Birthday...woo hoo...

4 Ways to not spend your birthday...

Spending 2 hours of your morning, hugging the toilet, dry heaving because this precious little baby inside you decided cinnamon rolls was not the way it wanted it's day started.

Just as you are finally recovering from the week long flu (that both me and Claire had), you look in the mirror to see two huge red saucers for eyes that look like something from the Rocky Horror Picture show. Yes, I have pink eye.

Having to cancel the big Mexican fiesta that your family had planned for you tonight that included a FABULOUS cake from Ricks that you have been craving since they asked what you wanted.

Listening to the siding falling off the back of your house because the worst ice storm EVER to hit NWA is now melting and taking down the siding from your trim with it.

6 Ways to spend your birthday...

Sitting in comfy clothes, no make up, with two of your favorite people in the world in your lap, staring at you with barely there pink in their eyes, thrilled to death that it is your birthday and their only concern in the world is this cake that has been promised =)

Sitting in a clean house (with electricity) because the best Mom in the world cleaned it up for me!

This from my sis Tara (and the FABULOUS bag and shirt with matching ear rings she just dropped off for my present ).

Receiving more texts in one day than ever from all my best friends in family checking in on me and making sure we were okay (Thanks Nicole, Jess, and Lane)!

Having an awesome OBGYN and Pediatrician that called in meds immediately when I told them our situation.

Having a husband that has listened to his insanely emotional wife cry and be sympathetic when she is crying because her birthday was ruined (lame, I know, cut me some slack, I am a basket case right now) and still is planning a big day for me tomorrow that includes a nice dinner out and some birthday presents!

I think the good out ways the bad...I feel better now! WOO HOO - the big 2-8! Sorry, no pictures, I will spare you them right now!

Hopefully will be back on the blog train next week...

Happy Day

I have to admit, it has been a BLAH blogger week for me. We have had a yucky week. Shane has been gone since early Monday morning, Owen was sick all week with a bad cough, fever and sore throat, and I have been back to feeling bad. We got very little sleep and we were all pretty much at our wit's end! Last night, I actually started spotting and got nervous for the baby. I prayed that everything was okay last night, and that Owen would sleep for at least 5-6 hours straight!!

Well, He answered our prayers and today was a great day!!! The Dr's office called me back this morning and booked me for an ultrasound this afternoon!! Even though I was nervous for the baby, I was excited to see it for the first time and relieve some tension that everything was going to be okay. Also, Owen did sleep through the night and woke up feeling much better this morning! Mom, Claire and I went and got our hair cut this morning, I found my bangs =)!! They have been in hiding since well before the wedding =)!! Claire got over 3in cut off, she looks so old it made me sad =)!! The best news of the day: The baby is wonderful...and there was only one!! Everyone was giving me a hard time that I was going to have twins!! So without further adieu...here is the blog debut of our next baby due September 12th!

Introducing either: Rhett Wilson or Bree Leighton Brown!!!!!

disclaimer: I am not really sure what I am looking at either, just go with it =)!

Shane is on a plane on his way home now and Tara just brought me and the kids dinner....much much much better day!!!!

Have a good night!!!!

Wedding Bells still ringing... =)

So if you know Tara's blog, you know that she just recently put up all of the professional pictures of the wedding. She left most of the pictures of my sweeties for me to post...so here you go!! Just so you know, this emotional pregnant woman cried through almost all these, they are gorgeous!! I am so proud of my little angels!!!!

Claire and the bride =)
Me and ClaireOwen making his entrance =)Love Love LOVE these next pictures!!!Pretty Claire - she was the older Flower Girl which was crazy to me as she is still my little girl!!!!! She did such a good job and took her role very serious!!My handsome ring bearer!!! That is our cousin Blake too - he was such a big help with Owen...and soooo cute!!The girls outside - it was freezing, but they were troopers =)Claire when she gave Drew Tara's letter =) so sweet!!Little innocent face...PARTY TIME!!!! Daddy carrying the sleepy kiddos!

Owen hitting the candy bar!! His first stop of the night!

What a fun night!!!

Please still keep baby Harper in your prayers - you can click on the button on my side bar to go read about her progress!! Thank the Lord she is doing much better, but she is not out of the woods yet! Also baby Brayden is still having a rough time in Little Rock and needs our prayers!! He is on a ton of medication and they are trying wean him off everything, please pray for him too!!

Have a good week!!

PLEASE PRAY!

Ladies - I need you in full force tonight! There are 2 brand new babies that need your prayers now, along with their Mamas that are recovering from delivering and Daddy's that are trying to take care of both.

Kelly's Korner - Please go to her site and read about precious Harper, she was born today and is going to be flown to ACH tonight in very very critical condition. Kelly is still here and is needing prayers!!! UPDATE: Harper is in Tulsa as Little Rock was full, please go read the updates from Kelly.

Jenna's Journey - Sweet Brayden was born earlier this week and he is at ACH as well. Jenna is now with him, but she cannot touch him or even talk to him. Please go to her site and see Brayden and pray for them!!

I do not know either of these girls personally, but I have come to know them both through blogging. I have been crying for them both and praying hard. Please pray for them and their families during these rough times. God is good and He will take care of these sweet babies. PLEASE PRAY and hug your babies tight tonight, these women would love to be able to!!!!!!

"Where's Mama's Blackberry?"

After the day yesterday, Shane brought home dinner (I specifically asked for green beans thanks to seeing the yummy ones on Kelly's Korner yesterday, please pray for her as she is in labor as we speak!) and we spent the night relaxing. I did not even have my phone or blackberry nearby all night, that is huge for me....


Wake up this morning, I always keep phone and blackberry on my bedside table at night. Reached over to check email, wasn't there. Oh yeah, I didn't care last night. I get up to find it and my cell. Can't find it. Owen is yelling at me from upstairs, I get him up, give him breakfast, all the while, looking for my phones. Finally I find my phone (oh yeah Brooke called and I checked the voicemail and left it in the office), no Blackberry. I call it from my cell, it is on vibrate and I hear nothing. Now I panic! Claire is up now and she is looking for it with me. Owen is following us around, "looking" for it too. Then it hits me, Owen must have done something with it. I had looked in all the usual places it hides, coat pockets, jean pockets, bottom of purse, between couch cushions, etc. NOWHERE!!! I ask Owen, "Where is Mama's Blackberry?", both kids know what it is called, they pretend to use it all the time. Owen says "Ustairs!". OMG - There is no telling where it is in the mess of their two rooms!!! All three of us go up there, can't find it. We search and search. Now I am sick...can you imagine that conversation with the boss "My son has lost my Blackberry, can I have a new one?". I go down to my office, have to check my email as my BB is not attached to my hip. I am sitting working, wanting to scream, when I hear something vibrating in my office. I follow the sound to the trash can. Owen had thrown it away in the trash...



Happy Friday!!!!!!!!

Another one of those days...

1. Wake up - snow on the ground, so cold that Cooper and Oscar need to be "chauffeured" out the back door =).

2. Realize schools are closed and that the roads are bad. Had to cancel our Monthly Kitchen Queens party. Me and Owen have a nutritional breakfast of Fully Loaded Baked Potato Lays and Chocolate teddy grahams =). BTW - Feeling much better now!!

3. Remember that Claire spent the night in Fayetteville with Tara (that's why it is so quiet=)), call Shane to set up a time to run other errands (I refuse to drive on bad roads) and go pick up Claire.

4. Bundle up to go with Shane, run a very bundled up Owen across the street to Mom, football in hand that he refuses to put down. I am sure Nonna is thrilled to see us come in with the football in her nice clean, calm home.

5. Shane and I had to get some papers notarized. Go to the bank, deal with older lady that looks and acts just as happy to be out in the cold as we do. She notarizes everything.

6. Get back in the car, head out towards Fayetteville to get Claire, realize nice lady forgot a form.

7. Go back to bank, get notarized again.

8. Go pick up Claire.

9. Drive back to Rogers, pick up lunch and head back to Mom's.

10. Shane leaves to go back to work, we eat lunch with Mom.

11. Bundle up me and the kids, Owen with stupid football in hand (do you know how hard it is to carry a 40lb child, bundled up, along with yourself bundled, with a FULL SIZED FOOTBALL), walk across the street in 14 degrees. Claire is dragging (obviously did not sleep much with Aunt Tara), Owen crying as he wants to kick the football across the street...

12. Get up to the garage, put in the code...doesn't work. Try again, doesn't work. THE GARAGE DOOR CODE THINGY DOES NOT WORK AND I DO NOT HAVE A KEY. IT IS IN THE HOUSE! Both kids are bawling at this point as they are COOOOOOOLLLLLDDDD!

13. Walk back across the street to Mom's, completely numb. (Thank God Mom lives across the street)

14. Call Shane to find out he can not let us in for awhile. Our van was in the garage, couldn't go get it, and we did not have car seats to go with Mom (plus the roads were bad).

15. Owen falls asleep on Mom. Claire falls asleep watching Spongebob.

16. I eat my weight in Twix.

17. 2 hours later, Shane comes home and lets us in.

18. We get home, kids are insanely wild, they got their naps.

19. I am working in my office. Owen is running around with a football helmet on backwards, Claire is putting her baby to bed.

20. Suddenly I hear INSANELY loud pulsing static! Then I hear Owen screaming bloody murder!!!

21. I run out of my office into Owen on his way there, football helmet over his eyes and he has no idea where he is going. He is scared to death and I still don't know where the sound is coming from. He is holding a large pole (don't even know where it came from).

22. Holding the howling monkey, I walk up the TV and realize the TV is making this LOUD sound. I turn it off. Owen has completely lost his mind and is pulling my hair trying to keep me from touching the TV.

23. I turn the TV back on and it is fine. I am pretty sure the pole had something to do with it.

24. Owen will not go into the living room now. He goes upstairs with Claire, who somehow was oblivious to the racket downstairs.

25. 5 minutes later, both kids are bawling.

26. I run upstairs to Claire holding her head crying and Owen laying on the ground, with a handful of Claire's hair, crying so hard, he is not making sounds.

27. After much persuasion from Claire, I find out, Owen was "not playing the game right" and she would not play. So he pulled her hair and she proceeded to punch him in the stomach.

28. It is only 4:30...what else is to come!!!???

Is it wrong that I am craving a margarita???!!! Poor baby, he or she is hearing this chaos and thinking "What in the world have I gotten myself into??!!" =) Hmmm I wonder if it will look like this....

or this...

What do you think?? Here's to a better night with a Lemon Lime slush from Sonic...non alcoholic!

School Mornings...

The scene: Me and Claire on our way to preschool this morning. We woke up late this morning, Claire and I fought over what she was going to wear, Owen ran around half naked the entire time and Mama was nauseous the whole time trying to keep down the plain waffle she had for breakfast. Good times. We quickly get in the car, I make 3 different trips inside to get the many different things we were forgetting including her coat as it was 14 degrees.

So by the time we were on the road, the car was silent except for the Brittney Spears CD playing. You see, I only get to listen to music in the car when Owen is not riding. He insists on watching "Little Giants" for the gazillionth time on the TVs in the van. Claire could care less, and she was pretty much pissed this morning anyway as she had on the dress that she DID NOT want to wear.

I am half way to school and we are listening to "Radar", I start feeling like a bad Mom (and the nausea started to subside, so I became Rachel again, rather than the Pregnant Monster). I looked back and Claire looked completely bored and zoned out as we were not talking. So I turned the music way down...

Mama: "Claire, are you ready for school today? Are you going to be good and learn your new letter today?"
Claire: "Yes Mom. Would you please turn the music back up? I am trying to learn the words to this song."

She was not zoned out she was zoning in on learning the song. Let's just hope she did not sing this all day at school...

Owen found a paint pen last week. Did you know that paint pens will not wash off? I didn't...at least not off O. Below are pics of him after the incident...sorry he is in pjs =).
Have a good week!!! Entering 6 weeks tomorrow!

We Love Aunt Nicole!

So last month on the 17th was my baby sister Nicole's birthday, her 22nd!! With all the chaos of Christmas, I decided to wait until after the first of the year so that the Happy Birthday post would not get lost in the shuffle!!

We are so proud of Nicole as she is in her last semester of Nursing school!!! We are sad as we do not get to see her as much as she goes to school an hour away =(....but she is fixing to graduate and we could not be more excited to have her home!! My perfect scenario would be for her to be working in the hospital when I have this baby. Claire looks so much like Nicole and I sometimes have flashbacks to when we were little and I used to mother Nic when Claire makes a certain expression.

We are so proud of her and what she has accomplished and the strong woman she has become!!!! Here is a quick funny story about Nic...

When we were younger (I was probably 16, Tara was 14 and Nicole was 10), our grandmother on our Dad's side came in town and gave each of us a rather large check!! We were so excited and as you would expect of us girls (me and Tara), running around screaming as Mom told us we could spend it on whatever we wanted!!!! Tara and I were discussing all the many, clothes, shoes, purses, ect we planned to buy. We were so excited and all over the place, Nicole was just sitting on the fireplace, just as quiet and calm. Mom asked her "Nicole, what are you going to buy?". Nicole replied, very calmly "I am going to buy an Easy Bake Oven.".

We all laughed and still do every time we remember this story! So, guess what Nicole got Claire for her birthday this year...

So...we love you Nicole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Owen's First Day of Preschool

Shane and I decided Owen needed to get out of the house and have more interaction with other kids. Gymnastics is over as he was only tackling children rather than attempting any exercise and he was only getting child interaction at Church on Sundays (besides playing with Claire and his cousins). So we decided to go ahead and enroll him in the same Sonshine School as Claire, but only one day a week. The best part, Lane was his teacher!! He was beside himself excited as he got to go to "shkool" with Claire! I was actually pretty good about it, I didn't know how I would react to leaving him from 9-1. But I think being pregnant and needing some rest, helped me be okay with it =). And he didn't cry or anything, just walked right in and loved it. Lane even sent me a picture of him from her cell, he was just sitting at the table with his new friends, hands folded and paying attention...that did make me cry! So my baby is now a big school boy and had so much fun...I held my breath that he would hurt someone and he did just fine!! Here are some pictures of the kids on his first day of school...


Owen has hit this stage where he needs a drink in hand at ALL times. He now takes one to bed. This was one of those mornings...
Owen and Claire - She was excited for him to go too!! I took her to class first and as I was leaving with Owen to take him to his class, she says to me "Tell them that he needs to learn his ABC's, how to potty, and how to be nice, okay?". Priceless...

"Smile Owen, good job Claire! Owen put your drink down."Then I took the drink =)....look at Claire still smiling, such a pro =)!Now we are good =)....and we are adding one more to this bunch....pass me a donut =).

Hope you are having a good weekend!!!!!!