Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Itinerary

We're so excited to be headed out bright and early Friday morning for one more round of birthday celebrations for Olivia and Landon! Sans Lillian too. (sorry baby Lillian...you're just TOO young!)

Chattanooga here we come! We're hitting up lots of fun spots up there and staying 1 night! The kids are most excited about sleeping in the hotel and swimming in the indoor pool. Go figure.

I'm really excited about the aquarium. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever been to a big aquarium. So Robert and I are in for lots of surprises too!

And you know at the McClellan house, we just LOVE schedules. Well, here's the one Robert and I came up with after researching (and getting suggestions) on what to do and where go to! As you can see, it's gonna be a full (and FUN) weekend!

Can't wait!

Friday

7:00amCST Leave for Chattanooga
10:30amEST Arrive in Chattanooga , pick up tickets at The Chattanoogan (2nd Street )
11:00am IMAX Under the Sea 3D Showing (45mins) ( 2nd and Chestnut)
12:00ish Lunch at the River Street Deli, Coolidge Park (River Street)
2:00pm Creative Discovery Museum (2-3hrs) (Chestnut Street)
5:00ish Check into room/Freshen up for Dinner
5:30pm Dinner at Sekisui Restaurant (200 Mkt Street)
7:00ish Get back to the Hotel and Swim in the indoor pool

Saturday

Wakeup Get ready, pack, load car and have breakfast at the BroadStreet Grille
10:00am Visit the Aquarium’s Freshwater Exhibit, River Journey
12:00ish Lunch at Lupi’s Pizzeria (406 BroadStreet and 4th Street )
1:30ish Visit the Aquarium’s Saltwater Exhibit, Ocean Journey
4:00pm Leave for Birmingham
5:00pmEST Dinner on the Road
6:00pmCST Arrive in Birmingham



Hopefully I'll have lots of fun pictures when we get back. And who knows, I may even make it into a few! Wouldn't that be exciting! haha

See ya when we get back! Maybe I can blog a little from my phone...ooooo, I just might have to do that for a few sneak peaks!! ;-)

Singed

Robert has gotten LOTS done around the house since he's been home more. One of the biggest projects is painting the other two sides of the house. Here's what it looked like before.


And after:


(Still a work in progress - this is from 2007) Looks great...but what you can't see is the back and right side that isn't painted yet. And has sat like that for a year and half. Painting a house is a pretty big undertaking. So, he started this week slowly covering up that turquoise and yellow!!

Landon has been a great helper to Robert of the past couple of weeks. It's nice to leave him with Robert and knowing he's getting that "man time" he needs....and that I can't give him. :-)

So taking a break from the house, they started smoking a Boston Butt for dinner! YUM!! After putting the charcoal and smokey wood chips in the grill, I guess Landon leaned over and looked in.

Cue burn hair smell.....mmmmmmm!



Bless his heart. He singed quite a bit of his hair. He was pretty embarrassed for a bit. But once we shook off all the little burnt pieces and messed his hair up, he looked okay again!

It's always something with little boys!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Coming Clean

First let me say that, whew, it is SO nice to have the baby news off our chest. I just don't like hiding things. It really starts to mess with my head. But a lot of you have asked, so I'll kinda give you the story...and some other details. It may be a little long. Sorry.

It all started last summer when Robert and I barely started discussing if we even wanted to have another child. We were both open to adding to our family, but just not yet. I did say I thought it would be fun to have a September baby. Well, in September 2008, we had a positive pregnancy test that pretty much sent me over the edge. I wasn't ready, plus I was having a lot of unexplained pain. I also had no desire to tell anyone that I was pregnant. A couple weeks later, there were complications that sent me into the doctor. (Let me say I have THE BEST doctor - he took wonderful care of me) There didn't seem to be a baby at all (blighted ovum). But everything else pointed towards pregnancy. That lead to a s series of tests that kept me in limbo of knowing anything for a couple of weeks. Talk about AWFUL. Do you grieve, get excited? It was hard to stay hopeful knowing what the outcome would most likely be. I had a hard time keeping my emotions in check.

I went through 1 surgery and 6 weeks later another one because of more complications. The pain was horrible. I thought I was making it up! I mean, this was supposed to be a quick little outpatient procedure and you're fine in a few days!

So after the second surgery, I finally felt like a new person! No pain. Then I started thinking about not EVER having any more kids. But God had a bigger plan.

The week before Robert lost his job we had another positive pregnancy test. Which also sent me over the edge. It was TOO SOON in my head for this to happen. I remember thinking, "this can't be good." And what an awful thing to think...it should be time to celebrate! But things were still too fresh.

Anyway, we went into the doctor and it was too early to see anything. Great...wait again. But during that wait, God really gave Robert and I a peace about everything. We both had several confirmations along the way too. But not enough to start shouting out the news. We went back at 6 weeks and heard and saw the heartbeat. But we were still under strict doctor's orders not to tell before 10 weeks. So we proceeded to make it a nonexistent subject in our household.

At 10 weeks, I went in again and he found the heartbeat on my belly. :-) I got his blessing to share the news. Sunday morning, we told the kids, and then they they told the grandparents at lunch. We called all of our close family.

Olivia is very excited. Her prayer request for quite a while has been for a new baby. Well, she may be in for more than she bargained for! But I do know she will be an extremely wonderful big sister. I'm sure all the needs of the baby will be taken care of. ;-)

So...anywho...the due date is September 14, 2009. Of course, I'd love to go early, but you know how that goes. Oh, and that old wives tale that the more kids you have the earlier they come. LIES LIES LIES! Lillian was LATE! But came very fast.

It'll be a long nine months. I can't say that being pregnant is my absolute favorite thing, but I do look forward to feeling this little one kick around. There really is nothing like it.

Actually, I think the biggest challenge will be answering all the questions the kids have, especially Landon. Landon asked how the baby will come out. And Olivia said, "Oh Landon, I'll tell you later. The doctor reaches in your private parts and pulls the baby out!"

Ooookkkkayyy..... too much "A Baby Story" on TLC for YOU!


As I've heard said before, God's foolishness is bigger than man's wisdom. Even though my chances of losing this pregnancy were SO HIGH through the medical eyes, God is bigger. And better. And also wants to give us the desires of our hearts. Because apparently I thought it would be really fun to be nice big fat pregnant through an Alabama summer. Haha...Thank you...Lord!



A few more things....

1. Yes, my 'mid-blog-life-crisis' was a little in part due to HORMONES! I thought I did pretty well the first several weeks...still posting and all. But every pregnancy, I get this mother goose instinct to protect and pull away. And I think I just felt too exposed. But, I got over it and hopefully it won't happen again. But I can't promise anything! ;-)

2. I'm feeling great. Had very little sickness if any at all. Fatigue is killer though. I have a good 12 hours in me during the day and then is O.V.E.R. and then I can't get out of bed. Even it it's 6:30 pm.

3. I personally don't want to find out what the baby is. But Robert said we have to discuss whether or not we're finding out. :-( I really enjoyed not finding out with Lillian!! And that's what I would like to do again.

4. We still would love prayers for Robert's job and a healthy baby/pregnancy. Robert is staying busy painting, but he's only booked out so far. And the unknown after that can be hard. Put a hormonal pregnant wife and a hardworking (but nervous) husband together and it can be a recipe for disaster....well, it's just not the perfect situation. But we're hangin' in there.

5. If you're still reading..BRAVO. I don't tend to post really long posts without pics....but just wanted to come clean and clear the air! And please...keep coming back to read! I'm sure I can keep you semi entertained with stories from our household!! :-)

Sunday, February 22, 2009

A Very Special Vlog

Skip it if you dare. But all I'm gonna say is, you're not going to want to miss this one. I think you'll be a little surprised!!

So go ahead. Click on it! :-)


Friday, February 20, 2009

It Hit Me AGAIN

The sewing bug. And I LOVE it!! Sewing comes in seasons for me, I guess. The spring-like weather that has been teasing us has made me start dreaming in COLOR! I'm very ready to wear COLOR again. I just think winter wardrobes can be so depressing. I can't stand buying anything to wear in the winter. Except shoes maybe.

But you know how I love to match the kids. Well, it's turned into just the girls now. Landon is just plain out of that stage now. Oh well. :-(

But the girls and I went and picked out some fabric. I'm keeping it SUPER simple. I just don't have the same amount of time on my hands like I did before Lillian was born.

So no button holes or snaps! It's basically 2 pieces of fabric sewn together with a few embellishments and ribbons that tie at the shoulders!






So bring on the rick rack and pom poms! :-) I have everything cut out and the trim pinned to almost everything. I'll have these zipped together in no time! And my plan is to let my friend Carrie monogram a couple of them. I bet she'll have some cute ideas for me! I promise Carrie! We will get together and pick out something cute! I'm sayin' it here! :-)

Now, if only this spring weather would go ahead and get here!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Boiling

My blood pressure that is. When I saw this:




I mean, does she know how many coupons I carry around on a daily basis!?! (hundreds, I'm sure) Does she know how long I spend clipping and filing coupons....then organizing them for my shopping trips. Yes, I've gotten it down to a science and am pretty efficient now. But still, this is going to take me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to figure out what order my tabs go in and pretty much put back every.single.coupon.

AHHH.


After I calmed down (I'm too ashamed to admit what I really said at first), I got the camera out. To which Lillian said, "Cheese!" :-)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

"Lindsay Needs"

I've never liked doing all the little chain notes and tagging things, but this one I came across caught my eye. And actually made me do it. Then I just had to share!

Instructions: Google your "first name" and "needs" and post the first six that come up.

So I googled.

This is what I got.


1. Skinny Lindsay needs some food

2. Lindsay needs a bra

3. Lindsay needs love

4. Lindsay is just not that into you

5. Lindsay needs to go to rehab

6. Lindsay needs to stop wearing fur


hahahaha Ok, in my defense, clearly they are all taking about Lindsay Lohan and all the stuff flying over the internet about her right now. But I still got a kick out of it.

Go ahead...try it! ;-)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

"Lucy, you got some 'xplaining to do!"

Ok people. I know I have some " 'xplaining" to do. I promise I will. Not sure when, but I will.

I guess I just had a little mini meltdown and felt the need to pull back and refocus. Lot's of things going on in this household.

I just needed a break from the world wide web. And last time I took a break, well, some people didn't like it. Which I guess I should be flattered. And I am. But girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. (Without the heat!)

But go figure, I couldn't stay away for long. Though, I still am technically on my "break".

So, I thought I'd revamp my blog (and I'm not sure if I'm done yet - can't decide if I like it). I thought that would feel like a fresh start.

I'm even thinking about buying a domain! How cool what that be!! A little piece of invisible property to call my own! :-)

So, I hope I didn't infuriate too many of you. Hopefully I can lure you all back with a bunch of fun posts in the near future!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Tired Much?

It's not every morning that I get up, shower and completely get dressed before carpool. Mainly because I head to the gym after I drop off at school. But this morning, I had to do the whole shebang! :-)

As I was drying my hair and doin' my face, Lillian was playing in my room. When I finished up, I noticed she looked a little too still.


She had fallen asleep on my floor! Poor thing, I guess she was so tire. She had only been up for maybe an hour already! Bless her heart! We'll have to have a good naptime today! :-) I left her there for a good 30-40 minutes until we had to leave for carpool!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

For Mimi and Poppy!

The kids received a Toys R Us gift card from their grandparents! They were SOOOO excited to go shopping with their "credit card" and other birthday dollars!

So we headed to Toys R Us and wandered around until they decided on just what they wanted! It was pretty cute to see them wander the aisles knowing they could pick out almost anything they wanted!

Olivia found hers quickly!

A little Barbie cafe system and some food!



Landon took a little longer. He couldn't decide between some cool helicopters or dumptrucks and army man getup!

He went with the army man getup! He loves his camo! Wears it every day! :-)


Then later on that night, we had some friends and family over for cake and hamburgers!! :-) And to think, we're still not done celebrating their birthdays! :-)


Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A First

The boy did not make a sound getting his 4 year shots. Not a peep. That's a first for me....WOW. He is so brave!!! Everyone looked good. The Doc did comment on how petite our kids are. Really? I had no idea! ;-)

Monday, February 9, 2009

Father/Daughter

Olivia is in her first year of ballet this year. I can't say that she absolutely loves it, but we're finishing the year out no matter what. I personally think she look so stinkin' cute in her ballet outfit. And if she's anything like me (and I think she is) she doesn't like not knowing what is coming. I keep trying to explain to her about the big recital at the end of the year and her costume that she will get to keep, but I'm not sure she fully grasps it.

Last weekend, the ballet company hosted a Father/Daughter dance. Lemme tell you, I've never seen that child get so excited about anything! She could NOT wait!

Friday night, she got all dressed up, put on her necklace and bracelet that she is only allowed to wear on special occasions and had a night out with Daddy!

They ate dinner, watched some performances by the older ballerinas, and got to dance together themselves!


Just maybe this dance will want to make her keep taking ballet...we'll see.



When I was taking pictures...shocker....Lillian actually wanted in the picture. We couldn't get her to leave. Usually, I can't get her to stay in the frame!

And, it turned out cute! :-)

Friday, February 6, 2009

4 Years and Counting!

Sweet Landon turns 4 years old today. Since it's right after Olivia's birthday, I'm always reminded of how I paced around Olivia's 2nd birthday party in labor! He was born around 1 a.m. They almost had the same birthday!!





Landon is one of the most positive little boys I know. He finds the good in every situation! He is always speaking words of encouragement over everyone around him. He's already a great athlete! (yay) :-) And is good at figuring things out on his own. He's the silliest, sweetest, and funniest little boy we know! We just adore him!

Happy Birthday Landon! We love you so much and look forward seeing all the wonderful adventures God has in store for you!!!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

6 Years and Counting!

Our Olivia was born 6 years ago today!!! She is such a wonderful blessing to our family! We just love her so much!





Olivia is blossoming into a beautiful young girl, inside and out! She is a wonderful helper to everyone in the family. She looks for ways to bless all of us by serving in any way she can. She is also quick to seek out forgiveness when she needs to! She looks out for her brother and sister! And is just plain delightful to be around!

Happy Birthday Olivia! We love you so much and look forward to ALL God has in store for your life!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Making Valentines....

For kids at the children's hospital. What a good idea! And the sucker helped lure them in too. At the library without having to chase Lillian is SO nice!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Circus For Their Birthdays!

Some of you may or may not know that Olivia and Landon's birthdays are a day apart. So it's pretty easy to combine birthday celebrations. We tend to do things a little unconventional for their birthdays. Call me crazy, whatever. But we don't throw big huge, spend-lots-of-$$-parties for our kids. Don't get me wrong, we love going to all the other big parties. We just have a hard time justifying doing them for us. We are more of a family oriented birthday celebration people. Spend time making the memories together - the quality time that means so much to them. We have plenty of other times to spend with our friends. We still do cake and ice cream, etc, etc. It's just done with those closest to us (and that doesn't always exclude friends either!).

Anyways, this year, one of the things we're doing for their birthdays is taking them to the circus! (We're also going to go for a weekend trip to the Tennesse aquarium!! But that's later!) I've been wanting to do this for a while. We were just waiting until they were a little older....so they'd actually remember us taking them! It was so much fun. Robert has never been, and I was 2 the last time I went. So we were all very excited. Our seats were about 11 or 12 rows up. I thought the view was perfect from where we were!

I packed goody bags so that we wouldn't have to pay the OUTRAGEOUS prices for food/candy/toys there. And the kids surprisingly didn't bug us about getting one. We weren't going to take Lillian, but we were going to a Super Bowl party afterwards and it just made sense to bring her. Plus she was free. :-)

Here are some highlights from the night. Not the greatest pictures....indoors, low lights is not the best for pics! And the flash wouldn't reach so I had to turn it off. But you can still see what's going on!


Landon looks thrilled, huh!


Lillian ate candy the whole time...


I just loved how the elephants held on to each other's tails! So cute!

They had trained zebras! Crazy. They are not exactly like horses....so I was surprised to see them so well trained!



I loved the elephants!


They're on their heads!!! How in the world did they teach them that??


Playing dead.

Jumping through fire. One of the acrobats, fell pretty bad. Wasn't hurt, but ended up rolling off the swing and several feet away on the floor. Yikes!


The dogs were so cute. This one little dog jumped from way up high.


And then the tigers!! Landon coudn't wait for them. It was pretty cool. You coudn't pay me to get in a cage with 10 or so tigers! They were growling and swatting at him too!!!




Here's a little video of one of the tigers not obeying - though I'm pretty sure it was on purpose.



At the end, he slapped the tiger on the bottom!! Ummmm....I'm just not sure I'd be slapping any tigers' bottoms...maybe that's just me.


There were lot of magic tricks. Of course, the whole time I'm trying to figure them out. Most of which I could - at least I had my theories. But there were 2 tricks that I really got me.

At the beginning of the show, they brought an elephant out on a little pully-cart thing. And made him disappear. Seriously, where did the elephant go.

And right before the tigers came out, there was a man (walkin' around) in a glass case that they hoisted up into the air. They dropped the curtains down, and 2 seconds later, when the curtains disappeared....there was a tiger. Crazy! I may have to google it or something. It really stumped me.

So, does anyone know how they do that??