Summer Things

Even though we’ve only been out of school for a week, summer is in full swing here in the Watson household. We want to enjoy as much time together as possible before Chris starts his summer semester of classes & is in class 4 days/week. Ugh.

I snuck away for the weekend for a girls weekend beach trip while Chris and Elodie spent some quality time together.

When I came home, the summer fun continued!

We went strawberry picking at a local Strawberry Farm. The weather has been crazy, so the strawberry season has been extended into the summer months. We weren’t complaining because we haven’t been able to fit it into our schedule this season.

Finding the best spot to pick

Last time we did this was last April (2012). Elodie was 1 + a few months, and while she enjoyed picking (eating) the berries then, she LOVED it this year. She had her own little basket & she went to town. We told her to make sure she got the berries that were red all the way around, not green, and she kept saying that over and over while she picked. “Green berries make my tummy yucky. Red berries make my tummy feel good.”

So cute.

Elodie starting to pick

Elodie + Gigi

Family Picture

Elodie + Gigi

Once we got home from picking, the weather was starting to heat up. We have yet to utilize our lovely pool that comes with our HOA fees, and we decided to cool off by finally checking out the pool.

We rarely took Elodie to the pool last summer, so we weren’t sure what to expect. We bought her a little Puddle Jumper vest to wear in the pool over her bathing suit. It was perfect for her.

Our lovely pool

Chris and I were a bit cautious with her at first. She slowly started jumping in, climbing out by the stairs, running around to the side & jumping in again all on her own. She and Chris would swim around the pool and she would start all over again. She was having a BLAST!

Elodie and Daddy, swimming around

Our pool also has this mushroom thing that sprays out water, meant for little kiddos. I thought Elodie would love this more than anything else, but she wasn’t that into it.

Since I’ll probably the one who takes her to the pool most often when Chris is in school, I’m glad the vest worked well & that she is pretty comfortable swimming around in the “big” pool.  I certainly can’t run around after her too much at 6-7 months pregnant, like I will be this summer. Staying cool in the pool while she can do her own thing will be fun for both of us!

Needless to say, this day wore Elodie out so we made some yummy strawberry jelly & pie from our goodies at the strawberry farm while she napped! It was a fun summer day! I look forward to many more this summer.

Hope you’re enjoying this warm weather.

xoxo

Ash

Gymnastics Recital

On Mother’s Day weekend, Elodie’s gymnastics gym had a recital for the little kiddos. She  has upgraded from the parent-tot class to a big girl class all on her own, so this was the first time she could showcase all that she’s learned. All the kiddos who participated in the recital at the same time Elodie did probably were between ages 2-4, so it was kind of chaos. Cute as can be, but chaos.

Luckily, since it was Mother’s Day weekend, my sister, brother-in-law and nephew were all in town to watch Elodie’s performance!

The fam

The gym all set up

The gymnasts had 3 stations in their routine: a trampoline/jumpy station, a balance beam station & a flip/roll station. Chris got videos of her at all three stations. The videos came out slightly better than the pictures. It’s hard to capture a 2 year old running around.

In these videos, Elodie is in the black leotard, black shorts & her hair is in pigtails. She’s hard to see sometimes!

I think the trampolines are Elodie’s favorite.

Elodie is usually better about walking on the balance beams by herself, but was being shy during her performance.

Right at the beginning of this video, Elodie does a perfect roll all by herself! This is rare, as usually her rolls go sideways and crazy. What a perfect time to be recording her!

Once all the gymnasts were finished, they called them all up to receive a medal. They all did a great job & deserved it!

A mother of one of the girls in Elodie’s class got all the little ladies in her class flowers. It was really thoughtful. This is the best picture we could get of the three sweet girls who’ve been in class together since last summer.

Gymnastics Cuties

We are so proud of our little gymnast!

So proud of this cutie

We love gymnastics! I’m so glad Elodie enjoys it as much as she does, because we sure love watching it. Looking forward to having a male gymnast on our hands when baby #2 arrives!

xoxo

Ash

Baby BOY!

We found out on friday that our newest addition to the Watson Family is a BOY!!

Our sweet baby boy

There’s no denying this one is a boy!

 

While Chris and I were both hoping for a boy, we honestly would have been happy with either, as long as the little bean is healthy. However, since he is a boy, we’re thrilled! Chris has his boy to play rough with and I have my momma’s boy. Elodie is going to be the best helper with her little brother.

We went out today & bought the very first thing for our new little man.

Our first purchase for the little man

Can’t wait until September!

xoxo

Ash

New House Pictures

So, we’ve been a little quiet around here lately. Moving into our new house  & trying to finish up the school year has us a little busy. Three more weeks until summer break, so we’ll have lots of fun around the house/with Elodie/preparing for baby #2 during that time!

Anyway, as promised, here are some pictures of our new house finally. I just want to mention that we love this house already! The neighborhood couldn’t be any more perfect for our growing family and it was definitely worth the wait.

We’ve hung very little on the walls & haven’t painted anything yet, but all of that is on our to-do list. Think of these pictures as the “befores.”

Thankfully, it was pretty move-in ready, so there’s little/no work to be done. We already have a list of things we want to change/upgrade, but most of those things are wwaaayy down the line.

The front of our new house

The front porch–new flowers included

The front door

Once you enter into the front door, you enter into sort of a great room. The dining room is to the right of the front entrance, and the living room (vaulted ceilings included) and stairs are what grabs your attention straight ahead.

Our living room from the front door

More living room/vaulted ceilings/stairs

Dining room–to the right of the front door

To the left of the foyer/entrance way is our master bedroom. I wasn’t sure I wanted a master-on-main, but it hasn’t really bothered me so far. We’ll see how it is when the new baby arrives.

Our bedroom

Tray ceilings in our bedroom–excuse our temporary card table/computer/office area. That’s temporary.

Master bath: my sink area

Chris’ sink area/shower

One of my fave features: the master bathtub

Master bath: the closed door is where the toilet is, the other door is our (messy) master closet

Out into the living room again and just past the dining room is a hallway that leads to the laundry room, half bath, garage & kitchen.

Hallway to the garage/laundry room/half bath

The first door on the left: laundry room; second door on the left: half bath; the door straight back: garage

Kitchen–as seen from the eat-in nook

More Kitchen

Eat-in nook, door to the back patio

More kitchen

Our patio & backyard, which can be accessed through the kitchen.

Our back patio: table & grill

Backyard + giant retaining wall

Other side of the backyard + more retaining wall

Back inside & up the stairs are the rest of the bedrooms & another full bathroom.

Down the stairs

Elodie’s room–including her new full-sized big girl bed

Other side of Elodie’s room–easel & her closet

Across the hall from Elodie’s room is our future guest room, aka current junk room.

The future guest room.. aka junk room for now.

This room has access to our full bathroom upstairs. The bathroom can also be accessed through the hallway.

The full bath upstairs–this is the door from the hallway.

Elodie’s/guest shower & toilet area

The other sink nook that you can enter from the guest room

The final bedroom is at the end of the hallway. This is the future nursery.

The upstairs hallway. The guest bath is to the left & the “nursery” is straight ahead

The 4th bedroom–the future nursery.

And last but not least… our garage. I’m so excited we put our cat litter in here & installed a kitty door so the kitties can come in & out as they please. No more smelly cat litter in our extra bathroom. Notice our nice lawnmower.. it’s like we’re real homeowners now!

Our garage

So that’s our house! Hope you enjoyed your tour.

If you’re around, come on over and see it in person at our Housewarming Party on May 18!

xoxo

Ash

Easter 2013

Easter this year was pretty low-key. On Saturday we went to a local Easter Egg hunt and had a blast. They had the kids divided up into several age groups for hunting eggs. Elodie was in the 0-2 age group, so she was one of the older ones. She did so great!

Funny story: The hunt was supposed to begin at 11. At around 10:59:30, Elodie decided she really had to go potty. We asked her a few times if she really had to go, and she insisted. Chris picked her up and ran her to the potty. As soon as they left, the announcer came on and said “we’re ready to start.. I’m going to count backwards from 100..” We thought we they had plenty of time until he came back on.. “no.. I’m going to count backwards from 3, 3-2-1, GO!.” I sent my mom out to make sure she grabbed a few eggs for Elodie. Elodie and Chris came running back over shortly after and she still had plenty of time to collect those eggs. Bad timing, kiddo.

Gearing up for the hunt!

Getting started

Love this one! She’s taking this pretty serious!

The whole hunt lasted all of 5-10 minutes before all the eggs were gone, but Elodie still got a basket full of eggs.

It was a beautiful day, the first one in several weeks. We enjoyed getting out & celebrating the holiday for a few minutes!

Family photo. Notice the 14.5 week bump <3

Elodie + Gigi

Sunday, Easter, we spent most of the day at home. I had every intention of dying eggs with Elodie, but was missing something I needed, so we never got around to that.

The Easter Bunny brought Elodie a basket full of paint & bubbles. She’s been telling me she wants the Easter Bunny to bring her paint for several weeks, so of course I had to relay her message to Mr. Bunny & luckily, he delivered.

Easter Basket

Excited about her goodies

After some paint fun/a slight green-paint-on-our-carpet incident, we met my mom & our friends Jessie & Ben for brunch. Brunch was followed by a nice, relaxing day.

Just for fun.. here are our Easter family pictures from the past 2 years. It’s so crazy to see how Elodie has grown. And next year, there’ll be another little family member to spend the holiday with!

Our family last year-2012

Elodie’s first Easter-2011

Hope you all had a lovely Easter!

xoxo

Ash

Spring has Sprung… sort of.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m NOT made for the cold weather. As soon as there is a hint of warm weather, my mood instantly perks up. I complain nearly every morning when I check my weather app & it says 30′s or 40′s. I’m beyond ready for spring/summer.

March is a crazy month, weather wise. One day it’s sunny & warm, one day it’s snow-flurrying, and then we’re under tornado warnings the very next day. So we try and savor those lovely warm sunny days, because you never know when we’ll get another one. We’ve spent a few days at the park lately and it’s been wonderful.

Flying a kite with daddy

Elodie loving life & swinging her heart out

We also spent the other weekend in downtown Kennesaw at an annual event they host called, Touch-a-Truck. They have dozens of vehicles, school buses, fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, etc. out on display for the kids to run around, get in, and touch. It was a gorgeous day & Elodie loved getting in all the cool vehicles they had. The BEST part about the event was that everything was free! They had inflatable bouncy houses for the kids that were free & they were giving out free popcorn! We couldn’t of asked for a better way to spend the morning.

In a school bus

holding a fire hose

sitting in a fire truck

more fire truck

Elodie and daddy are in trouble in the police car

She loved honking the horn!

This was a great event & I’m looking forward to more out-doorsy stuff as the weather starts to improve.

Hope you’re starting to enjoy the glimpses of spring.

xoxo

Ash

First Trimester: Zombieland

So my first trimester with baby #2 is officially over.  In a word, it’s been exhausting.

When I was pregnant with Elodie, I was only taking 2 classes at KSU and working part-time doing after-school tutoring. I could fit in a nap most days, and aside from the 4+ months of throwing up on a daily basis, it was manageable.

This time around…our life is totally different. I teach ALL DAY (extended day with no planning, only a 26-28 minute break for lunch) and we have a busy toddler to chase around after work. Chris has class 2 nights a week, so I pick Elodie up from her baby-sitters & the two of us are on our own for the evening. And lately, with all the house hunting we’ve been doing, it seems like all our free time is filled with all sorts of weird schedules. (We are under contract with a house (!!!), by the way, but more on that later).

Elodie goes to bed around 7:30 in the evenings, and I’ve been passing out on the couch shortly thereafter.  I’ve never been more exhausted in my life. I seriously feel like I’m a zombie.

Around 11 weeks, I woke up & definitely felt more pregnant.

Our apartment is a mess, my classroom is a mess, and I feel like my life is a mess.

The weekends are somewhat of a relief for all of us because my mom usually comes over to keep Elodie entertained, while Chris and I  try and get our place in order/write lesson plans, I squeeze in a nap, etc. Luckily, Elodie & Gigi love spending time together, so this is a good arrangement for everyone.

On St. Patty’s Day–12.5 weeks pregnant

The only thing better this time around is the nausea. I feel a little sick in the mornings, but usually as soon as I eat something it goes away. My appetite is a little off, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was with Elodie. Although, the past couple of days, it seems to have gotten worse and I’ve actually been throwing up. I’m hoping it gets worse before it gets better very.quickly, right?

Rockin’ all my maternity clothes–12 weeks 6 days

As this first trimester comes to an end, I’m hoping I start feeling a little more like myself. I’m certainly not looking like myself. My belly has definitely “popped.” I told my students around 11 weeks that I was pregnant, and they all graciously responded with  ”we know, Mrs. Watson. Your belly was getting bigger, but nothing else was… and we know you run, so we figured you were pregnant.” I just appreciate them not saying anything sooner I teach 9th graders, by the way, so it’s pretty impressive that they didn’t burst sooner!

I’m pretty much only wearing maternity clothes, with a belly band thing for my pants that don’t button, so there’s that.

13 weeks!

I have an appointment today to check on the babe, and hopefully during my appointment next month, we can find out the gender! I’m so excited to find out!! My students are dying to know

xoxo

Ash

PS: Happy birthday to my MOM!! Love you!! <3

Lately

I am really in a rut with this whole blogging thing. I’m too busy during the week to write anything and then on the weekends, we are enjoying our time together/running errands/doing stuff around our house, so I quickly run out of time then too.

Also, I suck at taking pictures.

There are a few things I have managed to capture in the past couple of weeks, so here it goes.

Elodie’s knowledge/vocabulary just grows exponentially by the day. She’s saying 3-4 word sentences (her favorite of which is “no, my do it!”),  she repeats e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g we say, she’s learning to count, she knows some letters (pretty much just O & W),  she knows almost all of her colors, and she loves “reading” books to herself.  Her favorite things to do around the house are jump on her trampoline, have a tea party, push her baby dolls around in a stroller, color, draw and paint.  She also loves Skyping with Grandma & Grandpa on the iPad.

Blow-drying her hair after her bath like a diva

She’s gotten so sweet with us. Every afternoon when we come home or pick her up from her babysitter’s, she runs to us & screams “mommy! daddy! miss you!” She gives the best kisses, tells us “lub you” all the time, and after a long day she cuddles up to us and says “mommy/daddy need you.” What toddler says that?! How adorable!

This is a cute video  I took the other day of her “counting.” For some reason 7 & 9 are favorites.

The weather here has been horrible. As I’m sure most people are, I am SO SICK of the cold weather. It’s been ridiculously cold (for GA) and we’ve been hiding out inside as much as possible. We went to the Children’s Museum the other weekend and finally got a membership. I’m super excited that we can go there whenever we want now for freeeeeeee. It will definitely be worth it over the summer when the weather gets miserable for another reason.. the dreaded heat. Dreaded heat + me being really preggers will not be a good combination this summer. Indoor activities will be welcomed

The Children’s Museum

dress up @ the Children’s Museum

Speaking of cold weather.. the past few days we’ve had snow flurries. Yep, it’s March… and we live in GA.. and it was snowing. What?!

Snow! On March 1!

A good friend of ours came into town this past weekend and we went out. I chauffeured everyone around in our awesome minivan & it was a great night.

Playing bocce ball

In the meantime.. we’re on the hunt for a house so keep your fingers crossed! Here’s hoping we have some good news soon!

xoxo

Ash

Pinterest Challenge: Counting the Weeks

If you missed the news, I just recently announced that we’re expecting baby #2. Since good ‘ol Pinterest wasn’t around with Elodie & life was crazy back then, I didn’t really document the first one. I knew I wanted a chance to document this one! Thanks to Pinterest, I found the perfect way to do so…

This Pinterest challenge came at a great time for me for me to share the shirt I made.

I pinned this shirt tutorial a while back and I was hoping I’d get a chance to make it soon. Not long after I found out I was pregnant, I knew this was the first thing on my to-do list.

I went to Target & bought a plain white maternity shirt, then to a craft store to get stencils & fabric paint. Unfortunately, unlike the tutorial, I don’t have the supplies to make 1-40 stencils like she did, so I had to do them all separately using 0-9 stencils. Mine was probably more time consuming than hers, but it turned out great! Also unlike the tutorial, I didn’t make my fabric paint; I just bought red & black paint.

Fabric Paint

The stencils I used

Once I placed the first couple of lines.. it started off well!

The first few weeks

Making Progress

But then, using the stencils over & over again with the fabric paint.. I ran into an issue.

Whoops!

So my smart hubby suggested that I use a fabric pen instead. Great idea, right? Except.. you’ll need more than 1! BUY SEVERAL!

After a second trip to Target to get another plain white shirt.. I was back in business again.

Fabric Pen

It was smooth sailing from there & turned out great!

The finished product

I added the “due: 9.25″ as an extra touch! You like?

I was about 5 weeks when I finished this… and looked like this

5 weeks

And 5 weeks later.. my belly has definitely “popped.” People tell me that’s normal with baby #2, but I’m not ready to be in maternity clothes quite yet.

10 weeks

10 weeks

Please excuse my hair in these pictures… it’s been a long day! Anyway, there’s my project! I’m so glad to finally share!

Check out these other wonderful ladies projects: Sherry, Katie, Megan & Michelle

Also, just for fun, here are the other 2 Pinterest Challenges I’ve participated in: Pillows & Dinner.

Happy Pinning!

xoxo

Ashley