36 weeks pregnant!!

Well I've made it to 36 weeks. I cannot believe there is only 4 weeks left before this little one arrives. I am feeling great still. I have had several people comment that I look like I have dropped. I can never tell myself. Actually I am starting to really freak out about having 3, and all that comes with that. With Ridge still getting up a couple times a night, I wonder if sleep will even be in my vocab the first couple weeks with 3. Its weird to think about having 3. That's going to be such a big change for our family. Even Curtis is getting a little worried about the adjustment that we will have to go through. Makes you start to wonder what this baby will be like. I hope and pray we will have a well tempered baby to help us out but we'll see. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have my body back, and start feeling more comfortable, and I'm getting anxious to see what this baby is going to be (boy or girl)but I am in no hurry. I can wait.

Creativity needed...

Okay, so I am in need of some creative ideas for my kids. I feel terrible. These last couple of weeks, I have been slacking big time on getting to do things with my kids. The heat is a major factor in that but I just feel like such a terrible mom. Usually they only watch tv in the morning and a show right before bed, but I am sorry to admit that they have watched a lot more tv because I am not sure what else to do to entertain them. Luckily we do have Cambree's dance class that does take up a very large portion of the day, but there are several hours before and after that leave me struggling to keep everyone busy and happy. Everything I think of, I just cringe at doing because the clean up is going to be terrible. So I need your ideas. All of you with active little ones, what do you do with them all day? Any little activities, or ideas would be great!!!

How does your garden grow?!

This year was my first attempt at having a garden. Truly I was very worried that I had a black thumb and that nothing would grow. Well to my great surprise, everything has grown beautifully. I have already gotten 8 tomatoes with approximately 15 to 20 more on the vine still, 3 bell peppers, and my pumpkin plant has grown amazingly. I have never seen a pumpkin plant before so I didn't know how big it could grow. It has completely taken over my garden. I am actually quite worried about it. It is starting to spread to places I can't have it spreading. There is about 10 pumpkins already growing and probably about another 10 if not more, buds starting to form. So I am excited but not sure how to maintain it. If there are any garden experts out there that could shed some light on the best way to handle this growing problem :) I would greatly appreciate it.

So pretty much all that green is the pumpkin plant. See how its arms are just growing out of control....

Two of the growing pumpkins

Cambree's Dance!!

So after almost 5 hours of trying to upload videos, I finally got at least this one to upload. I will keep trying for the other one, but this one will have to do. This is her Cinderella dance. Notice where she stands. She still gets into the dance, but refuses to move a couple feet up to be with the group.

Happy Father's Day to this wonderful dad!!

Just wanted to say a very Happy Father's Day to my husband who is the best father to our kids. He is so patient, and understanding with them. Here are a couple pics of him with Ridge and Cambree over the past year. I love you babe, and thank you for all you do!!

Cambree's 3 year Photo Shoot

For Cambree's 3rd birthday, I had Erin Householder take some pictures of Cambree. I think they turned out super cute. I couldn't even choose. I narrowed it down the best I could but i am still uploading a ton of pictures to share. She also got some pics of Ridge and Cambree together and some of me (wasn't planned), but I think some turned out so good. So enjoy!! Thanks Erin, I truly LOVE them!!

I know these first couple look very similar, but I just couldn't choose my favorite

To Dance or Not to Dance...that is the ultimate question

So i signed Cambree up for a months worth of dance classes that started this past Monday. She has taken dance before which was a mom and tot class, and loved it and has talked about it since then so I was anxious to get her involved in dance again. This week is college week for kids and she's in a group of probably 15 3-5 year olds. On Monday, we were signing her up for class and found out it started that day so we were unprepared but stayed anyways. Well she jumped right in with her class. She was excited, enjoying it and so since I was not prepared, I needed to run home to get at least a diaper and drink for Ridge. I left and when I came back, she had been in the hall with the director screaming her head off. I couldn't believe it. She usually handles herself very well without me. So I took her to finish her class and ensured her I was there to stay. 

Well Tuesday came and she was talking about it and excited to go. We got her special dancing shoes and outfit to make her extra excited. Before class she is running everywhere. She is playing with the other girls and really enjoying herself. Class starts, and she freaks out. She insists on just watching. So I coax her finally to go into class if I sit in the corner of the room she is in and watch her. She cries for awhile and then eventually started doing some of the moves next to me instead of with the group. I was frustrated, but at least she was doing it. By the middle/end of the class, she was better. 

Then there's today. I spoke with her for awhile before getting to the class that we aren't going to cry and we are going to have fun. She agreed with me and was telling everyone that she was going to dance class and again acted like she might actually participate and enjoy the class. Again she runs around the dance room playing and laughing with the other girls. Then her teachers walk in the room. This time, it was like a someone had just beat her. She was screaming and thrashing her body everywhere. I was in shock and not sure what to do. I had told her before class that if she was good, we would go to the pool with her cousin. Well I tried to tell her that we wouldn't be going to the pool if she didn't stop. She didn't care. She just wanted to leave. Nothing I said, would make her stop. I gave up and left. She was completely disrupting the class and I was sick of her not listening. The entire way home she kept saying I don't want to go to dance I don't want to go to dance. I don't know if I have ever been so frustrated with her in my life. I had so many emotions building up in me. Sounds silly I am sure, over such a stupid thing, but it really bugged me. Now I am left to try to figure out what to do. She enjoys dance, but there is something bugging her enough that she is scared when it actually comes down to it. My mom thinks its because I left her on Monday that I may have screwed it up and now she thinks I am going to leave her. I don't know. She has a fairytale dance group next week and I would like to hope she would enjoy it but I don't know. Does anyone have any ideas at all on how to fix this? My mom is right that I shouldn't punish her for not doing it, but that is the first and only thing I can think of when she doesn't want to dance.  

AAaahhh!!! It's just been a very frustrating day. To make matters worse, I left a swim diaper on Ridge for naps on accident (since we really didn't go to the pool), and when he woke up 3 hours later, it was just a puddle in his diaper and it POURED out ALL OVER the house and made a HUGE mark on our couch. Then a huge thing of yogurt fell off a shelf in our fridge and splattered EVERYWHERE on the floor, in the fridge, counters, and all over me. I have just had a day. I am so overwhelmed right now. So any words of advice would be great!!!! Thanks

Just some funny stories from the week

This past week, several things have happened that I didn't want to pass up documenting. 

On Friday, Rachel went to get her hair done, so I watched Luke. We decided to go on a golf cart ride. My kids just love to get on there and visit all the local animals. We first checked out the chickens, and across from the chickens is a white horse that we frequently visit. Cambree got out, and got close to the fence. The horse came over and started smelling her hair. She was laughing and I thought it was cute. Then all of the sudden, the horse grabbed hold of a large chunk of her hair and started pulling her up. She started screaming bloody murder. I was in shock at what I was seeing. Here I had Ridge on my lap, Luke was watching and Cambree was getting attacked by a horse. I got up and luckily all I had to do was touch his nose to get him to let go, but the trauma had already been done. She was devastated and I can't say I blame her. Her hair was all wet and matted to her head, really gross. I tried to laugh it off with her and make it something funny rather such a scary thing and I think its worked. She's been telling everyone about her encounter and we've seen several horses since then and seems to be doing ok still. But can you imagine? 

Yesterday we were getting ready for church. I got Cambree dressed and all set to go. Then I started on Ridge. I have never heard of a 20 month old as fashion opinionated as he was being. He had a certain shirt he wanted to wear and it was dirty. So of course I wasn't going to let him. Well he threw a fit. I tried to let him pick out another shirt and he just wasn't having it. He was stuck on that one shirt and nothing else was going to work. I finally got a shirt on him and he walked around the house pulling at his shirt and went to Curtis to 'tattle' on me. Then I tried to put on his church shoes and he refused those as well. He found his new shoes that are still too big for him. I gave into that request since it was still ok looking but couldn't believe his stubbornness over getting dressed. He truly is following after his sister. Just very funny. 

Anyways, I'll get more pictures soon and will have pictures to post, just had to share those stories. Erin Householder took pictures for us last week and am very excited to see how they turned out so as soon as I get those back, I'll be posting those as well.

Pregnancy Update and Cambree's 3rd Birthday!! Lots of PICS...

I'm now in my 33rd week. 7 more to go... This is a picture of me with my two sister-in-laws who are all due within about 8 weeks of each other. Rachel is due in about a week, I am due in 7 and Sara is due in 8. So its a 'rare' picture of us all with our huge bellies. I envy my sister-in-laws and how cute they look this pregnant. They look still so skinny :) 

Rachel Me Sara

Cambree's birthday was the 29th of May but Curtis had scout camp that week and so I dropped off my kids at my parents to get a lot done before the baby came and preschool started again. So we celebrated this past Saturday. She was so excited and it was so fun doing it at my parents. They carried out the same birthday traditions that I grew up with. She had waffles with a birthday candle in it.

Of course what Cambree does, Ridge must do too, so he got to blow out a candle too.

Just a funny picture of Ridge. He has a strange relationship with my parents dog Benji. He can chase him forever in circles, and here he's obviously using him as a pillow. 

Here's Cambree's birthday set-up. 

This is a cake my sister Chelsie made for her. She spent forever making it, and it turned out super cute. Notice how many candles are on it....

My little 'princess' posing before she opens her presents

Okay, so here is my sister Chelsie attempting to light ALL the candles on the cake. There was so many. I said it was in honor of the fact that I feel like she is 3 going on 20 :)

Cambree tried to blow out the million candles, but was getting frustrated so we enlisted the help of the other little kids to help, and they gladly did. 

Then they helped themselves to the top layer of the cake-

Cambree's big gift was a little princess trike that sings. She loves it. 

This is Cambree and Grace (Bonnie Colyar's little girl). They hardly ever see each other but they get a long so well. Here they are looking at some of Cambree's new books and they were so cute to watch. I sure wish we could get them together more. It was fun having Bonnie, Gracie and Tucker (or Sucker how Cambree says it) at the party. 

Ridge trying Cambree's chair out. He looks a little too relaxed. Notice the crossed leg.

And yes, we caved and got one for Ridge too. I know it was Cambree's birthday but I also knew that they would fight CONSTANTLY if I had just gotten one for Cambree and I couldn't handle that. So after the party, we brought it out for Ridge. So they both love the bikes, and love to switch off bikes as well. So cute.

On Sunday, after returning home from my parents house, we threw Cambree a last minute party with the Allen family. My mother-in-law had already made a cake, so I just put on some of the decorations from her other party on it. 

Showing off her presents...

All the little ones were so excited for Cambree's gift. Cambree loved it too. It was a hair kit and cousin Luke and Ridge were all about it. 

Here Cambree is trying out the curling iron on cousin Rylee.

So now my little girl is 3 years old. I can't believe it!! She is getting so big too fast.