Happy Halloween...

Who needs toys...

When you have a brother... 

And a drawer full of cups and lids to play with!

And in case you were wondering, 

She discovered this fun game all on her own!

What a mess! :) 

We've had a great weekend - ready for a busy and exciting week!

Monday - Halloween

Tuesday - Gymnastics/Junior League

Wednesday - Family pictures/leave for Houston

Thursday - Board a plane and fly to NYC!!! :) 

Friday - Sunday - Have the best time ever on our impromptu trip! So looking forward to bringing these tots to one of my favorite places and stay with one of our favorite couples! Thanks for letting us invite ourselves having us, Niki and Joe! :)

Let the madness begin... 

Tiny Tales Thursday...

Radley's class is learning a letter a week. They have all known their alphabet for some time but this is focusing more on writing the letters and prepping for spelling. (Because 4 year olds need to know how to spell).

He is very interested in what things say which makes our car rides to and from school very interesting long educational.

Radley: T-I-R-E... what's that spell, Mommy?

Me: Tire

Radley: K-O-H-L-S... what's that spell, Mommy?

Me: Kohls

Radley: D-E-N-N-Y-S... what's that spell, Mommy?
Me: Denny's

Radley: E-X-X-O-N... what's that spell, Mommy?
Me: Exxon

Radley: A-N-X-Y-L-S... what's that spell, Mommy?
Me: nothing

Radley: M-O... what's that spell, Mommy?
Me: Nothing

Radley: Why those words not spell nothing?
Me: Because you're just saying letters, buddy.
Radley: Oh.

Radley: T-A-R-G... I know that one! It spells Target!!

I guess all those shopping trips are paying off.

Here's to a stellar education, bud.

We're half way there...

 Me and Mak at 20 weeks... 

 I feel... great! My headaches are no longer bothering me (knock on wood) and for the most part I still feel normal. I hope my energy levels continue to rise because the half way point is usually my freak out "I have so much to do before this baby arrives and I only have half the time left" moment. And let's not even get started on that other list of things. Emmy's baby book is still "in progress." Anyone want to watch my kids/husband/animals for 3 days so I can get it all done? :)

I look... Well, I guess that depends on who you ask. ;) I feel like I look ok - obviously a bump, but not whale status yet. However, "the public" has other feelings of my size... I know it shouldn't surprise me at this point, but people are just dumb in their remarks. It makes me a little angry because I feel the need to be self-conscious of my size. Really? That's ridiculous, Katy. But, well... it's true. And aren't we supposed to band together as women and support each other? We are a cruel gender... but that is a whole different post. :)

I did get my hair dyed this week and I haven't quite adjusted to the color. Thoughts?

I'm craving... Surprisingly - somewhat healthy stuff. I could eat cereal, soup, and salad for any meal. McAlister's Deli has been my "go to" place lately and I do splurge on their sweet teas. Yummy!

Ryan is... a husband? :) You know, trying to be interested, but isn't all that concerned about room color, furniture arrangement, etc... He has given his opinion on a few names and is supportive during all my freak out moments.

Kids are... adorable!

Radley is talking more and more about his new baby, Rosemary. Yes... he has named this child Rosemary. Regardless of gender. I have no idea where he even got that from. But it's cute!

Emmy is loving her baby dolls these days...everything is "baby". Today she did push on my stomach and look at me like, "Yo, mom...what is THAT?!"

Mak is... Fluttering around in there. I do feel movements which surprises me because I hardly ever felt Emersyn move. I think Radley's first big kick was around week 22 or so... we will see!

We are... chatting about names. First names for each gender will follow suit and be family names and Mak will go by his/her middle name. This go round is pretty hard. Room decor will hopefully be solidified this weekend... I'm becoming slightly obsessed with "pinning" nursery ideas and stalking vendors on Etsy. The madness has to stop and the only way to do that is just buy something.

My 3 pumpkins

;)

Mak Update

Just a quick update on our "MAK" {mini amazing King, if you didn't get the memo ;)}.
We went in for our 20 week appointment today.

Katy Stats:0 lbs gained (helps when you haven't lost all the weight from the previous baby...picture on Wednesday)

BP: 122/65 (I think, I really don't pay attention that well)
Measurements: Just as I should be
Dr's Remarks: "Well, ya look great!" We love Dr. Dawson!

Mak Stats:Heartbeat: 148 - not really slow or fast (but much slower than at my 16 week)
Measurements: Right on schedule
Heart, brain, stomach, spine all look great!

We have decided to keep the gender a surprise. I was prepared with an envelope to provide to Sarah, our photographer, but...Mak wants to be a surprise too - wouldn't open his/her legs for anything! We had our eyes closed while Kristen was looking around, but to no avail Mak wouldn't budge! :)

A few sneak peaks... 

 Isn't that the cutest foot you've ever seen? Five little toes ready to pinch!

And that profile! Just adorable!! 

We will do a 4D peek at week 28 and bring Radley and Emersyn so they can get a sneak peak at their sibling... maybe Mak won't be so shy then! 

It's funny, at this stage with Radley we were still on the "first time parent" high. We had no reason to be concerned or ask questions about development or growth because what could go wrong. This time we were both examining the heart chambers, brain measurements, stomach, spine, etc... Parenthood has easily been the most rewarding, thrilling, fulfilling, miraculous, amazing gift that could be bestowed upon us. It is also easily the scariest thing we have done ... to love some one as much as you love your child is inconceivable (Princess Bride, anyone?) until you live it. Breath it. Experience it. 

What a remarkable God we serve!

That's all for now... we appreciate your continued prayers for a happy, healthy pregnancy!

Tiny Tales Thursday...

Meeting Millie has had quite the impact on Radley. He has decided that he is ready for our baby. Yesterday morning as we were getting ready for school he walks into the kitchen and kisses my tummy.

Rad: Good Morning, Baby.
Me: That was sweet, buddy.
Rad: Is our baby coming today?
Me: No, buddy. Not until March.
Rad: Oh, when is March?
Me: About four months away.
Rad: Oh. So our baby isn't going to come to school today?
Me: Not today, buddy. Our baby is going to stay in Mommy's tummy and go to work.
Rad: Oh. thinks a little bit Ok, but when our baby comes out I want to take it to school with me so I can play with it and take care of the baby.


Doesn't that just make your heart smile?

Meeting Millie...

 Today after school Radley and Emersyn had the pleasure of meeting Millie and they were so excited! We ate a quick bite of "Old McDonald's" and headed up to hospital. 

 Oh my goodness...can you even imagine what these kiddos are going to do over the next 15 years? And to think we will be adding one more little one in March! :)

I wasn't sure if Radley would be "into" holding and loving on the baby - but he was pretty smitten. When we got back into our car he said, "Ok, Mommy, I'm ready for our baby now."

Isn't he such a sweet big brother? He did great with Millie!

I was really nervous about Miss Priss... 

But she was pretty smitten, too. She kept saying "baby" and "hi" to Millie, offer pats and lots of kisses. 

At one point we took Millie away and Emmy let us know that she wanted to hold her some more. 

Miss Millie - welcome to the crew. We promise to give you kisses when you get pushed down, make sure that you always get a turn, share our toys and germs equally, and offer all the love you can get!!!

Millicent Claire Munson...

 Millicent Claire Munson arrived at 7:58am on Monday, October 17, 20011. She weighed 8lbs and measured 21 inches long. 

Millicent is the third baby girl for our friends Josh and Cindy. They kept the gender a surprise and it was so fun to be there when Josh walked out holding her accompanied by the charge nurse with the "Millicent Claire" sign - three girls! So much fun!!!

We were all thrilled that she had finally arrived!!

Especially two little girls I know...

The three Munson Messes...

Proud grandparents and sisters:

Rammy, Nana, Caroline, Annaliese, Bebe, and Papa...

 The lovely Sarah Giles was there to capture all the little moments and I insisted on capturing the genius behind the work of documenting our kids lives.

Millicent has dark hair and the cutest round little face. And she is so CALM! Hardly a tear or a peep during all the poking and prodding - which is a relief because she was kicking Cindy right up until the end. I guess she just wanted out to meet the world. The babies are always the sweetest (right Mom and Dad?)! 

Doesn't Cindy look great? 

But this little bundle was the real queen of the day... 

We love you Millicent! So glad that you are finally here!!

Painted pumpkins...

I was doing some research on Pinterest recently and saw tons of posts with painted pumpkins. I LOVED them .... much cuter than anything I could carve and kid friendly! 

So today... we set out to paint some pumpkins. 

Don't those look like some happy kiddos? 

Radley was a great helper and was excited about making his pumpkin black with white polka dots. 

Emmy was excited about touching everything that she wasn't supposed to. 

Eventually she got the hang of it though. 

;)

But then they got bored. 

So off went the clothes and in the jumped to the sandbox. 

Which left this guy to help.

Do you see the joy written all over his face? 

Me too. 

He did a great job taping and painting, though!

Step 1 done. Now to wait for the paint to dry. 

(And, yes, I realize that white pumpkins exist.... but they are much more expensive and this was all about the experience. Sheesh.) 

So, step 2 was all me, so I only have pictures of the finished project. 

The one with "K" was A LOT cuter in my head.

But don't they look marvelous on our porch?

I think I want to do four more!

Close up on the left...

(I have since rotated the striped one so the orange doesn't show)

And on the right... 

I LOVE them! I may add some ribbon to the tops of the dots and stripes... we will see. 

And I just want to write this down so I remember it. We have had the perfect weekend. 

What did I do to be so blessed??

Love you, Ryan. Thank you for making all my dreams come true. 

Turtle Talk...

This is Kim. 

This is Philip and Kim. 

I like to take credit for their incredible love story. 

Kim is one of my sorority sisters and Philip is a Baylor Alumni. When I was a sophomore I helped arrange a "mixer" between the Aggie Delta Zetas and the Baylor Sig Eps. (Side note: it was an excellent event). Kim and Philip locked eyes at the Waco On The Border, and well the rest is history. 

The got engaged FOUR MONTHS later (she was a freshmen, he a junior) and have been together ever since. Seriously. One of my favorite couples. Ever.

I basically named myself godmother of their first child... honorary of course. 

;)

Kim and I hadn't seen each other since probably my wedding or another wedding for one of sisters... either way it had been much too long. Her sweet family came to Aggieland for the Baylor game and then headed over to our place for dinner and to catch up. 

Our kids had the best time playing and the "grown ups" had some fun, too! 

 Miller was a natural at ladder ball, and Kennedy was the perfect big sister to all the smaller tikes. 

Emmy eventually "warmed up" to everyone and was a giant mess... 

 Literally... check out those feet! 

Radley didn't mind the attention and even requested a picture with Kim and Philip. 

And then Kennedy joined in for some "funny faces"... 

It was just one of those perfect evenings... 

old friends, good food, great company. At one point I think I let it all soak in that this was exactly what I remember from my childhood. Kids playing and laughing and making all kinds of messes and the "grown ups" chiming in everyone once in a while but caught up in great conversation and not wanting the evening to end. 

Thanks for coming to visit, Hartfield family! Our door is always open!! 

Sixteen Months (and seven days)...

Emmy is SIXTEEN MONTHS OLD! 

I know that moms say this every other day about their children, but I really can't believe that she is that "old". 

So what has she been up to...

She is become quite the skilled "animal caller"... it goes something like this:

Ryan/Katy: Emmy... what does a doggy say?

Emmy: woof woof (claps hands at accomplishment)

Ryan/Katy: Emmy... what does a duck say?

Emmy: woof woof (claps hands at accomplishment)

Ryan/Katy: No, Emmy... a duCK...

Emmy: Looking at us like we are crazy... woof? (claps hands at accomplishment) Sees that we aren't responding... Kack?

Ryan/Katy: Yes! A duck says quack!

While her "go to" response is usually "woof woof" she does know that a cow says moo; cat says "mee", and this week we have added a lamb saying "baaa". Not always right the first time, but we are getting there.

Every afternoon I pick her up her teachers tell me how much she "talks" so I will have to get them to write down what she "says" one day. I did get out some bubbles the other day and she ran up to me saying "bubble, bubble" which is a word I didn't even know she knew! :) Happy, bus, and Pop (for Pops) have also been added to the vocab list. I must admit, that I have to remind myself every kid is different when it comes to what she can say compared (ahhhh, there is that awful mom word) to Radley at this age.

But.... what she lacks in words... she makes up for in motor skills....

This girl. She matches drink lids, animal magnets (we have the fridge farm), and seems to "get" how things work more than Radley ever did. She is also fearless, climbing on tables, couches, stairs, playgrounds, slides and whatever else she encounters. She is such an independent player (as long as mom or dad is in sight) and is happy to explore her surroundings.

She has been pointing to her nose, eyes, ears and mouth for sometime now, but this month she has decided that she loves her teeth. When you ask her to show you her teeth she squinches her face and smiles as big as she can to show off those almost 8 pearly whites. Her top/bottom 4 teeth are almost completely in and she is actually getting both of her back molars. Crazy. She also likes to show us her tongue - sticking it out with a "phhhht" just for effect. Silly girl!

I think my favorite "milestone" this month has been her interest in pretend play... she has been playing with cars/trains/blocks/etc... for some time but dress up, dolls, and picnic/dinner are being initiated by her. She loves to put necklaces on herself and any other person that will sit still long enough to let her. She loves to hug and kiss her baby doll (before she throws her down... baby steps), and while I don't really desire a house full of barbies, it is fun to see what she is interested in.

Oh... and CLEAN UP! Wahoo... just like her dad, mom and brother, Emmy likes to clean up! And she is organized about it! We were putting up the blocks the other night in their giant bin and she would gather them up, take them apart and then place them in the bin. Somehow a renegade magnet made its way to where we were so I just put it in the bin, too. Well, Emmy immediately took it out. I put it back in to see if she would do it again, and she did. She knew it didn't "belong". By the end of clean up, all the blocks were nicely separated and in their bin. The magnet lay beside the bin on the floor along with two car cones stacked on top of each other.

A girl after her mommy's heart.

Love you, sweet Emersyn! :)

How she does it: Cindy

This is Cindy. 

And this is our favorite picture we have taken together....ever. (And we've taken a lot of pictures together). This was pre-kiddos which means things were still in places that they should be. 

This is us today...

Cindy is 39 weeks pregnant (due on MONDAY) and I'm 18 weeks pregnant. We are both on baby #3 and this is the longest we have been pregnant at the same time. (Which is actually hard to believe since our kids are all relatively close in age). I would argue that we are both more beautiful now than we have ever been... we have the glow of motherhood. 

I met Cindy because I used to live with her husband. 

;)

That is our favorite thing to do to people we just met. Freaks them out... they have no idea how to respond. But yes, Josh, was one of my college roommates along with his two siblings and my older brother, Jeremy. They have all become more like family than anything. 

Cindy likes to say that my other female roommate, Carolyn, and I were not nice to her when we met. But, we were just looking out for Josh. She was clearly "approved"... and the rest is history. I'm sure Josh has moments when he wishes she wasn't so easily approved - together I think we can drive him extra crazy, but he and Ryan put up with us nicely. 

Cindy is probably more like me than other of my friends - Type A, OCD, needs loves likes control, enjoys a monogram,  plans just about as many details as possible, etc... Because of this we get along nicely and when we don't, well... we handle it like all adults because the other one is clearly wrong. 

She is fun to laugh with, cry with, yell with, complain with, fight with, pray with and share life with. She puts in effort to all of her friendships, which is really anyone can ask for. And even during the times that we haven't always seen eye to eye, I know that she ultimately would do anything for me, my husband, my kiddos and any other member of my family. No question.

So... this post is all about "How Cindy Does It"... 

What she does:

Cindy is a wife to Josh, mommy to Caroline (3), Annaliese (2) and baby 3 (39 weeks), daughter, sister, and friend. She is a Development Officer at Texas A&M (she raises money for the University, specifically for student organizations and the departments that support them). This job requires the ability to work a room, talk to strangers, ask for money, be politically savvy, sell a product, and convince people that Texas A&M is not just a good... but great investment. This job also requires a moderate amount of travel which means coordinating her schedule to the needs of her family and making sure "it" all gets done. Josh is a HS science teacher at our local 5A HS and also a cross-country and track coach. This means he has early mornings and weekend meets. 

The fall is both of their busy seasons between CC meets, TAMU football games where Cindy conducts a lot of "business", girls activities, family guests, and just "life". They are involved in their church and Cindy has been actively involved in our Junior League for nine years. 

Cindy also makes time to send cards for just about every occasion to those that she loves. She puts time and effort into every single gift she sends and don't even get me started on the amount of thank you notes she writes. Emily Post would be proud. She is intentional in every part of her life (from raising her children to creating the perfect backdrop for a picture). Family is her priority and making them happy is what makes her happy. 

How she does it:

Strong marriage. Faith in God. Support of friends. 

Cindy and Josh have a great partnership. If she has to work, then he is responsible for the girls. And vice versa. They have been married for 10 years so they created a strong foundation in their marriage prior to having kids. Their partnership is as much a priority as their kids - which is how it should be - and their focus on God and their faith is what guides them. 

Cindy isn't afraid to ask for help if/when she needs it. She has an arsenal of people on stand-by if something comes up. Whether that is picking the girls up from school, babysitting on a moments notice, or being "on call" when Baby makes his/her debut... she has surrounded herself with people she loves and trusts and never has to explain herself ... true friends that are family. 

I think her biggest "weapon" is her ability to organize.

I am almost jealous of her spreadsheets. Almost. 

;)

Seriously, she has everything mapped out, set aside, ready to go at any given moment. The details to a party, the outfits for the week for the girls, the menu, the schedules, the pictures. She is GOOD at this... which means she uses this skill to her advantage. She doesn't waste time and she puts thought into things before approaching them. I think a key to "doing it all" is to really know what it is that you are "doing" and Cindy does. 

And, she knows her limits. She isn't afraid to say no. The girls aren't in 17 after school activities. Caroline started dance this year... if it goes well, then Annaliese may start next year. She evaluates their priorities as a family and makes decisions accordingly. 

Isn't that smart? 

And her kids are also darling... 

This is all "8" of us... I can't even begin to imagine what is in store for this group. 

Cindy, in a word, you are FG. You are a great example of how to live your life with intention and grace. I am so glad that all those years ago I picked up an application for my roommate that lead him to meet you that brought me one of my greatest friends.