Thursday, June 30, 2016

Lucky...

Today my boy is lucky number 7!

I swear he's still a tiny baby, and now he's about to be a big brother again.
He is so independent and such a big helper {usually}.
He loves his family and especially his sister and Miles.
He still loves to snuggle with me and hold my hand, and I dread the day that stops.

Happy birthday, sweet boy!










Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Life Lately

Lots more randomness to share! I wish {well not that badly} I had more pictures to share than just ones of my kids, but really, it's all about them anyway!

Early morning snuggles - not a good picture but a wonderful moment.

Somebody finally got turned around forward facing!

Trent got a much needed haircut. The cheesy pose came free.

Drew asked if we could get ice cream. A pregnant mama is not one to say no.
This place also makes the BEST snow cones.

I forgot to share one zoo picture - climbing up to get a better view of the turtles.

Saturday afternoon we drove up to Salado. The family reunion that used to be the highlight of my summer has dwindled to a much smaller group of people, but we still go to visit and for the swimming for the kids!

She fell asleep 5 minutes before we pulled into the hotel. Of course.
Look at her cute new sandals! Her crocs were SO small!

All 5 crazies

Babs with her babies

We had homework from swim lessons to practice in the pool. We swam Saturday at the reunion and then went to the local Country Club pool to swim Sunday. The kids probably spent 5+ hours in the pool, and Trent spend easily 75% of it without his life jacket and did SO GOOD swimming. Drew practiced a lot too, and is making a lot of progress!

And proud mom moment - look at how well they're doing.
{And how T helped D out of the water. AWWWWWW}

And just because this girl CRACKS me up.
She borrowed this singing Christmas tree from my parents yesterday.

So that's Life Lately for us!


Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Capitol of Texas Zoo...aka Happy Birthday, Jalen {Trent's Birthday Twin}!

For anybody that's been reading my blog for a few years, you might remember Trent's birthday party that was a 'spooky party' where he had a skull birthday cake {made by yours truly!}. One of my friends that was there was 38 weeks pregnant and went into labor that night and had her baby boy, Jalen, on Trent's 4th birthday {go back and read that post and see his little squishy newborn self!}. Well, Jalen just turned 3 this weekend, and we celebrated going to the Capitol of Texas zoo.

Cristee and Jalen - I can't believe he's 3!

Amazed at the animals they had - lion, tiger, leopard, hippo!

We went and looked at the hippo 3 times. The kids loved him!

Schuyler and Beau

'Mom, the bear is peeing!!!'

Of course. My children would play in sand.
I made them bathe when we got home and the tub was so disgusting after.

I love how happy little kids are for the singing and cupcakes!

We had such a great time celebrating J and spending time with friends!

Friday, June 24, 2016

Baby Smoochie - 16 Weeks

Another pregnancy, the start of another series of pregnancy updates! I filled this out and went back and looked at one right around the same time with Drew and noticed very similar responses {like missing wine, ha}.

Fresh out of bed 16 week bump!

How far along: 16 weeks

Size of baby: 3-5 ounces, 4-5 inches or an avocado

Weight gain: Officially {at my appointment 2 weeks ago} it was 5 pounds. Unofficially I am pretty sure it's closer to 10, but I'm not getting on the scale. And I might not look at any of my future appointments or every write about it again. I fixate too much on my weight and there's not much I can do about it, so why stress?

Gender: SURPRISE!

Maternity clothes: About 75% - I have 1 pair of non-maternity shorts that still work. Otherwise everything has elastic. I can still wear some of my looser non-pregnancy shirts, but given it's my last time with my maternity clothes I'm not complaining about wearing them - some of them are like old friends that have been around for a LONG time with lots of good memories!

Movement: I think I'm maybe feeling the baby - I feel like these first few flutters are always hard to decipher. I hope I start feeling more really soon!

Sleep: Hit or miss. I am taking magnesium which helps but I am already having a lot of restless nights. Drew's antics don't help either when she has her middle of the night parties.

Hi Trent!

Symptoms: If I don't drink enough water, I swell a little, so I try for 100 ounces a day. I also feel a little bit of sciatica if I stand too long but nothing like with Trent. I'm still dry-heaving regularly when I brush my teeth or get hungry. Threw up once last week which is the latest I've thrown up in any of my pregnancies. I already get out of breath very easily and move slower. My body certainly remembers all of this!

Cravings: Total pregnancy stereotype but PICKLES!

What I miss: WINE.

Best moment of the week: I don't know that I really have one that is baby related since it's still so early. I would say feeling the baby if I were more certain that is what I was feeling! Family-wise it's been really fun re-doing Drew's room. She's sleeping on her crib mattress on the floor, so I've ordered her some big girl bedding and a new bed!

Worst moment of the week: Probably just the fact that I feel like my symptoms shouldn't already be here, ha. The swelling was starting to make me nervous, but since I've been really diligent with the water, I don't have any. Whew.

Other random stuff: We have to get new car seats for my car so that my back row will fit 3 car seats. Trent's is 5 1/2 years old so that's not necessarily a bad thing! I've been thinking about a nursery, but we have to figure out if we are going to turn Trent's bed back into a crib and if so what to do in his room before we can really plan the nursery. Not really in a big rush for that though.

Belly-button watch: Already starting to go out. Not shocking since mine seems to start to stretch out real early.




Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Life Lately

It's been a while since I did an iPhone dump and just shared the randoms of our days!

This girl has been giving us a run for our money with her sleep.
Won't go to sleep, up in the middle of the night...A MESS.
This day she went back to sleep about 6:00AM and then slept until 11:00AM.

We had a loud storm, and I ended up with both kids falling asleep on the couch!

Park adventures! It's getting too hot, but we go when we can.
We enjoy the playing...not the chigger bites we brought home the last time.


I don't know about you, but I LOVE fish food poured out on carpet at 11:00PM.

Enjoying some ice cream.
Me trying to work with some uninvited guests one day...

Another fun adventure in sleep.

Community service day!

Our little backyard pool busted, so Brent bought this one. It's so awesome!

Trent went to golf camp last week.
This was my view while working one of the days I took him. Not too shabby!

I was lifting some weights the other night and had some workout buddies.

The kids had a birthday party last Friday night and ate cake on the trampoline.

Napping in a bean bag chair? Whatever works!

Another birthday party! This creek is at the end of our friends' property. Amazing.

A solo shot of this cutie at Rabbit Hill Cantina. Love him!

Guys. Day 2 of swim lessons was...AMAZING. I can't even explain how good both kids did. If you had told me it would have gone as well as it did, I would have laughed. My father-in-law was a saving grace and both kids are turning into little fish. I can't wait to see where they are by the end of lessons next week! Proud mama videos below {and I'm sure more to follow}! You can hear some of the other kids screaming crying in the background - multiply that by 10 for yesterday's class. {grin}





Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Swim Lessons...Or How to Torture Your Children

Over the years, we've done a variety of things for Trent to help him learn to swim, and it has not been very successful. Last year we were making progress with private lessons, but his instructor went off to college before he had truly mastered anything, and he refused to go anymore. He is perfectly happy {he says} to spend his life wearing a life jacket and avoiding water. That should be a good look for him at 35, no?

So this year Brent and I decided that enough was enough, and dam*it, he was going to learn to swim. We enrolled him and Drew in a 2-week intensive camp with Ms. Cathy's Swim School. She has a reputation was being tough and intense but effective - by the end of next week our children are supposed to be little fish, and if you watch her videos, I have high hopes.

Anyway, Monday was Day 1. All the kids did was get in the water and swim 6-8 feet total with an instructor starting them off and one in the middle to get them to the stairs. HOWEVER, the instructors made sure the kids kept their heads down and used proper form. Meaning they forced them to be face down in the water. It was seriously no more than 5 seconds between instructors and 10 seconds {AT MOST} from start to finish per child. They repeated this about 8 times. THAT WAS THE WHOLE CLASS. 

I really wish I had video to share with the world what this looked like. 14 children screaming, crying, blubbering, trying to run away sums it up pretty nicely I think. 12 parents {I wasn't the only one double-fisting children} wrangling wet, hysterical children. The adults kept looking at each other and laughing. Trent kept running away from me. So there I was dragging 2 wet, crying children around a pool in street clothes sopping wet with Smoochie stuck in the middle forcing them back into the water over-and-over again.

It was a magical moment in parenting that I can't wait to repeat tomorrow. Luckily I will have reinforcements in the name of Papa. Wish us luck! {grin}

Holding hands after the trauma was over. My poor babies!



Sunday, June 19, 2016

Currently: A Low Key Father's Day

Current Book

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

Current Song

Welcome to Earth by Sturgill Simpson
{One Brent plays in the house a lot. LOVE.}

Current TV Show

OMG. Tonight's episode of Game of Thrones raised my blood pressure A LOT.
This season is NUTS!

Can't wait to start the new season of Orange is the New Black too!

Current Drink

Sweet tea! Brent asked for Bush's Chicken for his Father's Day lunch, ha.

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

Every.single.thing.I'm.eating. #PregnancyProblems

Current Outfit

This picture is obviously from another pregnancy, but it's what I'm wearing today!
Including my hairstyle. {grin}
I was 31 weeks pregnant with Drew...yeah my belly this time isn't much smaller. Gulp.

Current Celebrity Crush

He may not be a celebrity to most people, but he sure is one in our house!
Happy Father's Day to this cutie!

Current Mood

Happy. Spent time with my parents today which always fills up my cup.
Plus we had such a good weekend! Expect lots of pictures this week!

Current Anticipation

Monday the kids start swim lessons with a pretty intense program.
I'm ready to get over this hump of Trent not being confident in the water,
but I'm nervous too about how they'll both do.

Current Film

Allison and I want to go to a movie this week, but we're not too impressed with what's out.
 I do want to take the kids to see Finding Dory.

Current Picture

Sneak peak at some of our fun!



Thursday, June 16, 2016

Kayla and Caleb 6.11.16

My youngest cousin, Kayla, got married this past weekend, and we had so much fun celebrating! 8 of the 12 grandkids came, mine and Patty's kids acted like wild animals {reminds me of my childhood at weddings}, and everything was so perfect.

To say I've always loved this girl is an understatement!

I don't have a good picture on my laptop of Kayla in our wedding.
But here she is in 2004 at 14 as a junior bridesmaid.
{Also pictured: my good friend, Angela. Hi Angela!}

Unfortunately, it isn't really fashionable to ask your 35 year old cousin to be a bridesmaid, but Kayla did ask me to read during the ceremony, so I definitely felt special. {grin} Blair was the flower girl and was especially cute!

Trent and Miles playing games before the ceremony

I didn't get any pictures during the ceremony but stole this one from Facebook.

Now let the party begin! The reception was decorated very shabby chic, and I thought everything turned out great.


We spent quite a bit of time hitting up the candy bar!






I can guess what my dad is thinking: I'm so glad I didn't have to pay for this one!'
Or: 'Mmmm...beer...'




It's totally normal to lay on a dirty hall floor and have your cousins sit on you.
Right?

Even the pretty flower girl joined in the shenanigans!

My mom {far right} and her siblings

First dance!

Father {my Uncle Robert} and daughter dance

Our original foursome {Brent refused to take pictures with me ALL night!}

Cousins!!

Poor Mayer just couldn't hang.

Oh wait! He found his second wind.

Doing gymnastic bridges in the middle of the dance floor

And with that, it was time to load these hooligans up and head home! I think Brent and I have the only 2 children in the world who DON'T typically fall asleep in the car when it's past their bedtime. No, our 2 talked the whole way home {even thought it was 10:30 at night} and took a while to settle down! This pregnant lady felt terrible on Sunday - and we get to do this all over again on July 2 for Kayla's brother's wedding - can't wait to celebrate Ryan and Kristen, too!