Parish Picnic

The pony ride, Madeleine's favorite part. She also loved "hugging the fire dog" - this guy in a dalmation suit in the fire truck - who had to be sweltering in there in the 90+ degree weather!
She got to hold a chicken! Thrilling! Bud also petted the little animals at the petting zoo. He was a little more timid about it though. He would pet the little rabbit, then run back and hug my legs, over and over again!
My mom hugging both kids! They LOVE their Grandma! And each other ;) Doesn't mom look good for an old woman? hahahaha!
John Paul clapping for his daddy playing in the band. After almost every song he would say, "DA!" which translates, "Again!"
Ken on the blog! He's the second from the right. Go check out his battle with athiests at Leila's blog. - look at the comments on this post.

Looking pretty good!

oops!

I'm not leaving anyone off my blog roll intentionally! Honestly it's laziness. Sew had to ask me to put her on there after she'd already been to my house! Leila had to ask too ;) I usually just check Sew's blogroll to keep up with everyone.

So Mary, Megan and Hafsa, you're on there. If anyone else wants to be, let me know!

We went to our K of C parish picnic tonight, and my kids had a GREAT time. I did take a few pictures but left the camera in the car so that's not happening tonight. But they had all kinds of those bouncy things, a big slide, a toddler corral with tons of toys, a petting zoo, pony rides, bbq pork, sno cones, kettle corn, and Ken played in a few bands and we enjoyed listening to them. Madeleine got to hold a chicken and ride a pony. John Paul learned that llamas HUM, and when one did it scared him and he started crying! Poor Buddy. We got home around 8:50 and after a quick bath, they were both fast asleep by 9:10! I will try to post a few pics tomorrow.

Nothing has happened with our floors yet - I think it'll probably be this week. We're still waiting on one estimate.

Last night I got to go to a fun bar and hear Ken's band play with some friends. Thanks mom for babysitting! It was so fun to get out - we had dinner there and had a great time. They have awesome martinis there (remember, Lifehopes?) and I was missing them last night! I'll have to go have one after little Ice gets here!

And this morning Madeleine and I went out for breakfast with my mom, several of her friends and one of their daughters who is in town from Florida. She's been a friend of mine since 6th grade, but I haven't seen her for a few years. She's pregnant with her first and it was SO much fun to see her too! So we've had a great weekend so far ;)

Oh and I finally hit my pre-pregnancy weight at almost 24 weeks. I'm sure I'll be packing it on from here on out!

Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup.

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Big boy seat

Facing forward now!

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Girl stuff!

Today Madeleine and I got our hair cut together at a Big Girl Salon ;) I'm ashamed to say I hadn't gotten mine cut since my 30th birthday in December - whew! It was getting bad. I've cut Madeleine's hair a few times but it's been a LONG time, and I don't really know what I'm doing either. So Ken stayed home with John Paul, and Madeleine and I got to go to my favorite place to get our hair cut. She wanted me to go first, and she was SUPER well behaved while she was waiting for me. She sat in the chair next to me, told the stylist all about riding the elephant at the fair, and ate her lollipop. She was a little nervous for her turn, but she did great.

Before shot.

Looking a little worried getting her hair washed, but overcame her fears quickly. Notice the stylish candy necklace.

All done and ready to get it cut (she asked me if it would HURT!) Poor thing!

We had a cute little grandma from Argentina cut both of our hair. She was fantastic with Madeleine, and she did such a great job we got another appointment for November. Who knows when it'll happen after that!

After! Blow dried, styled, and extra curly ;)

She did so great she got to pick out a new color of nail polish on the way out - and we both have purple toes now! We had such a great time together - since our house is about to be full of boys I'm so excited I have a sweet little girl to do these things with ;) I love her!

3 Pet Peeves

1. Water where it's not supposed to be that costs me $1000 and countless other inconveniences.

2. Noise. Like dehumidifiers and fans in my house for at least 3 days.

3. Not having a floor in the entire lower level of our house for up to 2 weeks with a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Seriously. How is this going to work!?!? Not to mention the 3 + days of installation with the workers here with nails, dangerous objects, etc.

Pray for me.

Indiana State Fair 2010

What a great time we had! We left early and skipped John Paul's morning nap, so here's what he looked like for the first hour. Love him!
Madeleine was so excited she could hardly sleep last night. She woke up ready to go!

Now for the highlight of Madeleine's day....

Look at that face! The kid was THRILLED beyond belief to get to ride this elephant at the state fair today! I don't look as thrilled. I spent the entire time figuring out what I was going to do if/when that poor excuse for a safety bar fell straight off the elephant and took us with it. Luckily we made it out alive, and Madeleine talked about it for the rest of the day!

Today was one of the free admission days - from a coupon in the paper on Monday, so we decided to brave the heat and go for the day. Mom and our friend Dominic went with us. We had all kinds of great food - most of it on sticks! John Paul enjoyed the corn the most. We also had corn dogs, a big frozen white chocolate mocha (the coffee content was questionable!), an elephant ear, butterscotch popcorn, deep fried pickles with ranch, and a delicious lemon shake-up. YUM. Thank God I'm well into the second trimester and finally feeling better! We skipped the deep fried butter, deep fried Pepsi, and the Krispy Kreme Donut Burger.

There was a little kids area with lots of stuff to climb on, trucks to play with, slides to ride and they even had putt putt. My kids enjoyed getting out of their strollers and running around for a while.
Since we just finished reading Charlotte's Web, Madeleine was really looking forward to seeing all the animals we read about in the book. We were not disappointed. We saw pigs, sheep, chickens, goats, ducks, geese, rabbits, and numerous others. Madeleine was just a tad disappointed we didn't see a rat like Templeton. Me? Not so much.

Buddy really liked petting the animals too. He kept pointing at the sheep and saying, "Mooooo!" I told him that sheep don't say Moo, - then one of them said "Moo!"

The kids went RIGHT to sleep tonight! I might be headed to bed myself soon ;)

Fun day over here.

Saturday morning we had a big fat leak from the drain by the water heater in our pantry. We think someone around here might have flushed something down the toilet downstairs. So when I was in the shower, the kitchen was being flooded. Also we found some water in the front entry way and the carpet in the family room. We cleaned it up as fast as we could, and called a plumber who came out and cleared the drain.

This morning Ken came downstairs and saw that the beautiful NEW laminate floor was buckled up in the kitchen. Soooo sad. We thought maybe it was a small area in the kitchen and we had enough to fix it. A few hours later, the damage had spread to the playroom and dining room. We called a guy out to give us an estimate and check the damage. He came this afternoon and gave us the bad news. ALL the floor and the carpet has to be replaced. In the entire downstairs. The vinyl has to come up under the laminate and dried out with dehumidifiers and fans. Also the drywall behind the couch, and in the hall closet is wet, in addition to the padding under the carpet. He said we should get the carpet pulled up and started drying it as soon as possible. The estimate is in the thousands of dollars. So we had to file a claim with the insurance company. He's supposed to get back to us in a day or two. IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING!

Anyone want 3 1/2 visitors for a few days while the floor and carpet gets replaced? Cause we are NOT staying here!

Prayer Buddy Reveal

I had the honor of praying for Always Giving Thanks this summer. I hadn't seen her blog before but I was happy to discover that she was pregnant after infertility! So I could definitely relate. We aren't too far apart in our pregnancies either. I had a LOT to offer up for her and her baby and husband - being sick for weeks and two hospital visits ;)

I would have gotten to meet her if Jenny had called me! In fact, she almost said, "Oh, I should call your prayer buddy!" lol Maybe next time they're in town!

Anyway, now I can start commenting on her blog - I held myself back so she wouldn't get suspicious ;)

You can count on my continued prayers!

Mama loves

Some pigtails!

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Recent happenings

I had a great surprise this week, Meredith from Leaning on Grace was in town and stopped by to see us! It was so great to meet her - we've been reading each other's blogs since I was pregnant with Madeleine - over 3 1/2 years. They only got to stay for an hour or so, but it was great. Thanks so much for coming Meredith!


The Bud's vocabulary has exploded in the past few days. Ken was in DC for a business trip and got back late last night, and even he noticed that he's talking much better.

The other day we were at Grandma's house, and all of a sudden he said, "Grandma, blow bubbles!" He is trying to say just about any word we ask him to. Yesterday we were at dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and I told Madeleine she had to take 3 more bites. Grandma gave her a bite and said, "One...." and John Paul said "Two....." then grinned really big. Surprised us all!

Madeleine and I are doing great with her reading lessons. She asks to do it every morning, and LOVES the stories. We're on lesson 47 and I can't believe how well she's reading. She sits up in her bed and sounds out words from her library books for hours until it gets too dark. We are enjoying John Paul's morning nap times together - we do lessons, then sometimes art projects and almost always go outside and play before it gets too hot. Today I introduced a Nature Notebook. It's a sketchbook I had - we found some interesting flowers and leaves in the yard and tried to draw them as accurately as possible. We looked at the veins in the leaves and the details in the petals of the flowers. She LOVED this and told Ken about it at supper.

This is the first week in this pregnancy (week 21) that I've felt pretty normal. It's fabulous ;) I'm even ALMOST up to my pre-pregnancy weight. I had my monthly appointment on Wednesday, and I took both kids. They did great, except Bud freaked out when I was up on the table. The doc had to get him and hand him to me, he laid on my chest while she measured me and listened to baby boy's heartbeat. I asked her if she thought I could go to Alabama for Thanksgiving - at 37 weeks. She said she'd check me and see how dilated I was at that point. Since I was 3 cm dilated at 37 weeks with both kids, I'm thinking it's not going to happen. She said if we DO go, she'd send my labs with me and we should bring the infant carseat! She also offered to induce me a week early if I wanted - which is tempting at that time of the year, but I doubt if I'll do that. She said the third can come quick. ;)

20 weeks

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This kid better be a priest.

So yesterday Madeleine and I had plans to drive up to her Godparents' lake house, about an hour and a half away, and spend some time with them, go on her first boat ride, go swimming, etc. My mom was going to watch John Paul all day for me. I was SOOOOO excited! Madeleine was so excited too - to have some one on one time with me.

Unfortunately.... it didn't happen. I've been having some pretty bad stomach issues for a few weeks now, and I feel like I just can't get them under control. I have a bunch of stuff out on the counter when I need it - Tums, Gas-X, Zantac, Immodium. Half the time I don't know which one to even take - everything hurts. So I woke up at 5 in the morning yesterday having contractions! Obvious, regular contractions that started around every 10-15 minutes apart and got closer to 5 minutes apart. Pretty scary for being 20 weeks pregnant. I got up, walked around, came downstairs and checked my email, drank some water, took some tums, etc. I threw up, then tried to take some Immodium cause I needed that too (Sorry, TMI!) Bud got up, then Ken got up and I tried to get in the shower, hoping I'd be ok and they'd go away. Ken left at 7:30 and I texted him about 5 minutes later to come home, something was not right. I also texted my mom and asked her to come now instead of 8. She came right away, and Ken came home. We went to the emergency room, and they sent me up to Labor and Delivery. They said I was dehydrated and gave me an IV. I decided to wait 30 minutes to see if the fluids would stop the contractions instead of taking the medicine to stop them, since I'm still nursing Bud. They started to decrease in frequency, and they gave me another bag of fluids after that. We spent the entire morning there, but by the time we left at 12:30 I wasn't having any more contractions. The baby's heartbeat sounded good too.

I left with strict instructions to rest, drink a ton of fluids, eat the BRATTY diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast, Tea, and Yogurt), and to make sure I didn't get overheated or get a sunburn. So I guess it's probably a good thing we didn't go to the lake on the hottest day of the summer - I think it got to 102 degrees here yesterday. But still, I was really disappointed that we missed it.

This is the second time I've been dehydrated like this in what, 3 weeks? I have GOT to get this under control and start drinking more. I just want my body to do what it's supposed to - and feel like I'm back to normal. BUT, this gave me opportunities to offer up some prayer intentions, and I know that, God willing, I'll get a sweet baby boy out of all this. It's definitely worth all the trouble and I'd do it again. Several times!

Thanks mom and Ken for helping me out, and thanks for all the prayers!

Oh and I just saw that I missed a Doctrinal Quiz Show! I knew that answer too!

Brotherly love

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