cuddle time.

Our bedtime routine is pretty consistent around here. After our bath, we sit on the couch and have our last little glass of 'choch' (aka Chocolate Milk). We watch a lil' TB (aka TV). And then head to bed. WE talk about our day. How much fun we had. How proud I am of him for what he did that day. We cuddle for a bit. Say our prayers. And say 'night'.

BUT, after our lil' boy is asleep . . . Da occasionally goes in his room for some quiet, last minute, cuddle time. It melts my heart when he does that . . . just knowing that Matt wants to go cuddle with him . . . knowing that Matt wants to sleep with him . . . makes me smile.

I sure can't wait for Joanie Leigh to get here for us to have cuddle time with her too!

Till then, enjoy our lil' boy growing up!!

Big boy panties. Choo Choos. Chicken nuggets. Our boy is growing up.

21.5 weeks

This past Thursday I hit my 21 week.  We have had such a busy past week . . . so, I haven't had ANY time to write. Now . . . I am resting w. my feet propped up . . . kid playing w. his cars . . . and I'm blogging / editing / working / emailing / etc. . . waiting for a fun photo session this evening. I am truly blessed to have the lifestyle I have.

Thursday our family had a funeral for my Mom's first cousin who passed away from a heart attack. He was 70 :( And such a good man. We, the kids and other first cousins, helped prepare food for the family to eat after the graveside service. We started at 11 and didn't leave the church till 4:30. There were tons more people than we had originally expected. Between monitoring the kiddos and helping serve / socialize . . . I was exhausted before the day was complete! Because that evening, I had to meet with a bride to discuss wedding plans . . . and we didn't get done till 9. Needless to say . . . this mama was tired before the weekend began!

Friday I worked all morning on edits and payed bills and cleaned up a little. I had an engagement session that afternoon downtown and then followed up with a rehearsal dinner for my friend who's wedding I was photographing Saturday. We didn't get home till midnight Friday (Thanks Daddy and GiGi).

Saturday, I woke up and had to run some errands in town before getting dressed for the wedding. I worked the wedding all day from 2 till 10:45 . . . on my feet . . . not much snack / food . . . this mama was beyond tired when she went to bed!!

To wake up Sunday morning to starting laundry / changing sheets / and prepare for Matt's Mom's family photos at 3 . . . Whew. We didn't get home last night till almost 7 . . . and all I could do was SIT.

I woke up this morning just feeling exhausted! I am still that way this afternoon! I can't believe that I would start feeling like this so early! It's not like I am carrying all this extra weight or anything! I still have only gained 6.5 lbs (which I am super excited about) . . . so I wouldn't think that would make my feet / body so tired! I had some nausea here and there this weekend . . . but mostly I started with Braxton Hicks contractions . . . and they kinda hurt! So . . . I'm taking it easy in hopes they ease up.

Despite all the activity and my tiredness . . . Tomme has already posted one pic of Matt and I (Houston was no where to be found . . . and was DONE taking pics at this point because Matt and I were last)    :)

I must say . . . I am proud of myself for look 'so good' knowing I am 'so exhausted'. Now I can look back at the picture and think about how tired I was . . . and not 'look' at how tired I was. Haha.

Other than our busy week / weekend . . . I have had a good 21 week. We have her bedding completely ordered . . . now, all we have to do is wait for it to come in! And start painting!!

Houston

Oh, my little Houston. Sigh. He's not so much little anymore. I lie, in height and weight, yes . . . but as a toddler . . . no. He is growing so much and becoming quite the 'lil' man.

I feel like he just started talking . . . which took him FOREVER to say anything. Just this past January, he started gibber jabbering a good bit. Although we couldn't quite make out exactly what he was saying . . . there were a few words we could understand. Now, 4 to 5 short months later . . . it's full sentences.

'Mommy, I want my race car.'
'Gigi, TB (aka TV) on, please.'
'Da, I wanna go home.'
'I'm racing cars.'
'Ma, I wanna go outside.'
'Mommy, where are all my cars? They at home?'

He is even starting to talk a little on the phone :) Which I LOVE. Because now when Daddy calls . . . it's , 'Houston, say hey to Daddy.' and he says in his cute lil' high pitch voice, 'Hey Da. What you doing?'  haha. It melts my heart. I know it doesn't sound like much OR anything big . . . but Houston NEVER liked to speak on command. And now he is . . . my big boy!

He makes me so proud. He's recently transitioned into his big boy bed . . . I say recently but it's really been a couple months. But the past month he has done exceptionally well in it! We had a rough go at first . . . lots of wake up 'Momma' calls in the middle of the night . . . several fall out the beds (even with rails + pillows surrounding him). But I think we are good to go now!

We are still working on potty training. He was getting up in the middle of the night and going . . . but now, we wont even sit on the potty. I know 'boys go thru phases' where they want to some and then they don't . . . so, we are 'back off' the potty training gig. Ugh. Plan this summer is to be fully potty trained by Joanie Leigh arrives! I don't think Matt and I could handle changing two with diapers! Not to mention by the time she arrives, he will be 3 months shy of being a 3 year old!!! So, we / he needs to get on it!

Anyways . . . I just wanted to give yall an update on our Houston. And how he is still growing! We just did a family shoot with Tomme Hilton of Tomme Hilton Gallery for Matt's Mom's side of the family, the Houston side . . . as soon as we get more images, we will post them! Houston did a great job! And I am super excited that we got an image of most of his great grands + Houston :) Makes me feel so warm that they get to see him grow and now we have an image to last a lifetime!

wanted to share . . .

what my twin and I do . . .


Normally when I ask Matt to take my 'weekly' pictures . . . Jess comes in and says, 'Oh, take my picture.' So this week . . . we did!

Aunt GiGi at 20 weeks.   |   Mama at 20 weeks.

20 weeks

Last Wednesday, Matt and I had our 20 week ultrasound for lil' Joanie Leigh w. our regular OB group. It was great to 1. know that everything is healthy and fine and 2. to be assured she is a girl. During this appointment they did all of her measurements to make sure she is growing like she is suppose too and check for other medical things like down syndrome / cleft palate / check her heart / measure her head / stomach / etc. So far, everything checked out just fine! They couldn't get all the measurements for her heart because she was stubborn and wouldn't budge for the tech.

Apparently I have nothing but stubborn children. H had the same problem during his 20 week ultrasound. But, at the last minute, he moved.  Joanie Leigh, well . . .  she wouldn't budge. She likes to sit all curled up with her chin down to her chest and her knees bent up . . . basically a little ball. Therefore, the tech. couldn't get good measurements of her heart. SO, we have another ultra sound at 24 weeks. Whew. All these ultrasounds is MUCH different than w. Houston. We only had ONE with Houston. I feel a little more excited knowing that I have seen her so much! And already can't wait to hold her.

Below are our images from our 20 appointment :) Enjoy!

Joanie's Lil' Foot.

It's a girl ;)

a lil' profile + her leg

profile and her hand up by her face :)

her name.

As most of you know, we have chosen a name for our little girl . . .

Joanie Leigh

We decided fast, because 'girl' names were the ONLY thing we had picked out. Mostly 'leftover' from our first pregnancy w. Houston. We had originally picked out two names . . . the first go round we were leaning more towards the another name. But, this go round, we told Nana and Papa our options . . . and you should have seen her face when she said, "Joanie" :) Matt immediately was sold. I was more sold on Joanie Leigh vs. name no.1

Before we even got pregnant, we agreed that our children would have one name from the 'Billingsleys' and one name from the 'Kings' . . . that way both sides were covered and we both felt like we both named our child. Therefore . . . her name:

Joanie:  Nana's (Matt's grandma) name is Joan. And Papa will call her Joanie.
Leigh:  My middle name and my Great Grandma's name.

We are so blessed and thankful we are having a girl . . . of course for all the 'sappy' reasons like:  We now get to experience the best of both worlds. And Matt will have a 'daddy's girl'. BUT, because we would have been screwed w. the boy names. We didn't have much left to work from . . . we couldn't agree on anything and we had already started a list of names we 'liked'.  Finally, we threw up our hands and said . . . let's just wait and see if we even need to have this argument. . . and surely . . . we didn't!


P.S. I have pics uploaded from her first 'BIG' ultrasound when we found out were having a lil' Joanie Leigh.

the 4D view of her face and her lil' foot.

one of her lil' feet.

She's a GIRL.

JL scratching her head . . . or beginning to 'twirl' her hair like mama :)

19 weeks

This past Thursday we completed our 19th week and started our 20th. Which ultimately means, HALF WAY! So weird. Half way and we didn't even take our 19 week pic! :( Sad, BUT we have been so busy.

Matt has started the 'playoffs' for CHS Varsity Soccer team. Whew, it's almost over! Maybe another week or two. Depends on if they win the games this week. Then its to 'semi' playoffs and then playoffs. But, Houston, Joanie Leigh and I can't WAIT to get our daddy back. We have been a 'one man show' for a while now and mama is ready to catch up on some work and put her feet up, at least once! We know daddy has enjoyed it and it's allowed him some quality time to himself. So, we can't complain . . . too much. wink.

Not to mention H is sick this week w. a sore throat. He started Friday night with a dry cough and it's progressively gotten worse . . . so today I took him to the doc.  No strep. Thank goodness! Also, I have had several bad days this past week. Just continual nausea . . . blah. I had a really really good day last week and I splurged quite a bit on food (my bad) and it did a toll on me. I forgot how you can't splurge THAT much when your pregnant . . . it can play tricks on you!! Cause I gained a pound and then was so nauseous for two days. Blah. I had flash backs of when I was pregnant with H and I gained 7lbs in one night. AH. Just don't want to do that again! But hey, you just can't help what your body does esp. when your preggo. No wonder Daddy wants to get away!

Excuse my babbling . . . but I didn't upload any recent pics of our crazy family. And no new 'baby' status . . . and funny stories are all I got.

So, today I helped Jess in her classroom. . . WHOA. Thank GOODNESS I am not a teacher. I am pretty sure I could have popped them all right in the middle of the forehead. But that is beside the point. Today one of Jess' students sat next to me at lunch . . . along with 5 other kids who talk the entire time, ask 20 questions each, try to touch your food, spit theirs, and put their nasty hands all over you . . . ANYWAYS, this was our conversation when we arrived back from lunch:

Jess' student:  "Mrs. Erica, you ate too much today at lunch."
Me:  "I did? Why do you say that?"
Jess' student:  "Because your belly is poking out."
Me:  "Honey, It's a good thing your six and I'm in a good mood."

Thanks kid.

the ultrasound

I'm not going to lie, this pregnancy has been a rough one. I am extremely tired, was extremely nauseous (thank goodness it's died down some, thanks meds.) and just plan anxious the whole time. WHY the anxiety? Ugh. I dunno. Maybe it's because I know now how fast the pregnancy flies. I know now that 'time management' in this household is extremely different with one kid than it was when it was just Matt and I. So . . . thinking about ALL the things we NEED to do before baby no.2 gets here, makes me a bit anxious. Esp. with Matt coaching soccer this year, me 'running' my own business, Houston being so 'on the go' . . . I just keep freaking out that we wont have enough time to get everything done before the baby arrives.

When I was pregnant with Houston, we had decided to put the house on the market . . . so I never decorated his nursery because I wanted to 'target' all buyers. So, when we moved . . . I knew that there was no point in doing one then if we were fixing to change his room to a 'toddler' room in a year.  And now is the time that I want to 'fix' his room up for him. We have the furniture in: Check. The bed still needs to be painted:  tick, tick, tick. We have his bed sheets / comforter: Check. Pick out a wall color:  tick, tick, tick. Paint his room:  tick, tick, tick. Now that the crib is moved out, I am hoping (fingers crossed) that will be Matt's next 'task'.

Anyways, I'm REALLY itching to do a nursery since I didn't get to do one last time . . . and with this 'itch' I am finding out how EXPENSIVE it can be! Eeeek. BUT, before we knew we were actually having a girl, I was FREAKING because I knew I wanted to do all these things this go round and just didn't think we would have time. SO, I coned Matt into letting us find out sooner than our 20 week appointment. Wink.

Apparently there are ultrasound technician places around town that you pay, you see your baby, get pics and they tell you the sex of your baby . . . Umm . . . so wish I would have done it with Houston! I just never thought you could see your baby that often . . . But apparently you can! Plus, after asking our OB to do an ultrasound at 16 weeks, Matt and I were extremely excited and HAD to know for sure what we were having . . .

So, at 16 weeks and 5 days, we went! We even got a 15 minute video of the lil' girl! It's too big to upload but I might put it on YouTube for everyone to see :) I know several have been asking and it's so hard to 'distribute' or 'plan a time to show it' . . . but it's the coolest thing! OH, and we have pics . . . that I have kept in my wallet since! And probably should put on here too :) Yet again something on my list of things I NEED to do.

We saw her lil' feet. All 10 fingers. Her cute lil' profile (that looks just like H's when we saw him). We even saw her scratching her head! Laugh. It's too cute! She was about the size of your index finger . . . which is so strange to me that something so small is actually a lil' human.

Houston went with us to the ultrasound . . . he of course could care less. He just played with his cars in the corner! Fine by me . . . cause Matt and I were over the moon when we found out it was for real a little girl in there! Although, I must say, I am kinda nervous to go in for my 20 weeks OB ultrasound . . . what if it's a boy!? AH. haha. Surely they would have seen something, right?

Pics of baby no.2 Joanie Leigh coming soon!

OH, and P.S. I have been looking at little girl things . . . SO ADDICTING . . . and trying to figure out her crib bedding . . . WAY too many choices. I think this is why God gave us a boy first. I would have never survived during the move with a Girl first.