18 weeks

I figured I should go ahead and start taking pictures of my growing baby bump and since I'm 18 weeks today, I figured I should go ahead and start.

Although I had a small baby bump not too far along (since it's the 3rd time around my body knew what to do), it seems like the past week I've really started to grow.

I've been wearing maternity pants for about a month now. I mean why not they are do comfy although I can't stand the lack of adequate pockets found in most. 

One of my most consistent cravings has been grape flavored things- grape kool aid, grape snowballs, etc. I've also had cravings for fried rice. 

I've been feeling the baby move more and more. That feeling never gets old.

In a little less than 2 weeks, we find out what the gender is. I can't wait. I keep going back and forth, first boy, then girl, now boy again, so I don't have any definitive feelings as to what this baby is. Either way, I'll be happy.

Camp Family Update

I've been a terrible blogger lately. Between first trimester yuckiness, taking care of 2 kids, and having to share a computer with Paul, I just didn't get around to blogging. But I'm going to get better.

I haven't announced this on my blog, but I am expecting baby #3 due around February 14.  We hopefully will find out the gender on September 26. The morning all day sickness I had was worse this time around than with the other 2 pregnancies and lasted longer. Most of it was nausea but I did throw up many times too. I'm very thankful to be past that part of the pregnancy.

Since our family is growing, we are moving to a bigger apartment on campus. Since this will be our fourth move in under 3 years and it's such a short move, I have little motivation to pack. However, I'm making myself pack a lot of our stuff because it will make for an easier and quicker move. Paul is very busy with school, so I want to make this move as easy as possible for him. The worst part is we're moving to a 3rd floor apartment so you can imagine that alone makes moving difficult. We will be getting a great work out.

Paul started his second semester at school, and right off the bat has been swamped with lots of reading and projects. To add to the busy semester, he has been promoted to manager at Chickfila and started as the Student Pastor at our church.  He is very excited about working at First Baptist Norco. He loves working with youth, and we love our church. Paul is very busy, but he still makes time for us. We enjoyed having all the extra time with him that summer gave, but we came here for Paul to go to school.

I started homeschooling Parker. Since he's four, I'm just making my own curriculum with the help of the vast amounts of internet resources.  Ellis joins us for some of the stuff we do. There is a great homeschool group on campus. I'm really enjoying homeschooling. Although I have to admit that I haven't been the most consistent with it, but once we get moved and settled I plan on making more of a consistent routine.

We really enjoy living in New Orleans. It's such a unique place. There really is no other place like it. Home will always be South Carolina, but we have made our home here in New Orleans for now.

The Curse Of the Camouflage Pants

Me: You're going to wear THAT?

Paul: yes, is there something wrong with this? Does it match?

Me: it's camouflage pants and we're going out in public to run errands. Why would you wear camo pants?

Paul: I need to get a lot accomplished today and these pants make me feel like getting things done.

Me: whatever...if that's what it takes for you.

I'm going to take those pants and burn them. We left the house this morning to go to the DMV to register the vehicle my daddy gave us, get the inspection sticker, get groceries, and get the seminary decal for the car.

However only one of those things happened. We went into the DMV where we waited 20 mins just to get a number. Then I waited nearly FOUR HOURS to get my numbered called. Then the lady put in that I was paying cash when I was going to use my debit card, so I just got some money out of the ATM there to save the trouble and time of them getting that fixed.

By the time we left it was close to 3 o'clock so we decided to go to Golden Corral for a big lupper. Parker wasn't eating very much and said he needed to go poop. Paul took him to the bathroom and Parker's tummy was upset. He was still complaining his tummy hurt and ended up throwing up all over the bathroom floor. Of course Paul's appetite was gone but he waited with Ellis to finish while I took Parker to the car. We ended up coming home with only one of our to do items done and the day is nearly done. Now Ellis is in her "mean I want to destroy everything mood" because she didn't take a nap. So much for Paul's camo pants helping him get things done. Like I said, I'm going to burn those pants.

So you know you're not alone

I've been terrible lately about keeping the house clean. The other day I opened the cabinet door and there was one, ONE cup left, and the only reason we had clean plates was because we had been eating off of paper plates. There were piles and piles of dirty dishes that had been waiting for days to be washed. My excuse was I am almost out of dish detergent, but really I just hate to wash dishes. There are times Most of the time I'm stepping on leftover bits of cereal, noodles, or other bits of leftover food from the day. Forget about the floor actually being mopped. Walking through the living room or the kid's rooms is like walking through a field of land mines.  There are only a few places where some kind of toy, blanket, book, clothing, or shoes aren't laying for you to place your foot. I can get clothes washed and dried, but put away is a whole other story.
It's terrible. I know that it makes life more chaotic and takes away from the home being a place of comfort and rest. I struggle with my own self-esteem. As a stay-at-home-mom, shouldn't I have everything perfectly organized and the kids on a perfect schedule so they never get bored and start acting out and destroying things?
Part of the reasoning behind the mess is it's just the season of life. With two little ones, there is bound to be mess. However, I have to take most of the blame here. The fact is I lack self-discipline or to put it bluntly, I'm lazy. I really am an organized person. I know you think I'm kidding you after reading all this, but it's true. I am also a perfectionist. Again, I'm not kidding. However, I have this flaw that keeps me from being perfectly organized. I have this "it's overwhelming, and it can't be perfect so I might as well throw in the towel and just let it all just go" mentality.
I'm bearing my flaws here, so if your in the same boat or a similar one, you can know you are not alone. There is another mama out there struggling. I would surmise that there are a lot of mamas out there that at the end of the day they are just proud that they kept the kids alive even if all the Pinterest boards and pins would suggest otherwise.

Feel free to leave a comment so I know I'm not alone.

In the span of about 15 minutes...

Ellis threw up all over Parker's floor. I clean up the chunky bits (I know the joys of motherhood) and spread baking soda over the floor. I put the dirty towel and clothes in the wash and vacuum up the baking soda. After vacuuming Parker yells that Ellis is outside. I run to go get her and about two feet from the door I step on something painful. I look down and there are bits of broken glass in the doorway with a piece stuck in my foot. I carefully pull out the piece in my foot, grab my flip flops by the door, and gingerly walk outside to retrieve Ellis. I lock her in her room with a baby gate. Then I administered first aid to my foot which, thankfully, was only minor. I swept  then vacuumed up the glass which turned out to be a lightbulb that Parker had gotten and dropped. I finished vacuuming up the baking soda and disinfecting the whole house. Yes, all this happened in approximately fifteen minutes! Yep, I took a nap this afternoon, and I didn't feel guilty about it one bit.

Candy thieves

The other day I was in the back of the house gathering dirty clothes when I heard Ellis humming. Ellis hums when she eats especially if she really enjoys it.  Since I hadn't given her anything to eat, I knew this meant trouble. I found Parker and Ellis crouched under the kitchen table munching happily on some jelly beans.

Today I was in the bathroom while Ellis was finishing her bowl of cereal when I heard her say, "I want candy Parker." Again, I knew this meant trouble. I went to the kitchen and found this. 

Yep, that's chocolate. A Reese's peanut butter egg to be exact. Parker's breath smelled of peanut butter.

I'm going to have to find a higher place to stash the candy and Parker needs to find a new partner in crime.

Easter Pictures

My family was looking pretty good on Easter Sunday. Although that's far from what Easter is about, I wanted to share our pictures for our friends and family far away. Plus, I had excuse to take boogoodles of pictures of us all dressed up looking cute. Normally, Paul doesn't tolerate such things.

Getting a picture of a 3 year old and a 20 month old together is nearly impossible.

It's nice to have a picture of just me and my love. Thanks Elise!

MiMi and Poppy came to visit.

My precious babies!