The McMurray Life: 2016

Friday, December 23, 2016

baby #2 | 24 weeks

How far along? 24 weeks

Baby's heart rate: from 130-150

Maternity clothes? yes! or lose pants!

the bump: definitely becoming more and more, it really depends on what I'm wearing on if you can tell or not. When I lay down, it's a sharp uphill right at my belly button.

Stretch marks? No new ones, just the ole ones from round 1, ha!

Best moment this week: just getting little boy clothes here and there (thanks trading up!!) for a bargain and seeing things come together.

Movement: yes! all the time!

Food cravings: nope, just whatever!
food aversions: nothing specific

Miss Anything? sleeping on my stomach, HOT baths, cookie dough.....

Symptoms: this week I have been nesting like crazy. everyday I have a new "to do" list, or plan to clean out, organize, etc. It doesn't help that our "storage room/closet" is now baby boys nursery which means everything must go!

Belly Button in or out? in but definitely creeping on the edge. It popped last time at 24 weeks so... yikes.

Wedding rings on or off? On but snug. I'm definitely more swollen than I realized! Even my face in the picture above.. yikes.

Mood? excited! we're still unsure about names but as far as getting closer to everything, i'm excited!

holiday happenings

The holidays have been so fun with a curious 1 year old this year. I'm trying to keep busy with little traditions to start in our family, even though I know Ev is far from remembering any of it ;)

helping nana and papa decorate the house ;)

we made gingerbread "play doh" one day. note both kiddos in this picture ;)

we visited with Santa or "ANTA!"

ignore the stoic face... we had a pajamas and pancakes play date party with mommy friends and babies!

Cody had a date night to the Nutcracker ballet!

right before Christmas the weather hit a low, like 2 degrees. So between having the weekend off work and then being on call Evynn spent 3 days without ever opening the back door and leaving. To say we were going stir crazy is an under statement, so when Cody came home from work on Monday and said the weather was tolerable, we bundled up and went outside to play.

Ev LOVED exploring outside with the cold, white stuff, And even sliding on some ice while Cody held her up.

Monday, December 12, 2016

baby #2 | 21 weeks

How far along? 21 weeks (technically 22 weeks and 5 days now, oops!)

Baby's heart rate: from 130-150

Maternity clothes? yes! normal clothes just either completely hide the belly or make me feel restricted. I'm still sporting my normal maternity pants, mostly because I can't find maternity pants that work. other than that, all maternity please!

the bump: definitely becoming more and more, it really depends on what I'm wearing on if you can tell or not. When I lay down, it's a sharp uphill right at my belly button.

Stretch marks? No new ones, just the ole ones from round 1, ha!

Best moment this week: at 18 weeks, movement seemed inconsistent and made me worry if I didn't feel anything for awhile, then boom! the day before turning 19 weeks, I started feeling kicks from the outside and seeing little jumps! now at 22 weeks, movement is much more consistent. so are hiccups!

Movement: yes! see above

Food cravings: nothing in particular, just food! I never deny a meal. Let me tell you though, being full blown pregnant (vs. 10 weeks last time) during the holidays is tough... mostly because I have to weigh myself frequently hah! womp womp.
food aversions: nothing specific

Miss Anything? sleeping on my stomach, HOT baths, cookie dough.....

Symptoms: nothing in particular... tiredness? ha!

Belly Button in or out? in but definitely creeping on the edge. It popped last time at 24 weeks so... yikes.

Wedding rings on or off? On

Mood? so excited! we had our anatomy scan this week and all looked good and had our gender reveal.... IT'S A BOY! We are so excited to get to parent both girl and boy!

evynn claire | 16 months

it's been awhile since an update on miss sass. But here she is in her full glory!

weight: 24.5 lbs (50-75%) she wears 12-18 month clothes, size 4 diapers and probably size 4 shoes? I have some size 5 walking shoes that slide right off. tiny feet f o r e v e r.
length:32.5 inches (90%) no surprise here. tall girl since day one
eat: she definitely is quite the sass at the table. Some days she eats everything in sight and has the "more" sign language motion on repeat, other days she barely eats a thing. Who knows. Some days she wants to eat small bites we set out on her tray, other days she wants us to feed her. Some days she will ONLY eat what her dad spoon feeds her. whatever. She wants to be a big kid, so if we tore her up small bites of what we're eating, but she sees us eating the whole thing (a hamburger, for example) she throws a tantrum until she gets a bite of ours. Overall, she loves oatmeal, yogurt, fruits, chicken, some veggies, and most things we eat for dinner. Lately, she is more into holding her own food and taking her own bites-holding a sandwich and biting off it vs. having small bites set out for her.

sleep: Once she is asleep, she's a good sleeper... it's just the getting there part. For naps, i can tell when its "time" (usually 10:30 and 2pm... still taking 2 naps a day, this pregnant mom isn't complaining!) and set her in her crib with a book and a stuffed animal and after playing, she puts herself down. At night time, even if she's exhausted, most nights she wants to be walked around with. So for what seems like years, we walk around with her in the dark until she calms down. Some nights she lets us rock her and watch her projector and she'll go down, other nights she needs milk. Sometimes we luck out and it super easy peasy to lay her down, other nights I wonder how in the world we'll handle two come April but hopefully it'll just fall into place.

development/play

evynn LOVES reading and it's adorable. We catch her sitting by herself turning pages in her books and whispering to herself, OR she brings us 325984 books a day and says "buh" until we pick her up and read the book, then down she goes to grab the next book, and repeat. We're not complaining, its a great hobby.
she loves to stand behind me while I sit on the floor, and peek her face around my shoulder and say "boo!" over and over followed by the biggest belly laugh
she has the most mullet, ever. No hair on top and long/to the shoulders hair in the back. No hair clips yet, just bow headbands all the way.
she has 4 teeth in a row on top, 4 on bottom, and busting 4 more through right now (including her 18 mo canines!). eek, she's working on a mouth full!
she is discovering utensils at the table and understands that you hold the fork, put it next to food, then to your mouth.. just hasn't understood that food actually needs to get on the fork ;)
She has such an imagination! She loves playing with her tea set or "cooking" with her pots and pans and stirring food, even giving us a taste!
she points to pictures to point out "dada" and "baba" (aka mama *insert eye roll*)
she says "thank you" or her version of it when we give her something and its adorable.
she gets so excited when we put our hands out to hold while we pray. she started off holding it shortly, but now she'll hold our hands the whole time with the biggest smile
she loves purses. can you say girly girl!? She has herself little pink purse she wears in the bend of her arm and waves "bye" and then she found a very nice purse of mine that I'm trying to sell and has been wearing that around her neck. lol.
she is a great walker and runner. whew. keeps me on my toes in public.
she LOVES seeing the stray cats outside our house, runs to the window and yells at them!
she comprehends more than I realize.. I can say "do you want to open the garage door?" and she will stick out her finger and aim towards the buttons on the wall. or "do you need a drink?" and she goes to find her sippy cup.
she definitely watches us and wants to imitate-she constantly pushes in the dishwasher racks and closes the door while I'm trying to load it. and when i'm putting clothes in the dryer from the washer, she takes every item out and shuts the dryer door. i appreciate her gesture, just bad timing ;)
she loves dancing and saying "bye" when a TV show ends
as I type she's behind me rubbing my back... not sure why this is a new thing of hers but I'm not complaining ;)
every morning when we get her out of bed, she just needs to tell us about everything in sight, just to confirm everything is the same...? book. hot (candle). bear.
she's started to tie together animals with their sounds, she knows the goat says "baa", and puppy says "woof", and cat says "meow". it's so fun to see her say these on her own
she kinda says "brother" or "bubba" and will kiss my tummy. it's cute! I hoping she's as sweet to him as she is with her baby dolls!
she says about 13-15 words! And then the half words that we don't count yet but we know what she's saying ;)

challenges: like i mentioned above, bed time can still be a big challenge and super frustrating at times. We love love her growing mind but she definitely is throwing toddler temper tantrums when she gets told "no" or something is taken from her. She gets bored easily which makes car trips super tough... books, snacks, peek a boo, iPhone games, movies, etc. there's just only so much 1 year old can handle being strapped in the car.

Overall, she's a growing and developing girl with a lot to say and a lot she's trying to learn. We have loved seeing the wheels in her mind turn!

Sunday, December 4, 2016

ginger reveal party | baby #2

We had our gingerbread themed gender reveal for baby #2 this weekend, or as a co-worker called it.. our ginger reveal ;) It was SO fun, family and friends came together, with yummy snacks, Christmas decorations everywhere and the biggest reveal. It has been so much fun to plan!

We had our ultrasound last Wednesday and I immediately took the results to Ashley who is the official secret keeper. She stuffed the box that we had wrapped and prepared, with either red (girl) or green (boy) tissue paper.

Then we wait..

Onto the party!

I made the invites just in a word document and printed them on my go-to brown paper, easy and simple!

I am definitely not a gingerbread house designer, I realized this weekend, but I still made a few to decorate

I had bought the red and green banner from target months ago and more recently cut out these gingerbread men from the brown paper. I bought a package of red and green bow stickers from hobby lobby and made theme alternating bow ties/hair bows

pinterest (as always) made the gingerbread houses from graham crackers look SO easy, but I made it work, ha! I found these tiny gingerbread boy and girl decor at target and couldn't resist... they matched the banner above perfectly!

I glued together 3 mini candy canes to form little stands for food label cards

And of course we had a hot cocoa bar! I used a crockpot hot cocoa bar which was... HOT! but oh so rich and good! I also had whipped cream, carmel, peppermint, white chocolate chips, and marshmallows to customize your drink. Ev went little crazy with marshmallows but hey, party days mean no rules.. right?

Ashley got the cutest cookies made for the party!

Here is our entrance table to the house that we made simple... I found this gender neutral Christmas onesie the day before the party and bought it in the size this baby will be next Christmas. I had made the "old wives tales" chalkboard weeks ago, and Cody almost had me convinced that it was old WISE tales.. but turns out, it's not.