Mommy's Birthday

What a wonderful way to celebrate my 27th birthday....dinner and Pineapple Sunshine Cake(courtesy of Nana de Wolfe) with family along with silly times in the pool! Thank you to everyone for helping make my birthday so special!

My fabulous husband had a card and flowers waiting for me as I woke up! And I was showered with love, well-wishes, jewelry and kitchen gadgets!
Brooklyn was especially sweet with telling me "Happy Birthday, Mommy" all day :)


Birthday Girl and niece Sydney


Daddy and his 2(3) girls!!!!


Growing up to be big and strong.

Building Update #7

The walls are now textured and half of the trim work is complete. All the cabinets and doors are in!! Looks like some more finishing touches to go with all the flooring and touch-up paint!


Close-up of the brick and newly stained vent


Back of the house


Our kitchen cabinets!


Doors in the Master Bedroom

Building Update #6

Another visit to the house this weekend!! The brick is near complete except for the backside of the house. There is also some staining to be done to the false vent at the front of the house and the front door. Drywall, tapping and bedding has been completed....so walls, walls everywhere :)

More pictures for your viewing pleasure, not that anyone really cares too much except us!!


Already goofing around in the Game Room!


Living Room/Kitchen View


Entryway Rotunda


Front View

The brick color is a bit different than we were anticipating, but things are so abstract when you are attempting to piece them all together and envision your entire home based off one sample at the Design Center. I think Aaron is slightly more disappointed in the color than I am, so our anxiety has bumped up a level in terms of seeing all the finishing work come together (carpet, tile, etc). We shall see how the story unfolds with our first built home!

Building Update #5

Things are moving right along!! Aaron and I consistently visit our new home every weekend to envision, plan and monitor everything. For instance, there was a chip in our master bathroom's shower pan; notified and picture sent in....REPLACED!! We are so very excited (I know I blog that every time)!!

On Sunday, all electrical, duct, and plumbing work had been completed. So when Aaron went by Tuesday, he was able to see the bricks near completion and some insulation installed!! Progress, progress!! With all the outside painting complete and now bricks....it is nice to see a house (from the outside right now) really coming together.

Big Sister Preparation

Lately, Brooklyn has started displaying her "big sister/motherly" instinct. Cayleigh calls her on the phone and Cayleigh is the "new baby." I think in some far fetched and abstract way, she is beginning to understand a few concepts about our newest little member of the family!!

She obviously likes playing with her baby dolls; taking them around in their stroller, giving them their bottle of milk, dressing them and so forth. She also has a small and large Mickey and Minnie Mouse stuffed dolls which she calls the little ones, Baby Mickey and Baby Minnie and the larger ones, Big Mickey and Big Minnie. She is taking extra care of her Baby Mickey these days!!
I have been able to capture a few occasions where she is playing the big sister/helper/mother role.


Brooklyn loves to read, so of course, she loves to read to herBaby Mickey.


Here she is showing Baby Mickey how to pee pee on the potty. Once he was finished, it was high-five to him, praise and she ran to get him a sticker, like we do with her :)




Baby Mickey had crackers and a drink for snack. She initially buckled only Baby Mickey into the high chair for all of this before she quickly realized how hungry she was, so joined in beside him to enjoy!

The spirit, love and good nature of our "Big" Brooklyn Grace puts my mind at ease some days about adding our "Baby" Cayleigh Nicole!!

Pregnancy #2

My pregnancy with Brooklyn was fairly uneventful and for the most part an "easy" pregnancy. I had heartburn frequently and had difficulty eating because she sat so high. Life is about the same with Cayleigh, although for now, I haven't experienced quite the eating discomfort (at least not yet)! Probably not a good thing :)

I am obsessed with working out here lately. I think for two reasons: 1)It gives Brooklyn the opportunity to interact with other children her age and 2)I am deathly afraid of the aftermath to my body after Baby #2!! I typically will spend a significant amount of time on the elliptical, do toning with weights and run a few miles every other day. There are the occasional days when I just don't have it in me to go the distance and I have tried to come to terms with that.

This time around, things seem more low key. I am not experiencing everything for the first time anymore and I am much more busy with the child outside of my body to dote on every little thing inside. I mean, yes, the kicks and reading up on the growth and development is still exciting, but just with a different appreciation. The true miracle is when our little Cayleigh Nicole arrives healthy and safe, just as I felt with Brooklyn Grace!! However, this time around, we refer to the baby as "Cayleigh," giving her more of an identity early on than we did with B. I guess because we are more used to even the concept/thought of a child verses when it was still so abstract for Aaron and I. Obviously the thought of dealing with two and not just dwelling on our one, is still pretty overwhelming. But we can't wait!! Knowing the new challenge ahead of us is scary and so fabulous at the same time!!

I had another check-up today and Baby Hein #2 is holding strong with a HR of 136. She sounds good and was very active for our appointment. Dr. McCullough says that I look good. I have gained 10 pounds so far.....yikes!!! I guess that isn't horrible considering I am 22 weeks along or at least that is what I am going to keep telling myself. My goal is to stay under 25 pounds of total weight gain; I gained 19 with Brooklyn. (Send good thoughts my way for that one!)

Baby Belly, Round 2, 22 weeks

4th of July Weekend

We went to Lone Star Park on July 3rd for family fun, horse racing and fireworks. We went around 6:45 and it was a scorcher!! It became bearable around 8:30, I guess. There were lots of people there, but it wasn't maddening by any means. We had free passes to get inside and Aaron made a few bets but came up with no wins.

Brooklyn's Say "Cheese" Faces






They had lots of fun things for kiddos, but many were a bit too "old" for B to do. We stuck to the pony ride and petting zoo. Brooklyn loves horses and loves going out there to see them. She was very interested in the ponies, but became very scared when she got on one for a ride!! Even with me by her side, she was pretty unhappy about it (total 180 from riding the fake horse on the merry-go-round at the zoo with me). Needless to say, we did not stay on the whole ride :)



She went into the petting zoo area twice, once with Mommy and once with Daddy. Loved seeing the baby pigs, goats, ducks, but DID NOT want to pet or feed any of them! Apparently our daredevil child has her limits.





We later set up a blanket and hung out for the last couple of races while B ran around like a mad woman. To beat some of the crowd, we headed to the car to watch the fireworks from the parking lot. It worked out perfectly because the back of the Explorer was just tall enough to allow Brooklyn to walk around, look out of the 3rd row windows to see fireworks as well as sit with us on the end of the tailgate. She loved the fireworks!! It was a great family night!






The following day, July 4th, we spent the day with the Hein Family with good BBQ and good times!!

Pink (Again!)

After our sonogram, we went to dinner as a family and Daddy peeked into the bag to see the colored onsie, maintained a poker face and then we let Brooklyn pull it out so Mommy could see. It was PINK!! Brooklyn will have a little sister, Cayleigh Nicole.

We sealed the results in an envelope and sent it with Papa de Wolfe up to Pennsylvania. The morning of July 4th, Nana, Papa, Jason, Jen, Addy and Kate opened it via skype! They were very excited!!

We also made jumbo-sized cupcakes to bring over to the Hein house later that day. We filled each one with white icing except for one "secret" pink one. Everyone dug in for dessert and Gampa Hein ended up revealing that we were having another girl!




He didn't even realize it at first until everyone said something about the pink on fork that he pulled out!



We are very blessed to be having another healthy baby! I cried during the sonogram just knowing how God is watching over our growing family. There are so many good things happening for us....many positive changes. And the thought of reusing many of Brooklyn's clothes, bedding, and so forth is also nice. Certainly will save us a little bit of money. Neither Aaron nor myself had a sister, so it will be interesting to see how that relationship unfolds and develops! Brooklyn pats Mommy's belly and says "new baby." And we are practicing saying Cayleigh's name already. I think Brooklyn will make a fabulous big sister and with the thought (threat) of the third being another girl...this maybe B's ONLY sibling!! We shall see!!

A, B, C, and E Hein coming soon.

Building Update #4

We headed out to the house on Sunday to check on the progress. We also drove all over the neighborhood again, seeing where all the communities areas were located, shops, etc. We practically were giddy seeing the house and everything around us...just getting more and more anxious. The framing was complete and all the windows were in. Crazy!


View of the front!!


Inside looking up the stairs


View of the right side


View of the left side


View from the back (the closest house from our backyard is pretty far away...this is a zoomed-in view)


This is a view from across the catch and release pond/greenland that surrounds us on the back and right side.

Aaron has continued to visit the house during his lunch hour each day this week and so much more has taken place!! I will have those pictures soon.

Splash Time

Last Wednesday evening, Papa de Wolfe had turned on the sprinklers and we just returned from dinner out.....so it was play time! Brooklyn loved getting sprinkled with the water as it went away and came back on her.

On Friday, B and I headed over to the Splash Factory in Grand Prairie. She had an amazing time and after only a few minutes of getting acclimated, she was a wild woman in search of any spraying water!