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We hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season!  Can't wait to see what 2014 brings us!

Park Party

Now that Dylan's birthday was about a month ago, I thought I would fill you guys in on his celebrations!

With Dylan's birthday falling so close to the Thanksgiving Holiday, I decided to not have a party like we have in the past.  Just too much to deal with in too short of a time!  We did a family party in San Antonio, then we got some of his friends together at one of his favorite play places for cupcakes and playtime.

The park party went smashingly.  All he really wants in a party is to open presents, eat cake, and have balloons!  Adam's Aunt had planned for us to have a picnic lunch at a near by park, which was great, because it gave the boys a little time to get some energy out before we headed back to Dallas.  I hadn't really planned on much other than making him a cake, and bringing him the few gifts I had gotten for him.  It would be just family at this one, which was nice, because then his great grandparents got to join in, since they hadn't ever been able to attend one before.  He woke up that morning super excited, and found balloons, that I didn't know where down stairs, lining the hallway into the living room.  ( side note: They were huge balloons that just happened to come attached to a new 2014 Corvette Stingray that Adam's aunt and uncle had purchased the day before) He gathered them, and brought them to our room. 

He had requested a spider man cake.  Now, I've never made cakes for their birthdays.  I usually always order them, as it saves me time and effort.  But since we were not having a big party at our house, we made it.  It was just a box cake.  A Strawberry cake, picked out by the birthday boy himself!  He was soooo excited to see it.  He had to go to bed before we would decorate it.  Daddy did a GREAT job.  I found the idea on pinterest, and Adam executed it! 

After a late-ish brunch, we packed the car and headed to the park.  Of course the boys only wanted to swing, so that's what we did until the entire party arrived!  Once everyone was there, we opened presents first, because we had realized we didn't bring any forks for the cake, so I knew he was going to be a mess after it! I was right!  Dylan is to the age where he wants to open all his presents himself, and is equally excited about each one!  Christmas should be a fun, slow time!:)

He was gifted lots of super hero's stuff!  Turtles, Spidey, and even some Skylanders.  He got some great games, that he of course wanted to open in the car!  I would say, even though this party was not like the usual one that he has, he had a great time, and still talks about the park party.

The next day, we did a little play date party at Kid Mania, where his aunt, and his 5 besties, Graham, Carson, Caleb, Everett, and Caden, joined us for some ninja turtle cupcakes, pizza, and juice.  Sadly, I forgot my camera in my mad dash to get out of the house.  But he wasn't so much into playing, as much as eating cake and opening presents.  I guess this is where the four year old brain goes.  I mean, I guess I can't blame him.  I love presents and cake too!

I can't believe my first boy baby, who was born in a snow storm, is 4 years old.  He has developed into such a little boy, with a love of all things super hero, and sports.  He loves his baby brother something fierce, and asks almost daily when his baby sister is going to come out.  He has such a sweet soul, but can be pretty stubborn at the same time. He makes us smile every day, as well as pushes our buttons.  I'm not sure we could have asked for a better biggest brother, and first born. 

Think { PINK}

Or purple or teal or yellow.  Whatever color you think of when you think GIRL.  I realized a few days ago, that I might have put it on Facebook and Instagram, that we are in fact expecting a baby girl, but didn't blog about it. 

We found out at the then end of October that it was " probably" a girl.  She wouldn't give my Dr. a good clear shot, but " lack of boy parts" led him to think that it was 80-90% a girl.  Adam was not confident and didn't let me buy anything, or tell anyone ( other than friends) because he didn't want me to have to retract, or get too excited!

23 weeks

Luckily, my doctor would do another sonogram at the next appointment in a month, which was well, about three weeks ago.  Where he confirmed that it was in fact a baby girl.  Since then, a crib has been ordered, swatches for bedding have been ordered, and the move of graham from his current room to his new room has begun.  Also, I've bought some girl clothes:)  It's fun!  I have not gone crazy, mainly because I'm having a hard time deciding what size to buy! I know, first world problems.  I make tiny kids.  Dylan was in newborn clothes for probably 3 months, Graham probably 2.  They were average size babies.  Dr. tells us that baby girl is already measuring on the smaller side at 30-40th %.  So I'm sure she will be in newborn for a while!  Again, first world problems I have here! 

We are pretty sure that we have decided on a name.  Adam is going to have to give me something else if he doesn't like what we picked ( which he says he loves, but never will confirm) I'm tired of thinking of names.  We have never been able to pick a girl name for sure, so this was, I won't say struggle because it wasn't, but it kind of makes my head hurt:) 

I have less than 100 days until this baby comes, and everyday I feel a little less prepared.  I feel like I can't keep up with what I have now.  Laundry, cleaning, entertaining the boys, getting me time, Adam time.  I feel like I'm drowning sometimes.  That combined with my laziness, I just never get what I want to done, and if I do, I'm needing to go to bed by like 7!  So here is to hoping that I can get a grip, and that it's just the holidays that are making it seem like I have more to do than I really do!:)

Thankful

This Thanksgiving turned out to be a great one.  We were not sure how it was going to go, seeing as Dylan was sick for the week before.  Luckily modern medicine made him well enough to head to San Antonio, to visit and stay with Adam's Aunt and Uncle.

I had been talking with Adam about leaving on Wednesday to start the drive, but he thought he wouldn't be able to get out of work until normal time, which would put us leaving Dallas at about 7 PM.  I wasn't about to attempt that, so fortunately he was able to leave around lunch, putting us leaving at about 1:30.  It was still a long drive, and took us longer because, well the road you have to take sucks.  Thank goodness for DVD players, because I really though at least one kid would fall asleep since it was nap time, but neither did, but both were happy watching Toy Story , twice, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, along with some Spider man, and George.  We only made one stop to get Dylan out so he could go to the bathroom, and we got some snacks too.  We finally landed in San Antonio around 7:30 I think it was. 

We let the boys play, and eat some real dinner, then we parked them in their room.  That's right, both were in one room.  We did this once before in Connecticut September of last year, but there was a short wall between them, and Graham couldn't really talk yet, so there wasn't much of a problem. Thankfully, there wasn't a problem this time either.  They were both so tired, both laid down quickly and were out. 

Thursday morning, Graham was the first awake, and I was able to remove him from the room before Dylan woke up.  Which is probably good, because Dylan slept for another 2ish hours!:) We went down stairs, ate some light breakfast, and watched the Thanksgiving Day parade.  One nice thing about going to someone else's house for Thanksgiving is that I was only in charge of making/ bringing two things.  Pie, and Corn Casserole.  I had done the pie the night before, so I was only in charge of the casserole, which Adam did for me while I took a nap , BEFORE our turkey feast.

Adam's grandma and her husband joined us all for our meal, and had some fun times reading, and playing with the boys.  They sure are hams, and love any attention they get from anyone!  Grandma and Papa, got their fair share of cuddle time with the boys as well!


We rounded the day out, after eating of course, with naps for the boys, football for the big boys, and games for the adults after the little guys had hit the hay.  The plan for the next morning was to get up, and head to the movies for a family friendly flick.  Frozen.  It was so cute, and Dylan loved it.  Graham got antsy, but he always does toward the end of shows.  After the movie, we got some Mexican food, as we were all already a little tired of turkey.  The boys took a nap, and I did too, after we returned. 

Friday night, Adam and I were feeling the need to get out of the house a bit, and have some alone time, so after the boys went to bed, we tried to go see Hunger Games, but they of course were all sold out, since we thought about it last min.  So instead we went to the Melting Pot for dessert, then to Target to pick up a few more things for Dylan's birthday party in the park the next morning.  When we arrived home, we decorated Dylan's cake, and by we, I mean Adam.  I found the design I wanted, and he did it.  Lucky for me he is artistic!

Our plan was to leave Saturday sometime before nap time, but after Dylan's party.  I think we finally got out of San Antonio about 2ish, which was perfect.  The boys were on a little bit of a sugar high, because they ate a lot of cake, because it was yummy!  Graham took a nap on the way home, and we were able to take little random routes around the traffic that was on the freeway.  We made good time home.

Hello Mr. Turkey

Yesterday afternoon, Dylan got to participate in his first ever school performance.  It wasn't a big one, thank goodness because he needs some work, but it was perfect for him.  He and his classmates and another class got up and sang us about 4 songs, ( only two of which he actually knew all the words too I'm pretty sure) to prepare us for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday!

Lucky for Dylan, his grandma and I were able to attend.  As a last minuet surprise, Daddy even took off to come all the way down and watch him.  I'm going to brag on Adam for a second.  He is such a great daddy.  Dylan had been asking for a week or so now if "daddy was coming to hear him sing"  the answer was always no.  You see, he works in Uptown, and that's just a long drive.  Yesterday morning Dylan and I had a conversation that went like this...

Me- Are you ready to sing for Grandma and me today?

Him- And Daddy too?

Me- No, Daddy can't come remember?

Him- yeah, because he has so much work?

Me- Yes and he works really far far away.

Him- Can't you go get Daddy and bring him?

After that I immediately texted Adam and asked if there was ANY WAY he could make it, and he said he wouldn't make any promises, but yes, he would be there as long as he could finish what he was doing from home.


And most were done by this point!

So he made it, with maybe thirty seconds to spare, as the kids were already loaded on the stage ready to sing when he walked into the building.  Dylan gave a great big smile when he saw him, and it really just made my day.  We've always said how family comes first for Adam as far as his work goes, and yesterday he proved that to me.  He win's Daddy of the year in my books.

Anyway, back to the songs.  Dylan was his usual silly self.  I know he knew the songs because he would sing them for me at home.  Instead of singing though, he was rubbing his belly, with his shirt up, making funny faces, and just kind of standing there.  About the third song they lost almost all of the kids and they were all getting antsy.  It was adorable, and I'm so glad that I got to see him sing.  He was so proud of himself after, as was I, because I'm slightly surprised he sang anything at all.  He is getting so big, and in less than two weeks will be a big 4 year old.  My, where does time go?

10 years

At the end of October ( yes I'm a little late I know) Adam and I celebrated our ten year high school reunion!  I still can't believe it's been 10 years.  I saw this on facebook I think and it's totally true!

Our reunion was at the House of Blues, and it was a great time.  It was very similar to high school in the fact that you talked with who you did in high school.  Lucky for Adam and I, we are still in close contact with most of our friends from high school.  Only Dr. Andrew has moved far away! It was a fun night to get out without the kids, and hangout with our friends. 

Seeing as we are old people now, Adam and I didn't go to the "after" party like most people did.  We were tired, my feet hurt ( hello twenty weeks pregnant, wearing heels for 4 hours without standing), and it was already 11 pm, way past our bedtime! 

I missed the hand on hip memo:/

Sadly, I took my camera, but didn't take any pictures with it.  Luckily, Courtney, the brave soul who put this whole thing together got a photo booth, so I do at least have a few pictures from the evening! 

Our "Crew"

I can't believe that it's been ten years, I honestly do not feel like we this close  to being thirty.  Yikes! 

Spiderman and Dinosaur- Oh My!

These three look like they are up to no good!

As I'm sure everyone who reads this blog, or follows me on Pinterest knows, Dylan has been looking forward to Halloween for about a month now.  Ever since we stopped in Costco and he saw his "suit" as he calls it, he has wanted Halloween to be here.  I'm not sure why, because he wore his "suit" just about every day until the 31st.  He is obsessed with this thing. But his recent obsession is Ninja Turtles, so I'm sure he would have preferred to be a turtle for Halloween, but I wasn't going to buy him a new costume. 
Graham is obsessed with dinosaurs, so when he saw the alligator suit and proclaimed it a " Dinosaur" who was I to tell him any different.  Luckily, he wasn't as adamant about wearing his suit ALL THE TIME, like his brother.  He was a little warmer, and he would sweat a lot in it. 

Ready to GO!

Fighting Crime!

As Halloween came closer, Dylan had a count down, every night he would ask if it was Halloween yet, and I would tell him how many days.  The kid doesn't seem to want to forget about anything these days.  So we gathered a trick or treating crew, and all met on Halloween night.  To say that the kiddo's were excited would be an understatement.  Carson, Dylan and Kinley, would literally run from house to house for the first street, then I think they got tired, or it got to dark or something, but they all slowed just a bit. Luckily, we had a seasoned veteran in Avery who could show the little's the way!  Graham and Caleb were bringing up the tail end of things.  Graham was attached to me.  Didn't want to hold Daddy's hand, just mine.  He did great though!  For some reason he refuses to say "thank you" so I just had him say "bye bye " to everyone, and they thought he was adorable!

Dylan was asking Daddy what he was dressing up as, and luckily, Adam got to dress up for work.  It was a little late notice, so his costume was not great, but Dylan loved it!  I didn't dress up, it's not my thing, but Dylan told me that I should have been a butterfly!  Which is also what he told me Kinley was probably dressing as, before we knew she was Sophia of course!  He is so silly!

There were, luckily, only a few scary people out.  One was a kid that wasn't that old, but had some creepy clown face paint on, which none of the kids were very excited about.  He was nice, and when we ran into him again, he stayed back and turned away because he knew the little ones were scared.  So I give him propps for that.  I don't give props to the ADULT, who was out standing on the street in a creepy jester costume, before it was dark. I mean come on, don't scare the babies, wait until later and scare the big kids!:)



On the move!

After all was said and done, Dylan had a great time, got some great candy, of which I've eaten way too much of.  He has asked several times when he gets to "do Halloween again." He still continues to wear his costume when we are at home, but hey, at least my $13 was well spent!

Monday Menu

 

 

Monday: Mogio's pizza , assorted Whole Foods Salads

 

Tuesday:  Pioneer Woman's pork chops with apples, cheese bacon grits, steamed broccoli

 

Wednesday: Taco salad

 

Thursday:  Pasta dish from the freezer- Trick or Treating

 

Friday: Chicken Chipotle enchiladas, refried beans, Mexican rice

 

Saturday:  Out of Town

 

Sunday: Out of Town

20 down

I'm twenty weeks pregnant.  How did this happen?  I mean, I know how it happened, but I can't believe I'm half way done with what will be my last pregnancy.  It really has been a great one yet again.  My doctor was surprised this was my last since I have such an easy time with being pregnant.  I guess he forgot that you also have to feed, and you know, take care of the kids you have! 

I thought that I would do the little questioner thing that floats around the Internet for my half way point.  I stole this particular one from Katy.

how far along? 20 weeks

how are you measuring? baby is measuring right at 20 weeks.

 

size of baby? 3/4 lb

 

heartbeat? not a clue.  He never tells me.

 

 

 

 

 

total weight gain/loss?  8 lbs 

 

maternity clothes? Yes! That's all I've been wearing for a few weeks now!

 

stretch marks? No new ones... I'm hoping I don't get any new ones!

 

sleep?  Pretty good.  I usually get up to pee like once, every couple of says

!

best moment this week?  Um, High school reunion, and seeing baby!

 

movement? Yes! It is still my favorite part of being pregnant.  I'm going to miss it!

 

food cravings?   no real cravings.  I just like to eat food!

 

 

 

what i miss?  I actually miss playing soccer.  I went to a game last week to watch my team, and it made me a little sad that I couldn't be out there!

 

what I'm looking forward to? Finding out what this baby is!

 

how are you feeling?  Great.  I got the head cold that all my boys have had, and I lost my voice almost completely at my reunion but other than that, doing great!

 

comparisons to last pregnancy? honestly, all my pregnancies have been the same.  I wouldn't know I was even pregnant if it weren't for the growing belly, and the little wiggle worm that is in there! 

Feeling crafty

This morning, I decided we would have a low key day at home since we are all trying to fight off a cold.  Silly Texas weather.  Just make up your mind! 

Anyway, I was doing my daily check of Pinterest and saw some cute craft ideas, so I decided that would be fun to do with the boys.  Anyone who knows me, knows I am NOT a craft person.  I am certainly not a craft person who will do the crafts for my kids.  I mean, I told them what color to put where and showed them how to do the glue, but then it was all theirs.  It amazingly bought some great time for me to unload and reload the dishwasher and to take out the trash, so mission accomplished.  Or maybe not since it took me even longer to clean up all the glue off the table!:) 

They were very happy with how their crafts turned out, and they will look great on the new playroom art wall.  ( which I will eventually get around to telling you guys about!)

Fall is here!

Last week, the boys had "fair day" at school.  Sadly, we were not provided with fair tickets, and honestly I wouldn't have taken them that day anyway!  So I came up with the idea to head to the Arboretum, to visit the new children's garden.  In August I think, Adam's mom sent me an email about it, and said she thought it would be fun for the boys!  So we got it on our calendars, and set forth!  They only have two entry times, 9 and 1.  So of course because of naptime, she picked 9!  We had to get up early, to swing by her house to pick her up, but we made it with time to spare! 

It was perfect timing, because I wanted to take the boys to the famous pumpkins there, because we had never been!  What we learned later, was we should have hit those up before heading to the children's Garden.  WE were early for the garden, so the boys just played around and looked at some of the pumpkins around there.  Graham was really interested in moving them.  Luckily, his muscles were not big enough to lift most of them, seeing as I'm sure that is frowned upon!

The children's Garden opened, and I would venture to guess that we were the first ones in there!  Overall, the boys had a great time, but my personal opinion was that it was maybe a little old for them. It was a lot of reading information, and things that they , I felt were to little to really grasp.  It was beautiful though, and they had a great time looking at everything.  But Dylan really just wanted to "play."  They did have one little area that they could play in.  It had a house, sand box, some large ants they could climb on.  It was funny, almost everyone that had a kid in there asked their kid to stay out of the sand box.  I'm really not sure why places even put them in.  Such a mess!

After the new part, we headed to the already crowded pumpkin patch, where I had to lie to my kids to get them to look at the camera.  I told them if they smiled Spider Man would come see them.  Oops.  But I did get some good pictures ( after I do some face changing in photoshop) so, over all it was a great day.  The weather turned out to be beautiful, though we all started in jackets. 

I love that fall is here, and well, seeing that Dylan has not really taken off his Halloween costum, I think it's safe to say that he will be sad when October is over!:)