Trying to arrive early

When editing these pictures I found an orb in the first image. I wonder what it's from!

Alexia is not due to arrive until January 23rd, but she has other ideas. I went into labor at about 11:00pm on Saturday night and they stopped labor early Sunday morning. The Dr put me on medications to stop labor and I must take them every 6 hours, night and day. Since Blake was late, I'm not quite sure how to react to a baby who wants to come early. She is still very active and I love to feel her move around.

Since Alexia was in such a rush to come see us, we had to rush out and buy a few things for her. We found a great bassinet and we found quite a few warm newborn outfits for her.

We have an appointment tomorrow (Thursday the 18th of December) to find out what our plan is. I will post an update once we know!

Little Chef

Our little chef loves to make Christmas cookies! I think he would do it 24/7 if he were able to. Tonight we made green Christmas cookies with the mini cutters we just got! He did all the work, all mommy had to do was put the trays into the oven and take them back out. He is such a great chef! I can't wait to see what other hidden talents this amazing 2 year old boy has.

Deck the Halls 2008

As is a tradition in the Travis Parrack family we put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Blake had lots of fun putting ornaments on the tree. We let him turn the lights on first thing the next morning. The picture of him with his hair standing straight up would be the one showcasing his light turning on abilities! :)

We very much enjoy our Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations and can't wait for all the friend and family gatherings we have this year!

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving once again! It is so nice to be able to spend the day with a Family that we are truly thankful for. We enjoyed the time eating, playing board games and spending good quality time with family.

I spent most of the earlier part of the day cooking with my mom. We always have fun when we spend time together and we somehow managed to get all of the dishes ready in time. Blake really enjoyed his Thanksgiving set.

Big Brother Blake

Blake is very excited to meet his little sister. Alexia was a little difficult for him to say, so he calls her by her middle name, Chayne. He talks about her constantly and loves to feel her move. He also sings to her and talks to her. He loves to snuggle mommy and mommy's tummy. We aren't sure how he will feel about her once she is born and starts making noise, but as of right now he absolutely loves her.

9 More Weeks To Go!!!!

Alexia Chayne is 31 weeks along. She weighs in at approx. 4 pounds 6 ounces. She measures at the gestational age of 32 weeks and 2 days and is in the 79th percentile of size for her age. She is very active and is already in the head down position. Let's hope she stays that way!

Doctor says baby and mommy are as healthy as can be! Mommy passed the test for gestational diabetes with flying colors! The first picture above is a 4D image of Alexia's face. The second picture shows Alexia's nose and mouth. Let me know if you can tell where her nose and mouth are. Doctor says Alexia has very long eyelashes and is beginning to grow peach fuzz-like hair.

Only 9 more weeks until we get to meet our little Alexia. We are very excited to be sharing it all with our family and friends.

Blessed by the Love of Friends and Family

We never forget how lucky we are to have such wonderful family and friends! We enjoy the times we get with all of them and mourn the time we have to spend away from them. We had a great time with MorFarMor (Danish term for Blake's Maternal Great Grandmother) and MorFarFar (Blake's Maternal Great Grandfather) W last Saturday evening. Blake loves playing there and was very well behaved, even though he did try to kick Great-Grandpa W. Poor Great-Grandpa!





Blake spends at least one full day a week with Mama and Papa W as Mama W has taken one day a week off work to watch him. He is so lucky to get to spend so much time with his grandparents!






Desiree was blessed as a child with a very close knit family on both sides. She was constantly visiting her cousins Jennifer and Ryan in Tennesse while she was growing up in Cincinnati and enjoyed frequent visits from both sets of Grandparents throughout her life. She really enjoyed all the trips to the zoo and living history farms and other fun informative places with her Aunt Theri and her children. Her maternal Grandfather spent time every summer taking all of his grandchildren on camping trips to exciting places like Fort Robinson and to the Niobrara River. She was very close to her cousins on both sides of the family and all of her Aunts and Uncles as well.



Travis grew up just a few blocks from his Grandfather and was always very close to him. He was also very close to his cousins even though many of them lived far away. They all spent summers together as his cousins visited his Grandparents over the summers most of the time.



Although some of the family members on both sides don't get to talk or to see each other often, we still feel a great connection to all of our family and hope to be able to bring our children up with the knowledge of how important family truly is. We are so lucky to have the family we have, to have the great web of support throughout the country and even some out of the country. We hope to share the stories of our grandparents and our great-grandparents with our children as they have been shared with us.

We were both blessed with wonderful siblings. Desiree has one brother and is very close to him. Although they could not be more different, they have always been close. Travis has an older sister who has always been a guiding light for him. He looks up to her and enjoys spending time with her and her family. Travis also has an older brother who he learned a lot about sports from. They were also very close growing up. We have 4 nieces, we love every one of them and wish we could see them all more often! They are all so amazing, talented and unique and we are so blessed to have all of them in our lives. Travis also has two younger sisters who are always fun to be around and make family time enjoyable.

To our family, on all sides, we love you deeply and couldn't have asked for a better family. We may not get to see you all the time, or often at all, but we hope to change that.

New Coat

We just wanted to share with everyone how grown up Blake looks in his new winter coat!

Halloween 2008

Blake had lots of fun this Halloween! He dressed up as The Incredible Hulk! (He calls it his muscles) Here are a few pictures. We went with Mama Corrine and Papa Mark to StoneBridge's Trunk or Treat party. They told lots of different Bible stories and illustrated them. Once Blake listened to the story and interacted with those telling it, he got a handfull of candy. Hopefully he doesn't expect candy every time mommy reads him a Bible story!

We ate hot dogs and drank hot cocoa as we visited all of the different trunk displays. We all really enjoyed ourselves.

After Trunk or Treat, we went to see Papa Tom, then came home and handed out candy to the few trick or treaters who stopped by our house. We had a very good night and Blake had a blast. I'm pretty sure he really likes Halloween!

Hospitals and Other Details

Well, we have now officially pre-registered for our labor/delivery at two hospitals. One near our home and one near Desiree's work and school. So when Alexia comes we will be well prepared no matter where we are.

We appreciate all of the moral support we have gotten so far during this pregnancy. It is so comforting to know we have such a large group of friends and family who love us and are extremely excited for Alexia to join the family. We welcome all of you who would like to come share with us in the time before labor and once Alexia is born. If you would like to be notified when we go to the hospital and which hospital we are in just let us know in advance and we will be sure to call you and give you a heads up.

As of right now we are finishing up the 27th week and will be starting our third trimester on Friday! We are very excited to be so close to our delivery date! If I remember correctly the last trimester seems to take the longest because of anxiousness to meet baby, but I'm sure we can manage. This pregnancy has been a wonderful experience for us all and we are so happy to welcome a new life into this beautiful world!

We Found Our Porches!!!!!

We've been hard at work on our house, but with both the expected and unexpected turns life takes sometimes, it has been on the back burner for the last couple months. Luckily, with the help of Angels in the form of family we were able to rent another dumpster and clear even more things out of the house.

Our porches which were cluttered with empty boxes and boxes with broken or damaged things in them are now clear! We have beautiful porches and Blake already loves to go sit on the front porch. It's a whole new play area for him and we finished clearing it just in time for it to shield him from the chilly weather we are experiencing.

Travis cleared the basement out quite a bit and it is about twice the size it was when all of our boxes and several other things were down there. I've discovered that I really did marry super-man! He is so multi-talented!!!! He also cleared out the garage, it is amazing how large it is!!!

We are planning on painting, but may not get to before winter comes. We only have 2 more closets to clear out and we are pretty much done other than the painting. We are also planning on adding either a half bath or a 3/4 bath.

I will try to post some pictures as we get work done!

Baby Shower #1

My friends Meagan and Kati threw a beautiful baby shower for Alexia October 12th. It was perfection and we had tons of fun. We were joined by Brianne, Aunt Cheryl, Grandma Wilson, my mom (Corinne), Tiffany, Holly, Kari, and quite a few others sent their love and gifts, but were unable to make it.

The theme was Fairy Tale Princess, so I they gave me a tiara and we received lots and lots of fairy tales to read to Alexia! We are so excited for her arrival and can't wait to be able to share the joy of reading with her!!!

All about Blake

Blake is a big boy now! A whole Two years old! He is very excited about his little sister, but is happy to have the next few months as the only child. He wants to be just like daddy and mimicks everything daddy does. He loves slides (He calls them wees) and loves to wear his "elmo towel".

He is talking up a storm and is very imaginitive and creative. He loves to draw judging by our collection of Blake drawings. He loves going to school to play with his friends 3 times a week and has recently moved up to the big kid room where he has a few little admirers!

More Fall Fun!

We participated in the Race for The Cure October 5th, we had a great time walking, Blake really liked seeing all of the babies and puppies. After the walk we stopped by the nearby park and took some pictures with the horses!

We also had lots of fun with our good friends Shane and Amy and their kids at Vala's! Shane and Travis are displaying their competitive streak trying to launch apples, and Travis takes Blake down the slide as mommy makes sure nobody falls off! We had a lot of fun and plan to go back soon with "Ma-Ma Corinne" and "Pa-Pa Mark".

27 Weeks

The first picture is Desiree finally actually looking pregnant.

The second picture is our 4D ultrasound from our 27 week appointment.

The third image is of Alexia's feet, also from the 27 week appointment.

At our 27 week appointment Alexia measured a full 2 weeks ahead of the average baby her age. She weighs 2 pounds 11 ounces! She is happy and healthy and moves a lot. Her movements are very strong, even Dr. Ortiz commented on how strong she is. She is currently in breech position, but it is not a problem since she has been head down most of the other time and she still has time and space to move.

21 Weeks and 23 Weeks

The first image shown is our 4D ultrasound from our 23 week appointment.

The second image is of Alexia's bicep, she's already flexing like her daddy. This was taken at our 21 week appointment. The third image is a profile image also from the 21 week appointment!

At our 21 week appointment Alexia actually measured a whopping 1 day smaller than her due date would suggest. She weighed in at 14 ounces.

At the 23 week appointment Alexia was still measuring one day smaller than average for her due date. She weighed 1 pound 4 ounces.

12 Week Appt and 17 Week Appt

First image shown is from our 17 week appointment. The Second image is from our 12 week appointment.

At our 12 week appointment Alexia measured right on track. Her CRL measurement was 5.47 cm.

At the 17 week appointment she was still the average size. She weighed in at 7 ounces!

She was fairly active for both appointments.

Due Date January 23, 2009

As all of you know we are expecting a baby girl on January 23rd of 2009. We are very excited to bring her into the world and are happy to be able to share all of this with our friends and family.

I am in the process of scanning her ultrasound pictures and the pictures of the baby shower onto my computer, so expect a few new blogs by the end of this week.

I will also include information from the appointments that correspond with the ultrasound pictures!

God Bless!

Blake and Alexia's Mommy

Elk Horn IA

To celebrate Mommy's Danish heritage, we go to Elk Horn, IA for a family reunion. Unfortunately mommy couldn't make it this year, so Grandma took me. I had lots of fun looking at the windmills and spending time with family.