Happy Halloween 2015

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays as most of you are well aware. I hate anything scary including movies and going to haunted houses but I do love a good ghost story (with the lights on) and I love reading about real haunted places (just not going to them). I love to decorate for Halloween and get costumes and go all out. The little trick or treaters at the door and passing out candy. The yummy themed food and an excuse to have a party. All in good fun!

I started adding little Halloween décor into my house :)

 Target glitter spider garland for the win.

 I bought $40 worth of candy and filled that bucket and it was gone in 2 hours!

I may or may not have helped in the days before.....

 We carved pumpkins like we do every year. I love cooking the pumpkin seeds and crave them every year. Henry loved getting into the goo last year but this year despite all of my efforts he wouldn't touch the pumpkin goo. He just had a blast running around us and trying to steal all of the carving tools. I had my Halloween playlist on and he danced until he about passed out.

 Taylor did the scary face and I made the Royals pumpkin for myself and the despicable me/ minion pumpkin for Henry. He did sit in my lap and watch me carve for awhile

The next day I took the little squirt to Taylor's dad, mom and Taylor's offices for their Halloween parties to show off his costume. He had fun seeing them but didn't really understand what was going on.

 That afternoon he helped me make the cupcakes for the party.

Our annual Halloween open house started at 5pm and people started showing up and didn't leave until 11:30 which was a blast. We had a great turn out of people popping in and out and staying all night. I served pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting that was colored orange with spider webs on top, rice krispy treats with halloween sprinkles, chili and all the fixin's, chips and guac and salsa, a cream cheese dip, apples with warm caramel and caramel apple sangria. YUM!

 As far as costumes, I had to pick a costume that would be good for my pregnant belly and I finally decided on a "mummy-to-be". I even had eyes and one of Eleanor's orange bows on my belly. I made a skirt out of strips of white lace, white ripped up flat sheet and white guaze and then tied all the strips together and wrapped them around my white long sleeve maternity shirt. EASY. I like to dress up with a theme so I had Henry be a skeleton so he could be comfy and warm in black sweats that I just hot glued white felt "bones" on to and then Taylor was Frankenstein. We got him a sport coat from Savers for $7, I painted it to look dirty with brown paint and he wore slacks and a black shirt and boot covers for his cowboy boots to make them look like frankenstein boots. I painted his face and we stuck "bolts" to his neck. It was great!

  Our guests had amazing costumes too. We had a baby moose (Sawyer) and his mommy was a PETA enforcement person, his daddy was a hunter and his Auntie was a tree.

 My friend Kristen came from work and her son Carson is only 4 days younger than Henry. He was an oompa loompa.

 Kristen was the golden ticket and her husband was Willy Wonka. It was amazing.
 My sister was something ridiculous of course.

Henry had a blast and got to stay up really late playing with all of his friends. We watched the world series game that we won and ran out of candy by 8pm. I would say it was a great success. Taylor and I showered at midnight and fell into bed exhuasted but it was so much fun! Another epic year in the books. Can't wait to do it again as a family of 4.

Thanks and giving

"Thank you momma"....We are working on Henry with his speech daily and I try to verbalize everything. I realize that I talk a lot. I talk to friends and on the phone and to Taylor and my family and I talk to coworkers and even babies at work. I talk to Henry too and Eleanor of course. But I realized that I don't verbalize everything to Henry like I wish I did. I'm worried about his speech. He is 20 months and really only has 15 words or so. "Thank you momma" is definitely not in those few words...yet. I'm a first time mom, so naturally I freak out about everything and I also have a speech therapist for a sister so I realize that I hyper-anaylize his speaking ability and his vocabulary. I have heard that kids just have a boom of words around the 2 year mark and it will just start flowing forth like the flood gates have opened and so I'm not flipping out just yet, just aware and working on it with him. Our pediatrician thinks he is right on track, but of course I see friend's kiddos his age on social media and in person and they say things like their ABC's and sing twinkle twinkle little star and ask for things by name and Henry pretty much points and yells "dat!". And the kid WILL NOT say "momma". He can, he just chooses not to. Taylor is Daddy and I am Dada. He points to pictures of the two of us and immediately points out Taylor "Daddy!" and screams it at him when he comes home, but doesn't really say much when it comes to me. I ask him to say momma and he laughs, or says "no" or giggles and says dada instead. Stinker! My in-laws joke that all I want for Christmas is for Henry to call me momma. It's true, I do. I know his speech will come in time and I am not stressing about it....too much. But I do work a lot harder to name things, and read more to him and point out everything I am doing and such. I know he is a sponge and I want to help him to have more to absorb.

So other than that I really want nothing for Christmas. As we get ready for thanksgiving I sit here and realize that I really am so truley thankful to have a healthy family, a healthy baby in my belly, a beautiful home filled with beautiful things and people and plenty of food on the table and clothes on my back. I want for nothing. We are so abundantly blessed. This year Taylor and I have chosen to give each other a few practical things for our house like a deep freezer (to fit meals I make and breastmilk for Eleanor mainly) and maybe some wooden blinds for some of our windows. Because hey we have lived in our house for 3 years now and still have curtains or sheers on every room. Blinds are expensive and I don't want to buy cheap ones and have to replace them later. I'd rather my family have other things and the sheers and curtains have been just fine. Other than that I want to spend my money and time on the people I love and also the people I have never met. Not just around the holidays, but to be better about it overall. Being generous because I am thankful for what I have. Doing things like secret santa, filling up several bags of things to donate to less fortunate people, paying for the person's meal or drink or whatever behind me in line. Being generous and courteous, because I can and because I should. I want Henry to learn that from me too, not just how to speak, but how to behave and how to live. I want my family to have nice things and let's be honest Henry (and Eleanor) are getting spoiled for christmas. But Henry is getting a lot of educational stuff and Eleanor is getting a lot of stuff she needs, like warm clothing and diapers and blankets to stay warm. Practical stuff and a few fun things too. Henry is also going to start being exposed to the spirit of Christmas and giving especially since he is a little older now and might actually understand a little bit better this year. We are working on him saying "Thank you" not just with the "momma" part tacked on the end. And also "please". Manners in a world starting to be filled without them. Ways to show he is thankful for what he has too, from a new sippy cup of milk out of the fridge to a gift at christmas. We will be choosing a child off the angel tree like we have done several years in the past and giving them what we can for a good Christmas too. I want to teach him that Christmas isn't just about getting, but giving too. We have so much and others don't. He needs to be exposed to that and shown how to be a good person in the midst of this scary world.  And giving his mother the gift of "momma" while we are it would be just fine with me. :) So I will keep practicing that with him and keep showing him how to be a loving generous person. Doing little things that mean a lot.

Little things like this one on my bucket list that I have always wanted to do but never could get the patience or courage to do it and it runs with my theme.  Cut my hair and donate it. Seems like no big deal right? Well it is! I love my hair. It's natural blonde and strait and thin and all that jazz. I would be devastated to lose it for any reason. Being sick AND losing your hair is a double whammy especially for women and children. I just can't imagine. My hair isn't the best thing ever but I do love it. It also has been through 1.5 pregnancies and one post partum run and has fallen out and come back in again but I still feel fortunate to have it. I don't have a lot of it, but I wanted to give some anyway. It had gotten REALLY long. Like, to my true waist, long. It had embarassingly been about a year since I have had it cut. I didn't want to waste the time to have someone watch Henry to go get it done and I just didn't really think about it. But, I needed a change and a new look and I've wanted to donate it. I figured it wasn't long enough but through friends and some research found that I only needed 8" to be able to donate. That seemed like a lot but when I measured it I found that was about as much a I was willing to cut without it being too short. I figured if I was going to chop a bunch off I might as well chop a little bit more and give it to a child who needs a wig. Someone who doesn't have hair who would love to have it. So I did. I made an appointment and went and had it put in a ponytail and cut off. By the time I was done I would say about 10-11" cut and I feel like my hair looks a little healthier on me and that my hair may make some child somewhere feel a little better too. That's actually what sparked my need to give more, of myself and my time and not just my money and things. I'm working on all of that. It's my personal goal to be better as a person in general not just because I know my son is watching, though he is a great motivator.

I hope my kids grow up knowing how important it is to not only think of themselves or their immediate families, especially around the holidays. I think it's not just coincidence that we have thanksgiving first in the holiday line up to appreciate what we have, even if just for a small moment for some and then christmas with giving after. For me, it sparks me to realize how blessed I am each year and makes me want to give just that much more. We live in such an entitled world and it honestly makes me so sick to my stomach. I can't even imagine doing or saying some of the thing I hear kids do and say. I know I sound like an old lady saying that and donating hair isn't a huge deal and I'm certainly not trying to make it one. But I do think every little bit you do for someone else shows your character and hopefully a good one. No time like the present to be a good example for Henry and to be a better person myself. I want to show him that things like holding doors, letting someone else go first, helping pick up something for someone else, being kind and courteous, saying "thank you momma".  Those things are small but they matter and they may make someone else's day so much brighter.

"Be kind, for everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about"
and be thankful enough to give. My holiday motto's this year.

23 weeks

How far along? 23 weeks, baby is the size of an eggplant still (my app is lazy and says this for weeks 22-24)

Total weight gain: 10lbs

Maternity clothes? I found a cute navy dress for Taylor's company christmas party and now I'm just tryin to decide what to wear for our family pics on dec 12th. I am dying to get them done and see how they turn out. We are using a friend and sorority sister of mine and she does fantastic work. These will be my maternity pics and our new year card pics too (I won't have time to get them out for christmas so we will be the stragglers of the group and wish everyone a happy new year). I figure at 27 weeks my bump is big enough to get the idea, I won't feel massive yet and we can try to avoid the whole snow thing without snow attire like last maternity pics.

Sleep: Just more charlie horses, other than that I sleep hard and as often as possible.

Best moment this week: Painting Eleanor's room, putting the crib together and getting things rolling for her! It's feeling real now.

Miss Anything? Sleeping on my stomach. Wine.

Movement: Girlfriend is breech still and she's giving nice strong swift kicks to my bladder on the regular now-a-days. Makes me really work not to pee my pants sometimes, which I have yet to do. Praise Jesus. I hope she flips soon, I can handle a moving head on my bladder, the kicking, not so much.

Food cravings: Nothing crazy really. Cereal has still sounded good.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing :)

Gender: GIRL

Symptoms: Just going to the bathroom a lot and sciatic nerve pain occasionally and now the charlie horses. I also have had tingling in my hands and arms while I sleep if I lay on them too long and some good strong round ligament pain. Good times. But honestly, I have no complaints. It comes with the territory and I am blessed to be feeling pregnant thanks to this little miracle girl in there.

Belly Button in or out? in but more shallow, Henry likes to poke it when I ask where baby is.
Wedding rings on or off? on. :)
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy to be getting things done this week, a little stressed out trying to balance everything I have to get done and when to actually do it. I've really needed Taylor's help to handle Henry's craziness along with my to do list but he has stepped up, as always, and been an amazing daddy and husband and has helped me make it all happen.
Looking forward to:
Shopping with my mom tomorrow and getting stuff knocked off my christmas list. I have already purchased quite a few things but I still have lots to do and get done before the holidays come and with me working weekends I need to take advantage of having this one off for once. I'm also looking forward to working on Eleanor's room some more and getting more ready for her.

Last sunday my mom came over and she and I painted Eleanor's room a beautiful shade of lavender that we picked out (really my mother in law picked it and it's perfect).

Taylor got our garage cleaned out so that we can both park our cars in there for the cold winter and he did alot of organization projects I know he is excited about. Most things have a place now, which is always refreshing. He is planning on painting it a medium color gray so it just looks a little nicer in there and we had the sherwood center come pick up an old couch that has been in there forever, some bags of clothes we haven't worn in a long time and our old mattress and box spring. Decluttering is AWESOME. I also went through our pantry and threw away anything that was old, expired, we wouldn't eat etc. I reorganized all of my containers, relabeled all of the chalk labels and consolidated stuff like half eaten boxes of pasta and chocolate chips etc. I scrubbed the shelves and the floor and made it look so clean and new again.

Before (I can't believe I am even posting this, how embarrassing)

After....let's just say, I love nesting.

Wednesday night I picked up half a shift but before I went in we put together Eleanor's crib. It's stark white and beautiful and just girly enough. I found a white crib skirt (not easy to do, I found) at Ikea. Along with some fitted crib sheets for Henry to take to Kid's day out for nap, a toddler pillow and toddler duvet with cute lime and white and navy striped covers to match his room and keep him warm this winter and some fun christmas gifts. God Bless Ikea and their amazing prices.

 We also switched Henry and Eleanor's dressers. The two brown ones below have been in our guest room because they matched that bed. Now that there is no room in our new guest room for these we decided to give them to Henry to match his brown crib and give his white dresser to Eleanor to match hers.

 Here is Henry enjoying his new pillow and comforter on the floor in the living room.

I got Eleanor's crib mattress, changing pad (since Henry still uses his), sound machine, a few frames for her gallery wall and made an alphabet pic to frame, some orchids for a vase to go on her table and by her sink and some recieving blankets today. I hate spending all that money at once but it was pay day and it's so nice to knock all that stuff off my list. I also found her this beautiful outfit with bonnet and booties to come home from the hospital in as well as curtains for her room. Score! I feel like I'm really making progress at this point and that feels good. I'll admit I was a little overwhelmed this past week with my to do lists with christmas and thanksgiving and baby all at once.

 I need to wash her sheet, can ya tell it had been in the packaging for awhile?

Otherwise I just spent lots of time enjoying my boy.

22 weeks

How far along? 22 weeks, baby is the size of an eggplant

Total weight gain: 8lbs

Maternity clothes? Same old stuff. I'm looking for a dress for Taylor's company christmas party, I ordered one and I'm hoping I like it and it fits. Otherwiese looking for an outfit for me and outfits for the fam to wear for christmas card pics.

Sleep: No weird dreams this week like last but the charlie horses have set in full force. I woke up the other night looking for the scary man who seemed to be ripping my calf muscle from the bone, nope. Just a charlie horse. YOUCH! I forgot how bad those hurt.

Best moment this week: Picking out paint colors for baby girl's room has been pretty fun. We put 3 samples on the wall and couldn't decide so I went and got two more and I think we found the one. Hopefully that means we will be painting and picking up her crib this weekend. Eek!!

Miss Anything? Sleeping on my stomach. Ha!

Movement: She's been a moving fool this week! All the time, all over the place and so strong. I love that I don't have to lay around and focus on feeling and wait, it just happens throughout the day as if to say "hey mommy, I'm in here!"

Food cravings: We will just say carbs and sugar. Although BBQ has sounded pretty good lately, maybe I will make Taylor have that for dinner tomorrow night.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing :)

Gender: GIRL

Symptoms: Just going to the bathroom a lot and sciatic nerve pain occasionally and now the charlie horses.

Belly Button in or out? in but more shallow, Henry likes to poke it when I ask where baby is.
Wedding rings on or off? on. :)
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy this week. I hate being moody so I try to keep that to a bare minimum.
Looking forward to: Working on sister's room! YAY!
I have officially lost my mind as well.... Henry has a chocolate brown glider chair and ottoman that are overstuffed and amazing. We spent good money on them and it was well worth it. Taylor and I both have spent many a night in there sleeping and holding our son and loving every second of it. I am reluctant to take the chair from his room as we still read books and rock in it, but sister will need it come March. I don't want chocolate brown in her lavender and white room so I want to cover the chair. The problem with slip covers is this. A) they are expensive especially to do an ottoman too. B) They rarely ever fit well and look nice. C) You constantly have to reposition the cover as it slips and slides all over to make it look nice and honestly I feel like a flat sheet draped on top often would look the same. SO..... I got on pinterest, lord help my husband, and have found several tutorials on how to cover a chair like this and be able to remove the cover to wash it. I own a sewing machine, I'm not terrible at sewing and I think I can handle the challenge. With Henry at KDO, see below, one day a week I think I can find the time to get it done too. I hope...

This week we went and found a kid's day out program for Henry. I have been looking for awhile now and just haven't been able to get myself to do it. I want him to have a teacher and little friends and learn to share and obey someone other than me and Taylor. I want him to have some structured learning time and work on colors and shapes and alphabets, sing songs, play etc. It offers him so much more than I can give him at home and I think it will be so good for him. Plus it gives me a day to either rest or get a ton of stuff done. When Eleanor comes it will give me a day with just her which will be nice. I can catch up on sleep and bonding and such. I want Henry to be well acclaimated to going each week and the routine long before Eleanor comes because I don't want him to think I am sending him away because of her. The KDO program is in a church literally feet from our house which means Eleanor and I can walk to go pick up Henry if we want to during the spring time. I'm excited to be able to give him this oppertunity.

Henry's first craft from KDO.

Other than that I am just getting a christmas list started for all my people. I am trying to decide what to get everyone and I am so excited for the holidays this year. Henry will be old enough to really start understanding what is going on and get excited about the lights and such. At least more than he did at 9 months last year. Taylor and I are probably going to be super lame and give each other practical gifts for our house like new white wooden blinds or the deep freezer we need etc etc. Henry on the other hand is going to be a blast to shop for. I have lots of ideas for him since he is at such a fun age this year.

A couple of things I have been working on for Eleanor's room. I made her this blankie.

 I found this print while we were searching the west bottoms antique stores for things for her room. I got choked up when I saw it and had to have it. This is the frame I chose for it and will hang it over her dresser in her room as part of a gallery wall.

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