bed issues

We need some advice. Grace will not stay in her bed! She was doing great until she got sick last week. So for nearly 2 weeks she has gotten up at least 2 times a night. This was fine when she was sick, but now she is fine and I'm sick! We have a child lock on the inside of her room, so she can't out. (This might sound mean, but she is on the second floor of our house and I wouldn't want her to get try to come down the stairs in the dark in the middle of the night). Anyway, we don't know what to do. She usually goes down pretty easy (although not as easy as it was when she was in a crib), but then wakes and gets out of bed and starts knocking at the door. I've let her cry when she was in her crib around 8 months, but what do I do now?? We currently have her mattress on the floor, but we are thinking of putting her bed frame together and just getting bed rails. Our thought is that it just might keep her in the bed. So any advice?

ps... Since I'm due in less than 5 weeks I'm totally worrying. What am I going to do if I have a toddler and a newborn waking up several times a night. I'm tired just thinking of it!

A girl and her wuvey (lovey)

I don't know what Grace would do without her lovey. When she was 9 months or so she started to become attached to a blanket with silky on one side. So last year for Christmas my mom made her 6 lovey's that have silky on one side. We lost one last year when we were out shopping, thankfully I had another one in my car! Anyway, I took a couple photos of her snuggling with her lovey because it really is such apart of her.

8 advantages of living in the city

I haven't lived in a big city since I graduated from high school... 10 years ago! And since being back I love it! There are so many awesome advantages. Here are a few I've noticed.

1. Delivery - You can anything delivered right to house and put in the room you want it. Since we moved we have bought several new furniture pieces for the family room, Grace's room and our new study and it is so wonderful to have it delivered. When we lived in Oklahoma we lived too far for delivery or it was out of this world expensive to deliver, so we always opted to pick it up ourselves.

2. Shopping - The nearest Target is only a couple miles from house. When we first moved to Oklahoma the nearest Target was an hour away and then about 2 years ago we got one 30 minutes away... not nearly close enough.


3. Restaurants - Too many options is great! I was limited to Chili's, fast food, or a couple local places. Adam and I are trying not to go crazy in this department though...only eating out once a week!


4. Grocery Stores - Any place that has more options than Walmart is fantastic. While I still do most of my grocery shopping at Walmart (because it really is cheaper) I enjoy having other options to go and grab something different and yummy from a place near us called Market Street... so cool!

5. Grandparents - We have always been lucky to have our parents pretty close... my parents use to be about 1.5 hours away and Adam's parents were 3, but now my parents are a mear 20 minutes and Adam's are about 2.5 hours away. It is great! My mom even babysat for us last Friday night so we could have a little night out to ourselves. It was wonderful!! It was even topped off that we had a gift card to where we ate, so our entire night out was practically free. I'm sure we will be needing more help from our parents once baby girl Emma comes (in 5 weeks!!!).

6. Pre-schools - there was only one in the city we lived in!! We have just started looking here, but there is one on practically every corner and they all seem wonderful. We were hoping to get Grace in one right away just one day a week, but everyone that seems great is full. So we are hoping to get her into a program 2 days a week for fall. Grace LOVES to be around other kids and I really just think she needs that time away from me. Plus it will be nice to have some time just me and the baby (like I did with Grace).

7. Food delivery - so a cross between delivery and restaurants... but in Oklahoma we only had pizza delivery. I don't even know how many places deliver here, but it has to be more than just Domino's. This will come in VERY handy after we have the baby. Although I am planning to make some meals to freeze (if you have any great casserole recipes email me!), I know there are going to be days that even putting something into the oven isn't going to happen! So Amen for food delivery.

8. Doctors - While I LOVED my old OB and Pediatrician, there are so many more options here. In Oklahoma we had only 3 OB's and a hand full of pediatricians. In fact, I ended up going to a pediatrician 30 miles down the road because he was that good. I miss them both terribly, but feel like we have found a couple good ones here. This could be a con as well... since there are so many finding a good one can take time. Thankfully I have so many family and friends in Dallas that have been helpful in this department.

Only a couple disadvantage I can find so far. One is traffic. And really that doesn't affect me that much... only Adam. Better him than me since I can get road rage. The second is that our neighbor is sort of busy during the day because of construction. Our neighborhood is about 3/4 complete, so we have probably about a year of construction noise ahead. It just isn't completely optimal for a stay-at-home mama that needs a nap from time to time. Thankfully Grace seems to sleep right through the noise!

OH and Grace is feeling much better. Unfortunately Adam and I have caught her little bug and are now going through tissues very fast! Hopefully it pass quickly because I would love to enjoy these last few weeks we have to sleep!!

hey

I had a doctors appointment this morning and all is looking good. I'm 34 weeks and 1 day, but I am measuring 33 weeks. No big deal though. I just can't believe that in 6 weeks (give or take a few days) we will have another baby. Boy do I have some shopping to do. This baby needs some diapers!!!

Grace hasn't been feeling well the last several days. I ended up taking her to her new pediatrician (who I had yet to meet) and found out it's just a bad cold. She has had a fever on/off since Friday and is coughing like crazy, but today she seems to be getting back to normal despite those two issues. I really liked her new pediatrician. My old pediatrician had given me 2 recommendations for new people that he knew down in our new area. One of them couldn't get Grace in till MAY (for her 2 year well visit). So we opted for the other one and couldn't be happier. He has only been practicing in our area for about 6 months so he is still building up clients, which I loved! (They just moved to the area as well to be closer to family.) It was just nice being able to call yesterday morning and get in the same day within a few hours. I hate those pediatricians that you have to make appointments with for the next day or when you get there you have to wait forever! We were in and out in about 30-40 minutes. Very convenient!

Oh and just for those that asked, no we are not potty training Grace. She just loves to go on the potty from time to time. So if she asks I put her on the potty. But overall I don't think she is quite ready, plus with all the changes in our house in that last month and another change coming very soon we decided to wait until Summer to start official potty training. Wasn't that picture adorable though! She loves to read magazines when on the potty... its so funny to see the things that she picks up from us :)

And like I always say, every post is better with a picture... here you go. My messy hair girl first thing in the morning. I'm beginning to think she may need a haircut soon...

potty time

Grace being silly.

just an update

Things are slowing down around here... finally. We are for the most part settled. Although we haven't managed to hang any pictures, almost everything else has found a home. It is nice I have to admit to move to a larger home. Makes finding new places for stuff easy. We have several cabinets in our kitchen that are completely empty! My only main complain is there isn't really an extra closet on the first floor for stuff... you know... Grace's toys, the vacuum, etc. So those items are either in the laundry room or crammed in every little corner of the house.

Grace was doing well in the toddler bed, but she kept falling out! So we decided to just go ahead and put her in the big bed (full size) on the floor and she is doing great. Each day is getting easier and easier. And today when I laid her down for her nap she just said "night night" and laid right down! AMEN! What an answered prayer. I worried so much about moving her to a big girl bed and she really has done very well. Here is a picture of her sleeping in her new bed. My big girl!




I'm feeling very pregnant these days. I am now 33 weeks. WOW! This pregnancy has really flown by. We have been working on the baby's room a lot. I pulled a bin of old clothes and just sat there wondering how my toddler fit in all those clothes. I know she didn't fit in them for long, but how was she ever that little? I can't wait to have another baby girl wearing those clothes. Half of them look like new! Other than diapers and a few other miscellaneous items we are pretty much ready for this baby girl to come. Grace seems to be getting it more each day that there is a baby growing in my belly. She will lift my shirt up (only at home thankfully!) and will say baby. She will kiss my belly and press her ear against my belly button just listening. Who knows what she hears. But she always pops up and smiles and says "baby". I wonder if she will be that excited when she realizes that baby is going to occupy her mommy and daddy's attention! OH and whenever we are out and about and Grace sees a baby she yells "baby" and gets so excited. She even reaches her hands out like she wants to hold the baby. Again, I wonder if she will have the same excitement when Emma arrives. Somehow I think the newness of a baby sister is going to wear off very quickly!

On another note, I went to my friend Tiffany's baby shower this past weekend. She is due with her first baby the same as me and she is also have a girl. How fun is that! The girls are destined to be best friends! Here is a picture of Tiffany and I and are growing belly's.


And thanks everyone to posted about places to shop for dresses. I haven't found "the one" yet. I realized that most places don't have their Easter dresses out quite yet. I was told to wait a couple more weeks. So the first week in February I'm there. Although, I did find a couple I LOVE on the website you guys suggested. I just want to make sure I can't find something a little cheaper than online.

matching dresses

Mamma's of two kiddos...

Where can I find Easter dresses in 0-3 months and 2T that match?

I've been looking but haven't seemed to have any luck. If I find something cute for the baby they don't have it in toddler sizes, or vise versa. Since Easter is so early this year (March 23rd) I wanted to get dresses before the baby comes. Any suggestions welcome.

Like mother like daughter

I was over at my friend Lindsay's house the other day and she and our other friend Michelle thought it would be funny to make Grace look pregnant. They pushed a little mini basketball up her shirt and she walked around preggo! It was so cute and funny! We were all laughing so hard and Grace loving the attention of her new belly. So without further delay... here are a few pictures of my Miss Pris looking like mommy!

my new OB

This morning was my first visit to my new OB in Dallas.

I like her.

But it's so weird to change doctors this far into the game. I loved my old doctor! He was great.

But things happen and I guess I couldn't drive an hour and a half for my appointments and to deliver. So a change was inevitable.

Anyway, everything is looking great. I am measuring a bit small, but all in all the baby sounds great. (Funny how you can feel HUGE and be measuring small!). My new doctor was a bit concerned about the weight of Grace when she was born... 8 pounds 10 ounces. She was saying that many times your second baby is larger. She just doesn't want me having a baby bigger than 9 pounds. So I am scheduled to have an ultrasound in 4 weeks (I will be 36 weeks then) to make sure the baby isn't getting too big. She mentioned something about possibly inducing early if the baby is looking big, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I've always been pretty against inducing unless there was a medical reason to do so. Things just happened so naturally with Grace (my water broke on my due date... who does that happen to?), so I guess I was just hoping the same would happen this time. Anyway, I guess I have a little time to thing that over.

So all in all, she was very nice. Hopefully the next 8 weeks of this pregnancy will go as smoothly as the first 32 have. I just can't believe I will have another baby in less than 2 months! Time sure does fly. Now I have to run b/c I have lots to do before this little one arrives.

more Christmas and birthdays

Grace and her new bike! Such a big girl!

Last week Adam's grandpa turned 90! So everyone in Adam's family came in from out of town to celebrate his big day. Before we celebrated the birthday we had Christmas. Adam's parents were on a European cruise over Christmas and all the boys were with their wives families (including us)...so we had another Christmas on Saturday. Adam's parents brought all the daughter-in-laws (there are 3 of us) beautiful crystal necklaces from Austria and Grace got some fun new toys and a bike. She has been talking about a bike for about a month now. Although she is still a little bit small for the bike, she loves it! She wanted to ride it so badly when Adam was putting it together.

Anyway it was a nice weekend. Here are a few pictures of the weekend.

Adam's family... his parents, 2 brothers and their kiddos... Grace is the one not looking at the camera. oh well.

Kaleb (3 yrs) and Kameron (6 years) smiling

Kaleb (3) and Grace (nearly 2) hanging out on the stairs before bed. Such buddies.

Pop Pop about to blow out the candles

We're back........

Yes we made it and we are still alive! Here is the last few weeks in a nut shell...

• We packed (took forever!)



• Had my last day at work. It was Pajama day... Grace in the front on the far right.

  



Grace and I by the Christmas tree... she has a nice little resting spot on my belly!






• closed on our house in Oklahoma


• closed on our new house in Dallas


• Got a new stainless steel fridge and plasma tv (it was a gift from our realtor... long story, but we are still in shock! It was an amazing gift!!)
  
• Moved in our stuff that was in storage


• Painted the new baby's room a light green (so cute!)
  
• celebrated Christmas with my family!
  Grace first thing Christmas morning! So cute!


Grace with her new baby stroller!



Grace during the day... the only cute picture I could get of her dressed up!




• Movers moved us in on the 26th


• Unpacked a lot of boxes (that actually went pretty fast)


• Fired our new cable company (Time Warner) and already switched to AT&T (big mess!)


• Bought some new furniture. (needed something to put the plasma on and bought big girl furniture for Grace since her crib and furniture is now in the baby's room)
• Moved Grace to a big girl toddler bed!!!! (This is a whole different post, but she is doing great... I worried for months about this and it has really gone very smoothly!)

• Went to Walmart and Target a good 10,000 times to buy things we needed... it's amazing ot me the things you need when you move, or things you didn't need in your old house and now you do.

• Had a baby shower for my sister-in-law at my parent's house (she is due with a little baby boy just a couple weeks after me!).

  
• Celebrated New Year's Eve at a good friend's house. We hung out and ate lots of yummy food with Michelle, Jeff (her hubbie), their little girl Grace, and another couple... Missy, Kevin and their little boy Grayson. We enjoyed ourselves and Grace stayed up till 11!


• Got to see one of my best friend's Katie and her hubbie Andy. They came up from Southeast Texas for New Year's Eve and we grabbed lunch on New Year's Day. It was fun for them to see the house.

• Adam started his new job yesterday! He said it was a good first day. They already have a mess with our new insurance, but hopefully that will get fixed quickly because I have an appointment with my new OB next Tuesday. But I think it sounds like he is really going to enjoy his new job! He is just anxious to really get started!

• Now to just get settled more. I will post pictures once things are looking more done. Right now we don't have anything on the walls or any decorations out... just basically the furniture is in place.

• Now to get planning for Grace's 2nd birthday next month!


• Oh and lets not forget... I'm now 31 weeks pregnant... where has this pregnancy gone?? So in a couple of months we will have another baby girl! Hopefully we can just enjoy things for a couple months until Miss EMMA makes her appearance! (Yes, we decided on a name!)

And here is the Miss Pris herself sporting her new "eyes". I can't get her to say sunglasses, but at least she knows where they go!

Bloggin break

With the move and Christmas I'm going to be away from the computer for the next week or so. Hopefully the next post will be coming from our new house!

Have a very Merry Christmas!!

oh baby

I looked down today and realized that my belly sure is growing! With this pregnancy there have been days that I forget I am even pregnant, until I feel a kick or try to squeeze into a small space that I use to fit into. I know things have been pretty busy lately, but what mother forgets she is pregnant with a tiny baby girl? Well I have. And since I am already 28 weeks and a few days I need to start writing about this tiny baby so she knows that we loved her and wanted her before she was even here. I can't believe in about 11 weeks she will be in our arms to hug and kiss.

Here is a picture of me at 28 weeks and 4 days about to walk out the door to Adam's Christmas party!

Of course Sammie and Grace had to be in the picture. :)

8 days!

We close on our house in Okahoma and our new house in Texas in 8 days (December 21st)!!! All in the same day. We are so excited! I can't believe how quickly everything is going. So I'm off to keep packing! We have a LOT to do. Thank goodness I'm done with my Christmas shopping!!

Christmas picture

We were unable to get a cute picture of the whole family (all 3 of us that is), so we opted to take a picture of just Grace for Christmas cards this year. Since I mailed mine this morning I thought I would post the picture for all those that don't get a card out in the blogging world.

What a cute smile! I love it!

Christmas cards!

I love getting Christmas cards! It really makes getting the mail fun throughout the month of December.

Anyway, several family and friend have emailed asking where to mail cards to... for now keep sending them to our Oklahoma address. We will have our mail forwarded when we move, plus I will send an email out as soon as we do move.

We are currently just waiting on an official closing date. We just found out today that we might be able to close next week! This would be awesome to move before Christmas!!!!

Anyway, can't wait to see everyone's cards (and hopefully cute pictures!).

Christmas thoughts

I'm so sad this year because I have no Christmas decorations to look at. Since we are probably moving the week of Christmas we have opted to not put up a tree and bring out all the stuff. I did bring out the wreath for the front door and our stockings, but that's it. At least we will be at my parents house for Christmas morning so Gracie will get to enjoy a tree there.

This weekend we also started (and finished!) our Christmas shopping!! The last several weeks have been so busy with job and moving stuff that we haven't had time to focus on Christmas. I can't believe it is in just a couple weeks!

We also attempted a Christmas card picture... not much luck for a family photo so I got one of just Grace. Hopefully we can get those in the mail this week!

OH and I almost forgot we tried to do Santa, but the line was LONG!! Apparently Sunday's at 11 are bad. I guess because everyone is already dressed up for church they just head to Santa... who stole our idea? So we are going to try again hopefully this week or next. Gotta go see Santa right?

That's about it for my Christmas thoughts. I'm off to wrap Christmas presents. And maybe start packing... we move in 3 weeks (maybe sooner!!!).

Our realtor

I've been meaning to post all week about our realtor in the Big D. He was AWESOME! His name is Bill Nelson. He and his wife have a team of Realtors that are so wonderful. His wife spent several hours setting up times to look at homes of our choice and I sent her a pretty long list! Then Bill spent the ENTIRE weekend with us looking for a house. He was out looking with us at 9 am Saturday and we looked till dark. I know I was exhausted and I'm sure he must have been, but he was at our house again the next morning to keep at it. We found a house we loved and he was there with us to answer any questions when we signed the house contract. Since I'm not planning to move anytime soon (at least 10+ years!) I just wanted to pass his name.

Anyway, if you or anyone you know is moving to/from Dallas/Ft.Worth he is the man you want! Check out his car here... you can't miss it driving down the road. OH and one cool thing he does, if you buy a house from him then he will sell your house for free! Check him out at www.teamnelson.com.

She loves it!

This summer Adam and I took Grace on her first carousel ride and she HATED it. She was okay until it started moving. So we figured we would wait a few months and head back.

This past weekend we were at the same mall with the same carousel and we thought we should try it again. Success! It's amazing how a new day and a few months will change things.

I'm hoping to have the same success with Santa this weekend.

A new home...

About 48 hours after we sold our house in Oklahoma we bought a home in Texas!

I think we are both still in shock, but very excited to have found a home so quickly. The house will only be about 20 minutes from my parents and most my family! We close at the end of the month, so we will probably have an exciting New Years of unpacking and organizing. The house is definitly something that we can grow into and hope to be there for many years as this is our dream house!

So once we get settled come and visit anytime!! Here is a picture of the outside of the house. I love the rock and brick combo.