Finally...an Apel Update

I know, I know...it's been forever--OVER two months since our last post and I never kept my promise about posting videos of Asher or pics from his first Christmas or birthday...but Adobe Lightroom (the best photo editor around!) is on it's way to me in the mail right now. It is going to make my job editing and documenting our family so much easier! So, as I work on them, I will post them! PROMISE!

Here is what Asher has been up to lately:

He loves playing outside...it is far better than any "toy" to him. He loves to climb, dig, explore, and, of course, play in the water.

We got him this babypool and it has been the best entertainment...he loves to splash around and play with his shovels and buckets in the water.

He loves going to the park behind our house...we go there just about everyday, but last month the Splashpad opened and since it's been warmer the last few weeks we've finally gotten to go! He loves it so much, we usually stay there about an hour or longer. Here are a few more pics of him at the Splashpad:

About two weeks ago, Charlie taught him showed him how to pick flowers for Mommy. Now, everytime he sees a flower he picks it, holds it up to his nose, says, "Mmmmm," and runs over to me with the sweetest grin on his face, to give me the flower. How I love my sweet boys! They're so good to me!

A lot has been going on around the Apel house, as well. Charlie closed in a doorway from the garage to the kitchen, which will soon be our converted laundry room/tv/playroom, where we'll put another bed since the guestroom will soon be McKlayne's nursery.

He closed in this wall right here. This man amazes me with his "handiness". At the beginning of each new task I always skeptically ask him, "And how do you know how to do this?" or "How do you know that this is going to work?" Most of the time he shrugs his shoulders and says, " I don't know...I just do." Sometimes, I get a, "I don't, but I'll figure it out." I don't know how I ended up with such a handy husband, but I'm so thankful that I did! He's brilliant!

We also made a few great purchases in Roundtop on Antique Weekend at the beginning of April! This farm table was our favorite find! We needed a long, skinny table, so that we could fit at least 8 people around it! It's been wonderful the couple weeks that we've had it for our HOPE Group!

And listen to this...it's the best part of this find: we bought five of chairs (all that we could find that day!) and figured we could try to either find three other matching ones later that week when I went back or just mix and match a few others...but when I went back I couldn't rind any of them. The next night, we were at the Hendrick's and they had four chairs-the same style we had gotten and I said, "Hey! Did you get these from Roundtop? I need three more of these!" (thinking that Heather had bought my other chairs) and she said, "No, Aaron's parents gave us these...actually seven of them! Three of them are sitting in our attic right now...you want 'em?" So, we went home with three more chairs to complete our set of eight! We love those people.

(Also, notice my antique stained-glass window...I got that in Roundtop, too..it was a steal compared to how much they normally are! It's from somewhere in England--where did the guy say he was from, Kyle?)

We've also refinished some furniture and I've been doing quite a bit of spring cleaning-going through closets and drawers- giving stuff away, organizing, and selling the "valuable junk" on Ebay! There is so much still to be done before our Baby Girl gets here in a short 10 weeks! Here is the before pic of an old hutch that had been in my parents garage for years!

It's amazing what a vision, a lot of cleaning, some sanding, and some stain can do! We still have to find some hardware to put on it...I loved the original but a few were broken and one was missing!

Last week, I was in HEB and 3 people commented on how "beautiful" my "little girl" was...I just smiled. This pic was from the same day...he was dressed in blue...with a lizard on his shirt. Is he just too pretty? Or is his hair too long? I am not ready to cut it...he wouldn't look like the same kid without all that beautiful curly hair!!

And, lastly here's my belly at 22 weeks:


And again at 26...here I have gained a total of 14 pounds. I gained 50 lbs with Asher! Yikes! At this point in my last pregnancy, I'd probably already gained 30-35lbs:

I am now a full 30 weeks. I'll have to get Char to take a pic of my belly today, so you can see how much I've grown!

Family Pics

Our amazing photographer friend, Lynsey, (we loved her before we knew she took great pics!) took some family pictures of us at the park behind our house last Sunday.

Here they are!

I love them all, but I especially love the one of my two precious boys with Asher's hands on Charlie's face. I will treasure that one forever because she captured a memory that I see quite often...Asher adoring his Daddy.

We can't thank you enough, Lyns! She is incredible to work around a very active 13 month old and still get such great pics!

We're thinking PINK!!

It's official...I'm wearing Maternity! I was changing from running shorts to go to dinner and was awfully uncomfortable trying to fit into most of my regular jeans! I decided...since we were about to go eat Pancakes at IHOP that it was NOT worth the discomfort of trying to squeeze into my regular jeans...Baby Girl would have no room for pancakes!

So, I tried on a pair of real-waist maternity jeans that my sis had handed down to me...and they felt so great! Though, they were a bit big and super annoying that I had to keep pulling them up in back, they beat trying to suck in and button up my new bulge! (Why is it that you ALWAYS have to pull up maternity pants--even when they do fit! I feel like I have enough going on trying to hold one baby, and keep my tummy covered without needing to make sure my backside isn't showing! Somebody really needs to do something about this...it'd be the next great Pregnancy invention.)

I will probably be able to still wear a few of my "fat" jeans for the next week or so, but I'm glad to finally be able to start wearing Maternity soon!! It's been annoying because all season I've only bought two shirts (since I was pregnant last winter and had cleaned out my regular winter wardrobe pretty well then) and have basically been rotating between a total of 5 shirts because I thought that I'd be wearing maternity anyday and that it would be a waste of money to buy anything new!
(Heather, I may try to squeeze into my favorite jeans for the next week, but they'll be yours soon!)

On another note: yesterday, going into our sonogram, Charlie and I were both thinking boy, but only because we've been so fickle and had no real "feeling" either way this entire pregnancy....this poor baby, we haven't thought much about her, we've been so distracted with Asher! For the last several months, we've been thinking girl, but a few days ago, all of a sudden...we both switched to boy.

As the sonographer was taking different pictures of the baby, I kept seeing her pass by the bottom of her legs. I said, "I don't see anything between the baby's legs...does that mean it's a girl?" (When we had gone with Asher it was so obvious that he was a boy once we knew what to look for!) And she said, "That's what I'm thinking, we need to get a few more shots to make sure." Well, sure enough we never found anything between the legs and did, indeed, see her "girl parts".

Charlie was grinning from ear to ear as soon as she told us, "Yup, it's a girl!" I didn't quite no what to think other than, "Oh my gosh, I've never really thought of having a girl...all I know is boys...what am I going to do with a girl other than dress her and decorate her room?"

We're getting very excited, though, and can't wait to see what a little Apel girl is going to be like!

The Results Are In!

All of them. As of the time that we found out what we were having, the official poll results were 2/3 GIRL and 1/3 BOY.




But the real results are that we are having a...

GIRL!



We are extremely excited and can't wait to see our little girl. We'll be going through names and getting her room ready and I'm sure a lot of other things. Just check back for more!

I hope you've registered!!

It's time to vote! Do you think that our new baby is a boy or a girl?

Use the poll below to vote, but, also, leave a comment with what you voted for so we know how you voted.

We are finding out this Monday, the 11th, so check back soon!

Also, look for a long post about: Asher's First Christmas, Asher's First Steps, Asher's First Time in Snow, and Asher's First Birthday!! (We are waiting to add the video footage for these.)

PollPub.com Vote

are we having a boy or a girl?

Boy
Girl



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Belly Shots

No, not those belly shots.



This is Kirby's first picture at 5 weeks.



Here is the 15 weeks belly pic of Kirby. Yes, she's at 18 weeks, but there hasn't been drastic change. Kirby will be taking another picture in 2 weeks for the halfway mark.

1/4 of the way there!

10 weeks down, only 30 to go! Honestly, I have not even felt pregnant other than the nausea and the need for a nap every afternoon.

I'm hesitant to even say this, but most of the time I don't even think about being pregnant unless someone asks me how I'm feeling. I'm just really distracted with Asher as he is all over the place and still constantly changing and learning new things. (I have soooooo MANY videos that I need to post of him signing, walking with the walker, and doing his "favorite" trick.)

In the last two weeks I've gotten to see a sonogram of our newest baby twice. Even though I've been through all this before--(a year ago I was 8 months preggo) it was incredible! To see the tiny heartbeat, and with my most recent sono, the arms and legs moving around is mind blowing. I looked at the screen and then looked up at Asher, as I marveled about the gift of life and our Creator. It's incredible to me that we will have another one of these most precious gifts to lay eyes on at the beginning of July.

What a privilege.

What a joy.

How blessed we are!

I've decided that I am going to be better about documenting my growing belly this time around. And be proud of it! Every 5 weeks I will take a new belly pic so that we can really see the progress.

Here is my pic from 5 weeks pregnant...I had just found out!



And here is from today...a whole 10 weeks.



Though it doesn't look like it's changed much, my pants are getting tighter around the waist! It really does happen so much quicker the second time around! I am sure that in another 5 weeks I will not disappoint you with some growth (though, that may just be due to the holidays and a few birthday cakes!)