More Garrett & Rainy Day Fun

We had a great time celebrating Mother's Day a day early with everyone being here to meet Baby Garrett. Mom Bell was still here so we gave her the gift for her. The boys cooked and cleaned (although Quentin conveniently left before the clean-up!) for dinner. We had ribs, pasta salad (that was yummy since Nick made that part!), potato salad, baked beans (one of my favs!), and yummy cheesecake...we were lucky to be sent home with leftovers from this, Nick's clock is ticking on him eating his share before I tear into it...I've been battling not eating it ALL DAY!
Then of course all day we took turns holding Garrett...or should I say holding Garrett with Cora's help. She couldn't get enough of him and whoever was holding him, she had to be right by him. In fact, Natalie asked her if she thought Kayley would want a turn and Cora replied with a "no, I don't think she would want a turn." Then when Natalie asked Cora if I could have a turn, Cora said, "I can hold him with you." She just adores him so much!

Then yesterday was my mother's day. We didn't do a whole lot being on a Sunday, but Nick did lots helping with the girls/cleaning/cooking/everything to where I pretty much got to relax all day! It was nice to have such a relaxing day. We are so lucky to have such a great husband/father that is such a loving provider for us all! Evidently Cora wore herself out and made herself a bed before bedtime and just fell asleep! It was cute.

Then today it's been rainy all day. So what more fun to have than to make a fort, have a picnic in the fort, and then have a dance party! Now this momma wasn't dancing with the extra belly, but the girls had a great time and they played so nicely with each other. It turned out to be not such a boring day with all the rain! Now to think of activities for the rest of the week as it's supposed to rain all week!!

Meeting Baby Walker

Yesterday our newest nephew was born. He came in at a mear 7 lbs 7. oz and 18 in. long....which is a really small Walker baby! He did have to come c-section, but all ended up going well thankfully! He is as healthy as can be and Mommy is doing well when we went to go visit her. The girls talked about holding him all day, Cora especially couldn't wait! In fact, once we found out it was a boy, her baby that she carries with her everywhere (which is usually named Baby Alexa) is now referred to as a baby boy! We are excited that they had a boy so that our boy can have a cousin so close in age to him and we are also lucky that they are so close in proximity too only living 30 min away from us! Here are the pics we got of him, we did have to wait patiently to hold him since as soon as we got there the nurse swept him away to be under the heated lamp for a bit...but it was worth the wait as you can see from the pictures since he's awfully cute! Cora didn't want to stop holding him! Can you tell how excited she will be to have a new baby in the house soon!?!

I did get a few holds in too, but Kayley really impressed me with how well she held the baby. She's getting to be such a big girl and I think she will be a big help when our baby arrives. The current question of the day from both girls has been, "Mommy, when is your baby coming out of your tummy!?" They can't wait...neither can we!

Oh This Boy...

Well, I went for my 30 week check-up today. I got another ultrasound to check if the placenta had moved on it's own...it had thankfully, but we traded it for another problem! Apparently there is too much amniotic fluid (which was rather a bit calming to me as now that explains why I feel so HUGE! I knew it wasn't just me being paranoid of gaining weight! But it also calmed me a bit that I wasn't having this huge baby either!) So, with what little information I've been given so far, apparently that means that if the fluid continues to rise it could possibly put me into early labor. I'll go for early, just not too early to where he is unhealthy! So immediately after my doctor's appointment I actually had to be admitted to the hospital to have a non-stress test done to make sure all the neurological aspects of the baby were running smoothly. So I trekked over with the girls (who were great through it all by the way!) and got hooked up to the monitors. It's also nice that Nick works there so he just popped in for a bit to see how we were doing! The nurse verified that we have quite the mover in there, which I already knew and which also explains why he moves so much...because he can with all the extra fluid! But everything came out normal. However, apparently I have to have these twice a week now according to my doctor and have another ultrasound, but a more detailed ultrasound (how detailed can you get!?!) So I have to do the extra ultrasound sometime next week and I'm still figuring out all the details with the multiple non-stress tests! This boy better be cute is all I'm saying all this stuff he's already putting us through!! I know it will be worth it when he comes out, but it's a bit stressful for now! Oh well!

Here's some pics they sent home with us from our ultrasound today. He's still a boy as you can see from the bottom right picture (see caption of "all boy"). Kayley also kept saying how big his head was, that apparently freaked her out about how big it was! Oh and she also asked if the baby was living in my whole body today while at the doctor. That question came after I tried to describe to her what the stirr-ups were when she asked me about those. I guess the way I described what the stirr-ups were made her think that the baby was also in my legs! Funny girl!

Homemade Ice Cream

A couple of weeks ago we were watching some cartoons on PBS and in between some shows they put on a few craft ideas. This time they put on how to make homemade ice cream with just 2 ziploc bags and within 5 minutes. I was skeptical as I know how long it takes for our electric homemade ice cream machine to make ice cream, but I told the girls we would try it someday. Well, they have good memories and definitely do not let me forget! Once I figured out how to print it off (part of the procrastination was that it was so dang hard to find on their website!) But today after we got home from the doctor and before naptime, we did it and it did literally take no more than 5-10 min. It probably wouldn't have taken as long, but I had to keep reminding the girls that they were the ones in charge of shaking the bag, not me! It turned out pretty good I thought. Here's a pic of them enjoying it! I didn't get any pics of the process, but I will include the recipe below! Enjoy!
Ok...for some reason my copy and pasting won't work in the blog, so here's the link for the recipe! www.kcptkids.org/letter_pages/activities/I_Zip-Loc_Bag_Ice_Cream.pdf

A Mini Spa Day

This last Saturday was Michelle's neighborhood garage sale among many other neighborhood garage sales in Liberty, so we made a trip up to check them out. We got a few good things, which is always nice! But we also got to visit with Grandma! Grandma came up for the weekend because Michelle was going to be induced the following Monday (pictures of that will follow later!) So she just made a weekend of it and came up early. I had planned on stepping out of my box for a bit and giving Michelle a pedicure/foot massage since she was getting ready to have her baby. Apparently one of her friends had already set it up for them to go get one together, so I gave Grandma one instead. The girls were enthralled watching me do Grandma's feet. Then I painted Gma's toes and they wanted theirs painted too...so Gma lined them up on the couch and did them all at the same time! Sadly on Sunday it was a bit chillier so they both had Sunday shoes with socks on, so they couldn't sport their newly painted toes, but that didn't stop them from sporting their newly painted fingernails! Everyone they talked to, they mentioned that their Gma had painted their fingernails. Who'd thunk a little bit of paint would go a long way! Oh...and notice that Kayley was very specific on getting paint on every bit of the nail (shown in the bottom left she is pointing out a spot that Grandma missed!) It was a fun day!