July 21 - I Don't Think She Loves Snuggles

Luke has been super snugly with the dogs lately. He showers Amelia with hugs and kisses every morning and before bed. Of course, Amelia absolutely loves the attention and looks like she is on cloud nine whenever he is with her. Karma on the other hand....not so much. Karma loves to be near me-she is literally my shadow and follows me everywhere. She won't even go on a walk unless I'm the one walking her-she will run back into the house with her leash on (if we can even trick her to get her leash on). But she is not your typical 'snugly lab.' She likes to be pet occasionally but she doesn't live for hugs and kisses. Luke is determined to change that and has recently started giving her big hugs and kisses and every morning. She gives me this look... "Why is there a little blond man lay on me? WHY?" Poor girl. 

Ethan, Luke, Julia & Hannah

This week has been very hectic with camp, work, car repairs and getting ready for vacation. We did take the kids to go see 'The Secret Life of Pets' with our friends and neighbors and we all loved it-it was adorable! We leave at 4am tomorrow morning (that is our goal anyway) and we have a lot of preparation to do...fold a million loads of laundry, pack clothes, snacks, drop off dogs (JD's friend is watching them while we are out of town), pack up car. It will be a late night for mom and dad but we'll get it all done. 

I won't be posting next week while we are on vacation but expect a lot of posts the first week of August!

Julia and Hannah did a programming camp at the local university this week, they loved it!

Amelia Peabody...begging for food at the crack of down 

July 19 - Showered with Love

I had two amazing baby showers when I was pregnant with Julia (NY and FL) and had a nice lunch and pedicures with two girlfriends for Luke. For whatever reason (maybe drilled into me growing up?), I've always thought having a shower for a baby other than the first was tacky. So..when the girl scouts and Tammy said they wanted to throw me a shower, I was very resistant. But they were persistent and reminded me that I had zero baby stuff (which is true, I got rid of almost everything except for a few favorite outfits) and that according to Ms. Manners, it is totally acceptable to have a shower if it's been 5+ years since the previous baby. So, the GS shower is in August and Tammy hosted a shower this past weekend. It was a ton of fun, here are some photos:

Julia & Hannah were the only kids in attendance. They mostly played upstairs but Julia helped open presents. 

Tammy outdid herself on the food..smoothies, cinnamon rolls, pumpkin muffins and breakfast casserole..mmmmm (everything was homemade, the shower was a brunch)

Elephant Diaper Cakes, adorable!

Christine & Jen (my neighbor, Jack and Hank's mom)

Christine & Kristen (one of my best friends here, our families are going on vacation to Colorado together next week)

Kristin, Akisha, Christine & Rachel (friends from Montessori school)

Silly Moms! Candice, Jen, Christine, Tammy & Heather

My mini me...first time she's worn a dress since spring pictures at school (and for those, she literally changed into shorts and a t-shirt as soon as the photos were done)

The crib is set up (yes, I know those stuffed animals will not stay in there, but they look cute for now)

We still need wall art, but the nursery is pretty much done

July 17 - Super Siblings

Last weekend the kids took a Super Siblings class at the hospital. There were 8 pregnant moms there (we were all having girls!) and Julia and Luke both attended. Not surprisingly, Julia enjoyed the class more than Luke. An RN ran the class and she taught the kids how to swaddle, change a diaper and hold a baby. She also talked to them about appropriate toys and how to help mom and dad around the house. We watched a short movie about a girl having a new baby (the movie followed a girl approx. Julia's age getting ready for her little sister...named Julia, so we all got a kick out of that!). We took a tour of the maternity ward and the kids saw where the moms would be giving birth as well as the antepartum rooms. The maternity ward is brand new since I had Luke so it was good to tour the new addition to the hospital.

The antepartum rooms were set up for 2 moms for him (luckily I didn't have to share) but the new rooms are all singles. Luke, being the little engineer that he is...was trying to figure out how to rocking chairs were made while we were in the different rooms. There were no babies in the nursery during the tour, which was disappointing, but before we left a nurse was transporting a brand little man next to us and the kids all loved seeing the tiny baby! 

In other news, Luke has lost another tooth! Wow, he was excited. He decided to use Julia's tooth fairy pillow for this one and was excited for the $1 the tooth fairy left. Julia is wondering why Luke is losing his teeth 'so early' since she just lost her first in 2nd grade, hehe. 

The baby room is coming along and my friend Tammy hosted a baby shower for me at her house yesterday, so I will post more on that later this week. I hope you are all having a great weekend!

We watched the handsome, huge, Hank last weekend. He's slobbery but so lovable!

I've been working half days in bed this week (darn hips/back pain) and Amelia is my little work buddy (Karma is laying next to the bed)

July 8 - The Pink Room

Well folks-it's official. The green room is now the pink room (the color is called 'tickled pink' to be exact, very pale). JD and the kids will put the dresser together this weekend, my friend is going to bring over their crib, and then all we need to do is buy some new curtains. The nursery will have an elephant theme and the kids are going to make their own artwork that we will frame. I still cannot believe we are having a BABY in less than 2 months. Wowsa, what were we thinking?! It still doesn't seem real, although I'm definitely looking very pregnant now at 32 weeks!

In other news...Luke insisted on putting his tooth in our nightstand the other night. He wanted to be sure the tooth fairy was able to find the tooth, and he was worried he'd lose it in his room. I'm sure the tooth fairy appreciated his thoughtfulness, hehe! He was very excited about the dollar the fairy left. 

Soccer camp is over for the week. I was expecting a lot of complaints about the heat but amazingly-zero complaints! The kids were in great moods every day that I picked them up and they had a great time. They had awards today and recognized a few kids, Julia being one of them. She was recognized for hardest worker, most goals scored and best ball control-she was awarded a rubics cube and was pretty excited. Luke didn't understand why 'everyone' didn't get something, and I explained that although everyone worked hard, some kids were recognized for going above and beyond. I think this is an important lesson in these days of participation trophies for every sport. 

Last night JD's company had an event at the Astros game. Julia and JD went and she had a blast-they stayed the whole game and he said she really got a kick out of the kiss cam! Luke and I went to see Finding Dory and he was excited to have a 'date night' with mom. 

The dogs have been driving me nuts this week, whining for food starting at noon almost every day. They literally whine in my face for about 4h straight before I break down and feed them dinner

Tickled Pink

32 weeks! A family member told me I look like a raccoon...I'm not sure what that means exactly...

July 5 - First Tooth!

Happy birthday America! We've been busy so let's jump in. Last week the kids did their first ever summer camp at Space Center Houston. Julia did Jr. Robotics and Luke did Seuss in Space-they both loved it and cannot wait to go back next summer. They have a lot of different camps there so there are a lot of fun opportunities. 

Now that swim team is over, the kids and I are spending most of our evenings at the neighborhood pool. Amazingly, the pool is pretty empty almost every day so we usually have the place to ourselves. Luke has become quite the little fish in the last week. He can now do a dive off the side of the pool, off the diving board and he is trying to do flips. We are so proud of our little man! Julia had a sleepover birthday party on Saturday night (a 'cupcake wars' theme at Hannah's house, she had a blast) so JD and I went to the pool with Luke. Drum roll please.....Luke swam 25 yards by himself. Yahoo!!! He's ready to be an Orca next year. I cannot wait to cheer for him!

On Sunday, we did our annual summer trip to Schlitterbahn in Galveston (we won extremely discounted tickets at Julia's school fair this year). I was able to do the lazy river...and that was it. JD took the kids around and did all the slides. Julia and JD also went on the new watercoaster at the park, which is the highest in the world. They waited in line an hour but said it was worth it-they loved it! We love Schlitterbahn because it's close, has free parking and allows us to bring in food. Win win on every front! 

Yesterday, we went to our annual neighborhood 4th of July pool party. Julia did the hoola hoop contest and the kids had fun swimming. Then we went to a bbq at a friends house. The kids decided they wanted to help JD start painting the baby girls room so although we had planned to go watch fireworks, we never actually left the house. We can see some from our backyard though and they were pretty good. 

This week, the kids are doing a half day soccer camp. It's hot but they had fun. And...most exciting, Luke lost his first tooth when we were driving home! 

First tooth!

Goodbye green room, the pink room is coming