at our house~

this is ...... some " na-naughty cheese".

how the boys came up with this i have no idea. but when they are hungry for macaroni and cheese that is what i hear. "please please have some na-naughty cheese mommy!"

false starts~

well i have decided that i am not going to get excited about this baby coming until monday. last night garran and i went to this Mongolian restaurant and ate some spicy food. then we walked around the mall and i was excited because i was having regular and strong contractions. i was so excited. so we came home and called labor and delivery. they said take some Tylenol and a hot bath. i did and i was so bummed-my contractions slowed down. so i stayed up till about midnight waiting for them to get stronger to no avail. i finally decided to go to bed and just forget about it. so now im just going to try and enjoy my weekend and wait for my doctors appointment on monday! i know we will know for sure then when this little girl will be coming to join us.

hope everyone has a great weekend!

sweet little boys~

playing with a different lense! happened to get these!

cuteness in a snapshot. to see more you can go here.

so glad its friday~

i am ready for this weekend. even though garran has to work a little bit this weekend, i am still happy it is friday. i have been patiently waiting for this week to be over and now it is=). we dont really have anything big planned, weekends just seem less stressful.

on a side note i thought i would post just a couple quick pictures i took of kael that other day. he has been having a hard time lately when cullan gets to go to mom school and he has to stay with mom. so i decided to have some fun with him. he kept trying not to smile and would say "no mommmy, no picture no more" then i would act like i was putting the camera away and he would start being cute again. plus im trying something a little different thats new! (im still learning=) i don't know if anyone can tell or not but i love it. i did not do anything to these they are straight out of my camera!

i want to try and play some more if i get around to it.

baby-baby-baby~

well today was my checkup.

we had made a little progress which was a nice change.

almost 3 dilated and 50 % effaced!

for most people that is not a big deal but for me huge.

with both of the boys i had not dilated at all when i went in to get induced.

so i feel like im on the move. all though i am not to excited because i know some people are where i am for weeks.

however i have another appointment on monday and my doctor said if i did not have her over the weekend that we would talk about inducement~

so soon this little girl will be here.

i have given up and went out and bought a baby name book tonight. i gave up on the websites. so we have it narrowed down to six i think. they are on a piece of paper that we will probably just end up taking to the hospital =)

poor baby girl. she has such indecisive parents.

anxious~

today i am feeling anxious.

i am counting down, waiting for my doctors appointment tomorrow.

after a week and a half of contractions, cramping, and back pain (not from my surgery, just normal pregnancy back pain) i am hoping for some good news.

at first i thought this little girl might come on her own, but now i am back to thinking i might have to be induced again with this one. if that is the case im going to push for next week.

i am ready!

so wish me luck and that my doctor will be sympathetic to a grumpy pregnant lady, LOL!

random~

but i still had to post it.

i found this on my SIL's face book page.

look at those curls.

look at that sweet face.

who wouldn't love this kid!

dreaming~

i dont know if anyone else can relate...but pregnancy hormones due crazy things to my dreams.

so much so that i decided to blog about them. garran laughs at me in the morning when i tell about what crazy thing i have dreamed about the night before.

-----------------------------------

for all you 24 fans you will appreciate this dream. i had watched 24 and went to bed. in my dream garran and my pregnant self were working with jack to try and take down Dubacko. (im sure i butchered the spelling of that) anyways half way through our mission i went into labor. however i refused to go to my OB because i was convinced she had been compromised by Dubacko. garran kept trying to convince me she had not, but i would not listen.

--------------------------------------

a few nights later i had a dream that i was checking the mail and two rabid ferrets got into my house and were holding the boys and i hostage. for some reason we had an abundance of fruit in the house that i would throw at them. who knows

----------------------------------------

the third one is a little blurry. but i was a spy of some sort and very pregnant.

i can not remember all the details but i remember it was pretty funny.

---------------------------------------

oh well only two more weeks at most of crazy dreams... did you seem i am under 20 days on my ticker! WOO HOOO~

today we~

this weekend has been a weekend of small projects and organization, trying to get ready for the little girl to arrive. whenever she decides to make her grand appearance!

the boys have been very patient with garran and i and so we thought it would be fun for them to make t-shirts saying something about being big brothers that they could wear to the hospital. well they got a little carried away and ended up just painting on t-shirts and we will work on the big brother shirts a little later. (we got about half way through and mommy started to lose my patiences!) i have to admit that lately my patience and energy have been running a little thin. thank goodness my kids are so understanding. i try to keep my cool but im sure some of you know how it is. and here is the finished project.

the boys had so much fun. i think they really needed something fun today.

plus who doesn't love getting all messy with paints =)

kael & his hats~

i have been meaning to blog about this for awhile but never got around to collecting all the pictures i wanted, so i figured i would go ahead and do it now before i forgot.

kael is so funny. he always has something on his head. this is one of his favorites. however if he cant find a hat he will use a blanket, any old shirt, a sock, etc.

it is the funniest thing. i love that he is just himself and has not yet started that phase of worrying what people think. the other day we went to walmart and he wore a santa hat. ya he got some looks but if you asked kael he would have no clue what you were talking about!

that is on thing that is great about being a kid!

walking..walking..walking~

tonight we went a walking.

walking...walking..walking!

been so uncomfortable all day. cramping and contractions.

im hoping something happens tonight, however i am not holding my breath.

i have never gone into labor naturally, i have always been induced.

so i have no idea on what to expect time wise or if anything is going to happen at all!

so is everybody sick of listening to me complain about this yet? =)

will we ever decide~

here is a pregnancy ranting blog.

i want to know what we are going to name this baby.

it is driving me crazy.

we can not decide on anything.

i hate this. i like to be able to pick a name and know that is it.

nothing has really just fit like cullan and kael did.

i went through and entire baby name website last night and this morning.

we could not agree on anything i wrote down.

now it is garrans turn.

i am beginning to think she will just be known as "tricks" for a while.

good thing cullan came up with a cute nickname right?

family time~

today i decided that i was sick of wondering when this baby was coming and that we should go do something fun with the boys. cullan had a great day at mom school. niki said that he participated really well and was very polite. if anything cullan has great manners! =+)

so we ran a few errands while waiting for garran to get out of class. both the boys were so happy and well behaved. we got some lunch and then headed to pick up garran. the boys were super excited about what we had planned and with the fact that daddy got to go this time. usually he does not get to go due to school or work. however today we decided to go to chuck E cheese, get some tokens and just let the boys play for an hour or till their tokens were all gone.

they had a blast and it was fun to see them so excited about getting to play all the games with daddy!

-garran and the boys playing the spider game. it is one of their favorites-

-the boys on a rollar coaster ride. i love that they put their hands up all on their own-

-i had to take a short video. they were so funny.-

-cullan the cowboy. getty up!--kael on the merry go round. for some reason he looks so chubby in this picture. -

(what a cutie!)

-cullan again, pretending to be a cowboy-

-of course we could not leave without a little booty shake from kael-

hope everyone had a fun tuesday!

doctors appointment~

well no big news. i had a doctors appointment today.

no big news. she said it was good that i was having contractions.

basically she said she would see me next week.

baby looked good. heartbeat was good.

so unless something happens naturally i have to wait until my appointment next Wednesday.

impatient~

well i thought i would update on how things are going with "tricks" as cullan calls her. i have been having contractions all weekend long since i got home from the hospital. this morning i thought it might be time to go, they were 2-3 minutes and pretty strong. i decided to lay down and take a little nap and sure enough the slowed down. ARGG.

this is my first baby that i have not been induced with (or not yet anyways) i am not as patient as i thought! im ready to meet this little girl. i have a doctors appointment tomorrow. im wondering if begging would work on my doctor =)

not exactly what i had planned~

i was so excited about having our annual valentines day dinner today. i had all the decorations and everything ready. however this did not happen.

yesterday i was having some pretty intense back pain on just my left side. i went to web md and typed in my symptoms. it came back with kidney stones. i thought GREAT! i was not very excited. however i went to bed and hoped it would be better in the morning. it was not. this morning it was worse. so i called my doctor and they told me to go to the hospital and get checked out. when i got to the labor and delivery floor i told them that i did not think i was in labor, but that i thought i was having kidney issues. i was not feeling any contractions or really anything that i considered labor related.

well i was wrong. big surprise since i have not been to medical school. they hooked me up to the monitors and i was having steady contractions and had even dilated some more since my appointment on tuesday. i was completely shocked. they said that technically i was in early labor and that i could stay or go home and wait it out. so here i am at home, WAITING & WAITING! we will see. the nurse said i could be back tonight or next week. im hoping for sooner than later.

however due to all this baby business i did not feel like doing our big dinner, maybe tomorrow if we are not at the hospital again =)

hope everyone had a great valentines day!

interesting article~

so i saw this article of a friends facebook page and never thought working friends with no children might feel this way. oh well just for something interesting i thought i would post it.

'Why don't friends with kids have time?'

CAROLYN HAX: TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT WASHINGTON POST
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Dear Carolyn: Best friend has child.
Her: exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc.
Me (no kids): What'd you do today?
Her: Park, play group ...
OK. I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners ... I do all those things, too. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events); I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy, but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a contest ("my life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids and all us child-free folks have the same questions. — Tacoma, Wash. Dear

Tacoma: Relax and enjoy. You're funny. Or, you're lying about having friends with kids. Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them. I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed. So, because it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, cleaned, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces checkout-line screaming. It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15. It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier. It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense. It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything — language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything. It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand, or keep your snit to yourself.

cheesy love qoutes~

"Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep... wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky his is to have you.... The one who turns to his friends and says, 'that's her.'"

kind of cheesy i know. but isn't that what valentines day is all about.

i thought i would go ahead and do a little post about my valentine, because i have a feeling the next few days might be a little crazy!

i just wanted to say how much i love and appreciate garran.

he makes everyday better than the next.

there is always laughter, understanding, patience and kindness.

being married to him has made me a better person.

i am grateful for each day that i get to spend with him and look forward to what our future holds!

i love you garran.

happy valentines day !

more love in the mail~

today the post man knocked on our door personally.

he had a white box covered in hearts and a stack full of pink and red envelopes.

i could not believe it. this was a first at our house.

we usually never get this many little valentines day notes.

so we got cards from my dad, uncles family, grandmother and a few others.

the white package with hearts was from my mom!

inside each boy got a little box of chocolates

(yes they noticed the train on the front =)

also an adorable pink little onsie for the newest addition.

thanks everyone for thinking of us!

here is a video of the boys saying thanks to my mom and george.

(DONT FORGET TO TURN OFF THE MUSIC AT THE BOTTOM!)

they were pretty excited about their train chocolates!

thank you~

*BE SURE TO TURN OFF MUSIC AT BOTTOM BEFORE PLAYING VIDEO*

our house has been a busy house for mail. (which the boys love!)

today the boys got a fun gift from aunt monica. thomas bubble bath, shaving cream, and a pretend razor like daddys. they immediately wanted to take a bath and have some fun. so here is your thank you aunt monica straight from the tub!!

ok 24 fans~

ok 24 fans.

i don't know how many of you watch 24 but,

if you do, did this last show not have the best line ever.

president- (speaking to jack) how do i know i can trust you?

jack- with all do respect madam president, ask around!

ahh great words from jack.

baby update~

well i had my 36 week check up today.

things went well. she is measuring in at 6lbs 7 oz.

that is within normal range right now.

however my babies tend to really chunk the last few weeks.

we will see. i am down to weekly appointments.

all i have to do is go do my pre-registration at the hospital and we are good to go.

waiting is getting hard to do!

maybe we should~

start leaving our post lady a snack.
let me explain.
my mom sends the boys little letters in the mail because they just love getting mail.
well she told me that she had sent them a little something. today it came!
however when we went out to check the mail this is what we found.
only one letter (kaels) and it had been torn open. i liked the fact that they put it into another post office envelope that says that they care. =)

so in kaels were two very smooched treats (the boys still shared and enjoyed them, dont get me wrong) and a letter from my mom. cullans letter is M.I.A. maybe it will come tomorrow or maybe the post lady enjoyed a nice letter from my mom and a few little goodies. either way thanks mom for the note. the boys really enjoyed it.

normal...whats that~

today has been a weird day at my house. i have been really emotional (hormones i guess), the boys have been just boys and garran was gone most of the morning. so when garran got home it was nice to talk with him and just kind of gab on about how my day was not going that great! although any of you that know garran, know he can turn a frown upside down=)

he is pretty funny.

so we ran some errands, ate some lunch and then garran pulled something out of the bag he had picked up at the store.

instant laughter.

so glad i married someone who can make me laugh.

as we were taking these pictures i thought...we are not normal folks but then shrugged and thought whats normal?

so here is a brief moment of silliness at our house that helped me to come out of my slump a bit!kael is such a ham!

check out that face..i did mention we had just had lunch right?

36 weeks pregnant, coming in from a rainy day. what can i say, we can't look glamorous all the time! LOL

could there really be a better looking group of guys?

last but not least...the family picture!

baby dinner drama~

well i thought i would blog about my evening last night.

i guess it was almost comical all the things that happened. we were all laughing about how we were worried about what would go wrong next.

my friend mandy had planned a dinner/ baby shower for me.

unfortunately she was unable to stay.

so when we first got there we had to wait about an hour.

then we changed our numbers of people a few times due to confusion so we ended up waiting almost two hours.

i was ready. i dont know about any of the other ladies, but i was ready to eat!! =)

so we got seated and were looking at the menu when the waitress walks up and says, by any chance do any of you drive a white van. well my friend krista did. the waitress then informed her that her car had been hit in the parking lot. so we got that taken care of and continued to order.

about 20 minutes after ordering the waitress walked up to me and said. im really sorry for some reason i spaced your order and i was wondering if you could tell me what you wanted again and i will run and put it in. ARGGG!!

so while we waited we had a great time chatting and i opened some gifts that people had brought.

(cute little bibs from meghan h.)

(little onsies)

there were other great things that people gave me but i did not get pictures of everything. however these ladies were so great and gave me some very cute gifts!

so our food came and we had a great time. the food was wonderful and we were all chatting.

we even got some group pictures in. (lindsay, krista, marti)(meghan h, me, stacy)
all of us!

do you think the drama was over for the evening....oh no hold on.

one of the girls there got a call from her husband that he was following an ambulance that had their son in it, who was having a severe asthma attack.

so we pretty much decided that it was time to end the evening there.

so we were packing up to leave but as we were headed out i went over to look at kristas van and wacked my head on a tree branch.

what a night huh?

it was almost like one of those shows where they keep messing with you to see how long you will last. then if you do they give you some money.

well no money, but we did have a highlight to our evening, besides just having fun and hanging out.

for any of you Seinfeld lovers out there, we had a run in with a guy who looked just like frank Costanza. i dont know if i spelled that right. this picture does not do it just, but they looked just a like. we were not the only table talking about it. so my friend stacy grabbed my camera and shot this.so thanks to everyone that was able to come and have fun last night. it was fun to have a girls night before the baby comes. i am glad we all made it out and had fun talking about it later!

little change~

so some of you know that i enjoy photography as a hobby.

i recently figured out how to post the pictures the way i have wanted to for a long time.

so instead of trying to move and change everything, i just started a different blog.

http://meghangillespiephotos.blogspot.com/

i will not be posting to the old site anymore.

hopefully this is not to confusing. i post a few older pictures on the new site just so it would not be empty.

hope everyone is having a good day!

babies no more~

today i am feeling a little blue.

it has been a very long week and today i just decided to blog about my boys.

i was working on some projects around the house, trying to get ready for baby 3.

i was going through clothes and stuff like that and just thought to myself~

my babies aren't babies anymore.

i know they grow up and i like that they can talk and we can play more.

but some days i miss these sweet baby faces.

(cullan )(kael at just few days old)
mommy & my BIG boys!

soon there will be another sweet baby to cuddle along with these guys, but i miss little things about each of their infancy's. they are just to cute!!

he got mail~

since cullan has become a sunbeam at church each month he gets a letter in the mail talking about what they will be learning about, songs that they can practice, and peoples birthday for that month. things like that. well i have to say, cullan loves it. this month when the mail came, he carried the letter around all afternoon taking turns showing it to garran and i. he would say things like "check it out, i got letter in mail"! it was very cute. he is getting so big...ahh where has the time gone?
(cullan holding his primary letter!)
------------------------------------

i just decided to throw this in because who could resist this face.

he is just so darn cute!!

mission impossible~

today this was true!

i decided to make a doctors appointment because i thought i might have more than a little congestion. well i get there and the doctor tells me that i have bronchitis. we talk for a while and then he tells me that i should be feeling better by friday.

I HOPE THAT IS TRUE!!!

anyways when i came home from the doctors office, garran had a few hours before he had to return to school so i decided to lay down and take a nap.

this was the "impossible mission" i spoke of in the title.

i went to lay down & i put this baby gate up in our door.

we are trying to keep the kids out of our room more and closing the door is not that effective.

they just open it and go on in. so we are trying this technique and so far so good.

well until today.

so i might have been laying down for about 30 minutes when i hear the boys at the door.

i hear the gate rattling and decided to roll over enough to see what they are doing out of the corner of my eye.

cullan is climbing over the gate. kael is standing there on the outside saying "help me brother"

so cullan goes over and shows kael how to climb over while trying to lift him up.

soon i hear a thud and they are both in.

next i feel two little sets of hands on my back and hear

"shh kael mom is seeping"

so all of a sudden i go

"boys what are you doing?"

they both jump and run for the baby gate at which the find garran standing.

while it was cute. i was so tired i thought, please just half an hour kiddos!!

im a believer~

does anyone know what this is?

nope its not a tea pot, its a neti pot.

im sure some of you out there may have already heard of it. it is wonderful. my mother in law has been trying to get garran and i to try it every time we get sick or are struggling with allergies. we always smiled and were kind of like "no thanks". well recently garran was not feeling well and got desperate. he tried it. he went on and on about how great it was and how he could tell a difference. well low and behold this week i got sick. now let me say i suffer with sinus stuff constantly. if its not a cold i totally suffer from allergies. so anyways garran kept telling me i should try it. so finally a few nights ago i did.

~this is what it looks like when you do it~

( i know not the coolest or prettiest. garran gladly took a picture of me doing it, but i opted to use this lady that was on oprah. )

oh my goodness, what a difference. i am a believer in the neti pot. its a little awkward but with this cold i have hardly had any sinus issues which i did when it started. this little pot cleans it all out and relieves the pressure. it takes a little while to get used to and never use really cold water. garran learned that the hard way. it really burns. you have to use like luke warm water. anyways i thought this might be helpful during this season of what seems to be constant sickness!

take a picture mom~

cullan and kael were playing in the living room tonight.

cullan turned around and said "take a picture of my friend"
he then tried to put his arm around kael so that i could snap a picture.

this is how it came out-

nothing like an elbow to the face!

they really are best buds. just not at every minute i guess!

complete~

finally im all done!

im so excited. it is washing as we speak.

now all i have to do is take it to the hospital and wrap her up.

thanks CJ for all your help with the new binding technique!