emma words.

last week, when we were visiting jackie, michael, and baby eliana, jason and i were sitting cozy on the couch. jason was holding eliana, and i was looking adoringly at them - probably thinking a) how excited i am to have our own little one so soon, and b) how great my hubby is with babies!

emma sighed, gestured towards eliana, and, in all seriousness, said to me:

"baby... i KNOW you want THIS baby, but that's jackie's baby. you can't have her. we're gonna get our own baby really soon, ok? you just have to wait..."

i love my daughter's concern for my sanity. i may have run off with baby girl blow if emma hadn't been there to speak some sense into me. :)

baby eliana michelle.

a new love has been added to our "family."

sweet baby girl

in daddy's arms

hi mommy!

we are so blessed to have an amazing group of friends. God has surrounded us with sweet brothers and sisters in Christ who are walking this journey of life with us, and it is a blessing to have the opportunity to walk with them, as well.

in october, our group welcomed miss shiloh ann smith to the world with reci & marc. she is such a joy!

2 weeks ago, we gathered in the waiting room at the medical center of carrollton, anticipating the arrival of eliana michelle blow. most of us were there all day, and it was a great memory, and i think, a great new tradition for the babies-to-come in the future! :)

eliana is perfect. just perfect. we are so happy for jackie & michael and cannot wait to see how the Lord changes eliana's life as she grows into a beautiful little girl and a woman of God. we're excited for emma to get to grow up with these girls, and to introduce our new little one to both eliana and shiloh in june!

life is so rich!

emma words.

so, one thing i would like to do on here, is to take the time to record some of the funny thing miss emma says throughout the day. at three-years-old, she is constantly making profound declarations that boggle our minds... some are sweet, some make us laugh so hard we almost pee in our pants, some make us simply scratch our chins in confusion...

but either way, we for sure don't want to forget the words that come out of her precious mouth. because i know that so soon, we won't be shocked and awed by her words... because she'll be grown up, and it'll be normal for her to talk to much. makes me a bit sad.

anyway... a daily occurrence right now is for emma to call us "baby."
as in: "baby, i can't snuggle-nuggle with you right now, because i'm playing with my trains."

or as she is standing on my shins and i'm asking her to get off because it hurts mommy:
"baby, i'm not hurting you... i promise. you will be ok."

and she always has the gravest look on her face when she says it. too funny.

so, two nights ago, we were hanging out in the living room, and i was messing with jason by pretending to have things to talk about so he would pause the dvr. :) (i'm so mischievous.) finally, emma looked at me and exclaimed:

"baby - it's not ok! this world is MESSED UP!"

needless to say, jason and i lost it. where did she hear that??? oh my.

and so true! but hopefully she won't truly know the weight of her words for many years to come.

gender reveal invitation.

i whipped up this little invite today for a gender reveal party we're throwing for our family next week after our "revealing" sonogram for baby rains. :)

i actually made this on powerpoint and just saved it as a jpeg file. i'm really excited about how it turned out... i think it's super cute, cheery, and fun. :) cupcakes will be a big part of the evening... our little announcement will be made with them!

can't wait!

cast your vote.

i've added a fun little feature to our blog!

at the top of the right sidebar, you'll find a little poll, asking for you to make your guess on the gender of the little one growing inside me!

we go to the doctor to *hopefully* find out on thursday, january 28th, and i'd love to see what the popular guess is! :) make your guess, and sometime on the 28th or 29th (after we've revealed baby's gender to our family and closest friends), i will reveal the answer to YOU! (granted baby cooperates and lets us see his/her goods!)

so, go cast your vote... i want to see what you think! :)

{you can leave a comment with your guess, too... it'll be fun to see who's right!}

baby rains at 11 weeks.

even though i am over 17 weeks now, and we'll be having another sonogram in a couple weeks, i wanted to update with pictures from our LAST sonogram, which was at 11 weeks. our baby has grown SO much since then, and i cannot WAIT to see how. :)

here is our baby:

12/1/09 - 11 weeks exactly
:: about the size of a fig ::

you really can see the little one, now... see baby's head, and little legs & feet at the bottom?

 baby was kicking and squirming like crazy! :)

 you can see the profile a little better here... little nose and mouth/chin... and his/her tiny forehead... it's amazing to me that this little human really exists - and is fully formed - yet still only 1 1/2 inches long!

 baby rains turned to look at us full-on! do you see his/her eyes?? baby still kinda looks like an alien, here... but we love our little alien! :) hehe

 baby rains was moving his/her arms, too... you can see a tiny hand right up by his/her head... it was amazing!

baby rains, just over 1 1/2 inches long, is now almost fully formed. his/her hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under his/her gums, and some of his/her bones are beginning to harden.

baby is already busy kicking and stretching. these movements will become more frequent as his/her body grows and becomes more developed and functional. baby rains is even starting to have tiny hiccups! :)

we can't wait to see our little one again on the 28th... AND find out if baby rains #2 is a girl or a boy!

any guesses??? :)

christmas card 2009.

this post (like all others coming soon) is super overdue!

this was the christmas card from the rains family this year... i designed it at vistaprint.com and think it turned out really great - especially for what it is! the colors on the actual card are SO much more vivid and festive... the scanner didn't do it justice. :)

...and i love this picture for 2 reasons:

1) emma's smile is simply irresistable! it is definitely kiss-worthy... and we laugh, because she totally looks like she came right from an episode of "toddlers and tiaras!" don't you think? :)

2) this is our very first picture as a family of four! our friends, the stewarts, snapped this photo at a trip to the big orange pumpkin farm in october - right after we'd found out about the little bean growing inside of me. so fun!

missing.

i know, i know... its been nearly two months since i've posted! i must say that i have excuses... good ones, too! i mean, finishing school, graduation, being pregnant and exhausted, having a 3-year-old, thanksgiving and christmas, a trip to destin, a new year's trip to ohio for a funeral... whew... its been one crazy 2-months!

but they are over now. and i am done with school.

and currently, i am home. in a quiet house. with my daughter at mother's day out.

and no homework to do! :)

so, i promise... i will be catching you up on all of our adventures from november and december... this week!

promise.

right now, i have to finish some plans for lindsey's 21st birthday. fun stuff.

there will be posts about that too, i'm sure of it. :)