long yet short weekend

This weekend has felt mighty long yet short at the same time. Long because it's raining outside and it's felt like a VERY lazy day and short because my mom, stepdad and two nephews came down on Saturday afternoon for a spur of the moment visit to see us. They got in Saturday around 4:30 or so and AK was napping so they went to their hotel to check in and unload their stuff and then around 5:30 AK and I met them there. Anna-Kate was SOOO excited to see her "Cece", as she always is, and let out a squeal of delight when my mom met us outside as we were pulling up.

You see, my mom's real name has nothing to do with cece BUT AK gave her this name last time we were visiting in Waco. My mom calls her sister soooo in return AK calls her "cece". It's pretty darn cute and we all get a kick out of it.

ANYWAYS, we loaded up and went to the mall just for fun. Of course, AK had to ride the money guzzler carousal thingy. We enjoyed watching her be excited about that. After that we attempted a walk through in The Children's Place but AK wasn't the least bit interested. THEN, we went into the Disney Store. She insisted on having this WOODY miniature soccer ball ringing in at $6.50! Of course, cece bought it for her because that's her little princess. And a side note, AK has never seen Toy Story before so I have no idea why she wanted THAT ball of all the balls. We walked the mall and enjoyed hanging out. After that we went back to Wendy's to eat and then to the hotel where AK proceeded to jump on every bed and open and close every door. She was having herself a hay ol' time. When we left she wasn't happy but quickly recovered. She went to bed without getting out ONE time. Much progress!

This morning we woke up and met everyone at McDonald's for some exciting playscape play. Anna-Kate had a lot of fun playing with her cousin (my nephew who is five). We were there for quite a while and my mom got lots of pictures :-). After that we headed across the street to Wal-Mart. What's a fun outing without stopping at wally world? There, AK proceeded to need this overpriced little Lightning McQueen action car. She is sooo silly. Of course, she got it and my little nephew got a Buzz Lightyear guy. Kids are so funny. I got a DVD cleaner kit :-). After we left Wal-Mart we came back to our house so they could take AK's big log cabin back to Waco with them. AK rarely plays with it so no biggie.

Since then I've done a lot of nothing. It's one of those days. See, the weekend seemed so long yet short.

travel suggestions? & a giveaway

I'll try to make this as interesting as possible, you know, just by some chance someone reads it...I do know there is ONE person who will. Thanks girl-you're great :-)


There are some things I want to remember and I can remember them by typing them here.


Lately my dear child has been experimenting with making things plural. It is so interesting to watch and hear. She figured out where mom-mom stashes the two extra "uh-beez" (lovies) and can push her leap frog bus up to the dresser, open the top drawer and get them all out which gives her a total of three at one time. It's frustrating yet hilarious. So, when she has accumulated all three at times she is sure to say "uh-beeeeezzz" when she wants them ALL. "Uh-bee" for just one and "uh-beeeezz" for more than one. How smart is that! Then I have to go through the process of stealing two back and getting her back down to just one so I'll have clean back ups. I think it's time for a new hiding place.

Not only is she making her "uh-beeeezz" plural, she has been saying "ballzzz", "shoezzz", "sockzzz", "buurrrrdzzz", "friiiiiieezzz". It's so fun to hear. I love my little one.


She's gotten really good lately at pushing things away and swinging her arms around like propellers when she's super frustrated about something. I better hurry and nip that one quick. It's amazing to see such an attitude from such a little person.


I'm getting really nervous about how AK will react to her little sister. I really am hoping that all this attitude stuff is just from me being pregnant and not because she's mad about mommy having someone else to give attention to. I'm totally sure she doesn't understand her feelings about this or even what's completely going on and I shouldn't be trying to analyze it BUT there has to be a reason for her turning into such a wild child. I had a GREAT conversation yesterday where I was gently told I think about her feelings WAY too much which is kind of creating a monster. That totally makes since. She's just TWO and if I make SUCH a big deal about her becoming a big sister and her lime light getting stolen then it will be a big deal and she'll act negatively. I need to start focusing on the good and exciting things that Isabelle will bring our family.

This also holds true for our bedtime battles. I need to stop thinking that I'm harming or traumatizing her by allowing her to cry for over an hour behind her door JUST because she's stubborn and wants her own way. I don't automatically revert to shutting the door and letting her scream. We first battle in another manner for a good hour or so until mommy is so worn down that the only thing I can do besides lay in bed with her (which I DON'T want to do) is shut the door and let her handle it herself. She's making the choice to get up. She knows that the door will stay open if she stays in her bed BUT she CHOOSES to fight it and ends up getting locked in. I have a tough one on my hands.


We are about 90% sure we're going to Missouri this year for Thanksgiving with Sean's mom and brother. The only thing that would change this is the 10% chance he lands a full-time job before then. I, nor AK, have ever been up there and met that side of his family before and he hasn't been in yeeeeearrrzzz. I'm excited to go but SUPER nervous about
1. the drive
2. the sleeping arrangements seeing as how we've had a horrendous time lately getting her to bed
3. the new "habits" that will be created by her sleeping in the same room as us
4. not having our own space for AK to explore. She's into EVERYTHING these days and I can't imagine the stress of being in someone else's home for 5 days with nothing that's ours. Obviously we haven't traveled to far away lands with her before...atleast not to places that aren't packed with fun toddler things to handle. I shouldn't be so nervous about that BUT I am so I'm saying it. My hubby is really gonna have to step it up and help me out while we're there because I'll be bigger, more pregnant and more moody. I will be very unhappy if AK is getting into everything and I have to constantly tell her no no no no no! AAHHHH! Not that hubby doesn't help me enough here at home because he does, it's just that it's VERY easy when we're at his family's home for him to get distracted and forget he has a toddler he needs to help out with. I'm guilty of the same when I'm with my family. So yeah, we'll definitely need to discuss that. I want this to be super fun and exciting. I've just never traveled THAT far away from home before for that length of time with my little one before. Anyone have any suggestions?


One more thing, This will be my 285th post and guess what I'm giving away on the 300th??? Any guesses??? I'm sure you've got it-a BOW! So, be sure to stay tuned for more details and don't forget to tell your friendzzz ;-).

wordless wednesday

What you can't see is all the newspaper scattered on the floor.

momma's little flower child

Okay, I really don't feel like taking a pic today. I haven' t been feeling good since yesterday afternoon so I think I should be exempt :-). And because I don't have it in me right now to take a picture I'll just give you one from Saturday night. Excuse the unflattery of it all. The jacket being baggy in the back totally doesn't help.

25 weeks and 6 days

Don't you love how I have a light stuck to my tummy. I thought it was HILARIOUS. Hey, we couldn't see in some areas and that seemed to work out nicely.

Anyways, we left for Waco Saturday morning around 11 after I was up ALLLL night with my little one. I think it was just a terribly upset stomach from eating WAAAAAY too much corn for dinner the night before. It was pitiful. She would wake up every 30 minutes-hour and cry and cry. Eventually I got her to chew a children's pepto tablet and she got 3 straight hours of sleep. That was a bit of a relief.

Once we got to Waco I realized that my little sweetie was dealing with more than just tummy issues. She started running a low fever, sneezing and had an awful runny nose. Something you should know about me, I hate runny noses. I can't stand snot and so I carried a box of kleenex around with us everywhere just to be sure my kid wasn't one of those with snot smeared all over her face. Yuck.

I finally got her to take a nap from 4:30-6:30 and as soon as she woke up I got her dressed for the trick-or-treating festivities. I think this might be the last year we actually do t-o-t'ing due to her increased awareness of freaky things. Even though we MIGHT not do it again after this year we had so much fun with our family. My nieces and nephew and cousin and aunt and mom and brother and sister-in-law. Yeah, we all went together. It was a blast.

Every year we always park at this bank located right near a little "circle" neighborhood and walk the whole thing. The police department block of the entrances into the neighborhood so you have to park and walk it if you want to go. I love this area because it's safe and there aren't crazy people driving around. Plus, I don't feel it's exactly safe to be jumping in and out of a car over and over again to run to houses and back and blah blah blah.

I was super nervous that Anna-Kate wouldn't feel up to joining all the madness but she went right in and had as much fun as she could. You know, apart from me wiping her nose raw and all. I had her very bundled up, as you'll see in a bit, and I don't feel like she was ever cold for a second. That made me feel much better about having her out while being a little "under the weather". My mom did most of the carrying and walking her to doors and I just hung out at the stroller and took pictures. Eventually my mom got tired of holding her so I took over for a bit.

By the end of the night I just tossed her in the stoller and walked up to the doors myself and said, "trick-or-treat. I promise I'm not trying to rob you of your candy. My little one is in her stroller." Then they'd say, "ooooh, little one. Hmmm" and give me a SUCKER. I totally ruined the good candy for myself. Oh well. She's enjoyed herself a few suckers since Saturday. Once we were nearing the end of the circle I was in so much pain I could barely take another step. My lower back was hurting SO bad. I was tempted to sit in AK's stroller with her on my lap and have my oldest niece push us. HAHA! Now that would've made a good picture.

All ended well and we were ready for bed. It didn't take her but about 10 minutes to fall asleep once I got her settled in bed with me. I, of course, was up most of the night making sure she could breathe and didn't have snot all over her face. This momma just can't handle snot. Thank God she's only had about 3 runny noses her whole life.

We headed home yesterday afternoon and I could feel a scratchy in my throat. By the time we got to our house I wasn't feeling that well at all. Today my head, throat, nose and eyes all hurt. I'm not running a fever but I just feel terrible. I hope this passes soon. AK hasn't shown signs of a runny nose since we arrived home and hasn't been sneezing. It was only like a 24 hour thing which I find odd but I'm happy she's feeling better.

Now, for the fun part, PICTURES!


Okay, so I know the flower costume might have been a little over the top but I couldn't pass it up. I only paid $13 for everything and it seemed so nice and warm! And nice and warm she was!

Now that she's all better and I feel like crud I guess it's going to be a movie kind of day. I hope I feel better soon!

26 weeks

26 weeks prego and feeling like 35. I walked waaay too much lastnight trick-or-treating with very cute little flower. I woke up with a very sore lower back and lower abdomen. I'm feeling better tonight but still feel old. I hate that feeling.

Again, there's not much else going on this week. I haven't had a chance to take a prego pic because I've been out of town but I'll do that tonight or tomorrow morning and get that up soon. Until then, I'll leave you with this video I took a day or two ago. If you watch closely where I press down with my hand she moves a few times. So fun.