Hey, Stevie

I often joke around that Steve must be pretty annoyed with how his life has turned out.

He went from being the king of the house to having to live with a toddler that harasses/loves him and a wild dog that constantly annoys him. Actually, he is a very good natured cat and loves to be in the same room as Miss A and me. He loves to cuddle up next to you on the couch and is kinda protective of Miss A. And Miss A adores her Stevie. She is constantly loving on him, trying to pick him up and is always sharing her toys or snacks with him.

I started taking these pictures a couple months ago, documenting all of the ways Miss A 'loves' on Stevie. (His given name is Steve, but A calls him Stevie) None of these were staged.

"Stevie, want to wear my visor I made?"

"Stevie, time for tea."

"Stevie, it is sunny. Here are your sunglasses"

"Hey Stevie, want to sit with Elmo?"

"Steve, want to hide under my stool?" (He was not a fan of this one)

"Stevie, want to read?"

"Stevie, here is your juice"

"Stevie is like a baby!"

"Stevie, here is my butterfly hat"

"Stevie, are you hungry?"

"Look at my new flip flops Stevie!"

"Steve is wearing pretty earrings!"

And more earrings! She also tries to put bracelets on his tail.

"Steve, want some of my cereal?"

"Let me read to you Stevie."

"Stevie, lets play!"

"Stevie, want to read?"

Back to reality

Last week I was lounging with my feet in the sand...

And building sand castles with this sweet girl....

And eating dinner with this as my view.

Jamie the giraffe

I know a lot of people in the blog world were recently reading the story of this sweet little boy, James.

And I am sure you remember his love affair with giraffes.

Well, a baby girl giraffe was just born at the Dallas Zoo and the zoo is conducting a contest to name her. How special would it be for this baby giraffe to be named after James? Jamesie would be a perfect name, but since it is a girl giraffe, Jamie the giraffe is a better fit.

His mom and I are friends and I know this would mean the world to her if you would take the time to complete this form. Jamie the giraffe was born just a couple of days after James passed away.

Please help us get this giraffe unofficially named after James. If you can please complete the form below, suggesting Jamie as the new name. If you want to just email the completed form to me, I can then mail them into the Dallas Zoo. mrspreppy@gmail.com

The online form is located here, entries will be collected until August 21.

Mickey color wheel

We are in the middle of working of Miss A's big girl room, therefore we are making lots and lots of trips to Home Depot. Each and every time we go, Miss A grabs a handful of 'Mickey colors.' Disney has a line of Behr paint at Home Depot and some of the color chips have brightly colored Mickey faces on them. They are pretty cute and they definitely get me to stop and look at the Disney paint whereas I would normally completely bypass these colors and head directly to the Martha Stewart colors.


I decided to make some cute color flash cards out of these chips, versus having them scattered all over the house. Miss A knows almost all of her colors, but a little extra practice never hurt anyone.

I wrote the color of Mickey's face on the back of the color chip using that color Sharpie.

And then punched a hole in the corner and placed all of them on a metal ring.

Now, Miss A can play with her Mickey colors while working on her colors!

27 Weeks

Seeing as I am in the final stretch of this pregnancy, I should probably do a little update.

Right now, I am 27 weeks. I can never remember my exact number of weeks/days, so I use this handly little app on my phone to help me out. If you are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, get this app.

We are keeping the gender a surprise. We did this with Miss A, and thought it was fun.... so we are doing it again. According to BabyCenter, #2 is a girl, yet according to TheBump, #2 is a boy. In my opinion, that hardest part about not finding out the gender is picking out 2 good names. And regarding names, we have a short list of girl names and we are still discussing a boy name.

Overall, I am feeling good. There are the standard pregnancy symptoms that I am experiencing, but nothing too major. Some symptoms are hitting me a little earlier this time, versus with Miss A, but that is normal. By the end of the day, I am physically beat. I have always been very physical mom - meaning, I am on the ground playing with Miss A, tossing her into the air, playing with her in the sprinklers at the pool, throwing her around the pool, etc. I have not really slowed down on any of those things that I do with her, so as long as I am physically able to give her an airplane ride through the air or let her ride on my shoulders, I am going to do it. This just means that I collapse on the couch or bed at the end of the day.

As far as the summer heat, well I know it is August and I live in Dallas... so it is going to be H O T. I am not shocked by this weather nor am I surprised that we are breaking heat records all the time. Actually, I am surprised that I am not hating the heat that much. Miss A and I are outside for a couple of hours everyday, and as long as we are at the pool I am ok. If I am going to be this big, I might as well have a good tan.

I have always heard that you show earlier and can get larger with each of your pregnancies. I can vouch for that. I think I was in maternity jeans 5 minutes after getting a positive pregnancy test. Here is a picture I took a couple of days ago.

In the middle of the night ...

Your mind goes crazy places in the middle of the night.

For instance, last night our fire alarm went off around 4am. It only lasted for a couple of seconds and then it stopped. But, it was enough to wake us up from a dead sleep. The Mr. inspected the house and found nothing, but as I was trying to fall back to sleep my mind started churning......

First let me say, I am not a worrier. I don't always think about the 'what ifs' and I never have any problems sleeping. But, there is something about the middle of the night that makes you insane.

Here is an example of how being awake at 4am makes you delusional..... Part of our AC unit is up in the attic, so I started thinking that there was a possibility the unit in the attic could have sparked a fire. And if it was on fire, how long would it take until we started to smell smoke? Our neighborhood is right behind a fire station, so that was reassuring..... especially at 4am. I knew that the second I smelled smoke one of us would run upstairs and grab Miss A. But, what about the animals? Jake (the dog) would be easy to find, but would it be easy to find his leash? What about Steve (the cat)? He normally sleeps in one of the living room chairs, but what if he was not that easy to locate? And then what would we do with him while we were outside? I decided I would grab a tote bag, toss him in it and zip it up! And then, what all would I have time to grab as we were running out of the house?

Please tell me I am not the only one that does this. Surely the middle of the night has claimed others?

Romper Runway

You all know I love a good deal, especially when it comes to baby clothes and baby gear. I have tried consignment sales in the past, but always get frustrated with the quality of the merchandise and end up leaving empty handed. But not this weekend. Romper Runway is having their fall sale and I can hardly wait. If you are in Dallas, you have to hit up this sale - it is wonderful.

Hands down, it is the best consignment sale I have ever been to. I always leave with a bag full of smocked outfits for practically nothing.

This year I plan on checking out the baby gear. It is crazy how much new stuff has hit the market since we were shopping for stuff for Miss A. I really want a Mama Roo, so cross your fingers that I get lucky.

If you want a sneak peak of some of the goods that will be available at the sale, like Romper Runway on Facebook. From what I could see, they had everything from Bugaboos to Crew Cuts. Not to mention the racks and racks of adorable smocked clothing. The prices on these things are insane - such crazy discounts you will want to buy everything.

Romper Runway's Fall/Winter sale - July 21, 22 and 23
3003 Carlisle
Dallas TX 75204

New Mom Pre-sale:
Thursday, 7 PM - 9PM

Public Sale:
Friday, 10 AM – 6 PM

Half-price Public Sale:
Saturday, 9 AM – 1 PM

New moms and grandmothers can shop early, plus bring a friend. I have done this before and it was awesome - you are able to get first dibs on all the stuff. Or, if you want to volunteer to work the sale you can also get early shopping privileges. Visit http://romperrunway.com/to sign up.

Also, from my own experience.... bring a tote bag or two. You will have so much stuff you will need somewhere to stash all of it while you are shopping.

What Is On My Phone

Goodness.... I have not posted anything in almost 2 weeks.

I am trying to figure out the balance between posts that are kid and baby related vs personal stuff vs the rest of what I normally post about. I have never been one to post too many pictures of Miss A and that is not going to change. But, when all of my days revolve around her and our activities, sometimes I feel like that is all I would be posting about. So, this means I just need to start cooking more, do more home improvement projects and crafting more. Basically, start to cross of everything that is on my "TO DO BEFORE BABY" list that is on the fridge.

Testing out this bracelet trend....

I love the pom pom trim on this skirt.... You can count on Miss A having a couple of these in her fall wardrobe.

I love Brie cheese, but never seem to eat the entire thing before the rest of the wedge spoils. I found these the other day and they are wonderful solution to that problem.

One of my dear friends has the best eye for furniture deals and steals. She used to have a booth at a local antique store, but now she is selling directly from her house. (Which means lower proces!) I fell in love with this dresser she posted on her FB page. Go check her out - she has some GREAT things. GypsySoulInteriors

I am in the process of refinishing twin beds for Miss A's big girl room. I have been sanding and sanding and sanding some more.

Miss A loves to put bracelet earrings on Steve. Most of the time he is a willing participant and lets her do whatever she wants. He is a good sport.

After 6 attempts at finding the perfect light pink for Miss A's big girl room we fianlly decided on Benjamin Moore Elephant Pink.

"Look Mommy, I feed Jake."

I saw this throw a couple weeks ago on a blog and fell in love. And only $19. Even better.