Sweet & Simple

The past week has been a long one, to say the least.  

With feeling nauseous at any given time during the day, it makes playing with my busy 4 year old quite the chore.  With Connor climbing all over my belly and him not really understanding why I've been sick so much, but not the kind-of-sick-to-go-to-the-Dr...I decided to tell Connor I had a baby in my belly.  I was hesitant to share the news with him just yet, but I went ahead and told him...and it is one of my favorite memories with him ever.

Me: "You have to be careful climbing on me, since Mommy has a baby in her belly."

Connor: "You have a baby in your belly?!"

Me: "Yep."

Connor: "I so excited to pat the baby when it comes out of your belly."

**He proceeds to gently put his hand on my belly and says, "That's so precious, Mom."

**I've never heard him use the term, "precious," ever.**

About a minute later, he lifted my shirt a little and goes,

"Why's all that fat there?!?"

 I wasn't sure whether to be flattered that at one point, Connor thought my belly was skinny...or that even my 4 year old has noticed I'm bloated already when its really too early to be 'showing'.

His innocence and honesty is so wonderful to be around...even if he is calling me fat! :)

Since our days have been lots of "Mommy resting," Nana & Papa invited us over last night to help entertain Peewee for a little bit.  Although it was sweet and simple, our little outing to their house was just what we needed.

When I told Connor we were going to Nana & Papa's, Connor made sure to tell me what was going to happen.

Connor: "I have a great idea, Mom.  Me & Papa are going to play and you & Nana can..can..can talk."

The plan worked & it was great!

The boys suited up and headed down to the pool.

One of his best gifts ever---the scooter.

Dinner was a complete success, after Nana used her parenting expertise to get Connor to willingly eat all of his sweet potatoes (Score!).

Connor proposes the idea...well actually he dictated what was going to happen after dinner... Nana, Papa, and C grabbed their flashlights & headed out back to play flashlight tag/hide & seek.

I had a great time kicking back with a bowl of grapes and watching the fun shananigans in the back yard!

Anyone who knows my Dad, knows he is a flashlight hoarder.  Since I know Connor will be requesting the flashlight tag every time we go to Nana & Papa's house from here on out--I'm not sure if Connor or Papa will be more excited. :)

Happy happy sidenote: Connor has been up a good 3-4x each night for the past week, but after our fun night at Nana & Papa's last night, our household is beyond thrilled the report that we all slept through the night last night! Yahooooooo! Thanks Nana & Papa! :)

Surreal

Matt & I got to talking last night and we both summed up our 1st prenatal Dr's visit with one word:

Surreal.

Hearing the heartbeat.  Seeing the tiny "blueberry" on the ultrasound monitor.

We were having a hard time wrapping our mind around the fact that this is our baby.

I've been an emotional hormonal monster the past few weeks, crying at just about anything, and getting all worked up about the smallest things.

I know I have experience in the baby department already, but it feels like so long ago.  

Our house is going to come alive in another 8 months and I'm so excited.  I want to get everything ready right now since I know just how much free time is hard to find once a baby comes.  With the help of having zero energy & feeling nauseous lately, I'm not taking it all on quite yet.

Although I don't have any new photos to share, I had fun reminiscing the baby days with some old photos.

My heart might very well explode having two precious children of my own.

We are so incredibly blessed :)

So very happy to announce...

My sweet boy will become a big brother this Fall!

He has no idea yet (and won't for a little while), but I have no doubt that he will be one sweet, helpful sibling!

Our precious little blueberry-sized babe is only 7 weeks, so we are hoping & praying for a healthy pregnancy.  Our Dr visit today confirmed a strong heart beat :).

Here's to one exciting 2013!

**Big thank you to Danielle Lutz Photography for our fun 'reveal' photos-xoxox**

New Blog Address

While I am itching to change my blog address from the current

meganstevensandfamily.blogspot.com

to

megansearsandfamily.blogspot.com

...

I am afraid that if I change it without announcing it to my loyal readers (ha!),

that you may not be able to access my blog once I change it.

So...I am announcing my blog address change.  It will occur next week!

So...if you try to visit my blog & the internet tells you that the page no longer exists--no need to panic--

that just means I've changed my blog address to my new name, so you'll need to try that one.

*I could be worrying about nothing & the blog may automatically direct you to my new address, but I won't know until I change it...*

Did I explain that clear as mud?!

Fishing buddies

With our wonderful Aunt Kris in town, we decided to make a trip down to the Sanibel Causeway for the afternoon.  This would allow the girls to relax on the beach, while the boys got to bond & fish!

Before heading out, G.G. and Connor decided to fuel up on some yummy jello.

We loaded up & made a quick stop at the bait shop.

The boys didn't let the freezing water temps faze them & the headed out to seek some fish.

While we were worried about finding a place in the shade to avoid the heat, we came to discover that the breeze was a lot chillier than we anticipated.  The three beach bunnies were bundled!

Since the fish weren't biting, Peewee made himself busy hunting & launching giant rocks.  Oh, life's simple pleasures!

Connor then made it his duty to deliver BBQ chips to the fisherman.  Papa & Connor are two peas in a pod!

Cutest mini-fisherman ever.

After a nice afternoon out, we all headed back to Nana & Papa's to clean up, jammie up, and grill out.  Post supper, Nana found herself a tiny chef to help her in the kitchen.

It was a beautiful day with family :)

Love Day!

Each holiday is exciting in the eyes of my four year old.

At the start of February, we began the "Love Day" festivities...

We baked some heart cookies (which Connor & I finished the entire plate of 24 cookies together).

We also started a fun tradition of counting down the days until Valentine's Day (since that was such a hit for Christmas time).  Each morning Connor wakes to a new heart on the staircase.  Each heart lists one thing that Mommy loves about him.  It's a fun, easy way to explain what date it is...and to help avoid the "Is it Valentine's Day yet?!" question every day :).

This is Connor's first year with making Valentines for his class.  Pinterest offers such fun ideas, so I took a cute saying & found some yummy cupcake flavored goldfish crackers (seriously--they are YUM!).

  

Only 4 more days to go...

Kidlets & sunshine!

We have severely missed Ryder, Landon, Sophia, Dyson & Kenna! 

With Danielle in town for a few weeks, we were able to coordinate a playdate (which was almost complete if Sophia didn't have school).  The kids had a ball in the water & the ladies got to sit & chit chat.

The crew in the water!  It was shocking to see how much they had grown since they all played together last. The babies were walking & talking.  So neat to see them all grow up together.

**Reunited & it feels so good!!**

"The babies"

Little lovebugs!

We missed Sophia & hope to do another playtime with all the kiddies there soon.

Great day with great friends!

Phone photo dump

As I had mentioned before, my laptop is sick.

It's currently visiting the Dr's over at Gateway Repair Center.

Hoping it gets well soon!

Until then, please enjoy some of my phone photos that I've dumped onto Matt's computer today :).

Over the past week, we've been staying pretty busy.

The neighbor boys have almost become residents in our home.  I've become quite experienced with taming three boys at once.  It's not the easiest entertaining three different age levels.  "I wanna play tag." "But..But..I wanna play hide & seek." "The baby messed up my game..."

I did some pre-planning and did my that w best to keep all three boys content.

When I was tired of seeing the boys on their "Ipads", I decided to suit all the boys up (in Connor's suits & dusty water diaper), we packed our diaper bag & stroller, and ventured up to our water fountain play area.  

All was well on our walk up to the play area...until Michael accidentally broke his water blaster and was not thrilled that Connor still had a functioning one...If only I would have packed a  back up water blaster for each child in the event one malfunctioned, I would have been a complete success.  Sheesh!

We got up to the fountains & all three boys got wet right away.  This was when my sweet Connor came up to me to tell me he now had to go potty.

Really?! All three children were content in the water & now I'd have to dry all of them off, so we could all walk to the restroom.  I was relieved to finally have all boys playing, so I couldn't risk upsetting one by removing them from the water area.  I did what any crazy Mom would do when no one is looking...

I told Connor to just go stand in the corner and go potty inside his suit.  He looked at me wondering what the heck happened to the Mom he knew, then did what I told him.  Sweet boy...not discrete at all... thrusting his hips forward and innocently staring at his potty running down his legs...

No neighbors were around to witness this awful occurrence, so that pretty much means it never happened.

  

We tried imaginative play in the fountains for a bit, but the boys wore tired of that after a bit.  We dried off and I wrangled all the monsters into the locker room to change into dry clothes.  Michael introduced Connor to the Sauna Room while I was changing Landon, where the boys got a kick out of the soundproof room where they could turn the lights on and off of all by themselves.  Little things thrill them sometimes...

After we made it home & the boys were picked up, I felt a sense of accomplishment (and huge wave of exhaustion).

When Friday rolled around, Connor never misses a change to hit the kiddie gym for open preschool play time.  He rocked the balanced beam like an Olympian.

We hit the fountains another time that week all by ourselves.  It was a lot easier with just one!

I could eat up that face.  I already kiss his squishy cheeks all day.  Oh my, I love this kid.

We do the "off to school" thing every Tuesday & Thursday, but this past Thursday--he looked so grown up all of a sudden.  Wearing a backpack ages him a good two years. Never again! :)

When we woke this morning, I was sure Connor would tell me it was time to go to the gym.  To my surprise, Connor told me he'd prefer to do something else fun.  Pressure was on for me to find something exciting for my boy.  I decided on a nice change of pace...and we headed to the Naples Children's Museum.

We hadn't been there since our trip with Ryder & the kids last year, so Connor had a different outlook on everything at this age.

He wasn't amused with all the things that we did last year, so I was beginning to worry inside that Connor would be bored here...

but we found OCD heaven in the grocery store station & we were golden!  Connor spent a good 45 minutes sorting fruits & veggies and placing them on their specific conveyor belt (to send them to the grocery store, so the shoppers could buy them).  He was quick to instruct the participating children that each food had its own special place & to not mix them up. 

We finished with the sorting and grabbed a cart for grocery shopping.

Here he is checking his eggs to make sure none are cracked before buying.

(Guess he's been watching me closely at the grocery store).

The fishing station was also a hit!  Connor kept reeling in fish & made sure to hold each one up for a picture. He's trained pretty well :)

Despite the fact that it was rather chilly outside, that didn't stop C from diving into the water tables.

Connor grasped the "Being a Reporter" station better this time, but he chose to just bust out in song.

Although this photo doesn't have sound, just imagine him singing the lyrics to Veggie Tales theme song.

"...If you like to talk to tomatoes...If a squash can make you smile..."

He was a hoot!  We got about 3 hours of play time in before heading home.

So now I'm sitting here blogging wishing I was napping...and C's quiet time is apparently expired because he's requesting we go hide his Toy Story friends.  Mom duty calls!

Until next blog...