Feeding Giraffes

Yesterday we took the kids to the zoo, a place that we frequent since we have a pass, but this time was a little different and more fun.  They have a new "feed the giraffe" setup at lunchtime there, so we let the kids do it.  They absolutely loved it.  Blake laughed the whole time while the giraffe stuck its long tongue out and grabbed the little leafy branch from him.  He thought it was the coolest thing.  It lasted only about half a minute max, but was well worth it to see the kids' faces.

Look at that LONG tongue!!!!

Look What my Awesome Man Did

I just have to brag on my amazing hubby for a minute.  He built these shelves last weekend (with a little help from wifey), but I give most of the credit to him.  I think he enjoyed (maybe a little too much) using his new nail gun.  I just had to laugh at him having fun with his man toy.  Now our guest room/baby room closet is all organized!  I love being able to actually walk in there and find things...wow...what a concept!  And we still have a little space leftover, so I told Rob that I can buy more Christmas decorations (a favorite past time of mine during the holidays) since we have a place to put them now :)

My Creations

I've been busy in my sweatshop producing cute things for Baby Girl's and Natalie's head.  I have a few others that I've bought, but here's the work of my hands.




I've been trying to crank out as many holiday crafts as possible before baby comes.  Once she's here, it will be Halloween before I know it, so I'm planning to decorate for it before her arrival (hopefully).  These little puppies were fun to make, and the best part...they were FREE!...i.e. I had all the stuff on-hand.   I saw these 
on Pinterest and made my own version with supplies from my closet.  I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of my Silhouette cutter...and I LOVE it!

My Little Princess' First Day of Kindergarten

I knew the day would come when my baby girl had to grow up and go to school, but I didn't know it would come this soon.  I've had an emotional past couple of days leading up to this one.  Every time I would think about leaving her for a whole day, I'd just cry.  I'm blaming it on the pregnancy hormones because I can. :)  I know she will adjust quickly and make lots of great friends.  It's just hard for this mommy to let go.  

She seemed a little nervous this morning, but mostly excited, and she looked so cute.  It's just not the same at home without her.  Blake keeps asking, "Where's Natalie?"  He loves his playmate.  

 Everything was going well for me this morning as I dropped her off in her classroom...until I had to kiss her goodbye.  Then things went downhill like a runaway car.   Natalie was perfectly fine.  Me...not so much.  The tears started flowing and I had to get out of the school as fast as possible, while using Blake to shield my face. 

When I got out to the parking lot, I called my sister and cried my heart out to her.  Thanks for listening and understanding, Melissa.  And then I took myself to Target where I bought some cute new nail polish to console myself.  Afterwards, I came home and baked cookies...another method of easing my emotions.   Lest you worry...I'll be fine...next week, when things start to feel normal.  

Natalie's teacher is Ms. McBride and she seems so on-the-ball and nice.  Natalie's going to learn and grow a lot this year, I just know it.

Good luck sweet girl!  You will rock this year of Kindergarten!

Love this cute girl.

Blake wanted to be just like his sister.  When he saw her with her backpack, he ran and got his :)

Eating her gigantic and delicious cookie.  She and her brother actually like chocolate chip cookies.  I can't get them to eat many other sweets, though.

32 Weeks!

I'm getting closer and closer to the big day when we'll get to meet this little sweetheart.  And I'm down to my every two week Dr.'s visits now.  I'm measuring about average now, so she'll probably be my typical 7.5 pound baby, to which I have no objections.  She's been pretty easy on me as far as letting me eat my spicy foods and occasionally chocolate without giving me heartburn.  I've only had it a few times.  She can put in some pretty painful kicks, though.  I still have quite a big of energy, so I'll take it while I can.  Here's to 8 more weeks (hopefully no more)!

Natalie's New Do

I gave Natalie a much-needed haircut today, just in time for school to start next week.  What a beautiful little girl I have.  I can't believe she's going to be a kindergartner in a few days!  I'm sure going to miss her around the house during the day.

Blake's Big Boy Room

Well, I'm excited to announce that Blake's new room is finished!  It was a ton of work, but well worth it if I do say so myself.  The wall color is a little different than we were originally planning on, but I love it!  And the dresser that my Dad made is really the highlight of the room.  I couldn't be more happy with how it all came together.  I repainted a bunch of things from his old room (the shelf, "Oh the places you'll go" sign, the letter "B", and the beadboard frame on the shelf) and then bought a few new decorations at Hobby Lobby (the car and the red airplane).  I had the 8x8 square boards already and just developed some black and white pics at Costco and attached them.  Easy peasy.  The bead board paneling was leftover from our bathroom project from a while back, so this was really very economical :)  Now I'm itching to take on another home improvement project.  Next up-shelving the closets-which will mostly be Rob's thing.

We're still waiting for his bunk bed and bedding to get here, so I will post pics of that later.