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...
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!

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!
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.
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.
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)
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!
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.
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 CookiesBuckeyesChocolate Covered MarshmallowsChocolate Covered PretzelsSugar CookiesSnickerdoodlesCornflake Holly Berry CookiesPeanut Butter Brownie CookiesCandy Bar Cookies

Alone! LOLI 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!
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.