Barefoot and Pregnant...

and in the kitchen! Yep that is where you could have found me on Thanksgiving with my husband cooking away. We started cooking around 10am... with a goal of 2pm 'dinner' - we ended up eating a little after 3pm, but not due to the bird taking longer. Our little 9lb chicken turkey finished cooking early rather than needing extra time. It was the stuffing that was our delay! But we managed to get everything completed and come together roughly at the same time. Hooray!



The table was set and we all sat down to dine! It was all delicious!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Excited for Sister!

Ace is extremely excited that his sister is coming. He continues to 'practice' holding sister, he daily gives her hugs and talks to her, and in general get a big grin on his face when he says 'Sister comes out after Christmas!' I love it! I continue to pray his enthusiasm holds strong after her arrival. I finally was able to capture a few of these moments in film (as proof for later) so enjoy this video of Ace and his thoughts on sister. :)

The Wonder of Snow

On Monday the snow started coming down around 8am. Loving Husband decided then that he wasn't going to brave the freeway into work and that he'd just dial in from home. A smart move considering how ill equipped our state and drivers are with maneuvering through the snow. If he had made it in - he might not have made it home. We knew some people whose 30 minute commutes were 3 hours. Luckily we stayed inside bundled up and watched the snow come down.

Thankfully we had made the decision to get new tires last week. The previous set on there was pushing 60,000 miles and they were nearly 5 years old. We had been told a time or two that they needed to be replaced, so they would have been in no condition to have braved the snowy roads. However, our brand new tires were happy to test the roads and so before the snow got too bad, Loving Husband headed out and got some essentials from the grocery store... plus some donuts for good measure. He snapped a shot on the way back.

As the day pressed on so did the snow off and on. It came down relatively lightly but steady for a few hours in the afternoon and again in the evening. Ace was getting quite the cabin fever - so after his nap in 24' weather that felt like 15' a boy and his dad went for a walk to the mailbox. Ace was bundled up with massive layering. His father... not so much.


The boys enjoyed a short walk and then came back in to get cozy and warm. Overall a successful trip. We all enjoyed dinner and then Ace headed off to bed. I sat by the fire and watched Dancing with the Stars 'with' my mom and enjoyed watching more snow fall. It was a nice cozy Monday... even if I was feeling pretty sick and icky with a new unfun cough.

Tuesday began at 3:30am with Ace being sick. However after about 7am he was in great spirits and we enjoyed the beautiful 'artwork' that the snow and sun provided. Again Loving Husband stayed home and we had a nice low key - catch up on sleep day. Except for the interruption of the family tradition of the 'deck dive' - Ace's inaugural year. Yes, our two year old (who had spent the middle of the night being sick) joined us in the 'deck dive.' The what?! As you recall two years ago we did this. Since I'm pregnant this year I was not forced to lie down in the snow, so I merely plopped down (yes in my underwear) and got up again. Ace in his diaper sat down as well... only Loving Husband went all out and laid in the snow.

Tuesday's sunset was beautiful over the snow. Ace continued to feel better as the evening progressed and had a good appetite. The evening was nice and low key.

Overall the first 'real' snow of the season was not so bad for us. We got to enjoy the beauty, the cold, and the silliness that comes with it and our house did not lose power! :)

Black Friday 2010

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Dinner turned out great. It was the first year that Loving Husband and I cooked the entire meal ourselves. Our turkey was tiny, since we only had 5 people to feed and the meal was delicious. We ate at 3 since our weather was quite burdensome, with even more snow falling that very morning - making roadways potentially prone to freezing again after sundown. We enjoyed a good meal, a good time with Pop Pop and Gran, and a warm cozy fire. The grandparents left around 6pm and I headed to bed.

Bed?! Yes, I got ready and took a snooze - although I only ended up getting an hour once I finally settled into sleep. Why on earth would I go to sleep at 6pm? Well because I was planning on leaving the house at 9:30pm to go shopping. Yes Black 'Friday' shopping commenced at 10pm on Thursday night, at Toys R Us! My friends Vanessa and Rebecca, swung by at 9:30pm and we were off!

We arrived around 9:50 and got in a line that was an hour long to get into the building. Thankfully, it was dry and it had warmed up considerably. It was above freezing (a first all week!) and wasn't too bad. We grabbed some reusable bags and Rebecca got in line. In line?! Oh yes, in line. We tag teamed out and did our shopping in shifts so that we'd move forward in the line. No one seemed to mind because we were SO far back when we had all completed the shopping that it wasn't any fuss that the one place holder became three. We accomplished our mission at Toys R Us with an hour wait in line and then we headed out. As we were walking to the car I fell and slipped on some remaining ice and got my butt all wet. I was fine, I didn't go down hard, Vanessa helped break my fall by catching my arm, but sadly my 8+ month pregnant self was seated on the wet ground. It was a tad chilly.

That didn't stop me though, into the car and across the street we went to The Disney Store which was open and awaiting us when we arrived a little after 12:30. We got all our loot and got in line. This line was far more manageable, about 30 minutes of waiting and then we were off to get some Starbucks. We had some time to kill before Khols opened at 3am. We sat for about 30-40 minutes in Starbucks, which was MUCH needed for my pregnant feet! Consumed breakfast #1 and the headed to the Baby Gap which was having a 50% off the entire store until 10am. I got some good deals for Mae and Ace and only spent $20. Then we were off to Khol's.

I personally didn't need anything at Khol's so I found myself a spot in a massage chair and sat there for 30-40 minutes while the other two shopped and stood in an impressive line. They continued to stand in line and I walked over at 3:50am and got in line to wait to get into Target. It was raining minimally on us in line, but it didn't soak me. I was inside by 4:05 - and beelined for the $3 appliances... sadly I zigged when I should have zagged and they were all gone by the time I arrived at where they were located. I did however manage to get ever other door buster deal that I had been seeking and got myself in line by 4:50am. Which apparently was confusing for some others and there were several rouge lines forming throughout the store. This caused for a severe traffic jam and gridlock that lasted 30 minutes with minimal movement. Vanessa and Rebecca joined me sometime within that gridlock. Once they got the line sorted out properly it moved much faster and within 40 minutes we were checked out.

Next up was breakfast #2 through McDonald's drive thru. That hit the spot... although in my attempt to be healthy I forgot all about that oj = heartburn issue that Mae's been blessing me with lately - so that made for a tad more difficulty while shopping. Fred Meyer was our final stop on the schedule. I got Ace some socks, but no other deals were screaming my name... only my feet were screaming. We all wrapped up our shopping and we headed out and I arrived home at 8am. 10 hours of shopping, 6 stores, 1.5 hours waiting outside, 3.5 hours waiting in checkout lines, and a lot of loot and tons of fun with two fabulous shoppers.

Of course upon my return home, my little man was just waking up and stirring... he came gave me a hug and Loving Husband happily took him downstairs and allowed me to sleep for 90 minutes - after that the two of them greeted me with an english muffin. Breakfast #3! and then Loving Husband headed out to the shed to procure Christmas. :) The tree went up, the first ornament went on, and LH headed out to do some Black Friday shopping of his own. Although within the hour he was over it after having just arrived at Khols and seeing the line. haha. He said 'turns out I don't have the stomach for this.' I took another 2 hour nap while Ace was asleep, but otherwise I'm running on Christmas cheer rather than sleep today. My legs and feet are ANGRY and I hope I can move at all tomorrow. However it was all worth the fun!

Thanksgiving 2010

This past Saturday we celebrated a large Thanksgiving celebration with family - it was a great time - inspite of the fact that I was nursing yet another cold/virus. We had a wonderful time with friends and family - and Ace as usual enjoyed his time at Pop Pop and Gran's while running around and playing with cousins.

Today on this official day of Thanksgiving I find it important to stop and be thankful for all that I have in my life. I truly am blessed. 2010 has brought many adventures, newness, challenges, surprises, triumps, and all of it is a blessing. I am thankful for all that I have been blessed with. I hope that you and yours have a wonderful season of thanksgiving and find time to seek the joy in life.

First Snow of 2010

in November! Quite bizarre that is for sure - Thanksgiving hasn't even occurred yet and still this past Sunday we were greeted with our first dusting of snow ... fancy that the weather man got it right for once! The snow that fell on Sunday was relatively wet and didn't stick at all. If you recall, Loving Husband even mowed the lawn during some of it's falling.

After Ace watched his dad out there for so long, he just couldn't hold off any longer - and so we suited up and headed out to play in the snow. Which really wasn't a lot. Ace really wants to make a snowman with a carrot nose (a very specific request. Alas this first snow was not enough to accomplish that task.) He instead for fun he ran around, helped dad rake some leaves, and sampled the snow. :)





We had a nice time watching him run around for a little while, before we went back inside to get warm. Although not without a little protest from my boy whom loves the outdoors - regardless of temperature. It was a fun afternoon - and just a taste of what was to come on Monday morning!

Sick

We interrupt our regularly scheduled snowy posts to announce that we had another round of sickness in the night. Ace went to bed last night at his normal time, in a happy mood. I went to bed somewhat late because I stayed up to watch the news and the weather madness and then I came and read until 1am... oops! Considering I still felt pretty awful, it wasn't the best move. I myself have been sick for the past week (literally) with what I am pretty sure is two separate viruses. It appears I have passed those onto my boy. Loving Husband came to bed around 2:30am after enjoying some game play.

I awoke at 3:15 to a cough across the hall. The one that causes my heart to stand still... but it was just a cough, so I relaxed and tried to go back to sleep. A few minutes later there was another, this time I got up and went and checked on my boy. He was sleepily awake, but said he was ok. I said a prayer and sang a requested song and came back to bed. At 3:30 there was the telling and 'productive' cough and his bed was then covered in vomit. :( Sad! Dad took over Ace duty, I got his bed cleaned up, stripped, and the laundry started. Ace said then he didn't want to sleep in his bed anymore - poor guy! Of course not, Bear you can sleep with us! So the extra layering of towels went down and he came to bed with us.

From 3:30am-6:30am were several more rounds of vomit, several outfit changes for both he and me, and the stripping of the protective coverings and blankets that Ace was covered in. Needless to say we've got a LOT of laundry to do later on today. We finally 'gave up' on sleep after 6:30 since he wasn't able to sleep for any length of time between being sick, and he needed to be sitting upright. We're pretty sure part of the problem was his inability to cough up the post nasal drip he had - so it was getting into his tummy and also gagging him. Poor thing.

Loving Husband on one hour of sleep and clean up duty of Ace being sick - brought up a television and dvd player to our room and Ace requested Cars be put on to be watched. He started to doze.

He quickly stirred himself awake and started to watch the show. We gave him a saltine and some 7up. He slowly drank and after 6:45am had no more throwing up. PTL! At that time Loving Husband took his leave to go get some sleep downstairs so that he could function for work - and the boy and I stayed in bed watching Cars. He kept down everything for an hour+ and it was at that time that my eye lids just simply could not stand to be open anymore. I rolled over and crashed. I stirred a bit later to see he had succumbed to sleep as well, so I repositioned him so he was on a slight incline and we slumbered together for about 45 minutes.

We awoke to Cars being over and he was quite perky. I gave him a bit more 'juice' and had him eat another half of a cracker. Then he jumped off the bed and brought back Toy Story from downstairs. So we put that on. He was definitely on the mend. We enjoyed more 7up and around 9:30 I allowed him a banana and he scarfed it. He has since switched to Madagascar and is running around playing in his room and mine. So it appears our little man is over the worst and is back to his happy spirits. I just remade his bed and he said 'thank you for making my bed, momma!' He was so happy to have his bed so he could 'hide' - I love him and I hate to see him sick. Hope we're ALL almost done being sick.

Mowing Snow

Mowing what?! Yes, you see our lawn got pretty jungle-y in September and October due to Loving Husband working so much (and I certainly wasn't going to mow it in my 3rd trimester of pregnancy!) So Loving Husband has taken every opportunity of dryness (which are few and far between these day) and 'free' time to get in another few rows of mowing the lawn. We have a pretty decent size yard so it is time consuming.... but when he said on Sunday he was going to go mow, I told him he was crazy! Why? Well watch...

Dear Son...

Dear Ace,

It is such a joy to be your mommy. I love what a kind and gentle spirit you have - and yet you are still all boy. You have a loving heart and care about those around you. I pray every day that you will grow up and keep those qualities. My prayer is that you grow into a loving man of God that can crush the competition in what ever you seek in sport and career. Although my selfish prayer is that you won't grow up *too* fast and that you continue to love your mommy and dad with as much thrill and excitement that you've always have. I love that you run into our room every morning to give all of us hugs and kisses.

I love that you love your sister, and I hope that you still do after she is here. Things will be changing. We no longer will have every day just to ourselves and I know that you will miss that, because I too will miss that. I hope you understand (or will come to see) though that we're in for a new and exciting adventure with your sister. That while it will be different, it won't be bad. She is going to add a whole new chapter to our family's fun, challenges, and excitement and I know that you will do your best to show her how to do things. You're going to be a great big brother.

You amaze me every day with where you are at in learning, language, and love; and while you could do none of it and I would still love you just as much, I beam with pride and amazement every time you conjure up a thought from three weeks ago that we talked about for two seconds to remind me of what I had promised in that moment to move on from said subject. Mom and Dad joke that we can't talk about people anymore around you because you will surely repeat anything that was ever uttered in front of you - hours, days, weeks or even MONTHS later. You are a sponge for knowledge and we try our best to provide you with a strong foundation of 'education' early and still let you run around, be silly, and play.

Ace, you are a blessing. Thank you for making it such a joy (even in the 'terrible' twos) to be your mommy. Your father and I love you very much and know that no matter who else joins this family, where we go in life, or what we experience together - that will never change.

All my love,

Mommy

Good Bye Fall

It's supposed to snow in the next few days. Whether or not it actually does is just a waiting game. However, with Turkey day less than a week away and Christmas decor going to go up the very next day - it is only fitting to say 'good bye' to fall. Most of the leaves are gone and once again it was a beautiful showing of God's colorful season!

Flashback Friday

2003... SEVEN years ago (next weekend) we went on a cruise and Loving Husband proposed. :)

Twinsie Blankets

Remember back when I announced that Ethan and Kaylee had arrived? Well, in light of their arrivals I kicked their shower present into high gear at that time. You see Dana's shower was in June - and there was no way I was completing two crocheted blankets by that date. I promised she'd have them before it 'got cold' so at her shower, Dana received a Mickey and Minnie clad in mini-blankets so she'd have an idea of what was to come. :)

I didn't too bad. I actually completed them both by early September (so see I'm really only a slacker on the blogging portion of the program!) I gave them to Dana at our September book club and Kaylee was happy enough to model herself in hers.


Do they look familiar? It's the same pattern (and color in fact) that I made for my niece Kaylee and her arrival. :)

An Ace Pillow

We have been meaning to get Ace his own pillow for a while. His sheet set came with a full size pillow case - but that pillow is just TOO big for his little neck. He needed something more his size. When I did do some research on pricing out toddler pillows, I choked! You want me to pay WHAT?! for 1/4th of a pillow?! No way. I decided I could make one using supplies I already have here at the house. After that decision was made ... that is as far as I got. :) For a WHILE. In fact he transferred into a toddler bed in January, and it's now November - so you do the delayed 'to do' list math on that one. Ooops!

So this past weekend while my boys were out on a lengthy walk, I got to work. I needed a good excuse to break out my brand new iron that Loving Husband got me for my birthday (yes I requested an iron for my birthday.) Making the pillow was pretty simple. I took a fat quarter of cotton fabric, cut it in half, turned it inside out and sewed it twice to ensure some sturdability leaving one end open for stuffing. Turned it right side out, stuffed it pretty compactly, and then sewed the end shut. Pillow complete!

Next up was the pillow case, pretty much a very similar process. I measured wrong, or rather I cut wrong though so I had to do some seam ripping and inserting a 3" panel to correct my blunder.... but all in all the pillow case was made and Ace was more than happy to 'model' his finished product for me. He's slept on it for a few nights now and I'd guess he sleeps on it about 25% of the time, he still prefers to simply sleep on the mattress... but at least he has the option now! :)

Babysitting

Last Thursday I had quite the busy afternoon. My friend Vanessa asked me to watch her two little ones. As you recall, Vanessa is mommy to Sabria - Ace's best friend - and so of course I'm happy to watch both Sabria and Kyler! Vanessa is a godsend many times and watches Ace often, so I'm happy to help when I am needed to watch. But boy oh boy 2 toddlers and a mobile 9 month old - is a lot of work for an 8 month pregnant lady. :)

They had a lot of fun, some squabbles were had - some serious - others in good fun like this one which was an amusing game of tug-of-war with the basket!

Kyler was adorable and even took a 30 minute cat nap for a bit. Sabria and Ace had a blast playing together and only had to be refereed a tad. All in all an excellent afternoon and evening!

32 Weeks

Time is tickin by quicker and quicker to the end of pregnancy and the welcoming of Mae to our family (on the outside!) I'm a nice solid 8 months pregnant and starting on the 9th month.

Mae is quite active and mommy is quite tired - so we're right on schedule for where we should be. :) I've been eating my weight in deviled eggs these days. In fact in the last week I've had a dozen eggs and I'm showing no sign of being 'full' of them so I'm sure to have more. She certainly likes them!

As I mentioned in a previous post Mae has been measuring small. We have another routine appointment on Wednesday and if she's still measuring smaller than the doctor thinks she should be, they'll do an ultrasound to just make sure everything looks fine. Most likely she's just a small little girl. If she were average then as of right now she measures crown to rump 11.8 inches and she weighs between 4.2-4.4 pounds. Her kidneys are fully developed and she is 'rapidly gaining weight.' I'd say I am personally much smaller this time around and I am carrying WAY lower than I did with Ace. The nice thing is that I am still able to wear one pair of 'normal' jeans - they're my 'fat' pants but I can still comfortably button them below the belly... although I feel those days are numbered as she's going to take over soon. :)

Ace is doing great as a big brother - he loves to wear shirts that say 'big brother' on them and even tries to spell 'big' when he has them on. He loves to hug his sister, talk to her, tell her good morning, say prayers for her at night. He's doing great. He's even understanding when mommy's back hurts and is too tired to run around. He tries to take care of me. It's very sweet.

California Cousins

I'm not sure how I managed to skip this post when I was blogging about our California Adventures, but somehow I did *GASP* and that was the noteworthy event of Ace getting to FINALLY meet his cousin Kaylee. They are almost exactly one year apart. Kaylee was born last September 8th, so when we visited she had just celebrated her first birthday. She's adorable! She looks like her daddy so much.

Ace and her did great playing together. It was funny, Ace who typically is an excessive sharer... to the point of being taken advantage of even - exhibited his first sign of attachment and selfishness with his cousin Kaylee when it came to his tiger. It was adorable. He wasn't mean or forceful, but he looked at me like WHAT?! when she had him. He also when playing with the little 'house' that my mom had kept saying he needed the keys and when he finally found a set of keys (because that house has none) he locked the door! hahaha we found this extremely amusing. Even though he 'locked her out' he really wasn't being mean about it - just expressing his opinion which he ultimately relented to when she came crawling through the 'locked' door anyway. :) It was pretty adorable.

I wish that we lived closer - I'd love to live closer to my brother in general, but to be able to allow the cousins to play together semi-regularly would be so awesome. The time they did have together they had fun and we still say prayers for them on a regular basis, so they left a lasting impression on Ace. :) Can't wait to see them again, I hope it's sooner than later!

Ace Loves Mae

All By Iself!

That is Ace's current most popular phrase. He really wants to try to do things 'All by Iself' I find it adorable and sometimes frustrating at the same time. Depending on our time schedule 'All by Iself' can be quite time consuming resulting in even further delay in getting out the door, or whatever it is we're attempting to do.

Things he likes to do 'All by I self' include putting his socks on, his shoes on, taking a sticker off the sheet, and feeding himself. It's far from an exhaustive list, but those are the repeated ones that he wants to do himself. Yesterday he was insistant that he get dressed by 'Iself' he ran upstairs stripped off his feetie pjs and located pants, brought me a diaper, and found himself a shirt. The shirt happens to be a pj shirt because that is the drawer that he can reach. He came down, attempted do it 'Iself' and then asked for some assistance. Then he was dressed (see picture above.) Not a half bad dressing session, I'd say. Later he decided he wanted a different look and that he wanted 'trunks' on instead of his pants (they didn't stay on very well - they were a tad too big.) So back to his dresser he went in search of trunks. He came down and I was completely amused. See below. hehe...

I love that he does it by 'Iself' rather than 'myself' :) I'll miss that when he corrects that. He's been very cuddly and loving lately and I love all his hugs and telling me he loves mommy and that he loves dad and Mae. It's so sweet. I hope he keeps that quality. He's such a great boy with a big heart. He makes me smile every day.

Happy Veteran's Day

This nation will remain the land of the free

only so long as it is the home of the brave. ~Elmer Davis

Thank you to all who have served, do serve,

and all of those that respect and appreciate what freedom truly means.

60 Days!

Yep that's right - there are sixty days until Mae's scheduled date of arrival. There are 44 more days of sleep until Christmas is here... Mae is going to be here very soon and the holiday season is gearing up full force now. YIPPEE!!

Mae at the last two doctor's appointments has been measuring small, but growing. No one finds this alarming or troublesome, more just a sign that she will be smaller than her brother (yay!). At 28 weeks I was measuring 27 weeks, and at 30.5 weeks, I was measuring 29 weeks. So she's not too far behind and growth is still happening. They suspect a growth spurt would occur between my 30 and 32 week visit. I think it might have started yesterday!

Yesterday - perhaps subconsciously in honor of '60 days' I made and ate 10 deviled eggs... when you count the fact that I mash a whole hard boiled egg in with the other yolks to make the 'deviled' part of them... I ate (in under 15 minutes...) 6 WHOLE EGGS! Yum and I wasn't full... but I ceased eating anyway. Dinner was also an impressive feast with no major fullness either. So hopefully the protein she got will help her grow grow grow! Our next appointment is next Wednesday. So we'll see!

Mae has started to have hiccups on a regular basis and I love them. They're so rythmic and they also help reassure me that she's already head down - although she still is occasionally trying to be transverse and MAN does that hurt! Ouchie! Overall she's being pretty nice to me. By this time in my pregnancy with Ace my rib had been permanently reshaped from his kicks. Mae wedges herself under mine on occasion and I have to push her out. It's not the most comfortable, but it's not the worst either. :)

Ace regularly comes up and wants to see Mae, hug her, kiss her, and tell us he loves his sister. It's very sweet and I continue to pray that he is equally as excited as when she is here. Hoping that I can continue to maintain the energy level that I have now through the remainder of the pregnancy but we'll see! Weight gain has been steady and not too excessive, swelling has been minimal and usually is only first thing in the morning in my hands and feet. Can't really complain!

Looking forward to the next 2 months. Less than 9 weeks to go!!

Play Date

Today Ace got to play with his cousin. I always am glad when he can get some social interaction with kids his own age. He has swim lessons every week, but actual children interaction is minimal. He also with some regularity gets together with Sabria. But I still am glad with the more he gets on a regular basis. :)

He and Parker did well together. When Parker first arrived she was a bit sleepy, and Ace did well to make her feel welcome and climbed up next to her and 'read' to her. Eventually she got out of that sleepy state and they hopped down and started playing. He did well to make her feel welcome at his house and was a good sharer. Granted he got a bit wired and rambunctious at the end of the play date. A tad too excited. Although he ultimately recovered. He also was super glad to have Gran visit. So did mommy, it was nice to sit around and chat for a while.