37 weeks...and a Toddler

I am so tired.

There's really not much else to say.
Oh, and I feel like a terrible mother. There is excitement over Audrey's arrival, but right now I'm horribly tired and have no energy for Jack. And Jack takes energy, let me tell you! Hence feeling like a terrible mother...but I know that this all will pass. I will make it. I don't believe that Jack will be permanently scarred. :)

Pregnancy-wise all is well. I don't think that Audrey's going to wait until Dec. 10th though. I can feel that we're close. I'm just hoping that she waits until my parents arrive after Thanksgiving since that would be helpful! Since Jack came 10 days early...and babies tend to come a little early at our high altitude...she really could come any day now. It's funny how last time I was so nervous about the birth experience, terrified really. This time I'm not. This time I am so dreading the first few weeks. Those exhausting sleepless nights followed by more sleepless days. It was really was horrible with Jack...and I'm praying that this time is easier! Please God...no colic.

In other happier news, last Saturday I had a baby shower! It was a very girly tea, and was so much fun! That's me and my friend Chalena preparing our cups of tea! Lawanna, Sarah, & Angela!

I have more pics...but my internet is being slow...maybe later.

Our Classy Selves

Last weekend Mike and I left Jack overnight with our friend Karen and went on an date to Denver! Seriously so much fun. We got to stay in an AMAZING hotel downtown, walk to dinner, eat dinner without a toddler :), and then walk to the theater to see Wicked! I've been wanting to see this for so long, so that was quite the treat! But really just being able to dress up and enjoy the city with my husband alone was the highlight! I missed Jack like crazy of course...we both did, but I had forgotten how stress-less it could be to just take care of myself! To not carry a diaper bag full of entertaining tricks to pull out at a moment of meltdown! It was just what we needed!

So...staying a block from the theater in a very nice hotel was awesome. This hotel happened to be a 4.5 star swanky kind of place. (THANK YOU camp for blessing us so much with this!) We're talking very classy.
We are not exactly 4.5 star swanky kind of people. I mean, we live in the woods.

So as we pull our mud splattered vehicle into the valet spot, I realized that we could be in for a little embarrassment. I realized that we may not be their typical clientele. My eyes quickly flint around the car to take in the taco bell trash, the water bottles rolling on the floor, cheerios in the car seat...nope, nothing I could do about all that. We get out dressed in our jeans & sweatshirts and I'm sure the other clientele averted their gaze. We, of course, had not bothered to put Mike's dress shirt & my dress in a garment bag, which we do in fact own. No folks, we simply carried them proudly into the lobby on....cringe...plastic hangers. I know, your thinking classy right? And did Mike pack his stuff in an overnight bag. No, he instead had a backpack and since his dress shoes didn't quite fit in that, he carried those in a shoe box. Are you getting a lovely picture?

Hobos.

That's what we looked like.

The concierge even stumbled over the question when he asked if we'd like help with our...um...luggage!

Nice.

Once we got up to our beautiful room we had a good laugh at ourselves. At least we can't take ourselves too seriously!

It was such a great time!

Quack, Quack!

For Halloween we dressed Jack as a duck! (Thanks to my friend Ashley who loaned us this costume!) It was a hit! We had so much fun! We met our friends, the Lundys at the fall fest in town which was held at the local Christian school. Afterward we went back to their house for dinner and to let the kids burn off their sugar highs...err, play.

Jack and his daddy.
And for all of you wanting a belly shot...here you go! Me and my little duck.

Totally rockin' the bean bag toss!
I love this one...Jack and his buddy Reed(Reed is a candy corn)! Such a typical picture of kids this age! This was the best that we could get!
This is one of favorite pictures...there's Jack, his friend Reed, & his friend Abel from church, all not understanding why they couldn't ransack the prize bowls! We spent half of the night trying to explain to Jack that he could not just walk around and help himself to all the prizes:)

Mozart doesn't hold a candle to this...

"A Light Snow Dusting"

So we got a bit of snow here in the last few days...


As you can see, it was quite the storm! We got roughly 3 feet...and I think it's still October if I'm not mistaken! Ha!
It's beautiful, but difficult to get this much snow this early. It just makes for a long winter. And after two days of being snowed in, Jack and I are a little cabin fever-ish! So we got all bundled up, ventured outside, and stayed about 5 minutes outside before Jack decided he didn't like snow...
"Come on Mommy, hurry up!"

Happy Jack!
Not sure about it anymore...

Poor little guy, it's gonna be like this for the next nine months...

My little Sponge

Lately I've been really amazed to watch Jack's cognitive skills take off! It's kind of funny, but since he can't really talk, it's easy to forget that he UNDERSTANDS way more than I realize! It's almost unnerving. Makes me think twice about all that I say and do.

So, to give you an example of what I'm talking about here's a story from the other night.

Jack's not allowed to play with the dishwasher. Which, in Jack's world, is pretty much the MOST UNFAIR thing and puts me in the running for meanest mommy out there...:) I'm ok with that.
So, it's after dinner and that said dishwasher is open and oh so tempting. This happened to be a night where boundries were being TESTED. And so after a few "not for Jack's" I decided that there was indeed a solution. I was done with the dishwasher and I asked him if he could help me by closing it. I really didn't think that he'd understand since he's never done that before. But, sure enough and without hesitation he smiled really big and closed the door all by himself. I praised him for helping me and thought that he'd move on. Then to my surprise he went over to the cabinet door under the sink, which has baby locks on it, and tried to open it. I was super curious as to why he wanted in there so I opened it for him. He then reached for the dishwasher detergent! Seriously? So, with a little help from me to re-open the dishwasher, he put soap in it, re-closed it, and pushed the start button...

What the heck? He's never done any of that before. But apparently he's watched me enough to know what's to be done. This may not 'amaze' ya'll like it did me and Mike...but we we're pretty flabbergasted. It's times like that when I'm reminded what a little sponge kids at this age are and how much they learn just by watching us!

So if I wasn't completely overwhelmed with my parenting responsibilities already...I'd say that this reminded me of just how important everyday is, and to make the most of them!

A Visit from the Thorpe Family!

What fun we had when Steve, Rebecca, Christian, and Logan Thorpe came to visit this last week!
It was a blast...even though we mostly just stayed around the house since between us we had 3 children ages 2, 18 months, & 3 months. Naps, naps, and more naps. :) They are such awesome friends and we miss living near them. (For those of you that don't know, we met them in North Carolina...they're army friends!)

Christian and Jack got along great! I could tell that Jack really like Christian, although sharing toys was a challenge for both of them! Luckily we had a bunch of matchbox cars (both of their favorite!) to play with. Of course, they usually both wanted the car that the other had!

I was really pleased that Jack did so well with their 3 month old boy Logan. He seemed fascinated with him! Although, he DID NOT like the baby when I tried to hold him :) Oh Jack...how you will have to get over that soon!

Here are some pictures...and for more check out Rebecca's blog




The Fabulous Thorpe Family Playing in the Sandbox!

Both boys LOVE to throw rocks into water to make a splash!

We made a "masking tape racing track" for those cars in the kitchen...it was too cold to play outside!

Jack loves his new riding car! Thank you yard sale in Missouri...only a $1!
Jack not really 'loving' this new concept of sharing!


More rocks to throw!

Eating lunch. It's always better with a friend! A family picture of us--thanks to Steve!

Visiting the Baileys

We VERY spontaneously took a trip to Missouri this last week to see the Baileys. They are our good friends from North Carolina who now live and work on a camp in Steelville, MO. It was sooooo much fun to see them and let our kids play together! The drive out there was 14 hours...which we did at night so that Jack would sleep. I'd say that even though it was a long drive, it was worth every minute!

Ode to the 18 month old

Jack is now 18 months.

I miss my 17 month old.

It's as if the day he turned 18 months he left behind the sweet little boy that he was and became a mess of frustration, ornery-ness, and general crabby-ness. He seems to throw tantrums all day long. If I take ANYTHING away from him a screaming fit ensues. Oh how I would like the old Jack back:)

Here's an example, one of those delightful episodes:

I look up from preparing dinner to see that Jack has not only found the spare crayon I keep in my purse(for emergency distraction) but also found my bible and is coloring a lovely picture on Psalm 56. I walk over, take away the bible while saying "not for Jack", and offer another piece of paper to color on. Apparently Jack really wanted to color in the bible. Mad screams erupt from him as he throws the crayon down and looks at me with eyes that seem to say 'how could you!'
THEN he bends over and proceeds to let out his frustration by banging his head on the tile floor. I choose to ignore this for a minute and then after a few hits I tell him that hitting our heads doesn't feel good, and that coloring would be much better (on the provided paper of course). But reasoning with an 18 month old is like reasoning with Shelby. My favorite part is when he moves to the carpet, bangs his head, looks at me, and then moves back to the tile for a few more hits. If I wasn't so exhausted and trying to get dinner on I'd laugh.

These tantrums go on all day long. Uggh.

Oh 18 months, oh 18 months...

California Vacation

We took a trip about a week ago to Northern California for our vacation. We flew to my parents' house, and then drove with them and my sister down to Monterey. We all stayed in a house down there within walking distance to the beach! It was so much fun to all be together! We played at the beach, walked Cannery Row, played at a "Dennis the Menace" park (my sister was begging to go there ;), played games which induced loads of laughter...Mike and I even got to go on a date!

Jack was great, he seemed to have a blast. Especially at 6:30am when he'd walk into the kitchen and greet the sleeping family with a loud and happy "leh-low" (Hello). :) I don't think my sister ever wants kids now! :)


Jack with his Aunt Lynsay
Building sand castles at the beach. I'm not sure who was having more fun...Jack or Daddy & Papa!

Jack also had fun back at Nana & Papa's house. He liked the tiny Red "jack sized" wheelbarrow that he could push around, but LOVED the Gigantic "papa sized" wheelbarrow that he could ride in!
Then Jack discovered my dad's restored truck! Oh what fun that was! It's so funny to me how much this little boy of mine loves cars & trucks!
Papa even helped him drive!It's hard to see, but he has the biggest grin in that last picture!

When we got back home we were blessed to have our great friend Ashley Bailey come visit along with her 2 kids! We had a great time with her! This was the first time that she's seen Jack and we've seen Will, her son. We did miss Brett, her husband though...maybe next time!
Notice how Shelby conveniently made it into the picture. Nice.


This week has been pretty rough as Jack has been really sick. Throwing up and all that. I thought we were out of the woods yesterday, but he seems to have relapsed today. No fun for him or me :) Hopefully it won't last much longer.

As you can see in the last picture, our Aspens have already turned yellow. Fall is here, and although I used to love fall in North Carolina, it sort of makes me cringe now. It means winter is on it's way :( In fact it has snowed almost every day this week. Yes, snowed. Oh joy.