32 Weeks and Counting Down

No, the laptop is not fixed. But Lucas brought home his work laptop so I am just doing a quick little update. We are ready for these babies to get here. Dr. F says keep them in for another 4 weeks (as if we have a choice in that matter). Week 36 begins on October 21. I have a strong feeling towards Oct 22, and Lucas has a strong feeling towards October 16. I am hesitant about any of those dates, too, though, because 66% of the grandpas are traveling during weeks 35 and 36. EEEK! M and N - you'd better stay put.

The room is ready :) Pics to come later once we receive and play around with our new camera. :) Items that need to be blogged about: bookshelf, crib skirt, other cute things that have been hand crafted for our girls by loved ones, etc. Pretty much everything deserves to be mentioned because it's all adorable, but sometimes I'm pretty sure people just don't want to hear about it anymore. ?? Additionally, I need to blog about our beautiful showers!! We still have one to go, and there will be lots of pics in that post, so stay tuned.

We had another ultrasound on Friday. A is still head-down like a good little girl. She is estimated at 3lbs 13 oz right now. B is grounded because she's now breech again with her (larger than A's) head right up digging into my ribs. She comes in at an estimated 4lbs 1oz. These girls are getting a little cramped... it was hard for the tech to get measurements on one baby, when other baby's extremities were getting in the way.

If you've never looked to the right ---> find the Girls Gone Child blog and take a peek. She just had twin girls at 35 weeks and they have the most precious little faces. She's a very entertaining writer to boot, so feel free to get addicted like I have. Thanks, Melis, for the tip off.

In other, more whiny news, it's been really hard to get a good night's sleep. I'm really not comfortable unless I'm in a hot shower. (And this is new since last Sunday, probably when B decided to turn breech on us again) Poor Lucas gets waken up about 6 times a night, with me in and out and up and down. He's taking it like a man though, and soon enough, we might not be getting the length of sleep desired, but at least it will be comfortable sleep?

Without trying to do too much in a weekend, we have been enjoying the beautiful end of summer weather. Lucas worked for a LONG TIME in the yard yesterday, aerating and re-seeding. It's going to be so beautiful in a couple weeks and especially in the spring! Last weekend I went to the Greentree Parade with my dad and Cynthia, Jenn and her kids. It was a gorgeous morning.

Well I suppose that's it for now.

Bad Laptop!

We are behind on blogging. There are some things we need to blog about :( but our laptop is grounded. It went out one night and got all sorts of viruses... so we're none too pleased. We can do approximately 7 minutes of work and then the whole thing freezes up. So until we get this resolved, we wont be able to post about our first baby shower (!) or the darling bookshelf that Lucas made for his girls.



Later.

Bailey, Riley and Jack!

My sister and brother-in-law had a photo session in July, and the pics were made available recently! Here is a little sneak peek of the session - the kids are so adorable and they love the camera! And I love them to pieces. :) Copyrighted images seen below:




Bailey is such a good big sis!




Sweet Riley...




What a handsome, smiley boy!




Sisters!




Sisters twirling... and probably my favorite of them all!!!

Closet Construction

The latest progression in our nursery preparation is the reconfiguration of the closet. The closet in our spare room was deep and wide, wide and deep, but it only had a regular sized door, so most of it wasn't very accessible. That wasn't very useful for baby girls, so this past Sunday my dad came over to open it up (we copied the idea from Sarah and Marc a little bit. OK, fine. We totally copied it.).

Here's the just-a-little-bit-into-it shot:


This was shortly after I discovered that hammers had been invented because they're fun to swing at things.


















As it turns out, the plaster from knocking a wall down creates a ton of dust, so we had also covered all the furniture.
Exhibit B:



Even though it was covered, the furniture was still dusty... dust has a very pervasive nature.












Since my job tools are basically paperwork, spreadsheets and adding machines, I'm usually happy if I can hang a picture without patching. My dad, on the other hand, is awesome at all things handy, and I was generally in awe of his skills. Even though I'm in the picture below with things almost done, I really didn't do a whole lot. I got to shoot the nail gun though, which was really fun (I'd like to have one of those around for possums, if you know what I mean).


















My mom also came along too, and went out running errands with Jamie. We had Richard's Ribs for lunch. If you've never been to Richard's in Kirkwood, you should go. Even though the place is a dump, they have some pretty excellent pork steaks and bbq chicken.

Below is the finished product, all painted. Even though I'm not that great with tools, I did manage to hang all of those shelves by myself (my dad marked the studs so I knew where to put the supports).





I'm really excited about the wire baskets. There are 6 total. One for bows, one for bibs, one for toys, one for socks and tights, and one for shoes, and one tbd.















To wrap up here, the nursery is almost done! Now that I'm handy/have been around someone actively doing things that are handy, I want to try to build a bookshelf, since we can't seem to find one that's suitable. It may turn out to be the jankiest p.o.s. the world has ever seen, but at least I can try, right? Maybe it will turn out well.

Stay tuned for the BIG FINAL nursery post.
And after that, who knows, you might even see something about our lives not related to our offspring............

Sunday Night Couponing

While I was grocery shopping today, I thought .. "Oooh! I am going to buy a Sunday paper and look at the ads!!" So I came home, put everything away, and then went through the coupon section. First I clipped all the manufacturers coupons for items that Lucas and I ALREADY buy. I think this is important. He is pretty brand loyal, and I respect that. But I figure, why not save some dough here and there on stuff we're going to buy anyway? Then I looked through all the store ads. Bo-ring. And lastly, I looked through the Walgreens ad. I found so many things on sale at Walgreens that I had JUST clipped manufacturer coupons for, so I thought.. "this is perfect"! (I'm sure they do that on purpose... ??)

So I decided to go to Walgreens. I've heard that Sundays at Walgreens are a mad house and sometimes everything in the ads is sold out. But I thought, "Well, I live in Kirkwood.. these people probably don't clip coupons anyway" So I decided to go.

I bought ONLY items that were on sale and/or I had a coupon for AND that I would have bought anyway. I think that's key as far as my couponing is concerned.

So, Melissa and Crystal, I think you might be a little disappointed in me. I didn't get out of there under $12 or anything like you guys always do... I was a little dissappointed at myself for that. But here's what I got:



6-pack Viva paper towels (my fav and the only ones I buy)
2 Nivea Lotions
2 Crest toothpastes
1 Crest ProHealth (Lucas' mouthwash)
28-count Always Infinity
2 5-pack disposable razors

Total that I spent: $31.57
Less Registry Rewards that I can use on my next purchase: $5
Grand Total: $26.57

Now, I know this seems like it's a lot still. But According to my receipt I saved $22.23. If I add everything up pre-coupons and sale, my total would have been almost $55 before tax... and remember - I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT ALL THIS ANYWAY - so all in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful trip.

Now let's talk about the actual act of checking out. UUUGGggghhhhh. Ok, I was nice enough to let a lady who walked up right behind me go ahead of me, and I explained that I had some coupons to use. But then, I kid you not, as soon as she scanned my first item, there were AT LEAST 7 people piled up behind me. Mortification does not begin to describe it. All these people are like, "Look at this pregnant lady. She is so selfish because she just has to hold up the whole line so she can save 40 cents on her post-baby overnight maxi pads." I just pretended they weren't there and stared straight ahead at the cashier, who was very nice and helpful, albeit a little slow. I think next time I will go as late as I can stay up, to lessen the likelihood of other shoppers.

So anyway, that's my first couponing story. And I'm real glad that I won't have to buy razors for awhile.. :)

July 2011

Our big Fourth of July plans consisted of a cookout at my dad's. Grammie pulled out the kiddie pool and our nieces, Bailey and Riley, had a blast splashing and romping around.



Here is sweet Riley. :)



Dad and Lucas in deep conversation - Lucas, you look a little bored, though???



I had to include this one of Riley falling out of the pool. LOL



Bailey working it for the camera. Poor girl is so shy....

The next weekend, on 7-9-11, Lucas was a groomsman in Frank and Amanda's wedding. Sorry for the pretty bad pics here... I was sitting kind of far back, and of course, no flash photography = mediocre pictures. But you can still see here how handsome Lucas was in his tux!





We had a great time last weekend with some of my best friends - Amy, Barb and Crystal!! Crystal was in town from Dallas, continuing our yearly tradition of making a point to see one another. (Minus the two years she was on her mish) :) We had brunch, saw Harry Potter, went to SLAM and just had a great time reminiscing! (22 week belly seen below)





And the 5 of us before the movie. Lucas loves my friends from high school, and they love him.. isn't that the way it should be??? :) :)

And last but not least, at our doctor appointment today, we were able to witness some more sisterly love, Baby B kicking Baby A in the head. How adorable. ;)

Easy Breakfast Casserole

Here's an easy recipe for a delicious breakfast, brunch, or even dinner idea. We served this at our house on Saturday, and after it was all gone everyone said, "I want that recipe!" But it was too late to take a picture... :( So I stole the one below from Google Images. I hope you enjoy!

1 tube pork sausage*
6 slices of bread or 1/2 baguette (stale is better)
6 eggs
3 cups milk
dash of ground mustard
salt and pepper
1/2 package to entire package of sharp finely shredded cheddar

Fry your sausage. Then mix it with all other ingredients in a large bowl. (tear the bread into smaller chunks) Pour mixture into 9x13 pan. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until top is nice and brown.

*Lucas suggests bacon