Christian, wife to Michael, mother to Emma & Aaron, MBA, sushi-lover, photo-junkie, tattooed, American-Egyptian, 30-something, sharing life one day at a time!
but December is here! This year has gone by so fast and now there are only three days until my baby girl is three years old! So hard to believe! I have so much to do these next three weeks, too. Our calendar is already full - as I am sure everyone''s calendar is, too! We have game night with friends/neighbors, my company Christmas party, the Children's Christmas party at my work, Santa is coming to visit the week before Christmas at my sister's house, we have Elaine's Christmas/Birthday Party - not to mention I still have to do the shopping for Emma's birthday and for Christmas still. I have done a big portion of it already (yay me), which is unusual for me b/c I'm usually a last minute shopper! Not to mention I have this little boy who is going to be joining our family in a couple months and we have yet to get his room in order, buy boy clothes for him and oh yeah - pick out a name!!!
Last night he kicked me HARD - and I yelled out b/c, well it hurt! Emma asked me what was wrong so I told her and she looked at my tummy & said, "Quick kicking my Mommy! Say Sorry!" It was so cute!!! I officially cannot see my toes for my belly now and Emma tells me how big my tummy is getting, too. Kids are so honest! She hugs my tummy a lot now and says it's her baby. She is still calling him Christopher Robin (love Pooh) and always wants to feel her baby. He kicked once and she felt it, but I don't think it really registered with her at the time. It was only a slight kick, too. She will feel him again, though. He is a VERY active little boy - always on the move! Wonder if that's a sign of things to come??
I'm still having a lot of back pain - the intensity comes & goes. It doesn't help that I still pick up Emma from time to time - my Grannie got on to me for that. Michael gets on to me, too - he is very protective when I'm pg. I love that about him. He is always watching what I am doing to make sure I'm being careful. Sometimes he is a bit OVER protective, but I can deal with that! He is a good husband and a good father that takes care of his family first - after all that is the role that God has given him, too! This Friday we're having game night and we'll be playing Dance Dance Revolution - we'll have to see if he'll actually let me play! HA!
I have one more monthly visit to my OB then I'll be going every two weeks. I can't believe I'm 28 weeks already. Only 12 to go - only 12 to figure out what we're going to name him. Yikes!
I am so thankful for my sweet darling daughter and the healthy son I have growing inside me now. I cannot wait to meet him and see him with his big sister for the first time. Sibling relationships are so special. My siblings (there are 5 of us) are all so very, very different, but I love them all so much and am so thankful to have them in my life. Each one is special to me in a very different way! My prayer for my children today is that they have a wonderfully close and special brother/sister relationship. My mother and uncle (who passed away last year) were two of the closest siblings I know. They loved one another so much. When I found out Emma was going to have a little brother that relationship was the first that came to my mind. I am so thankful that Emma is going to have a little brother!
We've had such a good weekend and it isn't over! Michael is taking off tomorrow (I'm off the rest of the week) so we get to sleep in late together again! :) I ended up having to work Friday morning, but was finished around 10:30 and headed out to watch New Moon - it was awesome as I knew it would be, but no matter how good, I still think the book was better! I always like the books better, though when I watch a movie made from a book I've already read.
Saturday we spent the day in Plantersville - after we took Sable to the vet and she puked all over me in the car on the way home. It. Was. Nasty. I didn't think I was going to make it home - I was crying/laughing so hard all the way home that I couldn't see (Michael was driving - not me)!!! After we cleaned up from that fiasco we headed to Plantersville to Alice's parents' house for Merry Fishmas. I think the entire town must have been out there!! The kids had a great time - they always do - and Emma got to go fshing for the first time with her own pink fishing pole!
It was pretty chilly out there, too - good thing we packed lots of clothes to layer on!
It didn't stop Emma from wanting to fish, though and her daddy loved that!
I took a few videos of her fishing, but I loved this one for what she said at the end. I've learned that using my iPhone to take videos, though I have to be careful b/c it picks up my voice VERY well!
She didn't catch a fish this time, but still had so much fun and loved that she got to spend some time with her buddy Connor!!
Today was such a beautiful day, too after all the cold rain yesterday! We still had to dress warm for church, though - which I'm kinda glad about b/c I bought the cutest sweater dress for Emma that I've wanted her to wear for a while! A new dress coat, too (didn't get her picture in that, though).
After church we went out for brunch and it wasn't long after we go home Emma was down for a nap - too short of one, but still a nap. Then for dinner we went out with our neighbors to celebrate their daughter's b'day - it was apparent then that her nap wasn't long enough! My dear, sweet little darling was a bit of a pill at dinner. To anyone else I don't think she was a bother, but it was enough for me and Michael. She just wasn't eating - she wanted to play and visit instead. Understandable I guess with her friends around!! All was forgotten and forgiven when we got home - she sat down at her table in the play room and then brought me a picture she colored "just for me" - she was so proud to give it to me and when I told her how I liked it she just beamed and asked if I was going to put it on the fridge. Of course we did!! Then she proceeded to start coloring on the back of a photo and brought it to me and said, "I wrote my name mommy. See? E-M-M-A!! How you like it?" Ummm...heart melt and so proud!!!!
I immediately had to take a picture of it and send it to my parents, facebook, flickr, twitter to share with everyone how proud I was of my brilliant little girl who wrote her name out ALL BY HERSELF!! Yes, I forgot all about what a little pill she was at dinner!!! And Emma was so proud, too b/c she had made mommy so happy - she was beaming, too! What a great ending for the day! Count your blessings!!
I really hope the weather is as nice tomorrow - I'd like to spend the day out of the house playing if we can since Michael is going to be home for another day this weekend!
Is it really only one week until Thanksgiving - it is hard to believe. I am thankful this week for the upcoming time off I am about to enjoy to be able to get things prepared for the busy time that is quickly approaching. I am thankful for the cooler, fall-like weather that is finally here - it's so much more fitting for the holidays!
As of 3:30 today I am on vacation until November 30th!!!! I cannot wait! 3:30 b/c I have a doctor appointment at 3:45 so I'll need to leave at 3:30 to make it and then I ain't comin' back!!! Actually, I left this house this morning w/out thinking about that appointment and left the glucose drink I'm supposed to drink down one hour before blood work sitting in the door of my fridge! Grrrr...I hate how forgetful I am! So - guess I know what I'll be doing at lunch today. Too bad there isn't any leftovers at home to eat when I get there, though. Yeah - I didn't cook dinner last night. Instead Michael, Emma & I met up with Ashley & Trent (Trent's in town for a couple weeks for work) at Ichibon's for dinner - no leftovers when it comes to sushi!! Mmmm...Mmmm...Good! And yes, for those concerned at stayed away from the raw stuff, even though I really wanted some tuna & salmon. It was still all yummy, though & Emma sort of enjoyed and sort of got bothered by our chef & his fiery onion volcano!
It was a great dinner, though & great company, too. And the clock is also ticking down till New Moon (yes, I loved these books) comes out tomorrow!! I cannot wait - I'm going at lunchtime tomorrow. Thank goodness for a busy budget season so the time went by quickly from WAY BACK WHEN we first heard the release date!
It's going to be nice to have next week off while everyone is working b/c I need to take advantage and get things together for Emma's b'day party - I need to do a little Christmas shopping - I need to buy groceries for Thanksgiving dinner - I need to do some serious house cleaning...and on and on and on. Wednesday night we're going to see the Rockets play, too - that is what I bought Michael (and me, too) for our anniversary & we get to see Dirk, too!! It'll be nice the day before Thanksgiving b/c we won't be getting home so late only to get up early in the morning for work! I am really looking forward to these days - need some relaxing days to de-stress from everything!!
Well, I found a great site with 2010 Calendar grids so this coming year I'm working on my own calendars and monthly desktops instead of just relying on templates made by other people. I like having the freedom to make what I want! So, I've started working on calendar pages for 2010 - I've only made it through May so far, but you can see them all here.
I am making them all 12x12 right now b/c I haven't decided how I want to print/present them yet. Mother has already said, "These are my Christmas present, right!?!?" Well, since she has seen them it won't be much of a surprise! Really it wouldn't be a surprise for anyone now that they are online & everyone can see them - Grannie doesn't have a computer, though - it would still be a surprise for her!!
I really like the grids I found b/c they are very simple and didn't have the months labeled so for different projects I can use whatever font I want - for this calendar I'm using my most favorite-ist font - Scriptina!! That's really everyone's favorite, though isn't it?? Honestly, though I cannot believe that there were so few calendar grids out there for use. It took me a long time searching to find this set. I mean, I know they aren't hard to make (I was just being lazy and didn't want to take the time), but all the calendars I found were already on templates mostly - already pre-designed and ready for pictures. And that's great unless you want to create a design around your pics!
Moving right along & almost done with the 2nd trimester - feels like I'm already in the last trimester, though. When I was pregnant with Emma I wasn't uncomfortable much at all until about month 8. This time around, though I definitely have felt pregnant all the way through. Morning sickness hasn't totally gone away yet, though now I'm only experiencing it about once a week, but it was daily until well after the 4 month mark. I definitely started showing faster (which I think is common) so clothes were an issue right off the bat! And I've been having a LOT of back pain this time around, too. Not uncommon, just different from my first pregnancy. With Emma I really didn't have a lot of back pain until the last couple of weeks - now I have it quite often. Standing for longs periods of time isn't an option - really sitting for long periods of time isn't either. I'm constantly going back and forth trying to find a position of comfort. Poor Michael - I am constantly switching positions and sides of the bed at night, too. I never had a pregnancy massage when I was pregnant with Emma - am seriously considering it this time, though - soon!!!
This little boy is very active, too!! He is moving all the time now. And Michael has been able to feel him several times - my parents both got to feel him move, too. Daddy felt him right away when he touched my tummy, but every time mother put her hand on me he got still! It was funny b/c she kept talking to him like he was doing it on purpose - he eventually moved for her, too though! LOL I've tried to get Emma to feel him move, but she isn't patient (strange, huh?) and will only keep her hand resting in one spot for about 5 seconds or less - though she is constantly talking to him, hugging & kissing him, last night she even gave him a present!! And she has named him - she says he is Christopher Robin!! She only knows him from her books, though - he isn't on the Disney shows any more - I guess Darby has replaced him. We do have one DVD of classic Pooh, but I think we've only watched it a couple of times - since she seems to like Christopher Robin so much I guess I should get her another one! Christmas List!!
Last night she set about rearranging the house for us - she cleaned out her entire play room!
Which was so great - she kept asking - "How you like it??" I though it looked great honestly (can't wait for the playroom to move upstairs & out of sight) - it was WHERE she put it all that I didn't like!
Yeah - it all got moved into the foyer & living room (there were more around the corner I didn't get in the shot - including her entire kitchen set and Cottage)!! So we had the fun task of putting it all up again - normally she cleans up her own messes & usually does a good job, but since I saw it as an opportunity to purge as well (and she can't be around for that) I set about doing most of it myself - with help from Michael, too. We weren't able to cull out a lot, but every little bit helps! Right now I have a growing stock of toys that are getting ready to go to Goodwill or Salvation Army or somewhere! I know that playroom is going to be infiltrated with boy toys soon and there ain't too much extra room in there now for the girlie stuff as it is - we have way too many toys!
Love Thursdays now b/c even if I haven't had a great week (which this has been a good week) I concentrate on what is good in my life!!
I am thankful that my darling little girl is finally just about potty trained!!! She is going on two weeks now that she has only had a couple of accidents - hope I'm not jinxing it now by talking about it! LOL! She is getting so good I telling us when she has to go now and we don't even have any diapers in the house! Okay - we do have pull-ups, but usually now we're in panties, which she loves b/c they have Cinderella on them!!! She has been so resistant to this for so long and I just knew I was going to be buying two sizes of diapers when her little brother came, but now it looks like she might finally be out of them!!
Hooray - I'm so proud of my big girl and tell her daily how proud of her I am and how happy she makes me!!!
Things have been so busy lately I haven't had much time to work on my scrapbooks - but since they are slowing down for the moment I've got quite a few pages done & have learned some great processes for creating my own frames. Once I found out how easy it was I was kinda kicking myself for ever spending money on templates! LOL!
I'm mostly caught up through 2009 so hopefully when the baby comes I'll be finished with it - Thanksgiving & Christmas will be two big holidays to catch up on with plenty of pics I'm sure. I thought about creating a couple of template now to finish out with pics later, but that can be hard b/c you never know what colors you'll have in the pictures to make it all match. Guess I could do it all and just add the backgrounds later...that might work.
After doing a baby book for the new baby I just plan to work on annual books for the family instead of keeping up one for each child. There will be pages dedicated to each depending on events I'm sure, but for the most part it's for our family as a whole. When the kids get older and if they each want one of their own I'll just have to order copies of all the pages since they are online. That reminds me, I actually need to buy refill sheets for my album so when these new pages come in I'll have the protectors all ready for them to be put into.
Here are a a couple of pages I've finished recently and all can be found in this folder.
Well, I outgrew my "best camera bag evah"!!! With the addition of a lens and speedlite my Lowepro bag became too small...so I decided it was time for more space. And with that I've ordered a Crumpler 7 Million Dollar bag!
I maybe could have gotten away with the 6 Million, but decided I didn't want to risk outgrowing this one too soon & plus if I decide I want to carry my video camera along somewhere I'll have the room - or if not I'll have plenty of room for things I would normally carry in my purse or diaper bag if I take kiddos on a photo outing with me! Plus, there are always dreams of new and exciting lenses and then they would already have a home waiting on them!! :)
So, my Lowepro bag is actually for sell - I've listed it on our classifieds at work and will put it on Craig's List, too I guess - if you're interested let me know! It is a fabulous bag and I hope I'm as satisfied with the Crumpler as I was with the Lowepro! Anyone have either bag already - what's your opinion of the bags?
My Grannie gave me her rocking chair at my baby shower when I was pregnant with Emma. She also gave me a beautiful card with a verse written to me as if it was coming from Emma - talking about how I was rocked in the chair as a baby and how I would rock Emma soon, too. I love it. I planned to actually decoupage it to the bottom of the chair one day - one day!!
So, since this is a piece of furniture that we will probably have in our home forever I take Emma's picture sitting in it every year on her birthday so that I can watch my baby grow.
This was the first set of pictures I took on her first b'day:
And I made two pages for the pictures I took on her 2nd b'day (b/c I didn't like how the first turned out - which do you like best):
(One of these pics she's also in her Amish Rocking Chair my sisters bought for my baby shower.)
And online I've put all the pictures in this folder. It isn't long until I'll be making an album in there titled Emma Turns 3 - I cannot believe my baby is about to be 3 years old AND a big sister!! We haven't even started on her little brother's room. Michael and I actually plan to work on it some this weekend - or at least check out patterns for it! We have a queen sized bed in there now that needs to be moved out before we can set up his crib. We're going to take that up to East Texas b/c it's ten times more comfy than the bed we sleep on up there now. That one will be donated this weekend for an auction the church is hosting. So, next trip up we'll be hauling a bed with us.
I didn't do a desktop for October - so I just had this beautiful picture of my daughter on my screen. I did get in gear for November, though and really liked this template. Love the fall colors.
and b/c I think I forgot to post it...here is the desktop I had up for September:
The weather was great - a bit chilly, but we had a costume for hot weather and a costume for cold weather - the neighborhood was FULL of kids - they got tons of candy!!! We just had a great time!! Friday night we took Emma to trick-or-treat my parents' house and she ended up spending the night with them, so Saturday we slept in then got up to run a bunch of errands before my parents brought her home. Michael grilled for all of us Saturday for dinner before we went trick-or-treating - it was so yummy! Then we pulled the trailer out and had a hayride for all the kids to take them around our neighborhood. They all had a blast!!
They were all so cute, too! You can see though they were all checking out the older kiddo in the reaper costume - LOL!
Emma was a cute lion - though she said she was a cat (which is true) and would say "Me-Mow Me-Mow"!!!
Sunday morning I was thankful for the time change - we were able to get in a little extra sleep before getting up and getting dressed for church (though honestly, I prefer the Daylight Savings Time b/c I don't like that it gets dark earlier now). Instead of Emma waking up and coming into our room and crawling in bed like she usually does Michael said we should do that to her so we jumped up when we heard her waking up over the monitor and jumped into bed with her!! Driving home from church the weather was so awesome that we rolled down the windows, blared the radio & sang all the way with our hands out in the air! Emma laughed so hard - I wish I had taped it b/c it was hysterical - we were having a great time!
Sunday afternoon I headed over to Elaine's house - I got a copy of Lightroom & she gave me a lesson on how to use it! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! Photo editing/processing is going to speed up 100 times for me!! Now I know why all the photographers rave about it! Thanks so much Elaine!! It was great to spend time with her as well!
