Getting Ready

I have finally washed all of the baby clothes. It may not look like much, but everything is stacked up pretty high. Unfortunately Daddy forgot to buy more hangers when he went to the store for me the other night, so that huge pile of clothes on top of the couch will have to wait a day or two until I can hang them. I washed them all in Dreft, and it smells so good. It makes me excited to think a little baby will be filling them out soon!!

Confession:
This is honestly one of the first times I have been truly excited about having another baby. I know that sounds awful, but this surprise has been hard for me to process emotionally. But now that it is getting closer, I'm getting excited. I've had a lot of thoughts go through my head since we found out, and I'm sure I'll talk about them sometime....

We've had the swing down in the living room for a couple of weeks now. Avery likes to push it and say "baby brother." It's about the only thing she has said was his, everything else is hers. Even today as I was folding the new blankets she grabbed one, rubbed it all over her snotty face, and said "my bankie." It's sad, but all I could think was - it won't smell like dreft if you do that!!! I think I have issues with Dreft.

Below the swing is my "new" boppy. I got it at a great baby resale store called "Once Upon A
Child." These are great places to buy children's clothes and accessories for a good price. I know we have sold clothes there before and got a good price for them. It really depends on the area of the store. The one down the road from us doesn't have much at all, which isn't surprising since we live in a not so classy part of Dayton. But 20 minutes away, in the nice part of town, they have awesome clothes!!! Mom found this boppy for $10.00, and it is in great condition!!! I love a good deal!

I'll post more pictures as we get things organized. Hopefully we can get his room a little more organized and decorated soon. But since he's the third, don't expect too much. We've learned our lesson and know that babies don't really care how much you decorate their room. ;)

Updated

I updated my pregnancy ticker so it shows the accurate number of days left until the baby comes!!

Avery Singing

I tried to get Avery singing on video a few weeks ago. Grace was listening to The Phantom of the Opera, which she is belting in the background. I got her to sing a couple of times, but she wasn't doing it like she had earlier. You will also get to witness her ability to eat anything she finds on the ground. It's seriously becoming a problem. She will eat just about anything she finds. Crazy kid!!!

Grace and Avery

This is my second attempt to catch Avery singing, but she stopped as soon as Grace started talking. Of course Grace isn't camera shy, and wanted her chance to talk on video. I have no idea where she got this saying. Another crazy kid!!!

I Hope This Lasts!!

We finally got a day of nice weather. While it was still warm, it didn't suffocate us when we went outside to play. I have felt really guilty this summer because I haven't been able to do much with the girls. We stayed inside quite a bit due to the heat. My body just didn't handle it very well. So when the humidity went down yesterday we spent the afternoon in the backyard after school.

Grace has finally mastered the art of riding a bike without training wheels. She is loving it!!!! But I think she is getting tired of just riding up and down the sidewalk next to our house. I told her after the baby is born and I recover we can take walks around the neighborhood while she rides her bike.

I'm so glad our neighbors have full grown trees to give us some shade. We have never lived in a house with any kind of shade, which makes playing outside a little too hot sometimes. But we have plenty now and I am loving it!! I wish we had trees in our own yard, but we will just have to make due with what we get from the neighbors.

Lounging in the grass eating baked lays.

They are the sweetest sisters.

I'm not sure why this picture didn't flip. But it shows Avery pointing at "air-pains."

Grace is pointing out bunny rabbits in the clouds. Avery didn't get it and started looking for bunnies in the yard.

I guess Avery thought it was still too hot outside because she started pouring water on herself. Actually she does this about everyday, inside or outside, it doesn't matter. She is the messiest kid I have ever encountered!

I really hope this weather lasts for a while. I want to enjoy the girls before I have to start giving a lot of attention to the baby!! :)

First Day of First Grade

Gracie is officially a first grader. I can't believe it!! She was so excited and nervous this morning as we got ready for school. Avery was excited too, she just didn't know what she was excited about.

She's been trying to smile with her mouth closed since she still has that big tooth hanging sideways in her mouth. But it is starting to get really loose, so I hope it falls out soon. It's making her feel a little self-conscious. I think she will feel better when she gets to school and sees other first graders with dangly front teeth. ;)

Backpack drama!! We bought a backpack a few weeks ago when we were at the mall with Dad and Carol. They bought her the dress she is wearing for the first day of school, and I bought her a gray and pink backpack that she wanted. But three days ago we were at Target buying a few things and she saw this monkey backpack. She fell in love with it and it's matching lunch box. Scottie said no way, but I was wavering quickly. I have a feeling that this might be the last year she will want to carry a pink monkey backpack. I know that may seem silly, but I definitely feel like she is growing up so quickly. So we came to a compromise, she could get it by giving us her money that she earned from her Papaw, and with the knowledge that the pink and gray one will be her backpack next year. She was so excited, and I felt like I get to keep my baby girl for one more year.

Waiting at the bus stop. It was so hot and humid!!! If you have naturally curly hair, don't come to Ohio. It won't do you any favors. I have had the hardest time with Gracie's hair. Everyday we deal with frizz and tangles. I am really ready for fall, for many reasons. :)

The girls were singing Wheels on the Bus while we waited. I think Avery is going to be a little lonely without her big sister to play with her.

I told Grace to wave at me, but I didn't get the picture in time. She was really nervous by the time the bus got here. She told me she had butterflies in her tummy. So we prayed together right before the bus came. In fact I prayed all morning that she would have a good day, and that good friends would come into her life. I was really happy to see that she got to sit with a little girl that lives down the street. We've talked to her a couple of times this summer and she seems really nice. I hope this is the start of a good friendship!

So now it's just me and this little monkey. We've already read a couple of books and will have to find things to do until Sesame Street comes on at 10:00. Avery is not a big t.v. watcher, but she LOVES Sesame Street.

I'm counting down the hours until Gracie comes home and tells me all about her first day of first grade!!!!

Cookie Recipes

I thought I might post the recipes I used for my cookie table. I made peanut butter, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate Rolo cookies. The oatmeal raisin cookies were suppose to become sandwich cookies with cream in the middle, which would have tasted like an oatmeal creme pie. But I ran out of time on the day of the party. I'll post the link to both the plain cookies and the sandwich ones.

I've told you about the peanut butter ones before, except it's a recipe for snicker cookies. I just leave out the snickers and use this recipe for plain peanut butter. I LOVE this recipe. I will never make another kind of peanut butter cookie again. You can find the recipe here.

I had never made the Rolo cookies before, and was taking a risk by making them for the first time on the day of the party. But it was worth it, because I thought they were really good. You can find the recipe here.

I found the oatmeal raisin recipe at Annie's Eats. I really like her food blog and can't wait to try more of her recipes. You can find the plain cookies here, and the creme sandwich one here. I plan on making the sandwich cookies soon because they look soooo good!!

I already had the chocolate chip recipe in my recipe box. So I'll post the whole thing here on the blog. I really like these cookies because they use a box of vanilla pudding. I think it makes the cookies really soft and sweet. The only thing I've noticed is that the regular recipe can sometimes make the cookies a little too sweet. I usually halve the recipe and they turn out perfect! I used the whole recipe for the party because it makes a lot of cookies. They still turned out good, in my opinion, but I still like to cut it in half. You can also use different flavors of pudding to make different types of cookies. My roommate in college use to make them all the time. She was always mixing it up. One time she used chocolate pudding and white chocolate chips. Another time she used mocha flavored pudding and milk chocolate chips. They were really good!!!
Anyway, here's the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 1/2 cups flour
2 cups butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 (3.4oz) pkgs. vanilla pudding mix
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. baking soda
1 pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
1 (12oz) bag of chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Beat in pudding mix. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Blend in flour a cup at a time. Add baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.
Yields: 4-5 dozen

Toooo Hot

We had a heat advisory yesterday, which was not a surprise since this whole summer has been unbearably hot!! So we stayed inside...again. I had so many fun things planned this summer, but it's been so hot that we haven't done very much. I'm a little bummed about it, but I just can't be out in this heat for very long. Maybe next summer won't be so hot!!

Grace spent the afternoon painting. She asked me to find a picture on the internet that she could look at for inspiration. ;)

Avery spent quite a bit of time at the table eating a doughnut. She is the slooooowest eater! But we didn't have anything else to do so it worked out for me. We had gotten doughnuts that morning at a little mom and pop cafe after we ran to the real estate place to drop off our rent. She ran straight to the counter and pointed to the ones with "can-ie" on them. And that's about all she ate off the doughnut, icing and "can-ie's." Of course I had to eat the rest for her. They were really good doughnuts!! There is something to be said about family owned doughnut shops. They are so much better than chains stores. I need to stop talking about them because I would love to go back and buy a dozen right now!!! That would be a bad idea, right??

This is what Scottie did the whole time he was home. He had just gotten off of his 30 hour shift!! And he worked the entire 30 hours. He said they were crazy busy and he didn't get much time to stop and take a break. I felt so bad for him. We just let him sleep. Even though he didn't wake up until after we were all asleep, it was nice just to have him in the house. We are going to have to get use to this and realize it is our new "normal" for now. It's a crazy life for a resident!!