31 weeks

Real quick before the bump update--this is my 100th post of year 2011! Sure beats the heck out of the 14 posts last year! Okay so now: baby
How far along?: 31 weeks, 1 day
How big is baby?: She was measuring 3 lbs last week at our 3d ultrasound (Thebump says she's still squash-sized)
Weight gain?: About 18-20 lbs--I find out for sure next Wednesday at my OB appointment.
Symptoms?: I'm really starting to hit that uncomfortable part. Back pain, getting winded easily. My feet are swollen by the end of the day if we've been out or I've been on them a lot, but luckily swelling is gone by morning. My ribs are killing me--she keeps trying to stretch out but there's not much room left in there. The boys were both head down position by 25-ish weeks, so their feet were always in my ribcage, but she's sideways and has been almost the entire pregnancy. So she's stretching out on both sides.
Sleep?: Good for the most part. The uncomfortable part is making that harder--there's a lot more tossing and turning now. I'm still tired all the time, but now caffeine is making me sick so I have to lay off the coffee til after she's here.
Cravings?: I'm craving salt something fierce!! I've been eating my weight in Ritz crackers and dumping salt on them first. I'm not kidding. I want to go to Tractor Supply and pick up a salt lick and keep it on my bedside table. It's just a third trimester thing for me. A disgusting third trimester thing.
Movement?: She's dancing around in there. It's about the time she starts getting in her waking/sleeping cycles and I'm afraid she's going to have her days and nights mixed up like James did. She's really active at nighttime and sleeps long stretches during the day.
Best Moment so far: We did a 3d ultrasound last week so Jason could actually go to one of them--and so we could finally do one. I want to do all the fun stuff this time around since this is our last. It was really neat since she's looking like a "real baby" instead of the alien-like ultrasounds at 20 weeks or so. She still had her hands up hiding her face almost the enitre 40 minutes. Girl does not want her picture taken! I'll try to post some of the pictures we got, later.
Looking forward to?: I have an appointment next week and they'll get me on the calendar for delivery! Only 8 weeks to go, and it's flying by this time! Now that it's getting so close, I've started having a change of heart about her lack-of-a-nursery. She'll be in our room for the first while, but since we're going to be living here close to another year at least, she'll need a room at some point before we move. And we need space to keep all her stuff. Plus I want to do all the fun decorating/organizing stuff. I think I'm freaking out/nesting. So before Jason starts back to work, in between taking down Christmas decorations (sad day), we're trying to get something together. Right now the big dilemma is finding a home for all our junk that's in the sewing/craft/office/junk room. Eesh.

Post-Christmas visits

Between work and holiday chaos, my parents and sister drove down this week for a few days to spend a late Christmas with us.
They got in Monday afternoon while the boys were still napping. After everyone got up we exchanged presents, had a Buzz Lightyear crisis (don't ask), and took the new truck for a spin while supper finished cooking. Still in their new footie pajamas.

Riley even got to drive and made the same circles around and around the yard.

And we took it for a spin the next day, too. This time it was cooler, they donned jackets instead of pjs, and Riley wasn't really feeling it.

He also was NOT feeling his new sock monkey hat...

It stayed off after this. For the record, he cracked up when he saw this picture of himself. Next year's Christmas card?

Right before we called it quits, he decided he'd just chase big brother around in lieu of riding shotgun. Daddy tagged along to make sure no one got run over...
James was pretty precious in his little dinosaur hat, no?

There was lots of eating this week. Roast, potatoes, rolls, sausage, a giant ham. And millions and millions of cookies. Gotta love the red food coloring!

And here's a quick shot of some of our Christmas cards and their place above the fireplace. The lamp has been covering Emmy's card (the snowman on the far right) so it has been moved.

Also, the monogrammed rug is from my Granny! Love it :)

We're so lucky they were able to come down and it eased the post-Christmas/holiday let-down that tends to follow all the excitement after weeks of anticipation. It seems kind of ridiculous that there'd be any letdown at all, considering all the wonderful things we have to look forward to this next year. But there is. Always is.
For now, I'm ready to get on with the new year. 2011 was fabulous: moving to Georgia, making new friends, seeing family (a lot!), Jason graduating OCS, finding out we're having our 3rd child, friends' weddings, a trip to Florida, family visiting us for holidays. It's been cram-packed. In five years together, we haven't had a boring one yet! I'm putting together a list of resolutions, or rather, things I want to accomplish in 2012. There's lots to look forward to: my sister's wedding, having a baby (8 weeks from tomorrow!), Jason's armor school, getting our next orders. Jason will get to live at home this time, and he'll get to be here for our daughter's first 6 months (at least) which is new for us. The boys will get to spend some much-needed time with their dad, after being apart for 7 months. They're both doing preschool/mother's day out. Riley will start potty-training soon. I have no idea if I'll be starting school down here, or looking into somewhere at our next duty station, but I'm enjoying having a little time to just be mom.

2012 is only days away! And I'm one blog post away from 100 posts this year!

Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas... And we decorated sugar cookies. Maybe not the prettiest...but they sure tasted good!

We taste-tested a couple for Santa. They checked out.

For the second year in a row, Santa got blue cookies (because everything HAS to be blue). Fred got a couple elf-donuts, too.

Christmas morning, we waited for James to come wake us up. Of course this was the one morning he slept in til 8. We heard the door open and shut, little feet pad down the hallway, and something knock over underneath the tree. We pretended to be asleep, giggling like kids ourselves, as he peaked over the side of the bed and squealed, "Santa came!!"

Santa hadn't anticipated us having a wet Christmas, so we couldn't take the boys' new truck outside. Instead Daddy Clause turned the thing up on its hood and swore at it, getting stuck in the garage-kitchen doorway and eventually squeezed it into the kitchen. He unplugged the battery after the kids knocked into a few pieces of furniture, so they just ended up sitting in it playing with the radio and throwing new toys into the truck bed.

Our neighbors had us over for Christmas dinner, this evening. It was so sweet of them to cook for us! The kids had fun playing with new toys and the adults played on the Wii.

Since James grew out of his "space jammies" last year, he's been begging for new ones (and they HAD to have footies). Luckily Santa brought some in his size that even glow in the dark and he has been wearing them all day.

And some pictures from my phone in no particular order:

After Santa unloaded the sleigh in our living room.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas magic + Fred's last hurrah

Happy Christmas Eve!This week has been chock full of Christmas traditions, last-minute shopping trips, baking, and a couple runny noses.

Two days before Christmas, Jason finished putting the lights on the house. I have a feeling these suckers are staying up for a while... We broke out the big gingerbread house and put it together. Riley loves decorating the gingerbread house and gives careful consideration to every piece of candy before squishing it into the icing. James tries to reason with me between pieces that one piece of candy on the house = one piece of candy he can eat.While the kids decorated and "It's a Wonderful Life" played on the tv, I baked peppermint bark cookies (thank you pinterest!), made sugar cookie dough, fudge, oreo balls, and made Jason's favorite dinner (fried chicken--he still says it's the reason he married me).If only a little redneck, the house 'shore looked purty all lit up' last night. While I finished cooking supper, Jason gave the kids their bath and got everybody into jammies and as soon as we were done eating, we all loaded up into the car with a baggie of freshly baked cookies and cup of milk.

In the paper last week, there was a listing of local addresses that had light displays up, so we picked a few of the best-looking ones and plugged them into the gps.

The first was the most extravagant--Ludy's (it's pretty popular around here). There were lights stretched out into their neighbors' yards, the show coordinated to Christmas music on a radio station, and they had Santa (and traffic guards)!!

The boys were fascinated. Riley squealed "Lights!" at any house with so much as a light-up plastic Santa on the lawn and when we arrived to this one he was just in awe.

When the song, "I want a hippopatomus for Christmas" came one, my ever-clever James announced, "I just want a toy for Christmas, not a animal." Jason and I were cracking up!

We asked if they wanted to get out to go see Santa (even though it was chilly and we hadn't brought jackets and we were all in our pajamas--it was a special opportunity) and James said he'd rather just stay in the car. Riley said "yes" and squealed "Ho ho! Ho ho!", so Jason took him up there. Only a few minutes later, Jason was carrying him back. He'd made it as far as the driveway, then the excitement turned to terror and "Ho ho!" became "No ho ho! Mommy! Mommy!"

We stuck around for another song or two then headed to a couple other houses. Though their displays were a little smaller, there was definitely a lot of work put into them and there was even another music-show.

It was after 10 o'clock by the time we made it home and tucked everyone into bed, but so worth it to see the looks of wonder on their rosy little faces.

Today is our last day with Fred. James has already begged that Fred stay with us and I have to admit, I'm a little sad that he's going. Every morning, both boys rush around the house looking for him. This morning he was ziplining to the tree from the ceiling fan.
Tonight we'll leave him a little elf-sized treat along with Santa's cookies so they'll both have something to snack on, on their way back to the North Pole.

It's hard to believe that Christmas will be here tomorrow. That soon it'll be over and we'll have to take down the tree. And the lights. And all the decorations--some that we just put up yesterday.
Three years ago, we were living in Fort Drum and experiencing our first winter up there. James was a year old and it was the first year I wouldn't be spending at my parents' house. We'd planned to fly down to Texas to spend Christmas with Jason's family and New Years in Tennessee, but our flight got cancelled because of the snow. We drove through the blizzard back to our house from the airport, thinking we were going to be stuck up there. I remember crying and listening to Judy Garland's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in the car and how much the words resonated with me. When she got to, "Someday soon, we all will be together, if the fates allow. Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow" I felt at peace. It was exactly what I needed to hear right at that moment! I thought about all the Christmasses I'd ever had: getting the "my size Barbie" and ripping the scab off my knee on the tulle ballerina skirt (this, friends, is why I HATE TULLE SKIRTS). My American Girl doll, Kirsten and the Saint Lucia wreath I wore on my head (we even celebrated the Saint Lucia day one year), my mom's spinning German candle-propeller thing that always melted wax on the tablecloth. The year we found the bikes in the basement and mom gave us a huge speech about something special we were going to get for Christmas that actually turned out to be our dollhouses (we were sooo smug that we just knew she was talking about those bikes). My 11-year old "polar express experience" where my sister and I heard the dogs barking at something in the sky that we still swear-to-this-day was a flying sleigh. The December I met Jason and we walked along riverside to look at the lights while we got to know each other on one of our very first dates. Our first married Christmas together where we walked our not-even-two-month old James along riverside and he slept through all the lights.
We ended up finding a flight to Texas later that week and flew out on Christmas day, shortening our trip, but still getting to see everyone. We also found out two days after Christmas that we were going to have Riley.
I started making a point to adopt our own special traditions and ways to enjoy Christmas as our own little family, so that when the unexpected happens, it's not devastating. Now as our kids get older, we want them to wake up to their very own tree, in their own beds. We've been lucky to have family come to us to visit, or to be able to visit with everyone after C-day. So all of that still plays a big role for us, but we've grown into making the holidays personal, too.
Every Christmas since, I listen to that song--still one of my very favorites--and reflect on all the great Christmasses past (we've spent each one in a different place!) and I like to think ahead to the next year and where we'll be. Next year, we'll have a 10 month old little girl, our boys will be 3 and 5. Who knows what kinds of things they'll be into by then, or where we'll be, or even where Jason will be. Here? Another state? Out of the country? But I do know that we'll try to have a real tree, a gingerbread house, a thousand cookies, a ton of food, an elf on the shelf, lights on the house, hot cocoa on the stove, a light-searching-drive-in-our-pjs. And at the very least, we'll have each other. And there won't have to be any muddling.