I'm Bringing Belly Back...

I just want to prepare you all for my return! Yup, I'm coming back. Admit it...you missed me! 

I am now 22 weeks and 4 days along. Due date is May 21st, which is the day after MY birthday!

In this home, where we currently have two little girlies running around, we will be seeing.......more.......PINK! Craziness, I know.

All is going well so far. She hangs out down around my bladder, which I am almost constantly fully aware of.

For now I'll leave you with these pics (to remind you of my face, and show you my belly). And don't fret...I WILL BE BACK!!!

Just ME (a wedding and a vampire)! :-)

So I have still been so busy, and I haven't had much to blog about anyway. BUT this past weekend I went to a wedding, and I felt kinda pretty. So...I'm just gonna come off as a little self centered for a minute and show myself off ;-)

And for a contest in my FAVE Cafemom group, I became a vampire today. Haha

I did another one and had to add it!

Short and sweet, that's it for today. Have a great one!

Fall Flavors (Picture This)...

I'm sitting here nauseous (as is the norm lately), thinking up a post and I can't get my mind away from some of my Favorite Fall Flavors. 

And I want to SEE all the things I'm thinking about so I'm going to find yummy pics, too! Ooooh, yeah!

 I LOVE Thanksgiving! The whole meal that we have is at the top of my faves list. Ours is usually pretty traditional and simple, just how I like it! Turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed 'taters and gravy, pea salad (one of my favorite things!), sweet potato casserole (among other things)...Oh! And we started a few years ago doing a traditionally baked turkey AND a deep fried turkey (if you haven't tried that, you're missing out...seriously!)...I'm hungry just thinking about it!

Okay, I'll be honest...our spread looks nothing like this, but I thought it was beautiful...love all the fall colors!

Then there's dessert. Pecan pie, pumpkin pie, fudge, and other miscellaneous sweets (we always experiment with new desserts). One of my VERY faves is this:

Pumpkin cheesecake...it. is. DIVINE. Geez, I want some now!

Aside from Thanksgiving, some other fall faves include homemade chili (this is actually mine I made recently...could have used a prettier bowl, huh?).

Homemade stew (not my pic, but sure looks yummy!):

My hubby's homemade hot chocolate:

Goodies I like to make like these (bad pic because there were prettier ones than these! Lol):

 And these:

The slew of candy the girls bring in from trick-or-treating (which my preggo self already can't wait for!):

Oh, and I can't forget mine and my hubby's famous duck gumbo (it's AMAZING and literally takes hours to make...and SO worth it!), and yes...this is a pic of ours:

Our recipe is derived from the one and only Duck Commander. Thank you, sir!

Gosh, I'll leave it at this...I am now hungry and ready to start making all these things! :-) What are some of YOUR fall faves?!

Exhaustion and Chaos and Fun (with pics to prove it!)...

I know I haven't written lately. I. Have. Been . Exhausted. I mean, that's totally normal in pregnancy, but throw in the fact that we've been so busy lately. And that I babysat a precious 6 week old Monday and Tuesday, plus my regular little guy on Tuesday as well, had to be up at 6:30 both of those days, with one or both of my girls still waking up in the night, feeling like I'm not getting anything done around the house...yeah. You get the point. 

Needless to say, I have a LOT to get done today! I haven't hardly been on the computer at all this week (so I'm making up for that right now). I talked to my mom one day but other than that haven't talked to anyone. I was in bed at 9:50 Monday night (that's early for me!), and have skipped my nightly bath/shaving time TWO nights already this week (rarely happens). 

I'm SO ready to move into the new house...I can't wait to have a place for all the things that I don't have a place for right now.

Oh! Over the weekend we FINALLY got to take the girls bowling. It was Emily's reward for getting her 10 stickers for "obeying and following instructions" at school. We had a good time, though it wasn't quite what Emily expected (her words)...the girl is used to being a pro at Wii bowling and couldn't even hold the real ball it was so heavy for her. Haha But she still enjoyed it!

Emily went hunting with her daddy yesterday and had a good time! Yay for daddy/daughter time...so precious. I'll leave you with a picture of her adorable face and then I need to get to cleaning, laundry, more cleaning, a shower, and...more cleaning.

♥ Family ♥

So, with all of the trauma and drama that has been the start of Kindergarten, we decided to take a little trip to OKC (that's Oklahoma City for those of you who aren't Okies). We thought it would be good for Emily to have some cousin time and take her mind off school for a couple days. Also, it was my lovely sister-in-law's birthday yesterday! When we get together, there is ALWAYS good food, lots of card playing (Pitch is the name of the game...we never really stray from that), and just good 'ol family fun. Oh, and of course mixed with all that fun are all of those moments (memorable, at least) of the CRAZY that surrounds this family (hey, they're my in-laws so shhh). Saturday, we had an appointment to get some pictures taken of the kiddos. Now so far there are only 4 (kids, that is)...but you would think we had a whole slew of them! Most of the time at this photo shoot consisted of the adults making complete fools out of themselves, lots of bribing, and a few crying kids. Oh my, you would think we were in there torturing them! I don't think it helped that the photographer and her "helper" were...a little overwhelming, to say the least. Haha I mean, there's trying to entertain the kids, and then there's just scaring them more that they already are! And they were scared. I think we got like 3 pictures that had Emily in them and she had her arms crossed, head down, and a frown on her face. And yes, we bought some. That will be a memory worth looking back on. Ah...the joys of having SUPER shy kids! 

Let's see...OH! I got my hair did. My AMAZING sister-in-law Anna did a superb job on me. Here are the results :-)

I love the feeling of new hair! Haha I'm poor, so I don't get to do mine often. I mean, my husband makes me blonde. Yes, you read that right. He pulls it through a cap and gets in done! I hate admitting this, but I will...he does a pretty good job. BUT that doesn't mean that having a professional work their magic on my head ain't a goooood feeling.

Now, for a couple more pictures. I LOVE pictures! After the attempted photo shoot, we let the kids have some fun to relieve the stress. These two right here are just best buds already. It's adorable and I love their faces in this pic! My little Madelyn is just such a cut-up and I LOVE HER FACE!!! Lol The nephew is a handsome guy, too ;-)

We all got to go out WITHOUT THE KIDS on Saturday night. Dinner reservations at 8:45? If that's what it takes! We enjoyed some amazing food, delicious wine, and just good family time. It was so relaxing and something we all needed. Here we are, and please...ignore the crazy eyes! Kinda creeps me out but it's what we got. (WHY are my pics always so small on here?!)

We left our Maddie-girl behind in the city. She's getting to spend some one-on-one q-time with her LaLa (what the grand kids call her). I think this may be a first for her...hm (Maddie is her LaLa's shadow when she's around so they'll have a blast). Anyway, Emily and I watched a movie on the way home, and when she got bored with that she did what she does best and that is...photo shoot (of herself, of course)! Here is one that I took of her and her new pride and joy teddy bear, Cory. This is what my oldest stuffed animal (also a teddy bear) is named so it warms my heart that she wanted to name hers the same. *sniff*

 Have I mentioned yet how GORGEOUS I think my girls are? Yeah. I am a proud, proud momma. And btw...Emily did pretty darn good this morning when I took her to school. She slept through the night (yay!), ate a little bit for breakfast (it's the most important meal of the day, right?), and yes she cried but she sat in her chair as I left (normally her teacher has to pry her off me). I'm excited to pick her up and have some fun with my girl! 

Okay, I think I ended up just rambling in this post. But you know what? I'm okay with that! This was about family, and I did talk about family, right? We had a good weekend and that was so needed. Now, even though I have a few hours to myself and would like nothing more than to just sit here...I need to unpack, do dishes that were left over the weekend and then...maybe I will just sit here and do nothing after that. :-) Sounds like a plan to me!