SERIOUSLY? SERIOUSLY.

SERIOUSLY?! Where has the time gone?!  I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who have come up to me reprimanding my blogging hiatus.  Last night at a baby shower for one of my dearest friends {Meggie & Clay Nelson} I was reminded, yet again, that someone had "a bone to pick with me" about SinkOrrSwim...thank you Kate Ivey for giving me a little push!  I am going to be so very mad at myself that I haven't posted updates on how my sweet kiddos are growing up and changing before my very eyes!!  Olivia is now 6 1/2 months old {fun facts: eating stage 2 foods, sleeping like a champ, & army crawling EVERYWHERE}, Kenwood is 2 1/2 {fun facts: every bit of the terrible twos most of the time, his favorite movie right now is "Wizards" aka Wizard of OZ}--I love them both soooo much! Those little rascals!! We spent ALOT of time with family this summer, here is a little photo re-cap!

Memorial Day @ Lake Eufala

Reading books with Gracie

Father's Day 2011

Lake Eufala 2011

Driving "Donald's" Boat

  FIRST ride on the tube aka "BOAT" with daddy!

At the "beach" playing in the sand!

Celebrating Daddy's birthday with cousin Grady

Mom, Dillon, & my two sisters: Cam & Jenn

 a few of the rugrats...Caden, Grady, & Woody

 Lazy summer day inside--it's WAY TOO HOT!

I cannot wait to blow this up when they are in high school and blackmail them....

hahahahaha such a gay picture, but they sure are cute!

Miss Livi Kate is getting very curious these days--Owen is EXTREMELY protective of this little girl!

Miss Smiles....ALL.THE.TIME....happiest baby award!

MY SWEETEST BLESSINGS: this pretty much sums them up--Woody is all up in her biz about 99% of the time...and she thinks he's SOOO cool :)

Lately....

Well, well, well.  I have been a BUSY girl!!! With managing real estate and having two precious kiddos, my life consists of ALOT of chaos, but ALOT of fun!!!  Livi Kate is growing like a weed! She is SO alert and smiley ALL THE TIME.  I could not ask for a better baby...and she sleeps! The majority of my days, Kenwood is up before her and I end up waking her up for the day.  Just a little angel!

My little "Thunder Girl" in her colors on game day! (Beat the Mavs)

Kenwood had his last day of Mother's Day Out today for a few weeks until the summer session starts.  It should be a task. :)  I love that little boy so much it hurts, but sometimes he can certainly be a handful--especially if I have any errands on my agenda!!  Today, I was hurrying him to get ready so we could go to "school", and he looked at me...through his hand up (palm towards me in a "STOP" position) and said very firmly: "OK mommy, PATIENCE!"  He is learning so much from us everyday, better put my money where my mouth is :)  Two nights ago he put Daddy in "TIME-OUT" for playing rough...to which I proceeded to explain to Dillon that he did in fact need to go to "TIME-OUT" in order to show Kenwood the rules....later that night the little rascal somehow broke his child-lock off the door knob in his room and HID it in his bed.  He is a smart little sucker.  Love that ornery boy!

ALL-boy: scraped knees, wasp sting on his face (which he barely even noticed), and conked out with a sandwich in hand:

The Nursery

Olivia's nursery is pretty much DONE!! We are waiting on the nightstand that matches her furniture and then we'll hang some stuff on the wall.  But, other than that...we're pretty much ready for her to be here!!! NOW, please.

Here is the entry nook to her room...I had posted awhile back about the name plate that is hanging there now.  Kenwood has one on his side too.

The room so far...the walls are a light gray, and the furniture is Ivory...with ivory, khaki, and light pink fabrics and accessories.  There are a few touches of teal/turquoise too...

We are waiting on the nightstand to put beside the rocker...

This is one of my FAVORITE purchases!! Thanks Hobby Lobby for your 50% off sales every other week :)

 Kenwood has been a big help setting up sister's room....

Even if he would much rather play on the rocker than help set up :)

Thanks again to Hobby Lobby's 50% sale!! I got this framed corkboard and hot-glued some ribbon to it.  It's hanging in her bathroom so we'll be able to see exactly which bow we'll need!!  All of the frames that will be hanging and going in her room are black too...so it matched perfectly!!

The bow-holder above will be much more "full" as soon as I get my Ebay order in!! I got a "lot" of 22 different colors of bows...guess we'll have one to match just about everything!!  Yes, I am a believer in the BIGGER the bow, the BETTER.  I love BIG, OBNOXIOUS bows :)

 Since I'm planning on her being a bald baby...like every other child in our family, I had to invest in some cute headbands too!!  

 And I bought a 10color pack of skinny headbands on Etsy to clip all those big, obnoxious bows to :) 

Crib Project: Part1 Complete!

Part 1: Crib Skirt-COMPLETE!!

I worked all day on Olivia's bedding today! We moved Kenwood's toys upstairs and I got out plenty of stickers and "crafty" stuff for him to do while I worked on the sewing machine.  It was actually a pretty productive day!!!  I am not using a pattern for any of the bedding, just kind of taking measurements and working from there.  I finally taught myself how to sew a ruffle (for the bumpers) the other day which took me SEVERAL different tries and about 3 different techniques.  Of course, the easiest was the last one I tried!  So, I mastered the ruffles and finished those today as well as pre-washed the "fabric"/blankets for the bumpers.  Once I mastered the ruffles, I moved on to the crib skirt...same "ruffle" technique in a much larger scheme!  BUT...it turned out BEAUTIFULLY!! I am so proud of myself :)  Here is a sneak peek at the crib skirt...bumpers are next on the list!

Finished skirt close up....

  No mattress yet, so I had to lay down a blanket to get a better idea of how it will look...

  I am sooo excited!

The Crib Bedding Adventure.....

First of all, I cannot even begin to express the difficulty I've had picking out bedding for Olivia...You all know because I've ranted and raved about it in several different blog posts.  Sorry about my ever-changing mind!!  WELL...we finally made a FIRM decision after going to pick out fabrics at Room 2 Dream and then being completely overwhelmed with the choices and we didn't even find anything we liked that much.  I've been on a roller coaster ride about what to do, but the decision was finally to go on the "Neutral, plush, soft" route.  I also decided to make it myself to save some money, I've made several sets of pillows and curtains so bumpers and a crib skirt shouldn't be too far off my comfort level!  I'm sure you all will hear all about my adventures in crib bedding!  With that said, we knew we wanted some sort of "minky" fabric on the bumper....then we decided we wanted it in a neutral color but still feminine.  I looked EVERYWHERE for just the right fabric and got NOWHERE.  I ordered swatches online, I went to fabric stores, I did it all and didn't LOVE any of my choices.  Then it came to me.....I could use a "minky"/"faux fur"/"super soft" blanket as my fabric!!! Brilliance, I tell ya.  Brilliance. I found this DARLING blanket online for....wait for it....75% OFF!!!! It's a 50x70 which is approximately 2yards for 1 blanket! Um, heck yes.  I was a little nervous because I've been so picky, but I ordered it at a Department store website so I knew I could take it back if I hated it (like I had hated everything else I'd seen).  Well, it came in today and I'M OBSESSED.  It's EXACTLY what I had pictured!!!!  Best part?  I got 2 blankets and a matching pillow for a ridiculously low price and I don't even think I'll need to use the second blanket for fabric! I am just beyond excited to start this project now!!!  AHHHH  Here are some pics of the fabric/blanket that will be the entire bumper:

Did I mention the darling "Rose" emboss it has?  I was so worried the neutral color wouldn't be feminine, so this is PERFECT! And how easy to clean?! It's a machine washable blanket, and I can spot clean with BLEACH because it's white! yaaahhoooo plus it's super duper SOFT!!

Close up of the fabric...it looks kinda dirty but thats just the shadow of the chenille

 Just a matching pillow so I don't have to sew it myself :)

I'll add satin/silk ruffles and ties to the bumpers with a satin/silk bedskirt.  Which I'll hopefully go pick out tomorrow!!  I'm going to try to find a really light champagne color for the satin/silk....

Here goes nothing! 

Lovey Dovey

There has been alot of holding and hugging in our house these past two weeks!  We hug and kiss alot in this family, but these last two weeks have been ALOT!!! Kenwood is definitely starting to sense that there is about to be some major changes in our house....he may actually be grasping that a sister is coming but nevertheless he knows SOMETHING is going to happen.  Kenwood has been very PRO-mommy lately and wants to be held and snuggled ALL the time.  It's really pretty sweet because he has never been a cuddly little boy, so I'm trying to take advantage of my time with my sweet little boy while he's the "only child". 

I am certainly not complaining, but the tantrums we get when Mommy can't play with him or hold him all day long (I am pregnant with back pain and exhaustion people!) are clearly a sign he knows something's up! It's actually fairly humorous, because I was telling my Bible Study girls the other day how I wished he would cuddle and want me to love on him more because he was so independent.....I guess the term is "Be careful what  you PRAY for".  God has a sense of humor, I know he does. 

A Bedding Decision!!

Ok, so I know everyone is probably super sick of discussing our bedding dilemmas! But, I think I have FINALLY made up my mind :)  I am going to duplicate my original favorite, with some changes:

I cannot find a pink stripe or gingham print in taffeta or silk ANYWHERE....you'd think it'd be easy right? WRONG.  So, I went to my handy-dandy Fabric.com and picked out some cotton fabric with the same print.

This stripe will be horizontal for skirt, ties and ruffle on bumper

The pink polka dot will be on the outside of the bumper

The white minky dot will be the inside of bumper as well as the crib sheet

Thoughts?!  I haven't set anything in stone, so I'd love to hear your opinions! :)  I like the idea of simple pink and white...I just don't think you can go wrong with polka dots or stripes---they will always be "IN". And I don't want to SPLURGE on crib bedding that she will likely only use for 6-9 months if she's anything like her big brother!

Sweet Olivia Kate

We went to the doctor today for a check-up.  This time I didn't get any orders to have my blood drawn--praise the Lord!  Everything checked out perfect, a little heartbeat at 145bpm that was a little hard to catch on the heartbeat monitor since she was squirming and kicking so much there was a lot of big "thumps" and little "thumps" to try to distinguish from.

I am 19 weeks and 2 days today, and I have gained a total of NINE (9) pounds.  I'm actually quite proud of myself! I found my weight tracker from my pregnancy with Kenwood...I don't have anything recorded for 19 weeks, but I have a 24 weeks @ 18lb gain....which tripled by the time he was born, uh oh.  So, as long as I don't gain 11lbs in a month, hopefully I'll be better on track with my weight this go 'round!

19weeks 2days (it amazes me how much this belly grew in 2 weeks!)

We also had an ultrasound today!  We FOR SURE 99.999999% (no ultrasound is 100%) that we are having a sweet little girl!!!  Now, it is time to buy some fun stuff!!! Yipppeeeee  I have been waiting since we actually found out because we found out pretty early in this pregnancy and I wanted to be POSITIVE...even though Mother's Intuition is usually right on.

Olivia Kate

We can't wait to meet her in 2011!!! YAY!

Nursery Furniture

After searching for awhile, I think Dillon and I have finally decided on a furniture set for Olivia.  We go back for another ultrasound on September 23, so I'm just waiting for the confirmation that she is STILL a girl and didn't grow a little "wee-wee" as Kenwood would call it.  So, if all goes as planned and we still have a little girl, her bedroom furniture will likely be this:

We will probably just do the hutch/dresser combo, crib and maybe the nightstand

The great thing about this set is it is VERY similar to Kenwood's furniture so they will coordinate well but also be completely different in the gender scale.  If that makes any sense.  

This is the furniture Kenwood has now:

His hutch has more shelving than this shows, but we LOVE it because it displays all the sentimental things he got as a baby.  (Dillon's old baseball glove, some sports memorbila, the football everyone signed when they came to the hospital, etc)  I'm really wanting Olivia to have a hutch like Kenwood's to display the things she gets too.


The good thing about both of these sets is that they are "convertible" cribs, which means they convert to a toddler bed (which Kenwood is in now) and then they convert into full beds.  So, we will be set on kid furniture for at least several more years!


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Stroller Search

We have been very busy lately with trying to sell our house, trying to keep our house clean in order to sell it, trying to prepare ourselves for another little munchkin, and trying to relish in our time with our sweet Kenwood until baby sister gets here!  But, on the subject of preparing for the life of a family of FOUR, I have been desperately searching and researching double strollers (funny, I still have time to shop!). Here is the one I think I've decided on:

Schwinn Turismo Double Stroller

I think I've decided on this for a few reasons:

1.  I like the side-by-side vs. tandem because I know Kenwood will HATE the tandem since he's awfully nosey :)

2. I needed a double stroller that I could attach a carseat to--alot of them have a carseat adapter that comes seperately running anywhere around $50-$150, ummmm no thanks! 

3.  I LOVE that the kids and the parents get cup holders- alot of the "joggers" don't offer this.

4. Looks like good storage space underneath and I like the double canopy vs. one large canopy that covers both seats.

5. It's a jogger. I love love love my Jeep Jogger (that is desperately worn to pieces) even though I don't really JOG persay--I still like the single swivel wheel and it's really sturdy. 

6. It's not the most expensive!! It's about $100 cheaper than the other 2 I was thinking about (which make you buy a carseat adapter on top of that)

So, it looks like this Schwinn Turismo is the winner! YAY!