Time is just flying by

I can't believe that Micah is already 3 months old today!

I don't have time to blog today, but hopefully I will be able to carve out some time to do a little catching up, or at least get back into it and start from some starting point.

for starters here is a pop quiz....
can you tell which little Owen clone is which???  I am their mom, and it's even hard for me to tell... LOL

more pictures

Introducing...

Last Day

Belly shots of my last day being pregnant!!!!

I passed

well, it seems that I have passed my other tests this week - so we can expect to have baby next week.  I have a regularly scheduled dr. apt. on monday.  and I am already scheduled for induction on next thursday.  I will keep y'all posted if anything changes after my apt. on monday afternoon.
thanks for thinking of us :)

sooner than later.....

I was almost induced today...  and I am not "due" til July 25.

I went in for what I thought would be quite an uneventful dr. visit - BUT my blood pressure was high, and I had a headache and swelling -dr. was concernd I had Pre-E, and sent me to L&D, and said if tests showed I was in danger, that I would be having my baby today.

thankfully I "passed" the tests, BUT - we are doing more tests this week - if I do BAD on those, then I will be induced Thursday.    If they come back OK, then I can wait one week, Dr. said.  And I am scheduled to be induced the next Thursday.

I was just thinking last night, about how "ready" I was, and wondering what I would do for the next 23 days... now I have only 9 days~!  how crazy is that? hmmm, how ready am I feeling now LOL....

only thing we really need, is to pick a name for this little guy....

loose tooth

Thomas lost his first tooth in April.

we first noticed that he had a new tooth peeking out from behind his baby teeth, but they had not shown any sign of being loose yet.  I was so nervous about how Thomas was going to handle the whole thing.  But thankfully he had older cousins and a few close friends who had already lost teeth, and I think they learned about it at school, and he saw a little about it on Superwhy, so he was really fabulous about it all.

it was just a few days after I first saw the new tooth trying to come up, that his first tooth started to get loose.  the next day we got him off the school bus and went to the bookmobile, and it wasn't until then that I noticed his first tooth was gone - I worried that he'd lost it at school - but I asked "where's your tooth"  and he gave me this look like 'duh mom'  and said "Under my pillow".  we had not talked about that or the toothfairy at all.  after about a day of continued questioning we figured out he had lost it the night before, but he already knew that when the teeth fall out, they go under the pillow, so that is where he'd stuck it.  Tyson told him that he needed to tell us when he did that, so that we could call the tooth fairy, to tell her to come.  Thomas earned a half dollar for his first baby tooth.  (it was too big to fit in his piggy bank.) LOL

2 days later, his second tooth fell out as well!  he came out of his bedroom, and told me to call the toothfairy.  This time he earned 2 quarters.

I was so proud of him for handing all this so well!
Now he has a bit of a crooked smile.  he still sticks his tongue in the spot that is missing , and holds his lips over it , etc.    He's such a cutie!

yard projects

We needed to put a weed barrier down under this rock bed in the front. But first we had to get all the rocks up.  It's been a much bigger project than we expected.  We got as much of the gravel up as possible, got the barrier put down, and then spent a while cleaning up the rocks (didn't want to put the dirt and mud back down).  We found we didn't have enough rock to cover the barrier, though, so we have now been attempting to collect more rocks, and washing them up. Then we can put the big cool rocks back down and  finish up this project.

This is the corner mound that still has those crazy ugly pipes sticking up.  we have found out that they are comcast cables - and since comcast has decided they will not offer service to our little subdivision, they will not take responsibility for them. so we are stuck with them.  But you may notice that they are not the same color as last year.  They were originally Orange.  but I spray painted them green.  much nicer.  They almost sorta blend in now.   The reason I did this, though, is because the little tree - that was supposed to help hide them - did not grow this year -we killed it somehow :(     (can you see the dead sticks there? - we still haven't had the heart to tear it out yet)....
My idea is to plant some mammoth sunflowers around the pipes, in the hopes that they will hide it.  But I had to wait until the last frost date (which was the middle of may this year) before getting sunflowers into the ground.  So watch for updates on how that turns out.
Oh, and I also made a little lighthouse/birdhouse tower thingy (I don't know what it really is) - to hide the ugly utility box that sits there - it's only 3 sided, so it slides right off to the side, if they need to come do work there.

And this is the backyard - I have been working on cleaning up the back corner.  Since it is what I see when I look out the window, I decided that is not where I want the ugly compost pile, and the overgrown weeds LOL
We got a pile of gravel a while back, for the boys to play in, its surrounded with my "redneck deck" of pallets to keep the boys out of the mud. but yet they still manage to get muddy LOL - that mud is not just normal mud, it's like quicksand mud - VERY sticky, impossible to get off.
I want to create a bigger sand pile back there, but first we need to cap off a few sprinklers.
and I also have lots of work to do with putting a better weed barrier under the garden section.  See I put down the black cloth the first year.  I put it directly on the dirt, but it was not able to keep the weeds from growing under there.  And now that it's been 2 years, the weeds are coming up thru it.   So my more permenant solution is some heavy duty cardboard then the weed cloth, and maybe rocks or pavers to help hold it all down.  But being pregnant has really prevented me from accomplishing what I wish I could do this year.  And it's good that I already know that I am not doing much in the garden this year.  With baby due at the end of July, I knew I would be much to busy at harvest time.  So we are keeping it simple.  I have my 2 tomatoes.  The Strawberry patch seems to be doing well.  We are attempting raspberries again - last year None survived - we are still unsure about the transplants so far this year....  and when the weather warms back up again next week, I will plant the corn with green beans, and the pumpkins.  But that is about all for this year.

strawberry patch

my tomatoes

I found this idea for a self watering tomato bucket (it's on my pinterest board for garden http://pinterest.com/pin/25473554112177202/).  and I found the info for tomato tips on pinterest too.  It starts with a 5 gallon bucket, with pop cans in the bottom (they have holes in 'em. a water bottle with holes, that is a bit taller than the pop cans.  and hardware cloth on the top - I covered the cloth with a simple piece of newspaper.  the bucket also has a hole in it for filling up with water, and an air pocket between the cans and the dirt, to avoid root rot.
the tomato growing helps are asprin, bone meal, and eggshells.
then I just transplanted my tomatoes who had been impatiently growing in their little pots on my dining room table, waiting for the last frost date (which was the middle of may this year).
I am so excited to see how they turn out this year.
I only did 2 plants this year - one celebrity tomato (for burgers and sandwiches, etc.) , and one sweet 100 (we can all eat those little babies like poppin' candy!) YUM!!!!

learning to ride

Grayson has been the last one on the street with no bike to ride :(
Thankfully he was always content to push his little firetruck around.
But we have decided that Thomas is just too big for this tiny bike, it's time to get him the next size up.
and it was time to pass this little one down to Grayson.  It took about a month to wean Thomas off this bike - because it is HIS - and he is now ready to go shop for a big boy bike.  Once Grayson was finally allowed to have this bike, it only took him a bit less than a week to show me what a big boy he was, and he is a little pro at riding already!

a little tidy up on the inside

this was my kitchen window.  it became sort of just a random catch all, and I was not happy with it.  so while I was cleaning out the garage (a never ending project)  I found my collection of blue glass.  I figured if I have been keeping this collection, it needed to either be out of the box, or it was time to get rid of it..  so I will try it out here for a while until I get tired of it.

Detectives

The boys love watching "The Backyardigans".   I got the brilliant idea to give them props while they watched one of their favorite episodes "Whodunit", so they weren't just being little couch potatoes.  They have been having SO much fun acting out being the detectives.

they also play a game for the episode called "cave mans best friend" - it's hard to explain, but they take a scooter, bike, car, and the red wagon (which they pretend is a firetruck) , and put them all out on the lawn in a row.  then they hop from one to the other, pretending they are sinking into a "tar puddle".

Thomas's other favorite is "Garbage Trek".  he now loves to help his daddy take out the trash.  but we had to monitor him when he started making trash on purpose just so he could throw things away (he's my destructive little man)...

Summer Time! 2012

Again, it's been a long time since I got to bloggin.
 In fact, blogger has changed a bunch of stuff, so it may take me some time to figure out what I am doing again.

Thomas's last day of school was Tuesday. On wed, I took him to the school, and he took his kindergarten test and did fabulously, and that was it. On the drive home, I couldn't stop crying. Most moms cry on the first day of school, but not me, apparently. I blame it on the pregnancy hormones LOL. But he just loves school so much, and I LOVE to see him learn and grow. I hope that I can keep him learning thru the summer. I have a plan. I realized he will need the structure of a schedule thru the summer, so I have been feverishly working on preparing, but I guess that day as we drove home from the school, I was still feeling inadequate. if I can get around to it, I will share some of our summer fun ideas in another post... so since I am just getting back to this, I need to see if I can post some pictures. we have been working around the yard, and the kids have been adorable, so I have plenty to share.... keep coming back for updates :)

 oh, and just one more thing - I am finally at 30 weeks, well, almost 31 now that we are at the end of the week. I can finally start counting DOWN to the end. I feel like since we had been trying to get pregnant for over a year, that this pregnancy, this wonderful baby we have been waiting for, have been a LONG time coming. We are getting super excited to meet him. - We still haven't settled on a name, so if anyone wants to throw out ideas, we are still in the brainstorming stage.... ----- I have been doing really well. I had been able to exercise about 5 days a week, walking 2 miles. But with summer here, I have started to taper off, but i am pretty happy with how long I was able to keep that up. My next dr. apt. is a little over a week away.

Easter is on the way!

Last year I was pretty upset with myself after easter. I always pride myself on focusing christmas on Christ, but when Tyson commented about the boys easter baskets by saying "there are more toys and candy than we had at christmas"... I knew I had flubbed up.
so this year I am making sure to teach more about Christ so that my boys will start to understand the real meaning of easter.

we will do the fun holiday stuff on saturday including a small easter basket with a few useful things : a puzzle, a new shovel for the sandbox, a t-shirt and a book, - this goes along with my christmas gift giving motto "something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read."

we will also have the boys do a small egg hunt around the backyard - the eggs will have a little candy (peanutbutter m&m's and mini reeses), crunch berry and fruit-loop cereal, and mini chocolate chip cookies. It doesn't have to be much, the hunt for the eggs is much more fun to watch, then them stuffing so much chocolate in their mouths that they can't chew it all, and are drooling all down their chins (yes, that is what I witnessed last year, and I was kicking myself for it)...
anyway..
for family home evening last night we read a very simplified version of the crucifixion and resurrection,



we colored a picture of Jesus, and hung them on the fridge (we do this every week with our family home evening picture, then they can be reminded all week about what we learned.)


and then we put together an easter tree to remind us of Jesus all week.



I printed pictures of Christ that I had collected, and then also pictures of kids doing things Jesus taught. The boys are loving it!



For next year I will be brainstorming how to decorate the house for easter with more things that can continue to remind us of the reason for the season. I don't think I have any easter decorations, so our house is pretty un-festive (is that a word?)

Been gone a long time...

I guess the reason I haven't posted, is because I felt like I would need to catch up on all the things I have missed, christmas morning, Grayson's birthday, thomas's birthday way back in Sept....
but since that is keeping me away from doing ANYTHING at all, I decided to just start from here, and if I have time I can go back to what I missed...
So it's the middle of march already. I have reached my 20 weeks of pregnancy. half way done and half way to go. I feel good most days, and things are going fairly smoothly.
There is not much to report, things are pretty boring around here, other than that the boys sure play hard and keep me busy.
Hopefully I can get some pictures ready to share, and stop avoiding my little blog from now on.