It's a Girl...Maybe...Probably

Yesterday, we had a fun, spur of the moment ultrasound to try and determine the sex of the baby. It just so happens that we have a friend who is an OB nurse at a local hospital here and has access to the equipment. Since I am only 13 weeks it is a very tough call and the nurses couldn't guarantee anything. However, after two different nurses stared at a very cooperative little angel for about ten minutes, they are about 75% sure its a princess. So, this isn't my official gender announcement, but it was enough to a least get us thinking in that direction. Liberty was very very disappointed. She was mad, actually. Scott and I are very excited, of course. We just adore our baby girls. That was just one of the exciting things we got to do this Christmas. My family is coming in today and we will continue to celebrate through the weekend. I will post pics of all our Christmas fun next week.

This baby was so active. It was like she was performing just for us. Here you can see her little arms and legs.

Visiting Santa

Today after Liberty's basketball game we went to visit Santa. Even though she knows Santa isn't real, she still wanted to go and get her picture taken with him. It was really cute and thankfully not very busy.

Ahhh, hugging Santa

Always willing to pose for a picture.

I am also very excited to share that Liberty spelled her very first word (not counting her name) all by herself yesterday. She wanted to make her list for Santa (she told me I could just buy the presents since Santa isn't real). On the list she wrote the word "ball." I couldn't believe it. I asked her how she had learned to spell ball and her reply was "I just knowed." She repeated it for Scott this morning so she really, truly knows it and it wasn't just a fluke. I can't believe she is about to be five and she is already beginning to read. Time really does fly, doesn't it?

Busy Weekend

We had lots of activities this weekend and so much fun. Friday night we went to the memorial tree ceremony at OU Children's Hospital. Each year the hospital puts up a tree specifically for children who have died and families can come and place ornaments on the tree as a memorial to their child. It was a sweet little ceremony and, of course, Liberty really enjoyed putting Lilly's ornament on the tree. I was really impressed by how well everyone there seemed to be doing. It was a time to celebrate our children and put aside our grief for a moment. It was nice.

After the ceremony we went ICE SKATING! Liberty has been looking forward to it all week and I decided she was finally old enough. Every Christmas downtown is turned into a Christmas paradise--full of fun, winter activities. The outdoor ice rink was really cool. When we got there we had to wait in a huge line and I was worried that the rink would be too crowed for 3 amateurs. Nonetheless, we all got our ice skates and headed to the rink. Scott was immediately hating me for thinking this was a good idea :)

I just knew all three of us were going to end up piled on top of each other the minute we stepped on the ice. The first lap was a little rough. It took us at least 15 minutes to get around and Liberty must have fallen at least 200 times--with me holding on to her. Depite the slow start, Liberty got the hang of it really fast and soon refused to let me hold on to her. It didn't matter how many times she fell, she just kept getting up and going for more. Scott gave up after about the third lap and headed for the wall to watch. By this time, Liberty wanted to see how fast we could go. Without Scott holding us back, we blazed around the rink! :-) It was such a fun time and a great memory.

On Saturday, Liberty had her first basketball game. If you have never watched 4 and 5 years olds play basketball, you are missing out. It was the cutest thing ever and highly entertaining. Here's Libs in action. She actually got to shoot the ball once. She was so excited and came running down the court to tell me that she had scored! In reality, the ball didn't come anywhere close to the the goal and actually one of the refs caught it. Regardless, she was very proud of herself.

Saturday night we went to our neighbors house for a party. I wish I had brought my camera. Liberty decided to take part in the Guitar Hero game. I have never laughed so hard. She was jamming like a true rock star and entertaining everyone in the room. Surprisingly enough, she actually hit a few of the right notes. In the middle of one performance she stopped and turned to our friend Randy (who was playing the other guitar) and said "You're going down." She then turned and continued to rock out. It had everyone rolling. She is such and entertainer--give her a microphone and any musical instrument and she will give you a show!

That pretty much ended the weekends activities because Sunday I woke up and had no voice and I still don't. Liberty and I have been fighting colds for a week now and I'm sure the change in weather isn't going to help. On a positive note, the morning/night sickness is getting better. I'm still really tired though. My neighbors sweet mom reminded me on Saturday that I'm not as young as I was when I had the other two. Gee thanks! Hopefully my energy will return soon!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Haas Family Christmas Tree

This past Saturday we went to get our Christmas Tree. Ever since Scott and I have been married, we have gotten a real tree. Usually we just go to Lowes or something, but the past two years we have gone to a Christmas Tree farm just right down the road from us. Last year Scott went alone because it was way too cold for Lilly. However, this year we decided to start a new tradition and the three of us went out together to cut down our own tree. As you can see, Liberty was done after about 30 minutes of hunting for the perfect tree. You would think that a fussy little girl would speed us on our way, but no, it took us at least another hour to find "the tree."

Its a 9 foot beauty.

Poor tired girl!


This was taken before it got so hot we had to get rid of the coats!

My manly husband cutting down our tree! You can see Libs doing her part--holding up the tree :)

There are already tons of presents under the tree. I must admit Scott and I both went a little crazy this year. Usually we keep things very small--just a couple of gifts for each of us. I don't know, this year we just felt like splurging a little! My family is coming to us this year for Christmas this year. I am so thankful for that. It will be nice for all of us to be together and us not have to drive.

Yesterday we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. It was racing along at 173 bpm. It was a glorious sound to my ears. In the coming weeks we will be doing a level 2 ultrasound. We will probably do at least 2 of these as a precaution. Please continue to pray for our little ones health. Pray that the baby will be healthy. But most of all the he or she will be exactly what God has planned and that our hearts will be prepared for what He has in store for us.

Visiting Lilly

Lilly is buried in a historic cemetary in Rochester, Texas. The towns population is 378 and the cemetary is surrounded on all four sides with acres and acres of cotton fields. She is surrounded by generations of family going back to the late 19th century. It is truly God's country and a perfectly peaceful place to remember her. We went to visit last Wednesday. I thought it would be special for all of us if we planted a tree and decorated it for Christmas. It will also be a nice tradition that we can do every year. I bought a dwarf spruce and planted it at Lilly's graveside. Liberty had a blast decorating it and thought it was so wonderful that Lilly would have her own Christmas tree.

She started to get sad once she finished decorating the tree and didn't have anything to distract her. She sat beside Lilly headstone and looked at her picture the rest of the time. Right before we left she said the most precious prayer. Even in her moment of sadness she was able to thank God for Lilly and praise Him because she is in Heaven. I think we can all relate. We are overjoyed that Lilly is with her Creator and that soon we will join her, but we miss having her here with us!

Lilly's headstone turned out absolutely beautiful with one exception--her last name is spelled wrong. We called about it right away and the place that made it is going to fix it, no problem. Here are the pictures. Just use your imagination and pretend its spelled correctly :-). The stone matches the other family stones that are around hers. Her great grandparents and great uncle are buried right across from her.

Right after we finished decorating the tree a little butterfly flew up and landed right on it. It was the craziest thing considering it is way to cold for butterflies. Nonetheless, the little thing couldn't get enough of Lilly's tree and hung around until we left. It was really sweet and a perfect reminder of our precious girl. It was beautiful day and we had a great time remembering our princess and all the joy she brought to our lives.