What We've Been Up To (1/18-1/23)- Photo Dump

I like to try and keep up with what goes on in our lives.  I haven't been super great so here is a look at the last two weeks!

Saturday 1/18

We started taking gymnastics at the Y. As a cheer coach, former cheerleader, and former little gymnast, I'm really into my kids taking gymnastics and Emma Cate learning to tumble at a young age (before the fear sets in!). This class is just like open gym playtime. I know there isn't much you can do with babies at this age but I remember videos of my old gymnastic classes and we were at least attempting to flip over the bar and do forward rolls. We'll probably switch over to International gym once the kids are a little older. 

We went out to lunch at chick-fil-a afterwards and she kept doing this all through lunch. This girl is nuts!

I escaped during nap time on Saturday to run a few errands. After being in a house with a bunch of sick kids and no husband all week, I needed a little me time :). I miss sushi sooo much (my last bite was July 30th- the day before we transferred little Shep). These shrimp california rolls were good but I still miss some nigiri! 

Sunday 1/19

Someone decided to catch the bug early Sunday morning. Luckily Daddy was around to help with this one and Holden was sweet to only throw up twice compared to his sister who did it every half-hour.

This is a terrible picture of Jay but Holden was sooo happy hanging out with his Daddy. He misses him so much when he's gone!

Sunday mornings are super chaotic at our house. I like to try and sleep in as much as possible and Jay normally does breakfast with the kids and starts to get them ready. I decided this week that I would lay out all their clothes the night before to help him out. Best laid plans right? With Holden's illness, we skipped church to prevent spreading our germs and opted to meet my family at IHOP instead. Holden was feeling good and put down a ton of breakfast.

We headed out to airport overlook after breakfast. Holden LOVED watching the "panes". This will definitely be a free activity to add to our spring rotation when the weather gets better!

During nap time our dog started going nuts and we saw two deer run through the backyard. One of them got caught on our neighbor's fence and wasn't able to walk. We called animal control to come help it. You can kind of see the deer in the back yard. Jay was closing our neighbor's gate to try and contain the deer. Unfortunately it hobbled off. We said a little prayer it would be okay.

Last, we celebrated my mom's birthday! We headed over to my parents house for take-out PF Chang (which was terrible) and ice cream cake! Happy Birthday Gigi!

Here's a little comparison of last year and this year! We are sooo thankful to be done with chemo and cancer! My mom will celebrate one year of being cancer free on February 9th! 

Monday 1/20

Jay started throwing up around midnight on Sunday night and took the day off Monday to recover. He woke me up at 6:30am as he was showering for work and I told him he was crazy and was not going to work to spread his germs! I was already off for MLK day and sort of excited to have another adult in the house even if he did spend the day on the couch! 

This one woke up early so I let her hangout with me while I get ready. She LOVES it. She will sit there for 30 minutes while I blow dry my hair and play with my make up. She puts the make up brush to her cheeks when we tell her to put on her make up! So cute! So fun having a little girl to get ready with!

I can't believe this is the only pic I got at Owen's (and the only reason I sent it was to sarcastically thank Jay for repacking my diaper bag after our outing the day before and leaving me without any bibs! Luckily the back up burp cloths I always have with me did the trick). Owen's bagel sandwiches are so good! We enjoyed breakfast with my mom and sisters.

It's getting so hard to take pictures of these two! Always on the move!

Jay was able to lay on the couch in the playroom and supervise the kids while I started getting things together for Shep. We have big plans this weekend to paint and move the furniture downstairs. We just bought doors to separate the opening to the office from the sitting room in the basement to create a 4th bedroom.  

L

Since Jay was sick, I took advantage of nap time to do a target and trader joe's run! The kids were up when I got home and came outside to greet me. They LOVE to play in Daddy's car. Sometimes we have problems taking turns being the driver :) 

Tuesday 1/21

Unfortunately, I had to go back to work today :( When I arrived home in the afternoon, the kids were still asleep and I got my mom to help me move our old dining table upstairs. We used this when we first got married and replaced it with a new table in this house. This table moved downstairs and served as a craft/food for parties table. It recently was banished to the garage when we move the playroom around. Due to our children's poor table manners, we decided that we needed to start eating together (and not in front of the tv- which we did a lot of when Jay was in class almost every night and I had the kids by myself and was scrambling to cook and prep for the next day). I wasn't sure how this would look but decided to try it anyway as a temporary solution. 

This was our old island and it sold on Craigslist two days later! Love craigslist!

Jay came home and promptly went to work sanding and priming the table. I love that he likes to do that sort of stuff because I have NO desire what-so-ever!

This is the before, when we first moved int our house and were remodeling our kitchen. I'm dying for some new lights!

I ran out that evening to buy paint for the table and came home to find this. We normally don't park in the back of the house (we have a rear loading garage) because prefer to park in the driveway closer to the front door. I guess amazon had dropped shep's crib off. Who knows how long it had been back there!

Jay was doing dinner with these two when I returned. No idea why she was wearing a hat at dinner :)

This is his "cheese" face!

Wednesday 1/22

Just another random day of the week but I love looking through photos on my phone to remember the small moments as well as the big ones!

Gigi and Holden blowing on his eggs.

Gigi comes over every morning at 7 to watch the kids so Jay and I can go to work. Since I don't have kids until 8:25, I've been pretty slack about getting to school by 7:30 and have enjoyed a little extra time with the babies in the morning. Gigi is FABULOUS at waking the kids up and getting their diapers changed while I finish getting ready and make breakfast. I'm really going to miss this little set up when I quit work and have to get three babies ready and out the door in time for preschool!

Jay's meeting ran over and I had to do some rearranging to get to the kids' preschool to pick them up and take them over to my mom's preschool. Luckily the teachers at my school are really sweet to cover my classes when the need arises. I also didn't mind seeing my kiddos mid-day :)

I noticed this past weekend that Emma Cate had chipped her front tooth. I'm telling you this girl is just like her mama. I chipped my front teeth YEARS ago and a little piece of the filling fell off this week. When I was at the dentist getting it fixed, I asked about Emma Cate's tooth and he told me to send a picture. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about Emma Cate's tooth until she is older. It didn't mess anything up and is purely cosmetic but I was a little sad about her not having those adorable perfect baby teeth!

I finally got her to smile for a picture that I emailed to the dentist for a consult. Isn't technology the best!

After bath and bed, this girl found some of my jewelry and sunglasses on our sofa table and brought them over to me. She needed a little help getting the sunglasses on but is a pro at putting on jewelry. She even held the earrings up to her ears as she walked around. The next set of pictures totally cracked me up. She was being such a ham! 

Once the kids went to bed, Jay put a first coat of pain on the table. I'm loving how it is turning out and thankful to Seantel for the color suggestion (Owl Gray by Benjamin Moore)

I often sneak into the nursery before I go to sleep to check on my babies. Holden is such a little man and always sleeps on his back with his hands behind his heads. Emma Cate is a tummy and leg up by her side sleeper. 

Thursday 1/23

Another random weekday! With a long night ahead...

Gosh I love these two sooo much! I love taking before school pictures on the fireplace. I wish I was better at doing this every morning to create a little collection.

While my mother-in-law was watching the kids, my mom and I got to go pick out fabric for Shep's rocker. I'm a little nervous about the selection and hope it turns out okay! I was hoping for a lighter gray but they only had two gray options, this and darker.

I spent the remainder of Thursday night at my mom's house prepping for my sister's engagement party. I love hosting parties and get all into the pinterest thing. My mom did so much for this party as far as the crafting goes! She has sooo many good original ideas! 

My mom found these old windows on craigslist for $10 a piece! We each got a few and I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to use them to decorate my house :)

Emma Cate & Holden Updates

I feel like you both are learning soooo many new things so quickly. Your speech has improved so much in the past 2 weeks! Here's a little update on things you are doing:

Emma Cate

*Repeats EVERYTHING when prompted. Favorite words are dodgie, gee gee (gigi), apple, nana, dada, mama, bo, geen (green), holdy, no, and mease (please)
*Can be an angry little booger! When things don't go your way you are quick to throw, hit, scream, and throw an all out tantrum on the floor complete with head thrashing, arms swinging, and feet stomping. You usually calm down with a new activity but sometimes we have to hold you really tight and give you a long kiss on the forehead before you calm down. You DEFINITELY have mommy's temper!
*Can also be the sweetest, cutest, thing ever. You love to sit in our laps to read and constantly bring us books. Your favorites are hungry caterpillar, sheep in a jeep, hello twins, and peek-a-who.
*Loves when the dogs play and chase each other around. You squeal!
*You LOVE brushing your teeth and will point to the toothbrush on the counter and scream teef!
*You are a little organizer. Your favorite activity is sorting anything you can find and moving things from one container to another. You sorted green beans while I was snapping them for 10 minutes last night.
*In the past few days you've let me put a bow-bow in and I LOVE it!
*You love to dump things. Pots, pans, bowls, you name and you'll dump it. You are such the little boy. I tried to let you snap beans with me but you got too excited and dumped the entire colander and then began to throw them at me. You've got a lot of energy buddy!

Holden

*Starting to repeat more words and are saying words on your own. You still love to say "whadis" but have also added mama, dada, tay-tay, bo, and boo.
*You love to open and shut doors. The other day you went into the hall bath and shut the door behind you. You kept opening the door and shouting BOO and then closing it in a fit of giggles. Emma Cate thought this was absolutely hilarious.
*Your table manners are rough but getting much better since we've started eating dinner and breakfast together as a family. When you're done you throw everything off your tray. This is a huge mess and something we are working REALLY hard on. If anyone has any advice we'd love to hear it!
*You give the BEST kisses. You don't kiss with your lips but with your forehead instead in more of a head-butt motion.
*You love to play cars. You have sweet little wind-up Mercedes slk500 that we affectionately call your "benz". This is your favorite car and you love rolling it back and forth with mommy and daddy.
*You love to RUN and watching you is so adorable. You run everywhere!
*You LOVE to dance!

Twin Stuff

*You have started fighting and I mean FIGHTING! Emma Cate is super possessive and if Holden even comes near she throws a fit and starts to hit him. The other day Holden tried to bite back and I had to hold you both apart while screaming NO. I had no clue what to do!
*Holden has learned to annoy Emma Cate. She had a bike the other day and he kept putting his hand on it just to make her scream and stomp her feet. He died laughing while he did this. (I'm going to have my hands full with these two!)
*You are both also very sweet to each other. Yesterday Gigi found you in your cribs at her house standing up holding both hands and chatting instead of napping.
*You love to play hide and seek behind the armoire in your room before nap time. Your giggles are so entertaining!
*You also love to say BOO to each other. You both die laughing.
*Chase is a favorite game. Up and down the hall, around the kitchen table, you both love to chase and be chased.
*You have little conversations in a made-up language with each other. We can't understand what you're saying but you both have the biggest smiles!

Baby #3 Week 28

So I missed the 27 week post but I'm back at 28 weeks to celebrate the 3rd trimester! Crazy that I only have 12 weeks left! I feel like we are NOT ready at all but plenty ready at the same time. I know that I won't go past my due date because I'm going to have a c-section if I don't go into labor on my own by the 18th. I am crazy enough that I signed the twins up for refresher swim lessons that begin the Monday after I give birth (we're looking at Thursday the 17th or Friday the 18th if I don't go before then). I talked to my mom about it last night and I'm still in the mindset that I'm going to have this baby and just keep going on with life-as-is but way more tired. Parents of 2nd children- am I crazy or what?

We updated the kitchen this week and I'll post about it soon. We have big plans to paint the nursery and our bedroom this weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to get the first coats on during nap time Saturday and second coat on Sunday. We also need to paint the crib and I need to pull the trigger and purchase a dresser to refinish. We are about to order the rocker and I'm pretty excited. I went in to a local baby store the other day and found a glider that I liked. I like the style of the pottery barn glider better but the "rockability" of this glider much better. We lucked out because the new glider is made by a furniture company out of Asheboro and like half of Jay's extended family works there and is able to order it for us at employee pricing! Woo Hoo!


marlowe rocker
we're ordering ours in Hilo Seagull (a grey color). I can't decide if I want to do contrast welt or leave it all one color!

Baby Shep is doing well and already going along with the flow. Being pregnant with one is seriously a BREEZE (hopefully I won't eat my words!). He's been kind to his mom regarding contractions and belly growth :) We had Monday off school for MLK and I used the time to sort through the twins' closests. Obviously, I know that I'm having another baby but the whole magnitude of it didn't really hit me until I held up all of those tiny baby clothes. I am so excited for Shep to get here and join our family. I'm so excited for Emma Cate and Holden to meet the baby we talk about constantly. I'm excited to get to work on the nursery, to have a new baby to nurse, and to enjoy those precious newborn movements again. It's only been 19 months but its amazing how much of the newborn phase I've already forgotten. Although, I want you to stay in an cook until you're 40 weeks, your daddy and I are SOOOOO excited to meet you Shep!

Pregnancy Highlights:

Today's Date: Friday, January 24th, 2014
How Far Along: 28 weeks

Size of baby: A rutabaga. The baby is 13.6-14.8 inches long and weighs between 1.5 to 2.5 pounds (still in the same ranges as last week). 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 12 pounds. My goal is to just gain 8 more. I've been working out more but my eating is terrible. I'm soooo hungry! Shep's heartbeat was 144 at my last appointment.

Maternity Clothes: Yes, for the most part. I'm still wearing longer non-maternity shirts.  

Gender: Boy! Arthur Shepherd Carroll

Movement: Baby Shep likes to do a ton of movement and then take a long snooze. He loves moving around 4am and right after I drink green smoothies. Maybe we have another fruit lover on our hands! For a while it felt like he dropped WAY low and he was putting some major pressure on my bladder. Sneezing and coughing was a little awkward ;) He seems to have moved back up and its so much more comfortable.

Sleep: Still sleeping great! I am still sleeping on my tummy with one leg bent out to the side. I'm afraid I'm squishing him but it's comfortable to me so hopefully it's not hurting baby!

What I miss: SUSHI. Seriously. Post-delivery snack.

Cravings: Nothing really. Cereal for dinner has sounded pretty good.

Symptoms: When I have a full bladder and am moving a lot I start having braxton hicks contractions and know that I need to chill out a bit. I've also had a lot of spotting and I assume it's from doing too much. I was just talking with another pregnant friend this week and we discussed how different second pregnancies are than first. No rest for the weary with toddlers running around! No 7pm bedtimes. Hopefully this will help with getting back to my normal self after delivery.  

Best Moment this week: Going through Holden's old clothes and picking things out for Shep!

on left: twins at 27.5 weeks (I was measuring 35 weeks at this point)
on right: shep at 28 weeks (they haven't even started measuring my belly yet!)

Your baby's the size of a rutabaga!

Putting on layers of fat, your baby now weighs in around 1.5 to 2.5 pounds and measures about 13.6 to 14.8 inches.