Tomorrow.

New little girl undies are washed and stacked high...

Crib sheets are clean and in easy reach...

Reward charts are printed and the stickers are ready...

Potty seat and step stool are in place...

Tomorrow starts a whole new way of life for us... 

*3 Day Potty Training

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I have so much on my mind and on my heart right now. It's hard to say how much of it is due to the pregnancy hormones and the fact that just about anything can make me feel emotional. Does any one else find that they have an extra soft heart while pregnant? What ever it is that's responsible, I'm not really complaining. I like having meaningful thought processes regularly, reflecting on things that normally would just rush past my harder less noticing, non-pregnant heart. Any way, there are so many exciting things going on and I want to write and record all these thoughts that come through and take residence in my brain. But the reality is that there is just no time for that usually, not being a wife, a mom, and all the other hats we women often wear. I hope I can just get a few sentences down with each meaningful milestone and event. Until I then I'm going to spend time with my hubby, now that our bags are unpacked and the littles are tucked in tight.



p.s. Tomorrow is the last day our baby girl will be in diapers. As much as this is great news I'm going to savor every single diaper change all day. :)

While we were on our trip...

... we found out what gender our Itty Bitty is!! And the littles wanted to be the ones to tell...

We are so excited!!

Branson Trip: Silver Dollar City

We've been enjoying some time away as a family {+ Nana!} in Branson, MO. Our experience here has made us fall in love with the 'South'. We didn't even realize we've been missing hospitable, kind hearted, friendly people until we encountered them at every possible turn. In general, the people here seem to still care about ... well, people. It's hard explain really, it's just a feeling of family that you get and it's been refreshing!

Besides all that, we are enjoying some fall-ish weather, good company and tasty food. Our first full day spent here was at Silver Dollar City. Such a fun place to go with the family! {Note to self: wear walking shoes, it's hilly.} The landscape is gorgeous, trees every where. In a couple of weeks all the leaves will be changing color and I'm trying to figure out a way to transport myself so I can see it! I love fall time of the year!

Even though we didn't get to experience the colorful leaves on the trees, they are having their Harvest Festival at Silver Dollar City and the decorations made me crave hot apple cider somethin' fierce! They had scarecrows and pumpkins on display. And so much more. We really enjoyed just being there. We love that it's a family friendly place and they aren't ashamed of their faith in Jesus! That goes for most of Branson as well.

Here are some pictures from our day at Silver Dollar City with explanations below.

{From left to right}

1. Little Lady posing with a scarecrow. Her adorable piggy tails rarely last long...

2. Little Lady and Nana rode the carousel. Little Lady named her bear 'Go fast' but he didn't listen, apparently.

3. Little Lady waiting at the train depot to ride the choo choo. We are really into choo choos right now. Really into them.

4. Little Dude with daddy. He is Little Dude's preferred person at the moment. All day long he says 'Daddy' and it's really pretty cute how much he loves his daddy. :)

5. Little Lady covered in sticky, gooey mess but loving every second of her 'ya-yee pop!'

6. The littles having a rare moment of sharing something good time on the ladybug!

7. I might be slightly obsessed with little wooden rocking chairs and would desperately love to find one at a steal of a good price!

8. Some people just can't follow the rules and must pay the consequences... but not these two, they're just having fun! :)

9. Can't resist a good photo-op with my three four favorite people!! {Thanks Nana}

We can't wait to bring our littles back to Silver Dollar City someday!!

Little Dude {11 Months}

Your a month away from being a year old and all I can think about is the day and hours before you born. These past 11 months have flown by and it's been so fun to see the little person God created you to be.

Your growing so fast these days and your into 12-18 month size clothes. Just in time for fall!

You have two teeth on your bottom gums and one {almost 2} poking through on the top. I just loved your toothless grin, but then those two little teeth on the bottom came through and I couldn't help but smile when you showed them off. You are going to look so grown up with the ones on top added to your handsome smile!!

Finally you are a mobile man! I am loving having you crawl and be able to entertain yourself. And even better... you can play with your big sister! Nothing is more warming to my heart these days than to see you two interacting, laughing and playing together. You adore your sissy and watch her and sometimes even try to do what she is doing. It's so adorable. I'm praying you and her continue to become close friends.

You still are mostly on a bottle and baby food diet. I think you have a texture issue because most solid food, even soft foods, cause you to gag and sometimes get sick. Maybe as you get more teeth and learn to chew your food things will go better for you.

We've been practicing sign language for some things, you almost have 'milk' down. That is, we need an alternate way for you to communicate besides making demanding grunting noises while slapping your leg or throwing your head down between your knees and squealing. Yes, I've birthed a cave man you have a bit of a temper.

This temper has also been known to cause vicious hair pulling, hitting and biting. In all seriousness, We are seeking the Lord in the best way to discipline the behavior. I'm afraid if we don't handle it now it will just get worse and we want the best for you.

Your daddy and I will continue to commit you to the Lord and seek His will for your life and how to raise you up to be a man of God. We love you with all our hearts.

Less than one month is your birthday party!

Love you baby boy, your mommy.

Met my match

This pregnancy I've been craving any and all things spicy {at least once the heavy sickness wore off}. I'm not usually a big fan of spicy foods, a little spice was ok but only occasionally. And if I did have something spicy, it was very mild. So mild some wouldn't even call it spicy at all!!

Ever since I gained more of an appetite {aka. I started the second trimester} all I want is spicy salsa or hot buffalo sauce. In fact if I even catch a whiff of buffalo sauce I start salivating!! It's crazy, and my heartburn and acid reflux are not really appreciating... But I can't help it, it's the only thing that sounds good most of the time. One time I ordered boneless buffalo wings that made hubby teary just from smelling them and I could have sworn that their was little to no spice in them at all.

But....

I think I've met my match.

I like to call 'him' Senor Tapatio, he is my spicy friend! Wow, my mouth is on fire!!

**And yes, I did just write a whole post on my spicy cravings...

California Vacation

Last week we had a wonderful time in Southern California visiting my dad and step mother. The kids did amazing on the plane ride and slept better than they do at home most of the time! Now that's what I call vacation!!

We took our camera and our camcorder but either left both at home when we went on an adventure or forgot to charge the battery. Darn! So we have gaps in pictures to reflect all the fun stuff we did. :) Hubby made a slide show of the best pictures we did take so instead of posting a huge long post full of pictures, I'm just going to put the slide show in this post. Your welcome!


And I'm going to do a quick summary of what we did each day, mostly for our record of memories for the littles. Feel free to skip it if you aren't interested.


{make sure to have your sound on :) }



California Vacation 2011 from Katie B on Vimeo.



Day 1


My dad and hubby went scuba diving @ La Jolla beach and the littles and I tagged along. We hung out on the grass near the sand where there was a play ground for the littles. When I learned that the temps were over 100 deg back at the house I was really glad we chose the 70 deg temps where the beach breeze was so refreshing and relaxing!


Day 2


Hubby stayed at the house with the littles and I got to go do some shopping by myself! We met up with my dad after he got off of work early and headed to the Disney store at the mall. We wanted to get a Mickey and Minnie mouse doll for the littles since we were going to Disneyland the next day! Little Lady had a blast, she's really into the princesses and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.


Day 3


Disneyland!! It was a gorgeous day in the 70's and we just went with the flow and did the things we wanted to do first, then what ever we had time for we'd try and do too. At least as long as the littles were content. :) They stuck it out until 7pm, and even then it was more their tired mama who was ready to get back to the house. Little Lady was so excited about the choo choo so we rode two different ones! We took them on 'It's a Small World' and I thought about my grandma the whole time {It was her favorite! I really miss her}, and 'Pirates of the Caribbean', and the Jungle tour. We also went through Goofy, Mickey & Minnie's house and Little Lady got to meet both the mouses!! {Little Dude slept through it all...} She wasn't scared at all! She went right up to both of them and looked at them like "Aren't you going to say something?!" The only princesses we saw were in the parade but Little Lady loved it all the same. Can't wait to go back when she's a little older. :)


Day 4


On Wednesday we decided to stay close to the house and recoup a little bit. We took the littles to a children's museum and hubby and Little Lady throughly enjoyed themselves!! After lunch we headed back to the house where the kids napped and we got some laundry done. That evening we played and enjoyed the clubhouse pool where my dad lives.


Day 5


Beach day! We took the littles to Oceanside, CA and after enjoying a delicious lunch at In-n-out we played in the waves and in the sand until we couldn't take it any more! Which for Little Dude was much sooner than the rest of us, considering he made a face plant right into the sand and got it up his nose, in his mouth and all over his body. Poor guy had sandy snot for several days. He recovered and ended up taking a cozy nap snuggled up to his mama while hubby and Little Lady continued to play. Hubby even got to boogie board some and had great waves to catch. The one time I went out to enjoy some waves a wave caught me and knocked me off my feet. It shoved me to the shore and drenched me in sand! I was over the water after that. :)


Day 6


Opa and Oma were off work so we headed up north from the house to the Long Beach Aquarium. Little Lady enjoyed sticking her hands in the water where they had sharks and rays you could pet, but she wouldn't pet any of them. No, she just wanted to taste the water... She ran and played in the little splash area they had and we saw lots of different fish.


Day 7


On our last day we headed down to San Diego were the weather was perfect and the breeze was refreshing! We took a Seal tour on one of those bus/boat thingys. It drives on land but turns into a boat when we get in the water... Lets just say I was glad I took a motion sickness medicine before hand, I actually got to enjoy it! It was windy but the littles did pretty well. They were over it close to the end. We headed back to the house and packed our bags for an early flight home.


Thanks Opa and Oma for a great time and thanks California for a lovely vacation! Until next time...

16 weeks {Itty Bitty}

Seaport Village, San Diego, CA

Pregnancy Highlights

How Far Along: 16 Weeks

Size of baby:  Itty Bitty is about the size of an apple {approx. 5 ounces}!

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  Gained 1 lb since 8 wks.

Maternity Clothes: I mostly wear dresses and cotton shorts and tank tops. It's just too hot so I dress to stay as cool as possible.

Gender: Boy? Girl? Twins? 3 weeks until we {hopefully} find out!

Movement: Yep. Just feels like soft flutters in my tummy, usually when I lay or sit down. :)

Sleep: Crazy dreams! And a lot of them are bad dreams :( I always sleep on my sides now and only wake up when Little dude does.

Symptoms: Besides the growing size of my belly??! Heartburn is getting stronger every day. 

What I miss: I'm not missing much these days, being on my third pregnancy in 3 years is starting to make being pregnant the norm rather than the exception!

Cravings: Salsa and chips {but mostly salsa! I can eat a whole bowl only using 2-3 chips.} and anything covered in buffalo sauce! This kid is going to be one spicy meatball!!

Best Moment this week: Hearing the baby's heartbeat at my appointment. {160 bpm}

What I am looking forward to: Hopefully finding out the gender of this little!

Today is the day

Even though he is still determined to pull himself up when ever he can and prefers standing to any other posture, today is the day our Little dude is officially a crawler. Today he finally figured out and gained the courage to go forward several paces while up on his hands and knees! Then he plops down on his belly and then he'll just fuss and try to squirm his way to where ever he is try to go.

Of course I know that him being mobile is potentially more 'work' for me, but I am so excited for my 10.5 month old to be on the move! As my belly grows and bending over to pick up anything, let alone 18 lbs of pure cuteness, is becoming more of a challenge each day. I'm excited for him to be more interactive with his overly active big sister. And he is just so darn cute when he is determined!

We are so proud of you, Little Dude. And we love watching you grow and develop every step of the way. Happy crawling day.