Lake days

It's kind of weird writing about one of our lake trips today when it's rainy and cool outside, but I'm not gonna complain because I prefer the gloomy to lake weather at this point. We've been making trips to Jordan Lake about once a week. We wait until after nap time and pack a picnic dinner or stuff to BBQ and head out. We swim in the lake and eat dinner and enjoy ourselves until around 8:00 when the sun starts to dip low and then we take our tired selves home, wash up and hit the hay. It's a great afternoon! The girls love being at the lake, the water is super warm....almost too warm and it's really shallow so they can wade out pretty far and not feel afraid. The water is really calm and since we try and go on Friday afternoon there usually aren't many people there. Maddie has always been a little fish, but Charlotte hasn't really enjoyed the water too much unless it's in a bath tub. For whatever reason on this particular trip something changed in my youngest and she decided that the water is a fantastic place to be and I watched her go from not wanting to go in at all, to wading in with a floatie, to ditching the floatie and jumping around and floating all on her own! And now when we go to the lake she goes right in and hardly wants any assistance.....which is a tad bit scary since she is still so little, but it's nice that she is enjoying herself and her fear of the water has evaporated. I'm really proud of Maddie too because even though she has always loved the water she never wanted to get her face wet and this summer I've watched her slowly get used to the idea of going under the water and now she dunks her face in and goes under the water all on her own. I'm glad that we've never pushed our girls to do more than they felt comfortable with in the water, because lo and behold they get there eventually.....on their own time! I really enjoy our time at the lake, it may be the only thing I miss when fall eventually shows up, but we've got at least 6-8 weeks before it's too cold to visit the lake.

We're ready for the lake!

It's nice that they're at an age where they actually WANT to help

They also want to throw rocks

She's so proud of herself!

Look Ma, no floatie

Baby Schultz @ 29 weeks

I am officially in my third trimester of pregnancy! Woop-ti-do. It's exciting but at the same time I still have 11 more weeks to go and these final weeks are the most torturous. At least time seems to be passing by quickly. I remember feeling like June would never end and now it feels as though 4th of July was not that long ago and Sunday we will start August. Hopefully this trend continues and the hottest month of the year flies by! I don't necessarily feel like I'm ready to have this baby, but I am ready for fall and the two are pretty synonymous at this point. I'm ready to say adios summer!

Anyway, I had my 29 week ultrasound on Monday. Dan and the girls came with me which was nice but also hectic.....the poor ultrasound tech was about to have a heart attack if my girls didn't stop playing with things. But overall they were good and as soon as we were done seeing the baby Dan took them out to the car to watch a movie while strapped in their car seats so I could finish my apt. in peace! The short version of my ultrasound results is that my placenta is still very low. It's not covering my cervix but it's still lower than they would like although my Dr. seemed to think that it shouldn't be a big deal. I have another apt. in 4 weeks to have another ultrasound to see if there is any additional progress. I informed them that I absolutely do not want to be cut open for a c-section unless it is absolutely positively necessary and if need be I will get a second opinion......not interested in having a c-section just because it's easier and less liability for the medical profession!! My wishes are known, so now we just wait and see what happens.

It was a lot of fun seeing our little peanut. The pictures we got are no where near as clear as the fancy schmancy 4D ultrasounds that you can pay to get but this one seems more clear to me than previous ones of either Maddie or Charlotte. And let me just say that when I say little peanut it's not an accurate term because this child looks like a chunkster. The baby is measuring in the 43 percentile so he/she is not that big, but the cheeks look chubby for sure! But I wouldn't expect anything different.....we make chunky babies and I prefer it that way! :o) So here are my thoughts on what this baby looks like from these not really all that clear pictures......the face shape looks like Maddie which is my face shape, the nose also looks like Maddie which is Dan's nose but interestingly enough, Charlotte and Maddie were born with different looking noses but now their noses look very much the same. The lips are hard to tell and other than the fact that the bottom lip looks bigger than the top lip and kinda pouty which both Dan and I have I can't really tell. Overall, I don't think this baby looks anything like Maddie or Charlotte did in their third trimester ultrasounds which may mean that he/she won't look like either one of them, or it could mean that these scans aren't very accurate and this baby will look like both girls or more like one or the other in particular. That's always a fun part of having another kid.....we get to see the different ways that our genes can morph! I'm glad that our baby is growing well and I'm looking forward to seeing him/her again in 4 weeks.

The face of baby Schultz
This baby really enjoys hugging and cuddling up to my placenta so it was hard to capture the face unobstructed. And it was nearly impossible to get a profile shot. Typical! :o)

The girls like this one and point out the eyes, nose and mouth

Little (big?) baby foot

Single parent week is almost over

Our week without Daddy is quickly coming to an end.....thank goodness! I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is a reason that people are supposed to be married before they have kids. We are meant to have partners in raising children! Even if I'm home alone with the kids a majority of the time, having someone to lean on when I've reached my limit is necessary and not having Dan here all week just makes me appreciate all that he does even more! With that being said I must give props to my children.....they have been incredible all week! Maybe they instinctively know how much I can handle or maybe it was pure luck, but they have been truly amazing kids this week and I feel so very blessed that they are mine. Not what you were expecting to hear at the end of a single parent week eh?!? We've been keeping busy with free movies at the theater, playgrounds, chiropractor appointments, lunch at McDonalds, picnic dinners and swimming at the lake, painting, dressing up, the library, baking and a bit of grocery shopping. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the girls tomorrow, but at 7:00 pm we'll be at the airport to pick Daddy up and bring him home. Hooray for my week of single parenting coming to an end!

Yellow watermelon really threw the girls for a loop!
They are okay with it now, but they wouldn't eat it at first.

Painting
Surprisingly very little paint ended up ON the girls!!

This child is always wearing some type of accessory

Licking the spatula is the best part of baking

Everyday
Lights on
Lights off
Lights on
Lights off

We even fit in some cleaning!

*This photo was not taken this week.....but we did vacuum

Savings galore!!

Phew! We made it through another Kids Exchange consignment sale. This particular sale was tough because I am the pregnant and get tired more easily, so we got Auntie Hannah to babysit and I forced Dan to go with me so I'd have his big strong muscles! Normally Dan stays at home with the kids and I do my 8 hours of shopping on my own and don't have to hear him say, "Do we really need that?" and the like. This time I did have to listen to Dan's conservative commentary, but I think I perfected my this is adorable and yes we need it glare and we made it through the shopping still married. This sale was also tough because Dan's volunteer security shifts were on Saturday and Sunday for 5 hours right in the middle of the day.....the 2 days right before he left for Denmark for 5 days. Not exactly how I would have liked to spend the weekend, but the deep deep discounts made up for it.

I always cringe when we check out at the consignment sale. It's a big chunk of money that we're spending on kids items all at one time. Normally people buy things a little at a time and so the cost gets spread out over a longer period of time.....less painful. BUT the consignment sale is where I spend our money, and that's about it. I buy all the kids clothes for 6 months at a time, almost all of their shoes, necessary items like car seats, and of course toys; twice a year and in between I barely buy anything else. If they outgrow shoes I'll buy them a pair at the store, or maybe an extra special dress if I didn't already get them one at the consignment sale....like a Christmas or Easter dress and I have yet to actually plan ahead enough to buy Charlotte's b-day presents for May so I usually have to buy those separately. But my point is that our twice yearly consignment sale provides us with pretty much everything kid related. At this sale we got a LOT of stuff. It's the first time that we've had to buy for 3 kids, even though we don't yet actually have 3 kids! lol But there were a few items that we wanted to get that were gender neutral or boyish just in case....like baby blankets that weren't pink or say "thank heavens for little girls" and some boyish socks and booties. I didn't have much clothing to buy for Charlotte because she is able to fit into the 3T clothes that we had for Maddie that thankfully were the correct season.....that's the biggest problem we've had with our girls, their sizes and seasons not matching up so a lot of clothes can't be reused with Charlotte. But this time we lucked out. Maddie of course needed everything and this was the hardest time I've had finding clothes for her. I'm picky when it comes to clothes, I don't like my kids to look too grown up and Maddie is currently wearing a 6-6X which I've found to be kind of the size where the clothes change from being cute and girly to more grown up and in my opinion a little hoochie-ish. I guess a Hannah Montana rocker outfit or an off the shoulder crop top could be appropriate for a 6 year old but I don't really find that same outfit appropriate for my not even 4 year old who just happens to be a giant and wears size 6. So it took me a long time to weed through the clothes and find things I deemed acceptable. I also got Maddie a couple birthday gifts for her upcoming 4th birthday in September......she has been begging for a scooter for nearly a year so we got her a Radio Flyer scooter just like this one:

and a bag full of Littlest Pet Shop animals and accessories and a Littlest Pet Shop house/shop. I have no idea if she will even like the Littlest Pet Shop stuff, but she likes animals and she likes little things and she is really hard to shop for. Charlotte likes EVERYTHING, Maddie not so much. So hopefully she'll like her b-day presents. We've also talked about taking her to build a bear and letting her build something but we'll see.

Anyway......I'm not going to tell you how much we spent at the consignment sale this time....at least not in this post. I'll list everything and you can see some pictures below and make guesses and I'll post the total in a future blog. There was no way that I could, or wanted to take pictures of everything that we bought.....that would be ridiculous, but I've photographed some of my favorites for you to see and I'll list everything. And keep in mind when considering cost that everything is pretty much name brand. I bought like 2 pieces of clothing that were Circo and maybe 1 item that was a Walmart brand but I pretty much stay away from those types of brands because they are made more cheaply and aren't priced much less than better brands at the consignment sale. Brand names that we bought include: Gymboree, Old Navy, Gap, Hanna Andersson, Lands End, Osh Kosh, J. Khaki, Childrens Place, Lei, Arizona and Sonoma. Here we go.

STUFF FOR BABY

Medela pump in style advanced double breast pump in a backpack

8 Medela bottles
Graco car seat base (to go with our infant car seat)
6 neutral baby bath towels

Fisher Price electric baby swing
(we have a cradle swing but it take batteries and we go through a ridiculous # of batteries)

30 pairs neutral baby socks (somehow our baby socks disappeared)
1 Small prefold (diaper)
2 infant snapis (diaper fastener)

1 pair Robeez shoes
1 pair Robeez booties

2 neutral knitted hats (the raccoon one has matching socks)

5 misc. neutral/boyish booties and soft infant shoes

4 neutral/boyish baby blankets
(2 not shown are thinner cotton)

Infant bath seat
although I REALLY want to get one of these: Washpod
Baby doll in seat was for Charlotte

RANDOM ITEMS & TOYS

Suitcase for Charlotte

2 bags of dress up clothes
5 pairs of dress up shoes
1 bag of dress up jewelery, necklaces, bracelets, rings
8 headbands
Plastic tea party set (they had nice ceramic ones but they've been broken)
Littleest Pet Shop house and 75ish pet pieces
Radio Flyer scooter

Graco 40-80 pound car seat
(I know Maddie could go to a booster but I think 5 point harnesses are a lot safer!!)

CHARLOTTE CLOTHING

3 pairs tennis/play shoes 1 dress shoes

1 Dora nightgown
17 dresses

Possible Christmas dress.....it looks fancier in real life

It was easier to just try them on her since she like to dress up!

Checking out each others dresses :o)

Maddie on the other hand is a lot less cooperative with trying things on. She would only let me put this one dress on her!

12 pairs Charlotte tights. 11 pairs Maddie tights.
Okay so you might think I went a little overboard with the tights......
My excuse is that my kids are HARD on tights.
Most pairs that they currently own have brown stained knees from playing.
I'm just trying to hedge my bets!

45 pairs socks (mixed Maddie and Charlotte)

MADDIE CLOTHING

3 pairs tennis shoes, 1 pair dress shoes, 1 pair mary jane crocs

21 pairs of pants
1 skirt
22 shirts
3 sweaters
1 sweat shirt
11 dresses
10 pairs of pajamas

Possible Christmas dress

The rest of the clothes not pictured!

Can you guess what the girls' favorite item from the consignment sale was????

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The baby swing!
They play with it EVERY day!!