32 Weeks

Here I am at 32 weeks! Only 8 (+-) more weeks to go! Belle and I had an appointment yesterday and as usual everything looks and sounds great. I'm doing good and experiencing normal pregnancy symptoms i.e. feet/ankles swelling so much I can't zip up my boots and my socks leave marks!, fingers swelling to where my rings are started to get tight, and I'm still having those stupid leg cramps! Dang I will be glad when they go away! I'm starting to feel a little pressure in my stomach area and the doctor said that was normal (assumed it was) and that it was probably me just having small contractions. I gained a few more pounds which I was fine with but I did ask her if she was concerned at all with my size because I was 8 months pregnant and I could still see my feet. She laughed and said that I was right on tract with my weight and that I shouldn't worry. It's just not in me to have a 9 pound baby. Hallelujah! I was a tad worried about having a big baby because Brent was quite the hoss cat baby! We go back every 2 weeks for the next month, then in March we start our weekly appointments. The count down has really started!

In other random news, I have found a new snack that I just can't seem to shake.

Weird, right?! I have been known to snack on tortillas when I make tacos and when I went to the store last week they really sounded good so I grabbed a bag. As soon as I get home I go straight to the kitchen and grab a diet coke and a tortilla. Its odd I admit but I don't really care. It is better than me grabbing a bag of M&Ms!

Happy Birthday Mayo!!

Happy Birthday Big Brother! Despite our many years of fighting, as siblings do, I'm glad you were born this day and I hope that your birthday is all you hoped it would be!!! Love Ya!!

Precious baby boy...

All grown up...

Sha Na Na

Sha na na, hey, hey goodbye.

The go cart is officially out of our lives and I couldn't be happier! We upgraded Brent to, in his words, a more adult car. Today we purchased this little beauty...

We knew once I got pregnant that his car probably wasn't going to be baby convenient due to the small backseats and we knew a new car was in our near future. He found this one (Jeep Grand Cherokee) last week and we both liked it well enough to make it our new car. I'm really excited and can't wait to cruise around town when it isn't raining cats and dogs.

Brent did make me promise that if we got this car that I wouldn't make fun of it like I did the Celica. I told him I wouldn't have anything to complain about in the new car. It sat up off the ground and didn't look like a matchbox car! I thought it was funny that he would make such a request. Guess my subtle complaints weren't so subtle! :)

*Disclaimer...these are not the actual pictures of either car. Due to the rain, I was unable to get pictures of either car. Brent seemed to be worried that I wasn't using the actual pictures, but I think you all get the idea!

Mr. Men and Little Miss

When I was little, I loved the Mr. Men and Little Miss books. My church library had just about all of them if not all and I would check one out every Sunday until I had read them all. I'm not sure why I liked them so much. They were just simple little books with simple illustrations. I didn't even know they still made the Mr. Men and Little Miss books until last year when I was in a book store browsing the children's section and I spotted a whole section dedicated to the series. I got really excited and wanted to buy every one but then thought better about it because I would have had to explain to Brent why I spent a small fortune on books for a child we didn't have.

Throughout my pregnancy we have occasionally wandered into the children's section at Barnes and Noble and picked out all the books we loved as kids. We each have our own list of books we would like Belle to have and Mr. Men and Little Miss books are at the top. The Hungry Caterpillar is Brent's number one book! Anyway, with my mom knowing I was crazy about these books, she surprised me the other day with this little gift...

It's Little Miss Sunshine and Little Miss Chatterbox!!! She said she saw them in Sam's and had to get them for us! Now Belle will not only have the books but now if I can get my hands on some of my favorites, she'll have the characters! The only down fall is Little Miss Sunshine plays a little tune that is quite annoying so I had to turn her off after accidentally hitting it twice. It was just a tad too perky for me. Good thing I love those characters so much or she could have been out the door! :)

Arts and Crafts

Last week I called my consultants (my Nanny the material/sewing consultant and my mom the color consultant) to come to up so we could go get the material I needed to make Belle's bedskirt, curtains, and pillows. I had picked out some material a long time ago I wanted to use for her room and I needed to get some coordinating material to make all the accessories. We went to a local fabric store and hit the jackpot! They have this backroom that has discount bolts of material. At first glance I didn't see anything and looked out on their main floor and didn't see anything there either. I was started to get discouraged and walked back to the discount room where my Nanny was stilling hunting for her some material. I told them I wasn't having any luck and that this trip might be a bust but one of them called my attention to bolt of material they thought would be perfect. We held up the material I was trying to match and what do you know, it was perfect! I immediately got excited because not only was it on sale for 2 bucks a yard (we are talking about the huge rolls of material that is about 5 feet wide), but my Nanny had a coupon (of course!) buy one yard get one free! I bought all the material I needed to do all my projects plus some for 10 bucks! I was pumped!

I then have spend all week at the sewing machine. I made the curtains, the valance, bedskirt, 3 decorative pillows and 1 roll pillow! I was a mad woman on a mission! I think Brent was impressed with my sewing abilities and the fact that I got it all done and it looks great! I did tell my Nanny she wasn't allowed to get too close to any of it because I don't want her checking my seams. I made a few boo boos but only she would be able to tell. I am so happy with the outcome and every time I walk by I peek in. Belle's room is really coming together and we are getting really excited for her to take up residence there!

Where I spent my week

The valance and curtain. Please tilt your head sideways. I have no idea what is wrong with this stupid thing but it won't import my picture the right way and I'm too tired to mess with it!

The pillows. Excuse the blue sheet. I was going in a different direction when I bought it.

The bedskirt. It's hard to tell from the pic but I put pleats on the bedskirt and tied bows at the top of each pleat. It is by far my favorite!

This weekend Brent and I headed to Franklin to go check out a rocker my Granny had found for us. We kind of gave her the project of looking for us because I wasn't to keen on a rocker in the first place but Brent was putting his foot down and said we were getting one. Not wanting to add one more thing to my list, my Granny decided she wanted to get us a rocker and that she would look for us. SWEET! She called this week and said she found one at a local furniture store that she wanted us to look at. So we went Saturday to look at it and we actually fell in love with the one next to the one she picked out. It was white which matches the rest of the furniture and it was big enough for Brent! I called her and told her we decided on a different one and she said get whichever one we wanted so we did! Now that we have it I really like it and have been sitting in Belle's room a lot. Brent found me in there this morning and asked what I was doing. I said just hanging out.

Here is the rocker we got. Again tilt your head. Stupid computer!!!

I am currently working on a painting for her room and if all goes well I will have it done this week. I am going to have to commission out some of the work because I'm not very good at painting sayings on canvas so I may have to pass that off to a family friend! I will post a picture as soon as it is done.

C-Section...Yes Please!!!

Tonight Brent and I had our second child birthing class and we were lucky enough to be able to watch not one but two birthing videos. AWESOME!! I'm not sure what woman in their right mind says 'hey you know what would be great? Having a camera crew come in and video tape the grossest time in my life (aka child birth).' Really? At what point did this sound like a good idea? When she was buck naked with her hind end in the air or when she was squatting like she was fixin' to lay an egg? As you can imagine I was completely grossed out by the video. I leaned over to Brent at one point and asked if I could just have a c-section instead. I wasn't the only one who was grossed out because during the more graphic parts, the whole room filled with 'ooo gross!' You would have thought they were showing the video to a bunch on 10 year olds. I was already starting to get nervous about delivering and this did NOT help all the thoughts going around in my head. WOW! Nightmares could find me tonight!

Christmas Round 2

We spent a long weekend with Brent's family this past weekend celebrating Christmas with his whole family. It has been a few years since we have been able to celebrate with both of his brothers due to our different schedules so it was nice spending time with everyone.

On Saturday morning we were celebrating Christmas and look what we woke up to...
SNOW!!! We had a white Christmas for the first time. Actually it snowed all weekend. Nothing too major but it was nice to see the white stuff. Sorry the picture isn't that great but I was not about to step outside in the freezing cold just to take a good picture. If you don't know, the main reason we haven't moved up north is because I do NOT do cold weather OR snow. After running off the road twice last year during that freezing rain, I no longer do snow or anything that can cause the roads to be extra slippery!

Anyway, opening gifts is always quite the experience at the in laws because we have to go from youngest to oldest when opening gifts. That way his parents can watch us open all our gifts. Our niece is always the first since she is the youngest, while for now anyway. And bless her heart, as soon as she would open a gift we would grab it out of her hands so she would move on to the next hoping to make the process would go a little faster. Even with all the hurrying, it still took us most of the day to get through all the gifts but there was 10 of us who had to open. Well 10 plus Belle had her own stack of gifts this year. For someone who isn't even here yet, she sure was showered with lots of gifts this Christmas from both sides!

Speaking of Belle, apparently Aubrey (our niece) has been coached in who Belle is. When we got there Friday night, Belle was brought up and I asked her who Belle was. She smiled and told me the baby. Then she was asked where the baby was and she said Aunt's Kacie's belly! Too cute! We are afraid she is going to be really confused though when Belle comes out with a different name! Oh well, Brent already thinks since we use that name so much that regardless of what her name is, we will still call her Belle. He is probably right but we shall see.

Uncle Brentie and Aubrey