randoms

 

Crazy daddy & Gabe after shower time! Michael goes to Gabe tonight..."Hey Gabe, want to take a shower with daddy?" His response was immediate head shaking "no" and "take shower mommy". Boom! Guess I'm just more fun in the shower!  And yes he's 2 so we sometimes have him just shower with us...it's quick and he thinks it's super-cool.

 Check out his mohawk. Gabe's cuter, smarter, sweeter and ornerier every day! Last night he was outside playing ball with daddy. Then Daddy had him carry in a dead cicada to show mommy. Needless to say i screamed so Gabe then screamed and threw it on the floor! haha! It took Michael awhile to convince him to pick it back up and throw it away. I took him to the splash park/ jungle gym today and when a wasp landed on me i screamed and jumped...so Gabe did the same. I think i'm passing on my fear of bugs to Gabe. That's not bad right?

 Some recent cool things Gabe is doing: going to the bathroom by himself! It's pretty much the best thing ever. He'll tell us pee pee or poopies so we say...okay Gabe go do it! So he runs into the bathroom and shuts the door, drags over the stool, pulls down his pants and goes to business! It's totally awesome! He needs a little help at the end but hey...i'll take it!
  We pass over this river called the Roubideaux (pronounced rue-beh-do) on our way into Waynesville. He calls it the "river-do". We took him on a hike (the engineer trail) and saw 2 baby frogs and a baby box turtle. So all day he kept repeating, "froggies. two froggies. Turtle. baby turtle". He loves to sing. Constantly. In fact we have to ban him from singing at meals or he won't eat and just sing the whole time. His eating has improved lately. He's finally eating better portions and chewing his food. Sometimes he slips back into his old habits..but for the most part we think he's starving so he'll eat.

 Pretty roses from my hubby just cuz :) He's the best! He snuck them into the cart at the grocery store and surprised me with them!

We have the cradle all set up for "baby sister". Looks a bit different then when it was ready for Gabe! We actually have to ban Gabe from it because he wants to put tiger in it and rock it rather roughly. Gabe's favorite thing to do right now is anything outside! He loves dragging his wagon around, attempting summer-saults and running in circles. He especially loves it when we take him over to a park with slides, ladders and tunnels. He's better and better at climbing every time we go!
  I finally re-organzied my linen closet. Nesting? perhaps. I should've cleaned it out months ago...it's so much better. No labor signs yet. Once I'm over 36 weeks though, game over! Michael & I are getting into the part of this pregnancy (especially me) where we just want to have the baby! I know she needs another month to fatten up a bit but ahhhhhhhh! I'd like to meet her sooner rather than later :)
  We had a nice weekend full of water-park adventures, naps, bbqs and walking. I swear Nulkie's gonna walk me every evening to get this baby to get in optimal position! I hope all your weekends were pleasant.

Happy Birthday Nulkie

Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday to my main squeeze, the one and only, Michael Vincent Nulk. He's 26 yrs old today!

          

My card said this: (it might be a little TMI, aka for Wes) but Nulkie loved it!

H is for the incredible HUNK of a man that you are.

U is for the UNDERWEAR you look so good in

S is for how SAFE you make me feel.

B is for BACON, because i know you like bacon.

A is for the ADMIRATION i have for you.

N is for your NAKEDNESS underneath the above-mentioned underwear

D is for DARING to hold my purse. 

Any way you spell it, you're the HUSBAND I love!

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There's the man himself! We had a BLAST seeing Josh Turner. He's an awesome entertainer. He sang every song we wanted to hear and sounded great.

 This is Lincoln's library & museum. Lets just say despite the trend that most museums are always low on funds, i think Lincoln's museum is rolling in $$$. It's amazing!

 Our hotel was about 2 blocks from all the Lincoln stuff...so we walked all over springfield scoping it out. We might've fit in a cold stone creamery stop as well :) It rained a bit in the afternoon but cleared up by the concert.

 We ate dinner at the Chesapeake Seafood House. The restaurant is set in a 15 room mansion built in 1850. It was a very pretty setting and tasty cuisine too!

 

Cowboys boots on...ready for Josh Turner!

 33 weeks and feeling good. Starting to feel kinda massive too though!

 Steel Magnolias opened for Josh. They were okay. We only knew like 2 songs so we were ready to them to be done!

 There he is. We had pretty decent seats actually. It was a big field surrounded by bleachers...so preggers opted for a bleacher seat rather than trudging through the 6 inches of mud in the field. Had I not been 8 mths preggo maybe i would've tried out the field but..we were happy to be mud-free. It was funny to see all the girls in high heels/flip flops sinking in the mud! Josh  was awesome. I'd like to see him again sometime (when i'm not pregnant) and be able to get closer.

 I think going to this concert solidifies that Evie will be a country girl. And like history (and/or Lincoln). I mean she's visited Lincoln's home in the womb...must be fostering a strong connection!

 Lincoln's Springfield home. Only house he ever owned...they lived there for 17 years while he practiced law.

 They have a whole block of houses restored to make the street look as it did when the Lincoln's lived there. We saw this lil' robin took up residence there too!

This is the most photographed view of Lincoln's house. Unfortunately the scaffolding kinda takes away from it, but it's really neat to see.

St. Louis skyline! I don't think we'll be back to this city for a longg time!
     Gabe did great at our freinds' house. They did a great job of wearing him out! He and Caleb (their 2 yr old son) played really cute together. Gabe didn't have any accidents (i was worried) and slept fine! Thanks so much Adam & Bri!! On top of watching Gabe they also had us over for a BBQ when we went to pick up Gabe. They're amazing!
    I had a dr. appt this morning. Everything is going well. Good strong heartbeat. Good blood pressure reading.  Next appt I'll be 36 weeks and that's when they'll check Evie's position and give us a better idea if were having a repeat c-section or not. Looks like about 6ish weeks left...we can't wait to meet her!

Josh Turner - Why Don't We Just Dance

Hello all-
We'll be enjoying this delicious singer tomorrow evening. With no Gabe! We plan on whipping out our cowboy boots & stetsons and doing some two-stepping while eating mass quantities of fried foods! Yesss please.  Were staying at the Hilton in Springfield, IL which just happens to be city of Lincoln. Most of you know i have more than a healthy dose of admiration for our 16th president so I simply can't think of a better place to celebrate our 4 yr anniversary. We plan on dropping Gabe off early at our sweet friends' house and hitting up as many Lincoln sites as Michael can stand. Then maybe a dip in the pool and a nice dinner. Or a nap. Ya know...life without a toddler. What was that like again? Then we'll head to the concert in the evening. Bring on Joshy boy.  We are sooo excited!

Don't think we havent been busy around here though...after much deliberation  I made this blanket for Baby Evie. Lets just say that satin blanket binding is the bane of my existence. The sewing machine has been packed up and i probably won't be in the mood to sew again until my Mom (whose a super-sewer) can tutor me.  I'm definitely NO martha stewart and my zig zag stitch looks like a blind person sewed it...but it's done and soft and the baby won't be able to tell what an awful seamstress her mother is at least for a few years!

 My home-made burp clothes came out a bit better.

 Nulkie has been busy too...he snazzed up our Adirondack chairs that he made 4 yrs ago! We picked out this awesome paint...appropriately called "turquoise tint" and i think they turned out awesome! We are ready for the southwest!

 Captain America and his mini-hulk!

Water activities

 What should you do after 16 hrs in the car with pink eye? Wash the truck, naturally. This was the morning after driving home from New Mex. Gabe was only too pleased to help daddy scrub off half the bug population of Oklahoma splattered all over the truck.

 Gabe loves filling up the bucket. Or spraying people with the hose.

 Like father like son. Michael had stripped off his shirt so immediately Gabe started saying "shirt off, shirt off" and pulled his off too.

 Check out my Man-candy. Yes please :)

 this is my idea of a water activity. Buying this kiddie pool was the best $20 bucks we've spent all summer. Gabe plays in it every day while i supervise. He loves to splash my legs and cool me off. Nulkie also created a nice shade area so it's very nice to sit out there with you're feet dipped in the pool.

Look at that string bean! Doesn't anyone ever feed this child? I try. I slather butter on everything for him so he gets the extra calories. Doesn't matter though..he burns everything off. Wish i had that problem. As you can see, I'm entering the beastly-please-don't-take-my-pic part of this pregnancy. I feel like no matter what i eat, i get MASSIVE by the end. Good times. It really helps when you're hubby is super-fit and says things to you like "whoa you look super preggo today". What a sweetheart. Anyhow were in the final 7 wksish till D-day. Here's to hoping Evie decides to be merciful and arrive in late July rather than pushing me into august! We're getting impatient to meet our next little one! I've been doing some sewing projects to prepare for her arrival. Nothing too difficult-- some embellished burp clothes and a custom blanket.
    This weekend we were supposed to go camping with church friends at Johnson's Shut-ins. Unfortunately I woke up at 4 am with a crusted over eye that was throbbing. You know what that means...pink eye again! Blah! I've been recovered a whole week and it gets me again. Michael was reluctant to leave me, but i convinced him to take Gabe camping anyways. So it's just me & the doggies in a quarantine of sorts trying to recover again. This time doesn't seem so bad...my eye is definitely not gunking quite as much as my first round. Maybe i've built up a tolerance? It's amazing how quiet it gets here with no Gabe/hubby. Oh well. They'll be back tomorrow evening sometime. I think that's the latest with us. Michael has another week of "summer break" and then he begins his final semester of grad school! Next weekend some sweet friends are watching Gabe so we can go see Josh Turner in concert! And i'm going pink eye and all if that's what it takes! Hope you all have great weekends and clear eyes!

Brad Paisley - Anything Like Me

This song could be written about Michael & Gabe! Gabe certainly can get under Daddy's skin like nobody else! And melt his heart :)

New Mex Visit

 Running around at a rest stop to burn off some toddler energy. This was on the way out...before my eyes exploded!

 Pink eye won't stop a pool party :)

 We made it to the natural history museam

 Gabe was fascinated with all the "big dinosaurs".

Gabe had a great visit with his Nana & Gramps! Unfortunately I can't say exactly the same for NUlkie & I. After 15 hrs in the car Nulkie had to take me to the ER where we spent the night waiting to see a dr. Turns out I was having some type of allergic reaction to the eye drops (both eyes were burning and super swollen for 6+ hrs) and i had to stop using them. I was misdiagnosed with bacterial conjunctivitis when in reality i had viral. Viral includes symptoms of sinus congestion; runny nose, sore throat..etc. So with viral there's no antibiotic to take (tin fact the eye drops just set me back more)..just have to let it run it's course. So i was pretty much worthless the first few days. Nulkie also got the pink eye (aka the stink eye) in both eyes! Grrr! So we spent most of our time resting with warm compresses on our eyes. I think we went though 100 wash cloths! So we were kinda a bummer this trip...but miraculously Gabe never got the bad pink eye and he was healthy as a horse. We were very grateful to have happy energetic grandparents to watch Gabe while we rested and tried to decontaminate ourselves! Thanks for all your help and hospitality! Next visit will be much better...especially since we'll have the newest little Nulk! I hope all your memorial weekends were pleasant!