What am I going to do when the third one comes???

So, this is really an addendum to the post below. I forgot to mention that I lost my cool this weekend. My husband went out of town chasing Hurricane Irene, which ended up not being much of anything. He was gone from Friday afternoon to Sunday night. which.was.an.eternity. Oh My Word. Taking care of two kids while puking and just feeling nauseous in general is not conducive to a healthy mental state. Soooo, I was not nice momma this past weekend, and Sunday night is the culmination of what I was feeling.

Sunday: husband calls and says he will be home around 8:00. I say, okay, kids took a late nap, so we will all be up waiting for you. I got the kids in the bath, scrubbed them down and we played in Jackson's room waiting for daddy. Kids play, start fighting over a car, wrestle, don't listen to me when I tell them to stop, so I lose it and yell (very loudly) to "STOP!!! FOr the love of all things, STOP!!!" Their response: they did stop! But they were frozen in place with looks of fear mixed with confusion mixed with 'did that just really happen?' on their faces. Hmm. I think they were like "OMG, she's finally lost it."

Immediately after, I regained my composure, apologized for yelling and gave them hugs, but told them they had to stop fighting. please. stop. fighting.

Yeah, we were all happy when daddy got home. I think they were like "thank the Lord, he's here! This woman is crazy!!!"

Morning sickness and other busy-ness

Holy Cow. I have had some bad morning sickness with this pregnancy. It seems that each pregnancy has gotten worse. My first, I had no sickness at all. My second, I had a little and this one has been horrendous. A couple of days ago, I realized I kept puking right after taking my prenatal vitamin, so I stopped. TMI? maybe, but don't worry about my baby's fetal development without prenatal vitamins. I go to the doctor tomorrow and they will prescribe me some that won't leave me locked in my house begging for mercy...

In addition to the morning sickness, we are in full-blown fall activities mode. I realize now that this is just the beginning. It won't end until all of my kids are graduated from high school and out of the house. Jackson has started 5 day a week preschool-in the mornings only, but on Mondays and Wednesdays, we go home, eat lunch and then get right back in the car to go to Baylor for speech. Add on top of that, soccer practice and games two days a week and the only normal days are Fridays. Feel sorry for me yet?? If not, it's okay. I just wish I had more energy. Being pregnant with the third is really exhausting because you have two other kids to take care of. they don't quite want to stay home and lay around all day and take long naps..... sigh. I'll get them back when they are in high school!!!

Sorry no pics on this post. I've got some I want to post, but I only just found a few minutes of time to write this post, never mind upload photos.

Traverse City Part II

You have to go cherry picking if you are in Traverse in the summer.

Sloan's first time cherry picking

another Traverse City tradition of ours is Moomers Ice Cream!  The store is right next to their family farm, where they keep the cows that make their ice cream and milk!  It's so good!

We all shared the Holy Cow-10 scoops of ice cream, 4 bananas, hot fudge, and an entire can of whipped cream!!

Good stuff.

We cheered Jackson on:  "Chug it! Chug it! Chug it!"

We swam in Long Lake (the lake our house was on) every chance we got.

I even got to celebrate my birthday at the lake!  What better way to spend a birthday than with my family in a beautiful place!

The little beach at our cottage.

The view from the house.  Long lake is so calm in the morning.

Traverse City Michigan Part I

Spending 4 days in Chicago was a blast!  It's such a fun, big, bustling city with so much to do and see and eat!!  The perfect antecdote for that kind of fun, is a week in Traverse City.  An area with beautiful natural lakes (including Lake Michigan) and lots of farms and boutique shops and wineries!

We rented a cottage on Long Lake.  It's the area where we used to live and was familiar to us and a great location.  I would definitely go back to that lake every year!  The lakes up there are sandy bottom, clear, clean lakes. 

We had to do a drive-by of the old house.  We call this the Fishers Run house.  It looks the same as it did 3 years ago when we moved!

Gallaghers.  The BEST farm and market!  We used to go here all the time when we lived here before, so of course, we went about 3-4 times while we were there.  Great fresh produce and you get to go pet the animals and walk around and pick some of their produce, if you want!

All over Traverse City, there are beautiful old barns.

Jackson particularly liked the bunnies. This one nibbled his finger too!

My brother and his girlfriend hanging out with pigs...

Jackson also enjoyed chasing the chickens around.

Sloan loved playing with the toy tractors.

but the real tractor was even better!

a view of Gallagher's fields.

One of the many wineries.  THis one is on Old MIssion Peninsula-that is in the middle of Grand Traverse Bay, and separates it into East bay and West bay.  This was a converted school house.

Inside the winery. My brother, Christina, me and Aunt Jodi.

Wineries aren't really kid friendly, so the boys played outside and found lots of interest things.

Grapes on the vine at the winery.

My little guy.

Chicago part II

We visited the Museum of Science and Industry, and let me tell you, that is THE most amazing museum I have ever been to.  It is beyond ginormous and has the most amazing things inside!  I truly believe you would have to go every day for a week to see everything it had to offer.

A picture of a little boy walking into heaven...

We saw lots of tractors on our drive to Chicago, so to be able to sit in a real one was pretty cool.

They had a real German submarine from WW2.  It was so cool.

This is my cautious child.  he was not sure that the glass would hold him in from falling down below.

Every day they place eggs ready to hatch out in an incubator and you can watch them peck through their shells!

This little guy hatched the day before and he liked following Jackson around the glass.

Another wing of the museum held all sorts of transportation machinery.  Trains.

All sorts of airplaines were hanging from the ceiling

Walking around downtown, we saw this Bentley/Lamborghini store.  My husband picked out the green one here. I had to wipe the drool off his chin...

We made a visit to Sprinkles cupcakes!  They were SO good. (and pricey, but hey, it's vacation)

Pizzeria Uno-the same as Pizzeria Due, just the first one they opened, thus, it's called Uno.  We always eat at Due b/c it's got a bigger dining area.  However, deep dish takes about 45 minutes to cook once ordered, so with 2 kids this time, we learned to call it in and eat it at our hotel (which was literally across the street).  We gave Gino's East deep dish a try, since it's famous too, but to us, there was no contest:  Pizzeria Due is BY FAR the better pizza.  They invented it, so that's probably why.

A day at the Field Museum of Natural History.

Of course, the Blackwells arrived early before it opened, so we played hide and seek in the lobby area.

More hide and seek.

The Field museum building itself is a beautiful building.

Sue.  The world's biggest best preserved T Rex fossil.  Named after the lady who found it in Utah.

Beautiful ceiling in the Field Museum.

Mini Golf another day at Navy Pier

The Ferris Wheel.  This, is the kind of weather when we should have gone for a ride in it.

a Kiddie ride at Navy Pier.  Fun times.