seventeen & eighteen

due to the ridiculous amount of snow, i was forced to reschedule my 17 week appt. and saw Dr. K a little closer to the 18 mark.   holy, almost halfway.whew.   this kid is already throwing curve balls with a heartbeat that is fluctuating, that even those who believe in wives tales couldn't make an accurate assumption about the sex of baby k #2.    we started our appts with a 178, then 164  and now a heartbeat of 152 just shy of 18 weeks. i looked back to week #17 with Banks   and his heartbeat was 158. this game of numbers is just plain crazy. i've been feeling baby K#2 move quite a bit this week, especially after sweets!    i'm so thankful and so blessed for this movement as i pondered upon this blog    http://ohmifam.blogspot.com/2014/02/big-things-come-in-small-packages.html   last night as i scrolled through Facebook before bed.  don't read it unless you have a box of tissues in hand. but, please read it and please pray for this brave family who experienced something so awful.    

conversations

with banks are the happiest moments of my day. most days, we talk on our 15 minute ride to daycare about school buses, trucks, snow and rain and sometimes sunshine - "eyes hurt, so bright" is usually the way the 'moon' is described. 
and then on the way home i will ask b how his day was. usually he'll just start talking jibberish and will say "see nana, see daddy, see papa, see hadley", which obviously doesn't answer my question.
then, the other day, when i asked him 'how was your day?' he responded.
"Good."
"What did you do today?"
"Play with Camden."
"What did you play?"
"We played with toys."
"Was it fun?"
"Playing toys is fun."
we had a conversation and it was awesome. and it made me realize how smart and witty this little boy is becoming.

Growing.

Banks and I seem to be on the same page lately : we're growing.
His growth is a little more flattering than mine, though.
A few months ago I pinned a growth chart I was going to make - simple and easy, but then found the same thing for cheaper than I could make it, which rarely happens. Then a few weeks later my father-in-law gave me his kids' growth chart with all the markings. So now we are keeping track on both. 

M&Ms for standing still - marking B's height is quite a task

B is 3 days shy of 26 months and is measuring 34.75".

Garrett measured 35" at 36 months - short stuff, and I was 33" at 24 months.

Our first baby is getting so BIG! He's no longer this chubby chunk....

he's such a tall, lean handsome boy....

... and while the boy grows up, momma's belly is growing OUT - it's a bump people! 

BB Room

It's no surprise that I'm pumped to design another room in the house. Although no room in our new home is complete, I usually don't finish a project before starting another, so nothing is new or out of the ordinary - because I purchased the first piece of the baby's room - a gold giraffe.   When people ask what we're having  my first reply is that 'we aren't yet that far along' and then I explain that we will not find out the sex before the baby is born and then i hear everything:   "What? Why??" "How can you do that?" "You are brave!" "How will you have everything ready for the baby?" "How do you decorate a room? or buy clothes?"  "... or pick out a name?" "You are crazy."   Those are just a few of the responses Garrett and I get.   The truth is. For us, it's not difficult. I think it brings SO much more excitement. SO much more to look forward to. 
Anyways, I'm not a huge PINK person, and I for the most part like gender neutral decor. I'm also totally fine with adding and changing a room every week - it's a serious problem. 
With Banks' room we decorated 'midly' and then added some pops of color after we found out 'he' was Banks! 
We plan to do the same this time around and I'm loving my initial 'design board' I've put together. Happy paint shopping this weekend!

Banks & Baby

 time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' into the future (cue fly like an eagle by the steve miller band) i think it's finally starting to sink in that banks is no longer the 'baby' of the family. i can remember  when we first told banks he was going to be a big brother and asking him if he thought it was a boy or a girl... he would repeat "boy or girl", but did not choose one or the other.   yesterday, he was pointing to his aunt kelsey and saying 'girl' then to daddy and saying 'boy' and when i asked him if mommy was a boy or a girl, he replied 'girl'.    he gets it. in just 2 months, he has learned something new and it amazes me what his little mind can retain. so, of course, we have asked banks what the baby will be. time after time we get 'girl'. not a surprise since no one has thought we were going to have another boy.    boy or girl, we are so excited, and we plan to wait until sometime in july (when the baby is born) to find out the sex of baby K #2. in all honesty, it is the best surprise ever. i highly recommend waiting... although i highly recommend a lot of things, as my opinions on the subject of birth are almost all strong-willed. i think banks gets this stubbornness trait from his mama. i'm okay with that though, at least we know what we like, right?   we've had two baby dr. appts since we found out we were expecting the first week in November. at what we thought was a 9 week appt, we were told the baby was reading an 8 week status, nothing like moving that due date back from the VERY beginning. the baby's heartbeat was 178 bpm and we were given the approximate due date of july 17, 2014. baby looked healthy and we couldn't complain. dr. K said 'it's a girl, just joking, but that's what everyone will tell you since the baby has a high heartbeat'. lots of 'baby kisses' from banks.   two weeks ago, we had our 12 week appt. the baby's heartbeat was 162 bpm and dr. K said the exact same thing 'it's a girl'.   I know that Dr. K has NO IDEA what the sex of the baby is, but it's fun to hear the guessing games begin already.   headaches and tiredness are subsiding (a bit) and what they say about showing sooner with your second child is a FACT if i've ever heard one.   i'm getting antsy to start working on the baby's room and trying to narrow my list of 53 names down to 5 or less. i'm name obsessed.   

we cannot get enough of woody.

baby K #2 at 8 wks.

       

royal script : here

just a few of my recent designs. it's too much work to keep up with two blogs.

//TWO-THOUSAND ::AND:: THIRTEEN//

here's my cliche two-thousand and thirteen wrap-up post, which will most likely be followed by a even more stereotypical news years resolution post.  most of our 'highlights' were mentioned in our christmas card, so it would make most sense to post a nice little photo of the card, but since this mama cannot for the life of me find our camera charger, that will not be happening (yet).  we made quite a few life changes in 2013. i left my first 'career' at wichita state for an opportunity to spend more time at home in the evenings and on the weekends while providing more for our family. in february i began my adventure at heartspring. yes, that would be just a month prior to the shockers making the final four. funny how that works, right? garrett had just spent tireless hours on the basement prior to banks being born, and it was finally done. we loved it. and then we decided to sell our first home. .... so the for sale sign went up.

and then i got a new car, unexpectedly. after hadley had a near-death experience choking on banks' apple and spent the night in the er after having emergency surgery,  i was hit on the driver's side on my way to pick him up just 10 hours later. a month long fiasco, and lots of prayers later, my car was finally deemed totalled.

we took our first big vacation since our honeymoon in june to celebrate or 5 year anniversary in july. we had the time of our lives.  we landed in cabo and spent 7 awesome nights there - it was so much fun, and we have decided ( along with the couple we went with who also celebrated their fifth year of wedded bliss ) that this needs to happen more frequent than every five years.

when we got back, we decided it was time list with a real estate agent as we said after vacation it was 'game time' for selling the house. 3 days later it sold.  we then began the search for our new home out west. we knew of the general area we wanted to look, but had not nailed one specific neighborhood down. we probably looked at 40 houses. thank goodness for real estate websites. after some negotiations, we bought our second home 25 minutes closer to both sets of parents, our best friends, our church and 25 minutes further from work. boo.

it's a great location for us and we've been happy with our buy. i'm eager to start home renovations, but g looks at me like i'm crazy. so... i'm still working on that. we finally relaxed for a couple of months ( at least for major life changes ). so i hit the road agian. this time with my best friend by my side. my best friend who HATES running. she committed and we trained week after week for her first and my fourth half-marathon. it was by far the most fun i've ever had running a race.

we celebrated Banks' big second birthday in november! i cannot believe he is two. time flies. no lies. his vocabulary amazes me everyday, he is the most ornery kid you will ever meet. he doesn't slow down. he refuses naptime and is always go - go - go. apparently, he gets this from me, but i  have a hard time believing that lately. i'm SO tired. birthday theme: fish. banks' love for fishing is hilarious. he still asks everyday (even with snow on the ground) if we can go fishing. his other loves are toy story (we watch at least once a day), basketball, and tools.

in early november we found out that two-thousand and thirteen could bring even more change and blessings. the konens will be adding one to the household in  july '14. 

WE. ARE. SO. HAPPY. we had been waiting for this happy moment for quite some time ( at least in my book ) but, i can be very impatient, to say the least. i had kept saying 'any month but july'. july is SO hot. well, hello july. i will not complain. in july we will become four, happily. so we wrap-up two-thousand and thirteen with no complaints. a new home, a fab vacation, a dog that survived, a healthy and active two-year-old that could quite possibly be the most handsome boy ever, two incomes, a blessed marriage, friends, family and another blessing on the way. cheers to that, ya'll.