Nothing Really

I'm up in the middle of the night......again.....which is an every night thing....  You'd think my blog would be totally caught up, but no.  Each night I get sucked into something new to do.  Tonight it was updated our microsoft money and realizing how much we overspend during the summers when Eric is home.  Oh well.  Not complaining, I think we'd have done better (like last summer) if I didn't refuse to cook most nights.  I just can't handle it still :( yuck!  We did however meal plan like 2 weeks ago, and we're still eating on dinners from that plan (you know, because heaven forbid us eat at home 7 days in a row....).  Tomorrow is bible study for me, and work for Eric.  He'll come home and keep going on our bathroom tile.  He and a friend, Tim, started it tonight, and it's looking great.  We feel like we're in the home stretch, but we still have a lot to do.  We did get the bathroom painted, but once the tile is done, there is still installing the toilet, buying/cutting and installing the new counter, putting in the new sink and fixtures, and then doing the same (counter/sink) in the other bathroom.  We'll get it done, but who knows if it's before this baby comes. 

Yeah, I'm 37 weeks, and this baby is coming!  I was weird around 33-35 weeks, I was ready NOW.  As much as I didn't want a preemie, I didn't want to be pregnant anymore.  But, I knew I had to rely on God.  As 36 weeks approached (and I had my last two summer outings planned, yes, I'm crazy, one more still to come this weekend with Eric's family in Galveston), I felt much more at peace and knew we'd be pregnant a little longer.  I've been saying I had about 2-3 weeks left for about 4-5 weeks now :), but now I really believe it.  But, since I hit 36 weeks, I've been having contractions each night after dinner.  I hate to even blog about it, because I feel like if I do, they're more real.  I'm having some now as I type, but I'm the opposite of how I was with Micah.  With Micah I timed almost every contraction, if there were more than 2 or 3.  Now, I don't time anything.  I told my friend that I feel like I'll be in labor 3-4 hours before I even notice it this time :).  Only because the contractions have been so common, and I'm so busy chasing the kids.  I go Friday for my next visit and that's the first 'check.'  I'm not getting my hopes up, because I'm assuming I'm already slightly dilated because of the contractions.  And 'friends' who tell me with their 3rd they were walking around dilated at a 5 for 4 weeks.  Don't 'friends' give you the best advice and encouragement when pregnant?? :)    Hehe.  Especially friends who hated being told how big they were, who now tell me how huge I am, EVERY TIME I SEE THEM.  Haha.  I really don't mind, it just means this baby is getting closer to coming home and that's what I'm excited about.  Not the being mom to 3 and chasing them all around quite yet, but the snuggling that is the first few days at home.  Oh how I can't wait for that.  As I'm sure Bailey can't wait, baby Jack goes home tomorrow after a great rooming in yesterday!  Well, I want to go work on my bible study now.  I'm a little behind in it, but it's been a great study.  A few friends and I have been working through it this summer, and it's been great.  Faithful, Abundant and True, with Kay Arthure, Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore.   I promise to blog about all I've learned.....one of these days or night!  till next time!

Baby Jack!

As most of you know, my sweet little sister had twins back on 2/27/2010 at just shy of 26 weeks.  It has been a long road, with lots of surgeries, but baby Jack is in his last few days in the NICU of Texas Women's hospital!!  We could not be more excited, and more uplifted by the prayers prayed on their behalf!  God is so amazing and definitely gives us exactly what we can handle.

When he was born at Clear Lake Regional, I was able to go in with my sister and see him, but at 8 days old, he got transferred to Women's, and though it has been great for Bailey and Matt, only 4 visitors could be listed, and well, the 4 grandparents got dibs!  So I had to sit patiently, waiting and not getting to see him for 5 months (which was probably best with 2 kids at home, my friends already babysit them enough for my doctors visits, etc!).  Finally, after me probably guilting her into it, she talked to the NICU heads or whoever she needed to, and got me clearance to go visit yesterday!  I was so excited.  It was amazing to see her in that element and how comfortable she was with everything, from changing his leads and knowing where everything was that she needed, to mixing his extremely complicated bottle (any bottle is complicated for me, but when you have to add in stuff....I'd have to read the recipe every time I tell ya!), to as soon as we got there, being given two syringes of medicine and she knew exactly how to push that right on through the NG tube in his nose.  It was amazing to see my little sister in her element sweet talking her little man.  I cried almost the whole way up there.  I blame it on the hormones, but I just couldn't wait to get my hands on that little boy.  He is so loved and I know how blessed I am to be able to meet him.  It was just amazing to spend some time with her and him, and as Matt showed up later for equipment training, to see their little family that God has knit together.  I am SO looking forward to the day my kids can meet him, and the day Cara can hold him, and the years as they fly by as the cousins romp and play. 

Ok, I know you all want pictures, so here they are, they are in reverse order of us getting there.

Me cuddling him after his noon bottle.

Super Jack!  I made him an aggie cape for his coming home gift.

If you know me at all, you know I'm obsessed with cheeks!  I couldn't keep my lips off them (or my hands!).

Holding him for the first time:

Bailey sweet talking him as she wiped him down, he was so sweaty from overnight! :)

I love these eyelashes!

One of my many cell pics I posted on facebook:

They still have a long road ahead of them.  Surgery next month to remove some hernias.  Getting adjusted to their new normal as he comes home on Thursday with an oxygen tank, apnea monitor, and food dispenser (NG tube down his nose to his tummy to do most of his feeds).  He's on one bottle feeding a day, but that's a partial feed and about all he can handle right now.  They've got a great team of people surrounding them, including an amazing pediatrician, and home nurses that will come help them get settled, as well as many family and friends.  My kids probably still can't go meet him for 2 months (yeah, you might need to pray for Cara about that, she is so stinking excited!!), and it's going to be hard to turn people away who have been waiting this long to go see him (docs say limited visitors....for months!).  But, as he grows and develops, I know he is going to turn into just the man God intended him to be, and that is what I am most joyful about.  I didn't really know how, as being a mom first for years, and an aunt second, how Bailey felt about my kids, and now I know.  I love that little man. 

Psalm 127:3

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.

 

Cara's Princess Party

WARNING: I wrote this in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep, I haven't even gotten to the party yet, and I can tell you, this one will be LONG! :)

So as we started gearing up for a small family party a few months ago, I made the mistake of asking Cara what kind of party she wanted.  She replied, A Cinderella Party!  Then I asked her who she wanted to invite, and her answer was "Jack and Sam!"  (Her best buds, yes, 2 little boys/brothers).  I explained to her that I didn't think their daddy would like them playing dress up and doing hair and make up (what she said she wanted to do at her party), so we had to think of some girls to invite :).  And invite we did.  We were going to go with the every other year big party thing (and even years would be small/family).  But I (yes, it's my fault) got completely carried away in the planning/fun as anything princess makes my little girl so happy!  Plus (Mere--yes, this is from you), I decided if Christmas is going to be about our Savior, and His birth, and not about tons of presents, then when else can I actually get my girls and boy lots of cute things (which does NOT ever happen, believe me, you can ask them) :). 

So the planning began.  I usually adhere to a very strict invitation regimen ;), take the age of your child, plus one, and that's who you invite.  So I was going to send out 5 invitations.  This year was going to be all girls, and I decided it would be girls in her age group (i.e. her 'class' in school).  We have so many good friends in our ABF at church, and if I started inviting all the little girls, well, I'd end up with a party twice as big as I had!  Plus, she's made some sweet friends in Sunday School and WAM this year (it helps when you're the teacher and you get to see them each week interact with the same kids and them be so sweet to each other!) and was recently invited to their parties, so off we went!  Except the 5th invite was going to a sweet pair of twins.  No worries, only 6 invitees.  Here's how it looked:

I was quite pleased with myself.....did it all by myself in PSE7.  Except within a couple of days of handing them out, 3 of the girls said they would be out of town :(.  I was already in full princess mode by this point, so I invited another cute friend.  Turns, out when people tell you they 'may' be out of town, and you're sewing little crowns for party favors the week of the party, and ask to make sure they won't be there, THEY ALL COME! :)  (wink, wink), so we had 8 girls at our party including Cara! 

I've been wanting to get Cara a vanity for her room (that she shares with Micah, poor boy, surrounded by girlyness) because everytime we go to friend's houses that have one, she just sits at them and plays for hours!  But, I refused to pay $80 for a plastic one that would just break.  I looked on craigslist to find a good deal on a gently used one, and found one, but then the person sold it to their neighbor.  Oh well, I had bought her a few little princess things here and there, and had ordered her her BabyBeBlessed doll LAST OCTOBER in preparation for her birthday.  We put her name on it, and Psalm 28:7, the first scripture she ever memorized :).  So, I almost gave up on the vanity idea, until her previous Sunday School teacher from church sent a few of us moms an email saying she had a FREE vanity!!  I jumped on it and we are so glad we did!  Not only does Cara love it, but everyone (yes, even the BOYS) that comes over sits and plays at it!  Anyways, here are pictures from her birthday weekend/party.

We wanted to do our gifts in the morning before the party craziness (we saved 2 for her actual birthday the next day), so she woke up and we revealed the vanity (which her Dad painted over the course of the week and I recovered the bench seat...I wish I had a before picture!).  She literally jumped up and down she was so excited!

(that's Eric *and Micah* in the background ripping the sheet off we used to cover it up in case she woke up)

So Happy!

This is what she did the first few days.....just sat and stared at herself!

She got a few more gifts, a little tutu, a bow holder I made with a few new bows, and a princess lap tray that has come in quite handy.   All her color wonder books and markers stay in it, and even Micah likes to color at it!

So once we were home from Jack's party and rested, our princess party got started!  This was the first year I ever got balloons for a party (and probably last, they are so expensive), but we had fun picking them out and she was so excited when she woke up from nap and saw them.  That's all I'm going to say about this picture.  Well, except the fact that my friend Aimee is awesome because I emailed her 2 nights before the party, (because it was VBS week and I hadn't had time to look up what kind of cake I wanted to make), knowing her daughter had a castle cake a few months back.  She literally sent me step by step instructions, and let me borrow all the goodies to make it (think grey and pink sprinkles, cake pans, etc).  Now, if only I was much good at doing decor like that, OR being patient when I finally did finish it trying to get it to the freezer....instead of being too hasty and having them all fall to the floor (and being out of sprinkles!!).  Thank the Lord for my sweet/creative husband who took it upon himself to start remaking/fixing what I had broken when I declared, "I WAS DONE" and went and cried in my closet for 5 minutes at 10:30 pm.  Yeah, he's awesome, and I'm a cry baby, what can I say!

So little princesses started arriving.  We had 3 'stations.'  Makeup was at the vanity with Yaya (my mom) in Cara's room. 

Nails were in the living room with Aunt Amanda and Nana (Eric's mom).  Just a side note, give a 15 year old a job at a princess party (will you paint nails for me, and bring your colors if you have any, I only have 1), and man do they deliver---20 color choices later, I think Amanda had as much fun preparing for the party as I did!

And hair in the bathroom with me and Bailey (and whoever would help, because that was a lot of little fine, not wanting to do anything hair!). 

Elizabeth looks so pleased....I promise you she had fun! :)

I'm glad I made these crowns, because whether the hair curled or not (as Eric put it, with my 1980's curlers and curling irons) the crowns worked with all their hair :).  As they all finished with their makeovers, we had a little fashion shoot :).  Here are a handful of girls:

Princess Cara (who was kinda upset because she didn't get to have her hair curled!) :)

Princess Ellie

Princess Catherine

Princess Caroline

And then we tried to get a good group shot :)  These are hilarious, I'm going to put them all up, because, really, how can you choose?? :)  And Princess Elizabeth had decided she didn't want the crown and turned back into princess Fiona! :)

 

Then we decorated little plastic frames with glitter princess stickers, as I printed out their pictures to take home! 

They loved it, I love simple, cute ideas like that (at the last minute) :).

Then we opened gifts.

How does Aynslee already know the token college girl pose?  You know what I'm talking about.  All those skinny college girls ALL pose like that, check your younger friends on your facebook page, I'll prove it! :)

Cara loved them all! :)  She got LOTS of barbies, and they all sleep each night on her vanity!

Micah got in the action too, "What is all thise about???"

 

Then we had pizza, yum (for the 2nd time that day)!

Then cake!

Then the girls were just silly and played for a bit before they started going home to their own castles! 

It was so much fun!  Definitely my favorite party to date.  Cara had such a great time and it was fun to play dress up with all the little princesses.  I gotta say, Eric and his brother were great sports with all the pink and fluff in the house :).  They did get out once to go get the pizza, maybe that's why they ran out the door when I asked them to go!! haha.  And Cara got to wear her white ballerina princess dress one more time :)

The next day was her actual birthday, and Father's day, and she got her BBB doll and a Spunk & Sass necklace that morning :).  She loved them both.  And I'm glad my step-sis Shawna sent a gift card, because the first thing out of her mouth when she first saw her vanity was, "where's the play makeup??" :)  So we used that to go get her play toys!

 

Ok, here's me publishing without going back and re-reading it, so goodnight and hopefully everything is spelled right :)