Still Here

My blog has been calling to me... along with my laundry and my bed (the constant night time tug of war in my head!) I spent most of last week and last weekend in Washington, D.C. for work. While there, I also spent time with some dear friends in Maryland and had a great time. Since I've been back, everything has been in overdrive - it just seems like there are so many things going on, most importantly my girls need lots of my attention.

My asthma has started flaring up (it always gets worse when I'm pregnant) and because I work at a hospital and teach three year olds in Sunday school, I am extra paranoid about H1N1, which affects pregnant women more severely. So I've been trying to take good care of myself and Baby Boy, and getting plenty of rest. He's a very active little guy - much more so than either of my girls! I'm only a tiny bit scared ha!

I promise as soon as things slow down, I will start posting more and visiting everyone's blogs again!

Part of my slacking has been in the photography department too, so this is the only picture I have to share - Sophia with her favorite baby - if you've followed this blog for a long time, you'll know this is Baby Emily, who she got from us after her last round of surgeries. I just found out today that actually her first name is Em and her last name is Lee :)

We are having a big, healthy, baby...

Today was the big day! I LOVE getting ultrasounds around this point in pregnancy, because the baby is fully formed but still small enough to fit on the whole screen. I might be a tiny bit biased, but isn't this baby cute?!

Yes, the baby has arms - you can see the hand up by the head.

The girls and Davis came with me to the appointment. Sophia was mesmerized and loved it, but Amelia was busy cramming the little rolling doctor's stool into everything in the room and then crashing and pulling it over on herself.

When the tech first took a look, she said she just couldn't tell whether we had a girl or boy. Then she measured the baby's head and belly and everything else before looking again. And that time, she saw it

We're having a BOY!! She looked a third time and said "yup, it's there!" I know that's a horrible picture - she got some better glimpses, but he was moving around so quickly, she couldn't get a good picture.

We'll check again in four weeks but both the tech and the doctor were pretty convinced.

We are over the moon excited! We are most happy that baby looks perfect and healthy, but also excited about adding a baby brother to our family.

School Days

What a week!

The girls started school this week, and they love it! We love it too, because they are wiped out and sleep like babies at night.

Monday evening, we had a little back to school party... the girls got their favorite dinner (spaghetti) and we had sparkling apple cider and cupcakes. It was lots of fun, and in the middle of dinner, Sophia said "I have the BEST family!" So sweet.

Each of the girls got a special "treasure" as a good luck token - they were in awe of these giant diamonds ;)

After dinner, we all worked together on a scrapbook of all of our summer pictures. This is still a work in progress, but it was a fun way to remember all the fun we had over the summer.

Here is Sophia on Tuesday - her first day of school.

She will be going to pre-K five mornings a week. They are finished by 11:30, which is a nice transition before Kindergarten next year, when she'll be in school a full school day. Sophia loves her teacher, Ms. Bonnie, and all of her friends. When I asked her Wednesday afternoon whether she had a good day at school, she said "Nope. I had a GREAT day. That's better than good!"

And here is Amelia on Wednesday - her first day of school.

She will be going three mornings a week. She loves her teacher Ms. Susan and all of her new little friends. She's been very proud and happy every day, and as I said, extremely worn out. One of the things I love most about our school is that come rain or shine, hot or cold, they get the kids outside and onto the playground. They also have music every day and do lots of art. There will be many years of sitting at a desk ahead, and I'm so happy that the girls getting a fun, creative, and active introduction to school.

Sophia also started dance class. (Sorry for the crummy picture - it was muggy out that day, and my camera fogged up!)

She'll be going to tap one afternoon and ballet another afternoon. I love that the classes are only 30 minutes long - plenty long enough for a four year old! My rule is that each of the kids get one after-school activity a year, starting at three. Next year, we'll start Amelia in gymnastics (like Sophia did last year), and Sophia thinks she wants to try soccer after dance. The only exception is we'll start piano lessons when they turn five, but those don't count because they're at our house. I'm determined not to become a chauffeur! Plus I just think kids should come home from school, have a snack, and play in the backyard. Not to mention the piles of homework they all get now. Or at least that's what I hear... I've got a couple of years before I have to worry about that!

As for me, I'm still struggling with lots of fatigue and migraines. But I'm SO excited for my ultrasound tomorrow, because if the baby cooperates, we might find out whether we've got a brother or a sister in there!

Storing Kids' Art Work & A Good Dinner

With school starting, I'm determined to stay organized and get into a good routine - something I've been looking forward to the last couple of months. Pajama days, not worrying about lunches, it's all been fun... but I think we're all ready to get back into the groove of school.

Sophia will start preschool, going five days a week from 8:30 to 11:30. Last year she went three mornings a week and was worn out, so I'm sure this will be a bit of an adjustment for her. Amelia will start going Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 8:30 to 11:30. She went two mornings a week last year. We LOVE our school!

So anyway, art work. One of the things we love about this school is that the kids do so much great art, music, being read to, playing on the playground (they are GREAT about making sure the kids get outside lots!) But the artwork they bring home can get a little overwhelming sometimes. So here's our new solution...

When the masterpiece comes home, it gets a showing on the fridge for a couple of days, then it goes into the boxes that we made today.

I got some clean, empty pizza boxes (the guy at Little Caesar's was puzzled, so I told him to charge me for the boxes, and he did - fifteen cents ha!)

and I wrapped them in brown postal paper (one roll from the Dollar Store was more than enough for two boxes). I attached the paper using spray adhesive.

Then I let the girls decorate their boxes

and labeled them

They stack nicely, so hopefully this will be a manageable way to store their school work from now on.

By the way, that first piece of art that is shown in the box above is Sophia's All About Me collage that she made for her first day of school. I helped her with cutting (only because I couldn't find the kids' scissors and she was having a hard time using the bigs ones) but other than that, she made it all by herself.

I also wanted to share what we had for dinner Sunday, because it was a very yummy, cheap, easy and healthy meal - what more could you want?

Roast Chicken

1 whole chicken

1 tsp kosher salt

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash the chicken and dry very well. Place the chicken in a small roasting pan and sprinkle the top with the salt. Bake for 1-1.5 hours, depending on the size of the chicken. Don't baste. This makes the best crunchy salty chicken skin with moist, tender chicken inside.

Davis's Favorite Rice

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups long grain white rice

1 /2 Tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 10-oz bag sliced mushrooms, chopped

Bring the chicken broth to a boil, then add the rice. Cover and return to a boil. As soon as the rice begins to boil, turn the heat to low (you want it low enough so just a little steam escapes from the lid) and cook for 18 minutes without lifting the lid.

Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium heat, then add the chopped onion. Saute the onion until it is just translucent. Add the chopped mushrooms and turn the heat up to high. Saute on high until all the liquid is gone and the mushrooms are squeaky and starting to brown on their edges.

When the rice is done, fluff it with a fork and then stir the onion/mushroom mixture into the rice. Salt to taste, but because of the chicken broth, you won't need much salt.

Wilted Spinach

1/2 Tablespoon butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1 pound fresh spinach, washed

Melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat, then add the onion (I used a red onion tonight, because I had half of one I needed to use up). Saute the onion until translucent, then add spinach. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach is just wilted. Salt to taste.

Davis doesn't love spinach, but he'll eat it this way. Thankfully both of my kids love it. I could eat this spinach and chicken skin all night long.

GO HOGS!

I've been having a hard time convincing myself it's Labor Day weekend, because it's been so cool here. But, boy, am I happy for a three day weekend, especially since we have no plans other than to hang out at home and visit some friends! We're watching football and making crafts and baking.

Today we went to a Razorback party... I brought these - some people call them pigs in a blanket, but THESE were called Hogs in a jersey ha! Kelly gave me the idea, and everyone loved them!

Sophia and I made her All About Me collage for school (I'll post a picture later - it's in her room right now, and she's barely asleep). We had football games on TV all day until after bath (no TV for at least an hour before bedtime), when I turned on the Dixie Chick's Lullaby and snuggled and lotioned up the girls before getting them into their jammies and sending them off to read books with their daddy.

AND in the most exciting news from inside of me... I've been feeling the baby move!! I was a little unsure at first, because I didn't feel either of the girls until 18-19 weeks, but every night the past few nights when I've laid down, I've felt that wonderful, magical, unmistakable swimmy feeling in my belly. I hope this baby is an active one, because this is just about the best, most reassuring thing EVER!

Happy Saturday and Wooo Pig Sooie!!

Middle Child

Before we even became pregnant, I've worried about this sweet girl being a middle child.

She is spunky and two, and her confidence is seemingly endless... but underneath it all, she is really a sensitive babe. Right now, at two and a half, she's going through that stage where she wants to be more independent, while at the same time becoming insecure and needing reassurance. She tells us all day long that she's a big girl, but then crawls in bed with me and whispers "I your babykins, right?"

Yes, sweet thing, you will always be my Babykins.