Super Glamour Mom

When you look this good and are ready to roll in your minivan, it's hard not to feel like you're rockin' it every day.

Especially when you have fabulous varicose veins...

 That require you to stuff your painfully engorged legs like sausages into prescription strength compression stockings every day.

 Sorry friends, you can't just run out and snag a pair of your own at Nordstrom. I had to get these babies specially fitted at a medical supply store. They're the height of geriatric chic. I kid you not.

Funny story: I was in the workout room at the Sun Valley Inn when a cute white haired lady approached and said, "Can I ask you a question?" Sure, I replied. "Where did you get your stockings? They're so flattering! They match your legs so well." Why thank you, I'm blushing. We proceeded to have a conversation about their brand, pricing, and benefits, as well as the fact that I made sure to get ones without toes so that I could still wear sandals in the summer. A fashionista has to keep her wardrobe options open.

And getting your all-important beauty rest is super romantic when you're ensconced in a ginormous maternity pillow that takes up more than half of your bed. Nothing says "cuddle time" like a quasi-womb that prevents your spouse from getting within a foot of you. We jokingly refer to this as the third member of our marriage and have lovingly dubbed him "Herman."

 So in honor of my 28 week doctor's appointment today and to distract me from the fact that not only do I have to have my blood drawn, but also a dreaded Rhogam shot (#seriousneedlephobe), here are a few looks that I wish I was rockin'.

 Polka dots!

 This one might actually be long enough.

 Love the pattern.

Mom prom, anyone?

Maybe we'll snag a spontaneous wedding invite so I'd have a chance to don this beauty. After all, I did attend my sister's wedding 32 weeks pregnant with Lucy.

Cheers to pregnancy in all its glory.

The Party Continues

 We got home from Sun Valley and the following day was Lucy's actual birthday: August 20th. She was excited to have a present bag from Grandma Lori to open, which included the glow necklaces.

If you can believe it, it got even more exciting than the psychedelic glow stick party. I was thrilled to go to a friend's house for a little lunch get together and she was kind enough to make one of my favorite desserts in honor of my birthday a week earlier: Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle. That stuff is pure heaven, I tell you. Ellie = Trifle queen.

Ben's First Day of School

We now have a second grader in the house

The bus stop crew plus the newest addition: Two Bernese mountain dog puppies owned by a family around the corner.  We've all fallen in love with them, except for Ben who's a bit wary of dogs after breaking out into a wicked case of hives when licked by my little sister's corgis a few years ago. You know the scene from the movie "Hitch" where his face is all disfigured? Yeah, that's what Ben looked like. 

Mr. Too Cool to Smile for his Mom

Off he goes! Lucy misses him and runs to give him one last hug each day before he boards the bus. The first week was one of ups and downs, we're hoping things even out and he has a good year. His teacher seems great, so that's promising.

How did things go for you if you have kiddos heading to school this month?

You Say It's Your Birthday

Lucy turned three (going on 15) on August 20th, but we celebrated her birthday early in Sun Valley with Andy's family. It was literally the perfect birthday party because while I love a good shindig, hosting extravaganzas with lots of kids running around is not terribly enjoyable for me. Bring on the family party where the ratio is six adults to two kids. Decorate, frost cupcakes, sing, open presents, voila! Done in 30 minutes.

 Lucy saw these Barbie plates two months ago and we held on to them in anticipation of our trip. Every so often she'd get them out and ask if it was her birthday yet. We're in a bit of a pinkalicious phase right now. It must be hardwired into little girls.

 Lucy was also very specific about the menu: Hot dogs, Cheetos (her fave), watermelon, and pink cupcakes. I happily obliged, since as ghetto as they my be, grilled hot dogs are one of my favorite summer foods.  I had a great time decorating the cupcakes and the pink frosting was cute, but didn't taste all that great. I saved half and frosted them chocolate, as you can see on the back counter. Guess which ones got eaten first. #chocoholicsanonymous

 Blowing out the candles. 

 Charlie, Annette, Ben, Pete, Betsy, Andy, and the birthday girl

 New favorite family photo

 Creeper face

 We ended up singing to Lucy twice, once impromptu and once for the camera since she loves watching the video from her 2nd birthday. She now asks daily to see this one.

 Favorite present - a Hello Kitty tin with her own nail polish, pink hand sanitizer, and lip gloss.

Dress ups from mom and dad

What to say about Miss Lucy? She is our vivacious, determined, talkative, soft-hearted, friendly little bug. I love seeing her personality blossom. She can be a tyrant at times, but is quick to give hugs, loves to tumble and dance (Party Rock Anthem is a favorite), often crawls around and pretends she's Lucy Cat ("meow"), runs everywhere, and wants to be outside every second that her best friend, our next door neighbor is out. She is learning to ride a regular scooter by sheer determination and can pump on the swings by herself ("Don't push me!"). While she loves Barbie  and Dora books, we end up coming home from the library with an equal number of Toy Story and Cars ones. It's really fun to have her as a buddy now that Ben's back in school. Love that girl and I can't wait to see what a great big sister she will be to our new little lady come November. 

The World According to Lucy

Lucy has figured out how to use my camera and she managed to document a trip to the car wash - one of our favorite outings.

 The budding photographer's self portrait

 Love the drive-thru

 Frightening, I know.

 Just cruisin' and singing to some tunes

 A little nail art. Lucy is obsessed with having her nails painted.

Lazy Sunday

Last Sunday she got the camera again and captured a typical Sabbath afternoon at the Haws household

 Giant belly in all its glory

 Andy napping on the floor

 Mr. Cool

Decorations ready for Lucy's birthday the next day, but that we've actually left up the whole month of August because we celebrated three birthdays this month.

Should I start hiding my camera? Truth be told, it's kind of hilarious to find these little montages.

Bump It Up

Behold, the belly at 5 months. Since I'm suffering from a major inability to get anything updated on the blog lately, these pictures are about a month old and the bump is even more spelindiferous. It's amazing the constant comments I get from people asking if I'm having twins or  saying I must be relieved to be due any day. Or in three months...My favorite was from a male neighbor at the bus stop this week: "Now I don't know anything about having babies, but you look BIG." Why yes, sir, I feel big. :)

The view from Lucy's vantage point. Just stayin' hydrated while I listen to a little NPR. Nerd alert!

More recently - Last week in Sun Valley, ID with Andy's family celebrating Andy's parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Separate post to come on that trip.

Yes, you did notice a recycled outfit since I literally have about five tops and three pairs of pants that fit anymore. Shirts that I wore throughout my entire pregnancy with Ben now leave half my tummy hanging out. I was really lucky to borrow lots of clothes my previous two pregnancies so I have relatively few of my own that are summer wear, but don't really want to buy more. Thankfully the starts have aligned and I've scored a few great finds in Target clearance (Exhibit 1: the purple shirt pictured).

Newsworthy

I'm not sure anyone actually reads this blog anymore since it's been so woefully neglected over the past months due to a number of factors, one big one being that I can't find the battery charger for my camera and it's dead with no hope of revival. Nevertheless, even without photo documentation, life chugs on. We have a few things happening that some would consider newsworthy, so I thought we'd share.

1. We were lucky to have three weeks worth of visitors in March/April and got to see a grandma, aunties, uncles, and cousins. Busy, but fun. More on that later.

2. I was asked to be the president of our church congregation's women's organization. I'm sad to no longer get to teach Sunday School, which I loved, but am excited for the new challenge. Thank goodness for capable people to assist and help compensate for my shortfalls.

3. Right before the visitors and new responsibilities, I found out that I am pregnant. A big surprise, since I had been to a fertility specialist just the week before to set up a plan for fertility treatments. The doctor ordered me to get an MRI of my thyroid as standard procedure, and since we have a high deductible health plan and would have had to pay $900 out of pocket, I took a pregnancy test just to reassure myself that the price would be worth it. Imagine my utter shock at seeing the little "+" sign staring back at me.  So now we just get to pay the $900+ to our OB. :) Thanks to our visitors for putting up with me while I was terribly sick and unable to do anything besides sit on the couch and try not to puke. "Try" being the operative word. I'm now 13.5 weeks along and it's impossible to hide the fact that there's a baby on board. As any of you who've witnessed me pregnant know, I have a torpedo belly. You can see the tiny baby bump in the picture below when we took cupcakes into Ben's class last Friday for his birthday.

4. Knowing that we'll have another little Hawsling this November, we swallowed our egos and are surrendering to the inevitability of becoming the ultimate suburbanites. We are selling one black Honda and and recently bought another.

5. Behold, the newest addition to our family: a Honda Odyssey.  Ben has been DYING to have a van for ages, so he finally gets his wish. Just in time for his 7th birthday. While Ben wasn't picky, I had very specific criteria for becoming a van mom. Although technically we don't need the extra room for another six months, after exhaustive research, we found a deal that was too good to pass up with everything we were looking for, and a bit more. The van is still at the dealership getting some last-minute detailing and we'll get it later this week. If you know anyone in OH who's in the market for a 2005 Honda Accord, point them our way.

So that's what's happening in our neck of the woods. For some reason even though this is also a public forum, I wanted to publish the news here first rather than on Facebook, which still somehow feels less intimate to me. But enough about us. What's happening with you? Drop a comment and say hello. :)