Confessions of a Bakeaholic

everyone at 3 months

2012-02-10T21:17:00.001-06:00

What are your thoughts?

3 months old

2012-02-05T11:42:00.002-06:00

Not a word

2012-02-03T13:15:00.000-06:00

My dear sweet Elliott James will be 16 months tomorrow. I know I have said it a thousand times but how can that be?

My little blonde haired blue eyed middle child has yet to speak a word.

We have had his hearing checked twice, both times after he had his tubes in place last June. He has passed both tests. He just does not speak.

When we were at his 12 month appt last Oct. the pediatrician was not genuinely concerned but reffered us to our local Early Child Intervention program. They evaluated him and place him around a 9 month old for speaking.

The child only says two things.

Da - like the beginning sound of dada
and
tis - which almost sounds like 'this'

That is it. At the time, end of oct, it was not a big deal. He was not even 13 months yet. But here we sit, 16 months tomorrow and is still doing the same exact thing. Da and tis. Now the pediatrician is genuinely concerned.

We have spoken with three different speech pathologists and everyone has a different opinion. They all say to try different things. One even said that the child could talk he was just too darn lazy to do it. He is just too busy to put the energy into speaking.

Elliott, at 16 months, is still at a 9 month speaking level. He is so frustrated that he cannot tell me what he wants. We have been working on sign language since he was 9 months and just last week for the very first time did he sign the word more. I literally did cry.

Finally a step in the right direction.

Through this I have met several moms whom have told me that their child, coincidentally all boys, did not speak until they were closer to age 2. Elliott starts school in August and I desperately want him speaking something by then.

Have any of you had any experience with something like this?

( and yes Autism has been ruled out on multiple occasions)

I just desperately want to hear 'mama.'

The new and improved

2012-01-31T14:14:00.001-06:00

Here is the before of my kitchen. Please notice the ugly pink back-splash, faded parkay (sp?) floor and beyond disgusting looking cabinets.

Now here is our after. We did this all!! Well with Brian's parents help of course. Isn't it beautiful??

Please notice the freshly painted cabinets with new hardware, the non-pink back-spalsh and the brand new tile floor!!!

These are off my phone seeing that I am posting from my couch. :)

so much to say...

2012-01-30T21:13:00.000-06:00

My heart is broken a little right now.

I just put my last baby to bed in his own room tonight for the first time. All three of our bedrooms upstairs now have sleeping babies. My little newborn is no longer a newborn any more and that makes me sad.

What also makes me sad is that he is yet to sleep through the night. He has given us a few 6 hour stretches but nothing recently. Still waking once or maybe twice. I am in no hurry though. Not with this one. He needs to stay this small for a while.

I have so much to write about but the darn computer is upstairs and with three under 3 that just isnt going to happen during the day. By the time the evening rolls around I am exhausted.

I need to write about:

1. The kitchen remodel is complete!
2. Elliott will be 16 months on Saturday and is still not talking. NOT A WORD. Not even a 'mama'. Anyone else out there like this?
3. Our plans for the fall
4. Brian turns 27 on Saturday.
5. Some many pictures of the kids to show you.
6. The discipline problems I am having with Elizabeth. The uncontrollable hitting mainly.

Emmitt rolled over the other day. Did I mention he will be three months next Monday. Someone please kill me now. I can't bare to watch this one grow.

It has been that kind of week...

2012-01-26T20:08:00.002-06:00

lately...

2012-01-09T12:08:00.001-06:00

We had ourselves a baptism....

a birthday....

and a bubble bath.

The Holidays

2012-01-05T14:42:00.000-06:00

This was the first year that I think ELizabeth understood teh concept of 'Santa.' Even at that I am not completely convinced that she understood it fully.

Christmas Eve was spent at my aunt's house on my dad's side of the family. The evening was mainly spent chasing the two around because her house was not exactly baby-proof. Sharp corners, expensive figures on the floor (gasp!) and marble stairs. I am surprised stitches were not involved at one point but we made it out alive.

I surely don't want to forget that my middle sister got engaged to her Irish hunny this day as well!! Oct. 27th will be here before we know it!


Amy, Charlie, Brian holding Elliott, me Francie, Courtney and David, then my mom holding Emmitt and my dad holding Elizabeth.

We came home and had a nice evening just the two of us after the kids went to bed.

Christnmas day we spent the morning at home pretty low key and did the whole santa thing then we went to my mom's. the biggest gift we could of ever imagined getting was our kitchen tile!! I am finally getting my new floor. Yippee!

Then on Monday we spent it with Brian's parents. They bought us a brand new washing machine. Again YIPPEE!!

Here's to...

2012-01-01T12:44:00.001-06:00

"tink tink"

Let's have a toast! Glasses up!!

Here's to a year of new recipes, laughter, a ton of picture taking, and on my part - no new babies.

Amen to that.

So this is love....

2011-12-19T08:58:00.001-06:00

Santa Baby

2011-12-16T12:21:00.000-06:00

Best Christmas Gift EVER

2011-12-14T21:53:00.002-06:00

I do not think I could receive a better gift this year than what Elizabeth gave me today. It literally brought Brian and myself to tears as we opened it. I will cherish it forever.

Christmas Time

2011-12-12T07:54:00.001-06:00

Toddler troubles - calling all moms

2011-12-02T21:15:00.001-06:00

Okay mothers to toddlers out there.

I am really struggling with my 2 1/2 year old. I feel like all I do is say no all day long to her.

I will tell her not to do something, like try to pick up the baby, and it is like it goes in one ear and out the other. The listening skills are non-existent. She flat out does not listen or will listen momentarily but then two minutes later is right back to doing it.

We had a playdate on Thursday and the mom was nursing her son and after multiple times being told to not lift her nursing cover Elizabeth would not stop. She was put in timeout and Ben spanked and still would not stop.

It is embarrassing. I don't know what to do anymore. I have tried redirecting and everything but she goes right back to what I specifically told her no to. I feel like she comes across as an undisciplined child.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Brian and I are both at our wits end with this.

Please help.

Christmas Card 2011

2011-11-30T09:53:00.000-06:00

5 minutes in hell

2011-11-29T15:04:00.001-06:00

You remember that game "7 min in heaven?" Well fortunately I was never given the opportunity to play that game but today I got my shot at 5 min in hell.

I know that I have said it before but we lock Elizabeth in her room for nap time so she will actually sleep. Well today she locked me in her room with her.

Elliott was screaming in his bed and Emmitt was sleeping in his carrier down stairs. I panicked. I couldn't go out the window because it is a straight two story drop. I had no phone and no way to contact anyone and Brian was 3 hours from coming home.

I did what any normal person would do. I opened the window and yelled bloody murder for help. Fortunately only 3 min went by before some 20 year old kid came walking by home from the golf course. I begged him to help me. I was thanking the heavens that I forgot to lock the front door. He was a life saver. He laughed his way out of our house.

It's not every day that a lady beckons him from a window to be rescued.

week two

2011-11-22T19:51:00.000-06:00

Another week down.

I told Brian it seemed like forever for Emmitt to get here and now it seems like time is moving to fast. I am trying to savor these tiny baby moments seeing that the chances of me birthing another one of these gorgeous blondies is slim to none. It brings tears to my eyes to just think about it. But like Brian says, "you can't keep having babies to just have another baby, we will not be a Duggar."

Things are moving along and everyone seems to have adjusted beautifully. We are learning not to touch and to be gentle. Elizabeth loves to help, bless her heart.

I have managed target and the grocery store with all three. You would not believe the comments and looks that I receive. It really isn't that bad. It is harder getting in and out of the car than the actual shopping trip is.

Emmitt is such a good baby. He loves to be held but is learning to like the bouncy seat and swing. He is only waking once during the night (GASP!!) which is usually around 230-3 and then he is up again around 6 but I am up and showered by then anyways. The poor thing is learning to be okay with Elizabeth and Elliott.

We had an 'event' over the weekend. Elliott punctured the roof of his mouth with a toy. Lets just say it was a long two days. Oh the screaming.

Anyways, have a good Thanksgiving. I know I have three sleeping babes that I thank God for everyday. They make this year extra special.

A bus boy and a smile

2011-11-19T18:22:00.001-06:00

Elizabeth is very into cleaning these days. She will do anything, including eating her dinner, to be able to clean any table afterwards. She will not pick up toys willingly but she will windex the crud out of any table. Go figure. She is our miniature bus boy.

I caught his first smile on camera finally. I have forgotten how hard it is to catch those.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T16:25:00.001-06:00

week one

2011-11-14T13:43:00.001-06:00

So one week down as a mother of 3 one million more to go.

It actually has been pretty easy so far, but I am sure that none of it has to do with the fact that Brian has been with me 100% of the time up until today. We sadly sent him off to work today. But don't worry, because no one cried this morning out of frustration or exhaustion.

Elizabeth is safe at school right now, Elliott is fighting his second nap of the day, and Emmitt is sweetly swinging in his swing.

I had to take a minute this morning while Elizabeth and Elliott were watching their morning cartoons snuggled together on the couch and Emmitt still asleep from last night in his rock n play, and thank God for all that he has given me. I know that we will approach some rough times with 3 under 3 especially after Emmitt wakes up from his newborn sleepy stage. But how blessed am I to have three beautiful children?

Emmitt is doing really well. He eats like a champ and is sleeping 5ish hours at a time through the night. I know every pediatrician out there is screaming 'wake him up after 3 hours!!' but the kid will eat when he needs to eat. I am not about to wake a sleeping baby at 2 AM so he can eat for 3 min and then fall back asleep to only wake up an hour later because he didnt eat very much the feed before.

Elizabeth and Elliott have adjusted very well. She constantly wants to hold him and is slowly learning to be gentle. She doesnt understand that he is not a toy. Elliott could care less but is very confused at the thing in the corner making all that screaming noise.

We will see what week two brings...

birth announcement

2011-11-09T20:14:00.003-06:00

Emmitt Charles

2011-11-09T15:24:00.000-06:00

He's here!!

2011-11-06T20:04:00.002-06:00

Emmitt Charles was born today at 644pm weighing in at 7lb 1oz and 20 inches long. Everyone is happy and healthy!

5 days

2011-11-05T18:29:00.001-05:00

This time next week baby Rode#3 will be in my arms. On one hand that seems like forever from now and on the other there is still not enough time.

Not enough time to soak in with Elliott James as being my baby. Today he looked so big to me. Poor thing has no idea what is coming.

Have I mentioned that Elizabeth, Elliott and myself are dying from colds? Elliott started coughing today and Elizabeth just came up to me and laid her head on my belly and said "I no feel good mommy."

I am officially more pregnant today than I have been with my other two and today I am hurting more than I ever have.

Anyone want to take baby guesses?? Weight? Length?

I feel bigger than I have with my other two but I really don't remember that well.

Elizabeth was born at 36.2 weeks and weighed 6 lbs 10oz and was 19.5in
Elliott was born at 37.4 weeks and weighed 7lbs 7oz bs was 19.75in.

I believe that baby 3 will be 7lbs 4oz and 20in. I don't know why but I just have a gut feeling. I don't know how accurate my feeling is though. Just something that keeps popping in my head. Brian thinks this baby will be 7lbs 8oz.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Leave your guesses.

37 week appt.

2011-11-02T16:26:00.003-05:00

Well I went to what will probably be my last OB appt today. I am officially at 4 cm and still contracting away.

My doc gave me his personal cell number because this is his weekend off and he wants to deliver me. He said that there is no way that I will make it to my 38 week appt next Wednesday. He said that if I was in his office next Wednesday then he would be convinced I would be walking around at 8 cm.

We will see about all of this. I told Brian that since we were spreading the news that we really are any day now that this baby really would stay in there until next Friday. I am still hoping for that. I still want a 11/11/11 birthday.

My parents cancelled their football trip this weekend since they were going to be gone Friday-Sunday. Tomorrow may be Brian's last day at work. He has Friday off and then we may be having a baby this weekend.

My gut still tells me this baby will be a 38 week-er. We will see. Only time will tell.
Here is a picture of what's been going on lately. I will do a Halloween post soon.

This a few weeks old but everyday she tries to fit in my lap so I can rub her belly.

Officially on the books

2011-10-31T12:28:00.000-05:00

Well I hit 37 weeks today. My contractions that I have been having have slowed down this weekend but I attribute that to Brian being home to help me all weekend and us not really doing much.

I go for my 37 week appt on Wednesday where he will officially schedule me to be induced the next friday, 11/11/11. Now how cool is that?? I secretly hope that I hold off til then but another part of me wants this baby to pick his birthday. We will see. He has the next 10 days to do so.

My doc is inducing me on that friday because, well frankly, I asked him. It is the neatest birthday and that is about as much as I can handle as far as contractions go. I mean they are painful, constant and about every 8-9 min or so. I would love to go to the hospital but they will just look at me and say 'go home and come back when they are every 5 min'.

So here we wait. Wait for either this baby to chose his birthday between today and the 11th or he is coming out whether he likes it or not on the 11th.

Did I mention that I am going to the nutcracker market on the 10th? If that doesn't get things going then nothing will.

Happy Halloween!

Church carnival princess

2011-10-29T13:09:00.001-05:00

36 weeks

2011-10-25T19:09:00.000-05:00

So today I went for my normal 36 week check up. I was told that he is giving me 7-10 days tops. That is a little scary. I am already at 3 cm and contracting away at about every 8ish minutes or so.

I am going to go put my feet up to keep this kid in there a little bit longer. Keep me in your thoughts. Lets hope for a 38 week-er!!

One of those days...

2011-10-20T19:22:00.000-05:00

Today was one of those days.

One of those days where I wished I was back at work teaching and not being a stay at home mom.

It was not a good day.

Elizabeth usually has a playdate from 930-1130 every Thursday. Today it was cancelled because the other little girl's grandmother was put in the hospital and they were busy taking care of everything.

It was not a pretty day. One of those days that go down in shame for worst mommy-moments. I ~~screamed~~ yelled alot. Lost my temper and even at one point locked myself in our halfbath.

It all started with Elliott waking up at 520. I was not a happy camper. Elizabeth woke up at her normal time but between 7am and 10am had 4 potty accidents. She was completely out of pants to wear. I was not a happy camper. I was beyond frustrated. I would take her potty, she would potty, then would step 2 feet out of the bathroom and would potty in her pants and then would LAUGH about it. Again, I was not a happy camper.

The two of them were into EVERYTHING!! Things they never get into, they were in it. Driving me crazy. Now given I am huge and a hormonal mess and on top of everything cannot bend down AT ALL.

I had no patience. None. I cried. Elizabeth cried. Elliott cried. It was not pretty.

Today was not pretty. Tomorrow will be better because Daddy will be home.

Please tell me that you have mommy-moments like these?

Monday

2011-10-19T19:25:00.000-05:00

I know its Wednesday but here is Monday...

Elliott is on day 4 of his 102 fever and Elizabeth has preschool today. 35 weeks pregnant today as well.

Elliott was up by 5, a little early for him but probably because of having the fever. I put Elliott in the bathtub and I jump in the shower. He is pretty good about staying in the tub until I am completely ready to go. Around 45 min or so.

Elizabeth usually wakes about 645 or so and says her usual "sleep good, chici milk, beat band please." This translates to " yes I slept good, please do not ask, chocolate milk (carnation breakfast) and she wants to watch her cartoon "The Fresh Beat Band." I usually spend this time feeding Elliott his two scrambled eggs, which he will devour without a moments notice and pack Elizabeth's lunch. I manage to squeeze in my breakfast as well.

After Elizabeth watches her 20 min show, I usually try to talk her into breakfast but she will probably refuse, hince the carnation breakfast. I will then pack her bag for school and clean the kitchen for the first time.

Elizabeth will then get dressed and have her hair pulled up and then we usually just play or watch another cartoon show. This is my favorite time of the day because everyone is happy. Tummies are full, bottoms clean, and everyone well rested.

We will leave around 905 for school and drop Elizabeth off. This will involve taking both kids in with her gigantic bag and sleep mat. I have no earthly idea what I am going to do when there are 3.

We will usually be home around 930 and Elliott will immediately go down for his nap but today we are off to the pediatrician. Thank goodness for just a virus. We made it home by 1015 and he is out for his nap. I woke around 1130 so I got about an hour or so to rest because we do not want a 35 weeker around here.

When he does wake I quickly feed him lunch and then we are off to the grocery store. After coming home and unloading we barely have enough time to make it to Elizabeth's school for the 215 pickup time.

Today we stopped by Grammie's house on the way home to pick something up but ended up staying over an hour. Elizabeth and Elliott never complain as neither do I seeing that I appreciate the help.

We are home around 4 and Elizabeth and Elliott are off to play in the playroom while I unpack from school and work on dinner. Brian is usually home around 515 and the kids are usually watching their TV show so I do not have two kids at my feet while making dinner. We will eat around 530 and Brian will spend the next 30 min playing with them.

Baths are at 645 and both are in bed by 705. Mommy is very tired by this point. I quickly clean the kitchen for the 2nd time today and start picking up the house. Tomorrow is another day and there is no preschool. (Do you know how much I hate Tuesdays and Thursdays?) I am in bed by 745 and Brian joins me at 9.

THE Birthday Paty

2011-10-17T11:14:00.000-05:00

Taking a break from everything while Elliott is busy crying himself to sleep becuse I just may have let him get too tired. Never mind you that he has had a fever of 102 and higher since friday.

Here are some favorites from Elliott's first birthday party. We did "the Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme and it turned out better than expected.

I had a large version of teh book for everyone to sign, a bowl full of gummy worms (we are still eating the left over ones) and caterpillar antennae for everyone to wear.

I made this caterpillar cake. I got the idea from google. The face was his smash cake.

All of the food. Most of it was tied to the food in the book.

Our attempt to clean him off afterwards. He was red from the food coloring for two days.

My sisters had these shirts made for the party. They couldn't have been more perfect!

New Toms all the way from Ireland from Aunt Nitnee.

A Day In The Life....

2011-10-13T08:55:00.000-05:00

As this new baby is quickly approaching (my doc told me yesterday that he would be surprised if I made it past 37 weeks because of the amount of labor contractions, not braxton hicks mind you, that I am having. But in the same breath he said that he has been wrong in the past. He said that I should be prepared for a 36-37 week-er, that is in 10 day people!!!)

ANYWAYS.... I decided that I need to do a 'day in teh life' the remind myself later of what this life was like before baby #3 arrives.

So starting tomorrow, or Monday, which ever I feel like it or I actually get a moment like this one, I will lay out our days for a whole week. Please feel free to ignore as it probably will not be interesting to you unless you are into the whole 'what in the world does she do all day with two under two and 34 weeks pregnant?" (I can assure you that it is not sit on the couch with the TV on.)

12 month portraits

2011-10-10T19:43:00.000-05:00

Sweet Elliott James

2011-10-04T19:42:00.000-05:00

Today you turn a whole year old.

I still could not believe that when I rocked you and read you your favorite bedtime story last night that it would be the last time I would do it as you being a baby. It was very sad and my pregnant hormones were raging.

Today you had a ball. Elizabeth kept telling you that you were 1 today and you would laugh so hard as if you knew.

We celebrated by having your favorite dinner, meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans. You had two helpings and then birthday cake. Your face lights up everytime someone would sing you happy birthday.

I cannot believe that in a few short weeks you will become a big brother. It is still so unreal to me.

You are most definitely a big boy. You celebrated your birthday bottle-free, paci-free, completely on table food and sleeping through the night. (You have been doing all of this for a few months now)

Your birthday party was a complete success but that is a whole different post.

Here is to you turning one.

Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday dear Elliott James
Happy birthday to you.

I'm just so mad..

2011-09-28T15:57:00.000-05:00

I had to take a minute and share this just in case someone who reads this tells someone else who may turn around and tell someone else and may change their doing or something along those lines.

Coming home from picking Elizabeth up at school I glace over into the left turn lane at another car with a mom and two kids in it. My first thought is wow that child seems young to be in the front seat. Then I notice something else.

There is a child in a rear-facig carseat in the back seat maybe a little younger than Elliott, maybe 10 or 11 months, NOT BUCKLED IN AT ALL. She is just crawling around the back seat and the mother just does not seem to care.

OMG.

I about lost it. Not only should the older child not been in the front seat but the baby should have been at least buckled in.

Does she not care?
Does she not realize?

I am just so mad that there are moms out there who would even think about doing this. It does not matter how much of a hurry you are in or how much your child does not want to be in the carseat.

Buckling up is not an option. It is a requirement. End of story. Period.

Time remaining..

2011-09-14T11:57:00.000-05:00

I think maybe I took on too much before this baby is supposed to come.

I currently am working on building this menu board for our kitchen. I found it on pinterest. (Oh how I love thee!) It is turning out to be a bigger project than anticipated but I am bound and determined to get it finished before our dinner party on the 23rd.

Elliott's birthday party is the weekend after our dinner party. I still one million things to do for it. We are doing a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and I cannot wait to share the details but no before the party because I want it all to be a surprise to our guests. But everything is so stinkin cute!

I have also joined our local St. Anne's Society and have signed up to participate in way too many activities and most are in November. What was I thinking?

We have our church carnival/bazaar the weekend after Elliotts birthday party which I dont have to do anything for but show up. I am excited about that.

So here is our calendar for the time remaining in this pregnancy (these are all weekends because those are the ones that really only count:

Sept. 16-18 finish yard work for dinner party and birthday party, pick up Elliotts birthday present, finalize dinner party menu
Sept 23-25: dinner party, finish birthday party decorations/favors, make trial of cake
Sept 30-Oct 2: Elliotts birthday party
Oct 7-9: church carnival
Oct 14-16: my birthday and jeff's wedding that Brian is in and expectant mothers blessing at church
Oct 21-23: pumpkin patch, finish halloween costumes
Oct 28-30: carve pumpkins (37 weeks pregnant)
Nov. 4-6: finish everything for new baby, pack bag, wash clothes. etc. (38 weeks pregnant)

So there is my list. This does not even include that I will put the over 1000 pictures I had developed into albums.

To do:
Menu board
pictures in albums
get ready for baby
dinner party
birthday party
halloween

OMG. That makes me have braxton hicks just thinking about it.

Chocolate finger painting

2011-09-06T19:12:00.000-05:00

We experimented with chocolate pudding as finger paint since a certain boy will not keep things out of his mouth. It sure was hilarious. Elizabeth was very unsure about the whole experience but Elliott dove right it and had a ball. Brian wasn't shy in participating either.

The last picture is off of my phone so excuse the quality.

football season

2011-09-03T18:44:00.000-05:00

You know football has started when your husband will only bathe the children if he can take his laptop into the bathroom so he doesn't miss anything.

Elizabeth refers to football as 'circle ball.'

Anyways, Go Red Raiders!!!

A few photos of Ireland

2011-09-01T19:25:00.001-05:00

First Day of School

2011-08-29T19:10:00.000-05:00

I apologize for my absence. I will do an Ireland post ASAP.

Today was Elizabeth's first day of preschool. This is the same preschool that Brian and I went to together and that all of my siblings went to. Here are some pictures I took this morning.

My photography skills were not up to par because a certain 10 month old was trying to chew on my camera strap.

2011-08-16T20:17:00.002-05:00

So you will never in a million years believe where I am right now.

IRELAND BABY!!!!

Update all around

2011-08-09T14:38:00.001-05:00

I will eventually get around to getting the pictures off of my camera one day.

Elizabeth seems to have adjusted to her new clock in the morning and now does not even ask to be let out of her room until she 'sees the sun.' (We keep her door locked at night and nap time because she will wake up to come down stairs at all hours. It works for us. Don't judge) Nap time is still a challenge. We are going to start using her clock here at nap time as well. I think that we are just going to wait a little bit longer though. She still is only napping 20-25 min though. Poor exhausted child.

She has her last day of her current preschool next week and then has a week off and then she starts her new preschool. It is the same one that Brian and I both went to. It does not have the same hours that she is currently getting (right now she goes to school from 730-445 and her new school will only be from 930-230) It is going to be more of an adjustment for me though.

We found on last Friday that after Elliott was diagnosed with strep throat (which is virtually unheard of in infants) for the THIRD TIME in SIX WEEKS that Elizabeth has had it this whole time with no symptoms. I insisted the doc swab her 'just to check' and the q-tip thingy came out red from blood her throat was so red and swollen. So they are both on antibiotics and were finally not considered not contagious yesterday. YIPPEE!

Elliott is taking steps in groups of one or two. It is a little unnerving. He is more than ready to walk but is a little too cautious right now.

We took both kids to the butterfly museum and the Houston train at the zoo since they were sick and weren't feeling much up to anything. Elizabeth loved it up until a butterfly almost landed on her. She then became terrified and wanted out immediately. Her favorite part of the butterflies was the small aquarium they have in it. Go figures.

Elizabeth is OBSESSED with Beauty and the Beast right now. It is ridiculous. She is constantly asking for 'the beast on'. We are limiting her to only at Grammies house. She is now asking for 'mammies house beast on'.

Elliott is refusing all table food. He will put nothing in his mouth that can be swallowed. Now given that he will put anything in his mouth that is not meant for his mouth but as soon as he figures out that it is 'real food' he wants nothing to do with it.

I cannot believe that the teachers go back soon. It is going to be so weird for me to not be participating. Once this baby comes I probably won't even remember what teaching is.

I did find out at my last dr. appt that I have what is called placenta previa. It is where my placenta is covering my cervix. Right now my dr. says that he is not comfortable delivering me if it is within 2 cm. My 20 week ultrasound said that it was sitting at 3 cm away from my cervix so he sent me for another ultrasound last week and the ultrasound person said that it looked worse to her. I find out the exact measurement tomorrow. My. doc said that majority of women will have their placenta move up and out of the way as your belly grows. It is rare for it to move more south. Evidently I am a rarity. I will have another ultrasound the first of Sept. and then again the first of Oct. Then he will make his decision on whether or not I can deliver normally or not. I told Brian several weeks ago that I had a feeling that I would end up with a c-section. He didn't believe me. We will see who is right. The good thing about a c-section would be that we can pick his birthday. We have picked out 11/11/11. I think that would be the neatest birthday ever!!
Below are Elliott's 9 month portraits.

Sleep Hell

2011-08-03T13:52:00.000-05:00

We have officially entered to what is seeming like sleep hell. Now you are probably thinking that I mean that I have children getting up multiple times in the night. WRONG. Both my children sleep soundly all night, well that is until 5 AM.

Elliott usually wakes around 5 AM but puts himself back to sleep within 10 min of talking and then will sleep until 7-730 usually giving himslef around 12 hours sleep seeing that both of my children have strict bed times of 7 PM.

Elizabeth on the other hand is a completely different story. She has always needed 12 hours MINIMUM at night and 1.5-2 hours during the day. This child is not waking at 5 AM crying and then refuses to go back to bed and then is so exhausted by 9 AM that she doesn't know how to control herself. She is beyond tired which results in tantrums, whining, almost falling asleep in the car, etc. On top of the waking early she has started refusing to go to bed at night. Last night she fought it for almost an hour putting the actually going to sleep time close to 8 PM instead of 7 PM and then waking at 5 AM. That is 9 hours people!! 9 hours!!! This is a child that is needing 12. The final key to our current hell hole is that she is now not even sleeping 25 min during the day. She wakes from her nap at 20-25 min hystrercial and then cries for at least an hour refusing to go back to bed.

Her total sleep time for today, including a nap, 9 hrs 45 min. when she should be getting 13.5-14.

I know that kids need less sleep as they get older but our pediatrician said that that typically happens around age 3 and then usually drop 1/2 an hour to hour. She is not typical.

You can only imagine the child that we see during the day. It is awful and it isnt fair to her. She is miserable, thus making us miserable.

We purchased her a gro clock. It is fabulous. It basically tells her when she can leave her room. But it is not working.

Nothing is working.

I want my happy baby back.

3 years

2011-08-02T20:05:00.000-05:00

3 years ago today I married the man of my dreams. I could not be happier with the past three years and look forward to the next 47. I can honestly say that I love him more today than I did the day we were married.

He is the father to my daughter and two sons and my match. We complete each other.

Now everyday is not candy and ice cream but I could not imagine it any other way.

I love you Brian.

Our Summer so far

2011-07-12T15:48:00.000-05:00

My absence can easily be explained by two children at home with me while I am pregnant. Managing to get upstairs is darn near impossible these days.

Our summer has been wonderful so far. Elizabeth started off being pretty frightened of the pool but has come around so much that she jumps off the side now and will swim to the steps with no assistance (other than her wings that is).

She is also going to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that has helped her a ton. She really misses her friends the other days of the week. She truly needs that social interaction.

Elliott is doing great. He loves the pool as well and especially when he is completely naked, only in Grammie's pool that is. He is crawling all over the place, standing on his own and is this close to walking.

Our 4th was pretty low key. We spent the morning at out neighborhood parade and then went to Grammie's after naps to swim and eat Brian's fantastic brisket.

We unfortunately lost my grandfather that same day due to Alzheimer's so the remainder of the week was spent with family.

Elliott had strep a few weeks back and I caught a killer cold. Elizabeth and Brian managed to stay sick-free so that was wonderful.

Elizabeth actually got her very own fish tank for her room thanks of Grammie and is completely in love. She is actually getting her very own big girl bed today. Twin bed here we come!!

The pregnancy is going. I am already 21 weeks have yet to take one belly picture. I think that I look the same as I did with Elliott. It is just so darn hot. We have recanted our baby name and have hit the books. I had baby guilt on this baby not having an E name so we are talking it out. I am for it Brian is against it. This baby will probably be 4 days old and still not have a name. We cannot agree on anything really. It would have been so much easier if this baby had just been a girl.

I gave away all of Elizabeth's old clothes since this is our last baby. That was much harder for me that I thought that it would be. I guess I just would like for Elizabeth to have a sister and to know that she never will is a hard pill for me to swallow. Having a sister is such a great thing. I hate to see her miss out on that.

Elizabeth is completely potty trained and has had no accidents in over a week! Fabulous! She is so good about telling us when she needs to go. Now only if she will go all night but the kid sleeps 12 hours. I don't even think that I could go 12 hours.

How has your summer been?

2011-07-09T08:52:00.000-05:00

The following were taken off of my phone this past few weeks.

2011-06-21T08:21:00.003-05:00

Guess who woke up completely dry this morning???

No diapers at bedtime here we come!!

day two and three in one

2011-06-20T20:10:00.000-05:00

Day two,

Elizabeth was naked up until naptime and then wore a diaper to sleep in. She did great. Went to the potty on her own without prompts and peepeed everytime we asked. After nap she started wearing panties and we practiced pulling them up and down and what we had to do if we had to go pee pee. I think by the end of the day we had 3 accidents total. She is not getting poopooing in the potty but I have always heard that is the worst part and the hardest part. We have been pottying her every 30-45 min or so. She did go to katy mills for a quick jewelry run because Brian lost his wedding band down the bathtub drain and the plumber said it was a lost cause. and then she did great at church without any accidents as well. All of our accidents are at home. She goes to bed in a diaper.

Day three.

Today she wore panties all day but no shorts. She did have one poopoo accident in the morning but no potty accidents until last this evening, more to that in a minute. We have been increasing her potty time spacings apart to about 1.5-2 hours between potty breaks and she did great. She is able to run errands as long as we either take her potty with us or go to a place where there is potty access. We also potty right before we get into the car and immediately when we get home. She did wear a diaper during nap time but I believe today will be her last day of that. She has been dry during nap time two days in a row and I believe that her wearing a diaper is keeping her from sleeping. She does not like it. But I am not comfortable giving it up at bedtimes yet. Maybe just pullups. I am noticing that if she has too much to drink during the day she will have potty overload at night. Today she had 5!!! massive potty accidents within one hour because I think that she had WAY TOO MUCH to drink all day. She is also not pottying all the way. She will potty a little and then say ALL DONE!! I DID IT!! We are having to tell her potty some more and the say it again.

But anyways, 3 days in and she has not wore a diaper during the day since and we are not looking back. She is actually loving it. We are all loving it. I would much rather do 20 loads of during potty panties then buy another pack of diapers. Especially since I am making my own laundry detergent now and am loving that as well.

(I can make over 6 months of laundry detergent for under $10 and it works just as well. I just have to remember to pre-treat some difficult stains like ketchup before washing. You should try it!)

3day potty training challenge - day one

2011-06-17T18:44:00.000-05:00

Today marked day one even though we technically did not start until after nap time. We have only had one accident and she has gone to the potty all by herself without prompts. I do not think that I could be more proud to hear water hitting plastic in my life.

We spent most of our day in a shirt and then completely naked. Tomorrow we will spend the morning naked and then after nap we will try panties.

This is going to be interesting but I only have about 30-40 diapers or so left for her and I am bound a determined to not buy another box.

our weekend...

2011-06-13T20:21:00.000-05:00

This is nice.

2011-06-11T13:25:00.000-05:00

Friday we all went out for frozen yogurt and a walk around lacenterra, mainly so she could play in the water park.

Afterwards we were just walking around. I was pushing Elliott in the stroller and Elizabeth was holding Brian's hand and mine.

She just looked up at us both and as clear as day said, "this is nice."

And you know what? It was nice.

Brian and I could not stop laughing at her candidness but she hit the nail on the head.

SAHM

2011-06-07T14:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my first official day as a SAHM. I finally got what I have always wanted. By the end of the day I wanted to go back to work.

It is not easy.

For some reason I had in my head that Elizabeth would just play all day, nap when she was supposed to and not bother her brother. He is pretty easy now that he is crawling. He can get to what he wants, including me, and is pretty content playing on the floor seeing that he can get to everything now. I thought that i would just clean teh house in my apron and heels (not really) and no one would bother me unless there was blood.

i could not have been more wrong.

By the time Brian arrived home at 515, the house had looked like a bomb went off and dinner was not even close to being made.

My only accomplishment was that I was able to clean off a 4 by 2 foot space on our desk in the kitchen. ( I really just ended up moving everything to the stairs to be taken upstairs.)

I am beyond thankful that Elizabeth goes to school 2 days a week during the summer. I was able to do 8 , count em 8!, loads of laundry today and able to put them away.

I am going to have to develop some kind of schedule so I stop getting in my car just to give us something to do.

Here is what I have come up with on my own. Any suggestions would be great you fellow SAHM-ers!

Monday: pump-it-up and Grocery store, swim if we can
Tuesday (EA is in school): laundry
Wednesday: Toddler time at the library and the swim after nap
Thursday (EA in school): clean house, striaghten up and accomplish one thing off of the 'to-do-list' for the house
Friday: run any errands that have to be run for the week ie. target and then go swimming

My goal is to obviously keep Elizabeth has entertained and happy as possible with as minimal television. I don't want to get into the habit of just putting a movie in so I can get something done. I would like to limit her to 1/2 -1 hour a day at the most, if any at all.

And the verdict is in...

2011-06-04T08:24:00.001-05:00

When my friends tell me they are pregnant one of their first questions is always 'what am I having?'. Evidently I am pretty good at predicting the gender of unborn children.

I have never been wrong.

Not once.

Not even with my own children.

That is until Thursday.

I went into my appt thinkning he is just going to tell me what I already know.

You should have seen my face.

Graham Alexander will be joining our family around Thanksgiving of this year and I cannot tell you how thankful I am.

Today is the day... maybe

2011-06-02T09:49:00.000-05:00

Today at 2:30 I will be able to find out if this baby is a boy or a girl.

My OB said at my last visit that he would do a quick ultrasound to see if it is a boy or girl if I would like him to. My response: Ummm Ya!!

I had two seperate dreams last night, both being perfectly identical. One time he told me a girl and the next a boy. I was so convinced this baby is a girl but in the past two days maybe not.

The names are chosen we just need the gender.

Boy or girl? What do you think this one is?

a small reminder

2011-06-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

I was sitting in my desk chair, feet up on my other desk chair reading my brand new " Water for Elephants" that I spent 30 minutes drying out with my hair dryer after a mishap at the pool, (thankfully it was my book and not Aunt NetNees iphone) when all of a sudden I was reminded that there really is another little bean growing away inside there.

poke

wobble

poke

The first time I felt him or her.

A small reminder that I am never alone, when am I ever really alone though. Now that Elliott is crawling, I have not pottied alone in ages.

God does wonderful things. That little moment, which was gone before I realized it had happened, was magical in itself.

I cannot wait until Elizabeth will be able to feel this baby. To see her eyes and wonderment.

Damage

2011-05-31T11:28:00.000-05:00

Last year Elizabeth could not get enough of the pool. Whenever she saw her bathing suit we just had to go swimming.

Well this year, not so much. Brian and I have chalked it up the the fact that we spent the good part of the past 9 months telling Elizabeth not to go near the pool, that it was dangerous!! Now all of a sudden she is allowed to get into the pool? The child just does not get it.

She is petrified of the water. Screaming, kicking, shaking, yelling "yucky pool." I just don't get it.

We went 'swimming' 4 times over memorial day weekend. We thought that it would just take her some time to become acclimated to the pool and were pretty satisfied with her progress by the second time in it.

Now given the second time her Aunt Netnee took her swimming, mommy and daddy were no where in sight. NetNee had her kicking, blowing bubbles in the water, jumping off the side, etc. Yesterday Brian and I took her twice. Right back to where we started. We thought that alot of it was due to the creepy crawly being on and it almost touched her. That alone sent the child practically running out of the water.

My question being, how do you break a 2 year old of a fear? Do you make her face it? Let her work it out on her own?

Elizabeth is perfectly happy with being 5 feet from the pool, much less two feet in it. I need help, I can't spend the summer fighting a child who won't swim. We have to swim. It's summer in Houston for pete's sake!

stupid mouth

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

When I was younger, maybe 15 or 16, my mom promised me that when I got engaged that she would have my teeth fixed. I never needed braces, even though they figured that out after they put them on me. My problem was when I lost my baby teeth, really tiny adult teeth grew in their place. So I ended up with these huge spaces between my upper teeth. No amount of braces would fix the problem because I would end up with a minimum of an inch of space between my back two molars, thats how much space I had between my teeth.

So time flew by, and before I knew it I was engaged. I am sure my mom was hoping that I had forgotten but I was quick to remind her of her promise some 7 years prior. Well the 8 weeks process started. I ended up having to have an oral surgery and then the very painful process of my new teeth. I am now the proud owner of 8 veneers across my mouth. In order to attach my veneers, the dentist had to file down my teeth to a size that is about the size of an infant's teeth, if you could imagine that.

After about a year of having my veneers, I noticed that my gums never did fully recover. They were still very red and swollen as if I had the veneers put on yesterday. I went and spoke with my dentist and he says that in all his years of dentistry he had never seen it before. He believed that even after multiple attempts and trials to fix my gums I must have developed an allergy to the cement they used to attach my veneers. The only way to fix it would be to remove my veneers and to take out my existing teeth and then replace them with permanent dentures. I refuse to have dentures at the age of 23 so I have decided to live with it. So here I sit almost 4 years later, my gums more swollen than ever.

When they were attaching them in the first place I asked them what would happen if one broke off. He said that in all his years, he has never seen one break off in less than 10 years, most are around 20 years. I was comforted in that because if one broke off I would not be able to eat or drink anything until it was reattached, not to mention that I would be in the most excrutiating pain imaginable.

Well last night at 3 years 10 months, one of my veneers broke off with my first bite of dinner. I couldn't believe it. Panic immediately set it. It was 6:05 on the Thursday before a weekend holiday. I knew my dentist was going to be closed for the 4 DAY WEEKEND along with every other dentist.
I immediately called the emergency number and left a message. I thankfully had not swallowed the tooth and it was not broken.

I waited for 45 min before I called the emergency number again and then 45 min later I called it again. Still with no response. I was beyond livid. In the mean time I called every dentist in the houston area and I finally found two that would help me even though I was not their patient.

My dentist finally called me back around 930 and scheduled me to meet me the next morning at 730. Thankfully I had my night guard on. It helped immensly with the pain because the air was blocked.

So this morning I met with my dentist and after 30 min my mouth is back to normal, for now. It sure does hurt like a mother though. I keep thinking that it is going to get better sometime soon but still no improvement.

Stupid mouth....

One week

2011-05-26T10:33:00.000-05:00

I have exactly one week until I am done working for probably at least 12-13 years. That is so weird. I look at the students I have now and to think that I will not be teaching again until they are my age! HA!!

Exactly one week from today I have my next OB appt. He promised me he would scan me to let me know if this baby really is a girl. We still do not have a name. It is driving me crazy.

Elizabeth started calling Elliott buddy. I hate it.

Elliott has started crawling. There is no stopping him now. I cant believe it.

Is it wrong that I want to drop everything and spend one day here?

IF

2011-05-23T12:02:00.000-05:00

* I stole this from another blog that I just happened to find while I was ~~not~~ working.*

IF I were on top of things I would have taken a ton of pictures at the two events from this past weekend.

IF I were on top of things I would not have six loads of laundry to do, and an entire house to clean before the maid comes on Thursday. (Why do I insist that I clean the house before she comes to clean the house? p.s. the maid was a mother's day gift from my parents until the baby comes, one word - HEAVEN. She comes every week - HEAVEN)

IF I were on top of things I would have the video camera out more and video the random things. Those moments are the ones that I am going to wish that I had videoed more.

IF I were on top of things Elliott's baby book would not be left off at month 4 seeing that he is now a week from 8 months old.

IF I were on top of things I would have taken my 12 week belly shot by now.

IF I were on top of things the vegetable garden would have been started in March.

IF I were on top of things I would have made my menu for this week and yet I did not.

IF I were on top of things this blog would be on the 200th post instead of the 107th.

Summer remodel

2011-05-20T07:21:00.000-05:00

This summer is going to be the summer of all summer remodels. We are doing multiple things to our home. Here is our list so far:

1. Paint kitchen
2. Re-tile kitchen/laundry room/half-bath
3. Paint Laundry room
4. Gut half-bath - new mirror, light fixtures, re-sheetrock, and then paint
5. Empty guest bedroom and convert to nursery
6. Paint Nursery pink (we can actually afford for me to do a nice nursery this time - I am stoked)
7. Paint trim and fireplace in the living room
8. Fix the backyard

Let me tell you about the mirror in our half-bath that we are replacing. It is the original gold-framed mirror to the house. Now they did not hang this mirror, they glued it to the wall. And not just any glue, liquid nailed it to the walls. Now it wouldn't be a huge deal but the bottom of the mirror is not a mirror anymore. It is the grey stuff from behind the mirror. Almost like it has corroded away. It looks awful. So in order to replace the mirror we have to completely rip the sheetrock off the wall to take the mirror down and then obviously replace said sheetrock. It is going to be awful. I really want to put in a vanity like this, color and all. What do you think?

We are painting our kitchen a light coffee color to accent the darker brown wall surrounding our fireplace. The laundry room is getting a grey-blue color than I found in Ho.me De.pot's oops paint section for $5 and I love it. I am not quite sure on the half-bath. Probably just a cream to accent the amazing bathroom vanity.

I am so excited!!

Elizabeth-isms

2011-05-19T14:50:00.000-05:00

As I sit here trying desperately to ~~work~~ kill time, I thought that I would share with you all the fun cute little things that Elizabeth is saying now.

Tank-two (thank you) is by far my favorite. She will say it over and over until you say your welcome.
Let's go home!
Where's my dada?
num (come) she will grab your hand and pull (and I mean pull you) until you follow her
Bite (we think that that she is meaning 'play' because she says this when she wants us to come and play with here)
Hold you - when she wants you to hold you
sit couch - when she wants you to sit with her on the couch
Rock - when she wants you to rock her like a baby
Hi Jack
nack - when she wants a snack
lets go nite nite
brush - so she can brush our hair
all done or gone
no no baby - when she wants Elliott to stop crying, playing with her toy, etc.
hug you
kiss you
gabba - when she wants yo gabba gabba
outside after nap - she knows that she can go outside and play after her nap
music
Alice - her teacher at school
Darker (parker) a girl in her class a school
No no Wayne - a boy in her class who bites
She will sing the words to ABC, you are my sunshine, wheels on the bus, and itsy bitsy spider
and countless others that I cannot think of at this moment

Elliott is having surgery in the morning to have tubes put in his ears so please keep him in your thoughts.

What's in a name?

2011-05-18T08:07:00.001-05:00

As we are moving along in this pregnancy, the number 2 question I am recieving outside of 'what are you having?' is 'what are your names that you have picked out?'.

Growing up I always 'knew' exactly what I was going to name my children. Looking back they were completely rediculous. Tatianna Marie and Anthony James. OMG. I now feel like I was naming a doll or a puppy.

Naming your baby is so much bigger than anything. It is who they are. It will be with them forever. I also wanted to instill some kind of familial connection with my child. Out of my siblings and myself, I am the only one who is not named for someone. That has always bothered me a little. I knew that I would always name my children after someone.

Elizabeth Ann - She received the mother of all names. Elizabeth and Ann are both of my sisters middle names who were named after my father's mother, Elizabeth Ann "Betty Ann". Beth is also my mother's middle name as well as Brian's mother's middle name. See she really does have the mother of all names.

Elliott James - Elliott was just a name that Brian and I have always loved. A name that is not very common but everyone can spell and say when they see it. (I just hate it when I get a student in my class whose name is spelled so off the wall you spend 3 minutes just trying to figure out how to pronounce it and they look at you with those 'what in the hell did my parents do to me' eyes and say, its Sarah.) No kidding. His middle name is very dear to Brian. It is his father's first name. Brian is an only child and obviously the only son, doing that meant more to him than anything. If we ever have another boy, his middle name will be Allen, Brian's father's middle name.

This baby - We are completely torn. We know that if this baby is a girl we will probably use my middle name or a version of it. My middle name is Marie but my father's mother has used the french version, Maret (pronounced Ma-rey), with one of her daughters. I have always loved that. What we are torn about is if we do something like what we did with Elizabeth. Do we give her something that ties her to multiple people or something that is her own? There are so many cutesy names out there that are fabulous when they are small but what happens when they are big and a 45 year old career woman? I just can't stand a name that sounds rediculous as an adult just like old lady names sounds rediculous when they are little, like Gertrude. Who name's their infant Gertrude?
Anyways. What were the meanings/reasons for your kiddoes names if you have any?

picture overload

2011-05-09T20:19:00.000-05:00

This is going to run from the middle of March through now. It will have randomness, Elizabeth's birthday and party, and Easter.

A survey.. you know...for work purposes

2011-05-04T14:51:00.000-05:00

1.Where did you kiss the last person you kissed? in the bathroom before Brian left this morning

2 .What’s the greatest thing that happened to you today? Elizabeth said "Momma the light is not on" NO kidding!!! She said that entire sentence!

3. How many TRUE best friends do you have? 0 - isn't that sad
4.Would you rather get up early or sleep in? I would love to sleep in but those two rugrats upstairs dont know how to go past 730
5.Tell me about the shirt you’re wearing? black shirt with puffy sleeves, the one Brian hates
6. What are you excited about right now? ultrasound at 4!
7. Pets? 2 dogs and on Friday we will be down to 1 cat - it will be a sad day
8. Would you rather smile over a lie or cry over the truth? I guess cry...
9. What’s on your bedroom floor right now? tissues from blowing my nose during the night, one of Elizabeth's dolls, shoes, box of maternity clothes, pillows from the bed, probably a pacifier
10. Who’s the last person you got into a argument with? I’m sure Brian
11. Do you trust people? Yes i trust adults but I have a hard time with students but that comes with the job
12. If you could move away, no questions asked, where would you move to? Scottland or Ireland
13. Your favorite number? 12
14. Could you go a day without eating? absolutely not, especially now that I am pregnant
15. How much do looks matter to you in a guy/girl? not very much, but you should see my husband, he's hot!
16. Do you like anybody right now? My husband, it helps when you like your spouse
17. When was the last time you had your hair cut? January
18. Would you rather be mad or sad? can i pick neither?
19. Does it take a lot to make you cry? absolutely not. I cry at everything
20. Whats the best feeling in the world? when Elizabeth hugs me and I mean really hugs me
21.Are you close with your mom? Yes, I takl to her every day
22. Are your parents strict? they were with my brother and me but not so much with my younger sisters
23. Do you tell your parents everything? almost, mainly the the things I know that they want to hear

25. Name some fears you have: death, being a single parent, losing a child
26. Does the thought of marriage scare you? nope
27. How many kids do you want? 3 not 4 or 5 or anything else, but if God decided to give them to me, I would take them of course
28. What’s your favorite season? fall
29. What’s your favorite color to wear? Blue or black+
30. Who was the last person other than you in your bedroom? Brian
31. What are you doing today? ~~playing on the computer~~ teaching
35. Do you get bored easily? Yes

36. What’s something that someone can do that really bothers you? not do what they are supposed to do because they are too lazy to do it or just dont want to
37. Did you ever want to change your name when you were younger? nope
38. Do you wish you were famous? no I like my private life but sometimes I wish I were a princess
39. Do you make a wish at 11:11? usually but actually yesterday I realized that I have my wish that I wish for everyday since I was like 10. Married with 3 kids before I am 30. I can't believe how lucky I am that I got my wish.
40. When you go to the beach do you swim or lay out more? Lay out.
41. Who’s the last text message you received from and what did it say? my friend Mandy this morning "yes and one sad mommy" talking about how her dog ate her hanger
42. What are you freakishly obsessed with? blogs
43. What’s your favorite song at the moment? ??
44. Do you like going to the mall to shop or just shopping online? both
45.Can music affect your mood? maybe

46. What piercings do you want? None
48.Have you ever been in a cave? yes

49.Ever eaten a bug? not to my knowledge
50. When will you hang out with the person you last kissed next? in about 1.5 hours at the ultrasound

51. Are you in a good mood? pretty much
53. Would you rather skydive or bungee jump? Neither

54. Do you like snakes? No
55. What’s one place you would like to visit? Scottland, no Ireland, no Scottland, well one of the two
56. Do you like waffles? yep sir ree bob!
57. Does the number 23 have any significance to you? No

58. Be honest, do you like people in general? As long as they are jerks or creepy
59. What color are the walls in your bedroom? tanish
60.Do you think starbucks is expensive? Yes
61. Are you named after a family member? Nope and I am the only one out of my siblings who is not
62. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass or fail? Pass
63. Wanting to tell someone something? i want to tell my kids I am pregnant, tomorrow I will
64. Last restaurant you went to? I have no idea, it has been forever, I have two kids
65. What is the weather like today? suprisingly cool and NOT raining.
66. What happened yesterday? Work
67. What would you do with five million dollars? pay off the house and the kids college funds, go on a trip and gut our home
68. How many hours did you sleep last night? 8
69. Any upcoming concerts you want to attend? none
70. Who’s the last person that you felt was stalking you? no one that is a little creepy
71. Have you ever been on your school’s track team? No
72. Have you cried today? Not yet
73. Do you think that someone is thinking about you right now? probably {I hope}

74. Does it annoy you when someone says they’ll call, but never do? YES!

75. What did you dress up as for Halloween? I was a mom to two M&M's
76. The last thing someone said to you? "I'm finished" a student talking about their project

77. Cable or Satellite? cable
78. Favorite video game? none
79. Do you have to sleep with a fan on at night?yes a must
80. Next vacation? ireland next summer
81. Do you still have a VCR somewhere? yes
82. Been on a sailboat? just a regular boat
83. Two of your best friends are fighting. Your reaction? let it be
84. Home Depot or Lowes? Home Depot

85. Beer or Hard Liquor? probably liquor but I could not even tell you the last time I have a drink
86. Best movie you’ve seen recently? When Harry met Sally
87. Favorite vacation spot you’ve been to? Amelia Island
88. Your last bf/gf/datingpartners name and when did it end? that would be in highschool
89. Favorite Christmas gift last year? date night with Brian
90. Do you plan out your day before it begins? not really
91. What kind of digital camera do you have? Nikon D3000
92.Can you say your ABC’s backwards? nope

93. Favorite outdoor activity? playing with ELizabeth
94. Your ex’s car breaks down and they ask you for a lift? maybe
95. Your feelings on Gaga? Eh, whatever
96. Gym of choice? I dont do that
97. Ever play with model trains? Nope

98. You’ve just bought a new house. What color will you paint the walls in the living room? probably a khaki color with a brown accent
99. Best subject in school? math
100. Who do you miss? married life pre-baby
101. Craziest dream? my pregnancy dreams
102. Do you consider yourself religious? ya
103. Internet Explorer or Firefox? firefox
104. Thoughts on break ups? They suck no matter what

105. Thoughts on money? we dont have too much and it is about to get worse
106. Describe the first house you lived in. And your second house? my parents on rustic knolls, I loved it and still do and the second was the one from hell on Pittsford
107. Last phone call you received? probably from Brian
108. Favorite sport to watch? maybe football
109. Who held your hair on your 21st birthday? didnt even drink on my 21st birthday, we went to a west texas baptist wedding and there was no drinking or dancing
110. How much syrup do you put on your waffles and/or pancakes for breakfast? probably a little more than I should
111. Favorite junk food? chocolate or fries

112. Bottled water. Yes or no? Im a tap drinker
113. Do you have a lot of candles in your room? no
114. Are the files in your computer well organized or all over the place? organized
115. Are there dogs barking in your neighborhood right now? maybe
116. Where would you most like to be right now? on a plane going overseas
117. Do you own a sleeping bag? brian does
118. UFC. Entertaining or stupid? stupid

119. Favorite reality show? real Housewives, Top Chef
120. What was the first CD you ever bought? I have no idea
121. Favorite commercial ever? the hoover commercial with a really fluffy black cat sneezes and its hair explodes and then the lady comes up a starts vacumming like it happens all the time. HILARIOUS!
122. Do you vote? yes
123. Memorial Day plans? Not yet

124. Last 5 played songs in your Itunes playlist? I have no idea, I really dont do Itunes
125. What are you wearing on your feet? black sparkly flip flops

rubber band

2011-04-25T14:32:00.001-05:00

Today I had to fasten a rubber band to my pants so I could actually wear them. This act in itself has made this pregnancy real.

Today I mark 10 weeks. Only 30-ish weeks before Brian and I become forever outnumbered.

My next ultrasound is a week from Wednesday. After that I will talk openly to everyone about this pregnancy. I have not been hiding it to people outside of my immediate circle, when asked I do not deny but I just do not bring it up on my own.

For the most part I have had absolutely no symptoms. It has been border-line nerve racking. Nothing of reassurance. If I weren't a third-time mom I am sure that I would have insisted on another ultrasound by now. *knock on wood*

We are in the process of making room for baby. We are finding new homes for our cats, which has been really hard for me. I keep telling myself it is for the best. It doesn't help much. I will do anything for my babies though.

We have picked our names (I will share once we find out the gender, if we decide to find out).

Brian and I decided that amongst the chaos of a new baby that we need to get away. We are going to go somewhere for our anniversary. There have been talk of going to Ireland in October, South Carolina in August, or just spending a night in a hotel in downtown Houston. We will probably be doing the last one.

I have a ton of pictures to upload. One day....

100

2011-04-18T08:11:00.000-05:00

100 posts. A small milestone. I wonder what my life will look like when I reach 200.

This past weekend was Elizabeth's birthday party and our encounter with the bunny. All of my pictures are on my camera which is hanging in its bag on my coatrack. I will get to them eventually.

The party was nothing short of fabulous. We had absolutely perfect weather. The kids played outside for hours. They played on the bounce house, swings, sandbox, and with the chalk. We could barely drag them in for the cake much less lunch. I was sure that Elizabeth would after everyone left but she must have been so wound up that she only slept for 45 minutes and then was miserable the rest of the after noon. She had an absolute blast. I would so that it was nothing short of a complete hit and I believe that we are going to do this again every year, until she demands otherwise atleast.

We ended up serving chic-fil-a nuggets, fruit salad and fries. We then sang happy birthday to my chocolate cake that I made that I do have to say was pretty good. I will be making that again. Elizabeth opened her presents and she received a ton of clothes. So many that I ended up having to clean out her closet yesterday because I couldn't put any of them away. Now the thank you note writing must commense.

Sunday we went and saw the bunny. I was convinced that she was going to freak out just like she did with Santa. But not this child. As soon as she saw the bunny she could not get to him fast enough. She was in complete awe. Brian had to pry her away from him and she cried for 5 minutes becuase she wanted to be back with the bunny. Elliott did great as usual. He sat on his lap and chewed on the bunny's tie. So typical.

I will post pictures soon but Brian is abandoning me for New Jersey for the next three days so I know that it will at least be Thursday before I will get another chance to sit down.

THE details...

2011-04-14T19:46:00.000-05:00

So many people have asked me if this third baby was planned. Aren't all babies planned in some way?

It was most definitely a surprise but now that the shock has worn off we are settlign into the idea of 3 under 3. That just sounds crazy doesn't it? 3 under 3. If this baby makes it to it's due date, which I have yet to do, then my oldest and the youngest will only be 30 months apart. When Elizabeth is a senior in high school, Elliott will be a sophmore and this baby will be a freshman. I keep telling Brian that we will have no babies in the house by the time we are 45. Doesn't that sound fabulous? It is most definitely the silver lining in this situation.

It was Monday of Spring Break and ever since I stopped nursing my cycles have been crazy off. and I mean crazy. I was already late and I just thought that it was my body still trying to recover. So I thought that I would go to the dollar store and only waste $1 on a negative test than the usual $10 or so. Well low and behold that thing didn't even last 1 minute before there were two lines. I ended up calling Brian at work hysterical because I just couldnt handle it on my own and he didn't believe the test. So $30 later at CVS, and I was still pregnant.

I told Brian that we better only be having one because I know that I cannot handle 4 under 3. That just is crazy.

So here we are, almost 9 weeks with one little bean. Everyone knows now and they are so excited for us. I think that they are just waiting to see how we handle all of this. We will manage. We always do.

I am due the middle of November, exactly one month from Elliott's due date. I am only the 2nd patient that my doctor has had that will have 3 babies. He is very young. Maybe 34?

We made the decision that with 3 babies that I would stay home next year. I am so glad that we decided that. Only 31 days with students left. Yippee!

I was so convinced that this baby was a girl at first that I wouldn't even discuss boy names or anything but now I am not so sure. I actually have no clue what I am having. I think that I will have a better idea around my next scan. Brian really wants to find out what this baby is but I am not so sure. We have time though.

Elizabeth Ann

2011-04-13T19:08:00.000-05:00

Today you turn two. I still cannot believe it. My sweet sweet girl. You are so big now. Talking up a storm. You can say so many words now and boy do you love to talk. You also love to read. Right now your favorite person is daddy with grammie in a close second.

Mommy and daddy love you little girl. More than you will ever know.

You will never believe this...

2011-04-11T08:14:00.000-05:00

Same song, third verse, same as the first (and second)...

Thsi picture is horrible because it is off of the Iphone.

I also wanted to share with you the new accessories that my children are attached too, well more Elizabeth than Elliott but you understand.

These are also off of my phone so bear (bear, is that right?) with them please.

Can we say a litte scary?

2011-04-08T07:45:00.000-05:00

I handed this to my principal this morning...

Dear......

I hereby submit my voluntary resignation as a teacher at ... in the ...school district, effective following the last day of my contract for the 2010-2011 school year.

I have enjoyed being a part of this school and school district and am thankful for the opportunities and learning experiences that I have received here. I hope that I can rely on you for a positive reference in the future.

Can you believe it? I am scared beyond my mind but everything will work out eventually. I am really excited about being home with my babies though.

Elliott James

2011-04-04T09:15:00.000-05:00

My sweet sweet boy,

Today you turn 6 months old! I cannot believe it. You have grown so much in the past 6 months. I cannot wait for what the next 60 years has in store.

You are sleeping like a champ (knock on wood). You will sleep from around 8, putting yourself to sleep in your own bed!, to around 730ish. Your daddy and I think that it is so funny that even though you do not sleep any where near each other, you and your sister wakeup at the exact same time everyday.

You are rolling everywhere! That is your favorite form of transportation at this time. We wil lay you on your back and within a second or two you are on your tummy, then back, then tummy again. The blanket on the floor no longer works.

Elliott James, you have finally discovered how to jump in your excersaucer and you love it. You think that it is so funny! You will jump and jump and jump. Elizabeth loves to hit the buttons for you to make the music come on becuase she knows that it will make you jump even more.

You are such a mouthy baby. EVERYTHING goes into your mouth and I mean everything. From your sock to your daddy's shirt. If you can pick it up, it is going straight to your mouth.

You think that your sister is the best thing ever. Whatever she is doing you are falling over from laughing so hard. She loves to call you baby and she knows that if she says "hi baby" you will laugh your hardest.

You are enjoying your stage 1 foods and are really starting to get the hang of everthing.

You love to stand and and look around and are so affraid that you are going to miss something.

You are not the biggest fan of a huge crowd or noises but you do not mind being passed around at all. You love being the center of attention.

What we find that is so funny is that you will not sleep without your face being covered with a blanket. If we do not cover it then you will do it for yourself.

We love you sweet boy. I cannot wait to see you grow even more than you already have. You are my apple of my eye and your father's pride and joy.

The end of an era

2011-04-01T14:25:00.000-05:00

Today marks the end of an era and I have mixed emotions about it.

We officially closed on our first home today. It is now someone else's first home and I truely hope that they love it. I really feel like it was meant to be.

Our home sat on the market for 8 very long months but in the last month it was on the market 3 families moved onto the street. The three families have 5-year-olds that joined another two families on our street that has 5-year-olds. So there are now five 5-year-olds. The family that bought our home today also has a 5-year-old. They will all start kindergarten together, ride the same bus and maybe even be in the same class. It truely was meant to be.

When I said that it marked the end of an era I meant it marked the end of the era of 'Rode firsts.' That was our first home together. Brian and I brought our puppy to that home, we brought our babies home from the hospital to that home. We watched Elizabeth take her first steps in that living room, come down the stairs for the first time, had our first Christmas as a family in that home. It will always have a special place in my heart.

Time moves on and I am looking forward to having a hundred times more memories in the home that we are in now. Elizabeth will celebrate turning two at this home. Elliott will learn to walk in this house and we will bring our future babies home to this house. This house is the house that my children will remember when they think of their childhood. This house is making me able to stay home after this school year and I am forver grateful for that.

Anyways, It is Friday!! Are you excited yet?

44

2011-03-30T14:22:00.001-05:00

Mammas, hold on to your britches because school will be out in a mere 44 blissful school days. I cannot believe it. It cannot come nearly fast enough. I am ready to spend the summer with my babies. Elizabeth will be going to her pre-school two days a week from 7- 430 just so she can keep her sanity. We plan on spending the other days swimming in Grammie's pool and things like that. I had hoped to sign her up for swim lessons this summer but I am not sure if that is going to happen anymore.

My children are changing so quickly. Elliott will be 6 months on the 4 and Elizabeth will be 2 on the 13th. They are both scheduled for their portraits and I cannot wait to see how they will turn out. Elliott will be wearing his 6 month onesie and Elizabeth her Ralph Lauren Polo dress. Brian and I decided that we would get them a new polo outfit every year for their birthday's to wear for their pictures.

These are some of the things that they are doing now:

ELLIOTT:

blowing raspberries. Oh the raspberries. He is so good at it and Elizabeth just thinks that he is spitting and she does not understand why he does not get into trouble when he does it and she does when she tries. (hers really is spitting)
He is this close to getting on his knees to crawl. I cannot believe it. He is getting so big.
He has these 6 long hairs on his head. I am talking long. Like 5 inches, when everything else is 1 inch or less.
Oh does he love his exercauser

ELIZABETH:

Her vocabulary grows what seems like every hour. She can now ask for the specific type of juice she wants. She will say 'apple juice' etc. Her word apple actually sounds like "ap-hole" it is stinking cute.
Her memory amazes me. She threw a remnant of a banana in the grass at my mother's on Monday and yesterday went looking for the 'nana'
She is such a good mommy. She holds her baby. Feeds her baby. She will sit in her little rocking chair and wrap her baby up in a blanket way past suffocation and pat her baby's back and say 'shhhh'. She will lay her baby down on Elliott's blanket face down, the way she naps, and will cover her head with a blanket and pat the baby's butt like they do to put her to sleep at her school. I love it. I love her.
She loves to be outside. If she is outside, she is happy. She loves to swing, which she can pump now like a big girl, go down the slide, play with chalk and just be in the grass. Everyday after school she asks me if we can go 'ring.'

I am going to post more specifics about them, as in weight, height, etc. when they have their pediatrician appts and close to their birthdays.

This weekend we are going to go see the Easter bunny and Aunt Netnee and going to join us. So exciting!

Fate

2011-03-28T11:03:00.001-05:00

Do you believe in fate?

That things were meant to happen the way they were?

That God has our entire lives planned out for us and that we are mearly players?

As I look back at my life I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had made a change in a slightest way.

When I was a senior in high school I was supposed to go to OSU (Oklahoma State University). I was signed, sealed, and practically delivered. My car was packed and I was ready to make the 8 hr drive. For some reason the day before I was supposed to leave, I couldn't go. I didn't go. I ended up completely changing my mind and going to Texas Tech University and managed to sign up and get in my dorm on the last day that they allow it. As I think back I wonder what my life would me like today if I had ended up going to OSU. Who would I have married? Would I be married? Would I have my babies?

I cannot tell you why I did not go to OSU. It just did not feel right. Texas Tech felt right. I met my husband the second semester at Tech.

Most of you do not know that Brian and I got engaged in Sept of 2006. We set a date for Jan 5 2008 but a measly 6 weeks before the wedding. I called it off. It didn't feel right. Every bone in my body told me to not get married. It was a horrible time for both of us. We obviously broke up and went our separate ways. I remember telling Brian before we even started dating that I was meant to marry him and I truly meant it. I reminded him of that when I told him that I could not marry him. By the end of January we were back together and by the middle of March back to being engaged. We married August 2, 2008. We often tell each other we are so thankful that we did not get married in January. We needed to get on our feet a little bit better and figure out some things. I am thankful every single day that we did not get married on January 5 because we conceived Elizabeth Ann on our honeymoon. I firmly believe that it was God's way coming through me to make sure that we had her. She was meant to be here for some reason and she wouldn't have been born if we had married on January 5. But what if we did? Would we still be married? Would we have divorced by now? What would the world be like without Elizabeth Ann?

The movie "The Adjustment Bureau" has me thinking about all of this. All the ripples that our decisions make.

What is something that if you have done differently would have changed everything in your life?

Nothing..

2011-03-25T08:25:00.000-05:00

So I have absolutely nothing to write about today.

Nothing is happening at home.

Nothing exciting is going to be happening for a few weeks or so.

Anything 'exciting' happening with you?

Hiatus

2011-03-21T20:22:00.000-05:00

So I took a week long blogging hiatus and I have to admit, It was fabulous. My kiddoes went to school and I got to stay home and have a spring break to myself. Are you jealous yet?

SO my monday meal thing went out the window. It is far to hard to make a dinner much less take pictures while doing so and then find teh time to blog about it. So we are back to much more mundane things.

We officially made the decision this past week that I will NOT be returning to work in the fall. Praise Jesus! It will be a struggle for the first year but then we will be smooth sailing after that. Elizabeth will get to go to our church preschool and Elliott will stay home with me.

Did you know that there are only 10 Mondays left until summer break? Mommas hold on to your britches because school is almost out! I cannot wait until it is warm enough for swimming. Elizabeth is going to be taking swimming class at the Y this summer. I am super stoked about them. The final day they throw her in the pool with all her clothes to see if she will swim to the side. That is the whole point of teaching a baby to swim right? so they wont drown if they ever do fall in a pool? it is a little mean sounding but safety first!

Elliott is stating his baby food. It is so cute. He isn't quite sure what to do with it yet but he is liking sweet potatoes and carrots and absolutely hates peas. He is just about to cut his first tooth and is this close to getting on his knees. He is sooo big.

Anyways, Happy Monday!

We went on a walk the other night when it was still pretty cool and I took these great shots.

Penne Pasta with Broccoli and SunDried Tomatoes

2011-03-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

This has to be one of our most favorite dinner in our home. It makes a ton of leftover also. We can easily eat it for lunch the next day and dinner the day after that. Now that is a ton of food and getting your money's worth.

First start with your chicken. I cube mine even though the recipe says to cut it in strips.Then dice your onion, a whole or half, depending on your liking.

Once that is completely cooked and the onion is nice and soft, add in your broccoli, garlic and sun dried tomatoes. I always use frozen brocolli because it is just that much easier.

While that is cooking, start your pasta. I typically use the entire box of penne pasta. When everything is done cooking it should look something like this.

Turn the heat off then start your cream sauce. The recipe is as follows.
2 T butter
1 T flour
1-1/2 c. milk
4 oz cream cheese
romano cheese
salt/pepper to taste

Ina saucepan melt butter then put in flour. Let it cook for a minute or so to get rid of the flour taste. Next slowly add in your milk, stirring constantly, (that is why I have no pictures) until it comes to a boil and slightly thickens. Then put in your chream cheese, cubed, and stur until completely melted. Next stir in romano cheese, salt and pepper and voila! You are done. Just combine everything in the pasta pot, once it is drained and you have a fabulousd dinner that even a 2 year old would love.

New Meal Monday

2011-03-13T20:29:00.001-05:00

My resolution this year, as well as last year, is to try a new recipe every week. Whether it is a dinner, dessert, or appetizer, it does not matter. So thought that I should start sharing some of our favorites in hopes that they may become your favorites too.

Tomorrow will be my first post and then every Monday afterwords will be the new meal for the week.

If you do end up trying one of my recipes, please let me know. I am so curious to see if anyone tries any of these.

And a post is not a post without these two.

Her Party

2011-03-12T19:44:00.000-06:00

Brian and I have been going back and forth on what 'type' of party to throw for Elizabeth's second birthday. After much debate we decided just to throw and plan and simple birthday party - NO THEME!!

I am actually excited about it. We will just hang around the house. The kids will play. Hamburgers will be served along with cake and ice cream of course. It should be great. I am really looking forward to it.

Here is the invite that I created today. Isn't it great?

I think that it is nothing short of fabulous! She is going to be such a great two-year-old.

Lent

2011-03-09T13:22:00.001-06:00

As many of you know, whether you are Catholic or not, today marks the first day in Lent. Most people give something up for lent. For example, chocolate, smoking, drinking, cursing, etc. I usually do as well. My typical sacrifice is usually sodas. I have tried giving up chocolate in the past but I usually dont make it much past March.

This year I am going to do something extra instead. I decided that I wanted to do somethign that would benefit someone else. A little about me, I do not take compliments well. I tend to rationalize them and back my way out of them. Yesterday my husband kissed me when he came home from work and said that I looked really good yesterday. Instead of saying 'thank you' and accepting it, I looked at him funnily and said 'ok' in a really awkward squeaky sixth-grade girl voice. After the moment passed, I noticed that I hardly ever say anything complimentary to him.

So my extra thing that I am going to do is to compliment my husband every day for 40 days. It would be a great habit to start for him seeing that he compliments me every day. I know that that may seem trivial and insignificant to someone who has smoked 2 packs a day for 20 years and has now decided to give up smoking but I think that it is significant for us. It is good for our marriage and I am going to be with him for the next 100 years so I think that he should at least be happy. :)

I would also like to do The Love Dare with my husband as something that we can do together. But it was a thought that came through my mind this morning and we would have to start today which means I would have to leave work and go find two Love Dare books. I think that I should go for it. It would be a good investment in our marriage. You should try The Love Dare. The good ol' Duggars introduced me to it. (through their show that is)

The rodeo

2011-03-08T15:37:00.001-06:00

Wow! The rodeo was fabulous. I personally think that it was so fun this year because it was Brian and me without kiddoes and we had such great seats. We were 3 rows up from the dirt in the dead center. I actually had horse salvia on me when we left. It was ~~gross~~ great!

It ended up being armed forces night so there were a ton of people in uniform! They had this young lady sing the national anthem who was in the navy and she was the best that I have ever heard, Ever! It almost made me want to cry, especially being surrounded by all of the military people.

I actually kept score this time so it made it more interactive and I think that I enjoyed in more because I was participating.

I took a few pictures on my phone because I ended up not taking my big camera because I was afraid either a) they wouldn't let me in with it or b) I would lose it or it would be stolen.

So here are a few that I took:

This is when two men from special forces dropped in from the roof with the flag. I was scared for them!

The fireworks with the national anthem.

Trace Adkins, no offense to those who love him but I thought that he was BORING!

We participated in these cheesy photo-op but I love it!

So behind...

2011-03-07T09:16:00.000-06:00

I feel like I am so far behind in my posts and I have no time to do them.

I need to talk about the following:

1. Elliott turning 5 months
2. The rodeo
3. My photography goals
4. A new recipe a week challenge
5. Next year (school year that is)

Oy Vey! Is someone willing to make dinner, finish laundry, grade and submit papers and love on my kids so I can do all this before something else needs to be added??

Our Weekend

2011-03-01T06:00:00.001-06:00

Thsi past weekend was fabulous!

I spent Saturday shopping for new clothes since I back down to my pre-pregnancy weight (and a few less!). So I hit up A.nn Ta.ylor and Talbo.ts I tried to shop for shoes but was completely unsuccessful. Afterwords i stopped for lunch and then got my haircut. I feel like a new woman! Brian was such an amazing husband and watched both kids for me so I could do that.

Sunday was the normal Sunday. In the afternoon Brian set up Elizabeth's sandbox and we sat on the driveway and played with her chalk. It was so nice to have this family time. Sometime;s this age is so hard but then days like this make it all worth it.

95 days...

2011-02-28T08:08:00.001-06:00

That is until I can officially be "retired." School days that is.

Thats right! We finally sold our other home and plan to close on April 1st. The planets have finally aligned and I feel like we are finally having something work for us and not against us. Brian and I have had a bottle of champagne at the back of our fridge waiting for the day that we close so we can celebrate. I can honestly say that I plan on emptying that bottle, that is how excited and relieved that we have sold our home. The family that bought our home has a 1 year old and a 5 year old and the husband is a Iraq veteran. I hope that they enjoy the home as much as Brian and I did. I know that we had a love-hate relationship with the home but I brought my babies home from the hospital to that home, that is the home that Brian and I spent the first night together after we were married. It will always be my first home and I will love it for that.

Elliott turns 5 months this Friday. I cannot believe it. He is this close to rolling from his back to his tummy. He has finally consistently slept through the night. Thank you Dr. Ferber!

Elizabeth is cuter than ever. We have found a babysitter that she LOVES! She doesn't even cry when we leave anymore. I am seriously in love with Danielle. She needs to move in but I am pretty sure that her husband of 7 months would miss her.

Brian and I are going to see the Rodeo on Wednesday and I am very excited to go. It will be a late night but well worth it.

Our kitchen will be finished by Elizabeth 2nd birthday!! We are having the granite installed the first week in April and then the tile and backsplash will be replaced a few days later. I cannot believe it. I think that when it is all said and done we have added about $50K to our home's value. Now all I need is a double oven and I will have the kitchen of my dreams.

I think that I need to post a more purposeful post. They have only been bulleted for the past few. Oy vey. Another day. Enjoy your week!

Did you even tackle that challenging dessert?

5 min...

2011-02-23T14:59:00.004-06:00

I have managed to find 5 minutes after school let out so here goes.

This past weekend we spent Saturday evening in the ER with Mr. Elliott because he had been with a fever over 24 hours. It turns out that he had ~~a continued~~ another ear infection. I still think that his pediatrician is not really checking his ears. We went to the pedi twice in the past two weeks and twice now after she has given the all clear we have gone back within 48 hours with a diagnosis of an ear infection. This time it ended up on the weekend thus putting us in the ER on a Saturday night. Not fun. He ended up with a antibiotic shot and a round of oral antibiotics. He is doing much better, especially after Friday night. He was up all night crying. I ended up getting into bed with him around 3 or so and slept with him there.

Saturday I ended up having to go to work while Brian stayed home with the two kids because K.I.S .D decided that the 'snow day' that we had needed to be made up on a Saturday. BOOOO!

We FINALLY have a contract on our home and are supposed to close on April 1st. We are hoping for no april fools joke here. If we actually do end up closing on the first, PRAISE JESUS!, I will be a SAHM next year.

We have been doing the Ferber Method with Elliott and after a very long night on Monday night, Tuesday night he slept through the night. *knock on wood* He woke up twice but put himself to sleep immediately. HEAVEN!

I have been really working hard with my camera in trying to take better picture and after some advice from Melinda over at A Thankful Family and my counsin's husband Chris. I am finally getting somewhere. I just wish that there were 10 more hours in the day so I can practice some more.

Elizabeth's potty training is getting there. She will potty on comand 9 times out of 10 and her diaper has actually been dry a couple times in the morning after sleeping 13 hours straight. I couldn't believe it.

I made some Devil's food cupcakes over the weekend and they were so moist and juicy no icing was needed. Elizabeth has this unbelievable love for chocolate cake. She can shove an entire cupcake in her mouth in two seconds and ask for another before you even get one bite in. ( I only allow one cupcake.)

We are one week away from being almost completely debt free besides the mortgage. It is so freeing.

Anyways, this has been far from a wordless Wednesday.

My challenge for you this week: make a dessert that you are afraid of. What have you always wanted to tackle but have been afraid of a disaster occuring? Try it and then blog about it! Don't forget to take pictures!

A little of this a little of that

2011-02-16T18:53:00.000-06:00

I am going to bullet this post since so much has happened.

Elliott has finally gotten over his ear infection and slept two nights without waking up. But now he is right back to waking up at 330. sigh
Elliott has also started blowing raspberries. It is super cute! EA never did that and I always missed it. She evens tried to copy him and can't do it. She gets so frustrated that he can do it and she can't. it is hard not to laugh.
Elizabeth now thinks that everything that is bigger than my car that has wheels is a bus. She just points and says 'bus.' Today I drove by a school bus and she of course said 'bus' and then said 'd!' I couldn't believe it!. She found the letter D in Katy I.S.D. on teh side of teh bus. I was so proud. Her school actually taught her something and she applied it outside the classroom. Whoohoo!
EA has started pottying on teh potty. I have never been so excited to hear the potty flush. She is so proud. I ask her ever 30-45 minutes or so and we run to the potty and she does her business every time. We have only had one poopoo accident on the floor. We even went out and picked out big girl panties. We aren't wearing them yet but we are getting close. Spring Break I am knocking it out. She is soooo ready.
Brian and I both caught some nasty flu-like bug this week. It has not been fun but so far the kids are not sick. *knock on wood*
I bought Trace Adkins tickets from a lady I work with. They are the 3rd row in the action seats on the ground. Actually in the dirt! I cannot believe it. I am stinking excited. It is going to be a late night but we will survive.
We have managed to wean EJ off of his night time reflux meds. It is so nice to not have to starve him in the evenings so he could have his med on an empty stomach.
The dumb dogs have managed to eat through our brand new fence. I was 'this close' to finding them a new home because I am jsut sick and tired (there is tired following sick again) of the dogs going into the neighbors yards. They are very close to getting angry with us. Brian told his mom what was going on and guess what showed up from U P S today? An electric fence! I am excited.
I have a new project. I am going to re-do our laundry room and make it cute and everything. Right now it is stark white with this horrible pink and purple wallpaper trim at the top. I am going to try to tackle this project sometime in April I think. I haven't decided.
Our house has been on the market 8 months and nothing. It is for sale and lease and still nothing. I am starting to loose hope. I keep saying my prayers and I know that God is jst trying to teach me to be patient.
Since we had a bad weatehr day last week the teachers have to make it up this SATURDAY! BOOOO!

Well I will leave you with the latest in pictures.

Charlie and Brian have birthday's 8 days apart. They were so excited for ice cream cake.

i am finally learning to take more arty pictures.

Giving bubba kisses.

Brian likes to call this "I will beat you up face"

The screaming UPDATE

2011-02-11T08:03:00.001-06:00

**Elliott's school called me this morning after he screamed for 4 straight hours. I had my mom pick him up immediately and Brian took him to the pediatrician. He has a horrible ear infection, despite already being on antibiotics. He is on a new antibiotic and a numbing ear drop and is sleeping it off at home in his swing. It was so hard not being the one to comfort him. I cannot wait until I am a full-time mom in June.**

Oh the screaming.

Elliott James has not slept through the night in almost 4 weeks now. I have no idea what is going on and why he has stopped such a fabulous skill to have. When he was 10 wks 4 days he started sleeping from around 830 to 630 would get up to eat and then back down another hour or so. Then out of the blue he just stopped around 13-14 wks old.

At first he started waking around 430 (which is a pretty painful time when your alarm goes off at 5) but it has gradually become earlier and earlier. He is now waking up around 3 or so.

In the beginning of this 'stage' (I am saying that with a prayer in hopes that he will out-grow this) he did not want to eat. He just wanted to be picked up and put back to sleep. I am okay with that, for a while at least.

But now at almost 4 weeks later he is waking a 3 am EVERY night eating 2-3 oz and then screaming himeself back to sleep.

We have tried everything.
I have tried swaddling and unswaddling (which you will do nicely until your 3AM waking time then you have to be swaddled again), paci and no paci, crying it out and me comforting him but yet he still wakes up at 3 AM.

Our pediatrician suggested the sleep training and loosing the paci. We are going to try this next week I believe. I do not think that he is waking out of habit but that something is waking him or something is bothering him, like he is waking up and realizing he does not have his paci in his mouth and wants it.

I am going to try the ferber method with him next week along with dropping the paci so he does not go looking for it and get angry.

Last night he went to bed screaming through his bottle. It was so sad. He wanted to eat so badly but he was screaming so hard that he couldn't eat. I wish I could fix it. I have no idea why he is screaming now. He used to be the happiest baby and now in the evenings we are starting to dread the 6 o'clock hour. He fusses all the way to bedtime at 8 then scream through his bottle. We will be lucky if he takes 3 oz of his 6 oz cereal bottle. ( he used to take all 6 oz and sometimes 8). Last night he got up at 1130 and did not go back to sleep until after midnight. He spent the entire 30 minutes screaming. He did not want anything. He screams like he is in the most awful pain. I wish I could make it better.

I plan on emailing the pediatrician today since it is Friday. I am hoping that she has some suggestions on the screaming.

Oh Lord, give me strength.

Blah

2011-02-08T20:41:00.000-06:00

So this past week Elizabeth has managed to have a sinus infection that has now led to Reactive Airway Disease or RAD. My sister, Francie, also has this as well as Courtney and Francie's is so bad that she has to carry a nebulizer, or breathing machine with her where ever she goes. I sure hope that Elizabeth does not get that bad. Today she was finally able to take a nap without coughing. Such a blessing!!

Elliott also managed to get sick and develop a sinus infection but not nearly as badly as EA. He is feeling much better also. He had his 4 month well-baby today and was immunized. I hate that part but has been surprisingly happy this evening. That's my baby!! We are back to swaddling with him. He has not been swaddled in 3 weeks and then all of sudden he kept waking himself up at night. I dont know about you but 3AM is alot harder to do when you haven't done it in a while. I am hoping this works because I want my baby that slept through the night back. Elliott weighed in at 14lbs 9 oz and 25 inches long. He is still on the small side especially compared to where Elizabeth was at this age but I still think he is perfect.

Have you ordered your girl scout cookies yet? We received ours today and evidently between Brian and myself, and not checking with one another, we managed to order 9 boxes. We are going to have cookies until October. I am excited.

We spent a ton of money having our backyard fence re-done two weeks ago because our dogs were escaping into the neighbors yards and the fact that it was 23 years old and then the dogs have the nerve to chew through it. We are going to have to have a come to Jesus meeting or something.

It looks like I am not going to Paris over Easter after all. I just couldn't do it. I know I am stupid for not going but I couldn't miss the Holiday with my babies. Especially since EA now can understand the bunny. I would never get that back.

My dare for you this week: Go find and try a new recipe! Be adventurous. You might surprise yourself and find a new favorite. My favorite place to go for something like this would have to be all recipes (dot) com. You can read the reviews and suggestions and make your own adjustments. Go on I dare you! (and blog about it later, daring everyone else who reads your blog to try it also) it could be fun!

Pre-School Registration

2011-02-01T14:23:00.000-06:00

People over here in Katy take preschool waaaaay to seriously. You would have thought that it was the day after thanksgiving or something and we all wanted free tv's! Ha!

This morning I pulled myself out of bed at 240 AM to truck myself up to my church to stand in line to register my daughter for pre-school for this coming fall. Now let me paint you a picture.

I am in Houston. Houston typically is warm enough to wear shorts the week of Christmas, which we all did by the way. Now today, just like the rest of the country, it was bitterly cold. It went from 65 degress at 3 am to 35 degrees at 6 am AND it was raining with 40 mph winds. Remember what I was doing? Standing in line to register my child for pre-school.

Now I can hear you. Why in the world would I be doing such a thing in those weather conditions? Well, this pre=school is THE pre-school to be in in my town. Everyone wants in and once you are in you are in for the long haul and for your entire family.

So I got there at 5 til 3 and low and behold I was the first one there! 5 minutes later everyone else started showing up. We quickly decided that we would take notice of who arrived after whom and used the honor system. There was no way that we were actually going to stand out in the rain so we all stayed in our cars. I watch a Time Travelers Wife and mu Office movies until 6 am until there were too many people that we actually had to stand in line outside in the rain and wind.

She better like this program because I didn't stand in line for nothing.

Something funny for Friday

2011-01-28T11:03:00.000-06:00

*** Adult Truths ***

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger..

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

17. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

18. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

19. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

20. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

21. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

22. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

23. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

lurkers

2011-01-27T14:09:00.000-06:00

Ok, I know that you lurkers are out there. Leave a comment! Introduce yourself.

Do you have a blog of your own?

Where are you lurking from?

I know that you are out there.... Be a friend!!

I found this on my work computer and I thought that I would share it. My husband and I look so young!

kiss them..

2011-01-26T13:45:00.001-06:00

I am at school and I probably should not be writing this but at this moment I truely do not care.

I am apart of a forum on wh.at.to.ex.pect and though I do not post hardly if at all but today I noticed that one of the mom's lost her baby to what they think is SIDS.

My heart is completely broken. Now I had no idea who this woman was. I have never met her nor do I even know her name but we were apart of this club. A club that women join the moment they find out that they are expecting or they hold their baby for the first time, whether it is through adoption or surrogacy. We have this connection together. The love for our children connects us on some level. The love for our children that exceeds anything and everything. The love that will have us do anything to protect our child. A love that is ever consuming and at times overwhelming. My stomach is at the top of my throat and it is taking every bone in my body to keep from crying in front of my children but I cannot even begin to imagine the most excruiating pain that she must be going through.

I think about my two babies. My two sweet beautiful babies and the thought of never being able to see them or hold them again just devestates me. I will gladly never sleep through the night again if it means that I will be able to see my children in the morning. I will never complain again about how EA will not listen, or throws her food, or how Elliott just will not go to sleep when I need him to. I will do anything if it means that I will be able to kiss on them, and hold them, and love on them for the rest of my life.

If you are apart of this bond that we women have, please kiss your babies today. Love on them a little more than usual and try not to loose your patience when they just will not do what you would like because somewhere there is a mom who would give any thing in the world to be in your shoes right now.

I know that when I get home today I am going to spend those extra few minutes with my two in hopes that I will never really know the pain that this woman is going through.

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

1, 2, 3, 4

2011-01-25T08:10:00.001-06:00

Elizabeth's new thing is counting. I have no idea where it came from but she just started out of the blue on Sunday. I must have the smartest child on the planet. (but I am not biased)

Elizabeth counts 1, 2, 3, 4. Well sort of. She ennunciates the numbers clearly and even holds up the correct amount of fingers on two hands mostly because she has yet to figure out how to hold the other ones down.

I say one and she will hold up one finger. Then she says two and then holds up one finger on each hand. I will say three. Then she says four and then she holds up two fingers on each hand.

Isn't she brilliant??!

She just started this out of the blue on Sunday. I am amazed at how clearly she says two and four. They actually sound like two and four, using the t and f sounds.

She amazes me.

Bad Mom

2011-01-20T06:05:00.003-06:00

I must be a bad mom or a really beyond brilliant one. Elizabeth has fallen in love with pushing things and 'helping'. So one afternoon the light bullb on my head finally went off and I thought of this.

I took the middle two sections out of my swiffer. I attached what I like to call the 'diaper' and let her go. SHE HAD A BALL!! She loves to swiffer the floor. Toys.r.us. makes little fake swiffers but why have them push around a fake one when she can do the real thing and then I don't have to. Now given she doesn't get every spot and it usually doesn't last longer than 10 minutes but by golly, I AM BRILLIANT (or a mom who has created a slave-child). She asks to sweep the floor every day now. I am in heaven.

I asked her to smile and I got this..

Change

2011-01-19T11:05:00.000-06:00

I have noticed over the past several days in conversations with people that I interrupt people a ton. I am completely ashamed of this. Partly because I have never noticed this before. I cannot even begin to think about how long I have been doing this and no one has corrected me. I am going to try very hard to stop this incredibly horrible habit.

Hello, my name is Emily and I interrupt people.

I also have this HUGE urge to clean or organize my home and life. I need probably two whole days without kids, husband or tv to get my home to where I would like it to be. Do you think that I can get this accomplished before we have our dinner party on Saturday? I may need to set a more reasonable goal.

Lazy Monday

2011-01-17T20:41:00.001-06:00

I guess you could call my monday lazy. Elliott and I fought off what I thought was going to be the beginning of colds all weekend but it seemed to disapate on its own so today we had a lazy monday but I will start with Friday.
Friday Francie left for France until the end of May and Courtney arrived from Ireland until the end of May. They missed each other from the same terminal by less than a hour and a half. They have not seen each other since the beginning of December and will not see each other until Courtney and I join France in Paris for Easter. I am so stinking excited about that but at the same time I know that I will miss my family tremendously.
Saturday we spent all morning over at my parents so Courtney could play catch-up with Elizabeth and Elliott. When we went home for lunch and naptime, I painted the wall behind our mantle and boy does it look fabulous!! EA ended up sleeping 4 minutes short of 3 hours. She has not done that in months! She needs to play with Aunt Courtney more often. We ended up going back over there for dinner so she could soak up more time.
Sunday, we managed to get to church early and then came home to do nothing because it was so ugly out side. We really did do nothing all day. It was nice.
So that gets me to today. I got EA up and took her to school. I came home and watched my recorded Desperate Housewives episode then hopped in the shower. Afterward I managed to put two childrens worth of clothes away and clean their rooms. I also packed away all of EJ's NB and 0-3 month clothes. He is in strictly 3-6 and 6 month clothes now. EA always followed the months. When she was 3 months she wore 3 months and so on but not EJ. He is way ahead of schedule. After lunch EJ and I went out and bought him some more clothes since he only had 2 6 month outfits and then I picked up myself some shoes. I was desperate. When we finally made it back home I had to frantically clean the house so the exterminator would not think that i was a horrible housewife and by the time he left it was time to get EA from school. After dinner it was bath time and this is what our evening looked like.

I am going to try to explain these pictures. There is a hallway in between EA's room, bathroom, guest bedroom and Ej's room and every night before bath EA loves to run up and down the hallway so someone will catch her. This is her doing this.

Finally caught by Dada.

Elizabeth loves bath time so much. She could stay in the tub an hour if Brian would let her.

I couldn't miss out on Elliott soaking in some playmat time. Such a sweet smile.

Here I tried to get a self portrait with my huge Nikon camera. It was no easy task.

Elizabeth wanted to be included so I tried with her. The following are her 'smile for the camera' faces.

Then finally we climb the stairs to have our story and prayers.

She wants so badly to hold on to the railing like Brian and I do.

Sometimes I think that being a momma of two is just too hard and I am nuts for wanting more but then I look over these pictures and remember just how blessed and wonderful my life really is. This age is so hard but I love that she has so much energy and just wants to run and give you hugs and kisses.

Easter in Paris

2011-01-15T20:30:00.000-06:00

That's right! I will be spending Easter in PARIS, FRANCE not Texas with my two sisters! I am sad that I will miss the holiday with my family but it is France AND it is with my sisters. It is EJ's first Easter but I am going to make sure that Brian takes lots of pictures and video so it will be like I am almost there, right?

New layout

2011-01-13T20:47:00.001-06:00

Did you notice my new layout? What do you think? I think that it is pretty stinking awesome and it portrays me absolutely perfectly.

My sisters are both traveling overseas tomorrow so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Courtney is coming back from Ireland after a 5 week vacation to see her Irish boyfriend and Francie is leaving in the morning to spend a semester in Angers, France. I'm just a tad bit jealous. I want to go over seas sooooo badly. Brian says that one day we will get there, one day.

Happy Thursday!!

So What Wednesday

2011-01-12T14:06:00.001-06:00

Shannon over at Life After I "Dew" hosts 'So What Wednesday' where you just bullett all the things that you don't care that you do. You should mosey on over to her blog and participate. Not to mention she has one cute little girl!

So What if..

I spend almost every waking moment checking blogs and secretly praying that someone has updated something somewhere. (I get a little excited when they do)
my daughter watches Yo Gabba Gabba. I know its weird but there is nothing bad about it and it gets her singing, dancing and in the best mood. Not to mention it is the only way I can get dinner on the table by 515.
I am still a little scared of the dark and cannot sleep if the bathroom door is open.
I did not consult my pediatrician about putting cereal in EJ's bottle. He is still alive.
I dont vaccuum for a few weeks at a time.
I let my cat kiss my baby. It is better than biting him.(only the top of his head. don't you panic you cat-haters)

So what are you saying So What to?

Monday Meanderings

2011-01-10T20:57:00.000-06:00

I want so badly to post something everyday but I just dont have anything to say. So here are some random thoughts for today.

1. My brown dog, the dog that is trained for hunting and can stand a gun being shot 2 feet from her body, is afraid of her own shadow and the very small windchime in the back yard.
2. Elizabeth greeted me on Saturday to a handful of her own poo-poo because she is now recognizing when she goes to the bathroom and felt like sharing.
3. I melted my husband's TV with a candle,. but dont worry the screen wasn't ruined. Only the surronding plastic frame. I still got into trouble.
4. I was so excited to make bread in my bread maker for the first time and I didnt even eat it. ( we got it for a wedding gift and I finally broke it out over teh weekend)
5. Is it weird that there is a good chance that I won't be pregnant this year and I think that that is sad? (EA in 09 and EJ in 10)
6. I am terrfiied that our other house wont sell or lease and I will have to go back to work in Aug.
7. I really want one more girl and that is mainly because we already know her name.
8. I have started a coffee filter wreath and cannot finish it. It has been sitting on my dinning room table for 6 weeks untouched.
9. I love sleeping but hate the waking-up part so much that it makes me want to not go to sleep. (im messed up)
10. I worry somedays that my daughter is the worst behaved out of the bunch.
11. One of my students asked if the boy in the picture, Elliott, was the same baby that I had in October. I told him no and that I traded him in for another one. I think that he may have believed me.
12. Did you know that for the longest time I wanted to grow up to be a secretary? Some days I would still like to be one but they don't make enough to put two kids in daycare.
13. I fear everyday that my husband won't make it home from work safely and I will have to do this all by myself. I don't think that I could handle that.
14. EA sometimes makes this face that makes her look like a squirrel or something.
15. EA has become quite good at faking boo-boos.
16. My husband is incapable of putting his shoes wear they belong.