Snow!

There is really no better way to spend the last day of 2012 than hearing the babe's heartbeat at my last doctor appointment this morning (we'll try and do one last bump shot/update tomorrow), hanging on the couch with my girls, no place to go other than our neighbors party tonight (which is a mere 12 steps from our front door), and watching the snow continuously fall.  The ladies have been asking to go outside since they woke up, so shortly before lunch I let them have at it.
Of course they immediately started chowing down...
then snowball fights....
general excitement...
snow angels....
and a little sisterly hand shaking off the extra snow...
And magically, they stayed out there for quite some time until I had to call them in after noticing they were basically disrobing (hats, gloves and Reese was about to take off her coat after her lovely sister stuffed a snowball down her back).
Happy New Year's Eve to everyone!

Go monkey!

New Year's Eve is always a good time to go through the old pics and videos.....thankfully my husband has yet to delete a single thing off his phone so imagine my delight and surprise when he had about 2500 pictures and videos dating back before Ryan arrived.  Talk about tear producer (almost as bad as an episode of Parenthood)....I can't even believe the video below is of Ryan.  I hardly remember her at this stage anymore and it's been a mere two+ years.  Where the higgity hell has time gone?   The attitude, voice, general craziness made me think it was Reese at first....even when I just showed Reese the video she was insistent it was her, not Ryan.   Time needs to sloooooowwwww down.  Let 2013 be the year of slowness (totally possible with 3 kids under 5, right?).
Simple disclaimer for any child protective services readers out there.....this was quite obviously Reese's crib at the time, not Ryans'.  Thank you.  Please don't show up at our house.  Although, looking at it now, two big violations regardless of which child was in it:  bumpers and it was a drop side crib.  Fine.  Show up at our house.

Christmas morning

In pictures...
Coming around the corner to see the tree
Running for presents
Reindeer food was gobbled up....
This post was about as fast and furious as the entire gift opening process on Christmas morning - aka it took about 2.5 minutes.

38 weeks

I hope everyone had a fun holiday!  I have Christmas pics to weed through later today.... as much as I love the holidays, come December 26th I am ready to move on.   And with a baby coming any day now, we were more than anxious to get the house back in order....by 6pm yesterday the only hint of the holidays were the Christmas cards still prominently displayed, my cherished supply of peppermint bark and the outdoor wreaths.   Everything else has been neatly organized (thank you nesting instinct) and put in storage for the year, including a handful of new purchases from my solo after-Christmas shopping excursion to Tar-jay (aka - a little heaven on earth).    Anyway, back to baby stats.  I had my 38 week appointment yesterday and am now 3cm dilated, forgot to ask about effacement....baby still very low.   I've never asked or had my membranes stripped, but thought I'd mention it just to see what my doctor said - it's basically a crap shoot as to whether or not it will start labor but since I am so dilated and baby is so low, she went for it.  I had more contractions than usual last night, but nothing that made me think 'this is it'.   We'll wait and see.  Oh yeah, and up 3 pounds.  In one week.  Apparently I enjoyed myself during the Christmas festivities.  Total weight gain is 29 pounds thus far.  Good news is we officially have an induction date set for one week from today.   Reese's labor was pretty darn fast so I do get worried about being one of those people birthing a child on my own kitchen floor (and my doctor is inclined to agree) so she was all for an induction.  

There you have it....one last appointment next Monday and if no baby by the 2nd we head on in Jan. 3rd to finally meet this little nugget!!!!

Special guest this morning for the bump photos....just one perk of holiday office hours.
And so you don't think we sold Reese on e-bay or something, she was too busy throwing a mini-tantrum in our bed. "I don't want my photo taken....noooooooo"

Merry Christmas!

May you find your very own naked set of buns under the tree tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!  

Baking cookies....and the subsequent sugar high

It was about time the girls and I busted out a batch or two of a Christmas must-have.....sugar cookies.   My helpers were all too eager to help and, in all honesty, wanted to do everything themselves.  I may have been asked to 'go sit on the couch' a few times so they could do it all their own way.  But this was going to be a joint, fun, holiday bonding occasion damnit and I was staying put.
If only they could channel this determination into cleaning their room:
They quickly adopted their own jobs....Reese was master roller, Ryan was chief decorator.
And then we learned the hard way why 'chief decorator' requires at minimum a Pre-Kindergarten degree.
Still working on sprinkle control.....obviously.
So we tried out a new job on her.....cookie watcher
And the take home lesson of today? Probably best not to bake sugar cookies at 4:30 in the afternoon....or else this is what your living room will look like after dinner.
Shield your eyes from the pull-up on Reese.....I don't even want to talk about it.  Two rather bad (and I mean bad) accidents in underwear in the last 2 days + impending birth = throwing in the towel  (#2 speaking) for the time being.

37 weeks

2 milestones this week.....baby is officially full-term and Grant has successfully left and returned on his last work trip without any crazy absent-father birth stories.    Woo hoo.   At my appointment yesterday, I am now 2 centimeters, still 50% effaced and baby is even lower (doesn't feel possible) at -1 station*.
*Yes, I'm throwing in some advanced pregnancy terms on this fine Tuesday - 2 extra credit points if you have any clue what this 'station' business is all about
According to the scale I actually lost a pound but I'm calling it a wash due to the boots and heavier attire I had worn the week before - so unofficially we'll still say I'm up 26 pounds.  Baby's heartbeat was a rockin' (at least for this little nugget) at around 150 bpm.  Heartburn had subsided a bit but has returned in recent days....Tums have again become a godsend.
I think the girls are over the bump photos....Ryan is a pretty good sport (with a tinge of attitude), Reese had better things to do.