Nascar Slip and Slide!!

Jared explaining how to do it, and Maclain responding "Daddy, I don't think I can do that!"

Ready to go now!

Picking his car!! He went back and forth from all 3!

"Mama... I won the piston cup!!!!" :) He would run and jump and only make it a few feet. He refused help to get the rest of the way, and would instead scoot and push his way to the "finish line" just like Lightning McQueen on "Cars" when he gets a flat tire at the end of the races and hops to the finish line! He LOVES acting out movie scenes!!

LOVING IT!

"Mama, look at this funny thing... it has eyes"! :)

Make sure you see the posts below... this was catch-up day for blogging!!

AND... Update: The baby is still doing okay, but my bp not so much! It's staying pretty high now! SO...I'm pretty restricted to just laying and doing NOTHING!!!! Hence the time to catch up on the computer! :) I am 35 weeks today, so I'm super thankful to have made it this far! If we can make it just 1 more week, we're less likely to spend time in the NICU, and if we can make it 2 more weeks that risk goes WAY down!!!!!! Just sitting (laying) tight for now!

Dirt Time!

SOO.... most of you guys know we started the building process about a year ago, and one of the biggest hold ups before we decided was the outrageous cost of the lots out here! Granted, they are larger than a lot of subdivisions, and typically the builder does a great job in the development. SOMETHING went awry with our lot however, and it appears there is no such thing as drainage!!! So, considering the amount of rain we have had the past few months, our sod is just NOT taking, and we pretty much have little ponds ALL over the front and back yard! VERY irritating... and Jared handles it much better than I do. Okay... I won't go any further with my irritation!

Well, in an attempt to "fix" the yard that was supposed to be "move in ready" for us, we hauled in a load of sand/dirt mixture and rented some equipment to spread it. Of course, I'm observing all of this while laying on the couch, but at least maybe we are on the slow track to getting our yard fixed!

And.... since we have a huge pile of very sandy dirt in our yard now, where do you think Maclain has been ALLLL day... literally for hours now!!?? That's right, digging away! He helped Daddy for about 2 minutes shoveling dirt into the equipment, but then took a break... permanently! :) I took these pics about 15 minutes into his play time thinking he'd get bored of it soon. Well... you should see him now! Caked on dirt from head to toe! Who needs sunscreen now??

I HATE the yard situation, but it's so fun to see Maclain having such a blast!

AWANA Ceremony!

I'm a few weeks late on this one, but I still wanted to share!!

For the past 2 years, Maclain has been a "Puggles" in the Awana program at church. Next year he will be a cubby, and he's so excited to be in there with "Mrs. Pauwa" (Paula)! :)

Look at how "proper" he looks here!! Looks like we have one well behaved little man on our hands! :)

Reciting his memory verse "God made everything"! All the kiddos kind of yelled it rather than recited it... if you couldn't tell by looking at Maclain's face!! :)

Here he's getting his end of the year present!

AND.... in true kiddo form, immediately digs in! :)

We are so blessed to have Awana at our church.... and for everyone that helps make it all happen!

End of the Year Program

Here are a few pictures of Maclain at his end of the year program at Mother's Day Out! We were SOOO proud of him! He's come a long way from crying on stage at church the Christmas before last!

By the way... he practiced and practiced and practiced his "George Washington" song! He was READY to go and so excited leading up to this night!

Yes, I was there! I definitely put this into the category of one of those "special events" the Dr. was talking about! :) Not only was it AWESOME to be out and about, but it's just incredible to see your child performing on stage!



"I pledge allegiance, to the flag..."

"GEORGE WASHINGTON, GEORGE WASHINGTON, HE WAS A GREAT GRAND MAN..." Zoie's not real sure about his singing here! She's our neighbor and Maclain's friend!

Everyone with their horses singing "Yankee Doodle"! :) So cute!

Subliminal Messaging!

This morning, Maclain was standing in front of our shower with the solid see through glass door. He could see his reflection (which he knows what it is and LOVES to talk about seeing his reflection every time he finds it)! Anyway, he was dancing around and singing a little something made up (Just like his Daddy does). And... when he decided to make sure I was aware of the reflection he found, he said:

"Mama.... look at my perfection!"

Now that's a little insight if I say so myself! :)

P.S. I'm still contracting every few minutes around the clock... most of them a little uncomfortable, some on the side of painful... but I'm still only 1 cm dilated, but now I'm 50% thinned. I will be heading back to the Dr. Friday for another non stress test (which yesterday turned into a stress test because the baby wasn't awake and moving, but having contractions every 3 minutes, they were able to determine how well he was doing through the contractions instead)!

Baby Update!

I will be 34 weeks on Saturday, and so far ALL test done to check how well the baby is doing have come back GREAT! He is growing... quite quickly... at every visit! Our hope is to make it at least 2 more weeks, but ideally would make it at least 3!

Since Sunday I have been having contractions... sporadically, but day in day out!!! I've only had a few that felt "real"... the memory of that pain sure came rushing back to me when I first felt it again! But, for the most part, the majority of them are just uncomfortable, and a few have almost been unnoticed other than the obvious rock hard tummy!

As of Monday, there was no need to worry, but today they went ahead and checked to make sure I wasn't "progressing" because of the contractions!! I am 1 cm dilated, but nothing else! I'm not "thinned" at all, and the baby is still plenty high up! So, she gave me some meds that I can take for the contractions on an as needed basis! And... it happens to often be used for blood pressure, so we can't go wrong there!!! Also... she said the dilation could possibly be just because this is my second pregnancy and nothing to do with the contractions, and they'll just keep on monitoring me!

Thankfully, I am ONLY showing the pre-eclampsia sign of high blood pressure, and no other symptoms, SO I am only considered to have pregnancy hypertension!! My bp is still staying below normal while "resting" which is GREAT as well! SO... we are still just trucking right along, and if I can ward off these contractions for 2-3 more weeks, we should have smooth sailing... wait... then comes LABOR!!! WOW... it's getting close!!!!!

By the way... I am exactly 2 weeks in my pregnancy from when I had Maclain!! AND... I am currently have contractions every 6 minutes!! CRAZY!

Reid's Room is FINISHED!

Well... for now at least! There are things I plan to do once the baby is here to put in there (pictures, hand/footprints, etc.). BUT, for now, it is ready for Mr. Reid Alexander!

Here are some pictures of the "finished" product!

Looking in from the doorway!

Reid's bed, ready for his snugly self!

I got these from a super talented lady out of Huntsville! I just sent her pics of the bedding and told her the restrictions we had (Jared had a few requests to make sure they weren't girly). Anyway, I got them in the mail in record time!! She does tons of other custom work as well! Her website with some samples and pricing is http://www.laughytaffydesigns.com/. You've gotta check her out!!

Little jungle animals waiting for the newest little monkey!

Another picture of the bedding!

Here's one of his window valences... and bamboo blinds! What matches better with jungle animals!? :)

Here's both windows with the maternity collage in between.


Here's a close-up of the picture, with our wall wording! :) -LOVE wall wording!! I had to take the pic at a weird angle because of the glare! AND... the pictures not even behind glass!!

Here's his changing table, hamper... and part of his car seat! :)

A close-up from the decor above his changing table!

And this is just incredible to me!! While we were putting up the wall wording this morning, Maclain was taking the backing paper and protective paper, and kept saying he was making his name. Poor little guy... we were completely ignoring him, and had no idea what he was "pretending" to do! When we got finished he was asking for more paper, and I looked and he already had the M, a, c, and l completed!! Jared jumped in and helped him finish the rest!! It was JUST incredible to me! Kids are SO smart!

NOW... just a few more weeks away, and we will be bringing baby Reid home to his new room, and excited parents and big brother!! We are so blessed!

Cake Anyone?

Alot of you know I used to decorate cakes.... birthday, showers, wedding, you name it! Well, I still get calls now and then for an order, but I just don't even come close to having time to do them anymore! I even almost ordered my own child's birthday cake last year, but just couldn't do it! WELL... NOW... no longer do I just have to say "no" to people, I can say, "no... but I know someone who can!" :) My sweet sister-in-law Kim (you know Liam who you see on here periodically... it's his mommy) is working from home now that her little man is here... and growing fast! She has taken the same classes I did, and does an AWESOME job! Not to mention... the yummy incredible taste! :)

Here are a few of the cakes she has done!

For your next event's cake/cupcake needs, let me know and I'll pass along her info!!

Now I want some cake!! :)

3 Year Old Prayer Time!

In the last week or so, Maclain has been turning into a big boy with his prayer time! He wants to pray like Daddy, and actually does a pretty good job at it! If he's eating a meal by himself for any reason, you'll even catch him bowing his head and saying his blessing without any prompting before the first bite! BUT... up until this point, prayer time was a little... hmmm... entertaining should I say?! It's definitely been a learning process so far for our little man!

Before I head to the funny part of all of this, I must add, at preschool everyday they say the traditional "God is great, God is good,... " prayer before they eat lunch!

Until this past week, for about a month or so ALL prayers went a little like this:

• "God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our Spaghetti. By his hands we all are fed. Thank you lord for daily bread. Amen"
• "God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our Bed. By his hands we all are fed. Thank you lord for daily bread. Amen" (said at bedtime obviously)

So, as you can see... that is not only a traditional mealtime prayer, but it can be a very universal prayer to be used for ANY occasion! :) We are happy to see him finally branching out this week though! :)

At least he's praying! :) Unfortunately, that's more than some of us can say on certain days!!