Saturday, December 21, 2013

happy birthday jesus

Last week I was in charge of Pearson's Happy Birthday Jesus Party at preschool.  Planning a party for 2.5 yr olds is not all that easy.  You want to do really cute fun stuff but they just don't really care about much!!  I tried to make sure everything we did was stuff that Pearson would like to do or eat and it was a complete success.  I think all the kids had a great time!!
We started the party off with a little craft.  I ordered these nativity scenes from Oriental Trading.  They were definitely a hit.  Two year olds love stickers.  
Here is Pearson's creation of the Nativity scene.

After our craft we had our snack which is always the kids favorite.  It was a silent room while the kids were eating. 
I had another Mom bring cupcakes and juice boxes, then I provided sprinkles for the kids to decorate the cupcakes.  I also made these cute little "Baby Jesus in a Manger" snacks.  It's just a brown muffin tin for the manger, shoestring potatoes for the hay and a pig in a blanket.  I'm not sure the kids really got it but all the Moms and teachers thought they were really cute!!  And most importantly almost all the kids ate it.  Is it weird that we ate Baby Jesus at our Happy Birthday Jesus Party?

Cupcakes sure do make kids happy!!

Our last little activity of the afternoon was opening up a present.  I had intended on playing music and letting the kids pass the presents around until the music stopped, but we were running out of time and some kids were still eating.  I ended up just letting each kid open up a present and they all thought it was the best! I got Dollar Tree Christmas coloring books for each of them.  
I just love Pearson's little class.  He talks about his friends all the time.  His best little buddy, Logan,  or Yo-gan as he says, is the little boy on the right. 
 I tried to get a group shot of his little class, but trying to get a picture with eight active 2.5 year old is not that easy! This was the best I got!! They were singing a Christmas song they had learned for all the parents. 

Thursday, December 19, 2013

christmas yights

One thing we have heard a million times this Christmas season is.....
"Hey, Yook at dose Christmas yights ober dare"
Translation: Hey, Look at those Christmas lights over there.

Anytime Pearson sees Christmas lights he quickly lets us know.   I knew we would have a blast this year continuing our tradition to look at Christmas lights in our PJ's together as a family.
Last year we just cruised around in our town since we didn't really know how much Pearson would like it.  This year we decided to go to Deerfield to look at lights.
It was awesome.  I liked looking at lights there better than Highland Park.  Sooooooo many houses were decorated.  We went on a weeknight before school had let out so it wasn't crowded at all.  I heard from friends that the weekend after school let out until Christmas that is was a nightmare.  Lots of traffic and moving very slow.  We'll definitely go back next year and we'll be sure to go on a weeknight before school lets out again to avoid the chaos!!

Here's a little video of Pearson enjoying the lights......
If you plan on going to look at lights at Deerfield, I highly suggest reading this post.  It's full of lots of great info!!

Monday, December 16, 2013

meal planning monday

Monday: Lasagna, Garlic Toast, & Green Beans

Tuesday: Dinner w/ The Havard's

Wednesday: Chick-fil-A

Thursday: Beef Stew

Friday: Goulash, Fried Squash, & Cornbread

Saturday Breakfast: Pumpkin Bread

Saturday Lunch: Chicken Pot Pie

Saturday Dinner: Cranberry Chicken, Salad, & Sweet Potatoes

Sunday Lunch: BBQ Pork Sliders, Chips & Fruit

Sunday Dinner: Pizza

pearson {30 months}

Oh my goodness, I can't believe I have a 2.5 year old.  This month has been so fun.  You are talking so much.  I am constantly amazed at how quickly you pick up new words and how you form full sentences.  You are so curious and want to know what everything is.  This month has been especially fun celebrating the Christmas season.  You love anything Christmas!!  We love you sweet boy!!
  • You have started giving us hugs and kisses at night again.  And not just a little kiss on the cheek. You have to give us a kiss on the lips and a big bear hug.  I love it!!
  • Your prayers are night melt my heart.  You used to just repeat after what we said but now I just say "Thank you for......" and you say something.  Most nights you always say, Mommy, Daddy and Pearson and then all the other things vary.  Some cute things you have said are all the walls, my shirts, the fan, Mickey & Goofy, the windows, the dark outside, my new Christmas books.  If you can't think of anything to say you look around the room and say whatever you see.  It's so precious. 
  • We have entered the world of "Wus Dat" (What's that?). You literally ask "What's that?" 100 times a day.  You even ask when you know what it is.  You are a very curious boy.
  • You love Christmas songs.  You can sing along with so many songs.  (Feliz Navidad, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and Rudolph are some of your favorites.)
  • You love to look at Christmas lights.  Everytime we are in the car at night you say "Yook at dose Christmas Yights Ober Dare" (Look at those Christmas lights over there.)
  • You are very picky with your clothes and shows now. I will pick something out and then you will say, "How bout truck shirt" or "How bout grey shoes".  Most the time I win the battle but sometimes I let you just pick what you want to wear!!
  • At night we started wrapping you up in your blanket and we call it a "Blankie Taco".  The next night we asked him if he wanted us to make him into a Blankie Taco.  He said "How bout Quesadilla"
  • We got to see my cousins from Tennessee alot over Thanksgiving Break.  He is obsessed with the girls, especially Kennedy.  One night when we said our prayers he said Thank You for Kennedy 5 times!!
  • You love Cheese Sticks. 
  • You talk about your friends at school and your teachers all the time.  
  • You have started to snuggle with us on the couch.  You tell us "Come Snuggle".  It's so sweet. 
  • You still don't fully understand that you are going to be a big brother soon.  You talk about Baby Nash alot but don't really notice my ever growing belly or realize that an actual baby will be living with us soon. 
  • You remind me every morning that we need to take your vitamin. 
  • When you play with your Nativity set the 3 Kings always give Baby Jesus a gift.  I love that you are already grasping the true meaning of Christmas.  You also love to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.
  • You play independently really well.  
  • Cute words you say
    • Jeams (jeans)
    • Pee-No (Piano)
    • Quesa-Ditta (Quesadilla)
    • Cu-WuWu (Computer)
    • Jo-Fuff (Joseph)
    • Tire Shirt (shirt with a tie)

Sunday, December 15, 2013

baby no. 2 {30 weeks}


how far along? 30 weeks
how are you measuring? measuring about a week ahead
size of baby? size of a cucumber
heartbeat? 145bpm (at our 28 week appointment) 
total weight gain/loss? 22.4 lbs  It's definitely more than I would like but I'm still a few pounds behind where I was with Pearson so I guess I can't complain. 
maternity clothes? Yep.  Over the belly maternity pants are my favorite!
stretch marks? No stretch marks and no dark line.  My belly button looks so funky though.  It's kind of popped out on the top but not the bottom.  
sleep? My sciatic nerve has been bothering me again this week which makes sleeping uncomfortable.  It hurts to move from side to side or to get up to go to the bathroom.  
best moment this week? Finishing my Christmas shopping!! 
movement? He's a mover and a groover.  His head always seems to be really low on the left side with his legs always kicking me high on the right side. 
food cravings? Chick-fil-A Tortilla Soup
gender predictions? BOY!!!! Nash Matthew Link
what i miss? Having energy in the evening.  After dinner I pretty much veg out on the couch because I'm just too pooped to do anything else.  There's so much to be done this month and I just don't have the energy to do it.  
what i'm looking forward to? Lots of family time this week.  We were busy every evening this past week and this week we don't have much going on.   I'm just excited to have lots of time at home this week with my boys.
how are you feeling? My sciatic nerve is my biggest complaint this week.  Overall I really can't complain about my pregnancy being difficult.  I know most of my complaints are nothing compared to what some go through.  
comparisons to last pregnancy? My hair is already falling out like crazy.  I don't remember it falling out until after Pearson was born.  


Here I am 30 weeks with Pearson and 30 weeks with Nash.

Friday, December 13, 2013

ice ice baby(moon)

For months Matt and I had our baby moon planned for 2nd weekend in December. As the weekend drew closer we realized that the weather might put a kink in our plans. We had originally planned on dropping Pearson off with Matt's parents Thursday night and leaving Friday after lunch, but when the freezing rain was supposed to start Thursday night we knew we needed to change our plans. Thankfully my parents are close by and were able to take Pearson to Matt's parents so we could leave late afternoon on Thursday instead.   Our hotel reservations were for Friday and Saturday so we still needed a place to stay Thursday night. Our sweet friends, The Hoopers, graciously opened up their home to us!!

Five Stars for Hotel Hooper!!

I'm so thankful for this little guy growing in my belly who gave us a reason to take a 2nd Babymoon!
Friday morning we started off with a delicious breakfast at The Guenther House.  Jonathan and Tammy recommended it to us and it was sooooooo delicious.  Matt had a banana waffle that was to die for and I had the best biscuits and gravy ever!!  
Our check-in time for the hotel wasn't until 4pm, but we decided to go ahead and head to the hotel to park our car and drop off our stuff so we could walk around the river walk.  Much to our surprise, our room was ready at 11am so we went ahead and checked in.
Our hotel room was so nice and we had a great view of the river walk from our bedroom! The whole reason for our trip to San Antonio was because I won two free nights at The Hotel Contessa at one of our Dallas Moms Blog Quarterly Meeting.  Ya can't beat staying at a swanky hotel for free!!
After we got settled into our hotel we walked around the Riverwalk.  It was really cold (for San Antonio) but we definitely didn't complain because we knew it was better than being cooped up in our house from the ice storm that hit Dallas the night before. 
My parents recommended that we go see a movie while we were there because the theater on the Riverwalk had the recliner seats and was really cheap.  We rarely go to the movies while we are home so it was a nice treat to get to go to the movies.  We saw Catching Fire!!
Our tickets were only $5.75 and we had an gift card with $8.25 on it so it only cost us $3.25 to go the movies.  The recliners were so nice for the pregnant Mama!!
Since we didn't have lunch and we couldn't get a reservation at our favorite restaurant in San Antonio we decided to head back to the hotel and clean up then eat "Grandma & Grandpa Style" at 4:45.  We walked right in.  Boudro's is a little pricey, but worth every penny.  We figured since we weren't paying for our room we could splurge on a really nice meal.  Plus while we were eating we realized it was our 6th anniversary of our first date!!
ACHIOTE SPICED DOUBLE RIB LAMB CHOPS 
Ragu of hot and sweet peppers, cheesy grits and pomegranate demi glace 

 GULF SHELLFISH PLATTER
Seared bay scallop with chimichurri, blue crab seacake and grilled shrimp with beurre blanc, lobster tail baked with cognac and jack cheese, fried oysters remoulade, Louisiana crawfish pot pie served with jalapeno corn pudding on a bed of Southern braised greens 
 After dinner we hung out in the beautiful lobby of our hotel for their happy hour.
 
I tried so hard to be a good wife and stay up and hang out with Matt, but I crashed about 8:30 after drinking a chamomile tea. (Which apparently nobody told me you weren't supposed to drink while you are pregnant, but that's a whole other story) Matt was a happy camper though because there was a Baylor basketball game on TV at 9pm so he happily watched the game while I went to bed early. 

Saturday morning we slept in and then walked to Shipley's donuts for breakfast.  We had plans to eat a big lunch so we didn't want to eat much for breakfast.  
Have you notice a theme to our trip? We pretty much ate our way through San Antonio!
Our lunch stop was at a place called Tip Top. It's a diner that my parent's recommended to us.  It was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives a while back.  
 We split the biggest chicken fried steak I have ever seen in my life, a huge order of onion rings and a lemon merengue pie with merengue that was about 4 inches tall.  It was all soooooooo delicious (except the mashed potatoes.....they tasted like instant).  We ate every bite of our steak and pie, but we could only eat about half of our onion rings.  We were so stuffed.  I'm so glad my Dad told us to share the chicken fried steak.  
After lunch we headed back over to The Hoopers house to watch the Baylor football game with them.   Since it was the last Baylor game of the season and the last game played at Floyd Casey Stadium, I knew Matt wouldn't want to miss it.  When the game was over, Jonathan and Tammy showed us around town and took us to one of their favorite Mexican Food Restaurants and yogurt places. 
It was so great to get to spend part of our Babymoon with our sweet friends that we hadn't seen in quite a while.
And since Jonathan thought it would be cool to be sneaky and take a selfie on my camera, he gets his face plastered on my blog!!!
Sunday morning we slept in again then slowly got ourselves checked out of the hotel to make our way back to Dallas.  Before we left we had to pay our $32 bill!! Yup, it just cost us $32.48 for our two night stay!!  Technically it should have been more but they forgot to charge us for one of our nights of valet parking.  
While the price of our stay at the hotel was nice, the best part of the trip was who I got to spend it with. It was so nice to get away with the hubby for a kid-free weekend before our next little man joins the family.  

**The funny thing about this whole trip was that this was the 2nd time that we escaped an ice storm in Dallas while on a Babymoon.  When we took our Babymoon before Pearson was here we missed the terrible ice storm that came to Dallas before the Super Bowl.  While everyone back home missed 4  days of school, we were cruising around the Carribean.  We have some kind of luck planning our Babymoons to escape bad weather!!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

purpose christmas party

Last night we had our annual ABF Christmas party.  The Goodings hosted it at their home and had a delicious dinner from Maggiano's catered in.  We normally do a white elephant gift exchange but because we were on a time crunch with church childcare we decided to just do a can food drive instead. 
{the gals}
 {the guys}
 While we were finishing our dinner and eating dessert, we had a cute little surprise at the door.  Some little kids in a Homeschool Group were Christmas caroling around the neighborhood and came in and sang us some Christmas songs.  It was the perfect ending to a fun Christmas party!!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

let's face it....teachers want gift cards


There are an abundance of adorable homemade teacher gift on Pinterest, lots of token things you can give your teachers for Christmas, but as a former teacher, I know what teachers really want........gift cards.  It's sounds a little selfish, but it's true!!  You can only have so much decor for your classroom, chocolates, mugs or candles.  I gave Pearson's teacher's what I know I would have loved as a teacher.  I tried to be a little creative and give them their giftcards in a cute way though.  Here's what I found on Pinterest.  

For his spanish teachers, music teachers and the director of the school, we gave them a $5 Starbucks giftcard.  I have seen this printable on Pinterest a million times but the original one from eighteen25, was green and teal and not very Christmas-y. I decided to put it into photoshop and chang all the teal to red to make it a little more festive for Christmas.  
Here is the updated version if you are still in need of a Christmas Gift for a teacher or co-worker. 
For his two classroom teachers,  I got them some foot scrub from Bath & Body Works and a gift certificate to get a pedicure.  I found this cute little printable here.  
I think all of his teachers loved their gifts and I loved how easy it was getting them all together!!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

10 on 10 {december 2013}

Whew, I almost forgot that today was the 10th!!

This morning while before we got out of the car I tried to take Pearson's picture and he told me "Put phone up, Mommy!"
All the ice is finally starting to melt.  It was so pretty this morning driving Pearson to school.  It looked like fields of glass. 
I spent the morning prepping for Pearson "Happy Birthday Jesus" Party at school today.  I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to planning his parties.  Nothing like the morning of!!
This was the cute little snack I made for the kids.  Baby Jesus in a manger made with a muffin liner, shoestring potatoes and a pig in a blanket. 
 Mmmmm....have you had Chick-fil-A's Tortilla Soup.  It is soooooo yummy, especially on a cold day like today. 
 Party Time!!!
 I signed up to take dinner to a friend tonight but I didn't quite have my act together so they got take out!!  
 After dinner we took a family trip to Toys R Us to figure out what wanted to get Pearson for Christmas.  We took advantage of the fact there was Expectant Mom parking because of the Babies R Us!!
I finally got around to taking my 29 week photo tonight and Pearson wanted to get in on the action.  He said "Take my picture. Pearson's turn!"
I'm loving watching Pearson experience Christmas this year.  It's all so much fun to him.  He loves to look at the Christmas tree.  I'm thrilled that he loves to just look at it and hasn't taken a thing off of it yet!!
That's all folks.  Happy 10th!

baby no. 2 {29 weeks}


how far along? 29 weeks
how are you measuring? measuring about a week ahead
size of baby? size of an acorn squash
heartbeat? 145bpm (at our 28 week appointment) 
total weight gain/loss? So I totally haven't weighed since Thanksgiving.  I really need to step on the scale and check the damage!!  I'm a little scared though!!!
maternity clothes? Yep.  There have been a few times this past week where I wore non-maternity pants and I quickly regretted it a few hours into wearing them.  Stretchy maternity pants are the only way to go. 
stretch marks? Nope, I can barely see my old ones.  And I STILL don't have the dark line!!  My belly button is starting to pop out on one side though. 
sleep? I'm pooped by the end of the day so I fall asleep so easily at night.  I wake up around 1pm and 4pm each night to go to the bathroom.  
best moment this week? Missing the ice storm and spending a nice weekend away with Matt in San Antonio.  
movement? Yes! He is incredibly active during the evening.  He literally moves non-stop from about 7-10pm.  I finally felt Nash get the hiccups this week and he gets them all the time.  Matt also got to feel them too. 
food cravings? Warm drinks.....my homemade Chai Tea Latte, Hot Chocolate, and Peppermint Steamers from Starbucks. 
gender predictions? BOY!!!! Nash Matthew Link
what i miss? My little side jobs that brought in extra money.  I would love to have some extra money to do some Christmas shopping but I'm soooooo glad I'm not working right now.  I would have been so worn out and busy if I was still nannying.  
what i'm looking forward to? Nash being here.  I definitely want him to cook the full 39 weeks and make it to our scheduled c-section, but I'm ready to have my body back and have a little baby in my arms instead.
how are you feeling? Very pregnant.  Feeling so tired in the evenings, getting ramps in my butt again, having LOTS of braxton hicks contractions, dealing with uncomfortable hemorrhoids (sorry....TMI), and feel like my cheeks, double chin, butt and boobs are growing more than my belly.  
comparisons to last pregnancy? I feel like I nested a whole lot more with Pearson.  I would love for that instinct to kick in on full blast this go round.  My house could really use a good cleaning and organizing before Nash gets here.  With Pearson I had to have a sono around 28 weeks because of all the belly pain I was having at the top of my belly.  With Nash I also had to have a sono at 28.5 weeks because of the drama we had on Wednesday night. 


Here I am 29 weeks with Pearson and 29 weeks with Nash.

Sunday, December 08, 2013

Meal planning Monday

Monday: Me- Bunco Boys- Chicken and Dumplings

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday 

Wednesday: ABF Christmas Party

Thursday: Matt- Work Christmas Party Katy- DMB Christmas Party

Friday: Parent's Night Out (Dinner w/ Small Group)

Saturday Breakfast: Sausage Cream Cheese Twirls

Saturday Lunch: Grilled Cheese & Tomato Basil Soup

Saturday Dinner: Chili & Cornbread

Sunday Lunch: Frito Pie w/ leftover Chili

Sunday Dinner: Pei Wei

Thursday, December 05, 2013

drama in the womb

Before we left on our Babymoon to San Antonio, we had a little drama in the womb.

**Please don't feel like you have to read all this, it's mainly for my record!!

1:20am: Woke up with some lower abdomen pain along with my bladder feeling extremely full.  I went to the bathroom but still felt alot of pressure and didn't get much relief.

2:00am:  Still feeling alot of pain in my lower abdomen.  I begin to freak out that something is wrong and I start breathing hard and shaking like crazy.  I have never had a panic attack, but I'm pretty sure that is what was happening.  I felt like I had no control of my body.

2:20am- Called the on call service to talk to a nurse but my doctor was the one that called me back.  Since I wasn't bleeding, I was drinking alot of water and I wasn't have contractions he told me to just try to get some rest but if the pains didn't go away I should go ahead and come in to get monitored.

2:50am- By this time I was finally able to stop shaking but I starting having contractions every 15 minutes.  They definitely weren't Braxton Hicks contractions and they weren't extremely painful contractions, but they were waking me up every 15 minutes. They really felt more like mentrual cramps but that's how my labor with Pearson started so it was quite scary.

4:50am- I had contractions for 2 solid hours every 15 minutes.  I probably should have just gone into the hospital, but since it was so close to morning I was being stubborn wanted to just wait until the doctor's office opened to avoid a trip to the hospital.

5:00am- I called my Mom explain to her what was going on and see what she thought I should do.  While I was talking to her my contractions finally stopped.  I still didn't feel right though. My entire belly hurt and had lots of pressure.  We decided that when Matt left for work, my Mom would come over and help get Pearson ready for school.

8:30am- Mom took Pearson to school.

9:00am- I called the doctor's office and explained what had happened during the night.  She went ahead and just transferred me to my doctor which I thought was really nice!  He told me to go ahead and come in so he could check things out and give me some peace of mind before we left town.

10:15am- Everything checked out perfect in the sono.  He is definitely still a boy, he weighs about 2lbs 10oz and my cervix wasn't shortening.  My doctor thought I had just probably overdone it the day before which was causing the pain and the contractions could have been stressed induced.  I was stressing about the ice storm and getting out of town and then stressing over what my body was doing.  Since my cervix wasn't shortening and everything looked good in the sono he just told me to take it easy over the weekend.

The best part of all this drama was getting to see my little boy.  At both of my sonograms he hasn't really cooperated for a good profile shot.  This was the best she could get.  You can see his lips and nose but then it kind of fades away above that.  My favorite part of the picture is that his foot almost in his mouth.  The sonographer commented on how limber he was!!
Now I'm just praying for no more drama in the womb.  Little man still has 10 more weeks to cook.