Today

This morning Natalie had her very first ride facing forward in the car! I know Joanna loved having her sister next to her facing the same direction.

At the ObGyn, Joanna helped push Natalie around.

I couldn’t manage a picture of them together, but aren’t they just so cute?!

They did soooooo good. I’m very proud. :)

At lunch today (naked of course). I’ve started just handing Natalie her PB&J – she’s very messy, but does a great job eating it!

…speaking of – I need to go pack the girls’ lunches for tomorrow before I get too comfy.

Done! On to some more pictures of the day…

The next two pictures may seem like child labor, but they really wanted to sweep!

I think Joanna has a “oh I’ve worked so hard all day/Cinderella” sort of face on here. :)

Tonight Natalie got her first corn on the cob.

She was a HUGE fan.

It was definitely her favorite part of the whole dinner.

Veteran corn on the cob eater Joanna liked it too, but didn’t eat near as much as her little sis.

Love the gleeful expression here!

Just about everyday Joanna changes her clothes during rest time. I guess it’s the most interesting thing to do while she’s stuck in her room. It’s always fun to see what she picks. Today it was practically an outfit – this black and white dress. Sometimes it just a shirt or Natalie’s PJs or something.

16 Weeks

 

This was taken Saturday by my professional photographer, Joanna.  I may get another one today, but I wanted to go ahead and post, so this is the best there is!

How Your Baby’s Growing (from Babycenter.com):

Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.

How far along: 16 weeks

Pregnancy symptoms: a little back pain, frequent hunger

Food Cravings: Taco Bell, chocolate, ice water

Sleep: good!  I just need to make myself go to bed earlier.

Measurement: 35.5 inches around the widest part; 156lbs

Movement: I do feel movements, but they’re not regular and they’re very slight.  I can’t feel it on the outside yet, and I usually don’t even feel two movements in a row.

Labor signs: none

What I miss: not much… well maybe some of my clothes

What I’m looking forward to: the ultrasound, which I wrangled for 19 weeks – just three weeks away!

Milestone: ummm… I took two little girls with me to this doctor’s appointment.  That’s pretty impressive, right? :)

Thoughts from the Girls: Joanna asked me today what the baby’s name was.  I told her we didn’t know it’s name; we didn’t even know if it was a boy or a girl.  Then she told me she thought it was a girl.

Doctor’s visit: Everything went well today!  I took the girls with me, and they were sooooo good!  The nurse actually used the word “great” to describe my weight gain, and I’m pretty sure that’s a first. :)  We all heard the heartbeat on the Doppler – it was in the 160’s.  I made my next appointment, which should be in 4 weeks, at 20 weeks.  That particular day is Memorial Day and nobody’s there.  The Thursday and Friday before (which was when I really wanted it) my doctor is off, so my choices if I wanted the ultrasound and appointment on the same day were Monday the 24th or Wednesday the 2nd.  Guess which one I picked?  :) 

My only little tiny worry is that I will have trouble getting back in town before Monday.  Natalie and I are planning to try and fly to Oklahoma on the Friday before.  If the weekend flights look good, I’ll keep the Monday appointment.  Otherwise I’ll cancel it before I leave town.  The other option is to split the appointments, but I really don’t want to have to come back two days if I can avoid it.  And I really like the idea of looking at our little baby in just three weeks!

Coloring pages

Today I played around with Photoshop and created some coloring page type images of the girls.  I really do think Joanna would enjoy coloring her face.  Don’t you think?  For that matter, she’d probably like to color Natalie’s face too.  :)

 

And before anyone gets too excited, I totally had to have instructions on how to do this.  Found ‘em on the internet.

I didn’t spend a lot of time working on this, but it seemed the best pictures to do this with were close up shots without a lot in the background.  I tried one of Joanna in the bluebonnets, but it was too busy.

I haven’t tried printing them yet because Natalie was sleeping in the printer room when I was actually messing around with this.

Fashion Divas

Just some cute recent pics of the girls.

Joanna carried her pink purse into church with her, and I just had to take her picture!

The hallway wasn’t a really great photo place, but aren’t they so cute in their matchy pink dresses?!

Joanna wanted to wear Daddy’s dress shoes when she got home, and she had to have them tied.

I think it’s a good look.  :)

Photo Shoot

Here’s Joanna’s attempt at taking a preggo shot of Mommy!

 

I think this one’s the best for showing the belly… not so much for Mommy’s face.

I’m thinking she’s a professional photographer in the works, don’t you?  :)

Last pics of April

On Thursday after (very early) naps, we headed to the new library to check it out.  Before I show you the pics, I would like to share a brief pro/con list about the (new) library.

Pros:

• It’s conveniently located near other shopping/restaurants by Town center
• It’s HUGE; they have lots more books now and room to grow
• There are quiet rooms for reading and studying
• There are little shopping baskets and carts
• Tons of computers, including ones just for kids
• Tons of seating, including cute little animals and things for the kids
• It’s clean and new and pretty
• There appears to be a big selection of videos to check out
• The people (especially in the kids’ area) were very friendly
• There are 4, I think, check out places
• The children’s area is big and tucked in the back of the library; you don’t feel like you have to be super quiet
• Tons of light coming in through the windows
• DRIVE THROUGH WINDOW!!!

Cons:

• The kids computers were kind of hard to use… yes, even for me.  :)
• I couldn’t log on to the real computers in the kids area, but didn’t go ask for help due to needing to run after my children going in two directions, so that might not actually be a problem. :)
• The children’s area isn’t really contained and the kids can leave you pretty easily.
• The board books are literally all dumped in a cardboard box (picture to follow).
• The hours SUCK.  They really suck.  Here they are: M:1-9; Tu:10-6; W:closed; Th:10-6; Fr:1-6; Sa:10-6; Su:closed.  This is why we don’t make it to the library much.
• It’s further from my house than the old one was.
• It’s really hard for me to take my two children there by myself.  This isn’t really the library’s fault. :)  I told Joanna we needed to go back just the two of us.  It was really empty when we went (about 2pm on Thursday) because everybody was in school or napping.

Now on to some pictures!

Natalie enjoyed talking on the phone on the computer’s mouse.  Reminds me a little of Star Trek IV – anybody??

Joanna loved the computers.  They’re touch screen!

 

Natalie loved them, too, of course.  (Oh, and for the record, Joanna got herself dressed this day.)

 

See what I mean?  It’s makes the organizational part of my brain want to die a little.

Natalie LOVED climbing up in all the chairs… and down and up and over and around…

The only one who ended up with a book was me.  (Had to drag my kids upstairs for that)  I think Joanna was a little turned off by tons of board books in a box as well.  :)  I got the 3rd book in The Mortal Instruments series.  Did you hear that Shaun – I finally read the first two!

On Friday we headed to Lisa’s for play day.

This is not a good picture, but it’s the only one I caught of her dress up.  She and Anna danced and danced and danced!

Natalie rocked a little on the Tigger.

After lunch, everybody wanted to stretch out for some rest.  Here Anna is putting Natalie night night.  She actually lay there on her back for a while!  (Side note while I’m thinking about it: Natalie really likes being able to reach her belly button when she’s tired and going to sleep.  She sucks her right thumb and plays with her belly button with her left hand.  So, the last couple of times I’ve put her in rompers, she’s been unhappy until I unbuttoned the bottom for her!)

Friday evening I was really thinking about pizza, and we like taking the girls out, so we let CiCi’s cook for us.

Guess who just figured out how to drink from a straw!  Yay!!

Joanna loved eating pizza and drinking from her straw, too!

Natalie took off her shoes and handed them to me.  I guess so she could do this:

Joanna loved the “sert.”  I let her come with me to the bar and pick out what she wanted.  She chose a sweet roll thing.

Today is my Grandma’s birthday.  Happy birthday, Grandma!!  Joanna is very excited about using markers to make you a card.  :)

Murphy, you may go away.

So on a normal week, I'd have all the time in the world on Thursday to work. I try not to take advantage of my wonderful mother, but she's always so happy to watch the girls for hours if necessary so I can get my work done. She's also often off on Fridays, and I know if I got really behind she'd help me out then too. Normally, I don't need her to work for hours; I have a few things to do, they run smoothy, and I go home!

Today is not normal.

Today I have extra work to do in the form of another bulletin. I'm happy to do this (and getting paid a little, as well!) for my preggo friend who is due YESTERDAY and of course for the ministry of the church. However, I hit a little snag resulting in needing to use a new program (which is actually very cool) and it's taking me a little longer than I thought to get things just right.
AND
We didn't meet until Wednesday to plan worship this week so I'm already behind.
AND
The copy machine is down.
AND
I still have 400 Sanctuary bulletins to print and then 130 Impact bulletins to print.
AND
I haven't even started my Media Shouts for the week.
AND
My mom has to leave at NOON today.

So Murphy, you may GO AWAY!

Disclaimer: I'm whining a little here. It's totally going to all get done (assuming that the copy machine is fixed, of course); it's just going to require a little more creativity from me. If the copy machine isn't fixed, then you are all going to have to just pay attention in church to what comes next. :)