Laney Lately

Laney is 18 months old. Can you believe that? Here's a look in pictures at our sweet and sassy one-and-a-half-year-old who has somehow turned into a toddler without asking any of us for permission. She's a walking, running, laughing, squatting, pigtail-wearing, juice-drinking, puppy-loving bona fide toddler who has everyone completely wrapped around her sticky little finger. We love you, Miss Bug!

The Yard - Before & After

I know I've been blogging a lot lately about how I've been too busy to blog. Ha. So I'm going to show you some of the stuff that we've been doing around here so that you might actually believe me. One of the things we really wanted to get done before the boys' arrival is get our yard and back porch in working, presentable order. It needed a lot of work. Here are some pictures of our yard LAST spring. It was bad. We had been so busy with Laney's arrival and babyhood that we completely neglected it for months over the winter and beginning of spring, and by the time we looked up in April, this is what our "yard" looked like (if you could even call it that):

So, we started working on the yard/outside early this year. We extended our back porch by having an extra slab of concrete poured. Marshall then stained it all by himself. The color of the stain is called "cola." It turned out so great! Go Marsh!

We then got some new cushions for the furniture and planted a hibiscus in a pot back there on the porch (my favorite!). It really warmed things up. I'm so glad we did it. Here are the "after" pictures:

We also got our front yard looking better. When we moved into this house, there was no landscaping at all. Marshall and I planted all the shrubs and flowers last spring and even constructed the Austin stone and cement border around everything (Landscaping pros, now? What what!).  So this year all we had to do was get the weeds out of the bed, lay new mulch, and prune and fertilize the plants. I was so delighted when our knock-out roses burst into bloom this year just in time for my grandmother to visit (she LOVES flowers)! I wish I had some "before" pictures of it, but no such luck. You can probably imagine, though, just from looking at how bad our backyard looked- ha.

Week 28

So, I know I'm already 30 weeks along now, but here's the tummy pic from week 28:

I'm so big now that I constantly have the "old man pants" thing going on. In order for them to be big enough to go over my tummy, they are baggy in the hips, rear and legs. Now that I'm taking a good look at this picture, it's actually quite embarrassing. Ha! But I guess since I walked around like this all day (I tend to avoid mirrors), I shouldn't be shy about plastering it on my blog. Bless my heart.

And I feel just as big as I look. With Parker already measuring 3 pounds 12 ounces and Brooks measuring 3 pounds 7 ounces, I'm waddling around with over 7 pounds of "baby" in there. And the scary thing is that they will probably DOUBLE in size if we're lucky. My poor tummy will never look the same, I'm afraid! I can't deny that I'm counting down the days. When I went to the doctor most recently, he scheduled a c-section for June 6th (if I go that long). Brooks is currently breech (not head down), so it doesn't look like I'll be traditionally delivering them unless he flips around in the next few weeks. If he does flip, then we'll be able to decide which way to deliver.

The third trimester symptoms that have already been around for a while are still there - rib pain, back pain, shortness of breath, leg cramps and sleeplessness. Some new symptoms are also adding themselves to the list - heartburn, headaches, groin pains and swollen ankles. I bet I'm pretty miserable to be around. Ha. Well, I take that back. I actually hold it together most of the day, but then I'm REALLY miserable for Marshall to be around, for sure! He told me the other day that he thinks he's just as ready for this pregnancy to be over as I am. And I bet he's right.

I'm just ready. Ready to not be pregnant anymore. Ready to sleep on my stomach again. Ready to hold Laney on my hip like a normal mom. Ready to enjoy an adult beverage...or two...or six (I'm gonna have 3 kids, ya know!). It seems like I've been pregnant forever. It's bad. Marshall knows more about pregnancy than most of my female friends. I heard him explaining something to one of his guy friends the other day and he used the words "placental detachment." HAHA! His friend made this extremely grossed out face that Marshall didn't even notice. Poor Marsh is so up to his head in pregnancy and babies that he can barely have a normal conversation. Somebody save him.

Even though I'm really ready, I know these baby boys aren't, yet. So...7 more weeks it is. But I can't say I'll complain if it only ends up being 5 or 6 more weeks. :)

Week 30 tummy pic coming in a few days. Have a blessed week!