"Greens, greens, and nothing but greens!"

This is just today's pick.  We have another bowl full in the fridge! 
We will eat all the green beans we can stand, this week, and the rest will be blanched and frozen for Baby Willy's baby food. 

Tomorrow, we're starting it off right with bacon wrapped green beans.
Awww yeah.

Our weekend in fast forward

A beautiful wedding.
Congrats to K & A. Thanks for sharing your special day with us.
Kristin, you are one beautiful bride!
4 Attempts at a family photo
I read somewhere that you need to take 2 shots per # of people in a group picture in order to get a decent one. Aaron looks pretty great in all of them. As for the rest of us, well I guess we gave up too soon.
A visit with Great Grandparents

Cousins + a package of tic-tacs = Instant best friends.
"Hey Quincy, climb into the fountain."
"Uhhh...I think she's not s'posed to go up in there."
"Shhhhh...{whispers} trust me..."

We hit the outlets ($6 shirts at Banana Republic=my kind of shopping)

Ran 8 miles through a muddy park with K, and was creeped out enough times to realize I should probably start carrying mace with me, and will be purchasing one of these soon. I need a personal online shopper. Shopping online is not nearly as fun.

Got lost (on purpose) in this place.
Next time I am bringing a truck and purchasing furniture to replace the sorry excuse for a sofa that currently rests in my living room. So many things to love.
I bought this for the girls for Christmas.
and 2 of these for Cheeto.

and on the way out of town...
"What the---Culvers! PULL OVER!!! Pull over NOW!"
The children had JUST fallen asleep.
We ate our butterburgers with cheese, the works with no onions, crinkle fries, chocolate custard with cookie dough and root beer in TOTAL SILENCE.

Excellent weekend.

"Since U Bin Gone..."

This is Kasey, happy to be stopping by as a guest blogger while we await the arrival of Big Willy!

Tonight, we took a lot of pictures and thought it would be fun to post a little diary of what we're doing while Mommy and Daddy are off welcoming Baby Brother into the world.

I picked up Reese and Quincy around dinner time this evening, since Mommy checks into the hospital at 5:15am. No one wakes kids that early if it's at all avoidable! It's probably been at least six months since the last (and only) time I've ever picked them up and taken them away from their house in my car. They usually come to my house in their own car, then stay. Reese was quite startled that time and wasn't sure what to think. She ended up being fine, once we got out of the driveway and she didn't feel like she was choosing between two mommies!

To my relief, they were super excited for a sleepover. So excited, that they kept saying, 'Go to your house NOW! Come ON! Bring TOYS! We're gonna take a BUBBLE BATH!' And we realized how sound proof my windows are when we stood talking in the driveway with them yelling from inside the car, "Come on! Let's go! Stop talking!" It really took me right back to the days when I would hang from my Mom's sleeve in the hallway after 3 hours of church meetings. No. More. Talking.

I hadn't realized that Reese knows all the words to "Human" by The Killers now. She said it's her Daddy's favorite song. When they next song on the disc started, she said she didn't know this one...and then proceeded to sing along with the correct words. Too funny. Reese showed me how her grandpa taught her to dance with her arms. And when Muse came on, they both showed me what they've got. BTW, Meg, Reese thinks song #2 is YOUR favorite. Song #3 is HER favorite.

They finished their princess bubble bath at 8:30 and were hungry. Reese suggested that she be given "choices" of what to eat, so we reviewed what Mommy had included in their bag and the "choice" was oatmeal - hands down!

Quincy attacked it!

Reese considered a more lady-like, princess approach.

They inhaled it.

I wasn't kidding.

And they were still hungry. The next "choice" was "white yogurt."


I love the way Quincy's entire brow squishes when she's serious about her food.

Mommy packed BRAND NEW toothbrushes!

Note: Pink belongs to R; Purple to Q.

And then I realized there was no 'kid toothpaste' in their bag. Thinkly on my feet, I announced that the dentist had just given us two sparkly bags with a brand new tube of toothpaste for both of them!

They fell for it.

Little tiny tubes of CREST.

The rest of these pictures do not require words.

Cutest sisters!

And they fell asleep happily ever after.

"Everybody's Workin' For The Weekend..."

Thanks for all the b-day wishes! I had a great day and am feeling very very loved! Our laptop is currently in "the shop" and in the good hands of the Geek Squad. Hopefully, I'll be back to blogging soon, and that we'll have our computer up and running again by the time Big Willy gets here.

Speaking of which...
As of my appointment on Tuesday morning, I am 70% effaced and dilated to almost 2 cm! Woot! Baby will be here sooner than we think! FYI That's about as detailed as preggo meggo updates will get. I don't believe in throwing the words "membranes", "crowning", or "epesiotomy" out there without fair warning. Don't expect to read about any of that here, but considering my progress so far, and size/location of the baby, Baby Doc estimates Big Willy to make his debut sometime by the 18th of May.
We plan to induce on May 26th if we have no arrival by then.

Had a FABULOUS baby shower/Birthday bash last week. I'll post pics as soon as I can. It was WONDERFUL, and thanks to everyone to came to shower me with love, good food, and clothes for our little guy!

Painted the other dresser and have plans to paint the walls in the nursery this weekend...well, have plans to watch my recruited helpers paint the walls in the nursery this weekend.

Had a rockin' garage sale and made some sweet moolah off the pile of stuff in my garage that otherwise would have been donated to Helping Hands. The remainder has already been dropped off and I'm enjoying the extra space in my garage!

Finished the Baby Book. I've made a 13 month scrapbook calendar for each of my kids to document something each day from the first year of their lives. I'm really happy with how this one turned out. It's pretty cute. And...goes without saying...pics to come soon, hopefully!

The kids are actually NOT sick. YAY! Hope it lasts.

Am currently dropping off the girls at hotel Kasey and Jimmie for the night. Aaron got a gift card to Shogun (think Beni Hana) from his Assistant, so we're kicking off the weekend with a fun dinner. We'd originally planned to stay the night in Branson, but that idea was vetoed by the Baby Doc. We're going to head over there for the day tomorrow for kid-free outlet shopping, uninterrupted conversation, and Culvers for da belly. Yum.

So there's the Willy House Weekend Update.
Hope everyone is well. Gotta go...
The Butterburgers are calling.

"Say My Name, Say My Name..."

Wow. We are honestly stunted in the baby name dept. Well, Aaron is anyway. I've had a name in mind for quite some time...but here we are with 7 weeks left and no decided name for this baby.

When Reese was born, we argued over her name in the hospital for the first 24 hours of her life. With Quincy, we finally agreed on a name about an hour before we left the hospital...two days after she was born! Aaron chose Reese's name. I chose Quincy's. I guess if we follow that pattern, it would be Aaron's turn again....which is precisely why I'm changing the rules and want us to have a name tentatively decided on for "baby brother" before he arrives.

We looked at baby names for an hour this evening...here is a sampling of what we keep coming back to. Don't knock 'em...he's our baby, we'll name him whatever we want. A few people gave me a lot of CRAP for selecting "Quincy" (some still do...and to them I've finally said, "No soup for you." -they did not receive an invite to read our blog) We still love her name...I don't really care what anyone has to say about it I just got tired of hearing it. It suits her. It suits us.

Our main problem (aside from the fact that Aaron hasn't just given in to the name I've selected...I can tell you right now who will win if he passes out while I'm in labor again.) is that once we come up with a first name that we like...we can't find a middle name that fits. I refuse to have a child without a middle name, because every parent needs something to fall back on. I bet all those mothers were happy they had a backup name for their sweet baby Paris who was born only days before The Simple Life aired it's first episode. Stuff like that. You never know. We also refuse to have our kid go by their middle name, just because the name sounds better that way. Aaron is actually a James Aaron, and it is ridiculous how much trouble this has caused. Work ID cards, nametags, college papers, tithing settlement, medical insurance billing...the list goes on and on and on.

So I guess I'm doing the risky thing of asking for advice without criticism. We like these names. They are all real names, most came from the genealogy books. (Our deepest apologies to Albus, Robaird, and Haroldean. You didn't make the cut...but may you rest in peace anyway after having lived your life with a terrible name, and I'm sure you'll be thrilled to know you've not passed it on to your posterity)

Here's what we've got so far. Don't knock 'em cuz you'll feel stupid when we choose that particular name in 7 weeks and vote you off our blogging island for making fun of our baby. Until they're like 6 months old, only I'm allowed to do that. But feel free to throw in suggestions for middle names, alternate spellings (except for Kort-it took me weeks to convince Aaron that it shouldn't be spelled "like basketball court" as he'd suggested), and other names you think we might like, etc.

Soren
Kort
Corban
Cam
Mac-for a middle name...but with what?!

Aaron also wants to throw Seth into the mix. And since it's his birthday, I will. I do really like the name Seth actually, but it just doesn't seem to fit, with no explaination other than "that's just not his name"...which every mother is entitled to say as many times as she wants. I feel the same way about "Nate". Like it, it just isn't his name. Does anyone else do this?

And FYI to those I may have had this conversation in real life with...Aaron has "veto'd" Anhder, Cal, and Sam (sorry to the like, 17 Sams in my family that have access to this blog) from my list, and I've thrown Brody and Cade from his.

Window Shopping

How cute is this bedding?! I want it.This is the FIRST boy bedding I have seen so far that I like at all. Boy stuff always has big cheesy sports appliques all over it, or zoo animals, or airplanes and cars. OR, it's pastel. I'm running into the same problem with clothes. I still haven't bought anything for the baby. Aaron is proud of my restraint, since he was sure I'd go out and drop a ton of cheddar on baby layette as soon as I knew the gender. I do love gymboree newborn sleepers, and will pick one up soon...I just haven't been in there recently. I think deep down I am afraid that once I start buying baby clothes, I won't be able to stop. That, and I'm just not LOVING any thing I see enough to spend $20 on one item. I know...I am so cheap. I need to hit some outlets soon!

I do think this bedding is totally cute (aside from the ugly teddy bear mobile). I really need to just go fabric shopping and make something I like. My current nursery bedding (that I made when I was pregnant with Reese) has gender neutral colors (red, avocado green, harvest gold)...but the prints are fairly girly...like the yellow fabric has cute little cherries on it. Ummm...not so much for a boy. I don't usually like modern prints, but have been leaning toward them for the baby's room. I should probably get going on it if I'm going to make it...which I probably will, since I am SO not about to drop $200 on bedding, unless it is going on MY bed (also in desperate need of a makeover).

"Hit Me Baby, One More Time..."

...more like "hit my bladder one more time, or kick my ribs one more time." I had another ultrasound at what we thought was 21 weeks, but lucky for me, baby was measuring at 22 weeks and my due date has been moved up to May 30th!
Horray for that! Baby Willy was pretty wiggly, so it was tough to get a really clear picture, but he's healthy, has 10 tiny fingers and 10 tiny toes (we counted!) and enjoys sucking his hand.
Aren't ultrasounds amazing? To think that this picture was taken with sound waves still boggles my mind. Baby W weighs about 1 lb now. Reese says, "Wow! He looks like a dog!" nice.
a wittle foot. The actual picture (not the scanned copy you are looking at) it is a little more clear
and it is easy to count the individual toes.

For Italy.

And my favorite because it looks like that Uncle Sam Army recruitment poster with the pointing finger...

I want YOU to eat more ice cream.
Will do, Baby. Will do.