this and that.

It's Sunday night (yes, I started writing this post Sunday night), and Preston went to bed early tonight since he skipped his nap time to celebrate a sweet friend's baptism.  He has a love/hate relationship with said friend's older sister by the way.  In the end we (we being her mom and I) think they'll be great friends as they share many of the same OCD characteristics. 

So anyhow he went to bed early and instead of basking in my few hours of alone time, I felt a little pinch in my heart --- I was already missing him and he'd only been out for five minutes.  Silliness!

My crazy little pregnancy brain/emotions/hormones need to realize that all to quickly we'll be a walking zombie again, moody as ever, with a husband who swears he'll leave me if I don't stop acting like a crazed lunatic.  It's not a bad thing to enjoy our quiet time when we get it.  No need to let that innate mommy guilt slip in all the dang time. 

Moving on, we let Preston swim diaper-free, which quickly became trunk-free, in his plastic, backyard pool this weekend.  His fun came to a halt as he "poo-poo in da auga, momma."  He was and still is so proud of himself.  Now if we could just get him to 'poo-poo' in his potty. 

I've already decided that Preston will gift his baby sister with this or this when she's born.

via

 She'll undoubtedly need to have plenty of gifts for him too when he comes to the hospital to see her.  Any good ideas?

I can't believe we've managed to hold out this long, but we're now a Costco member family.  I bought a membership from Zulily today.  If you purchase through Zulily  then the $55 membership scores you $50 worth of freebies from Costco.  So that makes the cost really only five bucks!

I adore the cartoon Charlie and Lolo and can't help but watch it when Preston does. Maybe baby girl will come out with one of those adorable British accents.

We are close to deciding on a name for baby girl, known so far as Cupcake.  Preston was waving 'hi' to his baby sister last night and I said say hi to _______.  He then, with his paci in his mouth, repeated the name, which is #1 on our list so far, and I pretty much melted.  The way he said it probably just solidified that it will be her name. 

I can't quit thinking about those kids in Moore, OK buried under that rubble from yesterday's tornadoes. Heartbreaking.  My heart breaks and my mind gets torn from all the recent tragedies that seem to happen all too frequently these days (Boston, Newtown, deadly tornadoes, terrorist attacks).  In the end I fall back on these thoughts:
God is good all the time. God works even in the midst of tragedies, and God hurts with us.
And I love something our pastor shared with the congregation not too long along --- Revelations 21 tells us that one day, "neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."  In his words, the world is not yet restored to its perfected state, but it will.

aviation saturday.

Itching for something kid friendly and free, we took Preston out to Hook's airport one Saturday.  It's small, but gets plenty of action with planes taking off and landing.  The cafe was closed since it was Easter weekend (I know, I know, I'm playing catch up), but who needs food when the aviation school that neighbors the airport let us come and play in their hangar and on their runway.  I nearly fainted when they put Preston in one of the planes.  They definitely read his mind. 

Preston was absolutely beside himself, and Mr. Gherkin, well, aviation is his dream.  Those two were over the top giddy.

Before leaving, we hung out in the shade, by the pond, and watched the ducks swim and the planes fly over.

da bump {16 weeks}

13 weeks
Lake Austin // before we knew the sex

15 weeks
we know it's a girl // much undecided on name.

16 weeks
slow morning at the office = my nurse takes my bump picture

with a full heart at 16 wks

My doctor told me that maybe I should eat more at my 14 week appointment.  My weight was up 7 lbs overall, but I hadn't gained anything in a month (which prompted her concern).  I'm convinced I gained so much so quickly in the beginning because she put me on progesterone (yuck!) as my levels were low.  Since stopping that cruel, cruel medication my weight gain has slowed.  Taking her advice to heart, though, I'm sucking down a peach milkshake from Chick-fil-A as I type this.  They're available for a limited time, and I highly recommend getting yourself one. 

my spring favorites {a camera dump}

I wanted to document some of my favorite pictures from this spring that I haven't shared yet.  Some I took this weekend, but most of them were snapped during my no-blogging-for-lent break.  Want to get them on here before it gets too far out.

The first pictures are actually from yesterday, Mother's Day 2013, and are probably some of my favorites of him ever. I mean what's not to love about the combo of a two year old, a cowboy hat, and saggin', way too big for him swim trunks. 

I let him paint with the corn starch/ food coloring concoction that's all over pinterest, and this is how that ended.  TMI, I know, but his boogers are even coming out green. 

Here are some favorites from early Spring.

Love these Sunday School gals.  

a positive pregnancy test!

houston livestock show and rodeo

he loved the goats.

and the pigs.

my husband and his mini me. 

our confederate jasmine in full bloom for the first time ( see the progress here.) 

I didn't see many bluebonnets this year.  Anyone else notice this too?  We did find a small patch on an early morning walk though. 

Can't believe summer is about to be here.  I'm scared --- we've have a very nice April and May, temp wise, here in Houston, but I'm fairly certain I've seen the last of my 70 and 80 degree days for this pregnancy. 

guest post // all about mommy

Jen from Down with the Dearmore's sent me an e-mail last week, introduced herself, and asked me to guest post in her All About Mommy series for Mother's Day.  Moments later we realized that we have a mutual 'in real life' friend (hi Lyndsay!).  Anyhow, excited to be part of Jen's series.  You can see my guest post here.  I talk about some favorite baby items I'm looking forward to reusing come this fall and even some new items I can't wait to get my hands on.

Thanks for the opportunity, Jen.

why I thought pink.

Still processing the idea of having a girl!

As I mentioned in this post, I was fairly certain there was a little girl growing in there.   Other than just mother's intuition, here's why ::

I felt incredibly different than I did with Preston.

Much more tired this time.

I have a major sweet tooth.  I haven't asked for fried pickles yet this pregnancy, but there hasn't been a day that's gone by that I didn't indulge is some type of sweet treat.

I feel like I'm carrying high and I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that my abs haven't seen the likes of a core exercise or crunch in a long, long time.

ACNE. I've had some major breakouts.

The Chinese gender calender predicted I was pregnant with a baby girl.

My hands have been extremely soft, and according to an old wives' tale soft hands (as opposed to dry hands) = girl. 

I immediately started carrying extra weight in my hips and bum.  I feel like the day I found out I was pregnant, I instantly grew two pant sizes. 

I experienced more nausea this time than I did with Preston. 

My urine was a dull yellow.  TMI, sorry.  Old wives' tale that I found to be true.  

And finally, Preston became pretty clingy with me the past few weeks.  After witnessing P's clinginess (that's totally a word, right?) herself, my nanny declared this baby a girl at the breakfast table one morning.

So there you have it.

I guess I can now share all my favorite pins I've been collecting in a secret board on pinterest.  I know there were some of you who had a close eye on me, especially my pinterest boards (yes, I'm looking at you, Allison H.) in attempt to figure out if it was a boy or girl.  So I kept them hidden until yesterday.

she can totally wear ballet shoes, for fun, anytime she wants // love the kneee patches // all sources found here

 love pink buffalo check window treatments // that dress, I die // all sources here