Have you had your Green Smoothie today?

I've been wanting to make green smoothies for a while now but I thought it would really hard to make it yummy enough for everyone in the family to drink. I copied a recipe one time and tried to share it with Brianna and she seriously gagged. 

I decided to give it another try. This time I was going to "wing it".  I put 5 whopping handfuls of spinach, 1 cucumber, some mixed berries, OJ, and flax oil in it. It was delicious! It tasted better than something from tropical smoothie. And, it got Brianna's approval. (See pics below)

Today I tried to make another one. It wasn't as good as yesterdays but it was pretty good. Philipe even said he didn't mind drinking it. He doesn't understand the whole concept but he'll drink it if I make him. ;) Hopefully, this will be an easy way to get to Bri to consume her daily veggies.

My baby's a big girl

Tonight was monumental. Every night when it's time for bed we have the same routine. It ends with me saying Brianna are you ready to go Night night? She comes running over with a smile on her face signing and saying milk, I nurse her, put her in her crib, and she falls asleep comfortably with no fuss. Well, tonight after our bath she watched a little Diego and started to look tired. She went pee pee on the potty, I put a diaper on her and asked her if she wanted to go "Night night". She didn't sign anything or say anything. She just put her arms up in the air for me to grab her so I put her in her crib and she fell asleep with no fuss and..... no boob! I thought I would be excited when this day finally happened but I ran to Philipe with tears in my eyes saying maybe we should go check on her cause, obviously, something is wrong with her. LOL. Since I've been pregnant I stopped offering to nurse her. I only do it when she asks (unless she is extremely cranky and needs to chill out). Well, she doesn't really ever ask anymore. I'm so happy this is all happening on her terms. I'm anxious to see how she's going to react when the new baby gets here. 

5 months!

This pregnancy is going by so darn fast. It's insane! I know I'm going to be so sad when it's all over. I just want to savor it as much as possible. I couldn't be happier that we're having another little girl. It's so exciting. It think God was definitely looking out for us because with us buying this house I couldn't imagine having to buy new stuff for a boy. It's perfect! I know Bri will be so good with a little baby sister. I'm sure they'll be super close. (*finger's crossed). 

I'm really excited about ECing this baby from birth. I have a friend (Natacha) who EC's her little boy. He's 4 months old. It's so exciting watching him go on cue. He gets really happy after he goes too. It just seems so natural. Plus, washing diapers every other day sucks!

Well, without further ado... here's my 5 month (21 weeks to be exact) belly pictures. Enjoy my fullness! I am!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

Bri visits Santa

Today Philipe and I took a trip to the mall to finish some Christmas shopping and get Brianna's pictures taken with Santa. It was great! I for sure thought she would cry bloody murder and Philipe and I would end up sitting on Santa's lap too. I even put make-up on just in case. She was awesome. While she didn't smile, she tolerated the big guy for a good 5 minutes. The pictures suck. The sun is always right in Santa's face. You'd think they'd relocate him or set up camp in a shaded area. Oh well! I'm just so proud of my baby girl. 

This year money's a little tight so I'm having Bri make Christmas presents for family. I love doing crafts with her. She has so much fun and I can just see her little brain connections firing up. I love it! Any who... There were 2 parties we were suppose to go to this evening. Once I got home from being out ALL day I didn't feel like changing and getting ready to go out again so Bri and I stayed home while Philipe went to some Christmas party a guy from the fire dept was having. We had a blast. I pulled out the finger paints and she went to town on making presents. We even talked about who we should give them too. And, she was sure to tell me every color she was using. She's so darn smart! After Christmas I'll have to let you know what we did for gifts. I know we have dedicated grandparent readers and I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Enjoy the pics... of course they're in reverse order. 

Bri, finger painting.

telling me, "purple"

an expert with the paintbrush

Mommy's happy little artist

tolerating Santa

Bri and Mommy, waiting in line (for an hour) to see Santa

Before we saw Santa we had to make sure we had full bellies. Bri loves her some mac & cheese!

cheese!

See how swollen her bottom gums are!?!? Hopefully, that puppy breaks through soon!

Hair is a little frazzled, but still cute as ever!

It's a...

Girl! So, Brianna is going to have a little baby sister. How exciting! I hope they'll be the best of friends. Yeah, wishful thinking. 

Not a whole lot of new stuff going on. Brianna is doing great on the potty. She just goes and pees on it whenever she needs to. I don't have to read to her for 30 minutes while she sits on it either. As soon as she sits on it she does her business and then jumps up to go play. 

Tomorrow we go to get an ultrasound. Everyone keeps asking if I'm excited. I'm really excited about seeing my little baby on the screen but I don't care if it's a boy or a girl. I'll be just as happy either way. This just isn't like it was with Brianna. I know how bad Philipe wants a boy so that would be cool it were a boy but I really don't care either way. 

A few weeks ago I posted that I saw the documentary, "Orgasmic Birth". Well, my friend Jen borrowed it from someone and she let me borrow it from her so Philipe and I could watch it together. He didn't want to watch it (because of the title) but he did because I told him it would mean a lot to me. He really enjoyed it. He really thought it was going to be a bunch of women having orgasms while they gave birth (which I thought too) but it wasn't. It was just about enjoying your birth to the max. And it doesn't have to be excruciating pain if you give in and allow your body to do what it was made to do. There were a couple times he had to get up and even asked me to pause it until he got back. It was great! We talked about how awesome it was when Bri was born and how much we appreciated each other and how it brought our love for one another to a whole new level. I can't wait to feel it all again!

Here's some pics I took recently. Brianna's been all about her little cowgirl hat lately. She's always naked at home so it's so cute to see her run around with her hat on. I have some super cute butt shots of her wearing her hat but there's a lot of perv's out there so I'm not sharing those. These will do.

She has to have her reading material. LOL

Holiday Give-Away

First, let me tell you why my doctor is better than your doctor. She rocks! I totally forgot that Dr. Punger is not in the office on Thurs. so I figured I would just wait till tomorrow. Well, around 9:30 I got a call from her office telling me she would meet me at 1:00. After reading my 4:00 in the morning post, she was kind enough to make time from her busy day to see little Bri. Turns out Brianna is okay. Her fever and miserableness is just from her teething. Thank God! I can not wait till these teeth break through. Bri is so good with teething but these are definately throwing us for a loop. Her fever still won't break. I get all freaked out if she has a fever for over 24 hours. We're going on 48 hrs now. They tylenol and motrin helps but I hate having to give her that stuff. Anyways....let me tell you another reason my doc rocks.... She is doing a "Holiday Give-Away" of her book, Permission to Mother: Going Beyond the Standard-of-Care to Nurture our Children, on her blog. Go on... go check it out! See how you could win a free copy of her amazing book. Here is a copy of the review I left a while ago on Amazon:

"I'm not sure if there are enough words to describe how much Dr. Punger's book inspired me. Once I opened the book I couldn't put it down! After reading it I feel confident in the way I raise my daughter. In a society that is shaped by social norms and fear of what others might think, Dr. Punger enlightens that we can choose the way we raise our children. 

Dr. Punger portrays birth so beautifully and really reminds us that the experience we have while bringing new life into the world is enitrely up to us. My husband and I are anxious to have our next child at home. 

Dr. Punger also inspired me to switch to cloth diapers, something I NEVER thought I would do. My daughter had 3 UTI's by the time she was 8 months old. I never thought they could possibly be caused by disposable diapers. But now it makes sense! There are tons of chemicals in those things. I'm glad she pointed that out. None of my daughters doctors ever told me to try switching daipers. They just did really invasive proceedures that had inconclusive results. I'm fairly new at the cloth diapering but Brianna has been free and clear of UTI's since switching. 

Since reading "Permission to Mother", I have also decided to breast feed longer than I intended. Actually, I'm not to sure how long that is but I know I don't feel I need to put a time limit on it. I'm comfortable with letting my daughter decide when she is ready to wean. 

All in all, "Permission to Mother" is the most incredible, inspiring, and empowering book I have ever read. I love it and strongly recommend it to everyone!!!!!"

This is defiantely a must read for all mothers, or mom-to-be's. Just go to her blog and say that you heard about her book from me (Trish) and you'll be in the drawing to win a free copy of her book. Okay... Enough bragging about Dr. Punger.

Funny story here.... today after taking Bri to the doc Philipe met up with us. We ate lunch and went and got out Christmas tree. When we got home I had to make room for the tree. I put the tree stand where Brianna's potty usually sits and moved her potty right next to it so she would still see it. Philipe was outside getting the tree ready and I was clearning a path for him to walk through. Bri told me she had to go "pee-pee" so I gave her the go ahead. I looked over and she was peeing in the tree stand. LOL! It was friggin' HILARIOUS! She even had that look of accomplishment she usually has when she pee's on the potty like a big girl. Once she saw me cracking up she got a little confused. Bless her little heart! I love that little girl. Those are little moments I'll never forget.

Praying for sleep

So, it's 4:30 AM and I've been up since 2:15! Brianna is going through something horrible and is refusing to go back to sleep. Yesterday she started running a fever. I'm assuming it's her teeth. She's got 3 coming in right now so I alternated tylenol and motrin a few times. She's been sleeping through the night for the last 2 months now so when she woke up at 2:15, I knew something had to be wrong. She was burning up. 103 temp! I feel so bad for her. I nursed her for about an hour and everytime she fell asleep and I tried to take my boob out of her mouth she would scream. Finally, it got to the point of no return and she didn't even want to nurse anymore. She insisted that I turn the TV on. So, I did. That only lasted for so long. Then she wanted her water, then a banana, and now and apple and Diego. So...here I am sitting on the couch watching Diego while Bri eats an apple. Ususally, this would not fly but it's so hard when they're sick. You just want them to be happy. Plus, if she cries I'm afraid she'll get all worked up and her fever will come back. I think when this Diego episode is over I'm going to take her for a ride and maybe she'll fall back alseep. Pitiful! I know! But desperate times call for desperate measures. I need to go to Walgreens anyways to get more tylenol. I know her fevers going to come back. Hopefully, we can get into the doctors tomorrow...no, this morning. I'm pretty sure it's her teeth but I just want to make sure it's not her ears or something like that. Well, I hope everyone has a great day. I know mine is going to suck!

There's a jumping bean in there!

Yay! I can finally feel my little bambino move. It's awesome. Every time I relax and put my hands on my belly the baby starts going to town. It's not strong enough to feel with my hand but if feels like a minnow is pecking at me on the inside. Ya know how fish like to peck at your feet when you stand still in the water, that's how I can best describe the feeling. I love it. I get little butterflies in my heart and I feel like I could cry. I was worried for a while because I just didn't feel as connected to this baby as I did when I was pregnant with Brianna. Well, that's changed. I defiantly feel connected to this baby and I am going to enjoy every second of this pregnancy that I can. Brianna was a big mover and groover in my belly. I felt her move at 17 weeks and it was nonstop from then on. The same is happening with this one. I am almost certain this is a girl too. I don't know why. A boy would be AWESOME but I'm pretty sure it's a lil diva in there. Philipe is really hoping for a boy. We're (hopefully) going to find out what we're having on the Dec. 10th. Mark your calendars! LOL!

Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and had much to be thankful for. Philipe was working but Bri and I enjoyed ourselves. Today, we're being bums. 

Pics from a Bday party

Today we went to a friends 6th birthday party. Brianna had a blast and I was able to get some really cute pictures. It was hard to decide which ones to post. Here's what I got:

I have no doubt Bri's going to be a great big sister.

Kisses for the baby!

Making the sound an elephant makes

LOVE that smile!

check out the cool party favors Ma!

Happy Birthday Storm! Thanks for inviting us to your party. You're such a big girl now and we're blessed to be a part of your life.

Potty news

Brianna actually walked up to her potty ( we have sitting in the living room), sat on it, and peed! She's peed on the potty before but never on her own. I usually have to watch her and wait till she cues me that she has to go. Then we try hard to her to sit and STAY on the potty long enough to pee. We read books and play legos but as soon as she starts to release some urine she stands up and freaks out. The other day she sat long enough but was rather freaked out about the whole thing. Not today. Today I was sitting on the couch and she went running up to the potty saying, "pee pee", sat down and peed. She stood up and waited for my reaction. I told her, "Wow, you must feel a lot better. You're such a big girl now. Let's go flush it and say bye-bye." If I jump up and down she freaks out but you better believe I was on the inside. After she saw how calm I was she clapped her hands a bit and that was that. About an hour later, she did it again! Damn, I'm proud!

Prego pics...

When I was pregnant with Brianna we took belly pics weekly. That's just not happening this time. I hope this baby doesn't ever feel less equal but it's just different the second time around. I will be sure to smother him or her with kisses and tell them how much I love them everyday. You can be sure of that! Any who.... Here's me at 16 weeks. I'm looking a lil gruby because I just got done working out to Denise Austin's awesome pregnancy workout video. 

This was me at 12 weeks. I totally forgot to post it. I don't really like how fuzzy it is but we used Philipe's camera for that one.

The other day I got to go see an awesome documentary, Orgasmic Birthing. I thought by the title it was going to be a little over the top for me but it wasn't at all. It was beautiful and I loved how it portrayed how giving birth can be somewhat sensual and doesn't always have to be related to such extreme pain. It was nice riding with Jen and Denise too. A little girl time is always good for the soul! You can read Denise's review here.

As for Brianna news.... She's teething horribly. She's got her 2 pointy top teeth (don't remeber what they're called) coming in and they're the worst ones yet. Usually Brianna is pretty good when it comes to teething but these have definitely been an exception. They look horrible. All white and swollen. There's a hole on the one side but the tooth is taking it's sweet little time coming through. Bless her little heart! Brianna has peed on the potty 3 times. Only once was her choice. The other 2 times she started on the floor and I put her on the potty where she finished. She hates when we make a big deal about it too. It freaks her out. So, I guess the author of that book I read on elimination communication knew what he was talking about. 

I'm feeling great. I really do love being pregnant. I can't say that enough. I felt some fluttering going on in my belly but I can't be to sure it was the baby. It's still early. I just had an appointment with my midwife on Monday. Everything was perfect. The baby's heartbeat was in the 150's. Beautiful! Sometimes it's hard to hear over Brianna's screaming but it's still music to my ears. Brianna freaks out everytime they take my blood pressure and it's all down hill from there. Luckily, Alana has 2 kids and is more than patient with us. She tries to get Bri all involved but she's just not feeling it. I was really looking forward to Brianna being home with us when the baby's born but now I'm having second thoughts. Hopefully she'll come around. We still have a while. I'm really excited that I've only gained 2.5 lbs. I think by this time with Brianna I was well over 4o lbs. I've been watching my diet but lately these sweet cravings are just unbearable. I can't resist them! Oh... and salt and vinegar chips are my downfall. They just taste so sinfully delicious. Mmmm, I can taste it now.

Heart broken...

Ugh! This house I was so excited about is falling through. The lady keeps going back and forth if she wants to sell it or not. I didn't think it was anything to worry about as we've already signed a contract. Her included! Well, today we found out she's backing out. She said she's still going to pay the realtor's that were involved, cancel the contract, and accept the possibility that we could sue her.  We've already had the house inspected and picked out all new appliances. We had such great plans for this house. I envisioned having my babies in that big Jacuzzi tub and building a family there. Philipe even said he would let me get a pig, something I've wanted as long as I can remember, for a pet. I even had a spot picked out where I was going to try and grow my own produce in the back yard. There's huge trees to hang swings from and plenty of room for kids to run and play. I'm sooooo bummed. Michelle, my very good friend who is also the realtor, is trying to keep me in good spirits. She's looking online for court cases where buyers sell for specific performance but there aren't many to be found. Usually, it is the seller suing the buyer; not the other way around. Normally, people who don't want to sell don't put their house on the market. This lady has had her house on the market for 3 years!!!!

UPDATE: We have an appointment on the 25th to have an attorney go over the contract. It just doesn't seem fair to me that she would string us this far along. These contracts are in place for a reason! I hope we're doing the right thing. Keep us in your prayers!!!

WE SIGNED A CONTRACT ON A NEW HOME

So, I didn't end up up posting pictures of Halloween yesterday. I got tired and decided to take a little snooze with Brianna....BUT... we've had our eyes on this one house. We drive by it quite often just to dream about it. The day before yesterday we put on offer on it. The next day we got word that the lady counter-offered and we accepted! We are so excited. I tried to copy the link to the house but for some reason it won't paste. It's beautiful. Huge! Big enough for our family to grow and in such a great neighborhood I don't have to be afraid to let them go outside and play. It's on almost an acre so there will be plenty of room for them to play in our yard. And, there will be a little spot for me to grow some veggies. I'm soooooo excited. The best part.... that's where this baby is going to be born (and any following). OOOOOh...I love my life!

 

I'm such a slacker about posting pictures. Here's the pics from my B-Day weekend. Of course they're all in reverse order. I can never get them in the right order! I'm going to try and post Halloween pics when Bri goes down for a nap.

This was when we were about to leave. Brianna was in a horrible mood so Philipe had to chase her everywhere. She wouldn't let us hold her.

This was one of our favorite rides....Buzz Light Year.

Here's Brianna on the train that goes around Disney, saying, "Choo-choo"

Brianna sitting in Minnie's chair on the porch

Brianna and Daddy smelling the flowers

smelling more flowers

and some more...

Raiding Minnie's fridge

waiting in line to ride Peter Pan

Brianna's favorite ride. "It's a small world"

Philipe is pouting because Brianna fell asleep before we got there and I wouldn't let him wake her up. Boo hoo!

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Sea World....

Again, these pictures are backwards. Not to many good ones of Sea Word. Brianna didn't really enjoy it half as much as Disney.

Brianna and Daddy watching Shamu

Nap time

Eating lunch. Brianna could care less about the fish all around her.