Weigle, Inc.

Personalized Thank You Cards

2012-01-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

I think Thank You cards are an incredibly important thing. I was raised sending Thank You cards for every gift I received. Sadly, over the past year, I have fallen short on the Thank You cards. It makes me sad and I really want to get back on track with them. I also want to make sure our boys are raised knowing the importance of not only saying "Thank You" but also taking the time to write Thank You cards. I have seen (and received a few) fill-in-the-blank Thank You cards for kids and thought they were a great idea for starting this habit for kids. Since Robby obviously cannot write or even scribble on a piece of paper to express his gratitude to everyone who gave him a birthday present, I wanted to come up with a way to incorporate him in the card, even though I would be the one filling them out. So, I decided to make my own fill-in-the-blank Thank You cards with his handprint!

I got this big stamp pad at Michael's and got his handprint on a piece of paper (much easier said than done, let me tell you!)

I made a template in Word for postcards. I have a big box of postcard paper so I'm always looking for ways I can use them!

Then I scanned his little handprint, saved it as a .jpeg, edited it just a tad, and inserted the image into the document.

I had to shrink his handprint down a little so it would fit correctly. I think I want to make these each year until he can write his own, so I will probably do them on half sheets of card stock in the future so it can be a full size hand print. I imagine grandparents will enjoy them enough, they will want to keep them from each year!

Here's the finished product:

I also printed the return address on the back of each card, just to make addressing them a bit quicker. I thought they turned out pretty cute!

Wordless Wednesday: Sometimes you do what you have to in order to get a shower!

2012-01-25T10:08:00.001-06:00

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Ways to (hopefully) make life a little easier

2012-01-24T09:42:00.000-06:00

I don't know about you, but if my house is a wreck, I feel like I'm a wreck! I feel stressed and overwhelmed if there are dishes in the sink or things out of place. Since having Robby, I realized how important it is to have a daily routine for getting everything done. There are still lots of things that I need to do better on (meal planning is a big one I need to be better with!). Here are just a few things I do each day. I'm hoping to help out someone else to make their days go smoother and in return, I want to know what you do to make your days easier. So, please, leave me comments! Things are going to get crazier around here very soon, so I would love your tips!

First, I make the bed every day, no matter what, within the first 15 minutes or so of getting up.

My mom was very strict about us always making our bed each morning, and I'm grateful she was that way. It really does make the room instantly look picked up!

Second, I never go to bed with a dirty kitchen.

This is a big one for me. I hate, hate, hate dishes in the sink. Thankfully, we have always had a dishwasher. So as soon as a dish is used, it goes immediately in the dishwasher. If I'm cooking or doing something that requires multiple dishes or utensils, as I work, things go in the dishwasher. I run the dishwasher every night. I used to think this was wasteful, but if the dishwasher is not run the night before, it's being run the next morning because there isn't enough space for our morning dishes! If dinner has been a bit crazy and there is a mess afterwards, I will clean the kitchen and load the dishwasher while Tim is bathing Robby so my cleaning isn't taking time away from either of them (bath time is their special time of the day together!). By doing this every night, I don't wake up stressed knowing there is a big mess waiting for me. Plus, when Tim is leaving in the morning, he is leaving a clean, put together house. And for some crazy reason that's important to me! :-) I empty the dishwasher while Robby is eating his breakfast (that way I don't have a helper trying to climb in the dishwasher!).

Third, I pick up all of Robby's toys at night before we go to bed.

Truth be told, I pick them up several times a day because I can't stand children's toys all over the house. Plus I have this fear that someone is going to drop by the house, walk in, and think my home is a wreck because of all the toys! Normally, there are not as many toys in the living room as there are in this picture, but Robby was already asleep by the time I picked them up so I couldn't drop them off in his room.

Fourth, I fold and put away laundry as soon as it's done. If I didn't do this, we would be pulling wrinkly clothes out of the dryer throughout the week and then it would just be time to start washing them again! I also do this with our cloth diapers. As soon as they're done in the dryer, I pull them out, stuff, fold, and put them in the diaper hanger. For the same reason! I can't be scrambling for a diaper and insert in the dryer while in the middle of a diaper change!

Those are just the big ("big" in my mind, at least) things I do but there are also some little things. I generally get Robby's milk cup ready the night before and keep it in the fridge. That way as soon as he wakes up, I'm ready to go. If Robby and I have somewhere to be the next morning, I will set out both of our clothes to make getting ready quicker and easier. Something I was pretty good at doing when Robby was first born (and I need to get back in the habit) was showering at night so that no matter what, I knew I had my shower done for the next day! I would say 95% of the time I get a shower every day, but there are still those days that it just doesn't happen. Or it happens in the middle of the afternoon! Also, something simple, is paying all of our bills online on the same day each month, as well as running all of our "bulk" errands on the same day each month. I'm not sure how that will change once Charlie gets here. How likely is it that we will be able to go to Walmart, Target, and Costco all in the same day??

I really want to be better about meal planning and grocery shopping. I would love to not need to go to the grocery store each time I want to make something because I didn't plan ahead at the beginning of the week. Do you have any tips for how to get started (and keep up with) meal planning? I've seen a lot of calendar type things on Pinterest to help with meal planning. Do any of you use something like that? My sister-in-law posted about e-mealz yesterday. I think I might look into something like that. Also, I want to be better about having specific chores that I do on certain days of the week. Generally, I just do things as they need to be done and will do it all in one day. I think if I continue doing it that way, I'm going to get overwhelmed rather quickly after Charlie is born. Do you do all of you cleaning in one day or have specific days each week that you do certain things? Something I've thought of doing is doing one major cleaning task on the same day each month, like cleaning all the blinds on the 5th, the baseboards on the 10th, the microwave on the 15th, the cobwebs in the corner on the 20th, etc. Do any of you do something like that? I'm wondering if it is a realistic thing to try to start doing.

So, spill the beans. Is there a certain way you put away your groceries that makes finding things quicker and easier? Do you have a stock of meals in your freezer for those crazy days when making dinner just isn't possible? I want to know!! How can my life be easier with a toddler and a newborn?

Yay, Uncle Ryan! and Baby!

2012-01-23T16:05:00.000-06:00

This morning, on a morning tv show in Little Rock, my brother made an appearance. He is an architect at a firm there and he was there to demonstrate a little bit of what area architects have been working on for the local food bank. In the first video he is second from the right in the blue shirt and in the second video he is on the far right (still in the blue shirt..he didn't have a wardrobe change between clips!).

We were out running errands while it was going on, but Robby sent this message to his Uncle Ryan:

This afternoon after his nap, Robby kept saying "be-be" over and over again. He was saying it so clearly. But of course, as soon as I started videoing, he started being a toot and was breaking up the word and not saying it as clearly. But he did say it a few times on the video, so I thought I would post it!

Tomorrow, I'm going to make a post about tips to make life easier. I only have a few, but I would love to hear everyone else's tips. I know once Charlie arrives, my life is going to get quite a bit crazier, so I can use all the advice I can get on how to make life a little easier! It can be home tips, baby tips, cooking tips, etc. Be thinking about them and I can't wait to hear what everyone has to say!

Jewelry Hanger

2012-01-22T13:56:00.002-06:00

I have seen several different types of jewelry hangers and knew I wanted to do one for my bigger necklaces and my earrings. Ninety percent of my jewelry has been packed away since we moved back in March because I wasn't sure what to do with it all. I had forgotten just how much I had! I'm really excited because now I can see everything that I have and will, hopefully, be able to accessorize better and look more put together! When I was originally thinking of what I wanted to do, I thought this would be a good idea for my necklaces:

(Just so you know, if you decide to do something like this, you can get all the materials from Ikea for around $5 total! The wall bracket thing is $1.99 and the hooks come in packages of 10 for $.99. It's in the kitchen section.)

And this for my earrings:

When we were at the container store yesterday, we found this and I realized I could do something with it for my jewelry! I already had hooks that I could use for my necklaces from something we purchased a while back and didn't use and my earrings could just hang.

So last night, Tim hung it up for me. We were originally going to put it in my closet but I realized there wasn't wall space that wouldn't be covered by hanging clothes, so I wouldn't be able to see everything and that kind of defeated the purpose of even hanging all the jewelry. We decided it would look good above my hand towel on my side of the bathroom. It started like this:

Then I realized that it kind of looked messy and needed something behind it. So today I went to Michael's, got some foam board then got some fabric from Walmart and some pins. Here's how I did it.

I measured, marked, scored and broke/cut the foam board to fit behind the metal rack.

Then I laid it on top of the fabric (in a perfect world, I would have ironed the fabric first, but in a perfect world, I would have measured the rack correctly the first time and wouldn't have had to go back and cut it three different times to make it fit AFTER I already had the fabric on and thought I was done...), I pinned the fabric into the foam board with straight pins. I did the top row first, then the bottom row, making sure to pull it really tight.

Then for the ends, I folded them like I was wrapping a present and pinned one end, pulled it really tight, and pinned other end.

The rack came with 4 brackets - 2 for the top, 2 for the bottom - but we only used them on the top because I wanted to be able to slide this in and out easily. Plus, who knows when I will want to change the fabric to a different color! So I slid the board behind the rack and viola!

I think it turned out pretty well and I really like the pop of color that the yellow gives the whole bathroom! It was (obviously) very simple considering it's just a fabric covered foam board. I think the hardest part of the project was untangling all of my jewelry! :-)

A nice Saturday

2012-01-21T21:35:00.001-06:00

Today we had a few errands we needed to run plus some things we just wanted to do. We started our day picking up some jeans that Tim had hemmed. Tim just ran in while Robby and I waited for him in the car. While we waited, I let Robby try out a snack cup for the first time.

He was doing great...so I thought until we got him out of his car seat at the next stop and found pretty much all of his snack in his seat! Little stinker!

Our next stop was The Container Store. Y'all, I could have spent $1,000 in there today if we had been able to! I informed Tim as soon as we walked in that we would be walking up and down every aisle. He obliged! :-) One thing we purchased was this handy cart for between our washer and dryer:

We also got a few other little storage things, plus something I purchased for a project that I will post about tomorrow once I finish it!

We had been in the store for a while when Robby was getting tired of being in his stroller, so we got him out and let him walk around. I captured a few pictures of him and his daddy walking around.

I plan on going back at some point to get containers to organize our pantry. I could have gone crazy in there!!

After that we went to a neat place called Lakeshore Learning Store. We didn't get anything here but we will definitely be going back at some point. They had some great stuff! They also had a lot of projects going on with kids there. I think it will be fun to take Robby there to do some experiments and projects when he gets older.

We wanted to look at some bedroom furniture since we are finally going to be able to get a real set of matching furniture! We have some picked out that we like but wanted to see what else is out there before we decide for sure. Well, like most things we shop for, the sets we liked were way out of our price range. We went to about 4 different stores and by the last store, I was done! We decided we are just going to go with our original choice. Hopefully, we will be able to get it before Charlie gets here, but we'll see.

Tim and I love getting out and just running errands - or just running around without any specific place in mind to go! So it was nice to spend the day together just getting out and doing a bunch of stuff. Thankfully, Robby enjoys being out and about as much as we both do!

Finally!

2012-01-20T17:57:00.001-06:00

Robby took his first multiple, independent steps right before he turned 11 months old. He became more confident and stable over a few weeks and now he is walking faster than I am at times! He will walk the whole length of our house without falling or holding on to anything. He gets a bit unstable as he gets tired. I realized last week that I hadn't gotten a video of him walking! I've just enjoyed watching him and praising him, so I had completely forgotten to video it! This afternoon he was being so silly and walking from me, to the wall, turning around and walking back to me - over and over again. I realized this was a good time to video it! So here it is! He waved at one point but I couldn't back up quickly enough to get it in the frame.

YouTube Video

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Twelve month stats

2012-01-20T17:02:00.001-06:00

Today was Robby's 1 year appointment.

He weighs 21 lbs 13 oz (34th percentile), is 29.5 inches tall (39th percentile), and his head is 18.5 inches around (67th percentile). He's a little guy. Neither of us were big babies so I wasn't expecting him to weigh much.

He is doing all of the 12 month things and most of the 18 month things! His gross and fine motor skills are all perfect as are all of the cognitive skills (that we have actually done with him). I was surprised at some of the things that I was supposed to be doing with him. I've done the few this afternoon that I hadn't done before and he's already caught on and is doing them well. Who knew you were supposed to put a rock in a clear plastic bottle and make sure your child can point to it?? I sure didn't! We also haven't given him anything to scribble with/on. Apparently we were supposed to have done that. He can now, we just had never done it before. Nothing like going to your child's checkup to make you feel like a horrible parent! :-)

As we were looking to see when Robby's next appointment and immunizations would be (15 months) we realized we will be bringing Charlie in for his 2 month appointment and immunizations at the same time! How crazy is that??

Another Pinterest project

2012-01-19T19:49:00.001-06:00

When I first started "doing" Pinterest, I was met with quite a bit of failure. I was mainly working with the recipes I found, and they just weren't turning out right. I'm not an amazing cook or anything, but usually when I try a recipe, it at least comes out edible...

So I started looking at more of the craft ideas. After (somewhat) success with a Christmas project:

and Robby's birthday decoration success I have decided that maybe Pinterest isn't all that bad!

Anyway, I saw this idea and realized that I could do a version of it on my own. Funny thing is, as I was working on this yesterday during Robby's naptime, someone came to our door and rang the doorbell 4 times in a row. I was so mad!!

Here is how mine turned out:

If you want a copy of the document I made for this, just let me know and I'll email it to you!

Birthday Keepsake

2012-01-19T17:07:00.001-06:00

I saw a pin on Pinterest for how to save all of your child's birthday cards. They took a 3 rings, punched holes in the cards and put the cards in so you could read them almost like a book. I liked the idea but didn't like that the holes would punch out some of the writing in the cards. I also wanted to save some of the decorations from the party, like the banner, "streamers", invitation and the door hanging. So here is what I came up with. I might put some white paper in each sleeve to make it look less messy. But it's more just to have rather than being a pretty scrapbook. (I'm sorry, I can't figure out how to turn my pictures for some reason!)

I am trying to decide if I want to put a picture of Robby opening the corresponding gift with card or not. I would love to keep one of these for every year! I might just make a paperback photo book on Shutterfly from his birthday and out that in the binder with everything else.

Wordless Wednesday: The Power of Sesame Street

2012-01-18T22:24:00.001-06:00

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32 Weeks (a week late!)

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 32 weeks

Size of baby:

Maternity Clothes: Oh yes! Most of our clothes are still at the apartment so I had been wearing the same 3 shirts over and over again! Thankfully, Tim was able to get me several more shirts from the apartment earlier this week so I feel like I have all new clothes!

Movement: His movements are beginning to be slower, smoother movements instead of the rapid movements before. He still is moving a lot, just a different type of movement.

Sleep: Usually about every other night I end up waking up around 2 or 3 and stay awake until about 5, then I finally doze back off until Tim's alarm goes off around 6:30 or so.

Symptoms: Just the same aches and pains in my back and hips.

Food cravings/aversions: My eating has kind of leveled off. For a while I was eating so much but now I'm feeling full sooner. I still just pretty much want everything to eat!

What I am looking forward to: We are getting really close! Since my doctor thinks I will deliver pretty close to 38 weeks, we are looking at being 5-6 weeks away. I can't wait to see sweet Charlie's face and learn his personality! It will be fun to see the differences between him and Robby.

Party Details

2012-01-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

I LOVED planning Robby's party. And, thanks to Pinterest, it wasn't too difficult to keep all my thoughts in one place! I knew pretty early on that I wanted to go with a monkey theme since he loves his little Kai Kai so much. The first thing I found was the invitation package.

I paid one price for all of it and she personalized the invitation as well as the cupcake toppers. She emailed me the files to download and I printed all that I needed. I knew I wasn't going to use the cupcake toppers as actual cupcake toppers, so I wanted to think of something fun to do with them. I saw this idea:

So I cut out big and little circles (I just traced the top and the bottom of a cup to give me uniform big and little circles) from the patterned papers she sent, then used the cupcake toppers with them to make my own version of these. I just taped all the circles and toppers to ribbon and hung them at different levels of our angled ceiling so it gave the illusion of them being different lengths. This is how it turned out:

I saw several pins of these cupcakes and just knew that's what we had to do instead of a cake.

In case you can't tell, they are just yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting, then I cut off the top part of a regular size Nilla Wafer for the mouth area of the monkey and cut mini Nilla Wafers in half for the ears. My mom added the smile, nostrils, and eyes for me because I don't trust myself with decorator icing! I knew I didn't want to Robby to have to deal with the cookies on top of the cupcake, so for his I just put the candle in it.

The other decoration that I found that I just had to do was the door hanging. This is the one I saw:

I decided to just use buttons that coordinated with the colors I was using. I outlined the "1" on some cardboard, cut it out, then hot glued all the big buttons down, followed by the medium buttons and filled in all the empty spaces with the small buttons. I'm not good at random so I was getting a bit frustrated with the button placement, But thanks to the encouragement of my sister-in-law, I kept going and eventually got it done. After I finished with the buttons, I hot glued it to a wide ribbon, glued the "Happy Birthday" card (from the printouts) on the ribbon right above it and taped the ribbon to the inside of the door so it would hang flat on the door. I am pretty proud of the way it turned out!

I didn't end up doing party favors. I had a cute "make your own play-doh kit" pinned and will probably use it for his next party. We'll see!

I had such a great time planning everything and I love how it turned out! I'm not a crafty person and I usually get very frustrated because things don't turn out absolutely perfect, so I'm surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. Robby's sweet little face when he saw all the decorations made it all absolutely worth it! I know he won't remember this party, other than what he will see in pictures, but the way he looked at all the different decorations with me makes me know that he saw them and enjoyed them during the party!

A fun-filled birthday!

2012-01-14T22:11:00.000-06:00

Today has been a wonderful day! It started with us just having some time as our little family. We had breakfast casserole (Tim's breakfast item of choice to become the traditional birthday breakfast we have) and watched a movie that Tim made of pictures all from Robby's first year.

While Robby was down for his morning nap, I finished getting everything ready for the party and Tim and I got ourselves ready. Robby woke up around noon, so we got him all dressed up to greet his guests.

And took some pictures of all the decorations for the party.

We had chicken salad sandwiches, carrots and ranch, chips and salsa, and monkey cupcakes!

Everyone started arriving a little after 1pm. Grandma Gloria, Grandpa Bill, and Aunt Kathy were the first to arrive. Then GrandLaLa and Pepaw arrived.

We mingled, ate lunch, then began opening presents.

He loved everything he received! He had a hard time moving on to the next present because he wanted to keep playing with everything he opened! Tim and I got him a slide as well as a ball pit. We decided to put the slide into the ball pit for extra fun for the day. I think he liked it!

We went outside to get a few pictures (and sweet kisses!) and that turned into Robby taking a ride in his wagon.

When we got back inside, it was cupcake time! I was surprised at how neatly Robby ate his!

A little while after that, our friends, the Beattys, arrived. Robby enjoyed playing with them. I somehow didn't get any pictures with them, though. Everyone started leaving around 4. Robby had a blast and I feel like the party was truly a success!

For dinner, we went out with my parents to Mamacita's. Robby loved the atmosphere (and the beans!).

There is a robotic Davy Crockett that plays "Happy Birthday" on the fiddle whenever the servers are signing to someone who is celebrating their birthday there. After the first time, Robby was glued to Davy, so I asked our server if they could make him play again. He said he comes on about every 15 minutes or when someone is celebrating a birthday. We mentioned that it was, in fact, Robby's first birthday! Well, at the end of our meal they brought out a sombrero (that didn't go over so well with him) and some birthday sopapillas! He loved them!

He also loved the fountain that was in the entry area of the restaurant!

When we got back, he played with his new toys and spent a little more time with his LaLa and Pepaw.

He had a very full day but did great. He was so precious with everyone who came and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as he did!

One Year

2012-01-14T02:00:00.000-06:00

Our sweet little man,

We knew this day was coming. We would talk about it often. Each time a month would pass, we would remind the other one how many more months until you would be a year old. But we are still in disbelief that you are actually one year old. For the past few days I have had flash backs to what we did and where we were on the days leading up to your birth. For the past 24 hours we have been reminding each other of what we were doing at the specific hours one year ago. Let me tell you, you will never understand this until you have a child of your own, but our lives changed in a way that we were not prepared for. We have never loved anyone as much as we love you. You are the most amazing, wonderful thing that has ever happened to us. The moment when you were placed into my arms for the first time was the most intense moment of my life. There you were. Ours. We wanted you, prayed for you, loved you, wondered about you and finally we were able to see you. You were more than we could have ever imagined. Truly perfect.

This past year has flown. It seems like I was just sitting with you on our couch in Amarillo. You would just lay on my legs and I would stare at you all day.

Daddy and I sneak in every night to see you one last time before we go to bed. You still make this little scrunched face when you sleep.

A lot has happened in this year. You have lived in three different homes! You still prove yourself to be an incredibly adaptable child. While you love quiet time at home with just us, you also love to be out and around lots of people and you absolutely adore it when you get attention from everyone. You talk all the time. Words that you now say "Kyou" for "Thank you", "this", "jce" for "juice" and "k" for "milk". I love that now you are associating the words with what they are instead of just repeating the sounds. You also know that a duck says "quack". Saying "oooooo" about almost everything is still a common occurrence. And we still love it! I love to look in the backseat of the car and see you looking out the window talking or you will stick your feet out towards me so I'll tickle them. You are so happy. If you are upset, it's for a reason. You love to laugh and smile. When you are around other children, you usually sit back and watch what they are doing for a while, then slowly get in to play with them. It's so cute to see you observe what's going on before you begin playing.

You are walking all over the place now. You first started walking on your own right before you turned 11 months old. For some reason, you were shy about it and would only do it for us every now and then, but that soon passed and now you are everywhere. I love to watch you walk! It is just so cute! You eat pretty much whatever we give you. Meat of any kind still isn't your favorite, but you love beans! Crackers and cookies are also big hits with you. Whenever we are eating something, you come up to us and say "mmmmm" until we share with you! Sometimes you end up eating all of what we have! You are exclusively drinking whole milk (bye bye formula!!) and have been for several weeks now. We are thankful to be spending about $13 per month on milk instead of $120 on formula! You have 5 (almost 6) teeth, two on the bottom and three on the top. There is one that has been ready to cut through for a while, it's just taking it's sweet little time! You are quite the daredevil. You love to climb on things, dive off the bed, climb from the couch to the chair, and get thrown all over. Fear is not something you understand! Our absolute favorite thing you are doing now is giving kisses. You started one day out of no where after Daddy got home from work. He was holding you and leaned over to kiss me. After he did that you opened your mouth and leaned into me to kiss me then leaned over to kiss Daddy. We seriously melted into a puddle when you did that. I won't lie, we set up the scene quite a bit so you will want to kiss us just because it is so adorable!

You are still an excellent sleeper. You generally wake up somewhere between 8-9 in the morning. You have your first bottle then some oatmeal or applesauce and some cheerios. We will play or run errands in the morning, then you will go down for your nap between 10:30-11. When you wake up around 1:30 or so, we have lunch (you eat whatever it is I'm eating that day), then we try to get out of the house if we haven't already run errands that morning. We live right down the road from Target now, so we will usually go there, get a bag of popcorn to share, and walk around for a while. As long as you are around people, you are a happy boy! You love when people stop to talk to you and you will just say "hi" to random people we pass. I never get tired of people stopping me to tell me how adorable you are! After whatever afternoon outing we have made, we head home for you to take a little nap while I get dinner going. About the time you get up, daddy is coming home (as long as he hasn't had to work late that day). When daddy walks in the door, you get the biggest grin on your face. You adore your daddy (and he most definitely adores you!). (A lot of times during the day you will go up to our closed bedroom door, bang on it with your hand and yell "dada", thinking he's in there with the door closed.) Daddy scoops you up and the two of you will wrestle and tumble around on the bed or the couch. The giggles that I hear from you are unlike anything I hear all day long. There is just something about your daddy that really gets you going! After dinner, we usually play a little while, then it's bath time! Bath time is still one of your favorites. Daddy always gives you a bath then it's bedtime. Thankfully, all we have to do is kiss you goodnight, turn on your noise machine, give you your monkey and paci and you just lie down and go to sleep. We are often amazed at how well you go to bed.

Robby, we have loved seeing your personality come out over this past year. We love every single thing about you. Even when you do something that frustrates us, we can't help but melt at the site of your sweet smile. You are our biggest blessing and (like everyone told us it would be) we cannot imagine our lives without you. We love you more than you can ever understand!

Happy 1st Birthday!
Mommy and Daddy

Wordless Wednesday: First ball!

2012-01-11T08:09:00.001-06:00

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The House

2012-01-06T12:26:00.000-06:00

When trying to figure out what to blog about first, I decided to just go in the order that everything happened. So first up, our first home purchase! I should first say, we never had any intention of buying a home. We knew that the apartment was not going to be a feasible place for us once Charlie arrived, but our lease was through the end of March and we didn't have the money to break it. Also, homes to rent in good areas were going to be much more expensive than what we were already paying, plus they were going to need about 3 times the monthly rent just for starting the lease to cover the deposit, first and last months rent, and pet deposit. So we had decided we would just move on base. This was going to be something we couldn't do until after Charlie was born, but the Air Force would move us, which was a huge perk. While the base housing was going to be HUGE, it was going to take our entire housing allowance and there was a strong possibility that we would be required to begin paying all the utilities sometime this year (the way it is currently is you just don't receive your housing allowance when you live on base and that covers your home and all utilities and upkeep). This seemed to be our only option so we were just planning on making the apartment work until the end of March.

We started looking at the possibility of purchasing a home the weekend after Thanksgiving. The couple we spent Thanksgiving with told us how much they paid for their brand new house (by a different builder). We realized that this might actually be a better way to go. We had some stipulations though. The mortgage, taxes, and insurance had to be the same or less than what we were paying currently for rent. The house couldn't be more than what we NEEDED. And we both had to love it! Of course, along with all of those things, we prayed about it and waited for God to open and close doors.

Tim had to work most of the day the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but once he got off, we decided to drive around and look at what was available. We knew we would be looking at new builds because of the incentive money offered to military, as well as builders being more likely to pay closing costs. Plus, the home warranty that comes along with a new home would almost be like we were renting since we wouldn't have to worry about anything if it went wrong for at least a year. We knew we couldn't afford anything in our current city, so we started looking in San Antonio. We looked at several model homes. We liked a few of them, but most of them just didn't work for us. We were about to call it a day when we went a little further down the road from where we were. We happened upon a neighborhood by a builder that our realtor had told us in February was one of his favorites and has a great reputation. We drove around and saw two one stories that had "Available" signs in front of them. We stopped by the model home and saw that they were having a closeout sale for the inventory homes. The house were looking at was marked down quite a bit. When talking to the representative, he told us three things that made us a little excited: we could be in the house by Christmas, they get people out of their leases all the time, and our monthly payment could be right where we needed it to be. He showed us the two homes that were available. The only difference between the two were the exteriors, one was limestone and one was sided with a little bit of a porch on the front. Inside, the homes were the same except for a few features (nicer appliances and blinds in one but darker cabinetry and tiled dining room in the other). From the moment we walked into the one we chose, I loved it. I was carrying Robby around looking at everything having to cover my mouth so I didn't blurt out "We'll take it!" Tim kept looking over at me and he knew! Some features that we loved about the house were the 10' ceilings, details on all the interior doors, arched doorways, the split floorplan without either of the boys' rooms having to be completely at the front of the house, ALL appliances included (and the upgraded gas range we have) and the great master bathroom with the soaker tub. Not to mention the obvious thing we loved - the garage and ease of getting in and out of the house!

Anyway, we left and went home. We talked about it most of the evening and decided we wanted to go back and look at it again on Sunday. I tend to make things so much better in my mind than they really are, so I wanted to look at it again before I got my hopes up about it. Well, going back to look at it only made us fall in love with it more! After that, things really started going quickly. We didn't want to tell many people about it just in case it didn't end up working out, so only a few friends and our immediate families knew. Things worked out better than we ever could have imagined. The builder agreed to use the military incentive money to buy out our lease. Our total monthly payment was going to be less than what we were paying for rent. And we closed on December 21, so we were able to spend Christmas day in our very own home!

Currently, we are 95% moved in, with our closets and some kitchen things still needing to be moved over. We have spent every night since we closed at the house and I've only been in the apartment one time since we closed. Tim has been absolutely incredible with the move. He's done it all on his own. I hadn't packed anything because we weren't completely sure we would actually be getting the house until the Monday before we closed on Wednesday. He has made so many trips back and forth getting loads of things. He coordinated help for getting the furniture over. He's just been wonderful! I think he didn't want me to have to go back to the apartment as much as I didn't want to have to go back!

Here are some pictures of the house before we moved anything in:

Here are some pictures of how it is now. The living room is the only room completely done (I'm either going to refinish or cover the coffee table) and Robby's room just lacks his curtain for the window and his name above his crib. Our bedroom won't be done until we get bedroom furniture, which we are hoping we can do after we get our tax refund. We have no idea what we want to do in the dining room. And Charlie's room is simply a storage/staging area right now for everything. We have his crib and are planning to get it set up after Robby's birthday next weekend. Charlie's room is also going to be our guest room, so we just need to get that furniture from the storage unit.

I'm going to get some more bins to go on that shelf for organizing toys and things.

We are going to put ceiling fans in both boys' rooms, so until then, we have an oscillating fan in Robby's room.

Guest bathroom

This is my favorite picture of Robby. It looks better on this wall in person than it does in this picture.

Which door to choose? :-) First door on the left is the bathroom, second door is Robby's room, center door is the linen closet, second door on the right is Charlie's room, then the first door on the right is our laundry room.

We are going to get something to go between the washer and dryer that holds my detergents and dryer sheets. We also need to hang our ironing board/iron holder. Once we set up some shelves in the garage, Tim's tools will be out there.

This is the view when you walk in the front door. We have two pictures to go on either side of the mirror on the right and we have some hooks to hang on the wall on the left. That first door on the left goes out to the garage and the second door is the coat closet.

Robby approves of the kitchen!

We added pulls to all the drawers and cabinets (that's actually what we were doing when we rang in the new year!)

This is our first time with a glass shower like this. What do you use to keep the hard water spots from popping up? Is there a great cleaner that works without a lot of effort?

Please excuse our messy counter top. We haven't organized everything to be able to go under the sink yet.

I still am in a bit of disbelief that this is actually our home. There is nothing about it that I don't love. It's exactly what we need. I'm sure most people would want something bigger, but we truly don't need anything bigger than this. Every time I pull into our garage I say a prayer of thanksgiving to God that we are here. We have been so blessed!

I'm back!

2012-01-05T17:02:00.003-06:00

Ok, my blog hiatus has come to an end! I'm sorry I took so long to start back. We have thoroughly enjoyed our holiday time, as Tim was able to have 9 days out of 11 off work. He hasn't had a weekday off since Thanksgiving day, so we were so thankful to have the time to spend together, especially since it was in our new home! I'm looking forward to telling you all about hour Christmas celebrations as well as the story behind getting the house and our move. I'm also going to get back to posting my weekly pregnancy updates. I'll be 31.5 weeks tomorrow, so I've missed several updates! I hope you all are having a wonderful start to the new year!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T23:26:00.001-06:00

We hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas Day celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior!

Wordless Wednesday: New Homeowners!

2011-12-21T17:28:00.001-06:00

YouTube Video

"We don't do Santa"

2011-12-14T16:55:00.002-06:00

It was a small, crowded post office. I had made it to the halfway point of the line, holding Robby as well as a bag containing all of the packages and cards I needed to mail. Robby was being precious, smiling at everyone who would look his way. Then the question came. It's a question I've dreaded for, well, forever. It was the Santa question. To be specific, it was "Have you gotten his picture made with Santa yet?"

Let me make a side note here. I have strong beliefs and views about things. I don't stand on the mountain top, yelling them for all to hear. If someone approaches me directly and asks my opinion or belief about something, I will share it with them. But I don't like it when people are pushy with me and I never want to come across that way to other people. I find that a lot of time when people express their beliefs, it comes across as very "holier than thou" and that is not how I desire to be. I never want people to feel that I have judged them because they have decided to do something other than what I do. I don't believe celebrating Santa means you have completely forgotten about the time to celebrate Christ's birth. I just think it is important for us to be clear with our boys about what is the most important. Tim and I discussed very early on in our relationship how our families celebrated certain holidays and how we wanted to celebrate them with our own family. We grew up with very similar beliefs, so it was rather easy for us to decide that we will not "celebrate" halloween or Santa. Since having Robby, we have talked of how we don't want to pretend that these things do not exist, but instead provide a complete explanation to our children as to the meaning behind everything. I do want our boys to know who good ole St. Nick was and all the good he did, but we have chosen to focus on celebrating the birth of our Savior (and, yes, I know that Jesus wasn't born on December 25 and that it was originally a pagan holiday, but it is now the day set aside for us to celebrate). Something that goes along with this is the materialism that goes along with Christmas nowadays. We have decided that each of our boys will receive 3 presents each Christmas (if 3 presents were good enough for Jesus to celebrate His arrival on earth [again, I know they wise men were not there the night He was born], then 3 presents are good enough for our boys) and possibly one larger, shared present for them. I don't want them to only care about what they will be getting and lose site of the true reason for Christmas.

Back to the post office situation, before I could think through my response (I am a very "think through and rehearse all my words before they come out of my mouth" person, probably because I don't want to upset anyone or hurt their feelings or anything), I just said, "We don't do Santa". A hush suddenly came over the entire post office and everyone just looked at me. I realized how it sounded so I quickly added, "But we are so excited to celebrate his first Christmas this year!" I felt so uncomfortable that I didn't elaborate on what we DO celebrate. I know, I know. A total missed opportunity to share the true meaning of Christmas. I'm kicking myself for not saying anything. That's the point of this post.

This situation has caused me to ponder a better way to respond to the Santa question. It will be coming up again. Many, many times again. I want to have a perfect response that is quick, doesn't come across as condemning to the person who asked the question but also provides an explanation of what we DO celebrate and believe in instead. One of the main reasons I want to have this perfect response prepared is so our boys will grow up hearing it and won't think twice about their response when people ask them. I'm hoping I can address the next situation with more confidence.

Wordless Wednesday: I'm 11 Months Old!

2011-12-14T15:28:00.000-06:00

28 Weeks

2011-12-13T15:21:00.001-06:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 28 weeks

Size of baby: 17 inches, 2.9 pounds (about the size of a small cabbage)

Maternity Clothes: Yessiree!

Movement: This boy is quite the mover and shaker! He is all over the place from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. This morning he woke me up at about 5 because he was moving all over the place. I didn't mind, of course!

Sleep: I am sleeping alright. Some nights are better than others.

Symptoms: I'm still in a lot of pain in my hips and my back. Also, carrying Robby is quite the chore and does a number on my lower back.

Food cravings/aversions: I am loving carbs and cheese! It's going to be so hard getting back on a healthy diet after Charlie gets here! I'm enjoying it while I can get away with it, though!

What I am looking forward to: Just the general excitement of his arrival. I wish I just knew the date he was coming (what mom-to-be doesn't wish that!) so I could have a countdown! I'm excited about going through the labor and delivery again. I'm hoping to remember and note things better this time around.

"Little" Blessings

2011-12-09T21:50:00.001-06:00

Here recently I've been almost overwhelmed by simple frustrations. I'm tired and I hurt all the time. I feel like I am fighting off tears almost constantly. Robby has been so whiney in the afternoons for some reason (actually, it's more like for no reason!). We are in the process of entering into something very big but it's taking longer than expected to get answers, so I'm anxious and feel helpless. This afternoon as Robby was napping and I was rushing around to get things at least picked up to look presentable, I began to realize all the blessings I have received this week. This past weekend, Tim didn't have to work. We were able to spend time together and just enjoy each other. Tuesday we were able to hear precious Charlie's heartbeat then grab some breakfast together after my appointment before Tim had to go back to work. Thursday I went to a cookie exchange and while I was struggling with Robby (it's difficult to hold a wiggly boy with this big belly of mine!) one of the moms grabbed him from me and told me take a break for a minute. That day, Tim was able to come home for lunch (something he hasn't been able to do in a while) AND he got to come home pretty darn close to the time he's supposed to get off work! I also was able to get a haircut yesterday. My last haircut was at the beginning of June, so I was long overdue for a trim! Then this morning, a friend watched Robby for about 3 hours while Tim and I had some business to take care of. Although it wasn't a "date", it was nice to be kid-free midday and enjoy some time together. We even got to eat lunch together.

These aren't big things, but I need to remind myself to note and thank God for every little blessing that occurs. Right now I'm focused on a particular big thing we want (and need) to work out, but I need to remember that my life is a culmination of "little" blessings. The little things I think don't matter tend to be the things I look back on to realize have had a big impact on me and my life.

Of course, I know that two of the big blessings in my life are my wonderful, self-sacrificing husband and this super cute little guy:

Toes are quite tasty, don't you know?

Wordless Wednesday: It's a rough life

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000-06:00

27 Weeks

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

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 27 weeks

Size of baby: 16 inches, 2.5 pounds (about the size of a head of cauliflower)

Maternity Clothes: Yessiree!

Movement: Still a ton of movement. I remember Robby taking breaks throughout the day (naps, if you will) but Charlie is moving all day long. I think I'm going to have my work cut out for me with him! He actually flipped this week. I had been feeling all of his kicks up high (meaning he was head down) but, starting a few days ago, I've been feeling his kicks very, very low.

Sleep: I finally found a way to sleep that is somewhat comfortable, so I've been sleeping a little better. I still wake up exhausted most days, but I am actually sleeping so that's good.

Symptoms: I'm in quite a bit of pain. I've had several bouts of BH contractions as well as cramping. I'm drinking a ton of water to keep them at bay. My hips and back are giving me some trouble, too. I just keep telling myself that it's only about 10 weeks longer, probably!

Food cravings/aversions: I want pasta and pizza. Badly! I have craved carbs more this time than the last. But I love carbs under any circumstance! :-)

What I am looking forward to: I start going to my doctor appointments every two weeks starting with my next appointment. It means we're coming down the home stretch! Also, I touched on my birth plan with my doctor today at my appointment. She's happy with everything that I'm thinking. I asked if they would send me home if I'm in labor but not to a certain point (like they did in Amarillo) because I was nervous they would send me home and I would have Charlie in the car on the way back up to the hospital (San Antonio is just a tad bigger than Amarillo and it takes longer to get back and forth than it did there!). She said they wouldn't. So that made me feel good!

Mmmmm!

2011-12-05T22:16:00.001-06:00

This is waiting for me for the morning.

I know it's not as bad as I make it out to be in my head. I just dread how I feel afterwards. I am drinking this right before we leave in the morning so they can do the bloodwork as soon as I get there, followed by my 27 week appointment with my doctor. I cannot believe I am almost to my 3rd trimester!

Then I became a mom...

2011-12-05T12:08:00.001-06:00

I used to wonder if parents didn't realize that wet spot on their child's pants and why they didn't immediately rush to change their diaper when they were at the store...then I became a mom and realized sometimes you just need to grab one last thing so you can get home or you forgot that extra pair of pants.

I used to wonder why moms didn't take 5 minutes to clean up their mom-mobile to keep it from getting so out of control...then I became a mom and realized some days there literally isn't an extra 5 minutes in the day.

I used to wonder why parents didn't keep socks and shoes on their children's feet...then I became a mom and realized the children DO leave with socks and shoes on, but are immediately taken off when they get in their car seat.

I used to wonder why moms felt the need to have "play groups" or get together with their kids at Chick-fil-a...then I became a mom and realized you look forward to that day each week that you are going to be around other moms just to get a morale boost to make it through the rest of the week.

I used to wonder why parents would spend all that money on snacks and were constantly handing them to their kids while they were out...then I became a mom and realized that full mouths are quiet mouths and full tummies are happy tummies.

I used to wonder why moms always said they were tired, even when they had a full night of sleep the night before...then I became a mom and realized there is no way you could catch up on enough sleep to make you feel rested unless you slept for at least a week straight uninterrupted.

I used to wonder why there were always 15,000 pacifiers all over the place...then I became a mom and realized you can never find a dang paci when you need it most.

I used to swear I wouldn't default to putting my hair in a ponytail more than once a week...then I became a mom and realized that ponytails aren't really that bad.

I used to pass judgment on moms based on what I observed in 5 minutes...then I became a mom and realized we all do things differently, not wrong, just differently, but we all love our children and that is what guides our decisions.

Just like his mama!

2011-12-02T19:07:00.001-06:00

Looks like I'm going to have to start fighting for my popcorn!

YouTube Video

Kai-kai (or Guy-guy, we can't really tell)

2011-12-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

Robby has had a little stuffed monkey since he was about 3 1/2 months old. We put him to bed with the monkey but that was about it. Last week, I decided to give it to him before we left the apartment and he just latched on to him. He now wants Monkey to tag along while he plays, while he rides in the car, while we shop at the grocery store, etc. We just call him "Monkey" so when we ask Robby if he wants Monkey, Robby replies by saying "kai-kai" although at some times it sounds like "guy-guy" and other times he'll actually say "key-key", but usually it's "kai-kai". Anytime we hand Monkey to Robby, Robby puts Monkey's mouth right into his own and gives him a good bite. Here is a video of how he greets Monkey (I was trying to get him to say "monkey" because he had just been saying it!)

Here I finally am able to get him to say it at almost the end of the video. I promise you he says it every time we give Monkey to him, unless I'm videoing him, of course!

Wordless Wednesday: Busy Boy

2011-11-30T07:00:00.000-06:00

26 Weeks

2011-11-29T20:57:00.001-06:00

(Yes, I'm wearing the same shirt as last week. I probably should start planning out my Tuesday outfits a little better!)

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 26 weeks

Size of baby: 15 inches, 2.2 pounds (about the size of an cucumber)

Maternity Clothes: Yes! Either that or Tim's shirts and lounge pants!

Movement: Lots of movement, pretty much all day. He starts kicking and moving around as soon as I wake up in the morning and he's still dancing when I get into bed at night!

Sleep: I'm sleeping a lot better. We started using a white noise app on Tim's old iphone that we use in Robby's room. So Robby is sleeping in a little later in the morning because he can't hear Tim's alarm clock or the doors opening and closing when Tim gets up and leaves. So that gives me the chance to sleep a little bit more. Also, Annie has been sleeping in her kennel instead of on a blanket on the floor, because she would get up in the middle of the night and poop on our bedroom floor then whine about it. Ugh! So, I haven't had all those factors keeping me from sleeping in the past half a week or so.

Symptoms: Just some sore hips and back.

Food cravings/aversions: I'm not really wanting chicken lately, but other than that I'm wanting pretty much anything!

What I am looking forward to: I'm super excited about Robby's first Christmas and his first birthday. As soon as those things are done, it will be time for Charlie to be here! I haven't really thought of it that way, but we have some big milestones each of the next three months!

It's been quite the day, y'all!

2011-11-28T17:43:00.001-06:00

And I'm beginning to feel a little like my tree!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-25T07:00:00.000-06:00

When we found out that the pharmacy remodel would be going on the week of Thanksgiving and Tim would have to work the entire weekend afterwards, we knew we weren't going to be able to travel to any of our family for the holiday. And just the thought of hosting in our apartment while pregnant and chasing around Robby just about did me in! We considered just getting a turkey breast to make and making only our favorite sides for just us. That seemed like what we were going to do until the other active duty pharmacist and her husband (who is a JAG in the Army) invited us over for dinner. They don't have any family nearby so we were happy to be joining them. The only thing they requested we bring was pumpkin pie. Tim decided he would make the gravy, also.

Here is our sweet little turkey

You might remember seeing this shirt on this precious boy last year

I love that Graham wore it, Robby wore it, and next year Charlie will wear it!

We started our day watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or as Tim calls it "The Macy's Lip Synching Parade". In my opinion, the lip synching really was worse this year than in years past! I really kind of wish they would have a version that just focused on the balloons and some of the traditional floats and performances like the Rockettes. Oh well, I'm not the parade planner! It did seem awfully strange to just watch the parade with Robby (until his naptime) and not have a schedule running through my head of when to start what dish to make sure it would all be done at the perfect time!

After Robby woke up from his nap, we headed over to the Johnson's house around 1:00. He was quite excited to be in a new place so he did a little exploring.

Here is the table full of food:

Robby LOVED the rolls!

He also ate some turkey and potatoes.

And he shared quite a bit with the floor!

After dinner, Robby discovered the stairs. We weren't quite sure what he was going to do at first. He just stood up and patted on them. Then he decided to go at it and climb those suckers!

By the end of the evening Robby was exhausted. We took the pack n play with us, hoping he would take a nap in the afternoon. We got him all set up in their guest bedroom but he only slept for about 20 minutes, if even that long. So he essentially went from about 12:30-7:30 with no nap. I was actually quite surprised and pleased that he didn't have any meltdowns. But we knew that at any point it could happen, so we slipped away before dessert. He was asleep before we even left their neighborhood! Tim carried him up to the apartment and laid him down without even a peep.

We had so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, as we do everyday! Most of all, we are thankful for a precious, healthy baby boy here and the precious, healthy baby boy on the way! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family!

E-I-E-I-O

2011-11-24T12:17:00.001-06:00

Robby is getting really good about repeating whatever sounds or his version of the words we say. Whenever I ask him if he wants some juice he'll reply with "jsssss". He loves "s" words! He's been pretty much repeating "e-i-e-i-o" after I sing it to him for a while now, but I finally got it on video last night!

I have still yet to capture him saying "Hi" on video, but it really is the sweetest thing!

Fun with Daddy!

2011-11-24T12:14:00.001-06:00

Robby's newest favorite thing to do with Tim is crawl to the edge of the bed and slide down the side. He thinks it's such a fun "game". I was able to capture it on video a few evenings ago. He will just laugh and laugh when they are doing this!

Don't worry, I don't put him on the bed unless I know one of us is on guard and prepared for him to slide off the edge of the bed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T10:06:00.001-06:00

From our turkey to yours!

How to unload the dishwasher: A picture tutorial by Robby

2011-11-23T13:20:00.001-06:00

Step 1: Approach machine cautiously

Step 2: Identify object you wish to unload

Step 3: Pull very hard on desired object

Step 4: (Very important, don't forget!) Smile sweetly so mommy thinks it's cute and won't stop you

Step 5: If object continues to resist, climb on door and pull on said object with all your might

Step 6: If it still doesn't come out, stand all the way up and try to reach the pan of brownies on the counter

I hope your dishwasher unloading is more successful than mine was!

Love,

Robby

Wordless Wednesday: He sure does make me laugh!

2011-11-23T07:00:00.001-06:00

25 Weeks

2011-11-22T07:00:00.000-06:00

I'm finally getting back on track!

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 25 weeks

Size of baby: 9.2 inches, 2 pounds (about the size of an eggplant)

Maternity Clothes: Ummmm, YA! If I could live in loungepants, I so would! When I'm sitting for a long period of time, the band on my maternity jeans starts to dig into my stomach. This didn't happen with Robby so I'm not sure if I'm carrying Charlie higher this time or if I'm just bigger all around!

Movement: Yes! Same little kicks like Robby used to do. It's funny that Charlie favors my right side, just like his big brother!

Sleep: I'm sleeping ok. I usually wake up around 2-3am for about an hour but am able to fall asleep for a couple more hours usually. I still wake up exhausted, unfortunately!

Symptoms: Well, if you read my earlier post, you will know what I'm dealing with right now! I'm also feeling a lot of low pressure, especially when I've been walking or going up and down the stairs.

Food cravings/aversions: I'm not having any specific cravings. I still just want to eat anything!!

What I am looking forward to: I'm just ready for Charlie to get here. Tim made his prediction this weekend that it would be 10 more weeks, I'm hoping for a couple more than that just to make sure he's completely full term!

Always close the bathroom door...

2011-11-21T14:23:00.001-06:00

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2011-11-21T12:59:00.001-06:00

Saturday night I saw this recipe and mid day Sunday decided I wanted to make it. We were out already, so I sent Tim into the grocery store to grab the ingredients I knew we didn't have. I told him to get the canned ingredients because I just envisioned myself dumping it all in a bowl and the soup being ready in 30 minutes without much prep work. He came out with fresh everything except for the black beans. We got home and he just jumped into the kitchen and started chopping and prepping everything. He ended up making the entire thing on his own and it was delicious! I know it would be good exactly the way the recipe is, but with the fresh ingredients, it was excellent! The tortilla chips we used were extra thin and I didn't use quite as many as it called for, we just added them on top while we were eating. Also, Tim just chopped up the avocado instead of pureeing it. It was nice to have the chunks of avocado in there. I hope you enjoy it!

Robby's world!

2011-11-21T12:18:00.001-06:00

Here is a picture dump from the last several weeks!

It's beginning to look a LITTLE like Christmas!

2011-11-21T11:47:00.001-06:00

This weekend we went to the storage unit and pulled out some of our Christmas decorations. I probably brought back about 1/4-1/3 of what I have. I knew it wasn't going to be feasible to go all out this year since Robby is all over the place and into everything. We have a little 4 ft tree sitting on top of an end table in the corner of the living room. It has about 10 ornaments on it.

I also pulled out a few of my favorite decorations to put out where Robby can't reach. This plate is one of my favorites! I always put Jesus' birthday cake on it for Christmas morning.

(Please forgive the dishes in the sink. I never keep dishes in the sink but I had just finished making brownie muffins for Tim's pharmacy and the dishwasher was running and these wouldn't fit in there)

This is in our hall bath. It's not much but I like to put a little bit all over.

Tim put up some ice cycle lights along a kind of overhang area between our living room and kitchen/dining room. Robby LOVED them when he woke up this morning. I walked out of his room with him on my hip and he saw them as soon as we rounded the corner. He just looked at them and said "oooh"! SO precious. I can't wait to go look at Christmas lights, big Christmas trees, and other decorations everywhere with him!

(Again, forgive the mess! The table and desk ledge is doubling as our dumping grounds right now! That's on my to-do list today!)

The one thing I'm disappointed about is that I could only find ONE of our stockings. We have 6 of them (2 for us, 2 for our kids, and 2 for our dogs - I had it planned out two years ago exactly how many we would need for our family! Haha!). We looked through all the plastic bins that had Christmas decorations in them, but I could only find the one. I don't know what happened to the others. I'm sure they are packed in a different box somewhere. But I'm not too worried about it, Robby is the only one who is getting stocking gifts this year anyway so one stocking is just fine!

Are you planing to decorate for Christmas this week? Or have you already decorated? I used to wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving, but the last few years I've done it the weekend before. I love Christmas decorations so much I want to experience them as long as I can!!

Forgetfulness, falling, and exhaustion - OH MY!

2011-11-21T11:12:00.001-06:00

This pregnancy is kicking my hiney! I had some great energy for about 2 weeks a little bit ago, but now I'm back to complete exhaustion. It's the kind of exhaustion where I physically cannot pick up Robby at times. My arms just don't have any strength left in them. Usually, I can make it to the time when Tim gets home, but once he's here, I'm done for the day. Thankfully, he looks forward to coming home to play with Robby all day so he doesn't mind. I'm able to generally pick up the apartment, but haven't done any really deep cleaning in a while. I have actually been trying to lay down or nap when Robby is napping. I never did that when Robby was first born. I just wasn't tired and I wanted to jump back into our routine and get things done. But right now I just can't do it. I told Tim last night that I feel bad because I'm shortchanging Robby right now. We could be going to the park or getting out and doing things, but there are times I can't even climb up the stairs with him and the diaper bag so getting out just isn't feasible.

Speaking of those pesky stairs, I've fallen twice now. The first time, I had gone to Costco and we were back home. I put Robby down for his nap in his crib and ran downstairs to get the cold things out of the car. I had a few reusable shopping bags over my shoulders and was carrying a box with several other things. I was on the last set of stairs when my foot caught one of the steps, my shoe separated from the sole and got kind of stuck under the step. I tripped up the stairs, but thankfully didn't hurt myself or drop anything. Then last Friday night while Tim was working, I went to return something and was coming back. I was just carrying Robby and diaper bag but couldn't see where my feet were, I guess, and I tripped over the curb in front of our building. This time I fell all the way to the ground, landing on my knees first then my left elbow. The whole time all I could think about was keeping Robby up and making sure he didn't hit the ground. Thankfully, he didn't. I messed up my jeans, hurt my knees and elbow a little, messed up one of my fingers, and twisted my back. None of those were serious at all. My back was the most painful thing, but towards the end of the weekend it was feeling better. I'm not one who is very graceful. I fell every single day of the 1st grade. No joke. Whether recess was inside or outside, I would fall and hurt myself. It was about that same time range when I fell down the long row of steps at the Shepherd of the Hills outdoor theater. I spilled my popcorn and that was what I was most upset about. Also, when I was in the 7th grade, I took quite a major fall down a rocky hill at my school. It was in front of a guy I had a crush on, so it was pretty humiliating. In my adult life, I've had some close calls, but haven't actually had any real falls. So it's frustrating to me to be falling so much now! My clumsiness is much worse!

Not only am I more clumsy, but I'm much more forgetful. I had a few cases of "pregnancy brain" with Robby, but this time around it's crazy how bad it is. I have forgotten my address (twice), the gate code to get into our complex (I actually had to look through my texts to see what I had texted someone it was last week in order to know what it was), Tim's social security number because I forgot my ID and couldn't get on base, the name of AND how to get to my doctor's office WHILE I was on my way to my appointment (I couldn't get in touch with Tim to find out the name so I had to call a friend who had just had a baby and used the same doctor. I'm sure she thought I was quite crazy), and generally what I'm doing and where I'm going. Tim just looks at me sometimes in disbelief that I actually can't remember whatever it is. Last night I told Tim that I needed to take Robby this week to get his second dose of the flu vaccine. He then reminded me that we had already done that on Friday. Oh ya! I'm so glad I didn't go to the clinic and wait in line to get that done only to find out I had just done it last week. I've also had a few episodes of leaving without my car keys (which is very frustrating because I realize it when I get down to the car with Robby and all our stuff then have to go all the way back up to get them and then go back down again!) or debit card/cash. Very frustrating, to say the least. I'm beginning to worry about myself!

Physically, I feel like I'm about 35 weeks along, instead of 25 weeks. I already can't bend over to paint my toenails or put lotion on my feet. It's incredibly difficult to bend down to pick things up and I definitely have the waddle already going on! This is hard for me because I felt so good and so beautiful when I was pregnant with Robby. Now I just hurt all the time and feel like quite the blimp. Sadly, I'm wishing it was over and Charlie was here already. It is sad that there wasn't more time between these pregnancies so I could actually enjoy it again this time around. I loved being pregnant with Robby and this time I feel like I have the typical pregnant woman's attitude that I didn't have the first time around. Anyway, I know the next 12 or so weeks will fly by (or at least I'm praying they will) and Charlie will be here and we will begin the process of adjusting to the new "normal"!

No, I have NOT fallen off the face of the earth...

2011-11-21T10:50:00.001-06:00

Y'all, I'm so sorry I haven't blogged in so long. Whenever I would have a little bit of time to blog, I felt so overwhelmed by the fact that I would need to backtrack and update on all I missed. So I'm just not going to do that. I blog for fun and to keep our family and friends updated, not because I have to. I'm not going to go back 3 weeks and talk about all that has happened in detail. I will, however, give you a quick rundown of what we've been doing. I kind of touched on this, but at the end of October, Mandy came for a visit. She got here the last Friday of October and left the following Wednesday. The last time we had seen here, Robby was about 4-5 months old, so he had definitely changed! Mandy's trip here overlapped with a business trip for Tim. He left for Dallas that Sunday. After I dropped Mandy off at the airport on Wednesday, Robby and I headed up to Dallas to spend a few days with Tim. Towards the end of his week, he wasn't as busy with meetings and dinners, so it was perfect. We left on Friday morning and headed back home. The next week, my parents came for a visit for a couple of days. They got here Wednesday night and left Saturday morning. Tim had Friday off for Veteran's Day, so it worked out perfectly the way their trip fell. Right now, Tim is in the middle of a pharmacy remodel. Yuck! He got home about 9:30 on Friday night because they had to clear out the entire pharmacy after they closed at 5. Thankfully, everyone worked hard and got it done as quickly as they could. He was supposed to go in for a little bit this weekend, but it ended up getting taken care of without him having to go in. It was wonderful because we had the whole weekend just to ourselves! This week, they have merged the BX satellite pharmacy (where Tim works) with the clinic pharmacy. It is going to be crazy to say the least!! He gets Thanksgiving day off, which will be nice, but then has to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to get the pharmacy all put back together and make sure they are ready to be up and running on Monday. After this week, things will hopefully start settling down a little for Tim.

Robby is doing great! He is standing on his own for long periods of time and there have been a few times he has started to take steps on his own but then grabbed for something to hold onto. If he is distracted, I know he can do it, but when he focuses on it, he decides he needs help! He is eating table foods. He likes chicken in little bites, as well as potatoes, pinto beans, black beans, corn, and avocado. He is not a fan of feeding himself peas, carrots, or bananas. He doesn't like anything with a slimy texture. I'm just going to keep giving them to him and hope he eventually takes them. I've started giving him whole milk, as well as yogurt with whole milk. He's been taking a bottle with half formula and half milk. He is loving it so far. And I'm loving the fact that we won't be spending $100 a month on formula, only about $15ish on milk! This morning he had some waffle. At first I tore it up for him in small pieces but he wouldn't eat them. He just tossed them on the floor for Annie. Then I just decided to hand him the bigger piece that I was using to tear off pieces. He took it and nibbled on it for a while. He was so excited about it! Speaking of excited, I posted the video a few weeks ago of him clapping. Well, while my parents were here, he started associating "Yay" and "Good job" with clapping. So anytime we say those words, he drops what he's doing and claps. Talk about precious!! He has also started saying "r" and "y" words (sounds). And his jabbering is now a combination of a lot of different "words" instead of repeating the same sound over and over. He sounds like he's really having a conversation, we just don't know what he's saying! :-) He's so fun right now and we are extremely excited about the upcoming holidays with him.

I have several topics and ideas I want to blog about, let's hope I actually do them!! :-)

Wordless Wednesday: What's going on out there?

2011-11-09T02:21:00.001-06:00

New Developments

2011-11-06T19:55:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry that I've been away from the blog so much the last week and a half or so. We've been busy. I'll post about everything in the next couple of days. But instead of waiting to post this until I backtracked, I thought I would just go ahead and post it tonight.

I expressed my concern to Mandy while she was here last week that I hadn't taught Robby to clap because (this is sad) it never occurred to me that I needed to do that! I don't really clap a lot for him, so I never even thought to teach him this important skill! It took Mandy one time of straightening his hands and clapping his hands together for him to get it! Now, he's doing it all the time. I will just look over at him while he's playing and he'll be clapping. I can't help but smile at him when I see it! Here is a video I got of him today clapping.

Also, over the last several days, he has started walking just holding on to one of my fingers with him leading and setting his pace. He's also standing for longer periods of time on his own. I know walking on his own is right around the corner, I'm just not ready for him to grow up that much yet! Crawling is one thing. That's a baby thing. Walking is a toddler thing. I don't want to think of him as a toddler yet! Enjoy this video of him walking, too!

What to do for dinner?

2011-10-27T19:57:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I was really craving something Italian. We make homemade pizza usually once a week or so, but that's not what I was wanting. I make lasagna frequently, but again, that's not what I was wanting. I texted Tim and told him I was wanting something creamy and garlicy, but wasn't quite sure. I looked at what I had in the fridge and the pantry: spaghetti noodles, garlic, cream, and ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan cheeses. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I started with making a basic alfredo sauce. Then I mixed the ricotta cheese with some parsley, salt, pepper, shredded mozzarella and an egg. I cooked the spaghetti noodles. Then I just mixed everything together in a big bowl, dumped it in a casserole dish, topped it with sliced mozzarella cheese and baked it for a bit. I didn't know how it was going to turn out, but all the things I put into it sounded good at the time! The result was what Tim called the best Italian dish I have ever made. I think I will need to come up with a name for it because I think it will be a regular in our meal rotation!

This week has been nice for us. Tim has been home before 6pm every day, which has been absolutely wonderful. Monday night I started having some major contractions. I drank extra water, walked around, changed positions and nothing helped them go away. Finally about 3am the next day they went away. I was pretty uncomfortable for a while, but I eventually got a bit of rest. Robby has been sleeping and napping so well. The past two days I've had so much energy. I don't know where it's coming from, but I'm taking advantage of it while I have it. I organized Robby's closet and got clothes ready for Charlie to be able to use. I also organized my desk and our pantry. I'm on top of all the laundry and cleaning, which is really nice. I guess the nesting has just started early this time! When Robby is awake, he is moving. He isn't satisfied sitting and playing with any toys now. He's either crawling around following me, or walking around every piece of furniture. Usually he does this but is happy taking a break to play with things. Not this week! He's definitely keeping me on my toes much more than usual!

Mandy gets in tomorrow morning. I'm so excited for her to be here! We always have a blast when we're together and it's always nice to have her help with Robby. We have some Groupon movie tickets that expire next week so she and I are going to the movies tomorrow night and Tim and I are going Saturday night. We haven't had a date night in well over a month and a half. It will be fun to have some "us" time! Tim is leaving Sunday for a meeting in Dallas and will be gone until Friday. Mandy will be here until Wednesday, so I only have to be by myself for three days and two nights. I'm so thankful for that!

I didn't get a 21 week picture taken but I will get a picture-less 21 week pregnancy highlight post up soon! I hope everyone's week is going well!

Wordless Wednesday: Little Poser

2011-10-26T14:48:00.001-05:00

Coupon Code Giveaway

2011-10-24T15:51:00.003-05:00

Scoot on over to my sister-in-law's blog and leave a comment to be entered into a drawing for a coupon code for Shutterfly! We have used their cards at Christmastime and love the gift options, as well!

Robby's First Trip to the Zoo

2011-10-24T15:00:00.000-05:00

This morning Robby and I met up with some other moms and kiddos to go to the zoo. it was Robby's first time. He did great! He enjoyed the fish the most, I think, because he could see them so much better. It was hard to get pictures of him looking at the animals because by the time I got out the camera or my phone, he got distracted by the plants or other kids! :-) I think next year we are going to get year passes to the zoo. Robby and Charlie will both be free, so we can go as much as we want. It might be a nice thing to just get out for a little bit with them. Plus, we won't feel bad if we only make it an hour or so!

I have other pictures, but I am having issues uploading them. Oh well! I hope to be able to go back with Tim so we can explore more and get some better pictures!

Robby's First Haircut

2011-10-22T18:11:00.002-05:00

We had originally planned to wait until Robby was at least a year old before we gave him his first haircut. But about a month ago, we realized how ratty he was looking. His hair would go over his collar in the back and look like a mullet. So we decided to go ahead and do it today. Daddy was the barber and Robby was an excellent customer!

Some before shots:

During:

After:

My handsome little man!

Cloth Wipes

2011-10-21T19:39:00.002-05:00

I've mentioned on here before that we cloth diaper. Well, recently, I decided to cross over in to the cloth wipe territory as well. It just made more sense to me. When you change a disposable diaper with a disposable wipe, you just put it all together and toss it. When you use a cloth diaper with a disposable wipe, you have to separate it (doesn't sound that complicated, but those few seconds could be a lot with an incredibly wiggly, half naked boy!). When you use a cloth diaper and a cloth wipe, you put it all together and toss it in the bag. At first, while I was just experimenting, I used baby washcloths as well as a few of Robby's old receiving blankets from the hospital that I cut up.

The problem with those were they weren't the softest on his bum and they were a bit thin for my liking. There are specific cloth wipes that can be purchased, but I didn't want to spend $12-20 for 10 wipes. I talked to my mom to see if she could make some for me. She just got some flannel fabric and cut them into 7 1/2 inch squares, doubled them with wrong sides together, and stitched around the edges to make 7 inch squares.

I put the wipes in a pop-up wipe container that I used before. In order for them to pop up correctly, I fold them a certain way. Here is a picture-by-picture of what I do:

Lay two wipes together, overlapping halfway over.

Fold the bottom wipe over the half that is overlapped.

Top with the next wipe, overlapping halfway. (I'm almost as good with directions as I am with recipes, huh?! :-)

You end up with a stack like this. There are about 15 wipes wipes here.

Here are the "ingredients" for the solution I use, as well as the wipes and the container.

You will need:

2 cups water

2 Tbsp baby wash

2-4 drops tea tree oil

Mix all together in the bowl. Pour over wipes in the container or put in a spray bottle to spray on the wipe each time you change a diaper.

Set the wipes in the container (I can't tell you how excited I was when these fit PERFECTLY in the container!)

I pour about half of the solution on top, press down to get the middle wipes wet, then flip the stack over and pour the rest on what was on the bottom.

If the middle wipes aren't getting wet, you can lift up to expose the middle wipes and pour some solution, then press down.

Close the the first part of the lid, lift the first wipe through, and close the top. They come out just like disposable wipes!

If you don't want to use cloth wipes but you do want to make your own wipes, you can use a roll of thick, deluxe paper towels. Just cut the roll in half with a sharp, cerated knife, then pull the cardboard tube out. At this point you can either put them in the container like that and pour the solution over them or you could tear each one apart and fold like I did the cloth wipes, put in the container and pour the solution over them. I considered doing this but I really wanted something that will not cost us anything at all. The baby wash is something we already have and the tea tree oil was given to us. The oil will last a long time, as I only use a few drops (it is a natural cleaner and astringent so it keeps the wipes from mildewing while in the container). This container of wipes lasts 3-4 days (I don't always wipe him for wet diapers). I hope this helps anyone out there thinking of making the change to either cloth wipes or homemade disposable wipes!

Too Precious!

2011-10-19T12:05:00.004-05:00

On Tuesday, while I was feeding Robby his breakfast and we were watching the news, they shared this video. Robby stopped eating and just watched the video and got the biggest grin on his face! I couldn't figure out what was more precious: the old couple (complete with the sweet booty pats) or Robby's reaction!

I hope it makes you smile as well!

Wordless Wednesday: Sleep Runner?

2011-10-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

20 Weeks

2011-10-18T19:27:00.000-05:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 20 weeks

Size of baby: 7 inches, 11oz (about the size of a banana)

Maternity Clothes: Yes! Although, I think I'm about to outgrow my maternity jeans! I'm trying to get things to work as long as I can! Thankfully, it is beginning to cool off a tad here, so I can pull of wearing cardigans and things over shirts.

Movement: Yes, many precious kicks and rolls!

Sleep: I'm sleeping better, thank goodness!

Symptoms: Just the usual aches and pains, but other than that, not many symptoms.

Food cravings/aversions: This past week I've really been wanting cheetos. At one point I was craving a juicy steak, but that wasn't in our "no eating out" budget. As long as my cravings stay on the cheap side, I'm ok! Haha!

What I am looking forward to: We are hoping to have a 3D/4D ultrasound done in several weeks, like we did with Robby. I can't wait to see what he looks like then, because Robby looked just like his 3D ultrasound pictures! It will be fun to get an idea of what to expect. I often wonder if he will look just like Robby (I have a feeling that he will) or look completely different. I can't wait to be able to take pictures of Charlie and compare them to pictures of Robby at that age. It's going to be so fun having two boys!!

Baby Steps!

2011-10-15T20:17:00.001-05:00

YouTube Video

A New Place to Sit

2011-10-15T17:19:00.001-05:00

We knew the time was coming when Robby would no longer be able to use his bumbo seat. I feel that using it from a month and a half until 9 months was some pretty good use of it! This week he's been leaning over the side, trying to flip himself out of it when he was ready to be out, so the time was definitely now! I had been researching our options, knowing that I didn't want a traditional highchair. There are quite a few booster seat combos out there but I decided on the Fisher Price Deluxe Booster Seat. It will work great with our table once he no longer uses the tray. And for now, it's perfect to just pull the chair away from the table, attach the tray and feed him in it like it is a regular highchair. Robby got very excited when we put him in it and didn't act anxious to get out of it when he was done with his cheerios! So I think we have a winner!

We set up in the living room because we were watching football!

Robby and Annie both checking it out!

I think he approves!

Pretty content!

I was in the way of the game!

Works perfectly!

9 Months!

2011-10-14T14:50:00.001-05:00

Well, Little Man, you have been growing outside of me for almost as long as you were growing inside of me! That's crazy to think about!

This month, you have been BUSY! You are cruising around as long as there is something to hold onto, even if it's just the wall. You are beginning to stand on your own for a few seconds at a time. We have discovered over this past month that you are quite the daredevil! You love to try to jump off of things, climb up on everything, and crawl over all kinds of furniture. You are still very good about not getting upset if you fall or bump your head. The only time you really fuss about that is if you are really tired. I can only imagine how much crazier you will be when you start to walk and run around! You love to "help" me with laundry! I love it, even though it takes me quite a bit longer to get it done! You now have 4 teeth. Your top two teeth finally came in. Those suckers took about a month and half to get through, but they finally made their arrival a few weeks ago.

You are making all kinds of funny sounds. You are still making the clicking sound with your mouth, as well as saying a very exaggerated "oooooooh" whenever you find something or we hand him something. It's hilarious! Over the past few days, you've started whistling! You keep your mouth in the "ooooooh" position and breath out and in slowly, causing you to whistle. It's so cute. You also love to go around saying "Doi doi doi" as you are doing things. When you are working hard on something (usually pulling all the magazines or dvds down) you make a growling noise. If you hear anyone clear their throat or cough, you cough. It's so neat to see you learning how to mimic what others are doing, but some people tend to look at us a little weird when you are "coughing" so much! You are saying "mama", "dada", "baby", "wow", "yay", and "ah". We think you are finally connecting the word "mama" to me, which is fun! You will say it and look at me or reach for me.

You still thrive on attention from others. You are becoming more and more aware of the people and children around you. You will crane your neck around if you see a baby or child pass. If you hear someone talking or a baby crying, you have to find from where the sound is coming. You love to hear applause. If there is a game show or something on tv, you always turn around real quickly to see what all the clapping is about!

You are eating all stage 3 foods along with mum-mums, puffs, yogurt melts, and cheerios, along with 3-4 6-8oz bottles. At your 9 month appointment on Wednesday, the nurse practitioner told us to start feeding you table foods. I'm so nervous about starting that, but I know you'll do great. You haven't had any issues with the thicker, chunkier foods. You weighed 19 pounds 13 ounces and were 27.5 inches long (but the nurse didn't measure you straight, so I think you are longer than that). You are right on target or ahead of all the milestones for your age. In the past, it seems like you were a bit behind, reaching the milestone a few days after the appointment. You're wearing mainly 12 month clothes, mainly because I didn't want to waste money on 9 month shirts when you would only be in them for a month then need something bigger. So I just roll up the sleeves or roll up your pant legs and works just fine! Some shirts I'm not even needing to roll up right now.

I'm giving you more and more freedom in your playing lately. I am letting you play by yourself in your room without me in there. I'll let you explore all of the buckets that are on the shelf of your changing table. I check on you from the doorway about every 2-5 minutes. I think you like the alone time that doesn't confine you to your crib or your pack n play. You, of course, love to make messes. Some of the things you get into and do just cause me to shake my head! You like to try to figure out how things work or are put together. When you are working on something, I can just see the wheels turning in your head!

We just found out that you are going to have a little brother! We can't wait to see how much fun the two of you are going to have, not to mention the trouble you both will get into! I only have a little over 4 months of calling you "the cutest boy in the world" and telling you that you're my favorite little boy. We love you so very much and are amazed at how much you are learning each and every day. One of my favorite times of the day is right before bed time when I listen to your daddy read your bedtime story to you and then I go in so we can pray with you. I love that quiet time just the three of us.

We love you more and more every single day! You are so precious and we look forward to each and every day with you!

Mommy and Daddy

19 Weeks

2011-10-13T17:33:00.001-05:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 19 weeks

Size of baby: 6.5 inches, 10oz (about the size of a mango)

Maternity Clothes: Yes! Although, I think I'm about to outgrow my maternity jeans! The hiney is getting a bit too big this time around!

Movement: Yes, thank the Lord! Monday morning, Tim got up with Robby and I was awake but laying in bed. Right then I just started feeling a ton of little precious kicks! I forgot how precious and tiny they are at first!

Sleep: Not much, but not the fault of the pregnancy!

Symptoms: Not really. Just feeling every ache and pain a little more this time around. It definitely seems like this one is a bit harder than the last time, but I'm sure it's because I'm so busy chasing and carrying Robby!

Food cravings/aversions: Everything!

What I am looking forward to: Meeting our precious Charlie!

It's a....

2011-10-12T12:06:00.001-05:00

BOY!!

He was very proud to show us, too!!

Charles "Charlie" Edward Weigle will be making his arrival in late February! We could not be more ecstatic to add this little boy to our family!

This, That, and the Other!

2011-10-11T15:03:00.001-05:00

I feel like it's been forever since I've done a real blog post! It's only been about a week but it seems like longer! I was doing well writing some and scheduling them to post each day, but the end of my week last week got a little out of control. I don't have anything specific to talk about, just a hodgepodge of things, so I might just do some bulletpoints.

-Robby is loving being all over the place. I close the doors to our bedroom and the hall bathroom and let him crawl all around and go in his room to "explore". He loves it! I go in and check on him about every 2 minutes or so and make sure he's doing ok. I've taken everything out of his reach that he could choke on or could hurt him. He likes to take his little buckets down from his changing table and dump them out to go through everything.

-Speaking of that, he's really into dumping things out of baskets or buckets. Folding laundry is super fun around here now, not to mention takes three times as long with a sweet little helper! I have an extra laundry basket that I put some of his toys in for him to dump out and play with in the living room. He's so funny to watch and discover new things.

-He's dealing with some allergy or sinus issues today. He had a bit of a rough night last night and I think that's why. After talking to a few of the moms from my moms club here, I decided to just let him cry it out when he wakes up in the night instead of going in immediately with a bottle. His feedings have begun to be earlier and earlier. For the longest time it was 5-5:30, but lately it has been as early as 2. Thanks to some encouragement and shared experiences, I have a plan to get him back to needing his first feeding at 5ish and eventually getting rid of that feeding all together.

-Friday I helped prep for a yard sale benefitting some local charities here. It was fun to get together with the other ladies and get to know them better. I was there from about 6-10 that evening and got up at 5 to help with the actual sale on Saturday. I was there until almost noon when I started to realize I probably was starting to over do it a bit. I tend to forget that I need to take it easy. I'm feeling the aches and pains of pregnancy much earlier this time. I don't know if that is simply because it's my second or if it's because this second one is so soon after my first. When we were starting to pull things out for the sale on Saturday morning, it suddenly started down pouring! The sale was supposed to start at 8 but we knew people would start showing up at 7, which is why we planned to get stuff started at 6. It didn't stop raining completely until close to 8, but that didn't stop people. We had people come by at 6:30 in the pouring rain, asking to go through the things! Although it was a long day and a lot of work, the sale raised over $1300 for the charities! Pretty impressive for a sale where we were practically giving things away around 9am!

-Tim had yesterday off for Columbus Day. It was so nice to spend the day together. We had a gift card to Chili's so we went had lunch out. We don't usually do that, so it was nice! If we grab lunch, it's usually fast food that we grab to eat in the car or something. What also made it nice was just getting to eat out together. When we were in Amarillo and he was working retail, we ate out A LOT! Whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. It has been quite an adjustment to not be able to eat out like that. It's good because I'm getting creative with recipes again, but I still miss the freedom of being able to just go out to dinner whenever we want. This past month, we had to cut eating out from our budget completely. We agreed that if we wanted to use our own personal allowance on a meal out, that was fine, but it could not be debited or come out of our grocery food money. I think we only spent about $25 the whole month on food that wasn't groceries. We would usually share something if we were going to grab a meal. There's a burger place here who has a combo with a burger and a hot dog, fries, and a drink. We got that and Tim ate the hot dog and a little of the burger, I ate most of the burger, we split the fries and Tim had the drink. We ended up having our Sunday lunch for about $7.50! Another time we went out we had a groupon, so we pretty much just had to pay for the tip out of pocket. Hopefully in the next few months, we can get our budget back under control and have a little more eating out freedom, but for the time being we are trying to do without it as much as possible.

-Tomorrow is the big day! We get to find out if our sweet little Weiglet #2 is healthy and growing properly, and HOPEFULLY, find out if we're having an Abigail Lauren or a Charles Edward! I thought I would be super anxious and ready to find out. While I am definitely excited, my mind keeps going to wanting to make sure the baby is healthy and the organs look good. If we don't find out, it's not the end of the world.

-I made these cookies on Sunday evening. They are incredible! I am not a fan of pumpkin and chocolate chips, but the white chocolate with the pumpkin was amazing!! They might be might be my new favorite pumpkin baked good! Mmmm! You have to try them.

-Robby said "baby" today! He's been mimicking some different sounds and actions we've done, so I decided to see if he would repeat some words for me. He usually says words, but won't necessarily repeat them for us. Today I looked at him and said "baby" and he looked back at me and said "baaabbby"! Oh it was so precious. I'm working on getting it on video. But we all know how that usually goes!!

I hope you are all doing well and had a great weekend and start to your week. I'm going to do my 19 week pregnancy highlight post tomorrow after we have our appointment!

Lemonhead!

2011-10-08T20:00:00.001-05:00

YouTube Video

Wordless Wednesday: Favorite Afternoon Activity

2011-10-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

18 weeks

2011-10-04T14:58:00.001-05:00

*First, let me say, if you tried to watch the videos on the past 3 posts or so, I was a dumb-dumb and uploaded them incorrectly. It's been fixed, so you can go back and watch them now!*

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 18 weeks

Size of baby: 6 inches, 1/2 pound (about the size of a mango)

Maternity Clothes: pants, but regular shirts are becoming harder to wear. When I was pregnant with Robby, I was wearing mostly regular shirts the entire time, but this time my regular shirts don't seem to be long enough. Sadly, I only have 2 maternity shirts and I don't foresee getting any more anytime soon. So I guess I'll just raid Tim's t-shirt drawer! (The shirt I'm wearing in this picture was a gift from Catie! It is so comfy and Tim complimented me twice the day I wore it! It definitely made me feel nice!)

Movement: I haven't really felt any movement. I think I felt the baby push it's head or butt at one point, but I'm not sure. I cannot even tell you how relieved I will be to see that sweet baby moving around on that screen next week!

Sleep: Not much, but not the fault of the pregnancy!

Symptoms: My back and hips are beginning to hurt. Other than that, I'm tired and hungry most all the time.

Food cravings/aversions: Everything!

What I am looking forward to: Hopefully finding out if this baby is a boy or a girl next week. But I will be happy just finding out that he/she is healthy and growing.

Drivin' Boy!

2011-10-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

While we were waiting for our friends to arrive at the farm on Saturday, Robby was getting restless in his carseat. So I got him out and handed him to Tim. Robby immediately reached for the steering wheel and held on as he did several other things. It was too cute! He even honked the horn a few times (oops!)! I can't wait for him to experience that amazing childhood milestone of driving around a parking lot sitting in daddy's lap steering while daddy shifts and handles the peddles. I still remember the first time I did that and how proud of myself I was!

Bedtime Routine

2011-10-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Before Robby was born, I read Babywise. It was the only sleep training book I read in preparation for his arrival. I had talked to several people who had used the methods with their children and they had nothing but success, so I knew that's what I wanted to do. One of the things discussed is to not to let your baby fall asleep for the night right after or while taking a bottle/nursing. It stressed the importance of a bedtime routine but also stressed that if a baby is put to sleep by a bottle as an infant, they will have a hard time later on when you try to stop. When Robby was on his 3 hour sleep, eat, play routine, it was easy to make sure he didn't get his bottle right before bed. But once he started stretching his feedings out to 4-5 hours, it ended up that his last bottle was right after bath time and right before bedtime. I didn't want him to come to expect a bottle as part of his bedtime routine each night, so this week we have been working on a different one. I either feed him his last bottle or food before his bath, then Tim gives him his bath which lasts about 30 minutes since he loves to play and splash for a while. After he gets Robby out of the tub, they snuggle with him in his towel for a bit, then put his diaper and jammies on him. The main difference is Tim started reading him a bedtime book right before bed. Up until now, anytime I would read a book to Robby, he wouldn't pay attention or would be more interested in putting it in his mouth. I was amazed at how well he paid attention and focused on what Tim was saying and looked at the pictures on the pages. I got some good pictures from the bedtime readings a couple of nights.

This video was taken after Tim read to Robby. He has a stuffed monkey we put him to bed with, even though he doesn't actually cuddle him when he sleeps. It was just so cute how much Robby laughed when Tim would make the monkey noises!

Robby's First Punkin Patch!

2011-10-01T18:21:00.000-05:00

We went with some friends to Devine Acres Farm today. It was their opening weekend and they had an amazing military discount. I was expecting it to just be a pumpkin patch with a few other things, but it was so much more than that. We walked in and there were chickens, ducks, pigs, goats, llamas (or alpacas, we couldn't tell) and a couple of yellow labs! There were all kinds of things for the kids to do. the family we went with has a an almost 4 year old, almost 2 year old and a 1 month old, so their older two were able to enjoy almost every part of it. There was a huge mound of sand for building, swings hanging from trees, more mazes than you could count (not really, there were 7 of them!), balls to bounce on, a pond for fishing, and a hayride. All of that was included in the cost of getting into the farm. There were only a few things that cost extra, but they weren't things we would have done, anyway. They had a big grill where they were making burgers and hot dogs. We packed our own lunch to take, but all the food smelled great! The pumpkin patch was a little small, but they had them all arranged so you could take pictures in various areas. Here are pictures from today, along with a video of Robby's first time swinging!

Thank you, Lord, for the rain!

2011-09-29T16:22:00.001-05:00

I was working on something and heard quite the noise coming from outside. I looked out and this is what I saw!

YouTube Video

We really need the rain, so I am definitely thankful for it. I'm almost more thankful that Robby and I didn't get caught out in it 30 minutes earlier!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet, Curious Boy!

2011-09-28T11:42:00.001-05:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

17 Weeks

2011-09-27T19:37:00.000-05:00

This wasn't the best top to wear to try to show the bump. It just generally makes me look big! Haha!

How far along: 17 weeks (that is seriously so crazy to me!)

Size of baby:

Maternity Clothes: just pants, still able to wear most regular shirts

Movement: I haven't felt any movements this week. I've felt a little pressure like the baby is pushing towards my belly button, but I don't know if that's actually what's happening.

Sleep: Ehh, I don't think I'm going to get sleep for the next 3 years at least! I've just surrendered to that!

Symptoms: Hungry! That's about it.

Food cravings/aversions: Macaroni and cheese (the kind out of a box), baked beans, and eggs. Not all together though!

What I am looking forward to: Our big appointment in 2 weeks!!