New Camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I missed Gabrielle's birthday, and I really didn't take any pictures of Peter's. I do have pics of Gabrielle's birthday, but they are all on the old camera, and I am having problems transferring them to a computer that is not ancient.

But thank you Black Friday! We got a new camera and its little memory card slides right in just like the previous camera - bought at last year's black friday that bit the dust in my purse.

Yesterday we went driving and ended up at Lake West Point. They had a little stop off the side of the road and the boys climbed down this steep ledge to get to the water

I love this picture of her - mostly because she is not scowling

Yeah, don't ask, you don't want to know. But he is really cute

I do have pictures of Benjamin out in the park, but this one was just so much better (minus the clutter on the couch and floor - sorry Gabrielle- I am not counting you as clutter, you just happen to be sitting blissfully amongst it). And, no, I did not take this picture - one of the boys did.
Yay for the new camera!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Won, I Won, I Won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week - a blog I follow, A Little Tispy, had a WHOLE BUNCH of giveaways. One of them was two burp cloths and a custom made changing pad made by Rebecca from:

She makes burp cloths and changing pads and baby bags(really, really cool baby bags), clutches, hand bags and other accessories. She also "donates 10% of every purchase to low income entrepreneurs in developing countries - which is why we are called "Better Life Bags... making lives better one purse at a time!""
Isn't that cool?
And I won this particular giveaway! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And talk about making lemonade out of lemons - her most recent post was about her car being broken into and how she collected the broken shards of glass and crafted with them

She has super cool patterns to choose from.

I cannot wait to get my new goodies! Thank you so much, Rebecca, from Better Life Bags. And a big thanks to Michelle from A Little Tipsy for the giveaway! Yay!

The Feeling of Service

Last week, there was a National Gifted Conference held here in Atlanta

As a member of our locally established gifted advocacy group, we raised money for our teachers to go.
When the time came for one of our gifted teachers to sign up, he wasn't sure if he would go because of a lack of funding for substitutes. So, as a registered substitute and licensed teacher, I volunteered my services.
I volunteered to teach for three days in a middle school.
And it wasn't bad - at all. But I was so tired. Being 5 months pregnant probably doesn't help much either. And I felt horrible - by the third day, I was questioning myself as to why I was doing this.
Let me reiterate - It was not bad - certainly not as bad as it could have been. The kids were good. I had videos for all three days. I was just
so
tired.
So
Tired.
But then last night, I realized why I did it. Our gifted teacher came to our locally established gifted advocacy group quarterly meeting last night and shared with us what he had learned.
He was so excited. He learned a lot and really, really enjoyed it. He said several times that it was one of the best conferences he has ever been to.
Then, it was so worth it.
Had I been asked if I would do this again, I would have probably said no. But through his gratitude and just the fact that he gained so much, yes, I do think I would volunteer again.
Probably not pregnant, though

Happiest Baby on the Block

One of the blogs I follow, A Little Tipsy,

featured a video today called "The Happiest Baby on the Block". Very interesting stuff. It apparently is based on the 5 S's: Swaddle, Side, Swing, Shh, Suck. I of course haven't tried any of these things yet, being almost 23 weeks. I have been exceedingly blessed to have never really experienced what I can remember as a baby cursed with colic, but I am sure this can't hurt.
So I went on my library catalog and found not only the video, but a book as well. And I continued to scroll down and lo and behold I found this:

Benjamin has been kind of whiny lately - nap or no nap. Maybe this will help as well. Maybe I will luck out and it might have some potty training advice. We will see! Can I just say how much I love the library?

Happy Birthday Tre!

Today is Tre's (gulp) 13th birthday! And to celebrate, instead of cake, I thought I would make cake pops as seen on Bakerella
and they turned out horribly wrong. So when I woke him up.....Instead of greeting him with cake pops - I made some very-easy-almost-fail-proof-pull-out-of-the-swirly-cardboard-tube cinnamon rolls.

Thank you Pillsbury! I had one cake pop that kind of came out, so I let him eat it. Yesterday, I realized things were going horribly wrong quite early, so I had lots of cake balls left for today.
So I tried again. First, I am not sure I got the consistency of the cake balls right. I think they were slightly too mushy. Also, yesterday, the red candy melts were NOT melting. They were clumping. I even tried to add butter, which made them seize even more.

So today, I set aside the red glop and decided to break out the dark mint melts to see if they would melt better. Better, but not perfect, so when I put the stick into a cake ball and the skewered ball into the chocolate, the stick came out naked with cake ball still submerged in the chocolate. However, the chocolate was still pliable enough for me to stir the chocolate over the ball and spoon them out.
Then I tried the red one more time with some yellow candy melts added because so much of my red seized and I threw it out. I did put some paraffin in and it seemed to help a bit. I got two to stay on the sticks up right.
And then after he came home, it was time to go to the Boy scout camping trip and I shoved foods down their faces and forced them to hurry until we left and so no more pictures were taken. But oh how I love my boy! Happy Birthday Tre!!!!!!!

First Checkup!

Yesterday, I went to my first prenatal appointment! It feels like I have been waiting forever! I am going back to Dr. Nelson - this will be the first time I have delivered two babies at the same hospital by the same ob group. I never thought I moved that much, but I guess I have.

I weighed 143 (not sure that is wise posting my weight, but I am anyway). I can't remember my blood pressure and the baby's heartbeat was about 150. My friend C. went with me and Benjamin actually stayed with her while I was being examined - except for the part when we heard the heartbeat - I had the nurse go and get them. Benjamin said "heartbeat" but really wasn't sure he like seeing me lie on the examination table like that. Thank goodness C. was there. My ultrasound is in 3 weeks and I can't wait. I have moved the checkup days to Monday, so that I can bring Gabrielle. She really likes visiting. Too bad she will have to miss the ultrasound.

It's a Bump!

The very best thing about photoshop is that I can crop out the most embarrassing things about a photo. This instance it being my face. My camera's LCD screen is busted. So I can't see what we just took a photo of until I download it. I sure do love photoshop as I seriously looked drugged in the part of this picture you CAN'T see.

Whew! Thank goodness for technology! My week mark is on a Tuesday, but my kids don't have school on Mondays, so all of my pictures will probably be taken on Monday and will be one day short of that next week. (Yes, for some reason, the baby ticker is slightly off) Here is 12 weeks and 6 days, taken on August 30.