another boy is on the way...hooray!!!

We're having another boy!!! We are very excited and know that it's going to be wonderful for William to have a little brother. As I shared with some of you in a mass e-mail I sent out, I was a bit surprised to hear that we're having a boy because Blaine and William have been saying for quite some time that we're having a girl...so anyways, it's nice to know finally that I can mentally prepare (as best I can) for what it's going to be like to have 2 boys. We're all very excited and we'll continue to keep you posted on what goes on with us.

The following are some pics. of William's 3rd birthday this past Friday. Enjoy!


ring around the rosies with his friend who came over for his birthday

William loves spiders (mainly from just learning about them in his library books) so I did the best I could with a halloween/spider theme with the cake

okay this is from a week ago on his birhtday..he's totally fine with the candles...

...and this is last year on his 2nd birthday...different story, I'd say!

family picture

one of the toys he got..he calls it his house

looks like he's wearing Mickey Mouse ears here...it just happened to be the angle I took the picture. He loves Mickey Mouse by the way so I'd say mayba a fav. pic. for him.

just a random shot the other day...he was playing on the porch then decided to just sit and watch and be contemplative, I guess. He does this often now...it looks cute from behind!

just enjoying his surroundings...and pondering it looks like.

again...but on his bike

kickin' away!

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to post a little something for the sake of posting something. I feel like the only time I do is when I have a ton of pictures to post and that takes a long time when I do...and I am currently in the middle of having some painful hearburn/indigestion. Typing something gives me an excuse to sit up and try and feel better for a while.
Well, we went to the dr. today for our first appt. with my new ob/gyn. I like her. Everything is looking (sounding) well with the baby. It has a very strong and good heartbeat. So that's always great news...plus the baby is just kicking and moving a lot these days. It's nice to guess if what I have just felt was a hand, elbow, knee, or foot, or something else. The most exciting news about this blog is that we're not going to find out what we're having in a week or two... we're finding out in two days...boy or girl!!! so I will post some exciting news in two days with the long awaiting news! yay!
Things continue to go well in our family. Blaine is busy with school and really loves it and is involved with helping another classmate get a movie going. He is really happy about that. William and I have just been enjoying some lazy days lately. I need lazy days! Soon I will post stuff about William's 3rd birthday which was this past Friday the 2nd of Oct. It was a great birthday, the best, in fact, that he's had so far.
Until Thursday...!

Blessed!!!

William stretching with his pops after Blaine went for a run

loves to stretch

chillin' on the futon

this was William's nursery class at church before we moved

he was having fun with his little cape so as always I had to capture the moment

moving day Aug. 7th 2009

he loved the truck and because we rode behind Blaine the whole way from Richmond to Va Beach, William knows the truck and mentions it to us when he sees another Uhaul truck on the road whereever and gets excited because that's the truck he remembers.

Hi mom

outside our apt. here in VA beach blowing bubbles with daddy

helping daddy put together our tv stand (since the coffee table we had for a long time on which the tv stood broke while in the moving process)

being a very big helper

Blaine discovered this frog (try to find it) outside our apt. one night

A fish fry activity we had going on at church one night got canceled due to the rain and so William had his won kind of fun with the rain and the little lake that formed in front of our apt. He loved getting all wet and Blaine and I just LOVED watching William have such a blast getting soaked through it all. Ahh the joys of parenting!

all soaked!

the little lake and a very wet William

We went to the D.C. temple in Sept. and William just loved and still talks about it and the fountain in front of it and that the temple it white. While Blaine did a session inside first, I was able to get a lot of shots of William. It was a Really beautiful day.

He's so happy to be there. He esp. loved being able to touch the temple.

him and his most talked about fountain in the back right behind him

and he stays put now when getting pictures taken. what a blessing!

these are the flowers around the fountain and I happened to see a butterfly so I thought it would be fun to take a picture. can you find the butterfly?

around the temple

he's so cute!

inside the Visitor's center

look closely at the book he's looking at. it's a book all about tarantulas. He's absolutely fascinated about spiders (he calls them bidoos). He loves how big they are. I personally cringe when we had that book from the library and that was the one he wanted to look at the most. what's a mommy to do? I did learn alot about spiders, though.

same book...just loves it!

one of our favorite things to do when playing with William is playing with his play dough. Remember those temple pictures from above? well, he loves the temple so much that after we got back he wanted to have us make the D.C. temple out of the playdough. this is Blaine's version. Mine looked like a birthday cake with candles on top.

ahhh...I just love pictures with Blaine because they're rare and so when we have a picture taken it's like wow...yay! I am so blessed to me married to this man. He's a huge blessing to me and always has been.

another playdough masterpiece...a Blaine Scott Origional...snowman.

happy little buddy do (we call him that...just a cute little nickname) with the playdough snowman

so precious

a few Sundays ago William started wearing these new church pants since he was starting to outgrow his previous ones, and just with his hair combed and all, I decided to get some shots of him outside before church. The next 11 pictures are of that time before church. He does so well getting pictures taken these days.

watch out GQ!

so cute!

he's such a handsome little chap, isn't he!

chip off the old block!

His smile is so priceless!

Can't get enough of that smile!

I tried making a playdough "Dean" which is the name of his most loved while little bear. I think it came out pretty good.

cool, huh?

He loves his playdough bear

He loves it when Blaine picks him up and then he gets in this position...reminds us of an ice skater being picked up in the air. Great form, huh?

this is William's friend Maddi who lives nearby. He just loves playing with her, and showing off when she's around.

(THIS PART WAS WRITTEN TUESDAY, SEPT. 22ND)

I feel so incredibly blessed!!!
I am in the process of editing like 70 pictures that we've taken since we've moved here to VA Beach and the phone rang. It was a nurse from the OB/GYN office from whence I had just come yesterday to request my medical records from Richmond. I was FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY able to do so yesterday because the "medicaid nightmare" is over and William and I are in medicaid once again. It has taken what feels like FOREVER to get all the right documentation and forms in to the social services and let down after let down has seemed to be the case with me...we would have the right info, but just not on the right form or whatever. I am 20 weeks along with this pregnancy now and I know the baby is fine and communicates to me almost daily that it wants to be a soccer player (moving a lot)...and so that is a blessing in and of itself. But to have medicaid taken care of once and for all and to hear back from a nurse within a 24 hr. time frame is amazing to me...I wasn't expecting my records to get to this new office until maybe the end of this week, but to hear that a doctor will be looking at them soon and I can shortly after that make an appt. to hear the heartbeat and for us to finally find out if it's a boy or girl is just so relieving to me.

Another thing I guess I can go ahead and post is something that I have been realizing extremely clearly since we've moved here Aug. 7th 2009 is how much Heavenly Father clearly takes care of everything that is on my mind or that I am worried or concerned about. I have seen it more than ever (probably because I have had a TON of personal experiences since moving here) that he knows me and hasn't forgotten about me. He answers my prayers in HIS own due time to allow me to have faith in him and to learn to trust him.

EXAMPLE #1 :

Day one here Blaine was following me to the Uhaul place to return our truck and well we got seperated in traffic. I knew where to go but he didn't and I thought that at one point he was behind me but it didn't take long for me to realize that he wasn't! So I just go ahead and wait for him at the uhaul place and I am praying like crazy that he will know to come here since I told him the cross streets but since we're both new here, that wasn't easy to figure out. So after a while I am just praying like crazy that he'll know to go home and we can try this again...Mind you...it was in the middle of rush hr. on a Friday afternoon...lots of traffic. So I am driving home, praying like crazy that he's there (we don't have cell phones so it's a BIT difficult to get a hold of eachother)... so I get home and he was there for like a half hr. My prayer was answered.

EXAMPLE #2 :

I have been really concerned about trying to know the best way of getting William potty trained and no afraid of the potty training toilet he has. We've tried the cool alert pull-ups thinking when he pees or poops that the cold feeling would bother him...not one bit..so finally I thought today to just start with the underwear once and for all and let it bother him when he goes pee or poop and so like three times in a row today he went pee in his underwear and yes of course it bothered him and I asked him if he wanted to sit on his potty and he DID!!! He felt like he was in trouble the second time he peed his underwear but I assured him he wasn't. Then inspiration came!!!!! Reward him with a sticker everytime he just sits on the potty and he can choose which sticker since I have a ton of them and then he can put one on his potty toilet. It's been working. He actually gets excited to sit down even if he doesn't go. That's okay. At least he's not afraid. So hopefully during the upcoming days he'll continue to want to sit on the potty and look forward to his reward of a sticker. Again...my prayer was answered. Inspiration came!!!

(Disclaimer: I wrote this blog two days ago and have yet to post it but to make a

long story short it's going to take some time to get William to not be afraid because after that post he started having major fits with feeling the urge to go and didn't want to and it was just completely crazy yesterday trying to get him to wear just underwear although he would pee like 3 times in 20 minutes, but he's starting to get the urge to go, so that's a start right. It's just going to take some time but I know Heavenly Father will help us and is continuing to help us!)

OTHER EXAMPLES :

I can remember when a lot of my friend's kids, who were born around the time William was born, started to walk, I felt very discouraged because he wasn't walking still. But to make a long story short...for Christmas a few months after he turned 1, we got him a little walker, and then a week later on New Years Day (1 day shy of when he was 15 months) he did it. I made him believe that I would take his hand and we would walk together but then I got an idea right then and there to just let him reach for it and sure enough he stayed up and kept walking...and didn't stop. That was definitely one of THE happiest moments of my life. I had been praying so hard that William would walk soon and he did. He just wasn't ready. We just had to keep helping and encouraging him just like getting potty trained.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE:

Next, since William got tubes put in his ears when he was 18 months due to ear infections, he was a little delayed with speech and it's been so hard for a long time to not compare him with other kids his age and hearing them speak pretty good and I have kept wondering , "Is he ever going to start saying words and not just muffled sounds with his throat?" but sure enough as sure as the sun will come out tomarrow, and always comes out, he is speaking so well these days. He'll be three in a week and of course about half or so of what he says only we can understand and we know what he's saying, but he's progressing beautifully. Heavenly Father again has answered our pleading and heartfelt prayers.

Heavenly Father has never left me comfortless (I say me because I always seem to be the one who stresses about these mentioned things way more than Blaine). I am grateful that through all this of being a parent with Blaine to the most handsome, cute, and precious child we could ever have (of course other really cute, handsome and precious children will come to our family) that I am learning great lessons like PATIENCE, having faith in the Lord's time table, and that no matter how discouraging things get (and they do get mighty discouraging at times) that Heavenly Father is there and understands what we're going through as parents since of course he's the Great Parent of us all. And with all these things that I have desperately desired and wanted for William, me, and Blaine individually and collectively that He wants to bless us too, and wants us to be happy. When I think about my relationship with Him and then think about my relationship with William I think, "Wow, of course He wants the best for me and my family because look at how much I want the best for William and our family." He must really love us because I know how much I love William and Blaine and this child who will soon join our family and then His love just seems almost uncomprehendable!! He is a loving and merciful Father whom I am grateful to know about and that I can pray to Him whenever about whatever!

******NOW FOR THE LASTEST UP-TO-DATE STUFF ABOUT US*******

From the pictures above you can see what we've been up to. I am 20 weeks along with my pregnancy this week and am feeling really good. A little more tired than usual, but the baby is moving a lot more and last night Blaine felt the baby for the second time so that's always something worth sharing. I know as he has mentioned, that it feels more real to him that there's a baby in my tummy and it's not just my tummy getting bigger because I am eating a lot or something...but that we really are going to have another addition to our family!

William has been making it known to us that this precious child in me IS going to be a girl as he says "Hi Baby Sister." BLaine and I just kind of gave eachother a surprised look when we first heard that and then we asked William again if we're having a boy or girl and ALWAYS he says "girl." And he says sister a lot so having mentioned this I really won't be surprised to find out that this little soccer player in me is a little girl. So let's see what else...

oh I am teaching piano lessons to five kids/youth from church. I really enjoy it and since I didn't really take lessons for very long growing up and I just kid of played and taught myself what I know and had exposure with playing for stuff at church, I don't know a lot of what I should know, so it's been a blessing and I am feeling more confident with what I am doing. Those I teach are great and it's just really rewarding.

Blaine loves his classes at Regent University. In case some of you don't know Regent UNiversity is where the 700 Club religious show is filmed. Pat Robertson who is the guy in there lives here like on or just next to the campus. BLaine is in the cinema/television program and will be transfering to the master of fine arts part of the program next fall. He couldn't get certain type of portfolio done in time before school started to get himself in the MFA program which is a terminal degree. So this year he's in the master of Arts (MA) program and will be finishing up what he needs to do to get in the MFA program. And terminal degree means that with the master's degree that's the end, there's no doctorate degree involved. So, hopefully this hasn't confused you.

We're just a lot happier here and he's so excited to just be doing what it is that he's been wanting to do for a long time...just going back to school for film. . We know this is where the Lord wants us. It's nice that we see Blaine a lot more now. That's a blessing!

I am really proud of him and am grateful he has the time he needs for his assignments and schoolwork. We really love the family housing here, too, which is like 1/2 - 3/4 mile away from the school and so Blaine is able and does bike to school. It's nice to have a car available to me should I need to go somewhere. William and I are definitely more "sane" nowadays than what we were living in Richmond. Crazy stuff, but it's all good now. We live around a bunch of really really great people and William just loves riding his little bike everywhere and on the spacious porch outside. That's a blessing that he can go outside and we actually feel pretty safe. Little by little we're trying to get him potty trained. It's a slow process, but he'll get it. He's a tough lil' Scott.

Well this is pretty much what's been going on with us. Just continuing to enjoy Virginia a lot and our surroundings. Trips to the library are a frequent thing we do. William loves his spider and budderfly books along with Thomas the Train. I am grateful he's excited about learning. He can also count to 10. He loves to count and do so many other things! Well, I guess I should post some pictures now, huh? I mean isn't that what people really do when they see a long blog posted?...just look at the pictures! :-) just kidding....but if that's you, it's okay. I like looking at pictures, too!

Wrapping up our days in Richmond...

loves his shades

counting on his fingers or tring to sign a letter of the alphabet.

it was raining at this time and he absolutely loves being outside when it rains and loves playing with his bike. I had to capture the moment before he saw me.

hi mom!

he's getting really excited about his birthday coming up in Oct. and can now coordinate his fingers to show us 1, 2, ,3, 4, and 5 fingers and well, he does the "3" the best because that's how old he'll be and he loves to make it known...and he loves pancakes...I am trying to make different letters that he doesn't really say yet like "c." so hence that...then "o" is just simple to make with pancake batter and "x" I just thought I'd try it out...maybe I should send this picture to Cox Communications and get a discount on the cable we'll be receiving from them. it's worth a try, right?

He's pretty thrilled to eat breakfast.

My little man!

pullin' the wagon of balls

still pullin'

okay, here I had given him an oreo and afterwards he kept licking his lower lip and here's the result if you can tell...it looks to me like he has a bottom go-tee. it was cute.

father-son moment looking over the balcony

the guys hanging out

ahhh! I love taking pictures when it's in the moment and they're not looking!

another "in the moment" picture. I was doing something in the other room and hadn't heard William for a while...I come out to see what he was up to and I found him like this. lying down in the top of our futon. He thinks this is way comfortable. he looks comfortable.

then he saw me, got off the futon and I asked him to get back on for a few more pictures...and he happily did so. what a good sport!

loves that futon!

if he had it his way I'm sure he'd take a nap here. this was all before nap time so he was just relaxed

One of his MOST FAVORITE THINGS TO DO is to blow bubbles. Sometimes he'll have Blaine and I blow big bubbles because he likes how big they can get. I finally got the timing right the other day and managed to get a few pictures of some really big bubbles. Notice the size of his head and the size of the bubble... it was quite impressive!

we get a big kick out of the REALLY big ones!

I think this is one of my favorites because it's just right in front of him and he's looking at the camera.

These missionaries (Elder Dixon and Elder Meier) are William's heros. He totally looks up to them in every way! (and talks about them all the time) One thing they taught him a while back is this little hand thing. Every time we talk about the missionaries or tell William that daddy is out with the missionaries he always gives that same hand gesture they're doing here and makes a sound effect with it. I can't say enough about how much he loves these two missionaries. (disclaimer: my belly looks really distorted or deformed with how close I'm standing to Blaine...I'm really not big yet).

poor William's head got cut off. This was us after a baptism last night. (No deformed-looking belly here just a little pooch.) :-)

on the way home last night after the baptism, a rain storm has just cleared away and this is what what we saw in the sky!!! How beautiful, huh?

on the freeway going home.

Blaine took this one just outside the church building. This is my favorite.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hey everyone,As of today (August 1st, 2009) we have 6 days left before another move. I am feeling like a pro with the whole moving thing. Then add being pregnant and having a 3 year old energy ball...William...and trying to keep sane with no car available and Blaine not being home a lot due to work...but having said all this I'm fine. Really, I just pray a ton and just keep the faith that Heavenly Father will bless me with the strength to get through another move, another pregnancy, and the changes that this all will entail. They're good changes and we look forward to it all. Blaine is really excited (as am I) to be starting school again towards the end of this month. Being a manager at K Mart the rest of his life isn't what he wants to do and we just felt that by him going back to school will help better our situation and with p/t work with that I'm hoping I'll see him more than I have these past 15 months. But we are also excited to know that in the family housing we'll be living in for the next 3 years that there are members that live there, too.

But before I go, here's a little update of the lastest happenings:**As of this upcoming Monday (the 3rd) I will be done with my first trimester...YAY!!! and waiting for when this nausea will go away. :-(** William is saying so much more these days and repeats a lot of what we say. He's learning his colors and every car that goes by he tells us what color it is, and just about anything he sees he tells us the color. He can count to three. He is very enthusiastic about the alphabet and can say like 23 or so letters of the alphabet. He's really coming a long way and we are sooooo very proud of him! He's definitely growing up to be a very handsome and smart little chap!

** Blaine and I are coming up on our 5th year wedding anniversary on the 13th of this month. My how the time flies!!! It's been a great 5 years!

I guess now is as good a time as any to post some pictures of the latest randomness of our family before I get super busy with the rest of the packing and no computer for a little while.

See you later!
The "Great" Scotts!

a new addition is coming!

I'm pregnant! about 10 weeks along. The due date is Feb 8th. We finally had our first appointment on Monday (this past Monday) and had an ultrasound .. It was nice to finally see proof of why I have been feeling crummy for a while. The baby has cute little arms and legs. that was cute to see. It's about the size of a grape right now, maybe a little bigger I think. We are excited that William will have a little brother or sister and he even seemed excited, too, to see the little baby during the ultrasound. We'll know the gender around the end of Sept. or shortly afterwards. we'll keep up posted.

Summer stuff

Hi everyone,
Here are pictures that we've taken during the past month or so. some are of my 28th birthday, some are of when William burned his arm while I was making pancakes and I just wanted to take a few pictures of him with his bandages. He thought that was way cool to have his arm bandaged up. He also went to his first birthday party today at the nearby fire station so despite him being scared about those big fire trucks that the kids got to go in, I managed to get some pictures of him there. He also went to story time at the library the other day and came home with a pig nose on his nose. He absolutely loved it! All these pictures are also on facebook so in case you don't use facebook, here they are again. we hope you're all doing well!
Love,
Rachel

loves his "future missionary" tag

eating out at Wendy's on my birthday

Stuff

Hi everyone,
These pictures were taken almost a month ago and I am just now posting them.
This is the park within our apt. complex. William esp. loves the slide. We found this bird nearby in the shade and didn't want to take any chances getting any disease by touching it because it looked hurt. It looked as if it couldn't fly away. so I took advantage of the moment and got a few pictures of it. William liked being able to get close to it.