First Days.

Wow so today was a BIG day! Not only did Krystyna have her baby! A gorgeous little girl! (Welcome Anastasia!!!) But Lizzy had her first day of school! (Which granted isn't as huge as a new baby - but definately a huge deal in our house) ;)

I woke Liz up at 7:15 this morning so she could have plenty of time to wake up slowly before she had to be at school 8:30am. She cuddled in mommy's bed for awhile, and then I got her ready. She was SO excited. - And completely ready with backpack on by 7:45. LOL Too cute. We even had time for a couple pictures before school.

And one shot of her eating breakfast on the sofa - usually a nono but this morning we made an exception so she and I could get a couple more minutes of cuddle time in... (Can you tell this was a heck of alot harder for me than her?)

Ok so on to school. So we get there 10 minutes early... and there's a line outside the school. (The director doesn't open the door until 8:30 on the dot.) So we got to talk to some of the other kids and mom's... it was shy conversation as all the mom's where nervous but trying hard not to show it - while all the kids were a little clingy but excited. It was really cute - there were about 50 kids waiting outside with their little backpacks and mom's in hand... everyone jittery and excited. So 8:30 rolls around and the doors open - I'm the 3rd mom (of 8) to drop of my kid to class... Lizzy takes my hand tight and leads me over to the backpack rack and we hang her bag up - then she let's go - runs over to the assistant, and that's it! No goodbye - no hugs, no tears, no nothing. Time to play! I watched her from the corner for a few minutes and she was having a grand ol time. One of her little buddies (we met them last Friday at the open house and then saw them at the water park on Saturday - so Liz spent the morning with her at the water park and immediatly recognized her when she came into class) anyway... when Ava walked in Lizzy walked up to her - took her hand and led her over to the table where they picked up the playdoh - found seats with their backs to us mom's and that was it. They were best of friends and didn't make a peep when we left. So her mom and I (Michelle) walked out to our cars together laughing and holding back tears - neither of us got a good bye from our girls, but we figured it was better that way. By making it no big deal the girls transitioned really easily. But both of us were admitedly broken hearted. LOL Anyway... so I said bye to the other mom's... went about my business - BY MYSELF! AHHH What will I do with 3 whole hours in the middle of my day completely to myself! First off! Off to Walmart. I had a couple things to pick up - and it was the fastest trip EVER. Well... since I had lizzy - no one to get out of a carseat, buckle in a shopping cart, hold when she get's tired of the shopping cart, etc. etc. I walked in - free handed. Got my things - quickly and efficiantly and then paid and walked on. All the while missing my girly terribly but was very excited for her at the same time.

So I head home - put away my things... jump online really quick with plans of doing laundry - but NO Krystyna's in labor and posting up a storm! So forget the laundry - I'm hanging on to her every word - refreshing every 3 seconds hoping for a new update - loving that she's sharing such a huge moment in her life with her friends. I felt so blessed, and excited! My goodness! How many emotions can I handle in one day?! AHHHH.

So the time passes quickly and all too soon it's 11am. I'm not supposed to pick up Liz until 11:30 but I can't wait another moment - so I jump in the car and head off for her preschool... arriving at 11:02. LOL Funny thing? All the other 2 y/o preschooler mom's where there already waiting. hahaha So I'm not the only crazy one who had a hard time leaving their kiddo! Well that made me feel better... Out of the car and waiting with the other mom's by the entrance (once again, the doors don't open until exactly 11:30 - so we had some time to kill) Talking to the other mom's made me feel better... most of them went straight home and cried for 2 hours before driving back to the school to wait. LOL At least I wasn't that bad. So Sydney's mama (Nikki) and Ava's mom (Michelle) and I sat outside just chatting up a storm about all we'd hoped to accomplish and how laughable to think that on their first day we would get anything done... and before we knew it the doors were opening and we were greated with the sound of the entire 2 y/o room in hysterics. Yep - every single one of them was crying. It would have been kind of funny if we all hadn't been freaking out - but her teacher came out in the hall and said one of the little boys started sobbing when it was time to put on the backpacks and have the last circle time... he realllllly wanted to stay -and once he started crying about the toys - they all joined in. Well that gave us all the giggles. So out come our tear streaked babies with their giant backpacks, swollen eyes, now grinning ear to ear since their mommy's were all back. But no sooner had I picked up my girl than I was called off to the side with Sydney's mommy (Nikki) Oooookay. Who did she hit? And how much trouble are we in? Suprisingly it was Sydney who picked on Lizzy and all Lizzy did was say "NO". She didn't cry or retaliate - but she did have a nice red scratch on her cheek where miss Sydney had tried to grab her face off when Lizzy didn't pass her the desired playdoh. So we both had to sign forms saying we'd been made aware of the issue and that the teachers had given Lizzy plenty of TLC, ice and hugs, etc. And Miss Sydney got a time out. Poor girl. LOL Made me laugh though - I thought for sure it'd be Lizzy who did the pushing/hitting/grabbing/whatever as she has all boy friends and they all play rough. But no - turns out her lessons in manners at home are paying off. She was great and I was so proud of her!

Nikki on the other hand was FREAKING out - making Sydney apologize and such. She felt awful that it was her kid who caused the problem. Frankly, I was shocked that nobody had blackeyes when we came to pick them up - I mean, these are a bunch of 2 year olds who've never been in a classroom setting. I was thrilled that nothing worse had happened all day -but I'm not expecting that to last. hahaha.

So we get in the car and Lizzy is SUPER tired, I have two quick errands to run before we get home and she's on the verge of a major melt down - so I hand her my cup of water and though she made a HUGE mess in the car... she was a happy girl until we got home. We got home, had a quick lunch and then she passed out COLD for over 4 freaking hours. Hahaha. Wow she had a busy morning.

All in all I consider it a very successful day - but emotional as well. Congratulations to the Graff family... and sweet hugs and kisses for my baby girl. I am so proud of her. What a beautiful angel I've been blessed with. I'm so lucky to have her in my life... I thank God everyday for her sweet heart. I love my girl.

She turns two next week! :D Weeee! Wow that'll be a crazy day. Daddy and I are making big plans for her birthday day. It's on a Wednesday but we're going to have a blast all the same... I'll update you with details on that later.

~Happy and Blessed Mommy.

12 Weeks.

Well here we are... 12 weeks already! 4 more and we'll be finding out the sex of this busy little person... I definately think it's a girl. Not sure why - it's just a total gut feeling. We shall see!

Ignore my smirk. Jay couldn't figure out the camera and I'd been standing there for about 5 minutes with that stupid look on my face... and then as soon as he took the picture my batteries died. So this is what y'all get. :P LOL

Anyway. Feeling fat and happy. I'll update again soon. :)

Baby's Movin!

So I've started feeling the baby now! Over the last few day's it started as sporadic and has slowly become more often, and obvious. This is exciting! I'm already to have my prebaby body back though. I'm just not cut out for maternity clothes... lol nothing fit's right.

Anyway, that's what's new on the baby2 front. Today was lizzy's first "nonoffical" first day. LOL I got to go in and stay with Lizzy, meet all the other mom's, and kids. There's 5 girls and 3 boys in her class - and all of them seem really friendly. Funny though, Lizzy's the youngest - but 2nd tallest. So funny. Everyone thought she was heading for 3 on her birthday instead of 2. She really loved her teacher Miss Stephanie, she crawled right up on her lap and sat down and chatted with her. I think she'll do great once she adjust to not having her minnie or blankie around. We had a little trouble with leaving blankie at home this morning. But once we were at school she forgot all about it.

Here's a pic of her - I didn't put on her "first day of school" outfit since this wasn't real school. (I'm so weird.) But I'll post more pics next Tuesday when she's had her first day. Her backpack is as big as she is, and her new tennis shoes are SO cute. She's always had Ked's in the past so these are her first pair of *big girl* shoes.

She didn't want to leave when it was time to go. LOL I talked Jay into going into work a few hours late today so he could go, and I'm so glad I did... half way through the morning I got morning sickness.... horribly. It was not a fun experience. I wasn't thinking this morning and ate a banana and then took my vitamins... so not smart. I need protein in the mornings... so after we got home I had a piece of toast with peanutbutter and that settled my tummy a bit, but I was sad to miss out on part of Lizzy's big day. :( It's a harsh reminder that I won't always be able to be there for my baby. And that's a bit heartbreaking. Damn these hormones. But she was a doll the rest of the day.

Lizzy can count to 10 now! Well... not in order though. LOL It's the funniest thing she'll say One! Fwee! Five! Two! Four! Five! Seven! Nine! TEN!!!! LOL But she's trying... she can get to five if she uses her fingers... it's funny to watch but she'll concentrate hard and say each one - but after 5 she get's stuck. LOL

Anyway, I think this is it.

Quick Post

So tonight I'm heading back to my parents house to rehash the conversation from two weeks ago. I haven't seen them since that night (they left for OH a couple days later and just got back on Sunday)

Looks like fun times are in store for my evening. Many prayers, well wishes, crossed fingers or whatever you're willing to offer. I need them tonight. I can't come home in tears again... I just can't handle that. Lizzy's birthday party is in 2 1/2 weeks and I want it to be fun and enjoyable for everyone. Last year was a nightmare with everyone putting on smiles for Lizzy's sake. This year I want us all to truly pull together and have a great time with my girl. Poor Lizzy's birthday's have a knack for coming at awkward times. LOL

Anyway. Wish me luck. Lizzy deserves a whole family instead of this broken thing we've got right now. Everytime she and I go over to my mom's she's asking for daddy the whole time. It's high time we get past this.

So. Moving forward. I'll update later. :)


EDIT: Well nevermind. It's over before it even starts... I just found out from my little sister that they still want to carry on about the same crap as last time so I'm not going to subject myself to that anymore. They'll either come around and move on - or it'll be awhile before we talk. *sigh*

Annnnyways.




Ooooooooh one more thing. On a happy note. Well kind of. I broke out the maternity stuff, and nothing fits yet. Last pregnancy I waited until the absolute last minute to buy anything with the title maternity. And now this time around since I'm showing alot earlier... I needed something in a size small instead of my previous very large behind Large. So I went over to Ross this morning to see if I could find a pair of jeans or capri's to get me through the next month or so - and boy did I luck out! I found a $40 pair of jeans on sale for $14.99 - AND a really nice pair of black ankle capri's that didn't have a tag on them - I took them up to the register and the girl rang up... $3.48 - she said they were officially on clearance. Weeeee!!!! So I got two pairs of pants for under $20. Total steal. Love those baragains!!! :D

Oh and I'll add a 12 week pic this weekend. LOL

Parties and Fun.

So I used Krystyna's amazing coupons the other day and saved $20 on baby food. Not quite as much as her - but I'm thinking of printing off a few more tomorrow and restocking. That deal is just too good. I had to go to two different target's... the first one had a one coupon rule, I tried asking for the manager and pushing the point but the lady got really rude with me so I walked out - second target the lady was really excited as she rang the coupons up and said she was going to send her daughter to the website to print off a few dozen of her own. Definately a more enjoyable experience. ;)








Today was a CRAZY day. Good fun though. We had a birthday party at noon for Victoria. It was her first birthday! And so much fun. She is such a beautiful little gal. Victoria REALLY enjoyed her cake. Check it out:
I made Victoria 12 bows and painted a letter V to match her bedroom, hung a ribbon from it then put all the bows on the ribbon - I should have take a pic but I forgot. LOL Anyway, it turned out cute. Definately something I'll be doing again for birthday girls. It was a huge hit and really fun.







Then we went on to Anna's Baby shower... which was also alot of fun. Poor Lizzy didn't get a nap at all today - but she breezed through the day without a hitch. She was an angel all day, kissing all the babies, hugging her buddies and sharing well. It was a couple's shower so the guys got to catch up while the girls were all talking babies.



There was a ton of great food at both parties and we came home 8 hours after leaving for the first party, completely exhausted. LOL Lizzy got her PJ's on and went right to bed. (I left her braids in so I can brush them out in the morning and she'll have wavy hair for church.)



I just have to say that Lizzy is such a love right now. She throws her arms up at me all the time and says "Hugs mommy!" She's so sweet. I hope Anna has a girl, it'd be fun for her to have another girl friend. Not that I don't adore the boys - they're just very different. They learn different, have different growth patterns... it'd be nice to have another girl from one of my girlfriends. Having said that... I think she's having a boy. LOL She's all belly and said her pregnancy is almost a carbon copy of the last time when she had Philip. But we'll see. I'm thrilled for them either way! Philip's going to have a little brother/sister! That's so fun! It makes me excited to meet my little one.



Tomorrow I'm 11 weeks. That's pretty thrilling. Two more weeks (about) and I'm out of the first trimester! YAY! Love that! Second phase here we go!



We've been working on the house alot - we put carpet in the playroom and sunroom. I love the playroom now - it's very cozy with the carpet - I noticed an immediate differance in Liz when the carpet was put in... she went from standing all the time at her toybox, chair or entertainment center - to sitting and spreading out her blocks and really playing. I think she feels more comfortable on the carpet than bare wood floors. The sunroom looks a MILLION times better now too. I hated that nasty black and white tile. Now I'm ready to start decorating! Yay! We've got several projects to do before kiddo's birthday party - I'm hoping and praying we finish them because I'm embarassed to have company with the outside of the house not painted or the large threshold between the kitchen and sunroom finished. Right now it just looks silly, well, unfinished anyways. I also need to hire a housecleaner the week of her party because there is no way I could scour this house the way it needs to be cleaned. I mean... it's clean but surface clean - I need to completely bleach Lizzy's bathroom (I haven't been able to stomach the smell of bleach since I got pregnant so it's all just surface clean) And I swear every time I vacuum these hard wood floors I go back and find dust bunnies the second I sit down. AH. That drives me crazy! Anyway, I'd love to get a housecleaner to come through here and help me... but I know better... I'll never do it. LOL I'll have to put Jay on bleach duty while I dust dust dust. ;)



Annnnyway. The last few days have been better than the previous few weeks. I'm not sleeping great, but that has more to do with the fact that I found a spider crawling on my leg a few days ago - so now I'm paranoid that there's spiders everywhere. *shiver* I haven't seen any since but those things are sneaky! (And I'm terrified of spiders - so there you go.) So not so sick but more tired. It's always something. ;) I get the feeling I'll be pulling out the maternity box from the attic in the next week or so. All my pants hurt my tummy now. Hate that. I was hoping for another month or so of normal clothes. Doesn't look like that's going happen. No biggie though. I have to say that I do love being pregnant, not the sickness or cramps, the low sex drive sucks and the cravings aren't fun... but just knowing that there's a little person who's going to steal my heart all over again growing inside of me is really exciting. I can't wait to meet this little person! And we're growing closer to finding out the gender every day! Only about 5 or 6 weeks now! YAY! Jay and I are definately conflicting over the boy name - but it's still early. He wants to name the baby his name - the 4th. Which would mean my son being named after my FIL - and y'all know how I feel about that man. Jay says it's not his dad, it's him. And it's his legacy - but frankly I think we should just cut our losses and move forward. Jay's dad is such a loser - and he goes by the middle name - so that's the only part I want to count out. I'm all for James as the first name, and he'll still have the same last name - so I think I'm compromising... but Jay doesn't see it that way. We shall see. I'll have to have a HUGE change of heart to be ok with naming my baby boy after Satan. That's why I'm kind of hoping for another girl. LOL Then I wont' have to deal with all that. ;) Either way... I can't wait to find out!



That's pretty much all for now - I've got to get the party invitations for kiddo's party this week and mail them out. Talk to y'all soon!

Such Fun.

Well we had a wonderful weekend in Raleigh. Beautiful hotel, great friends, lots of food. Definately a fun time. :) Lizzy made a little buddy... check out my dropshots for pictures and video's of her and little Caleb. Laura had a wonderful shower - she got a HUGE pile of gifts and about 30 paci's. LOL Jay and Liz napped while I was at the shower and we all went to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner with the whole gang. I really wish Laura lived closer. She's really the only person from college that I keep up with, and she's such a sweetie. Her husband is a great guy too so it was alot of fun getting to see them again. My 10 week picture is of Laura and I, belly to belly. We were having fun being silly after the shower.

Her nursery is beautiful, they're having a boy. His name will be Austin James... love it! It was really fun being at a shower with all blue. So cute! I'm so used to pink everything, it was a nice change - airplanes, puppy dogs and sail boats every where we looked. I'll be completely happy with whatever we have next - but it would be fun to shop for blue this time around... on the other hand, I'm an old pro at pink shopping so that would work fine too. ;)

I'm feeling a little better... the drive wasn't too hard at all. My jeans are getting snug in the waist - you can tell from my pictures that my belly is definately needing more room these days. I'm ok with that though.

I'm 10 weeks today! Exciting! 2 more weeks and I'm in the second trimester! WOW! Crazy how fast it's been going - seems like just yesterday I was taking that test and figuring out that I was 4 weeks... this is passing quickly so far. And for that I'm grateful. Lizzy is going to be a GREAT big sister. I never realized how much she understands when it comes to kids smaller than her, but little Caleb (10 months old) would fall down (he can walk) and she'd take his hand and help pull him back up, or put her arms around his waist and lift... it was so precious to watch. She'd follow after him like a little mother hen giving him hugs and kisses and helping him walk. It was so fun to watch.

I realized that in about 6 more weeks we can find out what gender this little person is! How exciting is that?! I can't wait. It makes it more real when you can say her/him instead of it. LOL

Oh and here's a picture I took of Lizzy kissing her baby doll this morning... how adorable is this?

She's such a love.

Anyways. I think that's all, we made it home in record time. Lizzy watched Lilo and Stitch and Brother Bear on the way home. She thinks koda's a dog. :P Goofy kid. Jay passed out in bed early, sick stomach, so I'm going to prep our sunroom tonight... we're putting in carpet tomorrow! I can't wait to see how it looks, getting that nasty black and white tile out of there will be nothing short of awesome. It is such an eye sore right now. I'm looking forward to putting my zen sunroom together. I want it done before Lizzy's birthday in 3 weeks... we shall see. ;)

So that's all for now. 10 weeks pic is up. I'm not as big as Laura's cutie pie 32 week belly... but I'm definately showing now! :)

Weekend Away

So I've got a ton of packing, laundry, and things to get ready for... we're headed to Raleigh for the weekend for my friends baby shower. Should be fun! We're staying at the Embassy Suites, so I'm looking forward to not having to cook for a few days, hanging out at the pool and getting to see Laura and JR.

Anyway, no new pregnancy updates... other than I was sick most all of this week. Fun times. Lizzy's been such a little trooper... she doesn't mind staying at home with mommy. We spend alot of mornings laying on the playroom floor reading or playing with her blocks. She's such an angel about it all. She'll sit quietly beside me with our disney music playing while I lay down on the floor and try to keep myself away from the bathroom as long as possible.

So that's that. I'll add another belly shot this weekend... I'm looking more and more pregnant as the days go by, despite my best efforts not to gain a thing right now. Apparently my body holds on to everything. Including the many gallons of water I drink daily. So that's it for now... I'll try to post some pics on Monday. :)