We are expecting a...

Kenneth and I went to my Dr. appt yesterday to have an ultrasound and see the sex of our baby. We both had different opinions about what we thought the baby is. Kenneth thought we were having a boy and I thought it was another girl. So who was right? Kenneth was the winner! We are going to have a little baby boy! We are SO excited. Even though he guessed boy his face was just as shocked as mine was. We were of course hoping he was in fact a he, but when he wasn't a girl it just took us by surprise. After having two little girls already I had a hard time imagining that we were capable of having a son. lol. I'm glad that I was wrong. I teared up a little after we could clearly see that he is a boy. Now to pick out a name. Ashlyn thinks his name should be "Baby Kenneth." Sweet, but I'm not one for naming after the father, unless it was like a passed down tradition, or something. So we have much thinking to do. In case you're wondering Kenneth doesn't feel the need to name him after himself either. I am a nice wife, I try to compromise. Well it sure will be different seeing blue instead of pink around our house. I was so excited that when we left the appt. to eat lunch I actually left my car running! Can you believe that? I surely couldn't. It was funny because Kenneth locked his keys in his car right before my appt. and so we decided to eat lunch down the street while waiting for triple A and then I go and leave my car running! What a day! Thankfully no one took the car or anything out of it. It's a good thing it was pouring down rain ALL morning and afternoon long. Well we are SUPER HAPPY about our baby boy. Much love to everyone and we hope everyone is doing well.

Hospital $ Giveaway!

I have had a rather smooth day today which doesn't happen to me very often. Ashlyn's favorite thing to do when getting home from school is getting the mail. The other day she came in with an envelope I've been waiting for, Kenneth's rebate check for his Blackberry. Thank you Sprint for giving us back $100. Well this afternoon Ashlyn saw the mail man at the box and rushed outside to gather all of our mail. When she came in I saw something from Lexington Medical Center with my name on it that I wasn't expecting. They sent me a check for $130.00! Apparently I over paid on a bill from a while back and they sent me a check. There's nothing like getting checks in the mail, especially when you aren't expecting them! I'm also babysitting my niece Brooke while her parents are attending a U2 concert in Atlanta, GA. I was nervous she might be homesick and missing mama and dada, but she hasn't shed a tear yet. I have her until tomorrow and she's taking it like a champ. I babysit her a good bit and she usually does very well, but her parents were gone for five days two wks ago and she's been extra clingy ever since so I was a little nervous for her. But all three of the girls are playing so well together and I'm just loving it! I'm having such a good day today I just had to share it with everyone. I don't even have to cook tonight! Left over tacos here we come! =D Please pray with me that the day will continue to go this well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this whole day hasn't been the calm before the storm. lol.
Some news on Jade. She's growing more and more in her vocabulary. I asked her to apologize to Jacob (Webster) for hitting him in the face and she literally walked over to him and said, "sorry." Then she proceeded to put her face to his and keep it there for an extended period of time. lol, I think she was waiting for a kiss. Morgan and I agree it's cute now, but scary later! Oh my little flirt! What will we do with her? She was loving up on Jacob all morning! Lots of hug attempts. He was so patient with her just waiting for her to walk away and give him his space back. lol. Thanks Jacob! Jade is doing so much better with saying words that I ask her to say. Before she would purposefully not say a word when asked just to be stubborn. She's being way more cooperative so HOORAY FOR JADE!
We find out the sex of our baby in 6 days! We are SO excited! We're hoping for a boy but certainly won't be upset if it's a third girl. I am just so curious as to what a little Kenneth and Heather boy baby would look like. I for one think he would be one handsome little devil. Well I will update everyone on the news when we find out next Monday. Love to all and hope things are going well for everyone.

Kindergarten Noodles

Ashlyn is LOVING preschool! She loves it so much that Kenneth uses it for punishment, i.e. "if you don't listen you won't go to school tomorrow." Which is then followed by, "okay okay! I'll listen, I'll listen!" I personally think it's a horrible discipline attempt. He may think he would follow through with it and that's great, but who has to stay home with the children? I'll give you a hint it's NOT Kenneth. I am very glad that she loves school so much though. She has a wonderful teacher and teacher's assistant. She's doing very well writing her letters and getting closer to writing her name, darn that squiggly "S." Not only does she love it but it wears her out! She comes home and gets a snack and watches her favorite cartoon and usually passes out on the couch. HOORAY FOR SCHOOL!!! =D

Okay so you are probably wondering why this post is entitled "Kindergarten" when she's only in preschool. So here's the story. I hope you all love it as much as I do and laugh just as hard, it's a good one! So the other day I picked Ashlyn up from school and when we got home she wanted to watch a movie. While we are watching it the main characters are eating and Ashlyn says, "Mom I want to go to Kindergarten." So I told her that she would and soon, (next yr). She said, "Oh good! I can't wait I LOVE their noodles!" I'm thinking noodles? What noodles? Has she heard about what a caffeteria is already? So I asked her what noodles she was talking about. Her response, "Oh they are so yummy! They have white sauce on 'em and they are big." LOL! Baby girl doesn't want to go to "Kindergarden" she wants to go to the OLIVE GARDEN! lol. I laughed so hard for so long. It was a great moment during that very stressful day for mommy. Making memories. My grandmother took us there for lunch a few months back and Ashlyn is still remeniscing. What a funny girl. I have to take her back now!

Sorry to all of the far away family for not doing a better job with my updating. Life has been rather stressful and busy including an ear infection and all kinds of other fun things. Hopefully soon I will feel like a have a brain again. Jade continues to grow more in her vocabulary but is still VERY stubborn. She has also won Kenneth over so completely we may not be able to rescue him. lol. He says to me all the time, "How can you get mad at her? She is SO darn cute!" How he asks! Well if HE were the one staying home with the beautiful Jade that screams, (and I do mean screams) when she gets frustrated because she can't do something on her own which all children her age do, and if HE were the one that she was taking her hitting stage out on, and if HE were the one cleaning up all of her millions of messes throughout the day I think he may be able to relate. What do you think? Not only this but she is Kenneth trapped in a female toddlers body. She knows exactly what she's doing and what she is supposed to be doing and she just gives you this irresistable grin that makes you want to laugh, just like her father. Kenneth if I can be frustrated with you, YES I can be frustrated with Jade too. lol. Silly men. Do you think that in the after life men will get a little taste of what women did on the earth? Probably just another fantasy of mine. Just to be clear I do love my family. lol. I guess this paragraph doesn't exactly sound uplifting. I'm actually really enjoying my time alone with Jade while Ashlyn is in school believe it or not. We do have a lot of fun together and share many sweet mother daughter moments. But because of an out of routine nap schedule she is SO done by 4pm and so is mom! So when Kenneth gets home I'm looking for LOTS of help but she just wants mama. Sigh. This too shall pass. I just need to focus on the good moments. Kenneth does do a very wonderful job helping me with the girls and getting things done. I'm very blessed because not all men are that willing to help and serve their wives! Well I hope I've caught everyone up enough. I look forward to your comments! Love y'all!

Dinner is served!

So the pregnancy cravings are still going strong. Last night for dinner I was going to cook barbecue chicken and mashed potatoes and broccoli, but every time I thought about eating it I felt sick. It also takes at least 35 minutes for chicken to cook in the oven and the kids were cranky because they were so hungry and I was nauseous because I was so hungry so I decided we would have chicken tomorrow, (tonight). I'd been craving homemade biscuits so instead I made homemade buttermilk biscuits so that we could have bacon egg and cheese biscuits and grits on the side. It was SO good. My craving was fulfilled and my tummy was quite happy. I was able to feel full for a long time too. For those of you that are more health conscious just ignore all of the calories and fat that me and the children just so happily ingested and we'll pretend that I don't butter and salt my grits and break little pieces of bacon in it. ;) It was so good I'm tempted to have it again tonight, but I know that the children need more nourishment than that and so does our unborn baby so I will control myself. Kenneth works outside a good bit too so he needs something healthy when he gets home.

Today has been one of those days that you feel like you just can't make yourself do anything so I called my very dear friend Morgan and packed up the kids and headed to her house. The children played joyfully...at times while we talked and she took a shower. It was nearing lunch time so we fed them and then packed them into the car and drove to McDonald's for ice cream and the play place. They had a good time but our poor Ashlyn and Morgan's poor little Hannah are just too afraid to climb to the top of the play place. Fortunately for the two of them they have each other at the bottom. Jade is more brave, unfortunately for me. She also really enjoyed running to the other tables where adults were eating while watching their children that did play all over the play place. One women stopped me and asked how old Jade was and I told her and she said, "Aww she's petite like her mother." That totally made my day! I know I'm not the size of a house, yet but it was still very nice to hear. I also had a man put a New Testament booklet on my table. I don't know what faith he was but it made me feel good that he wanted me to have it, like he was giving me a gift. Maybe he thought my children deserved it, either way I thought it was such a nice gesture. OH CRAP! WHY DIDN'T I GIVE HIM A PASS-ALONG CARD?? I keep several of them in my wallet for moments like this and I didn't even think about it!! Well great now I'm frustrated with myself. I can't believe the thought didn't even come to mind. I did think "I wish I had a Book of Mormon with me." Lets blame it on the pregnancy brain, it will make me feel better. Well Jade is sleeping and my nails really need some TLC.

A box of tissues and Walt Disney's Pocahontas

Yesterday I took Ashlyn to Wal*Mart to get a new movie. My Dad gave the both of us gift cards for our bdays and so we went shopping. She picked out Pocahontas which made me happy because I always liked it as a kid and we didn't own it yet. After we looked around for awhile we HAD to stop at Chik-fil-a so that I could get some of there delicious waffle fries and something to drink. So what if it was only 10:34am I have been craving there fries and Bo*Jangle's fries. For those of you who don't live in the South Bo*Jangles and Chik-fil-a are two different food chains that do not sell beef. They are chicken only! And I LOVE chicken! They are AMAZING! I wish I could send you all some of this delicious food. Anyway...when we got home we all sat around the TV and turned on Pocahontas and ate our food. I haven't seen this movie in years so I had forgotten a good bit of events in the movie. To make a long story short I cried like a little baby. Of course I was trying to hide it from Ashlyn to avoid a million questions since I was already answering a ton about Kocoum who dies. Anyway I had to keep getting up to grab a tissue out of the bathroom. You know you're pregnant when you can't watch a Disney movie without crying. I had to laugh while the tears were running down my face because I was getting to the point when my shoulders were shaking and I couldn't stop. I seriously couldn't help it. It was ridiculous. It's even more humorous if you picture it in your head. lol. Well enjoy my hormonal misfortune. lol.

Me and baby are doing well and growing just fine. Please if you see me and realize that I am only 12 and a half wks do not make the comment, or anything like unto it, "Wow! You're only 12wks along and you're already that big?" My sensitive pregnant feelings and I will greatly appreciate it. lol. I hope everyone is having a great week and ready for school.

Who's Pregnant?

I think that most of my followers know that we are now expecting baby #3. My due date is February 23, 2010. I have several feelings about this. Of course it was a planned pregnancy so nothing unexpected. We were going to wait until this fall to start trying, but our plans changed and I am now 11wks in. If you know me well you know how very sick I get. This time has been a bit different. I still get very nauseous when I don't eat and I do occasionally have to run to the bathroom to get sick. But it's nothing like before. I usually haven't gained any weight at this point yet, but this time is different. lol. I've gained 3lbs so far so we are doing very well. I feel so much more tired this time around too. Maybe that has something to do with a having two children at home already. It doesn't help that Jade wakes up at least once during the night because the beloved pacifier has fallen out of the crib. I am debating on when to take it away. Normally I would say at the age of two, but the baby will be born one month after Jade's second birthday and I don't want her to take the baby's pacifier and I don't want to overwhelm her with changes. Any ideas? I'm a little scared about the adjustment part after the baby's born. I know I'll be able to adjust, just as I did when we had baby #2, but it's still a process and not always the most fun. Jade was such an EASY baby, so I'm wondering if I'll get lucky again, or if the baby will be hard like Ashlyn. Only time will tell.

So how I told Kenneth...I found out I was expecting the Thursday before Father's Day. We were planning on going to TN with my Uncle and his family to there cabin and spending the weekend. I didn't want to tell him with other ppl, just he and I and the girls. So I waited and waited and waited. If you know me you know how difficult this was for me to keep a secret. Anyway, we were on our way home and since I am pregnant I had to pee a lot. I didn't want him to get any clues and I was doing so well so far so I pretended that I started my period and needed to stop. After waiting an hr in traffic we headed straight to my brother's house where we celebrated Father's day with my dad and siblings. I wanted to go home first to tell Kenneth and then to see my family so Kenneth could announce what he'd gotten for Father's day, but traffic just didn't allow it. So after spending time with my family we came home and I made Kenneth hide out in Ashlyn's room while I got everything ready. We sent him on a scavenger hunt. I made little poetic clues and hung them up in the house. After all of his clues he ended up coming to me to receive a card. I kept telling him it wasn't much that it was just something really small so when he got the card he had no idea that it would be telling him that he would soon be a proud father of three. He was very excited and told Ashlyn that she was gonna have a little brother or sister. She too was very happy about this news.

Let me just tell you how badly Ashlyn's wanted a brother. Before Kenneth and I even began discussing getting pregnant Ashlyn has been telling us that she needs her little brother. She kept telling me that she needed him so that she could teach him things. I thought that was quite precious. The day of my first OB appt I took the girls to Aunt Susan's house so I could go alone. When we got there she said, "Don't worry mom, it's a boy. It's a boy I promise." I tried to explain to her that I wouldn't find that out for awhile that they just wanted to make sure me and the baby were happy and healthy. Anyway she has since made comments like before snuggling up to me, "Don't worry mom, I'll be very careful with your baby." While rubbing my tummy one night she said, "This is his body, and this is his head. He has brown hair." Kenneth really thinks that she knows something we don't know. We will see what happens. We really want to have a boy, but we won't be disappointed if it's a girl. I feel like I'm somewhat of an expert with girls by now. At least up to the age of three anyway. Ashlyn just turned four on July 20th and I don't know who this little girl with the bad attitude is. lol. I hear it's just a phase. If that's true, it can't go by fast enough. Ashlyn has also informed us that she has a baby in her tummy. Her baby is a girl and her name is Ella. She won't share her food because she says that, "If I don't eat I'll throw up." Kenneth asked her who the father of her baby is to which she responded, "Don't worry daddy, we can take care of her." lol. Friday night I was getting ready to go to a friend's lingerie shower and Ashlyn was going to take a bath. After stripping down she said, "Look mommy. I have a big chest because I'm breastfeeding." You can imagine the shock on my face from that comment. Where does she get some of this stuff!? Next she then informed me that, "After my baby pops out you and daddy have to babysit so that I can do my homework." I almost said that she can't have a baby if she is still doing homework, but then I was afraid of questions that may follow that remark, so I just simply said, "Homework is important." What do ya do, or say? lol. She just cracks us up.

Not only am I expecting but my older sister, and two sisters-in-law are pregnant. We believe a few more siblings will have news to share soon too. At least we hope so anyway. =) So LOTS of babies coming to the family and we can't wait! My poor parents, all of these new grand babies. They are going to be so broke! jk. Well I wanted to spread our very happy news to those we love and adore. Hopefully I'll be able to download pics. soon. Let me know if any of you have or know someone who has the "Windows Professional XP" cd-rom.

The crown of my "rain"

Last Friday I was enjoying some much needed quite time. BOTH of my girls were sleeping peacefully in their beds so I turned on "Twilight" and grabbed some snacks. While eating a fruit snack, (oh yes. I love them too) I chomped down on something solid and hard. I pulled out my crown. The crown that has only been adoring tooth #30 for slightly over a year. After gathering myself together I called my sister Wendy, the dental hygienist of the family. Her former employer did my dental work so she had me call their office to get it bonded back on. Little did I know that they were going to be out of town from that Friday (July 3) until July 13! I was NOT going to wait two wks without having it fixed. I had to call the "on call dentist" covering for Dr. Meares' office. Thankfully they called me early Monday morning and asked if I could get there by 11:30. THANK GOODNESS! I showed up and after two hours of a little uncomfort they fixed it for me. Kenneth had taken Monday off so he was able to stay home with the kids so that I could deal with the pain without an audience. Ashlyn and I have a dentist appt. on the 14th and I don't want her to be freaked out. My crown is now happily back to it's place on the head of tooth #30. Luckily I didn't break it or accidentally swallow it or anything!

We had our family portraits done, FINALLY and I get to pick them up in less than two hrs. I'm so excited. They turned out REALLY well. I was nervous that the girls might not smile at the same time and that Kenneth and I might be trying too hard to get them to smile that we might not be looking at the camera but luckily everyone is smiling and looking at the camera. I was very pleased. I can't wait to get them and distribute them to all of our awaiting fans, or should I say Ashlyn and Jade's grandparents and aunts and uncles. =) These pictures have been requested for some time now and it finally happend. Thanks Mom!

I took Jade to her 18mo appt yesterday and our little monster, (as her daddy lovingly calls her) weighs a tiny 21lbs and 1oz and is 32in tall. She's a tall thin little monster. =) The Dr. was happy with her weight and height. When she was younger her weight was in the 10th percentile so he's happy with her progress. My mom says that she gets it from our side of the family being so little. After hearing that and seeing how we all turned out I quit worrying. We have a beautiful healthy little girl who is going to Nursery for the first time on Sunday! I AM SO EXCITED!!! She'll have a great time and she LOVES Morgan Webster, our new Nursery Leader. I think she'll do just fine. She may cry a bit, but those tears will go away soon I'm sure once she realizes she actually gets to play with toys at church.

We recently learned that our beautiful and amazing sister-in-law is going to have a baby boy! Congratulations Natalie and Jesse! They have a 4yr old little boy and a two yr old daughter. How exciting for them. We'll have to ask them for the little boy recipe so hopefully next time we'll get it right. lol. Not that we didn't want Jade to be a girl. That's not true. I wanted Ashlyn to have a little sister so that they could be best friends like me and my older sisters and younger sister.

We just enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July! We had our annual Bass Family Reunion and it was a blast. We had a great turn out and the food, as always was AMAZING!!! I'd been dreaming about the food days in advance. lol. Who wouldn't be satisfied with fried chicken, vinegar or mustard based barbeque, hash and rice, green beans, baked beans salads desserts, Aunt Lesley's awesome friscetta!?! That's just to name a few. There was so much food we all were asked to take some home. Well if they insist. It was really great getting to see my loved ones and spending the day with them. Ashlyn and Jade had a blast with all of their cousins and aunts and uncles. A HUGE thank you to Uncle Allison and Aunt Judi and Kristen. It was awesome y'all thank you!

If anyone has a "Windows XP Professional" disc I'd be MUCH abliged if you'd allow me to borrow it. It's the only way to fix my DL error so that I'm able to download pics. onto the blog or anything for that matter. I just have to let the disc run and it will take care of my problem. So if you recently bought a new comp. or were really great about keeping the discs that came with yours, you probably have it. Just thought I'd throw this in. ;)