It's a.............

On Christmas morning Brian and I had a very important gift to open. Our OB doctor had written down the sex of Baby Helton in a envelope for us to open together. Brian's parents were in town and we had my family on webcam when we opened the envelope. And it read......IT'S A BOY!! Dr. Nipper had written a nice little note to go along with a picture confirming he is all boy! Brian and I are so excited!! Jack has brought so much joy into our lives that we can't wait to share that with another son. Little boys are awesome! We are truly blessed!!

Getting ready to open the envelope.


He is definitely all BOY!!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Brian's parents drove down from Kentucky to spend it with us. It was wonderful seeing them, and Jack had a blast with them. Jack did very well opening up his presents. It took a little bit of time since he wanted to play with whatever he opened instead of moving on to the next gift. He definitely has plenty of toys to keep him busy for awhile.

To see all our Christmas photos click on the following link:
Christmas 2008

OB Appointment

Today I had my OB appointment. I am currently 22 weeks and still feeling good. As many of you may remember Baby H was not very cooperative during the last ultrasound so we tried again today. It was a great appointment. Usually the exam room is packed with me, Brian, Jack, a tech, my doc and a med student since my doctor is a preceptor for the Family Medicine program. Well today Brian was flying, Jack was at daycare and there was no tech or student. The clinic just got a new ultrasound machine so the doctor was eager to play around with it. So he spent a good 45 minutes or so just looking around and showing me things. The baby is still completely breech (which explains why I am being kicked VERY low), so it still made it very hard to see if it is a boy or girl. But Dr. Nipper was very persistent and was able to see what he needed to see. Since we want this to be a Christmas surprise I looked away just to be sure I didn't see anything I didn't want to. Not that I really know what I am looking at, but with Jack it was very obvious from the very first appointment. So when we were done I handed the doctor a card and an envelope and he went into his office and wrote down what the sex is. He also put an ultrasound picture in there to confirm the results, which makes me think BOY! When he handed me back the envelope the first thing I noticed was he sealed the envelope, no chance for snooping! I made a comment about it and he said "it's not that I don't trust you, but I don't trust you". :) Smart man! So the envelope is now sitting on our tree waiting to be opened on Thursday. Luckily I will be very busy the next few days so I should be able to hold off! We can't wait. Attached is a picture of our little butter bean sucking his or her thumb.

Beach Pictures

Here are some pictures that were taken last week on Navarre Beach. It was a VERY windy day so I didn't expect many of them to turn out. We were very happy with the results and these are some of our favorites.

Operation Sit on Santa's Lap: FAILED

Well the day finally came. It was time to try and attempt to have Jack sit on Santa's lap. We have gone to the mall several times to ride the carousel and train, and every time I would point out Santa and make a big deal about him. Jack did not do well with the Easter Bunny this year and is scared of any kind of talking character, such as Tickle Me Elmo, so I knew it probably wouldn't happen. With Christmas quickly approaching I knew our days to attempt were almost gone. So today we talked up Santa all day long before we headed out to see him. And before we got to the mall and you asked Jack "do you want to go see Santa", he gave you a very emphatic "YES!". Well that attitude lasted until Santa walked up to us to say hello. Poor Jack starting crying and he wouldn't take his head out of my arm. I was going to be the mean mommy and take a picture of him anyway in his lap, tears and all, but overprotective daddy stepped in and wouldn't let me do it. Something about traumatizing him for life. Well when we walked away picture less we asked him if he wanted to ride the Choo Choo train instead. Of course we got a huge smile and the tears disappeared. So we did get a couple pictures of him on the train. Oh well, we will try again next year. We may even head to the mall this week, minus daddy, and try again. Kidding!



Earlier in the week Jack and I headed over to our local zoo to see their Zoo Lights display. Even though most the animals were not out and were sleeping, Jack enjoyed seeing all the lights.


Jack's favorite light display Santa in the "hedi-coter"


Jack clapping for the jazz band playing Christmas carols and trying to catch some of the "snow" bubbles.

Children's Christmas Party

This past Sunday Brian's squadron held a Christmas party for the kiddos. Jack had a great time doing crafts, eating cookies and playing with the other kids. The coolest part of the day was watching Santa being taxied into the party on Brian's plane. Brian was the one who actually got to bring him in so that was even cooler. Up to this point I am not sure I had ever seen Brian actually flying a plane :)


This is Jack decorating his own Christmas cookie. From the looks on his face I think he likes it!


Jack discovered he was within arms reach of the snack table. Can you tell he doesn't get candy very often. He didn't realize you take the wrapper off the candy cane first :)


After all that sugar nothing left to do but run it off!

Here is Santa handing out gifts to everyone. Jack actually went up to Santa long enough to get his present but after that he was done with him. I am determined to get this kid in Santa's lap before the season is over.

After Daddy parked Santa's "sleigh", Jack was peeking out the hangar doors to see if he could see anymore planes.

Half Way There

Last week was my 20th week and I am feeling really good. The baby is starting to move around quite a bit, especially at night when I am trying to sleep! As you can see from the picture the belly is starting to pop out too. My nesting urges have been in overdrive for the past month or so. I literally cleaned out every room in the house, including the garage and attic and got rid of a ton of stuff. There was so much I even had a garage sale, which I swore I would never do again. I have the new babies room almost cleaned out. I think my Mom and sister are going to come out for a girls weekend in a couple months to help me decorate. I am really looking forward to that!

Christmas Parade

Today we took Jack to see our city's Christmas parade. Navarre being the huge metropolis it is, the parade lasted a total of probably 15 minutes. We were right at the beginning of the parade route so Jack got tons of candy. The people throwing had not perfected there aim yet so many times we were actually being pelted by the candy. Jack had a good time with his buddies Seth and Kennedy and he also got to see dogs, horses and fire trucks so he was a happy camper!

Potty Time

I have to share our exciting news. Jack went pee pee on the potty tonight for the first time. I bought the potty for him this past Friday while I was waiting in line FOREVER at Toys 'R Us. We figured it would be awhile before he starts to actually use it but I wanted to go ahead and have it around so he could get used to seeing it. Well, for the first few days all he wanted to do was stick his foot in the hole and stand in it. But as we have been getting him ready for his bath we have sat him on it. Now he loves sitting on it, he actually cries for it at bath time. Tonight I was getting the water ready and as he was on the potty I heard the magical sound. I was so excited, and he was so proud of himself! I am sure it was just a fluke since he will pee on anything if he is naked long enough, but I don't care I will take it. He is such a big boy!!