Smoooth Sailing....

My new favorite.....new thing.....

 

I'm pretty much addicted to these smoothies already. They are so easy, no blender needed.  Just add whatever juice you like and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE.  After shaking I put mine back in the freezer for about 10 minutes to get it even thicker. 

I almost have everything that I need to have when Tenlee gets here.  I bought her mattress yesterday for  her crib and I needed a couple more bras for myself. Mom picked up the changing table pad yesterday.  This morning a lady I work with brought me a gift. 
 The sweetest two outfits...gets me all giddy inside!

 

Congrats to the Tatum boys on winning their basketball game last night.  They won by only 2 points.  I can only imagine how exciting that game was.  The next round of play is Friday night against Marlin.  It's probably going to be more like a "track meet" then a basketball game.  I bet both teams are extremely fast.  Hopefully Leven and I will drive to Nac to watch this one. 

~DB~ 

 

Monday morning.....

A LOT  has happened since I last posted. 

Thursday we closed on our home in Pine Tree.  Leven and I met up at the house to gather the last of the cleaning supplies and said our goodbyes.  We had some wonderful times in that house.  After taking a few pictures, we headed over to the title company to sign all the documents and get our check.  The couple that is buying our house seems super sweet and they are ready to just move in.  It's such a headache these days trying to get a loan and buy a house.  They said they loved our house the moment they saw it.  Makes me feel good inside! It took a little over an hour to get everything finalized and then we were done.

Done with it ALL!

What a relief. 

  

Friday morning I headed to the baby doctor to get a check up.  I'm measuring right on schedule and blood pressure was great.  I told her this baby would def not come early and I would probably have to be induced for sure.  I am going back and forth on whether or not I should be induced or to just wait until Tenlee decides to make her arrival.  Taydem was induced so to me that's the easiest way to go, because that's ALL I know.  I'm nervous about my water breaking and having to rush to the hospital.  But then again, I kind of want to go through all of that.  I'm getting nervous even talking about it.  I'm entering 5 weeks and so that means Tenlee will be here in like a month!! I'm thinking Tenlee is going to be a bigger baby than Taydem! Look at that belly.....

 

We headed to Arlington this past weekend for our second volleyball tournament.  We also got to stay with Leven's good friend, Danny.  It was nice getting to visit with Danny and his wife Mindy.  It's been like 2 years since we've seen them.  They have a Boxer dog named Boomer and Taydem played with him the entire time.  We didn't do so well playing on Saturday but came back and won both games on Sunday.  I figured I would've been worn out when we got home last night, but I was feeling pretty good. 

 

Taydem is so easy bringing her places.  I guess because she's been a gym rat from day 1.  Give this girl an ipad, coloring book and a few trips to the concession stand and she's set. I thought this picture she colored was REALLY good.

 

 ~DB~

 

Mi Casa

The rocking chair and baby crib are finished with paint------> THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM! My parents brought it to the apartment yesterday and started putting it together but ran out of time.  They were headed to Whitehouse to watch those Tatum Eagles play some basketball.  So we will get it put together when we can. 

 [Both the girls and boys won their basketball games last night and advance to the next round!!]

 

Yesterday afternoon, after my wonderful pedicure, my feet and ankles kept swelling.  I seriously couldn't even bend my toes.  I drove home with my sandals off and once I was home, put my feet up ASAP! Today I wore flip flops and right now I have a bowl turned upside down, under my desk, with my feet UP! I'm not going to touch salt or a Dr. Pepper today.  Let's just see if doing these things will help. 

 

I wanted to show you a couple pictures from Taydem's "new" room.  I am learning to adjust to not having much storage space and we are doing just fine.  Once I have the bedding in the crib, I will take a few pictures of the girls final look.

 

 I want to send a HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to my handsome, smart and athletic nephew, TRUITT! His birthday was yesterday and he turned 9!!

 

 

We are still looking for a home for a cat, Buddy! He has NO claws and is a house cat. Spread the word for us.....thank you

 

Hump Day? Why yes it is!

~DB~

OH the JOYS..............

......of being pregnant.  Have I told you that I'm over this pregnancy already?

I hate to be "Crabby Cathy" but goodness gracious. 

This is what I see every morning while getting dressed....

I sit on a stool and do my hair and makeup bc it seems to make me feel a little more comfortable then standing.  I have my shirt rolled up so you could see my growing tummy, but none of my shirts cover this belly all the way. I feel like an old man wearing a shirt too small with his gut hanging out the bottom for all to see. You know the kind.....

 

Today I thought I would wear sandals to give my feet and ankles some breathing room, but I'm not even sure if that was a good idea.  Obviously these sandals are a little too tight.  I couldn't wait to get a pedicure during my lunch hour. 

 Check these suckers out:

 

Where on earth did my ankles dissappear too? My feet did the same thing with Taydem, but I just assumed it was the 100 degrees, late summer with her.  And check out those indentions where my sandals were.  The sad thing about the whole pedicure, the lady couldn't even get my pants up over my calves.  I fell asleep while she waxed some lady's eyebrowns (probably the best 5 minute power nap I've ever had!) and when she got back my pants were soaking wet.  I didn't even know they were in the water.  Sad Devin, sad.

 

I promise, I don't complain this much to Leven.  I vent on my blog because it's kind of like my little journal of thoughts.  And my sister and I vent to each other like every hour.  We love to compare EVERYTHING with our pregnancies.  We also both can't wait to have these babies and start working on getting skinny! We both have jogging strollers and we hope to put them in good use. 

 

So enough is enough with the complaining.

  I am very blessed to have my baby and this ever growing bump!

 

Now to end this post on a positive note.  We have found a perk to living in the apartment:

SONIC!

(You can kind of see Leven standing at the left waiting on the bag of ice!

Which means, yes, he just walked over there!)

 

 SONIC ICE!

 

~DB~

Recap the weekend

How was your Valentine's Day?

We had a good time over in Shreveport.  I'm not gonna lie, I was ready to hit my pillow ASAP! Carrying all this weight around is tough.  Speaking of weight- this morning Taydem says, "Momma, can I tell you something? Your legs are getting fat." Then she immediately responds with, "I'm sorry I just said that." Honest honest.  She then tries to explain herself and says that my butt is also getting bigger and with both my butt and legs getting bigger at the same time, it's not so bad.  Wow! Thank you Taydem!!

How many more weeks do I have??

Geez!

 

Saturday morning Leven got up and headed into Longview to get a haircut and run by the house to see how well the cleaning lady did.  He said it looked great! While he was gone, I decided to tackle the new carseat slipcover I bought for Tenlee.  Out of all of Taydem's baby stuff, I kept the crib, high chair and carseat.  But the carseat needed some attention so I bought a 5 piece set to kind of make it look new.  Took me about 30 minutes, but I finally figured it out.  I think it's adorable!

We got all the boxes and tubs finally unloaded and needed to take a few things over to my brother's house to put in his attic.  Our apartment is finally finished! Mom came over yesterday after church and helped me hang the final pictures.  I'm so glad we decided to hang them.  It just makes it feel more like a home.  I think it looks awesome.  I will have to take a few pictures of the apartment to show you what we are working with! We went from 2350 sq ft to about 1000 sq ft.

 

Austyn came over to play with Taydem while we hung the pictures and I told them once we were finished I would take them to the park.  Yesterday was so pretty outside. 

 Hopefully NO MORE COLD WEATHER. 

Happy Monday!

 Have a wonderful week

~DB~

The Day of LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday when I got home from work Leven had bought Taydem and myself some yummy Valentine's treats.  He bought Taydem a little teddy bear and some candy and he bought me CANDY! Chocolate of course.  He knows what I like.  He said it was for Tenlee too.  So last night while laying in bed, watching American Idol, we munched on these KitKats!

I love him more and more every day!

 

And speaking of American Idol, it is so much better than last season.  They have picked some really good singers (and song writers) this year.  The producers did a good job turning the show around.  It needed it terribly after the season it had last year. 

Leven and I make some beautiful babies! I just love this sweet picture of Taydem.  She has been a "smiler" from the moment she entered this world.  Her name actually means "cheerful!"

Fits her perfectly.

It makes me wonder how much alike Tenlee and Taydem will be.   

Tonight I am looking forward to a little adult time.  We have been going and going this past month and I'm ready to sit and visit and EAT GOOD! Mom is keeping Brittyn and Taydem for us, just in case we get home later than planned. 

 

These three are my special Valentine's

 

 

Big and well....BIG

This chocolate covered strawberry was calling my name a little while ago. 

Big AND Juicy! 

 

I am sooooooooooooo over being pregnant!

 

I seriously can barely fit in the shower in the apartment. Yes, it's small...but both my ends (belly & butt) are almost touching the sides of the shower. I have no idea how I'm supposed to shave my legs.  I'm afraid if I sit down in there I won't be able to get up. 

 

Last night Leven and I both agreed that we think the apartment is very cozy.  After this weekend, I think we will have all the pictures hung on the walls and all the extra "stuff" out of there.  My brother told us we can store whatever we needed to in his attic.  Thank goodness.  That will free up a little space. 

 

Leven is going to either get really mad at me or he's going to learn to change his ways a little bit.  That apartment is just too small for him to be leaving his crap all over the place.  In our house, it wasn't that big of a deal if he left 5 pairs of shoes laying around.  He CANNOT do that in the apartment.  Everything has a PLACE in the apartment.  So he better get ready for me to grip at him everytime he takes his underwear and socks off right by the hamper and puts them on the FLOOR!!! First of all I can't bend over to pick the things up and secondly, the hamper is RIGHT THERE! Help a sista out.....geez!

 

Last night when we got home from volleyball practice, this is what I found from that morning: his toothbrush laying on the counter (I just bought a toothbrush "holder" for our 3 toothbrushes), his hair gel, razor, shaving cream, deoderant and toothpaste (which also has a "holder") ALL on the counter around the sink.  Having two sinks in your master bath is a must people!!!  Now he has his own basket in the closet to put his things in once he's finished with them. Remember everything has a PLACE! It takes like 15 seconds to put back everything.  Again, help a sista out!!! If Trever was living with us, I'm sure this baby would've already made her arrival with them both stressing me out. 

 Like father like son!

 And that's NO JOKE!  

I love you Leven!

(Hopefully he reads this post!) 

 

~DB~

Eat 'em UP!

We had lots of rain and ice here in East Texas last night.  I never realized how many bridges I cross going to and from work until this morning.  After today, please Lord bring us the sunshine.  It's so gloomy around here and it puts everyone in a weird mood.  I'm ready to see green trees and green grass! 

Pistachios are by far my favorite kind of nut.  I also love just plain ole salted peanuts as well, but these babies right here make me smile! The bad thing about being pregnant is you don't think twice about buying something.  When I see something that sounds good, I grab it off the shelf and keep on moving.  If I weren't pregnant, I would literally just stand there debating whether or not I REALLY need it.  Sometimes I will even go the distance to putting it in my basket and then return it! I drive myself crazy sometimes while shopping.  And this goes for clothes AND food. 

Every year the Girl Scout Cookies kill me.  And yes, you see 8 boxes in this picture.  I don't eat them all at once before you start freaking out with your jaw dropping.  I put them in my freezer and eat them throughout the year.  Plus it's for a good cause, right?

Buddy didn't last long at my cousin's house.  I'm glad she gave it a try though.  Her cat and little dog scared Buddy to death.  She said he stayed hidden behind the couch and at night he would sit in the window and cry and cry and cry.  I know who he was crying for....LEVEN! I'm sure it's that same awful cry he does as soon as Leven walks out of the house.  My cousin said it drove her crazy.  I don't blame her. 

 

So a lady that works for my parents offerened to keep him.  She has NO pets and it's just her and her two little girls.  She said that he sniffed around their house for a little while and then seemed ok.  He was sniffing for other animals. ha! She sent me this picture this morning and said that Buddy was making himself right at home.  I'm so happy to hear this.  I don't care much for this cat, but Taydem and Leven LOVE him!

 

We've raised him since he was a baby and all he knows is us.

Big ole fat black cat!!!

 

~DB~

Seeing red.......

I'm thinking it's time for Trever to get a haircut....and do a little shaving on that face of his.  I like his beard, but he just needs to clean it up! ha

He is seriously starting to look to OLD!

Not only are my feet and legs starting to swell, but the fingers are getting there too.  I can't wear my wedding ring anymore. 

 

Do you go all out for Valentine's Day?

 

I've never been the type of woman that got my feelings hurt if Leven didn't go all out for me on Valentine's Day.  I honestly could care less if he even gets me a card.  I think every year we just try and make it a date night.  And we are both perfectly fine with that.  This year we are going over to Shreveport with some other couples to eat and then I'm sure we will head home.  We usually head over to the boats for a little bit, but I'm not even sure if we will do that this time.  So that's our plans for now at least....

 

During my lunch break today, I headed to Walgreens to buy Taydem's class Valentine's cards.  We also have to decorate a shoebox so she can put her Valentine's cards in it.  It's always something.  I'm glad Taydem enjoys arts and crafts.  I usually just let her do her own thing.  I was so proud of her last night.  While I was washing dishes (the apartment doesn't have a dishwasher!) she sat on a stool and read her library book to me.  So BIG!

 

So ready for some warmer weather...

DB

 

 

Saying goodbye

Well, we did it.  We finally moved to Tatum.

These past few days have been exhausting to say the least.

  But, we did it.

 And it does feel good. 

 

We slept last night, our first night, in the apartment.  And it was a really awesome, deep sleep.  Our bodies were so worn out from all the packing, unpacking, moving, driving, loading, unloading, etc.  I'm sure my parents slept like a champ last night too.  They were the biggest help this weekend, especially my Mom.  Thank the Lord for her! She's a worker and a lover and will do anything for us kiddos! I also want to thank my preggo sister and her hubby and both my brothers.  They also did some help with our move and made everything a little less stressful.  We still have boxes to be unpacked, but I'm seriously going to just take my time.  We are in the apartment and right now that's all that matters. 

Taydem LOVES the new place and tells us she likes it better than our old house.  I bought her new bedding and her room is bigger.  My mom is still painting the baby crib and finishing up the rocking chair.  Once she's finished, we will put them in the room with Taydem.  This morning Directv hooked up our TV's-YIPPEE! And I got to take Taydem to school for the second time this YEAR!

Last night I missed having my big bathtub, but the shower felt wonderful.  The drive to Kilgore from Tatum wasn't bad at all.  I tried to time it so I would know exactly when we needed to leave every morning and it took me 23 minutes.  I know Leven had a smile on his face the whole way to Carthage (the big 12 minute drive)! Things are falling in place for us Barker's and now we just wait to sign all the paperwork at the closing. 

After that, we WAIT for the arrival of Tenlee Rose. 

 

 Check out this leg and foot! That pedicure was amazing that day.  But OMG....

(I will say that's kind of a bad angle, hehe)

 

 

This was a picture of me laying down on the couch taking about break #4 from last Friday night.  It's the little things that drive you crazy when you move.  This was stuff all needing to be loaded up in my car to take to the apartment.

 

 

We had put our name in the cement the day it was poured back in 2009.  I figured it was only fitting to take a picture of it when we left.  These past 5 years in Pine Tree really were good to us.  We met some great people and have tons of memories to leave with. 

 Leven added quite a few more W's to his resume and more girls signing scholarships to play at the next level.  Trever made lasting friendships, played in some memorable games and Pine Tree prepared him for college!  And best of all we had the best neighbors in the world...we will sure miss the Duke's and ole' Greg!

 

 

But now it's time to write the next chapter in our lives.............. 

 

DB

Swollen

This morning was def a "hot chocolate" kind of morning.  Since I don't like coffee, I drank a Dr. Pepper first to wake my butt up and then since it's so chilly outside I made myself this cup of tasty wonder!

My brother and Chrissy have been living it up in Las Vegas these past few days. 

Check them out!

My parents have been keeping their three kids while they have been gone.  My Mom said last night she felt like she was raising kids again.  Doing homework, taking Truitt to basketball practice, cooking breakfast AND supper, bath time, Tyler's "time out chair, etc.  We didn't have NO kind of time out chair growing up....we had spankin time.  Guess it's a little different with grandkids, ha!

I have the sweetest Mom's that take pictures of Taydem when they do fun things at school.  Since I'm working I don't get to do and see all this fun stuff! Her teacher is really good also about taking pictures of the kids! Yesterday was a huge success for their 100th Day of School!

I was pleased with how hard my volleyball team worked for me last night.  I'm sure it's not real easy taking a huge pregnant woman serious, but they were awesome.  By the time I got home my feet and legs were HUGE! Swollen all up...ha! So today during my lunch break...guess what's on the agenda? A pedicure! I'm going to tell them to give me an extra rub down!

 

DB

Size them up

Here's a little side by side comparison of my two girls.  Taydem is on the left at 28 weeks and Tenlee is on the right at 27 weeks.  They favor a little I guess.

Today was college signing day at Carthage High School. Leven's top volleyball player is headed to the University of Tennessee!! Go Vols! Can't wait to follow her these next few years. He also found out today that another one of his seniors has decided to play at the next level.  That means right now at this moment, he has 10 girls playing college volleyball.  Now that's pretty impressive!

Leven is one proud Papa!

The other night I was taking a really HOT bath and in walks Leven with this yummy HOT Fudge Sunday! How did I ever get so lucky with him.  Best surprise of that day...haha! I can honestly say that was my first time eating something while taking a bath.  It was pretty wonderful.

I can't get this picture to turn how I want it.  But these are the burp cloths my cousin Peyton made for Tenlee. Super cute.  Danin and I spent a couple of hours last night sorting through all of the baby stuff.  I feel like it doesn't even look like we did much.  Between Taydem and Tenlee, that room is going to be a little cramped.  I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to store everything. This may be the first time in my life that I don't have a lot of storage space.  I will find a way and make it all work out though.

Tonight we have volleyball practice and the head coach can't be there.  So that means I get to run practice.  It sucks though because I can't do a whole lot with the girls.  Tossing the ball is about as far as I get to go.  So my practice is going to have to work around what I can and can't do. 

It's Wednesday!!!!

DB

Let's get organized

It is nasty, cold and wet here in East Texas.  This kind of weather makes it hard to roll out of bed (I'm not kidding about the "rolling" out of bed!). But I'm up and ready to tackle another day. 

 

Last night Leven and I loaded up our cars and headed back to the storage unit.  I feel like we are making some pretty good progress.  Once we got back home, we loaded up my car with apartment stuff.  Tonight Danin and I are going to go through all my baby shower gifts and separate all the duplicates and things I have too many of. So my car is loaded down with more baby stuff.  Until we get all the bedroom furniture in the rooms, there will be tons of little piles scattered across the apartment.  Speaking of baby shower gifts, I am blessed to have some talented family and friends.  My cousin Peyton and my friends Lacey and Samantha made us some awesome burp clothes and a few more handmade items......LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. The burpclothes below are the ones Samantha made.  Tonight I will have to take a few more pictures of the others to share with you. 

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school.  If you have a young one, then you know all about this special day and how most schools make it a pretty big deal.  So this year Taydem's class each had to make a poster board and make sure "100" items were on the board.  You could do whatever you wanted.  So I took it to Pinterest and found this little idea.  Of course Taydem's picture doesn't look quite like the one on Pinterest, but you get the idea.  I also added the little pharse to it.  So she has buttons and gem stones on her poster board (100 of these little things to be exact!).  The pinterest picture used all buttons, but I couldn't find just all buttons.  So we managed.

I had another visit yesterday with my OB/GYN.  Everything is still going smoothly. 

Blood pressure-check. 

Heart beat-check.

And I'm measuring right at 31 weeks-check.

I see her again in a couple of weeks and then my next visit I will have one last sonogram. 

 

Make today a good one.

DB

Showered with LOVE

This weekend came and went like all the rest here lately.  But this weekend was a good un'!

Saturday morning Leven loaded up another load and took it to storage.  Mom and Dad stopped by the house after my nephew's basketball game and helped us finish a few more things on the inspectors list to get fixed.  Then Mom, Taydem and I headed over to my parents house to begin a day filled with painting.  Danin and Brittyn met us there and Danin helped us with all the painting.  It took us like 5 hours to paint just a few things.  The weather wasn't in our favor so the paint was having a harder time to dry.  But we did finish the shelf thingy for the apartment kitchen, the three stools for the kitchen and we started the rocking chair.  Now the rocking chair was the one thing giving us a hard time.  There were too many wood parts to be painted and such a tight space around them all.  I painted the ottaman while Mom and Danin painted the chair. It will def need another coat of paint.  We didn't even start on the baby crib yet.  Mom said she was going to try and start on it sometime this week.  Speaking of my MOM----today is her burfday! The big 6-1!!! So happy birthday to her.

And on her birthday she told me she was going to finish the rocking chair and touch up anything else! The bestest Momma out there. Love you Momma!

 

Here are a few before and after photos of our hard work!!

 

We thought the kitchen could use a little color! I didn't get an "after picture" of the stools, but they are the same colors as the shelfy thingy. But I did get a picture of Danin working hard!

 I want to wait until the rocking chair is completely finished before I show you the before and after photos of it. 

 

Leven and I have decided that we want to try and get everything moved out by this Sunday.  So we better get our workin britches on for this week!

Because here we go!

 

Yesterday our baby shower was the best.  Even with all the rain, we had a wonderful turnout and was showered with all kinds of goodies.  Tenlee and Baylee are pretty much ready now! Well Baylee more than Tenlee, but we are getting there.  I haven't even gone through all the good stuff yet.  After the shower we took everything to the apartment and just dropped it off.  We had a Super Bowl Party to go to and Leven was ready (oh and BTW-the Super Bowl was boring this year!). So this weekend I plan on going through everything and trying to get this apartment organized.  Here are a few photos from the shower. 

 I love my sister in laws and friends dearly.

 

 

Have a Happy Monday and wonderful week!

DB