Birthday Party

Brayden & Brinley celebrated their birthdays this weekend at Chick-Fil-A with a small group of friends. This was the perfect choice for a party since we just moved and I'm nine months pregnant- minimal effort was required. The kids enjoyed playing on the playground before eating dinner, opening presents and having cupcakes. Brayden, who is almost 5, wanted Handy Manny cupcakes and Brinley, who is 3, wanted Dora the Explorer. We had a great time!

36 weeks

Baby girl has a name, and it's not on the Top 15 Girls of 2010 list. Getting excited now!

Pregnancy

I made the realization this week that, with the exception of 2009, I have been pregnant every year since 2005! All 3 of our babies are born (or due) in January/February, spanning 2 calendar years each.

For the most part, I have enjoyed all 3 pregnancies. The second was was the most difficult because Brayden was very young and I couldn't just take a nap and relax like I could with the first one. This third pregnancy seems to be flying by- maybe it's the whole moving, working full-time and juggling 2 preschoolers thing. We are 4 weeks from our due date! Brayden was 2 weeks early and Brinley was 9 days late, so who knows what will happen with baby girl! I am a bit nervous about the whole timing contractions thing since my water broke with Brayden and I was induced with Brinley. I also have this fear that since we live a little farther from the hospital this time (we moved and it moved) things will move too quickly and she'll be born in the car! Quick, someone get me some statistics to reassure me of how unlikely that is... I also don't want to get the hospital too late to receive that blessed epidural.

The house is in good enough shape that we would be okay if baby girl arrived today, but a few more weeks of getting organized and nesting would be great, too. We have a name picked out and the kids are very excited, hopefully that will continue!

CVS Deal on Coke Products

You may not know that I am a serious coupon shopper. Each week I look forward to the Sunday ads (which we get on Saturday because we have no Sunday paper) and matching up the deals at the grocery store, CVS and Rite Aid. This week CVS has a grea deal on Coke products, regularly $5.29 a case. They are on sale (with CVS card) 5 for $15 and you get $5 Extra Bucks if you spend $15. That means you can get 5 cases for $2 each!

More Broccoli, Please!

Brayden loves raw broccoli, usually dipped in ketchup. He had some for dinner last night and then I said "Who wants birthday cake for dessert?" Brayden said, "I would not like cake, Mommy. May I have some more broccoli for dessert?" Of course, I brought the child some more broccoli! Seriously. This kid is too funny.

More Birthday Fun!

We celebrated Brinley's birthday by going to her choice of restaurants- "Bob Devans!" (Bob Evans) Baby girl wasn't feeling very well and didn't much dinner or any cake, but she still enjoyed her little party with Brayden, Mommy, Daddy, Nana & Grandpa.

 Apparently Dora wanted some of the cake too...when she was blowing out the candles!

 And one where Brayden said "Let's squish our faces together!"



Happy Birthday, Brinley!

Brinley is 3 years old! She took Dora & Boots cupcakes to day care- yum!

 She got balloons from Mimi and Pop at daycare!

 Birthday Breakfast



Moving

I will miss this door! We measured the kids on their birthdays and half-birthdays, starting when we moved into our house when Brayden was 1. I copied the chart onto paper and will transfer it at our new house.

 The kids wanted to "help" pack up their toys...Then they got bored and decided to tackle Daddy!

 Donuts on our last breakfast at home. Notice that Brinley chooses to eat only the chocolate off the top of hers and doesn't care for the rest of it.



Building a Bird House

Brayden got a set of tools for kids from Lowe's for Christmas and a kit to build a bird house. He asked almost every day "Daddy, when can we build my bird house?" He had a lot of fun, painted it, and can't wait to hang it in the yard at our new house!

33 Weeks

Virginia Christmas

Merry Christmas! Our last Christmas as a family of 4. Notice the Thomas train set- Brayden insisted that it had to be in the pictures with him!

 Nana & Grandpa

 Great Aunt Barbara

 So so sweet!



Mississippi Christmas

Santa has been here!

 Snuggling with Daddy, Mimi & Pop while playing the new MobiGo video games.

 Brayden? Where did you go? Into your Santa Sack?

 Ahhh, the mess!

 Decorating the almost impossible to make gingerbread houses from Target...once you can finally get them to stay together, the decorating part was fun.



Christmas Eve

We went to Mimi and Pop's church for Christmas Eve and 2 wiggly children both had to sit on Mommy's lap, but we made it. They enjoyed the candles when we sang Silent Night. Then we headed home for dinner and presents and set out milk and goodies for Santa and the reindeer.

Mississippi Pictures

Brayden snuggled right up to his great-great-aunt Hortense (? his great grandmother's sister...) to read some books when we stopped by her house to visit. She showed the kids how to use her cane like a microphone and they thought that was the coolest thing and took turns singing all kinds of beautiful songs!

Helping their great-grandmother, Memaw, open Christmas presents.

Brinley's Birthday (#1)

Our sweet girl, Brinley, will be 3 years old tomorrow! She goes to daycare twice a week, so today was her birthday celebration at school. I stumbled onto Dora & Boots cupcakes at Walmart (yes!) for her to share with her class at school and she got a special delivery there too: birthday balloons and a little Snow White princess from Mimi & Pop!

Home Sweet Home

It's been a whirlwind week of moving and trying to get settled. We went on Thursday morning to pick up our truck, only to find that U-Haul (now referred to as Boo-Haul in our house) had changed our reservation to a different location without telling us! I had talked to someone from the local U-Haul earlier that week about the pickup and drop off times, but he never said what location he was calling from and I didn't think to confirm the location. Won't be using them again! We had help loading and unloading the truck from Kenny's parents, Rick and Younes (thank you!!). Kenny's brother, Jim, and his girlfriend Leeah came down from New York to help us over the weekend and my friends from MOPS provided dinners for us all weekend long. It was so great not to have to worry about cooking, finding plates, etc. I left for the ACA conference Tuesday-Wednesday and am glad to be back home to work on unpacking more boxes and getting organized. Had a check up for baby girl today and all looks good- about 5 weeks to go.

Moving!

Christmas pictures will have to wait a bit longer as we are moving this weekend and things are halfway packed all over the place. We are moving about 15 minutes away and will have a lot of help this weekend. I'm looking forward to unpacking all of this stuff and getting organized. Not carrying and lifting things has been challenging so far, but I'm sure I will embrace my role as Moving Supervisor over the next few days! The kids are so excited about a driveway for sidewalk chalk, a playroom, and about sharing a room. I'm excited about a garage, especially for getting 3 kids in the car on a rainy day, and a pantry.

Oh yeah, baby girl is due in 6 weeks. We have got all kinds of time, it seems. We sold our townhouse when I was pregnant with Brayden and set closing for 2 weeks before his due date. First babies are usually late, right? Well, he came early- on the day of our closing! They brought us the paperwork and a big check at the hospital. We had just moved a week before that and the night before my water broke, I had finally gotten the kitchen organized. Even if this baby comes early, I feel like we'll have much more time to pull things together this time around. And we're not moving again for a long time!