Landon's Room - A Work In Progress

We started decorating Landon's room the last weekend in February  I painted an accent wall a light shade of blue and Jennifer even created a neat painted wall design. It just so happened that our wall decals that Jennifer ordered off Etsy arrived on my birthday. After we finished my birthday celebration and Brinley went to bed we went up to Landon's room and started to put up the decals. It was kinda funny how it worked out that we could do them on my birthday because last year on Jennifer's birthday we actually put up the wall decals in Brinley's room. 

Landon's room and his bedding. His room is decorated with safari animals.

Tape that Jennifer laid out in order to paint a design.

Painted blue and the tape removed. Jennifer is super crafty.

Jennifer adding the leaves to the tree.

The tree is almost finished.

A couple of safari animals that I hope Landon enjoys.

The complete view of Landon's wall decorations.

Here is a picture of Brinley's room for comparison.

We still have a lot of stuff to do in Landon's room, but it seems to be a little bit more difficult to work on his room because we spend the entire day playing with Brinley. So, we try and take advantage of any nap time and Jennifer works on her craft projects every night that she isn't working. Brinley keeps us super busy all by herself, so I can only imagine what our lives are going to be like with both little ones running around the house. All I can say is that it is going to be interesting around the Heflin household. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

It's official...IT"S A BOY!

Today is my 28th birthday and we had our 20 week anatomy scan scheduled for this morning. However, from my last post you know that we couldn't wait to find out so we went at 16 weeks to find out that we were having a little boy. We decided to wait until we had a second conformation that it was a boy before we would officially name our son. We were scheduled for an 8 am ultrasound so when we left the house at 7:30 in the morning Brinley was still sleeping. Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa Heflin were visiting and could watch her while we went to the appointment. Leaving Brinley is still such a rare occurrence for us that it still feels really weird to not have her with us.

The 20 week ultrasound is the halfway point in the pregnancy and is when they do an extensive ultrasound to look for any abnormalities. Thankfully nothing significant was noted during the ultrasound that was a cause for concern. The placenta was close to the cervix, which is something that will just need to be monitored. If it was too close to the opening then there would not be enough room for the baby to come out, which would mean that a c-section would be required.

The only profile that I was able to capture.

The ultrasound consisted of looking at all the major organs and measuring the lengths of different things like the head, belly, arms and legs. After all the measurements were taken the lady asked us if we wanted to know the sex of our baby. We were then given the confirmation that I have been waiting weeks to hear. That we are in fact having a little BOY! Thankfully this was the case because just this week I started painting his nursery a shade of blue. Jennifer and I are extremely excited that we will each have our own little "mini me's" running around the house. It just so happens that in more ways than one the males and females in our house will be able to relate because Jennifer and Brinley were both first born. While my son and I are both the second child with an older sister.

IT'S A BOY!

If any of you have been following my blog from the start or remember any conversation that we had prior to knowing that Brinley was a girl, you would know that we had a name picked out for a boy. So, I guess in essence you could say that we have known our son's name since before Brinley was even born. It was the first and only boy's name that we came up with and Jennifer and I both really liked it. So, this July we will welcome into our home a baby boy named Landon Michael Heflin. 

Brinley is happy to announce her little brothers name!

The L tasted great!

Would you be impressed if Brinley had stacked these herself? Brinley was quick to knock  them down as soon as I put them up.

 Only jokingly had I mentioned to Jennifer about naming him Jordan Jr., but she quickly turned down that suggestion. We originally decided on the name Landon and when trying to figure out a middle name I just always kept going back to my own middle name and it just seemed to flow well together and Jennifer agreed. So, passing on my middle name will be good enough, which just so happens to be the first name of my father.

Jennifer and I have been so blessed with the opportunity to be parents to a amazing little girl in Brinley and we are super excited, and a little nervous, about our son Landon. Our lives will be hectic and crazy at times with two children that will be 14 months apart, but I know that God would not put anything on our plates that he didn't think that we could handle. I am sure that we will have plenty of good stories over the next few years. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Baby Heflin #2 is a ???

After we found out that we were expecting a second child so soon after Brinley we decided that we should maybe try to save a little money on things that could be deemed unnecessary. One of these things that we decided to save some money on was going early at 16 weeks of the pregnancy to have a gender scan. However, I decided that Jennifer probably wanted to find out early so I was going to surprise her on her birthday, February 7th with a gender scan. Since the gender scan costs $100 I decided that I would tell her about my birthday surprise a little early just to make sure that she approved of the money that we were going to spend. It turns out that just the night before while she was at work a co-worker asked her when we were going to find out the gender and it made Jennifer anxious to know the gender of our second child. A co-worker of mine informed me that Central Baptist Hospital will do a gender scan for you at half the price, so we called to make an appointment. Jennifer really didn't want to wait until her birthday because we could find out 2 weeks sooner. So, we scheduled our appointment which happened to be at noon today, January 29th, 2013.

Upon arrival I started to get nervous about finding out what we were having. When we went into to find out about Brinley, I had almost set my self up for disappointment because I had only thought to myself that we were going to have a son. It just seemed that everything in the world was telling me that a boy was in our future.Even on a impromptu ultrasound at work one night we thought we saw the parts for a little boy. We even had a name picked out for a boy that we both loved, but had struggled to think of a girl name. So, when the lady doing the ultrasound asked if we wanted to know we said yes, but I just knew in my head that we were having a boy. So, I was in complete shock when she informed us with certainty that we were having a little girl. It almost seemed as if my life and all my money passed before my eyes. I imagined all the clothes, accessories, dresses, jewelry and a wedding that I was now going to be responsible for over the next 20-30 years. I was terrified of having a little girl because I wasn't in a household with a younger sister, so I didn't know how things were going to be with a little girl around. However, from the very first moment that I laid eyes on Miss Brinley Kate I couldn't have been happier or more proud of my little girl. She has been an absolute blessing to our lives. She brings us so much joy everyday with every laugh, cry, word, new "trick" or milestone that she accomplishes.

When Jennifer and I started discussing what gender we hoped that our second child would be we actually found positive aspects for both genders. We did not have a true preference boy or girl, we just prayed for a healthy little baby. We both work with so many children whose parents would give anything to have a healthy little child. (It actually makes me a little upset with myself that I was disappointed that day of our last ultrasound because I should have been happy that Brinley was healthy.) Our thoughts were if it was a girl it would actually be somewhat more cost effective since they were going to be born around the same time the majority of clothes could actually be reused with child #2. Having a girl would also give Brinley a sister in which she could grow up with and hopefully be best friends. On the other hand, having a boy would even up the playing field around the house and even out the testosterone and would allow the Heflin name to be passed on to the next generation. It would also give me the son that I have always dreamed about having. So, needless to say both Jennifer and I would be happy either way and again we just pray for a happy healthy child.

Today, we went back to the ultrasound room and after getting situated the lady let us hear the heart beat, which was 153. She showed us the profile view of the whole body and then she said are you ready to find out what your having. We both said yes and she said with 100% certainty that it was a ????. She even said that as soon as she began the ultrasound that she noticed, but went ahead and did all the preliminary views and sounds before informing us. Any last guesses?

We are proud to announce that in July we will be welcoming a little baby brother into the Heflin household.

Our baby boy was not trying to hide what he is from us.

Brinley didn't really seem too interested today.

Jennifer and our little boy!

Brinley is going to be a great BIG SISTER!

Now we got a little smile from Miss Brinley.

Brinley and her toy blocks making the BIG announcement!

Brinley liked the letter B.

We are still learning which way to put the B.

 We are super excited for what the next year has in store for us as we get prepared to welcome a little boy into our home. It is definitely going to be exciting around our household for some time with two little children  who are going to be about 14 months apart. We can't wait to meet the little guy! Thanks for reading and God Bless!

Brinley's Only Christmas as the Only Child

As most of you know from my last post we had a lot of "surprises" this past Christmas with our big announcement. However, in between announcements to our different family members we tried to create new holiday traditions as a family. Jennifer and I also tried to soak up everything because this would be our only Christmas as a family of 3! We started the Christmas season by decorating the inside and outside of the house. We even kept a few traditions that we started when we got married. Each year we make a gingerbread house and this year Brinley got to help. We also get a new ornament each year to put on our family tree. This year Brinley got to put her 1st Christmas ornament up on the family tree.

Brinley helping decorate the family tree.

Brinley putting up her 1st Christmas ornament and trying to eat the tree.

Grandma even helped with the decorating. Grandma was in town to baby sit so I could go to the football game in Atlanta.

Brinley really enjoyed making  the gingerbread house.

Jennifer had to work on Christmas Day so we decided to celebrate with just the 3 of us on December 22, which was a day that we were both off from work. I woke up early and made a big breakfast. After eating breakfast we started to open our gifts. Brinley was far more interested in eating the wrapping paper and playing with the tree than she was with the actual gifts.

Brinley thought the wrapping paper was delicious!

Brinley looks really happy to be opening gifts.

Brinley's favorite toy that she got from mommy and daddy. A little Ferris Wheel for little tumbler people.

A family photo after opening Brinley's gifts.

Jennifer got a Cricut to help with  her scrap booking and craft projects.

I got a new grill!

Brinley trying on her new hat. 

 That afternoon after we all took a nap we got ready for our second Christmas celebration with Jennifer's family. We ate lunch and before we opened gifts we made our big announcement. After the initial shock wore off we opened gifts. Once again Brinley really enjoyed the paper.

Brinley surrounded with all of her presents.

Aunt Amanda helping with opening gifts.

Brinley got her very first play kitchen.

MiMi and Brinley.

Aunt Sarah, Jennifer, Brinley and Aunt Amanda.

Our next Christmas celebration started when my family arrived on Christmas Eve. We started our festivities with decorating sugar cookies. Everybody started out as novices and quickly started to get the hang of it. Grandpa was even able to do a cookie portrait of the Mona Lisa, at least that is what he said it was supposed to be. We followed up our cookie decorating with the "BIG" reveal which I was able to record and most of you have seen the footage I am sure. We ended our night with a trip to the horse park to see the Southern Lights. Brinley really enjoyed getting to see all the light displays that were set up. However, I can't decide if she was more happy about the lights or getting to be out of the car seat during the drive through the lights.

Grandpa's first attempt - it says G-PA in purple.

Grandma is deep in concentration.

Brinley even got into decorating.

Aunt Andrea working on her Christmas stocking.

Uncle McKinley working on his sugar man creation.

 Since Jennifer had to work day shift on Christmas we waited until she got off work to open gifts. It was definitely a unique Christmas because we spent the day doing a little bit of everything. Aunt Andrea and Grandpa went to a movie, Uncle McKinley and I went to his house to workout, and Grandma enjoyed some time with Brinley.If you noticed in the next few pictures, Brinley had multiple outfit changes on Christmas. This is because she had so many outfits and we wanted to get as much use out of them because she will only get to wear them once in her life. Before Jennifer got home from work we began cooking our Christmas dinner. We cooked a turkey and all the fixins. After dinner we gathered around and started exchanging our gifts.

Grandma and Brinley enjoying some time together.

Uncle McKinley playing with some of Brinley's Christmas toys.

Mommy finally got home and we started opening  presents.

Uncle McKinley's gift. It even came with a coupon for a free babysitting.

Brinley really liked Aunt Andrea's gift - it's a little ball that rolls away from you so that you crawl after it.

The Heflin Family - Christmas 2012

The whole family got to stick around for a few more days before Aunt Andrea had to return back home to New York. We really enjoyed getting to spend time together. The days that we get to spend together with all of us are getting fewer and further between. I know that Brinley didn't tell me with words, but I know that she really had a great Christmas. I can't wait to spend many more Christmas seasons with all of my family. Next year I am sure that Brinley will enjoy opening her gifts even more and she can even show her younger sibling the way to do things. I just hope that over the years we are able to instill the TRUE meaning of CHIRSTmas to our children. Thanks for reading and God Bless!