Fill In The Blank Friday

This week has been a super slow blogging week for me! Blame it on the partial bed rest that I'm on, but things have been SUPER-unexciting around these parts lately. Part of me doesn't mind one bit. We just got done with the school year and this Momma is ready for a break from the hustle and bustle. The other part of me has been nagging that I need to figure out more things to do with/for my kids maybe just 2 days a week. We'll see how all this goes!

Now that I'm done with my random tangent, I decided to make posting this morning easier on myself. I am joining up with Lauren over at The Little Things We Do to participate in Fill In The Blank Friday!





 {1.} I LOVE that Graham is going to start a week of summer camp next week! He will be going to T Bar M here in South Texas and I can't wait for him to go! It is such a wonderful Christian camp with the best counselors and staff. They go all out trying to make each kid feel totally loved and special! All this past year he received post cards in the mail from both of his counselors from last year with updates and encouragement. Love it!!

{2.} A TIME THAT MAMA KNEW BEST WAS who I should marry. She never told me until much later (like after I had already married that man of my dreams) how much she and my dad HATED all the guys I had dated before Bobby came along. I think both she and my dad knew that none of them were right for me but she held her tongue and let me figure it out. Thank God I did! :)

{3.} MY FIRST KISS WENT A LITTLE LIKE THIS beyond awkward.  And unexpected. Both the guy and I were only hanging out before going to a school event/dance and we were only going with each other so that we'd each have a date. We ended up kissing before the event at his house. What was I thinking? (see question #2 above for my great judgement sometimes...)

{4.} MY SPLURGE OF CHOICE IS either on food or kitchen gadgets. Funny how both relate kinda to each other right?

{5.} MY BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT IS my kids! I have 2 of the sweetest boys ever (and one more little guy on the way) and a beautiful baby girl in Heaven and they are my life! I would not be where I am or who I am today if I didn't have them! I can't believe that just regular, ordinary me would be ever be soo blessed!

{6.} MY CELEBRITY CRUSH(S) ARE Hugh Jackman and Vin Diesel. I like manly men! :)

{7.} MY DANCE JAM OF CHOICE (if I was not so terribly white and could dance...) would have to be anything by Salt n' Pepa!

I hope that everyone enjoyed "getting to know me" this Friday! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Front Yard Surprise!

This morning I decided to get up earlier than everyone else. I wanted to piddle around my kitchen for a second, make some coffee, check some blogs :), and pretty much just have a few quiet moments to myself. I started our coffee maker and then went to open our blinds in the kitchen where our bay windows are at. Can you guess what was right in front of me as I turned open the first blind?

It was a Momma doe and her brand new baby! I think she must have had him or her overnight. The baby still looked wet to me and it's little legs were trembling when it was walking.

I immediately burst into tears and ran to get my camera. It was soo hard to take their picture! Every time I turned the wand to open the blinds the Momma could hear me and I was super afraid that she would dart off. I managed to get these four pictures before they left our yard though!

We live in a neighborhood filled with White Tailed Deer so its common enough to see them pretty much every single day (sometimes in large herds). But, I've never seen a Momma and her little one up soo close and at such a quiet wonderful time of the morning where it's just me and my little guy hanging out too!

God is soo good and I'm so thankful for the little joys that he sprinkles in my life here and there to remind me of his love and presence!

"May the Lord bless you with all the things that will assure you of His love. His presence, and His daily care for you."

~ Author Unknown

Staying Cool!

I can not believe just how hot it is here in Texas already! I'm not so sure why this surprises me. I've lived here all my life and have grown up with it always being hot. Sometimes even the winters here are HOT! So far this summer (or soon to be!), Bobby and I have been on a mission to keep our kids cool, entertained, and to take care of our poor grass. We are already on Stage 1 water restrictions and heading quickly towards Stage 2 so we can't use our sprinkler system except for 1 day a week. We are however still allowed to hand-water any day we choose to so Bobby and I decided that some sprinkler fun is a great way to let the kiddos play and water the grass at the same time!



Grady has finally reached that super-fun stage of not liking his picture taken anymore. This is probably my fault because all he hears all day long now is "say Cheese Grady!". He actually told me yesterday, "I no like it." He either wouldn't look at me or wouldn't smile for the camera. Ah well....

Graham was much more cooperative when it came time to smile for Momma. I think he knows now that its just better to smile quickly for me so he can run off to play! Smart boy!



When I was at Toys R' Us a couple of weeks ago I found the funnest new water sprinkler toy! It inflates and squirts water out while spinning. It comes with 2 inflatable balls and 1 inflatable bat. The balls ride on top of the spinning part and the kids can run into the water and try and knock the balls off while taking a swing! Graham loved it!



Grady took a while to get used to all the spraying water and hung out near the edges of where the water would just barely touch him.





Crash loved it too! He goes berserk when he sees any kind of water. He played in the water more than the boys did!



Here is my sweet hubby humoring me during my picture taking frenzy. He had just sat down with his adult beverage after sweating in the sun for half an hour trying to get the boys all set up. He's just like Graham. Just smile for the Momma so she will hurry up and go away. Bobby is smart too.



I hope that everyone's weekend is going great!

Weekend Randomness

• I can't remember if I mentioned it before or not, but both Bobby and Graham have been able to feel the baby move! Bobby felt him move for the first time last week and then yesterday was Graham's first time! I was hesitant to let him feel him at first. I know that if something were to happen to this baby like what happened to Caroline Graham would be crushed because I'd let him get too emotionally close. I guess in a good way and a bad way, I was the only one to feel Caroline move.

• Bobby is getting done a crazy amount of odd-ball chores done around the house today! (One of these chores included trying to sell to unframed mirrors that we pulled out of a couple of bathrooms and selling them on Craigslist!)



Can you see where I changed out the title at the top of the page? It says "Makes Hillary Happy List". HA!



• I got a new little point and shoot camera for Mothers Day earlier this month. I am sending Bobby by Walmart later today to get groceries and exchange the camera for a different color and then I'll be back in picture-taking business! I somehow managed to loose/misplace my old camera so now I am on hold on documenting family life. (Here is the camera by the way! Bobby decided to open the box for me before leaving for the store and discovered that the camera was purple and that was good for me so no returning!)





Along with the new camera shot you also get a 21 week belly picture of me and Baby!


• Because of my lack of camera right now, I didn't post exactly what I wanted to post yesterday. Grady went on a total "I'm a 3 year old with a mischievous mind" rampage and dumped an entirely full 3 pound bag of animal crackers onto the living room rug. I wanted to take a picture of the mess (because despite the headache it was to clean it up it was still pretty funny to look at) but couldn't because of the lack of camera. He also in the last couple of days has managed to empty yet another full bottle of baby wash into an empty bathtub and entire container of bath salts. Are you noticing a pattern?? :) Are you also asking yourself why I haven't noticed a pattern and started putting everything up higher?? :)

• I forgot to post yesterday that at my OB appointment, I asked the doctor about how delivery would go with this baby. I know that I'll have another scheduled C-Section but I don't want it to be anything unplanned if we can help it. It's pretty hard to leave our 2 guys and head off to the hospital for 4 days even when planning is involved. I can't imagine what would happen if we had to leave for the hospital in the middle of the night. I also want to avoid getting stuck with whatever doctor was on call at the time. It would be just my luck that I would get stuck with The Robot Doctor and then be hating everything that had to do with the delivery. My OB ended up reassuring me that it would probably be the specialist that called this pregnancy to an end. She said that there would eventually come a day when my cervix would be paper-thin and unable to continue for much longer and then they would set me up for delivery. My regular doctor said that she would not/could not perform a scheduled C-Section before 38 weeks because of under-developed lungs. If the baby came sooner on its own or the specialist  "called it" then she would of course. It makes sense to me. I wouldn't want that on my record either.

• Sweet Bobby just got back from the grocery store for me (Whoo-Hoo!) and only had to call 6 times! I could not be more proud! :)

• We are letting the boys play outside tonight with a bunch of different water toys! I can't wait to post about our water fun tomorrow!

Week 21 ~ Drs. Appointment

Yesterday morning I had my 21 week doctor's appointment. This time it was just with my regular OB, Dr. W. It's so weird, but I was soo glad to have the MOST boring doctor's appointment ever! :) I thought that I would have an ultrasound this time (it was on their schedule) but Dr. W. said that since I had just had one two days ago at the other doctor she didn't feel like it was terribly necessary. At the time I thought that it would be fine (I was super hungry to get some lunch!) but then later on yesterday I started to think that if I don't have one at my regular OB's office then I won't be able to get an actual disc with the baby moving. I do have a ton of still ultrasound pictures, but it's just not the same! I think that when I go back I'll ask for one just for that purpose!

Speaking of going back, I don't have to show my face in that office for another 4 weeks! YIPEE! She said that as long as I stay asymptomatic then there should be no worries. I will still get my regular 2 week cervical checkups from the specialist just to make sure though. Dr. W. said yesterday that she had read all the reports from the specialist from a couple of days ago and filled me in a little bit more on whats going on with Baby M. I love how I hear things from my regular OB that happened at the specialist and vice versa that the other doctor never tells me. Dr. W. said that the other day at the specialist the baby was in the 67 percentile for growth (never heard that mentioned before) and that in my situation we needed the baby to get as big as possible. I forgot to ask how to plump up a baby in utero but I'm guessing all she'll say is "stay healthy, get lots of rest, eat well balanced meals". :) I did remember to ask however, that in her experience and with what and how my body is reacting to what all has been going on, how far did she think that I would make it. Her answer was 32- 36 weeks. She then followed up with, "Lets just get to 24 weeks, then get to 28 weeks, then 32 weeks...)

Dr. W. followed all this up with a gentle reminder to take things very easy, get lots of rest, no chores (YIPPEE AGAIN), and she had better not catch me out at Sam's shopping! :)

I think that pretty much sums up the visit! If I can think of any other details I'll update this post again (mostly for my records of whats going on in my life these days!).

Hopefully this weekend I'll get some great pictures of the boys to post. We are all looking forward to a long 3 day weekend (if Bobby doesn't head out to the deer lease on Sunday...and Honey if you are reading this at lunchtime at work we need to talk about this again when you get home... love you!).

Grady Tucker's 3rd Birthday Party!

This past Saturday afternoon we celebrated Grady's 3rd Birthday at our house with a cook-out and fun Monster theme!



We ate tons and tons of my hubby's good hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausage! I swear I must have eaten at least 3 plates that day! We kept the party to just close friends and family as I was on "bed rest" (although couch rest is more like it!). We really all just relaxed and enjoyed the day watching the kiddos play in the back yard.

I am forever grateful to my super wonderful sister-in-law Melanie who pretty ran the show and made sure that the day was a hit for me! I will forever love her for all the running around she did, interference she ran, and help she gave me. Love you Mel!

I found the cutest printable decorations at at etsy shop call Totful Memories. It was crazy affordable and then I was able to print most of the paper decorations myself! Here are some of the fun signs that were included in the kit. I did take them to an office supply store to have them laminated though.

We went pretty low-key on the activities for the party. We just let the kids play outside on our swing set, the trampoline and in our sandbox. We did have a fun "water station" set up with some water toys so the kids wouldn't get too hot. (Aack, here in Texas it's already 101 degrees outside!)



My sweet nephew Carter and his water  toy.

 



Cooper playing in the sandbox!





After we all ate and then played some more we did the cake and cupcakes! Sooo yummy and the colors came out soo good on them!

I love love love this sweet boy more than life itself. I can not believe that he is already 3 years old! 

*****Is anyone else still having problems with their Google account to where it's darn near impossible to leave a comment?? I'm super frustrated right now.  I swear I'm reading everyone's blogs still but just can not hardly comment at all!! ******

Almost 21 Weeks And Still Lookin' Good!

This morning was my appointment with the specialist Dr. M. Things could not have gone better (except to maybe have my pesky cervix back to the condition that it used to be...)!  The baby is measuring great and is estimated to weigh almost a pound now! I can not believe that 2 weeks ago he was 8 ounces (which strangely seemed huge to me then) and now he is 14 ounces! Holy moly! I had no idea that his weight would nearly double. The fluid around him looked good too. I was a little worried about this as I had been feeling extra "trickle-y" the past couple of days.

All of his growth measurements were either right on track or above. His leg bones were measuring over a week bigger! I know that these numbers vary depending on who is measuring you and what week they are doing it in, but I think God knew that this time I was needed extra reassurance. Boy did he ever provide! My cervix is measuring around 2.08 cm in length right now which is where it was at 2 weeks ago when the noticed the problem. Hopefully the past two weeks of laying around gave it the extra umpf to keep on going. The nurse did say at the office today that when I had gone in for the surgery the doctor had already found me to be 1 cm dilated while doing the cerclage. I still thank God every single day that they discovered the problem when they did or else I'd be writing an entirely different post today! God is Great!

The funny thing this time I noticed with the ultrasound tech is that I guess the farther along you get the more they think us Mommas are just used to all of this. I only got 2 pictures this time! :) Maybe they think that the fun has worn off of looking at 10 different little black and white pictures of our kids, but not me! Also this time when I asked her for a picture of my cervix so I could post it and then also to show Bobby (he couldn't make it today :( ) she said that she really couldn't give me any more pictures of that "area". She said that after I had asked last time 4 weeks ago she mentioned my request to other co-workers in the office and they had told her that she shouldn't give it to me. So weird right? Maybe because its part of a "procedure" and not just a cute baby picture? I think that's total crap though. If she can use that wand thingy every time (and not even buy me dinner afterwards :) ) then I can have a picture of my own insides. Right??

Oh well, so here are the newest pictures of our little prince!



Oh I can't wait to meet my handsome little boy! We love and adore him soo much already!