Long Time Coming

A good friend of mine has 3 great little girls (of whom Micah is a major fan). She is preggers with #4 and we were all thrilled to find out that it is a BOY! Woo hoo! My mom and I decided to throw her a shower to help her go blue (couldn't have the poor kid running around in pink all the time, now could we?) and it was a lot of fun.... I just wish I had pics of all the cute things at the shower :P Anyhoo, She is doing the nursery in a cowboy theme so I decided to put my sewing skills (such as they are) to use in making her gift. I made a bib~


A lovie blanket~

And a beach/bath robe~

The robe was from a pattern I purchased at MADE. If you like to craft (especially sew) then Dana's blog, MADE, is AWESOME. She gives tons of free tutorials and patterns and some that she sells as well. Anyhoo, I'm really happy with how everything turned out and I can't wait to meet the little buckaroo!

Micah's birthday party is coming up this weekend, so the blog may be a bit sparse this week as I finish up everything for my soon to be 3 yr old. I'm waiting on some pics I took on a borrowed camera so that I can show you my latest bout of craftiness... As soon as I get them,I'll slap them up here!

Happy 4th of July!

Just another easy going photo shoot with the kids this weekend...

Full of sweet smiles...

and classic poses.....

The kids stayed exactly where we wanted them and smiled directly at the camera...

and they certainly did NOT spend the entire time running in circles in the opposite direction from each other...

and in the end....

We ended up with some great shots; posed, not posed and everything in between :)

My Food Baby

I hit 12 weeks in my pregnancy this past Friday and I am relieved that I am starting to get a bit of a baby bump..... It's nice to actually start looking pregnant :) Of course, how pregnant I look depends greatly on the time of day... aka, how much I've eaten. For example, here is Abby in the morning, pre breakfast~


Aw, cute little teeny baby bump. And here is Abby at the end of the day, post all three meals and a couple of snacks~

Besides the change in lighting and the obvious total exhaustion (yes, at 8:30), you'll notice that there is an ever so slight (massive) change in the measurements of my abdomen. Whoa baby :)

I'm Ready To....

~ Look more pregnant and less chubby
~ Fit into my maternity clothes as my regular ones are clearly no longer an option :P
~ Feel a little more normal and a little less 24/7 car sick
~ Have the energy (and stomach) to play with my kids for longer than 5 minutes at a time
~ Stop whining... you're welcome ;-)

Every Little Thing She Does is Magic....

At least that's what Lizzie believes about me :) I'm not sure where she got this idea, but Lizzie has somehow gotten it into her head that when she reaches the bottom of her juice cup, it can be refilled simply by me touching it. She's been doing it for at least 4 weeks now, and it cracks me up. She'll suck that cup dry and bring it directly to me. She puts it in my hand and then leans in and tries to drink more out of it immediately. Sometimes she'll even try it several times in a row until I get up and refill it for real.

I have to say, with the morning sickness and fatigue I have going on right now, I would pay good money to be able to magically refill sippy cups with a single touch :)

A Good Sense of Humor is Key

We had two friends come over for dinner on Sunday night and we had a great time clogging up our arteries with homemade fried chicken with rice and gravy :) It's always interesting to have friends over who don't have kids yet because you can never be quite sure how they're going to handle the craziness. Well, Joey and Jenny were AWESOME. Things that happened throughout dinner~

~ Both J's dutifully pretended to drink out of the tea cup that Micah brought to all of us, over and over and over and over again :)

~ Jenny ate dinner with Lizzie on her lap and happily allowed her to steal rice, brownies, fruit, and entire pieces of chicken directly off of her plate. As a side note, Jenny offered Liz a blueberry (which she really wanted) while she was still chewing a piece of chicken.... we didn't warn her in time, and Lizzie let all of the half chewed chicken fall out of her mouth to make room for the blueberry.... both Joey and Jenny found this to be endlessly funny :)

~ Micah began singing the ABC song at the top of his lungs, stopping after E to start frantically saying "I need to go potty, I NEED TO GO PEE PEE!!!"... The J's loved this as well.

~ Lizzie spent a decent portion of the evening switching between giving Joey the stink eye and flirting with him.

All in all, they seemed to really enjoy all of the craziness of our dinner and show and I have to say that I think they are going to make awesome parents :)

Renovations

Two weeks ago, we had something done that we've been wanting to do for quite awhile..... We got new flooring in our entryway, living room and kitchen. It makes such a difference and I'm really happy with how they turned out!

Confession- I tried to make a cutesy name for this baby until we find out the gender, but all I ever seem to call it is #3. As my mom pointed out, this is fine for this one, but would have been a bit distasteful if we'd have called Liz #2 ;-)

My Sweet Boy

So, the past two days I have felt way more morning sick than I had previously and nothing that was working before seems to alleviate the nausea. Micah is really perceptive, especially for his age, and he kept coming up to me today and saying, "Mom, do you have a boo-boo?". I told him that the baby was making me feel sick. He thought about it for awhile and said, "I need to make you feel better."

He searched the room and went and got me a balloon and brought it back... "Here mom, this will make you feel better!" I smiled and he yelled triumphantly, "You feel better! I did it!!". He then proceeded to run over to the couch and throw himself on me, simultaneously slamming me in the stomach. He could tell I didn't feel good again after that so we repeated the same cycle with a puzzle, a bean bag and anything else that he figured would cheer me up :)

Smock It To Me

I have enjoyed sewing birthday presents for Micah's friends and when one little girl had an art themed party a couple of weeks back, I knew what I wanted to make....


An art smock! I'm not gonna lie, I kind of love it and am planning to make some for Micah and Lizzie so they can channel their inner Picasso without compromising the cleanliness of their clothing :) This project allowed me to do my first ruffle too!

I've decided that ruffles are cute..... and a total pain to create :P

The Week From H-E- Double Hockey Sticks

Let's start with the basic facts~

-We signed a contract the week before this to have some of our flooring redone starting Wednesday of last week.
-Our AC broke on the Friday before last week and we couldn't get a repairman until Tuesday.

-Nate's car died that same Friday. We found out Monday that the repair cost could exceed the value of the car.

So that's how we ended up at my parent's house on Saturday night waiting for our AC to be fixed and then, subsequently, keeping the kids out of the way of the flooring guys. We were there until the next Saturday night and they were AMAZING hosts/helps during a rough week of car shopping and workmen supervising.

The car shopping was.... well, a bit of a nightmare. The car market is insane right now with super high prices on used cars and very limited inventory. After hours of online searching, we thought we had found the car for us and were on our way to purchase before Nate spoke to his mechanic who said, "Why would you do that to yourself?". Apparently maintenance and repairs on that particular car are VERY expensive..... so that was out.

This let down was followed by endless hours of searching, calling dealers and individual owners and being told over and over that the car just sold. But then we found it! We found a car being sold by owner that looked perfect and was the right cost. The owner was a bit slow to set up a meeting, but eventually we test drove the car and put a deposit on it. We agreed to meet to have it inspected and find out why the check engine light had come on. Well, the check engine light ended up NOT being a minor thing and the owner was all of the sudden in a hurry to get the car back and wanted to sell it to someone else who didn't plan on inspecting it first. Fine by us... car gone, deposit returned, back to square one on Saturday at noon.

Man were we tired of looking for cars! We decided to make a trip to a local dealer that had a good selection of cars online in our price range.... and we found our car! We sat down with the salesman and submitted our offer. Well, it turns out that while we were discussing price, someone else was putting a deposit down on the car. They now had until 6pm to show up with financing (this was 3:30 pm....they couldn't afford to pay cash and possibly didn't qualify for in house financing) and if they didn't make the deadline, the car was ours. We went home to sweat it out and came back to the dealership at 6.... they weren't there! But they wanted to contact them first just to make sure. Turns out they were on their way, they had the financing and were just running a half hour behind. BLAH!!!

Anyhoo, we made one last stop at another dealership and found.... the same car! One year newer, a lower trim level, but 35,000 LESS miles. It was a bit more expensive, but it was still a great deal and we're DONE. Ahhhh, deep breath. So I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family....

Isn't he cute? He is SPOTLESS inside and out and has been kept in great condition. I'm so glad to have him (even though it wasn't what we thought we were looking for) and I'm so glad to be done shopping.

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot?

We are! Our AC broke on Friday and its a little warm in our house.... Ok, a lot warm :) We took refuge at my parents' house and within a few hours, their upstairs AC died.... My bad :) I am available for hire if, for some crazy reason, you want your AC busted..... I'll be charging whatever it costs to fix ours ;-)

First Picture

I went in on Tuesday for my first ultrasound for baby #3! It's easy to be used to how things are now, but it really is amazing that I can have a picture and hear the heartbeat of my child who has only existed for 5wks! For those who are curious, I am currently 7 wks 6 days along and the baby is measuring right on track and had a nice, strong heartbeat. I've decided that it looks decidedly froggish in the freeze frame they caught, so I hearby declare this baby to be known as "tadpole" until such a day as it's gender is discovered... so be it :)

Relief!

I've found a methodology that, when I'm actually able to do it, has reduced my morning sickness considerably!

Step 1- Eat every hour and a half to two hours... high protein when possible.

Step 2- Move as little as possible and treat flare ups with mints and lemon drops.

..... I'm going to get really fat :P

Self-Centered... but Cute :)

Me or Nate- "Micah, where is the baby?"

Micah- "In Mama's tummy!"

Us- "That's right! Do you think it's a boy, or a girl?"

Micah- "Ummmm, boy! Like Micah!"

Us- "What should we name it if it's a boy?"

Micah- "Ummm, Micah!!!"

Occasionally he says it's a girl and we should name her Lizzie..... his lack of faith in our ability to come up with new names is a bit insulting :P

Kind of a Big Deal

Surprise!! Due date is January 13th :)

I Could Use One of These....

Anybody have a spare Zillow laying around?

Summer is Here!

Oh wait, did I throw an exclamation point in there? I take it back :P As a child, summer stood for freedom, fun, swimming, camp and NO SCHOOL. Now it stands for crowded stores during the week, teenage drivers 24/7, no bible study, no MOPS and worst of all NO SCHOOL!

I'm not gonna lie, I about cried last week when I picked up Micah from his last day of preschool. I wish I could say it was because I loved his teachers (which I do), or because he was learning so much (which he was), or because he loved it (which he did), but honestly I was most emotional about losing my running-errands-with-only-one-kid day.

Is that so bad? To want to have one day a week when my ability to get something done is dependent on the unpredictable good will of only one child instead of two? This question is rhetorical, of course, because anyone who answers yes either doesn't have children, has perfectly behaved children (this is a myth, by the way), or never had two kids as close in age as mine.... just sayin' :)

So I take this opportunity to say a tearful goodbye to all of the lovely people who made this year of errand running, meeting family for lunch and reprieves from sibling conflict possible. You rock.

15 Month Stats

Lizzie's 15 month check up was last week and chica is one lean, mean, fighting machine!

Weight~ 20lb 7oz, 15th percentile
Height~ 31 inches, 68th percentile
Head Size~ 18.25 inches, 66th percentile

.... "I'm like a walking candy apple!"~ Name that quote!

Baby Steps

Lizzie is many things, but I have to say that average is DEFINITELY not one of them! For several months now I have been anticipating being able to write on here that my baby girl was walking. I mean, we're talking about a girl that went from zero to crawling at 5 1/2 months. I expected her to walk early... but then that ship sailed :) So now for the past 2 months or so she has been taking lots and lots of steps with perfect balance..... but she never got to the point where I'd consider her an official walker.

Well, I'm officially calling it... She's a walker. Well, sorta :) She is capable of being a full time walker, but prefers to practice by herself..... no, seriously. I'm 100% sure this comes from me, but she seems to not want anyone to see her mess up. You'll turn the corner and quietly watch her walk across an entire room, but as soon as she knows you're there, she'll drop down to a crawl. Her pediatrician got a kick out of that.... must be his first ultra-perfectionistic 1 year old :)

Lizzie's Words

Lizzie has never had an issue expressing herself with perfect clarity. Since a very early age she would employ unmistakable non-verbal clues including a perfect version of the look moms give you when you are in serious trouble. Now-a-days though, her favorite past time is busting out with vocab that you had no idea that she had. What gets me is all the phrases she's been putting together...

~ Help me!
~ I see Daddy!
~ I like it!
~ I did it!
~ Thank you!
etc

As for words, she says a lot of them, but it seems to be pretty random and not often repeated over and over again with the exception of her favorite word.... book :)

Mother's Day

Nate and the kiddos did a great job making me feel special with a full breakfast on Sunday (they made eggs, bacon, biscuits AND homemade gravy) and Micah gave me plenty of great cuddles~


Lizzie's gift to me was actually sitting still long enough for me to accomplish something I've been dreaming about... PIGTAILS!!

Lizzie loved them so much she had to scream it to the world. Happy screams, despite how it may appear :)

She doesn't get this from me~

Ok, that was a lie :) How bout some more happy screams?

PIGTAILS!!!

Home Invasion

As in my family invading my parent's home :) Our AC went out TWO WEEKS AGO and through a comedy of errors was not scheduled to be fixed until this morning (although we're not 100% sure that will happen either :P) So I did what any self respecting Texan would do when the air goes out...... I got the heck outta there. It helped that Nate was out of town all last week for a conference too :) So the kids and myself spent a week (and counting ;-) at Camp Grand and it was great! The kids love being around their Memaw and Pa and I love not having to cook every meal. We went to the zoo and just had a blast the whole time. I'm sure a normal person would be itching to get home, but I'm gonna miss it around here!

Not Dead....

.... just out of my norm :) I promise to return next week, but I have to say, it's been really nice to take a few days off!