almost 23 weeks

I had another doctor's appointment today. ALL IS GOOD!!!! It's still a baby girl! :-) The cord flow was great. Heartrate was 149bpm and she was moving around a lot. They didn't do measurements but she should be about 1 pound. I am scheduled to see Dr. D again on the 10th and Dr. High Risk on the 14th but will probably just keep the 14th appointment. My blood pressure was PEFECTION 120/70!!!! Dr. D seemed pretty confident about how well I am doing. He said if cord flow continues to go well, we could probably do every 2 week appointments. We will see. He said he knows that I know what to watch for and of course if any problems I would be there in a heartbeat. We are reaching the point where I had Jack (24 weeks 4 days) and it's just bizarre to me. I NEVER had a belly with Jack. I NEVER looked pregnant with Jack. I LOOK pregnant with Brooke. My dad even just stares at my belly like I'm a weirdo!!! I HAVE to buy maternity clothes. I WANTED to with Jack. It's all just so completely different and I'm loving every minute of it!!!!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY DOODLE

I cannot believe that it has been 4 years since Doodle was born. Some days it seem just like yesterday that we began our 5 month journey in the NICU and some days it seems like it has been 10 years since we went through all of that. I can't believe how far we have come in the 4 years.

Matt and Jack and I had such a great day today. We were going to have his party today and then decided that we would just make it a family day and I am so happy we did. We started with presents in the morning. (It felt like Christmas morning almost). Then he wanted to go to Spyros for breakfast and he had pancakes. They came out at the end with little strawberry shortcake and a candle and sang happy birthday. I thought he would love it because he couldn't wait to sing. At the end he started crying and I thought maybe he got embarrassed. NOPE!!! Come to find out, he was upset because there was whipped cream on his "birthday". HAHAH!!! It was quite funny! (NOTE: he doesn't like whipped cream). Then he wanted to go to Target for a prize. I am not sure he really got a prize but we did get some Christmas shopping accomplished and some baby stuff bought and he got to play with the toys there. Then it was DEFINITELY nap time. He is working on getting sick so his attitude wasn't the best today. After nap time he wanted to put Christmas lights up outside so he talked daddy into do that. Daddy really got into it last year because we actually had to go out to Big Lots and get more stuff! Daddy is usually a Scrooge!!! Then Jack wanted to go to "Shake It" (AKA Steak n' Shake). Then home we went to finish up the lights and then we drove around and looked at other peoples lights!!! When you ask him what his best part of the day was he says, "THE PANCAKES!" hahahahah!!!

Happy Birthday Jack. We love you to pieces and we are so proud of you! You are one awesome little doodle and we couldn't ask for a better little man! MUAH!!!!!

JACK'S "BIRTH"DAY!

JACK'S 1ST BIRTHDAY (with mimi)

JACK'S 2ND BIRTHDAY (with Zoey)

JACK'S 3RD BIRTHDAY

daddy putting together the train station A train station made out of legos!!!

building a tower

playing with his new legos. It felt like Christmas morning!

opening presents

Jack opening up his new garbage truck from Mimi and Popsy. He is obsessed with garbage trucks!

The leaning Christmas Tree

our new snowman and Christmas tree

You can kind of see the lights on the house. Not a very good picture

New look and New address

Well, I have decided to consolidate the 2 blogs that I was doing, into 1 FAMILY blog. It was getting to hard to keep up with both of them and so here ya go. http://thebowling4.blogspot.com. Save that to your favorites if you so choose and I will be updating with family stuff and Jack stuff and pregnancy stuff!

Everyone is doing well. I have had a cold for about a week now and I am finally feeling like it might be going away. I hope so!!! Brooke is doing great! She is a mover and a shaker, which is a lot different than with Jack. I think he was just too small for me to ever feel him move really. Brooke is now 15 ounces (Jack's birthweight) and that is so bizarre to me!!! Jack is getting more and more excited about her I think. We have started to buy more clothes and various items for her and he likes to be right in the middle of what we are picking out. He does the snuggle test on just about every blanket and every stuffed animal we buy. It's super cute!!!

Jack is doing great. He is just growing up every second of every day. This morning we were watching some cartoons together and I asked him what he was thankful for. He looked at me weird and so I asked him again. He then told me this: "Some people don't have a house mommy, and some people don't have food and snacks to eat and they have to look in the garbage can". I just wanted to cry. That was his way of saying he was thankful for his house and having food to eat. So then we got some food around later on to take to the community food harvest. He is the most adorable thing ever!!!

We have been forunate to spend some time with family and friends lately. We went to Batesville, IN a few weekends ago to celebrate my friend Jan's wedding! Jack was a stitch dancing. He won't talk to a single soul but he will be in the middle of about 15 women and dance!!! And he favorite part was eating the gravy that went with the mashed potatoes!! We also spent a really fun evening with Uncle Jim and Kim and Ian and grandma Jenny last night. We played Wii and ate yummy snacks and ordered pizza. Those are the best nights!!!

Jan and I at her wedding reception. Jan and I have been friends for a very long time. Lived next door to me growing up and we roomed together at Purdue a few different times! I miss her a lot!!!

THE INFAMOUS DOODLE

Jack and Mimi at Jan's wedding reception looking pretty silly

The cutest thing: Satori Isabelle (my niece)

Jack feeding the reindeer some goldfish

Jack cleaning up his gator

While we were at the football game....

Jack went with Mimi and Popsy to Columbus, Ohio to see Popsy's mom and dad and brother and sister-in-law. Jack was in heaven working outside with Popsy and Grandpa (his GREAT grandpa)

Grandpa made Jack a windmill and he liked them so much he chose 2. He said when it's nice he is going to put them outside by his swingset. Super cute. My grandpa is the cutest!!!

Jack and Grandpa. LOVE THIS PICTURE

Relaxing with Popsy

Giving Grandma Lucy a kiss!

Jack and Aunt TT. They have a love hate relationship. Aunt TT just loves him and he LOVES her to love him but would never tell a soul!!! So this picture is perfect!

Jack and Uncle John

Jack also wants to thank them for his birthday money. We went to Toys R Us today to spend it and he had a hard time picking something out. But finally he chose a LIGHTNING MCQUEEN car that does 120 different things (it dances even) and he loves it. It was like magic buying it. I didn't hear a peep out of him from like 3-5pm today!!!! He was so proud to have his money and "pay it" all by himself!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to change this to a BOWLING family blog....this is all about Matt and I

NO!!! Don't worry!!! I haven't converted from Purdue to Michigan fan. HOWEVER, Matt and I did go to the Michigan/Purdue football game on Saturday. We found AWESOME seats on craigslist for face value and happened to be 21 rows up from the field. It was amazing. Matt's friend, Jared, as home from the Navy and was able to go with us as well. We had a great time. It was extremely different from going to Ross Aide Stadium at Purdue. A bit overwhelming at first. We had a long treck to the stadium and then ended up waiting in line for about 1/2 hr to just get into our section. Then we got to our seats right before kick off so the adrenalin rush was crazy and there was about 109,000 people there. YES!! ONE HUNDRED AND NINE THOUSAND!!!!

It was really an awesome game. PURDUE WON!!!! 38-36. SORRY MATTHEW!!! He said he didn't care if Michigan lost by 100, he was just in heaven being there. It was a GREAT time and GREAT weather and GREAT seats!!!