Sun Oct 01 2006 08:42 This makes 3 and 4: I have new identical twin nephews! Congrats Melanie and Joe.

(2) Tue Oct 03 2006 14:13 Pictures of both kids: Monday I went in for an ultrasound to make sure that the placenta had moved away from the cervix, and thankfully it did. No c-section foreseeable. It was fun to have one this far into my pregnancy because they measured him and we got more pictures. He is 3 pounds and 8 oz right now. Every thing looks good and he is still a boy.

Yesterday Aaron and I bought a recliner. I told myself last pregnancy I wouldn't make myself go without one for the second and subsequent children. It looks like I'm not. We got a steal of a deal. A tan leather rocker/recliner for $315 regularly $700. It was a floor model and that is why it was so cheap. We looked at 3 stores and all the leather recliners were at least $400 and up, comfortable ones starting in the mid $500's. I am pretty happy about the deal plus it will match his room. I remember last pregnancy I was sick like twice and all stuffed up and wanted badly to sleep in a recliner so I could breathe. I haven't been sick like that yet, so hopefully I won't need it for that.

I got Lily's 2 year old pictures taken today. I got a couple poses that were pretty cute. I hate waiting the couple weeks to get the prints in my hands. Getting Lily ready for pictures is a lot like going to church. I get her all dressed up and do her hair. The biggest stress is trying to keep her occupied while waiting for our turn at the studio. She didn't do too bad this time, but I don't know what I am going to do next time with an infant and a rowdy 2 year old. At least I won't be pregnant so I can run after her instead of cajole her to come back with chocolate.

This time I vow to bring the second one in for pictures before he is 4 1/2 months old like Lily was. I hope this recovery is smoother than the last one.

(2) Thu Oct 05 2006 09:48 Difference of opinion: This week I have been able to hang out with my mom more than usual. Every Friday or every other Friday we usual go to Sam's and Costco together and grab lunch- with Lily in tow. This week though I have been able to tag along with my mom a couple days. Monday we went to Garden Ridge Pottery all the way in Schertz, and to a lady's house that my mom was ordering "yard art" from. Painted wood in different seasonal varieties. I really wanted to order the Halloween candy corn set. It was soo cute. It was 3 candy corns that were dressed in Halloween costumes: one with a bag over itself, one with a bandana over his eyes, and the other with the fake glasses and big nose and moustache schtick. They were about 2 feet high and all three for $40. The painting detail and shading was amazing for painted wood that I have ever seen. I didn't buy anything because we are still waiting for our reimbursement check to come from the military. Plus I have learned not to buy tons of things without Aaron. He likes to be apart of the buying process funness, and I admit, sometimes I can let myself get carried away spending money.

We also went to Chili's for lunch, mom and I sharing a salad, and Lily taking bites of her chicken tenders kid's meal in between coloring the kids menu. She is about 80% now with her colors. It is funny because to bribe her to behave I sometimes take a mini pack of m&m's with me, and sometimes when I give her one I ask her what color it is. Apparently she likes that game because if I don't ask, she gets it and says, "color?" and I then ask her what color it is and usually she is right.

Yesterday my mom picked me up so we could go get my new recliner I bought at Lack's. We also stopped by Wal-mart to get some milk and mom wanted to see if they had a brand of lettuce there. When we got home and got the recliner in the house (so far no premature labor from helping to carry it in) we decided spur of the moment to go by Hobby Lobby and a fabric store. They have a pretty good sale going on and plus mom is in search for 12 particular photo albums. Fabric store was on the agenda because every time mom comes over she suggests that I get new curtains. I recently bought these curtains I have now, but after putting them up to the wall, I don't love one color in the curtain with my wall color. I agree that they don't look the best, but they were cheap and aren't too bad looking. Plus all the other curtains I like are more than twice as much and we already spent a lot of money that I didn't want to spend any more.

My original hope was to have my mom help me make curtains that I wanted and I knew I would like because I would buy fabric I liked for them. Mom is often very busy and so I lucked out when she offered it as her idea that she help me just make curtains that looked good because being the master mind in all things home improvement, my mom was bothered to see those other curtains hanging that were clearly a fashion faux pas. It really is hard to find cute curtains that go well with your stuff and color scheme and that are inexpensive. I was delighted to find the perfect fabrics (and half the price of the curtains I have now) to make my own. I am really excited to see how they are going to turn out and Aaron is even more pleased with this new fabric because it blocks out the light so the glare on the TV is gone when he plays his video games.

I really like going places with my mom because I can barely wrangle Lily into her car seat half the time let alone lift her and carry her when she gets tired of being in the cart and run after her when she gets away. Mom is very helpful in holding her for me and doing the grunt work. She is so helpful that while we were in the fabric store (a very boring store for children-I know because it is the exact fabric store my mom used to drag all us kids into when we were little) Lily wanted me to hold her because she had had it with all our errands. Mom is good at setting boundaries for little kids so they know they aren't going to get away with stuff. I picked Lily up because the whole store was becoming aware of her wailing and mom offered to hold Lily for me and Lily said, "No Bam-ma, away," as she waved her little arm back and forth. I shouldn't have laughed just like I shouldn't have laughed when she told Aaron, "quiet papa," but you can't help it when you finally hear your two year old in their own words stand up to you. It is funny and almost cute.

Also, before we headed off to the stores, I went back in the house to grab Lily some more milk and snacks for the long journey. I was in there long enough that mom would have been able to get Lily in her car seat, but I was surprised when I came out to see Lily was not in her car seat yet. She had thrown herself on the grass and was throwing a tantrum and mom was trying to scoop the flailing arms and legs up. I asked what had happened and mom said, "oh, just a little difference of opinion." Apparently, Lily didn't want to get into her car seat, much like when she is with me. I literally have to wrestle her into her straps. I still snicker when I picture Lily running away from mom and mom catching her and mom nonchalantly describing the scene as a difference of opinion. So true.

(2) Wed Oct 11 2006 10:26 Happy Windsday: Today is going to be a good day. Aaron has today "off". He still had to go to school to study for tomorrow's test, but he did wake up and give me a smile like he was up to something and went in the kitchen and started to make me breakfast. I love hot breakfasts. I try to drag him to IHOP at least every other month on a laid back Sat morning because I love their pancakes. It's the whole carb thing. I love bread.

Lily ate half a waffle. I put syrup and cool whip on it and told her it was cake and she started scarfing it down. She also loves bacon. She is getting good at saying "more_____, please". Asking for more and the thing she wants more of and then saying please. We usually have to remind her to say please, but she is getting better at it. When I get whatever it is she wants to her she does say "tank you" usually and then followed by a "ah-welcome, mama". I guess I am too slow to say you're welcome so she feels like she needs to finish the exchange, apparently.

Another good thing about today is that Lost is on tonight. The season premier has opened up so many questions. I would rather be watching it on DVD so I don't have to wait every week, but I also don't want to wait a year so I can watch them all back-to-back. Aaron also has a football game tonight. We shall see if I go with Lily since it rained yesterday and it might be muddy. Mud + chasing a hyper, very social 2 year old does not equal fun for a fat 7 month pregnant person. His team won the championship last year and so far they are doing pretty well. One of his professors is sponsoring their team and bought them all matching custom designed (by Aaron) orange t-shirts.

I put all my Halloween decorations up about a week ago. I don't have many but it is fun to see them all and get in the spirit of the season. Lily loves carrying my pumpkins around. These pumpkins are ceramic and I am running out of high places to put breakable things so she can't ruin all the stuff. She likes to carry around a mini real pumpkin that I bought for Aaron to make pumpkin pie out of. He likes to do it from scratch. She also loves to tote around a trick-or-treat pumpkin and put all her toys in it. She calls it "Wilwee's pumpkin" and the ceramic ones "Mama's pumpkin" because she knows she isn't supposed to touch them even though she does.

My goals today are to clean up the kitchen mess and mop the floor and get Lily’s toys organized and do some laundry.

(1) Thu Oct 12 2006 10:06 Good deals: I found Gunnar's blessing outfit. It is so hard to find all white dressy outfits for boys without them looking cheesy and gaudy. I happened to find the outfit on PotterBarnKids.com and it is a two piece. The top was only $9.99 and the bottoms were $4.99. Not too bad compared to the $90 I spent on Lily's blessing dress. It was more fun picking out a dress though.

When I saw Lily's dress I knew I had to get it. It was exactly what I wanted. I knew I wanted a very long dress like I had for my blessing. So one less thing I have to worry about before the baby comes since we are blessing him when he is only going to be weeks old. Unfortunately for him I have to take him out of the house during RSV season in the winter before he is 6 weeks old because that is the only time most family will be in town.

The other day at Old Navy I found very cutie shark pj's for Gunnar for only $4. I am so excited to meet him and put him in all these cute clothes I am buying for him.

Fri Oct 13 2006 15:22 Friday the 13th: I knew something was up when I went to the store and the bank and Lily was good the entire time. Maybe I will survive the terrible two's and live to tell about it.

(2) Wed Oct 18 2006 10:07 Fortune telling: I was walking in the store yesterday and was stopped by this lady asking me when I was due and if I knew what I was having. While I am not stopped everyday by strangers, it does happen sometimes and I usually smile and fake laugh. I don't mind it, but it doesn't boost my self esteem either. Yesterday was different. This tiny little mid-thirties Mexican woman kept staring at my bump and was asking me these questions and then all the sudden she said, "Go to a Mexican restaurant, full moon...the day before or the day after and you will have your baby the next day." Umm, ok.

I have heard when I was pregnant with Lily the 'eat something spicy and the next day, or eat a lot of garlic and the next day'. Trust me, when the girl was 2 days late I had tried everything anyone suggested except drink castor oil. Those things don't work. If they did, then I would have had Lily 10 days early.

This lady though kinda freaked me out. She started to say something in Spanish and then translated it to "kicks like a horse". She enlightened me that boys come with very painful deliveries (as if girls were a piece of cake comparatively) and that I in particular was going to have a very hard painful delivery. She was saying this while looking at my bump and it almost seemed like she was in a trance or something because one of her eyes was halfway closed. Little does she know I don't plan on feeling a thing with the cocktail I am ordering. She then went on to tell me that I was going to make it through it, just make sure that I keep on my feet and walking till the end. Shoot, just when I was about to put in an order for an electric wheelchair.

Anyway, it was a rather weird experience and the sad thing is if I get to the point where this one is looking like he wants to be late, I will be looking up when the next full moon is going to be and weighing between which Mexican restaurant I am most in the mood for.

(4) Thu Oct 19 2006 12:23: I have been having the sorest back lately. It is always sore in between my shoulder blades after I clean or do a lot with my hands and arms, and it sometimes feels like it is buzzing or vibrating. I get these sharp pains in just one spot. It has been like that for awhile. I wonder if it is because I sleep on my side and my arm is in a weird position. I probably have cancer or something like that.

(2) Wed Oct 25 2006 09:48 very long post: Pretty much everything that has been going on with me lately can be read about extensively here. I have been bad lately writing about things, but Jenni describes things in great long detail that I feel like I already wrote about it when I read her blog so I don't have to.

Tis true...the highlights are as follows. Last week we took Lily and Caden to get their pictures taken at Target in their Halloween costumes. When we first put them on they were so excited they dashed off down the way laughing and squealing for joy. I am sure the scene was timeless. Two 2yr olds running in mid-October in a store with full on Halloween costumes on and Lily even had a painted face. I tried not to make eye contact with anyone while retrieving them. After that, there were no more laughs left. The idea of getting a picture of the two cousins in a professional studio with cute props in a package for only $5 per parent was a good one however delusional. Once we got in the inferno (a/c was broken) there were hardly any smiles left. The kids actually did smile, just not at the same time. We ended up only getting one shot that was not blurry and it happened to be of Caden smiling but looking off to the right and Lily starring blankly into the camera with her finger in her mouth. Oh well, it was $5 and we each got a 5x7, 2- 4 1/2x5, and 4 wallets with an 8x10 to give to the Smith grandparents. I actually got a free 8x10 of just Lily as well because when Jenni went to go buy popcorn to bribe the kids with, the lady asked if I wanted to see if I could get some with just Lily. We tried but by then she was done and the 8x10 is of her with each hand on a pumpkin to her side and again starring blankly into the camera. Maybe she was getting into character seeing as she was a lion and lions are supposed to be scary?!

It was all good afterwards because Jenni and I treated ourselves to soup and salad lunch at Olive Garden. The kids did behave for that, thank goodness.

This past Sat, I went with Jenni and Erin to Austin where there was a Scrapbook convention going on. I told myself I couldn't buy anything since that week I already went on a binge spending spree at Hobby Lobby. (See I told you my life is just like Jenni's right now. I should just copy and paste her blog here.) I did end up getting a couple cute things. Unlike Jenni however I just may not get around to using the dang stuff. I am terrible at scrapbooking, but I enjoy buying the cute things for it. I won a door prize too right when I got there. Unfortunately, some company was cleaning out their closet and gave me things that were from 1995. That's ok though, Lily enjoyed putting all the stickers I got for free on the free paper.

Afterwards we went to Jamba Juice and Schlotzky's. I really wish I had one in San Antonio for this pregnancy. I crave a lot more healthy things with this one than with Lily. Like I crave salads and fresh fruit smoothies instead of hamburgers and fries. We made a quick pit stop at the outlet mall and I practiced self control and did not buy too much. Just a sweater at the Gap for $4.88, the cutest brown shoes for Lily for $3.76, and a 3 pack of socks for $2.88. Everything was on clearance.

When I got home I went to see Prestige with Aaron and some friends. It had many twists and was very well done and a good movie going experience. The movie itself was disturbing in some parts but what do you expect with a Christopher Nolan show? Plus I really like the two lead actors- Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman.

As for going to the Apple Creek Orchards yesterday, I am glad I did it. Lily really enjoyed herself, and while there were times when I asked myself what I had gotten myself into (Lily running yards and yards away from me closing in on a big pond and me being 8 months pregnant not really in the position to catch her) but she settled down towards the end. Lily loved seeing the animals and getting to pet them. She was scared to pet the llama and turkey and goat which she called baby cows. She liked petting the baby chicks and seeing the rabbits in their cages. That turkey was gnarly looking. I don't blame her for being scared.

We got a picture of us on the hayride. The nice thing about a digital camera is you get to see the picture right away. I am fully aware of how I feel everyday. Tired, large, achy, sore, stretched, bloated, and uncomfortable but it is entirely different when you see yourself looking large, bloated, stretched, and overall non-attractive. I do own a mirror but pictures are different for some reason. I am just ready for this to all be over so I can get back to walking regularly and for my poor feet to not throb every time I stand up on them. I've said it before and I am sure everyone is sick of me saying it, but pregnancy is so hard. It is physically one of the most challenging things (since it is so long term) from being sick to getting gigantic. You can't even bend over to tie your own shoes in the end. I think about my mom having 7 and others having 12 kids. I have no idea how they were talked into it that many times. I have 7 weeks left and I just hope I can hold out long enough to where I don't require a wheelchair.

This nice rain and fall weather we are getting is mitigating the circumstances though. Aaron has a football game tonight but I am not sure I want to take Lily to it since she runs away a lot and it is muddy. What am I saying though, I always go anyway. Hopefully one day she can appreciate what I go through for her so she can have these fun memories of playing in dirt with her friends.

(1) Fri Oct 27 2006 08:22 Gypped: I feel bad for Lily because the past 3 days have been the exact same Dora Halloween show. I imagine they will keep playing the same episode until Halloween is over. I think that it is kinda lame, but then again kids really like repetition. For heaven sakes, Lily has been making me play this Toddler Hits cd in the car since I got it like 6 weeks ago. I am so sick of the songs, but it is the only thing that keeps her from screaming after she has been in her car seat for awhile. The bad thing is she wants to hear it when we are in other people's car's too.

Fri Oct 27 2006 08:26 Happy Birthday Collin: How crazy is it that today is Collin's (my nephew) birthday on Friday, next Friday is my mother in law's birthday, the friday after that is Kate's (Collin's sister), and the friday after that is Samuel's (my nephew on my side)? Four in a row exactly 7 days apart.

Mon Oct 30 2006 12:04 E I E I O: About a month ago during dinner we were eating stroganoff. I think it was stroganoff but it was something with pasta and ground beef. Lily loved it and kept asking for "more chicken and pasta". Aaron told her it wasn't chicken it was cow called beef. She then said, "umm, yummy cow". That night she also ate her first helping of salad. I guess she liked it because it was the first time we put Ranch on her salad. She will always eat the tomatoes out of the salad, but for some reason doesn't even want to look at the lettuce. She ate it alright. I told her that the Ranch was white ketchup and she had no problem after that. The way we got her to try carrots was we told her they were candy carrots. After she tried them, she eats them all the time. Nope, I don't feel guilty lying to my 2 year old about this.

(3) Mon Oct 30 2006 12:10: I've said it once, I'll say it again. The month of Oct makes me want to read Harry Potter. Every year it this time of year reminds me of it. When is her new one coming out?