First Day of School, 2011!

Even though this summer has been eventful and fun, we've been ready to get into a routine. Well, at least I've been ready. The girls were excited about the first day of school, but they really didn't dig the idea of waking up at 6:30am versus their usual 10:30ish wake up time. It will be a long, exhausting week, but we will persevere.  Makenzi started Kindergarten, which is really weird and extremely sad that I now have two school girls.  I remember dropping a ten month old Mak off at daycare when we were in Amarillo and her looking at me like "I got this Mom...quit CRYING." She gave me the same look Monday morning when it hit me that she was no longer my daycare baby.  If it was up to her, she wouldn't have had an escort in to the building for her big first day, but that wasn't going to happen.  Donnie still walked Sydni into school up until the last month of 1st grade.  She's going to have an escort for awhile, I fear.

It was an old hat for Sydni, and she was super-excited that she was put into a classroom with all of her best buds. She chatted a mile a minute with her long-lost friends, and didn't seem to notice when I slipped off to head to work.  Donnie took over picture duties and helped them settle in to their rooms and lockers.  At the end of the day, I was VERY eager to hear how their day went.  Sydni told me story after story about her day, and gave me an animated account of particular cafeteria conversations she had with friends, and the "AWESOME" book Mrs. Bigham read to her.  I went to the back room to interrogate Makenzi, expecting to hear her retell her day with the same enthusiasm.  Here is how our interview went down:

Me: "Makki! How was your first day of Kindergarten!" (Picture me with a ridiculous grin on my face.)
Makenzi: (Not looking away from the Disney show playing on the TV.) "FINE."

The rest of our question and answer session continued with much the same pattern...one word, annoyed answers.  Sheesh.  This is exactly why I email updates to my 8th (now 7th) grade parents.  However, I didn't know that my Kindergartner would start acting like a junior high kid so soon! Little turd. 
Here is the morning session of first day pics:

Makenzi - Kindergarten, Sydni - 2nd Grade, Me - 10th year of teaching

Daddy and his chicks!

My little girl is now a big Kindergartener!

Very excited, but still hate waking up early.

A locker shot - that little door is a BIG deal!

Sydni and Mrs. Bigham - we were so lucky to get her as a teacher.

She was a little peeved she didn't have a "real" locker like Sydni, but she quickly recovered.

Mak at her desk.

Mrs. Rich and Makenzi - Syd had her for Kindergarten and ADORED her. We are stoked we could have her for Makki, too!

Acting all shy, but she was really PUMPED about the first day.

Bump Watch - 3 and 1/2 months

I'm growing by leaps and bounds, people!!!I feel a bit guilty, but I completely quit running two weeks ago.  Since that time, I've "blossomed" (that's what one of my co-workers told me...I thought it was a very polite way of putting my recent growth spurt).  I'm walking thirty minutes and doing light weights instead, but waking up this week has been tough. I skip more workouts than I complete, because waking up early this week has kicked my butt. Excuses, excuses...I got em!

I'm pretty sure I know the drill the third time around when it comes to the weight gain, but it's still hard not to freak. I've been avoiding the scale and plan on telling my doctor's nurse to keep it to herself after she weighs me. (At last count, I'm + 3 - 6lbs, depending on what kind of mood my unreliable scale is in). Syd and Mak were on the big side (8lbs and 1oz for Sydni, and 7lbs, 9oz for Makenzi), so I know this baby will probably be in that range, if not bigger.  At 13 weeks, I KNOW I'm bigger than I was with the other two in the belly department, though.  My five month picture with Sydni was about as big as I am now! Craziness. Here's to letting it all hang out!

My bump is as hard as a rock! (My butt is a different story.)

I'm not one for showing belly, but Donnie MADE me show it.  Since it's free of weird veins and stretch marks at this point, I agreed. Enjoy. This is probably the last naked bump you're gonna get. :)

Toothless Jo!

Losing a tooth is a BIG DEAL to the 5-7 year old age bracket.  Makenzi has been green with envy that Sydni has had not one, not two but now THREE visits from the dadgum tooth fairy!  She's had a loose tooth for nearly a month (that she wouldn't let me touch) that FINALLY came out yesterday. She told me it was hurting and reluctantly let me have a peek.  Her new tooth was basically wearing the baby tooth like a top hat...it was literally hanging on to her gums by a string!  I took a cue from my Mamaw (who was the queen of pulling teeth) and plucked that little nub out of her mouth before she knew what hit her.  Mary K. Diggs would've been proud! Makki was too excited to be pissed at me for too long, and soon realized that this brief bout of pain would result in cash under her pillow.  The tooth fairy didn't have change last night (I'm guessing), because this morning she was uber-pumped to find TEN DOLLARS under her pillow. TEN DOLLARS. The tooth fairy is a softy who spoils these girls ROTTEN. I hear the tooth fairy's theory is that "You only lose your first tooth once."***insert eye roll here.***  :)

You can see the top of the new tooth! It's the bloody spot on the left side of the bottom middle. I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was already poking through her gum!

I'm not sure why she is making this dorky face, but she's PuMpEd about  this event!

She grinds her teeth like Donnie does, so the tooth was nothing more than a little nub. Very SAD looking...see it at the very bottom of the baggie? Gross. :)

12 Week Sonogram

We had a 12 week sonogram this week for the fetal nuchal fold screening test. This is a new wave of testing I didn't have to have with the girls, so here is a definition from Web MD. (I had to look it up for my own understanding!):

"A combination of screening tests usingultrasound may be done in the first trimester to look for Down syndrome. The integrated testuses an ultrasound measurement of the thickness of the skin at the back of the baby's neck (nuchal translucency) and the bloodlevels of free beta-HCG and a protein called pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A) to check for problems"

We should have the results back in a few weeks, but little Nugget's measurements were "healthy and normal" according to the sonographer. Donnie and I had lots of fun watching the little turkey wiggle around, bounce and rub his/her face with it's sweet little hands. We report back in four weeks for a follow-up sonogram, and we should be able to tell the sex of the baby at that time. What's your guess? Boy? Girl? I honestly have NO CLUE. I think God will bless us with another little girl, just because he needs Donnie to stress about three hot chicks **er...make that four, counting their hot momma** living under his roof in about ten years. Serves him right! :) We shall see in four weeks!

Makki was relieved that Nugget no longer resembled a blob.

Sweet little profile and belly pic!

Donnie's LONG legs! I thought it looked like a little frog bouncing around!

What Girls Do On a Lazy Sunday Afternoon...

We fix our hair!
The girls might like to play in the dirt, but they LOVE anything having to do with gettin' pretty. It all started with this video:

This is Lauren Conrad (from MTV's The Hills), and it's from the website http://thebeautydepartment.com/2011/04/the-every-day-wave/. The Beauty Department site is full of really fun stuff. From tips to tutorials, we have so many looks we want to attempt! (Mak thinks she needs to try this LOOK, but I don't think that would fly with Daddy OR Frenship ISD. :) Anyhoo, after watching the tutorial, Syd was convinced we could do the same to our hair. Here are our results...

This actually was pretty easy. If only the curl would STAY in her stick-straight hair!

Soft waves make her look too old, in my opinion! I miss the pigtails and matching bows. :)

And if one does it, you know the other is soon to follow. Makenzi has a fabulous head of hair. Hers took much longer than Sydni's to curl, but VERY pretty!

Cutie-Pie!

Rockin' the waves. We have fun playing "Beauty Salon" on our lazy Sunday afternoons!

While we were having fun playing with our hair and putting on some makeup, Donnie was doing this:

The poor guy needs a little buddy to play with, but the girls and I would be happy add another sweet girly-girl to our beauty shop afternoons!

Artwork by Syd and Mak

Forget coloring books...these two artists are entertained with paper and pencil! I've been trying to save and document their artwork throughout the years, and this week they churned out some pretty cute stuff.

MAKENZI - "Mommy in her wedding dress." My friends on Facebook said this one was very Tim Burton-esque.

MAKENZI - "Daddy bringing me a flower."  She loves her Daddy...big hands and all!

SYDNI - She drew a picture for the baby (it's nickname is "Nugget").  Can you tell they are VERY excited for him/her to get here?

SYDNI - Tooth fairies - check out their lace-up shoes.

SYDNI - "Mommy teaching her class." Very Picasso-esque, I must say!

SYDNI - and this piece is the crowning jewel of our collection! This pic is further proof that 7 YEAR OLDS ARE WEIRDOS. Here is the translation for those of you who can't read a 2nd grader's penmanship - "Rapunzel - to Mom and Dad. I love you very much. Love, Syd. P.S. Dad, when you poop, turn on the fresh air." Donnie and I have NO CLUE what Rapunzel and his bathroom manners have in common, but we couldn't stop laughing when she gave this to him the other day. :)

Cheap Skin Care Regime

Full-body exfoliation services at your local spa are not cheap.  The Hart girls have a solution for you bargain shoppers that want beautiful skin!  Journey to the luxurious tropical sands of Sandy Beach at Buffalo Springs Lake outside of Lubbock, TX, and follow these simple steps:

Rub that fragrant sand all over your body. Don't forget your belly button!

Grin like an idiot, rinse, and repeat! Your skin will be as smooth as a baby's bottom!

White Deer Rodeo Parade

Most of you know that I'm from a teeny, tiny town in the Texas panhandle called "White Deer", population 1800ish.  Most of my family still resides in or around White Deer, so we love going "up north" for a visit. There is one weekend during the summer when White Deer's population seems to double - that would be during the big time that is known as RODEO WEEKEND.  Friday and Saturday night is the traditional rodeo, followed by an outdoor dance both nights.  The town also hosts a parade Saturday morning, and an event they call "Kick Back Day" in the city park that lasts most of the morning and afternoon. It might sound hokey, but Kick Back Day literally is a time when you gather in the park, kick back in your lawn chair, and watch your children run around the park like wild banshees. The girls LOVE this weekend filled with cousins, candy, and tons of crap to buy at Kick Back Day.  I only took pictures of the parade, so I guess I was having too much fun to document any of the other things we did.

Pregnancy is WEIRD

This may be my third ride on the pregnancy train, but that doesn't mean I'm used to the weird crap that happens to your body. Some might call it a "miracle", but those people probably - A.) have never been pregnant, B.) have a penis.  Now don't get me wrong, I am one of those odd ducks who enjoys being pregnant (I use the term "enjoy" loosely here), but I'm just being honest when I say that I'm a walking freak show these days.  Here's my top ten list of FREAKY WEIRD THINGS (so far) about the Little Nugget's incubation.

1. BOOBS - They are huge and they hurt. I won't go into too much detail about what they look like at this point, but they are angry and scary.

(No picture for this one...btw, never Google "scary boobs".)

2. BELLY - I'm only 11 weeks, but it already feels like I'm laying on a grapefruit if I attempt to sleep on my stomach. (I'm a stomach sleeper and I've totally forgotten how having to re-learn a comfortable sleeping position sucks.) The belly on the third baby also pokes out there MUCH sooner than with the other two.

Great for breakfast, but not for sleeping on.

3. BATHROOM - I'm a few weeks away from a reprieve, but I go to the bathroom at least every twenty minutes. At night, at least two or three times, and it's REALLY hard not to wake up Donnie...especially when  his ass leaves the toilet seat up and I end up hip-deep in toilet water at 3am. Lovely.

4. BOOZE - I can't drink. That's weird. Cooking a meal isn't as fun now that I can't drink a glass of wine. However, my dinners have been turning out GREAT. Wonder if there's a correlation?

5. SKIN - My prego-glow is enhanced with an abundant secretion of oil, which also results in huge zits.

WORD.

6. SLEEP - I sleep like the dead...of course, except when I have to pee. I wake right up for that. I could go to bed at 8pm every night, but I try not to leave Donnie in charge of the girls every evening. (They tend to go to sleep in what they had on that day, and I'm pretty sure they fool their Daddy when it comes teeth-brushing time. I've caught Mak turning on the water and "pretending" like she's brushing. Little turd.) Veteran parents know that the putting-to-bed song and dance sucks. Most nights I force myself to stay up and help out.  I could solve this problem and make the girls go to bed at a decent hour, but that defeats the whole purpose of having the summer off (and mother who will sleep-in with you).

I put this picture, because an actual pic of me sleeping might scare you.

7. NOSE - My nose is pregnant, too. Did you know that could happen? Well, my nose grows bigger each month, and by the time I reach month 9, it's crowning. Good times.  I also snore like a lumberjack when I'm pregnant. Donnie loves this part of pregnancy. He can kick the shit out of me (re-read #6) and I still don't wake up....unless I need to pee.

This is a picture of a squid, however it is as close as I can get to an accurate image of my ginormous nose.

8. BUTT - I must have more in common with gorillas than I'd like to admit because I develop a "gorilla butt" with each pregnancy. It's not that my prego but is super-fat, but something about (most) pregnant butts pays homage to our brothers on the evolution chart. The butt develops this weird, shelf-like appendage, that's more than a "bubble butt". I guess if we had to resort back to cave man days, we would have a nice platform to sling our young onto and run through the jungle.

This is what I have to look forward to...

9. SWEAT - I'm always HOT and seem to perspire while sitting under the a/c that's on full blast. I'm like a walking oven, and even though the internal temp at 11 weeks is nothing compared to what it will be in month 8, I'm still putting deodorant on like it's going out of style.

Pit Stains are not cute.

10. FOOD - I'm nauseous with this baby, and I'm not complaining...much. At least I haven't been puking my guts up like some people have to endure, but it really annoys me that I can only eat starchy foods. Vegetables (which I typically LOVE) make me literally want to gag. I hope this trend ends soon, or the picture under #8 won't be that far-fetched. My weirdest craving to date:

Gross pre-pregnancy, but now a gourmet treat.