We're not in Texas anymore, that's for sure!!

Snow?  In late March?  A BLIZZARD?!!?!  "Thunder-snow?????"  (We think those silly KS weather guys just made that one up.  BUT, I must say....I DID hear thunder claps at one point during the blizzard....still, 

"thunder-snow?"  It all sounded a bit strange to us!)

Friday night (March 27th) was mostly an ice storm....see what happened to our trees in a pic below.  Then the snow came late that night and early in the day on Saturday.  It really was beautiful!!!  In the last pic, I was trying to capture how big the snowflakes were....never seen anything like it--flakes as big as quarters, at least!  It was amazing!  They predicted between 6 and 15 inches.  According to our ruler, we got between 7 and 8 inches in our part of town.

We had some fun family time making our snowman.  Well, actually, Emma mostly sat back and ate snow, & I was a bit limited in my bending over and rolling snow ability....so Brett actually did most of the hard work and I did the "decorating" afterwards.  Still, we all had fun outside together.  Then poor Brett got another work-out shoveling the sidewalk & driveway.  

Hoping warmer weather is coming real soon (& staying!!!)

I'm 29 weeks along now....and feeling very pregnant!!  Sleep has been rough lately.  Indigestion & heartburn appear to be my new best friend (same as with my pregnancy with Emma).  This little guy is sooooooo incredibly active!!!  It NEVER gets old watching my belly move around or feeling him do acrobats in there!  Poor Brett...several times a day still, I keep grabbing his hand so that he feels too.  I absolutely love feeling him move....can't help but smile thinking about it!

Here's a couple pics of Emma and I taken this weekend.  

And here's 3 pics of our little Emma:

1. Making a "nice" play-doh monster.
2. Getting some fun McDonald's playground time on a cold day.
3. All dressed up, "playing Princess"  

And a few funny Emma stories:

1. Last Thanksgiving, Nana (my mom) & Emma were playing outside with "tickle sticks" (a certain long & soft needle off a pine-type tree).  Well, apparently it's been a while since Emma has played with one...today she didn't remember exactly what her and Nana had called them.  She kept calling them "stickle ticks."
2. For some reason, Emma has a hard time remembering how to say "cantaloupe."  They've been really yummy lately so we've had them around a lot the past week or so.  Whenever Emma wants some she says, "Mommy, can I eat some buffalo?"  (you can imagine how tricky that was to figure out the first time!! :O)
3. Emma has become so very friendly to strangers (ie: people around us at the grocery store, servers at restaurants, etc.).  The slightest smile or wave from a stranger and she just takes off!!!  Her side of the conversation usually goes something like this: "I just got 'free' on my birfday (as she holds up 3 fingers).  I'm a big gurl now.  And we made a giant cookie wif lots of tangs on it.  I have a baby broder in my mommy's belly, but he is not ready to come out yet.  He is getting bigger and bigger and when he come out I will help him go down da slide and I will show him all da animals at da zoo and he can sit in my lap..." Depending on how friendly the stranger is this can go on & on & on, until either I stop her or the stranger ends it.  As we were leaving a restaurant recently, Emma waved at every single table between our table and the front door (about 10 or so tables).  It's been fun to watch!  Crazy how quickly kids can bring a smile to just about any stranger's face.

FUNNY STORY!!

Hey, so I have a funny story to tell...

Brett took Emma for a walk last night as I got dinner ready.  He stopped to talk with our neighbor that lives TWO DOORS DOWN.  In the midst of their conversation, our neighbor asks us if we still use a baby monitor.  Brett said, "Yes."  She said, "Yeah, I think y'all are using channel one, right?"  He said, "Yes, I think so..."  Apparently, they can pick up the signal from our monitor.  She went on to say, "Don't worry.  We changed ours to channel 2."  

YIKES!!! No telling what they've heard......the things that first came to my mind:  singing songs to her every night at bedtime, when she is in trouble/gets spankings, etc.  The even funnier thing is that this particular neighbor is a CPS worker....I guess we haven't done anything to cause concern.  :o)  

Pretty crazy, huh?  I would have never thought such a thing could happen.  It makes me wonder who (if anybody) else hears us around our neighborhood.  

Emma's 3rd Birthday

I've been wanting to blog for days.....I finally found the time (& energy) to do it!!

We celebrated Emma's 3rd birthday this past Monday, March 2nd. We decided not to have a party this year, but tried extra hard to make it a super special day for her. We had fun!!

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Bed-head & all...here's what she woke up to...

After opening presents, she ate pancakes (a favorite)...using her new place-mat, plate, and fork/spoon set that my Aunt Leslie & Uncle Jack got for her.
Then a birthday bath...she wanted to do this, I promise! She was in there for nearly an hour!!
Then we played with some of our new presents...
Here, she is showing off a little hummingbird that Aunt Mary sent for her. She loves it!
Emma had fun helping ice and decorate her birthday cake ("fruit pizza"- a giant sugar cookie with icing & all her favorite fruits).
and of course....
Putting on the finishing touches...
So very proud of herself...
For the middle part of day, we mostly stayed around the house & played with her new toys. Instead of napping, she watched Mary Poppins (her new favorite movie). We spent a chunk of time at McDonald's Play Place...it was too cold to go to the park, which is what she had asked to do. Later that night after dinner, we took her to Chucky Cheese to play for a while. She loves that place. I usually spend $2-3 dollars on tokens each time we go & she has a blast. It's another great indoors activity I've discovered for cold days.


After a long day of fun, she crashed early!!

I still can't believe my baby girl turned 3!! Her birthday was such a special day for me too....Being pregnant on her birthday really made me think back to the day I had her & what a special day it was for us.... knowing that I'll be doing this all over again very soon with little baby boy Spivey...it's exciting & super special!!

Just a fun little side-note:
Emma & I's birthdays are almost exactly 2 weeks apart.
If baby boy comes on his due date, then him & Brett's birthdays will be 2 weeks apart.
Kinda fun, huh? :O) At least I thought so...

Here's a little video of Emma "dancing" yesterday to "silly music" as she calls it. Actually, it's more like spinning in crazy circles (she LOVES to be dizzy!!) to ANY kind of music, as long as it's LOUD (I convinced her we needed to turn the volume down for the video). This girl loves loud music, especially in the car!! :o)

WOOHOO!!!!!!

We sold our SUV today!! I put it on Craig's list just a few days ago, and within 48 hours we had a buyer.  He got a great deal on it, and we got $1000 more than our highest offer so far.  We are really grateful!!

In a comment on the previous post, our friend Kelly asked why we were selling it.  Basically, we just wanted (and needed) to go down to one car for a while. We are actually pretty excited about it.  We "practiced" it for a few months just to make sure we could do it...and we found out that it's very do-able.  Actually, Emma and I love getting to take Brett to work and pick him up....it gives us good time to talk about our days and stuff.  During our time of "practicing," we ran across only a couple of situations that we had a hard time making it work, but we thankfully have several people who are glad to give us a ride so it's worked out great.

For now, we are driving my trusty 2000 Toyota Camry from college.  It's a bit rough looking in it's "old age," but overall it's been such a great car for us!!  We hope someday to "upgrade" to a newer Camry, but for now we're happy to have this one!!  :o)

Not too much new around here...

• I just celebrated my 29th birthday this past Saturday. It was fun to have my parents here for the weekend with us. Thank you all for the cards, emails, facebook messages, calls, etc. It was a great birthday! Can't believe I'm nearly 30!! :o)
• Emma will be turning 3 on March 2nd. I'm still trying to decide if we will have a little birthday party for her. It's crazy how fast these past 3 years have gone by!!!!
• My stationery business is going okay...a little slow in comparison with Christmas, but it's given me time to get my printer problem fixed with HP (what a mess that was!!) The website is getting closer and closer to being finished. Actually, it's me causing the hold-up right now...hoping to have time to work on something while Emma is at mom's day out this Friday. Keep checking....www.NutsAboutNotes.com
  
• My belly continues to get bigger, as Emma so kindly points out. :o) We're still trying to decide on a name...for now, we're calling him "Thumper" (from Bambi because...well, the name probably says it all). He seems to be constantly moving and kicking, which I absolutely LOVE!!
  

Here's a couple pics of "Thumper's" outfit that you watched Emma unwrap in the previous post (and the note that the sonogram technician wrote "it's a boy"). For a day or so, the outfit laid on our kitchen table and every time I walked past it, it made me smile so I decided to hang it up. I love walking into our living room and seeing it each day...still brings a smile to my face!! I am so excited (& ready!!!)

Here's our big girl!! We finally have had some slightly warmer weather so we took advantage of it and went to the park with some friends. I'm sooooooooo ready to be done with winter...honestly, I think the change in seasons will be good for my moods (does winter make anyone else a bit depressed?)

Just a random rainbow picture. I was amazed at how vivid the colors were the other day after a storm. I think it might have been the first time for Emma to truly see a rainbow in the sky (we've tried pointing them out in the sky before, but usually their not quite this easy to see).

And as usual, here's a few Emma quotes & stories:

• "I have a baby brother in my mommy's tummy."
• She put a bracelet on Brett's wrist, took a step back to look at it, and said "that's awesome!" (When we asked her where she heard this, she said "mommy says it." Hmmm....apparently I haven't outgrown my 7th grade vocabulary).
• "It's not beautiful yet. I have to make it beautiful" (as she made sure each piece of cereal was completely covered with milk). When I tried to feed her a bite, she told me "Mommy, that doesn't have beautiful." She is so random and strange sometimes....it's kinda scary! :o)
• Emma's bedtime routine includes reading a bible story each night. After we read the bible, we set it in the hallway b/c we're trying to "preserve" the book (specifically, keep the pages from tearing). Anyway, our friend, Melody, who was watching Emma for us one night accidently forgot to set the bible in the hallway before she left the room. Emma is super clean and definetly likes structure, organization, routines, etc (wonder where she gets that from?) When Melody came back to check on her a little later, she noticed that Emma had set the bible out in the hallway!!! We were cracking up!!! She is sooooo much like me-it's not even funny!
  

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In other news, we are trying to sell our SUV. I know this isn't a typical thing to blog about, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to get the word out some more. If you are interested or know someone else who might be interested, please email or call us. We have lots more pics and would be glad to give you more information on it.

2005 Mercury Mariner

• we bought it new in Dec '05 (one owner)
• 2WD Luxury V6
• milage: 48,000
  
• exterior color-silver; interior-black leather
• Michelin Cross Terrain SUV P235/70R16 tires rated at 65,000 miles with only 17,000 on them now.  They look and ride brand new.
  

"It's a . . . . ."

So today was the exciting day that we had THE ultrasound!! Instead of simply being told, "It's a boy" or "It's a girl" we wanted to spice things up a bit (so we borrowed an idea from the Rowe's...thanks guys!!)

We asked the sonogram technician to write down what we are having inside a card and seal it up. Then we went to the mall and picked out 1 girl outfit & 1 boy outfit (that were the same price). I gave the envelope to the cashier and asked her to wrap only the one we needed (and hide the other). Then Emma opened the present as we videotaped. So here's our big news....

:o)

www.nutsaboutnotes.com

My business website is still under construction. The link on the website takes you to this blog. If you are here to see my stationery products, you will need to scroll down a few posts to see the complete collection, prices, and how to order. Sorry for any inconvenience. I hope to have the website up real soon!

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I've got a few minutes so I'm going to try to post an update real fast. Oh, but I have sooooooooo much I'd like to share since last time (again, it's been so long!) Sorry!

First, some pics:

Here are 2 of the family pics we took before Christmas (the 2nd one was on our Christmas card).

And another one from our Christmas card....

It's crazy to even say this, but this sonogram pic was from 5 weeks ago!! I'm 18 weeks now and baby is moving like crazy!! It's such an awesome feeling! I remember that feeling Emma move around was my absolute FAVORITE thing about being pregnant! And still is!! :O) I've made it thus far (& thru the holidays) with only gaining about 5 pounds....Woohoo!!!! However, my belly is already quite large. Even though, I'm about 4.5 months right now, I look the same as I did with Emma at 5.5 or 6 months!!! Yikes! I hear that it's normal to show sooner with your second, and that I'll soon "plateau-out" a bit. Let's hope so! We WILL be finding out what we are having next Wednesday, but we will be keeping it a "secret" until we're able to share it with family first. :o) Side note: we keep catching ourselves calling "it" a HIM. Hmmmm......

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I didn't take too many pics over the holidays, but here is one that I managed to grab the camera for. Em has her head STUCK between 2 rails of Meme's couch! It took several minutes to get her un-stuck, but at least she (and we) were able to have a sense of humor about it all. Daddy to the rescue....

Whenever we tell Emma that we are going to see Aunt Carrie and Uncle Sloan, she knows that means seeing animals...dogs, cats, cows, horses, etc. She especially loves to feed the horses carrots and take a little ride on Doc (with the help of Uncle Sloan & Daddy, of course).

Check out this proud little girl of her "big girl bed." Last year (Dec 07) she moved up to a toddler bed (her crib without the front rail). Then about 6 months ago she "lost" that "big girl bed" and "down-graded" to a twin matress on the floor because we couldn't keep the little monkey from climbing and jumping off the side rails. So for the past 6 months or so, she has slept on a twin matress on the floor. She was quite excited to get a REAL big girl bed....we've had NO problems with jumping or climbing...yet! She hasn't even fallen out of bed, which kinda surprised us. And she now has toys in her room again AND sleeps with her door open....she REALLY IS a big girl!! She'll be turning 3 on March 2nd. Her and her new little sibbling will be 3 years & 3 months apart (assuming baby actually comes in June, as "scheduled").




And last, but not least....
A FEW FAVORITE EMMA QUOTES:

* "My sad is coming out" (one day when she was crying...she now calls them tears)

* "Hey is for horses! No, hey is for daddies!" (have no idea what she means by this....she just started saying it one day, and we responded by laughing, therefore, she continues to repeat it!)

* "Mommy/Daddy, can you say 'not yet?' " (This is something she INSISTS that WE say to her instead of "no," or "maybe" or "not right now." We have no idea why or what that means....we've tried to explain that we mean the same thing, but she simply is not satisfied and will not "drop it" until we give in and just say "okay Emma, NOT YET!"

* LOTS OF SUPER OBVIOUS QUESTIONS, for example... "Mommy, are you Mommy?" or "Daddy, are you Daddy?" or "Mommy, did I wake up?" or "Daddy, is this our house?" or "Mommy, are you Julie?" Once again, we don't get it! We have no clue why she asks these same questions over and over again. If you turn the questions back on her, she knows exactly how to answer them, so we can't figure out why she keeps asking. Even though it confuses us a bit, it is still super cute!! :o)

* On the way over to a friend's house who had just recently graduated with his MBA, we were trying to teach Emma to say "Congratulations!" That's a big word for little ones, you know. Well, instead of "congratulations" she walked right up to our friend and said, "Apologize!" Of course he was a bit confused and kept saying "what?" And she would repeat "apologize." She was NOT saying it in a rude way at all....somehow those 2 "big words" got a little confused in her little mind. We got it all cleared up and she finally said it to him (correctly). It comes out something like this: "ra*la*lay*tions." He laughed, completely understanding what had happened (he has 3 kids of his own). After the initial shock of thinking she was being rude, Brett & I found it quite funny. Oops!

* I might have shared this before, but there's been so many recent occurrences lately that I have to share it again.....Emma's prayers are SO SWEET!!! You never know who or what she'll pray for or about.....she almost always lists off several friends or family members, she prays for her ouchies & her toys, for random animals or pets, for our food, for Jesus to make somebody "all better", etc. Many of the things she names during prayer times are for REALLY, REALLY old things (like ouchies that have been gone for months or friends that used to be sick, but have been better now for several weeks). One of my favorite things about when she prays is the face she makes....it's hard to explain, but she scrunches her eyes all up...mostly closed, but still kinda open so she can look around for things to pray for. It brings such joy to our hearts to listen to her pray....and I can't help but think that it brings joy to Jesus as well. What an amazing blessing Emma is in our lives!!! Children truly are a gift from above!!

Waking Up

Have you ever gone through one of those seasons in your life where when it was ending you felt like you were waking up? That is where I am now. I don't know that this season has truly ended, that is one of the particular markers of it, but I do feel as if I am waking up. One of the indicators for me that I have been "asleep" is that I now feel as if I can look around me, see where God is at work, listen for him, ask others around me how I can serve them, etc.... This has truly been one of the most difficult seasons for me. Please hear me not as complaining. I'm not. I think a couple of weeks/days ago I would have been. However, I think for now I am past that. So, where I have been is in a place that it took me everything I had just to hang on and there wasn't much left for others. Whether that was family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, whoever. Waking up for me means that I am beginning to be able to look around me and see others needs or (shamefully enough) not duck when I become aware of another's needs. If you are one of those who I have ducked, please forgive me. I am waking up. Especially to Julie, thank you for serving me and loving me even through this. I know you have had your own hard season, yet you were stronger. I love you and am so grateful for you.--Brett

NUTS ABOUT NOTES

Well, unfortunately my business website is still not ready. I've decided to just post my products on our blog until it's finished (which means that you will not be able to check out with Paypal or pay with credit card yet....sorry).

If you see something below that you'd like to order, please send me an email at jspivey03@hotmail.com and I'll be in contact with you (make sure you include the best phone number to call you at....we can take care of most of the details over the phone, just to make things go faster). If you place your order by no later than Tuesday, December 16th I will be able to ship it by Friday, thus having it to you in time for Christmas hopefully.

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YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO ENLARGE ALL THE IMAGES BELOW BY CLICKING ON THE PICTURE (then just click the back arrow).

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ACRYLIC BOX SETS
I have 16 different designs of the acrylic box sets. Each set includes 150 sheets, an acrylic memo holder with 1/8" thick walls and a thumb notch, and is tied together with a matching grosgrain ribbon. All acrylic box sets are $22.95 + shipping/handling (no tax for out of state orders).

NOTE CARD & ENVELOPE SETS
I have 5 different designs for the note card & envelope sets. A set includes 10 note cards & 10 envelopes. It is packaged in a clear, soft plastic box & tied with matching grosgrain ribbon. All note card & envelope sets are $11.95 + shipping.













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All stationery (acrylic box sets & note card with envelope sets) can be personalized in whatever way you wish...first name, first & last name, a scripture, favorite quote, etc. Font choices are below.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Hopefully my website will be finished soon, but thanks for bearing with me for now! :o) I'll probably send out an email announcing when it's finished.

Check it out soon...... www.nutsaboutnotes.com