We planned a family beach vacation this year as a Christmas gift to my mom and Kevin’s parents (and to us!). We took the week before Memorial Day and went down to the Gulf for a full week of beach adventure and fun.

Ember had a blast and so did everyone else. Waking up every morning to a condo full of grandparents was so much fun – she would wake up and ask for everyone by name each day. “Gigi? Mamaw? Granddaddy?” and then rush off to find everyone.

She enjoyed the beach little by little but loved the pool each day. She got more and more confident and by the end was happily blowing bubbles in the pool and kicking her feet behind her. She even walked in the ocean and played with some seaweed.

Being 6 months pregnant at the beach was still fun but I was definitely appreciative of so many helping hands with our whole team there.

Having a crew there meant everyone was able to take some time to themselves as needed (and have some one on one time with Ember too).

We all trekked to the local zoo and albeit a few meltdowns, Ember very much enjoyed the petting zoo and getting to feed the animals “treats.”

We headed home tired (and I was sick) but persevered through the long weekend and did a 3 day potty training holiday! Ember is now in her second full week of potty training and doing great. We are doing lots of laundry, of course, but are very proud of how well she’s doing.

She even helped me work with the new Ergo we have for when Zora gets here!

Kevin and I were able to attend a few nights of Riverbend this year (Gigi stayed with Ember and on our off nights she went in our spot!) and are making an effort to have time together before the REAL excitement begins of having a newborn at the house with a toddler!

In Zora news, she is now about 14 inches long and apparently weighs almost 2lbs! All has gone well at our doctor’s appointments with everything measuring just right for 24 weeks when we went on Monday. She’s doing a lot of dancing around and Kevin has been able to feel her a few times as she shuffles. Tonight I watched my stomach move on it’s own (well, obviously she’s the one moving) which was interesting to see. Ember’s movements were always sneaky and I’m not sure ANYONE ever felt her but me due to the anterior placement of her placenta.

People ask us if we’re excited about Zora and of course we are but I like to say we’re too smart to be excited because we know how wild and crazy it will be.

Her room is almost all set up – still waiting on crib to be delivered but knowing what I know about babies she probably won’t be in it for quite a while! Still, having the whole place ready will make me feel better the sooner it happens.

We both keep saying “in 3 months we are going to have a tiny baby” and looking at each other with shock and confusion. Time flies. It’s the best thing in the whole world to be a mom and I simply can’t wait to have another tiny person to share this amazing life and family with. Zora, you are coming into a very happy place.

We saw Macklemore at Riverbend this weekend and his song Glorious is one of my favorites. It describes entirely how I feel about being a mom and this time in my life right now:

“I feel glorious, glorious
Got a chance to start again
I was born for this, born for this
It’s who I am, how could I forget?
I made it through the darkest part of the night
And now I see the sunrise
Now I feel glorious, glorious
I feel glorious, glorious“