Christmas and Blizzards part 2 (all pictures)

Here are the pictures I promised, plus a video of how amazing Judd is at being a genius! We were playing the game Gone Fishing that the boys got for Christmas, and Judd won! With no help, and not cheating in any way. He can play that game better than my 4 yr and 5 1/2 yr old! Crazy, because they game is intended for ages 4 and up. Amazing. What great hand-eye coordination! He's only 21 months old and he very much impresses me every day with all he can do.

P.S. if you look at the pictures from the bottom of this post to the top, then you will be looking in the correct order for the time frame from Wed. through today.

Christmas and Blizzards!

The week began as a busy one as usual. I had prepared the week for the daycare kids and my kids to keep them occupied with fun and Christmasy activities. Monday we had a play day, Tuesday we had a pajama day, Wednesday was our green day and Christmas party, and Thursday I only had two of my daycare kids, but we had a game and movie day.

I spent last weekend baking like a crazy woman (and still don't know what to do with leftover treats around my house). I made chocolate covered pretzels, white chocolate covered pretzels, peanut butter marshmallow bars, peanut butter chip and chocolate chip cookies, fudge crinkle cookies, and peanut butter cookies with the chocolate kisses in the middle. Then Wednesday night I made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate on Thursday for daycare and for Santa. Usually we make gingerbread cookies for Santa, but this year I was all baked out!

Thursday morning I had my 37 week appointment at 8am, and the result is that nothing had happened from 36-37 weeks. Still I am only dilated 1 cm and 75% effaced. Bummer. However, this was good news for the fact that I could get through Christmas without expecting Tess to arrive and make things a little chaotic. After my appt. I headed to Toys R Us, Target, and Wal-mart for some last minute shopping (since I only had two daycare kids Tony was happy to watch the 5 boys and let me get out of the house for once, especially since the beginning of the blizzard was getting pretty bad).

Finally I made it home on icy streets and still had to make my apple cream cheese coffee cake to take to Holly's for Christmas Eve dinner, wrap another 15 or so presents, decorate Santa cookies with the boys, and in general clean up the house. I only had two hours to do all of this in. So we rushed around and got it all done. Also as a little tidbit, little Tess is doing numbers on my stomach at night - Wed, Thur, and Fri. nights so far after going to bed I get violently ill from severe abdominal pressure (gas) and indigestion. So bad in fact it has caused me to throw up each of those nights and feel completely unrested and totally miserable!!!

So after my daycare kids got picked up, we loaded up the boys and dangerously headed over to my mother-in-law's house for our traditional Christmas Eve pancake dinner and to open presents from her and her husband. The roads at this point would be inadvisable travel, and though they only live on the other side of the city, on a good day it takes 20 minutes, so they were very slick and scary driving. At one point I even told Tony that we should just turn around and go home because it was only supposed to get worse by the time we headed home (which we had plans for going to the 10pm church service too).
We ate our pancakes, hung out for a bit and opened presents, when I had decided that for three reasons we needed to go home...1. I felt miserable!!! 2. the boys were SOOOO tired they were throwing tantrums left and right and with me feeling miserable I couldn't handle them very well. 3. the snow was coming down so hard that it had piled up above the tires of our suburban and we still had to make it home safely!

So we loaded up and headed out. Even the main streets were about a foot deep with snow and it took us about 45 minutes or more to get home driving only about 20 the whole way and in 4 wheel drive the whole way too. I also could barely see out the front window with the blowing snow and frozen windshield. Scary.

We got home and frustratingly put the screaming tired boys to bed, while I got sick again and had to lay down for two hours and pass out. When I woke up "Santa" had been hard at work putting presents under the tree and filling stockings, etc. So had tried to help him as best as I could, but didn't do much. I went back to bed for another fretful night of sleep.

Luckily the boys didn't wake us up until about 7am on Christmas morning, and it was so cute, because I LOVE that they are old enough to sneak a peek at presents and cookies, etc. before waking up me and Tony! I LOVE that. It reminds me of my childhood excitement for Christmas morning. Though I am now the parent and designated "Santa" I still have that excitement through the kids. My excitement now though is not for MY gifts but to see how excited they are to open theirs! I don't even care if I never get a gift for Christmas.

So the boys tore into presents, spent the day playing and tearing up the house with garbage and toy parts everywhere. After the festivities Tony made the traditional breakfast of omelette's, hash browns, and sausage links. After devouring our breakfast Tony headed outside for 2 hours to shovel the driveway and walkways (which were still hidden under snow even after two hours) and it was still coming down. I'm not sure what the overall total is of snow, but so far my guess would be at least 2-3 feet of snow.

While Tony shoveled, I spent the next few hours cleaning the house, cooking a ham and other Christmas dinner food for Tony's mom and husband to come over for dinner. Finally dinner was over, the house was somewhat put together (until today that is) and after an exhausting week, we put the boys to bed and Tony and I indulged in a game of Mario Party 8 for the wii that "Santa" brought for the family. :)

So overall it was a great Christmas. Tomorrow I will spend the day cleaning up all of our Christmas stuff that I would normally leave out until New Years but would rather have put away before Tess comes, just for one last thing to do upon her arrival. Due to the snow, Tony and I were bummed out that Christmas Eve and Christmas morning church services were cancelled, so hopefully we can make it tomorrow morning to the church service that they have pushed the time back too in order to hopefully get people to come safely to church.

I am going to put pictures in another post of just pictures since this post is very long already, and I don't feel like moving pictures for the next two hours since blogger doesn't make it easy to move them.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and I will keep you updated of the arrival of Tess any day now!

36 week checkup...

I had my 36 week check up today, though tomorrow is actually the first day of my 36th week, if that makes sense to all of you.

I have been having a lot of contractions lately and they have progressively gotten a bit more painful. Being only 35 weeks I had anxiety about that because I was praying that she didn't come early. Today my doctor checked me and I have progressed already a bit, which never happened with the boys. I am already 1 cm. dilated and 75 % effaced, for those of you that understand the lingo. She also told me that at this point if I go into labor on my own, she's not going to stop it because though there is risk of immature lungs this early, if my body says it's time, then nature knows best. I however, don't really think I will go anytime before Christmas. I think there might be a chance of labor starting towards the end of the last week of Dec. or the first week of Jan. I don't think I'll go to my due date, but I am not God and don't know the ultimate plan. :)

The other good news from the appointment today was that she is definitely head down and ready to go and she is almost as far down as she can get, hence the contractions starting. Once again for comparison purposes, the boys liked to hang out up higher and never got down low until labor was under way. She also thinks that Tess will be a tad bit smaller than the boys have been, so she says with fingers crossed, that this might be my "easiest" labor thus far - which is always good news to hope for! She is not planning an induction with this one unless she goes way beyond my due date or has a major growth spurt and seems like she's going to be too large, but both of those events are not really forecasted. She really wants me to start labor naturally (as I do) so that I can progress as much as possible at home and make the labor at the hospital seem quicker and easier. So fingers are crossed. I want that too, so I hope it happens.

Anyways...I'll keep you all posted, but my next appointment for 37 weeks is next Thursday (Christmas Eve) at 8:00am, where she'll check my progress again. I am hoping for 3 cm and 100 % effaced!!! ;)

Happy Holidays!

Blessings

God has blessed me with many things in my life and I am grateful for every one of them. When I first found out that I was pregnant with number 4, some people thought we were crazy and that we wouldn't be able to provide for all of the kids, but God has once again proven that we were meant to have this fourth baby and that she is truly a gift from Him.

How else can you explain all that has happened in order to help us out. We have three boys, so no girl stuff obviously, but from the outpouring from friends and family and church members, we now have received enough clothes to basically clothe her for her first whole year, gotten a crib, carseat and stroller as gifts in addition to the other many generous gifts given to her. Tony and I calculated that we have spent only a total of $70 on her, and that included a $50 dresser from craigslist. Besides diapers and wipes and anything that we WANT to buy her, we feel pretty set. How awesome is that??

I feel like I am surrounded by people that already love her and are excited for her arrival. Members of our church are preparing for her birth and excited to have a new baby to dote on. (Our church consists of mostly older people). I don't know how else to describe it other than God has truly given Tess to us as a blessing and I thank him every night for her and for my boys and Tony and everything else that he has given me. I just wanted to share why I feel very special and part of God's plan this Christmas season. I can't wait for her to be born and to meet this little gift. I know that her brothers will adore her too, but that she is so lucky to have the most awesome big brothers around. I just pray that I can do a good job of raising all of my kids to grow up being good Christians and to follow God's word.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Yesterday started out as a great day. We got up early and grabbed McDonalds breakfast on our way to the tree farm called Santa's Woods to cut down our Christmas tree. We got there and bundled up and jumped on the covered tractor ride out to where the trees are. After walking around for only about 10 minutes we found the tree we wanted. They cut it, shook it out, wrapped it up and threw it up on the top of the truck for us! What service.

Then on the car ride home, the boys started being naughty which just progressed throughout the day until by the time they went to bed last night I was so exhausted from yelling and irritated about a ruined day! (not completey ruined though).

After returning home, the boys "helped" Tony put up the outside lights, then we got all of our indoor decorations out and put them all up, then decorated our tree. We are finally ready for Christmas (minus shopping for the boys).

Then to try and have time to myself, I went up to Tess' room and built her crib! I'm so happy with it. We got the cradle out and put together in mine and Tony's room, and now her crib is all put together in her room.

Today I went to Wal-mart to get her a few things, like a mattress pad, hangers to hang up all her dresses, jackets, etc., binky straps, a baby book, and a few other little things that I needed. We got home and I put all the sheets on her crib, hung up all of her clothes, and packed everything that I needed for her at the hospital just in case.... So now all I have left to do in her room is to hang her name and it is complete! All I have left to do for myself before my hospital stay is to decide what I need for the hospital and then we are ready and waiting for the arrival of our baby girl!

I'm getting very excited now that I am mid 34 weeks. That means that at minimum I hopefully will make it to at least the end of 37 weeks in order for her to be born full-term. I only have 3-6 weeks left (but don't really think I'll make it all the way to 6 weeks, I'm thinking around 4 weeks from now she will be here!) :)

I still have to take pictures of her room, but for now here are some pictures of our trip to get our Christmas tree.

34 weeks and more!

I am just entering my 34th week of pregnancy and I feel like I should be having her any day! I am contracting occassionally and can barely get around and can't stand for long periods of time without being completely uncomfortable! But...she needs to wait at least another 3 1/2 weeks before it's safe for her to come out.

I went to my checkup yesterday and they said everything is normal and looks good. She is not all the way head down yet, but in route. So that was good to hear, since at my last appointment she was still breach. I am getting very anxious to be done being pregnant this time around and to just have her here with us and our family complete. I have so much cute stuff for her too now that I can't wait to dress her and play with her and give her all the love I can!

I think I posted last time about all the awesome stuff I got at my baby shower last weekend, and maybe I told you about the awesome daycare mom that brought me two huge carboard boxes worth of clothes ranging in sizes from birth to 12 months. We are so set with clothes for the moment that the only things we will need to buy her are socks, shoes, and accessories unless we just find something totally cute that she needs, which I'm sure we'll find! :)

Just to prove how set we are I took pictures of the piles of clothes in age ranges after I had washed them all and folded them but before I started putting them away. These are the pictures below. Plus a couple random pictures of the boys. One in particular that made me crack up was the one of Raymond sitting on the toilet with a little black goatee and moustache drawn on his face! The story behind that is he was going #2 on the toilet and sometimes they bring this dry erase book where they can trace letters and so forth in with them and work on it while they go. I was sitting on the steps right outside the bathroom when Raymond said, "Mommy look". I looked up and was shocked to see his artwork on his face (which might I add turned out pretty good considering he didn't have a mirror to do it in). I tried so hard not to laugh because I was angry that he drew on himself with permanent marker, so I scolded him and told Tony to come see what his son did. As Tony walked past me I had to leave the hallway because I burst into laughter and the second he walked into the bathroom he did too. I came back and took a picture because it will be very funny when he's older.

I hope everyone is not freezing to death out there. It is snowing just a tiny bit here but only about 15 with the windchill and I dread having to go pick up Owen from school in 45 minutes! Yuck.

Anyways...enjoy the pics.

Judd and Raymond chilling out in their pj's.

The two boxes that my daycare mom brought me full of clothes!

All the clothes in piles after emptying the boxes!

0-3 months clothes, washed and ready to be put away. (I didn't buy ANY of these!)

3-6 month clothes washed and ready to be put away (I only bought like 3 things)

6-12 month clothes washed and ready to be put away (I bought like 3 or 4 things is all)

Raymond and his marker artwork on his face. :)