Tuesday, March 30, 2010

My little elves....




Ok, this post is a little delayed but I just finally got the pics and video from my future sis in law (thanks, Kate!). To let my family know that we were having a girl (since they live out of town), we had my brother and his fiance' play the role of our little elves and they left pink balloons and flowers on Great-grandma's doorstep, Auntie Amy's doorstep and on Grandma's table to surprise them all when they got home. I'm going to try to attach the video of my mom's reaction to it - hopefully it works! She thought we were going to wait until the next day when we got up there to tell her if it was a boy or a girl - so she was SHOCKED to be getting the news the night before:)





Why Makenna?

After 2 years of trying unsuccessfully to start our family, Brad and I took a trip to Hawaii to "get away" from it all. We came across the above beach "Makena beach" on one of our day trips and fell in love with it!! We decided that day that if we had a little girl, we would name her Makena. When I looked up what Makena meant, I found it meant "the gift of happiness." We were sold! After our ultrasound, Brad decided she needed another "n" in her name so we could shorten it to Kenna and so came the name Makenna, our precious little gift of happiness:)

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Little Chute (my hometown) shower

Pictures from my Little Chute Shower - you can't see the decorations, but mom hung little pink snowflakes from the ceiling. I walked downstairs and teared up - so excited for this day to finally come!! Thanks, mom!!
Derek's girlfriend, Sanam, posing with Makenna:)

My mom, her mom, me, Brad's mom's mom and Brad's mom

My and all my high school girlfriends



The gals in my family - Grandma Van Beek (i.e. "Cookie Beek"), Mom, me, my sister Vicki, my sister Amy,niece Madison and soon-to-be sister in law Kate!


4 generations!





Friday, March 26, 2010

Shower fun!

My girlfriends from church threw me a shower after church on Sunday - it was so nice to be able to celebrate my pregnancy with so may women that have really come alongside me and been praying for me on this journey. I am so humbled by all their well wishes, prayers & support. We are so blessed to have found such an AMAZING church community. Thanks to Jamie & Elizabeth for putting this all together for us!
My favorite monkey from little miss Annika - thanks Annika!!

My good friend and old college roomie Deirdre helps me open gifts

Look at all those presents! Makenna is a lucky lucky little girl! Thanks everyone!

Daddy & Bugsey mourn the Badger loss - maybe Makenna will bring better luck in the NCAA tournament next year, boys.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Baby Fairy loves Bugsey, too!

Tax season has clearly gotten the best of me as I'm getting behind on my posts. The last thing I want to do after a long day's work is fire up the laptop and look at a computer screen. In my haste, I almost forgot the latest shout out to the baby fairy. The day after we recieved the baby Elvis CD, the baby fairy struck again - this time with treats for Bugsey. It had a nice little note about Bugsey being a good big brother & being all excited for his baby sister to come & had 2 fun little toys in it. The return address on this one was from somewhere in West Allis.... Hmmmm.. I'll have to google the exact address to see where this one was. Maybe it will be a clue - who are you baby fairy?

Pregnancy continues to treat me well - Little Makenna continues to move around like crazy, although now it is more squirms & rolls rather than kicks as she starts to get a little tight in there. Ha! She just squirmed a little as I typed that:)

Soon enough I will have to post some baby shower pictures. My mom threw me one up in Little Chute & it was great to catch up with all my high school girlfriends. Last weekend, the gals at church threw me one and this weekend, Brad's mom is throwing me one. We are so blessed to have so many people sharing in this journey and celebrating this little miracle with us!! It still feels so very surreal - we've waited so long for this & I can't believe its finally here!

Ok, back to work - will post more this weekend!!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Curtains

Thanks, Mom! The curtains look great!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Pregnancy pics by the Beckers

Some good friends of ours - Ben & Corie were nice enough to come over to our house & shoot some pregnancy pics to capture the true joy of this pregnancy. They did a great job! We had so much fun taking them, too! Thanks Ben & Corie!!!





I found this onesie at Target a few years ago - when we were about 2 years into our infertility struggle. It was a good reminder to me that it would all be worth the wait if only I was patient and waited for God's perfect plan & timing, not mine. I love that I bought the pink one and it turns out we're having a girl:) She's definitely wearing this home from the hospital!

























More pregnancy pics....
















Pregnancy pics...
















Thursday, March 11, 2010

Baby fairy strikes again......

Its been awhile since we've heard from the baby fairy, but tonight he/she struck again. We came home to a package with a return address of the Al McGuire center and containing a note that read:

I bet you "can't help falling in love" with our little girl! She can hear your voice and even music now...I bet she'll like to hear one of daddy's favorites through mama's belly with these headphones. Love, Prayers, and "Best" Wishes, The Baby Fairy

It included some headphones and an Elvis lullabye CD! Too cute! Our wedding song was "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You" and whoever this baby fairy is certailnly has a good memory!!

The Beckers were nice enough to come over tonight and take some pregnancy shots of us. Ben and Corie make a great team & we can't wait to see the final product. It was a lot of fun and I'll be sure to post pics soon!!

I've got a big weekend coming up - I'm heading up to Little Chute for my baby shower! I can't wait to catch up with my girlfriends & show off my chubby preggo belly;)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Thursday, March 4, 2010

28 weeks

Getting bigger every day!!

Me & Rachel with my singleton 28 week belly & her triplet 17 week belly. I don't think it will be long before her belly is bigger than mine!! Rachel is a dear friend of mine that I met at my infertilty support group a little over a year ago - she too was in the early stages of embryo adoption when we met and its been so awesome to have someone to go through this with! God is so good at bringing the right people into our lives at exactly the right time - she is such an answer to prayer!! Despite a rocky start to her pregnancy, all 3 babies (one boy & twin girls) are doing great.


Saturday, February 27, 2010

The crib!




The room is starting to come together very nicely!! Tomorrow Grandma and Papa Janssen are coming to visit us - I'm excited for them to see the room in person and to utilize Grandma's skills to make some curtains and a blankie!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

My thoughts for the day.....

Ok, I’m not much for writing on this blog – but it is a blog and I think you are supposed to write on a blog from time to time vs. just posting cute baby pics:) Today I have something on my heart so I thought I’d give writing a shot. I’m not sure how many of you reading this have ever struggled with infertility or know someone who has – but it seems all of us know someone who, after trying for years and years either a) decided to adopt or b) decided to move on without having a child and subsequently became pregnant. Just today I got an email from a good friend of mine that had decided to move on after trying for years to add to her family. A few months later - she’s pregnant! I’m thrilled for her! The best part of it is – it’s a total miracle baby.

However, I know that this will just fuel the fire for the common reaction we infertiles hear too often. There is nothing worse to hear this news and have someone say to us– see you just need to relax & you will get pregnant, too. First of all, telling an infertile woman (or couple) they need to relax is placing #1 – more pressure on them and #2 – blame. Most infertile couples have a medical issue surrounding their infertility – there is a reason they are having difficulty getting pregnant and most likely, it isn’t because they can’t seem to relax. By telling them they need to just relax – you really are telling them it is their fault they aren’t getting pregnant in the first place.

Even more importantly, crediting these pregnancies to “relaxation” totally takes the credit away from God. All babies are miracles, no doubt – especially after actually experiencing pregnancy – I am amazed by the entire process. How could anyone but God come up with something like this? Its amazing. Couple that with a medical issue that makes it more difficult, if not nearly impossible to have children and wow – an even more amazing miracle! I think that in giving the parents any credit for just “relaxing” is taking credit away from God – the true giver of this gift and the one that should be thanked and praised in this all.

So next time you meet someone that opens their heart and shares their desire to have a child, please think twice about telling them the story of someone you knew that “just” adopted or “just” relaxed or “just” went on vacation and got pregnant. You may think that you are giving them hope, but trust me, you are likely doing more harm than good. The best thing you can do is pray for them – that God would be using their situation to draw them closer to Him and that, if it is His plan for them, that He would knock everyone’s socks off with the gift of a miracle baby!!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Late Night.....

I don't know where he found the energy, but after getting up this morning at 5am to get into work early, coming home and painting all day, Brad decided to put the shelf together tonight too:


Doesn't it look nice??

And now, its 11:35pm - time for BED!!!




The finished paint job!

Stripe #1 - a success! Time to start taping......
And taping......




And measuring....


And more taping.....



Looks like a prison in there!! I think the boys are starting to think it feels like one, too!

Bugsey supervising the finishing touches....


Tada!!! The proud (and tired) daddy!!!


8 hours later, they finish!! Thanks daddy & Papa Best!


Time to start putting furniture together!!! Sounds like a project for tomorrow:)