Fun in the snow!

The temperature today was perfect. Cold enough to keep most of the snow in place, but warm enough to get out (and create the perfect snowman/snowball snow!). We went to the municipal forest and snowshoed this morning. We had a blast!

Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve seems to be packed full of memories. 10 years ago Brett proposed to me on Christmas Eve, last year we found out we were most likely going to lose the baby I was pregnant with, and every year my family has Chicken Rice Soup and Oyster Stew. This year we stayed home for Christmas, and although we missed celebrating with family we had another wonderful and memorable time!

After a day of relaxing and hanging out as a family we all got in our Christmas best for the annual Christmas picture. One big happy family, right? :-) The story that isn't being told is that Gianna (not Gigi, gasp!) had just completed a marathon fit right before these pictures due to her strong opinion of what dress she would like to wear for the evening. The one she is pictured in is the third option she was given, and it only went on (darn her for knowing how to dress herself) because she was promised that as soon as we got back from dinner she could take it off. In the midst of her fit, the mother pictured in the pictures that follow may or may not have thrown a pregnant-induced fit herself and may or may not have been found to be crying and saying, "Is it too much to ask for a nice family picture? For crying out loud!" :-)

The rest of the evening went almost as smoothly as possible. While pulling our van out of the garage Brett decided that he was going to do some work in our alley by "packing down" some snow that makes getting in and out of our garage a little more difficult than we would like. About 10 minutes later, after we got the van unstuck from the deeper-than-previously-thought snow drift, we were on our way to Duluth to a friend and colleague's house for Christmas Eve dinner.

It's a tradition in our friend's family to put on a production called "Back to Bethlehem". Gianna decided to be the "watcher" and not the angel she was cast as, Aidan and Emma were Joseph and Mary, I was the narrator, and Brett was one of three wise men. We had a wonderful and memorable night with a great family who we are so blessed to have in our lives.

When we got home, the kids, as is tradition in my family, were allowed to open one present. Growing up, this present was almost always a new pair pajamas. I made the kids some fleece pjs this year and it was fun to see them enjoying them. I am an amateur seamstress and although I measured the kids and went by the measurements for sizing the girls' nightgowns turned out huge. They should be able to wear them for three years at least. Lol!

The girls got to snuggle together in our bed (which is a huge treat in our house...ha, ha, ha...if you don't know, this happens about every night anyway) and they were out in no time. Brett and Aidan went to Midnight Mass which was very special. I stayed back and rested and filled stockings and got things ready for the morning!

Barbarian Night!

I think the pictures are self-explanatory.

Growing bigger

Just a quick update on the babe and myself:

Everything is great. My doctor reassured me that he had spoken to a few specialists in the area and there is nothing to be worried about in regards to the ultrasound from a few weeks ago (we had already heard that, but it was great to hear it again!).
Baby is measuring about a week ahead of schedule, but my awesome doctor is keeping my due date (based of my NFP chart) at Feb.20th because he rocks, and knows NFP and agrees that my due date is more accurate....have I mentioned how much I love this doctor! Praise God for him!!!!! We just pray his beautiful family doesn't leave once his residency is complete.
Anyway, a due date is usually a moot point for me anyway because I've never seen a due date come...ever. This may be the first time, but the noticeably stronger "braxton hicks" contractions tell me that this baby will want to meet us before the 40 week mark.
Anyway, not much more to report. The drive to the doctor's this afternoon was horrendous and treacherous, but we got there and back without incident!

So, I'll be 31 weeks on Friday! Anywhere between 6 to 9 more weeks to go....tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock!

Now, *this* is cold!

When your man has to go out dressed like this (and this was before the rest of the ensemble went on) to shovel, you know it's cold. The little man went out as well, but promptly returned when he discovered (after 2 1/2 minutes) that I wasn't kidding about the temp. At the time it was 9 below o with a -38 wind chill.

Sugar cookies!

Yesterday during the blizzard we made and decorated sugar cookies. It was a blast! As was tradition in my house growing up, the kids were allowed to make one circle cookie and eat it (the rest go in the freezer until Christmas). It wasn't until she was caught green-handed that we realized Gianna's pile of cookies were disappearing faster than she could decorate them.

Happy, Happy, Happy!

So, I've been tagged for a meme about Six Things That Make Me Happy. I've never been tagged before so I can't let an honor like this pass me by...lol!

It makes me happy when...there's a blizzard outside and I have nowhere to be.

It makes me happy when...I feel baby (no I'm going to tell you her name) kicking and wiggling and moving, even if it's in the middle of the night, or when I'm trying to eat, or breathe.

It makes me happy when...the kids find something "productive" to do on their own without me having to list off 123,354,654,234 options for them to choose from.

It makes me happy when...my husband comes home from work and doesn't have to go back for a rehearsal, recital, or concert.

It makes me happy when...I get a real letter delivered by the real postman.

It makes me happy when...I get back from the grocery store and see the abundance of food that we are blessed with.

So, it would be really cool if I even knew 6 people with blogs, but alas...so...if you read my blog and you have one...tag, you're it! :-)

"The Weather Outside is Frightful"

(we don't have a fire so I'll skip that part)
"And since we've no place to go...Let is snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!"

We are enjoying the season's first winter storm. Everyone is safely inside our semi-warm home and we're having a wonderful time watching the winds and snow through our windows.

We've already enjoyed a nice warm breakfast of ham and cheese omelettes, have sugar cookie dough waiting to be made into cookies, and some vegetables to cut up to toss into our venison stew! I'm also going to try to get a start on the kids' fleece pajamas that I'm making them for Christmas. Oh, and the kids have voted to watch "The Sound of Music". Ah...nothing more relaxing than that!

Sweet little hat, check!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our sweet baby girl. I haven't done much to get ready yet, except for compulsively "finger dust", but I don't think that really counts. I started crocheting last year because we have very long winters and my sewing machine scares me (I'll have to get over that though since I'm planning on making pajamas for the kids for Christmas). I was happy when I found a pattern for an easy (ding, ding, ding!) baby hat. It actually calls for a half-double crochet, but I can only single crochet (never have been a crafty person) so that's what I did. It didn't turn out too bad. Now a couple more months and there will be a sweet little head to go inside of it!

Say What?

It snowed on and off all day yesterday. I was a little slow getting going and by the time I was ready to start the day the kids were pulling their snow pants and boots out. What was a mother to do? Of course I let them go outside and play. It took the usual 20 minutes to get every one ready to go out and by the time I was ready to out with them I heard a knock on the door. It was Gianna. She was ready to come in. When I suggested that she came back out since I was going to be outside, this is the look she gave me. I just happened to have the camera in my hand because I was planning on taking pictures of the kids playing in the snow.

Paint Job

Now, I know the inside of our house needs a paint job desperately. I get that. I'm working on it (well, working on it in my mind). But, I've always thought the outside looked okay. After all, it is vinyl siding. So, why, oh why, did someone think that a bright blue paint ball on the side of our front door was necessary. Grrrr.....

Dropped the ball

I completely dropped the ball on getting pictures posted from our great Thanksgiving weekend. I've been staying away from the computer as much as possible during the week and it seems like every time I sit down to post something I don't quite have enough time to think of anything worthwhile to say. :-)

Yesterday we had a great and very busy day. We celebrated St.Nicholas Day first thing in the morning with shoes full of fun goodies. The kids had put some leftover Halloween candy in Brett and my shoes before they went to bed, it was really cute.

Brett made a nice big breakfast and then Aidan had his karate test. He tested for his orange belt (white, yellow, yellow-stripe, and now orange in case you were wondering the order). He did great! Here he is doing his form. What a change since he started in karate less than a year ago. He is much more confident in what he does. We are very proud of him!



After the test Brett had to leave and go to direct the pep band at the basketball games and I took Emma to her make-up class for ballet (they canceled a couple of classes due to a parade and Thanksgiving). We came home, had lunch, let the kids play with their St.Nicholas Day presents. Emma and Aidan each got a computer game and Gianna got a playdough thing. After the kids played and I cleaned the kitchen from our yummy (but very messy) breakfast, we got bundled up and went out to see Brett at the basketball game. I love that we are so close to campus. We enjoyed a nice walk to the gym and had fun for the first 12 minutes of the game. Gianna (notice I didn't mention naps anywhere in our day) decided to act her age and so we left with her screaming, "But I will miss daddy!!!! Bye daddy!!!!!" at the top of her lungs. Motherhood sure is humbling.

We came home, took baths, video-called cousin Lauren, and ate dinner. Brett joined us as we were finishing up dinner. The kids went to bed and Brett and I hung out and deliberated what to do about Christmas presents for each other. We're soooo cool. He's getting a renewal membership to the Percussive Arts Society (which is something that is semi-required for his profession, but rather $$$), and I'm getting a new infant car seat! :-) I told you we're cool. We are really focusing on keeping things simple this year for several reasons and to be honest, I'm just absolutely thrilled about the present that will arrive later to sit in the infant car seat that I could care less that it might rate fairly low on most people's "coolness scales".

Right now the kids are snacking on a favorite treat of ours, popcorn and M&Ms, and watching a movie. Brett is at a rehearsal, and I'm enjoying watching the snow fall! I'm sure the resident snow shoveler (Aidan) will be up with the sun (or non-sun which is usually the case up here in the winter) ready to get the snow off the sidewalk. Unfortunately for him he didn't put the shovel away the last time he shoveled, but left is laying in the backyard, and it is currently being covered up by a few inches of snow. Oops.

Tonight I'm going to focus on getting ready for the week and hopefully will finish Gianna's scarf (finished crocheting Emma's already). I still have nightgowns and some pjs to make for the kids for Christmas but of course I can't work on all of that while they are awake so my time is limited. I'm putting those projects off for as long as possible because I'm afraid of my sewing machine and have to get over my fear every time I decide to do a new project.

I've rambled long enough. So I'll leave you with this quote from Gianna,

"Mom, what are we going to name our baby?
"Well, mommy and daddy will let you know what we name the baby"
"We could name her pink baby, but, nah...she's not pink.....oh, I know....we could paint her pink!"

Have a great second week of Advent!

Baby Carrier

Enter to win this

A friend of mine has one, and I have carrier envy!

Resting

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, which is why today I am resting!
We had a fantastic time with my parents and sister and her family over Thanksgiving weekend. It was crazy with cousins running around, turkey to eat, a son turning 7, and a train to catch! We all had a fabulous time. I think the only side effect of all the fun has been sleep deprivation. Unfortunately for my guests they will have to wait to catch up on their sleep for when they get home. As for this family...well, I think a 2 hour nap with the girls while Aidan "rested" counts as a good start. Ahhhhhh. I love Sundays.

I will post pictures of this weekend and of the big 7 year old later. Right now, I have more resting to do...okay, okay, I'm lying. I'm actually going to be cleaning up a little bit. But I find it restful because there's absolutely no pressure to get anything done so I'll just do however much I feel like doing and call it good.

Reminding myself

I'm writing this post to remind myself that I am very grateful for the deer Brett brought home last night. It will stock our freezer and feed our bellies, and he had a great time to boot. There, I said it, so now if I sound a little ungrateful because this deer is currently taking up my whole refrigerator while it's waiting to be packaged tonight when I have a Thanksgiving *turkey* to be thawing and other groceries to get, I can look back at this long run-on sentence filled post and say, "See, I am to grateful!".

Baby Food

Gianna spent the better part of 20 minutes yesterday morning telling us all about what she was going to teach the baby. This was accompanied by demonstrations when necessary. She came to,

"I'm going to teach the baby how to eat!"..paused...and then "but the baby doesn't have any teeth."

"Hmmm, Gigi, what do you think the baby will eat then?"

She thought for quite a long time about this and then declared, "Soup! The baby will eat soup!"

:-)

Important Lessons

My children have taught me many things throughout their lives. I learn just as much from them (maybe more?) as they learn from me. However, this morning was a new one. Did you know, for instance, that no matter the time period in which you were born, proper sword-fighting technique is extremely important? Just ask these two:

Into the Woods!

Brett and Aidan went back out to the woods this afternoon while the girls and I napped and hung out. We all would have gone, but we don't have enough orange to outfit us all and it is bow season. And it was cold.

Rough life.

Gianna was bemoaning the fact that her siblings kept telling her she was in the way. She came into the kitchen hoping to get sympathy, but I informed her that she wasn't speaking very kindly to them and she needs to be more patient.

Her response: "Ohhhh, no body is nice to me. Mommy not nice to me. Daddy not nice to me. Aidan not nice....noooooooo body is nice to me." Let me tell ya, she has it so rough. Hardly!

Relieved

Just want to let ya'll know that everything checked out a-okay at the doctor's this afternoon. The spot had not changed in shape or size and neither the radiologists nor the doctors were concerned about it in any way, shape, or form! I can not tell you how relieved we are. We are entering the third trimester and every one around here is getting very excited to have this baby to snuggle with.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support.

Who's that in my room?

Gianna was drawing yesterday at the table while I was doing some schoolwork with the older two. She has quite a style of "people" and I noticed she was drawing a person.

"Who's that Gigi?"

"That's my goddaddy! He's sneaking into your bedroom and telling you it's wake-up time!"

This morning while we were all snuggling in bed (and I mean *all* of us) I was telling Brett the story and then Gigi added another part, "And my goddaddy loves to play hide-and-seek!".

I love how she has such an affection for her godparents. I'm not sure if she really "knows" who they are (other than through pictures), but she knows that they love and pray for her and she returns the affections.

Ultrasound update

When I told the ultrasound tech that I was there for them to check out a spot near the placenta I was secretly hoping she would say, "Hmm...I can't see a spot..I don't know what in the world they were talking about"...instead she said, "Oh, yep, there it is." Grrrr...

We got measurements of the "little" spot (which looked enormous to me, but she magnified it quite a bit to get good measurements), and another peak at our baby. Baby is doing fantastic..measuring right on track, and comfy cozy right where she should be. Praise God for that. And she's still a she which was good to confirm. I'll find out more tomorrow about our "little" spot at my doctor's office. Keep praying please.

Check out my ticker/widget thing!

According to my ticker/widget thing we have 100 more days to go until this baby get's here! My guess it will be slightly less than that, and my hope is that it won't be too much less than that!

Small update

Just wanted to let all you blog readers out there know that I have an ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow at 1:00pm (please snow, hold off until we get back), and then a doctor's appointment on Thursday at 4:00pm. So, by Thursday night we should know what's going on with our precious little bambina!

We are so grateful for all your prayers and I have great hope that we'll get the "all's clear" tomorrow and go about with our "regular" life. I'm feeling great, baby is moving around like you wouldn't believe, she seems to take after her brother and *loves* dancing around to her daddy's vibraphone playing.

We have a busy Thursday night (hopefully) but I will try to update as soon as I get a chance. I'm going to try to get the ultrasound technician to talk tomorrow, but they are usually very cryptic in anything they say. Surely they can answer one question, "Is the placenta still fully attached or not...really, that's all I want to know." Lol!

Winter

Winter crept in at the end of this week. Temperatures have dropped and a little bit of snow did to. Here's a sight that I imagine I'll be seeing for the next several months, until July!

Prayers for this baby please!

I wanted to ask ya'll to please pray for me and our baby girl. I just got off the phone with my doctor and apparently there's some concern with my placenta and a spot that shouldn't be there. He said it could be a number of things ranging from where the placenta started to come off and then healed itself to, well...he didn't know....great.

Anyway, it was about a year ago we found out we were pregnant with the baby we lost on Christmas of last year and I really, really, really want to meet this little one so please pray for us. I'm trying to stay calm until I have another ultrasound (which will be in the next week and a half) and learn more. Until then I'll be praying like crazy and not scrubbing any more walls.

Mountain Man

We lived in Texas for 7 years. We miss Texas, we miss our friends, we miss the community we had there, but...we are so happy to be where the woods are in our backyard (not literally since we live in town, but close..very close).

As I was reflecting with a friend yesterday on the phone, Brett must have been in agony while living in the Lone Star State. There was limited opportunity to be out in nature. When we were in nature we were either way too hot or constantly looking out for poisonous snakes which we just knew were lurking around the next corner...lol!

Here, however, are endless opportunities...endless...really, I mean endless. Fortunately for Brett and usually for us, my dear husband has spent most waking moments either seizing these opportunities or dreaming up his next excursion.

The most recent adventure was making his own deer hide drum...out of the hide of the deer he shot. He soaked the hide for a little over a week and then scraped the hair and whatever off of it. This job stunk soooo bad that we couldn't even be outside in the yard while he was scraping. The next step was stretching and nailing the hide up in our garage to dry.

Last weekend Brett and Aidan went out to the forest to find a piece of wood...and find they did. Brett planed the bark off the wood and on Tuesday night stood over our stove with a big pot of steaming water steaming this piece of wood and slowly, slowly, slowly (read 4+ hours) bending it into a circle to be the frame of the drum. Then came stretching the hide over the frame, making a mallet, etc... You get the idea. Here are some pictures of the end result. Warning: these pictures were taken at 6:30am this morning.

25 weeks (tomorrow)

I'm beginning to feel like the "Great Pumpkin" and hoping my family doesn't mistake me for the turkey at Thanksgiving! :-)

Truly?

Is this truly the man that Americans want running our government? A man who stands for nothing, yet claims to be the "change" that everyone needs? A man who tells me that because of "choice" I can kill this precious baby I've been praying for before she was conceived? A man who wants me to fund abortions through "healthcare" for all? A man who has more money than most Americans can imagine, yet is speaking for "the poor"? A man who thinks marriage is not sacred enough to defend, that lives are not sacred enough to defend? A man who is going to "bring those troops home" by-golly regardless of if our job has been finished and make the lives lost null and void? A man who is charming and eloquent, but says nothing?
This is what America wanted, this is what she gets. Land of the free (if you were lucky enough to be born), home of the brave!
All I can say is that I will, with a clear conscience, be able to say that I did nothing(!) to support this man, and will be praying for this country because God is the only One who can get us out of this mess now!

On a "lighter" note...lol! I was going to say that I'm moving to Canada, but they are already under a socialist government, so I might as well stay here.

A two year old in a turleneck!

He's so clute! (that's how Gigi says "cute")

Last night while I was working on an "ideas" list to send to family members who had requested suggestions for the kids for Christmas I wanted a little noise in the house (how ironic is that). I turned on the t.v. and quickly grew both bored and disgusted at my options on the 2 1/2 channels that we get so opted to look for a movie. I didn't really feel like watching a movie, but I wanted something on. I found an old video that spanned the first 2 1/2 years of Aidan's life. Oh my goodness! It was good for me to see my little guy in all his 2 year old glory and remind myself that he is still that precious even though he is approaching 7!

Tonight we put the movie on for the kids and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Emma was even seen on the video a couple of times (poor second child). Good thing Gianna was just as happy as could be announcing who she saw and that they were "so funny!" because she is not in any family movies as far as I can remember (note to self...video Gigi).

As I was rounding kids up for bed tonight Aidan came skipping down the hallway and declared, "I'm so happy!".

"That's great Aidan, why are you so happy?"

"It was just so much fun for me to see myself being as cute as Gianna is. I didn't know I was ever that cute!".

Fun times!

Hair Cut Night

The kids were due for a haircut. As is tradition in this house they lined up for a spot at "Momma's Barber and Salon". The littlest one just needed her bangs trimmed...she's working on growing "big girl hair". Here are some before and after pics. Emma's is definitely the most dramatic.

Couple of pics

I haven't posted pictures in awhile and I just happened to have two willing subjects nearby! :-)