also loves to walk on the sidewalk outside and climb up on our front porch stairs.

He is a big-time eater; he typically eats three full meals and two snacks each day. And after months of not drinking any milk except for mine, he is now enjoying chocolate soymilk (which I mix with DHA-fortified soymilk). I'm so thankful that he's able to drink something with protein, calcium, and vitamin D now that he's completely weaned from my breastmilk.

These days Isaac is really loving Steven's guitars. He can say "ge-tar" and often wants to watch Steven strum or try and strum it himself. He also still loves to play with his toy vacuum, and the real mop and broom.

Isaac is sleeping very well these days. This time last year I wondered when he would ever sleep through the night, but now it seems like he's a sleep champion! He goes to bed around 8 PM and wakes up between 8 and 9 AM. He takes one nap each day, after lunch, which lasts 2-3 hours. Last night he did wake up for the first time with what we think was a night terror. I was able to calm him down and put him back to sleep, but I surely hope that doesn't happen often, for his sake!

We love our little blessing, and we are so excited about seeing him interact with his little sister in several months. Also, we can't wait until next week when we'll be taking him to the beach for our family vacation. It should be tons of fun watching him run around on the sand this time!

We're having a little...

GIRL!!!

YAY! Today's ultrasound showed us our very healthy little baby girl! She was moving around and waving to us the whole time.

We are incredibly excited about this new little person in our lives, and finding out that she's a girl was so fun! During the ultrasound, we heard her heart beat at around 140 beats per minute, and we also saw all four chambers in her heart. We thank God for her healthy growth and pray that it continues throughout the pregnancy. She weighs 11 ounces now, and I'm just starting to be able to feel her move.

This is such a wonderful blessing for our family! Thank you Lord!

Baby #2: Boy or Girl?

Tomorrow is the big day for Baby #2! Our midpoint ultrasound is scheduled for 11 AM. We anticipate a great report, and we're hoping to find out the sex of this baby, too! For the past several weeks, several of our friends have predicted whether this is a boy or girl. Here's the talley:

Betsy (me) - At the beginning of the pregnancy I felt like this was a boy, but since I thought Isaac was a girl, my intuition may not be quite accurate when it comes to baby genders... Now, though, I have no "gut" feeling whatsoever.

C.M. - Boy
K.P. - Girl
A.W. - Originally thought it was a girl but has recently felt like it's a boy... suggests maybe it's twins (one of each)...
S.S. - Girl
A.S. - Girl

Many other folks have said, "I hope you have a girl so that you can have one of each." I guess that's because most folks figure we'll probably only have two children. However, since we are open to having as many children as God gives us, we may indeed have a third, and a fourth, and... well, we'll see what He has in store. The two we have now may be all that are meant for our "quiver", but if God gives us more children, we will be incredibly thankful and blessed. Therefore, if Baby #2 is a boy, we may still have a chance for a little girl. OR we could have five boys. But you know what? I trust that God knows what he's doing! I've enjoyed the joys of "snakes and snails and puppy dog tails" for the past 18 months, so I will be thrilled to have another little man enter our home.

Since most of our friends think I'm having a girl, I'd better be ready for that result, as well. (And because of the fact that there's a 50/50 chance...) And I AM ready! It would be so much fun to watch Isaac interact with a little sister. And I'd love to watch Steven be a Daddy to a little Miss. Not to mention all the fun, girly stuff we'd be able to get for her!!! :)

Now, if the result is twins... I think I'll just cross that bridge when I get to it. It would be amazingly exciting if we were having twins, though! (Call me crazy, but I really feel that way. So does Steven! Call us both crazy; it's okay and we're used to it!!) And, yes, we've already had one ultrasound that showed only one baby. However the ultrasound technician did tell us that there could potentially be two babies in there if one was hiding during the ultrasound...

So, less than 24 hours to the "Mauney Results Show"... what do you think this baby is? Another little man? Or a sweet little lady? If you have a feeling, one way or the other, leave it in the comments!

Stay tuned for the results... (disclaimer: results will be provided if baby chooses to cooperate!)

Little scavenger...

One night this week, I went to our church's Bible Study and Steven stayed home with Isaac. After dinner and before cleaning the table, Steven stepped away to the keyboard for a minute. Isaac usually follows him and hangs out in the den while Steven works on his music. However, this time he stayed in the dining room. And a few minutes later, this is what Steven found:




I guess Isaac wasn't really "all done" like he'd told us... He ate all of his Daddy's leftovers!

Mother's Day 2009

This past Mother's Day weekend was great! We got to see Steven's mother on Friday night at her home in Denver, NC. Then, on Saturday, we visited with my mom while we celebrated Kati's graduation.

Sunday was a wonderful, restful day for our family. We enjoyed breakfast at Panera, at my request, and then we ended up getting new cell phones for Steven and me (which means Isaac now has "his" own cell phone - my old one, with no service of course! He loves it!!). Finally, we went to our church's weekly service and were surprised by a visit from our missionary friends, the Duggans. Brian and Cathi were in town for their daughter's high school graduation, and they made a stop by our service. They shared some of their adventures they've had during the past two years in Costa Rica and working with South American missionaries. What a blessing!

Here are a couple pictures of my babies and me on Mother's Day:

My baby #1:



My baby #2:



I love being a mom! Thank you Lord for these two precious little ones that you've entrusted to our care. May my motherhood story bring honor and glory to You!

Helping in the garden!

Isaac enjoyed helping Steven water the garden this week. Here are some pictures of his first experience:

One of his favorite foods...

...is spaghetti!!!

What a cutie!

When we ask Isaac to smile, this is what we get. Pretty good, huh!? :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Blessings to all you mother's out there!

Graduation Day for Kati!

Today, my sister graduates from college! She has earned her bachelor's of arts degree in Communication Studies with a minor in Japanese from UNCC. We are SO proud of her!

Congratulations Kati! We love you!

Farewell to our Pony!

Tonight we said goodbye to our 1966 Mustang. We've enjoyed having this car for the past five years, but now was her time to move on. We sold her to a nice man who doesn't live too far away, and he'll be letting us see her again once he gets her all restored.


This car has been with Steven and me since before we were married. We purchased it from Steven's dad in April 2004, and Steven did a little work to it so it would be just perfect for riding away from our wedding. We'll never forget riding that little white "pony" from the church to the Dunhill Hotel in downtown Charlotte where we spent our wedding night. We'll also never forget that the next morning we got a call in our hotel room from the valet parking folks. They couldn't get the car started!! We told them about our "pony's" little start-up trick, and, voila, she started running!


This car was one of the two cars we had when we were first married, so I drove it each day to work during our first year of marriage. I clearly remember those very cold mornings when I drove her out onto Tyvola road and then she stalled at every stoplight on the way to my office. In rush hour traffic. Yes, those were some great memories. And I must emphasize the word memories, meaning I've been there and done that. :) Seriously, though, we do thank God for this car. She was one to enjoy and also one that got us where we needed to go.


At this point in our lives, we find ourselves needing the space that this little lady was taking up in our garage. We'll soon be moving all that "stuff" that's currently residing in the new baby's bedroom, including our bowflex (keeps Steven pumped!), my elliptical, and a bookshelf full of who know's what. :) I'm looking forward to getting that room cleared out so we can start designing the nursery (once we find out if we're having a little boy or a little girl.) I'm also excited about making our garage into a kind of multi-purpose room, with our exercise equipment and my craft stuff, in addition to the stockpile pantry that we've been working on over the past year. That being said, we determined that our Mustang had to go. We don't have the resources right now to pour into her restoration, so it made sense to move on. Part of our seller/buyer agreement was that we definitely get to see our pony once she's completely restored. We look forward to that!

And who know's...maybe one day we'll be able to get that little cherry red classic Mustang convertible we've always dreamed of! For now, though, we are so thankful to be in such a wonderful season of life, with babies underfoot, that we're totally OK with trading a classic car for the opportunity to make room for another precious little one. One that by God's favor we will indeed have all the resources we need to raise and care for.

It's planting time again!!

This past weekend, Steven and I worked in our yard on a couple projects. First, we planted our very first garden! We did have tomatoes in a little bed last year, but this year we have an official raised bed garden, thanks to my handy Daddy and Pawpaw! Also, I stripped the pansies from the flower bed in front of our house and replaced them with marigolds and lantana. I've never tried lantana or marigolds in the ground (I've worked with them in pots), so I look forward to seeing how they turn out!

Here are some pictures of our projects:

Daddy and Pawpaw worked hard to put together our raised beds! Thank you both SO much!!!


After 10 bags of dirt and 10 bags of manure compost, our beds were filled up! Here is our garden on it's very first day of life: (We planted squash, zucchini, peppers, green beans, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and spinach, along with some marigolds to help keep the bugs away!)


I love planting annuals in our front flower bed and watching them grow throughout the season. I'm hoping for a great show of orange and red this year with tangerine lantana, marigolds, and my red-orange asiatic lilies (which should bloom in the next week or so!) Here's the start of the season for that bed:



This is just the start! I'll be posting more pictures as these beauties grow!

What a big boy! And SO handsome!!

Pregnancy Update - 17 Weeks

It's hard to believe I'm already 17 weeks along - that's three weeks from halfway there! (or, if the baby comes early, I could be even closer to halfway!)

I'm still feeling great, thank God!!! I'm not having very many food aversions, either, which is wonderful since I love to eat! I'm also feeling a good bit of stamina these days.

During my pregnancy with Isaac, my most intense issue was heartburn. (which isn't too bad of an issue at all - I'm so thankful that I had such a wonderful pregnancy with him!!!) I hadn't experienced heartburn this time around, until yesterday. I had just eaten a couple Eggo waffles with chocolate chips on the side (rare and unusual craving for me!), so that may have been the culprit.

I do feel like my belly has grown quite a bit over the past couple weeks, so I've posted a picture below to begin tracking. It's amazing how I've grown recently - I think the baby must have undergone a growth spurt within the past week! My body seems to be shifting, but I'm not gaining much weight yet. Last time I checked, I had gained three pounds since I found out I was pregnant.



What a blessing this child already is to our family! We can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl (in a couple weeks!) and then ultimately to welcome him or her into the world!

Move over Stanley Steemer!

Last week, I used our carpet shampooer to clean some spots on our floors. Isaac loves any kind of vacuum or household tool, so he got excited that I was using this one. He walked around with me as I was cleaning the carpet, and when I was finished, I let him have a try. Here are some shots:

"Cleaning" the carpet:


Turning the machine off and on:



Notice how serious he looks in these pictures! I think he really thought he was cleaning the carpet!!