So Sweet:)

One of our many movies during Christmas time. 

Allison usually wants to sit on her daddy's lap. 

I just love watching this and how sweet it is.

Matthew's Class

Before Matthew's little party, I snuck in and took some pictures. 

It was fun listening to Ms. Hand asking this group about the book that they have been reading and really making them think.

28 Weeks Pictures and Appointment

 It seems crazy that it has pretty much been a month since I have posted.

I guess December is just a busy month. I have uploaded all of my pictures from the month so more posts will be coming.

However, yesterday I turned 28 weeks. After we came home from church I asked Chris to take a picture of me. His response, "But you are not in your red and black striped dress." As if I can't take a picture in anything else:)

Here are my 28 week pictures:

My 28 week appointment was good.

The baby's heartbeat was good and my blood pressure was good.

I am starting to feel like I am in my third tri-mester. More aches and pains, not sleeping well but I thankfully get to have lots of movements and kicks from this little girl letting me know she is still moving around which is SOO nice. I LOVE seeing my belly/baby move. It is so weird that there is something living inside me. 

I asked when we get to schedule the c-section and she said that they do c-sections a week before the due date here. In TX we had to wait until the due date. So that seemed pretty exciting to me. I can't wait to meet this little baby. We are all so excited!

Made With Love

My mom decided last minute so use up some of the fabric that she got from her mom 

(my grandma Williams saved EVERYTHING, since she grew up during the great depression)

anyways, when she passed away 14 years ago, my mom inherited A LOT of material. She has used a lot of it but still has more. She decided to make my kids pajamas. I am still just impressed that she can make clothes. I know she made some clothes when we were growing up but I don't really remember wearing them, just some pictures. 

Here are the pajamas that Grandma McNiven made with love:)

Christmas Morning

We had a very relaxing and good Christmas morning.

I have been telling Chris that it would be really nice to have a small camera for when we went places but didn't want to have the good, big one with us, like when we went to Charlottsville - that I just realized I haven't written about. He found a great black Friday deal so now I have a little camera, so I took pictures of our morning.

Matthew is really into Pokemon and so we found this shirt for him and he loves it.

Here is the mess of Christmas morning aftermath. This is with all the paper getting collected throughout the morning.

I had this baby when I was little. You put warm water in it and it feel more like a real baby than most babies. I just had the thought that it would be good to give it to Allison, and also a cradle that I had when I was little.

She LOVES this little baby. 

She has named it MaKayla. 

(I told Allison once that her real name was MaKayla, we just called her Allison. She didn't believe it at first and then started wondering if it was true or not. We eventually told her we were kidding but ever since then, she has loved the name.)

27 Week Pregnancy Pictures

These were taken at my 27 week mark 

(ok a day before but I am sure I didn't grow much in 12 hours:)

I hope that this dress will stretch throughout the whole pregnancy so I can continue to take these pictures in it:) 

Thankfully it is a stretchy one, obviously:)

Pictures with Santa

Now this is a little of a touchy subject. Growing up and everywhere I have lived, there has ALWAYS been a Santa at the ward Christmas party. I guess I learned to expect it and never needed to take my kids anywhere else to see him.

Last year I had a Finals volleyball game so I didn't get to go and Chris had a part in the program so he HAD to go. When he came home I was completely surprised that there wasn't a Santa there. (I thought that was in the handbook or something....haha just kidding) Anyways, I just assumed there would be. I made the mistake of putting something like, 

First time in my life I have been to a ward Christmas party and there wasn't a Santa there for the kids to see. I am so surprised. This ward does things differently. Where can I go to find a Santa?

APPARENTLY that comment meant that the whole program was garbage. I completely offended the person that put it together, and so many people got on my case for not remembering the true meaning of Christmas. If I would have known my comment about Santa not being there would have made such a ruckus, I wouldn't have posted it. Apparently they just don't do Santa in this ward, which I am learning they do a lot of different things then I am used to. Must be an East Coast, West Coast thing, I don't know.

ANYWAYS, I was NOT expecting Santa this year since I now knew what happens in this ward.

HOWEVER, they were putting it on the announcements and flyers, that there would be a visit from the North Pole.

I was surprised. 

I guess I kind of shake things up when I am around.

So here are this year's pictures of the kids with Santa Claus

It was set up really cute with the tree and the fireplace and Santa.

7th & 8th Tooth Lost

Apparently Matthew can't put his tooth under his pillow until we have taken a picture of it.

He lost tooth #7 while at a baptism at Church and even though I put it in my bag, I thought we had lost it. When Matthew was searching for it when we got home he dropped it on the floor.

Then he lost his 8th tooth. He was going to write a letter to the tooth fairy telling her what happened when I went and looked on the carpet and there it was.

He was able to get rid of the note and put two teeth in there for the tooth fairy.

However, he still didn't put it under his pillow until we finally got a picture taken.

So now he has lost the front bottom 4 on top and bottom.

Daily Ornament-Making Snowmen

Last year after Christmas I picked up these little ornaments that you can open and put something in that have numbers 1-25 on them.

Once the kids got their homework done they got to open that day and find out what our activity was.

Here are some of the things we did:

Make paper snowflakes.

Make paper snow chaines

What Christmas movie

Make fudge

Make cookies for Santa

Go see Santa on Firetruck 

(in the county that most of our ward lives their firefighters dress up as Santa and take about three fire engines and/or trucks and go around to every neighborhood through December sirens blaring, lights flashing so that all the people get to see Santa up on the firetruck. Their county sends out a schedule as to when it will be in their neighborhoods. Our friends invited us over when it was their turn and it was really fun to see. I had a permanent smile on my face. Allison thought it was SO cool. Matthew thought it was cool too but he had been at a friend's house the night before and it had gone by their place that night.)

Drive around looking at Christmas lights while drinking hot chocolate.

Read Christmas stories

Go to ward Christmas party

Make treat plates to give people

Make gifts/treats for teachers.

(We made a lot of different things for the teachers and many times I had the kids help me with those.)

Now I wish I wrote everything down so I can remember it all:)

Here are the snowmen they made:

24 Week Appointment

As of Monday, the 1st, I am 24 weeks.

This was a bit of a concerning appointment. We did hear the heartbeat which was good at 152. However when the doctor came in she said that in my ultrasound the baby is only measuring at 22%. She wants to see it higher and is a little concerned that it isn't bigger. She said that if the baby was under 10% she would be really worried but right now it is just a concern. She also said that it being an ultrasound the baby could be 30% or 15% or right on at 22%. So it isn't completely precise. With that being said, she wants to do another ultrasound to make sure the baby is growing how it should be. ALL of the many tests that I have had done have all come back normal. However, when she measured my tummy it was measuring at 23-24 weeks. I have also gained back all the weight that I lost at the beginning of my pregnancy so maybe the baby was just a little smaller at the ultrasound but now it is growing with the weight I have gained.....but then again Thanksgiving was just last week:)

The doctor said that a lot of times when they repeat these measurements the baby is usually in the 60% the next time.

So on the 28th of Dec, at my 28 week appointment, I will be doing my glucose test and then on January 27th, when I am 32 weeks, I will be having another ultrasound, (the fifth for this pregnancy).

As far as I know, everything seems to growing like it should. I feel this baby moving a lot, many times a day, and now EVERYONE in the family has finally felt the baby move.

Last week as we were watching a movie as a family the baby was moving a lot so I made Allison come sit by me and put her hand on my belly while she watched. The kicks were so strong that she didn't even have to be concentrating on it to feel it. She felt the baby kick about three times!!!!

We will hope all goes well.

20 Week Ultrasound Appointment

I sit down to write about this appointment three weeks later, and I feel like I can't remember ANYTHING!!.....

Now it is four weeks and I just need to do this and get it out of my drafts.

Chris and I went on Nov. 3rd to find out the gender of our baby.

It is fun to see your little baby. It is more fun to have them out and healthy, but also more work. Right now I will just enjoy feeling its movements and helping it grow.

We were in this appointment for probably an hour. It seems like she measured everything, which is good. I am amazed at what the techs can see but then again that is their training and they are usually good at it.

I LOVE that we got to have some 4D shots. This first picture is a 4D picture and it is fun to see how the baby looks, more in real life.

Chris saw that it was a girl first but the technician said, I think I am going to agree with you but I want a better shot. We did get a better shot with the femur bones and sure enough it is a girl.

This may be too much information but funny story is that when Allison was about 3, she had a urinary tract infection. She would sadly tell us that her bumpity bump hurt. I guess that is a very logical name for it. Anyways, you can even see this little baby's bumpity bump so we are pretty certain that it is a girl. I don't think we missed anything.

I figure my father-in-law would appreciate this picture:)

She is already showing off for Grandpa:)

I love how both hands are up by its face.

After this appointment I waited for my OB appointment to see a different doctor and though I waited for an hour. The person came in asked if I knew what I was having. Asked if I had any questions and then I was done. I guess they saw everything and checked everything during the ultrasound but did I really need to wait an hour just to see if I had any questions? Oh well, I was just glad that Chris went home after our ultrasound to make sure he was home for when the kids got home.