Jillian's 2nd Birthday Party!!!

Jillian's 2nd Birthday Party!!!

We had Jillian's birthday party 2 weeks early this year to ensure she would actually have a party since Haven is due any day now.  We had it June 4th at Gymboree, and Jillian had the BEST time!  She definitely knew the party was for her, and loved being the center of attention.  With a 2 year old (or at least our 2 year old) you never know what mood they'll be in.... Jillian's almost always in a good mood, but will she be clingy, tired, shy, ect.  

Jeff and I agreed, Jillian was in one of her top top moods!!  She was so independent, so full of energy and loved every minute of the party.  Success!!!

Here's Jillian telling me she's 2 and showing me with her fingers!

Happy!!!

Cousin Jaden and Aunt Shelby!

Jaden is 7.5 months old and was perfect the entire party.  Such a sweet, laid back, handsome boy!  

Jamieson.  So handsome!

Jones and London. 

How adorable are they?  I love they are in coordinating outfits!

They were sitting on the couch a few feet apart and Kristen tells them just ONE time for them to sit together, and they did!  London scooted over and gave him such a sweet hug.

Jillian and Haven.  

Haven is such  a sweetie pie; so outgoing and fun!

(You might be wondering if we stole the name Haven from Jillian's friend - we didn't.  

We have loved that name long before they were friends :)
What a coincidence though!)

Circle Time.  

I had to include this picture because Jillian LOVES to mimic me.  

She saw me sitting like this and had to copy me. 

Haven and her awesome mama Carli

Haven and Walker.  

Walker is just so sweet.  We love his parents Lindsey and Matt!

Jillian was OBSESSED with doing this 'tetter-totter, bouncy ride'.  

Taking a turn with Walker.

Nana helping Jillian slide

I think everyone was making birthday wishes here... can't remember.

Kids would walk up the ramp and drop the wish into the wishing barrel.

Time for a break - CUPCAKES!

It was time to sing Happy Birthday and Jillian knew this was her time to blow out the candle.  Look at the determination on her face!   We had been practicing for a few days and everytime she would miss at home, she tell herself to 'blow harder'.  

She blew out the candle with the first try!

Jillian was initially very happy to see cupcakes, juice, and fruit but after 5 minutes of drinking juice and nibbling Jillian kept saying she was done and wanted to go back to playing.  Ok... you're the birthday girl so I took her back into the gym area while everyone else stayed to eat. 

Bama getting some one-on-one time while Jillian sat still for one second.

Sweet Cousins!!

Next was bubble and song time.  This is usually Jillian's favorite activity each week at Gymboree.  She loved it at her party too!

Popping the bubbles

Shaking the bubbles off the parachute.

I love Papa and Uncle Shale smiling at her in the background.  

Jillian was SOOO into doing it!

Jillian 'buggying on down' with the teacher

After that song, the party was over.  I dont have anymore pictures of Jillian at the party, but she was not ready to go!  She was exhausted but still having so much fun.

London waving bye bye to everyone

After the party, all of Jeff's family came back to our house to open her presents.  This year Jillian asked for a book instead of a toy from her friends.  I'm so glad we did that; Jillian LOVES to read! 

She took one book over to Papa and asked him to read to her.  How sweet is this?!?!

Jillian was so blessed to have pretty much her entire family in town that weekend:

Bama, Unchie, Aunt Shelby, Jaden, Aunt Lauren stopped by the party, Nana, Papa, Uncle Shale, and Uncle Adir.  

The timing worked out perfectly for Jeff's family because his sister Lauren had her PRECIOUS baby Charlotte on May 17th, so of course everyone was looking for another reason to see her baby!!!

The entire weekend was so fun seeing his entire family and of course seeing baby Charlotte again!!

We all had so much fun at your 2nd birthday party!!  We love you SOOOOO much!

Beatin' the heat!

Oh my GOODNESS is it hot here already, or what?  Is it really in the 100's already?!  This pregnant lady just can't take too much of the heat.  Our little one doesn't seem to mind it though!

Almost every morning after Jillian feeds Austin outside, she turns around and says 'Bye-Bye, play self' and runs off into the backyard.  She is getting so independent!  She and Austin will run circles around each other and keep themselves quite entertained for usually 20 minutes.  I get to sit inside and watch the 2 of them through the patio doors and drink my coffee and catch up on the morning news..... Ahhhhh!  

However, once the afternoon hits, it's blazing hot.  Most afternoons we will still spend about 30-45 minutes outside right before dinner.  Hosing ourselves off is key.  So we water the plants, spray Austin, stick to the shade, and often times our next door neighbors kids pop over!

Here's a few pictures of Jillian just drenching herself and LOVING it:

She also loves for me to spray the water over her head and sing 'It's raining it's pouring...' and she jumps up and down smiling and clapping the whole time.

Her favorite way to be - NAKED!  All the time. Without question. She asks me probably 30x a day if she can get naked.  After the drenching her diaper was really soggy,  so I asked if she wanted to be half-naked and run around.  This got a 'YES!' and many claps.  I had to snap a photo of that precious little tushy.

Another way we are beating the heat is with the new easel Nana and Papa gave her for her birthday!  They gave it to her a few weeks early, and it has been a life saver!  She is quite obsessed with it!  She loves to draw circles and show us.  And lets be honest, that's about the only thing she can draw right now.  She loves the eraser (erasee!).

Thank you again Nana and Papa for such a perfect gift!!

Our Son's Name!!!

We are so excited to finally reveal our son's name!!!  This has been a loooong, drawn out process but we finally settled on his first name and told our families, and now we want to tell the world!!!

Haven Gulbas

 Jillian is excited to finally tell everyone Haven's name as well!!

(Yes Haven will have a middle name, but we haven't quite settled on it.  

By the time he's born we'll have that decided!)

Haven has been a favorite name of ours for a long time, and I think we both knew we'd end up naming him Haven, but we really took our time.  We both have 1 mutual friend from college named Haven, and one of Jillian's friends is named Haven...so we love that it's so rare!  We also love that it means safe place.   I already have tons of monogrammed items on order :)

How we told our families:  

We told my family over Memorial Day weekend while Shelby, Matt and Jaden were in town.  When Jill got up from her nap on Sunday we put her in the outfit pictured above and let Jillian tell everyone!

We told Jeff's family earlier this week when a lot of his family was in town!  The first night Nana and Papa were over we told them we had settled on the name and we'd let Jillian tell them.  It was hilarious.  Jillian pronounces Haven as 'Heben' and the names they came up with trying to figure it out had us laughing so hard.  Once they guessed Haden, we told them they were close enough and his name was Haven!  

Everyone in our both our families LOVES his name!  

I'm almost 37 weeks and feeling pretty good.  Not great.  I must have forgotten about the aches and pains the final weeks with Jill... and some of them are challenging!  I'm not complaining because carrying Haven is truly a miracle and such a blessing, but I was joking with a friend the other day that God lets you get this uncomfortable at the end so you will gladly embrace the birthing process!  Might be true :)

Here's a picture of my 37 week bump:

To date, I have gained 18 pounds, which I think is pretty low.  I'm working on eating A LOT but good old heartburn showed up last week.  Oh joy.   I wish I was in the 20's but I have been sick quite a bit this time around.  All winter I was sick with a cold and weight gain was slow.  A few weeks ago I had ANOTHER round of food poisoning where I didn't really eat for a week.  All that said though - Haven is just the right size and he isn't lacking on any sweets like cookies, cake or ice cream!

I wish I could say the nursery was done, but it's not.  We are getting really close though and I can't wait to post pictures soon!  Jeff has been the perfect dad and husband (yet again!) and has put the room together all on his own.... of course I picked most everything out, but Jeff has done all the painting, rearranging and putting stuff together.

Jillian is definitely aware she will be a big sister soon!  She calls herself Sister when we talk about Haven.  She calls him 'Haben' and loves to play in Haven's room and take anyone that comes over to his room.  She is just SO SO sweet with my tummy.  She will many times a day come over, point to my tummy, smile and say 'Haben, see him' and lift up my shirt.  She'll sweetly pat my tummy and then give him many kisses.   When she's eating or drinking, she treats my tummy like one of her baby dolls, and fake feeds Haven making the cutest eating sound.  So precious!
I've told her where his hiney and feet are (that are stretching all over the place the days!) and she'll point to the right side of my tummy and say 'hiney!' then the left and say 'feet!'
We are really hoping and praying Jillian transitions well from being the sole center of attention to sharing it.  It will be an adjustment, but we know she will fall IN LOVE with Haven and be very protective and helpful.  

I have this strange feeling Haven will enter the world before his due date of June 28, and my Dr. thinks that might happen too.  So we will see; we are SO anxious to meet him!!!  I'm toying with the idea of getting induced at 39 weeks if he hasn't made an appearance yet... we're not sure though.  Letting Haven come on his own time and then the mad rush to the hospital sounds really fun!  We didn't experience that with Jillian since I was induced for high blood pressure.

We love you Haven!!!!  We can't wait to hold you in our arms!!!!

Lovin' her Daddy!

Check out this sweet picture of Jillian on Jeff's shoulders giving him kisses.  Such a sweet daddy's girl!! 

Love how her little hand is holding his chin!

I took this picture over Memorial Day weekend at my parent's house.  Shelby, Matt and Jaden were in town for the weekend, so we spent Sunday with everyone!!  We met them after church and had lunch out, the kids took great naps, we made homemade ice cream and then the kiddos went swimming.  So fun!

How sweet and ADORABLE is Jaden???

He was so sweet to share his floatie with Jillian 

So fun having everyone together!! Can't wait to have everyone together again soon!