Introducing...Joel Michael

DRUMROLL...

Boy!!!!!!!!!!

PEEVED!

So my big ultrasound appt was rescheduled for tomorrow because of the weather. WHATEVER! I am not a happy girl right now but I guess I'll get over it, it's not like I have a choice!

Symphony Orchestra, Rice Krispy Treats Cereal and More!

Thanks to all of my bloggy friends for the nice birthday wishes. You guys are too sweet, so sweet with your comments that I feel like I could go eat another donut and not feel too guilty!! Seriously, it's all about Rice Krispy Treats cereal...this is probably much healthier than donuts.

Tonight Corey and I are headed to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, should be fun and like Jamie said "maybe going will give the baby another IQ point or something". Corey got free tickets with a parking pass from work. We have two hours til we leave and now I just have to figure out what I'm going to wear. I don't exactly have a "dressy" wardrobe these days since I'm not working full time anymore. It's pretty much jeans, pull-overs and UGGS (which I haven't been able to wear for awhile...long story, really long). I went down to the basement and looked through the maternity clothes tub and came up with a dress that I wore to a Gala when I was preggo with Ash. I think I'll throw it in the dryer to try and de-wrinkle it and cross my fingers that it'll work!

We went to Columbia this morning for a quick visit with some friends and then Corey did about an hour's worth of work at the duplex while we waited for our new tenant to show up. That's right people, the duplex is completely rented again and it feels great not to have to worry about next month's duplex mortgage payment! PRAISE GOD!! Actually this is a great story, we ended up giving a little extra in our offering, sowing seed for duplex tenants and I specifically prayed for tenants by the time our next mortgage payment was due. We ended up having the papers signed the day the mortgage was due. I love it when God comes through like this, you know HE will but it's always so exciting when it actually happens!

Corey got to feel a good baby kick this morning, his second time to feel the baby. I had Aly put her hand on my belly and she wasn't patient enough to wait to feel the baby. She said "Yeah Mom, I feel the baby", she was talking about my stomach! Ashley put her hand on my belly and then pulled her hand away to smell it (wierd, I know). When I asked her why she was smelling her hand she said "it smells like baby Joel". Crazy Kids! Just a couple more days!! I feel like I have a great big Christmas Present that I get to peek at this Wednesday. At least I won't be grounded from the baby the way my parents grounded me from the Nintendo that we were getting for Christmas one year.

So that's pretty good I only talked about FOOD once in my blog (okay this makes twice) but I did talk about the whole family too!

31st Birthday

Yesterday was my 31st Birthday so I thought I would post a few pics for you to enjoy and a picture to prove that it's the baby eating all the FOOD!

Inquiring Minds Want To Know

I chose to PEE first. I figured that I would enjoy my FOOD much more if I could focus solely on eating! Corey and I were laughing about all of this and he said he was going to start a parallel blog called "How To Not Freak Out By How Much Your Wife Eats While She's Pregnant". He's been a good sport and handling it very well. I think after 3 pregnancies he realizes that it is only temporary and he will have his wife back soon.

To PEE or to EAT?

That is the question of the day. Now that I am a veteran at this preggo thing I am starting to enjoy all of the funny things about pregnancy and find myself laughing at the joys. Of course this story has to do with one of my favorite things right now...FOOD! On our way home from church today we stopped at the Wendy's drive thru for a quick lunch before the big football game (Hurray for Arizona, I'm so pumped about the Superbowl). Of course I was starving because I only had 1 breakfast today (and a granola bar on the way home from church). I managed to restrain myself from ordering everything on the menu (I didn't want to freak Corey out by how much I really wanted to eat). So my big dilemma once we walked in the door was choosing to PEE or to EAT. Which one do you think I chose first??

PS - Only about 36 more hours until I get to have donuts for breakfast!! Maybe I'll have some pics of me to post soon so that I can prove that the baby is really eating all this food and not me!

PPS - Do you see how serious this food thing is, I'm blogging about FOOD rather than my kids. For all of you wondering how the kids are doing I will say that they enjoyed me stalking them as they ate their lunch this afternoon so that I could finish their leftovers.

It's been a few days...

so I will try to come up with something to post. It's been a really up and down, emotional week. I think my hormones are on overload this week! I'm sitting here posting, completely wiped out since I had a busy morning of "stealing chicken" aka grocery shopping. I also have a house to clean and 5 more hours of MOD work to do for the week.

We are having some people over tomorrow night so I at least need to clean the bathrooms and wipe down the kitchen. Grocery shopping (with two kids, a baby in the belly and 0 degree weather) and cleaning all in the same day are way too much for me right now. We are working on developing some new friendships this weekend so we are going to be social butterflies over the next few days. We've met a couple of nice couples from church so we have invited everyone over for tomorrow night in an effort to get to know one another better. We also have plans to go to another family's house on Saturday night. By Sunday I am going to be ready to lay around!

Corey has a four day weekend so I am looking forward to some R&R with him! He's off for MLK day and then Tuesday is my 31st B-day! You know your pregnant when you're excited about going to Heaven Scent donuts for breakfast and the Melting Pot for dinner on your birthday. Presents?? Who needs presents, just give me food!! Feeding me lately has been like feeding a hollow log, the baby must be having a growth spurt. I typically eat breakfast twice every morning and last night I had two dinners (yes, two and I was hungry again by 9pm). I think I've only gained about 10-12 pounds so far. I've been feeling the baby move so much lately and I love it! The little one is starting to pack quite a punch but I am not complaining. Less than two weeks til our big appointment, it's so hard to wait!

Speaking of presents though, I am in the market for a new COACH for my birthday. I also wouldn't mind a pair of UGG house slippers. I've been without my UGGS for almost a month now. I had to ship them to UGG right before Christmas because they had a tear in the fabric (this is my 2nd pair and they have both torn in the same spot). I picked out a different style and have been waiting (impatiently) for the new ones to ship. I found out this morning that they will be arriving on my b-day!!! Wow, Corey is good, he got me new UGGS last year for my b-day and it looks like he's doing it again! That's almost good enough to get him off the hook but not quite!

Names No Girl May Be Cool Enough For

As January 28th approaches, the day of our big ultrasound, I've been thinking a little bit about baby names. We already have our boy name picked out, we've had this name picked out since before we were pregnant with Aly. We've been saving it in our back pocket for the day we find out that we are having a boy. I have not even entertained any girl names this pregnancy, that is until today. Since we already have two girls whose names start with "A" I thought maybe we should keep the "A" thing going. I did find a few that I liked.

As I was researching girl names I came across the list of "Names No Girl May Be Cool Enough For". Interestingly enough 3 out of our 4 grandmothers have names that fall into that category. I'm sure you want to know what the 3 names are, they are Doris, Helga & Shirley. The only option that is left is Dorothy. I do have a great grandmother whose name was Arra Augusta and strangely enough this name is considered"cool enough", ugh not to me,even though Augusta is the female version of August, which is also a family name (and I do think August is a cool name for a boy). So much for choosing a family name!

Mid-Week Update

Since I am working oh so part-time with MOD we enrolled the girls in preschool 1 day a week every other week. As I was filling out the enrollment paperwork one of the questions was "Was does your child like to be called?". I called Aly into the kitchen and asked her to which she responded "Aly-Cat". I told her that they weren't going to call her Aly-Cat at school since it's kind of a family nickname so how about "Aly". She was fine with that. So yesterday was their first day of preschool and when I picked them up in the afternoon Aly's teacher, Miss Marci, informed me that she gave Aly a nickname because she has two Aly's. The nickname she gave Aly was of course Aly-Cat. I guess Mom was wrong and Aly was happy! The girls did really well at preschool considering that they have been out of the daycare environment for a year and they cannot wait to go back. They were already asking this morning if they could go today.

Another funny Aly story:
We were in the car the other day and Ashley's new thing is that she wants to listen to music. So the conversation goes something like this:

Ashley: "I want to listen to music"

C & J: "NO, how about peace and quiet"

then all of the sudden Aly starts to belt out: "It's too late to apologize, too late. How's that for some music Ashley."

Seriously, where do they come up with this stuff?? So MOD is going well, I had a corporate meeting downtown yesterday and it felt good to put on my high heels and sit amongst the working class. I am going to tour the NICU at Children's hospital soon and I could not believe the size of preemie diapers, they wouldn't even fit the girls baby dolls! It's nice to go in once a week and work from home the rest. I had this luxury at my previous jobs but now instead of putting in 40+ hours a week it's only 10 1/2. Plenty for me to handle right now! This weekend my Omi (german for grandma) is taking us to the Disney World's of Fantasy show at Scottrade downtown. We are really looking forward to it, it should be a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll have some fun pics to post.

I thought this was interesting, the diaper on the right is the girls Baby Alive diaper and the diaper on the left is a preemie diaper. Can you even believe how much smaller it is compared to the baby dolls diaper?

It's The Simple Things

Like the new programmable coffee maker we got for Christmas! Hurray for coffee when you wake up on the Monday morning after the Christmas and New Year's holiday. With all of the relaxation time over the past few weeks we all got really spoiled by sleeping in.

I don't know about anyone else but I am excited about the new year and excited to put 2008 behind us! 2008 was a great year, we had our share of excitements (moving, new house, the baby) and trials (duplex, need I say anymore) but I am ready for a fresh start.

Speaking of fresh starts I start my new part-time job with March of Dimes today. Should be fun to be back in the non-profit and working world again, even if it is only part-time. It seems like this family has a knack for starting new job's the Monday after New Year's. Last year on this same day was Corey's first day at MasterCard. Boy am I glad to not be going through that again, the first half of the year was so challenging with him being in STL all week and us being in Columbia.

Now if I could just get a donut...I am over bagels and cream cheese and now the baby is craving Heaven Scent or Paul's donuts, either will do. Pregnancy is the only time I allow myself to truly enjoy these type of indulgences without feeling guilty. We had to pass the Heaven Scent Bakery four times yesterday while going to and from church and can you believe that my hubby did not stop once to get the baby a donut even after all of my hinting about craving donuts. What's a girl to do? I guess I'll have to get my own donuts. So happy Monday to all of you, this year will be fantastic and I hope that someone gets a donut today!