me: what are you thankful for?
Lucy Neal (without even a pause): "you love you" (that i love her), "god loves you" (god loves her", and "stella's mama" (that she's stella's mama)

i love my mama, you got a problem with that?

there's no question about it, i am this kid's favorite person in the whole wide world. when i'm holding her, all is right in her little world and when i'm not, well trust me it's bad. it's a little flattering (ok a lot flattering) and she is my heart. well to make it even better on saturday kyle was holding her and she reached out for me. best. feeling. ever.

1st event: "mama!!" "mama!!"
i run up to her room. "yes?"
"stella was playing with my butterflies!"
i get stella out of her room and tell her to go to sleep.

2nd event: we hear footsteps upstairs followed by bump, bump, bump down the stairs.
me: "what is it lucy neal?"
(half smiling) "there's something scary in my room. i think i need to come sit on the couch by you mama. that would be fun."
kyle : "what are you doing?"
she whips around and says "hey! i was talking to mama!"
a few minutes later i say, "what scared you in your room?"
"nothing, mama. there wasn't anything scary."hmmmm
she sits on the couch for a few minutes, then we send her packing, back upstairs.

3rd event: about ten minutes later, more footsteps.
about halfway down the stairs she says her leg hurts.
me: "what happened?"
LN: "a bug bit me and i have a bobo"
she comes the rest of the way down the stairs and walks past kyle. i am laughing so hard at this point and have my face buried in the pillow because i know a bug did not just now bite her and she is just trying to think of reasons to come downstairs.
kyle (in a very serious, stern, and kind of loud voice): "come here and let me look at it."
LN whirls around and in her best mama voice says, "BE NICE!" with plenty of attitude.
we both lost it at this point, kyle grabs her and starts to hug her, tickle her, and asks her why she's so funny and silly. she laughs that belly laugh that will melt your heart. and all of a sudden i'm thankful for the hour long attempt to get her to bed...

this past weekend, carlisle was baptized. it was an amazing day, with lots of family and perfect weather. we had lunch at our house afterwards, and everything turned out great. she was so well behaved during the ceremony, and it was beautiful. here she is in our family heirloom christening gown that is over 100 years old...

great expectations

did i say i would blog everyday? bad idea...you see i am notorious for setting the bar entirely too high for myself and in turn feeling like a failure when whatever it is doesn't happen. it's one of the things i have had to let go of after having a second baby. there isn't as much time, therefore less things get done. it's life. so maybe my goal should be to blog once a week. yes, i think that's better.

earlier this week i rented the barbie mermaid movie for lucy neal because she has been wanting to see it forever. i'm thinking it may have been a little too old for her, considering after it was over she was walking around putting her hand on her hip and saying, "own it girl." really??? i just cannot stand how grown she is lately. i almost cried when we got a real deal school supply list in the mail for 3 year old preschool. and i don't cry. ever. and i did say almost. meanwhile, carlisle has just started eating baby food this week and she is a huge fan. hopefully this will get her sleeping through the night. who knows. this kid does whatever the heck she wants and is very unpredictable. some nights she sleeps, some she doesn't. some days she takes 30 min. naps all day, some days a 4 hour nap. random. but she's precious and we love her and she is very happy these days, which is a nice change from the first 3 months of her life. that was rough.

getting a picture of these two is always an adventure...

a day in the life...

picture this...flowood, 2010 (for all of you golden girls fans). i stop at target on the way home to pick up a few things. carlisle wakes up as soon as we hit the door and realizes she is in her carseat and that is not a cool place to be. enter meltdown #1. a few minutes later we are in the baby clothes dept. (no, i don't have enough self control not to stop, even when i'm in a hurry but i only bought one thing if you just have to know) and i hear lucy neal say "ooooh i want to try on this shirt." like i said, i heard it but just wasn't really paying attention. before i knew it i was looking down at a 3 year old in the middle of target, stripped down to her tinkerbell panties and attempting to put on a size 12 month onesie. i immediately grabbed the onesie from her, told her to get dressed and that we didn't have time for this. enter meltdown #2. keep in mind carlisle has been crying this entire time. nonstop. we leave target, in need of gas, but who actually stops for gas before their gas light comes on? i mean, not me. so i decide we can make it to carthage. the problem with that was the terrible wind/rainstorm we encountered b/t jackson and carthage that knocked out all the power in carthage. no gas in carthage. by now my gas light had been on for a few miles. so i turn the air conditioner off, and start praying that we make it the 12 miles to edinburg. for those of you that have never been to edinburg please don't go. it's not worth it. unless you really need to see the houses on stilts and fake deer right, amy? so we made it to edinburg, sweat and all and the one gas station doesn't take debit cards at the pump (of course). so i lock my sleeping babies in the car next to some very scary acting people, pay for my gas and we set off back home. meanwhile we are running late for vbs and lucy neal still isn't dressed. but we made it. thanks to some sweet people. lucy neal's sweet daddy that met us in the parking lot of the church with her shirt, the sweet people at vbs that fixed a plate for her, and my sweet friends that helped to comfort me when my nerves were shot. needless to say i was especially thankful last night after everything was said and done. thankful that i fought the urge to leave both children at target. thankful that we made it in the bad weather and didn't run out of gas. thankful that LN made it to vbs. and last but not least, thankful that i had a stash of wine in this dry town...

making changes

so, i have decided that the only way to remember what these precious two girls of mine have done is going to be to blog about it, since i have never written down one thing in a book about what lucy neal has done/said. and believe me there has been some pretty cute stuff. so starting tomorrow i am making time in my day to sit down and post every day about something that happened that day, whether it be good or bad, so stay tuned for some pretty entertaining stuff...

look, mama...i'm a ballerina

so, the other day as soon as i got her dressed she started holding her skirt out and saying over and over that she was a ballerina today. and she told everyone she saw. cannot WAIT to put her in dance lessons...

a time to be productive

so, i went for a checkup yesterday and it was decided that i would be induced on march 16th instead of hanging around and waiting for my due date of march 27th. better to not chance a birth on the side of the road between philadelphia and jackson, considering my labor with lucy neal went so quickly. also, when you have a 2year old, it's probably better to have a plan anyway. so i'm super excited but also super stressed out about everything that has to be finished before she gets here. we are pretty much unpacked, but there are alot of things to do and here is my list. keep in mind, i do understand that these things are not essentials and i can live without them, but i would like to get them done before i have 2 children to take care of. otherwise, who knows when i will have time to do them, and then they will just keep getting put off for months, and you know the story...

*make curtains for baby's room, lucy neal's room, and our bedroom (as of now we have those stick on paper shades, which are a WONDERFUL temporary fix, but it's time for the real thing)
*make dust ruffle for our bed
*cover headboard for our bed
*make shower curtain for baby/guest bathroom

yesterday i got fabric for all of these projects, hoping to get them all done before the 16th. we will see and i will post updates. maybe that will make me feel accountable and a little more apt to work on them instead of just thinking about working on them. because as some of you know, motivation in your last few weeks of pregnancy is sometimes hard to find. impossible to find. i just want to lay in bed and do absolutely nothing. and i'm not a lazy person. oh and add pajamas to the list. i'm attempting to make myself pj's to wear when i go to the hospital. we will see. meanwhile my entire outlook as changed, as i now have a day that i know this will be over. so here's to new attitudes and lots of productivity! stay tuned for pics...

and now, a year later

let me first point out that it is purely a coincidence that i decided i wanted to start blogging again on the exact day a year from my last post. i mean i haven't even looked at my blog since that day a year ago. how weird is that? i know. anyway i am the kind of blogger who thinks that if i let enough time pass between posts that i have to think of everything that has happened since then and it just starts to stress me out and so i just don't do it. hence the year long hiatus. so i will not be going back and writing a year's worth of happenings, but i will try to hit the high points. let's see....ran 2 half marathons, lucy neal turned 2, had a really fun summer trying to teach her how to swim and quit my job to stay home with her in june, found out i was pregnant in july, finally got her potty trained, she had tons of fun trick or treating this year and was an absolute doll, had thanksgiving in port gibson, christmas in philadelphia, put our house on the market in september and it sold in november, had to be out the week before christmas, moved to philadelphia to a temporary house for a month and a half for dec/jan then feb 1 finally moved into what we hope will be our settled home. whew! makes me tired just thinking about it. baby girl ray is due on march 27th and i have found out the hard way that the 2nd pregancy just isn't as much fun as the 1st. aside from all of the moving and unpacking, chasing a toddler around just doesn't allow for much rest, which is always fun to have when you're pregnant. so that's all i can commit to for now. hopefully soon i will sit down and post some pics of lucy neal in all her cuteness. until then...