Painting

 

 

Got the paintbrushes and watercolor tubes back out, 

for a pretty special reason! 

Wanted to paint something for our brand new niece, Lilah! 

I painted a few canvases for her big sisters room,

and wanted to do something for her as well. 

A carnation is January's birth flower, 

and since her nursery is gray and purple, 

I chose to add purple a little purple.

This is actually mixed media, violet colored pencil, with watercolor, 

as I was completely out of purple in watercolor! 

Very inspired, it had been forever since I have worked with my favorite medium, watercolor. 

Almost forgot how much I love and enjoy it! 

Can't wait to meet you sweet Lilah Grace! 

Hate that we are so far away!

Snow Days

Our county has had eight snow days this month! 

Preschool has missed four! 

Since all the snow, and dangerously low temps all happened right after our Christmas break, 

it literally felt like a lifetime since we have been to preschool! 

We had one week back, and then it was fa-reeeezing again. 

Too cold for school buses, and for little ones to be out. 

Which meant we have pretty much been home bound...and getting pretty bored! 

One of the boys favorite things to do is turn out ottoman into a slide, 

this month that ottoman has been a little bit of a life saver for this Momma! ;)

Oh my word. 

LOVE these wild boys, 

their crazy faces, 

and the the fact that a simple ottoman turned slide can bring them so much joy!

PURE joy!

It's a...

GIRL!!! 

We had our Anatomy Scan today, 

and were SO excited to find out what this baby was!

After Case was diagnosed with type A flu on Tuesday, 

we were a little worried that we would have to reschedule. 

So thankful for answered prayers, 

Case stayed fever free since Thursday morning, 

so as a nurse confirmed, 

if fever free for 24 hours he was a okay to get out and about. 

SO, 

we got to keep our Friday morning ultrasound, 

Case man got to go with us, and my sister ended up watching the Rhetter man. 

All night long I dreamt it was a boy, 

I could see our little boy, with a blue hat on, 

we were in the hospital and I had just delivered. 

He was a cutie, and we were totally in love. 

This morning, while drying my hair, 

I had a little convo with my belly, 

"Alright little baby, what are you? Boy or girl?" 

This whole time I definitely didn't have a strong feeling either way, 

but every time I was convinced we would have another little baseball player,

there was something in the back of my mind saying that it might be a girl.  

After dropping the Rhett man off, 

Case and I swung by Starbucks. 

I ordered him a box of chocolate milk,

and myself a 1/2 reg 1/2 decaf non fat white chocolate mocha. 

Then we headed for our hospital for our appointment. 

Daddy was meeting us there. 

By this point, I'm not sure if it was my coffee, the sugar, 

or my nerves but I was a jumpy jittery hot mess. 

We headed to the ultrasound room, 

where I was informed I needed to go pick up the a form first from my Doctor's office. 

So Case and I headed there, then came back to the ultrasound office. 

Left my coffee at the window, so had to go BACK to the Doctor's office. 

Came back to ultrasound office. 

Daddy texting me "What floor??"

(I accidentally told him the wrong one, because I apparently have blonde roots and can never remember what flipping floor it is. In my defense though it's very confusing if you come in from the parking garage)

Daddy comes in. Tells me he knew it was the 4th floor, not the 3rd. Ha!

Mommy spills coffee. 

Mommy is hot and starting to sweat.

Mommy can't stop talking. 

Mommy needs to CHILL. 

Mommy makes Daddy take coffee. 

OH my word. 

So she calls us back and I swear I felt like I was about to explode. 

I told her Ihaddrankalotofcoffeebutipromiseiwouldhavebeenthishyperevenwithoutcoffeebutididn'tdrinktoomuch

sohopefullybabyisnttoocrazybutjustawakeenoughtotelluswhatheorsheis. 

This is when Matt pats my shoulder smiling, 

and says "Calm down, baby." 

"I know, I know I need to chill! Sorry!" 

I'm annoying MYSELF just reading this, 

can't imagine how she dealt with me! Ha! 

So she measured baby's heart chambers, legs, stomach, 

and then says, 

"So are you ready to find out what baby is?"

"Yes!"

"It's a baby girl!" 

"Are you sure?? Because I have two boys!"

"Yup! Right there, all girl" 

"Oh my gosh!!!" 

Well, all promises of me being calm go out the window! 

I'm laughing, starting to cry, looking at Matt...OH MY WORD!!! 

Did she just say it was a girl?! 

She and my husband had to remind me to sit still again, so she could finish measuring. :)

Afterward, I hugged her and thanked her over and over again, 

and apologized for being a hot mess. 

She was sweet, and I was thankful she put up with me! 

I felt like a crazy person! 

We headed over to see Dr. Y,

he said everything in the ultrasound looked perfect, 

all of the measurements looked great. 

Congratulated us, laughed at us telling our story of how I was a hot mess,

and told us we'd see him in a month. 

NOW TO CALL PEOPLE! 

Couldn't wait to share the news, 

so so so exciting. 

{I do have to say I was a teeny bit sad about losing the idea of 3 crazy boys, 

and we loved our boy name we picked out, but soo giddy about adding a precious baby girl to our family!}

Called, texted, posted until my phone was almost dead and I was exhausted. 

So thankful for all of the wonderful people in our lives to share our news with. 

 Now I am ready to paint, decorate, and get ready to meet this precious baby girl!!! 

Feels so surreal! 

p.s.

95% sure on  

Adley Kate Williams 

Already so in love with our daughter. 

Our daughter.

The Flu!

Monday morning, the weather here was calling for frigid temperatures. 

We had already planned on staying in, 

our schools were even closed in our county, and surrounding counties due to the below freezing temps. 

That morning, Case only drank about 2 sips of his milk, 

and didn't want any breakfast. 

...and when he was a whiny clingy mess all morning, 

and finally said "Mommy, I just want you." 

I knew right then and there he wasn't feeling well. 

I asked him if he wanted his pillow, blanket and Bob. 

He nodded yes, so I grabbed them, and I put on a movie for the boys.

Rhett saw this, and insisted on having his pillow and blanket too. :)

Well, I ran upstairs to start some laundry, and looked over our banister and saw this...

Uh oh. 

It's never ever a good sign when they fall asleep on their own. 

The boys had gotten up very early, 

(like 5:30am. Oh my.)

since Rhett seemed to feeling fine, 

I figured he just got cozy and fell asleep, but I knew Case wasn't feeling well, 

as he doesn't take naps anymore. 

Well the next few hours, were exhausting for this pregnant Momma to say the least.

Just being honest. 

About a half hour later, I took Rhett upstairs to put him in bed...

Rhett had peed through his clothes and onto the couch, since he fell asleep without his usual nap time pull up. 

I take off couch cushion, scrub it, take it upstairs to wash. 

Come downstairs, Case wakes up, and keeps complaining about his belly hurting.

 All he had had all morning was Sierra Mist, and about 3 minutes later, while sitting on the other side of the couch, he throws up, about 3 times. 

Bless his heart, it scared him so much, and I promised him it was okay.

 He was so upset because he had thrown up on Bob and Mommy had to wash him. 

I go upstairs to switch laundry again, to wash the things Case had just thrown up on, well I had apparently accidentally washed a Pull Up and all of the absorbing crystal things were EVERYWHERE. ON EVERY PIECE OF CLOTHING

DISGUSTING.

Soooo I have to rewash all of that, while poor Case just wants his special blanket and Bob since he doesn't feel well.  

 I set up a TV and Netflix for Case in the guest room, and while both boys were resting in a bed, 

I psycho cleaned downstairs. 

If you are like me, if I know sick days are coming, I feel the need to have the house very clean and tidy so I don't stress out about dishes or vacuuming and can just take care of little boys. 

So by the time they woke up I was just exhausted. 

Oh and Rhett wakes up from his nap and pees through his pull up AND clothes...more laundry! ;)

Shew! 

So, boys wake up from naps, (Case fell asleep again upstairs)

and Case seemed to be completely fine! 

Bouncing off the walls, ate a few crackers and a string cheese. 

Nothing big, but was playing, and acting completely fine. 

He was very ready to go to bed, and felt a tad bit warm to me, but I was definitely thinking he was on the mend. 

Well, that morning, Rhett snuck into the room with Case before waking us up, 

so we found them watching Netflix together in the guest room. 

I felt Case's head, even though he kept insisting,

"Mommy! I'm okay, I not sick Mommy."

He was burning up though, took his temperature and it was 101.2. 

With Matt having a temperature too this week, and going in to the Dr. and on amoxicillin, 

I asked him what he thought...should I go ahead and call the Doctor? 

Matt ended up staying home all day Tuesday with a fever off and on! :( 

It was Tuesday morning, and the schools were cancelled again, so thankfully I didn't have to call in to preschool. 

 So we decided to call the Doctor. 

It was 8:35am, when I called and they said they had a 9:15am appointment so we flew to get ready, and got there just in time.

 (Our Doctor's office moved downtown, so it was quite a stretch to get there on time!)

By the time we got there, I could tell he really wasn't feeling well. 

When we got to the new office, he sat by me on the chairs instead of playing with toys. 

(Thankful he didn't, since we didn't know he had the flu!) 

Well by the time we get back, his temperature was 102, and his ears and cheeks were bright red. 

Doctor checked him out, did a strep test, and then a flu test. 

Strep was negative, and while we were waiting on flu results he fell asleep on me in the office. 

I had a feeling it was the dreaded flu at that point, and it turns out I was right. 

:(

He prescribed him Tamiflu, along with a prescription for the Rhetter man as a preventative.

Along with advice to call my OB for Tamiflu, and have Matt call as well. 

Oh my. 

So after spending a fortune at the pharmacy, 

we got all of our medicine home, Case hung out in the guest room again, but threw up his first dose of Tamiflu instantly. I called the Doctor, and asked some Momma friends advice on helping him keep it down. 

We ended up hiding it in gatorade mixed with a little orange juice, and he drank it up, 

along with a few bites of macaroni and cheese. 

Which apparently is a very good sign with the flu! 

Even came downstairs to eat, and cuddled with his big dog for a little while. 

 

Not having as much luck this morning with the medicine,

did the same mixture but he keeps insisting he doesn't like it. 

Even tried blue gatoade with a little Sierra mist, but he's not having it. 

However, little guy has zero fever this morning and is playing! 

A little tired, and cries easily, but he seems to be feeling very well considering. 

Gotta figure out a way to get this medicine in his system though! 

Hopefully we can figure something out that will work again today.

Been praying like crazy for our little guy, 

and for my big guy, and for my littlest guy. 

Also praying that God keeps me and baby healthy,

especially so I can take care of the boys. 

Also selfishly hoping everything will be okay for us to keep our big ultrasound this Friday, 

you know, the big gender reveal ultrasound?? 

Of course we will do whatever is best for everyone.

Just hoping it just gets better from here, and not worse!

18 Weeks

 

Feeling fantastic.

 

Which is a very VERY welcome change from this rough little ride of a pregnancy!

With the boys I felt 90% better by 10 weeks or so,

so when 11,12,13,14,15 weeks went by and I was still feeling pretty gross,

still getting sick, and still exhausted,

it's safe to say I was pretty OVER IT.

Don't get me wrong, I am of course so thankful for a healthy pregnancy so far,

just so tired of feeling so crummy.

 

Right around 16-17 though I started to have longer periods of energy during the day,

I have noticed now though that if the boys and I have a day of running around,

the next day I'm usually so sleepy and have no get up and go.

 

Pushing through though,

and feeling even better at 18 1/2 weeks.

 

This belly of mine is definitely there now, no doubt about it!

Feeling baby kick, flip and punch daily now, and I am LOVING it!

My favorite part of pregnancy, the absolute best.

 

8 DAYS until we know what this baby is!

We are going to take the Case man to the ultrasound,

our office allows kids 5 years old and older to be in the room,

he is so excited, and we are so excited that he gets to a part of this!

When we asked him if he'd like to go with us,

the first thing he said was, "But Mommy, who's going to watch Rhett?"

Sweet boy!

(& Thanks Mommom & Grand-Dad for watching Rhetter in advance!)

 

8 days, 8 DAYS!

Please please go quickly!



Christmas x3!

 

 

We started our Christmas festivities in Ashland this year,

Erica is super pregnant with another sweet baby girl,

so completely made sense as they requested to celebrate the week before Christmas instead of pushing it until the weekend after.

The Hamblen family weren't able to come the same time as us this year,

so we were missing them terribly!

 

We arrived Friday night,

and celebrated Nanny's birthday with dinner and presents!

Boys were dying to sing Happy Birthday to her,

but it turns out they had ulterior motives,

they knew after they sang they got cake. ;)

Ha!

 

Boys went to bed, and Santa came!

We made sure the boys knew that Santa was making an extra special trip,

coming to Nanny & Poppy's house early, as they were extra special boys.

 

Before all the Christmas excitement though,

we were sitting around watching Christmas movies,

and I was facing the window.

Looked up and saw THIS getting into the bird feeders!

 

CREEPY McCREEPERSONS!

 

Apparently they had been wondering why all the bird seed had been disappearing so quickly!

Roger went out and tried to scare it away,

and I was freaaaking out that it was going to jump on top of his head!

 

Creepy.

 

Well after we all ventured to bed,

and anticipated some very early risers from two excited little boys,

it was Christmas morning in Ashland before we knew it.

The logistics of sleeping arrangements have changed with growing families,

Nanny & Poppy bought a new motor home,

so they slept out in it,

Eric and Erica had their bedroom with the pack n play for Audrey,

and we slept at the end of the hall way in the two guest rooms,

one for us, one the boys shared.

The boys had very specific rules for the morning,

as Nanny & Poppy didn't want to miss the Christmas morning faces and magic.

We told Case he was not to go past the bathroom door,

(the hallway is right past it...leading to the living room filled with presents)

and to stay in their room and play until everyone was up,

and Nanny & Poppy were back inside the house. 

 

Well everyone gave a quick morning text,

alerting that the kids were up and ready,

when Case says,

"Mommy! I saw presents that went ALL THE WAY UP TO THE CEILING!"

"Um, Case did you go past the bathroom door?"

In his most serious voice,

"No Mommy! My feet didn't go past he bathroom door!"

 

We will give even more detailed instructions next year. ;)

 

 

The boys didn't waste ANY time opening presents,

especially since Case can read his and Rhett's names on name tags this year.

He helped hand out presents as well,

but seemed to always find his first! ;)

 

Audrey Hope was at the precious age of being completely content with a bow and wrapping paper. :)

 

Buddy Dude the elf even followed the boys to Ashland!

He sat in the Christmas tree to watch all the fun.

 

We had Nanny's monkey bread and breakfast casserole, (soo good) along with COFFEE.

Was a fun, fun morning,

so much more fun each year with all the little ones!

(Missed you Chloe!!)

 

There was one present Nanny & Poppy suggested the boys opened last,

we knew it was probably best to be an outside toy,

so we took full advantage of the insane 70 degree December weather,

and headed outside.

 

Oh my word, I love those crazies.

 

I took Audrey out with me for a while, she was so cute walking around,

she preferred to be held when we played baseball after playing swords.

Which I was A-Okay with!! Hee!

 

Cuties!!!

 

We had such a fun couple of days hanging out with family,

Mamaw and Papaw headed to Texas that week,

and have to update that Nanny & Poppy "took care" of the opossums, with a BB GUN!

That's talent if you ask me!

 

SO excited for the arrival of the second Turner girl!

She is scheduled to arrive January 21st!

Can't WAIT to see pictures, and to see what they end up naming her!

(We were looking up baby names a lot over the days they were here, hee!)

 

Thankful for time spent with family,

the boys were over the moon with all of their new toys,

and Mommy and Daddy appreciated all of the fun new things as well.

So fun to watch everyone open their presents,

but so thankful for the real gift of being together, and of course the true meaning of Christmas.

 

...

 

We arrived back home Sunday afternoon,

Rhett slept the entire way home,

and we had a lazy lazy evening at home.

 

It was nice having Monday to catch up,

and clean & put away before Christmas Eve on Tuesday.

 

Christmas Eve we made chocolate chip cookies,

Daddy got some carrots for the reindeer,

and Case informed us that the reindeer also needed crackers and popcorn,

just like last year.

(We don't remember this, but always trust a 5 year olds memory!)

Then we tracked Santa online,

and the boys opened some new Christmas PJ's!

 

 

Before bed, Mommy snuck the boys upstairs one by one,

and helped them wrap their presents to each other.

Daddy took Rhett out,

and Mommy took Case out to buy for their brother.

LOVE this little tradition we started this year.

 

Case was especially into it, being older,

and I'm sort of in love with the tag he wrote.

Precious.

 

Getting ready to set up the food for Santa and the reindeer,

Daddy was explaining how they had to be asleep for him to come,

and Rhett immediately collapsed and starting fake snoring!  

 

He came, he came!

 

 

Boys got everything they requested!

Rhett just kept saying he wanted "presents" so we're assuming he was happy with his

big trucks and dinosaurs Santa brought him! Ha!

 

After all the presents were ripped open,

they boys played with all of their new toys until it was time to head to Mimi's house for lunch,

and Round 3 of Christmas!

 

After a delicious lunch, it was time for even more presents!

 

The boys and Avery all got nerf guns,

so it was a full on nerf gun war later in the day, so much fun!

Amy made an ADORABLE video of it all, she posted on facebook.

Here's the link!

http://www.magisto.com/album/video/eXZ6BAUCQgkfDnIEDQ

 

THEN, It was time to reveal the video the Grand-kids (plus Cy's cute girlfriend)

made for Mommom after they left on Thanksgiving.

 

Let's just say, it has a lot of the word "fart" in it,

which if you know Mom is just her FAVORITE word on earth. Ha!! ;)

 

I felt a little guilty as we gave it to her, and I heard her say,

"Aww, I'm going to cry!"

to which Griffin mumbled to me,

"Yeah, cry with disappointment"

Bahah!

 

You see, in the past I've made the family DVD's with pictures and sweet music,

and I'm 100% positive that she thought she was about to watch a precious video of all of her grand-kids over the past year...but she didn't.

 

She watched a lot of crazy kids singing,

"FART FART FART, FART FART FART, FART FART FART FART FAAAART!"

(in tune to Jingle Bells, along with an assortment of other Christmas songs,

like Silent Fart, Oh Fartmas Tree and O Holy Fart)

 

Good times.

Although we think she was pretty embarrassed and might have wanted to kill us all,

it was hilarious and the laughter and the looks on her and Dad's faces were absolutely priceless!!!

 

Love you Mom :)

 

 

We hope everyone had a blessed and happy Christmas like we did.

Lots of memories were made,

and so very glad we could spend it with a majority of our family.

We are hoping and praying that EVERYONE can make it in next year!

We missed those that couldn't this time.

 

Merry, merry, merry Christmas!

 

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

 



16 week Check Up

Always exciting to come upon another appointment!

One step closer to meeting this sweet baby inside of me.

 

I was pretty excited about this one, because I would be scheduling our 20 week ultrasound this time!!!

(Thanks Mimi for watching boys for my appointment!)

 

We had originally planned on getting an early gender scan done before Christmas, 

but effective December 1st our ultrasound office no longer did the optional gender scan.

Umm. BOO!

 

Other places around town were double the price,

and we just weren't willing to pay that,

so we decided to be patient.

With just a little moaning and groaning about it on my part. ;)

 

 

Dr.Y didn't have a student with him today,

so he found baby's heart beat immediately,

and we got right to talking about our next appointment.

(Baby's heart rate was in 150's nice and strong :)

 

"So do we know boy or girl yet?"

"Uggh, No!"

"Ha! No huh?"

"I was going to ask you, I will be 20 weeks on a Monday,

wondering if it would be okay if we scheduled it for the Friday before, because Matt can't get off work that week, and we of course want him to be there..."

"Oh yeah, that's no problem at all."

"Yay! We can't wait!"

"You know size wise, it actually might be better if we waited until the week after..."

"Buuuut that would mean we'd have to wait a whole other week before we find out what this baby is..."

"Ha! Oh man, I see how this is going to go! Too funny. That's totally fine."

(continues to laugh at me)

 ;)

 

I mean, I just literally couldn't wait that long, I'm already dying to know!

So now we are all set up for our Ultrasound, I'll be 19 weeks and 5 days,

I mean that is seriously almost 20 weeks.

and I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

 

Now to talk about pink or blue.

I honestly (truly truly) will be so unbelievably happy either way!

Everyone around us seems to think PINK,

but not sure if that's just because we have 2 boys or because they truly have a strong feeling!

 

Case is 100% BOY.

Rhett changes with the wind.

Daddy thinks BOY.

Mommy has no earthly idea.

 

I think it would be so fun and exciting to hear the ultrasound technician announce,

"It's a girl!"
I love the idea of having a daughter,
I know Matt would be absolutely wrapped around her little finger,
and I imagine her wedding, and having babies, and her needing me in a way I know the boys won't later on in life.
The boys will need me but not in the same way.

however,

I love my crazy, dirty, silly boys, and could completely imagine our lives

with 3 sport playin', dirty, stinky, precious, sweet boys.
There is something so special in a bond between boys and their Mommas.

I love me some boys, and would be one happy girl being surrounded by a bunch of 'em.

 

We shall see, 50/50 shot right??

Let the countdown begin.

 

 {17 weeks}