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My deals of the Week

Here's all the free stuff I got this week. The Fieldwork $100 Visa gift card is from a market research study I participated in on Monday night. I got a free pair of silver hoop earrings from 1dealaday.com. The coupon for the free box of Minute Made juice boxes is from mycokerewards.com. I don't buy a lot of cokes, but when I find a free code for mycokerewards, I jump on it! The can of Progresso Recipe Starters, the coupons for it, as well as the coupons for UNReal candy bars all came from Bzzagent.com. Not pictured is the super cute personalized photo card I designed and got from cardstore.com. It arrived quickly and it looks great! I will definitely order from them in the future! I hope my husband likes the anniversary card I made him! :)

Kindergarten Rocks!

Leading up to Monday, I have been reading the book Kindergarten Rocks to Abby to get her excited about school. We are 4 days in, and I think I can safely say that indeed, kindergarten does rock.

Any fears that I may have had that Abby would have a hard time adjusting were completely washed away when she headed down the hall with her new classmates on the first day, without so much as a glance back in my direction. It was simultaneously a huge source of pride to see my girl so confident and independent, and also a huge blow to my mom ego that perhaps she isn't as dependent on me as I am on her.

Ethan starts preschool next Tuesday. Meet the teacher was this morning and went perfect....until another 3 year old boy "borrowed" the bus my son happened to want to play with. Poor kid was the lucky recipient of Ethan's wrath. This year should be a blast for his teachers! And then it will just be me and Reese 2 days a week. This is the point at which my ovaries quiver, and I start to imagine what life would be like with 4 kids. Heaven help my poor husband. :)

I'm Baaaaaaack!!!

Whew!  Has it really been almost 2 years since my last post?  That's bananas!  So, what have I been up to you ask??  I'll give it to you in bullet points:

• Celebrated Ethan's 2nd Birthday Feb 2011
• Took a family trip to San Antonio in April 2011
• Celebrated Abby's 4th Birthday May 2011
• Abby started Preschool September 2011
• I decided to become a Surrogate!!  Met a wonderful couple, and we transferred 1 frozen embryo September 2011
• Celebrated Reese's 1st Birthday September 2011
• Celebrated Ethan's 3rd Birthday February 2012
• Celebrated Abby's 5th Birthday May 2012
• Delivered a healthy baby boy for an amazing, deserving couple May 22, 2012
• Went to Las Vegas with my hubby and had a blast July 2012

And that just about brings us up to date.  I will try to go back periodically and tell stories and fill in the gaps from the past couple years, but right now?  Oh my gosh!  There is so much going on in the RIGHT NOW!  Abby is about to start KINDERGARTEN!  Whoa!  I am a big ball of crazy right now about the whole thing.  And my little man is about to start preschool!  PRESCHOOL!  The last time I posted he was 1, and now he's starting preschool!  That just blows my mind!  And I'm just having fun and loving life.  And trying out new recipes and crafts from Pinterest!  Like the one I'm trying tonight!  Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan and oven roasted broccoli and cauliflower.  I will definitely let you know if it is a success or not!

Gotta run, kids are destroying my house playing quietly in the other room, and it's time to get dinner on the table!

Reese Ann McGee

She's here!!! I can't believe she's finally here!!! Reese made her entrance into the world on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 2:22 pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 0.6 oz. and was 19 in. long. She has a ton of hair!!! My heart hurts with love for this little girl. She is so sweet!! We went in today for her first dr. appt. and she has dropped down to 7 lbs. so we've got our work cut out for us to try to fatten her up. Now that my milk has finally come in that should do the trick. We go back on Thursday for a quick weigh-in to make sure that she's headed in the right direction.

Abby and Ethan has been the sweetest big sister and big brother. Reese is a very lucky girl. Abby loves to hold her baby sister, and Ethan can hardly wait to share his juice and trains with her. Life is already crazy with 3 kids, but I wouldn't change a thing. I love it!!

Pictures!!!

To make up for my lack of pictures in my last post, I thought I would post these few taken last weekend!! Here is my cutie-patootie 18-month old handsome little man, and a few shots of me 36 weeks pregnant headed to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Kobes--yum!!

37 Weeks!!!

Holy cow!! Has it really been THAT long since I posted to my blog?? What a total slacker I am!

Anyway, I am 37 weeks pregnant today! I can hardly believe how fast the time has flown by! On one hand I want time to slow down so that I can enjoy every moment, but at the same time I am so anxious to meet my little girl!!! I can't believe that in about 3 weeks I will be holding her in my arms!!!

At my 36 week appt. last Thurs. I was 75% effaced and 1-2 cm dilated. I have my 37 week checkup tomorrow and I am anxious to see if I have made any further progress. I have certainly felt like there has been a lot of progress in the past couple weeks by way of tons of uncomfortable contractions. I guess it's just my body practicing for the marathon ahead!!

Greg bought me an awesome camera for my birthday (Nikon D3000), so as soon as I figure out how to use it I will be posting more pictures!! And I have decided to make my blog public for now, to make it easier for everyone to access!! I may have to change this if I get any unwanted visitors, but for now, we're going public!!!! :)

Sorry no pictures today, but more updates soon!!

18 Weeks!!!

I am 18 weeks pregnant today! It seems like this pregnancy is flying by. I almost forgot to record the info from my appt. last week:

4/22: HB-161 bpm; +5 lbs!!!

Met with our new ob, and she seems really nice. I hope that this is a good fit and that everything goes smoothly with our labor and delivery.

I have an appt. in one week with the peri, and hopefully we will get to find out the gender of our "mystery baby" then!! Can't wait!!!

In the meantime I've been keeping myself busy with planning Abby's 3rd birthday party! Gosh, when did she decide to grow up!? She is turning into this little lady who uses manners and correct grammar (sometimes) and she cracks me up daily with the things she says! She is still pretty adament that this new baby is a boy, so we'll see next week!

And I am enjoying Ethan's babyhood, while it lasts. I am trying to treasure every moment and not rush him to get too big too fast, because these moments are fleeting.

Gosh. Mom.of.three....in 5 months....or less! Yikes!

I'm Baaaaaack!!!

Well, after a really long hiatus, I'm back and ready to start blogging about our adventures again! I started this blog partly to chronicle not just our family, but also our move into a new house and my pregnancy with Ethan. So much has happened in the past year, but as they say, the more things change the more they stay the same! We've just moved into a new house (in Little Elm this time!), and SURPRISE! I'm pregnant again with our 3rd child!! So I hope everyone will continue to join me on our new adventure! :) Now for some updates and pictures....

Abby
She is still our little firecracker! She never ceases to amaze me with how intuitive she is, and her funny, quirky little personality is starting to emerge. She loves Dora, and hairbows, and her favorite color is pink!


Ethan
He is our rough and tumbly daredevil. He walks (more like runs) all over the place now, and he climbs and gets into EVERYTHING!!! And when you tell him "No" he takes it as a dare! He definitely keeps us on our toes! He claps, waves bye-bye, and says nigh-nigh and dada. He loves water, and anything he can put in his mouth, and his favorite color is dirt. :)

EASTER 2009:

EASTER 2010:
Mystery Baby #3
I am 16 weeks pregnant today!!! I have an appt next Thursday with a new OB, since we live too far away for me to deliver at Presby. Hoping to find out soon the gender of this little miracle so that we can start planning for his/her arrival. I am still guessing boy, but only time will tell! :) Our due date is September 30. The stats so far for this pregnancy are:

1/26: 4 weeks; sono; beta: 2795! Holy Cow, we're pregnant!!!!
2/12: 7 weeks; sono; HB: 142 bpm; 0 ib weight gain;
2/25: 9 weeks; sono; HB: 161 bpm; 0 lb weight gain
3/18: 12 weeks; HB: 171 bpm; NT scan (sono)
3/25: 13 weeks; HB: 151 bpm; + 3 lbs.

HOLY COW!! 6 MONTHS!!!!!

I just can't believe that Ethan is really 6 months old already! I get all weepy just thinking about how quickly he has grown. It is incredible watching Ethan and Abby grow and learn new things every day.

Abby's favorite things right now are: yogurt, playing "tea party," building castles and towers and tunnels with blocks (and then knocking them down), playing "monster" with Daddy, and playing with play-doh. She also loves to sing songs, read books, and mix (cook) with Mommy. She is amazing and brilliant and funny, and I love to smell her sweet little curly head.

Ethan is doing great too!! Our little man is rolling over both directions, and in fact is always on his belly grinning ear to ear when I get him out of his crib in the morning. He loves teething biscuits, wagon wheels, and his TOES!!! Changing diapers takes forever these days because as soon as I get his diaper off, he grabs both feet and starts cramming his toes in his mouth!! It is so adorable. A few nights ago in the tub he discovered SPLASHING!! My oh my, he is in heaven. He thinks it is the funniest thing in the world! He is getting pretty good at scooting around on the floor, and he is well on his way to crawling.

We decided to take advantage of a cool, overcast morning here in Houston by having a morning picnic at the duck pond.

So apparently I am lazy, with a HUGE baby

Usually when I go to get Abby out of her crib in the morning I am greeted with a cheerful "Hi Mommy!!! Good Morning!!!" But not this morning. This morning I was greeted with "I wanna go bye-bye with Mommy!!!!" You see, I had to water the front yard this morning, which meant throwing some clothes on so that I didn't have to run around my front yard in pjs. Normally I would just throw on some shorts and a t-shirt, but today I decided to go all-out and just get ready for the day. Abby is so used to seeing me in either my pjs or lounge-around-the-house clothes that she of course assumed that dressed like this I MUST be going somewhere!! Ahhh, nothing like the innocence of children to point out my laziness. So it looks like we are getting out of the house today!

In other news, I took Ethan to the pediatrician on Tuesday for his 4 month check up. My little chunk weighs 17 lbs. 12 oz!!! That puts him in the 97%ile for weight!!!!!!!!!!! He is about 3 1/2 lbs. heavier than Abby was at 4 months, but sadly, he is about a 1/2 in. SHORTER!!! The Dr. said that we could begin solid foods, and Ethan is enjoying rice cereal twice a day now! :)

Bueno Dia!!!!

This is what Abby cheerfully said to Carmen this morning!! Then she turned to Ethan and said "Bueno Dia Ephin." That kid is So.Stinkin.Cute!

So, did I tell all of you about my little garden? I am growing myself a few vegetables, and apparently they don't know about my black thumb! I am so excited! It looks like I might really have tomatoes!!

Can you believe that Ethan is 4 months old already!?! I realize looking at him it looks like he is 6 months old! Look how my sweet boy is growing! It is so fun watching him grow but so sad at the same time. The babyhood goes by so quickly that I just wish I could hold onto each of this precious moments forever!

Poop & Jam

Man, I always hate when I have gotten away from blogging for too long. There are always 100 things that I want to discuss, but that would make for a really long blog entry. So instead, I am going to skip over all of the stuff that I want to discuss from the past few weeks and hope that I will be able to cover them later in detail.

Instead, I would like to brag about my Betty Crocker moment!! On Sunday we went to a farmer's market right next to our house. While Greg and I were wandering around, Abby got into a bag of strawberries. The ladies behind the counter were laughing, but I was so embarrased! I offered to buy the bag, but they told me not to worry about it....until I looked in the bag and realized that she had taken a bite out of a dozen or so strawberries and then put them back in the bag!!!!!! So I insisted on buying this giant 4 lb. bag of strawberries. Luckily they were bruised strawberries (strawberry rejects?) so it only cost $1.50!

Once we got home, I had no idea what I was going to do with this huge bag of strawberries that were on the verge of going bad. So, I looked up a recipe for strawberry jam, and that's what I made!! It was really fast and easy, and it tastes great! But I have waaaayyyy to much jam now!

The other fun story I have to share happened today. Some days being a stay-at-home-mom is the most rewarding job on earth, and then there are other days that are....less....rewarding. Today was one of those days. Ethan was jumping in the jumperoo in the living room and all was well with the world until Abby said, "Mommy, Ephin made a mess!" And I look over and see this...

If all you saw in the top picture was a cute, happy baby, LOOK CLOSER!!!!

What does it say about me that the first thing I did when I saw what happened was to run and grab my camera?!? I figured the poop wasn't going anywhere, and I have to document this for later for when Ethan brings his first girlfriend home! :)

For the record, Greg does not endorse this post nor does he support the use of the pictures.

8 Hours!!!!!!

That's how long Ethan slept last night!!!! I couldn't believe it! Of course I didn't get that much sleep last night though! Since he decided not to wake up in the middle of the night to eat, I had to pump. And then starting at 6 am I checked every 5 minutes to make sure he was still breathing! Isn't that crazy? I couldn't wait for him to start sleeping through the night, and then the first time he does it I'm afraid that something is wrong with him. And when he FINALLY woke up he was in such a great mood. He was smiley and giggley. Gosh I LOVE being a Mom!

Abby at 3 months (look at all that hair!!)

Ethan at 3 months

Abby in the jumperoo at 3 months:

Ethan in the jumperoo at 3 months:

And...Abby in the jumperoo this morning :o)

Ethan is 3 Months Old Already!?!

Where has the time gone? My babies are getting big too fast. Ethan's babyhood is just flying by. He has had so many nicknames in his short 3 months of life, and the latest is...scooter! That's what he's been up to the past few days. I put him down on his little playmat, and when I walk back in the room a few minutes later, he isn't on the mat anymore! The first time it happened, I thought I was nuts. I figured that I just hadn't had my coffee yet, and that I didn't put him all the way on the mat. Nope, I'm not crazy, he's just a little scooter!! And he laughed for the first time last night, while I was drying him off after his bath! Oh my God, it was the cutest laugh I've ever heard. Ethan has so many rolls, I swear! I just want to nibble on his delicious chunky thighs! :)

And here is a random photo of Greg, fast asleep with Abby's baby doll, and a video of Abby singing! Enjoy!

My Baby Girl is 2!!!!!!!!

Gosh, so many things to talk about!!!

Abby turned 2 on Monday!! We celebrated her birthday at the beach over the weekend with a few family and friends and it was so much fun!! The weather was great, and everyone had a great time! Here are a few pictures:

And here are a couple pictures of the two cakes I made, with the help of Brian & Vanessa (it was a group effort!). The first was supposed to be a sandcastle, but it didn't work out so well. The second is a sand pail cake and it looked pretty cute!

At the pediatrician on Wednesday, Abby weighed 27 lbs. and she is 33 1/4 in. tall. I am just in awe of how much she has changed in the past two years. From this:

To This:

A man of the Cloth...

In an effort to be more green (and possibly save a little green), I have decided to give cloth diapers a try. I have wanted to try cloth diapers since Abby was a baby, but I'll admit, I was a little intimidated. And then overwhelmed by new mommyhood. But this time around I feel a little more prepared. I've had more time to do research and to slowly build up a small stash of diapers in order to give this a shot. As Greg has told me that he absolutely refuses to participate in cloth diapering, it will be part time at best. And I think I will be sticking to disposables when we are out and about, or when we go out of town.

But here it is...our first attempt at cloth diapers. Doesn't it look like Ethan just loves his Bum Genius 3.0's?? :)