Bad Sign...

I think it might be a bad sign that I am already not sleeping... I am already walking the halls all night long. I get up at least 5 times to pee and then after I get back in the bed I cannot get back to sleep. Little Miles wakes up each time I get up and when I lay back down he reminds me he is in there with some (still un-painful) sweet little kicks... Whew, I am only (almost) 21 weeks and this did not start with Mason until almost 30 weeks. I have bags under my eyes and I can hardly keep them open during the day.

But, it is a good thing that the past 20 weeks have flown by! I know these last 20 will go by fast as well... I remember being pregnant with Mason and thinking how bored I was and how slow pregnancy was. I have not thought that once this pregnancy until Mason spent 3 days with his grandmother. It was like time was creeping by... I am glad he is back now, because I do not have time to think about if I am tired or not. I also do not have time to do a lot of other things either, but at least he is keeping me busy playing cars and snuggling so I do not think about the next 20 weeks!

As Promised...

First off I just want to say- sorry for the long post and all the different stuff crammed into one, I did not feel like making several different ones...


The day we found out we were having a boy we went to the Mall to buy something for Miles. We did it for Mason and bought him a sweet little monkey from PBK. I love that store and if I had the money I would do my whole nursery in it... But, anyways- We went into PBK for Miles, we came out with a super cool digger/ dozer for Mason... We would have bought Miles something too, but they did not have anything we liked.

These two are so cute. Curt dressed Mason- can you tell? All Mason needed was some sunglasses and they would have matched almost perfectly!
He is actually walking backwards in this picture. He was running away and I told him to "come right back!" He turned around and said, "See Mom, Mason can walk backways!" I had to laugh, I know I shouldn't have, but it was cute!

I swear we were the only people in the mall that day, which was great because I let Mason run and drive his dozer all around...

Really, this is how he walked almost all of the way to the car... It makes my back hurt just looking at him...

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Also, the day we found out what the baby was going to be we went to The Cheesecake Factory to eat and celebrate... It was yummy, and I want to go back... The food is so huge there that Curt and I always agree on what we are going to eat and split it... We got the burrito- it was literally 4 servings, if we had not left it in the car, the left overs would have been so scrumptious...

It is hard theses days to get Mason to look at the camera... He has so much going on and smiling for Mommy is on the bottom of the list...

I love this picture of Curt, he is smiling so BIG! There is no telling what Mason has on his finger, but I am sure it was something worthy of a tissue... I {heart} these boys...

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Mason has really been enjoying his time on his bikes... He loves all kinds of bikes and he loves to do tricks... I think he learned his tricks from his friend Ryder...

Right after these pictures were taken, he did a "danger trick" and fell... Thank goodness he was in the grass... I am still getting used to his tricks! They make me feel like I am on a roller coaster ride and every time he does one I loose my stomach... I think I am in for a long ride....

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Mason has a new "friend". He calls him "baby". He was found on the back tree-line close to our house... The night we brought him home, Curt helped Mason put him in a (old jelly jar) home. They got him a tree branch to climb on and some leaves to eat... Later that night after Mason went to bed, I let "baby"go free.... Mason woke up around midnight crying for "baby"- you got it, he wanted to hold his caterpillar at midnight. I told him that baby was sleeping and wanted to play with him in the morning... I then went back to bed and said a little prayer that "baby" would be a slow crawler... The next morning I got up early and headed out the back door and he was only a few inches away from where I left him.... I put him back in his new home and put him on the table... Mason was elated to get up and see his friend "baby." Well, now baby is in the next stage of his life- he has since made a cocoon and hopefully will be turning into a beautiful butterfly... I feel like a science teacher- Mason has learned so much about caterpillars and butterflies in the past few days... It really has been fun... I do not plan on letting many creatures into the house- they are so gross. But, I guess that if you have a boy you have to bend the rules sometimes...

Mason & "baby"

He loved to let him crawl on his hands... The boy loves "creatures".

Share & Share A-Like

Well- Mason is being shared some this week with Mammie and Gran. They needed some Mason time, I can hardly blame them, he is scrumptious and so much fun... He left us Sunday afternoon and we will pick him up on Wednesday. I missed him before they drove out of the drive way with him. He is in the best stage now. Not that I would not always miss him- but we have a lot of fun here lately!

I cannot say that I "wanted" a break, but it was "needed". There were just some things that I need to get done that I do not need 10 little cookie crumb fingers all over.

I have got to get the baby clothes down from the attic to get them ready to organize.

I am "needing" to get the yard sale stuff ready as our BIG neighborhood yard sale is this weekend.

We have so much stuff... I am in purge mode.

If we have not used, looked at or thought about it in 2 years or more it is going... Anything left over will be donated to the storm victims here in Murfreesboro that lost so much Easter weekend.

I also have 2 closets to clean out before all of this can happen too...

Mason has already been proven a pack rat. Everything we try to get rid of he tries to keep...

I hope I can get all of this stuff ready for departure, I hate clutter, it is bad when your attic is cluttered...

I also need to get out all of the baby gear such as the pack and play, swing, bouncy (what did they do with babies before all of this stuff was invented?) and all of that other un-necessary stuff that I think I need to have for a baby and clean it and put it in our freshly sanitized nursery.

I have some fun pictures to post if I can get around to it...

Are you "Spring Cleaning"? What did you do?

DRUM ROLL, please.......*

We are having a HEALTHY little BOY!

YEAH!


We are so excited... Mason might be the only one with reservations about it, we told him he needs to work on his sharing because his little brother will want to play with trains and cars too and he said, "ummmm.... Nope." But in all seriousness, he is excited. He talked about baby brother yesterday a few times. We are putting a very exciting spin on it for him- except for the sharing part...

Curt could not be more thrilled. I guess he was right, he is good at making boys... LOL! He was just beaming yesterday all day long after we got the news... He was telling me all the fun things they are going to do together and all the great times they will have... He is such a GREAT Daddy.

I am STOKED! I know I said I was rooting for a girl, but I really did not care either way. I like girly things and I wanted a girl to share those things with... But I could not be more excited about having another BOY! It really just seems natural that we would have 2 "rowdy" boys. As soon as we saw all of the healthy parts and that everything was on track for growth and development, I was in heaven when she said it was going to be a boy... So, yes, I would love to have had a girl but having a boy seems even better from where I am standing now...

Baby Miles, will be arriving sometime around the first week of September. He looks exactly like Mason did on his sonogram picture- I mean exactly! He has been moving a lot, which I am enjoying for the time being because he is still very small. But I am sure as he gets bigger, those kicks in the ribs will come with a bit of pain...

Can I tell you that I love my little family! Our life is so wonderful and I cannot wait to get Miles here, he will surely be the a great fit!

Floating on cloud 9,

Leslee

PS- I am not one of those Mom's who cries and has a bad day because she did not get the results she wanted... It is my belief that God has a plan for my family and apparently it involves having 2 boys... You may have thought that since I was strongly opinionated about the fact that I wanted a girl, but that really is not me...

*PSS- I doubt we will be trying for a 3rd baby for a girl, I think the magic number 4 will be great for our family! Pregnancy is not my strong-suit, but I normally forget that after about 2 years... But again, we will see what life holds on the road that lies ahead...

It Is Official.

Tomorrow is the big day! We find out what baby # 2 is going to be. I am still rooting for a girl, but it really does not matter to me. I am fine either way. Curt is rooting for a boy, he seems to think that is all he can make... Go figure... I guess we shall see. Either way we have names picked out!

If baby is a GIRL, her name will be:

Sadie Claire- we will call her Sadie Claire

If baby is a BOY, his name will be:

Jackson Miles- we will call him Miles



So, there you have it. The moment of truth is tomorrow morning at around 10am, I am super excited!

What do you think our baby will be?

I Love This Kid!

How cute is he? He loves putting his hands in his pockets. He loves to play on the playground close to Nonnies house. He loves to find shells in the rocks. He loves to look for ants. And, he loves to be 2!

Picture credits: My Dad

M&M's

I have an Aunt who used to work for M&M Mars Company when I was a kid (we got the coolest Christmas gifts.)!

I think I am going to ask her how they get the (addictive) crack into the M&M's with out it being detected... I bet she will deny that they use crack...

I went to High School with a girl who used to say- "I only ate 4 M&Ms today." I remember thinking that she was lying...

My Mom understands my love for M&Ms and she still accepts me...

My husband does not understand- I guess he still accepts me...

I voted for purple when they had the color change contest like 15 years ago.

I had a friend who had the slogan "Bear MM" on her license plate and she thought it was cool... Even worse, so did I!

I also have a very EVIL friend who taught me that when you pop pop corn and take it straight from the microwave and then place M&M's on top that the steam from the pop corn melts the chocolate on the inside... She is EVIL! You know who you are...

What is the deal with M&M's?

For today, I cannot shake them... They are on my mind...

I swear I am not one of those people who sits around and eats them.

I am praying to be able to battle this crazy addiction before too long- like by the end of today...

I have a doctor appointment a week from tomorrow and I swear I will not let Curt look at the scale...

Do you think I am nuts?

Do you have a sweet tooth?

What is your chocolate love?

Please tell- do not leave a girl hanging out to dry...

Grateful.

We made it through a very dangerous storm yesterday. Our home was about 2 miles from where the major damage was. Still, our home remained untouched. I had friends who live much closer than we do and I am so thankful that they are all fine as well.

I was so glad that Curt was home during all of this as well as my parents were visiting. So, having my hubbie and my Dad there made me feel better. Mason freaked out. It was hot in our bathroom and it is a small 1/2 bath. He could not understand why we were in there... I do not blame him for freaking out.

There were 2 fatalities so far. A young mother and her 9 week old baby. Her husband is critical in our hospital. Please pray for this family that has lost so much. Please pray for all of the affected families and the recovery of our community from this storm.

Recently in the past 3 weeks there have been 2 tornadoes in our town. The first one hit while we were out to eat at O'Charleys. It literally hit 100 yards down the road. It basically skipped right over our restaurant. We were sitting right by the window when all of this happened and watched the rain. There were never any sirens and the wind picked up just a bit. The news did not even know it was a tornado until later that night. We were very lucky. Next time we will be hi-tailing it to the bathroom... It makes me wonder if I will ever let us leave the house even when it is raining ever again... HA- in all seriousness, we will be much more careful. Even though there were no warnings- I will definitely listen to my "mommy voice" next time.

18 Weeks and Other Stuff

Holy Moly, I cannot believe it! I am 18 weeks pregnant tomorrow. I have said it several times- after the first child, time flies... I really mean it. I feel pretty good now, I am a little tired and I have a lot of back pain- BAD BACK PAIN! By the end of the night I am so ready to lay down that I want to cry. But when I lay down it hurts worse. Oooh, I am ready for this part to be over... I do not think that will be happening any time soon. But other than being tired and having back pain, I am happy and healthy. I am starting to have a little bump. While I am still in my regular jeans, I decided yesterday that I was heading to Target on Saturday to look for a pair of maternity capris or jeans... There comes a time when you can still wear your normal pants but they are super uncomfortable. I told myself that I was going to stay in "my" jeans for as long as I could. Well, my time is up. I am ready for some expansion...

Mason, my sweet little loving 2.5 year old has been less than helpful lately... Bless his heart (isn't that what we say in the south when we do not know what else to say?). It is like he is out to sabotage me. He un-does everything I do. EVERYTHING! So, I have been making chores like a game. It only works sometimes, but sometimes is better than NO times... He makes a daily effort to love on the "baby" and talk to it. The other day he said he wanted to call the baby on the phone... So he picks up the house phone and says,
" Helllo, Helllllo- Mary Grace are you there? Mary Grace, HELLLLLO! Mom, she not talking to Mason...."
It was the cutest thing ever. I have no idea where he got Mary Grace from??? I think he took "Mary" from "Mary Claire" which was one of my favorite baby names and "Grace" from "Ella Gracin" which will be my brothers new baby's name... Or, My freind Jess has a little girl named "Emma Grace". He is such a funny kid. I do not know where he gets the stuff he knows... But he is funny. Also, if this baby is a boy, I will feel bad, I have been calling it a girl most of the time... I am convinced. I did have a bit of doubt placed in my head about the (girl/ boy) thing yesterday. My neighbor asked me to turn sideways and said "Oh yeah, it's a boy!" Ummmm, ok, thanks... I need at least 2 more weeks to keep thinking I am growing sugar and spice and everything nice... Ha- not like that is going to change anything...

Well, that is all for now. Maybe some pictures will surface next week. Mason will be hunting eggs at our house on Saturday with some of my family and then it is off to church on Sunday for the BIG celebration of the RESURRECTION of our KING!

Keepin It Real Sistas

My friend Kacey wrote a most fabulous post about Motherhood and her thoughts on Oprah's recent shows about "Mom's Coming Clean." I think you should read it.

Head on over and leave her a comment. I think it was one of her best of all time. Also, she is a great daily read...

Upcoming Stuff...

I have really enjoyed my new font... It is so sweet and pretty... You can head on over to Kiki & Lele to see what I have been up to... I will be busy for the next few months with finishing up Mother's Day (have you gotten something for your Mom yet?) and then I have an event planned in Tullahoma for the Arts & Crafts Festival and then on to Bell Buckle in June for the Moon Pie Festival... Whew, I do not know how I am going to do it all... Thank goodness for my Mom and for Curt, they are so awesome and supportive. Also, a BIG thanks to my parents for the vacation we are all going on in July, I need some time by the pool... Disney World, here we come...

{All Decked Out!}

My brother and his wife are having a baby next month... Her name will be Ella Gracin. We are all super excited. I had my friend Rachel make these sweet head bands for her... I cannot wait to see them on her sweet head. Rachel is an awesome crafter and she has become a fast blog friend of mine... The next thing on my list for her to make is a hand-stitched family (she does not have any up in her shop right now) to hang on my family wall. We just have to find out if we are having a boy or a girl first...

Go here to look at her fabulous shop... Check in on her regularly, she is always adding fun stuff...

Thanks Rachel! You RoCk!

Have you ever?

Have you ever thought of something, you know had a random thought pop into your head? Then you cannot stop thinking about this random thought...? Than you marinate on this totally random thought? Than it becomes more and soon it is all you think about...??? Do I sound crazy? I might be... just a bit... crazy...! But I will let you know later in the week what this totally random crazy thought is.... I'll give you a hint... I need some time at my sewing machine to bring it full circle.

I have been spending lots of time on this

I have been cutting all of my own shapes and it is VERY time consuming... VERY! The blog is neglected in a bad way... Hopefully some updates are coming soon... Mother's Day orders are flooding in so I have little time for anything extra...

We had a great weekend. This little butter bean inside of me is moving like crazy, every time I would lay down, it would kick me. Of course it only feels like sweet little flutters at this point..

Curt and I went to my OB appointment on Friday. It (the baby) was very active, so active it took a minute to get the HR, all you could hear was a ton of movements... Baby is super healthy so far and we are so thankful for that. I swear it is either the fact that I did not have a blog when I was pregnant the first time or I was super naive, but I am very paranoid this time around- about EVERYTHING!

My next OB appointment on April 23, we find out the sex of the baby. I can hardly believe that time is flying by so fast...

Sorry I do not have any pictures... This is why...

Me: washing dishes

Mason: playing with cars (or so I thought)

Mason: Cheese, say cheese froggy...

Me: Mason, what are you doing...?

Mason: This my crema- translation (camera)

Me: Thinking I knew I put it on the table... Surely not...

Me: Looking over at Mason who is man-handling my camera. His fingers were all over the lens, he had turned it on and taken pictures of the ground, the walls, his feet, me doing the dishes... ARRRRRGHHHH! I inspected it and there were finger prints all over the lens. I have no idea how I am going to clean it off. It is a very small area and hard to get too. I guess I will have to pull out the Q-tips....

So, no pics until then... Sorry grandparents...

Just a Reminder...

Since we are almost 1/2 way through this pregnancy, I thought I would give myself a little parenting refresher course... You know as parents we do not always do things the "right" way... But I have come to realize that there is not really a right or wrong way. Everyone has their own opinions and certain ways they did/do things. All we can do is give it our best... Right?

So, in sillyness (is this a word?) sake, I thought I would post some of my all time favorite parenting tips... I am not sure how I acquired these little cartoons but they sure are funny!

Shopping with a baby can be hard...

I should definitely let Curt know this one... Just kidding...

This looks dangerous...

And this looks way dangerous...

Gross.

Babies like Chicken, right?

I hope this is not what Curt does when he takes Mason to the Gym...

Wowa- Dang... Is this guy crazy or what?

My mother in law will appreciate this one... Really, it is an inside joke, but I will share... One time she came to the house and Mason was playing in the playroom. The dog pin was also located in the play room. She went in the room and Mason was playing in the dog pin... She joked and said that we made him play in there... It was not funny until I looked at this picture...

You will only do this once... Then you will learn your lesson.

This is wrong??? Again, just kidding...

Seriously, some people should really see this one. You do not know how many time I am driving through town and see children out of their seat belts or buckled in without a car seat...

Babies don't like coffee, really?

* This post was made out of pure fun... I hope no one gets offended.....

When in need.... Speak up!

When you are pregnant and you are craving oranges

(and you are secretly picky about which kind you like)

make sure you tell the man you send to Kroger

at 9pm that the ones with bellybuttons gross

you out...




I'm just sayin...

Never mind my dirty child... He just ate spaghetti and he really enjoyed it...

Enjoy this video of Mason. It is pretty random, just wanted to take one of him. I hope you enjoy the little fit he pitches at the end...