It comes to the bullet points...

So, I haven't blogged a lot of our fun stuff lately because we have been busy the past two weeks. So, I will try to recap a few things I don't want to forget....

- Some good friends from Montgomery came down for the perfect weekend! The weather could not have been nicer, Mardi Gras was just starting up, and the girls were ready to see some buddies!

This is the four of them at Fairhope Pier. We had fun enjoying a great day on the Eastern Shore!

I caught Sophie and Annabelle, along with their big bows, looking for mullet.

Harper had a ball digging her feet into the warm sand!

My little pale girl enjoying her kind of beach... a swing, some shade, and a view!

Annabelle, Sophie, and Ashlynn enjoying the parades!

- We are trying to teach Sophie how to tell knock-knock jokes. This in itself is HILARIOUS. It is providing Lee and I with much entertainment. She can't quite grasp the concept of "answering the knock knock", if that is a term. If you say knock knock, she can say who's there, but once you say the object, she reverses her answer..... she will say Who and the object. It sounds pretty silly actually written here, but it is so funny to try to get her to do the joke right. Lee has tried endless times to get her to understand, which makes it even funnier!

- We have now discovered I-phones. Why didn't anyone tell me they were this cool? I can text, google, find the cheapest gas, make a bird talk back to me in a funny voice, all while riding down the road! So fun.

- The baby is doing great. I feel like I am starting to do that whole back-arching thing where you stand funny, and it is a little harder getting off the floor with the girls, but no major complaints. I am WAY more tired than I was with the past pregnancies. As someone sadly pointed out to me last week, I am five years older than I was with my first pregnancy. sigh. I am trying very hard to keep in a somewhat decent shape for the Azalea Trail Run in March. I want to do the 5k in a decent time. Hopefully I won't disappoint myself!

Random Stories from a Beautiful Day

So it was a beautiful Pre Valentine's Weekend. We had a fabulous four year old superhero birthday party to attend, where all the kids were given capes and turned magically into superheroes. The girls had a blast, and we discovered how much our kids miss their playset in the backyard... they were swinging at any free moment in the party!

Today we tried a church for the second week in a row... a record for us these days! For the record, I don't think we will ever find a church we loved as much as Frazer and our old class! I hope in about six months I am laughing at this post, but it is pretty comical now how many churches we have ruled out lately. Anyway, we went back to this particular church again. It is very small compared to our previous place, and people actually make prayer requests during church. Well, people were announcing ailments and praises while Sophie sat beside us, quietly waiting for childrens' church to be dismissed while playing with her tag along Miss Bunny. Miss Bunny has been around for about a year and is a little of a security blanket for her. So, she was just sitting there and someone announced that Miss Jane Doe, aka "Miss Bunny" as everyone in the church knew her, was having emergency surgery. Lee and I just glanced at each other wondering is Sophie heard. Well, our question was quickly answered as we heard a loud "HAH! Miss Bunny??? They are praying for my bunny!" I think only a few around heard, but I think they saw she had a bunny in her hand and hopefully figured it out.

Lee also surprised me this weekend and we went to a wonderful spa afternoon and had massages. Because of the growing baby, I needed some work! And Lee is always in need of massages with his crazy back. It was a great four hours of hot tea, massages, quiet rooms, and a pleasant trip to the grocery store for Valentine's essentials of balloons, lobster tails, and chocolate for tomorrow. The girls got a fun visit from their Huntingdon babysitter who always thoroughly wears them out and leaves us with kids who ask for bed... score!

Getting ready for Big School

This morning the girls and I were driving to Story hour at a local Community Center. Recently Sophie has had big school on her mind quite a bit (ie Kindergarten). Apparently her new preschool teacher has been telling/warning her class that Kindergarten will be way tougher than their current set up. That is NOT sitting well with Sophie. I am not too happy that the teacher is telling them this, especially when you have a four year old that will worry for eight months about something if given the chance. We are already concerned about her August birthday party in her mind! Anyway, I have been trying to just blow this off making sure Sophie is aware I will have her ready for school, that she knows so much already from her former preschool teacher that we absolutely love and miss as a teacher that she will be months ahead when time for her big debut at school.

So, that leads to this morning's conversation. We were listening to the radio and she just said hey mommy? I think I will be ready for big school. I immediately have to stop and think about WHAT she is getting at here. I ask why she knows her readiness. Here are her guidelines for being in Kindergarten:

- knowing your full name

- know where your mommy is

- know how to buckle your seat

- be able to open your own juice boxes and cereal bars

- eat and enjoy the red part of apples ( I guess her preschool teacher doesn't enjoy peeling apples)

We have all but the last task mastered. And she *thinks* if she hangs around her older cousin, who is in first grade and already likes the red part of apples, she might like them soon too. you truly can't argue with some of the logic she has.

Halfway Baked

Lee and I got to see the little bump this morning at my halfway point ultrasound. Everything looked perfect! I always feel a little nervous before an ultrasound- is the brain and heart good, are there enough limbs, are there just two eyes, etc. But, everything looked awesome. It is an active little baby, not slowing any for the ultrasound tech. She had to check everything about twice to try to get a shot that wasn't blurry ( that may have had a thing or two to do with the fact I had a grande mocha about 15 minutes prior to my appt. It was decaf, but that doesn't mean Starbucks didn't pump it with chocolate). We held true to our guns and did not find out what the baby was. I have a feeling, and so does Lee, but we don't know for sure. It was definitely hard when the tech said, okay, I know what it is! We truly don't care what we have, as long as the baby and I are both healthy in the end. So, we will see come June who had the right guess of gender!

Stats-

Baby weight- baby weighs about 9 oz, and right on schedule for a end of June delivery.
My weight- I have actually only gained about 2 lbs, but the weight has definitely shifted, and my appetite is way better than the first 15 weeks. I am back in the gym and getting ready for a 5K, so hoping this will help with the crazy appetite and post pregnancy weight loss.
Cravings- MANGOES! I can't get enough mangoes, mango smoothies, etc. That and pimento cheese is a perfect meal.


The only gross thing right now is a terrible ear infection. Luckily, Dr. Cool ( as he was aptly named, thanks Courtney!) who I really like was very eager to send out a Z-Pac for me to fix the goopy ears I have. Seriously, I feel so bad for kids with these earaches. They are AWFUL! Hoping it heals fast.


I will try to post belly pics soon!