Finally, she's here!! And finally, I'm posting about it (2 weeks later)!

First of all, I don't know if anyone even reads this anymore. Second of all, if anyone does, you have probably all heard that we welcomed our second beautiful baby girl 2 weeks ago. At 4:39 pm on October 6th, Scarlett Lynne Tripp was finally ready to come on out and meet her family. She is the most mellow baby...she eats and sleeps like a champ (basically the complete opposite of how Pres was as a newborn). Here are some pics:

One of the best moments in my life...so far

So lately God has totally been working in my life through Presley...sounds kinda weird but it's been amazing! Presley will tell me to read my Bible and ask me to read the Bible to her, she will tell me to say prayers, she will just randomly start talking about Jesus--exactly what I need right now. One morning I was reading Psalm 139 (I read that A LOT) and Pres climbed on my lap and told me to read it to her. As I was reading aloud she would repeat everything I said, and when I got to verse 14 and she repeated it after me, my eyes filled with tears. As I heard her say "I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well..." I prayed that she would always keep that as the driving force behind her self image. So, I decided to make it her first ever memory verse...I figured if I am teaching her to commit Bible verses to memory, I will be doing it right alongside her (another way God is using her to encourage me). After just a few days of having her repeat it after me, she got it down! So...here is a video of one of the best moments in my life, my 2 year old reciting a Bible verse from memory. God is so good!

Why do I even have a blog?

So it has been almost 2 months since my last blog post...wow. The funny thing is, it's not like I am too busy to do it (that is not it at all), I am just too lazy I guess. I go to the site, I read all of your blogs, and then I think about posting and I think "Ugh, I don't want to try to be clever and deal with HTML and all that crap." LOL. Plus, so much is happening I don't even really know where to begin. Let's start with baby stuff...5 more weeks until my due date! I am really hoping that this little gal comes 2 weeks early like her big sissy did, but we'll see. :) Oh, and we got a dog! A few weeks ago we got a super cute beagle puppy, his name is Wally (as in Wally the Green Monster...look it up). He is quite a little pest, but he is so cute it almost makes me forget how much he actually craps in my house. Um--what else? We took a trip up to Seattle to visit my sis and her fiance and my most precious nephew, but that was like a month and a half ago (man I suck at blogging). Also, Greg's bro and his girlfriend had their baby so we have a beautiful new niece, but that has also been almost 2 months. So basically I don't have much new to say, apparently this is just a fill in of the last 2 months. We did get some not so great news recently though, my Grandma's cancer seems to be back. It is just a little spot, so they are going to do chemo on it and hopefully it will just zap it into oblivion like it did the last few spots. My Grandma was planning on moving up to Seattle to live with Courtney for awhile, but in light of this new hurdle she is staying here to complete her chemo treatments. But one good thing has come out of this...Courtney and Brian are moving back! I am so excited, they are here visiting right now and I can't stand the thought of not seeing my precious porkchop of a nephew all the time. Well, that is about it I guess. Things are going pretty well for us, we are considering moving when our lease is up, but that is right around baby d-day, so we will probably stay put a few months if our landlord will let us stay on a month to month basis for a few. I am trying not to count the days until I get to meet my little Scarlett, but I totally am. Sigh. Pics!!!

The Next Food Network Star

Cooking has always been one of my favorite things to do (even when I wasn't very good at it)...so I absolutely love that Presley always wants to help in the kitchen. Today me and my grandma (or Mimi as Peewee calls her) were making tortillas and Presley was so fascinated with the rolling pin that she had to help. Check out this amazing video (and notice at the end where she says "I do this ALL DAY")...

Here are a few pics too. She actually did a great job with the rolling pin, I think we may have a future TV chef on our hands...I shouldn't be surprised though, she's been obsessed with Bobby Flay since she was 1. :)

Our quarterly update

I keep saying that I am going to start posting more, but we all know that isn't going to happen, so....sorry. Our biggest news as of late is that we found out that we are having another girl! I am so excited, Presley is going to love having a little sister. We actually found out about 3 weeks ago, I just kept forgetting to post it. So, in about 3 1/2 months (hopefully) we will be welcoming Scarlett Marie Tripp into the world. Presley is so excited, she keeps talking to my belly and looking up at me and saying "She gotta come out of there!" and "I want to see Scarlet!". I think she will be a pretty amazing big sister.

Baby update...

Ok, since there hasn't been any news since we announced that there is a bun in the oven, here's a little update. I am just beginning my 14th week (which means there is a good chance all that wonderful sickness will be gone soon)! We can find out the gender in about a month. Everyone has been telling me I'm having a boy because this pregnancy is SO DIFFERENT than my previous one, but we'll see if there is any truth to that old wives tale in 4 weeks. According to babycenter.com, the little critter is about the size of a lemon right now and can squint, frown, grimace, pee (TMI?), and possibly suck his/her thumb...pretty amazing! The due date as of right now is October 15th, but I won't be counting on that since the only person I know that has had the baby on their due date is my little sis. Pres has been doing great at being a big cousin, so hopefully it is helping her adjust to being around a baby. There will for sure be another blog update when we find out the gender, and I'm sure Greg will put it on his facebook status. 4 weeks and little critter gets a name...yay! :)

Peewee's new 'do

Here are a few pics of Presley's new haircut, and one of her holding her 1 month old baby cousin on Easter!

Easy, breezy, beautiful Covergirl

A few weeks ago we took Presley to get pictures done. Her hair had gotten so long, it was driving her bananas, so I wanted to get pictures before we got her first haircut. She did so great! The photographer had us sign a release because she wanted to be able to use them...who knew Pres was such a little ham? Okay, probably anyone who has ever spent 5 minutes with her. :) Here are a few of the portraits...

Snow day

So we decided to take advantage of the dreaded snow today and let Presley try out her sled. Here are some pics:

Here comes another Tripp...

So the posts have been in short supply around here, mainly because I've been stressing with school, work, life and the fact that we're now expecting our second child! That's right, I'm about six weeks pregnant. We are so excited! I'm having A LOT more woes this time around, morning sickness and the like. I guess I'm spoiled because I didn't get sick but a few times with Pres. Either way, it's totally worth it to have another baby coming. We have been asked if we are hoping for a boy or a girl and we don't really have a preference either way. We'd love to have a boy and have all those new experiences, but for Pres to have a little sis would be great too...there's nothing like the bond that sisters have. We'll find out in about 12 weeks so I guess that means you will too! Oh, and Presley is pretty excited to be a "big mister" (how she says big sister...hilarious!). Stay tuned for more news. :)

So we've been seriously slacking here. I didn't really blog at all over the holidays because, well, I had more important things to do. No offense to our readers (all 3 - 5 of you), but we had a busy holiday season. Also, I do realize that nearly a month has passed since "the holidays," but I have been a little busy with school. It's hard to get back in the groove after not going for 5 years...but I think I'm finally there.

I will, God willing, be going into nursing. Right now I'm working through the prerequisites, and after that I will apply to some different nursing programs. I did find a secret way to bypass the waiting list at SLCC and get my schooling paid for...I just have to become an IHC employee at some point before I apply for the nursing program. I don't think it should be too hard, in fact, I think in Utah it's hard to work in the medical field and not work for IHC.

What's new with Presley you ask? Not much other than she learns about 10 new words everyday and is speaking exclusively in full sentences. She also gets more opinionated everyday, if you can imagine that. I'm worried that she is figuring out how brilliant she is and will soon start plotting our demise.

Greg is busy being a professional nerd (computer programmer to the layperson) and he just fixed a HUGE bug, so he's pretty stoked about that. He does have some schooling left to do, but since he's at a company that is giving him on-the-job training he will probably wait until I'm done with nursing school to finish.

I will post some pictures and videos a little later. I know that I always say that, but I think I actually will this time.

Tiff