It's Not a Lack of Time...

..... it's a lack of interesting stuff to write about! Christa graciously brought Flu A and B into our home nearly 2 weeks ago, so we've been home-bound since then. It made it's rounds to everyone except me (thankfully - not sure how we would have made it if I had gotten sick, too). Everyone seems well now, except Christa. She is still running fevers, and despite a quick burst of energy here and there, pretty much wants to lay around and watch TV all day. We've been to the doctor and will go again today if there is no improvement. So far, the consensus is that these lingering fevers are viral, and there's really nothing to do except wait it out. She's supposed to have her ballet pictures made today, so I'm hoping we can at least get that done, even if she doesn't get to be in the group picture (don't want to expose the other kids to anything).

She did have a good weekend. Thinking she was well, I sent her to see Beauty and the Beast with her daddy on Sunday, and she was so proud to wear a frilly dress. I'd gotten the dress for her to wear to a Daddy/Daughter dance, but they had to miss out on that because both Daddy and Daughter were still sick that night. She had a good time at the play, and is still talking about how it was scary at first when they were sitting toward the front, but she liked it after they moved to the back.

Other than that, and a couple of ventures out to eat, we have been home-bound. I did say I wanted a few weeks to relax with the girls before the baby comes! This isn't quite what I imagined, but the last week has been about as relaxing as I could ask, since I've cancelled all normally-scheduled plans and activities, and spent many hours napping, watching TV, and reading books with the girls.

The baby (who we are naming Elizabeth Claire) is doing well. I'm starting to get a bit uncomfortable - it's getting harder and harder to do simple things like bend over to pick up stuff, or breathe in certain positions. But I am still wayyyyyyyy more comfortable than I remember at this point in my other pregnancies, so I think I can make it a few more weeks!

Abby Kate is as cute as ever, and getting stronger opinions about things by the day. She will now bring her book of choice over to me, and sometimes tell me what the book is. Yesterday, she brought Fancy Nancy and said "Fanc Nanc, Fanc Nanc."

Well, that is literally all the latest news I can think of! Riveting, huh?? I'm not complaining - things are going to get very busy for us in a few weeks, so I'll take a little low-key schedule for now... as long as my little girl gets to feeling better ASAP!

Thank You, Pregnancy-Induced Insomnia....

...for this post!! I've been up since 4am!! Why do babies keep you up at night even before they're born?? My children were actually sleeping well through the night, and my compressed bladder and pre-partum hormones are interfering with precious, precious sleep!! Oh well - can't complain too much. I enjoyed a leisurely 5a.m. episode of Law and Order:SVU, followed by an On Demand episode of Teen Mom 2, then got some motivation to wash baby clothes and download months of pictures to Shutterfly - both tasks I've been hoping to accomplish to prepare as much as possible for Baby! Since I have some time to kill while those pictures are downloading, I figured I'd update you all, as well. We haven't been doing as much out of the house, so these pictures might be fairly boring to some of you. We've been spending more time at home, relaxing, and finishing up some home-decorating projects. It's been nice!! I almost feel ready for this baby, which is good, because I'm starting to get uncomfortable! Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Cline dressed the girls for church a couple of weeks ago! He always does such a good job picking out their outfits and has them "match" as much as possible. We've been wearing a lot of nice hand-me-downs lately, so matching the girls has been more of a challenge, but here's what he came up with this day! The girls are so sweet to each other. Abby Kate smiles and does a happy dance when I tell her it's time to wake Christa up for the morning or from a nap and runs over to the stairs. She can say something that sounds like "Christa" or "Sister," and it is so cute. Christa is really sweet to Abby Kate and plays with her so well. She loves to review animal sounds with Abby Kate, and it's just plain adorable!

The girls were playing together not long ago, and Abby Kate sat down in front of the fireplace. Christa decided to pull out all of the stuffed animals and dolls in a nearby toy bin and cover Abby Kate with them. Great fun for both kids! On a side note, I am starting to wonder if Abby Kate is ever going to grow hair! It's getting thicker, but not longer. I keep thinking she'll be ready for hair bows soon, but they look goofy on her head. Even the small ones are just too big! People constantly ask if she's a boy (despite the insane amounts of pink I dress her in) and tell me she looks way to young to be running around and feeding herself like she does in restaurants. I respond that she's 17 months old (and in the 85th percentile for height, by the way), and that clears up the confusion, but it is funny to watch her do so many big girl things with her baby face!

Christa has wanted to wear her hair in a bun a lot recently, since her ballet recital. She got a necklace from her cousin, and wears that often, too. We are very much into ballet right now, watching the DVD from the recital over and over again, and reading ballet books at night before bed. I would be thrilled if Christa sticks with it - the recital was so much fun, and I love love love being a part of an organization that incorporates praising Jesus with extra-curricular activities! Christa has memorized the bible verse: "Let them praise his name with dancing, strike up the band, and make great music." Pslam 149:3. Love it!

Sweet girls, ready for church again this past week! Again, Cline picked out the outfits :)

I sure hope these girls love their baby sister as much as they love each other. I am amazed daily at how well they get along! Christa seems really excited about the baby, and asks every couple of days if the "baby is born yet." She talks about holding the baby and how small it will be. She tells me, "I want to kiss your baby," and then kisses my stomach. Abby Kate pushes in my belly button and says, "hee hee." I wonder a little how Abby Kate will adjust. She has no idea what's coming, and seems young for me to really prepare her. She throws a fit if we're holding her, and then try to pick up Christa, too, so I am bracing myself for some jealousy issues with her. But we will adjust, and I'm remarkably calm, cool, and collected about the whole thing at the moment!

Well, my pictures just finished downloading, and I'm out of stuff to write about. If I shower now, I might not be rushed getting out the door this morning :) Have a great day!

Random Thoughts and Stories

Hello all! We are having a good week around here, and I am still so excited from Christa's ballet performance last weekend. We got the DVD we purchased at her practice this week, and I love listening to the songs on it!

We have been busily preparing for the baby to come. I so want to go ahead and wash all of the clothes, so that I will feel more "ready," but I still have nearly 2 months left, and don't want them to get dusty. I have accomplished many of the projects that I was hoping to get to, though, and don't feel so stressed out about what still needs to be done. Christa's new room is painted, and hopefully we will get her furniture moved into it next week. Christa's current room will be the nursery, and the color on the walls works well with the bedding (as do the curtains - bonus!!), so prepping the nursery will simply be a matter of moving the furniture from the hallway into the bedroom and hanging a couple of things on the walls. Abby Kate's room is updated just the way I want it for now, and I'm hoping that once these rooms are finished, they can stay the way they are for a while!! We've only lived here two years, and I have re-arranged the bedrooms way too many times for such a short time!

In other news, Christa has been particularly hilarious lately! Here's a recent conversation between her and Abby Kate (previously posted on Facebook).

Abby Kate: (fussing and crying for no apparent reason while we were getting in the car)

Christa: "What's wrong, baby? Do you want your rabbit?" (handing her her favorite lovey)

Abby Kate: "Uhhhhhhh" (grumpily throwing the rabbit to the ground)

Christa: "Do you want your water?" (handing her a sippy cup)

Abby Kate: "Uhhhhhhhh" (grumpily throwing the sippy cup to the floor)

Christa: "Fine, then, you will just have to cry!"

It *might* be possible that both of my children have heard that last sentence from me, on more than one occasion :) It is amazing how much Christa picks up when I'm not even realizing it!

Earlier this week, we went to Red Lobster for lunch. I ordered for myself and the kids while Christa colored on the kids' menu. Our waitress continued to take the orders of the other adults at our table. As she was doing that, Christa said, "Let me see what I want," and grabbed the kids' menu, holding it up as if she was reading it and pondering her choices. She looked up at the waitress and said, "I will have the chicken." Then she said, looking back down at the menu, "Now, what do I want to drink?" She looked back up at the waitress again and said, "Pink Sprite!" Then, she continued her coloring. (Pink Sprite is regular Sprite with grenadine in it - it's a treat we discovered at the beach one evening :) We cracked up laughing. It is amazing how quickly she is growing up!

Lastly, today, as we were getting out of the car, Christa (completely out of the blue) said, "I want to kiss your baby," and kissed my belly. She is getting really excited! I don't think she fully understands what is about to happen, but she likes the idea of a new baby, and we have spent some time talking about things that I did for her when she was born.

Abby Kate is growing up quickly, too. She can repeat almost any word or noise, and loves to mimic whatever I or her daddy is doing. She can repeat the letters of the alphabet, one at a time, which I don't remember Christa doing until much later. Christa caught onto naming her body parts very quickly, though, while Abby Kate only knows a couple of them at 16 months. It's so funny how different children pick up on different things! She loves to do whatever her big sister is doing. When we go to ballet practice, Abby Kate runs right into the room with Christa and runs and dances to the music until we drag her out of there when it is time for class to start. She is still such a happy, smiley child, who still doesn't sleep quite as well as I would like, but I can't complain too much. She sleeps through the night most of the time, but the nights she does wake up, I have no idea if she will be up for 5 minutes or 3 hours! Her average morning begins between 7am and 7:30am, which wouldn't be too bad if Christa would go to sleep sometime before 11pm. I am really hoping these kids are more in synch with their sleep schedules before Baby Girl gets here!

I am doing well, and still surprisingly comfortable. I'm not quite as comfortable or energetic as I was a month ago, but it still isn't as hard as I remember at this point in either of my previous pregnancies. I have just a few things to finish up - like washing the clothes and baby gear, finishing up the two bedrooms, and organizing Cline's new sleeping room, and then I plan to relax and play with the girls until delivery day!

The girls have been playing amazingly well, lately. In fact, they are entertaining themselves in Christa's room right now, giving me this time to blog :) I'm very much hoping this trend continues :)

Alright, I'm off to find something productive to do.... or lay on Christa's bed and watch them play. Have a great day!

Footsteps in Faith

Hello all!! I am one proud Mommy tonight!!! My little girl performed in her very first ballet recital, and did GREAT!! After some unfortunate dancing attempts during my high school/college days, I finally accepted that I have no rhythm and vowed to put my daughters into dance classes as soon as they were old enough. I was so excited to find a local dance program that incorporates praising God through dance! They dedicate their entire winter recital to praising God, which is why it is called "Footsteps in Faith." It was a fabulous show, and it was very moving to see Christa doing her motions to the song, "You Gave." The words of the chorus are: "You gave your life; you sacrificed for me, for me. You lived your life; you paid the price for me, for me. And the least that I can do, is live my life for you." I tried to set it as my background music, but couldn't find it on Playlist. I will try to get a video up soon of the performance, although the camera work isn't the best because I vowed to enjoy the live performance over getting great video and pictures. In fact, the pictures below of her on stage were taken at the dress rehearsal - I didn't even pull out the camera during her actual performance, and I'm glad I didn't. Although there would have been some great shots!

Dress rehearsal earlier this week!

Her sweet class.

She's a little blurry - the one in the middle, but you can at least see she is doing the moves.

Ready for the big performance!! She was reluctant to do the dress rehearsal, and I was afraid that when the live show came, she would cry and run off stage. It's a big auditorium, and I had terrible stage fright as a kid - it's certainly what I would have done at the age of 3! She was all smiles, though, and performed even better than the dress rehearsal. All of her classmates did a great job, too!

Practicing making her "shape" during the portion of the routine that focused on her.

Christa and her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Leslie! Mrs. Leslie danced tonight, too, with some other grown-ups, and Christa recognized her each time!

So proud of Christa after her performance! Abby Kate clapped and said "yay" during Christa's routine!

My little ballerina!

Have a great night!

Snowmageddon 2011

(Our cement UGA literally covered from head to toe in snow!)

Hello everyone!! We are having a great day being snowed-in around here. I've been seeing some snide remarks on Facebook about how all of us Southerners freak out whenever there's the slightest chance of snow. I don't think I "freaked out," but I did make sure we had some food, some flashlights, candles, and other lighting essentials together in an easy-to-find-place just in case the power went out in the middle of the night, and I caught up on my laundry and straightening. Because if the possibility of snow and power outages isn't motivation to do those kinds of things, then what is, right?? As a result, I've been free to play and relax today, and the girls are having a blast. (Unfortunately, Cline's job doesn't allow for him to have snow days at home with us, so he was able to get to work this morning with the help of my dad and his snow chains!) We've had some neighbors over to enjoy the fun with us and are planning our first "slumber party" with them tonight :) This will be Christa's first spend-the-night friend, so we will see how this turns out! We have big plans to pop popcorn, drink hot chocolate with snowman marshmallows, and watch Nanny McPhee!
We played in the snow for about 30 minutes this morning, just to say we did. My kids are still a little young to be out there for hours and hours, and Abby Kate just wanted to be held anyway, which made things more difficult. But we made brownies and snow cream, and the kids are loving having their friends over for the day. Here are some pictures:

We have 2 casualties of this snow - lovely cedar trees that adorned the brick pillars on our porch. Oh well - the fun is totally worth this loss!

Abby Kate's intrigued, but really just wants to hold her rabbit in Mommy's arms.

The snow is up to Christa's knees!! This might be the most snow my girls ever get to see!

Easily climbed up the porch steps.

Sledding with our friends, Emmelyn and Quint!

Apparently, we're supposed to get more ice and sleet tonight. We'll be just fine as long as the power doesn't go out! If it does, we'll manage, but it sure is nice to have the "blizzard" feel with all of the comforts of home!!

Have a great day!

Ringing in 2011

Hello all!!! Apparently, I'm starting my post after the first picture, because I can't figure out how to type normally with the cursor above the picture - it shows up underlined and in blue. I love Blogger, but they keep changing things around, and I am not techno-savvy enough to figure out these details! Anyway, I am hoping to have a little time tonight to relax and watch TV with my husband - something we haven't done in a very long time, so I'm not going to spend any more time on this issue!! We rang in the New Year in a very unexpected way this year. We didn't have any plans, since our beach trip was cancelled, so we had spent the week getting things done around the house and playing with the girls' new toys. On New Year's Eve, a sweet friend invited us to a New Year's Eve party!! It happened to be right around the corner from our house, so we decided to ditch the evening of cooking lasagna that we'd planned, and threw together a quick pesto croissant dish, so we would at least not show up unannounced to a stranger's house empty-handed! I even found great, new, hot pink party outfits the girls had been given for Christmas! We had a great time getting to know some of our neighbors who were also there, and I enjoyed the good food while Cline chased Abby Kate around. We partied hard until the ripe old time of..... 8:15 p.m., when we decided life would be easier for everyone if we left and put Abby Kate to bed. Anyway, here are some pictures of our evening. Above is Christa preparing to party by doing what she's been doing since Christmas morning - playing with her new princesses and castle furniture.

Abby Kate scored a sip of her sister's Sprite, and thought it was goo-oood!

Trying to capture a family picture while we're ready for a night on the town around the corner from our house!

This picture was taken at about 11:50 p.m. Guess who took it?? That's right - the 28-week pregnant lady who loves a 9 p.m. bedtime and actually stayed up on her own!! (She also thoroughly enjoyed the 1-2 hours of quiet she had leading up to this moment to straighten and organize the house at her uninterrupted leisure)!! I did wake Cline up right after I took this picture, and we rang in the New Year together. I also did not begrudge him this rest, because he has been busily helping me with the girls and around the house all week long!

We are looking forward to great things in 2011 and are so grateful for all of the wonderful memories we made in 2010!! I have started moving things around in the girls' closets and putting the things I will need for the baby in a big pile to be dealt with later. We are not too far from having a sleeping room and bathroom prepared for Cline in the basement, so that we can start moving the bedrooms around to make room for Baby Girl. I am not a "New Year's Resolution" kind of girl, but I sure would love it if this new-found energy and organizational skills stick around for the rest of the year!!

Alright, I'm off to prioritize that relaxation time with my husband now, so have a great week, and Happy New Year!!

Dear Santa, I Want Snowflakes for Christmas!

Hello again! This will be my final post for today - Christmas Pictures!! We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - one of the best ever for sure! The girls got many nice, new, toys, and had a blast. This is the first year that Christa has really understood the whole concept of Santa and receiving presents on Christmas day, and it was so much fun to see her get so excited! We changed things up a little this year, and switched around some of the allotted family time, and it was a good change for sure! This year, we were able to have more time to be at home and play with the new toys, and the time with each of our families was more relaxing. We also found out what the baby is!! Yes, I caved, and let Cline know, and I am very happy with the way we learned what baby #3 is - more on that when we get to the picture!

Santa brought Christa a pink computer for Christmas, along with a new stroller, some princess dress-up things, and a few other small toys!

Santa also brought a fun present for Cline, which Christa opened up for us!! We were all pretty convinced we were having a boy. I know you are not supposed to read too much into the symptoms of each pregnancy, but I have had so much energy and gained so much less weight this time around, that I was sure it couldn't be a girl. Even Christa said it was a boy! We (and most of you:) were way wrong, and I am now proof that every pregnancy is truly different, regardless of the gender! Thank you so much, Lori, for getting this present for us - it was a blast!! And for the record, we are very, very excited to be having another girl. Many people are making the assumption that we are disappointed that we are not having a boy since we already have 2 girls, and that is just not true!! A boy would be fun and different, and very loved, but so will this precious girl, and we are no less excited to have pink in the house for a few more years. We are as thrilled as can be, and are just might have picked a name :) I am, however, starting a personal-sanity-Hawaii fund for the teenage/high school years and a wedding fund for the young adult years, so if you would like to contribute to either of those, please let me know ASAP :)

Christa started saying that she wanted Santa to bring her snowflakes for Christmas a couple of days beforehand. While she didn't get everything on her list, this one was delivered in a big way!!

Abby Kate loves her new baby doll!! It even has dark hair like she does!

Posing for pictures at the end of a busy, fun, and wonderful day.

The day after Christmas: My teenage 3-year-old. Notice the hot pink cd player right behind her (I think Hillary Duff was her music of choice when this picture was taken), and the pillow pet under her head. The lined-up Disney figurines remind me she's still my little girl, though :)

Again, enjoying her new cd player.

Fun in the snow the day after Christmas. We didn't build a snowman, but Cline enjoyed some sledding on the family farm!

Christa enjoyed the snow, too, but preferred sledding with Daddy pulling her around gently :)

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas, as well!! We were supposed to be at the beach this week, but Cline's grandmother came down with an unfortunate case of the Shingles. That, combined with some other scheduling conflicts, led us to the decision that a week at home would be better this year. I have to say, I am sad that Cline's grandmother doesn't feel well, but a week at home with no plans has been fabulous so far!! We are enjoying the new toys with the girls and doing some projects around the house that will make life easier once Baby Girl gets here. It's been very relaxing and productive at the same time - my favorite combination :)

2010 was another great year for our family!!  Looking forward to meeting our 3rd daughter and many other blessings in 2011!!