Ultrasound Pics

I just realized I never posted pics from my 20 week ultrasound!  Our printer/scanner thing was unplugged for a couple of weeks, so I finally had a chance tonight to scan.  Anyways, I'll post a couple of pics from the ultrasound.  This is from about 3 weeks ago.  We received confirmation that it is a girl (yaayyy!).  The ultrasound was amazing, seeing that sweet little baby moving all around! 

Our beautiful baby girl!

I love this picture, esp. of the leg and its bones!  How crazy!

Demolition Complete!

The office is officially DONE!!  Ok, the construction has been done for a couple of weeks now, but Stephen and I made a promise to each other that we'd finish up all the organizing/diploma hanging/throwing away junk by tonight.  Well, my friends, that task is complete!  Woohoo!  So, I had to post pictures.  It was such a crazy amount of work, but it's very rewarding now that it is done!!

Before... just a solid wall.

After... two closets, shelving system built.

Before... just an open entryway to the dining room. (along with random furniture)

After... an extended wall and french doors that lead to the dining room.

Before... an open area to the stairs and foyer.

After... a newly-built wall and a door that leads to the foyer.

Whew, we are done!  Now, onto the nursery...

In the Heat of the Night

This past weekend, Stephen, Sydney and I joined my parents, sister, and her family for a mountain house rendezvous.  If you recall an earlier post, I mentioned that this rustic cabin is free of any modern electronics.  Yes, that includes air conditioning.  Now, usually the cool, summer, mountain nights are very soothing to sleep in.  However, if this gives you any hint as to how unbearably hot it was Friday night, I'll put it in the words of one of my favorite Barenaked Ladies song (which I had in my head all weekend).

Who needs sleep? Well, you're never gonna get it.

Who needs sleep?  Tell me what's that for?

Who needs sleep?  Be happy with what you're getting.

There's a guy who's been awake since the Second World War.

Ok, if you haven't caught the drift, Sydney would not sleep at all.  I'm talking, she didn't end up going to sleep until after 4 AM.  Poor thing, she kept saying, "Hot! Hot!"  We put her in our bed to sleep, and she'd just sit down and crawl all over us, talk to us, etc.  Now, I know some of you moms might be thinking that's a typical night in your household, where your child doesn't sleep.  We have been the fortunate ones to have our child always be an amazing sleeper, so this was definitely new to us!  Sydney and I took a very nice (though HOT) 4 hour nap the next afternoon. :)

But, besides Friday night, we had a great time.  Sydney loved being around her two cousins.  She even warmed up to the dog.  We were also able to scratch another state off the list that Sydney has visited.  Saturday morning, we headed up to North Carolina to visit my old camp.  It is set in a gorgeous area of the Smokey Mountains, right on a huge lake.  So, now Sydney has visited 6 states in total: Georgia, Florida, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.  Where to next?

Oh, and Saturday night we played it smart, sleeping on the porch on an air mattress with fans galore.  MUCH better.

Enjoy some pics!

Tuxedo, North Carolina

Visiting the camp

Staying cool

Trying to swim!

Hanging out at the watermelon social/movie night

The Many Faces of Sydney...

I'll have to post a blog about our weekend... but that will have to wait!  Work is calling me verrrrrry early in the morning. :)  Anyways, I wanted to share a few faces of Sydney from this weekend... Enjoy!

She's such a sweet thing! 

So it comes to an end...

As of tomorrow morning at 8:00, my summer is officially over! As much as I am in denial, and as much as I'll miss the lazy days of summer (and hanging out with my sweet little girl!), I'm kind of ready to get this show on the road. New job(s), new students, new curricula... I'm anxious at getting my feet wet and knowing what I will know for the next 10 months!

Anyways, we had a great weekend that ended my summer. We got the office completely done (WOOHOO!) and cleaned. Now, we just have to move everything downstairs to the office from the old office, but that can be done pretty easily. All the hard stuff is done. A shout-out to our wonderful neighbor who labored with Stephen over the past few months to get this room done. I'm talking, he took his days off and worked ALL day long with Stephen. He's plain awesome. We're truly lucky to have wonderful neighbors!

 

My sister and her daughters came down a couple days ago and Sydney had a blast with them. Then Grandmom ("Dan-Mom") came down and spent the day. Sydney loves her Dan-Mom. We went to a birthday party on Saturday in Athens, which was held at one of those jumpy places. I wasn't sure how Sydney would do, since she's still small (and this was a 4-year old b-day party). Let me tell you... she had a BLAST! I'll try to post a video from it. Of course, mommy couldn't exactly jump around on the rides, but Sydney and daddy had a grand ol' time.

We went to church this morning, worked the 2-year old nursery, worked on the office and finished it, hung out with some neighbors, cooked dinner, and actually had time to relax this evening! A very nice, relaxing end to a wonderful summer.

 

Part of me got a little sentimental the other day, knowing the summer was wrapping up, and this would be the last summer it would be with just Sydney. I had so much fun hanging out with her... running errands, going to parks, playing outside in the water, playing with her dolls, running around the house. Now she's going back to daycare full-time, and part of that makes me sad. Don't get me wrong... her daycare is wonderful, and she loves going there and loves the "friends" in her class. But, I'm going to miss her!

 

So, so long, Summer of 2010. It's been great. I'll see you again in about... 11 months. :)

Summer Cleaning

OK, I just have to tell you exactly what all Stephen and I did today.  So, most of you know we've been renovating our formal living room to become an office for about 3 months now.  Needless to say, the house has been in chaos.  And the renovation is only partially to blame. :)  Anyways, with the renovation wrapping up this weekend, Stephen took the day off today and we did a major cleaning of the house.  I'm talking, MAJOR! 

I'm going to give a shout-out to our wonderful vacuum cleaner, Rainbow.  If you haven't heard of it, you should google it.  Amazing.  There are so many attachments that it can clean blinds, baseboards, fans, cloth furniture, it can mop, sweep, clean carpets, and vacuum, of course.  Anyways, we vacuumed the entire house; swept the hardwoods; mopped the hardwoods; vacuumed all blinds; vacuumed all fans; vacuumed/cleaned all baseboards; caulked where needed; did touch-up paint; cleaned the kitchen (counters, fridge, oven, dishwasher, sink); vacuumed tops of kitchen cabinets; dusted all furniture, lamps, etc.; vacuumed out all vents; vacuumed couches; and more.  Oh, and sweet Stephen helped me set up my classroom this morning, too.  Needless to say, it was a long day, from leaving the house at 6:30 AM to finishing up at 5:30 PM.  The Mexican for dinner, the ice cream for dessert, and me and Stephen curled up on the couch watching Big Brother make it an awesome end to a productive day.  Oh, and the clean house... that's nice, too. :)

The Simple Life

We had a wonderful 4th of July, spent up in the mountains of South Carolina. In a little colony called Lakemont, my parents have a mountain house that has been in the family since the 1940s. We have gone up to Lakemont every summer, not only since I was born, but since my mom was born! (And that’s a LONG time! Hee…hee… Love you, Mom!)

Since I’ve gotten married and had a child, my visits have sadly been fewer and more far between. However, we always make sure to go up for the 4th of July weekend when all the festivities occur. This is the weekend when all the Lakemont families come up, including extended families, and it’s a great reunion. It’s funny… not only are we friends with everyone up there, but the people are more like family.

The festivities this weekend included face-painting for the kids Saturday afternoon, a picnic and square dance Saturday evening (a long-standing tradition), and a hamburger supper and outdoor movie Sunday evening. Between those events, we could hit up the lake, get ice cream at the local ice cream shop, go for walks, play ping-pong, read a book, nap, play tennis… whatever suits your fancy. The great thing about Lakemont is that no one uses phones, TVs, computers… you really are forced to create your own fun, which is very refreshing! Over the past (almost) 30 years, we have played a thousand games of ball-tag in the lake and Kick-the-Can, had sleepovers in the clubhouse, played countless different card and board games, and we’ve been able to just sit around and chat until the wee hours of the morning.

My brother and sister-in-law came in town from Nashville, so Sydney and her cousin Olivia (who is 2-1/2 months older) got to hang out! It was fun to see them together. We celebrated Olivia’s 2nd birthday this weekend. My sister, her husband, and their two girls bought a house next door to my parents’ house, so they were all up as well. It was a great weekend- I can’t think of a better way to spend the 4th of July!

Here is a view of the lake at Lakemont.  Taken sometime in the fall.

Swimming in the lake.

Happy 4th of July!

Sydney took a little dip in the lake in her clothes...

Square dancing!

She had a blast.

More square dancing.

Piggy back.

Golf cart ride with Uncle Bill and Olivia.

Olivia feeding Sydney a peach.  They're going to be best buddies.

Hope everybody had a fun Fourth of July!!!

The Writing on the Wall...er... Chair

It's a good thing Stephen and I just purchased a new kitchen table + chairs yesterday... Sydney got a hold of a ballpoint pen and colored on one of the chairs today. I tried to scrub it out, and it didn't really help... oh well, I'm sure this will just be the first of many times Sydney will be coloring on furniture!

Here's a pic of the furniture... except the chairs are a little higher, not quite bar height, and the table expands to become an oval.

We also got Sydney a new bedroom suit. Not to be delivered until September, which will give us a couple of months for her to get used to sleeping in a "big girl" bed before the baby arrives. We opted not to get a toddler bed and just go for the regular furniture, which will last longer. We got her a "full" bed... it's going to be so weird seeing little Sydney sleep in such a big bed!!

Here's a pic of her new furniture!

Sydney has been the funniest sleeper in her crib... mainly when she was about 10/11 months old. I can only imagine what positions she'll end up in on the big bed.

I also picked out a nursery design that Stephen and I really like! I found it on HGTV.com.

With Sydney's nursery, we went with more bright colors... neon green, hot pink, light pink, and yellow. I wanted something different for Taylor's room... something softer. My mom, the artist that she is, is going to paint the flower pattern on the wall. She's also going to make the bed skirt for me (we got some fabric that looks similar to the fabric in the pic). No chandelier, though I like the look of it... but Stephen worked so hard installing a fan in that room, that it definitely won't be going anywhere!

Sydney's bold, determined, self-confident personality sure does match her bright room. I wonder if Taylor's personality will match hers? We will see!

We are transforming our downstairs formal living room into an office, which will free up a bedroom upstairs for the nursery. Once the office is completed (which will hopefully happen in the next few weeks) and we do a head-to-toe cleaning of our house (that sawdust gets EVERYWHERE!), we will be ready to start on the nursery. I know we have plenty of time... I just would like to get some work done before school starts!