but first: Christmas

Before I get strung to the whipping post by my father, I should probably do some Christmas posting.

 Aaron and I have been contemplating the most sane way to handle the holidays for the last 5 years. Since my parents live a good 8 hours away, it can be hard to plan out how to split the time. My husband also comes from 2 VERY festive families who have grand events on either Christmas Eve, Day, or the day after. This also makes it hard to plan around. Sometimes this doesn't work out in our favor and we are left having to choose where to go or end up traveling to multiple places on Christmas. Lucky for me, I am an only child so my parents are extremely flexible in their plans. I also was blessed/cursed with parents who aren't as festive as the average duck. They may enjoy decorating a Christmas tree or hanging some lights on the roof but a "good dinner" can be home smoked cornish game hens and not a grand carved turkey with all the stuffings. A good family Christmas can also be a day out at the desert with relatives. It doesn't have to be snow ball fights and gift opening or singing Christmas songs around the fireplace. Sometimes this frustrates me but sometimes this works in my favor because that means that Christmas can also be "Christmas" a week before actual Christmas Day.

This year worked out GREAT! To be honest, I milked the "I'm about to pop" card a little more than was probably neccesary. Aaron and I decided that a tradition that we wanted to implement for our children is the feeling of waking up at home Christmas morning. I can't wait to have 2 screaming girls running down the stairs or sliding down the banisters to get to their gifts stacked under the tree or stuffed in their stockings. This year made for the most layed back and relaxing Christmas I've had in a while.

My parents came up a few days before hand and got to spend some quality time with Emily.

First off: The ginger bread house tradition.

*If you want to get teary eyed go look at december of last year (maybe Jan. because I'm usually behind)*

 Making her own creation

 Eating the candies

 Emily sneaking a lick of frosting

The final product

Next up: Making cookie dough

This was a favorite of mine with my grandma (except she let me mix in the eggs with my hands instead of a mixer) Culinary Master Aaron was not down for that. So instead Emily used the hand mixer- which I'm pretty sure she enjoyed just as much.

 Chef Aaron making sure Santa doesn't get any egg shells.

After putting the cookie dough in the fridge we set off for Chili's for a delicious Christmas Eve dinner. We came back home and made our cookies for Santa.

 Showing grandma "how it's done"

 Rolling out the dough

 Cutting out candy canes

 One of the things that I love about Aaron's family is that they have a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve. That gift, although not a surprise, is always Christmas jammies. We decided this was a good tradition to steal. So here is Emily's Christmas jammies. After unwrapping all of the presents under the tree once (thankfully when Aaron wasn't home and before I had put any of hers out) I all but had to fence off the tree to keep her from getting to the gifts. So to be able to get one BEFORE Christmas made her night.

 In her jammies. With her cookies for Santa

A teary husband, who wanted a picture with his daughter who was entirely too grown up.

Well today was a bust. I will post "Christmas" tomorrow. For now, enjoy all up to then!

P.S. Notice the extreme need for a flash....and Christmas was only a few more hours away.

Crazy Day!

I think Emily is fighting a cold. bleh. She is being pretty mellow and slept until 1030, which is either going to give her enough energy to be a TERROR or enough to make it through the day without being too crabby. I guess you learn by doing so we will see how this goes.

IF everything works out then my goal for today, THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR!, is to organize/clean out my computer and dump (in an organized and filed away by date manner) all of my pictures from this previous year. As I do this I am going to blog about the pictures I find. For example: I have a folder just sitting on my desktop called "Halloween". My goal is to edit these, trash the bad, and file into my "Emily year 4" folder. THEN, post a short blog about what I remember from Halloween. Sound like fun?!

I bet I get half way through the year.

Wish me luck!

'Twas the night before Christmas...

The Van Patten Version:

Twas the night before Christmas,
and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring
except for maybe that stupid mouse. . .

{He out smarted the death traps. I decided to give him Christmas with his rapidly growing family in my walls and squish his head after the holidays are over, but I swear. . . if there are nibble marks in my gingerbread house in the morning I'm going to be TICKED!}

The stockings were hung by the electric fire place with care,
In hopes that fat Santa soon would be there.

{This is the first year that she really understands Santa. It's kind of funny because she's right on the brink of a break through (that she's going to have a whole year to forget about) and just not getting it at all. Either way, she does understand that it's something to be super excited about and that makes me and Aaron actually feel like PARENTS}

With Claire in my ribs and Emily nestled in her bed,
I'm sure there is nothing but thoughts of truckloads of candy dancing in around in her head.

{Good news!! God was gracious to me and allowed Claire to "drop" a little. This means that she's out of my lungs and I can sleep in my bed again! YAY! BUT it also means that Claire has learned to stretch her legs out...resulting in the occational left {leg} hook to the rib cage = not so fun!}

Alright I'm done...

My plan here was to rewrite the whole poem and insert my own fun into it, but honestly- I'm tired!!! This parenting thing takes alot out of you! So, I'm going to end my 'creativity' here.

I'm also going to only upload one picture. (I'm sure my dad is having a cow at the moment) I sat down and sifted through over 400 pictures + the 200 I took today that are just sitting in a folder on my desktop called "uneditted". Yep...for the first time ever I am falling severely behind on picture taking. Right in time for Claire to enter into the mix and for it to get worse.

SO...in order for me to be forced to upload more pictures of Emily...I'm not going to tell you about all of the amazing things she got to do today on her first Christmas Eve that she will remember/last as an only child. Instead I'm going to say MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and leave you with Emily and her 'presents' for Santa. Merry Christmas to all and to all a GOOD NIGHT!

not so 'bah hum bug'

I had a dr. appointment today. I don't get the pleasure of seeing the same dr. every single time I go in, so more often than not I leave with only the knowledge that I was seen by a licensed professional who has obviously done his or her time as a dr. AND doesn't want to loose that license. Honestly...that's good enough for me.

Today, however, I had the honor of being seen by my OB/GYN that I had for Emily. I love her. She's so kind and takes her time with you. This also means that more often than not she is EXTREMELY late. Tardiness aside, she really is awesome. During my appointment, I learned a few very important things (that I kind of already knew)

 1) Contrary to what my chauvinistic last dr. I had seen said, I am perfectly riding the weight gain scale. As of today I have gained 25 pounds. Wait...SAY WHAT?! I know. Scary right. But here's the break down:

Baby: 6-8 lb.
Placenta:1-2 lbs.
Uterus:1-2 lbs.
Amniotic fluid: 2-3 lbs.
This last one made me giggle because I always joke about it, but I guess it's actually legit!
Boobs:1-2lbs.

As for me:
I produce 3-4 more pounds of blood!
My body should HEALTHILY have a fat storage of 8-10 pounds (in my THIGHS!)
I my fluids increase 3-4 lb.

Therefore at birth I can have gained 25-35 lbs. and be considered "healthy". That's insane to me!
With only 6 more weeks to go I can easily gain a pound a week for my little bean. (Just another excuse to eat as much fudge as I want at Christmas!!!)

2) As the dr. is massaging my belly and trying to get a mental picture of what position Baby Claire is in, she casually asks me, "So...exactly how big was your first baby? because....{long pause} you don't have a whole lot of room left in there" HA! to all of you who think I'm being a big baby. I am not the big baby here. Claire is! Which isn't really comforting either.

A little history: Emily was predicted by the very same dr. to be a big baby. They were not going to let me go more than 7 days over my due date without being induced because they were concerned for her bigness and my, well, narrowness. Precious Emily was born 6 days over due at a healthy and average 6lb 14oz. HOWEVER, she was nearly 21 inches long. Turns out baby bean Emily just had some seriously long legs rolled up in there.

After telling the dr. this today she smiles and says "congrats, it looks like you might have yourself another long legged girl" GREAT! Just what I need...when is there ever a good ending for a mom of a blonde haired, blue eyed, long legged girl? That's right, NEVER.

and 3) I have this one spot...right below my ribs where there is some appendage that rubs and rubs, all day long and bruises my insides. By the end of the day it hurts so bad that the only thing I can do is lay down on my side to relieve the pressure. I figured now would be the time to ask about it. "Oh it's probably a knee. perfectly normal" she says as she pulls up my shirt to feel again. "Oh!...actually, it feels like it's her bottom."

Awesome! because guess what? Claire's pointy little bottom is going to start getting spankings!

Really though. What is happening is that by the end of the day: my little Claire is tired of being in the fetal position (Emily was the same way...I couldn't swaddle her to save my life...she always got out of it and sprawled out) and is stretching her long ol legs out and putting pressure on both sides of my belly!

Want a mental picture? I will share mine with you. Remember when you were a kid and you used to walk up the door way? you know...put your back on one side and stretch your legs out to the other, then put so much pressure on the frame that you were able to defy gravity and actually scale the frame to the ceiling? Yep...that's exactly what she is doing TO MY INSIDES!

Okay, enough baby talk...

On a completely different note. I finally braved the craziness and went out Christmas shopping! I'm almost done. 3 more gifts. This is the first year that I actually feel like a parent doing Christmas shopping for a spoiled only child. Now I have to figure out where to hide all the presents. I'm feeling just a little less "Bah Hum Bug"

New Picture!

I FINALLY uploaded a new family picture for you all on my header. I'm getting the little things done.

Twas two weeks before Christmas...

Twas two weeks before Christmas...oops, I think we are down to a week and 2 days. Lets try this again.

Twas a week and 2 days before Christmas 
and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring not even a ...

What was that sound?
MOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh I give up!
BAH HUM BUG

I sleep on the couch now. No, it's not because my husband can't stand my big pregnant butt hogging the entire bed. And it's not because I'm about as crazy as a bat and I get put in the dog house for losing my temper. It is because this precious (insert both truth and sarcasm at that word) child is trying to kill me.

I know.
I know!
I'm pregnant.
"I got myself into this mess"...with a little help.
and "it's totally worth the wait".
I know.

I have a little over 6 weeks left and I have to tell you: I AM MISERABLE! Claire is only comfortable when she is bouncing on my diaphram. Oh no, I don't get to experience the pleasures of my baby happily bouncing on my bladder and maybe tinkling a little in the grocery store line ( sorry men, but if you're a woman and you've had kids, you are laughing at this because you know it's true ) I instead have the wind sucked/knocked/kick/jabbed/or punched out of me on a regular basis. To make it even better, if I even attempt to lay flat on my back, I physically can not inhale oxygen. Which leads me to my 2 previous statements:

1) Claire is trying to kill me. and...
2) It explains why I'm sleeping in an upright, inclined position on the couch. Which should also explain why I'm currently cheesing mouse traps as I type so that I can take pleasure in destroying the mouse who was running around in my stove keeping me up all night last night!!!!

I'm not sure how every other woman in existence has been able to do anything for Christmas with a baby close at hand. Actually, I was told ALOT of women go in to labor right now, trying to get everything done in order to prepare for the holidays before babies arrival. But what about the women like me? The ones who have little time but more than enough to know that they aren't going to have to spend Christmas IN the hospital, but are just done with life in general? (again, sorry men. women who have had kids: I know you remember that final month and a half of swollen ankles, water retention, heart burn, and mood swings....or maybe you don't, because I might not have opted to do this again had I remembered P.S. I think Aaron agrees!)

I'm tired and exhausted and the walk from the bedroom...I mean COUCH to the bathroom in the middle of the night is enough to get me winded and ready to sleep again. Now I have to do Christmas shopping? WHICH, by the way, HAS BARELY BEGAN!

Alright, I'm done complaining. Writing about my problems is just freaking me out more.

Bottom line:

-I have a healthy (although killer) jumping pineapple (that's how big she is now)
-Emily is healthy as an ox and eating me out of house and home.
-I have a husband who is as happy as he can be with an often crazy wife and knowledge that more estrogen is about to become the norm for him.
-We all have a roof over our heads
and food on the table.

Wait...scratch that last one. I need to go grocery shopping.

Someday I will put pictures up. I promise. Just don't give up on me.