Dressed to a T

Mallory received quite a few dress up clothes from Mommy & Daddy for her birthday, but I didn't get them out of the closet for a long time because we didn't have anything for Jake to dress up in. He plays with girl toys all the time since we have so many around, but I felt bad to not even have a boy option for him. Mal's collection had been purchased very cheaply at the dollar store & Tuesday Morning, but there were no boy items there, & I have hard time justifying $20+ for one outfit elsewhere.

Anyway, I hit up Toys 'R Us after Halloween & got a couple of costumes on clearance for Jake, so we now have a bin of costumes in their room. Endless fun! This Wolverine costume is too big for Jake, but he doesn't care. When you press the button on the sleeve, it says, "I am Ironman!" He loves repeating the phrase when he wears it.
Mal's princess collection is quite extensive but may not always be the most ladylike! Nice belly button, Mal! She loves to walk around in her princess shoes, the perfect accessory to any outfit.
I'm loving that the kids are getting more & more into pretend play. Listening to what they come up with is rather hilarious!

Little Turkeys

In honor of the holiday, Jake & Mal decided to start their day acting like little turkeys. They found a cassette tape on Nana's bookshelf & proceeded to pull all of the tape out of it before anyone realized it.
They had never seen a cassette tape before, so I guess it was intriguing!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, from our family to yours!

How's Your Memory?

Jake & Mal are having a great time with the Toy Story Memory game that Nana bought for them. We haven't advanced to the traditional way to play yet, but they're getting good at making matches!

The Origin of Things

Jake & Mal have recently become interested in the origin of the things they eat. For instance, milk comes from cows, & eggs come from chickens. Mal, though, thinks it's funny to play devil's advocate from time to time & insist on something other than what she knows to be true. A good-natured argument between them inevitably ensues.

Next Time, Won't You Sing With Jake

Asking Jake to perform is a great way to kill time while waiting for Nana to finish trying on clothes at a store.

Stuck

The other day, the kids were upstairs playing & I suddenly heard Mal screaming & freaking out about something. I hurried up the stairs & found this:
Apparently, she thought it'd be fun to try out her doll stroller & then had trouble removing herself. She was kind enough to stay in there while I raced back down to get the camera, laughing hysterically. She hasn't tried it again. I also like that both of my kids have snotty noses in this picture!

Beau Harrison at 22 weeks

We saw Dr. Rinehart again on Monday & got to see our sweet baby boy. He was being very cooperative & gave us several sweet pictures, in addition to confirming his gender several times for the sonographer.

Sweet profile with cheeks starting to fill out a bit
Hi guys! Facing camera with head on upper left
Another profile with a little hand waving at us
His bowel is still a bit echogenic, which means that it appears brighter on the sonogram than the rest of his abdomen. Since we've ruled out the possible scary stuff with other testing, Dr. Rinehart feels this is probably from some blood that he swallowed, which won't harm him. His bowels won't be fully functioning until he's born, so this may continue to show up on our sonograms for the remainder of the pregnancy. We'll have a sonogram once a month to check on him & make sure everything else still looks perfect, but we were told not to be concerned at this point.

While this answer wasn't quite as clear cut as we'd hoped, we were relieved to see that everything else seems to be right on track with our little guy. They estimated his weight at 1 lb 3 oz, & the sonographer commented on what a wiggle worm he is. You're telling me! I love feeling all those little kicks, but the fact that he's breech means his strongest ones go straight for my bladder. :) I told J that he's already practicing for soccer.

Pumpkins Are Growing, In The Patch!

Monday night we attended the kids' fall program for their preschool. My little pumpkins were so cute!

Lost in the confusion of trying to corral so many 2-year-olds
Front & center, just to the right of the girl with an overstuffed pumpkin
At this point, Jake saw me & looked like he was wondering "What are you doing out there, Mommy?" Even though they knew their songs perfectly at home, the shock of being on stage had them just standing open-mouthed most of the time.
The 3-year-olds were crows...
4-year-olds were scarecrows...
& the pre-K kids were farmers. They all looked so cute!
The whole school lining up for their finale. Jake & Mal were on the opposite side, but I did catch our friend Caroline right in the front.
Jake modeling his pumpkin costume at home (minus the stem & padding)
Mal is the skinniest pumpkin I've ever seen!
At school on Monday, the kids were supposed to tell Mrs. Nicole things that they were thankful for so she could write them on the thankfulness turkey they made. Jake & the rest of the class managed the task, but Mal refused to tell Mrs. Nicole anything. She said she just smiled sweetly at her every time she asked. I got some answers out of her to add to the turkey once we got home, but it was like pulling teeth! Here are the kids' responses. I thought they were pretty funny!

Jake: I'm thankful for Mickey Mouse; cowboy boots; Mommy, Daddy & Mal; and pizza.
Mal: I'm thankful for Jake; Mommy & Daddy; Mr. Potato Head & my baby doll, Sarah; and the moon & stars.

Daddy Lovin'

My kids have a great daddy! Justin often laughs that the kids obviously don't miss him too much because they sometimes aren't as nice to him as they should be when he gets home at the end of the day. That time of day is often their whiniest, & they go into Mommy-mode, wanting only me. But the truth is that they constantly ask about & talk about Daddy throughout our day. Luckily, he's not easily offended!

There's no way to count how many times I hear "Daddy at work?" & "Where's my Daddy?" on weekdays. Their affection comes out even more when he has to travel for work & they don't get to see him for several days. One day recently, we were eating a snack in the kitchen & heard an airplane overhead. Mal immediately looked to the window & said, "I see airplane! Daddy's on it."

I'm so thankful that they get to have the greatest daddy in the world!

Jake's Jabberings

Jake: "Mommy, I poo-pooed. You change my byper?"
Mommy: "Okay, Jake, come lay down & I'll change it."
Jake: "Change it upstairs?"
Mommy: "No, just come lay down right here."
Jake: "Man!"
Not sure why this was a disappointment to him, but his exclamation sure was funny & caught me off guard!
Mommy: (as I was changing his diaper) "Jake, be careful not to kick Mommy's tummy. Who's in there?"
Jake: "Baby Beau!"
Mommy: "Yes, that's right. Do you love Beau?"
Jake: "Uh-huh. I hold him?"
Mommy: "You'll get to hold him in a few months when he comes out of Mommy's tummy."
He asked that question with such sweetness like he really just couldn't wait to touch him. I can't wait to see those two brothers together!

Messy, Messy

Children just seem to be magnets for messes, & mine are no exception. These pics are from early October, on a day when Jake & Mal had great fun just making a mess.

We had eaten lunch on the back porch to enjoy the nice weather, & then J & I headed inside to clean up. Not long after, I realized that the swimming pool had been left out & had accumulated some water from recent rain & lawn watering. Jake & Mal made good use of that water, dumping it all over themselves & the porch, giggling all the while.



They were both completely soaked & freezing, but you could tell it was totally worth it to them!

In The Beginning

Today marks eight years since my first date with Justin. We didn't really know each other at all before dating, so it was truly a get-to-know-you experience, complete with awkward conversation & nervous butterflies. We even have a picture to commemorate the evening! Yes, I guess it would have been weird to have this picture had we not ended up together, but maybe I had a hunch that this guy was the one. I love that I look totally excited & he looks a bit nervous about what kind of crazy girl he asked out.
Since I lived in a freshman dorm at the time, poor J had to come to the lobby of Gardner Hall at ACU to pick me up. There were lots of giggles in the hall that night about that cute senior picking me up for a date! I returned home from our date completely spellbound with Mr. Chamblee & told my roommate, "He doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to marry him!"

Eight years later, I sometimes feel a little old looking back at that fresh faced blond girl, but our story truly has been a fairy tale. I'm thankful for every minute of it! I love you, babe!

Note to Self

Do not leave Kleenex box within Mal's reach!

Following in Our Footsteps

Mal has had a fascination for quite some time with trying to wear my shoes if she finds them lying around the house. She shuffles her little feet so carefully in an effort to not accidentally lose a shoe.
Jake sometimes joins in the fun & takes a turn with Daddy's shoes.
They're both constantly reminding me that they're big kids, just to make sure I'm aware. Oh, am I ever! It seems that my sweet babies are growing up way too quickly, & it's a reminder to me to make sure the shoes they're trying to fill are the right ones. We have a huge responsibility as parents to model for our children the Christian life that they should lead, but what a blessing to get to lead these two!

More Praises!

I had to go ahead & post this today since I know there are so many of you thinking of & praying for our sweet Beau. I finally heard back about my CMV test this afternoon, & it was negative! We still have to wait until Monday for confirmation on our sonogram that everything looks normal, but we've now ruled out all of the major concerns through testing. Praise God! Thank you so much for your thoughts & prayers!

20 Week Update

I haven't been as great as I'd like with pregnancy updates this time around. Hmm, I wonder what's keeping me busy?

I'm currently a little over 21 weeks along, but here's my belly shot from 20 weeks:
For the sake of comparison, here's 20 weeks with Jake & Mal:
I'm definitely beginning to feel the difference in carrying just one baby. After showing early because my belly was already very good at stretching, I'm now feeling like I look "normal" for my stage of pregnancy. In general, I also just have less aches, pains & swelling, which are all welcome changes!

Beau is moving & kicking more each week, & I've recently started noticing his movements even while I'm up moving around instead of just when I'm still. This is a good thing since I'm not still often!

Last Monday I saw my OB & was very relieved to hear that my cystic fibrosis screening came back negative. CF was one of our concerns with the bowel issue on our last sonogram, so it felt great to check that off our list of possibilities. Praise God for answered prayers! I'm still waiting for the results of my blood work testing for CMV (cytomegalovirus), which are taking longer than expected. We're praying that we'll also rule that one out very soon. Our follow up sonogram with our perinatologist is on Monday, the 15th. We would appreciate your continued prayers!

Color Me Happy

Jake & Mallory are very into coloring with crayons lately & frequently go over to the cabinet where I keep them & request to color a picture. Sharing crayons is often a challenge, but then again, so is sharing everything else at this age.
On many occasions, Jake will only color a little bit of his picture & then will begin to just look through all of the crayons & sort them. On this day, he picked out every shade of brown & made a pile of only brown crayons. With two slightly OCD parents, I guess he comes by it honestly.
Mallory's apple fell a bit farther from the tree in that respect & is our more "free-spirited" artist. She usually uses every color in the box & every inch of her paper before she declares her work done.
They've also been drawing a lot lately on their Elmo magna doodles that Mimi gave them, & I love to hear their descriptions of what they've drawn. Jake's most recent favorite that he draws over & over again is a grasshopper.

All About Jake & Mal

For the kids' preschool class, their teacher sent home a poster board with each child to be made into a poster telling all about them. Mommy was rather slow in getting the project finished, but it finally happened. They were so excited to take them to school to share with their class. They still randomly refer to other classmates' posters when we talk about school. Click on the images if you'd like to learn a bit about Jake & Mal.

Jack O'Lantern Fun

I failed to get this posted in October, but we did do some jack o'lantern carving at our house. I thought that the kids might think it was fun, & it was always an activity I loved as a kid. I stripped them down to their diapers, just in case the fun got messy. They weren't sure what was going on but were happy to dance around & pat the pumpkins.
"What's Daddy doing with that knife?"
It turned out that the disrobing wasn't really necessary because they were rather wary of sticking their hands in the pumpkins. Jake gave it a try...
but Mal would have no part in it. Mommy ended up being the chief pumpkin gutter.
Mal can get extremely dirty & be happy about it when it's her idea, but she takes issue with icky things on her hands.
After about an hour of work, J & I finished our creations, happily named Bert & Ernie by the kids. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of them! Sadly, they began rotting after a few days because it was ridiculously hot that week. The kids thought they were great though, despite their limited participation, so it was worth it. Maybe they'll be more into it next year.

Yummy to My Tummy: Tomato-Herb Frittata

This recipe comes from the August 2010 issue of Southern Living . I intended to take a picture of the finished product because it was so pretty, but it was a busy week night & I failed to make that happen. When I made it, I used the tomato-sausage variation that they offered. After some initial skepticism, even the kids ate it. Yummy & easy!

Tomato-Herb Frittata

2 T olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 (6 oz) package fresh baby spinach
1 (10 oz) can mild Rotel, drained
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
12 large eggs, beaten
1/2 C crumbled garlic-and-herb feta cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in a 10-inch (2-inch deep) ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Add garlic & saute 1 minute. Stir in spinach & cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute or just until spinach begins to wilt.

Add Rotel, salt & pepper; cook, stirring frequently, 2-3 minutes or until spinach is wilted. Add eggs & sprinkle with cheese. Cook 3-5 minutes, gently lifting edges of frittata with a spatula & tilting pan so uncooked portion flows underneath.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until set & lightly browned. Remove from oven & let stand 5 minutes before cutting into wedges to serve.

Tomato-Sausage variation:
Brown 1/2 lb ground pork sausage in skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often. Remove from skillet, drain & wipe skillet clean. Proceed with recipe as directed, adding sausage with the Rotel in step 3.

Boo!

After enjoying our small group party on Wednesday, the fun continued with Jake & Mal's class party Thursday morning. I am one of the room moms for their class, & I had fun helping plan the morning's activities.

We started with pumpkin painting, which was a big hit with the kids.
Aren't these little work stations a genius idea? Way to go Britney for containing the mess!

Then the kids all tried to throw their spiders & land them on the web. Everyone except Mal, that is, because she was terrified that I might leave at any second & clung to me. Apparently my presence threw off her routine.
Enjoying a snack with their buddy Tanner: leaf shaped cookies, pumpkin seeds, Capri Sun & fruit


Mrs. Nicole is so great at holding their attention!
Her spider song & story was so cute!
This was our best attempt at a class picture. One dad got to be in it while trying to turn his son around, one child was in tears & where was Mal?
Oh, there she is. She couldn't get to me because I was behind the table snapping pics, so she clung to the closest mom. Silly girl!
Friday night, we attended Trunk or Treat at church & had a great time. The weather was just perfect! My cute little gnomes ready for the action:
Some of the people handing out candy really went all out on decorations. Ours was less impressive, but all the kids still wanted our candy anyway. :)
A few friends that stopped by our car - despite the pic, I promise the Davis kids were having fun!
Sully may have been a bit sleepy by the time he got to me.
Colby knows how to cheese it!
Sunday night, we took the kids trick or treating in our neighborhood, which is only one street with cul-de-sacs at the ends, so it doesn't take forever. A win-win for everyone!
Jake was a bit bolder about knocking on the doors & saying "trick or treat," but Mal was joining in by the end of our route.
First stop, our next door neighbor Kathy's house. She & Charlie love Jake & Mal, & I'm pretty sure she dumped half her candy in their buckets.
We sent most of our non-chocolate candy to some friends of ours who are taking it to Ghana in a couple of weeks, so the remaining stash is manageable. They love to just look through their loot over & over again.
Hope you had a Happy Halloween!