X or Y.....?

Tiny fingers, tiny toes, little itty-bitty clothes.
Dresses, dolls, hair in curls. Guess what...

IT'S A GIRL!

We are ecstatic to announce that come March 22nd we will be adding another wonderful little girl to our family! I went in for the ultrasound yesterday and had the memorable experience of being thoroughly investigated for almost 2 hours on the table, receiving our first 3-D images of Baby Girl (which I am not posting because they are a little creepy to anyone else besides us), and finding out that we have one TALL, but perfectly healthy, little girl on her way down to see us.




(Can I say this at 20 weeks? Based on those few 3-D images of her, she is the spitting image of Makenna. Button nose, the famous Bird chin, and perfectly content sitting breech right now with her feet keeping her face company.)

Myrtle Beach + Manns = Magnificent

Last weekend we drove down to Myrtle Beach and had an absolutely fabulous time. With the exception of a couple of gloomy days out of 5, the weather was fantastic considering it's the middle of October. Who would've thought you could get sunburned in the fall?

We learned a few things while we were there...

1. We were 100% meant to live by the beach. The salt, the sand, the waves, the shells, the beautiful umbrellas everywhere- WE LOVED IT!



2. We are HUGE fans of anything water-related. It's around 70 degrees (a little chilly for swimming); the lazy river at the resort is nearly empty; there are dark rain clouds looming overhead; people are leaving the pool shivering. But we come ready to tube down the river and throw our kids under the tipping water bucket...and LOVE it!



3. Our daughter loves fish...even dead ones. Sunday morning we walked through downtown, looking through all the beach shops and then out onto the pier. While we were out there, we saw a pack/school/gang(?) of dolphins putting on a show for everyone out in the ocean. Beautiful! Then an old man took a liking to Makenna and proceeded to show her all the dead fish in his cooler...hmmm. She was enthralled. Then a homeless looking fisherman caught a flounder and laid the bloody thing on the pier for all to admire. We couldn't drag Makenna away. She just kept saying, "Fish, nap?"



4. The bike trailer we bought off Craigslist earlier this year was totally worth the money. We love family bike rides and Makenna loves riding in the back behind us. This time she loved it even more because she had her little friend, Gavin, to keep her company on the ride. We even looked back a few times and they were holding hands. Adorable!



5. There's no two ways around it- we are ADDICTED to good barbecue. Which is one reason we miss Richmond so much. However, when we were down in Charleston a few years ago we discovered a delicious place called Sticky Fingers. We were ecstatic there was one in Myrtle Beach and devoured some delicious pork ribs while we were there. We even got a free bottle of their signature BBQ sauce!



6. We LOVE vacation! And clearly we're raising a daughter who does as well. Thank heaven for good friends and great memories.

Just one of them days...

I'm having one of those days. You know the ones where you feel like at any moment you could burst into tears? Not big hysterical tears. Just frustrated, overwhelmed, silent tears.

I'm pretty sure it's a culmination of things.

1. We're in the throes of potty-training. Accident after accident. Bribe after bribe. Laundry load after laundry load. I'm frustrated.

2. I was embarrassed of my child today for the first time since being a mom. We were at a little REC center class for Makenna and after throwing a tantrum on the toilet (she, not I), she cried the whole first part of the class, then proceeded to the back corner where she sucked on her fingers and bowed her head. I felt like all the other kids were doing what they were supposed to and mine was pouting in the corner for all to see. I was embarrassed.

3. I've got two BYU independent classes I HAVE to finish before March when Baby comes. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get into it, for there are always 100 other things I should/want to be doing. I'm overwhelmed.

4. I'm pregnant which means...I'm emotional.

So it's one of those days. But I'm feeling like things could be turning around.

My house is silent because Little Miss is sleeping. I just bought a big bag of candy corn at Target which I think I shall nibble on in the meantime. We're leaving on a fabulous trip down to Myrtle Beach on Friday and I get to pack for it (one of my favorite things to do). And tonight is Wednesday night, and neither Drew nor I have any obligations tonight, which means sitting home and watching my new favorite show, Glee. See? Things are turning around already.

Bow Board

I just finished this little project the other day after finding myself frustrated about Makenna's plethora of hair bows and the way in which they were (NOT) organized. I got the idea off of this website and, after cringing at the $70 price tag, thought, "I could probably come up with something fairly similar and pay a fraction of their price." So I came up with this, which I don't think is quite as darling, but it sure serves a purpose and it came out how I imagined.

I had a hard time finding a board that matched theirs with the decorative iron work above, but I found a $6 board at Michael's (you could also make your own if you had a router), picked a couple of different pieces of scrapbook paper, a painted wood flower, and wooden bubble letters.

I glued the paper onto the acrylic-painted board and then Mod Podged it. Hot glue-gunned the flower and painted letters. Then attached the top bow to some triangle brackets on the back to hang it from and glue-gunned coordinating ribbon to clip the bows to. Pretty easy and it only cost a total of 14 dollars!

After clipping all of her bows/flowers to the ribbons, I found it kind of ridiculous how many bows she has...but completely girly and fabulous! Oh how I love having a daughter...