Patient with Friends

I love Sarah's hair... it is so pretty, shiny and long. She loves it too... but sometimes getting the tangles brushed out can be a whole lot of drama.

So imagine my surprise to look over and see Sarah patiently sitting still while her best friend brushed the tangles out of her hair.

All smiles... no tears when Emery does it.

They are such sweet friends, I just love watching them play together.

I wonder how much Emery would charge to come over and brush out Sarah's hair every morning.
Sure would make my life a whole lot easier.

Sweet Snugglers

It seems as though most of our Fridays are spent in our pj's. Sarah doesn't have preschool on Fridays, and I'm usually spent from the week, so we spend it in our jammies watching shows and hanging out at home.

I thought it was cute to turn and find the girls snuggled up together watching their show, 

and had to snap a picture of it.

 Abby is apparently to distracted to show any facial expressions for a picture.

Love my sweet, sweet daughters.

Christmas Tree

To help get Sarah to go to bed after having such a fun time on Thanksgiving day, we promised to set up the Christmas tree and decorate it in the morning. I ran out to Joann's to score some sweet deals on fabric, but Ryan told me that in the morning Sarah was waiting patiently at the top of the stairs before going down to see the Christmas tree. I guess we didn't explain that we'd be setting it up together as a family, but I thought it was darling that she waited upstairs without sneaking down to see the tree.

Ryan was in charge of this decorating fest. He ordered to me the couch and to unpack ornaments and pass them out to the girls. It was a little frustrating because the girls were SO excited to help and wanted to work like lightning, but all in all it was fun to do as a family.

Sarah got to put the Star on this year.

Ta-Da!!!
The girls were so proud of their work. 

And I promise our skinny lil' tree is standing up straight, I guess the angle I took this picture at makes it look like it is going to fall over.

We now have it safely wedged between our couch and our piano... which slightly deters the girls from playing with the ornaments... but luckily, there are few that could break. Thank goodness for shatterproof ornaments.

Thanks sweetie for all of your hard work getting the tree set up and the decorations all pulled out. The house looks wonderful!

Thanksgiving

We had such a fun Thanksgiving this year. Our friends the Bringhurst's moved out just a week before Thanksgiving hit and decided they'd like to spend it with us! It was fantastic and I wish I would have take more than just this one, single picture of the day.

We of course gorged ourselves on Turkey and all of the sides and even decided to cram a little pie in after. I've decided that being this far along pregnant is no fun during Thanksgiving. I literally only was able to have a bit or two of everything before I had to call it quits.

The kiddos all played so sweetly together too! I loved it. We let them roam through the house and play cowboys and indians while the grown ups sat and talked and even snuck in a game of Settlers.

It was a jam packed day that left no room for missing our families that were all so far away.
Thanks Nate & Sarah! You're welcome over anytime!

Randomness Related to Pregnancy

I've been meaning to for a while post some stories, thoughts and feelings from the pregnancy. It seems as though blogging has taken a major fall back on my list of things to get done regularly. Which to the grandma's... I apologize.

So, while I have a minute to myself (both of my girls are napping *gasp*) and for some reason I can't turn off my brain to join them, I figured I'd blog it out...

This is the first pregnancy where I got really sick all of the time. I'm not one who vomits easily, so it was mostly nausea combined with my regular migraine symptoms.
When I did feel up to eating... it was usually for something spicy... like pepperoni's.
It was always late at night too, but when you haven't eaten all day, and something finally sounds good, your go for it.

Then we went into the popsicle phase. I could eat popsicles all day. So yummy. Now the cravings have moved to Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream... and has pretty much stayed there.
Since I don't think I really have it written down anywhere, I thought I'd just recall quickly what I craved with the girls. With Sarah the biggest thing I wanted all of the time was Apple Juice... which is probably why I gained so much weight... all of those calories and didn't fill me up. I also remember really loving Bit O' Honey and Swedish Fish. As for Abigail... the only thing I can really remember craving all of the time was meat. Big juicy steaks, hamburgers... you name the meat and I'd want it. Mostly steaks, but I thought it was so weird that I wanted meat so much. I think we went out to Golden Coral several times during that pregnancy to have their rotisserie chicken.

Okay... onto some more pregnancy randomness.

I am really not too much of a complainer (well to everyone but Ryan, sorry love). So I don't usually let on how much pain I've been having in this pregnancy. I've had tenderness with my ligaments connecting my legs to my hips with all pregnancies, but it hit a lot earlier with this pregnancy. I've also had a huge amount of lower back pain. I can't unload the dishwasher with out my back aching before I'm done. Also, having a breech baby I think has made a big difference. Since this lil' guy's head is up in my ribs I have had a hard time breathing when I lay down. It also seems more uncomfortable then I remember to bend over and pick things up off the floor. So Ryan usually gets an ear full of what is hurting every minute of the day, but to anyone else who asks..."I'm doing great!"

To go along with my discomfort. This morning actually I was walking from the girls room to go lay back down for a minute and Sarah sweetly asked me,
"Mommy, why are you doing the potty dance?"
(slightly confused) "Um, I'm not, I'm going back into my room."
"Well, then how come you are waddling like a penguin?"
Gee... thanks Sarah...

I've had a really hard time with names this pregnancy. I think we've settled on one, but it really hasn't clicked for me. I agree that we will name him this name, but I guess this whole pregnancy has been so surreal... and gone so quickly that I don't ever give myself time to think about it. So we've been testing out a name... it still feels weird to call him by it... but I figure it is the only way it will sink in. So I've been asking the girls frequently what baby brother's name is. Here is what happened with Abby the other evening.
Me: Abby, where's baby brother?
Abby: Wight dere! (Right there).
Me: That's right. Abby, what is baby brother's name?
Abby: JESUS!!

I still wonder if Abby really understands what is coming to her. She has been so snuggly and clingy lately, her world is going to be completely rocked when she loses a little bit of that mommy attention with baby brother. Sarah has been excited since they day we told her. As I've written previously, she would tell complete strangers how I have a baby in my tummy. She still will randomly tell people about her baby brother that is coming after Christmas. To Sarah... the next scheduled events are, Christmas, New Years, Baby Brother comes, G'ma visits and then her birthday. Hope she realizes that this is two full months that we're talking about... I worry she thinks they will be one right after the other.

All in all, I do feel very blessed with this pregnancy. I really can't complain, there are so many that have much tougher pregnancies than me... or that even struggle to get pregnant.
The timing was a surprise, but is turning out to be perfect. I'll get a good 5-6 months of help from Ryan before he starts his 3rd year med school duties. Where as we were planning on shooting for May, and I would have maybe gotten two months. Glad I'm not in charge of the big picture.

Well... that is it. Still not tired... so maybe we can get some pictures on here for the G'mas. 

It is FINISHED!!!

I'm done! Hooray!
I'm so glad to finally have all of these stinkin' ornaments done. 

Now onto other projects (like getting ready for this baby to come, HA!)

If you want to check out my advent calendar and ornaments up close go to my craft blog

Craft. Me. This.

Be sure to leave me some love so I know how you liked it.

Sweet Mint Gum

Well, I just had to write something to get a new post up... the last one was too depressing and so not me. ;) So, I'm going to share a story...that is probably too much information. 

We have a junk drawer in our kitchen, and in that drawer Ryan and I keep packages of gum so we can grab some on the way out the door. Well, Abby hasn't been able to get into it... until recently. Abby LOVES my sweet mint Orbitz gum, and why wouldn't she, it is good! If she ever gets to my purse, or climbs into the car before me, the first thing she riffles for is my gum and gobbles up as many pieces as she can before we catch her (she just chews it a little and swallows it). 

Well... she had started to get into the gum in the junk drawer, and I should have moved it after the first couple of episodes... but I was lazy and she only ever ate a piece or two. The other morning Ryan and I were "sleeping in" and the informant came upstairs to announce that Abby was eating all the gum. So, I finally willed myself out of bed and came down to the kitchen to find Abby with a pile of gum wrappers EVERYWHERE! The lil' stinker ate an entire box... or more!

The whole rest of the day Abby had sweet minty breath. It made me laugh anytime she came and got in my face to tell me something. Well... the fun continued... because later that evening I smelt the mint smell again... rather strong. Only, this time it had a slightly unpleasant aroma with it. Well... you guessed it. She filled her diaper, and it was minty poo! Made me laugh so hard. So, for any of you who believe that it takes 7 years... we can happily say that it does not. :)

Oh, and I apologize if that thoroughly grossed anyone out... I thought it was funny.