Love my little ladies!

Now that we are officially a family of 4, we are on our way to adjusting back to normal life. In the last month we had Lucy, Annie turned 2, the bluebonnets arrived, we have had family visit from NC, and we have celebrated our first major holiday with Lucy. Here are some pictures to prove it.

At the best park- Mueller with the cousins!

The Lopez/ Burton Family

Lucy- 4 weeks

Annie's awesome birthday cake from her aunt Mo (Molly).

Getting a little help from Jack and Micah. I think Jack "helped" her last year too! Smart boy.

Lucy having a bath.

Annie in the bluebonnets.

Lucy has been with us for 5 weeks now. It is already hard to remember what it was like without her. :) We are adjusting a little more everyday. J and I are coming to find that we both always have our hands full rather than taking turns. This is why we are so thankful to have friends and family provide meals for us! Not only do I love surprises, but I also do not like to cook. It has been such a blessing and we are so grateful for not only the food, but to get to introduce Lucy to our loved ones and see each of you!

Since there is still not much J can do for Lucy, he spends lots more time with Annie- which is her dream come true. :) We both find ourselves feeling a little like single parents at the end of the day, each with our own kid. I hear it gets better.

It is so fun to watch Annie grow into her big sister role. She loves Lucy and uses the sweetest voice when she talks to her. Annie is still figuring out the whole breast feeding thing and will often practice with her dolls/ stuffed animals. Sometimes I think about what it would really be like if my two-year old was actually walking around breast-feeding a dwarfed hippopotamus in my living room. It is cute until I think about it too literally.

As for Lucy, she is the most cuddly baby I have ever met. A dream come true. I love it. She sleeps well for her age, but terribly for my age. She started smiling last week, which is totally heart melting.

More fun by the day....

Lucy's Here!!!

We are so excited to have Lucy home!

My ideal timeline: early to the hospital, epidural, have a baby.

Lucy's timeline: late to the hospital, no epidural (and barely any doctor), had the baby.

Around 10:30pm, Sunday March 6th, we started watching the Office (which, ironically was about Pam having her baby and trying to ignore her contractions until midnight so she can get an extra night stay in the hospital). Come to find out, we should have been driving to the hospital at that time.

Here's that episode, just in case you missed it:

Normally doctors tell you "come in when you have contractions that last 45 sec - 1 min and are 4-8 minutes apart..." The doctor on call that night said to hold off until the contractions last 1 minute to 1.5 minutes. Since I'm a rule-follower, it never actually became time to go to the hospital by the normal doctor standards.

At 10:30pm we started timing contractions. First contraction: 30 seconds. Next contraction was 45 seconds, 20 minutes later. Next one, 8 minutes from the previous. From then on, all the contractions were less than a minute, but by the time 11:30pm rolled around, the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and really painful, and so J called the doctor to tell them, and they said to go ahead and come in because they were strong.

Good thing we did.

We got to the hospital room around midnight (thanks for the good idea, Pam) and Lucy was born at 1:20 AM.

J and I took no birthing classes to prepare since we planned on it going like Annie's. The only way we knew breathing techniques was from the movies. J kept trying to get me to hold his hand and squeeze, but I insisted on keeping him in a headlock and whimpering "please help me" the entire time. Not only him, but every nurse that walked in the room got this same plea from me.

I will spare you the details (give me a call/ email if you want them), but I will say that after Lucy was born it was an amazing moment. By far the hardest physical work of my life, but with such a great reward.

Here is Lucy featuring her nice pipes. I have never heard anything so piercing in my life.

I used the timer function on the camera to capture myself sleeping... just kidding. I had the nurse promise to come in after I fell asleep... just kidding again.

Annie is adjusting great to being a big sis! Another post to come from our first week at home!

My top 3 awkward pregnancy moments...

and this is only from the past week.

1. While attending a conference on adoption last weekend, an older man stops me in a hall and places one hand on my lower/ mid back and the other hand over my naval and shakes my belly up and down while he says in a low voice "no adoption necessary". Strangely, it happened so fast that I wasn't that shocked or offended, but I could have been on so many accounts and how was he to know seeing that we were and are still perfect strangers?

2. On the following day, I was at an outdoor shopping area and a man asks "is this your first?" I say no, that it is my second. He asks, "are you sure it isn't your second AND third?" On the one hand, i understand that many people don't keep up with pregnant people and so maybe this is a fair question. However, on the other hand, under no circumstance should you ever err on the side of a pregnant women looking like she is carrying multiple humans in her stomach when there are any other explanations.

3. On Friday I got a pedicure with my pal Katie. When we walked in a woman came straight up to me and touched my stomach while smiling. I don't know if she said anything because I was on the phone with Sprint at the time and was caught a little off guard. I thought maybe she was the woman who was going to do my nails just being ultra-friendly as to secure a good tip, but she was just another customer. After my phone call was done, she went on to tell me that she was "getting married tomorrow and after that [she] would like to do that" (pointing at my stomach). I assume she meant be impregnated when she said "that."

Anyways, Lucy is due this coming Friday- woohoo! We are ready to go, or as much as possible anyways. Getting to spend some extra special time with Annie for now- priceless. I really do love pregnancy until about the last 3 days to 1 week. I have officially crossed over and can't wait to have both my girls on the outside and to be able to breathe, sleep on my stomach, and not have to support the weight of my stomach with my hands!

Additionally, I am tired of J calling me "big mama".

'

This is me and my friend, Leah, a couple of weeks ago. She was due 10 days before me on Feb 23rd and delivered Henry on Friday, Feb 26th! What a cutie:

Things are getting much more real now....

whoa.... we're 5 weeks out

We are only 5 short weeks (or less) away from having our second child. Whoa...

Her name is Lucy Pearson Lopez. Annie calls her Lu or Lulu. You can too if you find Lucy too tricky to say. We love the name Lucy and just kept coming back to it as we considered names. We like the type of names that we associate with down to earth girls. We like names that are plain, but not super popular (not in the top 100). It means "light" which has significance for us as we hope that her life would be a light for other lives. Pearson was my mom's middle name, my grandmother Mary's maiden name, so it is significant for us as well.

I don't usually think through things too much unless it is near. That is why I didn't really think about the connection between being pregnant and having a baby until the last week or so. I am now filled with thoughts of getting things ready for a baby, making plans, etc. I think the hardest thing is knowing that Annie's world is about to get turned upside down. I was explaining to Annie today how Lu was going to come here soon and live with us and how we will share everything with her. I started to get really teary-eyed as I told her that I am her and Lucy's mommy and that J is her and Lucy's daddy. I know many of you have several children and know this feeling well. Many of you are probably thinking, "big deal". That's kind of what I thought when people expressed these feelings of sadness over the first child not being the only child anymore. You just hate to see their little hearts hurt over the loss of attention, even if you know it's going to be a good thing for them. Don't get me wrong, we are THRILLED about meeting Lucy and already love her so much, but I just want to soak up all the time I can with Annie these next few weeks while I can give her some undivided attention. Lucy will never know the difference since she already is not an only child. For Annie, this will be the biggest change of her life so far.

As far as actually having her and figuring out a newborn- I feel much more confident the second time around! March 5th is the expected day and we can't wait for all of you to get to meet her as well! Lord-willing, we'll see you soon, Lu!

Merry Christmas!

I've been working on this post since Christmas. I'm really bad at this..... In the words of my friend Lee Wilson- most people will find this post boring with the exception of some family, but again, I don't just do this for you- it's my public scrapbook, too. :-) I just wrote some special things to help me remember what happened and I have some reflections from the Christmas season at the bottom of the post.

(Christmas afternoon)

Hope you all are having a great day! We just woke up from our naps to the sound of the double doorbell ring. Not a great sound if you are a parent with a sleeping child, BUT to our joy- were greeted with fresh fried egg rolls from neighbor Lisa!

Now that I am full and Annie did not wake up from the doorbell, seems like a good time to post a blog about the holiday!

Christmas Picture Album 2009

(December 23rd)

Papa Earl (Sally's dad) came in to town earlier this week and we got to have a small Christmas celebration on the 23rd complete with sushi and a radio flyer wagon. Annie's response as he wheeled it in "oh boy, oh boy!" as she stood perched on her tippy-toes dancing around like she needed to use the bathroom. She probably peed her pants and is thankfully still in diapers. We went for a stroll around the block to look at "yites" (Christmas lights) and she has played and eaten most of her meals in it since. A hit, to say the least! Thanks, Papa!

(December 24th)

We had a big Peck celebration over at Kevin and Les' house on Christmas Eve for lunch. The whole clan. This celebration includes all Peck siblings, spouses, dad, children, my mom's sister and her clan, my grandma, most of the in-laws, and a few friends- this year we had the Engstroms, Dean, and the Suhs complete with Yuna! All in all, about 40 people! Always a party! We had a mexican feast in honor of us, I suppose. ;-) At the ardent request of Kevin (sal's bro), we always need to make sure we have ice cream pie. This is a family tradition. One year we failed to make it and he said "this is the one thing I ask of the women who love me." It will not be forgotten again, dear brother. One of my favorite moments was when Ellie opened our present to her. I got her Guess Who? but sometime between the time it got wrapped and opened, she got it from someone else. I knew she already had it, but I didn't want to unwrap it, return it, etc. so I decided to just give it to her and let her go pick something new out. I was really curious what reaction she would have as a 4 year old who has, at her age, just started training on social graces- although she is very mature for her age- she is still 4. When she opened it she screamed with excitement "another Guess Who?!" She was genuinely thrilled as if it was the expansion pack. What a hoot.

J and I exchanged presents to eachother during naptime! It was so fun and relaxing. This was my most successful year shopping for J. As you might imagine, he's pretty hard and funny to shop for. He is a giant so that rules out most clothing stores (excpetions: Nike Outlet - where they keep the big boy clothes that didn't sell, American Apparel- big boy shirts in the back bin for $6/ pop) On his loot list: a Nike track jacket (XXL and Xlong, flip-flops, 3 American Apparel t-shirts, some camera equipment, a framed square family picture (he's very particular about the framing). Stocking stuffers: underwear, undershirts, dark chocolate peanut-butter cups, newly printed pics of Annie, a Homeslice shirt (for Annie. J and I can't usually think of things to get so we often default by getting Annie something we know the other will like.)

We headed over to J's parent's house after naps for dinner, movie, and Jesus' birthday cake. A Christmas tradition for the Lopez clan is to watch one of four movies together- Die Hard, Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, or Muppet Christmas Carol. It's a Wonderful Life was on so we watched that. It was Molly's (sal's sis) first viewing. She still has about 30 minutes to go so all in all she was left off at the most depressing part of the whole movie. George Bailey just wished he'd never been born! Clarence to the rescue! We got Annie home in time to put on her new Christmas Eve pjs (peck tradition).

(December 25th)

We woke up this morning for breakfast with Molly (sal's sis), J's parents, me, J, and Annie. Molly made a feast of eggs benedict (peck tradition) and blueberry crapes. Delicious! Thanks, Mo!

Annie then opened the awesome kitchen set, complete with laundry center from Nonnie & Tata! This thing took J about 5 hours straight to assemble, which he enjoyed because the directions were really well written! I made 5 attempts to get this thing at Toys R Us before calling my dad who was in Missouri to go get one there! They were totally sold out everywhere! It was totally worth it- she loves it! P.S. to all my friends with little ones, I highly recommend spacing out the opening of presents. It was so good for Annie to be able to enjoy each thing. Lessons for next time: space out presents even more and get her a whole lot less! :-) Our family is so huge at this point that I don't think she would notice if we didn't get her anything. Thinking of implementing the 3 gift rule- a need, a want, a surprise! Thanks, Jamie for that great idea!

I'm not great at reflecting, but here goes. Since I became a Christian, I have always been a little confused by Advent and would not say I practice Advent for all it was intended to be. I have spent this season trying to get a better idea of how people do it. I never really knew why Jesus' birth should matter more on that day or month more than any other time, but I have seen how much God tells His people in the Bible to "remember" through festivals and feasts type celebrations. This coupled with the fact that we are still awaiting Christ as Christians, tells me it's a big deal to practice anticipating Christ, not only in December but always! If we get off track, we always have December as a good checkpoint. :-) Secondly, I really enjoyed getting to teach Annie about Christ to the greatest degree that she could understand. We spent some time everyday playing with a nativity set (talking about the characters and telling the story) and I really loved to see how much she gathered from that time- simply, that Jesus was special. She spent most of everyday carrying him around in her little hand. I can't wait to reveal greater things to her about Him as she grows.

Sidenote: I caught myself constantly reminding Annie that Jesus was also a man that grew up and did amazing things. For all of you Talladega Nights fans, I felt like Carly at the dinner table reminding Ricky Bobby, who only prays to sweet, baby, Christmas Jesus, "you know, Jesus was also a man".

Much love and a happy New Year!

Pumpkin Patch

Went out to the Elgin Pumpkin Patch with a couple of families- the Engstroms and the Gentrys!

Here is a classic kids' photo. Everyone equally distracted and/or unhappy.

The Engstroms

The Gentrys

Us

And a few solo shots...

Hudson Engstrom- so cute!

Logan, this picture should be on match.com if you weren't married.

It looks like you are trying to market yourself as "the outdoors type".

The big boys- Micah, Eli, and Calvin! Went all the way to Elgin and the main attraction-

a grasshopper.

Good day!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween started out with some bagels with the family and all the kids in their costumes (except Halle, who insisted on wearing her Hello Kitty Halloween shirt for the 3rd time in a row:-). What a funny girl! Little Ivey was not shown since she was sleeping most of the time. Pictures of her and new baby Bryce to come!

This year, we decided it was time to finally do J's ideal Halloween costumes: oompa loompas. At first, we were all going to be oompa loompas, but since oompa loompas are disturbing enough, we decided not to subject the world to a pregnant oompa loompa. However, J insisted that the world be subjected to a 6'6" oompa loompa.

On the other hand, what is more disturbing? A pregnant oompa loompa or a pregnant Dora the Explorer? Hmmm... both are creepy. You decide.

We had a great halloween! J and Annie developed quite the fan base with the neighbors, with several of them asking to take their picture.

We had several friends come over and bedazzle us with their costumes. We will hopefully post them as we get the pictures!

Hope you had a great one!