Lola Fe Fi Zola…

This pregnancy just reminds me of all my first feelings toward Lola before I even saw her sweet face.  Lola has amazed me with how into the pregnancy she is.  I am surprised she even thinks twice about it, but glad she does.  She is so cute.  Despite the  nursery just getting under way- she loves being in that room knowing it’s for the baby.  She has helped me paint, put up the crib (smile) and clean!  She loves putting her babies in the crib and letting them “sleep” and goes and gets them out a few hours later.  So cute. 

I got the pleasure of observing Lola today at school without her knowing I was looking in.  She was so cute.  Definitely strong willed and a little chatty like her momma can be!  But she was good and definitely can tell she is learning routines set by others, which is good.  It’s amusing watching her in a classroom environment.  I really enjoyed it.  When I picker her up and she told me that she sat in her chair during lunch (which isn’t always the case) and I said, “I know! I am so proud of you!” She proceeded to tell me how that meant she didn’t get a spanking and I agreed then I let her in on the big secret that I was watching her.  She was a bit baffled and told me she didn’t see me.  I said “I know! I was hiding!”  Now all day she has tried to figure out where my hiding place was.  Hehehe.  Thankful for their two-way window.  It’s good when your kids can’t figure out how you know something, but that magically you do know. Motherly super powers.

Lola is talking really good and still non-stop.  I think I will really enjoy Christmas time with her this year.  She really has taken ahold of Santa Claus.  Lola picked out purple wrapping paper at Hobby Lobby and I said that would be perfect for me to wrap her Christmas presents but she corrected me telling me the paper was for Santa so he could wrap her presents.  Almost already blew Santa’s cover.  Oops.

Well I uploaded photos from my phone and thought I would post some of my favs- hopefully I haven’t posted any of these before, but who really knows. You can’t trust my pregnant brain for anything right now. 

Lola in curlers and a dress, which she loved wearing. / Lola at work with me and not going as planned.

      

Lola waiting while my car was being washed as happy as can be. / Laura and I celebrating her birthday!  Love you girl!

 

Lola admiring her Jack-O-Lantern. / Paw-Paw’s birthday dinner and Lola gladly helped him blow out the candles.

  

Aunt Kebby and Lola enjoying a good read. / Lola loving her CFA Icedream.

 

Lola settling her “crying” babies down. / My happy child.

  

Lola playing in Robert’s boat wanting to know where the water is. /  My baby and me. 

  

Lola all sweet in curls. / Myself and Clay as a child. Hehehe.

  

Lola’s bff. We love Aubrey.

   

Cute short hair.  Hmmm, may cut again. / Lola playing on the iPad.  She’s a pro.

 

The sewing room makes Lola giddy---

Lola loves to wander down the hallway and yell “Where’s you be Momma?” and when I am in my sewing room and answer I hear those footsteps moving a bit faster and her yelling “I help you make somethin’ momma!”  She loves the room and as much stuff as I have in there, all the pins, scissors, rotary cutters, knitting needles, ink, paint, etc… it seriously seems to be child proof.  She can’t mess up my table.  She is pretty wise on what is off limits but she still likes to sit in my sewing chair and “pretend” to sew.  It’s so darn cute. She keeps telling me she wants a sewing machine so I will find her a pretend one for now, and when she gets barely old enough I will buy her a real one! Can’t wait!  In the bath tub tonight she told me this funny shape bucket we have is her sewing machine and she is making something.  Melt. My. Heart. Make. Me. Giddy. 

This morning I was getting ready for a lesson and Lola was waiting on Nonna and she was just so happy.  She just sat on my stool (although she has kind of claimed it as her own) and talked and talked to me.  So I got out my camera especially when she was “sitting like you, mommy.”  Enjoy all four, because I couldn’t choose just one. Ha!

        

Baby, baby, baby…

Can I be 19 weeks pregnant as in basically half way done?? How is this possible? In some ways I feel like I have been pregnant forever, but that’s just because I feel worse this time around, but really it is going by fast and if I start feeling loads better I bet it will be over before I know it.  Which is crazy because that means Clay and I will have two sweet little ones at home and not just one.  I am really excited for this and am more excited that Clay and Lola are so ready! 

I need to get my booty in gear with the nursery!  People say “Oh you have time-“ but I know it will fly by especially through the holidays.  January and February will be good months to focus in on it.  I like babies nurseries being done by 37 weeks in case we have an early arrival- BUT I learned my lesson with Lola and I will mentally prepare to carry this baby every darn day of 40 weeks.  Clay and I are going to do some bigger projects over Thanksgiving break!  Woohoo!   And my mom said she would paint all the doors, trim, and shelves with the oil base paint!  Yayaya! Still good for that mom? :)  Oh and still need to wallpaper too… definitely want to see the big projects done by the new year.

Something I am really excited over is I am making a quilt for the twin bed going in the nursery!  It will be my first full blown quilt and I am so excited.  I want to make one for our bedroom too.  I will get started on that during Thanksgiving when Clay has some time off. 

I can’t wait to meet he or she and still sticking to my guns on not finding out.  Even Clay is digging it.  The fun things is the baby is pretty active like Lola, so I have been feeling lots of kicks and nudges and I think it will be just another week or so until Clay (and you Laura) can feel too.  I already have people touching my belly which is weird.  If I am talking and someone does it, I totally loose my train of thought. I guess I need to post pictures of my bump, don’t I?  I have been saying I will… snuck one in with Halloween photos.  I’ll get Clay to take one soon.    

Well just wanted to ramble about this baby.  I am so excited and just want to fast forward to due date time!  Last time, I really remember enjoying the pregnancy more- did I forgot a lot of stuff or do they just feel that different?  Hope I forgot when I get baby fever for the time after this!

Clay and I enjoyed a nice date last night and for the first time in 2.5 years of Lola’s existence had a real-life babysitter.  What does that mean?  We had Kylee, who I and Lola absolutely love come over and watch Lola at our house during night hours so we could go out at normal date time!  And guess what, Kylee, our new hero, had Lola down at bedtime, house cleaned and no problems.  We were trying to figure out at dinner how often we can ask her without making her sick of us. Hehehe- it was nice.  But we got to talk a lot about the pregnancy and baby names, parenting with two, etc… it was fun.  We also saw an R-rated movie to balance off all the mommy and daddy talk.  Hahaha! (I have no idea what the movie was actually rated for the record.)  

Well it’s 5 p.m. which means bath for Lola and figure out what everyone is eating for supper. I think I am seeing an early bedtime for me tonight. 

Feeling blessed this week and looking forward to Thanksgiving and having Clay home more that week!  Also getting the big ultrasound next week to check on baby!  Looks like Laura is going to get to go with me- a little weird but Clay knows he would try and peak if he saw the baby- so I am using my “fill-in” spouse- Laura.  Didn’t think of it till now, but will we look like lesbians?  Haha- oh lordy.  Luckily my doctor has met Clay already!

Enjoy your week and will post pictures soon.  Also will post on Sew Creative soon to update what my students have been doing.  They are amazing and so talented!  

Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe!!!

Okay, okay- I need to share the wealth and many of you have wanted the recipe!  I make this every year and friends and family love it!  (Makes a great, cheap gift or a fun surprise for friends!)  A high school teacher shared this recipe with me (let’s see- about a decade ago! Geeze.). I lost the originally recipe and this is what I do-

Recipe:

First note you need something large to mix this all in unless you cut in in half!

A box of non-fat powdered dry milk (25.6 ounce)

1 pound of confectioners sugar-  Oh and honestly a good bit more doesn’t hurt anybody and will make it sweeter! ;)

I use a 14.1 ounce jar of Nesquick powdered chocolate

Last but not least, around 10 ounces of powdered creamer

Mix all together!  I fill my mug up about 1/3rd of the way full and then add boiling water- and it’s great with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream to help cool it down and marshmellows and maybe some reddi whip.  What’s the point of drinking it if you aren’t willing to go all out?  I think it doesn’t taste the same if you don’t let your water come to a boil and then add it… my husband just warms his water and it isn’t the same!

The GREAT thing about this recipe is you can totally make it your own!  A candy cane as a stir stick is great and gives it the peppermint flavor. Also, creamers come in all kinds of flavors- you could play with that.  And I know some people like to add cinnamon (just a little bit!).  My next batch I will split into 4 batches and “experiment” some!  I’ll let you all know if I come up with something amazing!

Enjoy!  And let me know how you modify to fit your family!

Happy Halloween 2011!

Lola enjoyed the Fall Festival at her school tonight for Halloween and had a great time!  Nonna and Ba came with us and Lola got candy, played games, and her favorite- jumped in a bounce house! Aubrey and Laura met us up there too which made Lola super excited. 

Here are pictures and still need to get pictures from my mom’s camera because she had some great ones!

(Just a look back- here’s Lola last year and Lola and Aubrey.  Lola was a pumpkin and Elmo!)

   

They look so much younger- I can’t get over it!

 

And THIS year! My little monkey!

   

A little family picture in action and then another picture of the baby bump, which I have yet posted.  This is me in my 18th week. 

 

Love the second picture below even though it’s blurry-

   

Lola was so good at all the games and seemed to enjoy them!  But she loved the bounce house the most by far!

Ba was really good about getting Lola involved in the games!

 

 

Then Aubrey arrived!

 

Similar faces-  But why the crazy faces girls?

Lola was quite concerned when Aubrey started crying from the scary costumes-

I told Lola she was scared and to tell Aubrey that it’s okay- So she told her- so cute. But it didn’t help.

 

Oh wait- better! (Laura, pretty please e-mail me a good one at the end!)

Thanks for going Nonna and Ba! 

Lola has a bad weekend of sleeping so was really ready for bed.  When we got home around 7 she went in super bipolar, crazy mode.  She was too tired to do anything.  She cried and cried in fear her balloon would pop and finally I got her in bed with a washed face and hands, clean pajamas, and a snack.  She ate, cried, watched Nemo, ate, cried, and watched Nemo.  Finally, passed out playing with my hair.  I pray to Jesus that balloon doesn’t pop overnight.  I felt bad for how tired she was, but glad she is sleeping soundly now.  Praying she sleeps through the night tonight.  Her sleeping has been off for some reason recently.  Not good for a tired Momma and Daddy!

Tomorrow is officially Halloween- but I am thinking tonight might have been the extent of it around here.  Halloween isn’t my favorite, y’alls?  Bring on Thanksgiving and Christmas people!  Woohoo!