jack carter - again.

one of our very favorite summer spots is jack carter pool in plano.

i'm pretty sure i've blogged about it SEVERAL times before.

jeff grew up going there - twenty years later, they are now minus a high dive and plus an awesome kiddie area!

last week we met b's friend pierce there.

pierce would go down the tunnel slide all by himself.

b waited at the bottom and gave big high fives.

{remember, he's still scarred from daddy forcing him down the tunnel slides @ hawaiian falls!!}

double rainbow.

has everyone seen this youtube video?

apparently it's blown up on the internet - even though i don't particularly find it funny, my husband certainly does. he thinks it's hilarious. he even knows 'the song'.

oddly enough though, last night, i saw a double rainbow. all the way.


i wish i had my real camera - but my iPhone pics will have to do. the second rainbow is on top and faint - but it's there!!!

pudding pops

last week we made pudding pops.



brady thoroughly enjoyed the process.

and he loves the pops.


he told me what colors he wanted - and then would try to eat them in a certain order {for unknown reasons}. pretty cute stuff.

22/23 week stats:

how far along? 23weeks, 6 days
total weight gain/loss? +3/4 pounds {sidenote: i fluctuate a lot right now. i hit the +5 mark on saturday but then went backwards two pounds in the last two days. so take it for what it's worth!}
maternity clothes? as i've mentioned several times before, terri sent me her maternity clothes in may and i've been loving every second of them. but on sunday a.m. i found three skirts of hers that somehow got 'tucked' behind some wintery pants! i felt like i'd struck gold. they're the stretchy knit kind and i've been wearing them ever since!!
stretch marks? no technical stretch marks - but i've gotten several new spider veins behind my knees AND that nasty line is beginning. you people who've been prego before know the one - ugh. what is the purpose of that thing anyway?
sleep? this week - VERY heavy sleep - with very real nightmares. not anything related to the baby - but very vivid. and here is the weird thing: i tend to have nightmares when i'm stressed or overly tired to the point that i wake up screaming. please understand, this has only happened on occasion since we've been married, and it scares jeff senseless - but these aren't the same kind. these are different. those i can hardly remember when i wake up - sometimes i don't even wake up at all. but these are vivid. what does this mean? {i sound like the double rainbow guy}
best moment this week? we painted charlotte's room this weekend! it's the most perfectly sweet shade of green you've ever seen! {we went through 6 samples to get it, but it IS perfect}
movement? very abrupt movements - two the point of hurting!!! last week i let out a little squeal because it was so quick and painful!
food cravings? really 'good' food - anything that is super delicious and filling is right up my alley right now.
what i miss: cooler weather. {i think i've said this one before}
what i'm looking forward to: {a.k.a. what i'm ready to get on with} making the big boy transition....
how are you feeling? pretty good. short of breath a lot of the time, i tire easily and get teary a lot. but i have no complaints, seriously.
comparisons to last pregnancy? as far as the actual pregnancy goes - i'm a lot more calm and a lot more at peace about everything. i know it's going to be chaos after she gets here - but nothing we can't handle together with the lord's help. i don't know - i am feeling much more at ease - enjoying it a lot more - even though physically it's been harder.
milestones? sunday night we went to the rangers game and i couldn't get my rings off of my finger. was it the heat or was it the beginning of me starting to swell? i don't know. but i'm starting to be super careful. i was going to wait until after vacation - and i still will to be super strict - but for right now, i'm just sort of watching it. {still having ice cream treats though} by the way - if i wasn't clear last week - i'm not concerned about gaining weight - i am just concerned about SWELLING.... but my doctor said that truthfully swelling is going to happen of some degree....... OH - and this weekend, b. started saying 'baby' whenever we'd go into charlotte's room or do anything with her clothes or anything pink. maybe that means he's starting to get it?

hawaiian falls - with daddy.

we were so excited last week when the hubbs took off of work early to get to hawaiian falls with brady! he took brady on three slides - which all made me squirm - especially the tube one. brady loved showing jeff around - and even watching his daddy go on one of the big slides - the torpedo. b, of course, wanted to go on the same one after jeff did. 'next year, buddy!' yeah right!! he was much braver with jeff than he was when i took him - although he ended up a little water-logged after it was over. we love our special daddy time!!!!!

PS -

chocolate & peanut butter pie.

yes, this is just a pie, but it deserves it's very own post.

ask jeff. he agrees. he swore he'd only eat a bit of my first piece. but he probably ended up eating more than half the pie.

and what's almost as good as the way it tastes - it's SUPER DUPER easy!!!!!!!!! i promise!

i saw the recipe on my very favorite blog {sorry to all of my friends that i actually know, i absolutely adore this woman that i've never even met before. you will too. just go and see. she's awesome}.

her recipe calls for a 'pre-baked' crust. she used PW's recipe. i bought a graham cracker crust. next time i think i'll just get the pre-made dough and bake the crust. the only problem is that you have to wait for it to cool. and you won't want to. i promise.

her recipe also calls for vanilla pudding. ummm.... no. i love her, but what goes better with peanut butter crumbles than CHOCOLATE?!!!?? i mean really. doesn't everyone know that the best marriage ever in the world {besides jeff and i's!} is between chocolate & peanut butter.

this is a good place for an amen.

onto the recipe.

1 pie crust - any way you want to get it. just make sure it's cooled.
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. peanut butter, the creamy kind
1 pkg. instant chocolate pudding {the big box. i used sugar free and skim milk and it was still SUPER yummy}
2 1/2 c. milk {for the pudding}
1 tub cool whip {again, used the light version - still super yummy}

combine powdered sugar and peanut butter with fork. mix until super crumbly. {you may want to try a spoonful or two of these while you're at it}.

put 3/4 of the crumbles into the bottom of the pie crust. spread around and mash down a bit.

make chocolate pudding according to package.

spread on top of crumbles.



stick in fridge until it sets a bit. then spread the entire tub of cool whip on top. sprinkle rest of peanut butter crumbles on top.

refrigerate until ready to serve. {side note - it is kind of soft so we tried putting it in the freezer. the pudding got too hard - so don't do that!}

and that's it.

super tasty... and i'm sure you can create a million versions of the same pie. but, like i said, for the leach household it MUST be peanut butter & chocolate.

make this tonight. i promise you won't be dissapointed.

chalk.

as i'm trying to be more intentional with the solo days i have left with b, we've been spending a lot of our early mornings at home outside, learning about colors, shapes and on monday - drawing. i decided early on that there were going to be some 'toys' or 'activities' that i would always keep out of sight so that when i run out of ideas, i bring them out and it's all new again. that's how this sidewalk chalk was.

we drew 'brady', a choo-choo train and georgia. he is really into colors right now - so he told me the colors of all the polka dots, the color on the outside of the chalk and then the color that it drew on the sidewalk. {you could tell he was kind of confused as to why it would come out a different color...} his favorite color is yellow. {maybe it's really his favorite color to say...} when you ask him what color something is, he almost always says "lell-o" first without even looking, and then will look and change it to what color it really is. muffin head.

bee-ball.

brady is obsessed with baseball {pronounced "bee*ball" in brady languange}.

i mean really obsessed. he'll watch an entire rangers game with his daddy. {not with me, but with his daddy}. he'll clap when they clap. cheer when they cheer. get his bat and ball out and try to hit just like them. he is all boy.

so saturday, even though it was 102 degrees outside with a heat index of 110, we just had to drive to ft. worth and watch daddy play in his softball tournament with his coworkers.

brady loved it. he sat in the dugout with his daddy and all of jeff's coworkers "threw" the ball with him after running the bases. we got a ring pop and french fries with our hamburger for lunch during their break.

we had such fun. it was hot. but brady didn't know any difference.

americana - texas style.