Jack's Room is DONE!

Whew! Who knew that even though we had all the furniture that Jack's room would be so hard to do? L's room was easy- pink and frilly. But since Jack has a much smaller room than L did, I wanted to make sure his room was very bright but still boyish. It was between cars and bugs. Can you believe I went with the bugs?! I'm considering this his future training as our household "bug killer" while Daddy is at work. We all know Mommy doesn't do real bugs.

We only have a few finishing touches left. A few pictures of him will go in the frames above his dresser...obviously we'll have to wait until Nov 20th (and Mommy feeling up to doing pics) for those. We also need to find some kind of a smallish/tallish table to go by the chair. Too bad Dr. Seuss didn't design and sell furniture. 

A BIG FAT thank you to Grandma Barton for doing the crib and window treatments. She is so talented! And to my Grandma Lucky who painted the letters, helped with with his pillow and tiebacks and did an adorable (and really good smelling) quilt that I forgot to put back on the chair for these pics. Grandma what fabric softener do you use? LOL. And of course Grandpa for his OCD picture hanging skills. The kids are SO lucky to have their rooms 100% their "own" with their Grandma and Great Grandma's help.

I hope Jack loves his room! If not, he'll have a new one in 2 - 3 years when he moves into his "big boy" room aka- the current guest room. Will the house projects ever stop?! ;o)

Pumpkin Patch 2012

Halloween is just around the corner EEEEEKKK!! I'm so glad that we got to do at least one pumpkin patch this year. My goal is at least 3 next year when I don't have an extra 100 lbs to lug around. The highlight of this trip for Layla was getting her face painted...she was ALL about it! She also really loved the hayride, something Mommy should have skipped. I think I'm still sore from it! Here are some of our favorite pics from last weekend's adventure:

Layla and Daddy have the exact same expressions on their face in EVERY picture I take of them. Cracks me up!

Layla has only seen the mommy and baby turkeys in our neighborhood so she was pretty excited to see this big guy. 

And here she is getting her face painted. She picked out what she wanted (for the record there were MUCH simpler designs but she insisted on this one) let this lady put her in the seat and listened very carefully to her instructions. She was so patient with no whining...it was amazing! 

Here she is getting her first look

Checking herself out in the mirror, she just couldn't get enough!

Then we came home and carved our pumpkins. I was a little heartbroken I couldn't get on the floor and dig out the guts, and even more heartbroken that L didn't want to dig in. That's my favorite part!! But I knew she wouldn't...there is always next year (and Jack haha). 

Again...SAME smile haha

Layla comforting Oscar. Apparently our dogs are afraid of leaf blowers...that were being used 5 houses down. Ridiculous! 

The cutest fish in the...forest?

It is almost here...the most wonderful, joyful and exciting holiday there is...HALLOWEEN!! Layla and I LOVE Halloween. She's totally into it this year...right down to the ghosts and pumpkins.  I had to get a few shots of her in her costume today before Bryan picked up all the leaves. Isn't she the most gorgeous fish you've ever seen in the ocean...errr...forest?

34 weeks!

So I'm running behind AGAIN! I really thought I was going to be good at this but all motivation has come to a halt...all I want to do is lay on the couch, drink ice cold water and concentrate on breathing.

I'm fairly miserable. And by fairly I mean I feel like I'm overdue. Even with my blood pressure issues I was never this exhausted with Layla. Everything hurts, my tummy is as big as I was at 38 weeks with Layla. I took Layla to the grocery store on Friday and it was all I could do to get through it...let alone the rest of the day. Being pregnant with #2 is SO much harder than the first time around. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm chasing L, but I just feel like Jack is bigger and stronger than she was in my belly. He has to weight 15 lbs...at least. And he kicks and punches like a true champion black belt. I feel him all the way from my ribs to my hips at the same time! I'm also having lots of contractions and my swelling is getting worse. I'm praying for 3 things now- a happy/healthy baby boy, no bedrest and for him to come as planned. Too much?

Layla is doing FANTASTIC with the whole big sister thing for the moment. You can see my comments in my picture but she really does seem to "get" it now. We are going to do a hospital tour sometime in the next few weeks and then take her out for ice cream. I'm sure she'll enjoy both...it is such hard work being a big Sis! She knows Jack is coming out of my belly soon, she even looked at me the other day and told me "the doctor is going to pull him out of your belly where I came out". Wow, yes he is. I'm trying to prepare her for my recovery, the baby crying and feedings...etc. I think we might be slightly obsessed with talking about all this and she's sick of it but I really want her to be as ready as possible.

I can't believe we only have 4 more weekends as a family of 3. I am a crazy ball of emotions about this. I can't wait to have Jack here and have our family complete, but I'm scared to death that I won't be able to juggle 2, that Layla will hate me or I won't give Jack as much as I was able to give her. I hate pregnancy hormones and I know it is only going to get worse before it gets better! Nothing a bowl of ice cream won't fix though.

So here we are with a special guest appearance by little miss Layla for week 34:

Fall is here!

I loooooooooooove fall. I'm a little disappointed that I'm not feeling 100% in order to truly appreciate it. We have plans to take Layla to a few pumpkin patches and obviously trick or treating, but pushing 9 months pregnant is making this really tough.

I SHOULD be resting today. I really pushed way too hard this weekend and have ended up with lots of cramping and general yuckiness today. But I had to spend a couple minutes outside getting some shots of L helping Daddy with some leaves and sticks. I can't relax inside knowing this little penguin was having the time of her life!!

 

The blog is distorting these pictures for some reason...so you can't appreciate them in TRUE form. But just know she looks absolutely adorable in that hat and had such a good time helping Daddy take sticks to the road. I just love her to death!

Detroit Zoo- Revisited

We are trying to make our last few weekends as a family of 3 special for Layla. This weekend Bryan decided to take Friday off and take us to the Detroit zoo one last time this year.

Honestly, this zoo isn't my favorite. After a 2 hour drive, Layla didn't even realize we were at a zoo until we finished the 15 minute walk to the back of the zoo to see the good animals. LOL. There is A LOT of walking here...our plan was to take the train to the back and walk up front hitting up all the good animals. Turns out the train doesn't operate on the weekdays in October so I was one exhausted Momma by the end of this trip.

Once she realized we were at the zoo (haha) she had a great time. It was windy and chilly so she stayed in her stroller most of the time, but it was a great time to go because it wasn't crowded at all. We got to see almost all the animals on L's list and a few more! Here are a few pics of L enjoying the zoo:

I think her favorites were the monkeys and alligators this time. Look how close we got to see this baby chimp!!

And that's all the pics we took. I was too tired to hold the camera and Bryan was busy pushing L around. Oh well! After the zoo we took what we thought would be a quick trip to Ikea to get a few things for Jack's room. It ended up taking us 3 1/2 hours to get home (normally takes under 2)...the curse of the Barton's continues to strike every time we travel. Maybe Jack will be our good luck charm? If not, I'm never leaving the house again. :)

House update...exterior is done!!

Well, ALMOST done. We just have one more coat of paint to put on the front door...but I had the time to take pictures today so this is as close to done as we are going to get for the moment. Man that sounds good...D-O-N-E!

Here are a few of the before pictures I took last year as things were in progress:

And the afters:

Wow wow Wubbzy right?! I am SO proud of us...this transformation was a lot of work. We painted the entire house, hung the gutters, tore out and replaced all the landscaping...mostly by ourselves. We had some help from my Grandpa along the way (THANK YOU!).

There are 2 things that I'm looking forward to next year- the door being done and the "right color" (it looks brighter here than it will be without the second coat), our landscaping becoming more "full" and to not do a SINGLE thing outside besides fill in the mulch this spring and then mow the yard.

I can't even express how good it feels to not have the ugly house in the neighborhood anymore. We have worked so freaking hard, and it is so nice to have a house that feels brighter and more like us. :)

Now we move on to Jack's room! It is almost done so stay tuned!

Freaking dogs

Let me take you back to a time when I was about 6 or 7 months pregnant with Layla and I cried at work because I was telling a coworker how I didn't think I could love anything more than I loved our dogs. Fast forward 2.5 years to today and you'd see a MUCH different side of me. I'm constantly reminding myself how old they are (8 and 6) and wondering how many more years I'm going to have to put up with them.

Don't feel sorry for them. They are mean, loud, don't appreciate anything and have mental issues that I can't even begin to describe. We've done our best to give them the best doggie lives that we can. We used to take them for walks (until Oscar's paw pads decided to fall off), give them treats (until Oscar needed surgery and $40 for an 8 lbs bag of prescription dog food because of bladder stones) and hugged and kissed on them so much (until they both decided it would be so much fun to roll in squirrel poop and eat it). They jump on the table to grab food if we turn our eyes away for 1 second (and I do mean 1 second).

Moose barks his loud pitch, ear piercing bark at everything. He's relentless when he wants to go out or feels the need to eat. He's a sneak and a liar and he chases squirrels.

Oscar also barks at everything and won't stop. His whine is the most annoying sound in the world. His breath smells worse than death and he knows that he can get away with growling even with the bark collar on. He is not the best with Layla and growls ALL the time.

So why in the world do we continue to put up with their crap? Because every morning Oscar cries at L's door until I let him in so he can lick her and play under the covers. Because Moose wears the same St. Patrick's day necklace everyday without complaining. And honestly, because they take care of the goldfish crumbs off the couch.

And because Layla loves them and loves taking care of them. And since I love her more than anything in the whole world (yes, even the dogs) we'll let those wild beasts stick around.

Freaking dogs.