I'm a mess....

Okay, so I'm always emotional and really can't blame it on being about 9 months pregnant but I really am a mess.... I sobbed and sobbed last night thinking about how big the boys are getting (seriously SOBBED). The trigger was that the boys are now sleeping in the same room, which began this week. Well, before Parker started sleeping with Andrew, Andrew use to sneak out all of the time and come into the living room and snack with Cam and I. Yea, at times it was annoying but it was such sweet, quality time we had with Andrew and felt that it was okay because he was the BIG brother and old enough to stay up a little longer with the grown ups:). Well now that Parker is in there, that can't happen because they'd never go to sleep. Our routine is after a book, we set an alarm for them to chat for 15 minutes and then after that it's time to sleep. They've really adjusted well to this and I'm so proud.... BUT I was so sad last night thinking how Andrew wasn't going to be sneaking out anymore. I'm not going to see his little blonde head sneaking around the bottom of the recliner:( and the saddest thing is I didn't think about this until it was gone. So as I was sitting watching a depressing Dateline, which didn't help, I started thinking of how Andrew wasn't coming out to snack. I really wanted to make some popcorn but just couldn't because I thought it would make me even more sad that Andrew wasn't going to sneak in about 5 times to get a handful. I told Cam he really should think of committing me;). I honestly don't know what I'll do this Fall when Andrew starts kindergarten, especially since it's where I'll be teaching. I told Cam that I may have to call in sick the first day of school because I'll be so sad:(. I'll seriously probably have to take off a few years when they graduate. Ugghhhhh.... I'm a mess! I was actually doing pretty good this morning until I read this sweet blog post. Oh man, I lost it all over again (Cam walked by and saw me sobbing and said, "okay, click on the little x and close your computer":). It's that kind of cry that you can't help but crack up laughing because you're sobbing so much, so basically I've been manic for the past 24 hours:)

My Weakness....

I love chocolate covered strawberries:) The boys and I stopped by the store (on the way home from the park) to pick up the ingredients to make mommy's special treat to herself:) Since I made 12, maybe Cam, Andrew and Parker can have one.... to share:)

Mini Vacation, No Diamonds and StInKy cabin!!

We had soo much fun on our first "mini" vacation with the boys. The boys were perfect (our dvd player in the car is priceless:). Andrew and Parker had the best time at the diamond mine. They weren't very helpful in our search for finding the diamond. Andrew dug some at the beginning, Parker threw rocks most of the time and then Andrew built some big rock towers:) Cam immediately got excited when he saw something shimmer but we soon realized that place was full of itty bitty pieces of shimmer.
We also went to a couple of parks while we were gone. It was so nice to not have an agenda and just do whatever we thought everyone would enjoy....
OKAY, now for the part of the trip where we got ripped off. Our cabin was not too expensive ($70) and we thought it was definitely worth it for us to not have to drive there and back in one day (6 hours). I knew we were in trouble when Andrew (who went into the cabin before me) came out and said, "What's that smell?? It stinks in here!!" Boy was he right... we anticipated that it might be smelly so we thought we'd take some candles but we forgot. So... we stopped and picked a couple up at a dollar store. Why are we so cheap? We could've cooked those candles in a sauce pan and you would've never smelled them!! The stinch was a combination of funk, dog and smoke. I literally couldn't sleep. Then I got the giggles at about 4:00 am because it smelled so bad and was so afraid I was going to wake up the boys. Cam, against his will, got the giggles, too.
All in all it was definitely a great trip!! It's something we and the boys will remember for a long time!!

More pics of the Mini Vacation:)

Busy Me...

I feel like I've been in the kitchen all day. Well, okay so we cheated and had Larry's Pizza for lunch, but only so we can take the left overs with us on our mini vacation:) We're leaving tomorrow for Murfreesboro to go diamond digging. The boys are so EXCITED!! I thought I would make us some treats to take with us. For dinner I cooked some potato soup and cornbread so we can eat it tomorrow for dinner at our cabin. I also cooked some sour dough bread, which makes the BEST breakfast toast (Mrs. Mindy's recipe that I've failed at a few times but finally was able to make it today:). I made the boys some yogurt popsicles and then made us some granola (my cousin Amy and her roomie's recipe) to take for a snack on the trip. I've lost count of how many times I've done a set of dishes today.
It's suppose to be perfect weather for us while we're away. We're staying one night in a cabin. It should be pretty adventurous because we've never taken the boys to stay the night somewhere like this before. Wish us luck!!

Sweet Surprise...

My cousin Amy came to town today for a visit. She brought her new boyfriend (whom I approve of:) and they brought me a surprise. Her roommate, Amber, has been making a quilt out of my wedding gown (see previous post) for Piper. Amber knew I was planning on hanging this quilt on the wall instead of really using it as Piper's blanket because I want it to be a keepsake for her. So..... she decided to not only make me one baby quilt, but 2! She is still finishing up the one for the wall but made a second (simpler and softer) one that I can actually let Piper use. It's so sweet. Cam and I were so excited about it! We're soooo thankful for Amber and her generosity to spend so much of her time quilting something that is so precious to us:) THANKS AMBER!!!

Easter eggs:)

The boys and I decorated Easter eggs today. This was our first time to ever do this and they had so much fun:) It was such a beautiful day so we decided to have an early hunt.

Today was also the first day of my Spring Break!! Cam is taking off a few days next week and we're taking the boys diamond digging. We're hoping the boys will find enough to pay for college;). They actually have a lot of practice digging up worms.

Sweet ramblings..

Andrew had been playing with a couple of older kiddos at his grandmommy's house and when he came in he said, "I heard a lot of mean things out there". Cameron said, "you did??" and he said, "yea, I heard a lot of butts" :)

This morning Parker came into our room and was complaining about Andrew. He said, "Andrew said that I don't know everything". I said, "well, you know a lot of things... mommy and daddy don't know everything either". He said, "yes, you do because God said so". This week we've been talking a lot about Philipians 4:13, "I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength". Parker was just a little confused:)

so thankful....

I love my job and I'm so thankful that God has given me the opportunity to be a part of my students' lives. I care so much about them, probably to a fault. I had a new kid enroll in my class about a week ago so I could help him catch up on work and pull up his grades. When I get a new kid I always ask them several questions to get to know them. I asked who he lived with and he said his cousin. I asked why he didn't live his parents and he said his father just died a few months ago of cancer. My heart just sank for him. From my observations I could tell he moved around a lot, probably living in poverty and had no direction in life. There seems to be no one in his life for him to look to for guidance. I only had him for a little over a week and he only attended school twice in that week. Toward the end of the week, he came by my room to have me sign his withdrawal papers. I was so sad. He was moving again. I told him as I signed his forms that he may think I'm silly but that I was truly going to be praying for him and that I prayed that he would find purpose and be able to see the importance of school for his future. I'm so thankful to God for the opportunity to meet this young man and I'm so thankful for the burden God has given me for him.

i can't WAIT!

I was looking through some old pics on the computer and came across a couple of swimming pics last summer. I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL SUMMER TIME!! (yea, sure maybe part of the reason is because I'm a teacher:)
One of my favorite things is being out at the pool and listening to some Kirk Franklin music:) I love to swim and so do the boys:) Now, I'm sure it will be a little challenging with little Piper but hopefully we'll still be able to get out to the pool a lot this summer.

Mod Mum Sling

There's a sling give away over at Ellinghouse blog. It's super cute . I'm hoping to get a wrap or sling for little Piper. You can check out all of the cool Mod Mum slings here.

Diaper Discounts:)

So I've been researching for MONTHS about cloth diapering and really, really want to do this with Piper, especially while we're at home. I think I've picked the diaper that I want to use Bum Genius 3.0 but they're really expensive (actually all of them are) but it makes me feel better when I think of what we're saving in the long run.
Since I'm sooo cheap I've really been trying to find a way to pay less for these diapers and have found a great discount. If you're a new customer at diapers.com and spend $25.00 then you get $10.00 off using the coupon code GoCityKids. Also, if you spend $50.00 you get free shipping. So the bum genius diapers are $18.00 each. I bought 3 of them and got $10.00 off and free shipping:) so it brought the diapers down to about $14.50 a diaper. I'm going to ask mom and Cam's mom to log on and buy some so they can get the same deal!!:) I'm hoping to accumulate about 20 cloth diapers. Oh by the way, the diapers are one size fits all, they have these super cool snap things that make them fit 7-35 lbs.

Getting ready for baby:)

So we have about 8 weeks left until little Piper comes:) We've been working on some stuff in her room. Last night we bought some letters from Hobby Lobby and painted them today. Aren't they sweet? They match our polka dot bedding perfectly:)



Since she'll be using Parker's room and he and Andrew will share a room, we decided to let them sleep together last night. What an adventure!! It was so sweet sitting outside of their door and hearing their conversation. They stayed up talking for an hour and a half. We're going to try to let them stay together some on the weekends just to get them use to it.
Here's a sweet pic of them after they called all the Spiderman troops together:)

I've been tagged...

I've been tagged by Lanna to answer the following questions... so here goes.

What is the one big goal you hope to accomplish this week? hmmm... nothing really, kind of feeling lazy:)
What is the one household chore you do not like to do? LAUNDRY... folding and putting up
What would you buy if someone gave you $2,000? Definitely living room furniture and probably an iPhone:)
Describe yourself using one word. Dreamer
What is the one saying or theme that you live by? Dare to do great things!!
What is the one household item you cannot live without? My MacBook:)
If you had one chance to go anywhere in the world, where would you go? back to Rwanda
List the one person you admire the most. My Grandma Glover. She's no longer with us, but she was an amazing Godly lady with a wonderful character and she raised 10 kids... WOW!
What is one thing people may not know about you? I may look really short but I'm actually 5'5" ;)

I tag Anna and Becke'.

Uhhh..... mine, mine

Andrew built a fun little tower with some dominos so I thought I'd take a pic.....

Well, as soon as Parker saw me take a pic of Andrew's he said.... "Uhhhh... mine,
take one of my mine" and started pointing to his tower:)


Soooo sweet!!

31 weeks..

Cam took a couple of pics of me and the boys... you can see how big my belly is getting in one of them:) I went to the doc today and I have gained 20 pounds. I gained 30 with both boys so I'm expecting to gain at least 10 more. The doctor said that Piper is already a pretty big baby:( I was sooo hoping for a sweet, petite baby girl. Andrew was 8 lb 10 oz and Parker was 8 lb 13 oz and they were both a week early. I was really rooting for a 6 pounder this time but we'll be thrilled as long as she's healthy!!

More Pics of the Snow Day:)

We wanted to get a couple of pics of Parker and the Snowman so we let him go out for a minute and then he immediately wanted to put the snow gear on (even the Wal-Mart bags:).




Cameron asked Andrew what he wanted to name the Snowman and he said, "Andrew". Cam said, "Why?" and Andrew replied, "Because I like that name". Then Spot, our beloved dog, was jumping on the Snowman and Andrew ran over and yelled... "NOOOO Spot... that's Andrew!!" He then grabbed some snow and smoothed over the Snowman:)
I told Cameron that I personally think the Snowman is a little creepy looking because his eyes look like they hurt!!:)

**sNoW dAy**

Hip...Hip... HoOraY! We finally get a snow day... and by the way, I honestly believe teachers LOVE this way more than students:) The boys were sooo excited this morning to wake up to a blanket of snow on the yard. Cameron took a 1/2 day (mainly because the roads were bad when he tried to go to work this morning... and also to play in the snow:). He and Andrew are out building a snowman. Parker, unfortunately, is a little under the weather. He woke up a couple of times complaining of an earache. He didn't want to go outside, mainly because he didn't want to put Wal-Mart bags on his shoes to keep them dry:). He does have a slight fever. Poor Parky-Park (and the funky bunch).
Well... off to make some hot chocolate!!

Just curious....

So, what's your all time favorite movie? Cam and I NEVER get to watch movies, well unless they're rated G:) with the boys. Since we have such little opportunity to watch movies, I'm curious to know what are some movies worth spending time on.
I have several favorite movies but my all time favorite is Life is Beautiful. Wow... what an amazing story of a selfless father. I love this movie, so if you haven't seen it I'm recommending it...



Also.... Simple is giving away a really cool set of animal blocks. You should check it out.

i LOVE this weather!!

Today our highs were in the upper 60's and it was soooo beautiful! Cam and I took the boys to the park. We had such a great time. The boys played and played and played. There were several other families that showed up so the park was full of children playing.
Parker is very energetic and full of life but is sometimes a little shy when it comes to other kids. I think it's mainly his age (just turned 3) and the fact that he has never been to daycare or anything. The only time he and Andrew are around other little ones is at church, with family or when Mrs. Mindy takes them to the library. Today when the other kids showed up I told the boys, "they may want to come over and play with your chalk". Parker immediately went to the chalk and held the bucket tight as he started drawing. I don't think it's really that he didn't want to share it, he just didn't want them around him:) He usually warms up to others but it takes a while. It's so strange because it's really not his personality at all to be shy, so when he's this way Cam and I always feel like we're with a different child.

On another note... I've been buying from ebay for quite some time now but this week I sold my first item:) I've been going through the boys old clothes and sold 3 different lots of clothing this week. We also have our Handycam video camera right now on ebay and just listed our iMac.