Blakely's 22 Month Update

Height: about 35 inches
Weight: about 27 lbs
Head Circumference: about 20 inches
Vision: We are good in this department. Nothing to report
Movement: You are a maniac! You run so fast now I can barely keep up and you love to play tag and have Sissy or me chase you. You are great on the stairs going up and down although sometimes you stand at the top and yell for me to come get you. You can totally go down on your belly though feet first. We are working on kicking the soccer ball and throwing. Just some basic athletic skills. You love going to gymnastics class. You can hang on the bar for a good 10 seconds, do a handstand and a forward roll.
Eating Habits/New Foods: You love your milk before bed and before nap time. Occasionally mom gives you juice but most of the day your drinking water. As far as food goes, Breaskfast usually consists of granola bars, yogurt, sausage, and fruit. Lunch is cheese, smoothies, salami, cucumbers, tomatoes, crackers, pirates booty, chips, applesauce, pouches, raisins, chicken nuggets. Dinner is usually what we eat, but you especially love noodles, hot dogs, pizza, peas, chicken, corn, edamame, and green beans.You would eat edamame every meal if I let you. You also love Chinese food and Chick fil A. Everytime you see it you yell out "french fry!"
Sleeping Patterns: You are sleeping through the night. We did just take away your pacifiers so it has been a fun few days, but you have actually slept really well without them. You sleep from 8 pm to 7:30 am. You take one nap in the day between 12-1 and it lasts for 1-2 hours. Since moving in our new house, you love to be rocked to sleep. Every nap and bedtime you say "rock you" so we do that for a little while before bed.
Sounds/Words: You are a full blown talker. We have nice in depth conversations and you are learning new words every day. You are also learning songs. You usually pick up a few of the words and then just sing random words throughout the rest, but they are in tune so its pretty impressive. You talk about Jesus and Sissy a lot and you love the word No. You have learned your manners and say yes ma'am and its so cute with your little lisp.
New discoveries/accomplishments:
-You can fully talk
-You are still in a crib but looking forward to switching you to your big girl bed in the next few months
-You got rid of the pacifier and stuffed in your bunny at build a bear.
-You celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and moved into a new house since your last monthly update (3 months ago)
-You love playing with your sister and repeating anything she says or does. She is an awesome big Sis, but sometimes she gets you into some trouble.
-You love reading books all the time and you are obsessed with your baby doll.
-You are staring ISR tomorrow so hopefully we can add swimming to the list by your 2nd birthday!
- I signed you up for preschool this fall!
-You sported your first pony tail
_You went to velocity trampoline park and loved jumping!
Places you went/Adventures: Since our last update which was in October we have done lots! We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grammys, Bought a new house, celebrated Christmas where you got ridiculous amounts of toys, moved out of Grammy's house and into our new house. We visited Mickeys Christmas party with all of your cousins including the twins, and have been busy getting our new house all set up.
Clothes: You are in 24 month or 2T clothes in all brands now. Size 6 or 7 shoes and we just moved up to a size 6 diaper. I am about ready to give up diapers and do some potty training.
Sister updates: You and Delainey are such a blessing to watch. Since moving into our new house I have really seen you guys grow up and learn to play together so well. You both go upstairs to the play room and play for hours. Occasionally I will hear a yell or scream and footsteps of someone chasing the other, but for the most part you get along really well. Delainey loves teaching you how to say new words and go potty in the big girl potty. You are getting to a fun age as far as communication goes even if it means your a little sassy!

Life lately through the camera roll

Hey guys! Sorry I have been MIA. I promise to get back on the wagon soon and start posting more regularly. I just feel so tired by the time I get in bed and am ready to blog. So here is what's been happening lately. Blakely turned 12. HAHA no but seriously this month has been crazy how much she has changed. She is a sassy talkative girl who loves to sing, dance, and play with her Sissy. 

 Last weekend we spent most of the weekend. Doing trim around our windows downstairs. I keep forgetting to take an after pic of how awesome it turned out so I will try to do it tom and do a house update post.
Monday Delainey didn't have school so we went out to a trampoline park with friends Collins and Sadie. Blakely liked it almost as much as D did. Delainey particularly liked the Ninja Warrior Course because "she is going to be a ninja warrior" when she grows up. The course was a little big for her, but she could do some things. Girl definitely is strong and can climb a pole!

 Blakely sported her first ever leotard for gymnastics last week and looked so cute. Nothing like some matching sisters. D can do her cartwheel and is ready for Level 1 now.

 The weather last week was amazing. I laid out 3 days, one of which the girls played in the pool despite the freezing water temperatures. We are going to live in this pool all summer long! Blakely starts her infant survival rescue lessons next week so hopefully she will be a little swimming fish in no time too!

 Dave went to Dallas this past weekend for a work trip so I took advantage of doing no house work and decided to have a mommy daughter date with Delainey. Saturday morning we headed down to Orlando for some Seaworld fun with a stop at Ikea. Delainey dictated the day so we spent most of the time playing in the Kids area going on small rides and running around in the splash park. We did get to enjoy a free Francesca Battistelli concert while there which was awesome. I loved watching her sing and dance and hear about Jesus. She is turning into such a sweet young lady! We ended our day with a McDonalds cheeseburger and a milkshake! It was a good day and I love just having some one on one time with her!

This week we are just laying low and doing our normal activities. And hopefully finish a few things at the house. Next weekend Dave and I are off to Charleston for a weekend getaway to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary!! Woohoo!

Here we go again! :)

This picture is pretty self explanatory. It is time to get this party started again. I am sure there are a lot of you guys who have been following my page to see when I was going to try for Baby #3 AGAIN. Back in October I posted that I would probably do it the beginning of 2017. Well what most people don't know is it takes about 2 months because there is a month of prep work ahead of time. So while I hoped to actually do the implanting in January or February, I am scheduled to do it on March 17th.

The reason I waited is because David's insurance benefits changed in 2017 to cover infertility issues. Talk about God's redeeming love...the day after my miscarriage while I was still so upset, I received a letter in the mail that said IVF would be covered up to $25,000 lifetime maximum. It was as if God was saying, stop worrying about it Jamie, you can do it again, and I'm taking care of it this time. David seems to think the miscarriage was ordained by God because he just knows we are destined for twins. (He thinks twin girls to be exact)LOL  So instead of sticking with my initial timeline, I decided lets wait and see if these insurance benefits really do pan out. I was told it would be quite the process of enrolling in a special infertility program and then filing an appeal to stay with my current doctor since he was not one of their preferred doctors. About 4-6 weeks for the whole ordeal. I was telling myself hopefully by March I would be approved so I was looking at a summer IVF cycle.

So I called on Jan. 2nd to get started and they said can your assigned nurse call you tomorrow at 10 to get some more details. I of course said sure...let's get this long process started. She called the next day, I gave her my history and she said I was enrolled in the program and ready to go. Excuse me what?!? She already checked my benefits and saw Dr. Brown was not a preferred doctor so she approved him herself and I could do IVF tomorrow if I wanted to. I was so excited! So much for weeks of calls and appeals. It was done! So I called Dr. Brown and was in on Friday getting on the IVF calendar. It was too late for January and February was full so sounds like God thinks March is a good month for me. St. Patrick's Day to be exact. Hopefully the Luck of the Irish will be with me that day since I am a McLaughlin and all. :)

I don't start the meds until February 3rd so once that comes, I will start with the Infertilty Fridays again to keep you all in the loop. February 3rd happens to be my 10 year wedding anniversary too so this was totally meant to be! Things are lining up just too perfectly! Please start praying for me and a baby in the future. I contemplated blogging  my journey again because I don't want God to use me again to show triumph amidst tragedy, but that is what I do not want not God. If he needs to use me then I am going to be open for all to witness. Thank you so so much for your continued support and prayers as we start this journey again!!

PS: If you are new to the blog and have no clue what I'm talking about, click the Infertility tab at the top and it will link you to all the past blog posts.

House progress pics - Upstairs

Slowly but surely, things are starting to come together with the house. I've got a long way to go, but most of the large things are done. Now if only I could get my restoration hardware dining chairs without having to pay the $329 delivery surcharge fee life would be great. Until then we are standing at the dining room table. LOL The upstairs is complete with the exception of little decorations and stuff.
This is a little reading nook in the game room area. I forgot to take a pic of that, but it is basically all our old living room furniture with lots of cubbies filled with toys.

 Delainey's Room -  We need something over her bed?!? Suggestions?

 Blakely's big girl room - All her stuff is upstairs in this room, but I still have her sleeping in a crib downstairs. She doesn't try to climb out yet so I figured why make more work for myself by putting her in a regular bed when she is content in the crib.

The Guest Room upstairs - snuck in some Navy finally! (It's my favorite color)

So thats majority of what upstairs looks like so far. I'll take some downstairs and update you soon on the progress. Hope you guys have a good weekend and stay warm! We are watching a movie by the fire. Lovely!

We bought a house!

A week and a half ago we finally closed on our house! I feel like this day would never come and at the same time, I am a little sad the planning process is over. I have a list up to my eyeballs in things I need to do and buy for the house though so I will be plenty busy for the next month! :) We moved our furniture out of storage the day after Christmas and ever since then I have been unpacking boxes, organizing things, setting up furniture...it seems like it never ends. I haven't taken any after pictures of the house yet since I still need small things like decor, but hopefully soon that will happen and I'll post some pics. 

 This is a sneak peak of the day we moved furniture in. All white everywhere! :)

The girls are loving the house. I think its a combination of a new place mixed with all of their toys out of storage that has made them wild. Blakely is having a hard time adjusting as far as sleep goes, but hopefully soon she will feel comfortable and start laying down easier.

So the house has been all consuming the past week. No pics to show. We did get surprised by some family friends Paul & Dez for the weekend so that was awesome! Paul blessed our house which was so sweet of him to do. I really want it to be a place where Jesus' presence is felt and lots of life change can happen.

Just the 4 of us went out to dinner on New Years Eve to celebrate a great end to 2016 and then I went to bed at 10:30 lol. We are old! Be back with a post on some 2017 resolutions.

Christmas 2016

All time record for the longest span without a blog post. I am so sorry guys! I literally have been working from 7 am till midnight every night since we closed on our house on the 22nd! Here is a pic of my moving crew of us all exhausted last Monday after we moved for 11 hours! I'll do a separate blog post on the house, but here are some pictures from Christmas. 

We went to Church on Christmas eve and then back to Mom's for dinner with the cousins and a few presents. 

 Christmas morning the girls woke up and were so excited to see what Santa brought them. No huge presents this year, but they still enjoyed all the toys they got. I think the house was their big present;)

After opening presents, we went to Kelli's for breakfast and then over to Gammoe's for the remainder of the day. We had a wonderful Christmas with all of our family and really enjoyed watching Blakely rip into her presents. I hope you all had a great Christmas as well!