Who said T-Rex was a meat eater?

Fynn is a very picky eater, and even with stuff he does like, he eats very little of it. Just about every meal ends in his plate, over three-quarters full, being thrown on the floor before any of us can do anything about it. It's like he thinks, "I'm done, NOW WATCH!" Today was no exception, and unfortunately the plate had lots of peas left on it. Before I had a chance to clean it up, Bryce looked over and found him gently feeding peas to his dinosaur. I had to fish peas out of its mouth later, and I guess he must have been giving it "sips" of milk, too, because a white liquid trickled out of the corners of the mouth.

Careful selection process

"What? Whatcha starin' at? Dude's hungry."

Partying for Corgan

This weekend, I had dinner with a bunch of friends, including my sister. It was a "non" shower if you will. I'm very self-conscious when it comes to things like showers. The day of my wedding shower, I literally nearly had a panic attack. I don't know why really - just everyone staring at me and how funny it feels for me when people do really nice things or buy something for me. So in order to avoid that a little, I wanted to just get to have dinner with some of my oldest and closest friends. Granted, it was still a "party" that was kind of thrown for me, and yes, people gave me things, but the fact that it was just like going out to dinner made it seem less overwhelming and I was much less self-conscious.

Ashley, Missy, Sarah and Shannon went all out for me, and it overwhelms me the work and love they put into everything. And then at the dinner, friends from every era of my life were there. It was very interesting to have all of them there together. From my earliest hours on this earth, of course my sister Ashley, who is totally awesome. She is the first person to hold my babies when they come into this world and the one who hands them to me. She's been with me through so many dark days. Erica came and I've known her from the time we were knee-high to a grasshopper in church. My first memory of her is both of us yelling at each other during the primary program because one of us sat on the others' dress. It's such a funny thing to remember. Then from my singles days, one of my best friends I've just been reacquainted with, Marianne, was also there. She is a major reason that I was able to stay sane while Bryce was on his mission. And then during my time so far as a wife and mother, Missy, Shannon and Sarah. They have each been such important parts of my life over the last three years and have put up with lots of my insanity.

There were so many wonderful gifts, some owl-themed (thanks, Ashley! The owl that hoots is among the favorites.) I would post some pictures of the cute clothes, but trust me, after the baby comes and is actually wearing them, I probably won't be able to resist posting a new picture of him every time he wears something for the first time. My actual favorite present was from Missy, who got two of the best pictures from Labor Day and had them nicely framed, along with a third frame giving me one free photo session of the baby. Just seeing our beautiful boys in these pictures taken by someone so talented and able to capture them perfectly... Bryce and I each sigh in disbelief every time we look at them. I'm so excited to see the picture that ends up in Corgan's frame! (And thanks to Missy for all the pictures in this post!)  I want to post about all the presents, but this is already too long! Although I will say the favors that Shannon, Sarah and Ashley made touched me so much that I did shed some tears in an alone moment. The iris bulbs were such a personal touch, and something I'm very sentimental about. I loved everything and I'll be a good girl and send out proper thank you notes this week. (If I'm not lazy this week, I might actually post a picture every day of each one. For my own entertainment if not anyone else's!)

I've posted just a few, but more pictures and details from the night can be found here. Thanks to everyone involved for all the love and I can't ever tell you how much it all means to me.

I just wanted to post a picture of Marianne because I'm still so thrilled she's back in my life. She came over one night last week while the men were working and we just talked for over five hours. I love her. *Sniffle*

One of the framed pictures.

My friends: Erica, Shannon, Sarah, Ashley, Marianne, (me), Missy
Thanks, everyone!  (And a special thanks to Sarah, who covered my dinner.)

Labor Day Weekend

I love Labor Day - because it gives us a nice 3-day weekend. On Saturday, at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Bryce and I were suddenly thinking, "Hmmmm, let's hop in the car and drive to Austin." So we did. Ewan had been asking to go to a dinosaur museum, and a few days before I had found this one by the UT campus. It was awesome. They had a skeleton of a pterosaur, specifically Quetzalcoatlus, hanging from the ceiling like it was flying over you. I kid you not when I say it was one of the most amazing, awe-inspiring things I've seen in my whole life. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was so huge, and just... WOW. It was so cool. There were also lots of other skeletons of giant bison and some random little dinosaurs. They had different rocks both from Earth and space - just a lot of really neat things. By the time we hit the 3rd floor, I couldn't really walk anymore and had to sit and whine inside to myself. After, we headed over to Jesse and Amy's to visit. We were able to see the baby's nursery and Amy and I compared pregnancy woes. It stinks because I probably won't get to see her baby for a while. I don't want to burden them right after he's born - she has Ashley coming to help and we don't need too many cooks in the kitchen. And our little guy will be coming right after by a few weeks, so I won't be up to traveling. Hopefully it won't be too long. I'd like to see him before he starts cutting teeth!

For Labor Day, the Saunders came over and Bryce made some steak and pork using one of his odd concoctions and it turned out really good. Ewan, Fynn and Ben ran around the house playing trains and Transformers (Ewan's latest OBSESSION.) Then we let them play outside in our two little kiddie pools. They splashed, blew bubbles, and chased the cats. Missy took lots of wonderful pictures. So we take no credit for the ones I'm going to post. It was all Missy! The guys then went off to do a little golfing while Missy and I put the kids to bed. We ate cookies and talked for a long time, even after the guys got back. There's no telling how long we would have been up talking if not for the fact John had to get up at 4:30 this morning. It was so much fun - the only downside being that I had to switch from chair to couch to floor back to chair or couch to alleviate back pain. But, hey, I'll consider it my exercise!
This was about the best Ewan would let her take until she bribed him with more bubbles...
...then he turned into a male model, giving her different poses and facial expressions. This is one I call, "The Kelli Expression." I never noticed those two dimples until Missy pointed them out.

Cutie Fynn, looking like Daddy.

We were out of swim diapers. This thing was bursting at the seams,
until it finally start to fall off.

I post this only because my blog is private. His swimming shorts didn't stay on much better, and I had to run after him at one point to pull them up to a level of decency.

Fynn sat at the edge of the yard and stared at the wind blowing the trees.

BUBBLES!

Cute, hilarious Ben.

This is the face he makes when he says "Juice," "Cheese," or "Shoes."

Such a cool friggin' kid.

My son the pole dancer

So much to catch up on...

... and I'll probably forget most of it. Last weekend, we made a last minute plan to drive down to Glen Rose and see the wild animal safari. Afterward, we planned on checking out the dinosaur prints at the river. The safari was a huge success with the boys. We had taken Ewan once when he was very little, and he didn't care, but he loved it this time. Fynn was also very excited and grinned and giggled the entire time.

Random deer. LOTS of deer there.

Ignoring the warning to not feed them by hand. He was pretty.

Ignoring the warning again for Ewan.
Not the best picture, in fact Bryce looks a little like a serial killer. But he was the photographer for the trip and Fynn practically needs to be surgically removed from him, so a self-portrait it was.

I almost kidnapped this one. Seriously. If he'd only come a step closer...

What's up, Giraffe?

And the crowning glory of the day, letting Ewan drive for part of the safari.

After this, we went to the river, where we soaked for a little while. And where I totally bit the dust on one particularly slimy rock. A couple of women there were pretty sure I was going to go into labor, but I was totally fine. I was more impressed with myself because I was carrying Fynn and was able to completely shield him from getting hurt at all. I actually think those women were disgusted with me for even doing anything like that while pregnant, but one of their husbands shushed them by yelling out, "That baby's fine in the embryotic sac!" Indeed. Then we couldn't find the path back up the river wall to the parking ground, and ended up doing some serious hiking. Like, for real hiking. The best part was when I had to climb up over a rock that was almost taller than me.

Anyway, that's all for now. Although I did get my hair done, with Missy - which she posted about here. I loved the girl who did my hair, she was awesome. I knew I was looking pretty blah before the haircut, but I didn't realize how bad until I saw how good it looked after. The day before my C-section is scheduled, I am so going back to her to trim and fix my hair so I'll look good in the hospital. You know, at least until the trauma wears me into looking awful. I'm just going to post one of my after pics. Check out Missy's blog for the rest of the pictures, because hers was totally cute, too.
First on the agenda after Baby comes - get rid of that face fat!

Looking like his daddy

Sonogram pictures

I've been planning on getting these scanned forever, but every time I got someone to help me do it, I'd completely forget to give them the pictures. So here they are now, and thank you, Missy and John for scanning it when I finally remembered to pass them on!

This one shows his face best, and the next one shows his little hand.
And this next one is how we know it's a boy!

Overdue picture upload

There have been several pictures I've wanted to post, but right now I am the laziest person on the planet, so I'm just getting around to it. Some of these are a couple of months old.

Ewan concentrating very hard on constructing a "crash" with his trains. He loves the crashes, they are his favorite thing ever.

The finished project. Billy, the orange train, was done in by a parachuter. There was also some damage to vegetation in the area.

This is my floor after Fynn ate lunch one day. Seriously, after one meal.

This is from Bryce's birthday when me and the boys stayed up late to make his cake. I didn't think the pictures had really turned out, but I found this one tonight. The way the dog is posing, and Ewan is concentrating so hard on stirring, I just think it is so cute. Of course, that dog lives with Mary Ann, now...

Swimming in the kiddie pool.

Just a good shot.

I have to pull Ruby off of the blinds half a dozen times a day. What you can't see is how they have broken off at the bottom, just this side of white trash territory. I still love her, though. You can see through the window how our dear tree is trying to grow again.

We planted some sunflowers around our mailbox, and the first bloom is particularly spectacular, I think.

Daddy's shadow

Fynn followed Bryce the entire time as he mowed our yard, and our neighbor's yard. Gotta love Bryce's mowing attire...

Amateur photographer, mud pies, and crazy people

*Note* I'll have you know that I am this close to throwing my computer through the window because it will not properly publish my font. Everything is all squinched together. Pardon the strain on your eyes, and also my cussing, which maybe you didn't hear, but trust me, it happened.

Ewan is currently ground from any video or computer games. Today, as a substitute, he decided to take some pictures. Usually he takes pictures of the wall or a box of crackers, but today he actually got some good shots of Fynn. Later in the day, he wanted to dig for worms, but our neighbors lovely pit bulls were trying to climb the fence to eat our dog, so we decided to go play in our side yard instead. And it was a total MUD PIT! So naturally we took our shoes off and had a grand old time. Well, except for Fynn, he didn't like the feeling of the mud so much, so he steered clear.

Taken by Ewan while playing Door Peekaboo

Those big, soulful eyes are full of tears because I was on an important phone call and had put him down because he was screaming in my ear. Also taken by Ewan.

Sitting in the mud pit.

Standing in the mud pit.

He got much dirtier after this one.

Tonight we went to the ball game with the Saunders, Bowers, Kirchmanns, Grimmetts and Grundbergs. That was a lot of fun, and the kids did really well. (Again, I'll be stealing pictures from the other people present, so those will come later.) The only dark spot on the whole evening was the bat*%$! crazy woman who sat next to us. All the kids were pretty much communal property among all of us families, the whole "it takes a village" thing, and Ewan and Natalie were sitting in two chairs next to me. Some young couple wandered over the the seats next to them, and at first I thought this lady was just overly friendly as she started chitchatting with the kids. A little annoying, but nothing compared to when I looked over and she was giving them cotton candy! Now, I don't care if my child has cotton candy, we were going to buy some for him, but where on Earth did this lady hear it was okay to offer someone else's children, that you don't know, candy? I was very aggravated, but was trying to be nice, so I just thanked her. And she continued with the questions, working her way to asking them their names. Bryce and I were both getting very uncomfortable, but nothing prepared me for when she started TICKLING MY SON. Seriously. Tickling him. Um, yeah, don't touch my kid. So I start figuring out in my head how I'm going to lure him away, when that woman pulled out a camera and was taking pictures of both of them. That was the final straw, and I had to work up my courage to get them away NOW. Luckily, Natalie saw Bella and wanted to be with her, so that worked out. But I had to physically pick Ewan up and put him in my lap to get him away from her. She and her companion apparently got the hint, because they immediately left and went back to whatever hole they came from. But seriously, how many grossly inappropriate things was she going to work into a ten minute period? So we had to have the talk with Ewan that even though strangers may seem nice, we just don't know, and that all the things she was doing were not appropriate. I am mad at myself, though, because I should have immediately said, "Please don't tickle him." The cotton candy thing I could have overlooked, because we were right there, and she was eating it as well, but the rest was so far over the line, and I hate that I even hesitated to offend her. But I finally did, and I know Natalie also got a good lecture from her mother about it once I told her what happened. It's a lesson to be learned by me to stop caring about offending other people.

Very sad thing and very good thing

Bryce and I were very distressed yesterday as we drove by this, literally minutes after it happened. They had not yet even covered the victim, and luckily Ewan was asleep because it was right on his side of the car. We weren't even trying to see, at first we thought the traffic holdup was a fender bender, and were irritated at the slowdown. But as horrible as seeing the man lying there was, and the trauma to the body, the saddest thing for me was seeing the three young girls that had been in the other car, sitting huddled against the divider, clinging to each other and sobbing. Both visuals have stayed with me and Bryce ever since, and I don't know when I'll be able to shake the images.

In an effort to do just that, I want to post the pictures of Ewan's preschool program. (Thanks again, Shannon.)

Shannon and I were sitting on opposite sides of the gym, and I kept seeing Ewan looking for me, just searching all around, but he never looked right at me. He obviously found Shannon and her family taking pictures of him.

Making music.

Preschooler Bowling.

Mmmmm, cake for lunch.

Buddies. Pardon the lovely look on Ewan's face, he was mid-chew.

Nothing to say but in pictures

This is Fynn's "Where?" pose. Ask him where something is and he does this while he looks all around. Every time he does it I have to refrain from kicking him. His appointment for that awful rash is finally coming on Wednesday.
Bryce caught the kitty sleeping on my head the other day. On a side note, it is a girl, and we named her Ruby. I love her. A lot. And you'll be seeing a lot of her, I'm sure.
I love this picture, she's asleep amid the chaos she inflicted on the flowers. Oh, how I love her.
It was so hot today, I took the boys to get a fun little sprinkler thing for them to play in. Fun was had.
Although Fynn wasn't always so sure about it when it was spraying his face. He'd start to fuss and look at me like "Get me out of here!" That is a serious belly there.