A Family Affair

Chris and Siah have both needed haircuts, Kyleigh wanted one, and I realized I've only had one trim in the past year, so we decided to turn haircuts into a family affair this morning. We decided we'd all go together to the same salon to knock it all out at once.

Before we headed out for the day, Chris got ready and then he dressed the kids. Every t-shirt my husband owns is either scarlet or gray (go figure!) so by chance he wore khaki shorts and a red t-shirt. Then he grabbed the first thing in Josiah's closet and put it on our boy. The result??? Twins!

LOL I ♥ my guys!

The guys ended up with great trims, but we were disappointed with what Kyleigh and I got. Kyleigh's stylist was more focused on curling Kyleigh's hair than cutting it.












For myself, I asked only for a minimal trim since I've purposely been letting my locks grow. My designated stylist did as I asked...she cut very little. The only problem? It's not cut evenly across the bottom! We noticed the issues with Kyleigh's hair and mine after we got home and were getting ready to attend our afternoon baby shower, so we'll have to go back Monday for touch-ups, uugghh!

After our haircuts, Chris hung out with JoJo and treated Kyleigh and I to some time at the nail salon! Paying for mani/pedis is extremely low on my list of priorities, and therefore something I typically only allow myself to at the end of each pregnancy--and this weekend it was definitely a lovely treat! Kyleigh got her nails polished with a cute bright pink + sparkles! She was just in heaven!

I'm so fortunate
to have such
a fun family!

Men on a Mission

Last weekend our family went to BG to do a walk-thru of our house w/ our tenant of the past year. Fortunately, the interior of the house was in great shape. The busy single mom of two boys, though, had done little-to-nothing outdoors for upkeep with the landscaping, so that left some manual labor for us:

*Shrubs to be shaped in the front yard
*Trim backyard tree limbs (they were touching the ground!)
*Bushes needing hacked in the side yard
*Mulch to be spread around all plants
*Paint touch up around the front door frame
*Serious pressure-washing on the back of the house/patio

Even though I couldn't pitch in to help, we knew we wanted to save money from paying services to do these projects, largely for two reasons: One, we're just frugal, and it makes more sense to do work ourselves if capable; And two, we're not comfortable paying someone when we're not in town to supervise or be assured we'd get what we'd be paying for...and with a baby due in mere weeks, we don't have time to drive there and back constantly to supervise--we just needed to get it done and get it done right the first time so it's ready for a new owner/renter!

Those are all normal house projects I helped Chris with when we purchased the home and together we kept it up as homeowners while we lived there, but this time around I can't do that kind of 'manual labor' without going into 'baby labor'! So would Chris have to do this by himself???

Early on Saturday morning, not 1 or 2, but 4 of our friends showed up at our driveway to carpool to BG and help Chris get some work done around the property! Yay! I definitely don't take any of these sacrifices of time for granted!
What a blessing to have such incredible friends!

(L to R: Howard, Chad W, Josh, Chad L)
(Before they could go anywhere, the guys were first entertained by Kyleigh's ballet dancing and Josiah dragging a broom around the house trying to prove his strength in effort to convince the guys to take him along to BG...
here's Kyleigh dancing for our friends!)

*We learned on Friday that a local realtor showed our property...which was before any landscaping was done, but hopefully the interior spoke for itself and let the showing go well. We're hoping for feedback from that showing in the next few days.

*On Saturday while the guys were doing manual labor, a local realtor came by to check out the house; later, a neighborhood resident saw the yard sign and stopped to view and inquire about the house, so Chris showed it to a potential renter!

Here are some pics of some of our buddies hard at work:

Here are "before" & "after" pics of the guys' work:

36 out of 40

Wow, we're getting so close to meeting Addison!

Oh, the anticipation!!!

I really don't know how to make an ordinary update exciting, as it's kind of just the same ol' stuff as we wait through these next couple of weeks. Our girl's growing, and staying active. I'm also growing, but not so active! Ha! There's no way to say it without sounding like a whiner, but I'm simply hurting. My back discomfort keeps me from standing long, sitting long, or walking very far at all (seriously, at home it's on a room-to-room basis!).

I've been going to PT once or twice a week, and tomorrow I'm getting another massage (Chris sent me 2 wks ago, and it was just heavenly!). We're trying anything to reduce pain and discomfort at this point.

It's that time in our journey where I have weekly OB appointments and all is going well according to my doc. Because I was so petite at the start of this pregnancy, my doc encouraged me to try to gain 30-35 lbs. So far, we're 36 weeks down and 31 lbs up, so we're on a wonderful track!

If all remains healthy with Baby and me, my doc has scheduled an induction on a date we know she's on-call and will get to deliver for us. My babies love to stay put in my cozy womb, so both Kyleigh and Josiah were induced in their 40th week, so I'm prepared for the process. Anything from about 37/38 wks on is "full-term" and reaching that point is really our only plan right now--and that's just a couple weeks away! If you've ever had a baby, ya know it's all a wait & see process, so we'll wait and see! Here's hoping for a couple more weeks and maybe a couple more pounds!

$1 Deals

It was suggested to me to check out the $1 bargain section at our local Target store for some educational materials for my lil' kiddos. I'm not supposed to walk in big chain stores or department stores because of my current level of back pain, but I was out and about town for an appointment today and had items to exchange there, so I stopped in w/ the kids.

I thought that since the bargain section is at the very front of the store it would be a quick, easy stop. And I'd suspected I would pick through the "leftover" items that have been on the shelves a few days, and maybe I'd find a handful of things...but that wasn't the case at all!

I found:

(try not to mind the bad pics, the lighting is terrible)

23 workbooks (various subj: coloring, math, science, etc)
8 dry erase practice mats (writing, math, games)

5 classic novels
5 preschool puzzles (body parts, animals, etc)
2 lg 100-pc puzzles (USA & space)

3 indiv fun dry erase boards w/ multiple markers
dictionary/thesaurus/Spanish dictionary +

math bingo/alphabet bingo/time bingo

20 pkgs of flash cards (various subjects)

***That's 72 items!

(I thought there was 1 more, Spanish words on flashcards, but I'm going to look around and see if I come across it)

My kids love to learn, so finding materials that
combine fun and education is great!
And at $1 a piece, even better!

Good Things

Some of the good things happening lately:

*Chris found his wedding ring! He'd taken it off one Saturday at home while working on things in Addison's nursery, and Josiah apparently picked it up and hid it and we found it a week and a half later in a random place!

*Our house (in KY) is officially on the market! Our tenant is out and a sign is in the yard! Now we'll wait and see.

*Family time! We've been enjoying LOTS more family time than we've ever been accustomed to, and it's great! It's not always "fun" time, but it's together time. So whether we're playing board games or chillin' out or doing laundry, we're appreciating our time together. I'm so thankful for Chris's improved work schedule!

*Healthy baby reports! Addison's measuring well, and remaining plenty active. At my last appt we were 35 wks down, 29 lbs up and we found out we'll meet our daughter before the full 40 wk due date! Hooray! Obviously everyday counts toward her health and development and we'd never wish her to arrive "too soon", but we're eyeing a great
time line within "full term" limits, so that's exciting!

T-ball Pizza & Trophy Party

Kyleigh's t-ball season ends this week, so yesterday was a pizza/trophy party to celebrate! Before the party, I explained to Kyleigh what a trophy is, showed her some pics online, and told her how she'd earned one. She was soooo excited! But then...

I told her about the pizza party, and she became more excited about that than the trophy for a while! Ha! Obviously she can't eat "regular" pizza due to allergies, but Chris had prepared ahead of time and purchased an individual size frozen gluten-free/dairy-free pizza from Kroger, which we baked and carried with us for Kyleigh to enjoy! Oh, she had the best time celebrating like everyone else! We're so proud of Kyleigh for her progress this season, and so glad she's enjoyed her time on the t-ball team!

Coach & Kyleigh

Daddy & Kyleigh

Mommy & our lil' t-baller!

In the 24 hrs she's had the trophy, Kyleigh's wanted to hold it and touch it...and yes, even sniff it! HA! So bizarre, but she's 3 and it's shiny so she just thinks it's the greatest thing ever!

Here are some pics from the season:

Team photograph:

(Kyleigh's in the front row, bottom left of pic)

Indiv. photograph:

(How seriously cute is she?!)

*This pic below is an action shot taken by another mom of the team! I videotaped each child's first at-bat experience at their first game to put on a cd/dvd for the parents to save, so this sweet mom took a still pic at one of the final games of each child at bat & she framed these for every parent! She captured Kyleigh w/ a GREAT hit
(click to enlarge & see play in action!)
and I love it so much, it's like I got a lil' trophy, too! haha

Wrapping Up The Week

One day last week I got to stop into one of our town's new little consignment shops, Plato's Closet. They're around Nashville and larger cities, and it's great they're finally here! They have lots of great name brand items at low prices. PC doesn't carry maternity clothes, so I had a perfect excuse to browse the racks with my post-baby body goals in mind! It was one of my final social/shopping outings for the summer, so I was psyched that I found this great A-line paisley skirt for just $8! What a great incentive
to get back into my regular size!!!

On Friday my summer school term ended! First time back in school in 8 yrs, and I earned an "A"! To celebrate the success of my hard work, and more especially in hopes of helping relieve some of my back pain, Chris sent me
to a local spa for a massage!

What a treat! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to relax
and have some of my toughest aches worked on!
(Obviously that's not me in the pic above, as I'm
pregnant & can't lay flat on my stomach, but same idea!)

Saturday morning Chris let me sleep in, and he washed multiple loads of laundry, organized contents of our kitchen cupboards, and did serious cleaning--like inside the fridge, window sills, multiple floors, etc.
Later in the day I cleaned the bathroom ('cept the tub) and the kids helped with dusting (they're serious fans of the Swiffer!) and picking up their own toys. Friends came by in the evening just to hang out and chat, and by the end of the night we were all zonked!