life leading up to baby

We have been living it up as a family of three as we prepare for Baby Brother's arrival.  Here are some scenes from life lately...  

We have a big container of Legos and, despite Tom's bests efforts to keep them organized, Everett dumps them out on the floor on almost a nightly basis.  This kid loves legos! And surprisingly I've only stepped on a rogue lego once. 

We have also recently discovered that there is a park within a short, 15 minute walk from our house.  It's been so great to go out for a quick nightly stroll and let Everett run around. 

We joined a small group through our church and another family from our group has a boy around Everett's age that live near the park. This makes the park a double bonus because not only is it a cool park, but we also get to play with friends! 

Everett is growing so dang much! 

Lately we have been tying to check out some of Tom's high school sporting games.  We have been to a bit of volleyball and softball, but our favorite has been to go to football games!  We can't stay very long because of E's bedtime, but it's a fun (and FREE) event for us to do as a family. 

Everett is a freebie magnet!  He totally scored at the last football game.

Lastly, we have been trying to talk to Everett a lot about baby brother's arrival.  Here he is snuggling up next to "baby brotha."  

In addition to prepping E, we have been working hard to get things around the house ready for baby boy's arrival.  His room is coming together, clothes have been sorted, and now we just need to decorate the walls.  He will be here soon!

And speaking of baby brother...I had a doctor's appointment today and they did an ultrasound to measure the baby's size since I have a history with birthing a large child (Everett was almost 10 lbs. when he was born).  The baby and I are both doing well!  I know this will be a big surprise (or not) to many...the baby is measuring a bit large in size. :)  I'm at 36 weeks and the baby is measuring 38 weeks.  This means that baby boy will either arrive sooner rather than later OR he could arrive on time above average in size.  We will see what the good Lord has in store for us!

E's first bike

Last week we had the great opportunity to spend time at the Lake of the Ozarks (in Mid-Missouri) with Tom's family.  While we were there we celebrated Everett's birthday with the Meyer family.

He actually blew out the candles on his own and didn't cry when we sang Happy Birthday--double bonus! 

You can see he thoroughly enjoyed his cake and ice cream. 

Everett received a lot of awesome gifts from his aunts and uncles--legos, books, cars, diggers.  Basically everything that Everett loves these days!  Another special gift that Everett got was his first bike from Grandpa Meyer ("Bapa") and Grandma Jean.  It is called a Strider bike and it is especially designed for toddlers.  There are no pedals but instead you use your feet (Flintstone style) to balance and ride the bike.  

Everett took to the bike right away but since we've been home from the Lake he doesn't seem to love his helmet as much.  Tom decided to show Everett how it's done (helmet and all).  

Tom's method seemed to work.  He's moving so fast he was blurry in every picture I took (that and I'm using my iPhone camera). 

I'm not going to lie...I think he is so dang cute on his little bike!  I look forward to seeing what adventures his new wheels will bring. 

E's 2nd Birthday

On July 22nd (yes, the same day as the royal baby's birth) Everett turned TWO!  We decided to do a very low key party with just immediate family that live near us.  The mini party started with some cake preparations.  The theme of the party was "planes, trains, and automobiles" because E loves anything that moves.  I decided to make a plane cake...I was pretty nervous, but I think it turned out okay.

Here was phase 1: 

I was only able to execute this because I am decent at following directions. This was the final product: 

Everett LOVES Thomas and all things trains.  He tried to eat the food off of his plate just so that he could look more at the image of Thomas! haha. 

Milky Way Race Cars.  We gave E one of these with his dessert and it was his first chocolate candy bar.  He especially enjoyed eating the M&M's off the Milky Way.

While I was working on dinner, Everett had some awesome time playing in the sprinklers and kiddie pool.



We tried to make the day full of Everett's favorite things, so after playing in the water (a beloved pastime) he had his favorite meal. Although not a very summery meal, we had spaghetti, meatballs, green beans, and homemade rolls. 

 Time for cake and ice cream!

 For reasons unknown to us Everett does not like the Happy Birthday song. We sang it for Tom, Gramps, and then Everett on their various birthdays over the past few weeks and every time Everett breaks out crying.  It's so odd!  

Mommy consoling E during the bday song.

Everett bounced back from the song quickly when he realized he was going to eat cake.  Tom also made homemade ice cream that was so good! (Sorry for the blurry iPhone pic)

Time for presents! 

E checking out his first Hot Wheels car. 

Aunt Jen and Uncle James got Everett a Thomas train that is remote controlled AND it actually puffs real smoke.  Normally toys that make a lot of noise kind of drive me nuts, but I have to admit this is one cool toy.  Everett, of course, LOVED it. 

He loved his new heavy duty dump truck and books from Granny and Gramps too!

E also scored a new helmet to go with a big gift he will be getting when we see Grandpa Meyer and Grandma Jean.  Safety first people!

We had a great evening celebrating our little man. We are so proud of our little two year old. 

Summer Exploration in KC

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is a famous site in Kansas City.  The last time Tom and I took a stroll around the museum was before Everett was born.  This morning we wanted to hit up the Apple Store to inquire about purchasing an iPad so we headed to the Plaza, which is next to the museum.   After getting a tasty coffee beverage, strolling around the Plaza, and checking out the Apple Store we wanted to give E some time to play around.  We knew just the place...

There is a lot of interesting stuff inside the museum, but what is perfect for an Everett aged person are all the cool sculptures outside. 

 Everett was actually more interested in playing in the puddles of water around the giant shuttlecock than anything else (see below). 

Right after we took these pictures Everett started to get closer to the shuttlecock and then a giant beeping sound triggered and we were told to "Keep our hands off of the sculptures."  We decided it was probably time to move on to a nearby park. 

 As you can see, the boys enjoyed it.  Everett LOVES slides! It is so hard to get him to leave because he just wants to ride the slide "one more" time. 

Kansas City is a pretty cool city when you have the chance to explore it.  Last summer was CRAZY.  We were buying a house, cars, phones, etc...This summer is moving at a slower, more enjoyable pace so we're trying to live up what KC has to offer. 

cherry picking

This is the time of year to enjoy picking fresh fruits and veggies.  Cherry picking was really easy for us this year because we were able to do a small bit of it in my parent's backyard.  One of my dad's favorite treats is cherry pie and while I was growing up we would get to pick cherries off of my grandparents cherry tree to make pie for my dad.  My parents are now continuing the tradition with their grandchild (soon to be grandchildren!).  They planted a dwarf cherry tree in their backyard.  It's just a small little tree right now, which actually makes it perfect for Everett!  

My dad took Everett out yesterday and the two of them were able to pick the first round of cherries from the tree.  I wasn't sure what Everett would think but he got really into it!  He was so fast at picking the cherries that my dad and I could barely keep up with him.  His picking quickness was impressive but it actually made it tough to make sure he didn't pick the ones that were not ripe enough yet! He would have picked the tree bone dry if we would have let him!

Maybe next time we come over Granny will have a cherry pie for us???

big boy

Everett has been so much fun lately and is getting to be such a big boy.  Last weekend we had two major milestones in the Meyer house; we bought a potty and a toddler bed for E!  

Everett has become more vocal about "poo poo" and has been super interested in the toilet lately.  We, however, are not mentally and emotionally ready to jump right into potty training but we thought it couldn't hurt to have a little potty around just in case "the moment" struck E.  Additionally, E may or may not have almost fallen all the way into the big toilet one time while we were letting him "try it out" so we thought it was time for this kind of purchase.  

This one makes noise and he is obsessed with it.  What were we thinking?

Some of you also know that Tom and I love bargains and especially garage sales!  Garage sales are ridiculously great for getting little baby/kid stuff for a slamming good deal.  Last weekend we hit the jackpot.  

We found a Sit N' Spin (a fav toy of Everett's at Miss Patti's) for $2 bucks! 

We also scored a handful of other baby items for Mini Meyer, like a baby bath tub (we left E's in Korea) for a few bucks and a Diaper Genie for three bucks (do those even work though? I'm having doubts...).  Everett also scored a Royals T-shirt, a sophisticated cardigan, and some new shoes for $3 total. I normally don't flaunt how much we spend on things but I just can't believe what great deals you can find at garage sales! 

The score of the weekend, however, was E's new bed!  We never dreamed of buying one of these bad boys but we saw it while driving through a neighborhood garage sale and it captured our hearts.  It was in excellent condition and came with a quality mattress for fifty bucks!  We of course were on our iPhones before we purchased this and saw that brand new these run from $250-300 dollars! What?!  So after some discussion we decided to go for it.  

We made sure to wash it off and clean the mattress. Above you can see that E got inside while Tom was putting the car back together after we washed it.  Then E had to try it out (sorry for the blurry pic below). 

We decided that E's current room will become Mini Meyer's room so we moved the bed into the playroom (aka E's Big Boy Room) for now.  We're going to paint the walls this summer and move Everett officially into his new bed after the room is completely ready.

 Lastly, see that drool?  Poor little guy has his 2 year molars popping through.  This is tough stuff folks! But he is mostly handling it like a pro.  It's just another reminder that our little guy is becoming a big boy! 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day 2013 was awesome!  Going into the weekend Everett brought this hand print home for me from Miss Patti.  Miss Patti (E's babysitter) does such a good job of making every holiday special with cute, thoughtful gifts and/or crafts.  

On Mother's Day morning Tom and Everett hooked me up with some great gifts.   I got a new cell phone cover with E and I's picture on it.  Mini received his or her first ever clothing item, an "I love my big brother" onesie.  While I was pregnant with Everett my mom got me a pregnancy calendar to keep track of fun milestones (or not fun ones--like canceling our trip to Puerto Rico this year because of morning sickness).  I was meaning to order one for Mini Meyer's pregnancy but kept forgetting. Good thing Tom totally hooked me up and got me one for Mother's Day! He also thought ahead and got another milestone calendar for Mini Meyer's first year of life.  These calendars are great for me because I'm terrible at keeping track of a baby book but I'm decent at jotting down thoughts on a calendar. 

We then had a great breakfast with Granny and Gramps and my brother and sister-in-law. 

E looks a bit goofy in the picture below.  We have a heck of a time getting him to take pictures. 

 I'm so dang thankful to be a mom to Everett and Mini Meyer.  It's such a joy.  And I would be remiss if I didn't give a big shout out to Tom for making Mother's Day so special and for being such an awesome partner in the crazy, awesome journey of parenthood.