Big Boy Bed

I've been meaning to post this, but haven't yet.  On June 12th, we moved Micah to his big boy bed.  Same one we moved Cara to when she was almost 2.  It was my mom's when she was a teenager and we can make it sit very low to the ground.  He climbs in and out by himself and we have a mesh gate on the side.  We normally wouldn't do it this early, but he is being evicted from his crib come August! :). 

He transitioned pretty well.  He fussed the first few times we laid him in it, but now he just climbs in and tells us bye and night night like he used to in his crib.  He does NOT stay in his bed until we come get him like Cara did.  Oh how I wish he did :).  He comes and knocks on the door until we come.  That stinks because sometimes it wakes up Cara.  The good news is, if it's too early (for us), we can go lay him back in his bed and he'll usually stay there for a good while.  He is just such a sweetie pie!  He's growing up so fast! 

We still have to transition him to the bottom bunk in Cara's room before Anna arrives, and I'm way more nervous about that!  He can climb up the ladder to her top bunk (which still makes me nervous), but he cannot climb down.  AND, he sits so close to the edge of the bed occasionally.  I may have to borrow a video monitor just for my own sanity the first few nights.  That and I have a feeling not as much sleep will be going on in our house when we put them in the same room now that he's mobile :(.  We got Cara a princess flashlight for her birthday, hoping that if it is not wake up time yet (she has a digital clock in her room and isn't allowed out until a certain time unless she needs to use the restroom), that she will stay in her top bunk and play with the light and all her babies she sleeps with.  I better start praying for that now ;).

Cara Leigh Newsome - 4 year flashback!

I'll do another post soon about her birthday party, it was a hit!  Just wanted to do a quick flashback about Cara. 

Cara Leigh,

You came into this world as our firstborn daughter 4 years ago today.  You changed our lives forever and we couldn't imagine how God would bless us through you. 

We were learning all this parenting stuff for the first time.  Some days were great,

some days were hard (still are!). 

You have grown and changed.  Here you are at your first birthday party:

You have always had your very own personality, though it is very similar to your moms!  You did get some of Daddy in you as well.  His compassion and caring.  You are so sweet to your friends (most of the time) and you have turned into such a polite little girl. 

Here's your 2nd birthday party picture:

and JC Penney Picture:

At 2 you finally got some hair and your curls started to really come in.  You got a little temper, but you also showed us how smart you are.  You knew all your numbers and letters and we just couldn't imagine loving another little baby as much as you!  You became a sister when you were 2 and were so sweet to your little brother Micah (most of the time)! 

By age three you loved being read to, and you especially enjoyed the Fancy Nancy books!!  So we had a a Fancy Nancy tea party last year:

You pretty much thought it was the best thing ever :). 

Here's your JCPenney flash back:

We just love those curls!  You had your first haircut at 3!  You also lost some very important people in your life this past year.  Your Mawmaw (my grandma), your cousin Ben, and your Grandad (Eric's dad).  You have suffered more loss at such a young age than we would have ever hoped for you.  But because of your knowledge of Jesus, you seem to cope very well with the thought of death.  You know if you believe in Jesus, that it leads to heaven and reunion with those we've lost.  You know you will get to rock with Mawmaw again, play with baby Ben and read and watch Cars with Grandad again, and for that we are very grateful.  You have such a sweet spirit!  This 3rd year, you learned you were going to be a big sister again, and this time to a girl!!  You were very excited, because "You've never had a baby sister before."  You liked the name Anna from the beginning and love sharing her bows ;). 

Cara, we love you more than our own lives.  You mean so much to us and we are blessed to be your parents.  God, Thank you for entrusting this blessing to us.  For that we praise and thank you every day of our life!

4th birthday party picture:

JCPenney pictures:

We love you sweet girl!

Anna Marie Newsome

It's official!!  Eric finally agreed to the name. I knew he would, it's beautiful right!! :)  We were watching a movie one night and she was doing somersaults.  He was having fun feeling them all, she was going crazy!  I said, so does it make it more real now??  Can we talk about her name?  He said, "what, I thought I already said Anna was fine."  Ok, how about Marie?  Yeah, that's good too.   Ok people, there you have it! 

So, it's official now, and I really REALLY wish I had a monogramming machine at my house ;).  I have always loved the fruits of the spirits/spiritual gifts for girls names (you know, Joy, Hope Faith, Grace, etc) and without even knowing it originally our girls will have both of those names (Cara means Joy and Anna means Grace/Gracious) meanings.  It's not Lorelai Grace (what I said last year I'd like to name my girl), but it's close enough.  Plus, when my Mawmaw died last July, I just knew I wanted to name my next girl after her.  She was such a blessing to my life and our entire family, what a sweet, caring, LOVING role model I got to look up to for 29 years!  Her name was Barbara Ann, so we just took Ann and made it Anna.  My mom and sister's middle name is Marie.  It's funny how things grow on you, because as popular as it was growing up, I never really liked the name Marie.  But, it goes well with Anna, and I like naming babies after family.  And, Anna's initials will be the same as her Aunt Amanda's (Eric's sis!). 

Other name thoughts I had, because apparently I was the only one who thought about it :) were Julia Ann, Julia AnnMarie (combined), of course Lorelai (always knowing Eric would never agree to that), Anna Grace, Annalee Marie (lee added for Eric's dad Michael Lee) Leah, yeah that's about it.  I love J names and basically with Cara and Micah, wanted another 'ah' ending to the first name.  I think I had more firsts, but Julia and Anna were all I really said aloud to friends, thus the only ones I remember!  I really like single syllable middle names too (Leigh, James, etc), but Anna Marie flows really nice I think! 

I'm already down to every 2 week visits!!  I went last Monday at 28 weeks 4 days and all was well.  I gained 3 pounds in 2 weeks (my biggest weight gain thus far!!) so now I've gained 2 pounds overall (though I still don't know how that's possible, I look gigantor--if you don't believe me, look at this picture Cara took while at her recital on Saturday!)  :

I was measuring 31 cm, so still a little ahead, but not 4 weeks like last time!  The doctor asked me my prediction as to when the baby would come, because he says moms are better judges of things like that.  I hate to throw my prediction out there, because well, it's my third child and both the first two were slightly early (meaning before their due date by about a week), like my friend Jen's 2 first ones.  Then her 3rd was 2 WEEKS LATE! 

But, I'll do it anyways, so here goes!  I was RIGHT ON with Micah, like in labor the whole day I thought I was due (though my doctor thought I was due 9 days later) and had him 3.5 hours later (very early the next morning).  This one is just different.  I didn't really 'feel' pregnant for a long time.  I felt tired/a little nauseus, but once that passed, it was all things go with all the crazy things happening to our family (twins born, celebrating Ben and Mike's life, spring break, end of school stuff, watching an extra kid each day, preparing for VBS, etc).  I popped, but my stomach didn't really slow me down much until recently.  And then recently I feel like she's huge, I'm huge, we're all huge and this baby couldn't possibly make it to August 26th (which by the way is my mom's birthday!).   My prediction is mid-August.  Like 12th-18th, somewhere in there.  And you know why?  Because we have plans all the way until the 8th, and then Eric's summer band starts on the 10th and I have absolutely no plans after that. 

I pray that no matter what happens, God brings a healthy, beautiful baby girl in His timing to our family, and that I am patient in the waiting game.  I also pray I can handle the last few weeks with Eric being crazy busy back at school!  Though this one wasn't planned per se (we didn't really want a first week of school baby--in general we were trying for a 3rd), the timing has worked out well.  Now that Eric is mostly done with school for the summer (he still will be going up there a lot finishing up things, getting things ready for next school year, etc. but the kids love playing in the empty band hall!), it's nice to have him home a lot, carrying Micah, helping with meals, and just overall letting me get a little more rest than I usually do when he's at work!  He is such a great husband, and he had a great Birthday yesterday!  Happy 31st baby!

Well, to end this post, how about an (OLD) ultrasound of Anna!  We have a few, but it's so much more work (ha!) to scan something than to just pop the card into the computer, so we only have one scanned so far.  This is the last one we had done, on 3/26 when we found out she's a girl!  Not the best, but a profile shot for you all to enjoy, thanks!

More posts to come this week if I get them done: Micah in his big boy bed and Cara's dance recital (oh is there a story to tell), all that with VBS this week and finishing up plans for Cara's party on Saturday!!  I need rest!

Oh, and if you don't hear much from Eric in the next 10 weeks, it's because he will be finishing this:

(our master bath re-do)

which we started end of JANUARY!!!

Dress Rehearsal

Tonight was Cara's dress rehearsal for her dance recital this coming Saturday.  She had such a great time!  It was fun getting her all dolled up.  Here is us prepping and her with her dance friends. 

Hold still, time for hair!

Makeup time:

Posing with Daddy and Mommy before we left

Her and Aysnlee

Waiting to get her ballet costume on, I just love this picture!

A few ballet poses (where does she get this!!) :)

Some friends:

On stage.  She was just a little bit behind everyone else ;)

Tap time!  This costume is so cute, it goes with the Itsy Bitsy Spider dance!

Ready for group picture

On stage

Cuddling with Daddy watching her performances tonight.

You can check out all the fun poses in my flickr album (you have to be my 'friend' to see them). 

She is SOOOO excited for this Saturday (1 pm at Morton Ranch High School here in Katy if you are interested in coming)!  I even let her stay late and watch some of the other girls dances, and she is just in love!  I cannot believe this girl will be 4 in just 12 days, she is growing up much too fast.  It makes me happy and sad all at the same time.  We had so much fun today at Party City picking out her birthday balloons, and a tiara for her to wear, of course!   What a blessing God has given us by allowing us to be her parents!