Fall Arthritis Walk at Idlewild

On Saturday, we took a trip to Idlewild Park for the Fall 2010 Arthritis Walk. In true Boyle fashion, we got there late, but still brought up the rear for the walk! We had a lot of fun meeting other families and Imogen loved playing with the other kids, going down the slide and riding rides. It was a day all for her!

Here she is with Daddy at the top of the slide. After carrying her up once, I just couldn't do it anymore and became the designated 'catcher' at the bottom.

Eating a breakfast of champions: Eat'n Park Cookie! She REALLY loved attempted to eat the sprinkles (aka candy corn) off the top of the cookie, but gave up before ever really getting a piece in her mouth. But she did have a great time trying!

We got in the park right when it opened, so she was able to ride practically every ride with never waiting in line -- which was fab! She particularly loved the bikes...

But she also got to ride a REAL horsie! Albeit, just a pony, it was her first experience and we've been talking about letting her ride a real one since we got back from the beach in August. The workers circle twice around a stable with the kids. At first, she was nervous and kept saying "All Done!" but then daddy told her 'no' and to keep her hands on the saddle. She did and ended up loving it. The smile on her face while walking towards me was literally priceless. She looks so grown up!

After the horsie ride, we spotted a white, fuzzy caterpillar inching along on the ground. She was desperate to touch it and kept pointing! You can see it in the photo; it's the little white spot in the shade.

Lastly, here is one of the fountains they had with purple water to celebrate the first weekend of Halloboo! We thought it was really cool how colored they could turn the water! I tried to get Imogen to sit on the side of it, but she wasn't interested.

Overall, it was a great time! Our first trip to Idlewild and we'll definitely be back :)

More Belly Shots!

24 weeks

26 weeks

27 weeks 6 days

I really can't believe that I'm already in my 3rd trimester! This pregnancy has flown by! But I guess that's what happens when you have a busy toddler running around at home to take care of and a really busy job that takes your mind off of baby stuff for most of the day.

I recently started to feel the baby have hiccups, which I love. It's so cute to imagine him/her inside hiccupping! Especially for a second child when you've already had one and really can see the baby in your imagination. I remember being pregnant with Imogen and knowing there was a baby in my belly, but until I actually SAW her on the day of delivery, I couldn't believe it was reality. Maybe I'm describing my feelings wrong...but anyway, now that I've had her, being pregnant this time around is much easier to imagine a tiny baby in there with its little jerky movements and....its hiccups <3

Today was my 28 week midwife appointment. Everything is going well so far. My blood pressure is still down in the normal range, which makes me the happiest. Baby's heartbeat was in the 150's to 160's range...and my belly was still measuring 2-weeks bigger than it should be, which is apparently the norm with me now. I only gained 3 pounds again this month! However, the recent gestational diabetes test I took came back in a normal, yet in-between range. The midwife just suggested that I watch the amount of carbs I eat for the remainder of the pregnacy. How on earth do you tell an Italian girl who is surrounded by pasta, pizza and ice-cream that she has to count her carbs????? I know they are just being precautious, but we are coming up on the holidays and I wonder how this is all going to go.

Enough for now....off to have some cheese or eggs or carrots...or something.

Belly Shots

It is definitely no secret that I haven't been as good taking belly pictures of this pregnancy as much as I was with Imogen....but I promised some shots, so here are the ones I have so far:

17 weeks 5 days18 weeks 6 days

20 weeks 1 day

21 weeks 2 days

Today I'm 24 weeks (yay!) so I'll get a picture later and post it up!

A Look Back at July

July was another busy month for us. Here are some of the fun things we did:

We went to our friend's wedding, Erin & Mike, on a beautiful golf course. It was the perfect day and the perfect setting for such an occasion. Thank goodness we were in the back during the ceremony because half way through I hear a whisper in my ear from Imogen -- "potty!" which I have never ignored and didn't want to at that moment especially since we didn't bring a spare dress! So, we were able to sneak out, get to the potty and back to the ceremony before the 'i do's'

We also celebrated Nana's 80th Birthday with a surprise party! Family from all over the country traveled to town for the occasion and it was a fun time for all. The best thing about it was that Nana was truly surprised and enjoyed celebrating with her entire family.

Imogen had fun riding the swing on the deck that Poppa built just for that.

She was exhausted by late day since she had had no nap, so fell asleep right in Poppa's arms.

After she woke up, she played with Uncle Ricky and he snuck her some of her favorite snack: sandwich crackers!

The next day we celebrated our little cousin's first birthday - Happy Birthday Nicholas! Imogen got to spend lots of time with both her cousins (Luke and Nicholas) that she doesn't get to see very often. It was both funny and interesting to see just how different 2-year-old girls and 2-year-old boys are.

Yes, she is eating only sprinkles -- the girl loves gelato and sprinkles, just not mixed together!

We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone! Hope you had a nice July too....it seems so long ago now, doesn't it? :)

Baby #2 is on the way!

I'm thinking that most people know now, but in case you don't, Baby Boyle #2 is on the way! We are so excited to be expecting our little surprise at the end of December. That's right, a holiday baby! And we aren't finding out the gender this time, which I am very happy about!

So, let me do the math for you and tell you that I'm 19 weeks 3 days today. I had a midwife appointment this morning followed up by our anatomy ultrasound. The midwife appointment went really well. For those who remember from last time, I developed high blood pressure at the end and I'm really making an effort to NOT have a repeat occurance of that. My blood pressure has been normal so far, so that's good. Baby's heartbeat today was 148, which is definitely going to throw my mom off in terms of guessing whether this baby is a boy or girl. It has previously always been around 160...and Imogen's was always in the 160s. Last but not least, my uterus is measuring at 22cm, which equates to 22 weeks, so that's a little ahead right now. I remember always measuring 1-2 weeks ahead with Imogen as well, so I think it's just because I'm short that it doesn't have anywhere to go except out.

The ultrasound went really well too! Our tech was so nice and explained what she was doing the entire time. She said the heartbeat was 145 bpm, which matches what the midwife had just heard on the doppler. She said the baby looks perfect: 10 fingers, 10 toes, heart in the right place, stomach in the right place, cord looks good, good amniotic fluid, etc etc. We are so happy and excited and relieved to know that things are going well in there.

And something interesting to me is that baby is already head down. I have been feeling so many movements down low that I thought FOR SURE that baby's feet were kicking me. Nope, he/she just has strong arms apparently.

How is Imogen reacting to all of this? Well, we tell her all the time about the new baby and the baby in mommy's belly, but I don't think she grasps it yet. She is so loving to her babies and stuffed animals though, so I'm hopeful that she will be more of a helper than the jealous type.

I definitely haven't been as good taking belly shots as I was last time. I will get one on Monday when I'm 20 weeks to share!

Incredibly Busy Weekends...

Just as the title leads you to believe, we've had some incredibly busy weekends lately. At least the last four have been packed with activities Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. It's been tiring, but after this holiday weekend, I think we are quiet for awhile, so that will be nice. However, even though all the time away from home makes us all very tired, we've enjoyed being outside with all the nice weather and spending time with friends and family -- here is a brief synopsis...with pictures, of course!

We participated in Armstong County's Relay for Life back in mid-June. We pushed Imogen in a stroller most of the way while we walked, but she did walk an entire lap by herself! While we were resting in our team's tent, Imogen enjoyed kicking around a ball -- she is very good at dribbling!

Also that weekend we drove up to Moraine State Park for our cousin's birthday party. It was a beautiful day! They have a small beach area and it would have been perfect for swimming if the sand would have been a little less rocky and the water a little less frigid. Nevertheless, after a few steps into the water with Daddy and Pop Pop, Imogen decided it was not for her and spent the majority of the rest of the day on a swing.

The next weekend we had a wonderful visit with our friends, Mike & Alysia, and their beauiful little girl, Talia. Imogen had tons of fun playing with her and in the picture below, was enjoying telling Mike a very interesting story...what was that story again, Mike?

Later that same day we went to a birthday party for my girlfriend's two daughters, one was turning 4 and the other turning 6. Because it was for two girls, there were TONS of kids there and Imogen loved playing with them all. However, she was one of the youngest and all the other children were trying to decifer what she was saying a lot of the time since she is a chatterbox, but still mostly talks in her own language. It was so fun to watch her interact with them since she doesn't have the opportunity to be around a lot of kids now. She is definitely very social! It was another beautiful day, so they had some baby pools set up and Imogen loved splashing around.

The next day was Father's day and we headed up to Kittanning to spend the day with family and friends at a picnic. It was yet again a beautiful day so we spent most of it outside and Imogen got to play with more kiddos in another pool. She just loves to be in the water! In the evening, we hung out on my parents new addition to their deck

All the activities of that weekend had the entire family feeling under the weather during the next week. Imogen got better first though, so we were happy she didn't get too sick.

By Friday, Imogen and I were well enough to go to Kennywood. My work has an annual picnic there in June each year, and Imogen LOVES riding rides, so I really wanted to take her. Of course, she loved every second and pouted when each ride started to slow down at the end. I would keep promising her that we would go on another and that would calm her down.

For everyone who made it this far, Congrats!, and that is the end of the June activities. I hope you enjoyed all of the pictures! Happy Fourth of July weekend!