silly rabbit!

kevin is a very hands on daddy during the day. not so much at night because, well, i'm the only bar in town if you know what i mean.

anyways, i fed nora lunch today while he was home and when i was finished i handed her off and asked him to burp her while i ran and got something to drink out of the kitchen. he said, "surrrre!" and started patting her on the back.

when i came in a couple seconds later i found him patting her tummy and then her butt, then her tummy and then her butt again.

i said, "ummm... surely you don't think you're going to get the burp out that way, right?" he goes, "well... i tried it your way and it didn't work."

great. gotta love kevin and nora bird.

4 AM comes early...

who would have thought that getting up to feed nora bird at 4 AM, then pumping for 40 minutes with my stupid hand cranker pump would lead to a burst of energy that prompted me to clean my entire downstairs in nothing but my underwear... in the middle of the night. certainly not me... because if i had thought that silly idea up i would have reminded myself how crash dead tired i would be beginning at about 2 in the afternoon. what a dummy i would be... ::falls into a deep slumber at the computer chair::

today is kev's birthday. what an amazing amazing man he is. i am so incredibly blessed to have such a kind, loving man for a husband and daddy for nora bird. when i say my prayers i thank God for him, twice. when i count my blessings i count him and nora bird about 5 times. :) he is just such a good person with a huge heart and an amazing soul. i don't know what i did to deserve him... thank you Father God for my kevin. :)

Happy Stinkin' Father's Day

yep. that's what you think it is. :) for father's day this year nora bird decided she would poop all over her daddy. happy stinkin' father's day. he looks very happy, no? bwaaahahaha. ahhhh the joys of parenthood. :)

in addition to this poopy mess of a shirt nora gifted to her daddy she also graced him with the new nintendo wii version of punch out (you know... little mac style). it was all fun and games at our house. :)

did i mention he changed the poopy diaper that preceded this lovely mess? what an awesome daddy huh? there he was, in all his glory, poop all over him changing the baby. i love love love me some kev. :)

ps - if you are a member of kev's family or know him at all in real life... ummm... please don't mention this post. he'd KILL me if he knew i stuck it on the internet! LOL!

gestational diabetes and cake...

this summer i ate the most magnificent cupcake i've ever had in my life. while at the bite of bozeman i came across the super-cupcake confection from sweet pea bakery. it was a raspberry lemonade cupcake made from scratch. i seriously can not put into words how good this sucker was. thick, creamy raspberry frosting (and lots of it) over a moist lemonade cake bottom... mmmm.

mmk, fast forward to wednesday. since i've been pregnant i've been dreaming about this cupcake. i'm talking literally. i go to bed and i dream about eating this cupcake and can sometimes taste the pastry perfection.

in a moment of weakness, i decided that i'd stop in at the sweet pea bakery this week and just see what they had... all the while secretly praying to God that someone at the bakery had the urge to bake my sweetly perfect raspberry lemonade cupcakes. no suck luck. shocker. so as i was walking away from the counter... obviously looking defeated, the nice young man behind the counter said, "you know... we can make them for you on a special order." whooo hooo! so i said, "great! how many do i have to order?" and he replied, "at least a dozen." awww crap. seven months in and i've already gained 34 pounds (ack!) so i said, "well, i really don't need that many." and he said, "well, did you know that we make raspberry lemonade cakes?" whoo hooo again! i said, "i most certainly did not! let's do it!" somehow ordering one cake made me feel a little better about myself than ordering 12 cupcakes... no comments about this please. :) so i ordered and agreed to pick up the cake this afternoon. i've been waiting for today to come for 48 looooong hours. :)

mmk, you are finally up to speed. fast forward to today. i had a doctor appointment today and my gestational diabetes test was scheduled to be done this morning. ever since i ordered myself a whole entire raspberry lemonade cake i've been a little concerned about the results of the test coming back positive and then i'd have to watch my lovely hubs kev eat MY cake. sooo, when i went into the docs office this morning i said, "dr. augustyn, i have something to tell you. it's important. i take my prenatal everyday, without fail. even though i often eat too many burritos in a weeks time i do try to watch what i eat. i haven't had a drop of booze or even so much as an aspirin in the seven months i've been pregnant." she said, "ok. sounds good..." i continued, "i ordered a cake. i pick it up this afternoon and i'm eating it regardless of my diabetes test results." she said, "mckenzie, you are going to be a terrible mother. how could you even think of eating the cake without getting the results of your gestational diabetes test? don't you understand what eating a lot of sugar at this point could do to your fetus? you should just consider adoption." ok, ok... she didn't say that. that's what i was expecting her to say. gotcha. she said, "sounds great. enjoy." HAHAHAHA. :) perfect. so - that, friends, is exactly what i did:yep... that is me and my cake. thank you sweet baby Jesus for inspiring someone at the sweet pea bakery to come up with this confection. it was everything i remembered it to be.

oh, and i passed my 1 hour test with flying colors. no gestational diabetes for this cake-eatin' mama. :)

holy mother of infant bows...

i love that we're having a girl. :) i have so much fun shopping for swimsuits with ruffles and cute little bright pink dresses. my most recent obsession has been with cute little hats with big flowers attached to them and infant bows. yep, that's right. despite major resistance from her daddy, my sweet little nora will be one of those accessorized princesses. i can't wait.

anyway, during my search for newborn bows on my new favorite website, etsy, i ran across something that absolutely blew my mother-loving mind. now... please note i'm a newbie. my sweet husband and i are taking parenting classes two nights a week to be sure we can keep nora alive when she comes. :) i don't know what kind of mama i will be because i just don't have a lot of experience. but, i will try. very hard. anyways - i was drawn into a particular site by this adorable photo of a little baby with a bow:she's cute huh? i love the expression. so i enter the site. (**disclaimer so my bump ladies don't think i'm a dummy: noooo, i wasn't really going to PAY $6.95 for bows that i know i can make for $.99 - i just didn't understand how to stick them onto nora's head (especially if God chooses not to bless her with a full head of hair), so this esty search was for research purposes. sheesha!) so i find a picture of some bows i think are cute for sale in this shop:
i click on them and start reading about how they stick to a baby's head and am confronted with this picture:
GLUE! bwahahhaha! this lady seriously uses surgical lubricant to GLUE bows to her baby's head! LOLOL! seriously? this cannot be how this is done! i thought i must be missing something... and that's not all friends... she says in her listing that in the event you'd rather not use the GLUE you can use KY Jelly.

::jaw drops wiiiide open::

really? can you imagine? if kevin walked into nora's bedroom and found me attaching bows to her head with glue or KY jelly he would have me locked up in the nuthouse. HAHAHA! wouldn't that be funny? he would think i had lost my mother-loving mind!

and so... my search continues. i will find a better way. there must be a better way... LOL!

alas... i will just pray that my sweet babe has a full head of adorable blond hair for me to affix my little bows to... otherwise this mama has no choice but to stick to hats. :)

labor and delivery class, take one...

i love kevin. i do. he is so amazing. that said; i need to share something with my blog people. i just don't feel right keeping this to myself... ::giggle::

we went to our second night of labor and delivery class last night and we watched "the video." for those of you not already pregnant or having kids - "the video" is the video they show you in the classes of the actual birth. it highlights some strange woman's vagina and shows the progression of labor... and then delivery. it's great.

so here we are sitting in this class with 9 other couples watching "the video." i'm actually quite sure that none of the wives watched "the video" because we were all too busy silently dying of laughter at our husbands reactions to "the video."

it was awesome. and then... when it was all said and done and the credits were rolling i caught kevin secretly taking this very deep breath and mumbling under his breath, "oooohhhhhhhhh God...."

bwaaahahahaha. i can't wait for the real thing. i found out his dad wasn't actually in the room for any of his four kids births because he about passed out. haha. i'm going to make sure there is a second bed in our room for this very reason. i swear internet blog readers... he will stay in the room and pass out or leave the room and get divorced. LOL! i love him. :)

and now... why my auntie and mom are better than yours:

today is a good day friends. no, scratch that... today is a GREAT day!

i've always loved my most favorite aunt steph. she's the lady in my life that each time i go to her house it's a little better than it was the time before. she always has the cutest stuff. if she ever had a garage sale, i'd go broke buying everything she had. (plus some IOU's).

anyway - back to the point. her and my mommy really delivered. they bought me and lulabelle the sweetest stroller set up known to man. my auntie steph bought 75% and my mommy dearest came in on the other 25%. why? cuz they are the greatest! check out our new digs:

hahaha! your jealous, huh? :) i thought there was no way on this earth, no matter how much i begged and pleaded with kevin, that i would be the owner of this gem. i honestly did not realize that mommyhood would bring such silly feelings and that i could get so unbelieveably happy and excited about a stroller. this little beauty is not only a stroller, but a jogger and will haul lulabelle around until she is 45lbs! whooo hoooo! i'm in love with this, my bumbleride indie, from my auntie and my mommy. so thank you, thank you, thank you aunt steph and mom! you guys are the BEST!

another funny before i end my attention whore rant... kevin told me last night since my mom bought us the nicest most expensive glider/ottoman known to man and my auntie delievered such an amazing "wheel chair" (yes, he seriously refers to my indie stroller as a wheel chair) we need to put them to good use and have at least 10 kids. pppffft! i told him, "umm, honey, let's just get through this one and take it a day atta' time, mmk? love you much kev." seriously, can't live without me some funny daily kevin.

take that daddy!

kev finally felt our little lulabelle kick! he's been trying for quite awhile and while we were lounging on the couch watching a movie he decided he'd rather lay and he grabbed a pillow and stuck his head in my lap and let his big ole' feet hang off the armrest on the couch. a couple minutes past and then BAM! she kicked him right in the back of the head! it was so funny. he said, "was that her?" i said, "yep. it sure was." he said, "well, great. our relationship is starting out good. it outta' be an interesting 18 years, huh?"

hahahaha! two points for lula! :) apparently he must have been crowding her. :) i love it.

a big thanks to jenny and a little nursery teaser...

first things first - a big ole' thank you to jenny from the block for sucking it up and coming over to help paint the nursery. her and i blasted it out in only a few hours. and it looks fan-freakin-tastic! :) i'm very excited about the way everything is coming together.

above you will see our official baby nursery painting photo. :) oh, and don't worry - my dear hubs bought "special paint" for knocked up mamas. it's ok.

also - our crib showed up via fed ex on friday so jenny and i painted on friday, i made the necessary touch ups on saturday and kev put the crib together on sunday. it all looks awesome. we obviously still have a ton of work to do... but here's a little teaser of whats to come:

we used the semi-gloss paint (on advice from the man behind the paint counter at home depot who has 5 kids...) so it's a little shiny in the pics - it's not really that shiny in real life. and - the wood colors all match in real life... not sure why they all showed up totally different colors. lol.

also - kevin thought it'd be fun to take my 20 week picture for the belly book. i was looking a little rough - so forgive me. here it is anyway:

now you can tell, based on my expression, i know i'm lookin' rough... but i was also smiling... just a little bit because it makes me just so dang happy that kevin is as excited about my pregnancy and filling out the belly book and finding new places to take the pictures as i am. he's so awesome. :) i just love love LOVE me some kev... always. :) i'm so lucky. and sappy. :)

anyways... there it is friends. a little teaser. oh - and a final thought:

my big ole' boombie pretending to be baby while kev does his daddy duties. i seriously love this dog. he's my booooy!

oh what's in a name?

well, we're stuck. we cannot agree on anything. let me just say that naming a baby is tough work. seriously.

we will find out if our little baby bean is a boy or a girl soon. my productivity at work has pretty much came to a stand still since i got my big fat positive pregnancy test as i spend much of my day looking at baby bedding, strollers and onesies. i'm obsessed. and since my world-o-baby has been wide open for the last 18 weeks i have to look at everything and have a game plan for both boy and girl themed nurseries, strollers, onesies. :) sooo, basically... what i'm saying is... this new exciting world is about to change. once i can focus in on one sex - my productivity will pick up and more importantly kevin and i can focus in on becoming serious about this naming business.

more about that: kevin and i have been racking our brains to come up with a cute nickname for this little baby in my belly. no such luck. we are so uncreative we've been calling the baby, well, "baby." great - i know. well, i take that back. we've come up with some doosies - including yivo (for reasons i cannot explain in public...), birdie, and we even switched the nickname on a weekly basis based on the baby's size (we started in week 9 - olive... and honestly it kind of stuck). so here we are, still calling our sweet potato sized baby olive. and that's nothing - that's just the nickname for our unborn gender not known baby... so you can see where this is leading for the real name.

so i've pretty much determined my dear sweet husband is unfit for naming our baby. the new nickname (to which he seriously calls our baby outloud and one time in public) is: (drumroll please)

peyote moose

great. you've got to be kidding me. peyote moose. super. LOLOL. holy hell. so - it is what it is. me and peyote moose hang out together all day - we're never alone, peyote moose and i. does it bring a visual image? how's this:

so - peyote is this psychoactive alkaloid used world wide as a recreational drug.

just one more reason i'm so lucky to have kevin. i bet you wish you had someone as colorful as him to name your baby. oh how i do love me some kevin.

well - i suppose that's all for now. that and just so you know - we don't have any "real" names. back to the drawing board as the "x" in jaxon makes it "too kung-foo-ish" for kevin and in the last three months FOUR sophia's have been born in my town, population 30,000.

so - we'll keep at it. because lord knows we aren't really going to stick with peyote moose.

zerberts and baby crack...

what's a zerbert you ask? oh lord... i recently learned it's a kevin-style raspberry. you know, the pull up your shirt and blow to make the fart sound? super.

so i felt flutters yesterday! YAY! the baby is in there... and moving and i felt it... for a second. i actually didn't realize that's what it was until it was over. it was like bubbles in my belly... moving up and then around. it was almost like i needed to fart... and then no... no fart. then the "ahh-ha" moment - it was the babes! :)

so i came home and told the kev-ster i felt the baby. he was obviously very excited. we talked about it for awhile, you know... the usual stuff. how excited we were that the baby was really in there and how it was becoming real now that i felt it... and i thought we moved on. then it happened. kevin felt the need to reach over, lift up my shirt, press his lips to my belly and say "heyyyyyy baby..." and then blew a zerbert. this all happened in a matter of... ummm... 5 seconds? i felt the baby really move then. i'm not talking about flutters... i mean the baby was trying to escape his insane daddy. i told kevin he was going to make our sweet babe stroke out before it can even function on it's own. i was dying. it was so funny... and completely unexpected... i was all relaxed and stuff. sheesha kev. :) gotta love my baby daddy.

on another note - i thought i'd share my latest baby crack. i ordered my furniture and here's what it looks like:

my adorable (and affordable crib). i love the little swishes in the back. can't wait to set this sucka' up! and here is my changer/dresser combo:

it's going to look so great. i can't wait to get it all set up. i got it in the dark coffee wood. i loves it!

as soon as we have our big ultrasound we'll paint and set it all up. i love nesting! it's just fan-freakin-tastic.