words...

sometimes words are just words; other times words are more than that. I emailed a former coworker and a true woman of God. I just told her about my situation and asked if she would keep me and our new baby in her prayers. She will. I wanted to share her response. these are more than words.

Wow!! Congrats on the new life! Well, I will sure keep you and the baby in my prayers. I do pray for your strength while you wait, watch and pray. I will also pray that with whatever happens you have peace with it. Knowing who God is I know sometimes He gives what we need and at times we can't see why He gave us that (if that makes sense) I also know that Romans 8:28 is perfect for any person living and following after God. For all things, good/bad must work out for our good! So during this waiting period, trust God that His will be done and keep your eyes on God and NOT what it looks like or feels like. Continue to delight yourself in God and He will give you the desires of your heart. In all situations and this one, SPEAK LIFE whole and complete. Kick doubt, fear and unbelief out the door! Open the door to health, joy, peace and a new bundle of joy (girl) to love! She probably is a girl, they usually have more drama than boys Hope that helps and still praying .

tears are flowing. I'm speechless.

Update time

So I had my appointment yesterday and we got mixed news. I'll be honest and upfront, just after my appointment I was not worried just concerned as the dr said I should be and then I googled...I'll get to that. First let's go with the good stuff! I thought I was 10w4d yesterday; little baby measured 12w1d so they moved my due date to March 12. woot, woot!! Everything (uultrasound wise) looked great for the NT scan. The baby has a good strong heartbeat of 162 (and before you go saying, omg girl...my boys had high heart rates as well). YAY for a healthy baby in there with a good heartbeat!

Here's the 'concerning' part. I have something called amniotic banding. Basically, there are 2 pockets of fluid present. If I had to guess, I'd say that baby is in the side that is 80% and the other pocket is 20% of my uterus. Here's how the dr. explained it to us. During implantation, weird things happen...the pocket could be old blood from implantation; it could be a blighted twin.  A blighted twin just means that there were 2 eggs implanted and one never developed into a baby but there's still a pocket present. MOST times the body absorbs the fluid and sometimes the fluid travels and bleeding occurs. She said that if I have any bleeding to NOT panic, call them and get in for an u/s the next day or that day if they have any availability. She made this comment "we don't want baby getting all tangled up in this". I did not know what that meant...but I do now, thanks to google. There is something called amniotic banding syndrome and  baby gets dianosed with this AFTER birth IF they get mixed up in the fluid area where the banding is. Here's what happens...if the baby flings a body part into that area, blood flow is cut off and development stops (this could mean nubs for fingers, missing fingers, missing limbs). now, since my baby is being a good boy or girl and is not in w/the banding we don't have any of that going on...this is why we are watching it. I won't lie on here, yesterday I sat here and  cried and just prayed that this banding will resolve itself and that the baby  will stay on his/her side of it. Now that I'm tying it out, it sounds so selfish. there's nothing to worry about right now, yet I made my self sick and sat here and cried for a good hour over the 'ifs'. I need to enjoy this. It is my last pregnancy.

Do you really want pics of my uterus? Sure you do! All of these photos are upside down because baby was face down/on his or her belly.

For good measure; Here's a belly pic I took this morning 12w2d!

So What Wednesday

It's Wednesday! I'm liking up with Shannon again.

This week I'm saying so what to...

• I used the rubber band trick this morning. I wanted to wear my black shorts and they didn't want to button.
• My appt was this morning and I haven't updated. I will, I promise.
• I totally look forward to school days and time away from my boys. I love them to pieces but I love alone time too.
• I can't work a flat iron. I've tired. whatever. my hair sucks. 
• Speaking of hair, I still haven't gotten my box dye. It's on my to do list. 
• I keep lotion in my car b/c I always forget to put it on before I leave the house. 
• I think my kids are the cutest little boys on the planet. I really, really do.
• I have so much to do before the boys' furniture is here this afternoon...yet I'm blogging. Signing off. 

Aye ;)

Boys love to dress up...but not like princesses (well they might but we don't have princess stuff). Instead of princesses we dress up as pirates. I was cleaning out Conner's room the other day and Parker found his pirate costume from last year. I knew I had stowed a few away so I grabbed those quickly and off they went! All I heard for a good half hour was "aye" "my a pirate" "aye". I die.

A Pirate snack...do that call that booty? 

What does a pirate say? "AYE"

Ration Bag

Conner has some amazing teachers this year (not that Parker doesn't) and they make even bringing snack a huge, big deal. Since the very first day of school, all he has talked about is getting the "ration bag". I knew that the ration bag was for snack (we were briefed at meet and greet). A ration is (Thank you Webster) A fixed amount of a commodity officially allowed to each person during a time of shortage, as in wartime: "the bread ration". That totally means snack! Yesterday, I knew he would bring home the ration bag and he was beyond thrilled. The bag is FULL. Dude wanted to bring cheese and crackers and applesauce and spoons. So we did.

See, he's so excited. I had to take pictures of the letters.

Random thoughts...

Can Wednesday just hurry up and come so I can get to my ultrasound so I don't have to worry anymore?

Why can I get nothing done while my kids are at school?

Why can I get nothing done while my kids are home? I see a trend. LOL

I tried the pinterest "go to bed w/wet hair and wake up with fabulous hair trick" and it  was the ultimate FAIL. I seriously laughed out loud.

I started using coconut oil on my face...omg. do it. amazing.

The next baby I get to photograph was born yesterday. i love newborn goodness.

I have to leave now to go pick up my little loves. I DO miss them when they are gone :)

Weekend

Yes, it's Sunday and I'm going to post about our weekend. Friday night we headed out to the rodeo (brought the camera but they weren't allowed) with some friends and their kids. I didn't think any of the kids would actually sit and watch but they still liked it. They liked running from us and having us chase them, they liked eating dinner with no table and drinking Sprite. They liked watching the barrel races and they liked visiting all of the quarter horses. Those horses are beautiful! The horse owners were very nice and didn't mind that we pet them. It wound up being a very late night but everyone was happy; isn't that all that matters? Yesterday started with soccer meet and greet. We would be the lucky ones to get the team with no coach. After the coordinator tried to convince me to coach (good joke dude, I'll be bringing 2 kids alone most weeks and I want to take photos not coach), two other dads stepped up. The kids were all very cute and it should be a fun season. We might even make some new friends. Once our soccer meeting was over we headed over to IHop for breakfast with the in-laws and then we went to their house to play.

Parker asked my mil if he could see the horsies so off they went. She has 3 horses (and I don't know anything about horses so I'll call 2 of them regular and Gizmo a pony). I know that Gizmo is a pony. My kids always pet/ride Giz. He's super friendly and very, very docile. He just stands there and lets the kids pet him, he loves treats and doesn't mind being saddled up.  **sorry that these have my photography logo on them....the full size files were taking too long to upload; I used my resizing program and it includes a logo***

Friday FIVE

I used to do this alot and I'm resurrecting it! Maybe I'll get all crazy and make a button!

Five things you love about Fall

Pumpkin Spice Lattes

The gorgeous colors (these are the N GA mountains)

Sweaters and boots and jeans

Cool Crisp mornings

Cinnamon smells (candles) and fall decor

I love fall decor SO much that I can't wait to pull all of my stuff out and shop for more. I'll probably do a whole post on just fall decorations and yummy cinnamon/pumpkin smells. YUM

What are your favorite 5 things about fall

So much to do...

I already feel like I have so much to get accomplished before the next member of our family (yay!) arrives in March. I know, I have LOTS of time but I also have 2 other little people to consider. There are some changes coming to their little worlds and I'd rather the ones I can control happen before March.

• Put both boys in one room, make it a big boy room (new furniture and all that goes along with it.)
• Transition kids to sharing a space, but not a bed. 
• Get rid of toys.
• Go though baby clothes, sell if it's a girl
• Find the baby gear.
• Buy new baby gear that I got rid of.
• Celebrate (oh and plan) Conner's 4th birthday!!
• Celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas
• Decorate for Thanksgiving and Christmas
• Figure out teacher gifts for Christmas
• Figure out gifts for the kids for Christmas
• Get Parker's current room all baby ready (not a ton to do in there, but if new baby=girl, I have lots to do)

I'm tired just thinking about all of it. start now and it will fall into place, right? right?!!

I know you're wondering if I bought my box of hair color and no, I have not. It's on my to do list. I am hopeful that by Monday, I'll have new hair, at least a new hair color.

just for laughs...I previewed this post (I never do that) and realized that on the side where I say that 6.5 years after we started dating, we got married...yea, it looks like 65 years. Totally cracked me up. I must fix that but not before I figure out why my almost 4 year old is having the fit of the century. he's all by himself on the couch; dude should just take a nap. we'd all be a little happier....

Mornings and Hair Color

No, the two don't go together but I want to talk about both so I figured I'd just do one post. First mornings...

I don't know what mornings look like at your house but they start with me waking up my kids at 7:30. We have to leave at 8:40 for school and they like to sleep in. If it were up to them, they would be waking up at 8:40. I know you're thinking "LUCKY" but my kids don't go to bed at night. Most nights they go to bed around 10 when the hubs and I decide we've had enough of their sweet little voices. Some nights, they both wind up in our bed (so glad it's a king); usually it's just Conner that comes in but sometimes Parker wants some early morning (think 3am) snuggles. I usually lose my pillow. We keep an extra pillow of Conner's in our bed...it works that way.

Why on Earth would I want to upset THIS? well, I love that I get 2 mornings a week to myself.

Look how peaceful!

I wake them up and we start our day. Typically Conner "hides" and Parker laughs and then finds him under the blankets. Conner never sleeps in a shirt...it's his new thing.

Let's move on to less cuter things. I am a member of Vocal Point (are you?).  Vocal Point is this great website where you can sign up for coupons and samples and freebies! You have to be selected for the freebies and I got one...it's from Nice'nEasy. I get free hair color. All I have to do is blog (duh) and give a review after I try out the product. I received a coupon for a free box of non-permanent color (washes out in 28 days, really I'm skeptical). I'm thinking of trying a darker shade, although I think my hair guy might kill me if I do it and it screws up my hair. It says it is a 15 min process, blends away gray (don't have any of those yet) and washes out in 28 shampoos. It contains no ammonia and it suited for first time colorers.

I have no idea what color I'll choose..knowing me, I will play it safe and stick to blonde.

I do like these

Reddish might be fun!

I really like this one

I'll hit up the drug store and see how brave I decide to be. The good news is that it washes out right? RIGHT?