Pregnancy Highlights-28 weeks.

Pregnancy Highlights: reaching my third trimester!! I was 28 weeks yesterday. If this pregnancy is anything like my first two--this last trimester will FLY by...which is a little bit scary b/c we are totally not prepared for him. We have a lot of work to do these next 12 weeks.

Baby is the size of: By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds and measures 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels. He can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With his eyesight developing, he may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. He's also developing billions of neurons in his brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.(info from babycenter.com)

Symptoms: I'm not quite to the uncomfortable stage yet, which is good. I am feeling pretty normal-just a growing belly.

Baby-related purchases? nothing this past month. Nana and Pops sent us a few sweet boy things last week and we got blue elephant towel and some blue washcloths from a friend. I have everything in mind that I want to do/buy for his nursery...I just have to do it!!


Maternity clothes? um, duh. Dresses are still my go-to for this pregnancy, so easy, comfortable and still cute. It's a win-win.


Sleep: Well, I've had a little bit of a cold the past few days, so sleep has been a must. I'm super tired by 9:00, especially Mon, Wed and Thur nights which are the days I get up at 5:30am to teach boot camp class. Last night I was in the bed at 8:45 and asleep about 2 seconds later. This momma is t.i.r.e.d.


Fun moment this past week: going to the lake with Russell, the girls and my parents! We had a blast and I got to lay on my tummy on a float in the lake. There's not much better than that :) So relaxing...which is what we all needed!


Movement: Still moves a lot!! Russell and I laid in bed the other night and watched my belly move for a solid 30 minutes....so now the big question is...is this a sign of things to come? Or is he just getting all his wiggles out now so he'll be all nice and calm when he gets here?! (I know all you mom's w/boys are laughing at me right now...) :)

Food cravings: still nothing in particular. Which is the same as with the girls...I never craved anything when I was pregnant w/them and it's been the same so far w/this pregnancy. I just need water--and lots of it. And it has to be COLD!

Gender: still going with boy! :)

What I miss: Honestly, I miss working out. I try to do some w/my boot camp classes, but my body just can't keep up with them anymore...soooo-I try to remind myself to enjoy the break. But...6 weeks after McCoy gets here....I will definitely be ready to GO!


Weight gained: HA. So far...25 lbs. Yikes. (see previous answer....like I said...I will be ready to GO!)

What I am looking forward to: The nesting stage. I have a lot to "nest".

Moments to remember: As we were walking up the stairs to go to bed the other night, Marissa said..."Mommy, does he have toys to play with?"
"Does who have toys to play with?"
"McCoy. In your tummy...what toys does he play with?"
(trying not to giggle) "Well, Marissa, he's not quite big enough to play with toys, but he is kind of swimming."
"When he gets bigger, I can show him how to jump off the diving board."
"That sounds great, Marissa!"
Such a sweet big sister already:)

Until next time....McCoy and I are going to relax while the girls take a nap. :)

July 4th Weekend-McKinney Family Reunion

We spent our 4th of July weekend with lots of family that had not been all together in a very long time! It was wonderful to see everyone...we had family drive all the way from Texas and fly all the way from Nevada. My parents were there along with my dad's two brothers and his sister and most of their extended family. In all, there was about 30 or so people there! The reunion was in Georgia at Eddie and Allison's house. Allison is my dad's niece, so my second cousin?! Anyway, the girls were so excited to see their cousins, Sadie and Holly, again and the 4 girls played great together!! Luckily, my sweet cousin Rachel did a wonderful job as photographer for the weekend, so all the pictures you see are courtesy of Rachel!!

Sweet Allie and her sun-bleached blonde hair :)
They had a slip-n-slide which was definitely the hit of the weekend!! 3 out of the 4 girls LOVED it!! Here is Holly giving it a go! Marissa thought it was hilarious!

Next up was Marissa.....

She loved it!!

The one that didn't slide....I made her go down it once and boy oh boy...that was a BIG mistake. She was so mad at me....I'm pretty sure Russell has made that same exact face at me before....sorry Allie.

A great action shot!!

Luckily, she didn't stay mad for too long....but she still wouldn't slide.

So she just made silly faces for Rachel.

And sweet faces :)

The girls ventured in the house and played in the playroom....

And on Holly's Dora bed...which Marissa abosultely LOVED!!!

While the family was outside chatting and catching up...telling old stories and just enjoying some long overdue time together.

The next day...Eddie said there was a dock within walking distance where they could jump into the lake...so a group of them walked down there. He said it was a pretty long walk, so Allie and I stayed behind. But from the stories and pictures...it looks like they had a blast!! Marissa is our little water baby!

This is the funny part...as they were walking up from the dock, Russell had this wierd look on his face and everyone was saying...Marissa jumped off the dock!!! So, Russell came up to me and said he and Marissa jumped off this 15 foot dock together and that he really didn't want to do it. (Russell's not so big on heights...) He said he would say "1....2....3....are you sure Marissa?!" about 5 times before they finally jumped. He told me, "I couldn't back down in front of my own daughter and look like a wuss." HAHA! Daddy defnitely took one for the team. Marissa ended up jumping 3 times with her daddy and 1 time with Papa! Our little daredevil.

Jump #1....

There they go!!!

Safely to the water with Papa looking on!!

Not sure if Marissa is hanging on to Russell or the other way around....haha. :)

Ready to go again! Such a cool picture!

Having a blast!!

Once everyone was dried off, it was time to play some late night corn hole. By this time...we were already back at the hotel in bed. Between all the playing and no naps...the girls were d.o.n.e. by 8:30. But, the party went on into in the wee hours of the night...

Go Papa!

Marissa found this Dora hat in Sadie's room and wore it pretty much the entire weekend.

All the cousins (minus Holly, she wasn't in the picture-taking mood.)

Our patriotic picture...without Daddy. He had to go back home that morning to check on the golf course..

Silly, silly girls.

To all the McKinney family, it was wonderful to see everyone again!! And to Rachel...thanks for taking such beautiful pictures--you are so talented!! See y'all next time!

Girls' road trip 2011!

It was that time again, time for me and the girls to head out on a little road trip! This time we headed straight down south to Indian Rocks Beach, FL to visit our sweet friends, the Johnson family. The ride down there was great...lots of movies watched, snacks eaten and Marissa only asked me about a million times...."Are we almost there, mommy?"

Well, we made it and immediately hit the beach.

The next morning, Marissa found some seashells and McKane found some sand dollars. They were showing off their finds during lunchtime.

Riese and Allie were there to see all their cool beach treasures!

McKane telling her about the seashells...

which was apparently very funny....I love this picture:)

Allie took a little break after lunch to watch a movie.

After naps, it was back out on the beach for some more fun!

"Mommy, my hands are dooooty!"

Riese was so sweet to play with Marissa and help her dig in the sand. They had so much fun together!

Sweet friends!

Building sandcastles and spraying them with colored water...they loved the squirt bottles and changing the sand different colors!

Another day on the beach....taking a water break! Thank goodness for the wonderful sea breeze because it was HOT.

Allie l.o.v.e.d McKane. She didn't stray far from his side the entire time and he was so sweet to her:)

He showed off his skimboarding skills for us one day...which were very impressive!

Check out those moves!

Marissa took the boat out for a little ride! She was not scared at all of the ocean!

Me with my sweet girls!

Mr. Cooper...who has grown up so fast!!

So, Allie got a little embarassed when I told her to take a picture with McKane, so instead, she put a plastic fish in her mouth and made a silly face. McKane thought it was funny:) Silly, silly girl.

The girls. :)

My girls.

Surfer chick. She did this for about an hour one day. She had the surfer pose perfected!

Riding the waves ;)

jumping on her board.....

which didn't always turn out the way she hoped.....

But she always came up smiling:)

This was probably her favorite thing to do...

Posing with her "surfboard"

Digging in the sand was just fine with Allie...she had a blast!

After our baths one night, we went out on the porch to eat a popsicle and watch the sunset...which was the perfect end to a perfect day:)

Sisters watching the sunset together.

Not sure what's going on here...but they look so sweet together:)

The sunsets are gorgeous:)

After a few days with the Johnson family, we headed across Florida to Jacksonville to visit The Martin family, some of my most favorite people in the world! They have two sweet blonde-headed babies, JP who is 5 1/2 and Reagan who is 1 1/2. The kids played so well together and we had a great time! We went to Ponte Vedra beach one day...here are the 3 older kiddos.

Marissa loved to jump the waves!

Headed out to the beach:)

Little sisters were more interested in playing in the sand!

Still running...she looks so old to me in this picture! My baby is getting so big.....

Action shot!

Allie being silly, what a surprise:)

JP and Marissa chasing each other...they were the best of buds by the end of this trip :)

There was also a pool nearby that had a very cool water slide that the bigger kids got to try out...Marissa would have done this all day long if she could....and she did so great!! She slid into the deep end and swam all the way to the shallow! I'm so proud of her swimming skills these days! If you look to the right of the picture, you can see that JP was waiting for her just to make sure she made it out ok :)

Swimming!!!

and still sliding!

Unfortunately, Allie was too little to slide...so she had to watch from the sidelines...
but she didn't seem to mind to much:)
After a long, fun day at the beach, everyone was pooped. Time to relax and watch a movie:)

Then it was time to head back home...which is always the best part of our girls trip, because no matter how much fun we have...we miss daddy!! Many thanks to the Johnson's and Martin's for a wonderful trip!! Can't wait to do it again!! :)