Since we had the blog last year when her birthday came, I feel kind of obligated to put up some different baby pictures...and of course, Maggie was our last pre-digital baby so I'm going to have to scan! Ugh!
Ok, this is the picture from last year, I confess!
3 months:
Here she is now (albeit blurry)!
She is indeed a joy! She's loving Polly Pockets and Tinkerbell at the moment! It's hard to believe that "9 years ago right now..." I was holding our brand new Megan!
She laughed this morning when I told her it was snowing the day she was born, just like it is today! She's so easily amused! :)
Our little girl is STILL a girl, no question! And she's doing great. She's measuring several days ahead, which is good (She was 18 weeks and 2 days and measured 19 weeks.). Everything looks and measures perfectly. We couldn't ask for anything better! Our doctor's appointment was uneventful - we all sorta sat in the room looking at each other not knowing what to talk about - no hematomas, no contractions, no worries to speak of - very NOT normal for us! It was GREAT!!
Two profile shots - I'd try to point features out to you but, well, she has none! In the bottom picture though, you can see her right arm laying across her chest. Above (to the left) of her arm is her chin and nose and forehead...if that helps any.
We go back in 4 weeks for our next appointment (by the way, 4 weeks from yesterday is Christmas Eve...our receptionist was kind enough to point that out to us).
In other news, we got our first snow last night. Of course the kids were thrilled! All I could think about was the pile of studded snow tires sitting in my basement, NOT on my van and the trip I need to make to Wal*Mart to finish up Megan's birthday shopping today!
(I realize that for the first 30 seconds of this video, you see nothing but black - and after that, it doesn't get much better...but you can hear the kids and you do get to see an occasional glimps of snow.)
I do have to admit, it is beautiful out here when it snows! If I could just figure out a way to stay in my home until Spring, I'd be set! (View this morning from our living room windows.)
We spent yesterday at Uncle Dave and Aunt Raye's house and it was wonderful. The house was packed with family and food. We suffered through the "Thankfuls" and then enjoyed hours of food and fun. We played games, the kids played outside where it was freezing cold - then came inside where it was packed with people and very hot! Just how I remember it as a kid! :)
On your mark...
Get set...
Go!
Uncle Dave and his ROLLS! My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of 2 rolls - that's all! No turkey, no potatoes, just uncle Dave rolls...they're HUGE by the way! :)
Joseph started out the day a little shy - there were SO MANY PEOPLE! But he warmed up to everyone and soon made his rounds throughout the house...working up quite a thirst!
Here's the fam! I had to break the picture up into a couple of shots - and there were still some people in the kitchen who didn't make it into the pictures. We sure had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year...we hope you did, too!
It's hard to see, but Joseph is playing with a little red laser pen light. He's chasing it around and smacking it like a bug! My favorite thing to do now is to shine the light/dot on Brandon's nose and wait for Joseph to notice it!
Keep It Simple, Stupid! I've found that the most effective way to get through to my children is to speak simply and directly to them. They don't often get long, drawn out answers to their questions. They get what answers their question without making it more confusing! It works for us! They seem to appreciate not having to wonder if they're missing something. We're going to try this theory out in our blog today. It's going to go something like this...
Yes! Yes, we know how this happens! No! No, this wasn't an accident!
I figure those two answers should just about cover the most common questions out there! :)
We'd like to introduce, "Baby M". She is due to join our family April 27th. By our own standard, we're almost half way there. We like to be optimistic and day dream about a baby that arrives on it's due date - but we're also realistic and we are preparing for another early arrival.
We're almost 17 weeks along now and so far everything has been smooth sailing. I'm tired, fat and grouchy - if you didn't know I was pregnant you wouldn't know anything was different from any other day! Actually, I'm feeling much better. We seem to be past (or at least passing) the morning sickness phase which is a blessing! I actually haven't even seen my doctor yet, if you can believe that. I've been in for a few ultra sounds and an exam by (I don't know what she is, really...she's not a real doctor, but she can do exams and check-ups) "Jan". My nurse is taking good care of me! Brandon and I are starting to wonder if she isn't maybe pulling a Norman Bates! It could very well be that she has my doctor propped up in his office simply for looks and that she is really calling all the shots! It's all good with me until it's time for this baby to arrive - then we know how possessive I get about my doctor doing the honors!
We truly hope that no one is offended by finding out our good news via our blog. If you consider the size of my family - added to the size of Brandon's family - throw in several handfuls of close friends...there is just no way we could personally let everyone know - at least not before the baby came.
I realized last month, when the anniversary of my own grandmother's passing came and went, that I didn't so much want "one more day" with my loved ones who had died anymore. Apparently I'm an all or nothing kind of girl! I couldn't stand having to say good-bye AGAIN!! Now I'm a little more content with "memories"! Luckily for our family, we have MANY, WONDERFUL memories of Grandpa Lee! Today would be his 66th birthday! Our family went to a buffet breakfast/lunch yesterday, in his honor (One of Grandpa's favorite restaurants). Of course nothing is the same as it would be to have him here with us, but it is nice to be able to keep his memory alive in our family and do fun little things like this with the kids.
When we got home yesterday (Veteran's Day, no work - no school) we got a few odds and ends done around the house. We actually hung our first, official picture on the wall! Yes, we've been here 5 1/2 months - no, we didn't have anything hung on the wall until last night! It's amazing how "homey" photos, prints, paintings and other artsy/fartsy (sorry, that was one of my grandma's sayings) things make a home! The very first picture we hung was the picture/collage I made (with enormous help from a few online friends) of Grandpa Lee for Brandon's Christmas gift last year! We slid the frame up and down on the wall trying to decide the most perfect place to put it - and finally Brandon said, "Right here, this is where I can look right into his eyes." Well, *sniff* there just isn't much you say after that!
There isn't much we wouldn't give to have Grandpa back! Of course we know that he's always near by and we know we'll see him again - but the wait sucks (sorry,that's one of my sayings). I miss him like I would my own dad. I can't even put in to words how much Brandon misses his father. My children talk about grandpa a lot and we sometimes cry together still. We want them to know that it's ok to be sad - heaven knows I'm sitting here with tears streaming down my face - I can hardly expect more from my children. We are blessed to be part of Grandpa's family!
Yesterday (and today) Jason stayed home from school. Yesterday he had an appointment with the orthodontist. In preparation for braces, the doctor put spacers between Jason's molars...so he's home today w/ ice packs and Motrin.
But, yesterday afternoon, Jason felt ok and since there was only an hour left of school after his appointment, I just brought him home with me. The little girlies were gone, playing at their cousin's house, so it was just Jason and Joseph. I was in the kitchen and could here Joseph laughing and laughing - finally, Jason came in and said, "Hey mom, I taught Joseph how to play football." So here are a few short videos of the brothers being cute!
