And Baby Makes 5

We are finally expecting baby number 3! It has been almost 3 years of wanting another baby but the long delay seems like nothing since we now have our good news. The fun part of this is that our kids are both old enough to care. They ask me every.single.day if they can see if my belly is fat now. They are excited and can't wait to meet their new sibling.

It has been fun to see this experience through their eyes and with their fun questions. I bought a pregnancy journal yesterday and began filling in the pages of our experience thus far. After filling in the first few pages I decided to pull out the journals from my first 2 pregnancies to reminisce.

Pregnancy 1 was full of details and the tone of the journal was more of a diary to me. I shared things I was going through personally. There were many entries and not all were about the pregnancy. Some details about what was going on in life as well as many details about the pregnancy. So many details I've now forgotten. I had no idea that my pregnancy with Pumpkin began with heartburn and this third pregnancy did too. MUCH heartburn actually!

With Buddy's journal there were fewer details about life in general. Life was full of a distracting toddler so my entries were almost every other week and the life details were omitted. Fewer personal details and written more to Buddy and less as a diary for me.

Journal three was well on it's way before reading the first two and I see how it is a mix of both. It is written to me and to baby, mostly pregnancy details with some personal life details. I cannot wait to see how things move along. A little comparison thus far shows:

Pregnancy 1 - began with heartburn
Pregnancy 2 - began with nausea and no appetite
Pregnancy 3 - heartburn

Should I guess that I may be having another girl? Too soon to tell but so far that would be a good assumption. Who knows - every pregnancy is as different as every child from what I hear. We are just so excited and are looking forward to see how this sweet baby will add to our family. We are full of joy and enjoying every day along the way.

HC Graduated from Kindergarten Today!!!

My sweet girl graduated today! :) She was so excited.
Some of her school work from K-5.
HC was thrilled for the event to begin.
She was reciting her poems but her nerves got the better of her and "Mommy, I'm scared!" came out of her mouth instead, with tears in tow. But thankfully JB jumped up to help her recite her poem
and she managed to finish 1 of the 2 poems. What a big moment! So proud of her!!
I was able to hand HC her graduation certificate since Mommy = teacher. That was a fun thing to share with HC.
Look out world - here comes a HAPPY 1st grader!!!!
Ready to move the tassel from right to left. It's official now!
A proud Daddy and brother. We love you HC!
WE DID IT!!!
So happy!
Two official grads!
CHEESE! Friends are SO fun!
Looking forward to what 1st grade has in store for us - Mommy/Teacher and Daughter/Student.

This year was so fun and I know next year will be full of many more adventures for us. Congrats HC!! We are all SOOOOOO PROUD OF YOU!!

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Kid Game Day is more like it! We had a SUPER time with all the super activities and super food and super company! That's alotta super! Here's HC and her buddy - the thing I love about these two is that they are girly girls, yet they can hang with the boys too. They are up for a challenge. My big guy on his actual birthday and first ever Super Bowl Party. 4 years old! So much has changed over night since he is now officially 4. More on that later!
A little warm-up with "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes".
Then the line race. They had such a good time running to each line and then back to the finish line.
Then they were seeing who could make the most muscles with the balloons. After this game they all stomped on the balloons. I don't know which part they enjoyed more! :)
Then a football toss - and yes! My girl threw the ball in on the first try!
Wouldn't you know it! The paparazzi had to show up! You never know when they will pop in on the fun!
After some delish Chili (thanks Stephen), Hot Dogs, Wings and Dip.... the kids were back out on the deck to run around the deck at least 50 times... not kidding here. They were WILD and WIRED!
After the parents ate, the kids decorated their cupcakes. Ashley is so creative! :) They put green icing on the cupcake and made yard lines with white icing and then added a football ... bon appetite!
YUMMY YUMMY IN MY TUMMY!
Ta-dah!
Supervising the cupcake eating.
JB found the guys watching the game.
And then the kids decided it was time to crash the Daddy's party!! Tickle time and a little football smack talk! GEAUX TIGERS by the way! LSU Tigers that is! You know... the good 'ole Purple and Gold.

I must confess I have no idea who was playing and I don't care! We were there for the company not the game. Just glad the event brought us all together. I know the Dads had the game watching covered! Thanks for having us over for such a great time Ashley!!

What's a 'Versary'?

I was greeted with the question "What's a Versary Mom?" last night. I immediately realized what HC was talking about. Monday, while running errands, I received a call from a friend. She was calling to say "Belated Happy Anniversary". During the phone call she asked if we did anything special and I told her that we had HC's birthday party on our anniversary. Since the day was so busy we left it at that and didn't really do anything special. I felt like our recent trip was anniversary enough. Obviously HC heard this and kept this question in mind until Wednesday night. Then the questions came:

HC: What is a versary?
Me: When Mommy and Daddy go to eat a special dinner alone to celebrate being married.
HC: What do people do on ANversarys?
Me: What do you mean?
HC: Do they have music?
Me: Yes
HC: Good I have music. Do they have brownies?
Me: Yes (HC giggled and hurriedly put the remaining brownies on the table)
HC: What else?
Me: They have presents and cards.
HC: Oh. I need some paper. (She quickly made anniversary cards for Me, Steve, herself and JB)

Little did I know that she and JB had secretly set the table and were busy at work. She told me NOT to look at the versary party because it wasn't ready yet.
Then when Daddy came home they sang us a one of a kind Happy Versary song and we celebrated together.
JB found it fun to cram his mouth FULL of brownies.
And HC delicately tried to be 'boy icky gross' too.
JB LOVED being silly.
And HC had a BLAST at her first versary party!

It was really fun seeing her take over the organizing of our party. She was so thoughtful and this was unprovoked too. When Steve walked in the door they both shouted out "Happy Anversary Party Daddy. It's your Versary party tonight." He looked at me bewildered and I told him the inside story.

Thanks HC for our fun Anniversary Party! 11 years is worthy of such honorable festivities as you created! We love you and JB so much! Happy 'Versary' Steve! 11 years flew by fast! I love you!

HC is Officially FIVE TODAY!!!

Today my HC is 5!!!!!! I can't believe it! I can still remember her being a teeny babe - I remember her scooting around on the floor - I remember her pulling up on the sofa and those giggles - I remember food everywhere as she tried to feed herself. I remember the tip toe walking and almost falling and her first goose egg and the list goes on and on!

Here we are today at 5! WOW~ here is a glimpse at her party on Saturday, starting off with the cake! (I heart cupcake cakes!! They make cake time so much easier!)
We arrived at the mall an hour before the party to get our tables ready. HC was SO excited (and so was JB). The excitement was waning - they were on look-out for their friends!
Me and the 2 on look-out duty!
At one point, HC began circling the table repeatedly saying "My guests are late. My guests are late." She was cracking me up! We had a week long count down until this day and the last hour was a bit much for her to endure!
She even had JB in on the pacing.
Finally!!! We walked down to our girl party destination and found some friends!!
Then it was off to dress-up!
A happy girl! Who doesn't like Libby Lu when you are 5!?!
Next it was hair and make-up and nails! DIVA DAY!!!!Mommy needs to go to Libby Lu for hairstyling lessons! HC LOVED every minute of the pampering! Truly she is her mother's daughter! TA-DAH!!!!!! She was completely glamorous!!!!

All of our Diva's were finally ready for their big show! Even our most bashful one was up for the dancing and singing! That made my day!
Learning the dance moves!
SHOW TIME!
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY HC!!!!!"
Time to eat!
Sweet JB hung out with Dad at the tables with the presents. He was so wanting to watch the girls get glam-ed up but he was a trooper. When JB went to pick out a gift for HC Daddy wisely picked up a car for JB and he quietly played while waiting for us to return.
Then JB was given a BIG honor - he helped Dad carry the cake to his stister.
HC was loving the attention of being sung to!
Candles out - cake eaten! It's now time for.....
PRESENTS!!!!! Once we arrived home HC tore open every gift and put it in it's new home! She loves to organize her things! She has played with it all and loves it!!! THANK YOU FRIENDS!
To our friends who are boys - we felt we would spare you the icky girl-ness of this party! I hope you understand - but next year we will return to celebrating with you ALL!! You were missed for sure! :) I thought you would understand that turning 5 was calling for a girlie day!

Happy Birthday HC!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!