Piper's 2nd Birthday

This is right after she woke up and received her doll bunk bed! She was so excited about there being 2 pillows. She even exclaimed, "There's another one!!!!"
For dinner that night we went to Casa Romo's in Ardmore and she loves to dip her tortillas and chips in anything!
This got thrown in there. She and Lilly were playing outside after dinner. Chandra, Lilly, and Sophia came to spend the night with us on Piper's bday!
blurry, but this shows you here excitement in eating the chips and guacamole!
Michael played w/the girls a lot that night after dinner! They were having fun on the newly re-constructed playset, thanks to Michael's handyman skills!

Here's our best family pic the day of her bday party. Piper was not cooperative in any way that day. Many meltdowns occurred throughout the entire day!
Piper and Claire being funny!
Piper, Lilly, and Katie
Lilly got a hold of some new bubbles and had a hay day!
Piper enjoyed opening her presents!
She kept saying, "Presents!"
Some of the 2 and almost 2 year olds at the table eating their treats.
Lilly gave Piper some cool John Lennon sunglasses. Pictures to come on the blog b/c Piper loves them!
The theme was Zoo Animals and this was the table decor! Thanks to Chandra and Michael for helping me put it all together. I could not have done it w/out their help!!

This is the entire tablescape above and the layout of this page is awkward!

The crackers were "parrot food" Like I said, I totally stole the idea from my friend Hannah! Thanks girl!

Pictures and Presents and Whatever Else I Can Think To Write!

Remember when this little chickadee was too scared to take a bath??? What happened to her?

Below is evidence of her crazy obnoxious hair twirling skills! I do not have a thumb sucker; no, I have a hair twirler! This was right after she woke up one morning this week and I discovered the huge twirled knot!
A bit blurry, but still sweet--snuggling w/her daddy who she absolutely adores!
Piper's 2nd birthday is tomorrow and one of her presents is going to be this baby bunk bed that was given to me from Santa Claus one year as a kid. I loved this. It had strawberry bedding, complete with pillows and sheets for my babies! I decided that this would be a great present for Piper and that I wanted to update it a bit. So here is the before shots...

And, the after shots!! I'm pleased with how it turned out. I just bought some fun fabric at Hobby Lobby and basically sewed an enclosed pillowcase around the existing bedding and pillow, added some trim on the pillow and spray painted the wood! I really wanted a dark hot pink spray paint but that was impossible to find so this orchid color works b/c it is in the fabric but not my first choice! Oh, and I didn't have the time or patience to make sheets for it. She can just use her blankies until I get around to that! What do you think?

Piper has another ear infection. This would be #3 since scheduling her surgery in May. The date cannot get her soon enough! I am getting over another bout of strep throat, but thankfully, the pregnancy sickness is over!! I am 16 weeks today and have heard the heartbeat twice. It's slower so I think it is a boy. We find out on May 24th at 9 am! Pray that everything shows up normal and healthy on this little one also! I'm definitely growing all over, especially where I do not want to be growing! I'm quite hungry all the time and I've had a little more energy lately but not like when I was pregnant with Piper. It's different when you have a toddler and you are pregnant! This poor baby isn't getting near the attention and thought as Piper did, but he or she will not know that! ha! We have Piper's 2nd birthday party on Saturday with a few of her little friends. I'm stealing my friend, Hannah's, idea and doing a simple zoo theme since Piper loves animals. I'll post pictures!

March For Babies

Before I write the actual post, I have to say that Piper is still sleeping and it is 7:30 am and this hasn't happened in what seems like weeks plus she slept through the night again for the 2nd night in a row!! Woo-Hoo! She has not been sleeping well at all for about 2 weeks and I cannot figure out why. It could be allergies, it could be her ears, it could be teething, it could be this or that!!?? All I know is she's tired and so is mama, but after 2 nights of good sleep, I'm beginning to feel that 2nd trimester energy finally!

Now moving on,

On May 8th, I will be walking for the March of Dimes for my friend Mendy Laughlin and her two twin girls, Renna & Reagan. They were born prematurely at just 28 weeks and are now healthy & very happy babies that are going to turn 1 soon! By walking, we hope to raise money to help support programs that help moms have healthy, full-term pregnancies. If you are interested in supporting our team and this cause then you can go to our team website, The Laughlin Twins, and donate online! http://www.marchforbabies.org/s_team_page.asp?seid=1369221

Or, if you already know my mailing address and you want to mail a check, then you can send a check and I'll make sure in turn in it the day of the race!

I'm happy to support the Laughlin Family. Mendy has been a friend for a long time and I know this is something very near and dear to her heart! Her babies are precious! Check her blog out here!

The Zoo

Last weekend we went to the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville, TX. Gainesville is about 30 or 40 minutes from Ardmore and this is the closest zoo to us. We all had fun but Piper was a little weary of some of the animals. It's part zoo, part petting zoo also. I enjoyed getting out of town and doing something different plus we got to shop at Gap outlet and eat at Chili's...all things we do not have in our town!

Her Many Faces

Happy Face
Silly Face
Sad Face
Mad Face

Piper has a book that teaches her about facial expressions and has a mirror in it. Recently, it has become one of her favorites and she has learned the faces well and I have memorized the words pretty much so while we were in the car for about 45 minutes the other day I recited the book from memory and I was able to get her to make each face on command! Sorry the pics are blurry!

Piper has really been saying a lot of sentences and repeating what I say. For example, this morning I said, "Daddy has to go to work" and she said exactly that. She has also been having "pretend conversations" out loud. This week, I heard her in the car saying, "It's okay. I hold you Wea (Olivia). I hold you Shaworl (Sheryl). I hold you Seph (Seth). I hold you Twebor (Trebor). K, K??" I looked back at her and smiled and she looked at me w/the face that said, "what, why are you looking at me??!" Ha! And, one other neat thing she did today when we went to Hobby Lobby was... I noticed my friend Melody's car was in the parking lot and she has a little girl in Piper's class at church named Katie. I didn't say anything at all about Katie being there or anything about the car and Piper pointed at Melody's car and said, "Katie, Katie. I want to see Katie." Jaw drop! I couldn't believe it! Ha! I'm starting to see a 2 year old coming out in her!

Easter 2010

We had a great Easter weekend. Michael was able to take Thursday off and he had Good Friday off also! Friday, his brother's family and Grammy & Papa came to stay w/us. It was fun to hang out and be together. I love being w/family on holidays. One year we didn't go to any family member's house for Easter when it was just me and Michael and I was so sad! Anyway, on Saturday we took the kids to a local Easter egg hunt. Jonah was the only kid out of bunch that was super pumped and competitive. Piper was scared to death and Maggie was just fine w/her filling her small basket and being done! We did have a hunt at our house after that one and Piper liked it then! We had the big Easter dinner on Saturday and invited Ms. Shirley, a widow from our church, to join us. After that, Michael's brother left and then on Sunday Grammy & Papa went to church w/us before going home. Oh, but I almost forgot the biggest drama of the entire weekend!!! I'll make a long story short. Piper got into Grammy's blood pressure pills and took one while we were not looking and we had to call Poison Control. I was pretty much freaking out! The medicine she took wasn't as harmful as some or so the PC guy told us. We had to closely monitor her for several hours after she ingested it and the PC operator called me a few times to check on her. We also had to check on her every 30 minutes during her nap to make sure her blood pressure wasn't lowering or anything. Thankfully, she didn't react to the medicine and she was her normal self the entire day, but whew, so scary for this mama! The rest of the day was much less dramatic! The day ended sweetly with me rocking Piper right before bed and she said, "I pray" so w/a little guidance from me, she prayed, "Dear God, I wuv you. Amen!" Then she asked for her bed and went to sleep!



Easter 2010...look to the right on the side bar of my blog and that is Easter 2009!

Uncle Matt, Aunt Amy, Jonah, Maggie--this is a random side note but Amy, my sis-in-law, went to high school, in Houston, w/the former owner of our house--who now lives in Corpus Christi I think and she keeps up w/him still on facebook...small world!


Easter 2010 w/Papa & Grammy
Easter 2009 w/Papa & Grammy...Papa doesn't keep his eyes open very well! ha! And, Piper looks so excited both years! She is not my picture taker!

Weekend at the lake

Over the weekend, we visited Grandma & Grandpa Levy at their lake house. Piper had a blast! She is in love w/their dog, Sandy, as you can tell by the pictures. She was such a ham the entire day on Saturday...Sunday-not so much. She woke up way too early and was a grump the rest of the day until bedtime!?! She has been talking about Sandy ever since! Michael got to fish a little and even caught one. Diana, Piper, and I went shopping in town. It was relaxing and I felt sooo good! I thought the morning sickness might be gone until we came back home and it hasn't left me since! Boo! Thanks for a relaxing weekend!!

Surprise!

Piper is proud to announce she is a big sister! The new baby will be here in October. I'm due October 13th. Right around 3 grandparents birthdays and a cousin! I am 9 weeks.
We found out we were pregnant at 3 weeks...the same day I found out I had strep and the flu. I knew it was a possibility I was pregnant but didn't really think I was. The doctor wanted me to take a pregnancy test just in case b/c there were some medications that I didn't want to take if I was pregnant. Sure enough, I was! Then that same month, me and Piper got the stomach flu...all while feeling the exhaustion of the first trimester! Have I mentioned February was a hard month! Ha!
Things are better now though. Still tired and having more morning sickness but functioning well! I cannot stand the sight of food or preparing food, especially chicken--raw or cooked! Morning sickness hasn't been as bad this time as with Piper...yet!
This was Piper preparing to take her pictures..."Hmm, what face should I make in the picture?"



And, to explain the pearls...she found these at my mom's house over the weekend and has been insistent to wear them every day since! I have a diva on my hands! And, I made that shirt for her just so we could take pictures and announce it! Oh, and I had my first doctor's visit today (that's why I can finally tell everyone). We had an ultrasound and saw the baby and saw the heartbeat but didn't get to listen to it. Everything looked normal to the doctor! I go back in 3 weeks!

Random pictures

I realize I haven't blogged in a while. There are many reasons for this! The biggest reason is because we moved the desktop computer upstairs to the dungeon and our laptop that we kept downstairs broke! I'm too lazy to walk upstairs and spend hours on the computer like I use to on the laptop while watching TV! The second is I haven't taken many pictures! We have been busy this month and sick (I'll come back to that!). We recently went to go see my best friend, Chandra, and her new baby, Sophia. While we were visiting, we stayed in Edmond at my sister's house and Piper got some good cousin time in! Piper is in another new phase that I cannot describe. She is keenly aware of everything and is very, very ornery!! She is talking a lot! If I say, "How Cool!" She says, "O Cool!" She likes to identify mommy and daddy's things, like "mommy's water" or "daddy's shoes." And she has been saying more and more sentences! Piper is also building quite a relationship w/my dad on the phone. She will call him or he will call her so that they can talk in animal noises to each other! Hahaha! I'm serious! They talk a bit and then start going over all the animal sounds. Piper loves it even when she tries to act like she doesn't like it. Yesterday, she wanted to talk to Papa but when I asked her if she wanted to call him she said, "Nooo" and then picks her baby up and says, "Kate, Papa. Kate, Papa" To me, meaning baby Kate call Papa. And right then Papa called. So funny. She didn't want to talk to him but she wanted her baby Kate to and so Papa talked to Kate! That is some kind of crazy grandparent love!! Anyway, yes we have been quite sick in February. I think I mentioned last time that we were but Piper got another ear infection this week and so we have to go visit the ENT to discuss tubes. She did not sleep well until last night really. And, while that was going on I picked up the stomach virus. So while having the stomach stuff in the middle of the night I was also sleeping in a rocker w/my sick baby! FUN! Michael eventually took over and had to stay home the next day to take care of us! I cloroxed everything in my house yesterday hoping that we ward off any more disease! I'm sick of being sick!! Here are some random pictures to enjoy!Piper likes to get Daddy's hats out of the closet. Please don't pay attention to the nasty, dirty mirror in the picture! I have cleaned it since!
She is playing hide and seek. Daddy taught her this game and now she plays it all the time, especially when it is time to go somewhere! When Michael gets home from work and begins playing with Piper, her favorite thing to say is "Hide, hide!"
And, this is right before bed time. Her hair is crazy b/c I had just taken her ponytail out, but I love the look on her face.