First day of Kindergarten

My little man started Kindergarten today!

**sniff sniff**

I wanted to start a fun school tradition so I decided that each year on the first day of school eve I would get a small gift. After work yesterday I ran to Walmart and got Parker his first Bionicle. Holy cow, he was so excited! He stayed up for an extra half hour with his dad putting it together. What a smart kid....he put it together almost all on his own.

This morning Parker woke up about 3 hours earlier than he usually does (he must have been really excited). I made him his favorite breakfast, Cream of Wheat. And, I added a little special something to mark the occasion, fresh raspberries and blackberries. He was in heaven! After breakfast he got dressed in the outfit he picked out all by himself. I think he did pretty dang good!

Off to school! As we were walking into the building I started tearing up a little bit. I know, I'm such an emotional wreck when it comes to this kind of stuff. Thank goodness for sunglasses! I was seriously fighting back the tears the entire way into the school, while Park hung up his backpack, found his name tag, and started to play. I was fighting back tears while I forced him to give me a goodbye hug (yes, I'm one of those moms that makes my kid hug me in front of his friends) and I was still fighting them back as I walked out the door and drove home.

While I was busy being a complete wreck, Parker couldn't get into the classroom fast enough. I'm so happy that he's growing up to be such an independant little person, but at the same time it makes me sad that he doesn't need me as much anymore. I'm so proud of my little man and I'm so excited for him to start experiencing all the things he'll be exposed to in school. I'm especially excited for him to learn to read! If he's anything like his mom, once he learns how to read he's going to have his nose stuck in a book every spare second.

Parker, Mommy and Daddy are sooo sooo proud of you and the sweet, handsome little guy that you're growing up to be. We know you will have so much fun in school, learning new things and making new friends. We love you so much!!

Ready for school to start

Hanging up his backpack

How studly does he look??

Love you Bug!!

Lil' Pumpkin EDD 10/29/10

I had a 3d/4d ultrasound done last friday. Seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

I almost didn't get these done but I am SO glad that I did! She must not have to much room in there cause she was seriously bent in half. Both of her feet were right next to her face and man was she movin'! I can already tell she is gonna have a huge personality and I can't wait to meet my little princess in person!

29 down-11 to go

We went to our 29 week appt on Aug 13th. It's our last 4 week visit...that means we're getting closer to DD! I have to say I am so proud of my weight gain so far. Only up 9lbs! My nurse said the average at this time is about 19lbs so I'm pretty excited that I haven't let myself go like I did the first time around LOL.

The results from my gestational diabetes test came in at 104. My Dr. said anything under 140 is good. I was a little worried about it since right before I went in to take the test I downed a double chocolate cupcake. Don't judge me, I have no willpower when it comes to chocolate right now. Anyway, blood pressure is still great, hovering around 106-60. Little Lucys heartbeat was strong and just fluttering away. Looks like we're well on our way to welcoming a healthy little girl into our family in just a few weeks.

The past week or so I've been getting alot of Braxton Hicks contractions. I never had them with parker so when they started I wasn't sure what they were. Thank you Google for always answering my questions. The contractions feel like my entire stomach tenses up into a big ball, holds like that for a couple seconds and then it relaxes. It doesn't hurt at all but it does feel pretty dang weird. It's getting alot harder to fit any food in my stomach cause there is seriously, no room left in there! Makes me kinda sad cause I really really, and I mean really, like to eat. I feel so full after eating even a small amount that I can barely move!

Oh, I finally got my quilt ordered for the nursery! It's not the one I was thinking about getting. It's MUCH cuter! I'll post pics as soon as it gets here. John and I started stripping the antique dresser over the weekend. We got the 2 small drawers done. 7 coats of paint stripped away and underneath is a gorgeous oak! Not to mention, we uncovered some fabulous little keyholes on each drawer!

Next update....32 weeks :)

25 week update

Since I'm about a week behind I figured I'd better post an update.

I had my 25 week appt on 7/16. Good news, the little pumpkin is doing GREAT! BP is still looking good, weight gain is on track (only a 7 pd gain so far!!) and babys heart rate was perfect! My Dr. still thinks she sounds like a boy when listening to her heart rate. I have to get my glucose test done in 2 weeks, not looking forward to that! That stuff is disgusting!

Update on my To Do List:

I did get the nursery room cleared out and all of my office stuff moved downstairs. The desk is still in the nursery (waiting on the hubby for that one) but other than that its ready to get started. I found a super cute dresser that I plan on refinishing for the babys room. I haven't started on that yet but hopefully this weekend. Great news, we cleaned the basement!! We went through every box we had and threw away a ton of stuff and got a huge flatbed trailer full of stuff to sell at the yard sale. It was a huge pain but I am sooo glad it's done. It's so refreshing to let go of old things that we'll never use again, making room for new things! I have to admit, I teared up a little bit while going through all of Parker's baby clothes and baby toys and even some things from my childhood but I did save the things that I was most attached to. Now that our basement is basically empty (aside from holiday decor, things that go in the office, and a couple of storage containers of miscellaneous items) we can start finishing it! Speaking of empty, John and I went through our dressers and closet and got rid of so many clothes! I seriously cannot believe how many clothes we had that we NEVER wore. I got rid of so much that I no longer need a dresser LOL. So, I sold that at the yard sale too :) Now I have plenty of room to buy a new dresser, that I actually like, and new clothes to fill all that empty space in my closet.

After all that hard work of sorting through things to throw away and things to sell, we had a multifamily yard sale with my parents and my brothers. Wow, I cannot believe the amount of stuff that we all had! My parents driveway is pretty dang big and it was PACKED with stuff. We had a great turnout, most people wanting everything for nothing, but we still made out ok. Almost $400 dollars later we were done!

So, to sum up my progress on the checklist from 4 weeks ago:
Basement cleaned out-check
Nursery cleaned out-check
yard sale done-check

I don't think John's going to have time to finish the basement until this winter so that's going on the back burner for now. I still need to order my top window blind for the nursery and I decided I'm not painting the nursery until the baby quilt gets here (hopefully in the next couple weeks). I need to have that so I can pick coordinating colors.

25 wk To Do List:
order crib
finish dresser (will post before and after pics when it's done)
wait for quilt
paint nursery
and,if I can find one, install antique chandelier in nursery

How did this happen??

Where did the time go?? How is my baby 5 years old already?!?

The invite!!

We had so much fun planning this years birthday bash. We had a Monster Jam theme complete with racing flags all along the flower beds around the entire yard, a balloon arch, monster truck picture, monster truck pinata, tattoos and monster truck themed games.

A special thanks to Mother Nature for allowing great weather (perhaps a little on the hot side) and a very special thanks to my awesome hubby for helping me get everything together and not complaining about it to much. Love you babe!

The party guests got to draw their own Monster Truck and get a Monster Truck tattoo (or 2) they were awesome! We played 'Pin the license plate on Grave Digger' complete with personalized license plates for each guest. Then we played Grave Digger dash where the kids split into teams and had to fill a shovel with dirt, run back to their team and dump it in their team bucket until it was full. We played 'Hot Wheels' which is hot potato, just with a Monster Truck and we played 'Red Light, Green Light'. Each guest got their own pull back Monster Truck toy and we had Monster Truck races. Then we finished off with a pinata and cake and ice cream. We had so much fun!! But, I gotta say, I'm glad it's over!

Here's a shot of the balloon arch and the flags. By the time I took this picture a bunch of the balloons had popped due to the heat.

I decided not to stress this year about making a special birthday cake. Thank you Macey's bakery for the super cute cake that Parker loved!!

The decorations turned out dang cute!

This is most of the kids that came to the party. A couple had already called it a day by the time I got this shot. Thanks everyone for coming and making Parker's birthday so special!!

Lake Powell 2010

This year we got to spend 5 GLORIOUS days in Lake Powell. Me, John, Parker, Mom and Dad and Jenny and Matt all headed down early early Friday morning. A group was just getting ready to leave our spot when we got there so we didn't have to go searching for a new one. Lucky us! As usual, the wind was pretty strong during the afternoons but the temperature was perfect and the water was awesome! The fishing got better and better everyday! I seriously did not want to come back....I would have been perfectly content staying there for the rest of the summer :) I had so much fun relaxing and doing nothing I didn't get very many pictures. Here are the few I got for your viewing pleasure.Parker driving Grandpa's boat....spoiled! I don't even get to drive Grandpa's boat ;)

Little stinker Maisy tried sneaking onto the houseboat. Our association rules state NO DOGS. We brought all three of them with us, but did a pretty good job keeping them out of the boat.

My little fisherman-his daddy is so proud!

Parkey learned how to do a cannonball!

My kids chillin' in the shade.

I was so surprised my big dogs did such a good job sticking around camp! They had so much fun and were exhausted by the end of the first day :)

We had such a good trip and I cannot WAIT to go back in July!!

Holy Shamoly! Only 20 weeks left!

Yay!! We're at the half way point!! In 20 more weeks I get to meet my baby girl. This pregnancy is flying by so quickly...I have absolutely nothing done and I'm feeling so very unprepared :(
I've been working A TON of hours lately, trying to get some OT so I can pay off some debts and get some extra money in savings before I go part time. I just got done with an 80 hour week and am jsut beginning a 78 hour week. I'm so exhausted already! But, the checks will more than make up for it.
As far as the pregnancy goes, I feel AMAZING!! The only complaint I have right now is my pants don't want to button up anymore. Which means, yup, you guessed it...SHOPPING! Dang it ;) I can feel this little pumpkin moving all the time now and, man, is she a mover! I don't have any strange cravings yet...mostly just fruit, veggies and pasta. Lately I haven't been a fan of red meat. The texture of hamburger makes me want to vomit! I feel almost vegetarian due to the mostly meat free meals I cook throughout the week. I think John's getting a little tire of it :)

I had my 20 week ultrasound done on Thursday June 10th. While the Dr. was doing her heart measurements he did an EKG and noticed a little bit of an arrhythmia. It kind of sounded like her heart was skipping a beat. Needless to say, I was FREAKING OUT! He said that a slight arrhythmia at this point is fairly common and it usually corrects itself by birth. I calmed down slightly after that but I was still really worried. He checked all her measurements starting with her heart, them moving to her brain, spine, abdominal cavity, face (no cleft palate), appendages(10 little finger, 10 little toes!) and then rechecked her gender. Yup, she's still ALL girl!! She was so dang cute during all of this. Her little legs were folded up against her, then she'd stretch one out for a second then fold it right back in. She kept her left hand over her chest pretty much the entire time. I guess she's going to be pretty patriotic. While the Dr. was trying to get a good profile shot of her he says to me "Oh, well, that explains it!" I'm like, "What?? Explains what??" She had the hiccups! It was the cutest thing ever!! And that, of course, explained the arrhythmia. After she stopped hiccupping he did another EKG and, sure enough, perfect heart rate! Her heart rate was measuring between 126-132BPM during the ultrasound. Anywhere from 120-160 is normal. The old wives tale says a fast heart rate is a girl and a slow heart rate is a boy. I guess she proved that wrong :)
Dr. figured she was about 13oz and measuring at about 20wks 1 day instead of 19 wks 6 days. He estimated her due date to be Oct 28th at 0700. I think he thinks he's pretty funny.
At my 20 wk appt with Dr. Nance I weighed in at 167(ugh). I had just ate a big lunch at Sizzler so I'm taking 1.5lbs off due to that(don't judge! :) So, I'm saying I'm at 165.5lbs which means a weight gain of 5.5lbs. BP still around 110/65. I talked to Dr. Nance about limiting my stress and trying to get full term this time around. he said that it would be a good idea if I keep my stress level to a minimum(Ya right! Obviously he's never been a dispatcher)and to not add anything in to my daily routine that would create more stress. So I have to talk to my training supervisor at work to see if I can opt out of this next training session of new hires. I doub't she'll be very happy but it's for the well being of Little Pumpkin so I really don't care.

One of my pregnancy goals is to have everything for the baby completely ready by the time I'm 32 weeks. Wow, that's only 12 weeks away! I can't believe how fast time flies! I'm going to be making 'To Do' lists in 4 week increments. And, here's the first one.
To Do list for the next 4 weeks:
Clean out basement
Finish office room in the basement
Have a yard sale
Clear out and paint the nursery
Order top window blind for the nursery

I seriously cannot wait to start checking things off of this list and starting a new list for my 24 week point!
Wish me luck!!