Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's 2012

Clearly I'm a little behind in my posting these days.  There are some valid reasons, which I will expose in another post.

For now, let's talk HOLIDAYS!

This was truly the best holiday season I have ever had.

Thanksgiving
We hosted Thanksgiving again this year.  I had off the week before so I was able to prepare a lot of the dinner in advance, even though I was sick sick sick for the first 4 days :/  A couple of days before Thanksgiving, Sophia mentioned to me that she was or wanted to be a bumblebee.  I remembered that I still had her bumblebee wings and antennae from her first Halloween costume so I got them out for her to play with.  She put them on...and didn't take them off for about two weeks :)

We had a great group over for dinner, including our little three-some, Camille, the A+ Team, and Mike and Stephanie from across the street.  I guess I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of the people that were here, but I sure captured the yummy food!  Sophia was very helpful with all of it!  We made her a turkey hat and she was on her way.

After dinner we all went outside to enjoy the cool fall weather.

 And when all was said and done, the little "Bumbee-Bee" was tuckered out.

 

And now on to Christmas!

Thanksgiving was sort of early this year, which is GREAT for Christmas Season lovers.  An entire extra weekend of Christmas-ness!

Pretty much every weekend we had some type of Christmas party to attend.  A couple of Ugly Sweater Parties, a party at Sophia's school, a trip to see Santa, etc. The house was totally decked out (of course) and Sophia was completely into it all.  She was so excited to see all of the decorations all over the house and all over the city.  Every time she saw a house or a business with Christmas lights on, she would say "Look! More Christmas, Mommy!"  It was adorable. 

We had our first Christmas party here at the house on the 23rd.  We plan to make it an annual thing.  We made tons of tamales and posole and sweet treats.  We had just found out the sex of the baby a couple of days earlier so we decided to do a gender reveal at the party.  It was pretty fun to announce the big news in front of everyone :) Then Christmas Eve we were at Camille's for the traditional Feast of the Seven Fish with the A+ Team and Frank and Michael.  When Christmas morning came, she was just as excited to pass out presents as she was to open her own.  

And here's a ton of Christmas pictures.

 Since I was sick (again) before Christmas, we had to put off Christmas Movie Marathon until after Christmas.  The meal was still awesome as ever, but it lost it a little luster to watch the movies after Christmas.  Love Actually still made it's way onto the schedule, as well as the Muppet Christmas Carol.

 One of her favorite gifts was a Kindle Fire HD from Grandpa.  It's simply amazing to me that I merely turned the thing on with some apps loaded and she was able to maneuver her way around all the games and activities with no problem.

 Then  New Year's Eve we really did it up!  We got all dressed up, went to sushi dinner (pregnancy friendly sushi only of course), then went to see Finding Nemo which had been re-released in the theater, then headed to Paula's house for the A+ Team New Year's Bash.  We intended to just stop by to say Hi, but ended up staying until midnight!  Sophia was all into it!

Bumpdate! - Weeks 19 and 20

I've been so busy with the holidays and being SICK SICK SICK that I got very behind in my bumpdates.  So much has been changing from week to week that I need to seriously get better about this.  The majority of these two weeks have been focused on the excitement surrounding our ultrasound on the 21st.  At this appointment we would hopefully find out the gender of baby!  We had a Christmas party on the 23rd so decided to wait to tell everyone the results until the party.  We decided to take Soph with us to this appointment to see baby on the screen.  She was pretty fidgetty but overall it was fun having her in there.  Sophia has said from Day 1 when asked "Are you going to have a baby brother or baby sister?"  That she would have a "Baby Sister!!"  When we went in for the U/S we told the tech about Sophia's premonition.  Unfortunately, baby wasn't very cooperative for the tech to get what she needed from the U/S...however... we did find out that IT'S A GIRL!!!!  She said "Wow!  That's weird...she was right!  It's a girl!"  I knew from the moment I was pregnant that it was going to be a girl.  I don't know why but I just always felt like Ken and I were meant to have two girls.  I must also say that Ken and I had secret WANT for it to be a girl.  Of course we wouldn't have been disappointed, per se, had it been a boy, but a girl just felt right.

Baby Girly Parts :)

We didn't really get any other cute pictures from this session.  Also, it was determined that little girl's kidneys are a bit enlarged.  Between this and the fact that they didn't get a good view of her heart and other organs, they requested that we go in for a Level II ultrasound.  I guess our little Las Cruces doesn't have a site for these types of U/S so we will be going to Albuquerque on the 14th of January to have it done.  When they scheduled my next appointment, they labeled it as "high-risk" which doesn't really mean we are at risk of ANYTHING at all, but I certainly hate the way it sounds after everything we went through with Sophia.  We're not worried.  Sophia had a similar thing while I was pregnant and everything turned out fine.  None the less, please keep our girl in your thoughts and prayers.

So, at our Christmas party we placed a dry erase board on an easel for everyone to pick a side.  After signing their name to a team, they picked a number from that side for a raffle.  The winning number would reveal the baby's gender.

 The teams were pretty evenly split between boy and girl.

 And the winner is... A GIRL!!

Symptoms:  I feel wonderful.  No more tiredness.  No nausea.  Just enjoying every second of this pregnancy.

Cravings/Aversions:  Still loving sour candies.  Also obsessed with pickles and horseradish.  

Sleep: Still comfortable...just the dream thing.

Movement: All the time!  This time Ken has even been able to feel baby moving very early on!  Love love love.

Gender:  A GIRL!! We just knew it!

Maternity Clothes:  Pants and shirts.  I have a bunch of winter stuff left over from last time so that has been nice.  I'll need some new items in the spring though.

Best moment this week:  Finding out the gender.  Although when we were told that it was indeed a girl, I sort of had the feeling of "tell me something I don't know..."

Next doctor appointment:  January 14th U/S and January 17th regular appointment.

Due Date:  May 7, 2013

Bumpdate - Weeks 17 and 18!

Oops...time got away from me and I didn't get a chance to post for 17 weeks.  Nothing really changed during that time so we're ok :)

Symptoms:  Feeling great!  My dreams are disrupting my sleep a little though.  They are seriously crazy every night.

Cravings/Aversions:  Loving sour candies.  A student gave me some of her amazing Mexican candy (which I LOVE anyway...chile and candy together is an awesome combination) called Pica Fresa.  Turns out they are among the list of Mexican candies that contain lead, so no more of those unfortunately.  

Sleep: Still comfortable...just the dream thing.

Movement: Yes!  The Pica Fresa really got baby going and it's been consistent since then!

Gender:  I have my suspicions...but we find out on the 21st!

Maternity Clothes:  Same as before.  Need the pants, don't need the shirts, but it's easier to hide the pants with the longer shirts.

Best moment this week:  Certainty of baby moving!  I've been the most anxious for this part!

Next doctor appointment:  December 21st!  Gender revealing!

Due Date:  May 7, 2013