Holiday Pictures

I love the holidays!

With our big Thanksgiving holiday lunch, I wanted to take some pictures with Brian and Bella so we could use them for our holiday cards. But my sweet husband forgot to do his hair and get dressed. So my sweet family didn't get to the shots I wanted. But my sisters family did get some good shots, and Isabella wanted to get in their shots. I love my sister and her family, the shots turned out great and Bella is a camera hog! Gotta love it!

Baby Names

I need to start a record of what baby names I like so here goes a few. I think I'm having a boy, just my gut, but I'll know soon enough! The names all depend on what my sister has as well. Since she has all "M" names she's going to keep that going with this one. So we both have some of the same names in mind. And since I'm not IN LOVE with any of these names, she gets first dibs! Tell me what you think...

Boys
Cooper Michael
Spencer Michael
Jett Johnston
Jager Michael
Perice Johnston
Maxwell (Max) Johnston
Max Johnston
Kaden Michael
Benjamin Michael
Landon Michael
Ian Michael

Girls (clueless on middle names)
Caroline
Madeline (Maddy)
Olivia
Alison
Ashlyn
Paige
Kayleigh
Caitlin
Savannah
Kingsley
Keegan
Chloe
JulieAnn

Pregnancy Again

With this pregnancy come a lot of comparisons, and in the beginning I thought this pregnancy was identical to the first one. But I have been wronged around every corner. I was sick with Isabella for the entire first trimester and it let up around 14 weeks. But I am still just so very sick in the mornings. I'm 20 weeks tomorrow, the halfway point, but oh my this has been the longest 20 weeks so far! I'm not as big as I was at this same point with Isabella. I just look fat, and the maternity clothes look stupid on me. I have been wearing my normal shirts with maternity pants, it's really strange. I do feel the baby move ever so often, which is a funny feeling, usually at night when I first lay down, I've usually just drank a ton of cold water. It is a unique butterfly feeling, I enjoy it! Thursday after a huge Thanksgiving lunch, we were watching the Cowboys and the baby really and truly kicked the tar out of me. It shocked me, but that was a very awesome feeling. Other than the sick feeling every morning and the butterfly movements, I really don't feel pregnant. I guess that is a good thing, because soon enough, I'll feel huge and hurt all over. I'll gladly take this feeling I have now!

Pregnancy & Birthday

I haven't posted much about the new baby lately, so I thought I would update. I'm 19+ weeks pregnant now and we will find out the sex of the baby on Dec. 6th! I have scheduled my c-section for April 17th, this date works best for me. My due date is April 21st, but since I'm having a repeat c-section, I can schedule it as early as 10 days. But that would pose a problem with my niece Megan's birthday, hers is April 11th. This niece we see all the time and will be going to many, many of her birthdays. So, I don't' want a conflicting birthday for this baby. Especially, since Bella already shares a birthday with my cousins baby (we don't see them very much). Both Catherine and Isabella share the same day, and that side of the family did not meet Isabella until she was 19 months old. I'm still bitter, it is my mother's brother!!! My Uncle! Anywho, I do not want this baby to share the weekend/week with my niece, so I opted for April 17th and pray this baby can hold out that long.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I just finished the wonderful task of decorating our Christmas tree. Every year, Brian fluffs the branches and I decorate. It takes him just about two hours to fluff, he's very good at it and takes it very seriously! And it takes me just about the same amount of time. Luckly, Isabella was asleep when I decorated this year, I'm sure I won't be as luck in the years to come. I'm pretty anal about the whole process, thats why it takes me so long. I put every single ornament on the tree this year. In the past I would make sure it all matched, and last year I put non-breakable ornaments on the tree incase Isabella wanted to grab hold and shake. But this year it is a hodge podge of everything and anything. When I worked for Hallmark, I started collecting then back in 1999, and I really never stopped. So I have Barbie, trains, first of anything and everything in the past 5 years and many, many more. It really done look good and it brings back memories of all the travels Brian, Bella & I have been on. I am waiting until Bella wakes up to put the Angel on the top. My mom always makes us sing Silient Night when we put the beautiful angel on top, so I started that last year with Bella. I know she will get a kick out of looking at all the ornaments. I can't wait until she wakes up. We put the tree upstairs this year, there are three giant windows that overlook a ledge downstairs and we put the tree in front of the windows. We have tinted windows on most of our windows so I'm not sure anyone will see the tree, but it sure is pretty.

Thanksgiving turned out wonderful and we all enjoyed each others company. I'm glad my families get along.

I'll post pictures of the tree, as soon as I take some.

Gearing Up To Give Thanks

I am really excited about Thanksgiving this year. I have to much to give thanks for in my life. We have 10 adults and 3 kiddos that will be here this year. One of my SIL's will be with her husbands family and my neice and nephew will be at their dads, so we'll be missing 7 family members for the day. But we're going to have a wonderful time fellowshipping and eating and reading the sales ads and eating again and watching the Dallas Cowboys play football. Love the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving day and I always watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I have watched it for many, many years. I have fond memories of watching the parade at my grandparents house and going nuts with Santa Clause appears at the end. I am going to try to get Isabella to watch the parade, we'll see how that goes. Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special was on tonight and I tried to get Isabella to watch it, I have fond memeries of this as well at my grandparents house and I want her to have the same memories. But she wasn't too interested, maybe next year.

I'm giving thanks this year to many things. I am thankful for my sweet little family. Brian is truly the most amazing, giving, caring, loving and hard working husband on the planet, I give him thanks. Isabella is a sweet, loving, independant and giving 22 month old ever, I give thanks to her. I also give thanks for my extended family. All 14 of them. Most of all I give thanks to God for giving me this life and keeping all of us happy and healthy. God is an Awesome God!

The Chosen One

I have finally decided on a muralist!! I have chosen the lady that was less expensive. I'm confident that she will do a great job with my vision and hers. She is coming to start on Dec. 7 and should finish that weekend! I'm so darn excited! We found a bed at RTG that we really like and with the comforter set I want to get, it's going to be a beautiful room for our little princess! I'm post pictures of the before and after.

Cooking Class

I have decided to look for a cooking school to take some classes. But this has become quite a task. I can't find a school that isn't a college. There are classes at two grocery stores, but I really want to have some hands on experience. I'm asking for this as a Christmas gift from hubby, so I'm really taking this to heart. We'll both be so much happier if I can learn to cook something besides spaghetti or baked chicken. UGH.

Never Say Never

I got that title for my friend Amberly. This is so true!

I always said I would never let Isabella just watch tv all day long. And she doesn't watch tv all day right now. But she has been waking up at 6am every morning for the past 2 weeks and I just can't entertain her on my own. I am exhausted at 6am and I am so not a morning person!! I turn on the tv and she is excited to watch whatever is on. She goes back to sleep at 8:00am usually and then again another time or two during the day.

Since I have been sick with the cold the past month, I got over that then this past weekend come down with a horrible tummy bug. I have never, ever in my life had that much pain in my tummy. Even after my c-section, I don't remember my tummy feeling so awful. I have finally recovered from that and I'm feeling better, but 6am is just too early to function in the mornings. I just don't know how I'm going to do this with no sleep during the night, feeding an infant and waking up with Bella so early in the AM. My little angel used to sleep in until 8:30am, what on earth happened?

Needless to say, since Bella has been watching so much tv in the early morning, she has a new favorite. Wow, Wow Wubbzy! I guess every parent goes through this, but I know every episode by heart now. I set a season pass on this program, so in the evening when she throws a terrible two's tantrum, I can calm her down and she can watch WWW. She goes to sleep saying "Night, Night Wubbzy" and wakes up in the morning saying "Wow, Wow, Wubbzy" over and over again. It was Elmo, but I guess Wubbzy won her over.

I guess I should have waiting until I knew how my daughter would react to tv before saying I would never let her watch tv. It has a calming effect and at 6am I need a calm child.

Moral decisions

I posted below about the mural moral issues I'm facing. It just seems dumb to ponder over this to me, at times. I am actually loosing sleep over this.

So tonight I sent all 4 ladies a message. The two I don't like so much, I sent a thank you for your time message. The other two, I was honest with. I told the less expensive lady that she was on the right track, that we should talk. I did tell her another lady has a great design, but is asking a lot of money for it and I just can't see hubby paying that much, now that we have her bid that is much less.
Then I told the expensive lady, that I have a lady that is much less expensive and with all the expenses we have facing us in the coming months, I can't spend that much on the mural. I told her I am still pondering on the two designs and I would get back to her on a decision in a few day. I do not plan on showing either one the design of the other, it just seems wrong.

I think that made since. I'm just really over this mural desgin issues. I need sleep!!

Pictures from the past...

I finally downloaded two cards from my camera, it has taken over an hour. UGH. But I finally have some pictures to download. First will be of the house, our new house. I think I have some good front shots. Here goes...

This takes too long to download, I'll post again later. I still have the little pumpkin to show off!!

Halloween 2007

Tonight was a first for our little family. Isabella was able to walk and talk this year, so we took her to 5 neighbors houses. She loved it! When the neighbor opened the door, she would just about welcome herself into their home. She "talked" but her Trick or Treat was hard to understand. She did tell each of the neighbors "BYE" as we would leave. Next year she will have it down pat. She was a sweet pumpkin with black stockings and a cute black hair bow. We sat outside the house from about 6:30 - 7:45 and passed out candy. Since our end of the neighborhood is still under construction we didn't have a huge amount of kiddos. It was very nice to meet our neighbors! Needless to say, I bought way, way, way too much candy! I have 4 gallon bags full of candy left over. I'm going to keep the Whoppers for potty training Isabella in a few weeks (I think were going to do it Thanksgiving week, while she home from MDO). She loves the Whoppers and they aren't just full on chocolate. The other 3 bags will be going to work with Brian, TOMORROW!!

Murals Final Call

I have finally see all four designs. Now comes the hard part. I love one and like another one. The one I'm kind of iffy about is good, but not knock your socks off, like the first one. The major problem here is somewhat ethical. The so-so one only cost $500. I'm not sure why, not sure how she come up with that price, but I consider it mainly because it cost much, much less. Now the ethical part. I want the $500 lady to do the $1700 design. That would mean I would need to send her the design of the $1700 lady which has the name and email address of the $1700 lady.

What am I suppose to do? Suggestions?

Mural Round 2

I have now seen three mural sketches. I'm not impressed with the other two. One lady sent me pictures from a book, not very professional. She said this is something I was thinking you might like. As in the design, and to be honest, it was way, way to "pretty". So I'm waiting for one more lady's design. I really hope she gets it to me soon.

Brian asked me last night if I would rather get furniture for our down stairs guest bedroom or Isabella's mural. Mainly because his friends from Fredericksburg are coming to town. (one of the weekends he's out of town, oh, joy) COME ON DUDE. That is a no brainer. I want her room done before her birthday. So I really need to get this set and done and over with!

Brian's Schedule

My amazing, hard working, generous husband is going to be working very, very hard this next few months. It actually started this past weekend with him traveling to Fredericksburg, Texas to pre-wire a home and install media equipment at another home. This week he is working every evening except Wed, since this well be Isabella's first real Halloween. Then he's working this weekend here in Dallas. Then the following two weekend he is traveling to Houston to pre-wire and install 30 flat screen tv's in a retirement home that a client here owns. Then in December the retirement home owner has another place in Austin that will need about the same amount of tv's and the pre-wire. Then early January there is another retirement home in (I think) Texas City. He is going to be so darn busy and I'm really going to miss him. But he's doing what he loves and I love him for that.