Baby Bean Update

Today baby bean is 23 weeks and 4 days old. He now has an almost 39% chance of surviving outside my womb and although I would never wish that on him it is comforting to know every day his lungs and body are getting bigger and stronger. Today his HR was 150 and I am measuring in at 25 weeks. Next month's appointment I will be doing my glucose screening then it's every 2 weeks to see the Doctor.

We still haven't done any extra preparations for JJ's arrival but we have decided upon our nursery theme...drum roll please... VINTAGE BASEBALL!! Okay so I let Jeff win on this one. He is so excited about his little boy and the possibility of a baseball room that I just didn't have it in me to say no. If we have another baby boy down the road he can be my little cowboy :)

As far as baby supplies go we are pretty much set. There are only a few things that I am looking into right now:

1. Double stroller

2. Car seat for Johanna

3. Extra camera for baby monitor

4. Crib and dresser

Much easier to prepare the second time around. The only other thing I need to do is re-register at the same hospital we delivered Johanna at and we are good to go. I can't believe we will be welcoming our little JJ in less than 4 more months!

Tonight is my first night of prenatal yoga...wish me luck that I don't do anything too embarassing!

Wall Decorations

December is almost here which means...Christmas is right around the corner! This year I have vowed to get all of my shopping done before the Holiday rush really begins. I am almost half way there which is a big accomplishment for me.

This weekend we are driving up to the mountains to pick out our very own Christmas tree to cut down! I am so excited, hopefully the weather will cooperate and we won't do anything crazy like run over bigfoot. Until we get our tree I am not even bothering to pull out our decorations not to mention they are stuffed somewhere in the crawl space and there's no way I'm getting in there...

In the meantime Johanna and I put up some window decals to get the house a little festive. Johanna felt so important pointing at the different stickers for me to pull off. When we were all done I asked her where baby Jesus was and she knew just where to point, how precious!

13 Months

This past weekend was very eventful for the Overman's! On Saturday we celebrated Nathan Riley's 1st birthday with a fishing themed party put on by his Momma. It was adorable, she had a fishin' hole set up in the living room full of balls and bath toys that the kids couldn't get enough of. Of course none of these pictures are from the actual party. Jeff ended up getting the bug that we all came down with last week and had to stay home and miss out on the fun. I took Johanna to the party thinking no big deal but when we got there she was not having it! After holding her for the first hour of the party with her not even wanting me to put her down for a second I decided it was probably best just to take her home to take her nap. She fell asleep on the way home and was perfectly happy the rest of the evening. Jeff says she's a lot like me, if we don't get our sleep you don't want to be anywhere near us. Luckily Nathan lives up the street from us so I was able to make it back to the party with out missing much.

The following day was Nathan's baptism. Kara wanted to make sure he was baptised before his 1st birthday and she was able to just squeeze it in! It was a beautiful service and Jeff and I are so happy to be his Godparents, we love you Nathan! After church we headed back to Russ and Kara's for Thanksgiving #2! This time around was much more festive- 21 people with plenty to eat! Luckily Jeff was feeling better so he was able to attend both events and Johanna was much less grouchy. Oh, and since we were officially 3 days past Thanksgiving, Johanna got to wear her Christmas dress from her Oma. I love it! It reminds me of the little dresses my Sister and I used to wear.

Speaking of Johanna, our little peanut is 13 months old today! My the time is flying. Her party was a month ago tomorrow and I am just sending out her thank you cards...one of these years I will get better at it I promise!

In case you didn't catch the above picture, here's an even better one of my beautiful little angel... heh heh... sloth face! She thinks she's so funny.

Hanging out with cousin Brandon.

Johanna at 13 months:

-Down to one bottle of whole milk at night and sippy cups the rest of the day

-Favorite foods are berries, peas and of course cheese

-Knows where her eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, tongue, tummy and toes are

-When we ask her were her tongue is she sticks it in and out like a lizard

-When we ask where her tummy is she goes 'tickle-tickle-tickle' to her stomach...I swear this girl is a crack up!

-Daddy taught her to say I know so now every time she is upset with us, for example while changing her diaper, she will proclaim over and over in desperation "I know! I know!" haha, so she obviously has a different idea of what it means.

-Loves to talk, and really is a sponge! Some words I can think of she likes to say: more, hi, jj, up, bye-bye, nana, papa, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, toes, tree. balloon, blue, shoe, achoo, wow, apple

  -She can tell me yes for a lot of questions Do you want something to eat? Do you want to go swing? Do you want to go downstairs?

-She has got her no down complete with a very dramatic shake of her head. "Go give Grandpa a smooch." .... to which she shakes her head urgently saying no no no!

-Loves twinkle twinkle little star and does the hand motions she also likes to sing along and has almost got the 'up above the world so high' part also likes Old MacDonald Farm (e-i-e-i-o)

-When I hug her I give her a little squeeze and then she squeezes me back...I love it! 

-We are working on her not hitting when she gets mad, oh boy

-Is a little stinker when we go grocery shopping or anywhere that she has to sit in the cart. When she decides she wants up she will now stand up in the cart and lunge at you.

-Is still acting shy around most people when they try to hold her

-Is a Daddy's girl!

 We love you Johanna Faith!

Day to Give Thanks

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone! So much to be thankful for; a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter and another little blessing on the way just to name a few. Our day started off with a tradition I can remember since I was a little kid...the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! Well, sadly we weren't able to watch the actual "Macy's" parade since they delay it to 9am Mountain Time which is Johanna's nap time. Instead we watched the "Early Shows" parade which wasn't as great, but Johanna didn't mind. I made some warm and yummy monkey bread to munch on and some nice hot hazelnut coffee while we plopped down in front of the t.v. Johanna loved the spongebob float despite never seeing spongebob on t.v. she was waving ecstatically at him.

Russ and Kara had Thanksgiving dinner at their house so Jeff arrived bright and early to get started on the bird. After smoking the turkey for a good 6 hours, the turkey was delicious, well done Jeff you did a fantastic job!

Another thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving was that we got to celebrate it with our Cousin, Brandon! He has spent the last year overseas in Iraq serving in the Army so it is wonderful to see him safe and sound back home. The reason I mention him in this picture is because he introduced miss Johanna to some raw broccoli... as you can see she wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Maybe once her munchers come in all the way she'll know what to do!

 Kara has a mini whisk for hot cocoa which was perfect when gravy making time came around. She was able to help Grandma LoLo!

 Make a wish with the wishbone! Wonder what little Johanna wished for? A baby brother... let's hope so because that's what she's getting ;) Thank you Kara and Russ for having us over for the day it was great! And the fun thing is we get to have Thanksgiving #2 on Sunday to celebrate with the rest of Kara's family. On Saturday night little Nathan came down with an upset stomach but didn't have a fever or anything else that would indicate he wasn't feeling well so we all thought surely it was something he ate. We were having our Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's and the bug was just so sneaky before we knew it Kara, Tyler, Grandma and Johanna all got hit with it horribly on Tuesday! I have to say I earned my Mommy badge after cleaning Johanna's crib sheets, then our carpet, then her kitchen, then our sheets after a few throwing up incidents. You would think I would have learned my lesson the first time but man I couldn't keep up with her and of course she didn't want to just sit still. But luckily the bug didn't seem to last and we were all able to meet up again for Thanksgiving Day. We wanted to be on the safe side though and prevent everyone else from getting sick so we will have an even bigger and better feast on the day of Nathan's baptism, what fun!!

Oh I've got to mention, our day ended with our first attempt at Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping. I knew Toys-R-Us was starting their sale at 9pm. I figured what a fun way to end the night and maybe start a new tradition hopefully getting some Christmas shopping done too. We loaded in to the car and pulled into the store at five till 9 and the line was literally wrapped around the ENTIRE building. What the!? Needless to say Jeff and I were not about to take Johanna out to stand in a line of hundreds and hundreds of people just to save an extra what 30% at most. So this will not be a Thanksgiving tradition for this family...at least we can say we gave it a try...or at least a drive-by haha...

 The day after Thanksgiving we headed over to the zoo with Brandon. It had been years since he had been to a zoo and it turned out today was an excellent day to come. With the weather being just cool enough for the animals to be comfortable they were very active and alert. Except for this black bear...he was just too cute snoozing on his rock bed.

 Johanna loves pushing her stroller around.

 She also loves looking at all the animals. And with her expanding vocabulary it is so much fun taking her! She loved making monkey noises "eee-eee oooo-oooo" and lion/bear noises "roaaaaaar" and even had noises for animals that we adults didn't know made, what a silly girl!

 She feels so big when she's walking around with her Daddy and Cousin Brandon. Have I mentioned how great Brandon is with the kiddos?

 Johanna has her two front teeth coming in and loves making what I call her Sloth face (you know? The guy from the Goonies? check him out here) I didn't quite get the face in this photo, but you can see a little bit of her top teeth poking through.

Since we have a zoo membership and try to make it at least once a month, Johanna doesn't get a souvenir every time we come. This time however being the day after Thanksgiving we had to say we did some Black Friday shopping so we got her this little tiger toy for 40% off. She had her pick between the tiger, shark, giraffe and elephant and of course chose the tiger so she could roar at him some more.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we are so thankful for all of you!

Baby Bean Update

J.J. is now 22 weeks old inside my tummy...where is the time going?! He is already a pound heavy and the size of a spaghetti squash. Everyone asks me if I can tell a difference between carrying a boy vs. a girl. And my answer is no...mostly. So far my pregnancies have been completely similar, super easy with minimal complaints. The only difference this time around is this little guy is very VERY active. I have found myself shrieking Oww! numerous times throughout the day from the shock of how hard he can kick! Maybe it has something to do with it being my second pregnancy or maybe it is because little Johnathan is super active but let me tell you he always catches me off guard. He is moving around tons now and his kicks can even be felt and seen from the outside. It's by far my favorite part of pregnancy; I'm still small enough to get around easily, but big enough to really be aware of the little body inside of me.

  

We currently live in a 3 bedroom home which has worked out great as a family of three. Johanna has had her nursery and we have still had one extra room for guests. Now that J.J. is coming we will eventually need to turn our guest room into baby room #2. As much as I love keeping the babies in my room I know after a few months (4 with Johanna) it is time for them to move out into their own space. So for the time being we will have to make due with no guest room until our third little one comes and we move into a bigger home!

We haven't done much planning for little J.J.'s arrival but over the last week we have tossed around a few nursery ideas. We have narrowed it down to two options; wild west and vintage baseball. I am sure you can guess which motif Jeff is rooting for... me on the other hand I am very torn between the two! Which do you guys think?

Downtown Breakfast

 Today Jeff, Johanna and I went downtown for some breakfast and a walk along 16th street mall in the cool brisk air. Jeff has a parking garage pass for work which we took advantage of. It was nice to be able to snap a photo of him in front of his new office building! He works on the 25th floor of the building behind him named the Granite Building and is high enough that he has mountain views from his office window. Sure beats waking up in a trailer in the middle of Montanna I'm sure!

Johanna was as happy as a clam all bundled up in her blanket with her peanut butter cracker to munch on.

For my birthday Jeff took me to see the musical The Lion King (amazing!) and beforehand we stopped at this burger joint for a quick bite to eat. We noticed they had a large breakfast selection so we decided to head back today to try it out. If anyone is familiar with the Food Network's show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" this restaurant was featured in an episode. We both got an item that was showcased on the show and it was very good! The only dissapointment was we were too early for some of their famous pie and ice cream...looks like we'll need to head back for a third time :)

The malls downtown have already set up their Christmas decorations and I couldn't resist snapping a shot of these beautiful snowflakes dangling from the ceiling. With the festive lights and seasonal music I couldn't help but be put in the Christmas spirit! Now if only I could get enough Christmas spirit to finish all of my holiday shopping...

Lauren and Michael's wedding

Cousins (7 missing)

Brothers and Sister with spouses (Aunts and Uncles) minus 2

 and even Great Aunts and Uncles too all the way from Michigan. What a great family reunion!

 Johanna refused to take any naps the entire trip except for the occasional catnap she would catch along car rides. I was thrilled when she fell asleep on the way to the church and then stayed asleep through the entire ceremony. This girl was exhausted!

The reception was located at a gorgeous venue, the Pearl Stables. It was originally home to the Pearl Brewery's draft beer horses in the late 1800's, how cool is that?

For seating arrangements everyone was given a stone with their name on it and a location that Lauren and Michael had been to.

The ballroom was gorgeous with intricate wooden ceilings. See the glass centerpiece? Remember this for future reference.

Here is my favorite part of all weddings...the cake! And this one did not disappoint, it tasted just as fantastic as it looked.

After dinner Lauren and Michael were surprised by a live mariachi band to serenade them.

Johanna in her party dress. Look at the cute headband we found her at the shops in Gruene for 4 dollars! She kept it on her head for about as long as it took to take this photo.

As I mentioned before, Johanna was fussy and grouchy for the majority of our trip. She loved spending time with her Cousin Carly though, she is fantastic with the little ones!

After a quick jammie change, Johanna was ready to tear it up on the dance floor.

Remember that glass centerpiece filled with the hydrangeas on our table? Yes, that is twelve beer cans to be exact that everyone passed around to share. No I didn't participate this time ;)

I always forget to take a picture of the Bride and Groom when I go to weddings but luckily I was able to get a picture of a picture to show how beautiful Lauren looked.

Now this was a really great idea, a family tree guest book! Everyone made a copy of their fingerprint to appear as a leaf on the family tree. At the end of the night the entire tree was covered with leaves from family and friends.

At the end of the night they left through a archway of sparklers to hop into their horse drawn carriage to take them around downtown. The wedding was magical from beginning to end, congratulations to Lauren and Michael!

Another shot of Johanna completely zonked out. She is even snoring in this photo if you couldn't tell!

We had such an awesome time at the wedding spending time with family. The weekend flew by way too quickly but we had such a great time!

Riverwalk

 On our last day in Texas we wanted to spend it outside in the nice warm weather so we headed downtown one last time to visit the Alamo and Riverwalk again. Johanna is blowing a kiss in this photo muuuuah!

 The Alamo is surrounded by beautiful gardens so we strolled around enjoying the sunshine.

 Here is Johanna trying her first taste of a lollypop that her Nana got her shaped like the Alamo, she wasn't sure what to think of it!

 Surrounding the gardens there was a river full of big, fat fish that would swim slowly by. Johanna was very interested in them and if Jeff wasn't careful she would have jumped right in to catch one.

 Next we headed down to the Riverwalk to get lunch and go for a boat tour. The Riverwalk is amazing! It is one story below the city with 5 miles of bars, shops and restaurants all connected by paths and bridges.

 To get the whole view of everything we took a thirty minute boat ride that traveled the entire course of the walkway.

Johanna was fascinated by the ride! She was thrilled with all the ducks that we would pass along the way and the moving water below her.

 Here are some views from our ride.

 This building was designed to appear as a large boat sailing through the water, can you see it?

 Johanna loved to wave hi and bye to the other passengers of fellow river boats.

 After our ride we stopped for lunch at a Texas BBQ restaurant right along the river for some burgers. This picture was taken after lunch...Johanna had to change into her jammies since she was allowed to get mac and cheese for her last vacation meal and of course got her cheesy hands on to everything!

 Nana and Leo sitting outside in the sun.

 After lunch we took a walk a few blocks down to see the beautiful San Fernando Cathedral.

The San Fernando Cathedral is the oldest active cathedral in the United States built between 1738 and 1750.

It also houses the burial tomb of Davy Crockett, William B. Travis, and Jim Bowie who all died in the Battle of the Alamo.

After our eventful day Jeff, Johanna and I had to part ways with my family to head back to the airport. It was sad to say goodbye but we have so many great memories of our trip together!