Natalie's Blog

411 on Sleep (journaling in depth)

2012-01-25T22:22:00.001-06:00

(If you want the short story: I am ready for Lola to be able to sleep in her own bed, Lola and I are working hard to make this happen and keep everyone happy and as sane as possible. We are doing a good job. Have high hopes everything will be where it needs to be by the time baby arrives.)

Note to self: If you get tempted to co-sleep with this next sweet baby, then read this.

With 10 weeks left of my pregnancy I know that the time is now to help Lola learn to finally sleep by herself. Oh boy, was I scared to start this process but more than scared, really ready actually. I know- it’s hard to believe after almost 3 years I would be ready to have my bed back and my space while I sleep. (no co-sleeping in the future with anymore babies. ever. sorry kids. it’s for your own good.) I was pretty stern with Clay and Lola about the seriousness of coming up with a realistic game plan and sticking to it. I have learned after 2.5 years that consistency is key. I know everyone says that, but it’s true. They both knew I meant business. I ordered a book, which I am currently reading, that is a no-cry sleep solution book for toddlers and preschoolers- not babies. Hooray! (For those that will, go ahead and make fun of me—but I highly recommend the book.) I have enjoyed it and it’s a great guide and encouragement that I am not alone and Lola is not unusual. It has helped me stay consistent and cope. (Laughing)

So first step to better sleep for everyone was preparing Lola… for like a month. Every day we talked about how mommy needs to sleep in bed with daddy and Lola needs to sleep in her bed and the baby will sleep in his/her bed. Everyone in their own room. We talked about how Caillou sleeps in his big boy bed and every time we read a book or saw a cartoon where a child was being tucked in and then left to fall asleep how that was a good thing and everyone was happy. So a month went by and by the end of the month, she knew her time was coming. It was actually very helpful.

Next line of business was Lola and I off to shop- at the mattress store. So, Clay and I have a Tempurpedic mattress and I LOVE it and Lola has slept on it since she was 3 days old. Seriously. So why would she feel comfortable on her mattress which is soft and lumpy when she has slept on our firm mattress all her life. She knew immediately when she was in her bed versus ours. So we went to look and she laid on several and we made a big, FUN deal out of picking her out the perfect mattress. She really, really loved this for some reason. So we picked one that was like ours and with Daddy’s permission took the expensive gamble that it would help. I was convinced it would make a difference. No one could talk me down from it. I think Clay knew that. Haha- he might have thought it didn’t matter… but now we both have realized it does seem to make a good amount of difference. Fabulous news. Investment is paying off. Funny story about the mattress shopping- when we got in the car I told Lola they would deliver her mattress on Saturday and how fun it would be. We would fix pancakes and clean her room and get ready for her new bed… she was so excited and couldn’t wait… but then got a real worried look and asked “But momma, will you get sheets for me?” Hahaha! You know how the mattresses at the store have no sheets! I guess she was worried she wouldn’t at home either! Love my smarty pants girl.

[Picture to right is Pajama Day at school last week.]

So once we got the new mattress, her old mattress went on the floor where I would be/am sleeping on during the night. So we tuck her in at 7 p.m. with the same routine that has worked for awhile with her. Either Clay or I do it. She eats dinner, gets a bath, brushes teeth, goes potty and kisses the parent not tucking her in goodnight and goes off to bed happily. She quickly helps clean her room or picks out a book while one of us picks up her room. Only a lamp is on. We turn on Jesus Love Me real low, sit on her bed and read a short book, then kisses, light off and sit there until she falls asleep, which normally isn’t long, um 5-20 minutes. Clay sings to her, but I try and be real quiet and just put my hand on her back. I never lay down with her. I try to make my presence as minimal as possible so she doesn’t wake up wanting me. She has been doing this for a long time now and it isn’t a problem. She sleeps good until 10 p.m. on a bad night and 12 a.m. on a good night. Then she wakes up and basically in her sleep, wonders straight to our room and straight to me. At that point, she only wants me. If she finds me and lays down with me, she’s right back out every time. If not, she’s up and really upset. So how was I suppose to feel optimistic that this could go well?? I just decided that I was more stubborn than she was and I would win… haha- at the same time help her feel safe, loved, confident, etc…

I knew that the old mattress on the floor would help me stick to my guns and not lay down with her during the middle of the night because I could be comfortable but by her all night. So the mattress proved to be paying off because she has been waking up typically later, around 1 a.m. At first she cried a little and would tell me she really wanted to go to my bed with me and I just kept using the word “practice” i.e. “We are practicing sleeping in here now. Shhh… go back to sleep. I am right here.” And I would sit on the floor and rub her back. Then when she was back asleep I would sleep on the floor mattress until she woke up again and repeat. It really helps sleeping on the floor in there. I am much more consistent this away. This is still going on and it is true that we tend to take 2 steps forward, 1 step back- but overall… a great progress. She knows now that I am not getting in her bed and there’s no reason to ask and she seems to be sleeping better in general. A couple of nights I have been able to sleep in my room until the early morning hours or in her room, but undisturbed because she slept through the night a lot better, waking maybe twice. Now I am trying not to even get off the mattress and just say “I am right here Lola. Go back to sleep.” That does work at times. A couple of times she has woken up in the middle of the night and stayed up for a couple hours straight because she couldn’t fall back asleep without me laying with her but I didn’t give in. She was actually still happy because I was laying in her room or sitting next to her bed rubbing her back. Those nights are the worst and make for a moody day, but I get it. I am actually breaking her habit of sleeping with me and mine of sleeping with her.

I think I will keep the floor mattress in her room a bit longer so I don’t get tempted or tired and give in and just lay down with her. Once it goes out of her room, it will get moved to the twin bed that is in the nursery. A point I liked in the book I am reading is to really give something time to work out and new habits to develop. So since we all are doing well, despite it taking a legit effort every night, it is worth the time. I can actually imagine myself being able to sleep in my own bed all night now and look forward to it… oh- I am about to have a newborn you say? Oh yes. Okay- who am I kidding? It will be years before I get good night sleep in my own bed.

So Lola has been sick this week which I thought would be a complete killer for our sleep progress, but hasn’t been too bad despite a terrible cough at night and a lot of wheezing. (Breathing treatments were prescribed and have helped) Only one night did I lay with her- actually sat up in her bed and let her lay on my belly so she could be propped up which helped her cough settle down. It didn’t set us back though because the next night she slept from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. without waking me. The best yet. Then at 7 a.m. we snuggled. We snuggle a lot in the morning and talk about how big she is and she tells me “I’m a pro!” Then she wants to know if the baby is up and puts her hands and face on my big ol’ belly. Isn’t that adorable and makes the nights worth the struggle?!

While I was writing all of this Lola comes full speed out of her room (her eyes may have been closed) and runs into the den and is saying “mommy, mommy” but runs to Clay. So I was telling her that I was right here and she runs to my arms, I pick her up and she holds on and as fast as she can runs her hands through my hair (my hair IS her security blanket- anytime she is tired or upset or hasn’t seen me in a few hours she wants to hold my hair) and then I lay her back in bed and cover her up. She gets comfy and is right back asleep. Never ask to go to my bed or for me to even stay in there. I think her prescriptions and breathing treatments have her a little jumpy making sense of tonight’s scene, but at least I can tuck her back in and come right back out. It’s some serious progress. I used to know that meant I HAD to go to bed too and would always sadly tell Clay goodnight since our nights were cut short. Not anymore baby!

I am seriously proud of her. I know I get frustrated, but I do for some reason I typically have loads of patience at night and think I really prepared her and myself well for this new and big transition. It is so good for her. I just need to get comfortable with the idea that she is okay and I will hear her and allow myself to go into a deep sleep in my own bed. I don’t do that well yet because in my head I keep thinking any moment she will be waking up and I will have to go in there. That’s the worst part.

In the next week or so I really hope to have the mattress off her floor, in the nursery and sleeping in my bed through the night with only getting up a couple times a night. That’s the goal.

Guess I felt I needed to journal all this out of my system. Sorry- if anyone actually read it.

Nursery pictures are coming soon- I really think so. Been busy painting, re-painting, sewing, and organizing. 10 weeks to go. Can’t wait.

Christmas Post- better late than never, ay?

2012-01-16T21:46:00.001-06:00

My Christmas post has been a nightmare, but our Christmas experience was quite the opposite. My sweet husband surprised me with a new computer which meant I didn’t need to research, feel guilty for replacing my one worthy of the trash can, or set it up. Completely done. Ah so nice. But with that meant switching over thousands and thousands of photos, videos, documents, music, etc… since my external hard drive isn’t my friend most days, I did it with a flash drive. Not fun. And before I switched everything over, I went through every photo and video to delete what I didn’t want to transfer over. I was in the perfect mood to delete 90 of a 100 same photos of Lola sitting in her high chair at 5 months old. What was I thinking? I was surely in love- but vow to not do that with the next baby. Lol- to give you an idea- I deleted 15,000 photos. Embarrassing to admit. And I have no idea how many are still left, but seriously tons. But now I am all up and running on my new computer! And loving it!

So the other day, I had my gestational diabetes test done and drank the sweet, but unpleasant drink and was sitting on my new computer blogging about Christmas when about half an hour into waiting to get my blood drawn- I went all loopy: slurred speech, blurred vision, hot, etc… two ladies basically carried me to the back to a bed and when I recovered, got home- go to finish my blog post, which was almost done, it was no where to be found. Dang. Now I am redoing it all. I guess I can’t skip my Christmas post! It was wonderful this year and it was Lola’s last year as the only child- So here I go again…

First, Lola was great! She took it all in and really enjoyed it. Santa was very intriguing to her and despite no Santa picture (I didn’t push it) she still believed. She knew he was coming on Christmas Eve, but wanted us to reassure her that she wouldn’t see him. Haha- Christmas morning she woke up and yelled “We need to run to the den!” She remembered Santa should have left out presents! How cute is that!?

Christmas Eve-Eve or Christmas Adam as Clay refers to it we spent the day with Gram and Popper. It’s our tradition and works wonderfully. No other commitments that day and was quite relaxing. Lola enjoyed every bit of it too. She did wonderful with opening gifts- she would open one and play with it for awhile then open another… worked great and was fun to see her enjoy each gift as she went. I always like to do the same thing too! Clay and I got quite spoiled too and I was excited to get a bunch of fun new sewing toys, although Lola thought a few of them were really hers! :)

One of my favs is the car seat Lola got for her dolls along with pajama set for Sid and May- her AG twin babies. She loves changing their outfits for day and night. I think she will love this car seat even more when she sees me toting one around all the time… now she can match momma! She is seriously the cutest little momma… I have to say, I think we are two peas in a pod.

So Lola opens our family gift and immediately LOVED it… not for sure why it grabbed her so, but she made Clay and I get dressed along with her in our matching pajamas. We had a great laugh and took a family picture. Maybe our only family picture this Christmas… We look so silly. But I think it goes down as a classic. Next year, Clay and I are buying his parents matching pajamas ;) Oh and I am in Clay’s shirt and he is in mine… had a bump in the way and my pants aren’t pulled up. Haha-

After awhile, Lola spotted her cute stocking and had to open it… just like her momma… which meant I got to open mine too! She is still wearing her pajamas and added a hat Debbie has had since she was born.

Lola got some cool sewing boards so she can sew like her momma! Looks like Lola is showing Gram how to do it in this picture!

Even Clay got into the sewing boards. Lola is quite good at it too! No surprise to us though! She also got some fruits and vegetables for her kitchen! She enjoyed learning which each one is called, considering she doesn’t eat vegetables! Just like her mother- Miss. Picky Eater.

Lola also got princess dress up clothes, a matching book and a cute suitcase. She loves changing into all that outfits, but the girl has got to learn to play in each one for a bit before bringing me the next one! Haha-

She kept turning Gram and Popper into Frogs… I think she is overlapping the concept of princess and fairies.

Love this picture of Lola, Popper and Gram. Thank y’all for a wonderful 2011 Christmas!

So the next day, Christmas Eve we go to Sandy and Mikes (Clay’s Aunt and Uncle) for a little while to see the Travis’ and Gran and Papa. Lola wore everyone out playing hide and seek! She warmed up faster being that she saw everyone during Thanksgiving too. We headed out from there to let Lola rest up so we could go to my side that night. Lola had to last longer than her usual 6:30-ish time limit.

After a quick rest up, we headed to Nonna and Ba’s. This year we actually didn’t have the annual party, but just kept it in the family. It was nice to go there and relax for the second day in a row and eat some good food. Chicken-and-dumplings just for me! :) Siblings started a new tradition this year of vintage or homemade gifts ($10 or less) so we exchanged those gifts that night and saved the rest for the next morning.

I made Nick a scarf and got him a “vintage inspired” hat which I have to say ended up being a good move because he wears it all the time. Haha- Clay did separate gifts and he got Nick depression glass and it’s a plate… IDK- something they read about in GQ. Oh boys.

Kebby I made a bunting out of vintage lace doilies all from the family. Also got her a silly shower cap, but they are so nice to have people. Clay got her a cool vintage compact mirror. Nice.

Nick got Clay a meaningful gift of a Canton picture to represent their run to Canton. And Kebby thrifted Clay a cool skinny tie. I started slowing down on pics- but got Dad a cool hat too:

Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw got in on the vintage gift ideas too!

Mom picked us all out some cool vintage finds as well and of course mine were sewing related! Eeek! :)

Nonna took Lola shopping for me and Clay and it sounds like a pretty funny little outing- but she was super excited to give us our gifts that she picked out and wrapped and couldn’t keep the secret because I knew what mine was a couple weeks before Christmas ;) She did a great job picking out our gifts!

After a rowdy night on Lola’s behalf, it was time to head home and get ready for Santa to come and go to bed! Lola surprising stayed awake all the way home and we set out cookies and water (Lola’s choice) for Santa and off to bed she went. Clay and I enjoyed a peaceful Christmas Eve Night and were excited to see how the morning played out. Remember Lola was soooo sick last year? We had some making up to do! And that we did.

I’ll add this picture and I’ll regret it. This is me Christmas Eve night:

Christmas morning Santa had all kinds of surprises for everyone!

Lola has loved her easel that comes with a roll of paper which is awesome! She loves her pink guitar, loves her baby crib with storage underneath, her kitchen toys, her trains, her dinosaurs, and farm. Geeze she must have been really good in 2011! Santa didn’t hold back. I know he tried so hard to hold back though.

Playing with farm animals and checking out the train:

Lola just found her big sister book in the crib cabinet!

Lola was excited to open outfits for Baby Sawyer. Now all 3 of her AG babies have a change of clothes… can’t wait to add more though! Glad she loves it as much as me! Lola got slippers in her stocking and loved them… she thought they gave her jumping powers… wish I would have thought to tell her that!

Lola showing off her toys to her handsome daddy on Christmas morning… our sweet little family.

Her stocking had dinosaur masks in them and they were quite the hit!

Lola had a special gift for daddy which he got a kick out of: TV screen cleaner because he comes home from work to find someone’s little fingerprints on the TV.

Clay surprised me over and over with all kinds of fun things including a rug for the nursery that he picked out, my computer, maternity clothes, shoes- he did GREAT! It was a wonderful morning- but I started to get pretty hungry and was ready to head to Nonna and Ba’s for a late breakfast. Yum. And it was good. And I didn’t have to cook- so I helped clean.

We opened gifts but stockings first and mom made these special stockings a couple years ago since we both love stockings so much… and they still overflow. Haha-

Lola is now a PRO at opening gifts!

And I have to say- grandparents did great on gifts this year… didn’t go overboard and nothing too big considering her room is crazy full…

Love this picture and notice their shoes? Lola asked Nonna for a bus and sparkly Toms.

Oddly enough my picture taking stopped mid opening- I guess that meant I was opening mine! Haha- probably going through my stocking! My gift from my parents this year was the Silhouette Cameo! Super exciting and was fun to get because it’s one of those things I would never buy myself but can fully enjoy knowing someone else bought it for me! :) My dad also surprised us girls (minus Lola) with diamond earrings. I love mine! The backs screw on and make them very comfortable so I can just leave them on. Can’t believe I didn’t take any other pictures the rest of the day! Haha- I do have a habit of checking out lately… blame it all on the pregnancy. 12 weeks to go people! And yes I am counting down!

So we thank everyone for such a great Christmas this year and am so thankful Lola felt great and we all got to enjoy every second. The most classic moment this Christmas might have been when dad shared the Christmas story with us though and Nick used Lola’s Fisher Price Little People Nativity Scene to act it out for Lola’s sake- but dad was trying to explain to Lola how Mary was ready to have her baby (pregnant like momma) and so Nick laid down Mary in the stable and if you are familiar with FP Little People at all, they have a huge open hole in the bottom of them… and mom and I saw it and died laughing because ready she was- fully dilated! Then Nick saw and we all couldn’t stop laughing… everyone joined in and even Lola laughed and finally asked “what’s so funny guys?” Haha! Merry Christmas and I believe Jesus may even have laughed a little over that.

Here are some videos: some are longer but I’ll enjoy watching these each year, especially whens she’s all grown up!

We tried to talk to Lola on the way to Nonna and Ba’s about Christmas morning but she seemed a bit distracted by her own thoughts.

Lola on Christmas morning!

Lola waiting on Clay so we could run to the den to see what Santa brought! (This video wouldn’t upload after several attempts… so am posting without it which makes me sad. Going to try to upload it to it’s own post.)

Really cute but short video. Her response was funny to me.

Wow- that was exhausting. :) New post to come about baby and nursery! Yay!

Silent Reader, yet another crazy video for you…

2012-01-03T20:29:00.001-06:00

From all of us… but mostly my brother. ;)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T20:49:00.001-06:00

This year might have been one of my top favorite Christmases. Hope everyone else has a blessed holiday- more pictures and details to come!

And yes, we have on matching pajamas from Gram and Popper… and yes, Lola made us put them on right then and there, so we all got tickled and took a family picture! Lola’s last Christmas as an only child! ;) Hope she enjoyed it! I think it’s safe to say we all enjoyed it very much.

Merry Christmas!

Best Friends

2011-12-22T22:22:00.001-06:00

Today Lola and I killed some time by eating a late lunch at our favorite place, Chick-fil-A until Aubrey and Laura came over to exchange Christmas gifts.

After we ate, Lola went to socialize on the playground. A little boy approached her to inform her that the other other kid playing was his friend. And Lola responded, “Well I am waiting on my best friend, Aubrey. (She turns to me…) Rightttt, mom? Oh and that’s MY mom.” I kind of smiled/smirked because when she ended with "that’s MY mom” it seemed as though I was suppose to be impressive. Moments like that remind me how much she loves me back and I hope she still says things like that at 16. (If not I will just reread this post in 14 years… haha… and make her read it too!)

Well we get back home and finally our BFs come over and Laura took pictures while I decided to video it since I still have my mom’s video camera… they are so cute. Why don’t I take more videos? Oh yes, my Flip broke. But we put in a special request to Santa :)

Enjoy the videos of these two sweet girls… They crack me up. When Aubrey was 4 months old and Lola was a newborn- Laura and I talked about how we couldn’t wait for these moments! And they are so cute- although they have their bad moments too. Can’t believe Aubrey is now 3 years old~ Happy Birthday! We loved celebrating with you this week.

Video time…

25 Weeks/Belly Picture- Dun, dun, dun…

2011-12-21T16:38:00.001-06:00

Well I start my 26th week tomorrow and 14 weeks to go just doesn’t seem far away at all… but when I think about how much the baby will grow in 14 weeks, I can’t imagine being and feeling that much bigger! Two nights ago I slept for 13 hours and last night hardly 5 hours. Went to bed after 1 a.m. and woke up at 3:30 a.m. with really bad indigestion or something of that nature and couldn’t go to sleep. Lola and Clay are on either side of me snoring and I just wanted to get up and sew… I knew if I did I would never go back to sleep and I need my sleep these days…although I have always been one to need my sleep- it’s just worse now! ;) Lack of sleep while pregnant means I have zero tolerance… and that’s not good and obvious to everyone around me. Oops. Sorry family and friends…

But- here’s a belly picture!

I forgot to have Clay take one so I took one with my camera on timer and Lola was playing around me… About this time in my pregnancy I always want to cut my hair off and last time I did, but bc I promised Clay and bc Laura keeps reminding me it will make this L&D look different in pics, I am leaving it to grow.

She soon caught on and quickly jumped in the picture and later I realized she posed too! Haha- so cute!

I have a doctor appt next week and will be 27 weeks then… Interested to see my latest weight gain. I think it’s rising fast now. BTW these are my favorite pregnancy jeans. Gram bought this for me (Gap) and they are the ones that have not much of a band at all. Last pregnancy I hated these and wanted the full band and this pregnancy I hate the full band and LOVE these! They are pretty darn comfortable and will easily fit the entire pregnancy. Thanks Gram! Gap always seems to pull through on maternity jeans/pants.

Lola may just go to the next appt with me. She has been dying to and I think it’s a good thing for her. She has been the sweetest big sister already… although she isn’t a big fan when we are working on the nursery… She starts to want a little more attention than normal. Hoping that is better when there is a baby here for her to love on and not worse. She still talks to my belly all the time and definitely is well aware that my tummy is getting bigger and bigger by the week. She says the cutest little things about it that only your two year old daughter could get away with saying. Oh Lolie- I love you.

Lola’s Christmas Program (Plus Baby Loving)

2011-12-18T09:39:00.001-06:00

Lola had her school Christmas program this week and it was pretty cute. The 2 year old class is brought in at the end to help sing the closing song- She did great, although not much singing! She just looked around at all the other kids like “what are you all doing?”

On the way to school, I told her I would for sure be there and couldn’t wait to see her on stage. She happily responded with “Are you going to take pictures of me and all my friends?” I assured her I was!

Here she is entering the sanctuary and she seemed to be looking for me, so I decided to catch her on the way down the aisle and say hi! It distracted her but she seemed so happy to know where we were sitting…. I videoed it so everyone could see (because I know it’s just what y’all have always wanted…jk)

She stood there pretty good and only a few times handed her candle to her teacher so she could step down. Lol

Sorry for the crazy videoing, but Kebby did that (she has moved back home-hooray!)… maybe not her strong point. ;) The video does have a funny highlight- one of the little girls was pushed off the stage by the falling boy behind her-

I love this short video at the end- she really loves me… don’t grow out of this Lola! She ran right to me and she had such a proud smile on her face…adorable!

Way to go LOLA! I am so proud of you!

And we are thankful for her teachers so we made them cute bags to let them know we appreciate them!

So my dear friend Lisa came over yesterday and we finally got some girl time! But of course she brought one of her 3 precious kids, Alexander…. he is so darn cute and Lola was so captivated by him! Lisa was amazing with Lola and so glad she shared Alexander with her…

She wanted to tell him secrets…

and give lots of kisses…

and tickle him…

and tell him jokes…

and feed him! (from Lisa’s phone)

It was so overwhelming and sweet to see her so excited over a baby at the house… and she didn’t mind he was a boy even though she still firmly believes momma’s baby is a girl… Alexander fell asleep so we put him in the crib set up in the nursery (like the only thing set up in there) and it was so sweet to see a glimpse of my life in just a few months. April 5th- hurry it up! I can’t wait! And apparently neither can Clay! Him and Nick were at the house and offered to watch both kids while we got out! What?! Amazing- so we ran out the door! Clay did great with two- but after we showed him all the pics of Lola loving on Alexander, him and Nick said they wouldn’t let her do that at all while they babysat! Poor Lola! Haha…

So I know, I know- I need a bump picture… I am 25 weeks and definitely getting bigger! My bump seems so much bigger just in the last 3 days… and so does this baby! It’s crazy what a week difference can make it the movements I feel. Lola and I are going to Aubrey’s 3 year old birthday party today and are excited but I will get Clay to snap a picture of us before we leave so I can upload it later! Belly pictures are less fun this time around… why? I don’t know- but they are. But another baby is more exciting! We all can’t wait!

Stocking

2011-12-15T15:36:00.001-06:00

Well I placed in the top ten again with the Prudent Baby contest! :) One of these days I hope to win- but still am proud! Here’s my stocking! Placing in the top ten means I get to pick out a yard of Fabric over at fabricworm.com. Woo-hoo!

I have to admit that I enjoyed using an old sweater to sew with and even used it as my bias tape around the stocking! And was glad to get come practice at the Chevron quilting- not as simple as I thought… thinking I will use a different pattern for the baby quilt- which I need to start!

Speaking of baby- this baby is getting so big and strong! I can’t believe just 3.5 months left. I am so ready now so just think what I will be saying in March! ;) Hopefully things will continue to fly by!

Soon I can post nursery pictures… I need to finish a couple of key things before I can do any decorating- but want to show the room soon!

Lola’s Christmas program was today at school and hope to post a little video and some pictures soon! She is so big, but so little at the same time. Just love her. Actually cried today thinking about how much I love and adore this little bitty person… I think I will be glad to have pregnancy hormones gone, but until then- I will enjoy my break-down moments. Hehehehe…

Prudent Baby Stocking…

2011-12-11T15:53:00.001-06:00

Prudent Baby had a contest that I surely knew I would enter… but this pregnancy feels like a drug and not the kind that makes you all giggly and hyper, but the kind that makes you want to sleep (and eat… a lot). But thanks to an extended deadline and some Prudent Baby energy being sent my way (Their website and their prize will energize you too!) I got my unmotivated pregnancy booty in my sewing chair for… um…. hours. And I am finally finished with a stocking I am proud of! The contest gist- make a stocking using knit fabric in some way… and the prize… a Brother serger… Really excited about the prize, but not so much with sewing with knit. Something I have been putting off. It wasn’t terrible, but definitely not my go-to choice of fabric! Stretchy stuff… not my sewing friend. Oh but the things we will do for a good PB Contest! ;)

I’ll give a sneak peak of it finished on my work table…

And before long I will be sleeping like a ~~baby~~ Lola.

But first I must go set up for a work party, mingle a bit, come home to a nice long bath and cup of hot chocolate, then organize my closet. Not putting it off a day longer, unless the pregnancy pill takes over again! ;) At least the house and sewing room are all put back together with a fresh vacuum. Awe.

Thanksgiving- When? What? Ooops.

2011-12-09T14:37:00.001-06:00

I don’t know if I can blame this on pregnancy brain drain, lack of NO pictures, or simply not being my favorite holiday- but I totally didn’t blog or acknowledge Thanksgiving! What in the world?

Well here is this year’s run down of the holiday- My side of the family did a Thanksgiving lunch the Sunday before since Nick would be gone on Thanksgiving- Where might you ask? Only gone to Cozumel to become an Ironman! Woohoo- which he did! So it was nice… didn’t get any pictures but my mom covered the table in paper and wrote our names down as place settings but everyone wrote something by your name telling why they are thankful for you… my dad wrote on Clay’s name “For putting up with Natalie” Bauhahahaha… the rest were pretty sweet…. And I liked the idea a lot! We had a great time and everyone liked the new recipes these year (except Lola and myself- we both agree it is weird to eat Turkey).

On Thanksgiving day we had a nice time at Debbie and Rocky’s house with Clay’s side. It was nice not having to split up the day- Took Lola awhile to warm up to extended family she doesn’t see as often, but once she did- she was very entertaining and had a great time. Once again, lots of good food and good times… Clay stayed awhile after us to watch the game and keep hanging out, but Lola was ready after several hours, so we headed home and c-r-a-s-h-e-d. My pregnant self gets outlasted by Lola a lot now- but at the end of the day we both equally love to crash.

I really am much more of a Christmas girl though and am looking forward to the next couple weeks. My oven is broken (tears falling…) and so hopefully we can fix it soon so I can keep baking holiday cookies. They are my favorite. Lola and I will need to make some Spritz cookies! Such a sucker for sweets. Hoping it’s nothing major- and just the element thing at the top… half the oven works still!

Well- despite Thanksgiving not being my favorite and slipping by me- I am a very thankful girl this year.

1. A new baby arriving less than 4 months away (Do you like how I said arriving as if he or she will pleasantly be dropped in my lap and I don’t have to actually push the baby out of my vagina!?)

2. Clay has a wonderful new job as an Editor for Boy’s Life Magazine… he started the first of this month and seems to already really enjoy it! We are really excited about the change… Clay is good at landing job’s when I am pregnant! Seems to be a pattern now! :)

3. Of course I am always thankful for Lola- extra thankful that she seems so excited about being a big sister though! I know she will be the best big sister!

4. Thankful for so many other things this year too: family of course, Sew Creative, CFA job, my home, health, and just the joy over the fact that 2012 already seems to be falling into place for everyone. It’s going to a be damn good year and excited to see what God has in store for everyone- including if this kick-boxing baby of mine is a boy or a girl! Woo-hoo!

Dear Silent Reader-

2011-12-07T13:17:00.001-06:00

This isn’t to a secret lover people- but this one silent reader will hopefully get a kick out of my funny (but loving) jokes today….

Love, Natalie

Merry Christmas from Sew Creative

2011-12-05T16:30:00.001-06:00

It feels quite odd, but this year, for possibly the first year in my entire life, I don’t have a tree in my own bedroom… Our second big tree I decided to put in the Sew Creative Studio (my craft room) since I spend so much time sewing and creating in what now is my favorite room in the house (even though every room is quite favorable to me!). I thought the girls taking lessons would enjoy it too! Can’t wait for them to see!

Thought I would share pictures of my room and crafty Christmas tree that I actually didn’t decorate- my mother did! Kind of a trade off- I went with Kebby to help register her for Spring classes (good ol’ college advising- do not miss that!) and mom stayed at my house to entertain Lola and… she got crafty and decorated my tree. I didn’t want to spend the money on ornaments for it and thought at some point this month I would make some… mom to the unmotivated, pregnant girl’s rescue!

Okay I will show the tree first! Not one penny was spent on decorating this tree…

My mom may have bought the little red frames she painted- so maybe a few dollars?

Pictures of the entire room! Absolutely love that I turned this into a crafting and sewing room! (Ignore Lola trying to put her panties and pants back on in my foyer- crazy, sweet girl)

My ironing board gets used religiously and I think I should just leave it set up- similar to bed making- why make it every day when you get back into it at night? Just makes you feel better to make it I guess… so I hang it back up.

Ginni and I managed to shove this $25 bookshelf into her car and so glad we did. I have loved it and even grew to really like it stacked on top of the dresser donated by Clay’s parents and painted by me!

Still love the green shutter solution to hide to Lowe’s garage type shelf when entering… but still love the Lowe’s garage type shelf for storage. It works perfectly.

The room has gotten tons of use and imagine it will only get more and more through the years. Everyone seems to so enjoy it like I do and that makes me happy to share it. Also, love that other lovelies are developing a passion to sew and create!

For more pictures and information on Sew Creative, visit Sew Creative.

Little Baker

2011-12-01T22:55:00.001-06:00

Lola is so darn cute right now and has so much life in her. She just doesn’t like to switch to off mode very much. I am hoping once she adjust to a baby being around it will help her feel more settled and give her a play buddy. Her sweet nurturing side may really enjoy having a baby around but her energized, moving body may get frustrated the baby can’t play with her.

We got the pleasure of seeing Rachel and her little 4 month old boy, Jackson today. Lola just wanted to hold him so bad and luckily got to! She might have held him all day if she could and if we would let her. She was patiently waiting to hold him and finally said to everyone at the table while she reached her arms out as far as they would reach “Can I have that?” I reminded her that the baby wasn’t a that, but a baby boy named Jackson. She said his name so cute. Love seeing her around babies!

Lola and I baked sugar cookies yesterday and rolled them out and the mess she made with flour was unreal. It was everywhere! And I laughed as she rolled the rolling pin just like Nonna does. You never realize someone has rolling pin style until you see someone else copy them. It was crazy how I instantly knew that was the exact way my mom rolls out her cookie dough… I need a video of this. BUT I did manage a few pictures…

She was thrilled to be making ~~a mess~~ sugar cookies.

Probably a half of cup of flour fell from her shirt.

Love her eyes… oh and nose… and really her lips too.

Lola thought it may kill her to wait for them to cool.

A little sun coming through the blinds… whoops.

Wait, our yellow iced cookie needs PINK sprinkles.

A PILE of pink sprinkles!

Thought she still looks baby-like in this picture… kind of like it. Don’t grow up Lola!

She seems to really like the sugar cookie, but I’ll go ahead and admit that they didn’t turn out as good as their ratings. I tried a chewy sugar cookie recipe and didn’t care for them. We still had fun and she wasn’t too picky. Lola and I are a sucker for icing.

We will have just as much fun trying a new recipe soon!

Have I mentioned Lola hates dirty hands and her clothes getting wet even if it is barely any water. I tried to assure her it was okay just to lick the icing off her fingers…

So she gave it a honest try, but it didn’t work. Had to put the camera down and wash her hands, face, and change her shirt so she could be happy again. Then she wanted me to feed her the cookie so she didn’t have to touch it… crazy girl!

Last but not least, Aunt Kebby spent the night recently and Lola was ALL ABOUT AUNT KEBBY! It was so cute and I kept telling Lola it was bedtime and she kept squeezing Aunt Kebby’s face and telling me “I am talking to Aunt Kebby. Not ready for bed…” Then Lola would proceed to whisper and giggle to Kebby. Pretty cute… don’t you think they look so much a like?

Uncle Nick got a dose of Lola’s loving too. He came home after finishing the IRONMAN (more on this later) and made me promise to leave Lola up past her bedtime so he could see her. He walked in and she ran down the hallway super fast screaming his name and leaped into his arms. Nick was so excited and proud and couldn’t believe his welcome!

Maybe she is digging my siblings because she realizes she is about to get one of her own! 4 months to go people!

Baby Sonogram and Update

2011-11-30T20:24:00.001-06:00

Finally! The sonogram was moved 5 times due to emergency surgeries then a broken sonogram machine! Laura was still able to go with me and neither one of us were tempted to find out! We did good and didn’t peek, despite it feeling so weird to be able to know, but choose not to. I compared it to a piece of vanilla wedding cake sitting in front of me and not being allowed to try it, except more intense. Hahaha…. I am actually feeling pretty proud that I can wait the whole time since it isn’t very common. Clay passed on going because he knew he would have to find out and he is actually enjoying the surprise factor more than he thought.

Pictures and videos from the day are really cute.

This one makes me think it’s a boy because this looks like a boyish profile. Clay says I am ridiculous but Lola’s profile didn’t look anything like this and much different head shapes. But then I think it’s a girl simply because Lola always says the baby is a girl. My actual intuition doesn’t tell me one way or another. Doctor promised it would definitely be a he or she! Haha…

Here the baby is looking at me, which always seems to be the case. Profile shots are rare with this baby unlike Lola which I only got profile shots. (Love profile shots!) I was shocked at how long the baby was and how much it stretched across my belly. Definitely growing good and strong! The due date is 4-5 and Doctor showed 4-4 today. Maybe this baby will just be a few days early and I’ll end up with a March baby. But better mentally prepare for 40 FULL weeks unlike last time! ;)

I love seeing the hands and arms. It’s my favorite part.

Video of baby and baby opens mouth and moves head- it’s kind of freaky but makes it all so surreal.

Another video

Well at 23 weeks, I have gained… drum roll… 9 pounds! I wish it was closer to 5 to be honest, but the doctor acted like it was all baby related weight between 50% more blood, chest, placenta, fluid, baby, etc… So I hope I can keep pacing the weight for the rest of the time.

Definitely feeling tons of movement now and the kicks and punches get stronger and stronger. Clay has felt the baby move already and excited for Kebby and Laura to feel too!

Have energy back for the most part, but have a lot more aches and pains this time around in my belly and hips. Nursery is in full progress! Ready for the next 4 months! Woohoo!

Lola Fe Fi Zola…

2011-11-15T15:35:00.001-06:00

This pregnancy just reminds me of all my first feelings toward Lola before I even saw her sweet face. Lola has amazed me with how into the pregnancy she is. I am surprised she even thinks twice about it, but glad she does. She is so cute. Despite the nursery just getting under way- she loves being in that room knowing it’s for the baby. She has helped me paint, put up the crib (smile) and clean! She loves putting her babies in the crib and letting them “sleep” and goes and gets them out a few hours later. So cute.

I got the pleasure of observing Lola today at school without her knowing I was looking in. She was so cute. Definitely strong willed and a little chatty like her momma can be! But she was good and definitely can tell she is learning routines set by others, which is good. It’s amusing watching her in a classroom environment. I really enjoyed it. When I picker her up and she told me that she sat in her chair during lunch (which isn’t always the case) and I said, “I know! I am so proud of you!” She proceeded to tell me how that meant she didn’t get a spanking and I agreed then I let her in on the big secret that I was watching her. She was a bit baffled and told me she didn’t see me. I said “I know! I was hiding!” Now all day she has tried to figure out where my hiding place was. Hehehe. Thankful for their two-way window. It’s good when your kids can’t figure out how you know something, but that magically you do know. Motherly super powers.

Lola is talking really good and still non-stop. I think I will really enjoy Christmas time with her this year. She really has taken ahold of Santa Claus. Lola picked out purple wrapping paper at Hobby Lobby and I said that would be perfect for me to wrap her Christmas presents but she corrected me telling me the paper was for Santa so he could wrap her presents. Almost already blew Santa’s cover. Oops.

Well I uploaded photos from my phone and thought I would post some of my favs- hopefully I haven’t posted any of these before, but who really knows. You can’t trust my pregnant brain for anything right now.

Lola in curlers and a dress, which she loved wearing. / Lola at work with me and not going as planned.

Lola waiting while my car was being washed as happy as can be. / Laura and I celebrating her birthday! Love you girl!

Lola admiring her Jack-O-Lantern. / Paw-Paw’s birthday dinner and Lola gladly helped him blow out the candles.

Aunt Kebby and Lola enjoying a good read. / Lola loving her CFA Icedream.

Lola settling her “crying” babies down. / My happy child.

Lola playing in Robert’s boat wanting to know where the water is. / My baby and me.

Lola all sweet in curls. / Myself and Clay as a child. Hehehe.

Lola’s bff. We love Aubrey.

Cute short hair. Hmmm, may cut again. / Lola playing on the iPad. She’s a pro.

The sewing room makes Lola giddy---

2011-11-09T20:45:00.001-06:00

Lola loves to wander down the hallway and yell “Where’s you be Momma?” and when I am in my sewing room and answer I hear those footsteps moving a bit faster and her yelling “I help you make somethin’ momma!” She loves the room and as much stuff as I have in there, all the pins, scissors, rotary cutters, knitting needles, ink, paint, etc… it seriously seems to be child proof. She can’t mess up my table. She is pretty wise on what is off limits but she still likes to sit in my sewing chair and “pretend” to sew. It’s so darn cute. She keeps telling me she wants a sewing machine so I will find her a pretend one for now, and when she gets barely old enough I will buy her a real one! Can’t wait! In the bath tub tonight she told me this funny shape bucket we have is her sewing machine and she is making something. Melt. My. Heart. Make. Me. Giddy.

This morning I was getting ready for a lesson and Lola was waiting on Nonna and she was just so happy. She just sat on my stool (although she has kind of claimed it as her own) and talked and talked to me. So I got out my camera especially when she was “sitting like you, mommy.” Enjoy all four, because I couldn’t choose just one. Ha!

Baby, baby, baby…

2011-11-07T16:59:00.001-06:00

Can I be 19 weeks pregnant as in basically half way done?? How is this possible? In some ways I feel like I have been pregnant forever, but that’s just because I feel worse this time around, but really it is going by fast and if I start feeling loads better I bet it will be over before I know it. Which is crazy because that means Clay and I will have two sweet little ones at home and not just one. I am really excited for this and am more excited that Clay and Lola are so ready!

I need to get my booty in gear with the nursery! People say “Oh you have time-“ but I know it will fly by especially through the holidays. January and February will be good months to focus in on it. I like babies nurseries being done by 37 weeks in case we have an early arrival- BUT I learned my lesson with Lola and I will mentally prepare to carry this baby every darn day of 40 weeks. Clay and I are going to do some bigger projects over Thanksgiving break! Woohoo! And my mom said she would paint all the doors, trim, and shelves with the oil base paint! Yayaya! Still good for that mom? :) Oh and still need to wallpaper too… definitely want to see the big projects done by the new year.

Something I am really excited over is I am making a quilt for the twin bed going in the nursery! It will be my first full blown quilt and I am so excited. I want to make one for our bedroom too. I will get started on that during Thanksgiving when Clay has some time off.

I can’t wait to meet he or she and still sticking to my guns on not finding out. Even Clay is digging it. The fun things is the baby is pretty active like Lola, so I have been feeling lots of kicks and nudges and I think it will be just another week or so until Clay (and you Laura) can feel too. I already have people touching my belly which is weird. If I am talking and someone does it, I totally loose my train of thought. I guess I need to post pictures of my bump, don’t I? I have been saying I will… snuck one in with Halloween photos. I’ll get Clay to take one soon.

Well just wanted to ramble about this baby. I am so excited and just want to fast forward to due date time! Last time, I really remember enjoying the pregnancy more- did I forgot a lot of stuff or do they just feel that different? Hope I forgot when I get baby fever for the time after this!

Clay and I enjoyed a nice date last night and for the first time in 2.5 years of Lola’s existence had a real-life babysitter. What does that mean? We had Kylee, who I and Lola absolutely love come over and watch Lola at our house during night hours so we could go out at normal date time! And guess what, Kylee, our new hero, had Lola down at bedtime, house cleaned and no problems. We were trying to figure out at dinner how often we can ask her without making her sick of us. Hehehe- it was nice. But we got to talk a lot about the pregnancy and baby names, parenting with two, etc… it was fun. We also saw an R-rated movie to balance off all the mommy and daddy talk. Hahaha! (I have no idea what the movie was actually rated for the record.)

Well it’s 5 p.m. which means bath for Lola and figure out what everyone is eating for supper. I think I am seeing an early bedtime for me tonight.

Feeling blessed this week and looking forward to Thanksgiving and having Clay home more that week! Also getting the big ultrasound next week to check on baby! Looks like Laura is going to get to go with me- a little weird but Clay knows he would try and peak if he saw the baby- so I am using my “fill-in” spouse- Laura. Didn’t think of it till now, but will we look like lesbians? Haha- oh lordy. Luckily my doctor has met Clay already!

Enjoy your week and will post pictures soon. Also will post on Sew Creative soon to update what my students have been doing. They are amazing and so talented!

Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe!!!

2011-10-31T20:09:00.001-05:00

Okay, okay- I need to share the wealth and many of you have wanted the recipe! I make this every year and friends and family love it! (Makes a great, cheap gift or a fun surprise for friends!) A high school teacher shared this recipe with me (let’s see- about a decade ago! Geeze.). I lost the originally recipe and this is what I do-

Recipe:

First note you need something large to mix this all in unless you cut in in half!

A box of non-fat powdered dry milk (25.6 ounce)

1 pound of confectioners sugar- Oh and honestly a good bit more doesn’t hurt anybody and will make it sweeter! ;)

I use a 14.1 ounce jar of Nesquick powdered chocolate

Last but not least, around 10 ounces of powdered creamer

Mix all together! I fill my mug up about 1/3rd of the way full and then add boiling water- and it’s great with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream to help cool it down and marshmellows and maybe some reddi whip. What’s the point of drinking it if you aren’t willing to go all out? I think it doesn’t taste the same if you don’t let your water come to a boil and then add it… my husband just warms his water and it isn’t the same!

The GREAT thing about this recipe is you can totally make it your own! A candy cane as a stir stick is great and gives it the peppermint flavor. Also, creamers come in all kinds of flavors- you could play with that. And I know some people like to add cinnamon (just a little bit!). My next batch I will split into 4 batches and “experiment” some! I’ll let you all know if I come up with something amazing!

Enjoy! And let me know how you modify to fit your family!

Happy Halloween 2011!

2011-10-30T20:49:00.001-05:00

Lola enjoyed the Fall Festival at her school tonight for Halloween and had a great time! Nonna and Ba came with us and Lola got candy, played games, and her favorite- jumped in a bounce house! Aubrey and Laura met us up there too which made Lola super excited.

Here are pictures and still need to get pictures from my mom’s camera because she had some great ones!

(Just a look back- here’s Lola last year and Lola and Aubrey. Lola was a pumpkin and Elmo!)

They look so much younger- I can’t get over it!

And THIS year! My little monkey!

A little family picture in action and then another picture of the baby bump, which I have yet posted. This is me in my 18th week.

Love the second picture below even though it’s blurry-

Lola was so good at all the games and seemed to enjoy them! But she loved the bounce house the most by far!

Ba was really good about getting Lola involved in the games!

Then Aubrey arrived!

Similar faces- But why the crazy faces girls?

Lola was quite concerned when Aubrey started crying from the scary costumes-

I told Lola she was scared and to tell Aubrey that it’s okay- So she told her- so cute. But it didn’t help.

Oh wait- better! (Laura, pretty please e-mail me a good one at the end!)

Thanks for going Nonna and Ba!

Lola has a bad weekend of sleeping so was really ready for bed. When we got home around 7 she went in super bipolar, crazy mode. She was too tired to do anything. She cried and cried in fear her balloon would pop and finally I got her in bed with a washed face and hands, clean pajamas, and a snack. She ate, cried, watched Nemo, ate, cried, and watched Nemo. Finally, passed out playing with my hair. I pray to Jesus that balloon doesn’t pop overnight. I felt bad for how tired she was, but glad she is sleeping soundly now. Praying she sleeps through the night tonight. Her sleeping has been off for some reason recently. Not good for a tired Momma and Daddy!

Tomorrow is officially Halloween- but I am thinking tonight might have been the extent of it around here. Halloween isn’t my favorite, y’alls? Bring on Thanksgiving and Christmas people! Woohoo!

Monkey-ing around!

2011-10-27T14:32:00.001-05:00

I seriously can’t think Lola is any cuter than she is. Just can’t. She is hilarious and so darn cute. So the bear costume was too hard to find and Lola quickly came up with her second choice- MONKEY! I wonder how she came up with these ideas? So Nonna and her headed to Old Navy to pick up their cute Monkey Costume. She looks too cute in it and got to sport it early at school since it was Costume Day. They had a little parade and it was so adorable to see her act like such a big girl.

My little monkey headed to school this morning! She was seriously excited and was happy to be wearing her costume! First time she has loved it on for longer than a minute or two! Shew.

Parents waited in the sanctuary to see the kids parade in by class. Here comes my Lola! She seems so big at school!

Thought this picture was kind of funny- her plopped down in the middle trying to figure out why she is sitting there and who are all those people? She can’t see me yet! (She kind of looks sad, but didn’t seem sad, just a bit confused!)

She finally sees me and I get a big “heyyyy momma!” and cute wave! (Heart melts.)

I love seeing Lola at school. She isn’t always comfortable around a lot of people and especially adults, but is so at home at her school. She loves her peers and teachers and tells me all about school all the time. I ask her who her friends are and she always says “Everybody my friends.” Her teacher told me last week that Lola was sitting at the lunch table telling everyone she was going to be a big sister, that I was having a baby. How cute is that? So thankful school worked out again this year. She seems to really love it. And I love the school we choose too- it’s great being a smaller setting for Lola and I enjoy everyone there. We are going to take Lola to their fall festival because I know she will feel right at home and enjoy it!

Pumpkin Patch Day

2011-10-27T14:13:00.001-05:00

I guess Clay and I can officially say it’s tradition for us to walk to the local pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin! We did the same thing last year. We surprised Lola and she was so excited to walk up to a patch of pumpkins! She picked out the perfect pumpkin, twenty times. Luckily Clay narrowed it down for her!

I managed to get the sweetest and cutest picture of all time! How did this happen? Both my sweethearts actually smiled and looked at the same time! Crazy- but amazing turnout. (Added the one from last year too! It’s crazy seeing the growth!)

Lola was trying to pick up the biggest pumpkins there!

She actually was quite strong!

She finally found one Lola’s size but he wasn’t quite big enough to carve into a Jack-O-Lantern!

She started crawling all through the pumpkins…

Stopped to pose… (Added last year photo too)

(2010 Below)

Then decided to rearrange the pumpkins. Wonder where she learned that? ;)

We got home to cut it open and show her the inside. Quite curious to take a peak, but certainly wasn’t going to help Daddy clean out the inside! I think we are becoming even more alike. Clay just shakes his head in disbelief at some of the weird things we both do or won’t do. Hahaha…

Carving a pumpkin was a lot of fun and Lola loved seeing it light up! No final picture, but need to add one.

Family afternoon fun!

Cooler weather has arrived and is amazing! Hello Fall!

Random-

2011-10-24T17:27:00.001-05:00

Not too long ago, we finally got some rain and it rained and rained all day long!! It seems like every time is has rained it’s been at night and Lola was finally so excited to see the rain! Her favorite little cartoon right now, Caillou, plays in the rain on one of the episodes so she has just been dying to do the same. So she quickly saw the rain (pouring actually!) and grabbed her raincoat and boots and headed outside. And then she stopped. Wasn’t her thing after all. She so badly wanted to LOVE it but just couldn’t bring herself to run in the rain. It was pretty hilarious. The cutest part of it all was when she saw the rain she ran and got her rain boots out of the closet quickly undressed and put them on and I walked around the corner to the front door and she was standing butt naked at the door with nothing on but her rain boots ready to go outside! Hilarious…. not for sure why she thought you play in the rain naked!

Not going much further…

Well so glad cooler weather is coming- because that means hot chocolate time. Plus, what pregnant woman doesn’t welcome cooler weather? Not sure the feeling of cold weather and a cup of hot chocolate can be beat! I love it! I have to put all the ingredients in this large container then shake it up! (Instant Dry Milk, Powdered Sugar, Creamer, and Cocoa!) I’ll be sharing the wealth, but some winters we go through two batches between myself and family/friends

I have also been in a baking mood! Again, I think it’s just this time of year and cookies do always sound good right now. I am on the hunt to find the best chewy sugar recipe and chewy chocolate chip recipe. My first attempt at both was pretty darn successful! :)

Clay and Lola are loving it too! I guess everyone is benefiting from this but our scales! Lol-

Lola and I have big plans to make a lot of ornaments for our Christmas trees this year. Here is one we made, but for Nonna’s tree. It’s Lola’s hand but we made it to look like Nonna’s sugar cookies, Christmas version! I love it! We need to start making them now for our tree so we don’t get pooped out!

Well I am fixing dinner and timer just went off. Ready to eat and lay down for the evening. Exhausted. Work has been on overload lately… whew.

All-day morning sickness in second trimester- you are NOT my friend! :(

2011-10-20T13:50:00.001-05:00

Sonogram Pics and Doctor Update

2011-10-17T20:51:00.001-05:00

GUESS WHAT Y’ALL?!?

I could know the sex of baby to be… but I DON’T! ;) Hehehe… doctor definitely knows and I did get to see my magical little baby on tv today. Have FIVE new sonogram pictures thanks to my sweet doctor and couldn’t wait to show Clay and Lola. They were so excited. I have been on a high all day- feels like Christmas morning when I get to the doctor and he does a sonogram! I have had one every time so far! And will get one next time for sure! Yay! That will mark my half way point!

Two more things to celebrate- 1) My placenta (Patti as my mom calls it) has moved and is no worry anymore! Yayayayay! 2) I have only gained 2 pounds!! 16 weeks and only 2 pounds. Really happy about that and hope at 20 weeks it isn’t tons more… trying to pace myself and keep the number lower this time. Healthy but lower.

So here are the pictures:

This was the first sonogram picture at… oh my… 8-9 weeks.

Sonogram at 12 weeks… Baby is looking at me!

At 12 weeks again- he/she was so active!! I kept seeing little arms and legs kicking out and moving everywhere.

16 weeks: Profile

Seeing the baby move on screen is so much different that just seeing a still shot, but both are so wonderful.

16 weeks- baby is looking at me again- looks alien like so I need to fatten this baby up now! Everything looked great in the sonogram and have my detailed one next time.

Busy week ahead but started on a great note!!!

Second Trimester- No honeymoon yet…

2011-10-15T21:10:00.001-05:00

I am 15 weeks and 2 days- and still no relief. Morning sickness comes and goes and still hits harder in the afternoon and evenings. The mornings I do feel good, I go non-stop to take full advantage and definitely eat now that my appetite has increased some. This pregnancy feels a million times more different. And I’ll finish your thought “…that means it’s a boy.” Well that’s what people keep saying. Thought Lola was a boy and she is most definitely a girl- so who really knows?? (Besides God and the sonogram technician.) I am carrying more around then all in front- but my stomach still changes a lot, so hard to tell. I will post a pic and sonogram pic soon- I need that on record.

Definitely less sociable these days and-possibly-a-bit-moody… If I have lunch with you or invite you over, then feel totally loved! For the record, still love everyone else though-

Totally wishing, praying, and hoping I feel like my old self again soon! I wrote that about this time in my pregnancy with Lola so I am hoping any day now I feel much better…

Doctor appointment this week and so excited! I hope the doctor does a sonogram because 1) Get to see my baby of course! and 2) Really am curious to know if my placenta moved to the right spot!! May go ahead and take Lola- I like her to see doctors are friendly and momma’ likes doctors and hope it helps her feel more comfortable at the hospital as well. She is just going to love being a big sister…

She talks to the baby and it’s the sweetest thing I have ever heard- it even gets Clay!

Lola will say. “Whatcha doin in there baby?” She will say Baby Lucy (baby name for a girl) and it’s always so weird, because we don’t know. So I remind her it could be a boy and we will have to think of a boy name! She totally disregards that.

Well watching the Ranger game and it’s looking good so far-

Gonna get some rest! Life isn’t slowing down being pregnant… working a bit more than normal.

Oh P.S. Painted the nursery with a color I totally mixed up from colors I had. And it’s perfect. Love it. Have just enough for touch up- thank goodness since I made the color up. Took me forever because I had to do it in spurts.

Seriously her cuteness doesn’t stop…

2011-10-06T18:07:00.001-05:00

How cute is she? Her eye that turns in makes me think she looks so much like Nick when he was little because he had a lazy eye! And of course she favors Aunt Kebby. I really don’t see much of Clay anymore… Do y’all see Clay?

(Side note: Mom, will you get pictures of us kids at newborn, 2 and then like 4 or 5? I want to post them! She really favors Nick and Kebby to me.)

I was wearing a hat to hide my unwashed hair and Lola had to have her hat on too AND then since we were “matching” (one of her new favorite things to notice and say) she wanted to take a picture together! You gotta’ love your child wants to match you because I know good and well that this will only last so long! Haha!

Lola and I have been baking more! I think it is something good for us to do together AND with the weather cooling off it just puts me in a baking mood! I am looking forward to the holidays with Lola so much this year! Her and Nonna have already been making ornaments!

Lola loves the chocolate chips and eats them faster than we can mix them in.

The cookie dough is her favorite part though. I have to limit how much she has because it causes terrible hives on her face the more she eats it. Cookie baking and Benadryl go hand-in-hand around here. And when the cookies are cooling on the counter- every time I turn around Lola has snuck off with another cookie. She is definitely a clever cookie-snatcher.

So I have been craving my mom’s sugar cookies so she made a fall batch and brought some over to me! (Thank choo Nonna!) I was so excited and wasn’t very good about sharing them! But for Lola’s lunch I put a pumpkin sugar cookie in her lunch with a sweet note- so when she got home from school I asked her about it:

Me: Lola, did you get a surprise in your lunch today?

Lola: nope.

Me: You didn’t get something yummy in your lunch box?

(She suddenly remembers)

Lola: pumpkin sugar cookie!

Me: Wasn’t that nice of your momma to put that in there?

Lola: Nooo, Nonna madeeeeee it!

Me: She made it, but I choose to share it and put it in your lunch.

Lola (Smiling sweetly): Thank choo momma!!

Lola before school one day. Already loaded with energy! She seems to love school again this year! She gets to do all the big kid things this year too like field trips (parent attendance required) and chapel! Oh and notice the teddy bear? Her favorite cartoon, Cailou, has a teddy bear he calls “Teddy” and now so does Lola. In fact, she has like 5. I am not a fan of stuffed animals- especially when she has like 30 already.

Being pregnant again, just reminds me how excited I was to meet Lola and have her here with us. I can’t believe she is two and a half. Did life really exist without her? How boring it must have been! Can’t wait to see her in big sister action! She is going to L-O-V-E it!

My babies energize me…

2011-10-03T21:51:00.001-05:00

They wear me out too but let me explain!

This pregnancy is total different than my first. I am way more exhausted and feel pretty sick starting after lunch and the rest of the night. I have the most energy in the morning which is strange. I have not gained any weight so far. I am 14 weeks. Food, as hungry as I feel, doesn’t go over well. I absolutely can’t drink carbonated drinks which cut out a lot of calories right off the bat. I guess that’s good- but I miss them! I want them so bad! They make me sick though. It stinks not feeling well at night because that’s when Clay gets home, so I have been a boring wife. Poor Clay- but he has been awesome and really good with Lola. And speaking of Lola- I guess that is one of the reasons I am more tired with this pregnancy. She literally doesn’t stop talking from the moment she wakes up till the moment she goes to bed. Nonna says it’s literally identical to me when I was little. She is always playing, crafting, and moving. I absolutely adore it. I feel like being pregnant with Lola is going to be the hardest part- not once they baby gets here. I will get that adrenaline boost and feel much better… hoping for that now as well since I am in my second trimester! Not yet… although maybe tonight was a turning point. OH PLEASE LORD- PLEASE!

So here’s the deal. Today was super exhausting and by 4:30 this afternoon I wanted nothing more than a hot bath, pajamas, and to get some beauty sleep. Yea right… hahaha. So instead of crashing on the couch while Lola plays all around me- I decided to finally open the door to the nursery and get down to a little business.

And that’s where my point comes in that my babies energize me.

I started on the nursery for the first time doing painstaking prep work, but I felt so energized and warm knowing I was preparing another nursery for another sweet baby Clay and I have made!

Lola was so giddy in the room and excited to help me “clean” the room for the baby and just played and played in the “baby room” while I did crazy things. The room was overloaded with junk. Baby girl stuff, toddler stuff, neutral baby items, home décor and furniture and then a huge pile of garage sale items. So I packed everything up in the right boxes and packed away all the garage sale items and stacked tons of Chick-fil-A boxes in the hallway for my gracious husband to move to the garage… garage sale to happen soon? Then I decided to pop off the damn chair rail that was up in that room. not a big fan of them anyways, but this one particularly drove me nuts because the room has a wrap around shelf a foot below the ceiling, plantation shutters and the added line around the room was always a bit much. I had painted it the same color as the wall to try and keep it somewhat hidden. So I was standing in the room thinking “Maybe I can just pop that off without tearing up the wall!” Tested a small strip and it worked! (Disclaimer- last time I decided to pop something off the wall which was shelving- it literally tore the wall to sheds! Oops.) So I did the whole room, praying each piece came off successfully, then got out my handy spackle and fixed a few spots, filled in a hundred (no exaggeration) nail holes- THEN I went around the baseboards and chipped away the layers of paint and caulk so I could sand them down smooth and re-caulk them. AM I CRAZY? It had to be done so the little one had a very clean room with pretty baseboards!

Clay just walked in and immediately saw the stacked boxes in the hallway and asked “What in the world is all of that?” :) I told him I did the hard part that he had the easy job of moving them to the garage! :)

It felt amazing to work on the nursery for the first time today and I look forward to creating a fun space to bring the little one home to and I think Lola will really enjoy making the room pretty with me- I think it’s just one of those ways to help her feel like a proud sister and not a jealous child. I can’t wait to be a family of four! Woohoo!

On a Lola note- she keeps telling me she wants to be a bear for Halloween- now where do I find a bear costume? Haha… That funny girl.

(Very much a journal entry kind of post- sorry!)

Team Boy?!

2011-09-26T19:30:00.000-05:00

Who are all these people saying boy on my poll? Any girl takers? Uncle Nick is totally convinced we are having another girl and so is Lola!

Only 6 more months to find out... Oh the wait!

Preggers Talk

2011-09-21T18:33:00.001-05:00

So Lola is pretty use to preggers talk because for a couple months she was one of the only ones to know! :) But figured I would write about my first trimester. I read through some of my blog from my pregnancy with Lola and I wasn’t quite as detailed as I had thought I was. And didn’t show that many pictures- although not sure how I will do the picture thing this time around either. Those were the days before WLW. Haha-

Well I am 12 weeks and feeling yucky. I know it could be worse, but I also know it could be better. My doctor said he would think I would see a major improvement within the next couple of weeks. Looking forward to him being right (fingers crossed!)! I wake up normally feeling great but as the day goes on and as I eat each meal I find myself just wanting to sleep and quite frankly be lazy. Definitely been a moody little thing… and speaking of little thing- I have not gained a pound! Some of you may be thinking- Duh! Why would you yet? Well with Lola I had already started gaining weight and this time around I weigh a pound less than I did when I got pregnant with Lola. I started that pregnancy at 120 and weighed in on delivery day at 160. 12 weeks into this pregnancy I am weighing in at 119. I’ll take that! But I am occasionally sporting some maternity pants because I get so darn bloated. Some days my clothes still fit great but other days not so much. I can’t wait for the fluctuation to stop and just steadily grow bigger and bigger.

I am using a different doctor than I did with Lola but he has been my doctor since 8 weeks after giving birth to Lola. I really like him and he has delivered some of my friend’s babies so I am feeling confident in him.

My first sonogram I was just really nervous and went by myself. Wanted to be sure everything was okay and sure enough we saw an active 9 week old baby! And with the second appointment (12 weeks), Clay went! It was so great for him to see the baby too via sonogram. And once again an active baby. Saw little arms and legs dancing away. And the baby was looking right at us which was kind of freaky looking. I am use to the profile shots. Hehehe.

The big and fun thing about this baby is absolutely no finding out the sex! I want it to be a legit surprise for myself and everyone else! Lola is calling sister and apart of me thinks she is right- but then again- a boy it could be! I am making a fun and playful neutral nursery that is designed for a growing baby- not really a newborn. I am also going to put a daybed in the nursery for seating and sleeping. Baby is not allowed in my bed EVER. :) Live and learn and Clay and Laura are holding me to this rule. Lola still winds up in our bed in the middle of the night. That stinker.

I am needing to start on the nursery and clean it out. It has no fixture hanging where there should be one, the ceilings need to be sanded down so I can do some magic on them, paint and then décor. I think I may build the daybed because I can’t find one like I want. And Clay and I have some cool ideas for neutral art. I am excited and just as soon as I get some more energy- I’ll be all over that! Oh and a rug is a must right away. Can’t stand the bare floors. Whew. That makes me very tired just writing about those things.

Lola and I talk a lot about babies and momma having another baby and she seems to grasp it as much as she can. I think it will be much more on her mind when she sees a growing belly. Stuff like that gets to her and she’ll want to know “what that is momma…” Haha…

Well now that the secret is out, I am feeling like it’s more and more real. It’s so fun. I didn’t think I could be as excited about another pregnancy as I was with Lola… but not true. Just as excited if not more because I remember the excitement and joy I had when Kebby was born and I look forward to helping create that same feeling for Lola. Doesn’t having two children just seem like a little veteran family? We are out of the newlywed stage, and out of the beginner stage with just one child and now moving into a more seasoned family.

I know that’s silly, but it is so fun to marry someone so perfect for you and to just create little human beings together.

Month by Month in Pictures

2011-09-19T17:13:00.001-05:00

Barely 24 Hours Old: Already alert and ready to join the party!

1 Month: Sleepy time on her first vacation! Hello beach!

2 Months: On the way to the doctor for 2 month shots

3 Months: My big girl sitting up

4 Months: Lola was super ready for foods, but ended up being picky just like her momma

5 Months: Such a big girl in her DOC Band

6 Months: Standing up in her crib, but not sleeping in it :(

7 Months: Discovered macaroni. Loved it like her momma does.

8 Months: Her hair is growing out from her band!

9 Months: Too early to remember the snow storms, but she wasn’t a big fan

10 Months: She is walking like a pro!

11 Months: Loved the lake house at an early age

12 Months: Happy first birthday to Lola!

13 Months: Always have enjoyed baths!

14 Months: Driving was the easiest way to put her to sleep

15 Months: Chick-fil-A’s #1 fan!

16 Months: Getting ready to start school!

17 Months: Loved her crazy short bob.

18 Months: Modeling pajama pants momma made- Lola loves picking out fabric!

19 Months: Really showing her own personality

20 Months: Lola discovered showers!

21 Months: Ponytails

22 Months: A classic face she still makes-

23 Months: Camping day at school

24 Months: Happy Birthday to my 2 year old- never dreamed I would give in to an Elmo theme

25 Months: My sick baby. No fun. She was a trooper as always.

^{(Side note to picture above: Lola had been very sick for 4 weeks hence the skinny face!)}

26 Months: Learning to worry and puts on her “Maw-Maw face”

27 Months: Loving the pools, big and small

28 Months: My creative artist

29 Months: Lola loving her new shirt! :)

Due Date: April 5th, 2012 (And yes, another April birthday! Haha)

We are all soooooo thrilled! I am 3 months and literally can’t wait! I hope it goes by fast, but more so hope for a healthy and happy baby!

Yay to a second sonogram today! Pictures of sonogram soon!

Zoo Trip

2011-09-05T19:14:00.001-05:00

Since the weather dropped 20 degrees Clay and I thought we could take advantage and take Lola to the Zoo! We have been excited to do this for a long time and finally thought she was old enough to really enjoy it. Well needless to say, not quite yet. We were surprised, but did have a fun day! Clay might be the biggest Zoo lover of the 3 of us. The Dallas Zoo might not be visited again for awhile. :)

She loved the playground! Haha-

And couldn’t get enough of the fish! She seriously wanted to climb in all the tanks!

She liked the goats as well but I think that’s because she was able to chase them around!

She really was pretty adventurous.

She wanted to get closer and closer to the birds!

She loved the lazy pig Wilbur.

She wasn’t into the coolest animals like the giraffe, elephant, gorilla, cheetah, or zebra. Clay and I couldn’t wait for that part! Clay was so disappointed.

Manage to talk her into one quick picture!

First Day of School

2011-08-30T20:56:00.001-05:00

Lola had her first day of school today and she did great and so did I. She was excited and has two new teachers this year!

As we did last year, we made our lunch box and backpack! But this year Lola was big enough to pick out her fabric! She loves going to the fabric store and I hope she doesn’t outgrow that! It’s too much fun. She was sooooo proud of her backpack and lunch sack, which made it all worth it. Since they play a lot, she wore cute pink comfy clothes to school!

About an hour before school was over, I got a phone call… the director called letting me know that Lola wasn’t into napping! Since they were forewarned, this was no surprise and we decided I would just get her at noon every school day instead of the afternoon. It’s a good solution and I guess I have the only crazy 2 year old that doesn’t nap! That’s okay with me since we made such HUGE progress at night now! I prayed for a happy child and I indeed have one- happy and energetic and… talkative!

I think the squirrel picture may one day be iconic. She always finds herself cheesin’ with the squirrel statue. :) I guess it will be tradition.

So proud of you Lola Lou and can’t wait to see how much you learn this year. You are GREAT!

Welcome Alexander Thomas Ford!!

2011-08-15T17:46:00.001-05:00

Well, Lisa, one of my favorite people, had her baby this past week and I got the pleasure of spending the day with them today! He was born August 10th and weighed in at 9 pounds and 3 ounces. And he is pretty darn cute, but so are her other two precious kids, so it’s no surprise!

And I got to give her a little shower too! All my sweet friends pulled together and we (really THEY) managed to give her a swing, bouncy seat, car seat, stroller, diapers, and goodies! Thanks Laura and Jenny! Lisa loves y’all for sure! It was so exciting taking it all to her today! She LOVED it!

He was so sweet and little and a big sleepyhead.

Lisa looked amazing and was such a happy sleepy deprived momma.

Lisa looked better than I did! I needed a little more make-up!

Got to get plenty of baby snuggles!

Julian made it there before I left so I got to get some Ju-Ju hugs! She is greatness and is about to start Kindergarten! Woohoo! She will just love school!

Lisa with her THREE kids! I can’t believe it and she mothers with grace. (Little Alexander is waving high!)

Judd is so great and really went with the flow. I took him to the grocery store with me today and he just cracked me up. And you got to love the blue eyes and blonde hair!

Thanks Lisa for letting me hang out with y’all today! Love ya and all 3 kiddos!

Bigger and Better Thing #1 and #2

2011-08-07T20:57:00.001-05:00

A cute picture of Lola getting way too grown up.

Sorry just threw that in…

(Before and After of Sew Creative below)

So my more current readers let me know that I have been a bad blogger, but my silent readers are probably just wondering what happened to me?

I think summer months are just really UN-motivating! Do you think it could be because it’s been over 100 degrees for over 37 consecutive days now and doesn’t seem to be cooling off anytime soon? That’s my only rant over the heat. I’ll move on now to bigger and better things.

Bigger and Better Thing #1: Lola’s new sleeping routine. She is my pride and joy I tell you! Everyone’s sleeping advice was … “just let her cry it out. be strong.” I was. And the method sucked. It was terrible. Finally my pediatrician tells me after 12 months of letting her cry it out peep talks…

“Embrace her wanting to sleep with you. Give the crib up. Put up a toddler bed and ease your way there. She just isn’t a child that is going in the crib at this point. Embrace it. When she is ready, you’ll know.”

So I did. And it made life less stressful for awhile. But then a while later, I finally thought it would be time to switch her to her room for good. Eh, not so great. So the really cute Jenny Lind toddler bed I bought on Target.com that I had painted cream- I sold on Craigslist. It wasn’t going to happen. I’ll go ahead and add that I sold it for $50 more than I paid for it. It’s funny what people will pay for something a different color, like cream.

Then Clay and I built her a headboard for maybe $20 and salvaged foam and material from her nursery to make it extra comfy. Added a mattress set and new frame and gave her a big girl bed.

Finally, she was “ready.” I’ll brag now. I am able to tuck her in and we give “big kisses, big hugs” and I almost shut the door and she goes to sleep on her own around 7 p.m. 90% of the time with no crying (or an attempt at a pitiful fake cry but not normally). It’s a-m-a-z-i-n-g. And I think she is amazing because she does it so well now. Two catches though- she sleeps with this giant baby that freaks everyone out… it is kind of cute though and she rubs the baby’s back and sings songs to her.

This baby looks especially freaky on the black and white video monitor. Follow me on the Instagram app at nataliejo92 to see freaky monitor pictures and other random pictures I take throughout the week.

And catch #2 is… she ends up in my bed or I end up in hers because around 1 p.m. she normally wants me. If I wasn’t so tired most nights I would do a better job at breaking that… which is my next goal. Couldn’t conquer it all at once you know! I think a good sign is she normally just wants me in her bed, which means she isn’t missing my bed that much, just me.

Despite her cute shutters on her window, a tremendous amount of light still creeps in early morning, so I bought an ugly pool down shade for a whooping twenty bucks at Lowes to hide behind the shutters to block the light. It helped her sleep 45 more minutes this morning! I’ll take it!! Well worth the expensive twenty bucks on that ugly thing. Who wants to spend twenty dollars on something really ugly? It actually helps her fall sleep too since it makes her room darker. I like that if I did have normal curtains up it would hide behind them so it wouldn’t be seen during the day when you had it up.

WAY TO GO LOLA LOU!

Bigger and Better Thing #2: Sew Creative is wonderful! I really look forward to my lessons and it’s going great! I have TEN girls who take lessons (some don’t every week) and seem to be gaining more. The nice thing is as of right now I am not looking to have too many more, so this is perfect pace. My sweet, loving, kind, generous mother came over to get me moving along in my sewing room makeover. Thank goodness. I love to organize stuff to make it look pretty especially when everything has a purpose, but my mom and I quickly realized I was a crafting/sewing hoarder and I think I might have actually been overwhelmed. Yep, maybe I was.

So in ONE day, we turned a crappy room into a crafty room! :) (Did y’all like that? Hehehe.)

Hmmm… maybe I should go take pictures real quick and show y’all now! :)

(Is it obvious that both my baby and my husband are asleep right now? A quiet house and my Live Writer- perfect!)

Okay a little history before we dive into pictures.

1. The sewing room was a dining room that is at the front of the house that has been used twice in 3 years. The room is quite charming, but not as a formal dining room.

2. Clay was completely supportive of the transformation and actually even encouraged it! He was a big help!

3. I was on a budget. Which is fun, because if you weren’t on a budget it would just be too, too easy to make it gorgeous and it would take the proud moments away. Can someone cross-stitch me “The poorer you are, the more creative you get.” :) My mom has taught this very thing to me.

Before dining room:

(It actually looked better than this, but didn’t have the most current one.)

And let me say, the table was pretty and the glass cabinet that you can’t see was really pretty, but I decided to sell it on Craigslist and be patient and get the price I wanted and use half the money for the new room and the other half for the bank account. Great plan. It worked and turned out I didn’t even need patience. Sold quickly. I heart Craigslist.

Okay picture drum roll…

When you walk in, to your right, you would have seen my metal shelf with all my practical stuff on it, so my mom came up with the genius idea to bring in these green shutters I had in my garage and see if we could block the view of the metal shelf and God was good to us because they were the perfect width and height. They are a good looking green, yet photographed a little odd.

Here is the shelf once you walk in and look at it! Very convenient! (I didn’t straighten it up for the picture, but should have. A little messy. But hey- it’s being used daily!!)

The birdhouse Lola painted for me while Nonna watched her while I taught my lessons. The blue boxes are Ikea and quite practical… the fabric, ribbon, and brushes are a must! The black plaid roll of paper was one quarter at an Estate Sale.

Finding a table I liked that was big enough was a problem. Finally found one for $40 on craigslist that was solid pine. Pretty heavy table. (In case I ever wanted the table to be a dining room table or even kitchen table, I choose wisely.)

It was this real shiny pine that I wasn’t digging at all.

A nice DIY project turned out great! Another look… The legs aren’t as blue or glossy as they look in this picture. They actually look more grey. Crazy story short: a retired neighbor saw me sanding and staining and actually ended up helping by showing me how to stain and even took the table to his house to properly sand it. I warned him that he didn’t want to become friends with me because I always have a project going! A nice sander is definitely on my Christmas list this year! I love the table transformation.

The chairs I had in my breakfast nook and Clay isn’t a huge fan, so I decided to retire them to the craft room and replace the chairs in the breakfast nook. Still on a lookout for good replacements. The table is the breakfast nook is also getting replaced with a tad bigger of a table that has a leaf which will be good for an expandable kitchen table since I no longer have a dining room.

The fan was one I already had and even though I like the idea of a chandelier in the room, the fan just worked better and really helped make you forget that is was originally a dining room.

My mom convinced me to take my bookcase I found for $25 at an Estate Sale and stack it on top of this green dresser given to me by my in laws a few years back that I had painted green a couple years back. I played a long in fear, but really love it now. The acrylic lamps I had but didn’t have a place for them ended up working perfectly. Across the room is a small black desk that holds my own machine. I love the balance of black with the brown. The framed art is Lola’s paintings she did with my (and her) Maw-Maw. Extra special.

The Select Fabrics box is very, very old and I love it. My mom picked that up for me at some cool county sale she went to. (Edit: It has been pointed out to me that “Carrot” actually found this box and my mom only paid for it. Hehehe.)

Lola has a corner, but I am still working on it a tad. I bought this corner shelf I will put her stuff on, but first want to add wood cut outs to make the shelf solid. Then paint it all white, because it’s a little dirty looking. The cute desk (which opens up) was a find by my Paw-Paw and he redid it and gave it to us. The chair my Maw-Maw gave me, but admitted the other day she regretted it. :) Lucky for me, not enough to ask for it back. Lola loves her chair and desk and certainly her spot in the room.

The bunting banner I love and think it gives a crafty/sewing look to the room. Kebby made one as well in one of her lessons for her apartment in college. I like that the ironing board shows and that it’s cover is a sewing cover and not a design. The collage was a must and the pictures mean a lot. The white piece with the skirt I had along with the chair and foot stool.

This is my Maw-Maw when she was a little younger than me on my Paw-Paw’s motorcycle. She just got back from her honeymoon. Lola is named after her.

This is my mom just about my age working in her craft room with Nick sitting there. She is either pregnant with me or about to be! :) The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?

This desk I had and love. My Maw-Maw gave this to me a while back ago and has been in every room in the house and a couple different colors. Works great to hold my machine. The chair my Paw-Paw gave me because it’s always been one of my favorite pieces in his house. I guess I never had realized how much they have given me! ;) The spool holder my MIL got me for Christmas. I had it custom made! The clock was a $2 find with Ginni.

I made a lazy suzan and loved it for awhile. I was going to add it to my garage sale pile then decided to cover it and use it in the craft room. I had a cuter display there, but since the table space gets used up quickly I opted for something smaller. I plan on changing the fabric out, but for now I really like the idea of it. (Notice vintage pin cushion! If you see a cool one, please buy it for me. I want to collect them!)

Here’s a closer look at the dresser. I hate the coloring seems off. Everyone seems to be drawn to this dresser when they see it. It was a green paint left over from Lola’s bathroom. I really wish I had a before picture of this dresser. One day I may paint this baby with oil paint.

So that was the tour of the room! What do you think?

Sunny Days

2011-07-26T22:47:00.001-05:00

I am pretty sure Dallas has been the hottest city in America the past few weeks. I can’t imagine any hotter that’s for sure. Lola has gotten in some time outdoors regardless and mornings are the best! Lucky our shady tree helps a lot! We created a pool/slide contraption and Lola loves it! Can you tell?

Check out the next two poses- where did these come from???

Even her daddy got in on the action!

Do you think we need a bigger pool??? :)

Fall will be welcomed with open arms this summer.

Random Slacker

2011-07-21T08:29:00.001-05:00

So for some reason this summer I have fallen behind on blogging. Nothing too crazy has happened and we are really just trying to stay cool because it is ridiculously hot right now.

I am in the process of changing my dining room over to a craft/sewing room which will be great for me and great for Sew Creative. I can’t wait to share what I do and of course I am trying to redo the room as cheap as possible! Hitting up garage sales Saturday morning and look forward to finding treasures! (Fingers crossed!)

Here are some random pictures…

Carole now known as “Carrot” send Lola a surprise and I told her who sent it to her in the mail and she knew exactly who I was talking about and said “Nonna’s Friend.” Btw, Lola is talking so good. Everyday she seems to say new words and I laugh thinking about how she has picked them up. A few days ago, she was saying “Oh my gosh.” Which I would prefer her not to say, but it was quite comical.

Ok- pictures of opening Carrot’s surprise to Lola- Purple Elmo Pajamas!

I like how you can see the thought process-

Hmmm….clothes? She is starting to check it out.

“What are on these purple pajamas?”

“Ohhhhh, it’s Elmo!”

Smiling at her new surprise.

I told her we needed to wash them first, that’s why she has that look on her face, but she won… she got to wear them unwashed. :)

Thanks to Carrot for thinking of Lola all the way in Arkansas!

Aubrey came over yesterday to have a little outside time. I am lucky we have such a big, beautiful tree in the back creating shady spots.

The other day the played so well and Laura and I were able to paint a whole bedroom! (Thanks BFF!) But yesterday- um- not quite as well. Not bad, but not like that one day. ;) We look forward to more days like that.

Sew Creative has been a lot of fun! I keep getting new girls and look forward to going full force in about another month. Remember it’s for girls all ages and for beginners. I lot of girls are choosing just to take a few classes to learn a few things they really want to know how to do. Recently my younger girls made really cute coasters-

See? I was lying. Aren’t they great? And they pick out their own fabric and I think they are pretty darn good at it! I saw these coasters on line and they are great for lessons because they teach several little things and help you practice a straight stitch over and over. I “pinned” these even though I am still not quite on board with Pinterest yet. Trying to get use to the concept but all my friends love it!

Okay more later- my sewing lessons are actually about to begin! :) Woohoo! A big thanks to Nonna and Clay for helping with Lola every week so I can fit in all my students!

MIA

2011-07-08T18:29:00.001-05:00

I have totally fallen behind in blogging which isn’t good because I love it so much! Just been so busy with Sew Creative, CFA, and of course family!

Here’s a quick update with pictures!

Sew Creative is going great! Love it!

Lola has learned to drive.

Just kidding, but her ears are finally 100% cleared up. Went to the ENT and had a successful visit and possibly made friends with the doctor and nurses so maybe next visit will be a good one for her. No tubes for the time being and hoping that was her last ear infection. Doctor says there is no way to know. But fingers crossed!

To celebrate feeling well we headed off to the playground which has a huge tarp over it to help us beat the 100 degree weather. Unfortunately the tarp doesn’t help keep little two year olds from breaking their foot… more to come. Check out Laura’s post for more pics! (like I didn’t add enough for you!)

Lola is just always cheesin’ at Aubrey! She certainly loves her!

Laura and I were certainly a good team that day because I brought watermelon as a surprise because both girls love it and she brought Sonic drinks for all of us! How funny is that? Gotta’ love it.

Aren’t they a mess? Can you tell just by looking at them how hot it is outside and how hard they play!? It’s nice to a kid and not care about the heat. Or they germs on the table. ;)

This picture is being framed…

Back home and all cleaned up but refusing to smile- can you believe this is the best picture I got?

So the first trip to the park went so well and we were the only ones there, we decided to go back a few days later.

Girls were in heaven again.

Instagram picture taken with my phone. They were just laying on the concrete having a good ole time laughing at each other.

But after a bad fall on the playground- the fun ended. Lola wouldn’t walk on her foot and was consistent about where the pain was, so I thought maybe she broke her foot. No swelling and no bruising so of course I waited a couple of days to take her in! ;)

Turns out after a trip to Children’s she fractured her foot! I guess after two solid days of her refusing to walk on her foot, I had no choice but make her see a doctor. I would have taken her sooner if it wasn’t such a nightmare to take her. We went to Children’s and they were a-m-a-z-i-n-g. Much more set up to handle her. She did GREAT!

And so did Nonna! Haha- she came as reinforcement with Lola and worked her booty off. It was huge help- actually I hardly had to do anything! It was like a mini-date for me and Clay! Haha!

A couple hours after getting there, we were booted up and ready to go. Thanks Children’s! (And to Carrot for helping me decide to go there!)

For the 4th of July weekend we made it up to Nonna and Ba’s 4th Party- Lola was beside herself happy. She got to get on the boat for the first time!

By Monday she was pretty tired from her late nights up, so we stayed long enough to see everyone and let Lola keep partying then headed back home. She slept the entire way home and great that night! She was exhausted!

Not the best picture but sure love this man-

All my good pictures are taken with my phone! :( I hope the iPhone 4 goes down soon because I look forward to having a good camera and phone in one.

Lola has been doing great in her boot and we can take it off to swim and sleep.

Looking forward to fall for sure. But still enjoying the summer. It’s impossible not to when you have the cutest, most imaginative little person living with you! ~~Clay~~ Lola is getting smarter and smarter.

A few of my favorite things-

1. She has learned to say “a little bit” and it cracks me up whens he uses it in a sentence. She told me the other day around 5 p.m. “Daddy be home in just a whittle bit.” So smart. And I asked her if she tee-teed in her panties and she said really sluggish, “Yeeeep, just a whittle bit.” Ha!

2. The other day while Lola bathed we sung the 5 little monkeys jumping on a bed and I sung- “the momma called the doctor and the doctor said…” and Lola exclaimed- “Put a band-aid on it!!!!” :)

Okay Lola is begging me for chips and hot sauce so gotta’ go- but one last thing… I am on my 6 week (only 3 weeks left) of training for a 5K. I know, kind of wimpy, but I am glad I am finally consistently working out/running. I somewhat like it ;)

Cry it out girl…

2011-06-27T20:49:00.001-05:00

I took away Lola’s naps a couple weeks back and at first it had major success.

It was heaven.

She was a bit tired by 4 p.m. but hung in there until 7:30 which is an amazing bedtime. Clay and I obviously enjoyed having the evening to ourselves. Lola likes to be entertained so we always felt like one of us was entertaining her instead of each other.

Lately, for some reason, it seems like she is adapting to no nap and now trying to go back to her old ways of taking forever to fall asleep and demands me lay with her and wants to play with my hair and stay awake forever. When we first took away naps, she would lay down at 7:30 and be out in 2 minutes. No hair playing, no crying, no tossing and turning. It was great. I get some nights will just be harder, but I feel like we are going back to the old ways. She is waking up every few nights in the middle of the night and staying up for hours, so maybe she is just overtired.

Without the naps, she was actually getting as much sleep as she was with naps. I hope we can correct this again.

The last two nights I just finally had to let her cry some. The first night after she cried for awhile I went in and set next to her… It was an hour and a half ordeal. And tonight I let her cry with the door closed, then went in and tucked her in again and told her no more crying and I would leave the door open. So she battled trying not to cry so the door could be open and I stood in the doorway peaking in just enough she could tell I was there. She didn’t cry and stared right at me until she finally fell asleep. Took 30 minutes tonight. Let’s see how tomorrow goes. I need her to learn to fall asleep on her own without me in the room, because then I feel like she will have a better chance of staying asleep through the night without feeling like she needs me. I read (ya, ya, ya) that if your toddler isn’t sleeping good be sure when you put them to bed that the room is the same way it’s going to be all night- so no momma. If it isn’t, then when they wake up at 2 a.m. they notice what’s missing, and in our case, that’s me. I feel like the sleeping just needs to be fixed by now. Clay and I now know what it feels like to have a baby asleep by 8 p.m. and we can never go back! Hahahaha…

On a side note, but important:

Her ears stopped draining finally and we went a few days without her mentioning them, but in the last 36 hours she has been telling me they hurt. So I hope the ear infection isn’t still present. We got back to the doctor on Wednesday. PRAYERS! It will be over 6 weeks if there is still an infection. Surely not!!!!

4th of July Floats

2011-06-24T21:08:00.001-05:00

Happiness in a cute glass I would say! Thought I would share- I was navigating through my favorite website: Prudent Baby and came across these! Definitely have this planned to do for the fam next weekend! So easy and I bet so delicious. I am a sucker for coke floats. And cute straws. And those glasses. :) They would be cute in the mason jars as well too.

“Try Again”

2011-06-21T19:50:00.001-05:00

Lola is cracking me up. Her sentences are becoming longer and she talks in different voices. Her new thing that is one of my favs- it is her saying “Try again.” I like it so much because she doesn’t always use it in the right context but it still gets the point across.

The other day she went potty and I wiped her and put her down but then she immediately told me “try again.” I told her she already went but she insisted she try again. So I put her back on the potty and she went #2. Made me laugh out loud.

If you are doing something fun with her and stop, she will tell you try again, meaning to keep going or more.

I had some really funny examples and didn’t write them down, dang it.

The ENT said it wouldn’t help her ear to go swimming but it wouldn’t probably hurt either if she wore plugs and the band-it. So we may sneak some pool time in here and there, especially since the pool we go to has a big pool that is only 1.5 feet deep.

Doctor appointment is next week and we will possibly be getting tubes. We will hopefully know on Wednesday if Friday she is getting tubes.

She looked so cute in her band. I would recommend it. This is her with her “Maw-Maw face.” We try to tell her not to have a Maw-Maw face! Hahaha- she was concerned over something.

Still concerned but warming up…

She decided to give the playground a whirl…

The playground was a little hot for liking.

Back to pool! Yea!

Despite being glued to the edge of the pool, she enjoyed finally getting to “swim.” She walked around the edge like it was a step thinking she would fall off. It was quite comical.

Her stud of a dad helping her get her shoes on since the ground as hot.

I was so glad to let her enjoy the water some! Muah Lola!

Check out our first class…

2011-06-21T16:37:00.001-05:00

Head over to Sew Creative and check out our first sewing class today! We had loads of fun and got through the nitty gritty of learning our machines! We are looking forward to making tons of beautiful things!

Sew Creative is official.

2011-06-15T21:11:00.001-05:00

Check out my new blog specifically for my new little ~~dream~~ ~~adventure~~ reality that is actually in the works!

www.sewcreativegirl.blogspot.com

Prudent Baby Contest!!!

2011-06-13T10:56:00.001-05:00

Well I made the #10 spot and am quite thrilled about that! Check out the top entries on Prudent Baby. What a fun contest!

How to teach your child?

2011-06-12T19:02:00.001-05:00

How do you teach a child to love life and to have a happy heart? Is this something that is already programmed into their little souls? Some 5 year olds worry so much and others just run with the wind with no worries.

From thinking back to ages I can remember, it seems I was always ready for the “next” phase. I remember my dad genuinely begging me to just enjoy where I was in life. The next stage was going to be good, but life gets more complicated. How do you let a child just be free-spirited?

So funny, because having siblings it’s interesting to see how each child is different and alike all being raised from the same parents. How much is the child? How much is the parent? And how much is the Maker?

I prayed that Lola would have a happy heart. It was my authentic desire for her in life. I want her to have a happy heart, have faith in Jesus, in the goodness of people, and love me back. ;) I want her to find her own truth and be comfortable in her own skin. I want her to live without fear, without excessive worry, without holding back. I want her to find humor in the small things and in the big things. I hope she finds her passions and holds on to them, explores them, and lives with them being a big part of her life.

I now know- that at the good ol’ age of 26, you really have just had the chance to really find yourself. Sure, some do earlier, and some do much, much later. My sister feels the weight of the world on her at times to hurry and figure out college, degrees, and life. It’s ridiculous we expect this of teenagers. How did Mary have Jesus at such a young age?

I have learned in life I am very passionate about sewing, creative thinking, textiles, my family and my babies. That would have been really helpful at the age of 18 to know that would be my interest.

I love that things that were once so uncool for kids to participate in are now being looked at as hip. I certainly plan to offer Lola a variety of outlets so she can help herself more easily discover what she is good at and what she enjoys. I want her to think outside of the box.

I wish sewing lessons were more easily assessable when I was younger. Think how more I could do now? I am starting my own sewing lessons for girls next week in my home and really look forward to it. I love when people take what they are passionate about and turn it into a career. The famous quote from my dad from someone else- “Do what you love, and you’ll never work again.” I love that. And I love “When there is a will, there is a way.” I think both of those quotes will carry larger meaning later in life.

I am about to go get Lola and she is at Nonna’s. She is only 2, but has quickly learned the art, the fun, and the memories baking creates. She pulls up her chair to Nonna’s counter and sweetly demands “pies.” She loves that Nonna lets her make a mess, have her hands in the homemade pie crust, pinch it pretty, and add the toppings. What if my child has discovered early on she wants to bake for a living by something as simple and sweet as Nonna making pies with her.

It’s little things like this that really help create a child. She loves the piano, she loves baking, she likes painting and coloring, she is good with her baby dolls, she loves basketball, she sings with such happiness… I just love watching her decide what she wants to do next. I always want to be able to afford her the opportunity to figure out what she loves.

As I start sewing lessons, I always want to think of what Lola would like to start. For Christmas, Clay and I want to find a nice, but used piano for the dining room and start working with her so we can let her do lessons at an early age. I want her to feel the sky is the limit in life… does that start with piano lessons at an early age. No. But I do think it starts with a lot of love, letting her feel the freedom to be her, and an intent to help her discover new things she enjoys.

Mom-daughter story.

You know, my mother made me try out for cheerleading in 7th grade. Of course, I was partly mad at her, yet I partly enjoyed working with the girl a little older than me because I thought she was pretty cool. I didn’t make it. And never tried out again. I am sure I was terrible. I don’t even like an aerobic step class because I can’t learn all those weird foot movements. Did I think at age 12 my mom was crazy for making me do that dumb try-out? You bet. But now I know sometimes we moms may fail at guessing what our kids are going to love- but we gotta’ press to help them find their own passions. We want passionate kids. We want passionate friends, spouses, communities. I could have wondered for years if I wish I would have given cheer a try and now I don’t. I did, it wasn’t my thing, and I am grateful for that.

I just love this age of 2. I now wish I could freeze time and make her 2 ~~forever~~ for a while longer than a year. It’s so fun to see their personalities develop. Turns out as crazy and cute as Lola is at home and around the comfort of those she deeply loves, she is actually quite shy every where else. It’s shocking every time I go out in public or around friends she doesn’t see on a regular basis- but it’s just her. She’s shy.

Here is Lola at home a few days after her daddy’s birthday. I just love this video. She is so darn sweet natured. It makes me want to buy her a real piano and little music book. Play away Lola! :)

A new strategy… (Updated)

2011-06-10T19:20:00.001-05:00

Clay and I took Lola to the doctor today and I am glad he decided to come along because Lola knew where we were headed before we even entered the parking lot. She was so beside her self that she had to go see the doctor and I thought it would be an easy visit with a quick look in her ear, but there was still too much drainage for the pediatrician to get a good look so we had to suction some out. Lola was so upset, sweating, beat red and then threw up- which she always throws up when she gets real upset like that and I kept warning the doctor is was coming- trying to give him the hint to move his computer out of the sink! So instead of making it to the sink- she just threw up all over me. And the outcome of the whole trip: wasted money, a new antibiotic I had firmly asked for over two weeks ago, and a not-so-good pediatrician, oh and a little girl who will never-ever-ever want to see another doctor in her lifetime. She may just be like her daddy and be anti-doctors… Does this mean with Lola gives birth one day she will refuse the hospital setting and have her baby at home in a tub? ;) I for one like the idea of “natural medicine” but I certainly don’t mind popping a pill or two and certainly loved my epidural.

So our morning wasn’t ideal- but we made it up to her by having a family lunch date to Chick-fill-A, then snow-cones, and last but not least a trip to the pond to feed the ducks and search for turtles. She officially recovered. By this time it’s now two p.m. and this is where the new strategy comes in… despite her seeming so tired, I was a mean mom and forced her to stay up. Her great grandparents came over to play with her while Clay and I enjoyed some time out and when we got home she looked even more tired and they told me she really needed a nap! Haaa! No way sweet kiddo of mine… I made dinner and then gave Lola a bath and now I am about to put her down and see if she will finally fall asleep within a few minutes at bedtime. Basically during the day- she will go down for a nap and in just a few minutes be sound asleep and at night it takes hours!!! Literally. No exaggeration. So I finally decided to see if we could just skip naps and solve the bedtime problem. I hope she will go down earlier, like 8 p.m. and fall asleep much faster! Yesterday was our first try and I put her down at 9 p.m. (which I wanted to earlier but we didn’t get home in time) and she went right down. She NEVER does that at night- so let’s see how tonight goes since I am putting her down even earlier! I hope this is our cure all! It’s going to be great!

Everyone enjoy the weekend- I have been de-cluttering the house and it feels great! I am also doing the Couch to 5K training and have so enjoyed it, much to my surprise! I think I like to workout. :) It’s me time and a stress reliever. Cheers to that!

Update: It worked beautifully. She was asleep by 8 p.m. This is the first time since she was a itty bitty baby! Haha! Greatness! Does this mean we are officially done with naps? That is ~~a little bit~~ very sad. But I’ll keep doing it if it helps. :)

It’s a miracle!

2011-06-05T23:39:00.001-05:00

So my favorite place on the internet is Prudent Baby. I am in love. They make me want to create more, unfortunately spend more, and just embrace my crafty side.

And guess what??

They had a contest that I decided to toughen up and enter! I was really pumped and then… as you all know… Lola’s been so sick. Days kept passing by and secretly I wondered would I ever get to make something with words and embroidery and enter it in for a chance to win a Brother Embroidery Machine!!!

Friday was the turning point that Lola seemed to play well enough and require minimum rocking so I got to work! Poor Clay has had zero attention with Lola being so sick and it didn’t stop through the weekend! He knew I was determined to get my little idea done!

I decided to embroider a kitchen cabinet door. :) Original? These doors already had chalkboard inserts I had done a few years back so it really wasn’t too tricky!

I didn’t want it to have a kitchen theme. My kitchen is tiny and the kitchen, breakfast nook, and den are all one common area… so after much thought while rocking for two weeks, I decided upon:

“Once a job has once begun, never leave it till it’s done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.”

Famously said my mother and grandmother. In fact they have worn this saying out, but after swearing as a child I would never ever tell my own children this- I actually can’t wait till I tell Lola this and she has already heard it been said to her daddy. ;)

Then I choose the sweet Russian dolls because they have a little bit of a kitchen feel, but still look cute and fun! This is really the first time I have embroidered to this extent. The couple things I have fooled around wit you, you guys have seen. So this was good practicing. Looking forward to really getting better at this.

After really finding my home style in life- the decorator part of me would love the charm of an old house and I think that would be my dream, but the germ freak really would like a new home- maybe one day we will build a new home to look old! :)

The look goes well with my breakfast nook feel.

The sweet Russian dolls gave me a good excuse to try out different types of stitches. I can’t wait to do more!

This was really fun and really gave me a great reason to get out all my fun stitching books and learn first-hand how to do this! I think I am addicted! Hmmm… can everyone guess what their homemade Christmas good will be this year? Haha…

My two favorite books out of the several I have:

Doodle Stitching, The Motif Collection

Colorful Stitchery

And the next project I would like to do is the “Stitches I Know”

Here’s an example I found

Just not any better…

2011-05-28T16:28:00.001-05:00

She isn’t getting any better and I just don’t know what to do to help her besides follow the doctor’s orders which are plenty of rest, lots of liquids, and Advil. Despite fevers being high they do respond quickly to meds. Within about the first 45 minutes of taking Advil she may play somewhat. But that’s about it. She slept all night and morning and afternoon today. Just now up. She’s drinking enough and some days she eats a little too. She does keep complaining about the wrong ear though and I can’t figure out why.

Well I am trying to fix us some mac and cheese to see if Lola will eat a little. Keep praying please!

Surrendered to Sickness (Revised)

2011-05-26T14:34:00.001-05:00

Lola’s last day of school was last Thursday and she very ready to see her friends and teachers. She was so happy. I tried to explain that it was her last day and she kept saying “Bye-Bye Teachers!”

Pictures of Lola on the last day of school. I held back tears all day. We just love her teachers, friends, and school.

Lola’s first day of school and second day of school (second day was red t-shirt day):

Isn’t that crazy the difference. She was just a baby back then. Now I remember why I was so nervous. Oh what a difference a school year makes…

Well when I picked her up from school she seemed unusually tired and fussy. By the time we got home she was falling apart and wanted to be rocked. We haven’t rocked in months, so I decided to and she went straight to sleep and then the fever hit. She cried about her ears hurting so we got in to see the doctor the following day.

Doctor said it was ear infections and put Lola on a new antibiotic that luckily she had no reaction to, but unluckily it wasn’t helping at all.

Ever since then we have literally lived in the rocker with Clay being our faithful servant trying to help both of us. She slept, cried, and ran fever since then. Her fever got as high as 105.5. Lisa S. really helped me figure out what the best thing to do for Lola was since her son, Blake, had such terrible ear infections. With no relief, on Wednesday we went back exhausted. A different doctor in the practice saw her and he suggested we really go ahead and clean out her ears (irrigated them- the water method) so he could really see how infected her ears were. It was insane and I felt so bad for Lola. But I will say, immediately after she seemed more comfortable. One ear still had a bad infection so we went ahead and gave her the Rocephin shot and stayed 30 minutes to ensure there was no reaction and praise the Lord- none. She slept most of the time in the office once they had checked out her ears. Only woke up to the prick of the shot and screamed then went back to sleep. When we got home she slept till 9:15 p.m. then woke up seeming to feel much better. She ate and played for along time before wanting to go to bed. This morning she has ran fever and slept a lot but around 11:30 she perked back up- ate, played, colored, finally got a much, much needed bath and is still playing- now with her blocks. SOOOO finally we seem to be on the road to wellness! Here’s what our week looked like:

Here’s us after the second doctor appt: See the bloody cotton ball? The procedure made her ears bleed. :( No exaggeration when I say we were literally in this rocker for a week. She made me stay there even to sleep at night.

She occasionally drifted over to daddy’s lap, but she mainly just wanted him to sit on the couch so she could see him. Poor Clay he was so bored- and his birthday was Sunday and it just wasn’t much of a birthday. I did manage to make him some homemade Italian soup for dinner and his parents dropped of Maggiano’s for lunch and my mom added a pie to the mix! :) I did manage to pull of a great birthday surprise gift for him which made the night more exciting.

I took so many pictures with my phone due to rocking chair boredom.

She is sleeping on me like this. I never seen Lola sleep so much.

One morning I managed to get her to sleep on the couch without me and I cleaned like a mad women. It was a great two hour break.

Before she got real bad we took her to get a snow cone to help keep her drinking. Once she got worse, Clay would just bring them home to the both of us.

Looks pretty miserable huh?

But today we finally have some relief!

Awe- clean, soft hair, no smells of throw-up and clothes are stain-free from any medicines. Nice to see her wanting to play and eat.

Still has weak eyes, but this is a major turn around. :)

Thanks to family and friends for praying for her! We look forward to joining the rest of the world soon!

Update: So this was a fluke or something. I figured with this kind of improvement she would be up and running in full swing by this weekend. Nope- today (Friday) was worse than the last day and a half. I don’t know what is going on. I did notice her back teeth are coming in so maybe that’s part of the cause. With every tooth she cut, she ran a fever and slept quite a bit more. She keeps complaining about the left side of her face (where teeth are coming in) and it’s the right ear with the infection still… so makes me think they are really bothering her. They don’t seem red or infected, so maybe just painful. Please keep praying for Lola to return to good health. Ready to enjoy some outdoors!

How should I title this??

2011-05-18T23:34:00.001-05:00

I was in bed over two hours ago looking forward to letting my head hit the pillow and being sound asleep- and then I got to thinking about work and stayed up for two hours planning out some important details. Here I am now. Man- I am too wide awake and there goes getting a few hours of extra sleep. Money or sleep? So hard to choose. Looks like money won, and now blogging.

SC:

Confession.

Sometimes in the middle of the day I will spontaneously hold Lola and rock her just because a part of me actually misses it. Not very often since I rocked as much as humanly possible Lola’s first two years of life, but the snuggle time was so sweet. I can’t remember the last time I rocked Lola to sleep. So weird. When I pick her up, I always immediately notice she is lacking a diaper and she just seems so old wearing her cute little panties. Courtesy of Gram (Debbie), we now have super cute Baby Gap panties to add to our growing collection. All this panty shopping is making me think I need to up the cuteness of my own panties! :)

Lola typically gets time-out when she is throwing a fit or not listening which tends to be very successful for her. She will apologize a million times and makes me (or Clay) feel so guilty because whatever she did, didn’t call for “sorry” that many times so I always have to say “I know you are sorry and I appreciate that. Sorry means you are going to try really hard not to do it again, but you also have to sit in time-out for doing it.” Then once the timer goes off she always gives hugs and I tell her I love her and go play. What a great thing to be kid. Really amazing. Do kids know this?

But when Lola doesn’t get time-out, occasionally she gets a spanking. I don’t think spankings work really well with her and now when she gets a spanking (which means a quick pop of the thigh) she will tell us “Tat hurt Momma.” Hahaha. It’s funny and not funny. I always say “Spankings are suppose to hurt a little, but you are okay. You need to be a good listener.” Then in some jibber jabber she will tell me she would rather sit in time-out. Hehehehe. That girl is a character. She told Clay the other day that “tat hurt daddy” and he totally fell for it… he said sorry and gave her a kiss and told her to go play. Sucka…

Did anyone see last week’s Modern Family? Hilarious. I just love this show. It really makes me laugh out loud. But it was about her (wife) being bad cop and him (husband) being good cop. They tried to switch roles and they were awful at the other role and happily switched back. At first glance I feel like we fit those roles, but after thinking about it- I think we have a good balance. Clay’s definitely laid back, but he likes Lola to listen to us both and cares about her attitude. I like our balance. Lola seems to appreciate the rules and things we try to teach her. The other day, nap time was a bit of a struggle (normally not too bad at nap time) and I told her, “Lola, I know you are really tired, but you need to relax and give in and after you sleep for awhile you will wake up and be so happy.” She laid down in her bed and I rubbed her back and she fell asleep quite quickly after that. Two hours later (a long time for her) she woke up jibber jabbering away trying to get me to come to her and get her out of bed… so I go in there and she is beaming with happiness. She gives me a big hug and says “Tank cho (thank you) Momma” and I asked her for what and she says for “night-night.” Awe. Isn’t that adorable? See kids do like structure and do realize we sometimes actually know what is best for them.

Really enjoying age 2. Looking forward to her at every age, even “terrible twos.”

“Everydoby clean up, clean up. Everydoby clean up, clean up.” Lola sings that terribly fast and loud with the letters as written while picking up her toys now. I don’t know which is cuter- her singing that song or actually picking up her toys. Her room stays cleaner and I still need to show pictures of the rearrangement!

Totally going to bed now! :)

Nat

So hard to say good-bye…

2011-05-17T16:22:00.001-05:00

Lola’s “school” (Parent’s Day Out) is officially over this week. So sad. She really loves it and it’s been a great break in the week for me to get my CFA work done and sneak in Target trips alone.

She seems to learn so much when she is there and always comes home with such a happy heart. Her 3 teachers are wonderful. Just wonderful.

Since we love them so much we decided to make something out of love… We picked a scripture for each teacher and wrote special notes… here’s how their gifts turned out… Black lettering is stamped on and colored lettering is hand embroidered.

Still can’t believe she has already been through a year of her class. :) Where does the time go?

Sister Silliness

2011-05-14T13:40:00.001-05:00

It was ~~always~~ so much fun having a little sister seven years younger. She was my birthday present as she was born just a couple hours before my 7th birthday. I loved her from the moment she was born. Needless to say, I raised her. Haha- just kidding- but mom did a great job making me think I did. Something I am so grateful about for my mom, because I feel confident in having more children and how to go about teaching them to love each other. Lord, please don’t let me eat my words there.

Anyways, I would dress her up all the time and take her pictures. Can you imagine all the film I went through! Haha… Here’s one:

Can you see Kebby in Lola now? They do resemble each other.

As we got older we would both do photo shoots of each other.

Apparently, embarrassingly enough, we haven’t outgrown this…

Messing around with manual setting while Kebby dolls up her face…

A little 80’s anyone? :)

Kebby high on sisterly love… bauhahahahaha. We opted for fake eyelashes…

I like the silly ones!

If I do say so myself, I am loving my blonde. Jennifer Guthrie did a great job and thanks to my mom for paying! It was so nice and long overdue! Love blondes.

I love this one of Kebby…

Considering we were on mom’s property- she wanders out to find us. Does the word wander make her sound like an old lady who is lost… hahaha. She took over the camera for a minute…

Yep. Kebby really regretted the eyeliner. Oh well. Next time we will dress like Gaga. Does anyone have a fire crackling bra and undies we can borrow?

Run, Run…

Here’s my fake eyelashes- now every time I do my mascara I think I can get them looking good- I guess I quickly got use to longer lashes!

My beautiful sis- inside and out…

scroll down for even better laughs…

Laughing all the way through these. We are so gay. Clay is so embarrassed. He really needed siblings to loosen him up.

Trying to flip my hair…

Don’t be offended. And sorry if you are. It’s tradition Kebby and I always take pictures flipping off the camera! ;) All for fun.

Love this:

“A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost .”

Proud as Pete (or as a Mom)

2011-05-14T13:02:00.001-05:00

Seriously guys.

Let me just brag and brag for a moment.

Lola is amazing.

I feel like I can take no credit for her transition to diapers to panties.

It’s all her.

Lola is just a rock star.

Last weekend she just started using the potty every time and we both quickly realized this was for real- the time is now! She’d ask for a diaper when she had to go poo-poo, then back to pull-ups when she was done, which pull-ups quickly turned into panties since she never wet them! Then after a few days becoming a pro, she started using the pottty every time, even pooping on it! (Which is amazing not having poop diapers in my garage anymore especially with the summer heat!) Now we nap in panties, go out in errands in them, and wear them all day at home. Only diapers now are used at bedtime. She goes potty before bedtime but still isn’t always dry in the morning. I bought training panties at Hannah Anderson that are sooo super comfy and soft but they have extra lining so we can use those at night time soon. I hope the box I have of diapers is my last and luckily I bought only nighttime diapers.

I love walking down the hall and seeing her using the potty by herself. Cracks me up. And sometimes while she is handling her business on the potty she tells me to “close er eyes!” Haha! She looks so cute in her panties, and I am addicted! She does get annoyed if you ask her if she needs to go potty more than once or twice- and gives a rude “No!” So independent. Glad she is confident in her own potty-ing skills. Pictures soon. :)

Rearranged Lola’s room a bit, so I need to post pics. I think she likes it better and it feels cleaner. I was tired of walking into her room and seeing her kitchen under the window all messy. She seemed pleased too. She was a big help making it “prettier.”

Goodness. Clay and I love her! (I don’t think Clay realizes how lucky we are with the ease of potty training! Of course, it’s God’s grace since sleeping has been a different issue! Thank you Lord. Sincerely, thank you!)

Oh little panties…

2011-05-11T14:30:00.001-05:00

Well the craziest thing has happened this week. Lola is completely sold on using a potty now. I couldn’t find her this morning and didn’t hear her, so as I walked down the hall to look for her and out of the corner of my eye, I got a peak of her sitting on the potty tee-teeing! She’s a pro! So we have been in pull-ups this week with great success. Time for panties! The only weird thing is, she asked for a diaper when she feels the need to go poo-poo. Yes, I just used the word poo-poo on my blog. Gross. So I am working on that part. But at least she knows not to go in her pull-up, or as we call them- panties. This is amazing. God is being good to me since she is a difficult sleeper. I’ll take it Lord! Thanks!

I have her some Elmo panties, but she doesn’t like wearing them and they seem to small. So I have been looking at super cute and comfy big girl panties…

Here’s what I have found.

BabyGap never really fails. Look at the classic days of the week panties. (I even want a pair of these!) These are a must, aren’t they?

And Carters makes a cute set too: So colorful!

Next 3 are all BabyGap:

These cute colored ones are Old Navy:

And Hannah Anderson has some cutes ones, but my guess would be there’s are the most comfortable and well made because that’s how that store rolls.

I am super excited to transition out of diapers and the cost of diapers. I have noticed that potty training has seem to cut back the bottom scratching problem.

Can’t wait to see how the rest of the week turns out. Fingers crossed.

Easter Pictures

2011-05-11T12:25:00.001-05:00

A little late, I know. But it was a nice day. Kebby, Nick, Clay and I had a competitive Easter Egg hunt since mom had made paper machete eggs with surprises in them! I am definitely a mom, because Clay and I huddled together to come up with a strategy so I could take pictures of Lola hunting her candy filled eggs, yet we could still dominate as a couple! Oh and we did! Although somehow Clay ended up with all the goodies in the eggs and I just ended up with these pictures of Lola! ;)

Mom and Dad go hide the eggs!

And Lola says “Isn’t it time already??”

We are all waiting…

Enough kisses- time for egg hunting! Lola catches on quickly.

Hmmm. She starts looking in the eggs as she collects them.

Nick finds the adult egg! Hahahaha…

Clay is on the hunt too… He’s already got several!

Lola is starting to get excited!

Lola is looking in better places than Ba thought to hide them! She needed more of a challenge! Hehehe…

That’s a big basket of eggs!

Thank goodness Nonna finally got a good camera!

Lola realizes some of her eggs have a little money too! Man- even at 2 money is exciting!

I found one egg despite taking all the pictures!

Boys got T-Shirts!

Lola got fun surprises too!

Trying to get Lola to like band-aids, but she doesn’t seem convinced they are cool.

Since we are working so hard on sleeping habits we quickly wrapped up things and headed home to put Lola down (plus she was a little under the weather that day) and we had the biggest melt down of all meltdowns in the car. She would not get in her car seat, she wanted Nonna, and it was horrible. We had to pull over and let her out of the car to cool down and recompose and got back in the car and she got so upset again and it took Clay and I both to get her buckled in and once we did she finally calmed down and this happened…

We have never been late on a nap again. That was a nightmare. If Clay wasn’t in the car, I would have bawled too.

We had a great Easter Sunday. Being with my brother and sister makes me so badly want to give Lola a little one too. She’s going to be a great big sister one day.

John 11:25-27

Hello Sun!

2011-05-11T11:49:00.001-05:00

We love our sunny days. Sunny days mean popsicles, bathing suits, and friends coming over! It’s greatness! Our patio was well worth the investment and love put in it.

Lola got this water thing from Clay’s Aunt Sandy and is still warming up to it. We got to get Aubrey over to run through it so then Lola will want to! :) Ohhhh Aubrey!!!

Bubbles never go out of style…

She’s got a heavy foot and can’t steer. This is one good workout for me!

Water table from her Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw! This is a hit.

We were trying to tell Aubrey that Elmo was hiding in the camera to get her to look and of course it was my kid who was gullible.

Our girls are really into climbing trees! Nick and Clay really need to get on the tree house!

Yay for pretty weather!

Family Time Pictures and Secrets

2011-05-11T11:46:00.001-05:00

Lola really loves telling secrets and she seems to always have secrets to tell Daddy when he gets home from work! It’s so cute!

Nowadays we can’t take just one picture- we must do “Kebby Face” in one and the other we talk her into smiling!

Kebby Face:

Smiling:

Kebby Face:

Smiling:

We have so many pictures were we are smiling and Lola is doing her “Kebby Face.”

Thought this was a cool pic.

Look at those eyes! They seem to be bluer than ever now.

Sweetness…