snakes, random stuff and prayer requests.

not the animal i had in mind.  i think i like bunnies better.  in fact, if i'd known this was going to be the animal of choice then i wouldn't have been so adamant about laying off of bunnies for a while.  oh well.  it's different at least. ;)

i guess it is fitting that we passed a snake tonight on our stroll.  that's my third sighting so far this summer.  creepy.

i was not in the living room today when sk arranged her princess dolls on the big chair.  she came in the kitchen completely tickled about it and couldn't wait to show me what she'd done.  it's the simple things i guess....

we swam today, hence the hair-do.

lounging with the princesses = a happy sk.

 i told sk if she ate every single pea on her plate tonight at dinner that she could have one of the pink cupcakes that she made with mimi.  

really?  she didn't want to eat all her peas but she did it.  she was thrilled to get her pink cupcake in front of her and in true sk fashion she licked most of the icing off, took a bite of the cake and was done.  what a sucker.  wonder what else i can get her to eat for just a bite of a cupcake or cookie?  hmmmm....

prayers!

my nieces have been sick with this horrible stomach virus for a couple of weeks now and it's still lingering.  they seem okay and then one of them gets sick again - seems to be the cycle.  the dr. said it certainly could last 3 weeks (or longer i suppose).  our kriner family beach vacation starts on saturday and ashley doesn't think they're going to make it over there with us.  they are missing their dance recital tomorrow evening, too.  i feel so bad for them.  we are praying that it leaves their house for GOOD really SOON!  say a prayer for them!

our contractor (john) and his wife (sarah) welcomed their first daughter on may 15th which happens to be john's birthday, too.  she was born very sick - unexpectedly sick.  she lived for 3 days and is now healthy and whole in heaven.  although comforting that's not where they want her.  they want their baby here - in their arms, in their house, in her completely decorated nursery wearing her sweet little monogrammed clothes.  it has been a very painful loss for this sweet young couple so they need alot of prayers.  she has been blogging about baby grace each day HERE.  i've seen john a couple of times since and he seems so sad.  he is a very proud dad - he showed me lots of pics that he had taken of grace on his iphone and talked about how beautiful and perfect she was.   today was the first day that sk has seen "mr. john" since grace passed away.  she was so excited to see him and wanted to tell him all about her princess dress she was wearing.  he was sweet to her as always, but i felt so bad....there i stood with my big ole pregnant belly and my little girl.  it certainly makes me so grateful to have sk here with me and i continue to pray that hayes makes a healthy and safe arrival.  i want her here with us, too!  i can't imagine going through what they are going through.  say a prayer for them, too.  

multiplying like rabbits.

sk has a new obsession.

i have suggested many other animals.  she only wants to make bunnies.  we have been making a bunny a day.  at this rate my whole house will be covered in "bunny" before the summer ends.  

sk still dresses up every single day. 

i do like her color choices!  i cut, she glues.  i tape the whiskers on and she draws the mouth.  we're like a well-oiled machine now....can bust a bunny out in no time.  i've been pushing a cat....maybe i'll convince her to do a cat tomorrow....i'll tell her that her bunnies are interested in having a cat friend.  or a dog or bear maybe.  we'll see.

her craft table is the only thing i've moved to the playroom so far.  she loves being in there.....making bunnies!

meet sarah kate, east cooper's newest ultrasound tech

today was my 32 week appointment and before meeting with our dr. we had yet another ultrasound to check my placenta previa.  it went well - the previa is gone and the placenta is where it should be.  so that's great news.  hayes weighs 4 pounds 9 ounces which puts her in the 51st% so she's about average for her gestational age.  she yawned and stuck her tongue out at us.....see, i'm telling you, this one is going to be my crazy child.  heehee=)

sarah kate is out of school now so we decided to just take her with us to this appointment so that she could see baby hayes.  we talked about it alot yesterday and today.  

sk:  "will we get to hold baby hayes at the doctor??"  me: "no, we are going to see a picture of her on a t.v. screen.  she will stay in mommy's belly and will be here right after your birthday and then you can hold her."  sk: "we are going to the doctor so that the doctor can put a diaper on baby hayes probably."  me: "baby hayes will not need a diaper until she is here after you turn 3."  and so forth....i just kept reminding her that we were only going to see pictures of hayes.  she got it, and she really enjoyed her time in the ultrasound room.  she is obsessed with the "heartbeat" function on hayes's new sound machine in her nursery.  she loves to go in there and turn it on "heartbeat" mode and mimic it.  so it was a real thrill when the ultrasound tech found hayes's heartbeat and turned it up real loud.  but the icing on the cake was at the end after ms. karen had gotten all the measurements and info she was going to get.....she put a purple glove on sk, put her in the chair and let her help maneuver the wand on my tummy and take pics.  then she let her find hayes's heartbeat and taught her the buttons to push to turn the heartbeat sound on and off.  

excuse the big white baby bump and meet the newest ultrasound tech at east cooper women's center:

 

think she has a future in this ultrasound business!  ha!  

side note about the future tech's attire:

she had on a play dress earlier today but before we went to the dr. she said, "i think it would be great if i wore a church dress to the doctor!"  so i let her.  she cried and cried this morning when i put a play dress on her because "it's not fancy enough, mommy!!!"  good lord.  help me.  she gets over it, but it's becoming a nightmare.  we aren't going to wear smocked dresses every darn day!  we were going to target and whole foods for crying out loud.  but i do love that she longs to be "fancy" all the time.  she is my girly girl and i love her to pieces even when she's hysterical over my dress choices.  i haven't even suggested shorts in a while because i'm just not wanting to deal with the huge tantrum that would follow that horrible suggestion.  we like dresses, we even like mommy to wear dresses, and we like our dresses to be long and fancy.  we like our toenails and fingernails to be painted "pinkish purple" and we can't wait to sit on santa's lap and ask for pink earrings.  and our favorite color is pink.  wowsa.

and just when we think we're all in the clear and are done with ultrasounds, we find out that at my next appointment (in 2 weeks) we'll be back in there again taking another peek at our little lady.  seems that although my amniotic fluid level was in the "normal" range that it was on the low end of the normal range so my dr. wants to keep an eye on it.  i'm actually glad that she airs on the side of caution and i'm not going to lie - we are enjoying all our sneak peeks at hayes.  in the meantime, i am supposed to make sure i am always nice and hydrated, and i'm also supposed to be taking it easy.  another great reason for me to blow up my raft as soon as i get down to the beach and float the week away.  

the tech said that hayes was scrunched up in one of the quadrants that she needed to check so she wasn't able to even measure the fluid over there.  fluid level in the other quadrants was great, so it's probably not even on the "low side of normal" but since she wasn't able to measure where hayes was then we'll take another peek.  this little girl likes to have her picture taken!   

 

while the parents are away....

sarah kate spent this weekend in folkston with my parents.  trey and i needed to do a few things around the house, but most importantly we wanted to drive to hickory, nc on saturday to pick up a sofa for the sunroom.  we figured that driving 3 and a half hours to pick up a piece of furniture and then hopping back in the car to drive back home would not be something sk would be dying to do. 

so i took her down to one of her favorite places....folkston.

my mom always gives me a play by play about all the fun they're having when we talk on the phone.    she had a blast of course!

she rode diamond.  she told me on the ride down there on thursday that she really wanted to ride papa's horses so i was glad she got a chance to do that!  her cousins, reagan and riley, were next door at fran's house so they all took a turn.  sk was very excited!

on friday, my mom took her to mrs. kim's new german restaurant by the train tracks for lunch.  sk has eaten there before and loved it.  it's right up her ally because they can sit outside and watch the trains pass AND she gets to eat a hotdog.  you know my pork girl loves a good hotdog!  on friday evenings my parents usually go down to jacksonville to eat so they took sarah kate to one of their favorite mexican restaurants at the towne center where sk could eat her favorite food.....a quesadilla.  she also got to ride the train around the towne center - another one of her favorite things to do in jax.

to top it off, they took her to one of her favorite places....

yobe.  sk loves yobe so much.  she gets vanilla with sprinkles everytime.  when my mom visits us in mt. pleasant, i often feel like she and sk should just take a sleeping bag and stay at yobe during her visit.  they are both a little obsessed.  and you can see in the above picture that in true mimi fashion she is teaching sk how to make sure she gets every last drop of her yogurt.  i remember her teaching brycie (our other icecream lover) that at a very young age and it seems that we felt the need to pass along this important info to sk.  turn it up!

what a friday she had: train watching, train riding, quesadilla eating, ice cream slurping, and some turtle watching at the pond at the towne center.  she also took a trip out to my dad's farm to see a bunch of brand new baby calves who happened to be frolicking right near the fence.  and they stopped by to see my gma kriner which i know sarah kate enjoyed.  we don't get to see her often, but sarah kate asks about her quite a bit.  aside from all of that i know she also rode the golf cart alot, dressed up alot, painted some, and made pink cupcakes.  my mom said that she broke the eggs herself and added all the ingredients so sk truly made them.  i know she enjoyed that especially since  she was obsessed with the book, pinkalicious, for quite a while.

meanwhile, trey and i got up early saturday morning to go get our sofa.  we had it picked out online and had called the furniture mart to tell them to hold it for us.  we could have had them ship it, but we really wanted to make sure it was "the one" so we went to see it in person knowing that if it wasn't "the one" that we'd surely find another one since hickory is the furniture mecca of the u.s.  it was totally worth the drive to hickory.  the money we saved by buying from the furniture mart is unbelievable.

we also ordered our rug this weekend and it should be ready for pick up in the next week and a half.  we got all but 4 of our blinds bought and hung.  we still have quite a few more things to do, but we are on our way to having our new room all set up!

still not positive about how we're going to arrange the furniture exactly.  we are doing one side of the room more of the adult/seating area and the other side the play area. i've got to pick out pillows for our sofa.  our rug is a "sprout" and ivory catamaran stripe.

looking in from our *messy* living room

we have these 4 windows left to put blinds on.

  and i'm a little over 32 weeks!  that means a little less than 8 weeks until we come face to face with our precious little busy body!!!  if fetal activity is any indication of baby behavior then we are really in for it with this one!  it certainly was an indication for sk.....barely moved in utero and has been the most cautious little girl ever.  best night sleeper ever, too....started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks and has ever since.  i told trey today that i'm pretty sure hayes is awake 90% of the day. ha!  we can't wait to meet her!

we took these pics as we were playing around with the blinds and moving the sofa & lamp all around=)

today was my last day teaching sunday school.  summer sunday school is taught on a volunteer basis so the teachers are not consistent like they are during the school year.  trey was my co-teacher today and i'll have to say it was an interesting way to end the year.....with NO kids!  i taught the older 3's this year and we always had a slim crowd.  the younger 3's always had at least 20 in their classroom and we would have 5 at the most.  funny how that works - lots of babies born after march that year!  so we cleaned out our sunday school closet and then went to cracker barrel in savannah to pick up our girl!

she was playing checkers with mimi when we arrived.

ever the elementary school teacher, mimi had her learning all about patterns.  "red, black, red, black, red, black..."

she had a blast with her mimi & papa, but she was in fact excited to see her mama and daddy, too!  that's good!!  when i walked up she said, "hey mom, you want to play checkers with me????"  

after lunch we parted ways but not for long.  we are so looking forward to our kriner family beach vacation which starts this coming saturday! yay!  sk can't wait to spend a week in the pool with ava and bryce=)

a big HUGE thank you to mimi and papa for taking such good care of our girl this weekend.  it made the things that we needed to get done a little bit easier and it also made sk very very happy.

sk finds out about her disney surprise...a video to share.

disney 2012!

well, we're back from our weekend trip to disney.  we wanted to surprise sarah kate with an early birthday trip and couldn't think of a better place to go than the big mouse's house.  she loved it so much in december and we wanted to take her on one last lucy family vacation as a family of 3.

  

i know i must seem like a crazy person going to crowded disney in the heat of may at 31 weeks pregnant.  it was worth every second.  it was worth the very long days, the lines and the miles of walking.  it really really was.  sarah kate had a blast!  she was such a little trooper, loved every single thing we did and kept her sweet and excited little demeanor the whole time with no naps or rest time.  i was so proud of her!  she's at such a fun age for disney.  i was also really proud of her for not having any potty accidents.  we potty trained her in march and she has done great and i know that she has been trained for a couple of months, but i was still nervous about the long lines and monorail rides and such.  but she just didn't have any problems with it at all.  what a relief.

mickey and i are ready to do this!!  c'mon mom and dad!

so i'm so glad we did it!  trey and i had a blast, too.  it was a really fun trip.  trey and i (lovingly) always make fun of jonathan and ashley for being disney dorks.  they've only been to disney like 6 or 7 times since the girls were born.  so my mom has been making fun of trey and i for ever making fun of j&a.  however, i still do not believe that trey and i are on their level of disney dorkiness just yet.  they have even gone to disney a couple of times since having the twins WITHOUT the twins.  so until we start going to disney without our children then i don't believe we are on their level....yet.  we had dinner saturday night at the grand floridian and trey nor i would mind taking a little couple's vacay to that beautiful place;) ;)

pictures, day one - friday!!!

on the way down!  not sure where she was going but was excited and ready to get there!

we checked into our room and then headed to the magic kingdom.

she got to choose one lovey to take to the park with her.  she chose her mickey mouse=)

first ride: dumbo!!!  she was so excited.  she didn't get to ride it in december and has been wanting to. 

her first roller coaster ride.  she loved this!  i couldn't get a pic of them because it was going too fast but they are in that last car there at the top and that is trey you see=)  sk said, "it was just a little bit scarey, mommy.  we went up, up, up and down, down, down!"

getting off the coaster=)  i wasn't sure if she'd come off laughing, crying or barfing.  i was so glad to see that big smile!

icecream break!

getting all ready to meet with the princesses.  we got her an autograph book this time so the princesses & other characters could sign it for her.  she took the meetings as seriously as she did in december.  

first up: sleeping beauty....sk was trying to get her dress just right.

too funny!

princess belle - her favorite=)

too starstruck to smile!

finding a good page for cinderella to sign....

catching the late parade before heading back to the hotel...

on friday she made it to the car, but was asleep soon after we started going.  we were there from 1pm until about 8:30 on friday.  she was a tired bug!

pictures day 2 -saturday!!!

so saturday was our really long day at the magic kingdom.  we were there from about 10 am until after 10 that night.  we re-rode some of her favorites and then rode the rides that we missed on friday.  we left the park and took the monorail to the grande floridian for dinner and then re-entered the park for a couple more hours of fun.

headed to the monorail!  so excited to be going back to the magic kingdom for day 2.  anna made her little belle dress for her and she loved it!  trey bought her the princess flip-flops as her gift from the first day.  on saturday she picked out a tiana nightgown that she is completely obsessed with.

aladin!  she loved this ride.

in line for dumbo!  had to ride that again!

had to see mickey's philharmagic again, too!  she loves that 3d movie=)

tea cups with daddy.  she loves that ride - i on the other hand do not.

her riding buddy....

hugging it out while waiting in a line....

about to ride "it's a small world."  another sk favorite.

catching another parade

getting her autograph book and pen all ready for her meeting with mickey and minnie....

seeing the firework show - last event of the night!

sk got to choose a treat from the candy store.  if you know my child really really well then you know that when she was done with this lollipop that it looked pretty much the exact same way it did when we bought it.  but boy those few licks were so exciting=)

this happened before we even got off the monorail.  she didn't even wake up when we put her in the car.  then she slept until 9:30 sunday morning. ha!

and back at the hotel.......

i personally felt the need to shower, but these 2 just went straight to sleep.  our hotel has a character breakfast every sunday morning at 8:30.  it was going to be our last disney event before heading back to folkston, but sarah kate slept until 9:30 and we decided to just let her sleep.  she doesn't know she missed mickey and the gang - we hadn't told her about the breakfast.  we ate breakfast around 10:30 and a couple of "characters" (aka...some wolf and a big bear) came over to our table and played with her for a little while.  she was very satisfied with her visitors and her mickey shaped waffle.  ha...she looked at the waffle and said, "hey mickey, i'm about to eat your ears off."  and she did.  then she said, "i got mickey mouse's ears in my mouf."  

she has enjoyed telling different people today all about her trip.  she wants to go back of course.  

and meanwhile at the lucy house this was going on......

paint, paint, paint!!  they are ALMOST done.  the electrician will come tomorrow to do all the electrical work.  i love it.  it's so peaceful and beautiful and i love our "piazza" blue ceiling.  and now i don't want to put any toys out here. ha!  

sk will spend this coming weekend down in folkston with her mimi and papa while trey and i get some work done around the house (and we're going to take in a spoleto event friday night!).  we are going to hickory, nc early saturday morning to pick up a couch for the sunroom.  we'll also get our rug and our blinds.  we just have alot we need to get done before hayes arrives and we appreciate my parents for taking sarah bug for us to really be able to do some work. 

baby hayes continues to be an active little lady and is passing all her kick counts.  we look forward to seeing her sweet little face again in one week.  

we can't wait until she is here to enjoy our lucy family vacations with us!!