Knox-isms

Knox started talking REALLY early and hasn't stopped since. He is in such a fun stage right now (even when he's making me totally and completely crazy) and I am really trying to savor every moment with him before Gavin gets here. Here are a few things about him that make me laugh on a daily basis:

• Stickers. He absolutely HATES stickers. I don't know what it is about them, but he doesn't like them on anything. Every Sunday when we get to church, we go to the check-in kiosk to check him in. And every single Sunday as soon as we walk up he says, "no get mine sticker!" because he does NOT want the sticker on his back. There can't be stickers on his cups, anything. When all the nice little ladies at the grocery store ask him if he wants a sticker his eyes get huge and he yells "NO!!!" and it's only a little embarrassing. I have no idea where this hate for stickers came from.
• For the longest time he referred to himself in the third person. "Knox tummy hurts." But now we've moved on to "mine." "Mine tummy hurts, momma." 
• One of his newest words is "together." It's so fun to hear him start speaking in longer sentences. He tells us all the time, "Let's dance together!" 
• He's also starting to figure out what "I'm sorry" means, but he doesn't quite have it down. He apologizes for EVERYTHING. And he does it in the most pitiful voice you've ever heard. I assure you, you'll give him whatever he wants if you ever hear it. "Oh, I'm sorry Mickey Mouse went bye bye momma."
• Another one of his latest things is, "Oh, okay." When you tell him something he will always matter of factly answer, "Oh, okay."
• He does this little inflection thing with his voice that absolutely cracks me up. It's usually when he wants something he knows he can't have. He gets this mischievous little grin on his face and says, "I want CAAAANDY?" with this really high pitched inflection on candy. It gets me every.single.time.
• He wants to be naked all.the.time. He will get really excited about going somewhere and then immediately tells me he doesn't want to get dressed. It is an act of congress to get him dressed every day. He immediately strips his clothes off the second we get home every day!
• He LOVES to dance. He started telling us awhile back, "I GOTTA dance!" and now that he knows we think it's funny he says it all the time. 
• He is obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and can tell you anything about any of the characters on the show. 
• He has picked up this eye rolling thing. It is the most hilariously obnoxious and frustrating thing I've ever seen. I don't even know how to describe it. When you get onto him, he closes his eyes and you can tell that he's rolling them and like flutters his eyelids at you. You just have to see it. Maybe one day I can secretly get it on video.
• He really likes to tell you that he will "be right back." The other day he said, "Oh! I forgot! I be right back!" I'm not sure what he forgot, but he disappeared for a bit and showed back up empty handed.
• He has become quite the momma's boy lately. I don't know if it's because he knows his world will be rocked in a couple of months or if it's just from spending so much time with me, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't secretly love it!

I guess I'll stop there for now. I don't document too many things (you know, first tooth, first steps, first word...all those things that good moms keep up with), so I want to try to occasionally make note of things that our kids do! Aaaand that means you get the joy of sharing in that.

And to prove just how much of a mess he is, here is a lovely picture for you. He was hanging out with his Auntie Jess today and she sent me this picture and told me that he gathered up all sorts of things in his basket, and got on the horse and told her that he would be right back and was riding the horsey to the grocery store.

DIY Gift Wrap

Okay, let's just start this post by admitting that I'm a genius. I'm just throwing that out there.

 This weekend, Knox had a birthday party to attend. We took a family shopping trip, in the rain, on a Friday night (are you experiencing the joyfulness with me yet?) to get a gift. We also needed wrapping supplies because this gift is for a little girl. And I don't think she would have much of an appreciation for my vast collection of "It's a Boy!" gift bags or tractor wrapping paper. I have no shortage of kraft paper bags at my house (we're talking bulk size boxes leftover from Blithe), so I decided I would just get some cute tissue paper and use one of those.

We got a gift, tissue paper and a few other household necessities and headed home. I got home and went to wrap the gift and realized I had forgotten to get a card. I never ALWAYS forget the card. Every single time.

I had just been digging through my super organized desk drawer in search of...who knows what...earlier in the day and came across a set of alphabet stamps. LIGHTBULB.

See, I told you. Genius. This took all of five minutes and was so much less expensive than a card that, let's face it, is going to see it's way to the trash can as soon as the party is over. And I think it gives the bag a little dressing up too!

This got my brain stirring and I came up with all sorts of sayings that could be stamped on bags for any occasion. So, if you're expecting a gift from me anytime soon, don't be surprised if it comes in a bag that says something along the lines of "Happy Birthday you sexy beast" or something equally as charming.

Random Things.

1. I looked back through a bunch of old pictures this week. First, I cried. Am I really only a year (and 3 months) away from being 30? Where did my twenties go? And is my sweet precious baby really TWO?! Oh, man. At this rate, he will be 18 and moving off to college next year. I'm not ready for him to grow up. Not even close.

2. But then, I got really excited about all the super cute clothes he had as a kid that I now get to put on Gavin. You know, before he got all opinionated about what he wears. And only wants to wear blue jeans, tshirts and cowboy boots. I think my very favorite thing when he was a baby were the Children's Place stretchies. There are a few patterns that we have in multiple sizes. I can't wait to pull it all out and sort through it!

3. If you keep up with this little blog of mine, you know that I've been taking a sort of break from Facebook. This has literally been one of the best things I could do for myself. I can still share pictures of Knox (for family and friends who are far away to see) through Instagram and through my blog without having Facebook constantly at my fingertips. I don't have constant notifications popping up on my phone and that annoying red circle with a number on it isn't always lingering above the Facebook icon. Seriously, everyone should give it a try.

4. This little Facebook break has also made me realize how negative and sad Facebook can be. I read through now and it seems like the same people always have negative things to say. And I feel sorry for them. Not in a condescending sort of way. In a I really and truly feel so sorry for them sort of way. I know I shouldn't take Facebook at it's face value as the true indication of someone's life, but really, how can you not? It makes me so sad to think that some people literally have NOTHING joyful to post about. So I've decided to take a new take on this. Instead of simply feeling sorry for these people, I'm going to start praying for them. So just know, if you are always posting negative, sad, berating, depressing things, chances are I'm praying for you. Watch out.

5. I don't guess I have a #5. My life is really not all that exciting. So I'll end #5 with sharing a picture of Knox. You're welcome.

Me: Knox, are you sleepy?
K: yesssssssss. (insert dramatic, can't even hold his head up, sigh)

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

Perfectly Imperfect.

I have been working on this post for about a week now. I keep leaving it and coming back to it. I know the point I want to get across, but sometimes I have such a hard time actually getting my thoughts out in a way that makes sense.

Struggles. We all have them, right? If you say no, you're lying. I truly believe that at any given point, we are all struggling with something, whether it be big or small.

My current struggles may seem small to you, but there are days that they consume my life. Most have to do with pregnancy, some have to do with raising a strong willed toddler, being the wife God calls me to be, finances, trusting God with it all...you get the point.

Right now I have friends struggling with: finances, divorce, infertility, marriage, raising kids, pregnancy complications, loss of loved ones. I'm going to tell you about two of them. They have no clue that I'm writing this about them, by the way.

Actually, I'm going to let you read one of their stories for yourself, because there is no way I could possibly put into words what she's going through more eloquently than she already has. You can read about her here.  Y'all, this is one of the strongest, most Christ-like women I know. She struggles and she falls and she grieves, but at the end of the day she knows that the only option is to give it up to God, because he DOES have a plan that is bigger than anything we can possibly imagine.

The second is a different kind of story. This friend has a husband who is gone for training for a new job for about six months. We aren't talking sitting in meetings all day training. We are talking the kick your butt physically and emotionally draining stuff. After a week of being there, he had to turn over his cell phone. This is a family man with a wife and two kids at home. He does get to come home on the weekends, but my guess is that it's mostly spent resting and soaking up time with his family. So back to the wife. She has a full-time job and two kids to raise. By herself for six months. Some of you may be single moms who have done this for as long as you can remember, and let me just say: you too, are an amazing woman. I couldn't do it. This friend told me over the weekend, "I'm just so tired. I don't sit down until I go to bed at night. I would never make it as a single mom." And my heart just breaks for her. Because I can't imagine life without Clayton for six months. The training her hubby is in is so exhausting and I know she spends her weekends tending to him and keeping her own struggles at bay and trying not to make him feel any worse about being gone. Let's just say, if it were me...well, pity party table for one please. But even in the midst of all of this, she is asking if she can help with a baby shower for ME and texting to tell me that she read my blog post and not to stress about baby G and that she would be praying. As tired and emotionally drained as she is, she is still putting others first.

I tell you about these two friends to tell you this. They are in the forefront of my mind because I pray for them constantly. And you know what? In doing so, I realize that even though my struggles can sometimes consume or ruin my day, I am not alone. I have friends who are struggling too. And by praying for them, I too find peace. It's a crazy thing, a relationship with Jesus. It is definitely not rainbows and unicorns all the time, but deep down in the depths of my heart, everything is always right when I am walking with Him. Please note I said RIGHT. Not easy, not wonderful, not perfect. Sometimes it's really freaking hard. But it's always right.

My point is, we all struggle. All the time. It's human nature. We are perfectly imperfect. As a child of God, I'm okay with that and I know that this life is temporary. When it's my time to go home, then things will be perfectly perfect. Until then, I have to remind myself that it's okay to struggle. It's okay to have bad days. Because I'm not alone.

Baby Gavin: 30 Week Bumpdate

Look at that, two weeks in a row. Bam. Maybe if I post once a week until Gavin is born, he will have as many pregnancy updates as Knox. Maybe? It's worth a shot.

I had an elective ultrasound yesterday at AC. I absolutely love that they are always looking for volunteers for their sonography students. I get to really see how Gavin is changing and growing and I love it!

As far as pregnancy goes, things are good. It is still not as easy this time around, though! I am getting to the point where I can't sleep and I just feel like a zombie all the time. I am so thankful for Clayton. He is such an amazing husband and dad. I told him yesterday morning, "I'm sorry that I haven't been a very good wife lately." To which he responded, "You are not a bad wife! I don't know what it's like to be pregnant, but I do know what it's like to go with very little sleep, and I can't imagine being pregnant on top of that." Thankful for his patience, understanding, and willingness to just let me be useless sometimes.

I seem to have developed this crazy, ridiculous anxiety over the past few weeks. I worry about EVERYTHING, which is so unlike me. It doesn't matter if I know it's irrational or not. My parents had a weird thing happen at their house recently (that in all honesty, deserves it's own blog post) and then I couldn't get ahold of them. Within about five minutes I had convinced myself that I needed to go to their house and I was going to find them dead inside their house. Sorry for the morbid details- but seriously, it's bad. This is not me. If we're being honest, this is Jessica! I don't worry about things.

That brings me to my next point. My ultrasound yesterday showed that Gavin is breech. I know there is plenty of time for him to flip, but it has me worried. Knox flipped really early! Or maybe he didn't. Clayton thinks maybe he was breech at this point too. Either way, my anxiety (even though I know it's irrational) is getting the best of me. He is stretched from end to end and he's going to be out of room before too much longer! So, as petty as it seems, if you would say a little prayer that he flips before too long (or before I have to commit myself to Rusk) I would appreciate it!

Onto more fun things...

How far along? 30 weeks.
Maternity clothes? Do sweatpants count as maternity clothes?
Sleep: No sleep. Ever. None at all.
Missing anything? Sleep?
Food Cravings: Anything sweet! Cupcakes anyone?
Gender: BOY! Gavin Reece.

Movement? During my ultrasound yesterday, the girl said "Does he do this ALL the time?" Yes.
Mood: Exhausted.
Looking forward to: getting a little more prepared for this little dude to get here!

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow and I think I start going every two weeks from now on. Craziness. I can't believe we are almost to single digits in the weeks left countdown! 

And here are 30 week pictures for your enjoyment!

If I Had a Girl.

So let me start this post by saying I do not wish that Gavin was a girl. I also never wished Knox was a girl. I am not that mom. Really, I never hoped for a girl either time if we're being honest. I have said from the time I got pregnant with Knox that I would probably do better with boys and would be thrilled to be a boy mom. I would so much rather go to a baseball game than a dance recital. And let's face it, if I had a girl who acted like me as a pre-teen/teenager I'm not sure I she would survive. I'm fairly certain we are done having kids after Gavin is born, but if one day God gives us a little girl, great. If not, I'll be perfectly content with my house full of rowdy boys!

Now, all of that being said, the day I found out I was pregnant I, of course, started looking at all of the adorable things for both boys AND girls. I can't help it. It's in my nature. I can envision exactly what a little girl's room would look like in my house, how she would dress, etc. So if you want a little glimpse into what a girl's life in my world would look like, here you go!

I've said before that I am not very traditional when it comes to kids clothes. I could see myself being a little more traditional with a girl, but not much. I love these looks for little girls!

girls outfits via//turquoise bow shoes via//oxfords via//bird romper via//chambray + head scarf via

Her room would, of course, have to be adorable. The top left photo in this group is what I had picked out for bedding if baby #2 was a girl. It might be the one and only thing I am sad that I can't have with a boy! I am obsessed! Want to know the craziest thing? When I went to read the blog post about the room, it was for a little girl named Finley. That is the girl name I have been stuck on for probably two years now! If we were having a girl, it would have been meant to be! Except Clayton doesn't like that name. So that part would have been a problem. Details, right? I am also obsessed with the framed Shel Silverstein poems and might do those for my boys in a playroom one day.

nursery via//shel silverstein framed photos via//fierce print via//dresser via//basket via

So there you have it, the life of a little girl in my world! But I would take my dirty, stinky, rowdy, wild, precious, loving boys over the frills and lace any day of the week!

Super Bowl (It's All About the Food).

...says the pregnant lady. Anyone who knows me, knows I love a good any excuse to have a party. When I'm pregnant, I love any excuse to have good food. Clayton decided he wanted to have some friends over to watch the Super Bowl. At first I was a little hesitant because I have been SO insanely tired and I've just felt like a walking zombie lately. And if we are being honest, my house was (is) a total disaster. But then I got to thinking about it, and I figured the Super Bowl probably called for some good food. I asked everyone to bring an appetizer and scoured my appetizer pin board (what did we do before Pinterest?) to find something delicious.

I'm a fan of all things cheesy and queso-ish, so I decided on White Rotel Dip from Deep South Dish. I am ALWAYS up for a recipe that includes cream cheese. Two blocks of it? Yes, please. It calls for Monterey Jack cheese, but I used a cheddar/MJ blend because I think everything deserves a little cheddar cheese. Talk about DELISH. I will most definitely be making this one again.

I wanted something sweet too, and I've had a mild obsession with this cookie dough dip from Add a Pinch since I made as a quick party contribution on a trip to Fort Worth to visit Clayton's brother. When I was going on and on about it yesterday, Clayton said, "I'll be honest, it's not my favorite thing." To that I say, more for me! (disclaimer: he is not a huge sweets person. Or at least he wasn't. Until he met me. Oops.)  Don't listen to him. It's amazing. I've had it with graham crackers (honey and chocolate), vanilla wafers, apples...you really can't go wrong. Don't judge. I'm pregnant, remember?

Here are the recipes for both dishes if you want to try them for yourself! (hint: you can click on this picture and print it if you want!)

Here is my appetizer pin board for anyone who is interested. I've tried most of these, and the fact that they are still on the board means they were amazing! I make it a point to delete anything I try that isn't good because I will never remember whether or not I actually tried it, and that would just be unfortunate all over again.


And last but not least, here is an adorable picture of Knox enjoying the Super Bowl. He is currently obsessed with his infant car seat and the fact that it is HIS and NOT baby brother's. He does tell me almost daily that he will share his choo choo trains with "baby Gabin," so I guess even if Gavin doesn't have a car seat to be safely strapped into, he will have toys to play with. So there's that.

HAPPY MONDAY, FRIENDS!