3rd Trimester!

Wow! I can't believe today is the start of my 3rd trimester (28 weeks) which means I'm now on the homestretch---about 84 more days to go (but who's counting)! YAY!!!!! Oddly enough the time has gone by really fast. I'm starting to feel tired again so my energy isn't what it has been in the last couple of months but I'm still doing a lot around the house and with the kids. Which in turn makes me feel beat by 6pm!! I should really start listening to my body and slow down to rest every once in awhile. My check-ups have moved from monthly to now every two weeks which is really exciting. To hear the baby's heartbeat at least. Not too fond of the scale. LOL I have been in desperate need of a "pick me up" and went out and pampered myself on Saturday to getting my hair cut. When I start to pull my hair up and not style it anymore, I know it's time to make a date with my hair stylist. :) I really like the way it turned out. I've had to sit on my hands to not get it cut too short (been there, done that when I was prego with Aubrey). I don't normally get my hair cut short so you'd think that this would be no problem. Maybe it's just a pregnancy thing?

What's Been Keeping Us Busy?

A lot of projects here at the homefront have been keeping us tied up lately. Here are some photos of our projects:

{John changed our main level flooring from carpet to nice cherry laminate hard wood that matches the kitchen cabinets nicely.}

{Before:}

{After:}

{Our kitchen BEFORE:}

{Our kitchen AFTER: (with our home teacher helping John install the sink & dishwasher and John's work buddy helping to install all the cabinets. We still need to also paint and finish grouting the back splash and install new lighting before it's officially DONE! I love my kitchen.)}

{John stained the stair railings to match the flooring.}

{The stair railing BEFORE:}

{The stair railing AFTER:}

{Our family name sign that I started some time ago at a Relief Society activity & finally finished up at home:}

{Transferred my recipes from loose papers & saved computer documents to recipe cards that will be added to an album very soon:}

{I needed to find a storage solution for my many project templates (lots & lots of patterns). Here they are now neatly displayed in page protectors in this cute binder:}

{This is my current project: Thousands, and I do mean thousands, of photos to go through and decide which get displayed in picture albums and which stay stored in photo boxes. Could all of these projects of mine be the starting of my nesting process? or possibly is it because I want to get everything finally organized now before I won't have ANY time to do so in, oh I don't know, years from now? I suppose maybe a little bit of both. LOL}

More projects to come. Stay tuned!

Jocelyn's 2 Year Well Baby

Check-up date: 9/18/08
Weight: 20lbs. 5oz.
Height: 32 3/4 inches

Jocelyn had her 2 year well baby check up. It went pretty well overall. They're still concerned with her weight though (again, I'm not). Her weight (not sure about the height) are off the charts. And I don't mean the extreme high end either. She's been at the low end for awhile now. Mind you she HAS been a picky eater and refuses milk almost completely but I do have to say in defense to that that she's a healthy toddler, very active, eats more and more foods and she's still continuing to grow taller. What can I say other than both of my girls like to be 20 lbs for awhile. To be on the safe side, the doctor wants to rule anything out that may be hindering her weight gain so we've been given lab orders to get things checked. I was hesitant about it at first but after getting a lot of my questions and concerns answered, I too would like to make sure there's nothing wrong. In the event that there is, we can do something about it sooner than later. Once she's well enough (currently has a cold) we'll be getting that checked out. She also received her last dose of shots (Hep A) that she'll need until kindergarten. Thankfully they did that at the end of her appointment!! A grape sucker and pink barbie bandaid seemed to take her troubles go away almost immediately. They gave us parents an information packet about the two's stage called "miss independent" and boy is THAT ever true! :) We have to go back in for a recheck in a month so I'll update on how that goes. She's doing really well though for her age so I'm confident that things will be fine.

Reminders To Self

You know it's time to carefully watch what you say when you hear (or others hear) your 2 year old repeat EVERYTHING that comes out of your mouth, whether you realize it at the time or not! Some examples are as follows:

1. Hubby comes home from work one evening. Not long after his arrival, he approaches me and asks "do you want to know what just came out of our youngest daughter's mouth?" Curiously, OF COURSE I do! "Yes, please enlighten me" I say. "Well," he continues "she said: blah, blah, blah (her mumbling something he didn't understand)....dumb cat!" Yikes. Guess that morning when he (the "dumb cat") was getting into something I let those words quickly roll off my tongue without much thought.

Note to self: Ignoring the cat works much better than saying something not nice.

2. As I drove Aubrey to soccer practice yesterday, we sat at an extremely LOOOONNG light. Lots of traffic as everyone seemed to be rushing home, etc. at this particular time of the night. I'm not someone that has a road rage problem but with being pregnant and starting to get a little uncomfortable nowadays, I got a little short and said, "go people!" No, it's not the WORST thing in the world to say but swearing isn't my thing. Then for the remainder of the ride (15 minutes) I hear nothing but "go people! go people!" In a serious tone mind you. I tried changing the subject numerous times "look Jocelyn: a tractor!" which got me no response other than "go people!" Oh well. Can't say I didn't try.

Note to self: Be more patient on the road.

Thankfully I don't have any other examples at this time but I know they'll be coming. And when they do, I'll amuse you some more by posting them to read. Until then, have a great day and remember to always watch what you say! :)

Small Glimpses of Motherhood

{Jocelyn and I snuggling before putting her to bed last night.}

I wake to the sound of: "cough, cough, sneeze, cough" and "MAMA!" but it sounds a little different than the last 4 days. A different voice perhaps? What starts with one child has been passed on to the other. Two days missing school, Aubrey is finally well enough to go back. Jocelyn's turn to be nursed back to health. We give distance between our kisses as we see Aubrey off to the bus. Then the two of us head back home to lounge in pajamas all morning curled up on the couch watching the Curious George movie. This is so not a typical morning around our house but it seems appropriate for today. Chasing her around and wiping her nose endlessly gets a little tiring after awhile but I don't mind. Besides. Hearing her little voice say, "thank you mama" makes me smile and then it occurs to me how much taking care of someone can truly drain your energy yet be rewarding at the same time! I've seen the Curious George movie atleast a thousand times by now but that just doesn't seem to matter on this particular day. Maybe because Jocelyn is now sick with a cold and everything else on my to-do list has been long forgotten - at least until nap time comes. And then maybe, it's also because I already AM doing the most important thing: taking care of my children. They are my joy and oh, how I love them so!!

{Jocelyn attending to HER babies needs and watching a movie while I took care of her this morning.}

Bubble Fun

These pictures really speak for themselves but just in case: Jocelyn LOVES bubbles!! I rarely put bubble bath in her bath water to prevent bladder infections (has never had one thankfully and trying to keep it that way) but her cold had gotten her feeling pretty crummy so I thought this would help do the trick. And it did! As you can see, the bubbles made her all smiles! Too bad the bubbles couldn't last a bit longer.

Jocelyn Turns 2

Jocelyn turned TWO years old today! It doesn't seem that long ago that my youngest baby was born but somehow two precious years have flown by regardless. And what a ride it has been! :) I just love being a mom. Sure it's not always fun and easy but there's no doubt in my mind that it's worth it. Every day she wakes up with a big smile on her face and you can't help but feel happy (unless she kicks you in the stomach with baby in tow which does unfortunately happen on occasion - STILL love her to pieces though). I can't help but sit back from time to time in amazement at what a sweet and gifted spirit she truly is. She's loved by us beyond measure and I look forward to many more moments - watching her grow and learn in the years to come. Here is a little walk down memory lane on how much she has grown over the past year since she turned 1:

"Happy Birthday sweetheart! Mommy, Daddy, and sister love you SO much!!!"

We held a little family party in her honor including her favorite: Pizza! We invited some friends to join us in the celebration but due to Aubrey coming down with a cold, we all felt it was best to make it just a family affair. I had so much fun (along with John's help) putting together her birthday party. Jocelyn just LOVES Elmo so coming up with a theme wasn't too hard. I made her a huge banner for the wall that wished her a happy birthday along with some Sesame Street characters on the side that John and I stayed up the night before happily coloring (it made us feel like kids again)! We put up streamers and balloons in the dining room and last of all, the homemade cake that I made for her all decked out with Elmo and his marching friends. I was pretty impressed with the outcome to say the least as it was the first cake I've made and the humidity here didn't help the frosting process. This year I have been trying to make healthy changes and choices for our family and making their cakes was one of them. After we all had a piece to eat, more than half the cake found it's way over to our neighbor's house. (Thank you neighbors for partaking in this yummy stuff. For if you hadn't, it would have starred at me in the face until I gave in and ate more!) I took a video of us singing Jocelyn "Happy Birthday" so click here to watch (first, you'll need to pause our blog music to the right):

Happy 2nd Birthday Jocelyn! 9/14/08

Can you believe it? She REFUSED to eat her cake! :) We thought that was pretty funny. It honestly doesn't surprise me though. My girls don't have much of a sweet tooth. (not complaining.) To everyone's amazement, she DID have fun poking at her cake.

I think she really enjoyed the party. The food was good and the gifts were a hit. Thank you to everyone that helped make her Birthday lots of fun. She loved everything! Here are some photos of Jocelyn's birthday I thought you'd enjoy seeing (yes there are a lot of pictures, but please bear with me as I decided to put them up here mainly for far-away family):

Howdy Neighbor

I put a movie on for the kids this afternoon after Aubrey was done with her homework. Jocelyn loves to be near Aubrey so she climbed up and planted herself right beside her on the couch - even using her legs for support. (Funny girl.) Then, Jocelyn reached over, grabbed Aubrey's hand and put it into hers. Sisterly love is so sweet to watch. I love my girls!

*Best Friends*

*Sisters Forever*

6 Months And Counting

Just a little update on how my pregnancy is going thus far. My doctor's appointment last week went well. Have gained a total of 18 pounds. No symptoms other than the occasional heartburn but that's to be expected due to my ever expanding bump and all other vital organs being pushed to who knows where. I have 3 months left until my sweet baby boy arrives. At this rate I don't believe I'll gain my usual 50 but I'm not ruling it out just yet. We'll see how things go but all in all, baby's healthy, mama's health and we're all happy!

On to some exciting news. We have decided on a name for our bundle of joy:

Andrew Blake

I can't wait to snuggle him up in this adorable outfit I couldn't resist purchasing. (It's Costco's fault...I swear!) Hey! I figured one item before he's born isn't so bad. :) The last 8 1/2 years have been nothing but pink and purple. It was too tempting for me to NOT to buy something little and blue. I've always been so excited for each of my babies to be born. This one is no exception!! We love him already.