All I want for Christmas - Mariah

You have no idea how happy this video makes me...
I love spying on my child.

Chaps and Santa

Chappell told us that she would not sit on Santa's lap.

However, when we arrived at the good ole Bass Pro Shops, she seemed to have a change of heart!

She marched her cute little self up there after taking one big deep breath, and sat on the big man's lap.

Anyone notice this was the same creeper that grabbed my bum last year?

He seemed a little less pervy this year.

Chaps told Santa that she wanted a "Christmas chicken."

We think she meant "princess kitchen" and slipped up due to nerves.

Either way-- this little lady will be receiving a Christmas chicken, I can promise yo

u that...

Baby Collier's Unsuccessful 4Ds

As you can see, these were not the best shots of lil' Collier.

I was too far along (and I knew it) when we decided to do his 4D images.

However, our ultrasound tech was so sweet and let us do it again yesterday-- these are the 33 week shots and I'll post the 35 week shots later.

Currently 28 days away from his arrival-- that is if I make it to my C Section date--- I can't believe it.

He is still breech as of yesterday... Dr. Kouri said that the chances of having two breech babies in a row is lower than 1 in a 1,000.

Quite odd.

I was breech, myself... one stubborn mom and two stubborn babies!

3 year old questions...

Like most warm blooded creatures, I've been lovin' some Pinterest lately.

It's my go to activity late at night when I'm laying in the bed wide awake with pregnancy insomnia.

Anywho, I saw this cute idea and decided to do it with Chaps!

She loved it-- I told her it was a game and she got really excited.

You are supposed to ask these questions every year on the child's birthday (starting at 3) and then put all of the answers in a book later on.

So... here are Chappell's 3 year old answers:

1. What is your favorite color?

Pink

2. What is your favorite toy?

Ariel

3. What is your favorite fruit?

Orange

4. What is your favorite tv show?

Little Einsteins

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?

Grapes

6. What is your favorite outfit?

The dog one.

7. What is your favorite game?

Star Wars -- (OK... with her cousins, I think)

8. What is your favorite snack?

Fruit snacks

9. What is your favorite animal?

Bear

10. What is your favorite song?

Alphabet

11. What is your favorite book?

Halloween book (it's a puzzle book from Colleen Rogers) and ShoeLaLa (from Preston Sullivan)

12. Who is your best friend?

Pollard, Barnes, Riley, George, Oliver & Frances

13. What is your favorite cereal?

"What's cereal?"

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?

"Play basketball"

15. What is your favorite drink?

Milk, water and juice

16. What is your favorite holiday?

Halloween

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?

"my lovies"

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

Grapes

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?

Lollipops

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?

"What's growing up?"

"To my birthday" -- not sure what she meant

"A farmer"

OH my

I'm losing it.

I posted the wrong Christmas card! That was a proof, not the one that I ended up buying.

I'm losing it!

I'll find it later...

Hello!

Here I am a month later.

I should probably be showering and doing things around the house right now while Chacha is sleeping-- but, alas, I shall blog.

It's been a while and there are so many things I've been wanting to

record for prosperity's sake... but the second I sit down at the computer, these thoughts are gone. No where to be found.

So, what has been going on at the crazy Willy's house?

Let's see.

My sweet baby girl will turn 3 on Friday.

Whattttt on earth? How is this possible? I do not know.

She is so wonderful and hilarious and all things awesome right now-- I don't want her to grow another day and get any older.

While this age is great in so many ways, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that th

ere are moments where I want to pull my hair out.

Like last night for instance...

Chaps has been (successfully) potty trained for months, but last night proudly proclaimed (while at a friends house for dinner) that she had pooped in her pants.

I mean, what the heck?

I do know, however, that we are very lucky with this little girl. Although she can be stubborn, she usually gives in pretty easily.

I keep thinking that maybe baby Collier will be a monster since his sister has been so easy on us.

She is still taking one 2-3 hour nap every day... thank the Lord. Don't know what I would do

without nap time!!

She still sleeps very well-- today she woke up around 8:15 am. Some mornings are earlier, you never know-- but as far as sleep goes, in general-- we are very lucky with her habits.

I'm fully aware that as soon as this little man arrives, I'll be awake around the clock.

I might be completely naive, but I'm not really that worried about adding another baby to the mix? Is that dumb?

I know from experience that having a newborn is tough-- but I feel like this go around it's not really going to change things that much. I think my mothering style is much different now than it was in the beginning... not quite as up tight.

All of my personal freedoms and private time have been gone for 3 years now... so what will change with a new baby? Another mouth to feed? I don't know... I'm just not that concerned. I stay up very late working as it is... I get up early...

PLUS... I didn't drink coffee when Chappell was a baby. What was I thinking? Caffeine is my saving grace!

Say a PRAYER that I am right!!

Or just send me to a good shrink...

So, baby Collier is scheduled to arrive via C-section on January 11th.

I'm currently 34 weeks, 1 day.

This pregnancy -- knock on wood please-- has been so great!

It really has. After the initial morning sickness... this thing's been a piece of cake.

Maybe it's because I'm busier than I used to be? Maybe it's becau

se I already have Chappellina to keep my mind off of things? Who knows.

After I had Chaps I honestly wasn't sure I'd ever want to be pregnant again...

this pregnancy has me hoping that I will be pregnant again.

Life is odd.

I guess we change.

Christmas decorations are up (thx mom!) and we are loving the new house.

The nursery is done... and I love it! It's so neutral and peaceful in t

here. It's exactly what I wanted for our little baby boy. I need to take some pictures and post them here before the baby gets here. Everyone knows the nursery never looks the same post-baby. Ha.

The painters should be finishing Collier's bathroom tomorrow night. It had orange wallpaper before... I chose Galveston Grey for the bathroom and Revere Pewter for the nursery. Both Benjamin Moore colors that I love. Thank you, Pinterest!!

Pictures to come of:

Chaps visiting Santa... she marched right up to him and told him that she wanted a "Christmas Chicken." She meant to say she wanted a "Princess Kitchen"... whic

h is in fact a Princess dollhouse... Guess she was nervous??

Chaps family birthday on Friday...

Chaps 3rd Birthday party... happening on Saturday morning...

Collier's unsuccessful 4d ultrasound...

and the nursery!

Here's a screenshot of our 2011 Christmas Card:

10/31/2011

Let's see...
Well, I haven't been here in about a month and a lot has happened since then.
I guess I should start off with the big stuff?
We bought a new house last Wednesday, and moved in this past Saturday!
We absolutely love it, and we are glad to get out of that ummm... **icky** rental. So glad.
This house has a lot of space for us to grow into, and we hope to be here a really, really long time!
There isn't too much to be done, but we plan to renovate the bathrooms and kitchen at some point-- but in the meantime, we're not worrying about that much.

The house is pretty perfect for us and Chappell loves our new street! Two of her best buddies, Barnes and Pollard are our new neighbors and she is so excited that we live on their "stweet" now. Every time we drive down our street (which is a lot), she asks me what they are doing. I'm hoping maybe she'll get over the initial excitement at some point, because
I always tell her that they are either sleeping or eating dinner. I'm afraid if I tell her they are awake she'll pester the stew out of them!!
What else is going on?
I've been super busy with my photography business and everything else that goes along with being 29 weeks pregnant. I'm feeling pretty great in general, and this has been a great pregnancy thus far. Things are happening so much faster this time! I feel like my pregnancy with Chappell dragged on for eons and this one is just flying by. I've been running myself ragged between the move and holiday sessions for the biz. I actually landed myself in the doctors office last week because I "over-did it." After several sessions and marching all over Tuscaloosa and kingdom come last Saturday, I ended up having pretty severe "pelvic pressure" and pain, so they made me come in and get checked. Turns out (thank the good Lord) that everything was fine. Apparently I just need to take it easy. Someone please tell me how to take it easy when you have a 2 year old, your own business and a move to take care of? Plea
se?
Yesterday and today I painted the baby's nursery by myself. No signs of slowing down just yet.
There's way too much to do around here!!

Speaking of the baby's nursery, I'm loving where we are headed! The bedding is a blue/white/cream pale stripe by PomPom. I ended up painting the walls Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter and the Ballard Designs chandelier was just installed on Saturday. I'm loving it!
I'll post pics soon.

Sooooo... I suppose I'll leave you with a few shots of Miss Chappy the cowgirl and her mighty pink steed.
These were just a few I snapped before we met up with friends to go trick or treating. I also feel like I should mention that they were resized for facebook and I have no idea how they will appear on here, resolution wise- man, I'm such a nerd. Just had to get that off my chest.

Chaps and her twinie.
Just up from a nap and a little confused.
Chaps and her big preggo mama. Everyone here knows I get huge when I'm pregnant. I can't deny this fact.

Ugh those eyes!!

I'm world's worst blogger

I'm sorry baby Collier.

I've become the world's worst blogger and a stereotypical second time mom. I promise you are just as important as Chappy, however, when she decided to enter the world I wasn't quite as busy as I am now, and this sister of yours seems to take up a lot of my time.

I'm assuming you'll get used to that... btw, I'm very thankful that you are a boy because I have a feeling you really won't care too much about my blog.

What's new in our world... I've been keeping myself pretty busy with my bizznass, Reed's been busy with work... Chappy's been busy being hilarious, etc., etc.

Chaps is going to school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays this year and is loving it! Her teachers are Miss Janice and Miss Jamie, but she still gets to hang out with her old teachers Miss Leanne and Miss Sara Elizabeth and loves them all!

On Tuesday Chaps and I decided to drive up to Birmingham to visit Annie Miff (Smith) because she is in town visiting some of her stores in the South East. I woke up on Tuesday feeling a little "off" after a night of bad (worse than usual, I should say) sleep. However, I just ignored it and threw on some clothes (looking quite disheveled, mind you) and got in the car. It stormed the entire way to Bham and I became increasingly uncomfortable. My stomach was hurting and cramping but I couldn't really figure out what was wrong. Chappell had been sick the Saturday before, but this just didn't feel like the stomach bug. It was a weird sort of discomfort & pain. My ELASTIC pants were starting to feel extra tight as I began having cramping that felt a lot like contractions. Awesomeness.

We got to Birmingham and visited with Miff for a little while and I started feeling even worse.

Reed thought it would be best for me to just get myself back to Montgomery before I ended up stranded in Birmingham. I have lots of friends in the hammer, but let's face it, who wants some sick person to come invade their healthy household? I would check into a hotel room before I brought the plague to one of their houses. Ha!

Soooo... I packed C up and we high-tailed it back to Montgomery. Reed met me at the house. Actually, he was a few minutes late and I was quite angry about it... ha!

After laying down on the couch for a while, I realized I was in fact contracting and called the doctor. I never had braxton hicks or anything like that with Chappell until the very end of pregnancy so I was kind of freaked out.

Then it hit me... the stomach bug. Lovely.

Although I will admit I was relieved to find out that all of the weird stomach symptoms were a side effect of the dehydration and oncoming illness.

I managed to keep some gatorade down eventually and didn't have to go in for IV fluids, which I'm very thankful for. IVs are not my favorite.

Next day, I woke up feeling just dandy. What a whirlwind...

Besides the stomach bug, we've been doing pretty well around here. This pregnancy is breezing on by and in general, I feel great! I'm currently 24 weeks. I'll be 25 on Tuesday. Reed felt some strong kicks last night so that was exciting. I thought that he'd felt the baby last week, but apparently he hadn't. SO, I guess last night was the first kick that he's felt! I could tell that he was really excited to finally "feel" his "little man." Very cute.

Collier is a super active baby in utero... I can only imagine what he'll be like once he gets out of such tight quarters. From what I hear, I have a lot to learn about life with boys. I have no experience whatsoever in that department. I'll figure it out.

Chappell loves talking to baby Collier, and says the cutest things during their little "conversations."

Examples:

Uhh, baby Collier, when are you going to come out of your home?

I can't wait to see you, sweet baby boy!

Baby Collier, are you sweepin?? Awwww, he's sweepin, mommy. I sing him Hush Little Babies, like on Baby Einstein.

Baby Collier, I can't wait to rock (wock) you, and give you a bottle, and some juice, and sing hush little baby, and you take a nap, and I give you a blankie!!

She cracks me up, sweet girl.

Yesterday, I asked her if she knew what time it was.

She said no.

Then I said, "it's nap time!"

She responded, "it's not nap time, it's Wednesday!"

I thought that was pretty clever...

We's Potty trained!

Quick update:

C is potty trained! It's been a week since she's worn a diaper. She only wears them to sleep.

Score!!

Potty trained and in a big girl bed... Just in time to do it all over again???

I know it'll probably anger a few, but it was easy! With only two accidents all week, I'd say it was pretty easy!!

a few biggies

So I guess we've had a few big milestones up in this hizzy.

First of all, we decided on a name for our son (SO WEIRD to say that!!):

Collier Hutcheson Williams.

We'll call him Collier.

Both of the names come from Reed's side of the fam, and since R's decided not to do a junior I am completely fine with it. I think it kind of makes sense for him to be named after Reed's side of the family and Chappell has two names from my side, so... no arguing from me.

I think I mentioned it on here already but we transitioned from the crib to the big girl bed a few weeks ago.

I hate to say this and have other moms out there hate me, but it's gone flawlessly.

She didn't have one bad night... hasn't crawled out... it's great. Knock on wood.

It's been a really easy transition for her and I think some of that is due to the fact that we waited so long. It really seems to make a difference when you don't push things like this too early...

She was ready, and I'm very glad that we waited so long.

I'm waiting to post a picture of her big girl bed because the headboard and foot board aren't up yet! It's an antique bed that belonged to Reed's great grandfather I believe? It's really cute -- hard to believe a little boy ever slept in it-- but it's missing the rails that attach the pieces... my mom thinks that she has an extra set so hopefully those will be here soon. Otherwise we'll get Reed's dad (who is quite handy) to rig something for us.

My awesome-sweet-otherwise-talented husband is not handy... so he will not be giving it a go.

Next up... potty training!

We attempted this a few months ago however, I gave up when we had to travel via airplane to my uncle's funeral. In retrospect, I'm not sure she was ready then because she had a few teetee accidents... I'm not quite sure if she fully recognized when her bladder was full?

We started again yesterday morning and she's been accident free so far. She's been awesome. We brought her little potty along in the car for a few errands and a trip to the park... and surprisingly, she told me when she had to go! So... as weird as it was to have a potty in the car, it's worked quite well.

I got a little brave and sent her to school in panties today, so we'll see how that went for her...

not to be negative, but I'm sure she had an accident. Today was the first day of school and the place was insane. I highly doubt she made it to the potty... but we aren't going back. It's panties except for nap and bedtime from now on.

She always does best with cold turkey and it's usually her method of choice in these "milestones."

We shall see...

I'm currently 21 weeks... things are just truckin' right along. This pregnancy has gone by so much faster. And I think I'm enjoying it more than the first time around? I'm not spending every moment fixating on it, and it's kind of nice. I know my alone time with Chappell is limited... so I'm really trying to soak up our time together. The good, and yes, the bad.

He'll be here before we know it!