1 Day

I'm scheduled tomorrow morning at 8:30 for my c/s. To say I'm ready would be an understatement. I'm beyond ready. Totally over being pregnant and ready to just get the show on the road.

Since it isn't my first rodeo and I know what to expect, the anticipation might be killing me. The post surgery feelings, swellings and night sweats are sort of stressing me out. Not knowing her personality and how it will compare to Cooper's leaves me wondering non-stop what she'll be like. Plus, the slight worry of how Cooper will react is there as well.

I wouldn't be me if I were not worried 75% of the time about something. The other 25% is when I'm sleeping. And that's stretching it!

This weekend we spent time with Cooper - letting him play in the sprinkler in the backyard, watch a movie and taking him to dinner. He also (inadvertently) got a special treat by sleeping in our room Saturday night. Only because it was storming outside!

Last, but not least, I wanted to finally share photos of her room.

We bought the changing table on Craigslist - then repainted it and added new hardware. I actually made the changing pad cover (plus another one). I'm thrilled I managed that on my own. I'll also add the second one was much easier to make than the first.

Once we found out Peanut Butter was going to be a girl, I decided that I wanted the bedding to be made by my mom. I searched for fabric options and settled on this line. The hardest part was deciding what would go where and narrowing choices down - I loved all of it!

I really love the way it turned out, though it is hard to see in the photo. I'm pretty sure I almost gave my mom a heart attack making it, but she did a great job and I am so thankful!

Bridget and I worked on the signs above the crib with her fancy Cricut. I love that thing and she did an awesome job. I just did the Mod Podge!

Finally, the letters were made with scraps of fabric from the bedding. Rachel & my mom worked on those one weekend. I really like how they turned out.

I still need drapes, but quit looking since I knew they wouldn't be in before she gets here.

And that's it. I've got one last doctors appointment today, pre-registration at the hospital and then dinner tonight with family before we head back to the hospital bright and early tomorrow morning.

Happy Easter!

Easter morning we all woke up bright and early for Sunrise Service. Before heading to church, Cooper came downstairs to see that the Easter Bunny had found him at Nana's house.

He had insisted that the Batman Easter Bunny was going to bring him Gravedigger for Easter. Thankfully, the Easter Bunny heard his pleas, even though we never actually visited the Bunny.

After church and breakfast, Cooper went with the other kids for an Easter Egg hunt.

For some reason, he thought he could do better by leaving his basket on the picnic table and running back and forth. I finally convinced him to carry the basket.

He stopped again to check out the loot inside the eggs. And finally quit to play on the swing set.

After a break and a nap, we headed to my aunt & uncle's house for family Easter. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with a thunderstorm and hail. Since the ground was so wet outside, we hid eggs in one of the bedrooms for the kids to hunt. When you're really only working with 3 walking age kids, it works out pretty well!

Once the kids all collected the eggs, we headed back to Houston exhausted and candied out.

Easter Egg-stravaganza

Since we were going to be around the day before Easter, we planned to get Cooper & his friends together to dye eggs. We ended up with 8 kids, 2 babies and only 8 adults. We were seriously outnumbered, but we all survived!

We started by letting the kids dye their eggs before stopping for dinner.

It seems that Cooper and Eileen are never far apart and neither are Sarah and Reagan!

After we all took a break for burgers and hot dogs, we set up an Easter Egg hunt before it got too dark. Jason gathered all of the kids inside and managed to get them excited before opening the door.

Cooper kept stopping to open his eggs and check out the loot and finally quit. Apparently sliding is more fun.

Our only slight mistake came after the egg hunt when all of the kids went inside and upstairs while the adults stayed outside. Shortly after someone realized the kids were alone, we found them in the playroom surrounded by candy dumped on the floor. I think on a few pieces were consumed before we sent them back downstairs and outside.

A Baby Shower

Last month, my very generous friends hosted a baby shower in honor of Caitlin.

The food was fantastic - chicken bites and waffles, muffins, fruit, a fantastic cake and of course peanut butter eggs for Peanut Butter.

As we usually do, we spent most of the time catching up and talking before finally settling down to eat and then open gifts.

If you didn't notice, the bow holder matches the cake - and her room - perfectly. We received some awfully cute outfits, blankets and baskets full of necessities. Peanut Butter is sure to always leave home well dressed, with shoes, and smelling like a baby should.

I'm not sure what I did earlier in life to have been blessed with such a great group of friends, but I'm glad I did it. I owe them so much - not just for a wonderful shower, but for always being there.

Peanut Butter: 37 Weeks

Earlier this week we went for our final ultrasound. I picked Cooper up early from school and headed in to grab Jason before we had the fastest appointment every at the imaging center.

After the tech looked everything over, she brought Jason and Cooper back to the room. By that time, PB was moving all over the place and hard to capture on film. Funny enough, Cooper was moving all over the place and hardly standing still. I guess she's inherited one thing from him.

We did manage to get a few photos of her face. Jason and I both noticed the very chubby cheeks. I also feel like she will have the huge hands that Cooper had when he was born. By the way, he still has them!

The ultrasound estimated her weight to be about 8lbs and above the 90th percentile. Shocker, right? I'm guessing her final weight to be between 9lbs and 9.5lbs. Dr. S is thinking under 9 but I'm not buying it. I know she has probably delivered thousands of babies but I'm going to stick with my gut on this one. I do have to wonder just how big she would be if I had not been on a diet for the past few months. Holy cow!!

We're about 98% finished with her room. We've unpacked, sorted and rewashed clothes. A lot of clothes. I'm pretty sure if my washer and dryer survived the past two weeks, those two are here for the long haul. We did realize how few newborn size clothes we had. For some reason I was thinking we just didn't have many, however Kelly informed me that I gave all of Eileen's NB clothes back! It worked out, since Jason & I caved at Kohl's this past weekend and came home with 3 pairs of pajamas. And my mom and I couldn't decide on an outfit for her to wear home from the hospital, so we bought 4. I am pretty sure she won't go naked.

The next week will be spent doing some last minute organization things. I'd like to clean out Cooper's toys and either pack them away or donate them. We just have to figure out how to do that while he's not in the room! We also want to spend time doing stuff with him before his life changes. He plans to take me on a date one evening and I'd like to come up with something fun to do next weekend. Though anything that involves a lot of walking is out!

Race time

After Christmas, we put quite a few toys away for a rainy day. I knew we'd be spending more time at home this summer and having new things to pull out of the closet when Cooper is bored would be helpful. Since we've spent so much time lately doing things for Peanut Butter, Jason thought we should pull out Cooper's race track one evening.

To say Cooper was excited would be an understatement. He was Fired. Up. He kept screaming "Oh my gosh" and "I love it!" over and over.

This was before we even got it out of the box.

We started the set up process, only to realize it called for D size batteries...that we didn't have. Thankfully, batteries are sold at the Dollar Tree, so we were saved.

Jason & Cooper spent the evening testing every Matchbox car he owns for speed and aerodynamics. They weeded out the cars that couldn't make it around the track, which is apparently very important.

Since then, anyone who has walked through the door has been greeted with the question "Do you wanna see my new race track?" Tip: even if you say no, he'll ask again! And again.

The Rodeo

Um, wow. March came & went and we're halfway through April and I am seriously behind on posting.

Although Cooper went to the Rodeo 4 times this year, I have very few photos. The first trip, we watched my sister run during the Quarter Horse Show. Since time was limited, Jason and I actually left early to come home & paint PB's room. Cooper stayed and rode the Monster Truck ride with Nana a few times before she dropped him off.

Our second trip was with the intention of seeing the animals. We made the huge mistake, though, of arriving right at lunch. Once we grabbed a bite to eat, we realized how crowded everything was!

We managed to see a few animals without waiting in line too long.

Once we made our way through the animals, we checked out a few tractors. At that point, the walking caught up with me. I headed outside to sit down while the rest of the crew went to find some fried sweet food. After taste testing a few items (funnel cake and fried snickers) we were done.

Cooper ended up going back the next day with Pops & Nana, and again the day after to check out the carnival (or circus, as he calls it) with Uncle Z.

Of course, Cooper came home with a new basketball and 3 stuffed animals from winning games. Apparently he did really well when it came to throwing a baseball and shooting the basketball. And he did pick out a bright pink bear for PB as one of the prizes.

Phone Friday - 4/5

It's been a while since I've done this. Too busy, I guess!

Last month the rodeo rolled in to town and Cooper was fired up. He doesn't understand why Rodeo isn't across from Aunt Sassy's apartment all the time. We dressed up for Go Texan Day at daycare - complete with his belt & Spiderman boots.

I don't remember what we were doing when the next two photos were taken. Cooper took the first one of me and did a pretty good job.

I love his grin here!

We finally had a movie night!

Cooper thought it would be hilarious to put on a pair of Jason's boxers. He cracked himself up.

On our first trip to the rodeo, we walked across the carnival to check out the animals and grab lunch. I told Cooper no games as soon as we started. When we came to the very end of our walk, Jason & I noticed the Monster Truck ride. Suddenly Cooper stopped and screamed "It's the Grave Digger!!!!" Of course, Nana totally thought he needed to ride. He planned to ride alone, but right before it started, he begged Jason to get on.

One morning before school, Cooper ran to put his stuff in the front seat of the car. He ended up slipping off of the curb and knocked his head on the door frame. The knot popped up pretty quickly, but he was more concerned with the scraped knees and the need for a bandaid.

A few weeks ago, Jason went on vacation. Cooper took me on a date to his favorite place - the Backyard Grill. Or Girl, when he says it. I treated him to a cupcake after since I wanted to try out a new place.

Rachel, Cooper & I headed to my mom's for a weekend. Cooper spent the morning riding his Gator around the place.

We finally had some warmer weather so I pulled out the sprinkler. He was hesitant at first to get in the water, but once he did I couldn't get him to come inside. And since then he's been asking for another sprinkler day.

We went through a week long phase where he had to wear a baseball cap to school every day. I love him in a cap.

The boys went on another bike ride.

Rachel gave Cooper a few new gifts recently, one of them being a puzzle that we've put together about a dozen times since.

Our garbage company has some pink trucks. I saw it coming down the street and ran out to snap a photo so that I could show Cooper. He got a kick out of it, but really thought only girls would be working that truck.

 Last Friday, Cooper came home from Aunt Sassy's house. I knew he'd be unhappy to leave her, so I decided to treat him (and me) to an ice cream.

We came home from the ice cream and decided to wash my car. I think he was more soaked than the car.

Easter Sunday rolled around and Cooper checked out his basket before an early church service.

He was thrilled that the Batman Easter Bunny (no clue) gave him the Grave Digger Monster Truck he requested.

I'm trying to be crafty in Peanut Butter's room. Jason and I finally worked on the painting project that sat unfinished for a few weeks.