It’s been a bit over seven years since this picture was taken. This is the day I fell for my Valentine. I love her more with each passing day. Our camera is way better now. 
It’s cold enough to snow here, but of course it isn’t snowing. It was so chilly in our house last night that I decided our house was not built to withstand these temperatures (after all, it’s not often that it dips so low here in the South). Of course I woke up this morning to discover that our kitchen door was slightly open, so that didn’t help. Whoever left it open, I am frowning a frown of disapproval at you! 
Kyrie, Antonio and I all snuggled up in the king size bed last night and slept wonderfully through the night. I have to admit that my favorite moments with my kids these days are the ones where they’re asleep.
Rick is in Florida doing classes and Rebekah, Forrest & the kids went to Texas to visit the Enloe family yesterday. So it’s just me with the kiddos. Play-Doh was the best Christmas present ever (for me, at least) because it has kept Kyrie occupied quite a lot lately, which helps me get things done.
Antonio smiles, coos, and giggles now. It’s lots of fun. I need to keep the camera next to the bed because he’s the happiest first thing in the morning.
Kyrie has possibly the worst cold of her life so far. She sounds really sad when she talks and she has quite a cough. No runny nose, thankfully. She rarely gets sick, so her worst cold isn’t necessarily horrible; just bad for her. I caught it, too, but I’m coping.
I enjoy cloth diapering more than I thought I would. I got a bit panicky about my decision a few days before he was born, wondering if it would add a lot of work, but it hasn’t. A little more laundry, perhaps, but not enough for me to really notice. Plus it’s nice that we don’t have to buy any diapers at the store.
I think I’ll go find something evil to eat. I have plenty of candy left in my stocking.
The blog is up and running again! I was feeling so lost without it.
Happy 41 weeks and 1 day to me. I had a long talk with Antonio today and I let him know that it’s okay for him to take his time, but he’s missing out and he’ll really enjoy all the yummy milk he’ll get when he comes out. Kyrie is so excited about baby brother and I think she’s beginning to sense that his arrival is quickly approaching. Sometimes she’ll say, “Baby brother come out of Mommy’s tummy in a minute?” Hehe…a minute long labor. That sounds awesome.
Here’s our new dining set. I love it! We bought it a couple weeks ago but it was just delivered today. It has an extra leaf to make it bigger too, but even without the leaf, it’s so much more spacious than our old table (which worked quite well for our first few years of marriage, but as our family expands, we thought we should upgrade).
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
If some of these pictures look distorted, it’s because I don’t have photoshop anymore and I’m resizing all teh pics in Paint…which is stupid.
Outside in her underwear, in November…only in the South.
Kyrie and Finn in their costumes on All Saints’ Day.
Some fall colors:
So the old fridge that we inherited from my parents was really on its death bed—has been for a while. We decided to pull the plug and get a replacement. We got a major upgrade and I’m so happy with it! 
It was originally $1479.99. A customer had returned it and it had some scuff marks on the handles. I fixed the scuff marks with a sharpie marker. Guess how much we got it for? $776.95. We saved over $700. Sweet, right?
Back home, I remember feeling like I’d had just about enough of winter once February rolled around, but a month or two would go by before spring arrived. Here, I feel that way about summer. I’ve been done with it since, well, August (when we got back from Spokane), and it’s now October and I just don’t see an end in sight. The day I was looking forward to because it was forecasted to be in the upper 70’s has now changed to 90. That’s just wrong. It’s October. I’ve been promising Kyrie that we’d be able to play outside when October came. At this rate, it’s gonna be more like November.
I long for the day when we live in a normal place where my child can play outside year-round.
I made it to my nursing goal of 2 years with Kyrie. Yay! It was my last of a series of goals (1 year, 18 months, then 2 years) and I’ll probably gently encourage her to wean before Antonio comes along. It won’t be a big deal if she wants to continue with a once-a-day sort of schedule after baby’s here, though.
The butterfly cake I made is pretty yummy. When I had a piece yesterday I was afraid that maybe it was a bit dry, but I’ve eaten several pieces since (solely for the purpose of evaluating its quality) and it’s chocolatey and moist, so yay! I think I’m going to be sick.
I’ve been checking weather.com pretty obsessively, just looking for hope that fall will be here eventually. October 9th looks like it will be a good day (77 and sunny) so I am very much looking forward to that!
Kyrie says that her new shoes are Spiderman shoes. If you look at them in the pictures below, you might see why she thinks so. The grey parts sort of look like the eyes to a Spiderman mask. She’s a big Spiderman fan so it works out. I can still get my daughter girly things and make her think I’m getting Spiderman things for her.
...that I have the best OB in town. He is one of, like, 2 doctors who will actually do VBAC’s in Monroe. I must have sounded really dumb this past Monday at my appointment when I said, “VBAC’s are legal in Louisiana?” Um, yep! The reason that most OB’s here still do not do them is actually not a liability issue as much as it is one of convenience. One rule here for VBAC’s is that the overseeing OB needs to be present for the duration of the labor and delivery, and they’d really rather not spend their time that way.
He’s also been very easy-going about everything. I declined practically every routine labor intervention and infant procedure on my birth plan and he signed it willingly and cheerfully, adding, “This looks great.”
I may not be getting the homebirth that I dreamed of (I’m hoping I will for our third child, though), but at least I’ve got an OB who supports my birth philosophy and is willing to do what he can to make sure I have the closest thing to a homebirth in the hospital.
I really sometimes wonder if I would have ended up with a c-section if he had not been my doctor with Kyrie. He allowed me to push in the hospital for over 2 hours—and he knew that I’d pushed for 2 hours at home beforehand—but he never, ever even implied the possible need for a c-section. He made me believe I could do it when nurses had told me before I even went into labor that I wouldn’t be able to. (The day before I went into labor, a nurse told me I wouldn’t go into labor on my own, so I’d need to be induced, but I’d definitely end up with a c-section. And from the looks of it on the ultrasound, the baby’s head was huge.)
Coming from the crunchy state of Washington, I have a hard time with the medical mindset here. But it’s nice that even here, I can find an OB that I’m really quite happy with.
They had a 25% sale going on not long ago, and I got a pair of roll panel jeans from them. Let me tell ya, the roll panel is the one to go with! I love it! I hate full belly panels. They are evil. Anyway, they just came today and I couldn’t be happier with them. I officially have a pair of pants that fit me. Woohoo!
Speaking of pregnancy stuff, here’s a 31 week pic of me. By the look of my face, I’m pretty sure I get retarded hormones when I’m pregnant.
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