Headed To The Beach!

We are on our way to the beach Saturday morning!!! I cannot wait- we will be there until the next week, we plan on some prime relaxing time! My mom is going too so she will be the live in babysitter and just fun for me and Kate to hang out with when Brandon is studying. We will take the laptop with us, so hopefully we will be able to update some cute beach pictures.
Now, just for kicks:

Brandon has been saving change forever... and it really just got on my nerves to have canisters of change sitting around- UNTIL he said we should cash it in and use it for spending money at the beach. I should never enter any of those contests where you try to guess how much of something there is in a certain container, because I thought there would be about $40. I was even annoyed that he thought that this would be a "treat" and made fun of him for the idea, but he cashed it in today and it was a little over $200!!! I am thinking we need to always save our change and then use it for surprise spending money, it really will be a treat! I was so skeptical that I took pictures of the before amount to see if anyone else really thought there was that much to it... does that look like any more than $50?!

This is the dress I made for Kate to wear at the beach! The flip-flops are so cute on it and she looks precious in the dress! I must be getting the hang of the pillowcase dress, because this one was done all in Kate's naptime! I guess I need to master another style now so she doesn't wear the same thing everyday!

This is a little cotton bubble that I bought a while back at a consignment sale for $2, and I wondered if it would even be cute monogrammed, but I decided it was worth $2 to find out. Katie and Campbell came over for a little "monogramming party" and we just pulled out all of the outfits that weren't that cute (or just looked like they were missing something) by themselves and put a monogram on them, and they all turned out so cute. This was some of Katie's magenta thread (thanks for letting me use it) and I loved how it looked on the plain white. I am really enjoying this sewing machine and I am even thinking of starting a little side job of sewing/monogramming things to earn a little spending money. That way, a hobby could even earn me some more than a well-dressed child! Any thoughts?

Kate's New Chair, Father's Day, and A Name!

Brandon's grandparents wanted Kate to have a new chair for her birthday... so this is the one we picked out! This is the Pottery Barn Kids Anywhere Chair, and she is in it all the time now! There is a My First Anywhere Chair that is smaller, but we figured that she is only going to get bigger, so we went for the bigger one. We also went with Navy and White gingham to be an Auburn theme because the pink was just a little too bright for us and I thought that stains would show up more on solid pink. This way, Kate can share the chair with her brother someday. She loves climbing up in the chair and wiggling her way back into the corner. Bailey has desperately been trying to use this chair too, so we turn it on it's side at night so she won't be tempted to hop in. I am trying to salvage one piece of furniture that is only for humans!

This is Kate's ball blowing factory that she has just re-discovered. She got it for Christmas from Kelly and Heath, but she didn't know how to load the balls or press the button until recently, so she had given up on it. But now... she is definitely into the button. We will round up all of the balls and put them back in the pipe, and then Kate will press the button to send them flying off again. She laughs- and I am pretty sure it is because I am running around trying to keep balls from rolling under furniture- and she squeals when she leans over the top and lets it blow her hair. I think this toy is extra fun to her now that she is up and walking, because she stands over the top and then she walks around to pick up the balls and loads them right back in there for more fun.

This was Father's Day night at our house! We went to dinner with my family to celebrate with my dad, and then we came home and Brandon and Kate watched golf (notice Brandon enjoying the new chair too). Kate and I gave Brandon the afternoon at home to study and we went to my parents' and grandparents' houses to visit. He has some pretty big tests coming up, and he was going to spend the day in the library, but the thought of him sitting alone in a library made me sad, so we left him home. As of this Friday, Brandon will be a 4th year medical student- almost done!!! He took a few weeks off to study, so we are going to the beach on Saturday. He is loading up the computer so he can take advantage of wireless internet at the beach and study while we enjoy the sun and rest!
So- Brandon and I have been hung up between a few baby names, and we could not decide because we liked them the same. For Father's Day, I told Brandon that his gift was that he could make the final call on the name (not much of a gift, I know) and he picked it! Our new baby's name is Brandon Blake Slagley, Jr., but we are calling him Blake. I wasn't sure about having a Jr. because I don't want him to be called "Jr." or "J. R." and I didn't want confusion of wondering which Brandon people were talking about (big Brandon or little Brandon). So, we are just going to tell people that those are NOT his names. Also, Kate is really Kathryn, and it has not been that confusing to explain. I am really glad he chose this name though, because I kept thinking that if we were going to use the name Blake, it needed to be with the first son, so it worked out perfectly. By the way, I got over the obsession with the meanings of names, mainly because there are so many references telling you different things and because the meanings of the names I liked were horrible! For example, the meaning of Brandon is "from the broom hill" and Blake means "dark" in some references and "pale" in others. Those are terrible- couldn't they have made up something that just sounded a little better? That is exactly why I got over it and just decided that he will make his own meaning of the name for us!

Garden Update

My gerber daisies are making a second appearance. This is a pot of mixed colored gerbers, and there are yellow, red, cream, and pink ones. They were so pretty when they all bloomed at once, but then they all died at once! So, we are starting round 2!

This is the double-dip hibiscus that Kate gave me for Mother's Day with the daisies. They are so pretty and bright- it really is a great summer plant!

These are 2 tomato plants... they are almost ready! I have one that is in the kitchen almost red... I love tomatoes, so I cannot wait to just add a little salt and eat up!

These are my grape tomatoes, they have already produced a few. I made a BLT the other day with mini slices of tomatoes.

This is the ENORMOUS zucchini plant! There are some zucchini growing on the ground, but you can't see them through the monster leaves. It looks like an overgrown jungle, but I promise it really is a garden! The tiny white flower bloom on the bottom right is one of our onion plants. Obviously you can't see them anymore!

This is the inside of the other enormous plant, but these are yellow squash... can you see them? I can't wait, I hope I have friends that like squash, because we will be handing them out.

This is just a picture from a few feet back. The large one on the left is a yellow squash, with the giant zucchini next to it on the right. Right behind them is a super tall tomato plant that you can sort of see, and a few broccoli and cauliflower plants. It is amazing to see how huge these have gotten over the past few weeks.
I know no one probably cares about the garden, but I am really just taking comparison pictures for myself. This gives me a little something to do, and some yummy vegetables after some time. Kate naps in the mornings and afternoons, so I just head outside and water, pick, trim, etc. Who knew that I would enjoy a garden or sewing so much?!

Kate's New Clothes

This is the dress that I started sewing a LONG time ago, but I got burned out on it, so I took a break and finished it a couple weeks ago. It is a gingham seersucker fabric and it turned out a lot cuter than I thought it would be. I am still debating over the turquoise ribbon or white, but I am leaning towards the turquoise.

This is the back view of it. The ribbon pulls a lot tighter when it is on, but it is still just a little too big for Kate and I don't feel like taking it in just to take it out again in a few weeks/months.

This is the pillowcase dress I showed a few weeks ago in progress, but now it is DONE! It was super easy, it only took me a day or so of Kate's naptimes, so it was not too bad! I bought the fabric at a trunk show place as a remnant, and it turned out so cute. I am working on the extra fabric using an apple or pear as an applique on a white cotton bubble I bought Kate.

These are the bloomers I monongrammed to wear under the fruit dress. It looks so cute together, I need to get a picture of Kate wearing this.
Anyway, I just thought I would post some of my recent projects. I am working on a hot pink bubble now with little ladybug patches on the front, but I am stumped and need my mom's expertise before I can go on. More pictures later!

New Toys Are Wonderful!

Kate got new toys for her birthday that are really keeping her entertained! She loves pressing the button to turn things on and off. You will hear the opening song, "Colors, shapes, letters, and sounds..." and then you hear "Bye Bye" over and over again! It would seriously get on my nerves if it just didn't keep her entertained so well! I am loving watching her walk all over the place too. She walks from one toy to the other and over to her toy baskets to dig in!

Brandon was on call almost all weekend, so Kate and I stayed at my parents' house to swim and play. My dad had back surgery last Wednesday and my brother had tonsil surgery last Friday, so I said we were out there to help my mom take care of them... I am not sure how much help a 1 year old exploring baby is! We had a blast though. Kate walked all around their house and their yard- I guess she loved the space. I worked all day Saturday, and it wore me out. I usually do half-shifts and I was there for 13 hours straight, and I was exhausted! Some people say that work is a vacation from home for them, but I just remembered how much you run around and hardly get time to eat a snack! No vacation there!

So- baby boy Slagley got his first 2 outfits this weekend from my friend Jen! He got a sleeper with a cute monkey on it, and a little blue pants outfit with a matching onesie covered in animals. I guess it is finally sinking in- I am excited about going to the beach in a few weeks to hit up the outlets for more boy stuff! He may have some clothes, but no name yet! We are still tossing some around, but nothing for sure. I have told him my top 2, but Brandon is taking time to figure out which he liks better/which sounds better. Do you know what is depressing? Looking up what names mean! I will have the best name, and then I read too much into how boring the meaning is and it ruins it! I know the meaning is not that important, but I at least like to know what they mean. For example, Brandon means "hill covered with broom" and Lindsey means "wetland." I love that Kathryn (Kate) means "pure" but I am going to have to let it go with the meaning thing because I am running out of boy names that we can agree on!

By the way, my neighbor just made my day! She said I had my hands full with Kate walking around and Bailey running through the yard, and I told her I was going to enjoy it now before the next one comes... and she didn't know I was pregnant! She said she couldn't tell (maybe she didn't have her contacts in yet or it was just the enormous t-shirt I have on), but I loved it because everyone else has been telling me how big I am and asking if I am about to have another one??? That is always fun to explain that I am really not that far along, but that this is my second one and that I got pregnant when Kate was 8 months old and I just showed so quickly, etc. Oh well, I will just enjoy my neighbor's comment and forget about all the other stuff!

We Are Thankful To Announce A Healthy Baby...

BOY!!! This was the first picture the ultrasound lady showed us! We really had no feeling one way or the other, but this pregnancy has been COMPLETELY different than the last one. With Kate, I threw up all day every day and only wanted macaroni and cheese or cheese toast. This time, I have only been sick a handful of times, and I have craved nasty stuff like bacon and toast with real butter, and other healthy things! We are so excited to have one of each, but now I need to start buying some boy clothes! Most of the equipment we got is neutral, so we can use it... but I doubt he will want to wear dresses and all pink! Brandon didn't make as much of a reaction as I thought he would, but he explained later that he just didn't want to appear more excited than he would have been if it was another girl. What am I going to do with a boy??? We don't have a name yet, but we will keep you updated!

This is him looking at us with his arm by his side. He was sucking his index finger at one point during the ultrasound.

This is him waving at us! He has long limbs and big hands and feet... surprise, surprise! It was so exciting to see him in there moving around and it just reminded me what real people babies are at such an early point in development! When you see them move and wave and you can feel them, it totally puts it into perspective that they are already a living person! Wow, what a wonderful (and humbling) job this is to carry a tiny little life until they are ready to enter this world!

She Had Her Cake And Ate It Too!

We had a pool party for Kate's birthday. It was great because it was so easy to not worry about making a mess! We had family and friends come celebrate with us, and it was so much fun! We had BBQ that Brandon and Uncle Derek pit-roasted and smoked overnight, cupcakes, and ice cream sundaes. We had played in the pool all day, so we just stayed in our bathing suits, it was just too hot to care about being dressed cute! Kate had her own cake, so we just set it on her tray and let her go to town. It took her a minute to figure out how to get the cake into little pieces and put it in her mouth, but once she got it, I had to take some of the cake away... she was loving it! She just wore her diaper and a huge bib, and I even let her get icing in her hair! I am usually so anal about her making a mess, but I didn't even worry about it.

She tried to shove huge bites into her mouth, I had to help her get small pieces so she wouldn't choke on cake! She loved the icing in her hands. She was covered in icing and we were going to just dip her in the pool, but she had little cake bits all over... so we used the mist function on the hose nozzle and hosed her down! I know, it sounds redneck, but it was the easiest and fastest way to clean her up! Somehow, we did not get pictures of the hosing, but I think we got video. She will kill us if that ever surfaces!

Here is the dip in the pool making clean-up fun for Kate too! She LOVES the pool, so she was probably sad that we were not staying in it. But, we got pictures of her skinny dipping for the first time! Once again, she will kill me later! Thank God for pool parties for the summer babies!

It is hard to get to the presents when you are having food and then cake/ice cream, and the guests are babies that don't stay anywhere for long. So, some of the guests had already left when Kate opened her gifts, but she LOVED them! She was playing with her toys and waving the clothing items around. She just sat in her daddy's lap and checked everything out. I really was glad to get some new toys, because she was getting a little tired of the same old toy basket at home. I just refuse to buy toys very often, when a balloon or water bottle keeps her entertained! She should be satisfied for a while! She also got some clothes and a new bathing suit- which we always need! This child grows so fast!

Another birthday surprise- after the party, we put her in the grass and she just started walking all over the place. Like I have said before, she has been very selective about when and where she walked... and she would only do small distances. But, she decided that it was fun to walk, and she went all over the place. I don't know if it was because the grass was so soft, or if she just had tons of space, but we will be in the grass a lot now! So, she is getting pretty comfortable with this walking thing, and she gets the biggest smile on her face and she waves her arms around because she is so excited and proud of herself. Now she is easily walking around the house- she just walked from the den to her room for naptime! I love the walking to because it wears her out! We got video footage of her walking at the party too, so I need to learn how to post that so we can share those videos.

P.S. Check back tomorrow afternoon to see if we are having a girl or boy!