Christmas is over...

I can't believe Christmas is OVER

I mean, all that work, prep, and planning - over?

When we were putting up our Christmas Tree I honestly told myself, when we are taking this tree back down - we will be just that much closer to my due date.

Well here we are...   

All the Christmas is down, inside and out.

Steve brought up our recliner from the basement in preparation for when Carter arrives.  Instead of a glider we bought this chair so we could keep it around after Alyssa got older.  Glad we did!  Now it will be used for this baby and is nice enough to be in our living space.

But now the house seems empty.

And I kind of like it actually, HA!

We did some deep cleaning once the decorations came down and it's just nice to have that CLEAN feeling in the house, after all the excess from Christmas.

It won't be long before I start getting Valentine's Day decorations up though!

Snow Day!

While we were out running errands Friday, it started SNOWING

It was predicted that we'd get freezing rain/drizzle, but not snow.  And to me it looked like it was really coming down.  We headed home and the closer we got to home the more snow was accumulating.

By the next day we had a good 3", which doesn't sound like much, but that's the most we've had in probably 2 years now.  We've gotten snowflakes here and there, but not enough to SLED or making SNOWMEN with!

Daddy worked half a day, came home and outside we went to enjoy the SNOW Saturday!

I was the offical "watcher" and "picture taker"

Couldn't risk getting hurt or hurting the baby doing all the fun sledding.  But that's what daddy's are for, right?

They went out again yesterday for more sledding, took down the Christmas lights, and did end up making a good sized snowman.

They are calling for 1"-3" of snow again today.  We shall have to wait and see!

Christmas Wrap Up

We celebrated Christmas a few day's early with my dad's side of the family.

My cousin, Jared, was in from Seattle for this Christmas.  It's been 2 years since we'd seen him last.

Aunt Linda, Grandma Smith, Alyssa, Shae, Steve, Me, my dad, and Cousin Jared

After this Christmas celebration we went to Steve's family's Christmas.

We didn't stay very long as it was late when we arrived and were stuffed to the gills already from eating at my family's celebration.

Christmas Eve was just as busy.

We got all dressed up and I tried out a new hairstyle on Alyssa

Here I am!  24 Weeks 3 Days!

This is Steve with his Mom and Sister

We haven't been able to celebrate Christmas together for quite awhile, so this year was pretty special

We had a big Christmas ham dinner before we headed out to church for their evening Christmas service.

My favorite part was the candle light service towards the end as we sang with the lights dimmed down, the candle light was beautiful.

 We headed home after church to open gifts

This "Little Brother" onsie set was from Steve's Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Carlos for Carter.  They sent it along with Steve's mom for us.  Very thoughtful.

Then it was time to get ready for Santa Claus!

She put out the reindeer food

 Milk and Cookies of course

Lucy her elf on a shelf had to fly his way back to the North Pole with Santa

 

 She tracked Santa one more time on her Kindle

 

And we read the Night Before Christmas

She fell right to sleep too.

Then 6:30am Christmas Day...

She was up and freaking out over all the presents, the missing milk and cookies, and that Santa had left her a note

This is the ONE thing she REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted and asked Santa for...

And American Girl Doll

Marie Grace

Her Grandma came over for breakfast and to see all her new toys.

Once we got things straightened up around the house we headed over to my parents house to exchange gifts.

This is Alyssa in front of their Christmas Tree
This is where we got a lot of Carter's Christmas Gifts from THIS POST

Gramma and Papa stocked her up on accessories for her AG doll

Aunt Shae Shae with one of the onsies she bought for Carter

 

The onsies I made for my mom and dad from Carter

Mom is a NASCAR fan

Dad is a Motorcycle Man

After opening gifts it was time for a NAP.  So we took things home, took a nap, got cleaned up, and headed back over to their house a couple hours later for dinner.

My Aunt Linda and cousin Jared joined us again for that.

Over all, we had such a packed schedule of events and gatherings going on over 3 days.

We are very blessed with such a wonderful family to celebrate with.

Baby Hiccups

The night before last, at 25 weeks and 1 day, I was feeling rhythmic kicks...

Then I thought, they aren't strong enough to be kicks, this baby really KICKS.  It was also in way too much of a rhythmic pattern that he'd be able to keep up those kicks like that.

Then I realized

HICCUPS!

It kept up for a good 10-15 minutes before I fell asleep.  I woke up to make a trip to the bathroom and when I came back, he had them again... this time, it wasn't so cute.  It kept me awake for some time.  And again the next morning he had them as I was waking up.

I haven't felt them since, I guess he just had a bad case of the hiccups over those 8-10 hours?

25 Weeks

 25 WEEKS

Lovely photo... I know...

This week baby was VERY active yesterday.  Then I found out it was a full moon.  There must be some truth to that.  

My belly button is in the middle of the road freaky phase (not in, not out)

Self grooming is officially a pain

I haven't painted my toenails in at least 6 weeks... they need it bad, and I doubt it will happen anytime soon

I got a hair cut since my last photo, I'll need one more before this baby's birthday

 

 

Baby belly is groooowing.

I honestly can't imagine 15 more weeks of this.  My body is already in an uncomfortable phase and I'm not even in my 3rd trimester yet.  What gives!?!

Yep, still have a long way to go.

 

BABY

 

 If I had to guess, I'd say he's closer to the 2+ lb side of that estimation above.

 

Carter now knows up from down as his equilibrium kicked in this week. He also should have some beautiful hair on his head!

Cloth Diaper Shopping!

A new vendor joined our Expo team, of course, it was a weekend when we weren't THERE.

Another vendor told me about the "Cloth Diaper Lady" that was there and we HAD to make a special trip (1 hour drive) out to the expo, where we had been way too much over the holiday's as it was, just to go CLOTH DIAPER SHOPPING!

So worth the trip.

First, the lady was wonderful.  Very informative, answered a lot of my questions and then some.  Her prices were reasonable and I came home with, what I felt, was a good amount of diapers to add to our cloth diaper stash.  And none the less, it was FUN.

She had brands that I had been wanting to try and brands I hadn't heard of.  She also had used diapers for great prices too.  We got a mix of things.  Here's what we came home with...

 These are the NEW diapers we bought

2x Alva, Sunbaby, Kawaii w/ Bamboo lining, and one I'm not sure the brand on (Navy blue, I liked it because of the velcro)

 These are the three USED ones we bought

2 minky outsides and one newborn (orange), just to have on hand...

 Then we bought three covers

1 New (Blue Kawaii) and 2 Used (Lime & Stripe Thirsties)

\

 None of the diapers came with inserts so I bought 7 microfiber standard sizes to put into the pocket diapers

The lady was nice enough to throw in a cloth changing pad and BumGenius sample of wash for FREE!

 So here is my current cloth diaper stash:

Extra inserts on the left (6 bamboo & 6 microfiber)

Pocket diapers in the center (12)

Tongue diapers in the bag on the top right (5)

Covers (3) and the Newborn diaper (1) on the bottom right

Now I need to figure our what all I still need.
A pail wet bag would be a good start...

Baby Christmas Gifts!

WOW

Christmas was CRAZY!

I'm talking 3 straight days of celebrations with family, friends, church, cooking, baking, opening/wrapping gifts, driving...

I took some photos of the Christmas gifts Carter received this Christmas from his Aunt Shae, and Grandma and Papa.  He also received a few other things, but I forgot all about them when I was taking these photos - so I'll have to add those in another time.

 

 I actually MADE these for my mom and dad as gifts from Carter to them.  We have a motorcycling Papa and a NASCAR crazy Grandma.  I thought they were appropriate.  They got a big kick out of them.

 Yes, that one toy is pink, Daddy isn't happy about it, but OH WELL.

Papa I think is a little color blind...

 This motorcycle set cracks me to.  I see our baby working in his Papa's shop, sleeves rolled up, grease all over him, tatoos...and it's like a 9 month size, lol!

Of course Aunt Shae doesn't get left out of her gloating with this nephew

And this little guy was the only gift under our Christmas tree this year for Carter from Mommy and Daddy.  Alyssa received one as well, just a cat not a dog.  (They are from Scentsy)

Being that it was Alyssa's last Christmas as our beloved only child of honor, we didn't want the tree overwhelmed with gifts that weren't for her.  We did let her open this little guy for him though.  She also opened all the above gifts for him as well (even though Grandma let her wrap most of them up too! Ha!)

24 Weeks

24 WEEKS!

This is a BIG BIG week

Baby is at a point of VIABILITY

Although we do not wish to have a premature baby at ANY point, there is at least a 40%-70% chance that the baby will be able to live outside the womb now.  With each passing week, this percentage will go up and that makes me breath just a little easier at this point.

Pregnancy This Week

I think the "comfortable" phase of this pregnancy is starting to come to an end.

I've gotten to the point of body aches, to a slight degree.  Sleeping is getting uncomfortable.  Sitting is starting to get uncomfortable.  I'm starting to get out of breath easier and get tired much sooner.

However, all this doesn't come close to having to deal with all that morning sickness.  With that being said, I'm NOT complaining.

Next Doctor's Appointment: January 8th

at 26 weeks 4 days

Baby This Week

Carter is getting BIG!  The size of a cantaloupe now, and from the looks of my stomach a cantaloupe sounds about right.

 I've been calling Carter my little "wild man," because he gets into very long and strong kicking fits.  There is a big difference between him just moving around, getting comfortable, and when he's moving and grooving in there.

I've noticed a sleeping pattern already.  Usually he is up and wild between 10pm and 11pm.  Then there are about 2-4 sessions of moving around and poking and jabbing throughout the day.  You can even see from the outside all his crazy movements on my stomach.  It's very interesting to watch.

Hats are to boys like...

Hats are to Boys like Bows are to Girls

Bows Bows BOWS - Alyssa doesn't leave the house without a bow.  But what do you do for boys?  Nothing?  No.... HATS! 

How cute are these!?!

Mr. Grinch and an Owl

Love. Them.

Christmas Family Fun!

 We had so much fun this weekend!

After working so many weekends in a row, it was nice to enjoy a weekend for once.

Friday night we went to a very neat restaurant in downtown St. Louis

The Fountain on Locust

 Hubby and I in our booth enjoying an appetizer

My sister joined us after she got off work for desert

Saturday we had a family fun day!

We did a lot of cooking and baking...

 Alyssa helping me make Hot Chocolate Brownies

 We made our own Christmas Pizzas

We also made Jello-Jigglers, Grinch Floats, and chocolate covered pretzels

Once it was dark we headed over to The Shrine for The Way of Lights

My parents joined us.  It was over 30 min. wait to get into the entrance and about an hour to drive through.  We've gone through this thing in less then 10 min, start to finish before, but that's what we get for going on a Saturday right before Christmas.  It was beautiful none the less.

We also stopped by the Pet Store while we were out.  Bubbles got a festive new home for the holidays and Pongo, our Guinea Pig, got a new igloo (aka: hiding hole according to Alyssa)

And Sunday we had family over.

My aunt and uncle as well as my "baby" cousin who was in from college

We had dinner, exchanged gifts, and chit chatted most of the evening.

Alyssa received a gift card to the American Girl store and can NOT wait to go to the store and use it.

We had a great weekend!!!

This week doesn't slow down at all.

In fact I need to hurry through a shower so I can make my hair appt which is in less then an hour.