Just Some Pics

J had testing back in the ville so I had in my head I'd take some pictures of Katherine's girls while we were there. I made Justin and Bobby drag out these red chairs from the crawl space then hardly took a picture myself. We were working on dinner, Abbey was throwing a tantrum, you know how it goes. But what do you know--J has some mad camera skills! Aren't their eyes to die for? Yummy.

"Oh my gosh, Becky."

Then one of me and my girl. I almost didn't post this picture. Why? Because I'm wearing that same shirt in the last three pictures I've put of myself on this blog! It is my favorite maternity shirt, but sheesh.

Spring Fling

Aaaaahhhhh, spring. Today was a good one. One of the things I love about Justin is his ability to throw together parties. He decided yesterday to do a bbq/volleyball night and we had at least ten families show up. He doesn't make a big deal of it--just says bring your own meat and a side to share. If there's all desserts, there's all desserts.

Here are the inseperables--Miss Abbey and Baker Boy.
J doing what he does best--spiking a volleyball at someone. I am always on his team because he has no qualms about doing this. Can you see the path of the ball? (Hey Andy B--I love that you're the only one standing still enough to not be blurred-*wink*)
And the ladies doing what we do best--snackin' and chattin'.

Attitude

Oh Miss Abbey. I have to have some humor about the recent attitude she's been throwing my way. We've had meltdowns over shoes and diapers and she insisted on wearing a beanie and mittens there for a while. You can tell from the pictures that the attitude level at these times was pretty high.

Then we had a lovely outing yesterday. I could sense a tantrum coming on so I took her on a walk--usually calms her down right away. Wrong choice. I was a half mile away from my home with a screaming toddler refusing to sit in her stroller and refusing to put on shoes so she could walk like she wanted to. That left an 8-month pregnant lady wrestling a wiggling, screaming kid as I pushed the stroller and whined on the phone to Justin. I'm sure it was a pretty sight.

My favorite part was when she realized her sandwich was dried out and threw it off the side of the stroller. Then she climbed out and started screaming 'Yucky! Yucky!' in its face. She picked it up, threw it in the basket and continued to tower over it screaming, 'Yucky! Yucky!' I was actually pretty amused at this display.

I Feel the Earth.Move.Under My Feet

With last night's earthquake and tornado season upon us, I think we might have most of the earth's natural disasters covered here. I woke up about 4:40 this morning to the bed shaking and the doors rattling. It seemed to go on forever. Truly, it wasn't that scary. I didn't feel like our house was going to cave in or anything. But a few disturbing thoughts kept me up for a while:

(1) I always thought in that situation I would run and grab my babies. I was totally frozen. If we had been closer to the epicenter (registering somewhere between a 4.5 and 5.2. I don't know what that means) and felt it more strongly, would I have time or the presence of mind to get to her?

(2) I've had a nagging feeling to update our 72-hour kits and haven't done it yet. We'll do that today :) Food storage isn't too shabby right now, but if we had to evacuate, I wouldn't even have diapers for the kiddo.

(3) Justin barely stirred. He thought I was just turning over. Yes, it is a process for me to turn over at night.

Carousel Nightmares

Who doesn't like a carousel? Abbey. She's been having odd, terrified reactions to random things as of late and I guess she found the sweet carousel a little freaky. Even though she clung to me the entire time and hated it, I thought the pictures were pretty cool. So I played around with them in photoshop to get this oldsy, spooky look to them. I showed them to J and got this:

J: They look photoshopped.
A: They ARE photoshopped, isn't it cool?

pause
J: It looks fake.
A: Because I messed around with the colors?
J: Mmm... Your eyes look freaky.
A: I didn't do anything to my eyes, I just played with the color curves. Doesn't it give a cool feel to the picture? Like make you feel like you're at an old carnival or something?

pause
J: OK, yeah, cool.

There's the compliment I was fishing for, thanks! I like them too!

And Wiser Too

That's right, one year older. I love birthdays. I adopted a new philosophy a few years ago that it does no good to sit around waiting for others to make your birthday special. You know how it goes--waiting to see who remembers, keeping a running tally of the family and friends who call. It always led to a good day laced with an undertone of bitterness for the ones who forgot. Lame.

A while ago Koryn told me that in Holland, YOU celebrate your birthday. You bring cake for everyone at the office and let them join in the celebration. I love that! J had the day off so we were going to go celebrate the day away but the Abster woke up with a virus and a crib full of vomit. I was just as happy to stay home, watch movies all afternoon and fiddle around with the perfect gift J got me.

The Brimhalls called and casually invited us over for dinner. Since their little guy already has what Abbey caught, we saw no problem going over and letting the little germies play. We walked in to balloons and streamers and a fantastic meal. And lest I forget, Miss Katie let me wear her Hello Kitty crown and necklace all night. And I did! You guys are great, I was so surprised and happy. {Sorry to the friends who were kindly uninvited due to the aforementioned germs...}
I wasn't going to post this picture but I love it now that we've both broke down in laughter several times over J's photo skills. This is the picture J caught of my momentous 25th birthday candle moment. In all fairness, he was trying not to trip as Abbey was crawling between his legs. And he said he wasn't ready when I just 'went ahead and blew out the candles.' Call me crazy, but isn't it tradition to blow the candles out right after the 'Happy Birthday' song is done? I thought that was plenty of prep time. Oh, good thing he's cute. And smart. And helpful. And sweet.

Happy Birth Day to you too, Mom. I think the moms should get to celebrate the day as well--they were the ones doing all the work that day! Sounds like I'm revamping birthdays, huh. Well, maybe I am. :)

Reading Glasses

Ah, The Hungry Caterpillar. A classic. I better get my Mr Potato Head glasses.

I love the personality coming out more and more every day. This morning when I finished changing her diaper, she threw her arms up and yelled 'Touchdown!' Later I was buckling her into her car seat and she grabbed my cheeks with both hands and laid a big ol' kiss on me. She's also started saying 'Ugh..shoot' whenever she bends over to pick something up. Wonder where she got that... I love it. Several times this week it has hit me how content I am with this little life of mine.

OK, I Give

Oi, I'm pregnant. I am SOOO pregnant. It hit me hard this week. The back muscles are aching from supporting the imbalance of my front. I have to wake up and exert effort to roll over at night. Abbey's back completely arches when she sits in my lap to read stories. My belly button popped out and you can see it through my clothes, ha ha! There's more, but my dad reads this so I'll stop :)

J mentioned my uncomfortableness and my forgetful mind in his prayers last night. I don't know what he's talking about or what I forgot but I guess I have that to worry about as well.

But today was the kicker.

I went to a yoga class with a different instructor than the sweet, encouraging one I've been going to. He took one look at me and demanded, 'How far along are you?'. A little over seven months. He gave me a doubtful look so I said 'I'll do my own thing if you want to do stuff on your back.' I sensed his skeptical eyes on me for about 45 minutes through the mirror. I was doing fine then BAM. I blacked out! What the... I admitted defeat, rolled up my mat, and left. Dang it! I so needed to prove him wrong today. I've been thinking all day about the smirk he must have had as I left the room.

And that picture is not me. Maybe it will be.