Last Post of 2013

It's quarter to 11:00 p.m. and I'm fighting to stay awake until midnight.  Funny how it used to be no big deal to stay up until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning.

Unlike previous years, I'm not sad to be saying goodbye to the holidays. Our month of December was a whirlwind and I'm ready to ring in the New Year and start over...with hopefully a low key January. Aside from being incredibly busy with the usual holiday festivities and parties, we've had to deal with sicknesses, cranky kids due to one too many late nights, fixing vehicles, and even ending the month with an ER trip and an emergency appendectomy (poor daddy).  Intermixed with all of that craziness we had some wonderful moments too, like finding out we're having a baby girl,  getting to tell our families that she is a "she", and celebrating Christmas with our wonderful families. We are so blessed! But yes, I'm ready for the new year. The 2014 calendar is on the wall, and there's so much to look forward to.  This time next year, we will be ringing in 2015 with 5 year old, 3 year old, and a 7 month old.  Crazy!

So about this new baby girl... she's a mover! First of all, it's a little surreal knowing she is a she. We didn't find out the sex with the other two, so I'm used to just saying "the baby" or "it" when I'm pregnant. I haven't gotten used to saying "she" and "her" yet. It's getting easier by the day though, especially with how much she lets herself be known.  She's by far the most active baby I've had.  She will kick non stop for hours at a time. She never stopped kicking during the 4 hours I was at the ER with David.  My stress level might have something to do with that, but I have to admit it was comforting to feel her while we waited to find out what was going on.
I was able to get two ultrasounds this month so I've gotten to see her twice.  I love it!  She spent the the entirety of both ultrasounds doing sit-ups...not even kidding.  Both technicians commented on how hard it was to take her measurements because she was moving so fast...which is all fine and dandy, but I hope she mellows out some before she's born hahaha. Gosh I can't wait to see her! The nursery decorating has already begun...I'm going to have fun with this one :)

Happy New Years everyone! Here's to an exciting and wonderful 2014!

Recital night

Last night was Gemma's first dance recital.  Let me just tell you, I had been looking forward to this since the idea of enrolling her in dance classes first came up. So excited!

There is currently some construction going on where she takes classes, so the Christmas recital was very low key this year.  It was just a handful of classes on her night (only the other classes that also meet on Tuesdays), we didn't have to pay for her costume, and it was free to all the guests! Nonetheless, I was excited. That's not to say she hasn't been just as excited. She's been asking me for weeks who all was going to come watch her. She woke up yesterday morning knowing it was recital day and asked me if I knew where her red tutu was, she was also very adamant about not being late for it. While she was at school I bought a few last minute things she needed, and planned the rest of the day around the recital so we would have plenty of time to get ready. She seemed a little tired after school (didn't eat much and didn't want to play very long on the jumpy toys at the mall) but she was still excited about her recital, so we just went home and had a mellow afternoon.  Getting her ready was a heck of a lot of fun!  She got her outfit on, I put her hair up, put some make-up on her, and smothered her in glitter! She looked as cute as cute can be.  Forty minutes before we had to leave, she started wining a little and saying her legs and arms hurt, then her head, and finally her stomach.  Knowing Gemma, I figured she might need to go to the bathroom (those of you who know her, know what I'm talking about). Once it was time to go she was acting pretty emotional and telling me she just wanted to go to sleep. She cried the whole way there. After we got inside and to where we were supposed to be, I took her coat off and instantly realized she was running a fever..and she was still crying.  I calmed her down enough to where she was willing to go on stage and sit down next to her friend Zoey, but unfortunately there were still 15 minutes before the recital started. My excitement had officially switched to worry and nerves. She didn't make it :(  Right before the curtain went up I heard her crying and had to go get her. We watched her classmates do their adorable dance and then headed out.  She wanted nothing to do with anything or anybody except going home.  She even declined a cookie from Santa! The car ride home was a quiet one, she slept in the back while I fought off tears from feeling disappointed and also feeling guilty I didn't realize she was sick sooner.  Oh well :(  Thankfully a dose of Tylenol broke her fever shortly after we got home, and she slept well all night long.

This morning we made a little video for everyone who came to the recital and didn't get to see her dance. We put on most of her recital costume, she made up a little dance, and then apologized for not being able to perform (totally her idea). Sweet girl! She let me know that for her next recital, we need to feel her forehead before we go, "just in case". Duly noted Gemma!

Here are some pictures I took (not the best) right after we finished getting ready and before things started going down hill...

Thanksgiving Staycation

David took a whole week off over Thanksgiving which completely put me in the "holiday mode". Sadly, today we had to go back to our regular routines. It was so much fun doing stuff with the kids, getting things done around the house, and sleeping in every day. What a treat to not have to wake up at 5:00 for my runs!! Throughout the week...

 We officially started the beginning stages of finishing off our basement. We have somewhat of a "timeline", but I'm pretty skeptical we're going to be able to follow it. As long as it's done before baby #3 arrives I'll be thrilled. Unfortunately, Makael doesn't do well at all with loud noises, so we had to leave the house any time they were working downstairs.  Looks like we will be visiting lots of friends or spending most of our days at the library in the coming months.

Gemma had her 4 year check up and we were pretty excited to find out she's in the 75th percentile for both height and weight.  I haven't been worried about her at all, but it's still a nice feeling to know your kid is healthy and growing.  Now if we could just get her little brother to jump up in the percentiles too!

We bought a mini van! It hurt a little bit I'm not going to lie, but I have to admit there are definite perks about it, and the kids love that they can open and close their doors with the press of a button. I guess I'm just officially old...or maybe just a little less cool.

Baby #3 decided to let himself/herself known! Actually, I felt the first few flutters on Gemma's birthday, but last week was the beginning of "consistent" movement and David got to feel a kick for the first time on Thanksgiving day! This kid must like special occasions. Since then, Gemma has also gotten to feel a kick...you should have seen her face light up!  Now that I can feel him/her, things are starting to feel more real, and I'm getting anxious to start on the nursery.  It's crazy how excited I am this time (about the baby, not the nursery). We won't be finding out the gender again, but I have my suspicions of what it is :)  Unlike with Gemma and Makael, we aren't having as hard of a time figuring out a name.  I think our boy name is pretty much settled on, and we have our girl name somewhat narrowed down. That's not to say we won't change our minds between now and May, but we are way ahead of the game compared to where we usually are at this point.

We of course celebrated Thanksgiving...twice.  Thursday we celebrated with the Boyd side of the family, and Friday we celebrated with the Yarbrough side.  Both days were filled with fun, food, and thanksgiving! And woulnd't you know...I didn't take any pictures.  So if any of you have some, please pass them on my way :)  Makael spent most of Thanksgiving day jabbering on about a "stomping elephant", while Gemma spent the entire day recruiting people to play with her.  Natalie, just so you know, she told me playing with the girl with the striped dress and black tights was her favorite part. So know your time with her was much appreciated :)
These are the only two pictures I took...

Natalie with Gemma's and their block creations. 

Showing his great great grandma the "stomping elephant".

 We ended the week getting the house ready for Christmas. Once David had the tree up, I of course had to do all the work. Those darn Christmas lights!! Gemma "helped" by getting all the ornaments out of the box and gently placing all them on the coffee table.  She got excited about every single ornament! She would pull it out of the box, show it to David, and go on and on about how beautiful it was.  It was a perfect afternoon. I'm looking forward to our Christmas staycation!

These pictures have nothing to do with the week, I just like them and they were on my phone too :)

One of his favorite activities.

This actually did happen last week! Not the best picture of it, but he took a pretty bad spill and hit his nose on the top wooden stair. 

I love this one of her!

Big bug's comming!

If you remember back about six months, I was concerned about the fact that Makael wasn't talking yet...thanks to his older sister who started talking at 7 months. Now I have no clue what I was so worried about.  Although he's been talking for a while, sometimes it still catches me off guard when he perfectly forms a 6-7 word sentence like, "come on mom, let's go down stairs". What's been especially fun recently is his pretend play.  A few days ago he randomly started telling us that there was a dinosaur in the house, then proceeded to run down the hall screaming.  Ummmm okay? We thought it was strange but pretty dang endearing, while Gemma just took it as her cue to join in on the "chase".  They've been running around the house together yelling "there's a dinosaur in the house" for days.

During nap time today, I helped Gemma make a party hat (I guess she hasn't quite accepted that her birthday is over).  She decorated it with a bunch of stickers, one of which was a big lady bug. When Makael woke up he quickly found the hat, saw the sticker, and immediately yelled, "big bug's coming"!  So of course Gemma joined in and they continued to chase each other around the house. That has been the ongoing game ever since.  Next time you see him you should ask him about the dinosaur and the bug, guaranteed he'll tell you all about them.  He was more than happy to tell a sweet older gentleman at the grocery store all about the dinosaur in the house.

Never say "never"

Before I had kids, I swore I would never let one of my kids have a Barney or Hello Kitty themed party. I'm not really a fan of "themed" things in general so my brain doesn't even think that way when planning parties or decorating. I was a totally dumbfounded when Gemma told me she wanted a Hello Kitty theme for her 4th birthday. Who is this girl?! I wasn't going to say no just because I don't like Hello Kitty, and admittedly, it was pretty cute to see her get so excited about planning her own party. Overall it was a success. I'm still holding on to "never" having a Barney themed party :)  Out of 11 of her friends that came, only three of them were girls.  Props to all the boys who came to her girly party! She had an absolute blast.  She couldn't ask for a better group of friends!

We had a small celebration on her actual birthday here at home...

Playing with her new appliances from Aunt Brenda.

Look at her face!!

How is she already 4?

Wearing Hello Kitty head to toe.

There are just way too many cute pictures of her birthday party so I decided to just post a link to my facebook album.  But here is a picture of Gemma with all of her friends (minus cousin Ariya).  Aren't they cute? https://www.facebook.com/audrey.y.boyd/media_set?set=a.685119898178477.1073741825.100000414194522&type=3

 

"I shirt"

A couple of cute Makael phrases/words these days...

Borgen-open: (garage door opener)
Puita: Lita (what we call grandma Yarbrough)
Pipa: Grandpa
A-cha-milk-too: chocolate milk
Out: elephant (he just recently actually started saying elephant right, but last week it was still "out").

He has no problem saying his name, but when he was first learning, we would point at him and ask him what his name was.  Confused he would grab his shirt and say, "my shirt".  So of course that quickly became a game.  Although he knows very well what we are asking and has no problem saying Makael now, he still likes to play the "shirt" card.  I don't blame him.  He gets a laugh out of us every time!

Fall Fun

As much as I love fall, the change in seasons usually means an increase in sickness.  We've all taken turns fighting off colds, and Gemma and Makael both had a pretty nasty stomach bug last week. Because of that bug, Gemma missed a day of school last Tuesday. You would have thought the world was coming to an end.  She was devastated!  Come Thursday she was beyond excited to go, and to make things even better, it was picture day!  I'll admit I spent a little extra time doing her hair but I went ahead and let her pick out her outfit.  She always has such an opinion about her clothes that I thought it might be fun to capture her personality and "tastes" in her first school pictures. It's only preschool right? I highly doubt her 3 and 4 year old classmates are really "that" in tune with fashion to even know if her clothes match or not, so it's not like she was going to be embarrassed. Oddly enough, she picked an outfit I would have probably picked out for her. A cute dark purple shirt, jeans, and her pink shoes.  She looked pretty cute if I do say so myself :)

Makael is getting used to our one on one outings during the time Gemma is at school. Sometimes I wish I could go home, turn on a movie for him, and get all of my cleaning done before we go pick Gemma back up. Unfortunately Makael doesn't approve one bit of that idea. I've tried it a couple of times, but the second I pull into our neighborhood he starts crying and yelling "go back, go bye bye". He's definitely not a home body. So we find other things to do, even if it's just going to the mall to play on the jumpy toys.  I had NO idea how many mall walkers there are at 9 o'clock  in the morning.

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch this week. It was so much fun! The last time I was there, Gemma was only 10 months old and I didn't think it was that memorable.  Well, going with a two and an almost 4 year old is a completely different experience.  The LOVED it.  Makael ran around most of the time just yelling and wanting to get up on the tall straw horses.  I'm surprised he didn't lose his voice given how cold and windy it was. Gemma was all about feeding the animals and picking out a pumpkin.  Pretty sure she picked one of the uglier pumking out there, but whatever. It was fun regardless.

10 weeks today with baby #3  and I'm feeling hopeful that my days of morning sickness are behind me. I might have an hour or two throughout the day that I feel crummy, but as long as I don't wait too long between meals I usually feel okay. My mind is already racing and keeping me up at night. What names do we like? Should we find out the gender this time? What color should I paint the nursery? David has been leaning towards finding out the sex of the baby this time, but I haven't been able to fully commit to that idea yet...don't know why.  I know we still have some time to decide, but knowing me, the decision won't be made until we are at the ultrasound and the Dr. asks us if we want to know.  Regardless, I'm crazy excited about this little guy/gal.  I'm pretty sure this is our last baby so I'm doing my best to enjoy every moment, but I am more than happy to say goodbye to the nausea and dry heaving.

 

Makael's favorite 

 

Feeding the goats

You would have thought they climbed a mountain.

And again...he could have spent the whole time here.  

Not ready to end the fun at the end of the night. 

Party of 5!

Fall is here! Well sort of...it's still a little warm for my taste, but colder weather is on it's way  There's a tree in my back yard that has a pretty large patch of orange and red leaves and it makes me giddy to look at it.

Gemma is absolutely loving preschool. I wish she was actually going more than twice a week. She gets impatient on days she's home, and I currently don't have the energy to get us out of the house as much as she would like. Tuesday is by far her favorite day of the week, not only does she get to go to school, but she also gets to go to dance class.  So far, three of her teachers have mentioned to me how good of a student she is. I don't know what that means exactly in a preschool setting, isn't it mainly organized play time? I'm proud of her none the less and grateful she is doing so well.
She continues to be a coloring machine.  I thought it would be fun for her if I taped up her "art projects" on her bedroom wall, but I've quickly realized I have to be extremely choosy on which ones make it to the wall. Otherwise her entire room would be filled up by now.
Today she wanted to write out the whole alphabet, but she started on the right side of the page instead of the left. What was interesting to me is that all of her letters were backwards, perfectly written, but facing the wrong way. Once she ran out of room she continued her letters directly below the last one she had written (starting on the left side of the page) and as long as she was going in that direction the letters were facing the right way.  Doesn't that seem weird? Is she dyslexic? Genius? Weird? Who knows.

I'm not sure where to begin with Makael.  Oh Makael....and we thought his older sister was stubborn.  Wow! We have yet to have a full blown battle of wills, but when we do, David better be around as a reinforcement, otherwise I might not win.
I can't keep up with his vocabulary anymore. He's continually learning new words and actually using them appropriately, as well as using 4-5 word sentences.  My favorite little phrase right now is "work it".  He tells me to "work it" whenever he needs me to fix something for him.  I laugh every time.

So we are going to be a party of 5 come May!! I'm crazy excited. I'll be even more excited once the morning sickness is gone.  It's probably because I'm in the thick of it right now, but it seems to be so much worse this time than it was with the other two.  
Last week was an emotional one. It seemed like we might lose the baby and for five days I rode a non stop emotional roller coaster.  Thankfully we were able to get an early ultrasound and everything looks great. It's hard to put into words the relief I felt when I saw and heard the heart beat. I felt like I was able to breath for the first time in days, and as I laid there and enjoyed watching the little heart beat, I teared up thinking about how many people were praying for us and hoping for a positive outcome.  So thank you...everyone! I am so incredibly grateful for you.

As you might guess, life has been somewhat overwhelming recently so I don't have pictures to post, but I'll get some up soon. :)  

Makael is 2!

We had a pretty laid back celebration for Makael this year.  A couple of balloons, some presents, and a cupcake with a candle.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the candles I could have sworn I had in my kitchen, so we had to reuse his candle from last year...which is a huge #1. He may wonder why it looks like he turned one twice when he looks back at pictures, but I'll just let him know he didn't care one bit on the actual day.  He was fascinated by the attention, presents, and the single lit candle on top of his cupcake.  Definitely enjoyed the whole event much more than his first birthday.  I still can't believe he's two!

He had his two year check up this morning. The little peanut will NOT move up in his percentile for weight! He's in the 4th percentile for weight, 30th for height, and above average in everything else developmentally. I guess I don't need to worry too much. His pediatrician still wants me to bring him in for weight checks every three to six months just to keep on eye on him though.  He wasn't too cooperative during his appointment though.  He knows all too well what goes on in that office, and he doesn't forget, no matter how many stickers they give him! So our appointments was pretty quick, and thankfully there were no shots this time.

We spent the rest of the morning at the mall killing time until Gemma got out of preschool.  He's pretty obsessed with the carousel (horsies) so we made a pit stop there before going to buy him some new shoes.  He got his first pair of light up tennis shoes!  He wore them out of the store, and made the entire trek back to the car staring at his feet and saying, "a light", over and over and over...

A few pictures of his 2nd birthday :)

Our first week

What a week! It's been a fun one, but a busy one. Gemma and Makael are officially sharing a bedroom now. We decided to get bunk beds for Makael's room for the purpose of having an extra bed for Gemma when guests were staying in her room. I knew we would get a lot of good use out of bunk beds, but I had no idea how excited Gemma would be about them.  So, per Gemma's request, we decided to let them share a room.  Last weekend the bedroom got a full make over.  I cleaned out anything and everything that Makael didn't need, painted the room, took out all of his furniture, went through both of their clothes, put the bunk bed together with David, and put the room back together (Gemma's things included).
It has been somewhat of a transition at bed time, but other than that, I love that they're sharing a room. They spend a lot of time in there playing together, and Makael especially likes climbing up and down... pretty sure he's quicker at it than Gemma.  I love walking in to kiss them good night and having them both there.

Playing on the top bunk.

Gemma had her first day of preschool last Tuesday. I was a little emotional the night before, but Gemma and I were both troopers on the first day.  No tears!  She loved it!  After I picked her up, we immediately headed to dance class.  She did remarkably well with such a long day, but then fell asleep on our bedroom floor at 3:30 in the afternoon.  David and I both tried really hard to wake her up a couple of times, but it just wasn't going to happen.  So we put her to bed and hoped she wouldn't be up all night from sleeping all afternoon.  Not an issue...she didn't wake up until 7:00 a.m. the next day!! She wasn't the only one worn out... Makael fell asleep at 5:30, and I was in bed by 8:00.  We're clearly rookies at this whole preschool thing.
Her second day went well too.  She got to be the "leader" for the day and boy was she excited about it (imagine that). She got to be the leader for various activities, and the rest of her classmates got to line up behind her anytime they were asked to stand in a line.  And guess what? The leader for the day also gets to provide snacks for the rest of the class. How nice to include the parents right? The pressure!! I think we did okay though. :)

I promise she was excited...just not so much about all the pictures.

Hugs on her first day :)

Walking in like a big girl.

I don't know how Makael feels about one on one time with me for two whole mornings a week, but I'm loving it.  I forgot how much you can get done with just one kid!  We've been spending our time running errands and going to the park. We took advantage of our time last Thursday by heading to the jumpy toys at the mall and then getting his first hair cut! Boy was I nervous about it.  He doesn't sit still for me when all I'm doing is brushing out his hair after a bath. How on earth was he going to sit still for a complete stranger while they CUT his hair? Thankfully, after he refused to let the nice lady put the plastic cover over our shoulders, he did great.  He sat really still and squeezed his eyes closed the whole time.  I was so relieved when it was over and done with, and so proud of how well he did, that I didn't even care that we walked out of the mall COVERED in hair.  Those plastic covers really are useful!

So handsome!

"

Gemma has taught herself how to write her name, so she spends most of her time these days making pictures or letters for people and including her name as often as she can.  She's also super into organizing things.  Several times this week I've walked into a room and found things like this...

Meanwhile, Makael has been getting a lot of practice drinking out of the water fountain while waiting for Gemma to get out of dance class.

I think he's also a little jealous that he doesn't get to go to school too...

That's it four our first week of preschool. I'm loving our new routine!