Wednesday Ramblings

My husband in on vacation this week. Wouldn't you know it.. I'm sick and feeling awfully crappy this week. I swear, at least 50% of the time, I'm feeling bad when he's on vacation. Poor guy. And he's spending his time at home trying to finish painting our living room and tend to the kids while I'm resting.



Last week C was really sick. He had a fever for 2-3 days, a cough and a terrible sore throat. He didn't even want to eat or couldn't eat for a while there. We were begging him to eat lollipops, popsicles, cookies... anything... but he kept refusing it all. His throat was hurting *that* bad. It was awful to see him so sick. I finally got him to the doctor and he's been on a couple prescriptions for several days. Both prescriptions smell disgusting and he hates them both! Poor guy. It took a LOT of bribing to get him to start taking his medicine without a fight and without spitting it back out. We promised him a fun new toy at the end of the week if he keeps taking his medicine well. Luckily, that seems to be working and he's also feeling a lot better now.



I must have caught something from him because the lymph nodes in my neck were really swollen. Still are but not quite as bad. The inside of my throat was all swollen too and driving me up the wall. I almost decided that it was all allergies and skipped going to the doctor but luckily I went in yesterday and I'm on a prescription for strep now. My main problem this week, though, is stupid migraines. Thankfully they've gone away fairly quickly every day but then they come back the next day. Sooo annoying. A few months ago I found out about a place in Houston called Reed Migraine Center (see ReedMigraine.com) They offer a procedure where they install a permanent stimulator under your scalp and a battery placement in your upper hip. All this should result in greatly reduced migraines. I've talked to several women (at a women's expo where the procedure was advertised) who have had the procedure done within the past few years and it was life changing for them. Anyway, I'm really really really considering this procedure after my baby is born. I'm not sure of insurance coverage or cost, etc but I'm thinking I will move heaven and earth to get this procedure. Yes, it sounds extreme but when you've suffered from chronic migraines for over half of your life you will consider almost anything. I've also talked to a few women who have had botox in hope of preventing migraines but it didn't work at all, or didn't work for long, for them so that option is out for me.



On a totally different subject I'm so excited about getting our house all painted... slowly but surely... and decorating once and for all. We have a long way too go. We still have the dining, kitchen, 2 baths and 3 bedrooms that need to be painted but even a little progress is nice.



I'm SO excited to find out what we're having in, hopefully, just 4 weeks or so. I'm anxious to incorporate a nursery area into J or C's room and tie the baby decor in with the older sibling's room. J is completely convinced we're having a girl. Ha! Any ideas on girl names would be appreciated. I thought I had a name picked out but I think I want to keep looking for something else. I'm looking for a long, girly name that can have a cute little nickname with it. Any ideas? There's several I love but nothing feels right OR the name is already taken by a relative, friend or acquaintance. Choosing names, especially girl names, can be complicated. Boy names are easier for us for some reason. There's one that I am set on and a few others I could compromise with if my husband doesn't fall in love with my favorite.



In other news I'm hosting a Scentsy catalog party through the end of the month. I will have a post up tomorrow about the wonderful Scentsy products I'm loving! I'm hosting the party through distributor Kim Hawkins over at Faith, Grace & Giggles. If you have any questions feel free to comment here or contact Kim directly. Man, there's one Scentsy scent in particular that I am LOVING.. but more on that tomorrow.



Hope everyone is having a lovely week!

Friday Random

 How I announced my pregnancy on Facebook last week. I love how both kids have their hands in their pockets. :)

First purchase for our new baby. We didn't know these existed (or maybe they didn't exist) when we had our other two. I hope this thing actually works because I think it will come in handy.

 J is convinced the new baby is a girl. It's so funny when we browse the baby stuff when we're out. J goes towards all the girl stuff...

 While C goes straight to all the baby boy stuff.

I have been SO nauseated for weeks now. I had a prescription for Zofran that was really working great until it ran out and I can't renew it until for a few more weeks. A different prescription for nausea put me right to sleep (even half a pill!) and didn't help with nausea at all. A few friends recommended Sea Bands and they are actually working! I'm amazed. They're working very well.

 They're working so well that I can enjoy food again! I loved the Asian salad from Chik-Fil-A earlier this week. So yummy!!

 Poor C has been pretty sick the past couple of days. Yesterday was really bad. He didn't want to play, didn't want to eat and actually wanted to be covered in blankets. Definitely not the norm for this one. Today he seems a little better but I think we'll still go in to the doctor this afternoon.

J has been going to VBS every evening this week. She loves it! Here she is last night with a card and hat she made. It is SO hard to get a decent picture of her. She is always bouncing around and acting silly.

This is the inside of her card. I asked if this was our family and she said "No, that's Jesus and His friends." How sweet. :)



We've had a pretty good week except for poor little C being sick the past couple of days.

Father's Day, Part 2 (A Day In The Country)

So, for the afternoon on Father's Day I took the kids and headed to my brother's house, with my family, while hubby stayed home to relax. My brother lives way out in the country. This was my kids first, big country experience. 

 J pushing little cousin J on the swing.

 Cousins pushing baby J on the swing.

 C in the sand box.

 This was C's first time climbing a tree!

My favorite pic of the day! C was SO excited to shoot a "real" gun. I think it's called a soft pellet gun or something.

 J taking a turn. That's my dad helping the kids.

 Cousins eating brownies and ice cream. Yum!

 They have horses on the property.

 I love the lighting in this pic of my nephew.

Cousins hanging out on the patio. They're just 2 months apart and so cute together. :)



We had such a fun, long, tiring day! The kids never stopped going. I think I could have left C there for a week and he wouldn't have missed us. Ha! He was having the time of his life! J missed her quiet time that day and was SO tired by the time we got home that she had a little melt down. She told me that she needed her quiet time every day because she was so, so tired. Ha! The kids made a ton of memories and even I enjoyed spending a day out in the country. It was really nice and relaxing.

Father's Day, Part 1

 Breakfast at Ihop. Love this pic of them! I'm so thankful for my wonderful husband who is such a great father to our kids.

 Daddy with his mini me.

 Me and my mini me. Seriously, this girl is so much like me it's scary.

 Sweet J with her chocolate chip pancakes and chocolate covered mouth.

C digging in. Ha!  

We had a pretty low key Father's Day. My hubby works a lot and we are always busy.. just going going going all the time.. so he decided a day at home, alone, sounded good to relax and unwind. Sounded good to me because after all that's what I want for myself every Mother's Day. We decided to go to Ihop for brunch and afterwards I took the kids to a Father's Day lunch, for my dad, with my family. Lots of pics to come on that!

catching up

Yes, I realize I haven't posted in forever.



We're doing great! Well, kind of. If you consider ALL DAY nausea great. Ha! Yes, baby #3 is on the way! We are SO excited! I'm 7 weeks today. I got to see the heartbeat on Friday! So sweet and amazing. There's nothing like seeing that sweet little heart beat for the first time. :)



I had ideas of keeping this a secret for a few more weeks but since it's on my mind 24/7 I decided to go ahead and share here. We're not good at keeping pregnancies a secret for long. We generally tell our families within days of finding out (if not the very day we find out!) and after that it kind of spills over to extended family, friends and everyone else.



Of course, after what happened in March I've been a little nervous but this pregnancy has been completely different than that one and I haven't been quiet as worried as I thought I would be. I've had extreme nausea, extreme tiredness and have felt very pregnant since 4 weeks. None of which I felt at all in March. So, I'm feeling pretty confident and very hopeful that we'll be okay this time around. This pregnancy feels like a very normal pregnancy, just like I had with J and C.



This baby is due right around J's fifth birthday. She is beyond excited and already sure that she's getting a baby sister. Ha! Being a name obsessed person I'm already talking names and J is giving her input on baby girl names all the time. So far she's come up with Sophie Rainbow, Liggy (?) and Sally among a few others. Ha!



In other news we've been having a great "summer" so far. It's normal to start saying it's summer around the end of May right?



The kids went through 2 weeks of swim lessons at the end of May/early June. I had C in the mommy and me class. He did great! But, honestly, he was way too big for that class. He'll be 3 in August and I know he would've been fine in the preK class. But when I had him evaluated before classes started he had not been in the pool at all this year so he was very clingy and I decided just to go ahead with the mommy and me class. He did great though and gained some confidence in the water which is good! J was in the pre K class on the other side of the pool during the mommy and me class so I wasn't able to keep a close eye on her but I know she did great too! She gained a lot of confidence in the water too. I've thought about putting them in the next level classes but decided that they'll have plenty of time in the pool, anyway, this summer and I don't want to spend the money and I don't want to spend another two weeks driving up to the rec center every single afternoon.



The kids started gymnastics on Friday. They loved it! C was the only boy in a class of about 6 girls ha! It didn't seem to bother him though. J wanted to learn to do a cartwheel on the very first day and was a little disappointed she didn't learn in the first class. :)



J has also been taking ice skating lessons on Saturdays. She seems to really like it and is doing good. She had one lesson, then we skipped the second one, and her third one was this past Saturday. I was so proud of her for learning how to stand up on her own in just one class. And she was able to get around, slowly, on her own a little bit. She has one more class in this session and we may consider putting her in 4 more classes after this session ends. We'll see.



This is really the first time the kids have taken any lessons or classes and it's been fun watching them. I think lessons, classes, sports, etc are so good for little kids just to get them out of their comfort zones and learn something new.



Well, I know this post is getting really long so I'll wrap it up. I have lots of pics I need to share and hope to start posting on a more regular basis again.



Hope everyone is doing well!! :)

evening fun

Yesterday evening my husband went out to mow the lawn, the kids went outside to play and I took my camera out to practice taking pics. I'm pretty happy with a few of these. I know next to nothing about my camera but I'm loving manuel mode! C really cracks me up in some of these pictures. He insisted on wearing socks with sandals because he has an "owie" on one of his toes. J told him that only old people wear socks with sandals.. and she came up with that on her own. Haha! Then C had his sunglasses on all crooked half the time so he looks a little goofy ha! And J's hair is a disaster but that's how it looks at home. It's hard to keep those frizzys under control 24/7. :) 

Mother's Day

Cellphone pic of the beautiful tulips my sweet hubby gave me for Mother's Day! Tulips are my all time favorites!! Love them! 

My husband used to take me and the kids out to Mimi's for breakfast before church on Mother's Day. The pain perdu (sp?) breakfast at Mimi's used to be my all time favorite. I'm pretty much trying to stay gluten free these days though so I figured breakfast at Mimi's really wouldn't be that fun this year. So this year we just went to church, then my husband and the kids took his mom out for lunch while I did a little shopping alone, picked up a yummy lunch to go from Boston Market (I didn't remember how yummy Boston Market was. So good! And an almost entirely gluten free too!), then I came home to relax all afternoon. I had my eye on a personalized, engraved necklace off Etsy for Mother's Day but ended up doing quite a bit of clothes shopping last week and told my hubby to wait on the necklace. Still hoping to get it later but new clothes will do for now. :) 

C made this for me at church on Sunday. I'm impressed that his coloring... while not in the lines... is centering more around the lines. Pretty good for a 2.5 yr old boy I'm thinking. 

And J started this at church and finished it up at home. Both kids were SO excited with their Mother's Day projects. So sweet! 

J made this card for me at school last week. These were the questions on the card and her answers:

My moms likes to.... play with me with play dough

My mom's favorite flower... sunflower

My mom has taught me.... a little bit of Spanish

My mom's favorite hobby... write things and mail them at the post office

My mom's favorite food.... chicken

My mom helps me.... get dressed

My favorite thing to with my mom... play kitchen

My favorite memory [with my mom]... playing memory game

I love my mom because.... she gets me dressed and plays with me 

The "write things and mail them at the post office" part cracks me up! I have mailed off a few gifts to a friend lately so I guess that's where she's getting that! I love seeing all her answers and getting a glimpse of her perspective.



All in all it was a great Mother's Day and very relaxing for me!

Saturday Top 5 Laughs

1 - At the eye doctor the other day I told the kids they could look at magazines. C immediately grabbed this auto magazine and exclaimed "Oh! I'll look at cars!" :) My husband was so proud. C sat there and looked at this until we were called back.



 2 - J is so funny. The last couple of days she's been giving us 2 thumbs up and saying "Okie dokie!" Then she raises both fists in the air, jumps and says "Stupendous!!" Haha! :) She does this when we ask her to do anything that she's remotely excited about doing. I know she picked it up from watching Angelina Ballerina.



 3 - C is such a little ham. Once he gets going it's hard to get him to settle down. If you ask him if he wants a sandwich or chicken nuggets for lunch (for example) he'll get this silly, thoughtful look on his face and say "Ummmmmm. I want..... ummmm (looks around the room)... A TOWEL (or a book, or a shoe, or a cookie, or a cup... totally off the wall stuff.) And then he has this deep chuckle "Ha ha ha ha." It's impossible not to laugh with him which just eggs him on and then we can't get him to stop and he drives us crazy. Ha!



Well, I can only think of 3 laughs this week. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend!

Saturday Top 5 Laughs

1 - C made J mad one afternoon and J said "I am NOT going to be your sister anymore!" Ha!



2 - Last night I asked the kids to go play in their rooms quietly. J said "We're going to play school. I'm the teacher and I'm going to have to yell." I asked if her teachers yell at school and she said no. I said "Then teachers don't yell then, do they?" And she said "Well this teacher does!" Haha!



3 - I made C bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning and told him it was ready. He said "Thanks mom, you're so sweet!" :)



4 - C hasn't quite figured how to hold up just two fingers when someone asks how old he is. He uses one hand to push down the pinky and ring finger on the other hand. Then pushes up the pointer finger and middle finger to show 2 fingers. It's pretty funny. :)



5 - One afternoon the kids asked for Cutie oranges. I sent them into the kitchen to get them. They were in there for awhile so I figured they were having trouble peeling them. After a little bit J comes up to me in the other room and, with her hand thoughtfully under her chin, she said "You know, we were thinking some of those oranges are pretty dirty so we put them in the trash." Haha! I found at least 5 little oranges in the trash can because the kids thought they looked too "dirty". So funny!

Saturday Top 5 Laughs

1 - The kids call the chiropractor "ky-piper". One day I was being silly and said something about going to the "ky-piper". J said "Mama, don't call it like I call it. I'm not the best at saying it." Ha!



2 - C and I were outside a few weeks ago. He said "It's cold". I said "I'm cold too. Do you want to go in?" He said. "No. I not freezin'." As if cold is okay as long as he's not freezing cold. ;)



3 - Our back porch was covered with dirt from the kids playing out there. C said "I gonna sweep. There's dirk (dirt) all over the porch." I said "Amen brother". He didn't miss a beat, just kept sweeping, and said "Amen too mommy". Haha. Made me laugh at the time. :)



4 - C and I were in the car the other day. I was talking on the phone and C was really quiet. (He always is when he's the only kid in the car.) All of the sudden he piped up and said "We live on Earth." Hahaha! So random!



5 - C was getting ready for bed Sunday night and out of the blue said "God made me." So adorable. :)



6 - And one more. This really isn't funny but cute. The other day C started saying his ABC's in Spanish! I was so surprised! He has only heard J and I going over the Spanish alphabet together so he picked it up by listening to us. Smart boy!