Soccer Season

Asher is in his second season of soccer. He's having lots of fun. He's not the most aggressive or skilled on the field, but he's having fun and that's what counts.


We joked we might have signed him up for the wrong sport after Saturday's game when he spent most of his time falling down and trying to tackle the other players. I was afraid another parent was going to get mad at us! I think we'll have to go over the objective very clearly before next game!


I am looking forward to the weather cooling down just a little bit...it's been hot at those games and I'm just standing around!


In a few days, I'm going to try to give a house tour of our new abode. It's a project house for sure and I have spent every spare minute painting for the past few weeks. Hence, the lack of blogging!

I updated my caking blog too, so don't forget to check that out here. Hope you all are having a wonderful Thursday!

Happy 9 Months, Maryclaire!

Say it ain't so...my baby is 9 months old! Here are some highlights from the past month.

1. Height? Weight? No clue! We go to the Dr. this week, so I'll update this as soon as we know.

2. You wear size 2 diaper and mostly 6-9 clothes. You have the tiniest feet. Everyone comments on how petite you are.

3. You are nursing ever 3-4 hours during the day and still waking twice a night to eat. I've switched to the bottle for one of those night feeds thinking it would help you sleep...it hasn't worked. I think you will be easy to wean in the next few months. You eat 3 solid meals a day and a few snacks. You eat lots of table food too. You are very into self feeding, so I try to find things to cut up in small pieces for you.


4. Still no teeth. Not one. Nada. zilch. zip.

5. Your naps have been all wacky lately and you are fighting me tooth and nail on the second nap. I don't think you're ready for only one nap just yet, but our timing has been off.

6. You are cruising the furniture and even walking with a little push toy. You even stood by yourself for a second the other day when you got excited and forgot to hold on to something.

7. You like music and will start bouncing when we listen to certain songs. You love toys...especially your brothers matchbox cars. I think maybe you just like that there are so many of them and they are very colorful. You also love your xylophone.



8. You have so much personality! You growl all the time, tease everybody who coos at you, and are just a funny girl. You are into everything and I often have to contain you in the play pen to keep you out of trouble.

9. You are understanding much of what we say to you...especially "no." You cry when we tell "no" to something. Some words you understand are night,night, brother, doggies, mama, bath, and no.

10. You are "talking" so much. I love to listen to you. Your brother was not much of a talker so this is a new thing for me. You say bubba, mama, ma-ee and I think you even said something that sounded liked doggie the other day.

11. You are adjusting well to the new house. It took you a few days to get comfortable, but overall, you are doing well.


12. You are the sweetest little thing and you have my heart. Love you so much!

The Baby Bounce

I'm way to busy to blog right now as I'm still knee deep in boxes and clutter from the move. It's been a challenge to find two matching shoes, let alone string together a series of intelligent words to entertain my future self and any any blog followers I have. :)

So, for now enjoy a little video of Maryclaire doing the baby bounce to that crazy Kia hamster/robot commercial. Of course, I think it's the most adorable thing ever...something new she just started doing about a week ago.



I have to add that we love the Kia commercial! Asher gets such a kick out of it. I looked it up for him to watch on YouTube and Mc just broke out bouncing. She really gets going around 30 secs to hold on until then!

If you don't know what commercial I'm talking about you can see it here!

39 Weeks

I get this thing in my email every week that tells me how many weeks old Maryclaire is and what sort of developmental things she might be doing. I realized this week that she's been out of the womb for as long as she was in it.


So, here she is at 39 weeks in my belly

And again at 39 weeks out of the belly. Amazing!

I also realized that she is 9 months old tomorrow and it will be a few days before I get to take her 9 month pics. Wanna know why??? We are finally closing on the house tomorrow and will be moving in! Whoohooo! I think we might have set a record for being under contract...84 days!

Highlights from the Past Week

Well, we are still here staying with my parents waiting to close on our house. The newest close date is this Wed., Sept 14th. We are 99.9% sure this is the real deal. Our file from our lender has been sent to the title company which is the final step before closing. This also mean Quicken Loans cannot come up with any more ridiculousness for us to do. Thank you, Lord.

Sharing a cracker. Mc's first time eating a ritz.

When we packed up almost 2 weeks ago, I never thought our stuff would be in that moving truck for this long. I packed myself all of about 2 outfits and I packed Vaughn 2 work outfits. We had a cool spell this week which we were not really prepared for clothing wise. Luckily, I had just a few of the kids fall/winter clothing to stored at my parent's house (I didn't want them sitting in the moving truck for some odd reason...now I know why!) and miracle of miracles, a sleeper for Maryclaire to wear at night ended up over here. I've washed that and the one pair of pants I packed myself everyday!

Sweet girl is getting so big!

I loved having a few cool days and it made me so eager for the change scenery and clothing. I must have changed Maryclaire's outfit at least twice a day.

Mc's pillowcase dress I made.

Here is the pillowcase dress I made for her. I thought it turned out pretty cute for my first one. I am working one for Christmas now. I think I can get it finished up in the next few days.

Is the throw-up bucket any indication of what a rough day it was?

Asher came down with with a horrible stomach bug on Wednesday. Poor thing couldn't keep anything down all day. It really took it out of him and he was wiped our for a couple of days. I was so thankful it didn't spread to Maryclaire.

Notice the ball is no where in sight?

Asher had his first soccer game on Saturday. He is definitely one of the smaller, less aggressive kids out there. That's ok by me as long as he has a good time. Did I mention Vaughn is coaching the team?


Go Fire Ants! Asher and Granbuddy after the game.

I baked a super yummy cake yesterday from the cover of Southern Living magazine that got me in the mood for Fall. Check it out here on my other blog. I even included the recipe.

Yummy!

I've had lots to blog about, but I'm just kind of off my normal routines since we've been displaced. I'm hoping to get one more post in before we start moving and things get crazy again!

Still homeless...and loving it!

I can't believe I ever complained about having to spend a week being homeless and staying with my parents. Seriously, I have had such a great time spending the past several days here. This is the house I grew up in , so it really is "home." Although our house closing situation isn't ideal, I have really enjoyed this little mini-vacation.

Sawing stumps outside

I haven't cooked dinner in over a week. I have made a couple of desserts, but that's fun stuff for me. All the stuff that keeps me busy at my own house, you know, the loads of laundry, a constantly dirt kitchen, the clutter (oh the clutter of 4 people is ridiculous), fixing food, cleaning up the mess, need I go on? I didn't think so, well, that is definitely not keeping me busy here.

Nana and her namesake, Maryclaire

I've even had time to be crafty. My mom and I are figuring out this pillowcase dress thing. She's a great teacher...I am a struggling student!
Sewing! I'll post pics of the finished product nest time.

Asher has been in hog heaven being with his best buddy, Granbuddy. This kid adores my daddy and for good reason; he is showered with attention and treats for as long as Granbud's eyelids are open. He's a much better playmate than I am! Telling bedtime stories with Granbuddy.

I've been so impressed with Maryclaire who hasn't let this displacement phase her in the least. I am so lucky my mama has set her house up for grandchildren with a crib and rocking chair-two necessities for my kids.
Mc has spent a lot of time being contained in the playpen. Nana's house is too big and too much stuff to get into.

The past week and flown by and I am praying we close on the house this Friday. The weather has cooled down (I'm afraid to say fall has arrived for chance it's going to heat back up one more time) and it will make much more bearable temperatures for unloading that moving truck.

Moving, Homeless and Positive Thinking

We moved out of our rental house on Wednesday. It was by far the hardest I've worked in a long time...and our air was still not cooling properly even after the air man came and fixed it. A 90 degree house made it even more fun loading up a 24 ft truck to the brim.

Thankfully, Mc took a great 2 hr afternoon nap and my mom came and picked the kids up around 5 so we were able to get it done. It was exhausting.


Cutest little moving man on the block.

We were supposed to close on the new house yesterday. It didn't happen. Again. We've set 4 closing dates and each one has failed for some reason or another. I really thought this one would be it. We are now signing another addendum for a Sept. 9th close.

Chaos! This is not for the light hearted.

For the time being we are staying with my parents who live about 25 minutes from where we just moved/are moving. I know we are lucky to have somewhere to stay, but I have been more than bummed out, annoyed, frustrated, angry, sad, etc. and I've been spending a little too much time dwelling on all the negatives and inconveniences this situation has put us in.

So, without further ado, I decided I needed to "turn that frown upside down" and come up with 10 good things about being displaced for the next week.

Where's a safe place to contain a baby when you're cleaning the bathroom? In an empty tub, of course.

1. I love my parents dearly and I love getting to spend some extra time with them. Asher thinks this is just the best thing ever-getting to see two of his favorite people every day.

2. No rent this month! Getting to bank a months rent will be such a blessing to our checking acct. especially with that big check we're about to have to write for our closing costs.

3. Maybe, just maybe, Vaughn and I can go on a little dinner date since we will have 1). extra money (see #2) and 2). built in baby sitters (see #1). We have not been on a date in precisely 8 months. I think Mc just might let nana put her to bed.

4. My mom has a sewing machine (I don't). I think it's time to work on some of those sewing projects I have been wanting to tackle.


5. Vaughn says the best thing about my parent's house is their expanded cable package. Our own budget cable package doesn't include Vaughn's beloved ESPN. He is in heaven.


6. Mozzy and Bridgette have two doggy playmates this week. They also gets lots of dog treats and extra attention.

7. I am 5 minutes closer to shopping (Target, TJ Maxx, Ross, Walmart, Kohl's, etc). 5 minutes is a lot when you have 2 kids with you and every second counts.

8. More helping hands. I have two more arms to hold a sweet girl when she's in "hold me" mode and 2 more sets of hands to help with Asher.

9. I haven't cooked dinner in two nights. I do plan on helping out during our stay (I promise, Mama!) but it hasn't happened yet. Believe me, I'll owe my parent's a lot more than cooking dinner by the time we leave in a week.

10. We have a whole week to rest and recuperate before having to unload that 24 ft moving truck. And I'm sure we will need every bit of energy we can muster for the job ahead.

My big helper!

I started struggling around #5, but I did it. It's all about perspective, right? I'm sure this next week will fly by and we'll be in our house in perfect timing.