Room Decorating - 1 and 2 - and oh yeah, a name!!

So the last few weeks we have been very busy decorating the room(s) - The move started with Lala into the downstairs bedroom - whew, then the furniture from her old room moved to the bonus area.....arrrggghhhh......House is looking quite attractive - NOT. Then we moved Drew into a bigger room - we moved from his Curious George decor to a pottery barn sports theme - I still have to get his name hung above his crib but he has much more room now for his play area. The border is a bit higher with colors of red, navy, nautical blue and green. You can see the quilt for his soon to be toddler bed on the chair in the corner. He is connected to a bathroom so needless to say my tub is no longer toy central but I have noticed the water spreads much faster and further in this smaller tub :(. Drew took to his room great after the first night where he preferred to be in the room with mommy and daddy but he finally gets that it is his room - I think when Curious George disappeared he moved on...

Now for room #2 (or #3 if you count Laura's move)......Baby Elizabeth Anne Rardin's room - yes, we have finally picked the name and are very excited - we will not have a nickname for Elizabeth except maybe "E" and any cutsie items we come up with but really want to call her by her full name Elizabeth. Elizabeth is my middle name, Beth is my mom's middle name and Anne is John's mom's middle name so we have opted to stay more traditional with her name as well. We have decorated in chocolate and pink with some bright pink/blue/green accents as a border. We are still waiting on her furniture - an off white crib that grows with her to a full/double as she gets older and a full dresser similar to Drew's but more girly :). As you can see by her closet picture - she needs nothing - between Laura and I's shopping spree when we found out it was a girl (hey, Carter's was having a sale), the neutral stuff of Drew's she can wear and the hand me downs - we are all set - we have everything washed and ready to go. We are waiting on a few more letters to come in at Hobby Lobby so we can get her name painted chocolate and next to the flower on the wall above where her crib will go. Glad to have this all ready and next month Laura is moving to her own apartment - she is excited to 'get away' occasionally and have her own oasis so we will get her settled soon and then get the last guest room back to guest status.

Valentines Day 2011!

For Valentine's Day, Lala made pink waffles although Drew was running fever and not feeling well (he caught the crude that I had a week ago, gave to Lala and caught from her - good news, John never got it :)). So needless to say, Lala and I had pink waffles and Drew had juice and our lap to sit on.

By the afternoon Drew was feeling better so he decided to take his women out for V-day since John was in Pittsburgh on business. He got all dressed up :).

26 weeks!

So here we are at 26 wks pregnant - showing quite a bit compared to baby Drew but I guess when you have no stomach muscles left......that's the way it goes :). Feeling okay - have my moments (like crawling around on the floor to wrestle Drew) but other than that, not too bad.

January 2011

Drew got a Texas onesie pajama for Christmas from his Aunt Erin (eenie weenie) which he loves and wears as often as possible. Note he is wearing the pj's here while he is working on escaping the house :).

This month started off with a few playdates. Drew went to the aquarium with Jorja - she is of course dressed to the top with a bow that matches (as always). The weather is still a bit off so Drew also takes trips to the mall play area as well to blow off some steam in addition to mall walking with is Auntie Lala.

Drew & LaLa also headed to Totter Otterville with Jorja for another playdate. They aren't too sure of each other at this point but were happy to play with all the toys and specifically the train table.

Not alot of words right now but alot of imitations of animal noises (cows, owls, ducks, etc). Of course he just points and screams until we, adults, figure out what he wants - drinks, food, etc. He uses the 'more' sign language gesture for just about everything, even 'please'. Cute but a bit frustrating. :)

It's a GIRL!!

We returned from Iowa with a visit to the doctor - we went for our 20 wk check-up and this bit of a baby inside me looks very healthy - all measurements and organs look good -here is her first photo debut (the left of her face straight on and the right her profile with her hand at her mouth) - she wouldn't stop moving and putting her hands in front of her face - I don't really feel her move that much but it looks like that's because the placenta is between her and I right now. Drew still has no idea this is headed his way......should be interesting. John's mom is ECSTATIC - her first grand daughter - she said she was going for a "PINK" shopping trip this weekend.

John has determined we will not have a pink room in his house - little does he know he will and it's not just his house :). So now we work on names and room decors - Looks like Lala is moving to an apartment soon so we will move Drew to a bigger room with some of his many toys and take over his room for the new arrival (since it is smaller). Now we just wait for her arrival and keep our fingers crossed with prayers of everything to go well.

Christmas in Iowa!!

We headed to Boone, IA for the Christmas holiday. We had a great time playing in Aunt Jenny's and Uncle Chris' (Bones) giant shed/garage - sledding in the snow and opening presents.

Here is Drew posing for one of several dozen photos for his Aunt Jenny - he was modeling with different poses - hysterical.

Drew also got to 'sled' behind the four wheeler - the snow was so thick we were safe that the sled couldn't slide into the 4 wheeler - :) - mother of the year - he had a blast playing but once up and able to run and play - not so much, a little too deep of snow and he was packaged up like a snausage.

We headed to church and tried to grab a photo quickly :) - Drew had all of a 15 minute nap that day - nice -

While opening of presents, Drew was much more into paper than presents or puzzles - he and

the boys ripped up all the paper (along with Baba's help) and then kept throwing it up in the air like it was snow - nice - very messy but fun. Baba got all three of her grandsons to sit still in the same pj's for pictures.

Ho Ho Ho - The end of a year......

So here we are, caught up for the calendar year - I think the New Year's Resolution will support regular updates of the blog - they will be short but often (I hope). We got the house decorated the last weekend of the month, lights all over the outside like the Griswold's Christmas Movie. We finally moved to a 'fake' tree to allow for dogs and small children's hands. After the next several years will move back to a real tree.

This month has come and gone - with traveling to a lull - we had some company the first weekend of the month from New Orleans. Scott McCoy, Michael (Scott's partner), Scott Jr. and Jen all came for a visit and to watch the Saints vs. Bengals game. This was also the weekend we got lots of snow. The football game was so FRICKIN cold - I am bundled up and only my eyes can be seen.

We spent the next few weekends shopping for Christmas gifts, attending Holiday parties and spending time with friends. The Herrington's went in on adopting a family for Christmas with us. We had a family of 6 to shop for and were able to budget to buy three of the children bikes (the 4th was a newborn - not needed :)). We are headed to Iowa for part of Christmas while Laura heads to Dallas - we have a friend staying at the house and watching over the dogs.

The snow came in thick last week - John bought a sled for Drew and ran around in the COLD with him - we are now nursing a runny nose but he had SUCH a good time. He looks like the kid off of A Christmas Story that is so bundled up he can't walk - LOL.

Laura and Drew have been helping run errands and we finally got the garage so emptied out we could fit all three SUV's inside away from the snow. Drew is still bundled up though for errands while the car warms up.

We got the Christmas shopping and wrapping done quickly so we could celebrate Christmas before we all leave on vacation. Lots of gifts for such a small family. When Drew got up from his nap yesterday we opened presents - he got lots of music items and a big yellow tonka truck. I think he got the hang of unwrapping presents which made it so much fun to watch.

I will post more pic from Iowa where I am sure I have no idea how snowy it can get.