Luke and Caroline's Visit!

Feb 3: Our friends drove from St. Louis to come visit us here in little ole Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. When Tom sent me a text from work letting me know they wanted to visit, I was really excited. But wondering why on Earth would they want to come here? Then we thought what on Earth will we do to entertain them? Turns out if you are only visiting here for a day and a night, it's not such a bad place. Right, Luke and Caroline? 

These two were so excited for Luke and Caroline to visit I had to find a way to occupy them before they asked me "When will they be here?" one more time. Off to the park we went!

                      

 

We started out with a trip to the Wildlife Refuge and went for a buffalo hunt. It really is beautiful out there and especially on top of Mt. Scott. You can't beat the view and for a split second, I thought about how it was actually a treat to live here and see that. Seriously...it lasted for all of a second though and after the crazy winds almost knocked us off the mountain, I realized "Yup, it's still Oklahoma." After almost running out of gas in the middle of nowhere (how does Tom not look at the gas gage and see that it's flashing ZERO gallons at him, I will never know...I can't believe he expected me to fill up my own tank when it still had 40 miles to go the last time I was in my car;) we went on a gas station hunt.

After finding the lone gas station that only accepted cash and looked like it was from a scene out of Deliverance, we headed out to eat at Meers. It's a rather unique establishment and they serve burgers the size of pie pans in actual pie pans. And peach cobbler with ice cream that could feed a family of 10, but really it's just for one person. The food was delicious and we all left feeling more than full.

And this is Meers. I never promised them fancy.

Waiting patiently at Meers with Uncle Luke!

That's a bowl of ice cream that comes with the cobbler. Don't worry, it wasn't all eaten. I tried though.

After our late lunch (which was so huge that we all skipped dinner), we decided to walk off some off the calories and hit up Cannon Walk on Post to show them around. I bet the only thing they remember from this part of the trip though is Madeline constantly saying "I have to go potty. I am going to pee my pantsssss". Over and over again. But my girl held it in until we returned home.

We absolutely loved having them visit us and can't wait to see them in St. Louis in July on our way to Rhode Island! I just hope they're ready for Petrini: Party of 5:)

Artistic Ella

There isn't a day that goes by where Ella isn't drawing or crafting something up. Thought I'd share her latest projects. Just for reference...she does this all on her own. I love that she comes up with these ideas in her head and makes them happen. I actually got yelled at the other day because we were running low on glue.

I found an awesome drawing site from Pinterest. I showed Ella the animals and she tested a few out. 

My cat is on the right (Ella colored it in) and hers is on the left. Pretty sad cat on my part.

She constructed Ariel and Flounder.

And her very own puppet. You can't see the bottom (Ella took this pic) but you can put your hand in it. When she first said she wanted to make a puppet I said I would give her a sock, but she said she will just use paper. In my non-creative mind, I was thinking "how the heck will she pull that off?" But needless to say, she made an elephant puppet. 

Sweet Rest

The weather has been so crazy lately here. It's either freezing or ridiculously windy. Or snowing. Or full of sunshine and highs in the 60's. We took advantage of the nice day and went for a three mile walk. A three mile walk is not what it used to be for me. The whole time I had to pee and I swear it took me an hour to walk one mile. I think the baby weighs me down.

But I know someone who made herself as comfortable as she could using her jacket as a pillow. Gosh, I love this girl.

I'm a Barbie Girl...

in a Barbie worlddddd. Seriously, this picture cracks me up. Especially the placement of the barbie's legs right in front. Sheesh.

Change!

When you're pregnant, there isn't much you can do to change yourself. You just have to sit back and watch your belly expand. From my experience, any mom I have talked to just feels frumpy during pregnancy. Especially if you already have kids. You are too busy taking care of them to spend that extra time on yourself. This mama was so tired of the daily pony tail that she decided to chop a lot of her hair off. I'm not sure just how many inches it was, but it was enough to where I don't mind washing and blow drying it anymore. Let's just say it's been a year since I have had my hair done and it was nice to be pampered...even if it was only for thirty minutes:)

8 Months!

I can't believe I am eight months pregnant. Not only is time flying, but the belly is growing. I think this baby boy's arrival is all we talk about in this house. The girls are so excited for their brother and I'm almost sad that I only have two more months of them kissing and talking to my belly. But it will be nice when he finally arrives and I can bend down again. ;)

Flurries

These girls were so excited just for a few snow flurries this month. Here they are waiting for it:

And here they are just watching it from our balcony:

She was showing me a snowflake she caught

You can see how huge the snowflakes were. Too bad they didn't stick.

31 Weeks! And...

I had an ultrasound this week to make sure my placenta had moved. Apparently, I had a low lying placenta which means I wouldn't be able to deliver naturally because the placenta was too close to my cervix. I figure this baby boy should remember all of the stress he caused for his mama so that's the only reason I am blogging about this. I am happy that I got to see him again though:) And everything is JUST fine with my placenta. It has moved out of the way. Baby boy you are no longer using it as a pillow. You were also head down at my ultrasound appointment and two days later, you flipped back to transverse. I pray you are not this stubborn when you make your way into this world and you make it easy on me. I'm probably asking for too much there. Either way, I am hoping by my next appointment in March you are head down. Pleaseandthankyou.

And if there was ever a doubt that we are having a boy, check this shot out:

Tom is a proud papa already.

Angry Birds

No, not the game Angry Birds. But the part of our day where I took the girls to go feed the ducks at the local park and it was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie The Birds. To be honest, I don't really enjoy feeding any animals and I definitely forgot to let my girls know that geese can be mean and they bite. Insert Madeline into the picture. Poor girl went right up to a fat goose and it snapped her little fingers. The look of shock and fear on Madeline's face will always be unforgettable to me. I wasn't sure if she was going to punch the goose in it's face or cry. She chose punching the goose. Just kidding. She cried. Bawled. You would've thought the goose ran off with her hand in it's mouth.

I thought she might be scarred for life from this experience, but needless to say she asked the next day to go back and feed them again. Maybe she's seeking revenge.

The bread carrier. 

Walking with our neighbor Louisa to feed the ducks

Lining up for food