Leapin' and Humpin'

Rachel here. Hopefully you caught on that today is Leap Day and also Hump Day... otherwise my title would be all kinds of inappropriate. :) We just got back from the baby doctor... and by "we" I mean EG and myself. We're partners in baby appointment crime. It was as uneventful as usual. I'm up 1 lb from two weeks ago. I was having some random pain in my upper right leg. I thought it was perhaps my sciatic nerve... but I learned that that usually effects the back part of the leg... so that's a no go. It hurt for 2 days and then went away as quickly as it came. There have been all kinds of random pains, swellings, numbness this go round. Such fun. Everything looks great though, and I'm measuring a week small. Next visit... March 15th.
Reese is going through a funk. Or maybe it just feels like it because I'm uber emotional and change moods more than I change the channel on the tv. Last week, while in Iowa, really threw her routine off and that is NEVER good for us. It's been better since she's been back at preschool, but every little thing she does gets to me. At times I feel like I don't get nearly enough sleep to deal with her shenanigans. Hopefully with starting preschool/homeschool again, her little hands and mind will be busy and all will be harmonious again. I also have a girls' weekend getaway next weekend, so hopefully my emotions will be rejuvenated, and I can once again be pleasant. :)
Emma Grace is officially pull up free. She's gone months wearing a pull up just to bed at night with only a couple of accidents. We've now gone about 2ish weeks WITHOUT them at night... just undies, and zero accidents. I'm so proud of her. Potty training has been a breeze with these two... I'm so thankful!

I'll have fun pictures of Baby Boo tomorrow once we get home from our 3D/4D.

And lastly... my Wednesday installment of our new routine:
700-800 Morning routine
800-845 Puzzles/books/free Montessori time
845-915 Preschool drop off
915-1000 Pre K EG
1000-1015 Snack
1015-1100 Pre K EG cont./Computer EG
1100-1215 Outside/free play/Yoga
1215-1245 Preschool pick up
1245-130 Lunch
130-300 Quiet time EG/K4 Reese/computer Reese
300-315 Snack
315-430 SCIENCE DAY/outside/free play
430-530 TV time/dinner prep
530-615 Dinner
615-650 Word Factory
650 Bedtime routine

Enjoy your afternoon! :)

A taste of Tuesdays

Rachel here. This morning I took the girls to a new paint your own pottery place in our local mall. It's different from other pottery shops in that they don't glaze your piece. They simply spray it with some kind of shiny stuff. Sadly this means no plates or mugs... I was really hoping to have the girls paint me a couple of fancy coffee mugs (PERHAPS MY HUSBAND WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THEM DO THAT FOR MOTHER'S DAY... AHEM). This means there are a lot of little figurines in there that we could live without. I did happen to spot large letters though, so I peeled the girls away from the Disney princess statues and got them to agree to painting the first letter of their names. I think they turned out cute, and we had a really nice time out and about. Tuesdays, from now on, are going to be our Field Trip days. We're going to venture out and... well... just venture out because lord knows we could use the fresh air. It's a day to make the effort even if we're just not feeling up to it.

This is what Tuesdays will look like:
700-800 Morning routine
800-900 Puzzles/books/free Montessori time
900-1000 Pre K/K4 at home
1000-1015 Snack
1015-1215 FIELD TRIP DAY/outside/free play
1215-100 Lunch out
100-300 Quiet time EG/K4 Reese/computer Reese
300-315 Snack
315-415 Outside/free play/children's yoga dvd
415-545 Dance class
545-700 TV/Dinner prep/Dinner
700 Bath/bedtime routine

This morning, while the girls ate breakfast... which takes forever and a day, I finished with my lesson planning for next week. Did you know this Friday is Dr. Seuss Day? We're incorporating that into next week's adventures... very excited. Can't wait to share!

Also today I'm 30 weeks... YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY ME! I head to the doc in the morning, so I'll share whatever I feel the need to share then. Thursday we do our 4D... what a week! :)

Back on the wagon

Rachel here. The last few weeks have been totally draining here. My energy level is virtually nonexistent, which means the kids are running a muck. A MUCK I TELL YOU! The only solution is to keep their little hands busy. I'm putting us all on a schedule/routine... you know before it's all blown to hell in two months when Baby B gets here. ;)

So basically here we go... this is what our Mondays will look like from here on out:
700-800 Wake up, breakfast, morning routine... including making beds
800-845 Puzzles/books/free Montessori time
845-915 Preschool drop off
915-1000 Pre K - EG
1000-1015 Snack
1015-1100 Pre K - EG cont./computer EG
1100-1210 Outside/free play
1210-1245 Preschool pick up
1245-130 Lunch
130-300 Quiet time EG/K4 Reese/computer Reese
300-315 Snack
315-430 ART DAY/outside/free play
430-530 TV time/dinner prep
530-615 Dinner
615-650 Yoga
650 Bedtime routine

We'll be using the preschool and K4 curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler supplemented with various materials and other sites. I'll start posting what we're up to in the wonderful world of homeschool preschooling starting next week. Here's to busy children behaving themselves! :)

Homely artifact

Rachel here. While in Iowa last week, my Gma was adamant that we take what we wanted. She apparently made a list of things she wanted to make sure people got (I got a BEAUTIFUL sapphire/diamond ring), but my uncle said she should just give it to us in person while we're there. While I absolutely love my ring, I wanted something that really meant something to me. When my Gpa passed, I took a book I used to read when I was a little girl... this time... the cookie jar. To be perfectly honest I was surprised no one else voiced that they wanted it. I mean yeah... it's a homely little thing, but it was ALWAYS filled with cookies every time we visited. It's chipped all to hell, but it makes me smile. It's home will be in a box in storage while we're selling/building our house, but once we're in our new home... it'll find a quaint little spot on our counter top. Perhaps it'll even make me want to bake. ;)

A week of frustration...

Rachel here. Last week could have been better. Monday, it was confirmed my Gma P. has cancer. Because she's 86, she knew that surgery/chemo/radiation wouldn't prolong her life very much, so she's decided to just enjoy life as much as she can with the time she has left. When the words "life" and "months" are thrown around, you tend to move into high gear. This started the ball rolling. The girls and I had to make a decision. Bryan is beyond busy at work and wasn't going to be able to travel to Iowa with us, and I needed to go ASAP... having one baby in Iowa was crazy enough... I'd like this one to be born here in Virginia. My brother was able to get some time off of work, so he was going to be traveling with us. Plans were set in stone, and then it was time to get ready. Moral of the story... Iowa is TOO FAR AWAY.

Tuesday went off without anything too crazy going on. The usual shenanigans.

Wednesday was a different story. Not only did Emma Grace manage to bust open Reese's lip resulting in a mouth FULL OF BLOOD... and that is no exaggeration, but just a mere 5 minutes later, I managed to light the kitchen on fire. Turning on the wrong burner while trying to make lunch. :( People there were FLAMES... BIG ORANGE CRACKLING FLAMES. I immediately poured baking soda on it, and the downstairs promptly filled with stinky smoke. It was less than entertaining. Moral of the story... the only thing that belongs on stove tops... pots and pans.Thursday... both girls develop coughs and runny noses.

Friday... temperatures rear their ugly heads, and Reese stays home from preschool.

Saturday... I drive the 14+ hours it took us to get to Iowa. Girls cough their ways across half of the United States. Random potty break... Emma Grace mentions her ear is hurting her... AWESOME. Doses of Tylenol/Motrin are handed out like Mardi Gras beads. The upside... the snowsuits are packed and hopefully sometime while we're visiting the girls will FINALLY see some snow. We arrive to Iowa... virtually NO SNOW. Moral of the story... SERIOUSLY?!

Sunday... Bryan wakes up to 7+ inches of snow in Virginia. Mother Nature... you my friend are a bitch. The girls can not manage to say 2 words without hacking. Temps are still in full force. No visiting Gma Betty for fear of killing 12 innocent elderly folks on the way up and down the halls. Moral of the story... AGAIN... SERIOUSLY?!Monday... slight temps, coughs, runny noses... MUST VISIT GMA... after all... we drove all this way. We did wake up to a little bit of snow... resulting in the girls "playing" for 1.5 minutes. 3 hours into our visit with Gma, EG spikes a temp of 102. I call the Urgent Care. They get us in and out of there within 30 minutes... no lie. Turns out the doctor that delivered EG nearly 3 years ago works out of this office... I'm already in the system. Score. We leave the office with 2 little girls, 3 ear infections, and 2 bottles of Amoxicillan. I can already breath a sigh of relief and anticipate possibly sleeping that night (I didn't). For the record... we were able to make it 4.5 years WITHOUT a single ear infection! Moral of the story... IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE.
Tuesday... thank you Amoxicillan... we are fever free. More visiting.Wednesday... begin packing for trip back home to Virginia Thursday morning. More meds, more visiting. We're under the impression Wednesday morning that we'll wake up to 1-3 inches of fresh snow Thursday. We help send Grandma Nita off to on her Hawaiian vacation... thank you for the hospitality while we were there! By dinner time this number fluctuates to 8+ inches. Not cool... not cool at all. 7 pm... we pack the car and haul ass to Champaign, IL. 4 hours away. By 11:30 pm, we have set up camp for the night. Crying, coughing, leaking, meds... Oh Virginia... I can't wait. Moral of the story... I'm getting way to good at "going with the flow", and I don't like it.
Thursday... we're awake, we're fed, we're on the road. 10 hours later... we're home. We're tired. I'm in bed asleep by 9.

Up side to all of this... I managed to make it to and from Iowa still pregnant. And for the MOST PART... the girls were well behaved especially for being as sick as they were. Now back to life.

Doc appt

Rachel here. 28 week update... I had my appointment today, and all was well. My blood pressure was on target, I'm up 19 lbs (which is AWESOME considering I've been living off of a ramen noodles and girl scout cookies), and my glucose test was perfect (apparently standards are moving them towards the 2 hour test as opposed to the 1 hour, so I had nothing to worry about). I was finally able to speak to a doctor about the umbilical cord issue from our big ultrasound at 18 weeks. While I've been back for an appointment since then, it was with a midwife, and she wanted me to make sure I brought it up with the doctor. He looked at the information, and it turns out after a second look by the tech and a doctor, all is right with the world and our little one. Everything was where it was supposed to be, so that's a huge relief. I now start my two week appointments (SAY WHAT?!) and go back on the 29th. We have our big 4d on the 1st of March, which we have to travel for due to them discontinuing it in our area.

Here's what Alphamom (she's pretty hilarious and definitely tells it like it is) says is going on this week with Baby Boo:

http://alphamom.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-calendar/week-twenty-eight/

Let the two week updates begin!

Happy LOVE day!

Life is busy around these parts, so we celebrate what we can, when we can, the best way we can. This means that yesterday was our Valentine's Day, and it was AWESOME! We pretty much have the best daddy known to man who had fun little activities planned for his girls. There was some business to tend to first of course. One being my valentines for my class party tomorrow. Mommy found this really cute/super simple idea on Alphamom. They are little matchbook valentines. She printed the template onto some scrapbooking paper she already had, I signed my name, we assembled a cute little Valentine's Day sticker inside, fasten with a staple, and VOILA! Look how cute!Then while work was being done on the baby's room, I worked on more valentines (EG helped) for all my grandparentals.Once Mommy and Daddy were done, we made Pinkalicious cupcakes with Daddy. After cupcakes, we had a date with the movie theater. Daddy took all three of us to see "Beauty and the Beast" in 3D. I thought it was awesome and kept my glasses on the entire time, while Emma Grace opted to watch the show sans glasses all together and thought it was just the best thing since sliced bread.

We then headed to our super romantic fancy dinner at Cracker Barrel... pretty much my favorite restaurant. We got home a little later than we intended, so there was quick looking over of the really sweet card, candy, stickers, and flowers that Daddy got us...... and then we ate big fat cupcakes RIGHT BEFORE bed. :)Hope you all have yourselves a great Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Happy 3rd!

Emma Grace here! This weekend was Aly's big birthday bash... it was SO MUCH FUN! Just see for yourself.
I was so proud of Aly for blowing her candles out... or maybe it was because I knew I was about to partake in caaaaaaaaaaaaake!
Of course I had to be front and center when my gift was being opened. Mainly because I wanted to take those goods home with me. ;)Thank you for being my friend Aly, I pretty much heart you. :)

28 weeks

Rachel here. Tomorrow marks 28 weeks. Yeehaw! Nothing has changed from the last update except that I've noticed myself waddling... that's fun. :) Not sure on weight gain/glucose test yet... I have an appointment on Thursday, so we shall see what comes up.

Angie, Tommy, and Talon were able to make it in for Aly's bday party, so Ang and I were able to get in an arranged marriage photo. :) I'm almost 28 wks here, and she's about 26ish.

Baby Boo's new digs

Rachel here. Baby Boo's room is almostsuperclosetobeing finished! :) This past weekend Bryan repainted the ceiling and the khaki walls, while I worked on the decor. The furniture is all from Reese and Emma Grace's baby days, but all the decor is new/handmade.I scrapbook papered her letter with paper I already had, and I think the letter was like $2.I saw this super easy/cute idea on Pinterest. Paint canvases (7 pk for $20ish at Michael's), find an image online and cut out, stencil onto scrapbook paper (which I already had), and glue. VOILA! These pieces are flanking the baby's window.This bedding was what we bought for Reese once we moved her to her big girl room and her new crib was converted to the toddler bed. She didn't use it for very long, as the toddler bed was a nightmare. We converted it to a full soon after. When we found out Baby Boo would be another girl, we decided to go ahead and sell the bedding both Reese and Emma Grace used and opt to use our barely used butterfly set.
Butterflies from Target.For both Reese and EG we had letters for their names in these dots. We decided to change it up for Baby Boo and put the letters for DREAM. Unfortunately I'm having a hell of a time finding a D and R from Michael's, so that's currently a work in progress. :)Now all we need are the few little personalized finishing touches and a baby. :)

6 months down...

Rachel here. Tomorrow morning I will wake up the newest member of the 3rd trimester club! :) How exciting! I'm up 17 lbs total... and my face looks like it is perhaps carrying all 17 of those. I had my 1 hr glucose test this morning... or at least what I thought was my 1 hr glucose test. Turns out there is now a 2 hr glucose test. My doc ordered this one for me as opposed to the 1 hr, which I've always managed to pass with flying colors. I was none too please to have to sit there an hour longer and get pricked an extra time. NO FUN. I made it though. After reading Andria's post on how magically serene her visit to the doc was minus children, I grabbed a book and anticipated a nice "break" from the insanity that is my family. Turns out the people in the waiting room had other ideas and actually turned out being MUCH MORE insane than my life back home. There was the strange man that read the newspaper and insisted on commenting on each article, out loud, cussing as much as possible. Then there were the two extremely loud and obnoxious middle aged women who thought it was hilarious to comment on every scene showing on "Bathtastic". I think I read MAYBE 10 pages of "Eat, Pray, Love." I was quite eager to get back home to Laverne and Shirley who immediately wanted me to perform for them and make them food. :)

Some interesting things have begun to rear their ugly heads since my last baby update. I went about a week without morning sickness and felt like I was in heaven. Didn't last though... it's back. So that's cool. My meth face has not subsided any. Tiny little hormonal pimples... good times... I actually mentioned I was pregnant early to people so they wouldn't look at my face and think I was on crack. Pathetic. Braxton Hicks contractions are out of control this time. They aren't painful, but occasionally they do take my breath away. I find myself changing my breathing pattern during them, and then I promptly get up to drink an insane amount of water. Baby Boo is also in the punch/kick like a maniac phase, so that's fun. Nothing like a small fist to the cervix to get you going in the morning. Something new I've never experienced is this crazy numbing in my left leg. It just started two days ago and happens if I sit too long. Luckily I've been keeping pretty busy with projects around the house, so it doesn't happen too often.

This coming weekend we finish up some work on the master bathroom and begin tackling the baby's room... so excited to finally get it set up and ready to go! :)

Hokiebird in the house...

Just us... hangin' with Hokiebird. When you live here in town, you tend to have multiple opportunities for such an occasion. I think we have more pictures with the HB than we do as a family! :)

Preschool playdate

The weather here in the Eastern part of the country has been ridiculous. I know it's been similar elsewhere, but 60+ degree days in January is NOT normal for our quaint little mountains. Since we're not out playing in the snow, we might as well get out and ride bikes! Tuesday we set up a play date with some of my preschool friends to go for a little bike ride and hit up a couple of parks. It was REALLY nice to get out and get some fresh air. Mommy spent most of her time bent over (which is virtually impossible right now) helping Emma Grace steer... and the remaining time was spent carrying her tricycle. :)Look how big my sister is looking these days! Mommy has officially pulled out 4T pants for her from the bin. 4T! For the record... I was wearing those pants back in the fall!While we were desperately hoping for "one good snow," we're gonna need that not to happen... Mommy's flowers are already popping out of the ground!