Menu Plan Monday and Gender Reveal!!

Because I know some of you don't want to wait until the end of this post to read if we're having a boy or girl, I'll be nice and not make you read my menu for the week or even scroll down the page! We're having a...

GIRL!!

That's right...we're having another girl! And because we're weird and this is our "thing", we have already chosen a name. Our "thing" is, on the day of our ultrasound, RR and I go to lunch and decide our child's name. I do the research and compile the list of names for each sex that I like, make name combinations that I like, then make a list and bring it with us. We whittle down the list and usually end up with 2-3 names that we like. Then it's just a matter of discussing the nuances of those names...meaning, femininity/masculinity, how it sounds w/ our last name, etc. So, without further ado, our third child and second girl will be named...

Audrey Claire Skinner.

We will call her Audrey. I know what those of you who know the Bean's full name are thinking...we went with the same initials. Obviously, that's true, but it was not on purpose. Claire was one of the names we really liked for the Bean, so I've liked that name for years. So it was a frontrunner on our girl list this time around. But I was having a hard time coming up with a middle name for Claire. So I started thinking we could use it as a middle name, and I came up with a few combinations for Claire as a middle name. Audrey Claire was one of those. Once RR started whittling the girl list (which was much shorter than the boy list, btw), it pretty quickly became clear that this name was both of our faves. But we weren't sure if we wanted to be "locked into" using the same initials. We may have a fourth child, and if so, we will probably feel compelled to use our girl initials (ACS) or boy initials (HGS), depending on the gender. Yep, we are all weird like that. We like things symmetrical, even, the same, in patterns, etc. After some debate, we decided we'd rather just go with the name we both love than be concerned about the initials. So, as it turns out, we love our girl name, AND I will get to use all of the Bean's old monogrammed clothes. BONUS! Also, as a side note, everything looked great on the ultrasound, and it looks like we have a healthy little girl.

On to less exciting matters, our weekly menu...

Monday (beef night): sloppy joes, baked beans

Tuesday (breakfast): Western Scramble, bacon, toast

Wednesday (chicken): Chinese Chicken Salad, grapes

Thursday (leftovers): uhh...leftovers :)

Friday (wild card): red beans and rice with turkey sausage

Saturday: Global Missions Conference dinner at church

Sunday: fried chicken salad

Check out Menu Plan Monday for more menu ideas! I'd love to know what you're cooking for dinner this week. Also, I've thought about posted my cleaning schedule, mainly hoping that somebody else might do something similar and post theirs too??? I love getting "spurred on" by other's ideas in the areas of housekeeping and general housewife-ery!

January Happenings...

Sorry I'm such a blog slacker! When there's lots of things volleying for your attention, the blog tends to get put on the back burner. That being said, I am trying to update the blog at least once a month. So without further ado...here's what we did in January.

The first January happening: RR's annual b'day party! The kids had a great time helping with this. We put up a few decorations, bought him some gifts, and made a yummy dessert (cherry dump cake with ice cream...cherries are RR's favorite). We had a great time celebrating RR's b'day...his 37th...creeping ever closer to the big 4-0!

I let the kids each pick out a gift for Daddy. Bubs was intent on getting him fish. I asked him a dozen times, and his answer was always fish. And Bubs founds just the right thing: bathtub squirting fish. RR loved it, of course. :) The Bean picked out a more appropriate gift: jammies for Daddy.

The kids made some "door decorations"

On to the next thing: the Bean's K-4 circus party! I cannot begin to express how excited the Bean was about this party. The kids in the class all dressed up like circus performers. The Bean initially went back and forth between acrobat, elephant (what?!?), and clown. We ended up deciding on clown, largely b/c her friend Lynley was going to be a clown too. We went to the fabric store and let the Bean pick out her fabric for the clown outfit...with a little guidance from Mommy, of course. (FYI, if any of you are looking to make a clown outfit, I used a basic pants pattern, just made them a little bigger, a "peasant blouse" type shirt pattern, and this clown collar tutorial. Oh, and we found the coolest sequined turquoise sneakers that matched!! They were $6 at Hancock's...it was meant to be.) We painted her face with Crayola markers. Hope that's not bad...they are washable!! A real clown and a juggler were the class entertainment, and they had popcorn, cotton candy, and lemonade for snack. There was a face painter there too. How fun is that???

The Bean and her BFF, Lynley

The whole K-4 class...the boy with a whip was a lion tamer...how creative is that?!

Last happening: snow day! This was the most recent one, which was technically in February, but I'm putting it on this post anyway. We went outside all bundled up, and we threw snow balls, slid down our snow-covered slide, and went for a short walk in the neighborhood. We had a ball! And finally, the kids get to put there cute hats and mittens that I "splurged" on. (Splurged means I spent less than $10 on items that we used very infrequently...I just hate spending even 50 cents on stuff we hardly ever use. I'm cheap that way. I do not mind some sock mittens.)

Other un-photographed January events: Bubs first dentist appointment. He did great! We love our pediatric dentist. They have a fun play area to wait in, then they give you lots of cool stuff, like stickers, the obligatory toothbrush and toothpaste, and tokens to the "Treasure Tower"!! (Basically the Treasure Tower is a vending/gumball type machine of little trinket-y kid items like sparkly bracelets and bouncy balls, etc. But the kids love it!)

One more note if anybody is still reading - we find out the gender of our baby next Tuesday! I do not have a "gut" feeling about this one. I was pretty sure I knew with both my other pregnancies, and I was right both times. This time it's anybody's guess. Speaking of, anybody have a guess?? I will be 18 weeks tomorrow and am feeling great.