and . . . one more thing

One more tidbit of excitement in the Mitchell household. Brady is going to be a BIG brother!!! He's excited . . . as long as he has a little brother and not a little sister :)

We found out just after Thanksgiving and are thrilled!! It was difficult to not share our news until Jan 9th, but we wanted to have that first appointment under our belts to be sure everything looked good! And it does!

Check out the halo . . . ok, it's really a yolk sac - but how funny that it's right on top of his/her head!

To tell the truth - we did have a scary time through the week of Christmas. I began having some problems that led me to believe we were going to experience another miscarriage. My doctor ordered a blood test called HCG which detects the pregnancy hormone and the number correlates with how far along I am. That turned out well, so he had me come into the office the following day to see if we could find the source of the problem.

The ultrasound turned up an explanation - and a bit of a shocker. Baby had a heartbeat and looked good, however upon further investigation - it appears this pregnancy had started as twins. There was an extra "sac" of fluid that couldn't be 100% explained. There's 2 theories - a subchorionic bleed (which just means, some blood pooled outside the placenta) or more likely, that we were losing the twin.

I truly believe that God will give us what we can handle, good and bad. The thought of twins overwhelms me, but I know had we been so blessed, we would have figured it out. However, it is sad to have lost one and to be somewhat relieved that there was an explanation for the problems and that we still had a healthy baby.

Anyhoo - baby Mitchell #2 is due on August 11th. Big brother Brady will have just celebrated his 3rd birthday. It's been hard to explain to him that there's a baby in Mom's belly when he can't see it with his own 2 eyes.

That's our exciting news for 2009!!

Christmas 2008

Christmas pics - finally! Yes, I swear I'm going to get better at this! Too much to share, so I'll try to pick my favs . . . which will be tough.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas Day with James' family and the Saturday after with the Bateson's - which is the family that James lived with his senior year of high school.

It was a lot of fun - this was the first year that Brady really got into opening his gifts, and we think he almost understood the concept of Santa, but indescribable to view through the eyes of a child. If only we all still had that same excitement . . .

Christmas Eve:

Christmas morning (what Santa brought):

In total, I think Brady had a wonderful Christmas. He is a very lucky boy and got many things he loves. He got many Hot Wheel cars, 3 cars from the Cars movie, a table and chairs that he sits at and colors nearly every day. Some wonderful clothes and a deposit for his bank account from great-Grandma Doris.

Hope you all had as wonderful a holiday as we were blessed to have!

Decorating the tree

Now that I have a little more time - we'll share the next segment. Putting up the Christmas tree - don't know that Brady really remembered it from last year, but he knew what a tree was this year, but not certain it should be in his living room where his toys usually sit. After it being up a couple days, he decided it was alright that he could help us decorate. It lasted for 2 ornaments and then he thought the tree poked too much.

After trying the "big" tree - Brady and I decided to try doing a smaller tree that was going to go in his room - and this one is fake, so not going to poke as much as the big one. He was really a good sport about it and helping me, was a little surprised he sat with me for the whole thing.

Christmas 2008

Wow - where did December go? We started out the month fairly easy and it certainly picked up considerably and didn't slow down until about now. Starting the month with no snow and nothe second week in Jan and I can't see over the snowbank to back out of my driveway!

not too shabby - huh??

We had back-to-back night of Christmas parties. Mine was Friday 12/12 at the Fargo Country Club - good times, free drinks, good food and good conversation. James had a chance to meet my new co-workers and I had a chance to get to know some better. Was nice to have a very cozy Christmas party, very different than the following night at the Holiday Inn for James' Christmas party with 800 or so other people. James' was fun as always - think this was my 7th now - crazy . . . had to take a couple pics of when we get all dressed up :)

The other James in my life - although he likes to be called Jim. The two work together and are good friends. Jim seems to like the camera a little more than my James does :)