These Boots...

Were not made for summer time! This week Carli has taken to insisting on wearing her fleece lined, one size too small boots any time shoes are required. We have to work pretty hard in order to get them on her feet - but once on, she is so happy and squeals with delight as we head outside...

She worked hard in the back yard earlier this week, moving dirt from one place to another...

I'm pretty sure the boots compliment the onesie!

If only we all had the style sense of an 18 month old!

We don't have a real horse, or real cowgirl boots, but Cousin Logan...doesn't she look like a cute little cowgirl?!

Happy Birthday Keith!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Carli was really excited when I asked her to take a picture for her daddy to send to him for his birthday since he was out of town....

I didn't get one with the after when she realized we weren't going to see Daddy...it wasn't a pretty sight, quite pitiful!

Bubbles!

Carli's new fascination when we go outside is the blow her bubbles. Actually, she prefers to dip her wand in the bubbles over and over and over...and if Daddy manages to blow a few bubbles in between there, it just makes her life even better!!

36 Weeks, 4 days

Oh my, time is flying by...

Tooth #5

It's official - Carli has 5 teeth. To say she got her 5th tooth at 18 mths, 3 wks, 3 days is a stretch, b/c it has been in her mouth for awhile. I thought her 5,6,7 & 8th tooth would be right beside her 4 front teeth...but nope. Carli's 5th tooth in further back, on her left hand bottom jaw, I would guess the one right beside where the molars are going to come in...but that's just a guess. It is kind of there all by itself and I only discovered it b/c Carli was being goofy and making faces at me in the car! So, we discovered our tooth on this day, but it has obviously been there for a bit!

Finally, a Sonogram

Ava has not been cooperative to say the least about her sonogram pictures. But Wednesday, we had one last chance to get a picture before she made her official appearance. A good friend of ours helped us out and watch Carli so that Keith could go with me to the appt...yet another first for this Momma, never left Carli with someone that was not family! I sure am growing a lot! Of coarse Carli did awesome, she loves her buddy Riley and Sarah was great with her...even got her to take a nap! :) Thanks Sarah!

The appt went well, this was my last "belly" check appt. So sad b/c they are so simple. Ava is about 6 lbs, she is already pretty far down in my pelvis which may have contributed to her inability to turn her face away from the sonogram lady! :)

Keith was surprised to see she has big cheeks just like Carli did/does...I think the nose will be the deciding factor on if she looks like Carli or not...if she has her Daddy's nose or not...can't wait to see how much hair she has since she has given me AWFUL indegestion!

The pics are the same, I think you can see her better in black and white. To me it still is surreal that Ava will be here in such a short time. So much still to do, but as the doctor said, he is pretty sure that Ava won't care if it all gets done or not! ha! Good thing b/c it is leaning to the not getting done stage...at least she has a cradle! :)

This is our 4D of Carli at 30 days younger and 3 lbs lighter...I dunno, they kind of look alike, huh?

Black & White of Ava

If he/she only had a name...

Welp, we finally did it. After being burned so badly on our last car purchase, we have been blessed by a family who had an extra vehicle for us to drive. So, drove we did...first it was Hooptie, a wonderful little car who may not have been much to look at but he sure did get us where we needed to go! Then, Grandma and Pawpaw "let" us borrow their Taurus for awhile so it could get driven a bit and knock the dust of him. But alas, real life was calling, and baby is expected any week and we really needed to bite the bullet and find a car.

We knew what we wanted, a Ford Freestyle (Taurus X), but needed a used one as brand new they are expensive little stinkers. We had loved our Volvo, the awesome safety rating was a huge seller. Turns out when Ford bought Volvo way back when, they did so in order to use some of their safety technology and the Ford Freestyle was the first Ford vehicle they used that technology on...SCORE! B/c we had looked at the XC90 and the gas mileage wasn't so hot...and I am not really picky about looks, but honestly the Volvo wagons are a bit ugly! The Ford Freestyle gets much, much better gas mileage than the bigger SUV's and had the safety technology we wanted! Plus, I had two sticking points - I needed a car with a third row for when Naggy and Pappy come to visit and I really wanted the "quad" seating...everything else I could deal with...

So, we had planned a wkd to go to Dallas to accomplish our mission. Carli was going to top off her first big wkd without us by staying with Grammy and Pa for the day and maybe a night in case we were really late. I was nervous b/c we had already bought a used vehicle from the metroplex, from a respected dealer supposedly and it was a lemon...I had really, really wanted our mechanic to look at it but wasn't sure how it would all work...

Anyway, I occasionally scan Craigslist for random things and have had decent luck, but there have been no decent Freestyles with low mileage on them in East Texas...until last week. And there it was...an 07 Ford Freestyle, LIMITED, with only 52K miles on it! AND, it was below our max price, which was awesome!! AND it was not gray, which was Keith's only request. It was in Longview at a credit union...so last week, after some prayers, and help from a good friend who lived in the area and recommended a mechanic, we bought our car...





I got way more than I wanted, leather seats with heating...I got the quad seating on the second row and the third row seating too. The mileage is low, it is the perfect height for me to get Carli in and out of and easy to park. LOVE IT! The only thing it will need is some new tires soon as it still has the original factory tires on it. When we get those, the road noise will go down significantly.

The only dilemma now is to name the poor car...nothing has "come" to me...maybe it's a pregnancy thing and making a decision, after all it did take us 6 months to even commit to buying a car! Any suggestions?

Carli's Big Wkd

Carli had a big first last weekend. Some may find it strange that Carli has never really stayed away from us in her 18 months of life, but we haven't found a need for her to really. So, it's pretty much been us three going about life, enjoying each other's company and the company of others too, we just all go home at the end of the day together. But the time came, as it inevitably would, that life required Keith and I to leave without Carli. I think it was harder on me that it was on her really. So, we headed out to our couples retreat and dropped Carli off with her Grammy and Pa for the wkd on the way. Grammy got a two page list of Carli's day, why I packed what I did, etc...and then I told her to ignore it. She'd done it before, three times in fact, I knew they would be just fine! But it gave me peace of mind to know that I did leave an explanation of it all!

We left the camera for them to take pictures and pictures they took!

The first night, eating out with Grammy and Pa enjoying some Banana Pudding!

To say Carli LOVES Sally Mae is in understatement...

Apparently running around and around the car was the game of the day!

And running some more...

Pa is a busy man, but never to busy to play house with Carli!

Did I mention the love for Sally Mae?

Headed off to check the cows with Pa...

Where'd they go?

Carli LOVES animals, and she has seen pictures of cats. But she never had a cat let her give it the appropriate Carli hug, until she met Tomette...

Grammy and Pa did awesome with Carli. Good thing b/c I am thinking when Ava arrives, Carli may have a few more of these excursions to get her special one on one time! Keith said Carli may look like him, but she has got some of her Momma in her after all! She loved being outside most of the wkd and "working" on the farm! :)

Thanks Grammy and Pa for making Carli's first weekend away from us so much fun for her! Us parents survived too!

35 Weeks and Counting

If you stopped by hoping for an update with some pictures, I am sorry to disappoint. It seems that time is flying by and I'm walking in slow motion through it all! I had my 35 week check up last Wednesday and really didn't learn much. They are called belly checks, because pretty much all the doc does is listen to the baby's heartbeat through the belly and then he measures the belly...somehow. So toward the end, they want your belly to measure in centimeters the same as the week you are - so I should have measured 35 cm last week. I was a 37 cm belly though. He wasn't too concerned b/c for one, Ava is a two blood vessel baby and they half expect her to be smaller than Carli was, so if she is measuring a little big that is good news. And it probably didn't help that Ava kicked the doctor the whole time we were there - or punched him, I'm not sure. As soon as he put the jelly stuff on my belly to hear her heartbeat, my belly looked like a pin ball machine, little feet, bottom and hands going every which way! So, the doctor said, her heart sounded great - a little elevated due to her physical activity which he thought was awesome and my belly size was fine seeing as to how it was getting pummelled the whole time! ha!

We go every week until little Ava gets here. This week we get one last ultrasound and Keith has his fingers crossed that we will get to see her face...the anticipation is killing him! :) Actually, we've been so swamped, he hasn't had time to dwell on it - but when another ultrasound was mentioned, he was pretty excited to try to see her again.

The rest of life is flying by as well. I need to put an update on here from Carli's big "first" this weekend. She stayed all by herself without us 'ol parents with her Grammy and Pa and everyone had a blast! They even took some pictures, so I promise, I'll get them posted soon. Currently, I am running on 4 hrs of sleep due to Carli choosing not to sleep last night - guess she used all her good behavior up on Grammy and Pa!!

We bought a car! Woohoo! It's taken us about 6 months and we are forever grateful to our family for allowing us use of their transportation until we found what we wanted...I'll have to take pictures of the car too...and decide on the name/gender...this one is a little more difficult...Old Blue and Volvie just fit...haven't found a fit yet for this one! Pls send up a prayer for us all though, as Grandma and Pawpaw's car was returned to them, without any keys...not sure if that will make life easier or harder...hmmmm...

While Carli was playing with Grammy and Pa all wkd, Keith and I were at a church retreat with our 20s class. It was an awesome, relaxing time and kind of neat to just get to hang out with some adults!

Welp, such is the update for now - Carli is awake from her nap - work to be done, life just keeps going! More later...

34 Weeks, 4 Days

Things are going well. We go back to the doc on Wednesday for a check up. I think in two weeks we will have another sonogram. Will be considered full term in less than 4 weeks! Yikes! Sure wish that baby bed would paint itself!


P.S. Carli is showing Daddy where Whitey Tighty is...

Hole in the Wall

We put a hole in our bathroom/linen closet wall this wkd...what'd you do?

Yard Sale, Allergies & Cousin Fun

Last Saturday we had a yard sale in Alto and got to sell a lot of things we had been accumulating in an attempt to turn our guest room into a play room. Grammy and I found a Little Tikes 8 in 1 play set on Craigslist and had it all set up for Logan and Carli to play on too. It turned out to be a good, but tiring day. We got rid of most of our big stuff and so did Mom. Carli and Logan each had so much fun on their new play set. It was really funny how each kid played so differently on it. The door was a huge hit with them both and kept them entertained for a long while.

Aunt Carolyn had given Grammy this Little Tikes car a while ago and we uncovered it. Carli was a huge fan. She played and played...

And when she could enlist someone to push her, she did!

She is a very serious driver! Ha!

Allergies were in full swing this weekend too. Keith had Friday off and we went down to Alto to get things set up for the sale and Keith worked on putting up a closet organization system for Mom. It turned out really good - or so we hear. He got most of it up on Friday and Saturday and we were going to finish on Sunday but Keith couldn't get out of bed b/c of all the horrid pollen - talk about being wiped out. Dad got the rest of the shelves up - so we are anxious to see it all put together!

The Great Easter Egg Hunt

Really, I think the pictures say it all...

Ready to go...

It didn't take long for Carli to figure things out...
Like her basket? Her Daddy was a fan!
The egg was on the bumper, she kept looking under the car!
Her basket got heavy really quick, but she refused to let anyone help her carry it - instead, she too Pa by the hand and off they went!
And then she simply started pointing at the eggs and telling Pa to pick them up!
Finally, she sat the basket down and would go get the eggs and bring them to the basket - she enlisted all sorts of help. Here she is with Aunt Carolyn.
She didn't quite understand a hard boiled egg, it was pretty funny.
The confetti eggs were a hit! Logan had a blast emptying them on Carli's head and Carli was oblivious!
Uncle Andy came to her rescue and they chased down Logan and from what I understand Carli put the egg in his mouth!
Hmmm, a confetti egg...
Carli and her goodies - trying to eat some chocolate in the wrapper!
Did not get a good picture of the kiddos with their finds...stinkers
Just cute.
Sharing a cousin hug!
A very special thanks to Aunt Chelle, Uncle Andy and Logan for including us in your Easter egg hunting fun! The egg dying was pretty fun too - if only I hadn't lost my camera for 30 minutes...