Thanksgiving and giving thanks

Here's a belly picture, taken by Aaron. Julie is 17 1/2 weeks here. She's almost 20 weeks now, so it's a little bit old. The belly is continuing to get bigger and since Thanksgiving time, Julie has been able to feel soft kicks and not so soft kicks, more and more often. She's very grateful for them, because they help her feel like everything is okay in there.

For Thanksgiving the small Denney family went up to Kalispell to spend the holiday with the bigger Denney family. All of Aaron's brothers were there, along with Grandmas, nieces and nephews. It was a great visit. Joseph is getting more and more familiar with Aaron's family and misses them more and more whenever we leave.

And in exciting Denney family news, Aaron's brother Tim and his wife Anna are expecting their second baby! Anna is due in June (We're pretty sure). Abram will be about 18 months old when the new arrival comes. We're so happy for them!

In the name of being thankful, Julie came up with a cute game to play with Joseph to help focus on Thanksgiving, and being thankful. We all sat on the floor and rolled a ball between us. Whoever gets the ball says something they're thankful for, then passes it to the next person who says one thing they're thankful for. Joseph just loves this game! We don't think he really understands what it means, but he gets really creative and asks to play it often. In the hope of having a Thanksgiving decoration, Julie adjusted the game. We played it again, and wrote down all of the things we were thankful for. Then we made paper chains and had a great big chain of "Thankful Things" to hang on our wall. It was really fun and we'll definitely play again next year.

Joseph is also learning bits and pieces about Christmas and getting more and more excited for that. We tell him we'll be sharing Christmas with his other Grandma, and other cousins. He understands it a little bit. He is definitely excited. Saturday evening we all decorated the apartment with our Christmas decorations. We only have a small collection, but we like them. We got a small 3 foot artificial tree to hang our ornaments on, with lights and garlands. It looks beautiful! Joseph enjoys the lights too.

We are looking forward to our Christmas holiday in California. Julie is finishing up her class, as promised, to earn this vacation. She finished her last two essays, and now has one day of reading, and then studying for the final exam! Her final is scheduled for December 8th (her mom's birthday). Please remember her on this day and keep your fingers crossed! Passing this test is the last step to being able to apply for graduation. Well, we will try and post again before we leave for California. Our current departure date is December 16th. Oh, and Julie is having her ultrasound on December 15th! So we'll have some exciting news in just two weeks!

p.s. leave your guess in the girl vs. boy war! We'll find out who wins in 2 weeks!

Fun baby updates...

Although Julie has an appointment this coming Monday, she wanted to share some of her baby moments the past month or so, just because they're fun to share.

1. The baby bump is finally showing through the layers of clothes to the outside world! That's always so exciting! Although she's seen the difference for a while now, her friends can officially see the belly bump.

2. Starting last Sunday, Julie has felt the baby move (really move, not butterflies) about 4 times. Last Sunday the baby gave her a nice drop kick while she was talking to a friend about her belly bump. It was quite appropriate.

3. Ever since we started asking Joseph if it is a baby girl or baby boy, he has said baby boy. There has never been prompting one way or the other, and he has always been very consistent that it's a boy. We hope he's right! We would love another little boy in our family.

Well, if we find out any exciting news at the appointment Monday, we'll be sure to share. Joseph will be going with Julie, so it would be exciting if he were able to see the ultrasound and "see" what the baby looks like. Julie has a feeling he is going to love being able to feel the baby hit and kick once it is bigger and moving a bit stronger. We're optimistic that Joseph is going to be a really great big brother. Although he has his moments like any two year old, he is so tender and caring of others. He practices with Olivia (18 months old) all the time. He also practices with his toys and dolls, putting them to bed, getting them dressed and putting them in time out. We really look forward to how he reacts to a real baby. When his best friend's brother was born last November, he was really intrigued by the baby and since then has always liked babies. We thought this might be a good sign. We just hope it stays that way. Anyhow, those are our little updates for now. Once the belly starts getting even bigger, expect pictures. Julie loves the big belly pictures. :)

For Stacie

Joseph's Journey and other news...

Halloween day Joseph decided to go on a little journey. He told Julie "Go Sheila's house" "Back soon". Sheila is Jordan's mom (Joseph's best buddy). He is obsessed about going to their house. Julie wouldn't put on socks or shoes when he asked, hoping it would deter him and he wouldn't try to leave. Nonetheless, without a coat, he dragged a cooler with a truck inside it outside, down the stairs, and all the way to Sheila's house down the street.

Julie had Olivia eating lunch at the time, so she grabbed Olivia, and started following him. For a long while, he didn't know they were following, but continued on his merry way. (Did we mention it was quite cold outside?)

It was when he got quite a long ways away that he finally caught Julie and Olivia following along. He would wave, then continue on his way. He walked all the way to their house (a good couple of minutes walking with Aaron or Julie) and proceeded to knock on their door. He knew that Jordan and his brother were both sleeping and wouldn't be there to play. (He knew this before he left the house) But that didn't seem to bother him. Sheila was pretty confused at first seeing him without me, barefoot and without a coat. However, she quickly realized what was going on when she was Julie in the distance, and Joseph's "suitcase". He carried it the whole way there, despite its size and weight. We have not allowed him to venture out like this again. Julie was so just so amazed that he would do this all on his own that she had to let him go and see how far he would go on his own. He's never walked this stretch by himself. It crosses the entrances to multiple parking lots, where we always make him hold our hands, but he crossed them all by himself. A brave little guy! (Granted, Julie was watching him the entire time to make sure he was safe!)

In other news, Julie and baby are doing great. She is no longer feeling sick at all (for what little she was feeling sick) and is getting her energy back. That is what excites her most. We don't know when we'll find out the sex of the baby, but are excited for it. Her next appointment is in a week and a half, and he might just do the ultrasound then, but he might make her wait two more weeks until she is officially 20 weeks. Some doctors like to play it safe. But either way we'll be happy and excited for it.

Julie is making steady progress on her class. She set up a schedule so she would be done with her lessons and preparing for her final exam by Thanksgiving. So far she's stayed on schedule. She has 5 lessons to go. Please continue to encourage her! She needs all the motivation she can get!

Earlier this month Joseph and Julie went up to Kalispell to visit Aaron's mom on her day off. Diane planned an amazing scavenger hunt for the grandkids. At one point they were at a park that has ducks and geese. Joseph loved this! He often asks to see the pictures of the ducks and when he does see a picture of a duck, he starts to talk about his cousins. It's really cute.

In other interesting Joseph news, about two weeks ago or so, Joseph started climbing out of bed and playing on the floor (at nap times) until he fell asleep on the floor. Joseph's not the type to fall asleep on the floor. It had actually never happened until this picture. It was so cute we couldn't help but take a picture. After that he would do this regularly at nap time. Then he started doing it at bed time. That was a problem. In response to much of the issues surrounding his play til I drop syndrome, we took a side off his crib, and moved it (so he couldn't turn on his light). So he now sleeps in a toddler style bed. Unfortunately, we had no guard rails. He never cried out at night, so we assumed he wasn't falling out of bed. Then we realized that he would just fall or roll out and keep on sleeping. So Aaron jerry-rigged his crib bumper to serve as a small rail to keep him in bed. It seems to be working pretty well. So our big boy is now in a big boy bed. And no more sleeping on the floor!

Congratulations are due!

So much fun news! First of all, October 8th, Julie's sister Heidi had her baby Carly Ryanne. She had a fast labor and delivery and was able to delivery Carly VBAC (she has had 2 c-sections prior to Carly) We're so excited for the sweet addition to their family. Check out her blog (in the list on the right) to see pictures and read her birth story.

More fun news. Julie took her midterm last week for her very last class to finish her bachelor's degree. She hasn't received her grade from the midterm yet, but it'll come soon. She's confident she passed the test. That's all that matters. She's so excited to be done with it. She's already started on the next half of the class. Wish her luck!

The last of our exciting news is:


Julie's about 3 months along now. We're so excited to have this addition to our family. Her due date is April 22nd. Joseph is vaguely aware that Mama has a baby in her tummy and she takes vitamins for the baby. Julie has been very fortunate to not suffer from much morning sickness. Just the constant exhaustion/nausea. But she's just starting to get her energy back and is feeling more ambitious about activities with Joseph and spending nap time doing homework instead of resting. We will keep you updated to her progress and any fun pictures we get. Her first sonogram pictures were really dark and she accidentally left them at the doctor's office anyway. So maybe we'll post some after the next sonogram. And once her belly starts to really show, we'll make sure to post those belly pictures too. Julie loves to see them from others, so she'll share hers.