Big Sis/Little Sis

I looked...and looked...and looked for Big Sister/Little Sister shirts for the girls and hadn't been able to find anything I liked. I found a couple cute Big Sister shirts but I couldn't find anything in a smaller size for M (come on people, some kids are born close together!). And then I couldn't find something that would match in Halle's size. Anyway, last weekend I came across a woman in Washington (yep, Washington) online. She customizes the shirts/dresses to be anything you want. I was sold! So, I picked the outfit style and color, the look of the kids on the front, their dress color, skin and hair color, style, etc. When I asked she even changed the smile and eyes on the big sister shirt because I didn't like any of the options. How nice was that? She makes a bow for the big sister and I had her specially make me a bow to match for the little sister too. How perfect are these?!?!?! I LOVE THEM! I can't wait to see Matney in this to come meet her little sister.


The only thing that bothers me is that Matney's name is written in black and Halle's is pink. I wonder why? Oh well, she made and shipped them in one week. I can't complain.


Sunday we enjoyed a quiet Mother's Day at home. We went to church and then came home and hung out together. Jared and Matney gave me flowers and lots of little containers of ice cream...easy to buy a gift for a really pregnant mama! There might have been several more flavors but I didn't take a picture before I started tasting. Friday night Jared kept Matney so that I could go out with the girls for dinner. Then Saturday morning my mom got me a gift card to get a pedicure so my friend Allison and I got our toes done and had a yummy breakfast...all while Jared kept Matney again. It was wonderful to spend Sunday at home with my family and to have some "last chance" girl time before there are 2 little ones at home.

Matney wants a reminder!

Cleaning out his office was on Jared's to do list last weekend. Matney woke up while we were working and ended up in just her diaper crawling around. Don't remember where her clothes were. Anyway, she normally HATES anything sticky being near her but this morning she wanted tons of post-it labels and kept sticking them on her belly. I wonder what she wanted to remember...or maybe she was trying to remind us that she's here and we better not pay too much attention to her little sister!


Our internet has been going crazy since last week so while it is working for 10 minutes I figured I better post the Monday update (and then am going right to bed!). At the dr. this morning nothing changed from last week. Kind of disappointing but I reminded myself that we really do need her to wait until the end of next week. Timing wise with work schedules that would be prefect, especially since the holiday weekend would give Jared an extra day off. Anyway, we can induce this Friday the 15th or, if she doesn't come on her own, induce next Friday the 22nd. As easy as it was being induced with Matney I'd rather go into labor naturally so we're going to give her another 10 days and if she doesn't come out by the 22nd...she's EVICTED from this belly and we'll induce! So, at the latest you'll see pictures of Miss Halle Katherine Heald by the 22nd. The reality of that last sentence boggles my mind!

Busy, Busy

We have been busy, busy here at the Heald house for the past couple weeks. Jared's been crazy with something at work. He didn't see daylight for a couple days. I don't know how he does it. Matney and I have crossed item after item off our to do list and I finally feel really good about what all we got done. I call it "hormonal nesting meets obsessive spring cleaning". Be glad you haven't been handed one of my to do lists!
One of the things I did was to make my own laundry detergent...again. Remember, I tried this when M was little and I never found a "recipe" that I liked. This time a woman I know passed this along and said it works great for her family. We spend so much money on laundry detergent and I know that number will only go up as the girls get bigger. Plus, I would like to "go green" whereever we can and the green detergents sold at the store totally not in the budget! I've tried it now for a week and am pleased with how it works. This one probably will be a keeper so I thought I'd pass the info along in case anyone else is interested. Total cost and time at the end.

You'll need one 5 gallon bucket, 1 cup Borax, 1 cup Washing Soda (not baking soda...sold on the same row as other detergents), 1 bar of any soap you want (I used Ivory so that there was no smell or dye for Halle) and then it is optional to use an essential oil for fragrance. I have grapefruit seed extract from making wipes for M and put a few drops of that in.


Grate your bar of soap. My cheese grater has never been so clean. Add the soap to 4 cups of boiling water, a little at a time, until melted. If you want to add any oils put a couple drops in at this time.

When the soap is disolved add approx. 4 gallons of warm water to the bucket. Add your 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax stirring until disolved. When that is done stir in your soap mixture.

This is what it looks like. Leave the lid (if you have one) cracked to let the steam out and let it sit for 24 hours. It will turn into a gel and you use 3/4cup per load.
My ingredient total, plus the bucket, was less than $10 and I have enough to make about 5 more buckets. The lady that gave me the recipe had it all calculated out and I don't have that number with me but it is WAY CHEAPER than what we bought at Costco before. I timed how long it took to make. Start to finish with clean up was less than 20 minutes. Matney played with a bowl and other fun "kitchen toys" in the living room while I worked. Easy! Hope someone can use this. Let me know if you try it!!!

PIGTAILS!

Jared has been asking more and more lately why I never have Matney's hair in pigtails since it is long enough. Honestly, because trying to get one rubber band in her hair is HARD. She doesn't sit still well at all! And, I'd need to part it that way as soon as she is out of the bath and I never remember. The more he asked the more I realized he was really hinting that he'd like to see some pigtails on his little girl. When I knew he was on the way home last week I gave her a bath and pulled her hair up. We meet him at the door and he loved them. She is pretty stinking cute...and they don't even have bows in these pictures.






In other news we're just trying to get things done. I have been carrying a notebook with pages and pages of lists for the past couple weeks and I think I'm down to 1 double page spread. Whoo hoo!!! My Aunt Kathy and cousin Christina came over Tuesday and hung out. Christina helped me get things on the wall in Halle's room and we could hear Matney squealing and laughing with Aunt K downstairs. Matney was WORN OUT by naptime that afternoon. Christina and I ran to Target and got the rest of everything on my list. She even noticed diapers on clearance that were just Matney's type and size. By the time we checked out things were falling out of the cart it was so full. But, Matney has diapers for the couple months...CHEAP!!! They brought stuff to cook us dinner and as Jared walked in the door that night they were handing us a warm, yummy dinner and walking out the door. It was great! We put M to bed and enjoyed a nice hot dinner (that I didn't cook which means Jared liked it) by ourselves. THANKS LADIES! Jared took the first bite and said, "they are welcome back anytime". We only live about an hour apart but rarely ever get together so it was great to see them.

We had our normal day at church yesterday, went to Costco today and are all stocked up. Crystal Light and Fiber One chocolate bars are "must haves" in this house and we have enough now for 2 months! The house is pretty picked up and I'm running some last minute errands tomorrow. Then our bags will be packed and we'll just be waiting on Halle Kate. Poor Jared left for work this morning about 3:45am and expects to be working past dark. It is great that he's able to get hours built up to take time off but I know he is exhausted. The plan for the weekend is to have NOTHING to do. We have been going and going so this weekend we reserved to just be here. I hope the weather is nice and we can spend most of our time outside.
Plus, Jared called a little while ago and said "why don't I come home early tomorrow to keep Matney and you call the girls to go out?". Um, DONE! Don't know where we will go or what we'll do but I am going to beg them (or their husbands if necessary) to come out with me!

Baby Watch '09

Baby update below but first some pics of Miss M. She is wearing a shirt she found in a box. It was mine when I was little and one of my favorite to put on my Cabbage Patch Kids. It really is too small for her but she demanded to wear it when she saw it had a kitty. She said "kitty" pointing to it over and over and trying to get it on her head so I finally gave in. Her belly kind of stretches that kitty out! After a couple hours I got it off her and put it on Dog. That worked for her and she carried him around checking out his shirt for a couple days. I have since stollen it back and put it in a box!
Her eye seems to be "fixed". We've been off the medicine since last Wednesday and she's only had 1 morning that it was crusty waking up. Otherwise, it is draining during the day so it looks like we won't have to go back. Thank goodness for answered prayers!



Crazy to think that it wasn't long ago we had baby watch '08 going as we waited on Matney! I went to the dr again this AM and it isn't looking like we'll be waiting on Halle Kate too much longer. I'll spare the details because I know there are some males reading this blog but for the females - last week we were 1cm and she was still sitting really high. I am now 2cm dialated, 50% effaced and she's dropped...ie, I can breathe again and things are moving right along! In fact, my Dr wrote Jared a "prescription" to get all that he needs to do done because he guesses he will have kiddo #2 by the 15th. We know that there is no way to totally know when she'll decide to make her appearance but compared to Matney she seems much more eager to come out and join the family.

Can I just say "AGH?!?!?!?!". I am really excited to meet her and for Miss M to have a sister. But, I am worried and feeling guilty about Matney. Many people have asked us if we're worried that we won't love a second child as much as we love M...and I have to say that that doesn't even cross my mind for a second. I know that we are almost more excited this time because we know how incredible having a child is, the love is already here. What bothers me is how this will change Matney's world. We spend HOURS on the floor reading books and crawling after one another each day. We walk in circles in the yard and spends tons of time brushing our hair, swinging, singing in the highchair...and a lot of that time, at least for a little while, is going to be greatly reduced. That I would miss one thing- one bath, one bottle, one good night kiss, one book, etc - with her makes me tear up. But, oh how we pray that these girls (and any future siblings) would grow up best friends. Ugh. I don't know. It must be hormones but it breaks my heart to imagine being without the alone time that she and I have had.

Anyway, we accomplished LOTS this weekend. I am working hard to finish up cleaning around here, getting things on the wall in Halle's room, run some last minute baby errands...and packing a bag for the hospital needs to fit in there somewhere, just thought about that! Pictures of Halle's room (and M's new "big girl room") to come soon. We'll keep the blog updated even if we're in the hospital so check back to see what's happening! While Matney is asleep I'm off to paint a few picture frames so that I can get them up tomorrow.

I am FINALLY Mama!

Just had to share, Matney is FINALLY calling me Mama! Some of you have been around her and know that she's been calling me Stacey for months. She could say "mama" but the only time she called me Mama was when she wanted a bottle. It sounded something like this - imagine a PITIFUL, whining voice and high volume level- "MA MA MA BA BA BA!!!". Not long ago she screamed it just like that the ENTIRE time we checked out at Kroger. That day I called Jared and told him I wasn't ever taking her out again until she was 4.

We figure she started calling me Stacey since that is all she ever heard anyone call me. I've always called Jared "Dada" around her so she learned his name that way. For the past week Jared has been making a big effort to only call me Mama around Matney and she's finally gotten it. I got Mama all day today, when she was happy or mad, and it sounded wonderful!!!

And our big girl has another tooth coming through. She's been waking up at night and took those crazy long naps this weekend (those are long gone by the way) so we should have guessed it was a tooth and not that she's about to become a sleeper. Today she had her tongue to the side of her mouth all day. I was finally brave enough to stick my finger in there this afternoon and sure enough the tip of a bottom 12 month molar is sticking through. That makes tooth number 11. There may be one on the other side already too but I am content with my 10 fingers staying where they are for now!

Other than my dr. appt on Monday and church yesterday Matney and I have been home all week. I would go crazy but I am too exhausted. I made a rule for myself that I couldn't leave the house until everything I could do was off my to-do list. It has been a LONG week but we've accomplished lots. Jared and I are going to make ourselves work hard this weekend to get things done so that after some last baby errands next week we can finally take a weekend to relax. No yardwork, no moving/putting together furniture, no tools and no to-do lists. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Until then we both feel like we got hit by a truck and are ready for bed early! YEA FOR FRIDAY!!!

Favorite

Out of 186 here is my favorite. I love my family!!!

Family pics

Here are some of the family pictures. Blogger is only letting me upload 2 at a time so I have no idea what order these will have. Enjoy!

An attempt at belly pictures

By the time M had taken her birthday pictures she was DONE! Her Daddy was DONE and I was pretty close. They both left the room to walk in the hallway. I stayed to take a couple belly pictures so that Matney and Halle have the same "pre-birth" pictures. Guess who didn't want to be away from Mommy? These were taken over the course of about 2 mintues. The first couple...Matney in the hallway. The next couple...you'll see!





I think they actually turned out really funny!

What's under there, Mama?

I got down on the ground trying to distract Matney so she'd quit crawling away. Apparently the more exciting thing that day was to figure out what was hiding under my shirt (she is obsessed with belly buttons and will try to lift ANYONE'S shirt). These were unplanned but very cute! We'll just pretend she is looking for her baby sister...who I am positive is much cuter than my belly button!