I'm Alive....Barely

Yep, we are expecting baby number 3 and therefore, I've dropped off the face of the earth for a while!!

I'm not really sure why it's taken me so long to update my blog since for the past 6 weeks I've spent 98% of my time not leaving my house. It's been rough, but I'm hoping I'm more than halfway through the worst of it! I'm a few days away from the second trimester, and thank goodness!

We are very excited here in the Mooney household to welcome a new little baby! Avery really has no clue what is going on except that she is spending a great deal of time in the care of others. I think she enjoys the "playtime" but always seems to be very happy when she gets to come back with me for snuggling. Bridget is thrilled to be getting a new sibling and has made it clear that she will be greatly disappointed if it's not a boy... that's a lot of pressure! For the first time, we have decided to find out the sex of the baby, so in about 7 or 8 weeks we'll know!

I can't wait to be over the morning (all-day) sickness, it really is the pits. I feel terrible for my kids who are only getting "Boring, No Fun, Sleeps a Lot, Throwing Up Mom." And I feel terrible for Patrick who has to come straight home from work and turn into Mr. Mom. Poor guy comes home to a messy house and bored kids. And he's missing his formerly affectionate wife, too.

We are so grateful to friends and family who are helping us so much. Nona (Patrick's mom) is taking care of the girls so much for me. And my mom is coming in less than a week to spend time with them too and to help us catch up on the housework. Aren't Mom's the BEST!?!

Oh, and the due date for this little one is October 26th. Did you hear that, people? NOT DECEMBER!! :)

Pillowcase Fun

Avery not quite as brave as her big sister!

When Your Temperature is 102....

....you tend to nap a lot!!



Morning.

Afternoon.

Evening. (And yes, she sometimes sleeps with her eyes slightly open).
Poor Bridget.

A Few Superbowl Pics

We had a little Superbowl get-together at our house this year. We invited 3 other families. Unfortunately, 2 of the men had to work (police officers) so it was just Patrick and his friend Ben, 4 women and 12, yes 12 kids! I only remembered to pick up the camera on two separate occasions so didn't get too many pictures.


Brooke, Bridget and Macey

Kylie and Bridget

Brenna and Avery

9 of the 12 kids were girls so there was a lot of dress-up going on!

Avery, Paige and Alexa

This was actually at the beginning of the game. The kids and their respective electronics. We finally had to kick them off the couch and tell them to go play!

Oh yes, there were a few adults there too! I managed to get a shot of Kim (with her daughter Macey) and Traci but no picture of me or Tasha, who was sitting next to me when I took this picture.

At half-time the guys took the opportunity to play a little XBox. I tried to get a spontaneous picture but they spotted me and posed.

Our Little Hobby

This past summer I taught Bridget the 50 United States in alphabetical order. I told her about living in Washington state, and how we are very close to Oregon, and that she has relatives in Utah and Nevada, and that her Nona and Papa are from Mississippi and Virginia. I pointed out the Washington and Oregon license plates and she said she wanted to see license plates from all the fifty states. So from that day on we have been "collecting" license plates. I keep a list in my car and every time we see a new state we add it to the list. On the few occasions that I have my camera and we see a car parked, I will actually get out to take a picture. In 6 months we have been able to collect 38 states. I would say over half have been spotted solely by Bridget. She has a great eye. She can spot a license plate from 50 yards away! LOL. It's also kind of neat to see all that she is learning. She is at the beginning stages of learning to read, and yet she knows how to read the names of the states pretty well. Tonight in the parking lot of Patrick's soccer game she said, "look mom, there's Idaho....but we already have that." I never told her it was Idaho; she just knew it on her own. So fun.

(South Carolina)

(South Dakota)

First Lost Tooth

Barely five and she already lost her first tooth....and she's so proud!

Misc. Pics On a Misc. Day

The girls and I took the opportunity to play outside today during a short break in the rain.

Avery and her friend Paige.

I caught Avery and Paige reading books together and they were so cute! This is really the first time they have played together for an extended period of time without injury! :) But now I think Avery is leaving the baby stage behind and learning how to play and interact like a "big kid." She's 2 now, afterall!