13 Months Old!

Today Sarah Ann is 13 months old…

So here are 13 words that describe Sarah Ann’s personality…

1. active

2. energetic

3. talkative

4. silly

5. inquisitive

6. observant

7. sweet

8. gentle

9. cuddly

10. nosey

11. motherly

12. social

13. decisive

 

God Gave Us You

One of my favorite books to read to Sarah Ann since before she was born is entitled “God Gave Us You.” It is a beautiful story of of Momma bear telling her cub about how God perfectly planned it for the Momma bear to have that cub as her baby. Four months from today is Reece’s due date and on Wednesday Sarah Ann will be 13 months old. Some days I think “Man, this is going to be crazy” or “How are we going to have a newborn and a very energetic 17 month old?”….But God always reminds me that He is in control, and He has this all perfectly planned, and no it might not always be easy, but He has beautiful plans for our family, and I am so blessed that He has allowed us to have two beautiful babies so easily and chosen us to be the parents for Sarah Ann and Reece. I am beyond blessed that “God Gave Us Two.”

…It’s a beautiful life…

…thank you  to my dear friend from high school, Katie, for taking these amazing pictures…

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving 2009

It is amazing what happens in a year!

Yesterday Sarah Ann celebrated her second Thanksgiving–and we all had a great time celebrating with her! Thursday morning we watched the parade, and Sarah Ann loved seeing all of the big balloons on the TV. Then we ate a delicious lunch made by Nanny. Sarah Ann loved the banana pudding for dessert! After all the girls took afternoon naps, we headed downtown for a little visit to the aquarium so that Sarah Ann could look at all the “ish” as she calls them. We also took a walk across the street to Centennial Park to see the Christmas lights, and Sarah Ann pointed all of them out to us! Lastly, Sarah Ann also got to watch a little big of Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving with Daddy while she was drinking her bottle last night. It was a very fun day, full of great memories!

Sarah Ann has been a ball of energy since we got to Atlanta. I think part of it is because there are so many different toys and things to get into…plus she gets lots of attention! Last night she woke up around 10:00pm and thought it was time to play. She was bouncing up and down in the pack ‘n play, giggling, and making all kinds of noises. Jeffrey and I couldn’t help but laugh because she was just so excited. She finally went back to sleep with some help from Daddy, and this morning woke up early ready to go again! She played and played and played all morning long. It finally caught up with her at lunch, because after she took a bite she fell right asleep in her chair! Hopefully she will decide to sleep all night tonight!

We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! It has been so great to be with family, visit with friends, and have Daddy with us all day long! We are looking forward to the rest of the holiday season!

Thankful :)

We hope that everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We have had a wonderful time celebrating today! There will be more about our celebrating soon, but tonight I wanted to share some things that I am very thankful for…

T–to be married to the most amazing man in the world, who is also my best friend and a wonderful Daddy!

H–having a healthy, active baby boy growing inside of me…I can’t wait to have a Mommy’s boy!

A–all of Sarah Ann’s smiles, hugs, kisses, and cuddles…she is the most loving baby I have ever met! 

N–never having to wake up to go to work…I never want to take for granted how blessed I am to be able to stay at home!

K–knowing the love, grace, and mercy of our Heavenly Father!

F–friends, new and old…we are blessed with amazing friends!

U–undoubtedly having the best family in the world…that would do absolutely anything for us!

L–living in the greatest country in the world, where we are blessed with freedom!

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good,

His love endures forever!

Gobble, Gobble!

I know that Sarah Ann does not really understand all that the holidays entail, but I love how much she is getting into them! She was obsessed with pumpkins with Halloween, and right now she loves anything to do with turkeys–stickers, songs, pictures–she also makes “gobble, gobble” signs with her hands.

We have spent some time making some Thanksgiving crafts and Sarah Ann has gotten very into it! Last week she made turkey handprints with AC and Charlie and a card for Daddy. This past Sunday we made turkey cookies with Sarah Ann’s handprint. She made a total mess decorating and eating her cookies! 

We love having fun with our little turkey!

Straw :)

Sarah Ann has wanted to and tried to drink out of a straw for several months now. She would put her mouth around it and suck a little bit, but never long enough to get any drink out of it. Finally this past weekend, it all came together and now she loves to drink out of a straw. She thinks she is such a big girl when she can hold her cup and use the straw just like everyone else. She is growing up way to fast!

Caleb Reece Broadwell

We would like to introduce you to Caleb Reece Broadwell! We are going to call him Reece, which is my mom’s maiden name. Caleb Reece was the name that we had originally decided on if Sarah Ann had been a boy. After thinking about names again, we decided we would like to call the him Reece, so we thought and thought about what we wanted his full name to be, and we always came back to Caleb Reece…I guess it was meant to be!

We wanted to go ahead and decide on the name too, so that we can start calling him Reece and preparing Sarah Ann for the baby that is in Mommy’s tummy. Up until we decided, when we would talk to Sarah Ann about the baby we would call him Baby Boy and she would always go and grab her baby dolls. Hopefully over the next few months she will understand a little bit better about her baby brother Reece!

Favorite Friends :)

November is National Premature Awareness month and today is Fight for Preemies Day, so Sarah Ann and I wanted to share about some of our favorite friends, Anna Claire and Charlie. They were born on March 7, 2009, ten weeks early. I remember how tiny and beautiful they were the first time I saw them, and they just become cuter and sweeter every single day! Sarah Ann loves to play with Anna Claire and Charlie, and most recently, she loves to give them hugs! We are so grateful that Sarah Ann and Baby Boy Broadwell have such wonderful friends!

We have taken several trips to the zoo with the twins, and while Sarah Ann really likes to look at all of the animals, she really loves to be near Anna Claire and Charlie. Here a few pictures of our adventures at Riverbanks…

Sarah Ann checking out Charlie

Looking at the Penguins--they are their favorite!

Two sleepy girls on the way home--aren't they cute?

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Saturday I celebrated my 26th birthday–I can’t really believe it, and life could also not be any sweeter! We had a wonderful time celebrating my birthday at the Georgia Aquarium and the Varsity with Nanny, Pops, and Uncle Jeremy. Sarah Ann loved looking at all of the fish–we smiled and pointed the whole time. It must have worn her out because she was asleep in Jeffrey’s arms before we made it to the car. Nanny and Pops surprised us with seasons passes as an early Christmas present, so we are very excited about going back to the aquarium over and over again!

After the aquarium we ate lunch at the Varsity, and this pregnant Mommy had never been so excited to eat 2 chili burgers, fries, onion rings, and a frosted orange! This was Sarah Ann’s first trip to the Varsity, and she really liked the hot dog and frosted orange too! I am sure we will be going back again soon!

Sarah Ann thought it was great when we got to eat dinner in the living room on Saturday night so that we could watch to Auburn/Georgia Game. She was also more than happy to eat some of Mommy’s ice cream cake! It was delicious!