M.O.S.H.

We had a fun day today at the Museum of Science and History in downtown Jacksonville. They had lots of dinosaurs for us to see and Julianna liked it... after a while. They moved and "roared" so it took her a few minutes before she was willing to get close to them.



I thought this was adorable. Only because it wasn't real.



I did a report about the triceratops in elementary school. My mom.... I mean, I, mixed all of my playdoh together to get this nice brownish green color and molded a dinosaur out of it. We probably got an A.



She's getting braver.



And this was the most innocent quote of the day. "Look, the Mommy is sleeping and the kids are playing." I didn't have the heart to tell her that they were eating the big dinosaur!



This was her best dino impression, she gave a pretty hearty ROARRRRRR.



They had other exhibits and we got to see a spinning wheel. She is so in to Sleeping Beauty that it was really exciting to see. In case you don't remember, the wicked witch puts a spell on the princess and she pricks her finger on the spindle of the spinning wheel. That's what puts her to sleep. Just ask Julianna about it... she'll tell you the whole story. Don't worry... "they lived happily ever after!"



And this was the entrance to the body exhibit. How funny is that! And look how sassy Julianna is standing.


When we got home she was drawing with Daddy again. Her pictures are getting better by the day. Now the smiley has big circle eyes, a nose, hair, ears and a body. It's really neat to see how she adds something new each time.

And even more exciting news.... we made reservations for our trip to Disney World next weekend. We are SO excited about this trip for Julianna. It's our last big hurrah before we become a family of 4. We want it to be extra special for her. We will be having lunch with all of the Disney princesses on Sunday! I think she's going to love it. I haven't been in several years so I am excited to go back myself. I have more and more fun every time I go.
Also, we had a sonogram today to check on baby. He is looking great and his estimated weight today was 5lbs 7oz. Only 4.5 weeks to go. I can't believe how fast this time has gone by. We are really excited about his pending arrival..... he better just wait until we get back from Disney next weekend. Anytime after that is fine with me. haha :)

Keeping busy

Trying to keep a toddler occupied in a house that isn't hers and with very few toys can prove to be difficult. However, I am not one of those parents who is opposed to some TV watching so we've been watching a lot of Sesame Street and Disney movies. We've found some things to do to keep us busy and bought some puzzles today in hopes that I won't over do the TV thing. She and Daddy like to draw on the dry erase board. She made that smiley face all by herself. That was the first time that it was very clearly a smiley face and not just a circle with some random dots in the middle of it. I was very proud of my little Picasso.


We also took a trip to the zoo. It was a very spontaneous trip, not at all planned, so I had to borrow sunscreen from another mom and luckily I had some goldfish crackers in my purse and a sippy cup in the car. It was a little hot for me so we didn't stay for too long. It was enough to take up our morning and get home in time for nap. She had fun.


Today at Target Ike saw this "mini boppy pillow" that he thought would be fun for Julianna to use while feeding her baby like Mommy will with Mason. It's one of those neck pillows for traveling but it was perfect. Julianna right away got "Mommy's Bear" in the big pillow and her bear in the little one. Then she got a bottle and fed both of them. She practiced changing diapers on her little bear yesterday.

His "nursery" (the office) will work out well. The other day we washed all of his clothes and organized things. It's the first time I've really been able to do any nesting as far as the baby is concerned. He's going to sleep in the pack-n-play so we don't even get to set up the crib or anything. His clothes are stacked on the bookshelf in the office but it actually looks kind of cute and the room smells like Dreft and diapers. I love it. It is making me get excited for his arrival! I like seeing little boy stuff laying around. Julianna is actually calling it "Brother's room." That makes me smile. :)

And as you can see she is getting ready to sing little brother to sleep. He might be easier to hold and rock than Daddy!

Fun in the Sun!

As you can see, we are settling in here rather nicely! We have had such a fun day today. We spent the morning at the beach. Julianna LOVED it. We haven't really been to the beach since we moved from Virginia. Not much beach in Memphis! haha She had so much fun playing the the waves with Mommy and Daddy throwing her all around. Then she and Daddy built a sand castle. We even saw some dolphins swimming not too far from where we were. I of course had to double check with Ike that they were not sharks. I get paranoid about sea creatures! It really was a lot of fun.
We came back to the condo and took a nice nap then went shopping for a few baby items that we need when little brother arrives. We bought our first box of diapers and I have to admit... it was pretty exciting! He will be here before we know it. As you can see in the pictures above I'm pretty "large and in charge" these days. Only 6 weeks left! We're going to try to fit as much excitement in for Julianna before he arrives, including a trip to Disney in the coming weeks. I am looking forward to that. She will LOVE seeing all of the Disney Princesses. Hope you are all having a great weekend so far.

It could be worse...

Moving is exhausting. But I guess we're doing better than this guy. Who got close enough to put that bottle there? I don't know but it's hilarious and just reminds me that we don't have it all that rough. We are all in Jacksonville now. We have all of the clothes and stuff that we could fit in suitcases and it's all unpacked. The condo is furnished nicely and Julianna was really excited about her new room. When we walked in she said... "Are we at the hotel?!" But it she said it super excited, not disappointed at all. We've been doing errands all day today but tomorrow we hope to go to the beach. More to come, just wanted to keep you all updated!

No more Walkin' in Memphis

Today was our last full day as a family here in Memphis. The movers start packing up tomorrow so Julianna and I are hitting the road and camping out in Decatur until the house is empty. Then we will fly to Florida and Ike will start his drive. We ended our time here almost the exact same way we started it. We went to the Peabody and said hello to the ducks then went to Huey's for a burger. We did that the first week we were here. It was kind of fun to finish the same way we started... and it wasn't even planned.

This is the ducks house on the roof of the Peabody Hotel. Very cute.

Here's Preg-Nancy posing on the roof.

And here with Fancy Nancy. You can't see here but she had her purse, bracelet, sunglasses, the whole 9 for our outing. Very posh.

We had a drink from the bar in the lobby. Daddy got Shirley Temples for his girls. I think he got a "real" drink.

And I just think this picture is funny. Julianna is "feeding" her brother a bottle. Notice she has the bottle right IN my belly button. Hilarious. I can't wait for her to really meet her brother. She is going to be the best helper.
Pardon me if I don't update for a few days. I'll probably get back on when we arrive in Jacksonville. Prayers for a easy move please!

Daddy's Home

So, Ike flew out of Jacksonville early this morning and got back to Memphis just after breakfast and Julianna was SOOO excited. She's been very good not worrying about him being gone the past couple weeks, but when she found out we were headed to the airport to pick Daddy up she was very happy.



We visited this morning with our friends, the Shepard's, and their latest addition, Mr. Logan. I think Julianna is going to like being a big sister. She was so giddy with Logan.



We got lots of playing done at home, a little laziness too, and this evening we went to the mall and this is what Julianna did. She's hinted at doing it before and every time we've called her bluff, but today she stepped up to the plate and had a blast!

They're HEEERRRREEE!

NeeNee and PopPop are here for one last visit to Memphis. We've had lots of fun already. In this heat, popsicles on the porch were a must!



We went to the park. 1, 2, 3... SWINGGGGGGGGGG!



Even Big Momma joined them in the heat. I sat in the shade.



They had lots of fun swinging. Julianna better keep both hands on the swing!!!



Julianna taught PopPop how to climb up.



Only in the south would there be a tractor at the playground! ha


Julianna was a good girl at school today and got to pick some candy out of the treasure box.


After school we headed to the doctors office to have her ears rechecked after the tubes were put in. Everything was great. You would never know by how happy she looks that we actually waited at the doctors office for 2 HOURS!!!! Very annoying, but she was a trooper. Especially since the appointment was during nap time. So the only nap she got today was the 15 minute car ride home from the doctors.

Right now she is playing in the baby pool in the backyard with PopPop. And when I say with PopPop.... I mean he is actually IN the baby pool with her. Always fun when NeeNee and PopPop are around! More soon.

A little TOO optimistic

Well, we were so excited for our sleep over. We had the trundle bed pulled out and were all ready for our friends to come over.


We watched a movie and played with lots of toys.


We played dress up and gave each other lots of hugs.

We looked at pictures.

We thought it was hilarious to get in the doggy crate.

Then we all took a bath. Even little brother Cohen. Ms. Ashley gave them all silly hair. :)

We got our jammies on and read some books.

We played beauty shop.

And we eventually fell asleep. This was around 1030pm. Ashley and I were impressed that they actually went to sleep and we had pulled off the sleep over. We both headed to bed shortly after (after a glass of wine and some Oreo cookies) and thought we were very successful.

1130pm: Julianna woke up crying. Her nose was stuffy.

1230am: Julianna woke up crying again. Nose was very stuffy and she was having trouble breathing when she layed down.

230am: Julianna woke up crying... again. Stuffy nose, had to go potty, etc. I took her down to my bed so she didn't keep waking up Savannah. (She was having a big allergy attack, probably because we never use the trundle bed and it was probably dusty and had kitty hair on it or something.)
330am: Savannah realized that Julianna wasn't in the room with her and wanted to get in bed with her Mommy.

345am: Savannah wakes up Cohen who was sleeping in the pack-n-play in the guest room with Ashley.

400am: See picture below.

Everyone was in my room. Ashley decided to pack up the kids and just take them home where HOPEFULLY they would go back to sleep and sleep late in the morning.

I don't know what time they got up but Julianna went back to her bed at 500am and was up by 645am. HA So, I got about 2 hours of sleep last night. She had a stuffy nose all day today so we took some extra allergy medicine. She did take a 3 hr nap which was a saving grace for me. I took at least a 2 hour nap. The rest of the day went well. I cleaned her room, washed all the sheets, vacuumed and turned her HEPA air purifier on HIGH. Here's hoping for a good night of sleep! :) Ashley, Savannah, and Cohen... We love you and are so thankful for your friendship!!! We will miss you SOOOO much!

Not Much

Not much going on around here. Ike is in Jacksonville. Julianna and I are just hanging out. Lucy (the dog) moved in with Nana and Papa in Decatur. Caffrey (the cat) will be going home with my Mom and Dad after they visit next week. The movers are scheduled for the week after that. Really just not much to blog about. Julianna is having her first sleep over tomorrow night. Her friend Savannah is going to sleep over (so is her mom so I am excited about the sleep over too!) so we should have some pretty cute pictures from that. Hope everyone is having a good week!

"Wicked" Weekend

Ike and I had a great night out on Friday night. We had tickets to see "Wicked" at the Orpheum and it was an awesome show. Ike got me season tickets to the musicals for Christmas and we agreed that it was one of the best gifts he has ever given me. We have had so much fun with our "date nights" each month. Here we are (and there's my big belly) at Folks Folly for dinner. We had a delicious meal and delicious dessert which put us in our happy place before the show started. We made the best of our last weekend together in Memphis.



Then we headed over to Decatur for the 4th. Here's a little firecracker!! Aunt ReeRee and Nana made her outfit. Isn't it cute?! Cousin had a matching one. Very sweet.


Julianna was really getting in the patriotic mood for the 4th.


She wanted to take a picture of me. This was the best of the group. Most of them were missing my head or at least part of my face. Excuse the goofy face I am making. I kept trying to position myself within the frame of the camera and I was laughing pretty hard. She was so funny. She would say "Oh Mommy, that's a good one." And it would be a picture of the floor! haha


And check out this Princess. This was Aunt ReeRee's dress when she was little. Nana got it out for Julianna because she is really into the princess thing right now. She has been wearing it ever moment that I have let her. I am surprised she didn't ask to sleep in it tonight. haha

Hope you all had a Happy 4th of July.