Sleepover Divas

This weekend Olivia had a sleepover with her friend from school, Stephanie. They decided to get all dressed up and have mommy do their hair and make-up. We curled Olivia's and straightened Steph's naturally curly hair. Then gobbed on the glitter:) They had a great time!

That would be a surprise!

Today Deagan had a birthday party for one of the kids at his school. There we ran into a friend we haven't seen in about a year. She's the mom of two boys, the same age apart as Olivia and Deagan, and they go to D's school.
Well it turns out that when she was 38 weeks pregnant with her 3rd, they discovered she was actually having TWINS.
She was planning a home birth and using a mid-wife, so no formal ultrasounds along the way. She was getting HUGE and thought maybe it was a big baby, that might not pass during a home birth. So they scheduled an ultrasound. Sure enough it was TWINS. A week later she gave birth to two little girls! They had to go buy a mini-van the night they found out, a double stroller, another carseat... now that would be a surprise! (and a dream for Olivia!)

Mr. Ring Leader

15 minutes ago in the kitchen:
"Maverick, SIT! Maverick, SIT!" says Deagan dangling a cheerio in his face.
"Deagan, Maverick doesn't really like to sit." says Mommy.
"Yes he does, he just doesn't know it yet! Maverick, SIT" says Deagan forcefully.
The dog sits.
"See momma, he'll do anything for a snack."

Our Family

Tonight while eating her snack, Olivia made this drawing of our family... she's hoping for a girl!

A little whine session...

... I know, I shouldn't whine. I should be thankful for what I do have rather than whining about the monetary possessions that I don't have. After all they are just "things"...

However, I'm sick of being broke! I'm sooo ready for a change!

So here is a list of my current financial (may it be petty) whines...

I want new maternity pants! I hate buying some, loving them in the store and then wearing them a few times and wishing I had gotten something else! All to wear for only four more months!

I need new shoes! My favorite "everyday" does literally have HOLES in them! And there is snow on the ground...

I want to sign Olivia up for a dance class. I found one, but we can't ju$tify it. She's going to be "little" and excited about princesses and tutus for only a VERY short while longer. And I'm afraid if I don't capture that girly spirit it will soon be gone. The girl LOVES to dance and would take a hip hop dancing class in a second if they offered one for 5 year olds! After all soccer starts in April! Then she's little miss tough girl! But dance classes... oh so expensive!

Deagan's Montessori Preschool is KILLING us!

I want to sign Olivia up for some summer camps with her friends. She's going to be stuck with a hermit crab mother, crying new baby and a bossy little brother all summer- oh so stimulating! But most summer camps are about $150+ a week!

We went to a gymnastics open house with some friends on MLK day and DEAGAN went bananas! He was tumbling! He was all about it. But again, gymnastics classes... yeah you thought dance was expensive! I think gymnastics tops the charts on kids classes...

I want a smaller house! With a smaller mortgage!

Ok thanks for listening, if you were able to make it through the whine!
I think that will just about do it for now:)

Out of the mouth of my three year old!

Deagan has been very vocal lately and all about telling you what is, in his little world.

During lunch he says to me, "I'm going to take this last bite, then you're going to follow me upstairs to your room. I'm going to jump on your bed and you're going to tickle me, OKAY MOMMY?" With the biggest blue eyed smile ever!

This afternoon after lunch, he went into the bathroom as I was doing the dishes. Naturally, I walked in there when I was done to see if he needed anything. He turn and looked at me and said, "Don't help me when I'm by myself! I'm by myself, I do it by myself when I'm by myself!"
I just smiled and walked away:)

*EDIT* Addition from 1/27-
So this morning Deagan woke up at 6am and thought it was time to get everyone up! I put him back to bed, he asks to watch a movie instead of going back to sleep. I say NO, maybe after we take sissy to school.
6:20am he got up again, this time getting Olivia up. I put them both back to bed.
6:45 he's up again, this time in the bathroom. I ask him why he's not going back to sleep?
"because it's morning time and I'm not sleepy!" He says with the eyebrows of his father!
I tell him that he doesn't have to sleep but he does have to stay in his room and be quiet, again no movie.
7am He's whining because he can't turn his own movie on, wakes up his sister, she proceeds to help him.
Daddy gets up, tells them both to get in bed (not being specific as to who's bed) and NO movie.
7:15 Deagan opens our door and politely and as quietly as a mouse says,
"Daddy, you hurt my feelings because I wanted to watch a movie and sissy knows how to do it, so you should let us and you made me sad." Shuts door behind him and walks out.
7:45 I get up and find them both in Deagan's room (NO movie on) but them both up in his bed with about 40 stuffed animals having a "sleep over."

Lazy Weekends at Home

Here are a few pictures of our lazy weekends at home. Just loafing around and dealing with the snow...

Our Weekend, two weekend's ago

Deagan in his swim goggles!

Deagan woke up and insisted on wearing his swim shorts, flip flops and goggles.... despite the negative degree temps outside:)

Olivia (and her bedhead) spinning around a yo-yo ball in the kitchen. Despite the fact that you can't see it.

Deagan and Daddy playing hide and seak...

Sweet morning girl!

Olivia's scowling face getting sick of Mommy's camera!

Olivia teaching Deagan a counting game.

Her student... with a nerf dart stuck to his nose!

Who wants to take care of that on the weekend? NOT ME!

Spiderman riding his truck in the kitchen.

Miss Olivia checking herself out in the mirror!

All of her nail polish and makeup.

Olivia drying her nails.

Daddy and Deagan doing an art project!

Deagan concentrating on making his art!

Olivia helping Daddy clear the driveway

At Christmas, Jeff's parents gave us their old snowblower and it has been FANTASTIC!

Jeff's sledding art with the kids. He runs behind them, pushes hard and falls down. They fly right into the cul de sac!

Deagan helping to smash the snow with his truck!

The kids getting ready for a race!

Lunch with Olivia

This morning was my day of the month to volunteer in Olivia's classroom. We were working on MLK projects. They had a blank sheet in front of them that said, "I have a dream..." And then some blank lines where they could write out what they were thinking. It was really cute to see the array of answers that these kindergartners came up with! They had just gotten done with their MLK lesson the day before and learning all about him and what he stood for. Some came up with things like:
...that everyone will be nice to each other forever.
...that my friends will always be my friends.
...that my mommy and daddy will always love me.

Then there were a few darker ones:
...that no one ever shoots another person.
...that no one hurts black people.
...that I can have black people will like me.

And then there were quite a few totally unrelated answers as far as MLK goes:
...that Ally could be my sister and live with me.
...that my mom always gives me a gogurt with lunch.
...that a shark ate my brother.

Funny, Funny stuff:) But it's always great to spend time with all of the kids!

And for the first time I actually got to stay and eat lunch with Olivia. She had never tried hot lunch, so we did it together.
I remember the mob and long lines of my lunchroom when getting hot lunch, but hers was another story!
The kindergartners eat ALL BY THEMSELVES. They have the whole lunch room to themselves! It's odd, but nice for them.
The oddest thing of all, they only get 15 minutes for lunch! FIFTEEN minutes! I could barely finish my lunch in fifteen minutes. But these little hyper spazes wolfed it down and had time to spare;)

cough cough, sniffle sniffle

I am SICK of being SICK! I've had a very hard time sleeping lately because I can't breathe out of my nose.
Last night I actually slept ok, propped up and hardly moved. But this morning when I woke up I realized that it's all moved into my chest. NOT GOOD.
Can I please have a warm weather, humid vacation?
I'd like a four day simple cruise. No need to even get off the boat! Just a nice roof-top beach chair, a pool and some slushie drinks! Anyone want to join me?

Weekend Update

Well after a snow day on Friday and an unexpected four day weekend for the kids, we are all exhausted.
Friday was brutally cold, -25 degree windchill with actual temps below zero. So they canceled school. Jeff takes Deagan to school in the mornings on his way to work, and we didn't even think to check and see if it was closed b/c it has been cold all week. Well there was no one there and he had to turn around and drive back home to drop Deagie off with me. Bummer!
Deagan has had a cough for about a week and Friday it sounded like it was getting raspy and was accompanied by a runny nose and slight fever, so I took him in. We didn't get to see our regular doc, but another physician in the practice, who isn't as "go get 'em" as our doc... anyway it seemed he knew that something was wrong, but couldn't pinpoint it. And given that this was going on a week for the poor kid, he deemed it a "sinus infection" (which D has never had) and sent us on our way with antibiotics. Thankful for the meds, weary of the diagnosis, hoping bronchitis wasn't in the works.
Friday afternoon I took the kids to go see "Hotel for Dogs" and they absolutely loved it! Because it was a snow day, the theater was just about sold out! Deagan started his meds that day and is now feeling great.

Saturday the kids started their swim lessons. They did fantastic! I searched high and low (as you may recall) for one they could do and do together. Well I found one, sans parents, and that was the best decision ever! You see my children have this affection for their mother, and when near her- they pretend to be stupid as to make mommy do everything for them! Seriously. It doesn't happen with Daddy, or teachers, just mommy. And 95% of the other swim classes were parent involvement in the water. Not that I don't mind going in with them, but they will cling to me and pretend they can't do any of the things the teacher asks of them.
Well this class is different. They get to compete, with themselves and each other. It's fantastic! They did more in the first 30 minute class alone than they've EVER done for me. I can't wait to see how they progress on their own:)

After the swim class Olivia and I headed over to her friends swim birthday party. Two more hours for her in the water, and amazingly having 20 other 5 year old girls splashing around her having fun gave her all of the confidence in the world:) She did great and was using a life jacket (all the rage among the girls to my surprise) to go into the deep end!!!!! Woah!

Sunday we woke up to more snow, ugh. Jeff was a dear and snow blew the driveway for my clients first thing. Then we discovered we had no yummy breakfast food and baby was craving hashbrowns... so we went out to an early breakfast. And boy was it delicious, all of us cleared our plates:) I just love breakfast!!!

Then Olivia had yet another birthday party that afternoon at an indoor inflatable bounce place. She had alot of fun, but by the end of it was exhausted:) I had a good time getting to know all of the other kindergarten moms too.

Sunday evening was full of couch potatoes, we vedged all day:) And it was fantastic!

Now Monday, being MLK day, they have it off again. We have plans this afternoon to meet up with Olivia's soccer buddy Lillia from last spring. Her mom found a gymnastics gym that has an open play time this afternoon, should be fun.
Olivia and Deagan had a sleepover in his bed last night (they ask nightly to sleepover in each other's beds, but rarely get to). Today is a prime example as to why they never get to, Deagan wakes up at 6:30 EVERYDAY and Olivia sleeps well past 8am. Well this lovely morning they were BOTH up at 6:30! So now they are forced into taking a nap before our playdate;)

Deagan is almost over the sickness he was under. And I am now full force in the middle of it. And of course because I am prego, I can hardly take anything and absolutely cannot take antibiotics, I am forced to suffer. And that I've been doing. Joy to me and sleepless nights of not being able to breathe:(

Hope you all had a great weekend and were able to stay warm in this awful cold we've been getting... well at least in the midwest!

Ultrasound No. 3

This afternoon we had our second ultrasound of Baby Carter 3.0
We let Olivia leave school early to come with us and watch the ultrasound and then meet my doctor afterwards.
It was a pretty long and in-depth ultrasound which was fun to watch. I remember having them constantly with Deagan, but it was always like we were on pins and needles waiting for bad news. But not this time.
We still don't know if it is a boy or a girl and she was VERY good at staying away from that area, as not to give Jeffery any sneak peaks! The baby was laying straight across my belly, left to right. Which is unusual, normally it's head up or head down. But this baby was in it's little hammock the whole time. It always had it's hands up by the face and knees tucked up. Does that mean it will be a swaddler? Or not?
Either way everything was healthy. The baby is a good normal size, not measuring large like it's siblings.
No health concerns, just a happy, healthy little baby:)

And the best news (at least for my body) is that so far in five months of pregnancy, I've only gained 2 pounds!
Yes, 2 pounds. (go ahead and look at that belly picture again and tell me how it's just two pounds). Granted that will change quickly, but it should be more like 10-15 by now. And with Olivia and Deagan I gained right around 40 each... so I'm off to a better start! Maybe it's because with this little one I'm NOT craving sweets, or ice cream. I'll bet that helps out a lot:)

Baby Carter 3.0

Just laying in the hammock...

What a cute little foot:)

This is the alien face looking right at you, with a hand next to the head and a big fat belly to the right.

Here is a nice profile shot of the face, again with a hand up by the head.

This is the entire head and spine.

20 week baby bump

Well here it is as promised, my half way brewed baby belly. The baby bump is almost bigger than the booty bump;)

Half Way There

Well I am officially 20 weeks along now and half way through my last and final pregnancy:)
My belly is getting bigger and I hope to be starting the growing pictures this week.
We have our ultrasound this week:) If only we were interested in finding out the sex of the bambino!

So in the spirit of pregnancy, I have a funny little tale to tell of this morning.
So a few weeks ago when we were at Boyne with Jeff's sisters, I made quiche for breakfast.
Well since then, I have been craving it! So I planned to make it this weekend.
I cut up all the ingredients, popped it in the oven and came back 30 minutes later.... and it did NOT set.
We ended up having to THROW IT ALL AWAY, because it just didn't turn out. :(
Well about 20 minutes later I had an "ah-ha" moment and realized that I FORGOT TO PUT THE EGGS IN!
nuff said

Splashing at the Pool

Deagan and I have all day every Tuesday and Thursday together. Otherwise he's in preschool. Well this winter we've been feeling a little cooped up inside and starting to climb the walls. So I've been trying to find fun things for us to do. When we lived in Louisiana Olivia and I did all sorts of stuff, all the time. But since we've been here and I've been working, my time isn't as free. Well the next two months are pretty slow for photography and I've been scouting the town for stuff for us to do and GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. I found this pool at the high school just one town over and they have an awesome splash area for little kids. So Deag and I went to check it out this morning. It costs $5 which isn't alot, but is for an hour of play. Should be more like the good old fashioned "open swim" that is $2, but I guess they have to pay for their fancy equipment. Anyway, we went, we had a BLAST just the two of us and I think we'll try to go at least once a week! I've been trying to find swim lessons for us to do, but I guess I'm a little late on the band wagon, as for four towns in our county they are ALL booked up! Oh well.

p.s.- we got home, at lunch and now Deagan is going on 2.5 hours of a nap:) Let's just say it was now well worth the $5!
p.s.s.- got a call today that two swim lesson spots opened up! Going to sign them up, hopefully it will work being on a Saturday!

Xmas 2008 Pictures

Deagan sad after we told him he needed to go inside and we were all done sledding! I LOVE THIS PICTURE and his sweet little face.

Deagan and his NEW sled

Jeff getting ready to push him down the hill

Hold on tight!

Deagan catching air on the jump that Jeff built. I haven't EVER seen this little boy SO completely happy as I did this afternoon!

Even big boys can catch air!

Olivia's one and only time going over the jump. She came, she saw, she conquered... and then she was done:)

Paris? No! Paulla:) Came out to get a sneak peak at the snowman.

Olivia and her Snowman

Then Maverick peed on the snowman:(

Ron building a snow fort with Deagan's new kick-butt brick maker! It got huge, then collapsed because it was just too warm outside.

Mom and Deag all snuggled up

Jeff and Oli making cookies

Mom and Mr. Frosting making cookies

Jeff and his toothpick, trying to show us all up!

Olivia frosting cookies

Deagan eating more frosting than what he's putting on the cookies

Mmmm...sugar caked cookies!

We played a prank on Paulla. Jeff got a tattoo in September and this was the first time she has seen it. Well she didn't know where it was or what it was... so I drew a mom heart on his butt and he did the big reveal:)

I think she liked it....