Pumpkin Carving and Mud

This is essentially James's older brother. The kid LOVES his Matt!

Finished product 

 As you can see, kiddo got really excited with the sharpie on the outside of the pumpkin

 And...we've been working hard to put grass into our front yard. When Matt came over, he MIGHT have destroyed half of our yard. Sigh.

James got a kick out of it though...

And in honor of tomorrow being "Throw Back Thursday", here is little man 1 year ago!

MIA

Gosh it's been a while. Sorry folks. Here's what we've been up to in the past few weeks!

Handsome man!

We took a selfie! 

 We went back to Nivens to pick a pumpkin

 Pure. Joy.

 MOM! I want this one.

 A pumpkin!

 It's one my size!

 I'm gonna get it!

 A little tour of our house - this is our living room. Notice the naked goose in the bottom right corner. I cannot get our child to leave the goose's halloween costume on it to save my life. "Goose, hawwo-ween no!"

 Dining room - Grey is in the process of building us a much bigger table to fit our banquet seating against the wall

 The kitchen! I loooove our island!

 An empty wall in the kitchen. This week, we will be picking up more cabinets and moving the freezer into the garage.

 One corner of the play room

 The other corner - the chairs have to go back into the garage. (That door to the right leads to a screened in porch)

 One corner of our room. On the left hand side of the bed is a dresser with two comfy chairs on either side. It's a pretty big bedroom. We still have to decorate and hang curtains.

 James's room. 

 Guest room with a craft area in the right back corner (not pictured)

 My child has taken a liking to wearing my headbands

 He loves his pumpkin!

I'm seriously going to try to blog on more of a weekly basis. This week we've got our college student coming over to carve pumpkins with James. Both boys are so excited! :)

27 weeks next week...it's extremely hard to believe that I'm in my last week of my 2nd trimester. Panic may have settled in a little this past week. Yikes!

Love y'all and thanks for reading!

-B

Mom

My 20 month old has started calling me Mom instead of mommy. My heart can't take this.
On the flip side, give us another few weeks and we'll be done setting up the house. :)

Baby's Gender

We're not finding out. Until that baby pops out.
Will that bother you?
Too bad. :)

So far, according to some old wives tests, the following has been predicted:
The Chinese calendar (95% accurate)- girl!
Amount of morning sickness- I haven't been sick since week 7! boy!
Carrying out front or in hips and tush...out front- boy!
Heart beat-always under 150...boy!
Cravings- salty (boy) initially and sweet (girl) now
Carrying high or low? Who knows. I feel like I'm carrying low (boy) but others tell me it's high.
Acne? Notta. =boy
I have literally had the exact same pregnancy that I had with James.
My prediction? BOY!

Freezer Cooking!

And let the Freezer cooking begin in preparation for baby #2!
For dinners:
3 spaghetti sauces (thanks Mom!)
2 huge white chicken lasagnas
For breakfasts:
Lemon blueberry bread
Lemon raspberry muffins
Chocolate zucchini bread and muffins
Sausage, ham, and egg breakfast burritos

I've got a ton more to go! :)

Labor Day Weekend and 20 weeks!

There is a family owned apple farm that we adore about 5 minutes from our house and on Labor Day, they had a big festival!  They had BBQ and a bluegrass band come out and play.  We had so much fun! James got to drive a big tractor, pick apples, see lots of animals, play in some kid's houses, and jump on a big tire.  Kiddo took a long nap afterwards :)

 My men :)

We're halfway baked ladies and gents!

HOW EXCITING?!

I cannot even fathom the major turn around that has occured in my heart over the past few weeks. I am so excited for the little life kicking away inside of me!

Take your guess? Will it be a girl or a boy?  

We're not finding out till the kid is OUT!

(Don't you think that will make labor so much more exciting?!)

Ok - so 20 weeks!

Feeling: EXHAUSTED. But seriously, I'm chasing a toddler around all day, growing a baby, doing grocery shopping, cooking meals, cleaning, and oh yeah, UNPACKING a house during nap times. Momma don't sit much.

Weight gain: eh. 10 lbs. BUT! I can still (uncomfortably) fit into non maternity pants and shirts. Take that gestational diabetes!

Gestational diabetes: Eh. My numbers have not been as good lately.  I'm having some trouble with my fasting numbers again. I fear that this pregnancy might just be different and I may not be able to control it as well as I could with James.

Names: We have no stinkin clue about names.  By this time with James, we were dead set on both a boy and a girl name. We have about 5 top names for each and that's as far as we've gotten. I asked James what he wanted to call his baby sibling and he said, "Tator"

Cravings: Chocolate. 

Pictures!

20 weeks with James:

 20 weeks with (I need a gender neutral name...how about...) Eubert Wilma

Half. Way. Done!

16 weeks and A day in the life of a...

Gestational Diabetes preggo who's moving in less than 1 week. :)

6:15 - get up when Grey gets up for school and test my fasting blood. Eat a few almonds and go back to sleep (most days, I fail to go back to sleep)
7:45 - get up and get dressed.  Time to get James!
8:00 - Good morning James! A quick diaper change, a few books, and some milk
8:30 - breakfast for everyone
8:45 - 10:30 - packing, packing, packing...with a 1 mile walk in there. (James usually rides in the stroller)
10:30 - test my after breakfast blood sugar
10:40 - eat a snack and head to the gym
11:30 - back home, James and I usually play and start preparing lunch
12:00 - lunch
12:15 - more play!
12:45 - books and milk
1:00 - nap time!
1-3 (sometimes 4:00) - I shower, pack some more, take a nap, test my after lunch blood sugar, and get a snack
4:00 - Grey comes home and plays with James - I pack some more and cook dinner
5:30 - dinner!
5:50-7 or 7:15ish - play time!
7:15 - James and Grey go read books and drink his bed time milk, I go for my last walk of the day
7:45 - James is down for the night - I test my after dinner blood sugar
7:50-9:00 - more packing
9:00 - relaxation time.
10:00 - my last snack before bedtime!
10:15 - bedtime (finally!)

I was 16 weeks on Saturday!
I'm feeling ok right now. I tend to have a lot of round ligament pain but I assume that's from all the exercising and packing I'm doing. 
No cravings!
I believe fully in my heart that this baby is another boy (YAY!!)
At 8 wks, the heart beat was in the 170s. At 12 wks, it was in the 140s and on Monday, it was in the 150s.
James went with me to this past appointment. He HATES doctors so he did his fair share of screaming and clinging which can be rough when they're trying to do things like take your blood pressure and listen for the baby's heart beat. He did settle down enough to get to hear the heart beat though and now several times a day, he'll put his finger up to his ear and say, "Baby? " and make the heart beat sound. 
Be still my heart. :)
This was me at 16 weeks with James!

 And this is me currently! 16 weeks with baby #2!

Love y'all!