Pink-in' up the Girl's Room!

 I've never had a true "nursery" to bring a baby home to.  I mentioned before that we were in transition when BOTH boys were born so their homecoming was a pack n play in my old bedroom in Alabama.  This nursery was in my dreams and on my pinterest board long before she was ever conceived.  We didn't waste any time putting the boys in bunk beds after we found out a girl would be joinging the ranks.  They needed them since they insisted on sleeping in ONE twin bed.  Funny thing is, now that they have bunk beds, they still sleep on the same bunk together.  Oh, well, we tried.  I chose the bedding pretty quickly and then looked to see if I liked anything better.  I always came back to this one print so I knew it was the one.  I contacted a Lady about custom making it.  She was located in Nashville.  About 2 miles from where we used to live in Nashville actually.  It was fate!  I got the bed on craigslist and Daddy got the task of painting it over Christmas.  It wasn't all easy painting.  It's a good thing he's patient.

 The chair is also a total craigslist score.  I had been looking for ages to find the perfect chair.  This one was a ways away but I couldn't be happier with it.  Ikea helped with the drapery, twin bedding and the new lighting.  It was rewired also compliments of Daddy.  I don't make easy tasks for him.  We got the vintage dresser from a lady who repaints furniture and we both LOVE it.  I had looked for a while for it and considered repainting something myself.  I'm so glad I didn't try to undertake that!  I had several of the frames already in the garage waiting for the perfect home and the white trunk was a garage sale find that was destined for the living room until it was re-routed to the girls room.

 I would spend the afternoons lately getting everything just perfect in her room.  From hanging her clothes to arranging changing table, I loved getting ready for her.

Jason would come home from work and I'd hear him ask the boys, "Where's your mom?  Is she upstairs pink-in' up the girls room again?"

Yes, yes, I was and there is no where else I'd rather be!  

 The m&m's are pink, my nails are pink, there are hairbows arriving in the mail on a weekly basis.  We have even started using pink dish soap!  I'd say we (ok, I) are ready to form Team Pink and finally meet baby Lillian!

Baby got Bump!

As the end of this pregnancy draws near (very near) I wanted to remember some things about this one as it will likely be our last baby in the deFoor house.  When I was thinking back, it came as a surprise to me as well but I've been pregnant nearly the entire time we've lived in Texas!   We had planned to have another starting in summer but were surprised at how quickly it happened. 

 We (I) found out the morning of July 4th and planned all morning how I would break the news to Jason.  Knowing again, this is the last "I'm pregnant" I would be announcing, I had to come up with something good but quick!  We had no big plans other than hanging out together and a 4th of July parade.  I waited until later on in the day and the boys decorated their bikes for a "bike parade" of our own.  I had helped them paint signs for their bikes in the shapes of flags.  They would wear them on their backs.  Lincoln was none the wiser when I did a little switch-a-roo on his sign and and he was trailing off, I put this one on him and quickly called Jason out to see the "adorable bike parade!!"

We didn't tell the boys that day, we waited a few more days and let them announce it to our families in funny and silly videos.  The one to my dad has Lincoln announcing that "mommy's going to have a band-aid!" (roars of laughter)

Now, these pregnancy photos are NOT professional.  They aren't even pregnancy photos.   Most of them are cell phone "selfies" almost all meant for my sister as a "wardrobe check" for what I had decided to wear.  You see, when you don't live close to one another, you have to use technology to make sure you don't ever get caught on one of those "what NOT to wear sites".  You can see baby grow, mostly toward the end and hopefully all of these outfits were sister "approved!" {{ *it was against my better judgement to even post 15 "selfies" that I made of myself in the full length mirror so take them with a grain of salt*}}

(8 weeks)

I waited until I had ultrasound in hand before I announced it to all my girls in TN.  I knew they would be excited and I couldn't tell them in person so this had to do.

In the weeks that preceded and followed my announcement, I was sick.  Not morning sick.  No, my sickness came at 5pm every single evening.  I hope this is not a precursor to the dreaded witching hour.  I could not LOOK at food.  I couldn't think about food.  I could hardly even stand to drive down the road and ready food signs without it making my nose turn and lip curl.  I was also very picky.  I'm not usually extremely picky about food.  Jason would mention something and I would be aghast that he would even suggest that place because of my aversions.  He just about had to start saying, "Ok, babe, where would you like to eat?" and I'd have to try to think of something.  That few weeks included LOTS of cereal.  Specifically peanut butter cheerios.  They were my vice and I ate them frequently.  Outside of that, anything that contained carbs was on my side and if it was healthy, you can just forget it.  I avoided healthy food like it was the plague.  It was some of my first indications of her gender.  I felt a little like buddy the elf for a few weeks there.  My diet consisted of sugar, candy, syrup and carbs.  

(15 weeks)

I was 16 weeks when we paid to have a "gender reveal" ultrasound done.  I had cheated a little and asked my doctor to take a look at my last appointment.  He was against telling me for sure but he said nonchalantly,"I'd say it's about 80% GIRL."  I contained my tears until I got to my car but not long thereafter. I called my sister sobbing and asking what 80% meant?!  I agonized all weekend over that other 20%.  Could it be?  Was I going to be putting dresses and headbands on a little mini-me?  On Monday, Jason and I went in for this elective ultrasound and the lady there said she was a ZILLION % sure it was a GIRL!  It was awesome and reassuring too!

I had planned this day in my head and pinned the photos on pinterest.  I left nothing to chance in announcing this news.  So many people know how long I have waited to say those words...

It's a GIRL!

The boys figured it out long before I told them.  They said the pink suckers and the pink balloon gave it away.  

Excited?!?  Well, they would have preferred a boy but at this point, it didn't mean much to either of them.

I had been doing bootcamp since moving to Texas and I didn't let her stop me until I had to.  I kept it up until just after the 20 week mark.  When I was having to modify EVERYTHING they were doing, I decided to give it a break but I can't wait to go back to it.  SUCH a great workout!  

(17 weeks)

(18 weeks)

So, I didn't purchase much in the way of maternity clothes but I did have to expand my workout wardrobe.  Luckily for me, tunics and leggings are totally in style this season and also totally wearable when you are constantly growing rounder!

(20 weeks)

(21 weeks)

(22 weeks)

(23 weeks in both)

(24 weeks and my birthday dinner!)

We made a LONG trip to Alabama for Thanksgiving.  I knew then and there, it would be my last driving trip for a really long time.  Driving stinks when you have to stop every half-hour for the bathroom!

(25 weeks)

(28 weeks)

(31 weeks)  This is when I REALLY feel like she showed up!  

(32 weeks)

(33 weeks)

(34 weeks)

(35 weeks)

This was our 3rd trimester ultrasound.  Not all doctors do this one but since he does his own, he can check her head down position and take another look at her growth.  She's probably going to be on the small side, in the 6 pound range he thinks but well within the normal limits for sure.  She wasn't very cooperative with the ultrasound but we will get to see her soon enough.

(36 weeks)

(also 36 weeks)  I had started walking pretty consistently by this point.  I got in 3 miles on the treadmill some days but it wasn't easy!  

Our anniversary dinner was already crashed by a big ol' belly so we decided we'd just take the boys with us too.  We went to Benihana for Japanese steak and it was enjoyed by all!  I love this dress!  It grows with me.  I bought it in Colorado on my girls trip and wore it then and I'm still wearing it now!  It also comes with lots of good memories!

(37 weeks)

(38 weeks)

(39 weeks)

Cravings:  I don't remember having specific cravings with the boys.  I ate plenty but not anything strange or out of the ordinary.  This time, I mentioned the carbs. Oh, the carbs!  I had cereal far too often, potatoes more than I have in years, pancakes and donuts which are just not on my normal menu and potato chips.  The Lays Wavy kind with french onion dip.  It was a bit of a problem at the end.  I could really take down a bag if I wasn't careful.  

Weight Gain:  Oddly, I didn't gain as much with her as I did the boys.  I'm not sure if it's 3rd times the charm, the fact I kept up the bootcamp or just a different gender but either way, I'll take it. She's due to be a little smaller than they were too but still well into the normal ranges.  Now, taking it all back off might prove to be a whole different challenge but when I recover, it's ON!  

Mood Swings:  Although Jason will roll his eyes while reading this, I have been relatively calm on this third go round.  With the boys, we both knew I was a DEVIL in the first trimester.  Specifically to Jason.  It was like we were on opposite teams and I HATED him.  It was like I couldn't help myself.  I was evil and angry.  After the first trimester, my fierceness subsided and became a joke but it was not pretty for a while.  This time, I feel  like I've been pretty calm, no bad anxiety, no crazy mood swings, and no serious crying spells.  Again, if you ask Jason, he'll have a different version of this story I'm certain.

Chief Complaint:  Aside from giving up your body, any alcohol consumption(wine), and being overwhelmingly tired...Pregnancy complaints can go on and on.  I had most of the normal ones and I mentioned the serious healthy food aversion and super pickiness in the first trimester along with the 5pm or evening sickness I experienced.  The WORST complaint I can offer for this pregnancy though, is the reflux.  I haven't eaten a meal in 6 months that feels like it completely digests.  I have tried every medication in the books.  I've tried eating dinner at 4pm.  I've tried different foods.  Nothing helps at all.  I can wake up on an empty stomach and still have reflux.  I just hope this is one symptom that hits the road once she stops taking up so much space in there.  

The other complaint I have had this time, different from the others, is insomnia.  It started a few weeks ago and I woke up around 2am and was unable to go back to sleep.  After lying there for hours, I got up and went to the couch to watch TV.  Since then, I've made friends with late night TV and have somehow managed to avoid getting sucked into buying anything useless on infomercials but I won't say I haven't been tempted.  I can usually drift off again somewhere around the 5am mark.  Then Jason's alarm goes off at 5:30 and mine at 6:30.  Figures.  

This is the last week of my LAST pregnancy and while enjoying it might be a stretch (said ANY 39 week pregnant woman!) I will at least give a nod to all those flutter and hiccups I won't be feeling from the inside anymore.

 I think it's safe to say...we are READY to paint the world PINK!!

Granny (also known as Mom, Momma, Sarah Doris, Dinker, Mrs. Gotcher and the lady that makes fried pies!)

It was a little over a year ago that we said goodbye to her earthly presence but the memories of her will forever live on in each of those who had the privilege to know her.  Looking back on those memories rarely ever bring tears.  Mostly they bring full on belly laughter as I reminisce of the "granny-isms" that made us love her so.  There are more than any one blog could possibly contain but a few of the favorites are worth sharing.  Even if they are "had to be there" moments, I was there and I NEVER want to forget.  

The first one that comes to mind is simple.  

"BIIIIILLLLYYY!!!!"  

(that should be heard with the most southern drawl you can imagine.  More like {biiieeeelllllyyyyy) 

I only know him as pawpaw.  But others call him William, Bill, or those closest call him Billy.  But you can bet your bottom dollar, when she called "BILLLLY!", he answered.  

He isn't much of a softie.  All my life he's put on a hard as nails persona but there was something about the way he was with Granny that let you know, his softer side was her.  He ALWAYS made a point of getting her something special for Christmas.  She spent my whole life referring to him as "Deddy".  She'd ask him questions, or sometimes talk about him like he wasn't even sitting there and he'd pretend not to hear her.  I always thought he was the boss.  He always worked and she cooked and raised babies and grandbabies.  Once she got new living room furniture.  I was at least in my teens so it had been a LONG time coming.  I asked her what pawpaw thought of her getting new furniture, knowing he wasn't much on spending money.  She quickly told me, "I don't reckon I need his permission to buy furniture." I learned right then and there, SHE was the boss of that house.  I can't believe I'd never seen it before.  I never doubted it again.  

Some things change.  Some things never do.  That's what I love about grandparents.  She lived in this house my whole life and my mothers whole life as well.  The photo above is in the living room where I spent time as a child.  Every christmas of my life, the tree went up in that same spot.  The same door still stands, the same photo is on the wall behind them.  They were a bit behind the times in embracing technology.  I can remember them refusing touch tone phones, saying that rotary dial was good enough. That rotary phone hung in the kitchen all my life.  It got the job done.  It was always funny to me that when I moved away, Granny couldn't understand that she could still call me on my cell phone because the number was local.  She would just wait for me to call her.  They didn't have cell phones for quite some time but when my pawpaw finally caved, he got an emergency type cell phone.  He needed to have it while out working.  He came home and told us he "got one of those phones with a LID on it."  You probably had to be there and know him but he was referring to a flip phone.  It is likely the one he still carries today.   

 Granny Bucks.  This was started when I went to college.  I moved to Auburn for college.  I was the first grandchild and the first to move away in a VERY long time.  Being a close family, moving away wasn't easy.  Mom and Dad paid for my college tuition but paying for housing,etc was up to me.  I hated it then, I appreciate it now.  I took student loans that helped me afford it but I also learned to take my education seriously.  I was going to have to pay that back!  I never left for a trip back to Auburn without some Granny Bucks in my hand.  She'd always whisper, "Go out on the back and get me my purse", and she'd slip me either a signed check or some cash.  I couldn't turn it down, I was a poor college kid!  It was what I thought was "our little secret".  Then I learned that she pretty much "granny bucked" everyone!  My sister got it in college, the other boys did as well.  It wasn't that I wasn't special.  We all were.  The apples of her eye we were and that is how she showed us!

A few of my favorite sayings were:

"Ethyl.  I need to get some ethyl in my car."-this is apparently what she called gas.  We regularly stopped at the Spur station and she'd exclaim "filler up with Ethyl".  

I was very small, probably around 3.  We went to church with her and I made a point of sitting in her lap.  She probably let me get away with more than mom did!  I not so quietly petted her nylon micro pleated dress and told her "that dress needs to be IRONED!"  She giggled about that all my life.  Telling her to iron her dress when it was supposed to be like that!  

I was smaller than that when I would find and carry around her Pock-book.  It was one of my first words and favorite things to do.  I would unload anyone's pock book that would let me pilfer through it.  She'd let me even knowing it wasn't nice to look through a ladies "pock-book"!

Anytime I would walk into the living room to visit, she would request that I come and "sit a spell".  

When I walked in and found them both taking an evening snooze, she'd insist that she was NOT asleep but rather "resting her eyes".  She would then tell me to "turn off that goof box" which is how she usually referred to the TV.  That is, unless her "stories" were on.  If that was the case, you'd have to wait until the next commercial break so she could keep up with her "stories".  Everyone knows you don't need to watch soap operas intently to keep up on a yearly basis.  She'd then ask if I had eaten or if I was hungry.  There was always something in the kitchen or something she could whip up.  After we'd eaten whatever was my fancy, she'd tell me to come back and sit and leave those dishes for later.  There was always time for them later.  When it was time to leave, she'd declare that "you don't have to go." And then insist to see  me out the door.  I rarely ever left empty handed either.  It it wasn't something for me, or for Jason in my married life, it was something I needed to take to "ye mama."  She always left me with a "Call me sometime."

I still miss doing just that.  

Don't let that innocent face fool ya.  She knew the ways of the world.  She preferred to play the wholesome and innocent one but as we got older, we got to see her true colors!  My sister and her especially got down and dirty.  Tracie always got a laugh out of telling Granny the cold hard truth about things, and often Tracie would be surprised by Granny's real world knowledge.  It wasn't uncommon to hear her exclaim a profanity here or there when something wasn't just so.  

As a breast cancer survivor, it became common place to laugh and joke about her prosthetic "private parts".  She was more of a prankster and joker than we really knew.  

Granny loved her some babies!  I was the first grandchild in our family on either side.  That made me #1.  I loved to taunt the other grandkids of my #1 status.  It's a rivalry that still runs on today.

A few years passed and #1 grew up and had some greats.  BOY, oh, BOY.  If we thought Granny adored her grands, she REALLY laid it on thick for these new comers.  I guess it is pretty special when your #1 has some #1's!  haha!  So Jackson was born and just when she thought she couldn't love one more, Lincoln came along.  Grumpy, little, crybaby Lincoln.  He was skinny and quirky but somehow managed to find a way into her heart like nobody else.  Now don't get me wrong, she told me once, how special Jackson was to her and how she loved him so but that Lincoln... He had some sparkle in his eye that she was drawn into.  He has a way of doing that to people.  She wasn't the only one but boy, she had it BAD for that Lincoln.  And of course, he loved every minute of it. 

Speaking of phones, heres the famous rotary phone.  I can remember in the day of answering machines, Granny would leave a long 5 minute message on ours for mother.  When she was done with her conversation that seemed almost 2 sided, she'd add "This is mom"  or "this is Granny" as if we'd never have guessed who it was by the conversation that had just gone on and on.  

There was once an advertisement for a pig in the local classifieds.  I'm not sure how it all began but at some point, a wrong number was dialed and Granny was on the receiving end of the call.  The person calling couldn't seem to comprehend that she was NOT the person with a pig for sale.  She had to be quite firm, even rude to them.  The story was retold and it became the running joke to get Granny riled up by phoning her about livestock that she might or might not have for sale.  

Often telemarketers got the same rude treatment from Granny when they wouldn't take no for an answer.  She wouldn't put up with any of that *&^#$^#.  And then, she'd hang up and laugh while recalling the conversation to us later!

Valentines Day will never pass by without reminding us of Granny.  THESE heart shaped cupcakes always make an appearance.  I'm happy to own my very own heart shaped cast iron pan and share the legacy of the cupcakes with my boys and eventually a PINK loving little girl.  I'm happy I have a piece of this memory to continue on for years to come.  

She's celebrating the first year of forever in the presence of our Lord.  While we miss her earthly presence, I know that she's singing among angels and smiling down on the little girl I will wrap in the wedding ring quilt she made for me (before I had even considered children) later on this month.