Christmas pj

One of my favorite people told me about a Christmas tradition they have. Instead of opening a pair of Christmas pj's on Christmas Eve, she gives each of her kids a present of Christmas pj's on Thanksgiving. That way they have the whole month of December to enjoy them, as opposed to January and February when we are all a little sick of Christmasy things. So I started this year. Except I never found Hendrix a pair of pj's that I liked that was cheap enough, so I wrapped up last years pj's and CRAMMED him into them. :)

Quinn singing

Dave took this video last night right before he put Quinn to bed.

thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with this cute family:

Christy and I. We are both pregnant-- like 6 weeks apart I think?? I think she's 20 weeks.

And the Kellas

pre-thanksgiving

it was Hendrix's idea to sit on her lap. ha. they are practically the same size.


Quinn has been making lots of funny faces when I bust out the camera lately.

I decided that I can't live with one pair of pants afterall. so I made another pair. It only took me trying on 6 pairs of old jeans to find a pair that I could pull up over my bum... sad. it's also sad that chin #2 has appeared. this picture isn't bad, but i have about 10 other pictures from Thanksgiving that prove it :)


in this picture you can kind of see the impression of my deformed belly button. i've been lucky to not get stretch marks (knock on wood) with any of my pregnancies-- yet with every baby my belly button gets more and more deformed and never goes back to normal. i've told dave i'm going to need surgery to fix it. with this baby it's like i have two belly buttons-- the bump on the inside, and the outer belly button have separated. i don't think it's normal. :)

saturday

Just a darling picture Dave took on Saturday that I stole off his Twitter. This boy likes his icecream. And we sure love him :)

snow

Just before I did this post, I read my friend Amy's blog. She said how she had finally given in and taken her boys outside to play in the snow. ugh... me too. wow... I'm feeling like a really nice mom. Even though we only lasted 10 minutes out there. it was FREEZING!!!!!

randoms

Just some pictures from the last few days

I really wish his hands weren't in front of his face. He looked hilarious with these glasses on.

my naughty little climber. I never had this problem with Quinn. Look at him standing there oh so casually with his hand in his pocket. Like it's no big deal.

Quinn's FAVORITE thing to do lately is water colors. She paints at least 3 times a day.


and our top heavy Christmas tree. We had to move all the ornaments to the top half to protect them from X.

Christmas

We put up the Christmas tree yesterday. I'm worse than a kid, I swear. But I figured Christmas is really only a month away, and there is nothing wrong with enjoying Christmas decorations for a whole month. Plus-- we aren't even having Thanksgiving here, so might as well skip to Christmas around here. The kids love it (Hendrix loves that there are now 20 balls hanging from the Christmas tree. when he reaches one he grabs it and THROWS it). I should have taken a picture of the kids in front of the tree, what was I thinking? I'll try to do it today. :) PLUS--it snowed yesterday, so it might as well be Christmas. I hate snow. Hopefully some pictures to come (and hopefully that doesn't include pictures of ME in the snow, I think I'll stay inside) :)

Quiet Stream

Yesterday at preschool they talked about Thanksgiving. Their teacher gave them all Indian names-- I hope that she was giving them realistic names since she named Quinn "Quiet Stream."

The icecream sundae has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but it was what I had her and Levi do during a playdate yesterday, so Quinn thought it had to be included in the picture :)

Baby

I'm feeling excited that I'm 25 weeks. I've been blessed with a wonderful pregnancy (so far). I'm feeling great. I was sick my first trimester, but since then I've really felt good. I'm tired and hungry-- but those things are to be expected!! I feel bigger than I was with my other two pregnancies. I'm hoping that my weight gain slows down a bit. I was concerned and asked my doctor about it, but she said that it's normal to gain a lot fast during 2nd trimester. So hopefully my 3rd trimester brings less pounds.

She moves A LOT now. It's really fun. Instead of just being once or twice a day, she is moving and kicking on and off ALL day long. It's now clearly visible if you look at my bare belly and definitely strong enough for Dave and the kids to feel when she moves.

We haven't picked a name (crazy, I know). We have two and can't seem to decide. So, until we make a decision, she's either Baby V or Baby M. Don't you just wish I'd tell you what those stood for??? Ha. it's not really a secret. So unless she comes out a boy, we can't use Baby H... bummer. Maybe we'll end up with another boy someday and use it. Not that any of you really liked the name anyway... you know who you are :)

We haven't made any progress on the nursery. Which also kind of stresses me out. We need to paint (hey Dave-- let's paint). And I'm planning to make most of the bedding. It's gonna be cute, trust me :) I'm thinking to include Baby V this Christmas, so she can get some much needed things before she gets here. (carseat, changing table pad, etc).

We are all getting excited for her arrival. It will be so fun to have a tiny baby around here (or a big baby, if she's anything like Hendrix). Sorry no belly pic... I feel like I've had enough of those lately.

Quiet book

Remember how last year I decided I would make my kids a 'home-made present from mommy' every Christmas?

Here's a sneak peak of Hendrix's present.

He's obviously seen me working on it.

But is too little to notice :)

It's NOT an alphabet quiet book-- that would take me until Easter.

These two pages just happened to be "letter" pages.

The icecream scoops and fishes velcro on.

And yes... Hendrix usually wears pants.

Craft day

we had a fun day today!! I had three of my favorite girls over (and their kids).

Quinn was a little out-numbered. FIVE boys-- and her. She didn't seem to mind. Kind of cute that I kept finding her reading books to someone.


we got together to make these. Sorry for those of you who are getting one for christmas-- I just ruined the surprise. They are flowers to pin to your shirt/coat/bag. But cute huh?-- this was Kara and my stash after we were done. Not too bad. :) I've been wearing one of these flowers pinned to my shirt for a few weeks. Dave has a tendency to make fun of me: "Flower AGAIN today, huh Am?" But I think secretly he likes them.

If you want to make one for yourself-- I used THIS tutorial. And just added a flower of tulle to every piece of wool/fabric before glueing

baby shower

I threw one of my friends a baby shower this weekend. I was horrible at taking pictures. Here is the only picture i took of the mom-to-be.

I made pom poms again.

me and my boy

the party favor I made. It's a cookie mix inside. Super cute idea (I found it HERE)-- but not for a big shower. I had to make a LOT of these, and still didn't have enough. AND I tried to make some cookies today and IT DIDN'T WORK. I'm embarrassed... I handed out at least 20 of these and the recipe doesn't work. they aren't even edible. So if I gave you one of these, trash it. I know it's cute, but it's trash. bummer.

new stuff

the shelves we just got for Quinn's room from IKEA. They are obviously not all set up as far as things on the shelves, but cute, eh?

Grandma Marcia pulled through and made Hendrix a boy apron so he wouldn't have to wear Quinn's anymore. Here he is right after we got it.

And of course quinn ran to get her apron on too (and tried on his new chef hat). I still need to get a picture of Hendrix in his whole new outfit, apron, chef hat, and oven mitts

IKEA tent and timer

I told the kids I would bring them home something from my trip this weekend. I chose a tent from IKEA. They loved it right away.



Although Hendrix thought that I brought him this kitchen timer. He got quite the kick out of making it ring. He would do it over and over and say "GONG!!!"

He's saying "Gong!!"

boy did I miss this little face

Utah trip

I just got back from a FUN girl's weekend in Salt Lake. It was a quick trip--we left Friday afternoon, and left Salt Lake Sunday morning. I'm glad it wasn't any longer though, I was feeling pretty anxious to get back home to see my kids (and Dave). It was the first time I've EVER been gone over night since I've had Quinn. And since I hardly ever even get a babysitter, it was a big deal for me to leave for that long!!! It was so fun though. A weekend full of eating and shopping-- and what's better than that??

Here's me right after we got to Utah. We spent Friday even at the outlets in Park City-- SO fun.


The main reason for wanting to take the trip was to go to IKEA. I got lots of stuff-- I'll take pictures after Dave gets it all put together.

Here are the friends that made the trip with me. Des on the left, Amy on the right.

Dave's sister, Krystal, lives in Salt Lake, so she got to spend the weekend with us too.

I ALSO got to spend an evening with some of my friends from Michigan. It was SUPER fun to see them- it had been a long time since I've seen any of them. Me on the left, Jessica, Sarah, and Lindsey

We also went to Tai Pan. So between the outlet mall, IKEA, Tai Pan, and our luggage, we were STUFFED on the way home. It's a miracle we fit every thing in my Durango.

These are amazingly ALL the pictures I took on my trip. I think I took more pictures of my kids within the first 30 minutes of being home than I did all weekend. I'll post of those later.
It was an experience to leave my kids. I did well until Saturday afternoon (other than all the tears spilt at my leaving), then I was ready to get home. Dave did awesome being mr. mom though. He even showed me up. I got home and the kids were well rested, fed, happy, and the house was TOTALLY clean. seriously. he had even done a load of laundry and folded it. What?? I don't know how he did it-- he's amazing. Thanks to Dave and all my friends for my fun last-hurrah before baby #3.

park

we went to the park yesterday. I sure love my kids-- even when they are grumpy at the park


even though we've been having AWESOME weather, it was early in the morning, so the slides were still all wet

hendrix didn't seem to mind too much

time to start sewing...

So.. It's a girl!! We are overjoyed. We are also happy that she looks healthy and strong and everything is progressing normally. Normally I don't get emotional during ultrasounds, but I sure did today. I am happy that Quinn will have a sister. Having such an awesome sister myself, I've always wanted that for Quinn. We've been thinking that this might be our last baby, so this was her chance to get a sister!! And (maybe this is weird) but Hendrix is just so stinking special, part of me wanted him to be my one-and-only little boy. Not that I wouldn't have been overwhelmingly happy to have another little Hendrix walking around. There was also part of me that was sad that this isn't a boy. I was surprised by how sad it made me, since at the same moment I was so happy to find out it was a girl. It guess it just shows that either way I would have been one happy momma. I'm feeling very grateful today that I am healthy, and the baby is healthy. It's such an amazing thing to be a mother and I couldn't ask for more.