November

We went to the country for opening weekend of deer season. This was Braydon's first time to go. He loved it. The two of them had so much fun together!

26 weeks with baby "D"

Thanksgiving in the country:

Mike and Braydon

B finally got a hog. It's a small one but he was still proud!

MiMi let Chloe help make a cake.

The White/DenHartog's spent Thanksgiving at the house in the country. It was the first time we have all been there together. We had lots of great food and quality family time!

Proud Of Me

For some odd reason this year I got the itch to make stuff for Chloe's Halloween Party at school. Usually I just buy some little spider rings, stickers and whatever else junk I can throw in a bag. Since I usually throw this stuff away about a week after Halloween I thought I would just make a few edible or usable items.

BlowPop Ghosts

Candy Corn hand soap

packaged candy corn soap

Witch Hat cookies

finished bag

I did throw in some extra pieces of candy. I am happy with the end product! Hopefully the other parents will like them also!

Pumpkin Patch

Pre-Pumpkin Patch Picture

Every year we go to a local church that has a cute pumpkin patch. Last year I think we ended up buying 13 pumpkins ranging in size. Today I managed to get away with only buying two very small ones. Not sure why Chloe did not insist on more.

These are the perfect ones!

Here are a few pics from past years.

October 2008---Chloe 10 months

October 2009---Chloe 22 months

October 2010---Chloe almost 3 years old

For some reason there are not many pictures from last year. The sun is shining in her eyes in all of them. The was the best one.

As I look back at the old pictures it makes me sad that she is already a little girl and no longer a baby :(

Sugar n' Spice......It's a Girl!!

On September 30th I had an ultrasound that confirmed that we are having a girl! Although the main purpose of the scan was to check vital organs this was the perfect time to check the sex. Finally knowing the sex of the baby has relieved some stress. I have EVERYTHING I could ever need for another precious baby girl and this makes me very happy :)

I have decided to reuse the bedding that I used when Chloe was an infant. Although new stuff would be fun I can't seem to find anything I really love. I originally chose the frog bedding because I loved it and I still do! Minus one thing to stress about :)

When I was pregnant with Chloe we painted her room. I decided that the bottom part of the wall would be pink and the top portion would be yellow. It matched the bedding colors. To separate the colors we put a border that also matched the bedding. This turned out great but was really a lot of work.

This go round I decided that a solid color would be just fine!

The color is called Playful Petal. It is so pretty and very purple. It goes great with my loved frog bedding! My mom came to help paint the room while Chloe and B went to the deer lease! Although Patrick really did the majority of the work, the 3 of us made a great team and knocked it out in about 2.5 hours!! When Chloe came home and saw the room she was a little jealous. She decided that she does not like her pink and yellow room. I tried to convince her that she has the prettiest room in the whole house but I am not sure she is buying that. She told me she wanted her room to be blue. Guess what? I am NOT painting anything any time soon, especially her room! Today she told me she wants her walls to be white because she likes white. :{

There is a really cute lamp that matches the frog stuff that I wanted to move to the baby's room. I knew this would be an issue because that is Chloe's lamp. I asked her if she wanted a new Princess lamp for her room. She told me she already had a lamp. I explained that I wanted to use that lamp in the nursery and she could pick out her very own lamp at the store. Off to Target we went! This is the "Princess" lamp that she picked out all by herself. It doesn't really match but I am ok with that. It looks red in the picture but it is really a dark pink.

Half Way to the Finish Line

I can't believe I am half way through my pregnancy! I will be 20 weeks tomorrow. Although my waist is definitely growing, I am still not feeling real pregnant. I guess the reason is that I barely feel the baby move. I have noticed more pronounced movements in the last week but I am pretty sure I started feeling Chloe move a lot earlier.

I have an appointment this Friday for an anatomy scan. I believe they will look at the chambers of the heart, kidneys, bladder, stomach, brain, spine and last but not least those darn sex organs. This baby has been so secretive about the sex. Although at 12 weeks we were pretty sure that there were boy parts present....at 18 weeks we just couldn't get a good enough view to say for sure. My doctor tried and then Dr Holli tried for more than an hour!!! Aunt Dr Holli let Chloe see the baby. She was interested for about 1 minute!

I am hoping that this Friday will finally confirm the sex of the baby. I am ready to start preparing the nursery. I found this bedding online that I really love:

Other than the bedding I haven't done anything else. If it is a boy I think I will try to find some kind of cover for the car seat since the infant seat is pink. Or I will sell all of my pink big stuff: stroller, car seat, pack-n-play, swing, high chair and buy boy stuff. I just haven't decided what to do yet.

Here is the only picture I have taken of the bump.

Heebie Jeebies

Last Sunday as I was sitting in my glider aimlessly wandering about the WWW I noticed a small pile of sawdust on the floor under the TV console. I thought to myself it was weird but I remember that B had been inside the cabinet messing with the surround sound during the football game so I didn't investigate the situation. Anyways, I forgot all about it.

A little history: a few months ago B got a new TV. This TV mounts to the wall so we were then in the market for a table of some sort to go under the TV. Many furniture stores and hours later B found the perfect one. Turns out this piece was very popular and was out of stock but would be in the store within the next month, but probably sooner. Although hesitant, B put a deposit down so we would get one when they arrived. After 2 weeks B called to check on the status. Anyway, to make a long story short, they sold us the one on the showroom floor just to get us to quit calling! The piece is perfect and it matches our other furniture very well.

So back to today: B and I are chatting about our day and B notices the small pile of sawdust that I never called attention to or cleaned up. "What the hell?" are his exact words. He gets on the floor to get a better look. "Holy sh**, there's a bug in there eating my fine furniture" hehe. He's freaking out, I'm freaking out and Chloe just wants to see. B gets his flashlight, a pair of tweezers (not mine!) and a small clear plastic bowl to capture this furniture destroyer! I tried to get a picture but couldn't really get a good one.

The dark thing in the hole is a bug that we have no clue what it looks like. EWWWWWW!! B gets all of the extraction tools ready and I am scared of what this thing is going to look like. So he grabs it, well half of it. EWW! He is then able to get the other part of. We quickly close it up in a clear plastic bowl so we can further check it out.

Yuck, yuck, yuck. It seriously gives me the heebie jeebies!!

I looked it up online to learn all about it. The bug lays eggs in the wood which then gets sealed in by stain. The bostrichid powderpost beetle bores tunnels through the wood before an adult exits. This can take up to 3 years! EWW! This bug has been living in the White house for like 2 months.

We have the bug in a container, still in 2 pieces. B filled the hole with some insecticide powder stuff. So weird and so gross!

Old Thyme

The other day B was preparing the deer meat so that I could cook it in the crockpot. He rummaged through all of the spices to season it perfectly. He came across this small glass jar of Thyme. The labeling appeared to be pretty old but there was no date to be found. He decided to do a little research. On the McCormick website there is a little timeline and guess what???? There it is--a jar that looks just like what came out of our cabinet. And guess what??? It is from the 1960s!! Crazy considering B and I were both born in the 70s! So guess what B did with this antique? He put it back in the cabinet!?

$.49-----what a deal!

The Last 6 posts are NEW

Because I am a serious slacker I decided to post everything from the past several months today. I will try to keep up with this a little better!

Got Him!

A few weeks ago we made a trip to the deer lease. I have to admit the 6 hour drive is really not so bad! I bought The Help to read on the way. Surprisingly, reading in the back seat almost the entire trip did not make me sick. Chloe loves going to the country (what we call it). This was going to be a special trip.....cousin Madison was going too!!

Madi, Chloe and MiMi

B was also determined to get that axis buck we had seen on the game camera. I went and sat with him many times.......and nothing! One morning he decided he was going to go really early and I decided I wanted to sleep in. Not too long after he left, he came back "wake up, I got him!". Of course I missed it. Had I gone the buck probably wouldn't have made an appearance.

You can see that the antlers are not branched much. Unlike white tail (which are currently out of season), axis antlers do not branch a lot. You can see his antlers start at B's waist and go almost to the top of his head. This was a large buck. He went right to the taxidermist when we got back to Houston. B was a little disappointed that the bucks right antler had broken off somehow, making it substantially shorter than the left one. He also had 3 broken teeth. So far we have had deer goulash (PiPaws recipe) and tomorrow a deer roast will be cooking in the crockpot. We have a lot of meat!

We also made a trip to Junction about an hour away to cool off in the North Llano River. There is an area of small rapids (only about knee deep) and a large area with shallow water. Madi was not so sure about this. Chloe had been once before and was loving it!

B and Chloe

Here are a few random pictures from this trip to the country.
PawPaw and Madi. By the way PawPaw had surgery in July to remove what was left of the cancerous tumor. He made out with a partially artificial femur and a monster incision! Happy to report that the pathology report came back that the tissue was 100% cancer free!! PawPaw is a cancer survivor!!! He is slowly walking, slowly putting more and more pressure until his leg can bear his full weight again. Everyone is so thankful that PawPaw has been healed!!!!! Now we just need to fatten him up :)

I just love humming birds!! And exclamation points.

You Crazy Bluebonnet! (last July event)

Near the end of July I had a bluebonnet bloom. It obviously didn't get the memo that blooming season was well over with! I have since had 2 or 3 more bloom. Crazy flowers!

August doctor appoinments

August 5th, week 12, I went and had a first trimester screen done. The ultrasound tech takes a bunch of measurements and then I had blood work done. They combine all of the info to get specific results. The results were great--no reason for any concerns at this point!! I had to go to Kingwood to have this ultrasound done because only so many people are trained for this level of testing. I picked Kingwood because this is Holli's office on Fridays. She got to be there for the ultrasound. She also sweet talked the tech to look and see if we could tell the sex of the baby. This is very early and is not usually part of this test. Luckily for us, B went with me, she tried really hard to tell the sex. The tech and Holli were pretty sure that the baby is a BOY!!!!!!!! Although I still have my doubts, we are very excited about this. Of course, a healthy baby is really our main concern. I have no idea why the pictures turned this way and I don't know how to turn them :{

This pic: view of the baby face up with hand to mouth

This pic: looking straight at the baby's face. Kind of creepy!

This pic: all curled up!

My next appointment was August 11th. This was a quick monthly visit. Check weight, zero gained!, urine sample and check the heart rate. I went to the Spring location because I had to change my appointment (normally I go to the Vintage location). Dr R's nurse listened to the heart rate. According to her---she is betting on a girl?! She is going solely on the heart rate. See why I have my doubts. This is why I haven't thought about the nursery or bought anything. If it is a girl-----I have EVERYTHING I could ever need, plus more! When Dr R came in for her part she asked if I wanted to take a quick look at the baby----well of course I do!!!! The first glimpse she got was between the legs. She too is thinking it is a boy. Just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE my doctor!! She and Holli did part of their residency together at Hermann. Holli suggested that I go see her because she practices close to me. I liked her when I saw her in February and decided that I would see her when i did get pregnant. I was not very fond of the OB I had when I was pregnant with Chloe. This baby will be born at Methodist Willowbrook. Chloe was born at Tomball Hospital. Anyway, back to my appointment, here is a picture of the baby at this appointment. You can really tell a difference in the equipment at the doctor's office compared to the one used for taking measurements!!