Sonogram Says...It's A Boy!

I'm pretty sure people with girls do not show off a "girl parts" sonogram pic but hey, he's a boy and he's proud!

Finally the long awaited news! Not just to answer the pink vs. blue question but, more importantly, to see that baby is healthy and perfect! And I had better invest in some earplugs and buy stock in Band-Aids because I'm gonna need them.

Spitfire and Golden Curls went with us dressed in their "Big Brother" tees and they were nearly bouncing off the walls with anticipation. They have been waiting to see this baby with about as much anticipation as we have. They were amazed at what they saw and bombarded the tech with a million questions but it was super cool to watch and listen to them. She gave both boys their own sonogram picture. Golden Curls took his to school and got to pass it around and tell all about his experience. And proud big brother Spitfire carried his all over the place and then put it up on the fridge, surrounding it by magnets, "a frame." I kept seeing him pass by it and stop to touch it. They're going to be perfect big brothers!

My absolute favorite thing is to see baby's profile on the sonogram, I can almost picture what he looks like. Three was very active during the sonogram and very stubborn. The tech was getting onto him the whole time. She would just get a good view of something and he'd roll over or put his hands up to his face. She had to jiggle my tummy (ick!) and had me roll over and back just to be able to get a good view of all his vital organs. Huh, imagine that, us having an ornery child.

The next two pics are from when she turned on the 4D ultrasound. A little horror movie to me, I think I prefer the classic sonogram, but pretty cool to look at. She could hardly get a view of him without his hands up by his face. She told the boys he was picking his nose, which they just found completely hysterical!


Alright, now it's time to get to work, there are walls to be painted, 3 years worth of baby clothes and nursery things to dig back out of the yard sale pile (read mountain) in the garage and get cleaned up, rooms to shift...whew!

Countdown To Sonogram: 2 Days!

I can't believe it's almost here, sonogram day! I feel like a little kid waiting for the arrival of Christmas morning. I'm ready to lay eyes on this little peanut, see that all is well, and know what our little family will be made up of...all snips and snails or a splash of sugar and spice? I'm also ready to begin getting everything put together. We have so many things to shuffle around in our house to make room for this child, so many things to be gotten rid of.

We're almost halfway, yippee! I've been feeling pretty good. The beginning was crappy but it's going better and I feel calmer. There's also the added joy of the regular, daily gymnastics that let me know baby is there and well. Exhaustion is frustrating. If I don't get my to-do list done before lunch it's not going to get done. That seems to be my witching hour, I go from super energetic mom to couch potato. Pregnancy brain is also firmly establishing itself. I haven't exactly left the milk jug in the cupboard but it makes regular visits. Most mornings I get the coffee going just to realize 10 minutes later I did everything but turn it on.

The boys are so excited. We're taking them to the sonogram so they can be part of it all. Spitfire decided he needed a Big Brother t-shirt when we saw one in a store so today I made two. He's so proud to be a big brother! It's a lot of fun this go 'round with the boys being old enough to get excited and talk about it. Can't wait for Monday!

Halloween Part IV: Trick-or-Treat

I don't have any pictures from actual Halloween yet but these are from our church's Fall Fest party and us at home. Halloween was a blast, it gets more and more fun the older the boys get, even though this was the first year our costumes didn't coordinate. So, we had a Ninja, Darth Vader, Biker man and Pregnant skeleton. The boys and I made the rounds around the neighborhood with our neighbor and her son, Spiderman, while Pappa stayed home handing out candy. It was a good 'ole Halloween.

Halloween Part III: Decorations

I had so much fun making Halloween decorations with the boys last week. Spooky skulls, a stuffed spider and a ghost. The first two pics are the boys giving their best scared skull faces.

Halloween Part II: Jack-O-Lanterns

The evening of our lovely trip to Family Farm we carved up some spoooooky Jack-O-Lanterns. The boys drew their own Jack-O-Lantern faces and Pappa carved them out to spare us from my clumsy pregnant hands wielding a giant knife. From left to right the Jack-O-Lanterns belong to: Spitfire, Pappa, Golden Curls, and Mamma.

Our new annual tradition, taking a timer picture of us with our Jack-O-Lanterns...this one with our scary faces on. Boo!

Spitfire loves pumpkin guts

Golden Curls, not such a fan of pumpkin guts

Pappa, looking a little like a horror movie with that knife but he got the job done!

Mamma on scraping duty. Last year our pumpkins rotted before Halloween arrived so I tried this year to get as much goo out of them as possible.

Look, Mamma's belly is the size of her pumpkin!

Halloween Part I: Family Farm

I wanted to take the boys to a pumpkin patch this year rather than just getting their pumpkins at the grocery store and my husband found out about the most fantastic place, Family Farm. We thought we were just going to roam around a field for a bit, pick out pumpkins and go but this place was incredible, we were there for hours! For 5 bucks we not only got a pumpkin but canoe rides, hay rides, tractor rides, they had a zip line, puppet show, playgrounds, giant sling shots, petting zoo with zebra and camels...it was nuts!

Autumn Gift

My little Jackson is the sweetest little thing I've ever known. He's always giving me little gifts of flowers and leaves and is generous with hugs and cuddles. When he gave me this beauty he was very diligent to let me know whenever it fell out of my button hole and suggested many wonderful ways I might be able to make it stay, like tape, and my favorite, just slowing down. I think I'll try to do that. As this gorgeous autumn season gives way to holiday chaos I'm going to do my best to just slow down.

Camping, Retro Style

My parents, the proud new owners of a '60s camper.

Last weekend we all took my parents' new camper on its maiden voyage. It was my first camper camping experience and it was a lot of fun. Really it just stirred up my old dreams of ditching life as we know it and bumming around in a camper! This was also the first camping trip ever where we couldn't have a fire because of a burn ban, that was strange. I'm pretty sure the boys didn't really think we were camping since smores on the fire weren't involved.

The Bohemian and I

Before

After
Graham experienced a right of passage on this camping trip by ignoring his papa's calls to come back, hurling full speed down a giant hill on his bicycle, and going off road and down 10' of heavily wooden hill before coming to a crashing stop. I saw it about to happen from the camp site and was a sight to behold waddling at full speed to go retrieve him.

The boys dining in camper style

They loved the camper and treated it like their personal playhouse.

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little boys are made of...and here's some photographic evidence.

Autumn Flowers

I'm so proud of my mums this year! I'm not much of a gardener but I'm getting there one plant at a time. Trying to take it slow and really learn how to take care of a plant instead of getting over ambitious and adding too many at once that just die off because I can't keep up. I have done that before! It was hard to make myself keep cutting them down all summer, seems so counter intuitive, but that's what I read so I did it and it worked. My mums must have quadrupled in size and they are covered in blooms!

That tiny green mound on the far left is also a mum. I got it the year after the giant ones and from a different place, I can tell the difference, he's looking sad. I think it will do better next year though, the back half looks normal. My one big gardening fail was the Clematis vine I planted. Once it bloomed it was clearly not a Clematis. Not sure what the heck it was, the vine grew beautifully but the flowers, not so much. So I was heartless, ripped that sucker out and planted a new Clematis. I'm bound and determined to do it right!

Wandering Jew in the flower boxes is holding up pretty well but it's probably time to switch it out for something else. My Geraniums never did like my treatment of them! In between the mums are some boxwood plants that are doing well. I had to trim the mums back to keep them from getting swallowed whole though.

I love Gerbera Daisies, who doesn't! They're tough to keep alive in the heat of the summer down here but as soon as it cools down they are happy happy happy. It just makes me so happy to have a little pretty in the front of my house!

The Skelegant Mug

Got this Halloween mug from a friend and it's my new favorite. And no, I did not make up the term skelegant that's actually what they call it. Silly as that is I think I have to agree, this is the swankiest skull themed mug I've ever seen!