Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina with Carter's little friend Mason. It was pretty muddy, but the boys stayed out of it for the most part. Carter loved the hayride and was thrilled to bring home a pumpkin. They had a lot of fun.... as you can see!

Best little friends...

 So excited for the hayride!

 Carter & Mommy. No I didn't stuff a pumpkin under my shirt  ;)

 Picking out a pumpkin is serious business.

 Just a boy and his pumpkin headed home.

LOVE his little expression in this picture!!

Halfway to 3!

Carter is officially 2 1/2 this week! How in the world that happened, I'm still not sure.

Carter, you are quite an energetic, fun-loving, sweet, smart, funny and sometimes very challenging little boy! You make us laugh constantly with the things you say.

You still love your trains and cars the most of all of your toys. You still love sports, and I think it's safe to say that baseball and football are your favorites.

So serious. Check out that stance!

 Great form!

 Home Run!

You love your little friends, especially Mason and Gavin, and your cousins Gavin and Devin.

You try your hardest to negotiate with Mom and Dad on EVERYTHING. I'd like to say it never works, but I admit that sometimes, only sometimes, it does. =)

You are very sweet and loving, and I hope you always stay that way.... so thoughtful and considerate! You also are still very reserved and cautious of the rest of the world around you. Very often you want Mommy or Daddy close to you in a new environment until you have an opportunity to warm up and get comfortable.

For a little while there you really loved to feel Ella move in Mommy's tummy, but I guess that is no longer cool. The other day I asked you if you wanted to come feel Ella since she had the hiccups, and your response was, "Mommy, I'm too busy right now!" You do seem to have a very good understanding of your little sister though, and I'm grateful for that. It is certainly bittersweet for Mommy. I get kinda sad thinking about our days of just us coming to an end. I'm just trying to soak up ever minute, good or bad, with you before your sister comes, and make sure you know how much I love you. I can't wait to see you with her though.... I just know you will be the best big brother!

Happy Half Birthday, my little man. Love you so much!

Welcome, Fall!

I personally have been SO ready for fall to finally arrive.... for a few reasons. My due date (duh!) and the cooler temps and wonderful weather (duh! again). We had a nice cool front come it this weekend, and we loved spending time outside in it today! I can't wait to do this more and more!

Some pictures of our family trip to the park... fun times!

Stormie came too!

 He was fascinated by this bird that had just caught a crawfish, but he ran it off.

Racing each other.

Definitely not the most flattering picture because I look HUGE..... but still cool.

36 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along:

36 weeks

Size of baby:

Dr. Greenberg thinks she is close to 6 pounds, and 18.5 inches long. And she's definitely head down.

Total Weight Gain:

28lbs. I still can't believe I haven't hit the 30lb mark. I think by this time with Carter I had gained about 40lbs already!

Maternity Clothes:

Still just shorts and a few pairs of capris. I actually put on my old maternity jeans recently, and they were huge on me. They were pretty useless because they kept falling down and sagging. Not cute, and definitely not comfortable.

Gender:

Still a girl.

Movement:

Very active, all the time. She has been getting the hiccups a lot lately, too.

Sleep:

Oh, how I want to sleep on my stomach again. For lack of a better word, sleep sucks. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was so glad I wasn't having hip aches and pains during sleep this time around. I totally jinxed myself. That has started this week. =(  Also, I have been accumulating pillows lately. Poor Eric wouldn't even know I was there for all the pillows. But hey, it helps me stay comfortable. I'm still taking my daily naps when Carter does, too.  That and the pillows might be the only thing getting me through.

Symptoms:

Still having some contractions here and there, still swelling, heartburn is back with a vengance, and the first trimester symptom of random gagging and upset stomach is back. Yay.

What I miss:

Tummy sleep. Also, the other day we were eating at Fuzzy's Taco's, and I saw this guy carrying a beer-rita to his table (a frozen margarita with a bottle of Corona turned upside down into it).... man, I really wanted one of those. I haven't really missed alcohol much, but I sure did then.

Cravings:

Not much that I can think of right now. Pretty much everything gives me heartburn, so eating just isn't really that much fun.

Best Moment this week:

Carter has been feeling Ella move a lot. He loves it. He gets so excited, grins really big, and says, "Heeeeeyyy, she kicked me!" He has also felt her get the hiccups, and he thinks that is pretty funny, too.

What I am looking forward to:

Delivery Day!! Today Dr. Greenberg scheduled an induction for October 21st! So she will be here in just 3 weeks, or maybe less?!

36 weeks with Ella

September 2011

Nursery Progress

Ella's room will be what has been our guest room up until now. We had painted a few accent walls green in there long ago when we moved in. Her bedding is primarily green and brown, so I thought maybe we could get away without having to paint. Wouldn't that be perfect? Yes, it would...... Until I started feeling bad because we weren't doing up a big nursery for Ella like we did for her big brother. When I was pregnant with Carter, we put so much time and effort into getting his room perfect. We picked two paint colors, added a chair rail, painted tan on the top and navy on the bottom, then added a matching border to coordinate with his bedding..... totally transformed the room from what it had been before, no doubt. And I loved it! But how could I not do the same for my daughter?! Poor thing... second born already getting the shaft and not even here yet! Knowing that we are going to put our house back on the market in the spring, and that Ella may only live in this room a handful of months, I still just couldn't justify going all out and spending not only the time but the money to do my dream nursery for her. Mommy guilt at it's finest.... even still. BUT, I came up with another plan. I decided to put a lot of effort into making her room really special by hand-making nearly everything to decorate it and "girl" it up... something I certainly didn't do for Carter. Everything in his room was bought and put directly into place. SO, with all that said.... here is what I've done so far. I got some ideas off of Pinterest, and ran with them.

I made the letters for her name to hang above her crib using scrapbook paper and mod podge. I really love how they turned out.

This frame is from IKEA. I painted it, added the fabric backing and her initial. I'm working on some other frames to make a photo collage next to it.

We hung this shelf and added a few cute frames, as well as her piggy bank and our Mommy and Daddy figurines. Got to get some pictures of baby girl put in there!

These chalk boards were made by Emily and used at my shower.... and I love that I can reuse them in her room!

I made this on canvas. I love the simplicity of it, and of course, the message.

It's all still a work in progress, but it's coming together. A window valance, lamp shade, and some baskets with cute liners are all being worked on now. Once I get it all put together, I'll post final pictures! Even though we didn't design her room up big, I still feel like I put a lot of energy into making it all special for her. And the major bonus is that once we move, whenever that may be, I can pack it all up and take it with us for her next room!

Slacking

I have been so bad about blogging lately... so sorry. Not only that, I really haven't taken many pictures at all in the last few weeks, so I really don't have anything super interesting to share. Guess that tends to happen when you're one month from your due date and have LOTS of other things going on (i.e. energetic toddler, nursery to finish, plus fatigue). Anyway, I have a few updates coming up, so look for a few posts in the next few days, but for now, I'll just post some cute pictures I've taken on my phone lately.

Enjoying our bubble maching in the backyard one Saturday morning

 Bubble bath fun!

 Jumping at Pump It Up!!

 We took Carter and Mason to Jump Street and were the only ones there! They had so much fun on the trampolines!

Taking Mason for a spin....

 Silly boy in his hard hat!

 PROGRESS! Carter will now sit on the big potty! Yay!

Still not focusing on potty training right now, but the fact that he is no longer scared of the potty... BIG step!

 Eric ate dinner at Carter's table with him tonight. This just made me smile.

Touchdown Dance

Eric taught Carter a silly touchdown dance..... he is taking it very seriously!



Labor Day Weekend

We had perfect weather today, the high in the lower 80s, and decided to get out and enjoy it with a last minute trip to the zoo. Carter had a blast and Momma was totally worn out when we got home. But at least it wasn't 105 degrees!

All set and ready to go!

 Checking out the humongous bunny rabbit. It was huge.

 A little unsure of the goats at first....

...but he warmed up to them.

Until this one popped his head through the fence while the wagon was parked along the side and Carter was sitting right under him. That totally freaked him out. I snapped this picture as Eric was pulling him away.

"Hi Ostrich!"

 Checking out the elephants.

 He loved this baby giraffe. It was a "zoo" born. How cute is that?!

 Carter said, "He's having milk from his Mommy!"

Ummmm..... yes he is?! How intuitive of you, son.

(Have I mentioned that he surprises me each and every day with what he picks up?!)

 Carter rode the carousel just before we left. This is a big step for my boy.... stuff like this usually makes him nervous. We were shocked that he said he wanted to, and that he actually went through with it!

 

And, he loved it! After he got off, he came over to me and said, "Mommy, it was SO much fun!" .....Proud Mommy moment, right there. Indeed.

(Listen closely, you can hear him shout, "Hi Mommy!"... as he did each time he came around!)

And here are a few cute pictures of Carter playing football with Daddy in the backyard just before dinner tonight. Hopefully lots more of these fun outside moments to come this week. The forecast looks great!

Hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekends with your families!!