Iced In

This ice storm hit at a great time for me, because I was starting to get tired of running around all over the place!  This past week has been full of errands and school, so Thursday afternoon Mady and I got home from school, and the ice storm hit.  This was a great couple of days to stay home, slow down, and do a bit of relaxing.  We had some good times inside, watching movies, listening to music, making cookies, and Christmas crafts.  Definitely much needed!  We probably watched more TV than normal, but I'm confident it won't do any long term damage ;)

Now, I'll admit, I love being at home but I'm starting to get a bit of cabin fever.  Our roads are looking much better now that the ice is melting, so I think I'll venture out later for some dinner.  Plus,  I don't feel like cooking anymore!  Here are some pics from our iced in weekend:

We had Christmas movie night complete with new pajamas for everyone, popcorn, and hot chocolate

We ventured outside (but not for long, it was too cold!)

We made Gingersnap cookies

And we even decorated some snowmen

Overall, ice storm 2013 treated us well!

7 Months

A bit late, but I am now seven months pregnant.  Less than two months to go before our little one's due date, who has a name now, which will be Owen Gabriel Hampshire.  I have been feeling well for the most part, besides some back pain here and there and heartburn.  Nothing fun about your throat being on fire at 3 in the morning.  He is still moving like crazy and now that his space is getting a bit cramped, his movements feel so much stronger and sometimes even hurt me!  No general time during the day that he moves because this little guy is constantly moving and I wonder if he ever sleeps.  Right after Mady goes to bed is when he will really crank it up and start having a dance party.  It's like he knows that he now has our attention all to himself!

We spent Thanksgiving down in Port Arthur with our family, which was so nice.  We'll be spending Christmas up here, so that was our last trip down there for a while.  Mady always has such a fun time with everyone and the older she gets, the more fun she has.  The weekend after Thanksgiving I was in a wedding for one of my best friends from high school.  They don't make maternity bridesmaid dresses so I had to get a dress several sizes too big so that it would fit around my belly but then had to bring everything else in, haha.  But in the end it fit, and the wedding was beautiful!!

This past Monday, Nick had surgery on his back.  It went really well, and now he is recovering.  He's very limited in what he can do right now and it will be a gradual process before he's back to normal.  His mom came in to help us for a few days which was really helpful.

We took Mady's paci away a couple of weeks ago, and that has been her hardest transition.  We thought she was doing pretty well, but almost a week ago she started having a really hard time going to bed.  Now she is screaming to go potty when we put her down, even though she just went five minutes ago, and she won't go to bed until we take her.  She's also waking up three or four times in the night to go potty.  It's starting to wear on us but we're praying it's just a phase.

I won't lie, this past week has been a bit hard on this pregnant one, but we will get through it.  The Christmas season has started and we have so much to be thankful for.  During those times when I start feeling at my wit's end I turn to God.  He has a great way of changing my perspective and bringing peace over any situation.  This is also the first year Mady has really understood and started having fun with our Christmas activities so that has been fun to watch.  Looking forward to the next few weeks of celebrating Christmas!

Two and a half...

Our little girl is two and a half years old now.  She has been growing up so much lately, and I feel like we are always telling her what a big girl she is, but all I want her to do is stay my baby.

Her vocabulary grows everyday and she is such a chatterbox!  She loves to talk, and will talk to anybody.  When we are out she will say hi to everybody and then she will look at me and say "I so friendly mommy!" hahaha

A couple of weeks ago we moved her to her big girl room.  We made a big deal leading up to it, letting her help decorate it, and just be a part of it.  I was worried how well she would do because she loved her crib.  Surprisingly, she did great!  She climbed right in and fell asleep in her big bed like she had been doing it for months, and hasn't looked back.  It's funny how the things you think will be so difficult are so easy, and the things you think will be so easy, are so hard!

Her first night in her big girl bed

Check our the cute shelves Nick built for her books

Eating has been one of the more difficult things lately.  She can be so picky, and dinner can sometimes be quite a challenge.  I have noticed an improvement in the last couple of days, so hopefully we are getting somewhere.  As for potty training, she has definitely conquered that.  I cannot think of the last time we had an accident.  Whoo hoo!

She is still pretty strong willed and not afraid to show what she wants and how she feels, which can mean quite a few drama filled tantrums.  But she is also so full of love.  She is so sweet and loves to give hugs and kisses.  She can be very sweet with babies and will be very concerned when she hears one crying while we're out or around another baby.  Makes me excited to see what a great sister she'll be to her baby brother.

Speaking of caring, she has grown quite attached to Lucy lately.  Some of you know, but Lucy went completely blind about a month ago.  We had our suspicions a few months ago when we could tell something wasn't quite right.  We ended up taking her to the vet when it got really bad and she was constantly running into things.  Turns out she has an eye disease that is genetic.  Nothing we could do to prevent it or treat it, and he confirmed that she has gone completely blind.  We talked to Mady about it and how we need to be careful with Lucy and try and keep our toys as picked up as we can because she can't see anymore.  I didn't think she quite understood, but she has been very affectionate with her lately.  She is always giving her hugs, kisses, and attention.  It's been hard watching Lucy go through this because I can see it's hard on her.  She was our baby before we had babies.  We're just trying to give her as much attention as we can, and Mady has been so awesome with that.

"Nice to meet you Lucy"

Mady is loving school and her teacher.  She comes home singing songs she learned and talking about the kids in her class.  Speaking of songs, she loves to sing.   A few of her favorites right now are "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Thank you Jesus", and "Rock a bye Baby".  Some other loves of hers right now are cooking and baking with mommy.  She absolutely loves doing it and we have so much fun!  She also loves her Aggie football and of course Johnny!  The week A&M wasn't playing, we had a football game on TV.  She thought it was the Aggies, as she always thinks when she sees football, and when we told her that it wasn't the Aggies and they weren't playing today, she threw a huge fit and was crying "Johnny Football" over and over.  My goodness!

Yummy, chocolate cake

And this is the best part about baking

Her "hat"

We love our little girl and are having so much fun with her.  Times flies, and especially with number two due to arrive in less than three months, we are trying to really cherish this time we have with her.  I am so excited for him to get here but I know that it will be a lot of changes for us, so I want to soak in every minute of being a family of three (plus Lucy!) :)

Halloween

Well, Halloween has come and gone and we have a ton of candy to show for it.  This was Mady's first year trick-or-treating and she had a blast.  She dressed up as Doc McStuffins this year, of course.  Nick even carved a Doc MccStuffins pumpkin for her that came out great!  We went with our friends down the street and they looked so cute all dressed up!

At the first house we visited, when they opened the door she was ready to just walk on in.  We had to teach her how the whole "trick-or-treat" thing works, haha.  She got the hang of it pretty quickly and was really enjoying it.  She got tired towards the end once her pumpkin got so heavy from all the candy.  She still asks me to go trick-or-treating and I have to explain to her that we only do it once a year.  

She was also a huge fan of Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin.  This was one of my childhood favorites and I loved seeing how much she loved it too.  This girl cannot sit still for longer than two minutes for anything, but she would sit still and watch the whole movie from beginning to end, every time.  She thought Snoopy was hilarious, and the smile on her face as she watched it was priceless!  Let's see if Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and Charlie Brown Christmas are as big of a hit!

Six months!

Well we have less than three months to go until we meet our little man.  I know I say this every time,  and I sound like a broken record, but I cannot believe how fast time is flying.  I know as get into the holidays, it will only go faster.  I am now officially in the third trimester, and I am feeling great.  Occasionally I get some back pain, or heartburn, but overall I'm doing really well.

I am definitely showing more than I did with Mady at this point, and I can feel it.   I remember constantly being told how small I was with her, but I have not gotten that comment once this time around, haha.  He is still moving around like crazy, and loves to stretch out like he's trying to pop out of there.  I will say though, there is nothing better than feeling those kicks and jabs and waves of movement.  I keep trying to get Mady to feel it but this 2 year old has zero attention span to keep her hand there for longer than 1 second!

We had an ultrasound at the last appointment to get a good measure of Owen's spine since he was moving so much the last time, and it looks perfect.  We did find out though that his kidneys were a little dilated or slightly enlarged.  Could be something as simple as urine backup that he didn't release yet but we will have another ultrasound at the next appointment to check.  Just one more chance to see him! This is fairly common and typically resolves itself before birth, so nothing to be too concerned about right now.

Fall fun

This past month has been filled with lots of fun fall activities, and it has flown by!  We have had a fire department open house, a visit to the pumpkin patch, a tripe to the Woodlands, a visit from my parents, A&M football game, and getting Mady's big girl room ready!

She loved seeing the fire trucks up close and being able to get inside of one.  They had cupcakes, stickers, and games for the kiddos.  It was great.

We headed to the pumpkin patch with some friends, and we had a lot of fun.  She loves pumpkins, and still talks about going to the pumpkin patch with Zoey.

Just a bit too heavy

It is impossible to get a pic of toddlers smiling at the same time, haha

We headed down to the Woodlands one weekend for our niece and nephew's birthday.  Mady loves these two and loved seeing them, as did we!  They're growing up fast!

Last weekend my parents came up to watch Mady while we headed down to College Station for a football game.  It was really nice to get away for a bit and see our friends.  Always great to go back there, but every time we go back it changes!  Love that place!

This week is Halloween and our little Doc McStuffins is ready to trick or treat.  We are also putting the finishing touches on Mady's big girl room, and I think she'll have her first night in there this week.  We've been talking to her about it, and decorating it with her so she's really excited about it.  We'll see how it goes!