Baby Shower

Sunday some sweet ladies from our church threw me a baby shower and it was so nice! There were cute petit fores, lots of cookies, delicious punch, and lots of people came. I was totally not expecting a shower, but a couple of weeks ago a few ladies planned it and I was blown away by their generousity! We receieved many needed items--TONS of diapers and wipes, onesies, bath stuff, it was great! Plus my Mom got to come too, so it was really great to have her meet my friends.

Me and Mom. I was hoping the belly would be in this pic, but oh well. Trust me, it's there in all it's giantness. :)

This little girl is our preacher's daughter, Kathryn. She brought the presents to me and then took them to the women to be passed around. She's a little mother hen!

Here are the other little ones that were there: Molly, Alli Beth, and Harley. They are so sweet.

Some of the ladies that came. The little girl to the far left is in Brian and my Sunday School class. She was so excited to some to the shower.

The lady in the red shirt is Diane Fore who is one of our good friends, and the one to her right with the little girl on her lap is Paige, another good friend. Brian is really good friends with their husbands--Rickey and Scott. They are our go-to's if we need anything. They LOVE Jack, and are currently fighting over who gets to keep him when I go into labor. :)

I'm Soooo Green!

A few months ago I decided to jump on the "Green" band wagon and start recycling. We go through A LOT of trash--about 4 gallons of milk a week, 6 to 7 cans of fruits and veggies, a couple of large boxes of diapers a month, tons of plastic bags, not to mention the laundry detergent, cereal boxes, soap dispensers and other misc. items. So I thought I should help Earth out a little. I got pumped up and put my organizing mania to work and cleared out a little place on the top shelf of our shoe rack/mud room thingy in our laundry room and started putting aside milk jugs, cans, boxes, bags....etc.

Well, little did I know that not only does Rison have NOWHERE to take recycling, but neither does Pine Bluff (the nearest big town). So I've been stockpiling and calling all over Arkansas to find somewhere to take everything. Meanwhile the recycling crept down the shelves and over to the washer and dryer. I was very tempted to just throw it all away ( an idea Brian was all for), but I just couldn't abandon Earth like that, so I pushed on!

Finally I found a place in Little Rock (an hour away and somewhere that we don't go very often) that takes everything and doesn't require sorting! Yippeee!

So this week I will be hauling myself, Jack, and approximately 26 milk jugs, a zillion cans, and several cardboard and glass items to LR to be Green. :) I'm not going just for that--Jack has to get a shot that the ped. was out of last visit too, so it's not all about the recycling. However, after this adventure I think I'm going to hang up my recycling hat at least until the baby gets here and things settle down a bit. Who knew being Green could be so hard?????

Delicious Southwestern Summer Salad

Over Fourth of July weekend my aunt brought this salad to a family get-together and I fell in love with it. And now it is a staple pretty much every week! It is so good, light, refreshing, filling--and EASY! When I make this, it's the main course and Brian LOVES it! He gets excited when he knows we're having it! :)

Salad: -Bagged Salad greens (I use Romaine mix, and one bag feeds me and

Brian for 1 meal--we like big salads)

-1 large tomato diced

-1 can corn drained

-1 can black beans drained and rinsed

-shredded cheddar cheese

-tortilla chips broken up

Dressing: -1/4 cup lime juice

-1/4 cup olive oil

-3 Tablespoons cilantro

-1 jalapeno

-1 clove garlic

-1/2 teaspoon cumin

-1/2 teaspoon chili powder

You can chop the cilantro, jalapeno, and garlic and then mix all of the ingredients well, or you can do what I do and just throw it all in a food processor or blender.

Then you layer the salad in a bowl: lettuce, tomatoes, corn, black beans, chips, cheese, dressing. Easy as that.

(We like a lot of dressing on our salads too, so I usually double the recipe which leaves a little left over for whatever you want to use it for--it's good on sandwiches and to dip veggies or chips in. I mixed up a BIG quadruple batch of it a few weeks ago and kept it in a jar in the fridge, but it ended up seperating and getting all funky, so I'll keep a small batch for just a couple of days now.)

I hope ya'll make this and enjoy it! We sure do!

I got a little happy with the fiesta ware!

These are mega big gumbo/salad bowls and as you can see, they are full! YUM!

I didn't know how hard it is to make food look good on camera! These pics aren't the most appetizing things out there, sorry--I am not Pioneer Woman for sure!

Mashed Potatoes!

YUMMMMM!!!

YUMMMMM!!!
YUMMMMM!!!

Baby Chisholm Update

36 weeks!!!!

I went to the doctor again today--I can't believe I'm already going once a week! The doctor listened to the baby's heart beat and she said that she can still hear the irregularity, but it's very faint, and not as regular as it was. She also said that if she didn't know to listen for it, that she wouldn't have even noticed! PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers for our little one and for us!
The doctor also said that the baby is really low and still head down, it must be huge! because I'm having trouble breathing at times when it is high and under my ribs! Everybody that sees me says I look like I'm about to pop and that I'm not going to make it until the 16th. We'll see!!!!

Last Trip

A couple of weeks ago we went to see my parents in Madison for our last trip before the baby is born. Saturday night we went to Olive Garden and Jack was in rare form! He was such a HAM!!! It seems that he is getting more and more outgoing, especially when he gets around a lot of people. He wants everyone to look at him. It's so funny to me because Brian and I aren't like that at all--it might just be the age--we'll see.

Baby Chisholm Update

I had an appointment with my OB today and, though everything is fine, we need your prayers very much right now and as my due date gets closer. At the last appointment the doctor heard an irregularity in the baby's heart beat, but she said that it wasn't a big deal, not to worry about it, that most people occasionally have them. Well, the irregularity (or arrhythmia) was still there today. So Dr. Buckner decided to do an ultrasound to see if there is anything irreuglar in or around the heart. So we did the ultrasound and looked at everything--the heart, the blood flow, the umbilical cord, the aorta and other major arteries--and it all looked fine. She said that when the baby is born and goes from getting all oxygen from me to breathing on its own the arrhythmia should correct itself. If it doesn't, then we'll do an eco-cardiogram to see what's going on, and the baby may have to be on medicine for a little while. She said that there is no need to see a specialist or to do more tests right now because everything looks fine. Dr. Buckner was really great and she made me feel much better. So today was pretty scary for us, thankfully everything is OK and will most likely be fine the rest of the pregnancy and delivery. Please be praying for us though--that we will completely rely on God for our comfort and strength no matter what, and that we would truly seek HIS will and not our own. And of course pray for our little baby, that he or she would be protected and healthy and be born without any complications--that the irregularity would go away on its own before delivery or at that time or soon after.

Some more positives are that I got to see the baby again today which was fun--we didn't venture down to see if it's a girl or boy--but I saw that it has a good bit of hair, and it was moving around like crazy! Also, he/she is in a good postion. The head is down and facing my spine which is the best position for delivery and he/she probably won't move in the next few weeks, so that's great! The sonogram tech said that he/she probably weighs about 5 pounds 13 ounces right now and usually babies gain about 1/2 a pound per week toward the end--so we could have a BIG baby! :)

Thank you so much for all of your prayers!

Nesting

I have about 4 weeks left until my due date and I am nesting like craazy! The lists are getting out of control and waking up at 4 or 5:00 and obsessively thinking of all of the things I need to get done/cleaned/organized/decorated/etc is becoming an almost daily thing! hahahaha! I've become a little obessed with decorating our house lately and though I haven't done much, I'm constantly thinking about it. One thing I did do is refinish a blackboard that I got at a garage sale for $4! Yeah! I really like how it turned out and cannot wait to put lists up on it too! :)

Before: The wood was nice, but scratched up a little, and the blackboard part had spots all over it, so I painted it white and got some cool blackboard paint and redid the board part. Brian helped a lot--he painted the board and hung it and gave me tips the whole way through!

After: It's sooo purty! It's hanging in our kitchen/dining room. I've always wanted a blackboard in my kitchen, it just seems so cozy and homey to me!

Our Little Man

I know I've said this a thousand times, but we are having so much fun with our little man! He is changing and learning so much lately! I think his vocabulary trippled over the last 2 weeks and he's doing all kinds of new stuff every day! Plus he looks more and more like a BOY every day too! CRAZY!

After mastering the signs for more and please he has moved on to saying them. The first few times he said "please" I turned into a pile of goo at his feet. After about the 10,000th time though, I'm not melting anymore, but it's still super cute! And now instead of saying "more" once he says, "moremoremoremoremore" over and over. At first I thought he was saying "mamamamamamama" and was very excited/touched that he'd say my name so many times, but NO, he wants MORE, not Mama! :) He also says, "bye" "uh-oh" "bup"--which means up--"off"--which he thinks means on (he'll bring us his shoes and say "off off off")--and he says dog, cat, fish, and does the sounds that some animals make. His favorite animal sound is the bug says "bzzzzzz".

Some of his favorite things to do now are playing with his house, golf clubs, truck, blocks, pots and pans, and coloring. He Looooooovvvvesss to color! And I love sitting on the floor with him and watching! He gets very into it! Sometimes he hands me a crayon and says "please please please" which means he wants me to draw something. So I've been drawing dogs, cats, balls, bugs, trees--all kinds of things. I love it! I can remember my Mom drawing things for us and telling us what they were and what they say and now I'm doing the same thing with my son! WoW! It's so amazing/crazy/sweet!

Our little ones

Look at the difference in a newborn onesie and Jack's 18 month size onsie! It's hard to believe that we're going to have such a little bitty one again! But it's going to be so sweet!

I went to the doctor last week for a checkup and she said everything looks great. She measured my belly and said that it's going to be a big baby--at least 8 pounds! :) Great! So we're just in that last few weeks of waiting time. I'm feeling pretty good, though I get sore and tired. I can remember when I was pregnant with Jack being really achey and thinking that if that's what bein gold is like, then i DON"T want to get old :)--- and I think I'm getting to that achey stage again now.

I'm getting more and more excited about the baby, especially finding out if it's a girl or a boy!

Here's one of Jack's new favorites. This time he's got a pasta spoon, but he also plays with anything else and he scoots it along the floor like he's vaccuuming. It's so funny to watch him. He goes up and down the hallway.
Check out Jack's hair, you can see it sticking up on the side toward the back. That's what it does when he sleeps on it and I love it! He's just too cute!

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I was reading a weekly e-mail I get from babycenter.com that keeps me up on what the new baby is doing and how he/she is developing when I read this INSANE record:

"A Russian woman holds the record for having the most children. Between 1725 and 1765 she was pregnant 27 times and had 69 children."

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I for one am very happy to let her keep that record! WOW!