Team Lucy Loo

The March for Babies walk was great! The weather felt wonderful, we had friends and family walk with us, we met our personal goal ( though it was small), we exceeded our team goal, we had PRETTY t-shirts,  the kids had a blast, and we all got a little sun!

 

We like to play around with the new computer. These actually pop up on our heads while we're taking the pictures. She loves it.

 

 

Last year was hard, being 9 weeks pregnant, and not knowing what to expect out of the pregnancy. We were praying for a safe delivery and a healthy baby.

I still am glad I can wear sunglasses as I walk past the incubator they have sitting out by the Vandy ambulance. I can't look at that thing without tearing up. I chose not to walk into the ambulance they had sitting out last year, as did Luke.  Maybe some people are stronger. Some things I'd just not like to relive, and some things I don't want to imagine.

I will have more pictures later on. I had my camera ready. I had the battery ready. But we left the battery in the car, and I didn't want to go back and get it. My Iphone won't take any more pictures. I really need to save them all to the computer and print them, but I just haven't made time to do that yet. So I used my sister's camera. One of my former students ( whom is a freshman now) walked with us, took some phone pics, and facebook messaged them to me ;)

 

The toddler size shirts didn't come in the same color as ours, so they had baby pink. And of course, you can't read it on here ;) And I promise her little skirt looked better in person. I had planned on making a pettiskirt--a SUPER full one. Then I got scared. Then I planned on ordering one. Then I ran out of time. So I just ruffled/gathered some glitter tulle ( OH MY GOODNESS. GLITTER EVERYWHERE), then sewed it onto an old skirt she had. I folded each row over to make it fuller. You just can't really tell here.

Princesses at the walk! Yes, I also tried to give her some neon pink tights to throw in the neon pink to her outfit. Then I had to make her a bow with the baby pink, neon pink, and purple. And her new neon shoes went with it all.  Ha

Can you tell it was a long day? She stayed up until after midnight waiting on her aunt the night before ,and woke up at 7 AM on Sunday morning. This was after 4 pm on the way home from the park.

Thanks again for all of the donations towards the walk. This is something so very important to me. It feels good to know there are people who understand that and are supportive! I wish I could be one of the top walking teams raising thousands of dollars and recruiting 20+ walkers to wear our team Lucy Loo shirts. We are so thankful for this baby. We are so happy to have her with us. Maybe one year.....

 

These were the team t-shirts. The front said "And though she be but little, she is fierce", and the back had the team name and Lucy's footprints. I used some of her actual footprints from the NICU ( they are blown up of course), and loved it! The shirts matched my new sunglasses, which I will need to take with me tomorrow. To the beach. With no kids.

I'll go cry now because I'll miss my sweet little baby Ella. First time to be away from her for more than about 2 hours. oh my...

 

Our weekend

Technically, we don't have weekends in this house. Lucas has days off in the middle, beginning, or end of the week. This week , he was off on Wednesday and Friday. This worked out perfectly because I wanted to get started on our terrible, awful looking yard. It poured on Thursday, so we got a good break. The flower beds were overgrown with untrimmed bushes, trees, & weeds. The pots needed new flowers in them, and the deck needed cleaning off. We also needed ANOTHER pool guy to come check ours out. We had someone that was cleaning it out, and then during the process of filling it with water, it collapsed. So now we have to work on tearing it down =( Our AC also is finally needing to be replaced in some parts, so we had our AC guy come out one day as well. Our front flower bed has always been not so pretty or even, but with 3 bushes that had basically grown together, and a MASSIVE lantana that had turned into a massive bush itself, it seriously looks 100 times better after the work we did. If this looks 100 times better, you can imagine what it looked like!

I love new mulch! This Scott's mulch has a color guard too. I can't handle fading, ugly, old mulch either. This bush on the right was overtaken by the flower, so that is why it is quite scrawny. We also threw some gladiolus bulbs all in-between the bushes and plan to put another bush on the right to even it all out. Ignore all the paint & stain cans on the porch, oh and the rotting railing =)

The back deck! We got a new plant for one of our pots. It is a mandavino, similar to our favorite mandavilla. It grows a little wider, and not as tall. We put some yellow and white wave petunias around the base of it along with a purple and white climbing flower. Hopefully those will waterfall over the pot. We also had 3 other pots ( which I now want to paint because I'm not sure where they came from, and don't care for the bland color) that got some more gladiolus or lillies in them. They also have a wave petunias around the edges to spill over the sides. We got the toucan pillows last year along with the zebra seat cushions, so we just added two more palm and flamingo pillows

I'm not sure if they are my favorite now, but they will do! And of course the kids' bird feeders from Kids' workshop are on the deck!

We had to replace an azalea in another back bed by the house. It is an Encore and blooms 3 different ( maybe 4) seasons. We also got 2 smaller azaleas and a rhododendron for one side of the house. It is pretty bare over there.

Landon is calling for me because he wants me to nap with him.......in my bed. I might take him up on that offer since both the girls have fallen asleep!

We have a few more ideas for the spring and summer, and I'll keep updating on here as we fix it back up--including the pool!

We can't wait to grill out and swim every day that Luke is off this summer!

 

 

 

Chalk

A few people have asked on my Facebook about my chalkboard that I use. This is the original item I bought for about $11 , I think.

We took it apart, thoroughly cleaned it, and used chalkboard spray paint for the mirror. You can use actual paint, and it will be much thicker. I do not think there is as much up-keep with regular paint, as I've had to re-spray it a few times. It doesn't bother me. It's about time to do it again if you've seen my latest pictures.

I bought white and the Rust-oleum Aqua color . I wasn't sure what I wanted. But we ended up using the aqua , and let a little white show through in spots.

It's finished being painted! 

Put back together and hanging on the wall. Ready for the big reveal!

I painted the chalkboard section again the next day. This was just a spur of the moment--I'm like 17 weeks pregnant & need to start telling people & don't want my baby to someday feel unwanted & I need to make this pregnancy positive --  last minute craft! =) I searched online for chalkboard tutorials & found this tutorial!

Its first debut!

And now, a quick little shot of the pregnancy (and belly) all at once ;)

4 months

It took me so long to post Ella's 3 month pictures because my computer crashed, that she is already 4 months old like one post later. Here is her monthly shot:

I couldn't get down for her to look at me because I was afraid she was going to nose-dive into the corner of the mirror! She isn't the best at holding her head right now. She is trying, and she is working hard on it! She does have a neck under there. Luke wasn't home, so I had to position myself to catch her just in case. She was looking at Landon and laughing =) So cute!

After we took her back to the doctor on Monday--because the on call doctor seemed a little concerned that she was still vomiting -- he got her some medicine to calm down her stomach, and we haven't had any throw up since Monday morning!

 She is just now getting her appetite back. She was weighing in at 11 pounds and 6 ounces about 3 weeks ago, and after being sick she is down to 11 pounds 3 ounces. I'm sure she lost well over a pound.
But you know how toddlers and kids get over a stomach bug and seem to want to eat EVERYTHING IN SIGHT at that very moment. They gain their weight back quickly. Well sweet little girl has decided she is going to SCREAM her head off and cry and yell as if the world is ending today. I think she is hungry finally. It's been a long day, that's for sure! We have a few of those individual packets of 4 ounce formula that I've used. I pumped quite a bit while she was sick because she had several days that she was only drinking pedialite ( I think she got hooked on the taste and really wants some!). But that is all frozen and waiting for a day when Mommy gets to go on vacation. Yep, I'm calling in sick, I'm taking a mental health day, I'm using my yearly vacation days, and I'm using my personal days all at once.( Yes, this really only adds up to like 3 days??!?) And I WILL NOT feel bad about it. Hopefully. I didn't leave Landon until after he turned 1 & Luke was with me. I didn't leave Lucy ( besides the hospital) until about 15 months & Luke was with me then too. This doesn't mean that I don't trust Luke over others to watch our kids. He just hasn't been alone with all 3 of them for more than 2 - 3 hours. I don't think he's gotten them all ready to be somewhere. I've mastered the single mom getting 3 kids fed and to church by 9 AM thing. But we have a totally different understanding of time frames , and how long things take. And like he says, I do this EVERY DAY.
I'm sure he will be alright! But I'm trying to send him off to the country where there might be 3 other adults to help =)

 

I need some help! I haven't even attempted to run since last year's half marathon.

Getting it done ( SLOWLY , look at the people around me) @ 2 months pregnant.

 

Half marathon #3.

I do not like running at all. I  always resort to it because it gets me back into my pre-baby weight and size. I also know if I pay a stupid amount of money to RUN, then I have to train and actually do it. But I ventured onto a treadmill  one day this week. And it only lasted .73 miles. I wasn't tired or hurting at all. But I forgot that I need like 3 sports bras to run after having babies-- especially while nursing! I need a good new running-worthy sports bra!
If I can't get some help , then I'm packing the car up to Atlanta and stopping in at LIVI RAE'S.
Have you seen the show Double Diva's? Honestly, I probably wouldn't have heard of it if I wasn't obsessed with Dance Moms. It comes on right after that. Search for it on Lifetime and DVR  a few. It's funny. Love it!
I'm not wanting to spend a bunch of money on one unless I know it is good. And my Target ones just won't cut it anymore. Apparently, Luke was going to get me a good one for my Easter basket( I must have mentioned it a few times, seriously not realizing it), but he said he went to Academy Sports and had NO CLUE about what to get.
So, leave me a comment. Help me out!

UPDATE: I got several facebook messages and comments. I received this info:
Moving Comfort is the #1 selling sports bra for running. The jubralee and Juno are our top sellers at the store.

Free photo books

I'm so particular about printing pictures. I am ALMOST all the way caught up to date on them! YAY! I usually wait until Shutterfly, York Photo, or Snapfish has a coupon code, and I usually only pay for shipping. Luke got me a few albums for Christmas, and I have 3 coupons right now for free books. 1 came with our new computer, 1 was printed at Target after a purchase, and another was in an email. One coupon code expired tonight and another expires tomorrow! So, I've been busy busy busy on 2 of them. Of course, our Internet was on and off today. We never figured out why,even after several phone calls and several hours trying to figure it out. Crazy me made and ordered one that doesn't expire for months, so I might be hard at work tomorrow too before it expires! I Figure $7.99 for shipping is way cheaper than printing individual pictures and an album to put them in. Once I get all 3 books, and print enough to fill my new albums, I should be completely up to date on photos! Check out one that I did today =)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

We finally have a computer again !And it's new. And it's big. I'm sitting down & typing on a keyboard, like really fast! I seriously dislike the Ipad and my Iphone to type. My poor laptop's hard drive evidently just fried. The Geek Squad could move NO files to a new computer. No edited pictures. No picture collages. No videos. No letters that were saved and sent the old fashioned way. No files AT ALL. =( If that's the worst thing that happened this week, we would be A OK!

Unfortunately, we've had the stomach bug again. Really. And this time it started with this sweet baby.

Oh my goodness. If you've never had  a 3 month old vomit on you, you are NOT missing out on anything fun. I actually think it started in Lucy's gross diapers, but Miss Ella was the first one to vomit. It was so bad. It lasted about 6 hours, and the last 5 hours were all dry heaving. So sad. Then Landon joined in until about 4 am. He complained to me the next morning that he hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. He just sort of forgot that I was the one waking him up as soon as he moaned, and moved his heavy little 4 year old body over his bowl, and held his head up, then laid him back down every hour on the hours. Love. Then of course Mommy got sick the next day, and a massive headache followed. Daddy and Lucy never threw up. But now it is Sunday night, and our poor Ella has not been herself today. She has slept almost all day, and not eaten very well. And then around 4 she decided to lose all her stomach contents all over her eye, forehead, hair, blankets, you get the picture =(  She did had a rather large spit up yesterday that we had to clean up, and we weren't sure what it was in the  middle of the night that drenched her. So I made a call to the after hours doctor, and I had a good, long chat with him about what to do today, tonight, and he wants us to for sure come in tomorrow.

Oh my sweet girl. Say a prayer it isn't anything un-fixable! I thought she was just worn out from being sick all week and wanted to snuggle Saturday and Sunday.

 

Thinking back and after talking to a doctor, we should have taken her in today. Now Luke and I feel bad. We just continued to watch her tonight ( while her few waking periods) to make sure she was recognizing us, and to make sure she didn't have a fever.

 

 

 

Now that we've got this sweet new HP all in 1 computer, I'll have to post some fun stuff tomorrow night. I still haven't gotten around to post my not so fun hospital experience yet! It's a busy week starting today with Palm Sunday. We have all of the Holy Week services, Landon's baseball practices, MARCH MADNESS, egg hunts, and family time on Easter.

 

Have a great week and GO CARDS!

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Don't forget to donate to our March for Babies fund! If you live in Nashville, WE WANT YOU to come join our team and walk with us! I'm placing an order for our team shirt next week! If you want a shirt, let me know! They will be $9 each. If you live out of town and still want to buy a cute shirt in honor of our sweet Lucy Loo =) , let me know! I've already got one to send to KY and one to send to FL.

Click to donate or join!

Our team is almost 1/2 to our goal!

 

 

Ella Ruth Howell

This was Thanksgiving. I went to the hospital the next day for tests, and they kept me until delivery on Sunday. Lucy makes us smile. I love my pregnant bellies ( OBVIOUSLY, or I wouldn't obsess over capturing it in so many pictures). I still can't comprehend how a human being was growing inside of me. Simply amazing!

Kangarooing with my Ella in recovery. Love those warm baby snuggles!



3 months old. :( Growing up so quickly. Love her!



Luke & his grandma Ruth & our sweet Ella Ruth last weekend in Memphis.