Our low key but fun Valentines/Presidents Day weekend

The next couple of weeks are going to be insanely busy. The calendar is filling up with doctor's appointments, Phi Mu events, birthday parties, and getting things ready for the spring consignment sale at Kennedy's daycare which I am the co-chair of. I am really glad that we had a fun low key weekend with our little family. I absolutely love having 3 day weekends!

 

 

Kennedy was sooooo excited about going to school and passing out her Valentines to her friends. She told us all about the party at school when she got home.

 

 

 

On Saturday, I woke up to this sweet note taped to the microwave from my husband:

 

 

He is a smart man, he knows food is the way to my heart! I thoroughly enjoyed my banana pancakes with a side order of cheese grits at our favorite breakfast spot, Sunrise Grill.

 

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home. Kennedy colored in her new Minnie Mouse coloring book that her friend Ella gave her for Valentines Day. We are pretty sure she is going to be a lefty as you can see from the picture!

 

 

That night after Kennedy and I went to bed Nick and I watched this movie:

 

 

 

I had already seen it in theaters with my friend Jessica. Nick bought it for me on DVD for Valentines Day. The DVD had an alternate ending called "the tears of joy ending." I enjoyed that ending a hell of a lot better than the original ending but I still cried in a few parts. I blame pregnancy hormones. If you are a Nicholas Sparks fan and haven't seen this movie, I would recommend it. It was emotional but good!

 

Sunday was another low key day. Brrrr, it was so cold outside. The only time we left the house was when we bundled up to go to church.

 

 

Nick and I spent Kennedy's nap time going through some of her old clothes and tagging them for the consignment sale at her daycare. In the two hours Kennedy was asleep we only made it through her infant clothes. Lots of work ahead of us! My friend Becky is having surgery next week so I volunteered to tag the clothes she is selling too. She has 3 kids so I am sure it will be a lot but I don't mind, it's for a great cause!

 

On Monday we woke up and headed to Columbia to see my dad, half sister and  half brothers. We had a good visit and it was fun to catch up since we hadn't seen them since Christmas. My youngest half brother Michael is severely autistic and is non verbal. We actually hadn't seen him in a few months because long car trips are hard for him so he stayed with his mom when my dad, sister and brother came up at Christmas. I don't think the four of us have had a picture taken together in a very long time.

 

 

 

After we left my dad's house, we went to the mall and ate lunch. Kennedy was so excited to ride the merry go round!

 

 

This is my last week in the 2nd trimester and I am so excited that we are 13 weeks away from meeting our son! However, I am really cherishing this time as a family of 3. This weekend was so much fun, lots of memories made just by doing simple things.

 

Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

 



26 weeks/Happy almost Valentines Day/Friday

Happy almost Valentines Day! We have a low key weekend planned just the 3 of us at home and I am really looking forward to it.

Here are my 5 for this week:

1. Kennedy and I went Valentines Day shopping last weekend at Wal Mart. We picked out cards for Daddy and for her friends at school. Kennedy picked out her own Valentines this year and she chose Sofia the First. We gave each of her classmates a Valentine, some stickers and some Hershey kisses in a cute ziplock bag with hearts on it. Very easy and no room for a Pinterest fail for this working Momma! I also made Mix and Match Mama's strawberry bars for her teachers at school. So yummy and one of my favorite recipes on her list of 100 bars.

2. I am 26 weeks this week! Feeling pretty good despite lots of heartburn and indigestion. I am guessing this little boy will have a lot of hair like his sister. I am super excited because for the next 3 weeks we have a doctor's appointment every week. I absolutely love going to the doctor when I am pregnant! On the 19th, we have a regular OB check up, on the 27th, we have our 4D ultrasound and on March 6th we have an OB check up and the Gestational Diabetes test. I am hoping I pass on the first try like I did with Kennedy. I am really excited for our 4D ultrasound because we haven't gotten to see our sweet little boy since our 18 week ultrasound when we found out he was a he! Kennedy, as you can see, is still completely ecstatic about being a big sister and loves to rub my belly and say "I love you Mark!" Melts my heart!!!!

3. Consignment season is officially underway! I am so excited to check out some of the local consignment sales, especially the one at Kennedy's daycare in March. My friend Jessica and I are co-chairing it together this year because the former chair of the sale quit. Our husbands think we are crazy to take it on considering we are both working moms but unfortunately NO ONE else volunteered which is surprising because there are a lot of stay at home moms that just bring their kids in the morning for preschool. I think with the two of us working together, it won't be too bad though and we have a lot of parents who have volunteered to help. Hopefully the sale will be a big success. Last fall, we raised 1, 200 dollars for Kennedy's daycare and our goal is 2,000 for the spring. If you are in the Aiken, South Carolina/Augusta, Georgia area, let me know and I will give you the info!

4. Man, The Bachelor, where do I begin?

 Super glad that both Kelsey and Ashley went home. Both were total crazies! How dramatic was Ashley's exit? Good grief! Here are my thoughts on the remaining girls:

Megan: DUMB!

Whitney: Love her but wish we could change her voice! Aaaah, like nails on a chalkboard!

Kaitlyn: Love her! If she doesn't end up with Chris, I would like to see her as the next Bachelorette. She is so funny!

Carly: Sweet but a little too insecure. Side note: Did you know that she is Zach from Desiree's season's sister? Loved me some Zach!

Jade: Too quiet and the Playboy thing is just ehhh....

Britt: Can we please send her home? She wears way too much makeup and needs to stay in LA! Plus she's annoying.

Becca: BORING, although I do have to give her props for not making a huge deal out of the fact that she's a virgin like Ashley I. did. Although I am not so sure Ashley was telling the truth! I just don't see her and Chris together.

Can't wait to see what happens next week!

5. I have the winter blues bad. This winter really has not been bad at all compared to last years crazy ice and snow storm but I can't help it, I am a warm weather girl. Ready for some sun and heat. I feel like a big fat white whale right now! The picture below was taken on 4th of July in 2011 and is one of Nick's favorite pictures of me. He has it framed on his desk at work. So thankful for the precious baby in my belly but envious of that tan and cute figure in this picture! Bring on spring!

Yay for Friday!!!

Happy Friday Everyone! Here's what's been on my mind this week:

1. Jodi Picoult has always been one of my favorite authors. However, some of her newer books had been kind of disappointing to me. My friend/co-worker Becky let me borrow her latest though and I am really enjoying it. It is about a young girl looking for her mother who disappeared while working as an elephant trainer.



2. Last Saturday, we celebrated our nephew Tristan's 16th birthday. I seriously cannot believe he is 16. He was 10 years old when Nick and I started dating. Time flies. We went out to dinner at Applebees, then back to Jon and Rachael's for cake and ice cream and then to Adventure Crossing where Kennedy had a blast riding the kiddie rides and playing in the arcade. Kennedy loves her Tristan!

3. Who watched that train wreck on the Bachelor on Wednesday? Good grief. Kelsey is a lunatic. I am sorry her husband passed away but the way she went about telling her story was just dramatic and wrong.

Oh and as if I needed another reason not to like Ashley I., she proved herself to be quite the jealous, mean girl this week. I totally agree with Whitney.

Anybody like Britt? Not a fan. I really hope Reality Steve is wrong about her being the next Bachelorette. I don't know what's worse, the fact that she doesn't shower or the fact that she sleeps in full makeup, yuck.

4. Our co-worker Bethany and her husband John had their first baby last week, a beautiful baby girl named Avaleigh. We went over to their house to bring them dinner. Kennedy LOVED the baby!

5. Baby Mark is doing great and so am I, despite getting up 3-4 times a night to go to the bathroom and being hungry literally all the time. I haven't even checked my weight gain since my last doctor's appointment because I don't even want to know!

Kennedy still continues to be a total social butterfly. I love picking her up from school and seeing her hug every single child in her class goodbye. I also love the car rides home because I hear everything that happened that day, who she played with, what they had for snack, who went to time out, lol. I am so excited for her to be a big sister!

Linking up with these fabulous ladies today! Have a great weekend!

Confessions

I must confess:

1. Potty training is frustrating me. My original plan for potty training Kennedy was to do it during spring break when I would be home for an entire week. However, her teachers at daycare kept telling us she was ready and that she was asking to be changed every time she went in her diaper. Over Martin Luther King weekend, we tried the "3 day potty training method" everyone swears by. By the end of the weekend we were pretty much trained as far as peeing in the potty but number 2 was a BIG NO and it still is. So, this makes it pretty much impossible for us to send her to daycare in underwear or wear underwear out and about. We didn't want to put her back in diapers so we have been doing pull-ups. The bad thing is sometimes at school she will be busy playing and not want to stop to go potty and she knows she can just go in the pull-up. I feel like in a sense the pull-ups are holding her back some. We have her in underwear at home and we don't even have to remind her to go, she will just run to the potty when she has to go. As far as the going number 2, I have no clue what to do about that. Sunday I noticed her squatting and when I tried to make her run to the potty, she began to hysterically scream and yell "no." I have heard not to force it, so I just let it go, but it sure isn't fun cleaning up poopy panties. I am trying not to stress about it though. We have been so lucky that every other transition/change we have done with Kennedy has gone super smooth. She went from a bottle to a sippy cup like a pro, easily gave up her paci a month before her 2nd birthday and transitioned to her toddler bed from crib and booster seat from high chair like nothing had even changed. So, we really can't complain. Hopefully she will be  potty trained by the time baby brother gets here in May.

2. I haven't watched the Oscars in several years but I am planning on watching it this year because American Sniper was seriously one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. If you haven't seen it yet, you are missing out! Bradley Cooper was amazing!

3. I have no desire to do my own nails.  It seems like EVERYONE is selling Jamberry nails or having a Jamberry nails party. My Facebook has been flooded with invites. My former student Ryleigh's mom Denise has been doing my nails for years. She only charges me 25 dollars (I get gel nails) and she has me in and out of her house in 30-45 minutes. I have heard the Jamberry nails are super easy to apply but tell that to someone who has more Pinterest fails than she can count. DIY is just not my thing.


4. Even though I am FAR from a UGA fan, I was super excited that wide receiver Michael Bennett came to share his testimony at our church last Sunday. He talked about how tearing his ACL has made him closer to God and gave a lot of insight on running towards Him and not away when things get tough. Very inspiring!