New Years Eve 2008

No grand plans for us this year... Deacon has been fighting a little stomach bug today and yesterday and I just have no energy- so a relaxing day at home was a perfect way to bring in the new year. We thought maybe we would try to go to fireworks tonight at 9, but the thought of putting on clothes and going in public sounds about as appealing to me as a trip to the dentist... ok, maybe that's a touch extreme.

We have been so incredibly fortunate in 2008... it's been an amazing year. So here's to a new year and new blessings.

Happy New Year to all our amazing friends, family and blog-stalkers...

Bill

Look at me kick my mommy in the rib cage!

Deacon has decided that our baby should be named "Bill." I have absolutely no clue where he came up with this name... I only know two beings named Bill (one human, one feline) and Deacon only knows the cat named Bill- and he doesn't even know the cat very well. So the other day when I asked him about baby names and he suggested "Bill" I was rather confused... strangely enough, he hasn't forgotten his suggestion either and keeps referring to his baby brother as "Bill" no matter how many times we tell him we do not plan on naming the child Bill. Though I will admit that I think it's funny and have come to calling the baby "Bill" every now and then when Deacon isn't around. Rest assured, however, the baby will not be named Bill.

So today we did the 3D ultrasound and it was SO amazing... we got some great pictures and I cannot get over how much this baby already resembles Deacon as an infant. Sure, they're brothers, so I guess it shouldn't surprise me too much... but I guess my hopes of having a child who resembles me more than Damien is thrown out the window. No-name/Bill has a large head just like his brother... measuring 4 weeks ahead. The big news is that he is now head down and appears to be solidly comfy in that position. He was adorable the entire time and it was great to watch him on the screen do what he does to me all day long... kick the rib cage, get stuck way down low, punch me, etc... at least everyone got to witness what I feel all day.

I am getting really excited to meet this little one... though I'm in disbelief that my due date is 10 weeks away!!!

Happy Anniversary to us!

It's been 5 years!!! Happy Anniversary to Damien and I!

I started the morning with a gallbladder attack... always lovely... and spent the rest of the morning sick. Things went uphill after that and we were able to enjoy a nice family dinner out at Joe's Crab Shack... YUM!

Milo's favorite Christmas gift

Well, technically the bike was for Damien... but we got it so he could take Milo on a more athletic walk. The first bike we got Damien broke on its inaugural ride so mom and I had to go back to the store and get a new one... and this one did much better. Milo had a great time and it wore both daddy and Milo out really quick!

29 weeks!

3rd trimester!!!

I'm at the fun part of the pregnancy where no sleeping position is comfortable and I'm peeing every hour. It's loads of fun.

Oh, and no-name LOVES to play the most around 10 p.m. right as I'm getting ready for bed.

So dang proud of myself

I have made it a goal of mine to learn to use the sewing machine well... I hate that I rely on my mom and even my husband to do all the sewing in this house! After making jammies I gained a new level of confidence and the other day when we realized that my mom didn't have a stocking here at our house I decided to make her one! I took one of our stockings from downstairs to trace out a pattern and used some of the leftover jammie fabric... AND I DID THE WHOLE THING BY MYSELF!!!- ok, ok, Damien did the bobbin thing for me, but after he did that, he left and I did the rest with no one watching me!!!

I swear I have never been more pleased with myself, LOL.

Riding the Bullet Train... or Amtrak

Today we rode Amtrak... though Deacon kept calling it the Bullet Train (any Choo Choo Soul fans here???). My mom and I thought Deacon would have fun riding the train and so we decided to get us all tickets and spend the afternoon shopping and doing lunch in Emeryville (bay area). I cannot even tell you how excited Deacon was... the entire way there he looked out the window and kept commenting on all the cool stuff that went by. He was THRILLED when Grandpa took him to the snack car to buy some orange juice... it was like the best orange juice he had ever tasted.

This was also Damien's first time ever riding Amtrak... he was big and brave just like Deacon.

Merry Christmas!!!

We've had such a great day... Deacon totally gets Christmas this year and it was SO fun. He woke up at 7:15 (when he normally wakes up at 6:15... we were all up and waiting for him) and yelled, "DID SANTA BRING ME PRESENTS?!?!" When I said, "I think so," he started running and telling me I wasn't running fast enough after him. He was so excited to see the gifts under the tree and he had so much fun opening his presents... I was so proud of him because he kept saying thank you to Santa and us (he knew which ones were from Santa and which ones were from us) and genuinely meant it. He did so well.

The most popular gift of the year was the remote control helicopter- which was a gift for Deacon and Damien. Milo was scared of the helicopter and Damien and Deacon spent the whole day fighting over who got to play with it- but they had a great when they were able to share well :)

Dad and I made eggs and pancakes for breakfast and then we started in on our dinner- turkey! We're still waiting for the turkey to finish, but it smells good :)

I hope you all had a great holiday! Love you all!

It's Christmas Eve... and we like to take a lot of pictures

Damien and I both have always wanted to make Christmas Eve a big deal with our kids- so we decided that on Christmas Eve Deacon would open gifts from all out of town family and friends. So tonight we all loaded up into the car to look at Christmas lights and came home to a bunch of Christmas gifts! (While Damien and my dad loaded Deacon into the car my mom and I frantically got all the gifts out and under the tree)

The coolest part about it was that both Damien and Deacon were surprised- when Damien walked in the first thing he saw was his brand new bike and Deacon of course was excited about all the gifts he saw.

Deacon was SO excited about his remote control car from Grammy and Grumpy... he could hardly contain himself. He played with it all night and kept running into poor Milo with it. Thanks Grammy and Grumpy, LOL. After Deacon opened all his gifts he had another gift waiting for him up in his room- his new "Big boy" room- with a construction theme. He was so excited about this gift too... he didn't know what to do- hang out in his new room or play with his new drum or remote control car. Uncle Derek also go thim this wooden superhero ape toy that Deacon took a strong liking to- he kept kissing it goodnight and even tucked him in before bedtime.

After Deacon went to sleep we let Milo open most of his gifts... and he is SO good at opening up presents, it was really funny.

I can't wait to see Deacon's face tomorrow when he comes downstairs...

Seeing his big boy room for the first time

He loved all his new toys, but the bone was his absolute favorite

Homemade goodness...

I have to say that I have an AMAZING husband and this is why...

I decided this year that I wanted to make everyone Christmas jammies- every year we all get new jammies for Christmas but I usually just buy them at the store. Well, I don't have much experience sewing, so I knew this was going to be a HUGE undertaking and I waited until my mom was here to help me... but we met my goal and I got two pairs of jammies made in time for Polar Express tonight. Damien wore his jammies WITHOUT COMPLAINT of any kind... he even complimented me on them despite the fact that there are quite a few mistakes. Deacon was SO thrilled to have his daddy wear jammies like him, and I was thrilled that my husband loves me so much that he wore a pair of crazy Santa jammies that I made him out in public.

(in the picture Deacon is covering his ears because the train whistle was too loud)

Polar Express!

Deacon was so excited about Polar Express until we got there... at which point he got really nervous. But the minute the train pulled into the station he was so excited. Deacon and Taylor had a blast on the train and I'm so happy we did this again this year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!

Today was Grandma's birthday so Deacon and I made a cake! He did a great job helping and even cracked the egg all by himself... granted, someone is going to get a crunchy piece of cake now, but he did a great job :)

We like being able to celebrate Grandma's birthday with her in person!

Baby update!

Today I had an ultrasound to check on my placenta and gallbladder.

Good news first- placenta looks "great" (though the u/s tech said I didn't hear that from her... since the techs aren't allowed to talk about anything diagnostic). Baby was adorable as always- I never get tired of seeing that little alien looking thing in my stomach :) He's incredibly active... has been for over a month now- and today was no different. The tech had a good 20 minutes or so of him being good and still but then he woke up and she had to really work hard to get any good pictures of him. Baby no-name LOVES to kick me as hard as he can so it was rather entertaining to at least watch him do it and feel it at the same time. He's measuring right on time... another exciting bit of news for us since Deacon was always measuring about 3-4 weeks ahead. I'll be more than happy to give birth to a non-9 lb baby this time around.

So in other news- my gallbladder. For this ultrasound she did a scan of my entire abdomen which was really interesting. Well, she was much more quiet for this scan than she was for the ob scan... and then when she was taking pictures of my gallbladder she was REALLY quiet, LOL. The pictures of my gallbladder seemed weird to me and there appeared to me a big mass inside of it- but obviously I have no clue so I finally asked if what I was seeing was normal. Her response was that she wasn't allowed to tell me anything diagnostic, but a simple search on google would fill me in pretty quickly. LOL. Needless to say Dr. Google helped a lot and my u/s pictures look exactly like the pictures of everyone else who has a fair amount of gallstones.

There isn't anything that they can really do at this point for gallstones. Thankfully I don't have attacks too frequently... in fact the last one I had was December 1. I found a blog of a woman who had a pretty bad gallbladder experience and she explained things really well here if you're interested in hearing what a gallbladder attack is like. I'm really hoping that things stay manageable for me... I'm due March 13, so a little less than 3 months to go!!!

The baby still doesn't have a name and I'm more and more ok with that. I'm getting increasingly uncomfortable... I'm at that point in the pregnancy where I realize that I have quite some time to go but I'm really wishing it was 2 weeks away just so I wouldn't have to be pregnant anymore. I love feeling him move around, but most of the time he takes it to the extreme... he's very active and rarely sleeps. His kicking and movements are always really strong and rarely just a little flutter and he loves to get stuck really low in my belly and really high in my rib cage... either way I have a difficult time walking or functioning when he does it.

I honestly can't complain too much though... I might be uncomfortable, but I'm healthy. I'm working out 3-4 days a week again and feel great about that. Baby loves when I'm at the gym and usually spends the entire time bouncing along with me on the elliptical or while I'm lifting weights- kicking as hard as he can when I put any pressure on him, LOL.

We'll be doing the 3D u/s in the next few weeks and so I'll post some pictures of him then.

Christmas Cookie Baking 2008- Mission Completion!

I have never, in my life, made so many cookies in such a short amount of time. And I have never made so many cookies from scratch... in fact, only one cookie was made with pre-made dough (look back a few posts from when Deacon and I made Christmas cookies together). I've been baking since Saturday night and I finally finished this morning... I bake a few batches at a time and it's been really easy to manage it this way. I would have been totally overwhelmed if I tried to do it all at once. I am SO darn pleased with myself. I ended up making 6 tins, 1 tray (pictured above) and have quite a few cookies left for when my dad visits next week.

Here's what I made:
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Buckeyes
Chocolate Covered Marshmallows
Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Sugar Cookies
Snickerdoodles
Cornflake Holly Berry Cookies
Peanut Butter Brownie Cookies
Candy Bar Cookies

Santa!

We went over to Karla's house tonight and Santa stopped by for a visit! The kids LOVED it. Deacon was apprehensive at first and hid in the kitchen... he was all smiles and I think he hid because he was embarrassed that he was scared. But once I carried him in the room he was fine and loved it. Santa brought all the kids a present too- and even though Deacon asked Santa for an Incredible Hulk (which we knew he would) he got a Cars Mack Truck... and was SO excited.

After Santa left we decorated (those darned) Christmas cookies, played and ate dinner... a fun night for kids and parents :)

Now THIS is how you make cookies...

Alone! LOL

I made Peanut Butter Brownie cookies today... the recipe could not be any more simple but the chocolate brownie dough is really sticky and difficult to "roll" into balls. The peanut butter balls couldn't be easier to make and roll into balls. They taste AMAZING- and I think I'm going to have to hide these from Damien. I only made about 20 so it's hardly enough for all the people we're making cookies for!

Note to self:

Do not make Christmas cut-out cookies with a 3 year old... ever.

I know some of you super moms can do it... or have been doing it for years since your child was old enough to smash a cookie cutter into the rolled out dough. But I'm not super mom... in fact, I'm probably the opposite, as my patience is GONE and one must have patience when making cut-out cookies with a 3 year old.

I hate rolling out cookie dough to begin with... I also hate how hard you have to work to get a great cut-out cookie transferred onto the cookie sheet. Add a toddler to the mix? Yeah, I did not have a good time.

I am horribly embarrassed to admit that at one point I got SO frustrated with the situation that I yelled at Deacon... I yelled at my 3 year old while making freaking Christmas cookies- and they're cookies we're decorating for him and his friends. We're not entering a baking contest or something!!! I told him he was ruining the cookies... how's that for mom of the year? Right after I said it I felt like shit and hugged him, apologized and just explained that I was frustrated... and of course he didn't care- he was just pleased as punch to be eating the frosting, smashing cookie dough and throwing flour everywhere.

The one good thing is that Deacon had a good time... and that kind of makes it all worth it.