I'm glad SOMEONE......

is ready for delivery and taking things seriously around here!!! hahahahahaha!

Ready to be a Big Sister! :)

Abby had sooooo much fun. She did so good, and LOVED it. If there was any doubt of how she would do in a pre-school setting, this helped clear it up. She answered every question, listened to everything, followed directions and had a BLAST! The class was so cute. They got bags with all sorts of things to 'help' with the baby: diaper, wipes, lotion, hat for the baby, coloring books, crayons, etc. She talked to them about rules with the baby: always washing hands (and how they are in charge of making sure everyone washes their hands before they touch their baby), always ask Mommy before you touch, etc. Then they played games: which toys are safe for baby, how to hold the baby, how to help with bath. They showed a little show and had snack, then we got to go to Labor and Delivery and see the rooms.

There was a baby in the nursery and they got to see the cord, etc. Then they all gathered around the window and sang Twinkle, Twinkle to the baby. It was so sweet!

And, let's not forget a typical Abby moment. They were talking about poopy diapers, and she told everyone that we put the poopy diaper in the yard-haha! We take them straight out to the trash can outside, so I guess she thinks we take them to the yard. We will clarify that in the morning.


Getting all ready with her new jewelry....
Just getting started.....
Now she is comfortable. She moved herself right up next to the nurse and stayed there...helping, of course-haha!
Her turn to hold the baby!
Such a good listener!:)
Her Big Sister certificate. They also got Big Sister stickers, and made a frame that will hang in L&D until Olivia is born. We can put a picture of them in it, and then take it home when we leave.

My Big Girl! :)

We were so proud of her tonight, and I know you all would have been, too. She is going to be such a good big sister. She was so excited, she was BOUNCING off the walls. We thought we would never get her to sleep.

Abby Time....

After a post of complaining, I have to follow up with a post about Abby, because she will put anyone in a good mood! :)

Tonight is a big night for Abby.....SIBLING CLASS!!! She is so excited. We have made a huge deal of it. Today at the store she got to pick out some bracelets and necklaces to wear tonight. (she also picked out some tattoos, but those will have to wait-haha!), tonight we are making homemade pizza (just like Elmo and Emeril-haha!), and then class is from 7-9! (CRAZY late hrs. for a sibling class, but it's just one time!) I really hope she enjoys it and has fun.

Also, I wanted to share some funny things that she has said to me lately. I could never record them all, because this child is like a stand-up comic, but these are some of my favorites. (I remember reading once when Abby was just a baby, that kids don't truly develop a sense of humor until they are 7....I think that is complete bull!)

****She loves to look at our wedding pictures. So, we talk a lot about getting married, being a mommy, etc. I tell her all the time that she has to marry someone like her Daddy, and that I hope she has a little girl just like her. Sometimes, it's so that she gets a little taste of her own medicine-haha!;), but mostly because I want her to be as happy as I am one day. Anyways, we are having the talk yesterday and she tells me, 'I am going to get married and be a mommy when I get bigger, like when I am 7!' haha! Then she goes on to tell me that she is already a good mommy, and she lists off about 20 people that she feels she takes care of on a daily basis! 'I take care of Dixon, Olivia, Mommy, Daddy, Alpine, baby Huffington, etc. etc.' haha!


****Also yesterday, we were shopping and I can't stop buying matching clothing for the girls (I always swore I wouldn't do this, but I can't help it!) She looks at me being dead serious and says, 'Does Olivia have to have ALL the same clothes as me!?' haha! So, after that comment and Scott finding my stash of new clothes for the girls, I have been cut off from anymore matching clothes.


***The other night, I had just gotten her out of the bath and she could hear Scott out here watching something on TV, she yells out here to him, 'Dad...are you out there watching Seinfeld!?' haha!


Anyways, here is one of my recent favorite pics (since I know most people only log on to see pics of her and I don't blame them)......
And, one of my all-time favorites. Scott put her burpie on like a little do'-rag! She has always thought Daddy was so funny! (and I have to give it to her, he is quite hilarious!:)

Well, wish us luck tonight. Hopefully, we will have some pictures and stories to share! :)

I'm Done!

Let me start this post by saying the following: I truly do enjoy being pregnant, and I know what a blessing it is. I have been so lucky. I have breezed through 2 pregnancies with no complications. 90% of the time, I feel GREAT. Even now, it hasn't slowed me down a bit. I still go non-stop all day with Abby, I can still exercise, no swelling, little pain, etc. BUT....yep, here it comes.....BUT.....


I AM DONE! I will be 38 weeks this weekend, and I am just ready to not be pregnant anymore. Look at me...I am a HOUSE! I want my body back, I want my energy back, I want my coffee drinks back (haha!), I want to go run a couple of miles, I want my work-outs back, I want my clothes back, I want to sleep for longer than 1 hr. without having to pee. Am I miserable??.....depends when you ask me (most of the time, NO!:), but YES!...the last few days it is all getting harder. My pelvis feels like it has been cracked in two, my legs feel like they are going to fall out of socket at any min., and I have contractions all day long. Even my cute maternity clothes look bad! :( haha!

If I go to my appt. on Tues. and they tell me that I am locked up tighter than Fort Knox, then I might start crying. I never had any REAL contractions until the morning I went into labor with Abby, but I have been having contractions for almost a week now. I am hoping I go in, they say, 'WOW, Andrea....you are 5cm dilated.' And, then I can say, 'SUPER...can I have my epidural now, before I go home!' haha! Yes, wishful thinking, I know! One can dream, though, right??? Scott is terrified that my water is going to break, and he is even more afraid that it is going to break on his precious recliner (he really does want me to put liners down on it and in the car-haha!), so I hope that my water breaks in some dramatic fashion, so that I have a good story to tell, and so he is completely freaked out! haha!


Okay, I'm done complaining for the day!! Onto the postive things....I have carried her to full-term, so we are praying and hoping for another healthy, beautiful little girl! I have had a healthy, boring, text book pregnancy. The end IS in sight...I mean, you can't be pregnant forever, right?? haha! And, most importantly, in a couple of weeks, the newest addition to the family will be here, surrounded by loved ones!

A day at the park and beach....

The last 2 days have been so GORGEOUS. Today we decided to head to Carlyle Lake. They have a nice park/picnic area and the beach. We played and played and ran and played, until I thought my legs were going to fall out of socket. haha! (I am doing all I can to make sure I don't end up carrying this baby for 42 weeks-haha!)

Anyways, we had a BLAST! We played for over 3 hrs. and finally had to leave, because we were both so hungry. I think she would still be there playing now, if I would have let her.

Getting ready to tackle the park. There is nothing too high or too big for her anymore. She does it all, and then some. If you aren't careful, she is hanging from monkey bars or scaling rock walls.
She has to get a good swing in on the bar first. She can flip herself over the bar on her swing set at home now. Just a matter of time until we are in the ER with a first broken bone I am afraid.
:( She has ZERO fear.
Down to the beach for some more fun.....

We didn't bring suits or anything, because I just figured we would splash in the water and play in the sand. I should have known better. She was waist deep in the water before it was all over. haha!

For a 2 yr. old and a 9 mo. pregnant woman, we made some mean sand castles and sand forts. haha!

Crushing our sand fort. Look at her sandy butt! haha! Yes, it took a good 30min. to get her cleaned up, in dry clothes and in the car.

She is ready to go back and take everyone with her. She said she even wants to take Tabor, Blazer and Dixon. haha!

Bug Catchers and Bassinets...

Abby has a new obsession with catching bugs, so Gi-gi and Goggy brought her a GREAT bug catching set when they came to visit this weekend. So far, we have caught a butterfly, a moth, and dead crickets. hahaha!


Checking out the butterfly that Goggy caught for her.



They also brought a bassinet for Olivia. If she is anything like her big sister, then sleeping in this will be a joke...sleeping at all will be a joke. But, we are going to be hopeful that she likes. it. We have been taking the removable part off for Abby to play with. She wanted to get in it. hahaha! How ridiculous is that!?
She got her blankets, Alpine, burpies, etc. and cuddled up in there and pretended to be a baby-haha. I think the funniest part is that she is almost 3 and still fits in there. She will grow one day.:)

A Good Day....

***I am still pregnant! YAY! (I truly did have a panic attack the other night when I allowed myself to think about delivery, recovery, newborn, etc., so I will happily stay pregnant as long as I can)

***Abby and I discovered a new area of the park today with a creek and bridge and more playground equipment. She was thrilled and played forever.

***COOKIES! If I allowed myself, I could eat baked goods all day long. haha!

***The weekend. I can (hopefully) get some much needed sleep, in-law's are coming to visit, Dr. appt. tomorrow, no work for Scott, REST! YAY!


***A vine from Abby's tomato plant fell over so she got to pick a bunch of cherry tomatoes tonight before our walk.


***Friends that can sew and make darling dresses for Abby!

***I have the greatest best friend in the whole wide world! :-) (she's a little sassy and bossy at times, though-haha!;-)

Utley Olympic Moments!

As I mentioned before, I am OBSESSED with the Olympics. Each night we turn them on about 30min. before Abby goes to bed. She likes diving and gymnastics the best, but she turns lots of things into Olympic sports now, and likes to get and give gold medals.


The other night we were talking about how if the Olympics are held in Chicago in 2012, we should take the girls to some events. Just as we were saying that, Abby vaults from her potty, onto the mattress and then dive rolls off of the mattress. I then said to Scott, 'or we might be there watching from the stands as she competes for USA gymnastics!' hahaha!


Here she is today during some of her competitions. Today was gymnastics and pillow case racing. Yesterday was snow ball fighting and swimming.

She has great height and distance (distance is surprising, considering how short her little legs are-haha)


Onto the next event.....
She even had a fall at the finish, but she still won the gold medal.......however.......
she was mad about the fall, and was being a sore loser and threw her medal down on the ground. Talk about disrespectful! Someone needs to learn a thing or two about good sportsmanship! hahaha!

A good laugh at my expense....

SISTER IN LAW, Sara-You will LOVE these stories!! haha!

Well, the last few days have been worthy of blogging about, that is for sure. For starters, Abby no longer sleeps past 6am. She has napped maybe 3 times in the last 6mo., and getting her to sleep before 8-8:30 each night is a JOKE! So, to say that we are all a little tired is an understatement.

We will start with yesterday.....She's up bright and early, so I decide THAT'S IT!...if she is going to sleep like that, then she has no choice and will need to start napping again. I tell her from the start of the day, that she will have to rest after lunch, etc. We had a good morning. Park, farmers market, etc. Nap time rolls around. She goes into her room just fine. I pat her, the whole routine. I also made sure I took all the step stools or anything she can climb on from her room, because she uses them to turn on her light, jumps from them, whatever else her little minds decides to do. I leave the room and don't hear anything for a while, and I am feeling pretty victorious. Then, I think I hear music. No, that can't be, it's dark, she has no access to light, her closet is shut, etc. She must be singing. Defeated in the nap area, but maybe she will have some quiet time. Few min. later she is knocking in her door. I ignore her. Few more min. pass and she is knocking again, and yelling for me. I go in the hall and her light is on. 'How in the he!! did she manage that?' I open the door....she managed to rummage through her room finding anything that would stack and got herself hig enough to turn on the light, got into her closet and this is what was on the other side of the door when I opened it.....


hahahahahahahahaha! And, to top it off, she had pants full of poop! SUPER! Needless to say, I offically give up on even attempting a nap. It's just NOT worth it.

And, just take the time to read this next bit about our day today (it's worth it, trust me).....It all started at a little after 6 AGAIN. Before 7 she had managed to drop one of my favorite picture frames. Thankfully, it didn't shatter and/or hurt her, and I was able to get it back together. Then I decide we will call and see if I can get the recall repair done on the car. We really need to have it done before Olivia gets here, today is as good a day as any. So.....here you go......(and for a visual....Abby is wearing a medal that Scott got for winning a Spelling Bee in the third grade and carrying his school picture from that same year...hahaha! She is so proud of her Daddy and his 20yr. old accomplishment!)

*****LET ME RE-CAP the last 6 hours for you....it's really quite a story! So, I call and get an appt. for the recall repair on the car. They can do it at 2. No big deal, we will go to storytime, run errands, get lunch, kill time until 2. We leave at 9:30 for storytime, but before we even make it out of the house, Abby manages to pee on the floor....TWICE. Once after our shower and once on the carpet while I am drying my hair. We make it to storytime (late, as usual). The actual storytime was fun, but as we are leaving Abby and I head to the bathroom and I see our friend standing at the snack bar. She yells to me, 'grab Katelyn, she just ran over there.' Ummm...No Katelyn. I tell her that I don't see her, but I will go check in the bathroom. Katelyn is almost 2, by the way. Snack bar is right beside the bathroom, she had JUST ran off while my friend was helping her 4 yr. old. I check the bathroom and no Katelyn. I tell her that she isn't in there, by this time my friend was over there checking the mens bathroom, too. Nope! PANIC MODE. Everyone disperses yelling for Katelyn. I made a mad dash for the front of the store to keep an eye on the door and look for her. We had about 3 parents looking everywhere at this point, and she is no where. My friend was about to call the cops when she looked in the mens bathroom one more time and she was hiding in a stall! I nearly had a heart attack and it wasn't even my child. We were looking for many minutes, so you can imagine how long that is to a parent seaching for a child.

After all of that excitement, we finally make it to the bathroom where Abby discovers the toilet liner dispenser and makes herself a cape from the toilet liner. She REFUSES to take it off. I don't have the energy for the little fights anymore, so out she goes into Borders wearing a toliet seat liner, yelling that she is Super Kitty, here to save the world! (she is ALWAYS a cat these days) I finally wrangle her to the car, we go get our pottery (yes, the broken pottery that I still had to pay for-haha! ). Run into a few stores (yes, still wearing a toilet seat liner), make it to lunch and finish kiling time in Target, where Abby searches the ENTIRE store for a bug catcher. She didn't have any luck, and settled on a dry erase board-haha!. (I also got a new tote and some SUPER cute matching clothes for the girls for next summer....they are having a big sale right now)

We get to the dealership and the lady says, 'oh, there are 3 recalls on the car. It's going to be about an hour and a half, are you just planning on hanging out here!?' Ummmmm....does it look like I am going to hang out here for almost 2 hrs? (did she NOT see my daughter attempting to climb the stack of tires or digging mulch from the planted plants to 'feed to Theodore'..Theodore is her imaginary chimpmunk!) They told me it would be 30-40 MINUTES when we called! Ugh, so we basically waited around and killed time for over 3 hrs. to just make a new appt. for next Sat. We are finally heading home and I pass our damn road. I assume that is a sign that I need to go get ice cream.-haha! We are FINALLY (for real this time) on our way home. I turn the corner to the garage.....YEP, I left the garage door open the ENTIRE day. SUPER! I made Abby wait in the garage while I searched the entire house with a steak knife and my cell phone in my hand. Checking all the closets, the basement and under the beds.

I have been counting the min. until Scott gets home, and he just called and said he is stopping somewhere on his way home. I guess he wants to sleep on the couch tonight? haha! Really, would one margarita do any harm at this point????? (I am TOTALLY joking about the margarita, by the way)

LESS than a month....

actually, only 20-something days until my DUE DATE! aaaaahhhh! Everyone is getting ready for the arrival. Abby practices with her toys and babies (and still plays with Imaginary Olivia all day), Scott is trying to get things tied up at work, and I am doing what I do best....finding things to freak out and obsess about. haha! I had been making a list of things that we needed for the last few weeks (last min. things, essentials for baby and me, etc.), and Abby and I went and got everything yesterday. She can offically come now, because I have everything-haha. I have been having lots of contractions, etc. the past few days, but nothing consistent or TOO major, so I am sure we won't be seeing her for a few more weeks. I have an appt. Sat. morning, so we will see if anything is progressing.

This picture just makes me laugh because my arms are so tan and my stomach is so pale. I am not one to go bare belly at the pool with a big prego belly-haha! I figured I would spare everyone that sight.
Abby is SUCH a good mommy, so I know she will be a SUPER big sister!...she tells us this all the time now, too. We got a bath sponge for Olivia yesterday, but her dog, Alpine, needed a bath. She has Sibling Class at the hospital next week. That should be interesting-haha! I think she will love it. They just show them how to help Mommy with the baby, and they take a tour of the hospital, etc.

Fun in the Back Yard!

I had no idea how much I missed having the back yard fenced. We spend so much time back there, and Dixon can acutally run and play with Abby again. I guess putting up the fence makes it more fun in the back yard. haha. (all mental, I know!:)

Chasing butterflies....
Displaying her jumping skills.....
Awe, Best Friends Forever:)...or until he makes her mad and she throws something at him, etc. haha!

And, Scott came in proudly displaying this photo to me. She was 'napping' in Dixon's house. haha!

Taking it easy....

We have been trying to get in as much fun as we can these last couple of weeks, while not over-doing it. As I mentioned, we went out to the winery the other day. The majority of our time is spent at the park, playing outside, going to Dr. appts., and running errands. We also took advantage of the last free movie, Horton Hears a Who. And, anything else we can find to get into that doesn't require walking 500 miles in the heat. haha!

Here are some pics from the winery!

Attempting Photograhpy!

So, I had the goal of learning more about my camera and editing before Olivia was born. (I have BIG plans for some AMAZING pics of the girls;-) Today, Abby and I had an AWESOME day. We went out to the winery, had a picnic at that park and just played at the park for hours. How awesome is this weather....especially for me, since I am about to pop and anything hotter than 80 degress sends me into a heat stroke-haha!

Anyways, here is some of my 'work' from today. It helps that I have the world's most beautiful model! :-)

I know they are a far cry from professional, but I think they put JC Penny's to shame! hahaha!!

I have TONS of pics from the winery and more from today, but I wanted to get these on here while I actually had some time.

****If any of you have any photography experience, please pass on any tips, etc. Or email me with any advice, etc. !! :)