Summer time and Maddyn update

What a busy day we had today! My sisters and a total of 3 kids packed in my car and headed to where we grew up to enjoy some food at a downtown bakery and did a little shopping. We laughed about how they now have some cute shops there and hardly had anything when we lived there!

As all summers are...this has been a great one. We have gone and gone on some days and then relaxed and enjoyed playing around the house. Here is a brief (hmm..we shall see if I can keep it "brief") post on what we have been up to.

Camdyn took private swim lessons last week every morning at 9:00. That was a great decision since she was not fond of the water after gulping a ton down a few days prior on accident! This got her used to the water again (as the previous 2 years she was a little fearless fish!) and now she is back to normal but actually using the skills that she was taught.--big bubbles, big kicks and big arms! We will definitely continue this each Summer until she has fully mastered swimming.

This little girls daddy also surprised her with a sandbox underneath her play yard. She was very excited until she realized that the colors would mix and that she would get a grain of sand on her hand. :) I cannot express how much of a clean kid this girl is. She rarely came home with a speck of food on her clothes from school/sitter and this is a child I can buy a solid white shirt for and I know she will still keep it clean! ha! We laugh and say that our Maddyn is going to be a messy little pig.

She is getting used to it and realizing that it is sand and not mud that she is getting into.

Isn't it just so pretty?! I love how he did the colors and the colors that he chose.

We have been having many "family dates" out to just enjoy each other and right now everything is so simple with just us and a 3 year old. We know our life will be a little more hectic in a few months (but a great hectic!!) so we are enjoying our time as a family of 3. The other day we headed to Maddyn's appointment, did some shopping for her room (I am obsessed with Anthropologie but can usually only shop the sales!) , went to dinner and then watched a movie at our neighborhood park. What a fun day/night we had!

Maddyn has also been on our minds a lot this Summer so I cannot forget to mention her little life that is growing as we speak! :)

I am now 30 weeks -2 weeks shy of being 8 months! and we got to see our precious at my 27 almost 28 week sonogram. That is an extensive sonogram where they check the functioning of each of her organs and make sure her little home is doing great as well.

Isn't she just a beauty!

This is very similar to Camdyn's sonogram so we will see if they look alike in a few months. The doctor said she looked wonderful and then asked me when my due date was. I told him and he smiled and said that she was a big girl and was actually measuring around 31 weeks (keep in mind I was 27). She was already a little over 3 pounds. For some reason Dustin and I must make some large babies...ha! That's okay...sister was 9.2 so we will be used to that size if she is on the large end. I will get one more detailed sono at 37 weeks to make sure she is doing okay in this belly of mine. :) Maddyn Chayse is one active little girl! She is always moving and I love every minute of it! Camdyn loves talking to her and the conversation was adorable the other night. She was actually whispering to my stomach and telling her that we got her some new socks and then using her "baby voice" to tell her how ready she was to see her. Love it!

Her room has been a BIG part of our Summer. I have not taken pictures of much because we are doing a lot to the walls/getting carpet cleaned so we can't get anything done and put up until that is done. The walls should hopefully be finished by this weekend so we can start to see a sweet sweet room form. I did however take this picture for Melissa to see some coloring that we are using and I love it. It's heavenly to me :)

The lovely in the back is her bumper pads that I had made and then she has a flowing dust ruffle to match it. Such soft colors...

Here are a few pictures of Camdyn (and somehow I snuck in a few and Dustin's leg!)

Time to get dinner ready...Dustin is doing Tilapia on the grill---my FAVORITE!!

Father's Day 2011

We started Father's Day a week early around this house! Dustin and I decided to stay at a nearby hotel for the weekend and I think he thought it was the perfect gift...right Dustin?! He chose everything that we did and his 4 wishes :) were to lay out by the pool (which has a wonderful view!), eat Mexican food, see a movie and sleep late! This wonderful man gets up with Camdyn every morning and has done that every Summer/weekend so I can sleep in. I'm not sure I am going to be able to continue this luxury when our 2nd arrives.

We had the best night being together and we both slept in until 10:15!! We did everything in the vicinity of our hotel and didn't have to drive anywhere...it was perfect and it felt like it could have been Mother's day as well. :) Father's day weekend he took his dad to Top Golf and he had the best time so all in all, Father's day was a success!

This little girl worked on her own project for Daddy. I found this on a blog and I couldn't wait to ask her questions about what she knew and thought about her sweet daddy. These were pretty funny and I wrote exactly what she told me to write!

Here she is drawing a portrait of Daddy and herself

I about died when I asked her the question about what daddy does at his job/work. It was the most funniest thing to write down that "he takes his shirt off"...I think she was confused with working and "working out" because she asks him every time he comes in from working out why he takes his shirt off. ha!!! I loved the part that he eats all of his lunch and it is very obvious that baseball has been around her for the entirety of her life---oh and she has heard talks of the Mavericks lately!

And the faces always come after the sweet smiles...

We have been blessed with wonderful daddies in our life and what great examples we have all had to look up to! Dustin, Camdyn and I love how you do anything and everything to make us happy and I'm so glad God is blessing you with one more girl to spoil. :)

Phew, have we been busy around this house! Camdyn started private swimming lessons today and will continue that the rest of the week and then she has started gymnastics twice a week. We also are in the process of getting Miss Maddyn's room ready for her. It is turning into my little dream room! I love every little detail that is in the works for it. It's supposed to be a rainy week so hopefully I can get a post up of her room and some pictures of some furniture/accessories for it soon. Right now I am patiently waiting to get her bedding in today! I have been tracking it and it says "out for delivery"...love seeing those 3 words! She also has some special hair items arriving today too! I LOVE UPS! :)

Today Camdyn asked me to paint her toes and when I do, I get the hair dryer out to help them dry a little quicker. I would blow her hair and she would laugh and I told her that she was a super model. Had to get the camera out for that one...

Fresh squeezed "lemonlade"!

As I type this, my big girl decided to fall asleep on the couch watching her favorite movie-"Tangled". That girl adores that movie and I can see why.

She has her glass of milk next to her and all snuggled up so I thought I would do a quick post.

Before summer began, I made up a list of things to do each day or a "go to" list if she were to get tired of just hanging out with me :) or I wanted something planned for her. Camdyn is somewhat like me and has to be going and going a lot of her day. We love to sit and relax but we both usually have to be doing something! So one thing I added to our list is to make fresh squeezed lemonade! She was super excited about making this and kept telling her daddy that she was going to make "fresh squeezed lemonlade"...love 3 year old talk. Dustin went to the store and got a 2 pound bag of lemons.

Not really being able to guess how much we could squeeze from that, I thought for sure that it would make about 2 cups of lemon juice for what our recipe called for. Nope...2 lbs made only 1 full cup!! All I had to do though is half the recipe and I still made a good glass pitcher to last us a few days.

Don't think it didn't cross my mind to add some of the bottle of lemon juice that we had in our refrigerator to it but I KNEW it wouldn't taste near the same!

I went to Target the night before and looked at their strainers but I wasn't really up for spending 15 dollars on it. After squeezing that many lemons, I might just go and purchase one. :)

She was so excited when it was all finished and she took her glass to Daddy for him to have a taste.

Love how she has a face of anticipation if he is going to like it or not!

All of you Canton friends who get the lemonade at the booths...this is identical to it! It's good ole Paula Deen's recipe! When I split it in half though I didn't put 8 cups of water...I put about 6.

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 cup hot water
2 cups fresh lemon juice
1 gallon cold water
1 lemon, sliced
Mint sprigs, for garnish
Directions
In a 1 gallon container, place sugar and hot water, and stir until sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice and cold water to render 1 gallon. Stir until well mixed. Pour lemonade over glasses of ice, squeeze slice of lemon on top of each, and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Had to have a glass before lunch and with lunch!

Speaking of lunch...this has been my favorite lunch lately or what Maddyn is craving! A turkey sandwich on wheat bread/mustard, with string cheese, natural potato chips with sea salt and peppers from our garden! I think I have eaten this over the past 4 days!

Now, for my new blog header! I kept looking at my previous one and thinking that it screamed Winter so I took Camdyn outside and snapped a few pictures of her for a new fresh "Summer look" :) I LOVE it! This one would have made it but it wasn't long enough with the dimensions that I needed but I love how sweet she looks.

This was so perfect too and I love that it has both of my girls in it!

Up next I will give an update on our Maddy...God has blessed us so far with a perfectly healthy little girl that we cannot wait to meet.

End of the year gifts and more

I never got around to posting one of the gifts that I made for Camdyn's wonderful teachers! She had a fabulous year and I wanted to give them a gift to remember her by. Here is one of the things that I made for them.

I think they turned out fairly well since it was my first time to make them. Camdyn formed a special bond with both teachers but her and Mrs. Rikki were super close...we were informed that Rikki will be moving up with Camdyn next year and this makes me a very happy momma! Her boyfriend Brady will be as well and a few of her good friends. :) This will be great for the new changes going on in her new little world!

Speaking of...I love how Camdyn cooks me up some good treats--here she is bringing me a platter of delectable chocolates and tea!

For her birthday she got some dress up dresses to play in--this was one of her favorites, TINK! She wore this non-stop but now it's her usual Rapunzel dress.

Our front yard is Dustin's "baby". He does such a good job taking care of it and he really seems to enjoy doing the landscape and maintaining it. He bought this hibiscus tree and every day Cam and I would drive by it on our way to school to see how many new blooms it had. The blooms only last a day and then fall off but new ones come back daily. So Hawaiian!

Camdyn still loves her some rolly pollies. Remember this? Well now she tries to sneak them in the house and I have found 2 now...one crawling in my bathroom and one crawling in the hallway. :) I took care of that quick and bought her a small bug container to put it in. She tells me that they are her best friends. (ha!)

We have always had a performer and here she is performing with her i-Carly microphone thanks to Dot!

Oh her many poses!

Yesterday I had my "sprinkle" with some of my favorite people! We made it a tradition to "sprinkle" each other with a few gifts instead of throwing a shower. Most of us have had at least one child and are now having more than one and this is such a fun excuse for us to get together and talk for many hours! We went to Mi Cocina and they gave Maddyn so many great things for her (and I) :) to enjoy! I can't wait to use all of her new sweet accessories and dress her up in the precious things that they got her. What great friends I have!

These leisure days (as I like to call it!) is helping me get very prepared for Maddyn's arrival! Today Camdyn and I stopped by the library, shopped for some antiques, got lunch and went to the store. I am feeling very productive! I found an adorable carousal for her room for a decoration that I think will look perfect in there. I also found an armoire and a nice book shelf on Craigslist that we are going to check out tonight. I'm hoping to paint them to match her room. I love finding a great deal! Time to go swing outside...

Have a great evening!

Maddyn Chayse and before summer

I have some pictures and random acts from miss Camdyn that I needed to get onto the blog along with the others that are stored tightly into my camera! Now that summer has officially started it will be super easy to get those OFF my camera soon.

Let's first start off with our sweet other baby girl that will be here no later than September 1!! We have a name for her...her name has now been official for a few months. I have been blessed with many showers at school and since I love seeing my children's name on clothes, pillows, blankets, rags, etc--I chose a name quick! Our other daughter is named Maddyn Chayse! I LOVE it! I have been searching and searching for the perfect name and just as Camdyn's name came to me---it was all of a sudden. We had many names picked out and that was never one of them. I fell in love with it when I saw it and I love that those sweet sisters both end in "dyn". We have my c-section scheduled for Thursday, September 1 and her due date was supposed to be around the 4th. I know that it's encouraged to do it at least a week before but at this point, I want her in there as long as she needs. Hopefully she will stay snug and tight in her little home until then. :) Let's just say that my summer is going to be super long! I think I can handle that!! :) I will go back and do all of the usual items to get ready for my next year's class---stay for about a week and a half with my new darlings and then head home to have my Maddyn if everything goes as planned. What a wonderful year this is going to be! I hear that the 2nd is sometimes more calm then the first...right now this little girl moves more than sister did. One of the special things about her that already makes me smile big is when she is still, I will lay down and put my hands on my stomach and call her name and she moves instantly...so so sweet.

Now, this little girl is unbelievably excited about her new sister that will be here before we know it!

We have been preparing her for a while so nothing is completely a shock to her and she always asks about her Maddyn and when she is going to be here.

She already has it lined up that she is going to help me put her socks on, get diapers/wipes for me, kiss her cheeks, rock with her and mommy, put her passi in and love her. I cannot wait for the special "big sister" day that I am planning for her this Summer! I hope and pray that since she is older now that this will be an easy adjustment for her.

A while back she did this for a week...Decided that she wanted to wear this hat at odd times/weather temps of the day. This was at 6:00 in the morning...

Since Camdyn was 2 she has always been aware of others emotions and she thought at times people were staring at her or maybe making a mean face. (funny I know!) Well now the dog does it. She told me and Dustin on many occasions that Bozley was looking at her in a mean way. I told her to show me and here is her face...

Do you see any difference in her face?? Then she told me "Look momma, he's doing it again!"

Please check out Bozley's "mean face"!

We died and died laughing because her nor the dog's face changes one bit!! Oh that child of ours!

Random but I was cleaning up dinner a while back and noticed this heart in the suds! Look only at the clear black part and you too will see it!

I took Cam outside one day and took some pictures of her in about 5 minutes for her Thank you's. This girl is so easy right now to take pictures of...and she does some poses!

This book will always be my favorite book (Thanks Amy!) and if you don't have it please go and get it! Every time I read it I either get teary eyed or almost do because it is truly the best book ever. Camdyn loves me to read it to her and I can't wait until she is older to really explain to her what it means.

**Notice her sweet hand on my growing belly. :) :) :)

This was taken a while back of Camdyn eating her snacks in the sun after school (topless!)--I cannot wait for many summer days like this!!! We just have to figure out how to keep cool in this super hot sun!

I have took it upon myself to try to take a nap when Camdyn naps--I feel like I have an excuse! ha! I slept for an hour and she is still sleeping as I type so now it's time for me to get some dinner started! I am making a fruit/chicken pasta (Thanks Amanda for the recipe) for dinner with some tomato basil soup! Sounds delish! Tomorrow is also my "sprinkle" with all of my best friends at Mi Cocina. I can't wait to visit with all of them and enjoy a girl's night out.