Some catch up

I've got a lot of catching up to do. Sad thing is, it won't happen. We've been having a lot of computer problems and I lost a lot of my pictures that I've taken in the last 4 months or so. So I'll post what was left and recently taken.

Fun With Friends

Things started warming up around here for a little while so we tried to get outside and enjoy the pretty pre-spring days while we could. We went to the zoo not too long ago and I did snap a few pictures.

Libby and the meerkats: A friendly giraffe came to say hello. I think this is the closest I've ever seen the giraffes at the zoo. They normally hang out in another area.

Some friends of ours came as well. Libby and Lucy have become pretty good friends (for 2 year olds). They kept holding hands while walking through the zoo. It was so cute! Friends.

Then they were sliding down the slide together. Libby kept following right behind Lucy, but riding on her stomach backwards. Don't know why she enjoyed riding this way.

They loved the playground area, though!

Finally sliding the right way.

A while back we babysat Annie and loved it! Libby actually got really sick after she left, but thankfully Annie never got it. Here is Libby introducing Annie to her favorite movie: Toy Story. Annie... not too interested. :) Wait till she gets a little older, Libby, then she'll enjoy it with you.

I put a pillow on the floor and laid Annie on it. Libby, of course, curled up right next to her for the "moonie".

So photogenic! She is ADORABLE and I LOVE my little niece! We'll watch her anytime! Libby was sharing her favorite baby with her, that's rare.

SO CUTE!

And happy!

Biltmore

We went to the Biltmore recently to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and Valentines Day. It was great to get away for a little trip before the baby and I had a great time! Wish we could do that more often. Not many flowers were blooming yet so we were able to take advantage of the time to really enjoy the intereior of the house. They don't allow cameras inside so I have limited pictures of the outside.

The orchids were blooming in the greenhouse. Got a few pics of them.

This was the only flower blooming outside at the time, so of course I had to snap a few pics. I think this is Forsiythia (don't know how to spell it :). I love playing around with my camera. Especially with flowers in the spring time.

You can see the house in the background.

The Biltmore house.

Front view with the grounds and fountain.

Clock tower at the winery. The clock tower is original to the grounds. This would be cool in black and white, but I haven't had a chance to do any touch ups or changes yet.

Home Life

Don't have any Daffodils, Tulips or Iris' at our new house yet. So I had to pick up a bunch from the store for inside. The sun was streaming through the window and I had to grab my camera to snap a few pics. I love my camera! And spring flowers!

Our picture window in the kitchen with the sunlight and warm air streaming in.

Love this one! Another that might end up in black and white somewhere around our house.

Enjoying some more warm weather outside.

Picking some of our "flowers" in the yard (mostly weeds, dandelions etc.)

Had a typical "little girl" incident happen the other day. Libby round my lipstick while I was upstairs for a few minutes. Surprisingly, she only got it on her face neck and a bit on her pjs and hair. None on the couch, thank goodness! Had to snap a couple of pics before I cleaned her up. Great color for you, Libby. :)

Fitting that this picture would follow the previous ones, although this is not from the same day. While we were remodeling our bathrooms, we didn't have a bath for Libby. So she had to either shower with me (got a lot harder as my belly got too big to squeeze us in there together) or the sink, which she is a bit too big for. So thankful for a bathtub now! It's a lot easier, cleaner and roomier!

Bathtime in the kitchen sink.

Libby has become quite the little helper even before Ty has arrived. She helps me clean up, cook, and grabs me things as I need them. She loves to sit on the counter and help me cook (thanks Mom, for introducing her to this at your house, I wouldn't have thought to include her in these little teaching moments). She always want to help with dinner now and watches intently everything I do.

She helps when she can, like sprinkling cheese on the pizza.

But preffers to eat it! She's definitly learned from me as I learned from my Mom, taste as you go is the best way to cook! She tastes everything as I'm cooking.

Speaking of tasting and eating, I'm so thankful that she loves most foods and will try most anything (sometimes with a command instead of a question. :) She loves all fruits and veggies and eats well on her own, which makes it easier on me. Feeding her healthier foods has also benefited me as I usually eat what I feed her.

She's still growing and learning so fast! Almost too fast! She talks in whole entences now and it has been a blast hearing whats going through that little head of hers. She picks up on song lyrics on the radio, which means I have to be more careful what I'm listening to in the car. And also picks up on phrases she hears us using (also something that makes us have to watch what we say!) Her most recent one that cracks me up is "Howy Tow, Wook dat" (translated "Holy Cow, Look at that"). It cracks me ups every time she says it! She is so intelligent and I'm having fun watching her learn so much! She can now count to 10, and that wasn't even something we practice on a consisten basis. She just lined up her chairs the other day and I heard her count to four. Since then she's counted things up to 10! I'm so thankful she doesn't only learn when I'm teaching her, but picks stuff up as she goes. She learned Ring Around the Rosies at church and came home singing and dancing to it. It took me a few minutes to figure out what she was saying, but made me laugh after we figured it out. This Sunday she came home singing "All sings work a color" (translated "All things work together") from the song they sing at church that ends with "for the good of those who love the Lord", but she hadn't gotten that far yet. She just spins around the living room singing the phrase she knows over and over. We do listen to this song at home, but she didn't start singing it till she came home from church. Amazing what they pick up from church, 1 day a week. Makes me so thankful to know that they give time and effort into planning what our kids learn in Sunday School.

Libby's favorite day of the week is "Church Day" and she asks practically every day if it is church day. I think she might learn her days of the week just counting down to Sunday. I love it!

That's all for now, until I get some new pics (which should be soon if I remember to bring my camera to the hospital). I'll try to get a couple of last minutes pregnancy pics with Libby, but I don't know how many more days we have as a family of three. I'm due in 8 days, but he could come anytime between today and 22 days from now. Libby keeps me busy enough that I can wait. Not to mention all the house work that I have to do, Whew!! I'll also be posting some "after" pictures of our bathrooms as our vanites and sinks just went in today! Just a few finishing touches left and we're good!

Demo Days.

Our house has been under construction since we moved in (December!). Here are some pics I took of Matt and his dad (who was a great help, we'd never have been able to do it without him!) during their demolition of our two upstairs bathrooms.

I think this was after demo day 2.

All that was left was the tub and the studs.

Then the work crew came in and started the rebuilding process. New walls, reconfigured to give us maximum bathroom space in both rooms (master and guest).

The new master framework.

Here are some pics of the old bathrooms. The guest sink area:

Guest bath area:

The master. This is it with a small shower to the right. Wasn't much to it! Just enough room to stand.

Sorry these pictures are all out of order. Just trying to get a post up. This was nearing the end of demo day 1.

Demo Day 1 over. Now one open room.

The project is FINALLY coming to a close! We just have some small detail work to do and are waiting on our vanity sinks to be installed, hopefully this week! We have a little over 2 weeks left before Ty is due, so we're hoping to get it finished before then and have some time to rest.

We also had carpet installed in the bedrooms and I LOVE IT!! After that instalation we were actually able to move into our bedroom upstairs for the first time since we bought the house. I'm looking forward to getting everything settled before baby, but mostly to just be done so we can rest and have some enjoyable family time before life gets crazy again!

That's all for now. Oh, by the way, haven't had a working computer in a while, which is part of the reason there haven't been able to post in a while. The other reason is that we sold our house, moved in to my parents house for a month or so, then bought a house and moved in (somewhat) and started this whole demo project. The result are beautiful and I love that we were able to do it before the baby and before we really got settled in. The master bath is now HUGE! Well, compared to what we had before and in the last house. We actually have a double vanity in the master now! I'll try to get some house pics posted as I get them and the house comes back together.

Potty Training

Oh, I forgot to mention in the last post a very big thing for Libby... she's in the midst of potty training! With life so hectic right now, I did not choose the timing, but she was picking up on it and basically started training herself. So I decided to give her a try. It's been going great! I haven't put her in "big girl panties" all day yet, but she definitely knows how to use her potty. It's a little sad to see her trying to grow up so fast. :( I guess I'm ready for another baby.

I can't believe how easy potty training has been so far!

She also slept in her toddler bed for the first time last night. Since we're at my parents house and don't have a crib set up yet, I decided to put her toddler bed in the office as it was already assembled, and it's got to be lots more comfortable than a pack n play anyways. Well, she's climbed out of the pack n play several times now so it didn't really matter. She slept great in her toddler bed last night, didn't get out once and was just sitting up in it this morning without climbing out. I figured as much as she's slept in a full size bed in their guest room before and not had a problem. She loves her toddler bed that she helped pick out at the consignment and led Matt right in there when he got home to show him her "new bed" before being tucked in for the night.

That's all for now!

Quick update

Quick update... Closing on our house tomorrow, moved into my Mom and Dad's, life is chaos, and yet amidst all this I'm still posting pictures. We're having a boy and his name will be Tyler, we'll call him Ty. I'm now 20 weeks and half way done!

Libby got her first black eye. Guess that's what happens when you start running, climbing and going a little crazy. :) She fell off a couch while playing around and hit her cheekbone on an ottoman. So sad! Here are some pics of her three day old shiner...

Showing where her boo-boo is.

This is kind of a tough-girl pose. She's started posing for pictures, so funny!

We went to the zoo with Ash and Annie. Libby collected some eggs.

We went to the park to catch some of the last color change and get some fall pics of Libby and Annie. Colors were pretty much gone, but there were some fun leaves to take pics in. The pics came out great! I love my camera!

She loves her Aunt Boo!

Pics aren't in the best order. Here's another of her collecting eggs.

Fun place to play at the zoo! She's a vet! She loved it.

More park pics. Don't know how to change the order of these pics on a Mac.

I love her precious face!

I sat her in a tree and she immediately put her hands like this and struck a pose.

Annie!

So sweet.

I love this one!

This one is great too!

Again with the hand pose.

She learned Ready...Set...Go. This is her ready to run stance. She now will back up to a wall and say "Set...Set..." and then take off running. I love it!

Love this face! And these beautiful blue eyes!

Goofing off for the camera.

She liked kicking the leaves around and playing in them. She also loved helping us with Annie, or trying to help. She loves her cousins soooo much, she smothers then and hollers when she sees them! She's super affectionate and I think she's a little aggressive in showing it, but that's probably my fault for kissing her face a thousand times a day. Seems pretty normal for her.

She actually says and repeats phrases now instead of just one word at a time. She says os many words and it's fun to hear her thoughts a little more and her little mistakes. She pronounces movie, moonie. She says her name as Bibby (not so good with her L's). But she does know her whole name is Libby Carr and says Carr very well. So cute! I love this stage so much! It's a lot to keep up with, but she's learning new stuff every day! She's super active, but is pretty obedient and isn't hard to take places. Definitely needs discipline, but she responds well to it. Her biggest struggle now is bad attitudes and being told "No".

That's all for now. Not sure when I'll be able to blog again. Maybe from our new house if we get one soon.