The birthday party

Lola loves pancakes.

So that's what we had!

The toppings: sliced bananas, peanut butter, blueberries, whipped cream and butter

The spread: breakfast casserole, three different quiches, mini ham and cheese quinoa bites (to die for - recipe coming soon), fruit cups and pancakes, of course!

Miss Sue and Mr. Gary - honorary grandparents :)

Sue kept Lola this summer while on break from teaching.

Lola loves them both!

The loot

Lola's cousin Maddox testing out the new playhouse.

(Thanks, Pop!)

Cupcakes: vanilla and strawberry with buttercream frosting

(made by yours truly)

Wade cousins: Madison, Lola, Jackson and Maddox

Lola and her best buddy Regan enjoying a cupcake!

There was homemade peach ice cream, too.

(Thanks, Gigi!)

Papa Dan

Just the three four of us :)

All the kiddos!

From left: Keaton, Chaney, Lola, Bodie, Maddox, Regan, Madison, Jackson

A BIG thank you to everyone who came to the party. Lola loves you all! Matt said it well: Lola is surrounded by a lot of wonderful people who love her very much. We feel so blessed!

Time flies when you're having fun

What a difference 2 years and 7 months makes...

January 2010, British Virgin Islands

August 2012, the Wade backyard

Pre-party celebration

Last weekend we celebrated Lola's birthday for THREE days in a row.

It started with dinner at our house on Thursday. The Blackburns, Burnetts and Werners (aka "the Lionheart crew" and their kids) came over for smoked chicken and pork and some yummy sides. The kids played in the backyard, and we all got to meet baby Bodie (all the way from California) for the first time.

He is such a happy baby!

Lola was pretty interested in Bodie...

hopefully this means she'll be interested in her brother, too.

On Friday we hit the lake with the same group.

There was a lot of squealing from all the little girls!

And we ended the evening with pizza on Jackie's deck.

(One of Lola's requests for her birthday was pizza, of course.)

And a popsicle for dessert.

(That's Miss Judy - one of Lola's favorite sitters.)

Homemade popcorn on the stove = scrumptious

Lola's "new" doggie

The elusive dog finally got close enough this morning for me to snap a quick picture. He's very skittish, but since we started feeding him a couple weeks ago he hasn't missed a meal. This morning he actually sort of chased my car as I drove away. Maybe he/she is coming around (still don't know for sure if it's a male or female, although we do call it a "he" most of the time). I've been calling it "pup pup," but I suppose he/she needs a real name. Lola suggested Birdie (which I like) or Pombone (which Matt likes). I don't know where the heck she came up with Pombone (??) - but did I mention she's been making up words lately? I think we need to keep thinking on this one... any suggestions?

Daddy's little helper

Playhouse progress!

Lola's playhouse is almost finished!

It's functional now - she can swing and go down (and up) the slide.

Pop plans to finish the hand rails and put the roof on this week...

She maneuvers up the ladder really well!

Loves to swing...

...and go down the slide, of course. 

We plan to stain the deck later in the year and paint the walls - inside and out. We're also on the hunt for shutters for the windows, a cute little outdoor table and chairs and curtains or shades for the front of the "house."

More pics to come later!

Just a cute picture

Happy Sunday!

Our 19-hour "babymoon"

Sort of at the last minute Matt and I decided to take the houseboat out yesterday afternoon and spend the night on the lake (sans Lola). Since the weather has changed it was actually almost too cool to swim last night, so we built a little fire on "the beach" instead. The lake is about five feet below normal right now, so there are lots of great beach-y spots out there. It was a relaxing evening, just what this mama needed.

28 weeks (and showing it!)

Pretty sure he's wearing his mother-in-law's sweatshirt here...

it was the only thing we could find in the closet on the boat!

Ahhhh... this is the life.

Swimming like a fishie

A quick clip from our Saturday evening swim.

Lola enjoys floating on her back!

Pregnancy makes me craaaaazy

Example #1: I forgot the last four digits of my social security number last week.

I dropped my cell phone in a gravel parking lot in Gainesville, and the screen went black. Luckily it was under warranty, so I got a new one for free in less than 24 hours. But first I had to give the Verizon customer service lady the last four of my social (apparently I've never changed my password from that). So I rattled off four digits that I would have swore were the right ones, but she kept telling me it was wrong. What?! I got really flustered for a few minutes, and then suddenly I remembered the right numbers. I'm sure the lady thought I was crazy. (I guess I am, a little bit.)

Example #2: I started feeding a stray dog yesterday.

It's not that I'm not sympathetic to stray dogs - I love dogs, and I would really love to strangle the people who dump their dogs. But typically I'm just annoyed and run them off, and they leave, and I forget about them, and that is that. Well, now there's this dog... he keeps showing up, and he's starving. Two nights ago I couldn't stop thinking about him, and yesterday I saw him lying under a tree a hundred feet or so from our house, so I took him some food and water. When I walked toward him he ran off, but a few minutes later he came back and devoured the food. I guess we need to come up with a name for him? Sigh.

Example #3: I went to town today to run errands and completely forgot to buy dog food for said dog. (Sorry, Ossie, you're gonna have to share for a couple more days.)

3 months to go...

Baby boy is due in three months. Are we ready? Getting there. Are we excited? Very! We still have a lot to do around the house to get ready for Lola's baby brother. I'm not sure if I mentioned this here already, but we are moving Lola to a different room: the spare bedroom/junk room. It's a HUGE bedroom, quite larger than the one she's in now. I'm having my old queen bedroom set painted for her. (It belonged to Lola's great-great-grandmother.) That should be finished in a couple of weeks. We're also planning to repaint both bedrooms for the kiddos. And on top of all of that, we decided to do a "frugal" remodel of both of our bathrooms - new flooring, toilets and countertops, and fresh coats of paint for everything. So right now there is a lot of painting to do around the Wade house (can you say "nesting"?), so it's a good thing Matt LOVES to paint (insert sarcasm here). Anyone want to volunteer to help?!

26+ weeks (third trimester, here we come!)

About a month ago we attempted finger painting in the house.

Let's just say, thank goodness for crayola washable paints.

While going through some boxes in the garage we found my old barbies - now Lola's barbies. Check out the clothes and hair. Can you tell I was a child of the '80s?

Bye-bye, ("first") baby, good-bye

We sold our boat last week. This is the last picture Matt took before she headed out of Bull Shoals Lake for good (well, for now - you never know) and on to another lake in Oklahoma. Sigh. I have been fighting this for two years now, and I finally gave in (to Matt) and agreed to list her on craigslist. Less than a week later she was gone. Why'd we do it? Well sadly, we don't have a whole lot of time to use it right now, but mainly we just decided it was time to sell while it still has good value. We'll have another one someday soon! In the meantime, we'll be mooching off our friends with boats (ahem, the Blackburns) and using the rental boats when they're available. Thanks for the memories (e.g. late-night dance parties, long rides to the dam and the lighthouse, an under-the-seat cooler that always kept our adult beverages cold, and a sweet stereo system that blasted the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Fergie, James Taylor, Justin Timberlake and Eminem). So long, old girl! We're gonna miss ya.