I Heart Tulsa

Jess came home last Friday evening and told me to pack for a trip to Tulsa!  We have heard it's nice and wanted to take a trip there sometime, since it's only an hour and a half or so away.  Since we only had 3 more weeks before the move, he decided we better make it happen. 

So we left in the morning.  We went straight to the aquarium, which is one thing we knew we wanted to do there.  

It was a lot of fun, and the kids were really interested in EVERYTHING there.  I prefer aquariums to zoos, actually.  

 

 

There were the sting rays, one of my favorite creatures ever.  They had a separate tank where the kids could pet them, which they loved.  

Our zoo in OKC is supposed to have a manta ray exhibit now, actually, so we'll have to make another trip there before we move.

 The kids posed in a shark cage.

They had one of those tunnels where you walk beneath the sharks.  Those always make me feel pretty nervous.

 

Then we had lunch at a pizza place called Marley's, that someone at work told Jess we had to try.  It was SO SO good.  THEN we went to our hotel, where we rested for a bit and then went swimming.  There was a young couple hanging out, and they were asking me questions about the kids, and the one on the way.  Apparently the guy was a bit older than his wife and was wanting to start having kids, but she wanted to wait a while.  He asked me about their ages, and decided he would guess.  He guessed 3 years old for PAIGE!  Haha.  Then he looked shocked when I said 6.  Not only is she 6 and a half, she was like the second tallest kid in Kindergarten.  I have a hard time guessing ages with other people's kids sometimes, but that one was hilarious.  He must have thought we were spacing them about 10 months apart. 

We got cleaned up and went out to explore.  Jess had been asking what I want for my birthday, and I didn't really have anything in mind, so we went to a Carter's, where I got to pick out a few baby things, and even a few things for the older kids.

Then we went downtown, 

ate at a pretty good Mexican restaurant(except the salsa was terrible, but I don't expect good salsa here)  Didn't stop us from eating it though.

Neely slept through the entire dinner.

After that we walked around downtown a little.  It was really cute, but strangely quiet.  I don't know if it's always dead, but I kind of liked it.  I hate being in crowded areas anyway. 

 

Then we drove around nearby, and I have decided Tulsa is my favorite town in the midwest.  Not that I've seen that many.  They had really cute old neighborhoods.

 We went back to the room to relax, then.  Neely had some leftover pizza, since she slept through dinner, while Jess ran back out to find us some dessert. 

She looked so cute,  eating quietly by lamplight, kicking her little feet.

In the morning, Jess set an alarm to take the older two for one more swim.  I got us packed and ready to go while Neely slept a little longer.  We grabbed breakfast and headed home to get ready for Grampa and Grama Trudi's visit.

I still think I'd like to end up in Flag or Prescott, or North Carolina or Virginia some day.  If we were going to stay in the midwest though, Tulsa is where I'd want to be.  I loved it.  It had a completely different feel from OKC.  Hilly and green and full of trees. 

Just Us July Fourth

Big surprise, I'm behind again.  Last weekend we went to Babies R Us, because the last time we were there I saw a set of those sleep gowns, but I was trying not to spend a ton all at once.  Those sleep gowns are the best though, especially the first several weeks, because you can easily change a diaper at night without undressing them and waking them all the way up. PLUS they have the built in mittens on the sleeves, which are WAY better than the ones you just put on, but will never stay on and then they scratch up their faces.  :(

 While we were there I spotted this set of onesies and had to get them too.  The hedgehog ones are really cute, but it was actually the striped one that caught my eye.

 I was 26 weeks last Sunday.

 Neely has been dressing up as a "Jinja"(ninja) a lot.

 

She and Cason had a dance party early in the week.

I was sweeping in the kitchen and Cason told me, in the middle of his dance, "You're tired of cleaning, we're tired of dancing.  But WE can't stop, cuz it's too cool!"  Haha.

We've taken some family walks.

 Had a sick day.  Just the older two, a few hours of hanging out on the couch with a puke bucket each.  :( 

 We had a really good Fourth of July yesterday.  We went to get some fireworks to play with early in the day.  Then we went to a laundromat because our picnic blanket really needed washing before we went to the park. 

 When we did go to the park we waited in a few lines with the kids to go in bounce houses.  People watching was pretty fun while we waited.  It was starting to get a little darker so we went to find a good spot for our blanket. 

 Jess gave the kids a couple of rides on it...

 ....and then we hung out for an hour or so, waiting for the fireworks to start. 

 Cason said he's a Leafman (from Epic)

 When the fireworks started, Neely spent the first 5-10 minutes with her hands over her mouth like this:

She was awestruck, and maybe a teeny bit nervous.  It's the first year she really cared to watch the whole time.

It was a really good show, though I've only ever seen Kingman's, and the ones at Disney Land. 

I tried getting some pics, but since it was dark, these are the best I could do.

 

As always, I watched their faces as much as the fireworks, because it's just as fun.  When the grand finale started, they were SCREAMING!  It was pretty crazy.  I had to shield my eyes half the time, it was so bright. 

 

We got home and the kids got to play with the sparklers we'd bought earlier.

 

Paige had to throw out a Harry Potter reference, and held hers up like a wand and said "LUMOS!"  Haha.

 

 Neely even got to have one, with close supervision of course.

We missed everyone and the usual Fourth of July, but we had a really happy day, and I'm glad we had this one for just us.  Paige said she'll "always remember it". 

My Retirement So Far

We finished the Kindergarten curriculum we were using for Paige about a week ago, so she's officially finished with Kindergarten.  She told me I'm retired.  Ha.  The day we finished, she got all excited and ran around yelling to everyone that she's on summer break.  Then out of nowhere she got a little sad, and told me she's sorry for all the times she was rude and told me it wasn't fun, and that now she's going to miss it. 

So now our days have been a bit less structured.

They color.  Read.  Try to get away with playing video games all day long.  They play salon.

Paige has been asking to learn to play Chess, so Jess grabbed it in Target yesterday and taught them to play last night.  Paige wanted to teach me today, and I noticed she calls the bishop "Billop" and sometimes "Philip".  Haha.  Neely usually comes in and starts moving our pieces around, and adding checkers pieces too, calling them all "Dishops".  

There's also been a bit of fighting, but thankfully even more lovin'.

 Yesterday our tender hearted boy shed actual tears over an episode of Scooby Doo!

I've been really feeling like getting ready for the baby, but since we won't be in our house until a month or so before he's born, obviously I can't work on his room.  Monday night we ran to Joanns so I could get the batting and one last fabric for the back of the quilt.  I was thinking the quilt would satisfy my nesting urges for now.  I forgot how I get serious tunnel vision once I start a project.  So I spent the past two days sewing almost nonstop.  Even brought it along when we went for drives.

 My fingers are SO sore, and I definitely bled on the quilt already.  I'm being dramatic, it was like two drops, and Oxyclean will take care of it.

Anyway, because of my tunnel vision/obsession, I finished it late last night.

Neely and I were cuddling and talking/singing to each other in my bed today, and she glanced over and noticed the quilt.  I told her "I finished the quilt for the baby in my belly."  She goes "No, I finished it.  I made it for Paige and Cason."  Little fibber.

"Wong" Luscious Locks

During that last game of the NBA finals, I watched while playing Legos with Neely.  She requested a bunny.  I made her one, and then Paige requested a poodle.  I made that, and then the requests started pouring in.  Ha.

I ended up spending a ridiculous amount of Friday filling Lego orders for the kids.  I made a horse, and probably four more bunnies.  That horse was tough.

We took the kids to the park Saturday evening, and there were frogs EVERYWHERE!  I was scared to take a step, thinking I'd smash one.  Some were TINY.

 

Lately Neely's said she wants Paige's hair a few times.  We weren't sure exactly what she meant, but then at bedtime she asked Paige to brush her hair.  It straightens it out some when you brush it, so after a minute she started stroking the ends of her hair and saying "Paige, I have your hair!  It's so wong!"

 

She's very proud of how long it's getting.

I am 25 weeks today! 

Veronica wanted to see a pic at this point last time.  I'm even wearing the same shirt.  Ha.  Not that that's surprising, by this point it's one of the only few that are still long enough.  Expect to see a lot more of this shirt!

I don't know if I was bigger, smaller, or about the same.  Some weeks I swear I'm even bigger, and other times I think it's the same.  The shape is a bit different so it's hard to judge.  My belly seems to start a bit higher this time.  

Baby was being a WILD man this afternoon, and Paige got to feel the craziest kicks, and rolls.  Several times it was those movements where you can almost tell what body part it is, and she was blown away.

It was pretty cool.  First pregnancy any of them have been old enough to care about that stuff.

I was feeling lazy physically, but mentally I REALLY wanted to nest.  So I had Jess get out my sewing machine, and forced myself to start the baby quilt.  

Once I got going I got into it.  Got all my squares together, now tomorrow I can sew the rows together and I'll have a quilt top!

Deep Birthing Squats

Now that I have Instagram, sometimes I forget to blog things, thinking I already have, but really I just put it on Instagram.  So here's a little tidbit about Neely.  She LOVES LOVES LOVES Legos.  We, but especially Jess, are really happy about that.  She will ask me to get them out during the day, and will play them by herself, really quietly, for hours.  Literally hours.  This particular day, a couple of weeks ago, she played for about two hours without stopping or even talking to any of us much, except to ask me for help pulling two blocks apart a few times.

In the car the other day, out of nowhere, she goes "For viewers wike you......FANK YOU!"  Hahaha.  We loved it.  She doesn't actually see that much PBS so that surprised me.  

One more.  We were talking about the baby in my belly.  I told her "You were in my belly once Neely."  She sounded amazed and said "I was in your belly?"  So I said "Yeah, and then you got big and came out."  She gasped, and then in a high pitched voice she usually reserves for talking about cute babies or puppies, said "I'm so proooud!"  Haha!

She's also been liking her sister a lot lately.  Usually Cason is where it's at when it comes to playing together, in her opinion, but lately she likes to hang out with Paige and be read to or whatever they feel like doing.

They even have a secret handshake. 

Paige made me laugh a few days ago.  We were doing her school, and talking about vegetables.  She told me some interesting fact and I asked how she knew it.  She goes "I learned it at school.  The REAL school."  That made me laugh, so she goes "Well, this isn't exactly real school, because you're not actually qualified to be a teacher."  She knew it might sound bad, so tried to sound all polite, but I started laughing.  She got embarrassed and ran off.  

This picture is from the other night when I was doing my prenatal yoga/pilates dvd.  They do it with me sometimes, but this particular night they were off playing.  They just came through the living room, saw what part of the workout I was on, and Paige goes "OH, the DEEP BIRTHING SQUAT!" and they started trying it.  Haha.

First Piercing

After the Lego store we stopped at one of the directories to see if there was anything else in the mall we wouldn't want to miss(mostly because I hate nothing more than a mall and if I'm going in one I want to make the most of it).  There was nothing else we wanted to do, but we noticed a Claire's.  We'd been talking about Paige getting her ears pierced, because she's been begging, and we were thinking we'd have her wait until her birthday in November.  Lately though, I'd been wondering if we should just do it early, but FOR her birthday, while we're still in OKC and have more options as far as places to have it done, and more earring choices probably too.  

So once we noticed Claire's, we quietly talked about it, and decided it was fine with us.  So we asked Paige if she wanted to do it.  She got excited and said yes of course.  As we walked there, she held my hand and got more and more nervous.  She was smiling but kept saying stuff like "You know when you really want to do something, but you don't want to do it at the same time?"  Ha.  

In the store she looked through the earring choices, and I asked the lady a few questions.  We found out there was only one that day who could do it, so she'd definitely have to do one ear at a time.  I told her we could do it that day, and explained to her that it would hurt and the second one would be even scarier because she would know the pain was coming.  I told her if she wanted we could come back in a few days when they could do them at the same time.  She chose to get them done one at a time, if they would let her hug me while they did it.  (She's about as patient as I am)  I asked, and they said she could even sit in my lap. 

So that's what we did.  Paige is always very tough when she's in pain, but this is different, purposely doing something that you know is about to hurt you, so I wasn't sure how she'd handle it.  Just like I should have expected, she sat in my lap, and looked really nervous but just got quiet.  

The lady took quite a while prepping and marking Paige's ears and all of that.  I felt bad for Paige, it was kind of excruciating.  When it was time, Paige leaned against me and sort of hugged my arms and held really still.  I heard the click, and it sounded worse than I expected, and I felt Paige's body tense up really hard.  I remember thinking it hurt quite a bit when I was little, but I also didn't know if I'm just a wuss.  I was kind of hoping that was it.  But Paige is definitely not a wuss and feeling how she tensed up made me SO much more sad than I expected.  So the second ear was even worse.  She never made a sound at all, just tensed up each time.  The girl told her it's okay to cry, but of course Paige wouldn't.

 I started to, however.  Ha.  It was a weird feeling.  I knew it wasn't going to be FUN, or anything, but it caught me off guard how sad it made me.  A mixture of being sad about her hurting, and how tough she was about it, AND just the fact that she's old enough to be deciding to get her ears pierced.  I didn't start sobbing in the store or anything, just teared up a bit.  Ha.  Such a wimp.  

When we left we were telling her how proud we are of her for how tough she was.  I told her we need to take really good care of them and make sure they don't get infected or close up, so that she never has to have them done again.  She goes "If they DID close up, I wouldn't get them done again.  Not until I'm grown up anyway."  Ha. 

Funny I wanted to have it done here so she'd have more choices, but she went with the basic birth stone ones you can probably get everywhere you have them pierced.  :)  They're really cute though.  

The redness was already gone by the time we got home.  

After watching her, I kind of hope Neely doesn't care to have them done.