Hank is 2!

This sweet guy turned 2 today:

Sorry for the photo drop.  I just love him.  He is sweet and so funny.  He has the most tender heart, and will surely be the class comedian.  He loves Ella more than anything, and I'm so thankful for the relationship they have.

Here are some things about Henry that I don't want to forget:

• he refuses to eat sitting down...must be standing.
• he loves to watch the washing machine turn.
• he loves tools, specifically tape measures and flashlights.
• he loves to put his hand between my shirtsleeve and my arm.
• he says nearly every word correctly, except milk.  every single liquid is 'nuk'.
• he loves pizza so much that he does a little dance of excitement when he sees a pizza box, complete with flapping arms and shouts of gibberish.
• when Henry wants something, he shouts, 'i do!'. over and over.
• if the rating scale was sleep alone he'd be my favorite...he sleeps 14 hours at night, and takes a 2-3 hour nap.
• he must, at all times, have something in each hand.  it's usually a train engine, a car, or a bobby pin.

We had a great day...we went to Starbucks for breakfast in party hats {family tradition}, played on the trampoline {our gift to Hank}, and took Ella to dance class.

Please excuse my lovely singing voice, and watch this ad. or. a. ble. video of Henry blowing out his candles.

We love you, Henry Ronan, and are so glad you're here!

Up to My Eyeballs

Update!  Because I know you're all so captivated by my landscaping progress, I'll just go ahead and cross things off as a get them done.  How's that for super exciting?

I'm feeling super overwhelmed, so I'm making a list and blogging it.  Isn't that what everyone does?  Mmmmmkay.

I don't know if it's some type of strange manifestation of nesting {I nest even when not pregnant}, or spring fever, or just my crazy self, but I've started landscaping our house myself.  Nic has been working crazy long days {20 hours...not even kidding...wish I was}, so it's pretty much up to me.  So far, though, it's been going well:

With a great weather forecast this weekend and a husband who swears he's not working, here are some items on our to-do list:

• finish lining the driveway with brick
• finish lining the sidewalk with brick
• buy more brick!
• trim greenery in front yard
• extend flower beds down the side of the house and line with brick
• figure out how to breath new life into my transplanted peony {I did move two, and one is doing great, so that's a win}
• find some super helpers to finish assembling the swingset in our backyard {a gift for the kids for birthdays from a slew of grandparents...so exciting!}.  the age of 4 is not known for patience, and Ella has been trying so hard wait patiently for this to get built
• move the large logs out of our yard from getting the tree cut down {we're using some for stools around the fire pit}
• figure out what on earth to do with the large amount of ghetto mulch/dirt from the tree stump
• cross my fingers/toes/arms/legs/eyes that my in-laws' rv is moved tomorrow so that I can figure out what to do with that side of the driveway

Ok!  Feeling better already.  Here's to a sweaty weekend!

Five Favorites

This is part of a link-up, but I'm too lazy.  But I liked the idea.  So here are 5 of my favorite things.

1. Open windows.  I love this time of year.  Fresh air in the house, windows open all day and night.  Our house has the magic combination of floor plan + window placement + direction to the sun that allows us to keep the house comfortable without the stupid ac until it's about 85 degrees.  It's lovely, really.
2. Garage sales.  This town is garage-sale crazy.  I usually pack up the kids + snacks and head out on Thursday morning.  If you're not out at 8 on Thursday, the good stuff is gone.  It's madness.  And terribly fun.
3. Parenthood.  I recently watched the whole series on Netflix, and now I'm catching up on this season.  It's a fantastic show.
4. Mac Prep + Prime.  As I'm winding up my 20s, I found I was needing some attention under the eyes.  I bought a random moisturizer with retinol {apparently the magic ingredient} and then some of this prep + prime.  I love it!  It's a great, lightweight wrinkle filler for daytime.
5. Jet's!  And OH MY GOSH my brother-in-law just informed me a new one opened up HERE IN TOWN.  I might die of happiness.  And of course they don't deliver to our house, so you can bet I'm packing up my troop to grab takeout tonight.  Nic's out of town again, so it's only reasonable that we survive on pizza for the next three days.

At Least I'll Have My Arms

As this pregnancy progresses, it has become quite clear that it will be next-to-impossible for me to keep my weight gain in check.  That was expected; I've never gained less than 90 pounds.  Granted, a good deal of it is water weight {I swell terribly in the last weeks...months...}, but a good deal of it is not.

Honestly, with both Henry's pregnancy and this one, I've been so careful about what I'm eating.  I don't really even want sweets this time around, which is uncharted territory.  I think a suuuuuuper slow metabolism is to blame.  Anyway.

One thing I loved about Henry's pregnancy was that since most of it progressed during the winter {born May 28th, and that spring was really cold}, I rarely needed to bare my arms.  This time around, though {October due date}, I'll be wearing as little clothes as possible in those hot summer months.

I found this workout on Pinterest, and it seemed doable.  I've been using 6-pound weights and doing three sets of 10 reps each every morning.  I'm not convinced you can actually see results yet, but I can sure feel it!  Give it a try!