The weekend is here

It's the weekend!  Well, at least for my little family it is.  Clynt gets every other Friday off and today is that Friday, so we get to hang out as a family today.  Yes there are still a couple things on the "to-do" list, but the only thing today on that list to spend time as a family.  So Clynt wants to know what a day in life of me is like.  And Fridays are a good day for that, because Story Time happens at the library on Friday's also, so he can join me to that and the park, and maybe a couple of errands.  But not before getting up, letting Corbin pick a movie to watch while I cook breakfast and catch up on a couple of things.

Not sure why is so interested today, but he has been asking me about times to leave and times things start and where stuff is and so on and so on.  I kind of like it.    When I asked him if he wanted breakfast, he replied "Im a little hungry but you don't have to cook anything", to which I said "I cook every morning, so if you want something let me know".  Then I said "Im making a breakfast sandwich, do you want one?", and he has the guts to say "a frozen one??!".  I thought, are you kidding?!?!  When have I ever fixed you a frozen breakfast, or for that matter frozen lunch or dinner?  I guess, for the last couple months he has been so busy on his Friday's off that he has paid no attention to the things that I do.  And I guess he just thinks that I don't do anything for breakfast, and that the only meal I cook each day is dinner.  He must have forgotten about the fact that I have a 2 year old to keep up with all day.  Silly boy!

Anyways, so now we are getting ready to go to story time and then the park.  Then, Im sure we will have a couple stops after that.  Then home to relax and probably dinner with my sister, Matt, and my little brother later.  Sounds like a good day to me.  I hope Corbin cooperates with Story Time and Clynt gets to see how cute it is.  Though, Corbin acts like a completely different child with his daddy around.  you might say that he doesn't get in near as much trouble when Clynt is in charge, and he probably gets a few more sweets and so on.  Clynt likes to be the good guy because he thinks I am a good guy all week. ha!  He sure does love that little boy, and I think it is absolutely adorable. =)

33 weeks!

So, as of yesterday, we are 33 weeks!  Meaning, not long until our little guy comes into this world!  We went to the doctor and everything is looking great.  My BP is doing well, and the little heartbeat is great.  We go back in 2 weeks for another check up and then, we are on to every week appts.  At 36 weeks we get another ultrasound and get to see how big our little guy is.   Corbin was born at 37.5 weeks and was 7 lbs 8 oz so he was on schedule to be a big dude.  I hope that Garrett is a big guy like Corbin, but that he comes early and I don't have to deliver a 9 or more lb baby! =)  

If my BP goes back up then I will be induced by 38 weeks.    If it stays pretty under control, then we will probably still be induced at 39 weeks as long as I progressing a little on my own.  With Corbin, I was induced, but the Pitocin was stopped because I went in labor on my own.  So, I probably would have been in labor in the next few days anyways.  So, hopefully Garrett follows suit and just comes a little bit early and is a healthy little guy.  As long as he is healthy, that's all that really matters. 

Both of the little guy's rooms are coming along.  We have bought all the supplies and the mattress for Corbin's new bed and now it just has to be put together, which Clynt has been working on (well, he is has been designing it in AutoCad to get it JUST RIGHT!)  Im so exctied to see it.

Besides the bed, I am ordering both of their names for their walls.  And then we have to put the front of the crib back on and bring a couple things back into the nursery and that room will be completely done.  So, that's just a matter of a half hour or so and it will be ready for Garrett.  

Corbin has been doing great in his room.  He goes straight in their when it's time for bed so the confusion is pretty well gone.  Im so thankful for that, and that's why I wanted him in there early.  I don't at all want him to feel like he is giving up his room for Garrett.  So, all is going really well.

Pretty much everything on this to do list is done, or in the works, so now we are just coasting and waiting on our newest guy to arrive (which hopefully will still be a month away or more!).   So everything is going great.

Mother's Day is next weekend! Isn't that crazy??  It was just Easter!  We are doing what we do every year, going to church, and then my family and most of Clynt's family come over for Filet Mignon, and a really fancy meal. =)  Everyone brings one item so we are able to just relax and not worry about much.  The kids play, guys clean, and ladies just relax.  How wonderful is that?  It's definitely on of my favorite holidays. =)  Can't wait!

Well.  Hope your all having a great week.  Corbin and I are grocery store bound today!. fun stuff. 

Complaining

Last night we had our annual Homeowners Association meeting.   Our neighborhood is still not built out to the 80% required for the board to be given over to the homeowners, so it is still run by the board from the builders.  However we do have an advisory committee which consists of 6 homeowners who represent the community and bring concerns and stuff to the board.  I am one of the people on that committee.  So, I knew going into the HOA meeting last night that their would be unhappy people and that we as a committee would feel less than adequate.  That part wasn't horrible, but listening to some of the people complain was unreal!!  It seemed like their were several people who came their just to complain about EVERY. SINGLE.TOPIC on the agenda.   It was really quite annoying.  I know their are things that people should be able to voice their concern about, but SERIOUSLY?  I mean some of these people were complaining about people not paying their dues, and other things that are simply out of the control of anyone!

While sitting there listening to people raise their voices and complain, I could not help but think to myself, do I every do that?  And I started thinking about all the things that I complain about on a regular basis.  I may not hollar and scream at people, but I do complain a lot more than I think is healthy.  I found this information about complaining while searching for specific scripture for stuff:

"Regardless of whatever circumstances may cause discontent or dissatisfaction, complaining is always an expression of unbelief toward God’s order in our life. You see, the whole premise of Christianity is that Jesus becomes the Lord (boss) of our life and our circumstances. They are in his hands. Thus, if believers complain, it really becomes an accusation against our Lord, in whom we’ve trusted our lives. “...for the LORD hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD” (Ex. 16:8)."

I am trying to focus more on scripture.  A weakness that I have in my growing love for Christ is that I have almost no memory of specific scripture.  It eats me up every time that I feel the need to comfort someone.  I mean I can pray for them, but I want some substance with scripture.  Praise God for the internet!  When I have time, I can simply google "scripture about gossip" or whatever the topic is.  This has been helping me out, but Im still not where I want to be.  If you have tricks on scripture memorization, please let me know!  I'd LOVE tips!  This is a major goal of mine.  My memory is not great, so I know it will take a lot of focusing on my part, but I am totally willing to do so in order to help me in my walk. =)

So, back to complaining.  As Exodus 16:8 above tells,  complaining is not just about the situation that we are involved in, you are complaining against the Lord because you are not showing your trust in Him..  This nails it on the head for me.  This can also be applied to worrying (which is something that I do often).  Both worrying and complaining are not trusting in God to have complete control of our lives.  This is so important for us to do.

I am constantly growing and I know I will be my entire life.  So, noticing things (like those complaining at an HOA meeting) that don't seem quite right to me and turning to God's word about it is so helpful.   Just thought I'd share.

Hope your all having a wonderful Tuesday after Easter! =)

Just on a different note, here are a couple pictures of Corbin making funny faces on the "Photobooth" on my computer.  Isn't he a cutie?!?!

Blog out!

Christ is Risen!!

What a wonderful reason to celebrate!  Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, after dying on the cross for US!!  No matter what your sins are, HE loved us that MUCH!!  Isn't that amazing!?

So we spent lots of time with our families for the weekend, celebrating.  This was the first year that Corbin was really into it, and so we had a blast.  Saturday morning, we got up and went to the beach to see Clynt's dad, stepmom, sister, brother in law, and a couple of Corbin's cousins.  We did a lot of visiting, and then an Easter Egg hunt.  Corbin actually managed to collect a lot of eggs.  It was adorable to watch him.  His cousin closet in age to him (She is like 8 months younger) was there and Corbin had lots of fun playing with her.   Here are some pictures of that egg hunt and Corbin loving on his cousin.

This is Corbin with one of his older cousins also. 

We had lots of fun visiting and playing, and riding the golf carts on the beach with Corbin. 

Then we headed home to change for Church and we went and met my family at Church for Saturday night service.  It was a WONDERFUL service!  It was just PREFECT!  Then we headed to my parent's house and had dinner (yummy ribs!), and then a confetti egg fight with the boys (Corbin and his Uncle Michael).  It was adorable.  Corbin was more into punching the end of the egg and shaking out the confetti than smashing the egg on people, but hey, it was still super cute!  See for yourself:

As you can tell, everyone had LOTS of fun with this.  Micahel and Clynt, and My dad mostly though.  It was cute. 

After hanging out there for a bit, we came home.  Corbin had gone on a 30 minute nap all day and was getting quite cranky, so we went home and got him showered and ready for bed.  Then is was nighty night for hm. 

Clynt and I then got out Corbin's Easter basket.  It was adorable!  I got everything at Learning Express Toys, and had them do the custom basket and they did a WONDERFUL job.  See!:

I was so excited for the next morning when he was going to get to see it and open everything.  Then the next morning came around.  He was soooo excited! And so were Clynt and I! =)  Clynt brought him down and I snapped pictures.  He went through the whole basket and LOVED everything in it!  Here's some pictures of him opening.

Clynt finally took the camera and got a picture of Corbin and I.  I wish he would do this when I have make up on and am not in PJs!  But I still love getting some with Corbin and I!

After that we all got ready and I fixed breakfast.  Then we headed to the park with my parents and Michael and flew kites.  Michael was really good at it, but Corbin would hold the kite for a second and then throw the end of it off and let it "fly", which resulted in the the loss of his new nice kite.  But it was still fun watching the boys fly them and Corbin run around in a field. 

In the last one, Corbin has no pants on.  For some reason he decided he wanted to strip at the park.  Clynt requested a picture, becuase he thought it was hilarious.   Wow, the things that my boys do.

After the park, it was time for one more Easter Egg hunt with Michael and one of their neighbors.

So, as you can tell, we had quite the weekend.  Today, Corbin is still in his PJs, and we have been watching movies and relaxing.  It's been nice.  Can't wait till nap time! =)

Hope you enjoyed all the pictures.  It was fun!



Easter activities

Corbin is old enough this year to enjoy all the Easter activities.   Yesterday we baked cookies and gave them to all of our friends and family.  Corbin had so much fun.  He helped me actually make the dough, then cut it out with the cookie cutters, and then add candy to the top of it.  He would say "one candy for cookie, one for me!".  It was adorable and so much fun.

Then today, we decorated eggs.  I boiled a dozen eggs this morning, then went and got Corbin up and I forgot about them.  So I had 7 that weren't cracked.  So then, I decided to boil 5 more so that we could have a dozen, and guess what?  I forgot about those too!  ugh.  So, 3 of those came out not crack.  I decided I wasn't cut out for any more.  I did go ahead and add 2 broken ones so that we had a whole dozen eggs to decorate.

Corbin got to put the eggs in the dye, and use the egg tatoos and stickers to decorate them.  He had a lot of fun.  But his attention span was only REALLY good for the first half.  Then the others were just dyed and got just one or 2 stickers on it.  But that's okay, it's all about them being for him.  So it was fun.

Here are some pictures. :

I love how every year we get to add something new to each of our holiday traditions.  It's  so much fun how excited Corbin gets about stuff.  I love. 

I am exhausted today.  We got up and did breakfast with my mom, Wal-mart for a couple things we needed, then easter egg decorating, then baking more cookies for daddy and for our friends we're visiting tonight, then I had to order lots of pictures, now working on laundry, and I still have a couple of other things to do.  Whew, I am resting right now though.    Last night I got to go spend time with all our CARE group ladies and get dinner and get our toes done.  It was wonderful.  This week has been great! Im ready for some relaxing now.  

busy, busy, busy!

Wow, Is it just me  or is April a busy month.  I am supposed to be taking it easy but it is not so easy to do with all the birthdays and friends and kids activities going on.  This week, we have something going on every.single.night.  It is crazy!  Im loving our time with family and friends, but man am I tired!

Corbin has been behaving very well also, which is great.  We are finally using to time out thing to our advantage, and he is getting the hang of it and so are we.  He will actually sit the whole time and he goes when he is told.  And the best part is that if he is doing something wrong and I say "do you want to go to time out?", he says "no, I want to listen to mommy!".  Isn't that wonderful?!  Time outs in public are not so easy though, because there is not always a good spot for the time out.  But hey, we make do with what we can.  Corbin is definitely a little aggressive but sweet too.  He pushed a girl at church the other day *gasp*, so he was put in time out and when I was being told about his behavior the volunteer in the toddler room told me that he responded really well to the time out.  So, I was not at all proud of his behavior but I was proud that he listened to the lady and understood that he had done something wrong.  So we are learning and growing and making our way through the 2s, which haven't been oh-so-terrible.   I just remain patient and do what I can to keep him as controlled as a 2 year old should be expected to be.

We are 32 weeks pregnant with our littlest guy now.  Crazy, huh?  That means 8 weeks left till our due date.  Braxton and Hicks is definitely more prevalent this time than with Corbin, and there have been several times that I have had to sit and relax for a while because they are so painful.  My blood pressure has been doing okay, not great, but not horrible either.  So we are chugging along.  My sleep is definitely suffering with darn heartburn and leg cramps.  But my gigantic pregnancy pillow does help me get comfortable pretty easily, which is nice.  Not too much longer, and I will be much more sleep deprived taking care of a newborn, so I can't complain too much.

Okay this was a completely sparatic post, but I thought I would give an update on the boys, and a little on life.  If you haven't already seen it, I did a post on cloth diapering in the cloth diapering tab, and hope to do one on the other topics soon. =)

New Layout!!

My wonderful friend Amanda completely redesigned my blog!  Don't you love it?!  Now I just have to learn how to use it and fill up all the extra space. All the pages represent things that are important to me, so I hope to fill them with information to share why they are important. 

I have been taking a lot of pictures recently and am loving it!  I have captured some wonderful shots of some amazing people.  And I appreciate my friends trusting in me to do so.  I love it.  I plan to blog about the different pictures over the next day or two, so you need to go to our photography blog.  Amanda and I have worked at them a lot and you can check out a lot of the pictures on FB.  And as I said you can check out our blog.  Thanks for keeping up with us. 

Here are just a few of my little guy being a cutie the other day at his playgroup Easter Party.  He actually somewhat participated with the finding eggs thing, which makes me super excited for next weekend!   I hope you enjoy and come back soon for lots of blog updates and picture updates!

Update-age

I was going to post some pictures of Corbin today, but they are on my other computer and I simply don't feel like going to work on that computer right this second.  However, I do have lots of things to update on.

I'm sure you read my complete breakdown post last week.  Well things are so much better now. Corbin is now sleeping in his room! =)  He calls it his "big boy room" and he loves it.  We still have to hang some stuff on the wall, and the bed still has to be made, but other than that it's done.  Those are things that can be done over the next month or 2.

Clynt's truck is RUNNING!  YAH!  As you know, this was my biggest concern, but it is now not a concern any longer.  He is still changing some of the fluids and stuff just to make sure that it is in good condition before driving it much, but it is running!  He got it all put back together on Sunday and then on Monday it turned on!  I would say Sunday, however the batteries were not cooperating, and it took a lot of messing around with to get them to work long enough to turn the truck on.  They are new batteries but had sat for so long that they just didn't have full power. So this is a major praise!

Last night, Clynt started staining the swing set.  Wow... So hopefully this weekend that will be completely done also.

I have organized tons of stuff upstairs and all Corbin's clothes are in his new room and the nursery is now ready for Garrett.  I had to go buy hangers today for hanging up all of Garrett's clothes (well Corbin's old ones), and hopefully will get that done by this weekend.

So, in case you were keeping up with the check list, the only thing left to be done after the couple completions this weekend is Corbin's bed.  That is a huge change from last week, huh?!?!  My husband has been busy, and it so shows!  I love the lack of stress. =)  Praise GOD!

Garrett update-  So, I went to the doctor today and my blood pressure was close to normal (not perfect, but not bad).  Meaning, I don't have to be on a strict bed rest, and I don't have to be on medication yet!  GREAT NEWS!!!  So, now I am supposed to be taking it easy still just to keep it pretty normal, but other than that we are all good.  I was having some cramping and stuff but Garrett looked perfect today, and so we will just keep chugging along until our next appt 2 weeks from now.  All great stuff.  More praises to GOD.

Okay, how's that for updates??  I love it!  Tomorrow, I will try to post some pictures =)

The Grouchy Lady Bug.

I love books written by Eric Carle, the graphics are adorable and they are always just cute.  So, I buy them when I find them for a reasonable price (sometimes, not so reasonable, but hey Corbin likes them too!)... So Corbin's favorite book is now The Grouchy Lady Bug.  For those of you who have never read this book it is about a grouchy lady bug who asks all different animals if they want to fight and when they do he says, never mind, your not big enough (even to an elephant), well at the end, when a whale flipped him all the back to where he started, he decided it was time to be nice.   Here is a picture of the book:

So, since this is Corbin's new book, we read it all the time.  I no longer even have to read it.  Corbin turns the page to each new animal and says "Hey you, wanna fight BIRD (or whatever animal it is)".  It is hilarious when reading the book.  However, sometimes he comes up to me and says "Hey You, Wanna FIGHT!?".. Im thinking no, not at all!  I have to let Corbin know that that is just a book.  The last thing I want to happen is for him to go up to a kid in play group and ask them if they want to fight.   It is funny though.  I really love that he can read the books to himself.  Well, he doesn't actually *read* but he knows what each page says and he says it.  Not just that book, but other books too.  It is adorable.  Every day his vocabulary amazes me.  He is able to carry on a conversation on the phone, and he can let you know anything and everything he wants.   It is adorable.  I can't wait for him to meet Garrett and teach him all of his cute habits.  I just love it.

Tomorrow, I will update on our to do list around here.  It is soooo coming along.  The hubster has been busy.  Love him lots. 

Hormones.... AHHH!!!

So, I am an emotional wreck lately.  Everything makes me cry, and everything makes me stress.... Obviously none of this is good for my BP, but I can't find anything to make me better!

I have a major fear right now that the baby will come and nothing is going to be done around here.  I mean, as of last week, Clynt's truck is yet to be fixed, Corbin's new room needs painting, we have mounds of stuff to go in the attic, Corbin's swingset is half stained/half NOT, all the clothes for Garrett are still in the attic and his closet is still full of Corbin's stuff, and so on.  I wanted all of this done months ago, and so now my stress level is crazy high.

Clynt has been working on his truck for what seems like forever now, and continues to fix and replace things that don't need fixed, he just does it because he's got so much already taken apart.  I  just want the darn thing running!!  Clynt has a JEEP that he is driving, however, I don't want the stress of something not working when the baby gets here.  The kiddos do not ride safely in the JEEP (in my opinion), so his big truck needs to be working in case of emergencies and stuff.  This is the biggest stress in my life right now.  There is just sooooo much money and time into the thing, and it is so close, but seems sooooooo far away from being done.

Then there is Corbin's new room.  I do not want for Corbin to feel like he is getting kicked out of his room for to make room for Garrett, so I really wanted his room to be done months ago.  Yet, it is still not done.  Clynt has to build the bed for it, and I know that is going to take another long while.  But as long as everything gets moved and painted and pretty much decorated, then I can move Corbin in there, while we wait for the bed to be done.  At least this way, he will be in there and not get kicked out of his room just before Garrett gets here.

Since Corbin is getting the new room and Garrett is getting that room, there is a lot of moving and organizing of Clothes and toys and books and so on that has to be done.  Corbin's stuff has to go to his new room and all his baby clothes have to come out of the attic for Garrett.  This is another thing that must be done soon so that we can be ready!

The swing set in the back yard was stained like 5 months ago, but we ran out of stain and Clynt decided that he was going to make a wooden roof for it and then stain it all together when that's done.  I said that was fine, but little did I know that it would be this long later and it not be done!!  The roof was completed about 3 weeks ago, but the staining is yet to happen.  Don't get me wrong the roof looks AMAZING, however, now there are 3 different colors (the stained wood, the old wood, and the new wood), all on the swing set and it looks rediculous.  ugh.

Soooooo.... because of all these things, on Sunday, I had a major break down.  On the way to church, I started crying, and I trying to dry up before church, but the second I got in my mom asked me what was wrong so I started to tell her and I am immediately started bawling.  With in minutes, our campus Pastor, other church staff, friends, and everyone were around asking what was wrong.  I think it is something that only a woman who has had a baby understands.  I have gestational hypertension now, and cannot do any of this stuff on my own (other than wash clothes, clean, put stuff up, but until it's out of the attic and the rooms are ready, I can't do that!), and I am majorly nesting and want thing ready for the baby sooooo bad!!!

Poor Clynt felt like it was all his fault and it is not.  Their is a lot to get done, and he needs to ask for help sometimes.  So my family all came over on Monday night and helped paint.  Now Corbin's new room is painted!  Tonight, I think that Clynt is moving around stuff so that Corbin can be ready to be moved over this weekend.  So, things are now coming along after my complete emotional breakdown.  Clynt didn't realize how worried i was before, but really does now and he SOOOO does not want to be the cause of anything happening to Garrett or I because of my BP problems.  

I love you babe!!!  Thanks for everything that you are doing!

And it starts again.....

I wrote this blog yesterday and the darn thing disappeared and wouldn't save.  So, I will try to re-post as best as I can remember.

At this point in my pregnancy I had Gestational Hypertension with Corbin.  At 28 weeks, it started developing and at 30 weeks I got put in the hospital because of how high it was.  I never developed PreEclampsia but was monitored very closely and was induced at 37 weeks.  This is all generally a first time mom complication, so we thought we would slide by it this time.  Well....... I started having horrible headaches about a week or 2 ago, and went for my check up last Wednesday and SUPRISE, my blood pressure was up!  It was not high enough for an immediate hospital visit (Praise GOD!), but it was enough that now I have to monitor it and not over do it for a while.  I am monitoring it every day, and some days are horrible and other days are okay with it not being too much over a normal  BP.  So we go back next Wednesday and go from there.  For now I was told not to "over do it", which in case your wondering (because I was!) what that means, it means "no vacuuming (YES! ha), no running lots of errands, resting often, and just staying off my feet some", so that's what I've been trying to do.  We didn't leave the house 2 times last week and we didnt leave the house yesterday either.  Corbin gets bored though, so we may go to the library or something today, just to get out for a little while.

When we go back to the doctor, there are a couple of things that could happen.  For starters, there is a medicine that I can get on to help.  I don't like taking medicine while pregnant, and this is not the safest medicine.  With Corbin it was much easier and safer to just be on bed rest instead of medication.  This time though, it is not as easy to be on bed rest, so I may get a low dose of medicine in order to try to avoid a strict bed rest.  Bed Rest plus Toddler do NOT mix well!!  The other thing that could happen is that I go on bed rest any ways.  And the worst possible thing would be that if it is through the roof, being in the hospital.  Or really, having protien in my urine, and having pre-eclampsia, because then it would really be a strict bed rest and delivering much earlier than I would want to probably.  But that last option is probably not the case, because that didn't happen with Corbin (though anything is possible).

So, anyway, we are now sitting and waiting.  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us, all prayers are so well appreciated.   The main concern is just for a healthy Garrett and being able to take care of Corbin with out it being too much of a disturbance in his life! =)

On a side note, my good friend Amanda came in town this past weekend and was able to take some pictures of me and my pregnant belly and wonderful family.  Here are a few of my favorites...  Enjoy!

Tomorrow, I may be able to post pictures of Corbin's new room (or at least the painted walls).  There are 2 stripe that have to be done and Clynt refuses to let me take a picture before it's done.  But I would like to say THANK YOU to my mom, sister, and Matt for coming over last night to help!!!!  It was soooo awesome to see progress being made.  I will let you know about my break down later =)