pics from the week

No words. Just pictures documenting our week last week! Enjoy!

It was a great week! Hard to believe it will be our last vacation as a family of four!

thoughts from Orange Beach

• We are having a great time.
• BUT, I am beyond exhausted. Coming to the beach with kids is NOT relaxing. It is work.
• I'm seriously thinking twice about attempting a beach trip next year with three kids. I don't know if my nerves can take it.
• My kids are fish. It's insane. Makinley can swim across the bottom of the pool from one end to the other without coming up for air.
• We have really tried to do something fun or "special" every day that we've been here. Trying to soak up this last vacation as a family of four.
• We have also hit several different meltdowns from one, or both, of the kids every day. But they aren't being caused by each other. Does that make sense?
• They have surprisingly gotten along. For the most part, there have been very few fights between them.
• Both kids have slept great all week. That part has been so nice. It's been nice not to get nightly wake up calls.
• We've been able to spend more time at the ocean than we have any other year since Tripp was born. The kids have loved jumping the waves, or just floating over the waves. However, they both seem to lack fear and/or respect for the ocean and have given me plenty of moments of stress because they venture out too far by themselves.
• Tripp has NO interest in digging in the sand. In fact, he would prefer the sand not touch him at all. So, that makes for some interesting moments. If he's not in the ocean, he's throwing ball with his daddy.
• Makinley has made friends with other little girls on a couple of different occasions and played contently with them....digging, building, riding the waves.
• Tonight, we'll do our annual beach pictures. We'll see how they turn out with two tired kids!

month seven

How far along: 28 weeks (7 months)

Size of baby: 2 1/2 pounds and 14 1/2 inches! 

Total weight gain/loss: I think I'm up around 11 pounds. Pretty soon, I may stop posting the weight gain number. I have a feeling the next 12 weeks may not be nice to me.

Maternity Clothes: Yes! Although, I will say that the dress I wore in our maternity pictures was NOT maternity. Just a regular old dress from NY&Co. Made this girl who's pregnant for the third time around feel pretty good to be able to fit in it at 7 months pregnant!

Gender: Girl!!!!

Baby Name: Addison Grey ("Addie Grey") Joey's grandma's name was Addie and my grandma's middle name was Grey. So, we are putting the two names together to honor both grandmas.

Movement: Definitely. If I wake up during the night, I can almost forget falling right back to sleep. She is ALL OVER the place.

Sleep: Sleep?! Between AG moving, Makinley joining us in bed, and indigestion, it's not going so well.

What I miss: I actually can't think of anything right now. I'm enjoying every second!

Cravings: Still need chocolate milk on a daily basis. And prime rib is a pretty good thing too. I think the funniest thing my whole pregnancy is how much I do NOT want sweets. At all. It has probably helped in the weight gain department.

Symptoms: Just the typical ones for this stage of pregnancy. Nothing crazy.

Best moment this month: Getting her nursery done (except for the hanging things on the walls) and having our maternity pictures taken. Special time!

terrific tuesdays

A sweet friend in Madison felt led to start a weekly "summer camp" for kids and their moms. Every Tuesday, we get together and we sing songs, do crafts, play games, learn Scripture verses and have a Bible story. We've had about 50-60 kids each week and it is SO fun for the kids. We do it at a local park...and I'm not gonna lie. I get HOT. But it's worth it for them to have so much fun and for me to be a part of it. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

So fun creating memories with my babies!

nights 'round here

I've been blogging since 2008, and not a year has gone by that I haven't blogged AT LEAST once about nights around the Lancaster household. There was probably a year or two when I blogged about it more than once. So, why in the world would I let 2012 go by without including a "nights" post?!

When we got Tripp's bunk beds back in April, nights around here actually became a breeze. Both kids slept in Tripp's room (still do), Makinley went down without a fight every night, and we were pretty much good to go.

WHAT HAPPENED??!??!?!?!

I guess the fact that summer has completely thrown a kink in any type of scheduling (as it should), and the kids are both off any type of routine, has hurt our nights some. The week we had VBS at night REALLY messed things up. I have figured out that Makinley likes to sleep 12 hours from the time you put her to bed, and she actually GOES to sleep. So, if you lay her down around 8:30 or so, you can pretty much guarantee she will sleep until at least 8:30 the next day. Well, the week of VBS had nights of staying up until 10:30-11...thus Mak sleeping until 10:30-11 the next morning. Welllll...this momma doesn't WANT to stay up until 10:30 or 11....I completely stop functioning around 9. Total shut down. But I knew I could get her back on track once VBS was over and I could implement an earlier bedtime for her. She was on a cycle at that point because of our late nights, and if I tried to wake her up any earlier the next day than her magic 12 hour mark, then she was a beast.

Well, we are back on track as far as trying to go to bed by 9 if we are just hanging out at home. But, oh the fight. Holy cow. The child has gone back to fighting bedtime with everything she's got and it's about to do me in. If I don't spend the days totally (and I mean totally) wearing her slam out, then bedtime is a total nightmare. Doesn't matter that she's still in the room with her brother. She calls for me at least 777 times. Joey gets to the point of threatening a spanking with a belt (that he hasn't actually had to follow through with. Yet.) Tripp ends up in tears because he is ready to go to sleep and his sister won't stop acting like a crazy person. And she insists on waking up every.single.night sometime between 1am-2am. She doesn't need anything. She's fine. She just WANTS her momma. Well, at 2 am, at almost 7 months pregnant, I can promise you that I don't have it in me to fight any type of Mak battle. So, I go get her and she sleeps with us for the rest of the night. Notice I said SHE sleeps. And her daddy sleeps (most of the time). I, on the other hand, once awake, spend the rest of the night either:
a) tossing and turning
b)getting kicked and punched by Makinley....or....
c)getting kicked and punched by Addie Grey.

It's loads of fun. I told Joey the other night that once we get closer to my due date, I'm going to start sleeping upstairs and he gets to be on kid duty as I gear up for the nights of having a newborn again. He asked if that meant in the meantime he could start sleeping upstairs NOW. Um....no. That is not at all what that means. But good try. I know you have to be wondering what we plan on doing about Mak's craziness once the baby gets here. Good question. And I have no idea what the answer is. I'm HOPING and PRAYING that it will go back to being the way it was before school got out, and she goes to bed peacefully because she's so tired from a full day of school. If that doesn't happen, then I may be in the insane asylum trying to do deal with her and AG at night. It could get interesting.

the best there is

I'm sure that all of my 2 readers feel as if their husband is the best daddy that there is. But, I hate to say it, and burst anyone's bubble, but Joey has that hands down. He is simply the absolute best daddy that there is. And we are so blessed that he is ours.

Although, from the expression on Tripp's face in the above picture, he may have his reservations! Ha!  Totally kidding...we just need to work on his picture face! :-) (Oh, and also totally kidding with what I said above. I know lots and lots of WONDERFUL daddies. LOTS. I just personally believe that my husband is the BEST! :-))