A lot to be proud of...

Katie has had a very exciting week. She met her teachers and some of her new classmates at preschool and today stayed in her classroom all by herself while Mommy went to a parents meeting. We had talked a lot about it and I told her that she was going to stay in her classroom and do lots of fun stuff while Mommy went to a meeting, hopefully heading off any confusion as to why Mommy was leaving etc. She does so much better with situations when we talk thoroughly about them ahead of time. Anyway, I kid you not, we walk in the door of her classroom and she says something to the effect of "Ok Mommy, I'm going to do fun stuff, you can go." I mean, I wasn't asking for tears or leg clinging but sheesh! Anyway, she did just fine to say the least and I think she's going to have a blast. Actual classes start next Tuesday..whoohoo! She was so proud of her first peice of artwork, that I just had to share it :)


You may not be able to tell in the picture, but her little paper doll has a smile on it. Not to gloat, but I did happen to notice that hers was the only one in the bunch with a smile added on. Dare I say gifted? :P TOTALLY KIDDING! Haha!

Also this morning Katie found my ultrasound pictures from yesterday and was so interested in the pictures of Baby Ryan that she carried them around everywhere. We even had to take them in the car to preschool and they had to be left in her carseat so they would be there when she got back. She loves looking at them. I've mentioned before that my doctor has THE WORST ultrasound tech ever for capturing pictures. They are downright horrible. I'm supposed to have a picture of a face (which I did see briefly live), 2 pictures of his hands, and a confirmation that Ryan is indeed still Ryan. :P Anyway, Katie is very proud of the pictures of her little brother as well.

Ch...Ch...Ch...Changes...

Well, the house is off the market...boo! But I'm rather relieved. Now I can focus all my nesting energy on reorganizing the rooms in our house to accomodate Baby Boy. First we needed to combine our guest room with our office. Kind of a tough undertaking when your husband is a computer geek, you are a pack rat and your office was the dumping ground! We did it though!!! Then it was time to paint Katie's new room and move all her furniture. DONE! Thanks to my mother-in-law and father in law that is! Now we just need to paint Ryan's room and get all the baby furniture and paraphernalia out of storage!! Oh and there's the little task of losing an entire storage closet and not having a place for the stuff that was inside of it. :S

They are almost gone....

my feet that is. This is the best I could get of them. :P



Yesterday Lindsay, Jenifer and I went and got pedicures. My first, I should add! Anyone who knows me well knows I have issues with my feet....major issues. I didn't even get a pedicure for my wedding! Well...being severely preggers and having feet that are swollen and hurt beyond belief helped me get over my fear and boy was it great! I could have done without the poking and prodding and the poor girl almost got kicked 4 or 5 times but all in all it was great! I may have to make it a regular thing...don't tell Keith. :P

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Gosh....29 again. Wait, I'm not sure if that will work anymore considering your daughter is 30....hmmmm :P Anyway, we wish we could be there to help you celebrate this momentus occasion but we'll see you very soon when Ryan comes. LOVE YOU!

Katie decided Grandma needed a picture...Mommy helped but the balloons are all Katie :P (excuse the crappy photography)


Isn't she gorgeous?? :P

A day for Katie...

Katie has been talking a lot about wanting to go to the beach and play in the sand so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to take Katie on a nice trip to Galveston just for her before her world gets turned upside down. School starts in a couple of weeks and there's that little thing called becoming a big sister. :P Anyway, after waking up this morning to horrendous downpours and thunder and almost calling off the trip, Keith convinced me that we should just go ahead and go and see what happens. I would have kicked myself majorly if I didn't listen! It turned out to be a beautiful and awesome day! No rain in Galveston and I actually got sunburned! These are mostly snapshots. I'm way to pregnant and uncomfortable to wrangle Katie into anything resembling technically correct in the midday sun. But as you can see...she had a great time and that's all that matters!







This was better in theory :P


We also went to the Moody Gardens Aquarium on the way home, which Katie of course LOVED! No pics from there...I only got a few and didn't get around to looking at them.

Baby Shower!

Saturday my friends Lindsay and Jenifer were so sweet and threw me a baby shower. It was especially nice a) because I wasn't really expecting one and b) my mom was able to fly out for it! I was so grateful for everyone who was able to make it and celebrate Baby Ryan's impending arrival!

Here are some pictures that Lindsay took! THANKS LINDSAY!!

Awww...boy stuff!


The Grandmas


Cherie made a new friend :)


Some of the crowd :P


Pics with the fam :) (my mom, Keith's mom, Stacy, Julie)



Look! All three of us in a picture! Could I look any huger next to these beanpoles?? :P


And a BIG HUGE GINORMOUS THANK YOU to Lindsay and Jenifer! It was a wonderful day!

Scouting...

I have a session this weekend with the fab L family and needed to test out a location I've never used before. It was really sweet and I think it will be great for little Miss A's 1 year pictures! I can't believe I took her newborn pictures...it seemed like yesterday!

Anyway, here's Katie...being typical Katie. Heaven forbid she actually look at me. I pushed the color on some of these so it may be a bit much.

Biggun'

Well, it looks like baby Ryan is going to follow in his big sis's footsteps and be a biggun'. I had a BPP (Biophysical Profile) ultrasound yesterday as a normal precaution for my blood pressure. He's measuring about a week and a half ahead! Plus the doc says he's right around 6lbs! My books say an average baby weighs 4.75 lbs at 34 weeks. Yowzers! Unfortunatley no pictures :( I was soooo bummed! A) He was facing my spine so they couldn't see his face B) His legs were crossed so we couldn't confirm that yes, he is indeed a boy and C) The ultrasound tech was a fill in and wasn't as nice and accomodating as the normal one :( I also had a NST (non stress test) and all looks well with Mr. Man but I will continue to have ultrasounds and NST's every other week until he's here.

Yo Ho...Yo Ho...

A Pirate's Life for Me!

Another glance into Katie's random imagination. Yesterday we were pirates...digging for buried treasure...


I foresee a new book in the Melinda Long Pirate series of books..."Pirates Don't Wear Pants!!!" Neither does miss Katie it seems :P


Today we were doctor's giving checkups, tomorrow we'll have to see!

More lighting practice....

Tired of this sweet face yet?




Once Katie bailed on me...my other baby helped me out :)


This hat's an oldy but a goody :)

A little of this and a little of that...

Totally random post today that's for sure! Today we were anticipating Tropical Storm Edouard....BAH, what a joke at least for the part of Houston we live in. We have afternoon thunderstorms on a regular basis stronger than this guy. Oh well...it did rain all day so we were stuck inside. Here's Katie "roller painting."


And I just liked how the blown white paper makes it look like she's painting on air...umm..yeah I meant to do that ;)


T-Rex is a recent addition to Katie's menagerie of animals. We got him at the Natural History Museum the other day. She's been on a dinosaur kick lately. He's making sure nothing get's out of hand with the painting...


A snap from tub time...


These aren't anything special...just scouting a location the other day and got these snapshots of Katie and her baby. It was too hot to be creative....102 at 7pm. NICE!


And to join the nerd bandwagon like SOMEONE(love ya Dallas)...I'm posting a picture of Katie's new backpack for school, which starts in T minus 28 days!!!!!! We went the cutesy route and Katie loved picking it out all herself. :)


Oh and I swear my child wears pants....sometimes.

Nesting

I'm not sure how many mom's-to-be experience nesting and I don't think I really did when I was pregnant with Katie but oh boy I think I'm experiencing now. I think it has mostly to do with the fact that I can't really prepare the way I want to for this baby as far as getting his room ready. With Katie I think her room was ready five minutes after we found out she was a girl! With our house on the market and all rooms in our house accounted for he just doesn't have a space yet. And it's driving me BONKERS! Imagine having an itch on your back that you just can't reach. That's how I feel about this. My mommy instincts are telling me I should be painting his room, putting the crib back together, hanging up all his cute clothes and I can't. :( I gave in though today and Katie and I went and got his bedding!!! Boy did it feel good! I absolutely LOVE IT! Although now I think I want to put his room together even more..haha! It's from Pottery Barn Kids and I never thought I'd ever buy bedding from there, but it was exactly what I wanted...especially the colors. Oh my goodness the colors make my heart sing!!! :P


The animals are just so cute!


But until we either sell this house and move....or we give up and change some rooms around...here's where Baby Ryan's stuff shall stay...in a big messy pile in my closet. :)