Leaves

Today Sophie got herself some snazzy new ladybug rain boots and matching umbrella from Gigi Keilty. Although it was not raining we donned the new boots and umbrella and had a heck of time out in the many, many leaves that are now decorating our front yard.

A Pumpkin and A Belly

Monday evening we decided it was time to turn our beloved pumpkin into what he was destined to be all along....a scary (per Sophie's request) Jack O' Lantern. Neal drew two scary faces on paper and she chose the face of our new friend. Being almost 3 years old she does not have much patience for the process of things, what child does, so she sort of flitted around the kitchen while Neal drew the face on. She did attempt to help the both of us scoop out the guts and seeds, but let's face it she is definitely a girly girl and really wanted no part of the slimy guts and just wanted to wash her hands! We made some great cinnamon sugar pumpkin seeds which Sophie really liked, a lot. When it came time to start carving, Sophie was a little more attentive, but I think by this point she was over pumpkin carving, she was waiting for the next event in the line up.........painting the baby belly! Since it looks as though our little pumpkin may be staying in where it is warm for Halloween, we thought we might as well have a little fun and make a few memories for the baby's scrap book while we were at it.

The Nest Is Ready

Neal and I were able to have an anniversary re-do this weekend since last weekend plans were foiled by his sudden cold that made him so very miserable. Sophie went and stayed with my parents Friday evening and she did not come back until Sunday evening! She had a blast, as she always does whenever she goes to either grandparent's house. So when Sophie is away Mommy and Daddy will........work? Yes we worked. Cleaned house, we cleaned the house from top to bottom. It started Thursday night when Neal washed all the floors downstairs and then continued on into Saturday with vacuuming, dusting every surface including base boards and blinds; that was all Neal's department. I cleaned bathrooms, vanities, mirrors, toilets, and SCRUBBED the tubs, that took the most time, and did about 5 loads of laundry! I think we started cleaning around 8 or 9am and didn't finish until about 12pm! We had something to eat, got showered and dressed and headed out the door to do a bunch of errands including getting Sophie's birthday presents, which we were able to score some awesome deals on! Then it was back home to work on the outside of the house and plant the pansies that we had just purchased. Let me tell you planting flowers at a very ripe 37 weeks pregnant is not easy or comfortable, so needless to say Neal planted "his" flowers and then came over to my side and finished planting "mine". After all the hard work we did reward ourselves with an anniversary evening out at one of our favorite restaurants, Carrabbba's on South Blvd. It was so yummy, but I definitely think that we both ate way too much. Neal enjoyed his Sam Adams while I downed 2 glasses of milk due to the incredible heartburn that pregnancy blesses me with. Sunday; church, lunch, Neal cut grass, I finished planting the rest of the pansies in pots to place on the front porch, back to church for our small group and then back home to be greeted by our sweet, sweet Sophie whom we missed so much!

So can you say NESTING?!?!!?!? Bring on the baby folks, 'cause I'm ready and so is my house!

Freshly cut grass and some beautiful fall foliage.

The Fire Dept. even recently came out put a fresh coat of paint on our hydrant! I'm loving the fire red tree in our backyard.

We had lots of pansies, so many I had to start putting them in pots and I almost ran out of pots to plant them in!

Sophie's Snazzy pumpkins, she glitterfied her's and the baby's and left Mommy and Daddy's so we could carve a face.

Beautiful Blanket

Saturday I got a package, I love getting packages! Except this package was really for the baby, but that's okay I still got to open it, of course I had to fight off Sophie, because she thinks that every package that comes in the mail is for her! The package was from Neal's Aunt Sara all the way in California, I opened the package to find the most beautiful hand knit baby blanket inside, handmade gifts are my favorites!! I can't wait to wrap our little bundle up in it, it is so soft, warm and cozy. Thank you so much Aunt Sara it is the perfect gift for baby!



Aunt Sara is not one to leave Sophie out, so of course the package had a little something for the little miss, a pair of Halloween socks and STICKERS, Dora stickers no less! The sticker pack had two sheets of stickers in it with lots of stickers on each sheet......what did my child do? I will let the pictures tell you.

You can't tell from this picture, but since she clearly ran out of room on the front of her shirt, she made a little sticker trail from the front, across her side and onto her back!

Aunt Sara you definitely know the way to Sophie's heart, thank you so much for always thinking of her, especially now with the impending arrival. It means a lot to us!

The Pumpkin Patch

It was a little wet and muddy and pretty cold, but we ventured out to the pumpkin patch today anyway. We figured today was our best bet since we are getting a little close to Halloween. We actually had some pretty good plans today, after the pumpkin patch we were going to drop Sophie off at Neal's parent's for a little overnight fun and Neal and I were going to go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary and have one last little "date night" before we become a family of 4! However, plans change, that is why I am not huge on making plans and really like to fly by the seat of my pants and do things last minute, Neal came down with something and just feels really funky, so no evening out for us. We kept Sophie home as well, no sense in sending her if we were going to be home. We still had a very fun, very full day and everyone enjoyed themselves, Neal was a trooper heading out in the cold to the patch just to see his little girl smile and pick pumpkins. She picked out a pumpkin for her, one for the baby, and one big one for Neal and I to share.

This is really not the most flattering picture of me....I look huge and way too pregnant, but I always have to have a family picture

Happy Anniversary to Us!

5 Years ago today at 2pm in Mooresville at ST. Terese Catholic church I married the man of my dreams, my soul mate, my sweet, sweet husband Neal. Then we headed on over to the Peninsula Club on Lake Norman and partied it up like never before, best party I've ever been to!

Happy Anniversary Baby!!! Thank you for 5 wonderful years I wouldn't trade one day, the good or the bad for anything! You make everyday better. I love you!


***Sorry about the poor picture quality I still have yet to master the art of the scanner!*****

Progress Is Being Made!

Today I had my 36 week appointment with the midwife and all is looking very well. I am measuring right on at 36cm and the baby is moving like crazy ALL THE TIME!!!! Heart rate is 156 glorious beats per minute and I am starting to dilate!!! Yay!! Really that means nothing concrete, a woman could walk around a couple centimeters dilated for weeks, but still it is nice to know that progress is being made. I am 2.5cm dilated and remembering back, oh about 3 years ago, when our first little blessing graced us with her presence, my water broke and I was 3 cm......can I get a repeat performance please within the next week or two? I go back in two weeks (10/27) for another appointment, however I told the midwife that I had a very vivid dream that I was going to have this baby on October 22nd and that it was a girl. Don't know how true that is, but I also had a very clear dream that Sophie was a girl, before we had the ultrasound to determine her gender. So who knows....boy, girl I'll certainly take either, but I would really like October 22nd to come true!!! The midwife also thinks very strongly that this baby is a girl too. Neal swears it is a boy, Sophie is not wavering with her vote of girl, my dad says boy, my mom can't make up her mind, my mother in law doesn't "have a feeling" either way right now I think she originally thought boy, but now isn't sure, and I believe my father in law thinks boy.

What do you think? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Trains

This past Friday, Sophie and I went with my Dad up to Spencer, NC to visit the NC Transportation Museum to check out Disney's Train Tour of their new movie A Christmas Carol out in theaters Nov. 6th. Spencer, NC was stop number 34 on a 40 city tour. It was pretty neat to walk through the train and see all the special effects and work that went into making this movie. I actually really want to see the movie now, too bad I will have a newborn or will be very, very hugely pregnant and probably not able to sit through an entire movie! Aside from getting soaking wet because the sky opened up and dumped rain just as we got in line to walk through the train, it was a fun day! I did manage to snap a few pictures, nothing like the fabulous pictures that my wildly talented photog husband takes, but hey one can dream. Thanks Dad for a fun little day trip.

Apple Pickin'

This past Saturday, October 3rd we went to an apple orchard in SC with Jackson and Shane. It was a little different than last year which was a little disappointing especially for me since I was looking forward to sampling and taking home some of the tasty treats that they offered last year like dried apple rings and fresh apple donuts just to name a few of my favorites. They had done away with a lot at the orchard including tours due to some licensing that they had not obtained, so this year they were just sticking to apples. Oh well the kids had fun picking apples and chasing around the chickens.