daydreaming...

On a beautiful spring day in Florida this is what I am dreaming of today...

Salty dogs and sandy kids are what good days are made of. These pictures were taken months ago. Ever since we went to the beach a couple of weeks ago I have been craving to go back. We may just got tomorrow morning!

And look what I picked up for the next member of our family for when she is ready to join us...

I bought this a few weeks ago and couldn't help buying this next one today! 

How cute are they!

waiting for teagan...

I wish we had some beautiful professional photos taken of our family while waiting for our baby to arrive, but... instead... we took these the other night, quickly, as a frozen pizza cooked in the oven! It is just the way we roll! We were lucky to get one good one of the three of us while just using the camera timer! Hopefully they still capture our excitement and love for our baby girl who is still keeping us guessing of her arrival.

gavin's room...

Finally... pictures of the sweet boy's room. He still LOVES it and I like how it turned out too!

We kept the baseball theme for his room so I re-used the photos of the baseball stadiums and his name in the Red Sox font that you saw here. I found really cute madras print shams at Potterybarn Kids that matched a quilt that was passed down in my family. I love the bright colors.

 Gavin LOVES his truck sheets. I hear him sometimes counting the excavators and dump trucks when he is supposed to be sleeping! These sheets were on sale at Potterybarn Kids and were a Christmas gift, just like the madras shams.

 Gavin's red chair was a Christmas gift from Santa, again from Potterybarn Kids. Boy I wish I still worked for Potterybarn and got my discount!!

 He also likes his new bookshelf and toy bucket shelf. Mark's mom found the bucket shelf at a garage sale and the bookshelf came from Ikea.

 I love his artwork cable that I actually, badly, snuck onto Teagan's registry to receive 10% off. But how cute is it and it holds all his wonderful creative creations!

 I do need to work on two things... the first is I have got to do something about a laundry bag. This is the one he is using now! Does it look familiar to anyone??!!

 I also need to figure out a way to cover these french doors, there are actually two to make a double french door. We started having a problem with Gavin peeking out behind the coverings when he was supposed to be in bed sleeping, the little pickle. Now I have them covered completely with paper taped to the window panes which is not to attractive. Any suggestions?

 Thanks!

what a wonderful week...

I have been given a gift. My little girl decided to be patient a give me a whole week off of bed rest! We even went to the hospital very early Thursday morning thinking she was coming, but she changed her mind and my week continued! Thank you Baby Teagan!!

I have had so much fun spending time with friends, Gavin, Mark and even running errands. Our family spent yesterday outside all day by the pool. This is me enjoying the party...

I look so big and a little trashy! Sorry! I actually have a picture of Gavin riding his tricycle around the pool in the nude, but decided against posting it on the Internet!! It is so cute though. Why put a swimsuit on him when we are in the privacy of our own backyard! I think the picture would really add to our trashiness here in this post!! All of us did clean up though and went out for a delicious Italian dinner.

Thank you again, Teagan. But I am now exhausted and you can come!

i am no martha...

I feel like part of the purpose of this blog is to admit that life is never perfect. So many times you observe someones life and admire what a perfect house, family, overall life they have, but you never know! This post is to confess my blunder yesterday.

I love taking care of my family and home, but I am definitely NO Martha Stewart. I decided that Gavin and I were long over due to do some cooking so I decided we should make some shamrock cookies for St. Patrick's Day... Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone by the way! I do not like sugar cookies, but I make them for my husband who does, and now for my son who likes to use the cookie cutter. I actually have a great recipe that I do like from Martha. It has lemon juice and lemon zest in it that makes the cookies yummy by my taste buds.

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tbs. finely grated lemon zest
1Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 large eggs
   Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Put sugars and zest in the bowl of an electric mixture. Mix on medium speed 30 seconds. Add butter; mix until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute. Mix in eggs, 1 at a time, and then the lemon juice. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixutre.
2.Using a 2-in. ice cream scoop (I used a spoon) drop dough onto parchment lined baking sheets, spacing 3 in. apart. Flatten cookies slightly; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Lightly brush with a wet pastry brush; sprinkle with more sanding sugar.
3. Bake cookies until golden, about 15 minutes.

Seeing Gavin lick the dough from the beaters definitely brings back memories of my sister and me enjoying the same thing!

I actually only followed these directions up through step one because Gavin and I then rolled out the dough to make cutout cookies. I know I have used this recipe in the past to make Christmas cutout sugar cookies, but yesterday was different!

It may have been that it was a bit warm in my house. The high for our area was almost 80. The problem was that the dough was SO sticky! If I got it rolled out at all, all the cut shamrocks just stuck to the board.

I even tried to put the dough in the freezer, but when I pulled it out it immediately got warm again and sticky. Ugh! So... instead of freaking out or doing something extradoridinary with a lot of effort the way Martha would I told Gavin we were switching to plan B. Instead of shamrocks we made St. Patti's Day balls, or Irish Balls depending on your sense of humour!! Gavin did a great job adding green sugar!

We did get one cookie sheet of shamrocks, but we were very proud of our balls too!

The funny thing was, once all the cookies came out of the oven you really couldn't tell the difference between the shamrocks and Irish balls.

Geez!!

And check out my belly...

Gavin was good to notice that it got covered in flour! :)



a sneak peek...

I continue to be pregnant!! I went to Target this morning and then Gavin and I went to the park. I am hoping to make shamrock cookies with him this afternoon!

I wanted to give you a sneak peek of the nursery. I am not ready for the big reveal yet because there are a few finishing touches, but here is a little peek...

I am so excited! I am hoping to show you Gavin's room tomorrow. I really love how it turned out, but I haven't had a chance to take pictures when he is not sleeping!

so happy to be... busy...

I never in my life thought I would be so happy to do household chores, but it feels SO good. Since Sunday I have fixed a shower curtain, picked up a TON of random items from EVERYWHERE, cooked, Swiffered and dusted, ran errands, did laundry, organized Gavin's books, rotated his toys, re-arranged the nursery closet, started to put together the baby swing and even made beds every day! It feels good to have my house back in order, somewhat! I even completed an easy project that I have had my heart set on for so long.

I bought these Adirondack chairs with some birthday money I have been saving and added some springy flowers to the front of the house.

Of course I chose pink in honor of a sweet little girl who has decided to be patient now! I wanted to get plastic ones so we could easily carry them for some front yard play. They were already used this afternoon for a game of t-ball!!

time to celebrate...

First, and update on my friend Anne. She is amazing. Surgery went well and she is actually going home tomorrow. I am so happy.

This has been a good week so far for our family too. Yesterday marked 36 weeks for my pregnancy! It is a milestone definitely to celebrate. I am so thankful to my doctors and family and friends for helping me get this far. I truly did not think I would still be pregnant right now! We have had so much help from taking care of Gavin, meals cooked, errands run and even notes and phone calls of support. I could not have baked this baby without all the love we have received. Thank you! I am now off bed rest too!! Even though the baby is not full term yet the doctors would still let her come and she should be fine. Our nerves can rest easier now. To celebrate Mark, Gavin and I took breakfast to the beach yesterday.

I did not want to wait till dinner!! Who knows what could happen! Actually we went to the hospital Saturday night thinking she was coming, but it was a false alarm. So yes, we grabbed bagels and headed for the beach. It was heaven!! That evening we spent more time outside letting the dogs play in the pool and Gavin splashed in his baby pool.

Today I am STILL pregnant and I do not want to be at home!! Gavin and I headed to Barnes and Noble so the Easter Bunny could secretly do some shopping while Gavin played at the train table. We then went to the park to meet some friends. It was fabulous!! It feels so weird to be up and about. My body is having to readjust. It feels a little tired and unsure after laying down for 5 weeks.

And I have never been this big and pregnant before! Now I know how other people feel getting bigger and waiting... Mark is especially ready and anxious and I got the go ahead from my dad too. He just wanted to be able to hit golf balls yesterday morning. Gavin is ready too. He told me this morning he loves Teagan. How sweet is that??!! I just hope he continues to feel that way! Saturday we finished the last few things in the nursery. Gavin helped raise the mattress on the crib. He is such a good big brother.

My perinatoligist said she was betting that I would make it to 36 weeks, and she was right! She said I might make it to 37, but she didn't think beyond that. We shall see!

a special request...

I can't write about anything else today other than what is on my mind. My very good friend, Anne, had her second surgery today to try to beat her battle with brain cancer that started this summer. My sorority sisters have a phone tree in place and I did get a text today that the surgery went well which was a relief to say the least. Anne is one of the most special people I have ever been honored enough to know in my life. Her beaming smile projects pure spirit, caring and love. If you could say a prayer for my friend I would greatly appreciate it.

This picture is one of my favorites. It may look a little weird, like we all showered together, but we did not! This was taken in Anne's room when we all lived in our sorority house together. That time holds some of the happiest moments of my life. Anne is on the far left. The picture reminds me how we love to be silly together, laughing singing, dancing, just being crazy girls.

yay big belly hey...

I finally thought I would share some photos of my growing belly.

I actually love my big belly. Since Gavin came early I wanted to get really big this time to experience it. Maybe there is still hope for that! But my face, please understand that bed rest does not allow a lot of time to primp! I am looking forward to that again!

And I did take some bare belly shots too. I feel a little weird sharing this, but how amazing is pregnancy? As you get bigger you can really see the outline of the cocoon that is harboring your little precious baby. It is truly a miracle!

I actually can't believe I am still pregnant! This little girl has already beaten her big brother in the baking competition. She already has scored one point on the sibling rivalry scoreboard! We are getting anxious though. I feel like she will be here soon.

I have to mention, though, as a write this I am sad for a very good friend of mine. As I am celebrating making it through my pregnancy my friend found out this week that she is still not pregnant after battling infertility for a while. I still have much hope for her that she will have her much wanted baby, but it makes me wonder why some people, so deserving, can't get pregnant. Mark told me a summary from an article in the paper this morning about some woman who was toilet training her toddler. After the child had an accident she became so angry she killed the innocent child and then ordered a pizza. How do things like this happen?? I of course immediately thought of my friend. I like to believe there is a God watching over us doing good, but how does he allow a woman like that become a mother, and another, who desires so much to love and cherish a child go with out? Any thoughts? I just try to be so thankful for the gift of my children and send many prayers to that God above that he gives my friend that much deserved gift too.