Just random ramblings…

• I had a doctor appointment today. Everything looked good. I go back in TWO weeks. Wow… can’t believe we are already there.
• I have another ultrasound on 8/8 to look at Reed’s kidney. Praying there is no more enlargement/swelling!
• Ava felt Reed kick last night. She was laying close to me and popped up and said “What’s THAT? Is you belly hungry?!” hahahahaha love that girl!
• I’m starting to wonder a lot more if I’ll be able to nurse Reed. It was SO hard with Ava and I was so stubborn about forcing it that our first few weeks were miserable. My milk supply was HORRIBLE and nothing I tried helped. I’m praying it’s different this time around. Problems I had the first time around aren’t here this time so I’m hopeful that nursing will work!
• I’m torn on whether or not we are doing a friend birthday party for Ava this year. We have a lot going on that time with Stephen and Leslie’s wedding and it being so close to me having Reed, I just don’t know…. if we do, I have an idea of an easy place to have it which is good. I’ll still have a party for all of our family. What would you do? Am I bad mom for considering not doing one?
• Anyone heard anymore on the new iphone release? Mine is getting close to giving out but I really want to wait until the announcement of the new one. I’ll either get the new one or the 4 at the reduced price. :)
• Oh and a shameless plug. I’m looking for some people to host a Pampered Chef party! We have new products coming out in September and the host specials the next few months are spectacular! If you have a catalog party, you seriously have to do nothing but pass around a catalog – EASY!! You can do it from anywhere and hosting a party can earn you $$$$ towards products! So you can get some stuff for free!!!! If you are interested, please email me or leave me a comment so we can discuss! If you mention this post, I’ll throw in an additional gift of a $15 credit when your party reaches the minimum sales of $150!! Pretty please, friends!!
• My super mom made us dinner tonight. I’ve been craving chicken spaghetti and was going to make it this weekend. Instead, she made it tonight and had us over for dinner. Thanks, Mom!
• I’m ready for the weekend! I get to see my friend Chenin and I can’t wait to spend some time with her. It makes me sad that so many of my closest friends don’t live here!
• Today was Ava’s very last day ever at her school she’s gone to since 8 weeks old! She has been going a couple days a week and today was the last one. We are going to miss it there SO much but are so thankful for the time we’ve had there! We’ll miss our friends there too!
• Ava is going to be in for a rude awakening when school starts! She does NOT go to bed early. We make her go to her bed but she just won’t go to sleep. Some night she’s awake until after 10! How do you force a kid to go to sleep?!
• And because I don’t want to leave without a picture of my princess, here’s one from a few weeks ago. I can’t believe how big she’s getting!! 

Have a great weekend friends!!! Kudos if you made it through my rambling!! :)

Summer fun

I’ve been working hard on doing “special” things with Ava in the evening to spend some time with her and to give Zach a little bit of a break since they are spending so much time together.

By far, her favorite project has been painting Tinkerbell! I found these suncatchers for really cheap at Hobby Lobby back at the beginning of the summer and they hadn’t been used yet. She had a ball and has asked to do it again every night since!

She has also enjoyed spending so much time in her pool! You know it’s hot though when a two year old says it’s too hot and wants to go in!

This sweet baby girl’s summer will be over soon enough! She starts PRESCHOOL on August 15!! I cannot believe my baby is going to preschool! She will be going to our church’s school and has to wear a uniform. I got them in the mail today and oh.my.word! So stinking cute! Of course there will be pictures coming!

And on little brother front – I have SO much to do before Reed’s arrival. Both here and at work. I’m hoping to take off the full 12 weeks with him and I’m REALLY praying (like praying HARD!) he stays put long enough that I can start back to work on January 3. I would LOVE to be able to be off for the two weeks Zach and Ava are on Christmas break. It’d be nice having those two weeks as a family of four before our world gets wild and crazy!

This weekend we are going to do some cleaning out of his room to get it painted. His bedding is in and we just need to pick a color. It’s hard to believe he’ll be here in about 12 weeks!

And anyone else melting in this heat? Our city tied a record today – 17 consecutive days over 100 degrees! I’m sure we’ll break it tomorrow. Nice summer to be pregnant! Praying for sweet relief!

It’s almost the weekend friends! Hope it’s good to you!!!! :)

Wedding Shower for Leslie!

Yesterday I hosted a bridal shower for Leslie for our family and friends to celebrate her upcoming wedding to Stephen, which is TWO months from today! wow! (yesterday also marked 3 months from my due date – hope Reed stays put and doesn’t try to make an appearance before the wedding!)!

I’m not super crafty so there wasn’t a lot of fanfare (and maybe because I’m 27 weeks pregnant, too!) but I did make these tissue pom-poms that I thought turned out pretty good!

 

My mom helped with some of the food and she sent my sister  early to bring it and help me and she and Ava posed for the camera!

This is a picture of our spread:
We had fruit kabobs, a chile pepper dip, chicken nuggets from CFA, chicken salad sandwiches (my mom’s recipes is INCREDIBLE!), and yummy cupcakes! We also had strawberry slush punch – the best punch EVER! It’s a family favorite and is always a big hit!

Me with the beautiful bride!!! (I rolled my hair not even an hour before and sadly it looked like this by picture time. Crazy heat!)

A certain little lady was excited about this for a few days. In fact, Ava kept calling this Leslie’s “birthday” party. She’s a mess. She also had her eyes on the cupcakes from the minute the came in the door. There wasn’t a happier girl than her at this time. And there’s also not a girl happier than me because I still have a couple left and I’m going to eat one later tonight! yum!

I can’t believe the wedding is so close!  I was going to be a bridesmaid but seeing how I will be 36 weeks pregnant, it seemed like a better idea for me to sit out. Ava is the flower girl though and just being there is the most important thing!

I also think it’s so funny that one year ago from the day of the shower was the first day Stephen and Leslie communicated! I posted about Stephen here and then the next day I emailed Leslie to let her know she’d hear from Stephen and he emailed her later that day! :)

I cannot wait to see these two get married!!!

What’s in a name?

As I’ve made no secret, we’ve been round and round on trying to pick a name for our new little guy! We never could come up with a boy name when we had Ava (before we knew she was a girl), and so this time we didn’t even really discuss names until we knew what the baby was.

We talked and talked and talked names until we were blue in the face. Some of the names that one or both of us liked were Henry, Alex, Thomas, James, Sawyer, and Grant. Oh, and I can’t forget Ava’s personal favorite of Cake! :)

Then last week when we were driving home from St. Louis, we passed a sign with a name on it and Zach threw that name out there. It was one I had suggested before that he had shot down. The more I thought about it, the more it just seemed to fit. Zach didn’t like the first middle name I suggested with it but once we changed it, he was a fan too!

Soooooo…… our baby boy’s name is:

Sweet and simple just like I wanted! I can’t wait to meet our sweet Reed! :)

Trip to St. Louis

Over the long weekend we headed to St. Louis to visit my brother, SIL and new nephew (mainly the nephew! – ha!)! We headed out Friday afternoon and ran into lots of traffic issues and finally made it late Friday night!

We spent a lot of time hanging out at their house. We did get to do some fun things though. Saturday morning my SIL and I were talking and decided we were going to head to the outlet mall close by because there were lots of sales going on for baby clothes! I got some great deals on things for the little boy! While we shopped, the guys kept the kiddos and Ava got to play at the indoor playground!

She also got to ride the indoor carousel! She loves carousels!

That afternoon we just hung around the house and then had smoked ribs and homemade ice cream for dinner. yum! :) I also spent lots of time loving on this little guy!

Sunday morning we got up and headed to the zoo early! One, it was supposed to be hot and we wanted to do it before it was too hot. And two, lots of things are free during the first hour! We got to do the children’s zoo for free and also ride the carousel for free!

They had a Build-A-Bear workshop in the zoo with zoo animals and Uncle Greg and Aunt Kelsey let Ava build a giraffe for an early birthday present!! 

Probably our last trip as a family of three!  

Ava being silly!

After the zoo we headed to the science center which was a lot of fun! Ava and Greg got to fly an airplane! Ava kept trying to crash it! 

After a long morning we had a lazy afternoon with some rain and thunderstorms. It was really nice! I got some more cuddly time with Baby Luke and so did Ava!!! 

We had a wonderful time and were so glad to get to visit all of them! We don’t see them nearly often enough! Thanks for a great weekend Greg, Kelsey and Luke!!

Serious vs. not so serious

I want to do a recap of our trip to St. Louis but before I post about that I have one serious thing to write about and a couple other not so serious things that are fun! ha!

Ok, so firstly. Just a quick update on Baby Boy. Seriously wish he had a name. I thought after spending 7 hours in the car 2x in 4 days we’d have a name picked out when we got home. Wrong. In fact, we added another name to the table. Some days I consider just giving in and letting Zach have his name so that he will have a name. But not there totally yet!

Anyway, I had my first appointment last week since my ultrasound. My doctor told me that the ultrasound showed one of the baby’s kidneys to be swollen/enlarged. My doctor didn’t seen to be overly concerned. He said it’s fairly common. He also said that the issue typically doesn’t require treatment during pregnancy but that we won’t know anything for sure until we have another ultrasound. That won’t be for a few more weeks. I haven’t found too much online about this which is probably just as well. Honestly, I truly feel that he is ok, but was curious if anyone else has experienced this? Also, if you have a prayer to spare, please say one for our sweet boy. It certainly can’t hurt!

Alright… serious stuff out of the way. Now then, who else is excited to see the original cast back on Teen Mom?

I know, I know. Judge if you must. But it’s like a train wreck. I can’t stop watching. And I really liked Maci and Catelynn. Curious to see what’s been happening to them!

And also, who else is excited about Big Brother? We started watching when I was pregnant with Ava 3 years ago and liked it so we’re ready to start another season. Curious to see what kinda crazies are in there this year!

Oh, and if you are new from Jenna’s Journey Commenting Challenge, click here for a quick way to get to know me!

That’s all I have tonight ladies! Hope everyone is having a blessed week!!

Getting to know me!!!

Hi friends! Welcome to any new friends stopping by from Jenna's commenting challenge! My blog friend turned IRL friend, Kristy, had a great idea to post some stuff about herself & I'm stealing her idea. That way if you don't know me, you can get caught up quickly! :)

1. I am a Christian. I hope that is something that is evident when people meet me for the first time. I'm nothing without my Jesus.

2. I live in Arkansas with my husband of almost 5 years, Zach. We are perfect balance of everything the other needs & I cannot imagine going through life without him.

3. We have an almost 3 year old, Ava. She is sassy, stubborn, strong-willed & the brightest joy in our life, even when she pushes us to our limit (which by the way is almost daily!)!

  
4. We are also expecting a sweet baby boy in October! We are SO excited about this new addition to our family & can't wait to meet him. Said baby boy is nameless for now because his daddy won't make up his mind!! ;)

5. I graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in Accounting. I also have my MBA & work at a local utility company as the Supervisor of General Accounting. My husband is a teacher & it kills me to go to work in the summer while he & Ava stays home. However, I'm so blessed because during summer, he does all the cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc & that is SO helpful! I do desperately wish I could stay home with our children but that just isn’t an option for our family. Sometimes it hurts harder than other other times, but I’m thankful for a good job that provides MANY things for our family.

6. I come from a family of 5 children & we are all very close. My older brother, Greg & his wife Kelsey, live in St. Louis & just had our 1st nephew! We just got back from visiting them so I will be posting about that this week. I will say I spent a lot of the weekend doing this:

And it makes me SO excited for October!!! (And please ignore how tired I look – I really was tired! I'm #2 in the lineup. My younger brother, Stephen lives in NWA & is getting married in September to Leslie. They actually met through my blog & are the perfect match! I am so excited to officially be able to call her my sister!!!! My youngest brother Nick is also engaged to be married next summer to Sam & I love her as well! My brothers have all found excellent wives who fit into our family very well! The baby of the family is my sister. Stephanie. She will be heading off to her 1st year of college this year at the U of A. I'm very proud of her but we will miss her terribly .

7. After living here for over 30 years, my parents are moving to Amarillo this year. It makes me very sad so I don't talk about it much. I still haven't given up hope of a miracle & of them getting to stay!

8. I love blogging/twitter/etc but sometimes it makes feel very insecure. I realize not everyone will like me..... I just get upset when someone doesn't take the time to get to know me before making that decision. I do hope this commenting challenge brings me some new blog/twitter friends!!

9. I am a worrier. I try not to be but simply don't want to disappoint, let someone down, hurt someone, etc.

10. I'm a fiercely loyal friend. Some people don't know how to take that but I firmly believe in doing unto others as I would like to have done to me!!

11. I love to travel! My parents took us on trips and I have grown to love new going! I've been to many states but still have a lot to see in the US. I've also been to London, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Dublin & Jamaica! Can't wait for where we get to go next! (Kristy - this makes me think about you & us "not having anything in common!") :)

12. I'm a die hard Arkansas Razorback fan!!! I think Zach loves that I love Hog football as much as he does!!

13. I clean my house every week. It can get really bad in between, but if I don’t do the cleaning once a week, I feel like we are living in filth!

14. I love to read! I read a wide variety of books and enjoy escaping in a book!

15. We like Mexican food. A LOT. It’s been over 2 weeks since we’ve indulged and we’re having withdrawals!

16. I’m super clumsy. A walking disaster really. If I’m around and something can go wrong, there is a great chance it will! I try to be conscientious of things but I think I’m just prone to disaster!

And if you are still wanting to know more, here are a few of my favorite posts that give you a little more info our family!

The Zach and Sarah Story

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ava! (a recap of Ava’s life!)

Our growing family!

The E Family does 2010

This should give you a glimpse into our lives! I hope you’ll come back for more and I look forward to “meeting” new friends!

 

New material on it's way!!

Hi blog friends!! I know Jenna's comment challenge starts today! I have a new post coming your way later tonight! We are currently driving home from a long weekend visiting my brother & SIL & new nephew! So if you are new & just stopping by, please check back later to learn more about us!!! :) I'm excited to stop by some of your blogs to meet some of you too! ;)

Here's one photo from our weekend!



Happy 4th!!!! Be safe!


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