Stuff She Says

Here are just a few things I've heard Clara say lately that I felt were worthy of writing down for prosperity.

When we're in the car and she wants me to turn the radio up or down, she asks me to turn it fast or slow.

She and Daddy were playing a couple of weeks ago and she grabbed his head and said "I got your bald."

Speaking of bald, I just had a very long, drawn out conversation about why she couldn't shave her head like Daddy. She just kept whining over and over, "Say yeeeeeessssss, Mommy!"

A favorite song right now goes like this: Mary had a little lamb (and a dog), little lamb (and a dog), little lamb (and a dog), etc. And she's usually carrying around a little lamb and a dog as she sings it.

One Year Ago

A year ago today is when I found out I was pregnant. I never could have guessed at what the next week, month and year would bring.

April 2008 tops the list of bad months for our family, what with Chris' job loss, followed by a miscarriage. And a month of unemployment was just the icing on the cake for us. But we endured. We remained hopeful and faithful that God had something wonderful in store for us.

Now, exactly one year later, we have a new baby to celebrate and Chris' promotion that was just made official this week is just the icing on the cake. Our cup is overflowing.

Clara's Brasilian Dress

I don't think I've ever posted a picture of Clara in her dress that Daddy brought her from Brazil last year. She wore it yesterday, so I made sure to get a picture.

Details, Details

Sorry to leave you with burning questions, but it was Wordless Wednesday, so I couldn't go putting words up you know.

I'm putting my due date around November 20th, which means I'm 6 weeks right now. My cycle was a little off, so I'm making an educated guess here.

Sorry to disappoint, but we're probably not going to find out the sex.

I'm about 99% certain that the baby, should it be a girl, will not be named Myrtle. (Although it is a lovely name indeed.) That goes up to 100% if it's a boy.

Chris left it up to me whether or not to tell everyone this early. When I really thought about it, I realized that keeping it a secret would only be out of fear of losing the baby. For me, having the attitude of "I'd better not get excited because it may be taken away again" is a very ungrateful attitude to have. For someone who's prayed and hoped and remained faithful month after month after month, it's impossible to not rejoice and praise God for this gift. And it is a gift, no matter how long I have it. Whether it be another week or half a century, I'm blessed.

So, pray hard for this little one! And for me, because I'm understandably a little more anxious than the last two times. I'm finding that it's really hard to only think positive thoughts when you've had a miscarriage.

The hardest part of making the announcement is knowing so many others that have been trying for so long and have experienced their own losses. There's a little guilt that comes with sharing my joy when I know how hard it is to hear that yet another friend is pregnant. For those that haven't been there, it's really hard. You so want to be happy for your friend (and you are), but it's just heartbreaking that it's not you. Again. And it just plain sucks. I'm tearing up as I write this even. I just wanted you all to know that I'm praying that God blesses you with encouragement and peace as you deal with the pain that comes with infertility and miscarriage.

Wordless Wednesday

Picture Post

Here are just a few cute pictures from the last couple of months that didn't make it onto the blog during my hiatus. This one was taken at Samantha's birthday party. She got two parakeets for her birthday. They like heads.

She's not at all afraid of the ducks, (although she might be now because one bit her finger as she was exiting the petting zoo at the rodeo last week.)

Here she is at Toys R Us with her very first purchase using her own money. She bought a little My Little Pony who apparently is very musically inclined. She came with a piano, a saxaphone and a trumpet. She's super talented, it's very difficult to play with hooves ya know.

I snuck in to the Panda Bear Book Club recently. Turns out I'm not nearly silly enough to be a member of the PBBC.

I was asked three times one week if they were triplets, and at no time did they have matching pigtails.

Super unhappy about something. I think she had just fallen because her cheek is red.

Here she is after her friend Cooper's birthday party last week. She waited in line for a long time to get her face painted. It's a birthday cake.

And here she is after chocolate chip pizza Friday night.

Anybody Need a...

used, slightly defective dog. I've got one cheap! We heard an awful crash downstairs a few minutes ago and I rushed down to find Whisper's cage like this.



Before connection group each week, I always put his cage on the stairs and then a baby gate at the bottom to keep the little ones from trying to climb the shelf in the playroom to get to him. I forgot to put him up right away tonight and Dingle saw her window of opportunity. Don't worry; I scooped him up before she got him. Poor thing rolled down about 4 stairs before crash landing.

Seriously though, anybody need a Dingle? She's a real joy.

Anybody?

Princess Tea

Clara wore a new dress to church today. It's finally time to break out the sundresses. Yippee! Grandma got her this one when we visited Albuquerque in January.




After church, the little girls and their daddies were invited to a princess tea party at church. They of course had a grand time making crowns and having cupcakes and punch. Clara bought the crown last week with the money she's been saving. And Bia was nice enough to give her the princess gloves and purse. They were the perfect accessory for the tea. Thank you Bia!

Bluebonnets

I was unsuccessful at capturing some good bluebonnet pictures on Wednesday when our playgroup met at the park for pictures and playtime. The flowers were still wet, there were lots of people, and Clara kept trying to get in the pictures with the other girls. I pretty much got no good pictures of any of them. In every single picture, someone is squinting at the sun, raising their shirts so their underwear are showing or had their hands in their pants or covering their eyes. This is precisely how my entire week went.

I took Clara back today to try to get some of her. I hate trying to get pictures in such bright sunlight. She's either squinting and crying with the sun in her eyes, or there's lots of shadows. Please excuse the insane number of pictures you're about to encounter. Grandma is a whiz with photoshop, so I wanted her to have plenty to choose from. So get to work Grandma; I wanna see if you can salvage any of them.

Catchin' Up

It's been a long week here at the Judd house. It was Jessica's kids' spring break this week and on top of that, Jessica had to go out of town on business. I had all four of her kids on Monday and Tuesday. Then on Tuesday night, Zach left to spend the rest of the week with a friend. The three girls stayed the night Tuesday and Wednesday and their dad came and got them about 10:30 last night. So, it was a long week, but I'm down to just Clara today. I have lots of housework to catch up on, but decided a movie for Clara and some blogging for me sounded much more fun.


The past week, I've prepared 22 breakfasts and lunches, poured more drinks than I can count, cleaned several dog messes, cleaned up after one bed wetting episode, hit 3 parks, 1 library, 1 mall, 3 grocery stores, diffused countless arguments, went into public and park bathrooms no less than 20 times (someone had a little bladder issue all week), went through three rolls of toilet paper, forced several children to clean up messes that they made, made cupcakes, tried unsuccessfully to take bluebonnet pics of Jessica's girls and said "no" just a few times. Oh, and I was asked at least 10 times if they were all mine. And that's only the stuff off the top of my head. TGIF!

It was Chris' birthday yesterday. Clara called his phone that morning to wish him a happy birthday, but he left his phone at home, so he didn't get his birthday song until he got home. We put up a few balloons and streamers, all the girls made him cards, and we had cupcakes ready when he got home. Clara gave him some pirate legos. She decided to get him legos and chose the pirate set herself. She even kept it a secret until time to open it. She sat in Chris' lap as he was about to open his presents and I said "I'm so proud of you for keeping Daddy's present a secret all week." Then she said "I got you legos!!" D'oh! She almost made it without spilling the beans. I guess it's my fault for putting it in her head. I got him the watch he is wearing.

Yeehaw!

We went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Sunday afternoon with Robert, Debbie, Taylor and her friend. Robert is one of Chris' co-workers and his workout partner. He and Taylor also join Clara and Chris for their daddy/daughter breakfasts. Clara adores them.

Anyway, back to the rodeo. Unfortunately the forecast called for rain all day, but we decided to brave the weather anyway. It was pouring the whole drive down and when we got there but cleared up long enough to walk around the carnival for a few minutes. Clara got to ride her first carnival ride, the hot air balloons. It started raining right as the ride started, so then I was cold and wet.

We grabbed some lunch and the requisite funnel cake before heading into the exhibits. We headed straight for the cowboy hats because a girl's gotta look good for the rodeo.


She loved the petting zoo and spent a good 20 minutes in there with Daddy. Every time she spotted the piglet, she took off after it. She sat and poked a sleeping goat's eye for a couple of minutes trying to get him to open them and she decided that the llama needed a pink cowboy hat. It actually sat there with the hat on for a few seconds. The mama goat was fenced off and she had 3 babies only minutes earlier. She was still taking care of the afterbirth, which caused me to gag just a bit. The babies were sooo cute and they hadn't even nursed yet; they kept nudging her neck and legs trying to figure out where the grub was.

We headed over to the rodeo and enjoyed the prime seats we had at the very top of the stadium. My favorite parts were the calf scramble, chuck wagon races and mutton bustin'. I had never seen mutton bustin' and that was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Four and five year olds riding sheep. You don't get much more awesome than that. One sheep leaped in the air right out of the gate and the four year old boy still stayed on and I think he's the one that won in the end. I can so see Brody mutton bustin' before too long.

We left before the concert, because unbeknownst to us when we decided on a day to go, it was Tejano Day and we weren't real interested in staying for a tejano concert. They did the whole rodeo with two hosts, one spoke English, the other Spanish. I was surprised to hear the invocation led in Spanish, but not English. That was a bit annoying, but I guess it's our own fault for not checking on these things.

After the rodeo, the rain had cleared again, so everyone rode the bumper cars. Clara got to ride with Daddy and she couldn't stop laughing the entire time, directing Daddy as to who he should bump next. Then Taylor won at ski-ball and let Clara choose a prize. We decided our feet had had about enough at that point and called it a day.

It was so crowded, even with the rain. I can't even imagine how bad it would've been if the weather had been nice. Part of it may have been the tejano day thing. We were definitely the minority. The carnival was nice and deserted, but we had to wade through crowds everywhere else. Next year, we will try to go during the week. And not on tejano day.

A Picture Free Post

I just had to get on here and brag on myself for my accomplishments this weekend. I finally had the garage sale that I've been putting off for a year now. And I didn't do half bad. I had no idea what to expect since I've never done one before, but I ended up making over $200.

After the garage sale, we boxed everything up and donated it, so my house is officially clutter free. Mostly. We went and got a late lunch and then made our way to Academy to spend our hard earned money on a tent and air mattress.

Home for a nap and then we took Clara to a sitter and went to dinner at The Melting Pot for our anniversary. It was soooo good. When we got there, there was an anniversary card on the table signed by all the employees. I told Chris that I had gotten a card for him, but I left it at home. He said that it was ok. He left mine at home too. Eleven years and we still don't have this kind of stuff figured out.

This morning, even after losing an hour of sleep and stuffing our faces 'til late last night, we managed to get up for early service. I had a lot of cleaning up to do this afternoon to get ready for connection group tonight. The house was a complete wreck due to getting ready for the garage sale. I still found time to squeeze a nap in AND, the best part of my day just happened moments ago when I finished preparing our taxes.

Life is good.

Playtime at the Park

Chris brought home a belated birthday cake for me today, mainly to appease the little one who thought it was a travesty to have a birthday without a cake. It was so cute. It was two cupcakes frosted to look like a dog. She couldn't seem to peel her eyes off the thing. Have I mentioned she likes cake?