Presenting...

Well, after much confusion on my part, downloading a new photo shop program and some funky adjustments to older posts, I am unveiling our new blog design and name. Ta Da! I hope you all like it, cause its the best I could do :) I feel like I am pretty good with computers, but I still don't know about all the tools available out there. And thanks to our friend Amy for the name idea!!!

Well, tomorrow is the big day!! The boys are at school today and I am spending the day totally by myself for the last time in the foreseeable future. No major plans, just trying to wrap up a few loose ends.

We'll post pics of our new little one as soon as we are able.

Pumpkin Patch Trip 2009

We made our annual trek out to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. We couldn't let me being 9 months pregnant stand in the way of tradition. We've been the last 4 years. This was Ollie's 2nd trip out there, but the first where he could actually participate and enjoy it. The boys had a blast. They did not really want to sit still for any pictures and we went with just the four of us, so we didn't have anyone to catch a family shot. We did get a few cute ones. They enjoyed running around in the pumpkins, jumping in the bounce houses, playing in the fort/jail, looking at all the character cut-outs and Sam enjoyed the hay maze. They were a lot to keep up with. When we have 3, it will be near impossible to do these things without a few extra eyes and hands :)

Over the past few weekends, Sam has also enjoyed making some Halloween treats (actually with Tony's help). Ollie has enjoyed eating them.

4 weeks and counting....

We had our second sonogram today and the baby looks great, no problems to report. They estimate her to be at about 5 1/2 lbs. I will be 35 weeks this Wednesday.
We also scheduled the c-section. It will be on Thursday Oct 22 at about 7:30 AM. Of course, she could always decide she wants to come sooner, but I hope not. It sounds weird coming from the mother of 2 children, but I have never been in labor before.
I am feeling good, just very tired when I get home from work. And I have not exactly had the most patience with the boys lately, but I am trying to be better.
We'll keep you updated. And I will post pictures of her room when its done. We had it all ready, then had an unforseen crib problem and had to order a new crib which should be here in about a week.

Flashback Friday

At 25 weeks with Sam in April 2005 (just 5 weeks before he was born).
I forgot how little I was when he was born!

At about 32 weeks with Ollie in Nov 2007

At 32 weeks with Baby #3, Sept 2009.

Let the Nesting Begin!

Whew! Stage I complete. We have finished the remodel on what was our guest bedroom and is now the boys' new bedroom. Our house was built in the 1920's and this room was added on in recent years by a previous owner. It had a set of french doors that went out to the backyard and another door that went out to the driveway. The room has its own bathroom, which is nice, but the only closet for the room was a tiny one in the bathroom. Also it had a large set of windows on one wall. This room is on the back of our house (the west side) and gets a lot of afternoon sun, so it was hard to keep it cool. Needless to say, not only was it not a very functional room, but definitely not for a kids room. So, we made a few changes.

We completely removed the french doors and walled that in. We walled in where the other exterior door was and made that area a closet. We removed the large set of windows and replaced them with 2 smaller ones. Lastly, we removed the carpet, added wood, a ceiling fan and a fresh coat of paint. Along with some new furniture, the room is complete. There is even more room than I anticipated! It never ceases to amaze me how rooms look bigger once you move the furniture in than they do when they are empty. The boys love their new space.

Now we have approximately 2 months to get the nursery (boys' old room) ready for Baby Girl Norris. Yes, we do have a name, but we always like to keep it to ourselves until the big day. We will post pictures of the finished product on the nursery when its done.



I forgot to take a before pictures, so this is actually from right after we bought the house. It was the only one could find.



After, same view. The room was empty for a few weeks while we waited for furniture and the boys loved playing (and yelling) in here. Ollie loved the echoes and sweeping.



New closet, sorry I forgot to flip this before posting it.


Since we would like to keep Ollie in a crib as long as possible, we borrowed this crib from our friend Ann and kept our crib in the nursery. Thanks Ann!!




Between the closet, new dressers and new shelving unit, we have a lot more storage space.

Nashville Reunion

Every two years my extended family gets together somewhere for a destination family reunion which gives us a chance to visit w/ aunts, uncles, cousins, and new cousins that otherwise we probably would never get to see. This year Nashville was selected as the destination. We braved the 12 hour car trip (in one day both ways) and made our way there. The trip was fun, but not without issues. The first morning we were there Sam was acting like he did not feel well and then began dry heaving. He is physically unable to vomit due to the surgery he had for reflux as a baby. So he and Tony stayed at the hotel most of the day where he then proceeded to have diarrhea all day :) Ollie and I went to the zoo for the afternoon and then they were able to join us for dinner that evening. The next day Sam was feeling better and we played at Bicentennial Park and then had a picnic lunch there with the whole family. Sat afternoon we took a river boat ride on the Cumberland river. It began raining half-way through, but there was plenty of covering and a country band playing on board. The weather was cool, very enjoyable. That evening we ate at the Aquarium restaurant. The next day, Sunday, Sam was complaining of his feet hurting and refused to walk, at all. I mean he insisted we carry him 2 ft if he had to go that far. We could not figure out what was going on and this was not like him. So, ultimately we decided to head home a day early. There wasn't much left to do anyway and we definitely did not want to be carrying him around all day. The next day he was fine, who knows :) I have posted a bunch of pics on this one, just realized there aren't any of Sam. He wasn't real into having his picture taken, he was either sick or busy.


Ollie at the Zoo

The Loveless cafe, Tony's favorite part of the trip. According to Martha Stewart this place has the best biscuits she has ever tasted. I must agree they were pretty good.

Bicentennial park. This is actually the capital building looking up from the park. Sam insisted on climbing up all the steps to get up here, I think Tony said there were 150 steps. If you look to the far right in the middle of the picture you can see Tony and Sam.

Ollie was fearless with these fountains

He definitely played hard that morning

The Music City Queen

This was our group minus one family who left early that morning.

Summer Catch Up

Well, I continue to be a lazy blogger. But that is mainly because I am so busy with work and kids and also our computer is not located in a very central area of the house. But enough about my excuses.

We have had a fun, busy summer...and of course HOT!!! I don't think we'll ever get used to this heat. Anyway our weekends have been filled with swimming and playing outside (when we can bear it). Sam and Ollie have been introduced to snow cones which makes a nice treat on a hot day.

As most of you know, we have taken our house off the market and started a "small" remodeling project to prepare for Baby #3. We are making some changes to what was our guest bedroom and will be moving Sam and Ollie in there and turning their current room into a proper nursery for a girl. We are full swing into the remodel and hope to have it completed by the end of this week. I have ordered some new furniture for the boys and as soon as we can get it all set up, they will move in. Then Tony can start stripping and repainting the boys current dressers for the baby. I really do have the best husband! This new arrival has really created a long honey-do list and he's been a champ. In the past few weeks, he has put up solar screens & curtains in all the upstairs windows, installed 2 ceiling fans, and installed 2 programmable thermostats. We are slowly getting there. I will post pics of the new room(s) soon.

Also, I realized that with the addition of another kiddo I should come up with a new name for our blog. Any suggestions???

The boys enjoying our "fancy" new pool

Ollie is still happy-go-lucky, but starting to get a little mischievous

...but still a cuddler

Tony's new do. This is the shortest I have seen his hair in the 13 years I've known him.

Sweating it out at the FW Cats game

Ollie had a hard time making it through the game and then wasn't too thrilled with the post-game fireworks

Sam trying to empty our friends pool on July 4th

Anyone have a good swing coach?

Trying to take advantage of the shade at the Trinity Park duck pond. I thought Ollie was going to give this goose a kiss, too bad we were busy rescuing him instead of snapping a pic.

We had to keep a close eye on this one, so no one ended up taking a dip.