Ultrasound No. 2

Jude and I went to Nashville yesterday to see the baby for the second time. Jude was pretty unimpressed with the whole thing. He thinks that the baby should be here now. He was moved to his "big" bed when he got home from his travels (which he has done great with). The crib is also in there as they MAY share a room later. When he got up that morning he came out and said "I looked and there is STILL no baby in that bed". I am not sure what he would have done if there would have been. Back to the ultrasound - very uneventful: The baby cooperated this time and they were able to get all their pictures. All is well. The Dr. appointment was followed by a trip to Mellow Mushroom - of course - and Gigi's Cupcakes afterward - YUMMY!

Jude's Whistle

Jude has learned to "whistle". It is his way of getting our attention most of the time now. For now, it is funny... Yeah, I took the video on Saturday while we were waiting for the Dr. to see him - nothing like good time management!

Nana & Pepaws House

After Jude and Ella visited with Mimi and Pops they went to KY for a visit with Nana and Pepaw. They went on what was apparently a very messy strawberry pick. Jude was the messy one - naturally. Ella did not eat any because she thought they were dirty. Jude also ended up running a fever from Friday am until Sunday sometime. I took him to the Dr. in KY and she prescribed some antibiotics but of course that means there were two nights of up every 3 hrs to medicate. He did well though, no seizures. We managed to go swimming once and of course the boys golfed. We had dinner with Brenda and Kim and were going to swim on Monday but got rained out. There was Pattie's on Monday though that made not going swimming okay! Oh yeah, my dad and I also squeezed in Indiana Jones on Sunday afternoon. I also have pictures of Jude "watering" my mom's potted plants on her deck but I will save Jude the embarrassment later of showing everyone his booty.

Visit with Mimi and Pops

As stated before, Ella and Jude spent a few fun filled days with Mimi and Pops. They had a picnic at the pond, went to Silver Dollar City, had a tea party, went fishing and just had fun hanging out. They documented all the fun with some pictures. They also did get to eat at Lamberts (home of the "throwed rolls") on Wednesday with my parents and Jonathan's parents. Jude even caught a roll but quickly put it down because it was "too hot".

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work We ALL Go!

* I added some pictures of the two wreaths I made while the kids were gone. * Do not come to my house if you don't want to be put to work! Last week I had the wonderful help of Mimi and Pops and I put it to good use. Pops did some great yard work as well as working on the Mustang, working at the school, putting together patio furniture and doing just about any other "little" chore I had. Mimi was also hard at work with the kids while she was here as well as working in the yard too. They took the kids with them for a few days of fun while it was back to work at the Griffin house. On Monday, I cleaned out both attics and made a pile for the Hope Center. I also cleaned out my embroidery stuff and organized it into 21 bins which was a task that kept me going back to Wal-Mart - and Sonic for a break...every hard worker needs a banana split, right? I also put Jonathan to work in the attic when he got home and in charge of moving furniture to and from Jude's room and getting it "organized". On Wednesday my time was spent trimming the hedges in the back, cleaning out the flowerbeds of leaves, painting the bathroom cabinets (which led to painting the stair rails, bedroom door, front door frame, laundry room door frame, mantle, bathroom door and trim), actually dropping at the Hope Center, ANOTHER trip to Wal-Mart, getting Jonathan's watch batteries and then taking a big nap around 6 pm....I am ready for the kids to get back so we can relax...right!

"Professional" Soccer Pics

Ella got her posed soccer pics on Saturday along with her trophy. I added the one from last year too because one year has made a great difference. She looked like such a baby last year! She did have some killer armbands (thanks Amanda) that matched last year though. The other is a picture of her whole team & coach - obviously.

Soccer

The soccer season has ended...sniff, sniff. It started with a bang and ended with a bang. No goals were scored on Saturday but she did "play" - meaning no tears only a side stitch where she took herself out of the game - and that only happened TWICE! Overall, a great season. She got a trophy which she thought was just great. I personally think it is the only thing that keeps her going through the season (well, that and the snacks)! Anyway, until next year....

Ella's Program

Ella's Program/Graduation was Thursday night. Of course for those that know Ella know that she loves nothing better than being on stage! All of the classes did a great job and were very entertaining. I am not going to go into the details of what all she did during the performance but Jonathan and I did alot of head shaking! I have attached two videos - one of "Under the Sea" and the other is the song "Me and God".

Jude's Program

Jude had his end of the year program last Tuesday night. I know that his hair looks very nerdy in the pictures but if you would have seen what I had to work with that day you would understand. Even one of his teachers (who was not there when I picked him up) was laughing about what it looked like at school that day. It was terrible. I don't know what he did to himself during naptime. Anyway, back to the program. He walked in with his friend Bryce and sat by him. I accidentally deleted my "big" camera pictures from the event so I only have these pictures and the video. They had a great performance and were the youngest class to sing. You can't really understand but Jude will be happy to give private perfomaces for those who are interested. He loved it! *side note - in the video the first song is "Bumblebee" and the second is "I'm a little fishy".

Worn Out

I can say that there have not been too many things that my kids have "worn out". Ella's first Baby Einstein video (it was VHS). Maybe some clothes that were crawled in. Everything else they grow out of too fast. These shoes are the exception. She loved them this fall/winter and literally wore holes in them. We got our money out of them!

Oh Baby!

Jonathan has been trying to gear Jude up for the baby and what he might do to help. Anytime Jonathan says "what are you going to do to help with the baby?" Jude has the same response - "Hammer It". When I ask him he says "Throw It". We are trying to redirect those answers to "get Mommy diapers". So far, no luck.

Happy Birthday Kingston (and Chris)

On Friday afternoon we went to Memphis to help Kingston and Chris celebrate their birthdays. We got to eat at Huey's for dinner on Friday night which used to be a favorite of mine when we lived there. Kingston had a great party at Chuck E. Cheese. I didn't take any pictures but am couting on Jamie to post some on her blog that I could steal. The pictures are similar to all my other Chuck E. Cheese pictures. Be happy that still pictures do not include sound! It was a fun trip and then we enjoyed playing cards with the Barbers and Griffins and eating birthday cake with Chris to celebrate his birthday (which was Sunday). We ended up staying Saturday night due to weather. Chris got up the next morning and bought doughnuts for Jamie for Mother's Day, which she so graciously shared with us, and he bought me a rose for Mother's Day - thanks again Chris and we hope you had a great birthday!

James and The Giant Peach

On Thursday night we took the kids to see Jamal's middle school kids perform James and the Giant Peach at USN. The performance was great! Ella loved every word/move/song. Jude, on the other hand, flipped out of his chair once, dropped his gum on the floor, kept poking Jordan and generally could not sit still. The three older Griffins enjoyed it though and the kids even got their picture made with the peach! Another highlight is that we ate at the Mellow Mushroom!

Jude's Antics

Usually my posts are about Ella and her crazy ways/drawings/sayings. Jude has started to come into his own in recent months. He has always been our singer and lover but he has started to get a little wild and the things he comes up with are pretty good. First, a few weeks ago his teacher said instead of nap he decided to strip down to his underwear while all of his friends were napping and put on full dinosaur costume. They said they heard him (couldn't see down in dark part of room) and went to get him so he would not wake up anyone. He was hiding under his cot and then when he emerged up the steps he was a dinosaur. He has been nicknamed "Dino Man" since. As I do hate to gross anyone out, I will tell this anyway... He has also become obsessed with his poop. He likes to look at it and tell us what it is. He has pooped a "BIG hot dog" and "carrots". It is disgusting but oddly enough, funny even as a grown up (and I used that term loosely). The last thing for now is that he has begun using the phrase "I do, but I don't". Example - "I do love ice cream, but I don't". This is used for everything. I guess this is the indecisive 2 year old coming out.

My Portrait

The above drawing is me - thus the "Mama" at the top of the page. The part which looks like something large on top is actually supposed to be my stomach. I think I may have scared Ella by taking her to the u/s appt. She drew me the next day. I asked why I have a frown on my face - the large bulge not so much bothering me - and she said I was in pain from the big baby in my belly. She is making me wonder if I have complained!

Poll

Make sure to vote in the poll - on the right hand side of the screen.

IT'S A...

HEALTHY BABY! Ella, Jonathan and I went to see "Baby No. 3 Live" this morning. The ultrasound lasted forever. Apparently they have a new group that they hire in to take them. She took well over 100 pics of the little guy/girl. Ella was dying to know - and that is an understatement. She kept promising that she would not tell anyone (yeah right). The u/s tech kept referring to him/her as a specific gender. Sometimes it would be he and sometimes it would be she. That was really throwing Ella off. I think Jonathan too - he was telling me which gender she used first. It all was pretty entertaining. We also got a very long video of baby - Jude's was about 10 seconds. We kept wondering if we were going to accidentally see something since they normally (with Ella or Jude) don't show us that long....I couldn't tell anything though. Only September will tell! Although I do have another u/s in 3 weeks (they need to get a different view of the aortic valve and the baby would not turn around - even after a bathroom break). Only Jude and I will be going and I KNOW Jude can keep a secret!

Monday

Yesterday we worked so hard. Okay, yesterday MORNING we worked so hard. Ella got her summer purse that we had to put her name on (picture above). I know, it is WAY too big for her but she has loads of stuff to carry around. We also worked very diligently on painting something for Mother's Day - and yes, they are in their underwear. Keep reading and you will see why. (I will include final picture later but didn't want the Grandmothers to see it - in case they were looking). The painting left Jude and Ella pink, green, yellow and blue all over, (if Nana and Mimi are reading they are probably scared now), but luckily it all washed off. Our next project was to clean leaves out of the flower bed and make a brick patio for Daddy's grill in the back. Our goal here is simple. If it looks nice out back maybe we can finally talk Dad into getting new patio furniture. I will say that Ella is a little workhorse. Jude on the other hand would prefer to slide, swing or just about anything else. I did get one picture where he was acting like he might be doing something to help. I had big plans for the afternoon too but they both took 3.5 hour naps so none of that happened...Are there child labor laws if they are YOUR children?

Jude

Jude is suffering from his first ear infection and his first round of antibiotics. He is totally opposite of his sister who has had 25 ear infections (give or take 5) in her lifetime. The sad part of the ear infections is that it caused him to run a fever which in turn caused him to have seizures. He had one on Wednesday morning and another one around noon on Wednesday. Mama was home alone with seizure #2 which resulted in ambulance and rescue squad. I won't get into details but it was not pretty. They are going to do his EEG again. Apparently they have a "long version" which he did not get last time. I will update after the EEG which is supposed to be next week sometime (my u/s is also next week).