24 weeks update...

I'm now six months pregnant and in the last month of the second trimester...it really is all downhill from here! After looking at the calendar this week it'll be June before we know it. February has flown by and this time next week March will be upon us. Wow!

Weight Gain: I've now gained almost 20 lbs. I'm still able to sleep on my belly and there is no denying now that I'm pregnant.

Maternity Clothes: Hip, hip hooray for my discovery this week! Boden, one of my favorite clothing companies, now has a maternity line! Hallelujah. A few weeks ago my spring catalog arrived and I was so bummed that I wouldn't be able to wear anything that I opted not to look at it. Well, this week AG's new miniBoden catalog arrived and I browsed it. While browsing I saw an ad for their Maternity line and immediately had to check it out. I'm thrilled because I need to buy a few dresses to rotate between Caroline's Rehearsal, Meg's Rehearsal, Easter, Mother's Day, Andy's cousin's wedding, bridesmaids luncheons, etc. So now I just need to decide what to order...

Energy: As I type this I'm wiped. This weekend has been busy with throwing a shower for Clay and Caroline and duties at Church. I'm planning to keep my feet up the rest of the day and rest...despite the fact that I need to tidy up around the house. Some things will just have to wait. As far as nausea goes I was nauseated this morning before heading to church.

Cravings: Coke. Ice cold. With LOTS of ice. I also enjoy having a sweet treat mid day. Clementines in groups of two or three at a time. And popsicles in the evening in groups of two...this one I'm grateful for...with AG I had to have ice cream almost every evening after dinner.

Gender: Girl...we've already got lots of cute little things for her. I washed everything I bought last weekend and have already put it away. I'm looking forward to us moving the crib in to her room in the next few weeks once we get AG completely transitioned so that I can start working on the new guest room/nursery.

Movement: Lots and lots of it. She's still transverse and hasn't flipped, yet. I can tell by her movements. I'm looking forward to talking to my Doctor at length this week about what the timeline will look like if she stays transverse. I'm mentally preparing myself for the possibility that she won't flip and if that happens I will have no choice but a C-section. I'm completely okay with that if that is what happens. My desire is for her to arrive healthy and whole. If I do have a section my midwife will not be able to deliver and my prayer is that my doctor can do it...he would be my first pick in that situation. I'm not sure how all of that works since the practice that I see is quite large. Again, another thing to chat about this week when I go for my check-up. I will say that because she is transverse my sciatica has been minor and I really believe it's because she's not on my nerve, literally, like AG was the whole time. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise...if my sciatica was as severe this go round as it was last time I don't know what I would do. Seriously, I don't know how I'd keep up with AG.

Miscellaneous: Andy leaves early Tuesday for a week of business in Cali. AG and I will be holding down the fort and Aunt Mis may come up for a few days. I need to finalize our plans for Disney and order some maternity clothes this week. On Saturday we'll head to the airport to pick up Andy and then head on to the farm to spend the rest of the weekend with Andy's family. We are looking forward to a few days  at the farm and having a baby shower get together.

Andy's Cupcakes...

AG helping line the muffin tin for the cupcakes.

Our sweet red head! Can't believe how big he is...

For Andy's birthday he requested cupcakes and AG was happy to help me in the kitchen. He lined both muffin pans and helped pour all of the ingredients in to my KitchenAid. Such a big helper and learning so much these days. We used some leftover Toy Story cupcake liners and AG was super excited to make "Buzz cupcakes!" He also enjoyed the fruits of his labor and is developing quite the sweet tooth these days. 

How to entertain your BFF...

...show her your new box hideout.

Show her how to jump out of it and yell, 'surprise!' 

Laugh at your crazy shenanigans. 

Take her for a spin on your wheels. 

Let her drive your wheels.

Kiss her goodbye and ride off...

AG and Emma thanks for always entertaining your parents when we hang out. Life is never dull with the two of you...we love you.

I dig you...

...Happy Valentine's Day! Aunt Mis bought this fun shirt for AG to wear on Valentine's Day. I snapped a photo of it on him as soon as I put it on because I knew he'd have fun in it outside. Sure enough he did and we had to change for nap time!

This morning we woke up and gave AG his gift from us...two new books. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and a new Dr. Seuss book. AG has really gotten in to kisses and specifically kissing hands so The Kissing Hand was the perfect addition to our library. In a few years GrandMary will read it to AG the night before he starts Kindergarten with the rest of the classmates. I look forward to that moment. :)

We had Andy's favorite, cinnamon rolls, for breakfast and then he headed off to work. AG spent the day playing and making normal toddler messes. I spent the day working on starting to reorganize dressers/chest of drawers to make way for Avi-Kate's clothes. I also did several loads of laundry to get everything I bought at Twice Is Nice washed up so that I can put it away.

Dinner was low key since Andy and I went out last night to celebrate. Thanks to Aunt Caro and Uncle Clay for spending an evening with AG so we could eat dinner at Outback and go see 'Just Go With It'. Which we loved and enjoyed even more because over half the movie was filmed at the resort we stayed at this past April in Maui, The Grand Wailea. I was planning to make some heart shaped frosted sugar cookies with AG after dinner but mommy is wiped! So, I'm thinking we'll do that later this week. Besides we still have birthday cupcakes that we made for Andy on Saturday to enjoy.

Ps- It should be noted that AG stole a smooch from Emma on Saturday night before she left...right on the lips! Needless to say we all laughed and Josh told AG to back off. :) It was pretty cute...

A few things...

...from our Saturday:

-Today is Andy's birthday. He's 28 today. We had a birthday breakfast at the Dwarf House this morning...AG was quite a ham and entertained everyone around us. We are celebrating with dinner tonight with the Hornsbys. Ginny's birthday was Thursday. So we'll celebrate them both tonight by grilling out and eating cupcakes for Andy and funfetti for Ginny.

-I hit up Twice Is Nice this morning! Twice is Nice happens twice a year and it's Rome's largest consignment sale. I found lots and lots of cute things for Miss Avi-Kate. And thank heavens there were nightgowns available. I've been looking for gowns for her over the last few weeks and have found next to nothing. I had almost resigned myself to the fact that she was going to have to wear all of AG's boy night gowns for her first few weeks! Ha. Anyways, we are now stocked with nightgowns. I'm not sure why I couldn't find any at Target, Wal-Mart, Babies R Us, etc. My last resort was to hit up the Carter's Outlet in Calhoun and keep my fingers crossed. Crisis averted. Thanks Kristie for the early shopping pass! I can't wait to see her in these sweet ensembles this summer. Boy clothes are fun but little girl clothes are even more fun!

-Andy is off at Home Depot at the moment looking for supplies to possibly start building benches for the dining room table since the weather is going to be nice this next week. Yahoo!

-I need to post a new recipe for frozen chicken pot pies that I made...I ate one for the first time last night while Andy was at the Thrashers game celebrating with some of his friends from college. Oh. My. Gosh. They were that good. They will definitely be added to my list of freezer recipe staples.

-I'm off to bake Andy's birthday cupcakes and frost Ginny's Funfetti cookies.

-Oh, and a post forth coming about AG's latest version of bowling...Happy Saturday.

Laundry Room...

All right, here are some of the photos of the laundry room. I didn't take any before pictures because it was that bad. Seriously. Although, in our defense I will say it was inevitable for us to have one room full of crap everywhere...this is what happens when you live in a house that you are remodeling while living in it. Also, if we had a true basement or a garage it may not have gotten as bad as it did. A lot of what has been thrown in there over the last 3 years has been tools, paint, supplies, scrap wood, extra tile, caulk, etc. You name it and it probably can be found in the laundry room. Anyways, while it is not finished (I won't consider it finished till we remodel it!) it is livable for now. There are a few more things I need to sort and organize but for the most part it is back to being a functional room. It'll work for the time being and for those who don't know our laundry room is a long rectangle. It presents lots of possibilities despite it's shape when we get around to remodeling it. I have big plans! Here we go:

Behind the door Andy added another shelf. Some of this still needs to be sorted again but most of this is supplies we still need to do stuff around the house plus Andy's drum set. Eventually, I'd like to add upper cabinets, a deep bottom cabinet, and a large countertop so that I have a place to fold laundry. A family I was a nanny for had an oversized countertop to fold their laundry on and I LOVED it. It was a perfect place to fold, lay everything out, and you could come back to it if you needed to. Plus, each child had a designated spot for their stacks so that they could pick them up to take to their rooms. Granted my counter won't be that large but it will give me room to fold. One day when we build a house I'll put in my oversized folding counter. :)

My bookshelf and extra pantry. Cookbooks, books for house projects, gardening, and all of our textbooks that we kept. The white cabinet use to be in our bathroom at the last house. For the time being it is my overflow pantry for my grocery deals that I buy thanks to coupons. I'm still trying to tweak it but it'll work for now. I have a great idea for a piece of furniture to build for this spot when we remodel the laundry room.

This set of shelves I actually organized when I was pregnant with AG. (Gotta love nesting!) I didn't do much besides straighten, tidy, and relabel a few of the baskets. 

All of my storage containers in the house have clear packing tape labels. I'm not sure why I started doing this but I started it when we moved in almost four years ago. I like them because I can add to them as needed and I can also take 'em off to make a new one in no time flat. Or if I repurpose the container I can remove the tape and it's now ready for a new task. Not to mention the fact that they are super cheap...who doesn't have a sharpie and a roll of packing tape around the house? Also, all of the Christmas containers in the attic are done in red ink. Just another way to organize it and break it down.

All of the tubs have labels on the front and on the lid of each container. That way you can see from the side or the top what the contents are. 

Since the house was a foreclosure there were things done to it and we bought it as is. The laundry room was primed but not painted. And so it's still waiting for us to paint it...I picked this color out when we did the kitchen and I still like it. This is the only room in our house that does not have crown molding. I feel like we probably should and will add it when we remodel it. That way it ties in to the rest of the house. Every other room probably has 7 inch molding that was put in at some point over the years. I'm not sure if it is original but either way I love, love, love how thick it is. It makes a bold statement and looks nice with our large baseboards. They balance each other.

My sunny window that now is brighter thanks to me removing the shutters that use to cover them. I've taken them down and am planning a little project for them...stay tuned for that one. I love how much brighter it is without them on the window. I hope when we remodel we can put in cabinets where these shelves are so that the window will not be blocked anymore. So many possibilities and ideas in my head. For now it's a little straighter, a little more functional, and a little brighter.

AG's not a fan...

...of his parents having Jury Duty.

In August, I had Jury Duty for the first time and was selected to serve. The night before I reported we were up all night dealing with AG being "sick" which eventually we determined was not a 24 hour bug but a parasite. So, I had no sleep and drank a Coke for breakfast which is something I NEVER do first thing in the morning.

Well, today, Andy is at the courthouse for Jury Duty. Apparently, AG got the memo. Last night he was up on and off for two hours crying. Since Andy had to be somewhere I tried to handle it but Avi-Kate thought she needed in on the action. I had gone to bed nauseated and when AG woke up I was still nauseated. All night nausea and a crying toddler...does it get any better? Ha. Andy helped me out...for which I'm very grateful. When he finally settled down sometime around 4 AM I thanked the Lord that this time at least didn't involve a parasite and I was grateful for both of my children. I then passed out till Andy kissed me good-bye this morning. Thankfully, AG's still snoozing and I'm going to let him sleep as long as he wants this morning. He needs it after last night and staying up late all weekend with family. We are taking it easy today around the house and I'm going to try and get some cleaning done.

22 Weeks Update...

Well, we've crossed the halfway point and racing along towards the third trimester. I know I say it often but I really can't get over how quickly this pregnancy is flying by.

Weight Gain: I'm fluctuating between 14-16 pounds depending on the day. Still much smaller than I was with AG at this point. Still sleeping on my stomach.

Maternity Clothes: Bought a few tops this weekend while we were in Gwinnett from target. Two maternity tanks along with 2 non-maternity tops that can be used as maternity. And another Bella Band since all my pants still fit. I wore a pair of maternity jeans the other day for the first time and they were awful. I decided then that I'd rather wear my own pants as long as possible.

Energy: Great on days when I'm not nauseated! Yes, I'm still sick. Nauseated on and off all weekend with a lovely two day headache to go with it. I look forward to being able to take Excedrin and my allergy migraine meds again in the near future. I hate having a headache and not being able to take anything for it...Tylenol just doesn't cut it.

Cravings: This last week it was a milk shake from CFA. I had one Tuesday and Saturday night. Mmmmmm. So tasty.

Gender: Still a girl. I need to post her ultrasound pics. We've started shopping around for deals on little girls clothes. We found several cute things this weekend and my three sister have also all been very generous...thanks Mis, Meg, and Caro!

Movement: Daily. This weekend Mis and Meg got to feel her...Meg had an entire conversation with my stomach and she put on a show. It was quite humorous. She's moving around as I type this...she's ready for breakfast but I'm staying in bed as long as possible since AG is still asleep.

Miscellaneous: Well, Andy's birthday is this next weekend. In general every year I try and plan some sort of sporting event for us to attend as his gift since he's such an avid sports guy. (Last year, for example, we went to ATL for a weekend without AG and saw the Hawks play Friday and the Thrashers Saturday.) When we bought our Disney passes for the year we mulled the possibility of doing Braves spring training since we've both always wanted to go. In addition our five year wedding anniversary is on April 30th. So, we started thinking maybe we would try and scoot away for a few days before Avi-Kate arrives and celebrate Andy's birthday and our anniversary. Well between Caro's wedding March 19th and Meg's wedding on April 30th and all the showers in between our weekends are packed. Plus the arrival of our new niece in between both weddings!

However, we've found one weekend in all of this that we can get away and yesterday we decided to plan it. So, we are heading down the last weekend in March to Orlando to do Disney for a few days, enjoy the sunshine, and see the Braves last two spring training games. Originally, we planned for AG to stay with someone but yesterday we opted to take him. Our last trip down there he was sick and didn't feel good. Plus, we've never taken him away just the three of us and this will be our last chance to do that before June...so we are taking advantage of it. And if that wasn't reason enough he's been practicing "The Chop" a lot lately on his own. Guess he's just warming up for spring training.

Thanks to our passes we get a discounted rate to stay on site so we think we are going to take advantage of that. Yesterday, we made reservations for the Liberty Tree Tavern at Magic Kingdom since we had to cancel our reservations there in December since AG had a fever that day. Andy also requested we go back to the 50's Prime Time Cafe at Hollywood Studios for another helping of Fried Chicken...I also made a reservation for there. And thankfully, I looked at dining stuff back in December and made a reservation on a whim in case we were able to go because I got us a reservation at Le Cellier at Epcot! Which is suppose to be one of the best places to eat at Disney. So we have lunch there one day...good thing we already had a reservation because there is NOTHING available now with them the entire time we are there. I'm excited we get to do something fun with AG before he becomes a big brother. After that, we are hoping to come back this fall to bring AG trick or treating for Mickey's Not-So-Scary-Halloween...Andy thinks he should go as Peter Pan this year since he has the hair and is obsessed with Pan these days. Guess I need to find Avi-Kate a tiny Tinker Bell costume. :)

Week 22 of 52...

I'm known for having a sweet tooth and I love to bake. When I was pregnant with AG I baked almost every two to three days. This go around that has not been the case. Anyways, I had been craving a bar type of cookie and when AG asked me for cookies on Wednesday I opted to just whip up a batch before nap time. So, I found a bar recipe from Nestle and looked it over and made some modifications. Here's what I came up with...

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 stick of butter flavored Crisco or 1/2 a cup if you have a container of it. (I like sticks b/c they are so easy!)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
Chocolate chips/chunks I used a handful of my favorite special dark Hershey's chips and a handful of Nestle semi-sweet chunks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375* Grease a 9x13 inch Pyrex Dish.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.
Beat butter, both sugars and vanilla in large mixer bowl. I use my Kitchen Aid.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
Gradually beat flour mixture into butter mixture.
Stir in chocolate.
Spread into prepared pan.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

And these were just about perfection. When I was pregnant with AG my go to cookie recipe, that has since become a staple in our house, was chocolate cake cookies with peanut butter and chocolate chips...I have a feeling this will be a staple in our house. AG LOVED them and so did everyone else...I'm already ready for another batch. Plus I didn't have to make individual cookies. These are less work with the same results. Perfection.

Clearly...

...I spoke to soon.

A couple of days ago I posted about not even thinking about potty training till later in the year.

AG peed on the potty tonight.

Yep. On the potty.

Details to come. It was quite amusing.

This is what happens...

...when you live in a house that was built the year that World War 2 ended:

You buy a few cans of paint.

This old house has received fresh paint in every room but the laundry room to date. We've painted ceilings, walls, baseboards, trim and crown molding. This is just some, not all, of what had been hanging out in the laundry room related to repainting the entire house. Crazy. Time consuming. But, oh, so worth the effort. The end results are so much better than the before pictures. I started laughing when I saw how many cans Andy and I started hauling out of the storage area behind the door in the laundry room.

Laundry room your time is coming. I've got big plans for you in the future...for now you'll just have to make do with being reorganized.

Elton John in Rome...

The arrival of Elton.

I'm fabulous, really, I know. And you are hysterical.

I'm stylin' in my new shades.

I'm pretty handsome without them, don't you think?

Peace out. I'm off to the ATL.

This is what happens when you clean out the laundry room, your toddler rummages in your Goodwill pile, and Mommy is at a meeting. Ha. I came home from my meeting and Andy showed me what he and AG had been up to. Excuse the mess in the den...we are almost done cleaning out the laundry room and putting it back together. Never a dull moment. Ever.