He's Here

Little Owen Joseph Mogford has arrived safe and sound; all 9 lbs 7 oz of him. He even came on his due date, March 27th. I don't know anyone who has had their baby on his or her due date. I know it happens, but not often.

I am in love with my little man.

A Peek at the Kids' Room

Here are some pictures of all the work I've been doing on the kids' bedroom to get it ready for Owen and de-girlify it a bit. There are still several things I would like to do, but for now it is complete enough.

Since I love before and after pics... here ya go:

Before

After: These are the curtains I sewed. I am also working on a quilt that will go on Grace's bed. Not exactly sure when that will be done. :)

Before

After

A wider view

Before

After: We are planning on changing out the bedding for some with blues and grays once Grace transitions to her big girl bed (Owen will be sleeping in our room for a while).

A closer look at the pictures above the crib

Before

After

After: Sorry no before pictures of the closet because I forgot to take any.

Before

After

On this wall we want to add a new bookshelf/toy storage to look something like this:

A Date with Grace

This past Thursday I decided to celebrate one of the last days it would just be Grace and I at home. So I told her we would do what she wanted (within reason of course) and just enjoy mama and Grace being together. Here is a little peek into our day:

We woke up and had pancakes, with chocolate and peanut butter, of course. After pancakes, it was time for some bubbles.

What do you think an almost two-year-old asked for after bubbles? Why some kackoons (cartoons) of course. Mama may have sneaked a little snooze in during Barney (shhh, don't tell Grace).

What better way to watch cartoons than with a silly face?

After my nap... I mean our cartoon watching, Grace wanted to play blocks. Blocks also means mama needs to be on the floor building towers and structures to take apart, so this VERY pregnant woman got down on the floor and played with Grace. It was her day after all, and the hard part really isn't the getting down; it's the getting back up that poses the real challenge.

After blocks, it was time to get ready for our lunch date. Where to, you might ask. McDonald's, of course, for some bok-boks, or as the rest of the world calls them, chicken nuggets. She even got them in a happy meal this time because, one, mommy is a sucker, and two, McDonald's knows their stuff and puts displays of all the current happy meal toys right at the entrance. Funny how I never thought much about this until I had my own kid.

And you can't leave McDonald's without playing in the play-place.

It was definitely time for a nap after lunch, so we both hit the hay once we returned home. Yes, this pregnant mama took two naps in one day. It was glorious. Before I could get her down though, she spied the leftover bok-boks she was too excited to eat because of the slide. After asking for and receiving a chicken nugget and stuffing the whole thing in her mouth, meltdown number one began.  It went something like this, "Bok-bok... bok-bok...BOK-BOK." This was accompanied by some huge crocodile tears. May I remind you, she had a mouth FULL of chicken nugget. I decided to forgo the rest of the nuggets in favor of the nap and told her they would be waiting for her when she woke up. Sure enough, about an hour later I woke up to cries of,  "Bok-bok." I took her in the living room and told her she would have to stop crying before she could eat her nuggets. Meltdown number two. Thankfully it didn't last long, and she fell asleep on my shoulder for another half an hour. I didn't mind the cuddle time. When she woke up, she instantly shot out of my arms and said, you guessed it, "Bok-bok" - this time without the tears. So we had a little picnic on the floor, and she finished her nuggets.

After the nugget incident and before Daddy made it home, we decided to go on a little walk.

Here Grace is telling me she wants to walk all by herself.

 

Mommy caved and let her push the stroller.

Thursday also happened to be Joe's and my fourth anniversary, so my sister came over to watch Grace. I heard they had french toast for dinner, while watching a new Veggie Tales movie. Grace was one happy, tired little girl, and I sure enjoyed myself too.

March Madness

I grew up in a family that was all about basketball. I even played for nine years as a kid. My career ended when I went away to college and decided I wanted to pursue other adventures. I do often wonder if I would have made the team or how well I would have done, but I don't regret my decision not to play ball after high school. Someday I hope to be able to coach, but for now I will be content to grow and raise my babies. However every year when March rolls around I get excited all over again about my beloved sport. That's right folks it's March Madness time. I filled out my bracket. Have you?

Joe and I have a tradition picking our winners and posting the bracket on the fridge where we highlight winners and cross off losers. Pretty sure Joe won last year.... Butler killed my bracket; but I do love a Cinderella Story so I wasn't too crushed. I'm also toying with the idea of filling out a bracket based solely on preference of team colors. Might be fun... we'll see if I get around to it.

Balloons

 

Project Update

With two weeks left until b-day, my list of projects is s..l..o..w..l..y being checked off.

1. Finish painting the kids' dresser - DONE
2. Finish Grace's quilt- on hold until a later date
3. Sew together curtains out of some great fabric I bought. - DONE (or rather nearly done as I had a little paint mishap, but that's another story)
4. Organize the kids closet - On to do list for this weekend
5. Hang up picture frames in the kids' room - DONE
6. Make Owen a mobile. - Haven't even started this one

Here are a few quick pictures of the progress:

You can see a glimpse of the curtains in the corner.

Grace even helped with the painting.

I would also like to send out a HUGE thank you to my dear friend Jessie who came over and cleaned my house for me. What would I do without friends like you? And as an added bonus, Grace had a blast playing with Elala. Check out the two in action last week at our small group:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/video.php?v=511928285695

Baby Bump

36 weeks

So I am definitely looking a little pregnant. I am 36 weeks and feel big enough to be carrying a 12 lbs baby although I am seriously praying this isn't the case.
I am now visiting my midwives every week and at my appointment yesterday they told me I was 1 cm dilated but my cervix was still pretty think. Translation - Owen could come tomorrow or he could take his sweet time and come five weeks from now, we really can't tell. Any guesses on when he will decide to make his grand appearance?

Faces

Lately, every time I try to take a picture of Grace this is what I get:

Attractive I know. I have to try and sneak pictures or seriously distract her to get anything good. It's funny, but I also hope it is a stage that passes quickly. I don't even know who taught her how to make this face.