Picnic at the Park

After a Chick-fil-A lunch, the boys were ready to play. Logan is saying "On your mark, get set, go!"

Noah's a little strong man! Daddy helped a little.

Have you ever seen two cuter boys?

I just want to eat this one up!

Baby's Room in Bloom!

Happy flowers grew in Baby Girl's room tonight!

One step closer to being ready!

"Stem"-sational Room!

Yippee! It's so happy! I got all of the stems stamped onto the wall today. I have "stamp cramp" in my hands!

I was so excited that I went ahead and stamped a few flowers, just to get the idea. The yellow flower shows up a lot better in the picture than in person. Probably won't do too many yellow flowers. I will also have blue and rosie pink flowers mixed in with the hot pink and yellow. But that's on the agenda for tomorrow. It's too late, and I'm sure I would mess up. Besides, being on my feet that long doesn't agree with my pregnant body.

Stay tuned, I'll have more to post tomorrow night!

One more for a laugh....

I'm up here in my room blogging, Logan is working on falling asleep, and Noah is supposed to be watching Noggin downstairs. I hear the back door open and shut. I look down and don't see Noah. So I go downstairs to tell him to come back inside for now. I wish I had taken the camera down to be able to show you what I saw, but it was upstairs. I look out in the backyard to see the naked, white bottom of my 4 year old, watering the pear tree!

31 Weeks

I hit 31 weeks yesterday, and had a Dr. appt. this morning. Everything is progressing along just fine. My blood pressure was 124/74, I gained 3 pounds in the last 3 weeks, and baby girl's heart rate was 154. My tummy measured at 32 weeks, so only 1 week ahead, which is normal. Maybe that means she will come early? I can only hope. I'm still really tired of people telling me how "huge" I am, and of seeing the shock on their faces when I tell them the due date is Nov 25th. It's looking like I may end up with a healty 8 and 1/2 pound baby girl when this is all over. That works for me. Now all she needs is a name! My top three choices are Matilyn (Mattie), Lindsay, and Emory. I go back to the dr. in 2 weeks. D-day is coming!

More Baby Girl Stuff.....

I ordered a slip cover for the car seat. It looks girlie now! So happy, and I can't wait for baby girl to come home in it!!!!

Getting Closer......

Of course once I was done painting, I couldn't wait to put the bedding in.

Still left to do: paint the rocking chair hot pink, stamp flowers in the pink stripe, create some butterflies to put in the yellow, and get letters for her name (it might help to choose a name first!)

Rock and Roll!

Pink Preparations

Washed and ready! There's a whole lot of pink going on!

Primed for Pink.

Yippee! I am finally getting to work on baby Girl's room!
Here is the before of Logan's room.

Taping off the border.

The border's down, glue is stripped, and the wall is ready to be primed.

Priming for Pink!

After the first coat of pink last night. Grandma was so anxious, she put the curtain up already!
I put a second coat on this morning and I'm waiting for it to dry. I will inspect for any missed spots and hopefully peel tape this afternoon. We ordered a daisy stamp set off ebay that should be here this week to stamp flowers in the pink stripe. I can't believe we are almost to 9 weeks to go!

Long Overdue Blog Entry

In the interest of trying not to ramble, here's what's been going on in the Cothern world the past couple of weeks:

* Logan began "I don't want to go to Logan's classroom, mommy." And crying the entire day. Hooray for the paci, we had a good day Tuesday with minimal crying and hoping today is the same.

* I went to Dallas last weekend for a "60 Years of Cheers" Reunion for NCA. Matt stayed home with the boys, my mom went with me, and my dad held down the fort in Houston during Ike.

* My parents are still without power, so mom has been living here and dad brought the food in the freezer to Austin. My brother got power back Tuesday morning. My Aunt and Uncle still don't have power and are getting really tired of "camping." On the bright side, the only major damage from the storm was debris in the yard and some water leaking into the house.

* I was 30 weeks on Tuesday, and have slowly been attacking projects to get myself organized. I'm ready to start taping baby girl's room, and I bought PINK PAINT! I go to the Dr. next Wednesday at 31 weeks.

* I'm still teaching Jazzercise 4 days a week, hoping to make it through September. Then I'm going to give up one day and hopefully make it through October. Working to get all of my subs secure for the months of Nov/Dec.

* Matt has been home in bed the past few days with some kind of illness. I think it's the flu. He hasn't been running fever, but he's been so doped up on Dayquil that you wouldn't know.

* Logan learned how to bowl all by himself last night on the Wii. He wouldn't let any of us help him. He bowled a 101, getting a strike in the 10th frame! Then he beat Noah in a game of boxing.

Not much else that I can think of. It seems like I had a long list of things to update, and now they are all out of my head. I'm sure they will hit me later. But for now, I'm off to tape!

In Need of Chili's Takeout.....

On Sunday, mom and I went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. While waiting for our table, we browsed the country store. A lady nearly bumped into me, turned around and said, "Oh, wow, you're big. When are you due?"

See "side note" under 28 weeks post if you don't understand the Chili's reference.

Two New Superheroes

The boys were playing superheroes tonight. Noah was Super Bunny and Logan was Zoom Zoom. Noah came in the back door and said, "Mom, we're superheroes and we save days!"

In a Galaxy Far Far Away.....

.....otherwise known as Noah's Room.....Logan moved in! After the baby shower yesterday, I am so eager to get baby girl's room ready, so we threw caution to the wind and tried it out. We've been talking it up for a couple of months, pulling out the trundle, and playing pretend sleep. We bought special sheets (insert Death March singing here) to put on the beds when it was time. It wasn't the best night to start: we were watching a webcast of the Tech/Nevada game, and we couldn't record, pause, or rewind, but we were going to be up for awhile since the game started at 8, so why not? Besides, if it didn't work, we could always stick him back in the crib. Noah decided that he was ready to go to bed, so up we went.

At first, Logan started to get a little clingy to mommy, but we talked through it and he climbed up with Lambie and his paci. Mommy said prayers with her boys, (believe me, I prayed that they would fall asleep quickly!) told them to stay in their beds, and that I would come back and check on them. Blowing a kiss, I walked out of the room.

When I went back up to check on them, Noah said, "Mom, Logan just won't lay still!" I told him to be patient that he was learning. We did hear a few choruses of Jesus Loves Me. that made us smile. The next time up, Noah was asleep and Logan was still wiggling around. By about 10:15 we had sleeping success! Now mom and dad had to go to bed, no telling what time they would get up!

I woke up this morning at 7am and thought, ok, they can get up now. Next thing I knew, it was 8:15am and they were starting to stir. I rolled over and listened through the monitor. I heard, "Good morning Logan." Then I heard, "Let's go eat breakfast." Before we knew it, they were in our bed and beating up on daddy!

Since this post is getting a little long, fast forward to nap, Logan successfully stayed in the bed and napped!

As I type, we are entering night #2. They are in bed, both are wiggling, and Logan is talking. I'm spying on them with the new video monitor from Grandma and Papa. Why didn't I have one of these when Noah was born?!

Showered in Pink!

On Saturday, my friends threw me a fabulous baby shower. Everything was bright, and everything was PINK!!! It was so much fun, and I admit, I am SO spoiled! Right now all the gifts are piled on the guest bed, and I keep going in the room and going through them all. I would have already washed clothes, but I don't have any dreft! I will be getting some this week.

Sign in table.

Yummy Cake!

My best friend, Tracye, hitched a ride and made the trip from H-town. I'm so glad she made it. I miss her so so so much! My mom, me, and my mother-in-law.
The best Grandma and Grammy ever!

These are my girls! They ROCK!

(Notice how they are all wearing pink!)

28 Weeks - Sweet Baby Girl Face

I had my 28 week appointment this morning, and a bonus sonogram. As far as I know, everything went well with the Glucose test. My blood pressure was 120/80, the baby's heart rate was 148 during the sonogram and in the 140s for the Dr. According to the sonogram measurements, she is STILL A GIRL, she weighs about 2 lbs. 13 oz. and is measuring in at 28 weeks and 6 days. Today I am 28 weeks and 1 day. They were checking out my placenta, which is still low-lying, but not a problem, and something called an EIF in one of the heart chambers. It appears smaller and they aren't concerned about it, either. It also showed that I am in the "high" end of normal for amniotic fluid. Maybe that's why I appear "bigger" than I really am. I'll keep telling myself that - she just has lots of room to move around! It's a little scary to admit that I gained 8 pounds in the last 4 weeks (too much yummy food at Grammy's), BUT I am about at the same place I was at 28 weeks with both boys' pregnancies. Does that make sense? I go back in 3 weeks. Only 12 weeks to go. November still seems like a long way off, but 12 weeks does not! Yikes! I guess it's time to kick Logan out of his room to make way for pink stuff! Here are the pictures from the sonogram today. Doesn't that sweet face just melt your heart? God chose me to be her Mommy!

What a little precious miracle.

Look at those little fingers. I can't wait to smooch on them all day!

On a side note: The guy at the Chili's take out counter made my day today. I've been getting really tired of reactions to how far along I am and that I still have until the end of November. He asked me today if it was my first baby, and I said, no, third. He told me I looked so skinny for a third baby. Then he said his boy was almost 2 and his wife was still trying to get the weight off. (I'd be mad if my husband said that about me to someone else, but it made me feel good.) Chili's for dinner anyone?

First Day of Preschool

The boys started preschool today. Noah is a Busy Bee (one of the 4s classrooms) and Logan is a Bear (2s). It was strange leaving without a child in tow. Although in 2 more months, I'll have a baby girl to happily lug around! Overall, I think they had a good day. Logan had a hard time with rest time, which I figured he would, and he didn't want to do the craft (handprints). We will see what happens when I try and take him back on Thursday! Here are the pics I got:

Noah
Logan - he was so excited to wear his backpack and carry his lunchbox.

I love this picture. Noah is such a great big brother.

Logan went right in, sat down and started working a puzzle.

Noah with his friend, Lucas. He jumped right in on the first day.

Labor Day in Brenham

Saturday morning we loaded up and headed to Grammy and Grandpa's house in Brenham. Activities included: dominoes, Uno, speedbird, basketball, darts, ping pong, 4-wheeling, tractor riding, puzzles, toys, eating, and holding baby Claire. Here are some pics of the fun:

Logan still won't "ride" the tractor, but he made a baby step by sitting on it! Grandpa even pushed it down the driveway, without turning it on.

Noah went all over the yard and around the circle on the 4-wheeler.

Playing ping pong with Daddy and Grandpa.

Mommy and the camera got hit with this ping pong ball!

Cutie-pies in their PJ's!