Christmas Decorating

We've had lots of fun decorating the house for Christmas the past few days. Most of all, it's neat to hear Elliot talking about baby Jesus, Wise Men, etc. She thinks a Christmas tree is only a Christmas tree because of the star on top! She had a blast decorating the tree and putting all her ornaments in one spot! When I started to spread them out she said, "Why are you moving my beautiful pile?" haha. I felt kinda bad!

She requested a little tree for her bedroom, so we ventured to Walmart today to get her one. She had fun decorating it. We also got her a little nativity scene to play with. She lined up everyone outside the manger and then put the animals and baby Jesus on the roof for nap time! haha. They were all looking or angels. :-) Later this afternoon we went to the library and got a bunch of Christmas books. The selection of Christian Christmas books was surprisingly limited. I think I found 2 total! Isn't that crazy? We gathered quite a few other one's about Santa...but I think she already gets that that isn't what Christmas is about. (I hope at least).

I think she has an old soul sometimes. Last night she went outside and just sat in her rocking chair to look at our Christmas lights. She has Wes and I go out and grab a chair too. We all just at on the side walk looking at the few lights we have out. Tonight we got home and she opened the front door and just sat in her rocking chair looking again. It cracked us up!

Well, I hope you all don't mind reading all my stories about our days and kid. (Guess you wouldn't check if you minded). I think I just enjoy reflecting on the things that we spend our time doing, and in the mean time-get to share a little of our lives with you. May God bless you in this most joyous season of Christ's birth!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We got to spend a nice day together. We watched the Macy's parade in the morning and Elliot was totally into it. I told her Santa came at the end so every act, marching band, balloon, etc. that came on she would say, "Did they find Santa yet?" She thought everyone was searching for him. My standard response was just, "not yet...keep watching." :-)

We had Thanksgiving with our friends the Gibbs. They have a 2 yr. old, so Elliot had fun playing. Dinner was great and so was the time with friends. We hope you all had a as wonderful a day.

Today also marks 25 weeks of pregnancy! I'm so excited. I greeted it with my face in the trash can puking this morning, but that okay. Just got some reflux problems. haha. Let's just say I'm very much looking forward to the day these babies are strong, healthy, and ready to come meet us! I think it will be such a relief for my body. :-)

24 weeks

We're still getting along here with this pregnancy. My calendar yesterday said that the babies are about 11.8 inches each and about 1 lb. 5 oz. Definitely growing. Today, it said that babies are most active between 24-28 weeks. I find this slightly disturbing since they are already moving so much it's painful!!! It seems like one of them is moving all day long. Yesterday they went on and on for hours just bouncing all over the place. After a while it started to make me feel nauseous. I have such mixed emotions because I love knowing that they are moving, healthy, and growing...but I sure wouldn't mind if they settled down sometimes :-)

We got to meet with our doula last week and it was really nice. (Thanks Stephanie!) She has a lot of good nutrition advice and it's good to have someone to be accountable to about this since it's the hardest part for me. I've been doing great with drinking 3-4 qts. of water a day (4 qts=1 GALLON!) She even has a special Healthy Momma Tea that I drink everyday and it's great! Another thing is drinking 1 TBSP of Chlorophyll everday, and it's really not bad either. My struggle is with eating 100 g's of protein a day. But, I'm trying my best. We got these drink mixes of fruits/veggies and another of vitamins and some protein. I was drinking one of each everyday until I puked it all up the other day! Guess it didn't settle quite right. so...I'll work back into that. You know, once something comes up--it takes a while to actually "want" it again.

I think that's about all that's going on for now. (I'm just getting kicked in my gut as I type). OH--one more thing, my pelvis was getting SO much better. I was actually walking around outside while Elliot rode her bike one day. It was great. Then, she decided to ride her bike down the neighbors driveway which is quite a decline. I went running after her before she got into the road and that was a mistake. Ever since I feel like the pelvis is ripping in 2 again. oh well, better than my daughter getting run over by a car (even though there wasn't one coming. haha)

I'm off to order a hypnobirthing twins MP3. One's a hypnosis track and the other some kind of affirmations thing. I'm not sure what I'm getting into here--but I figure it's worth a shot and $15. I'll give you a little review the next time I update. :-)

Hope you are all doing well and have a wonderful Thanksgiving next week!!

Here are pic's of me from Today (LEFT: 24 weeks) and pregnant with Elliot (ABOVE: 32 WEEKS!) Oh my goodness, I think I'm as big now as I was 8 weeks from now with her! SCARY!

Learning Generosity

Last night we took Elliot to Walmart to buy gifts to fill a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child. She decided that she wanted to do a box for a girl. I thought it might be difficult for her to pick out crayons, hair ties, candy, etc. and not want it. HOWEVER, she was very excited about her project! We brought our empty shoebox with us so we'd know what would fit. Everything we picked out, she would put right into the box (She did try to open the candy canes though--and the picture is of her putting some candy canes in our box as we packed it this morning).

We went to the jewelry section to get a little necklace. She decided on one, but then she really wanted to buy bracelets. We told her that we didn't have anymore money for bracelets, but maybe she could give this little girl one of hers from our house. (Saying this mostly as a distraction to so we could get out of there) We got home (it was already 10pm) and Elliot ran straight to her room. She said, "are they in my top drawer?" I said, "What are you doing?" She then told me how she was looking for a bracelet to give to the little girl! I thought it was just so sweet. We searched her jewelery drawer, the playroom, and the toy basket in the living room and never came across any of her bracelets. I have no idea where they went. So, Elliot insisted on giving this girl a necklace. I know, they say not to give used items in your boxes, but how could I deny my child for wanting to be so sweet with her things?

While we were hunting for a bracelet Elliot asked, "Are we going to go to her house to give her this stuff?" I just told her the little girl lived too far away and that someone from church was going to help get it to her. It sure is neat to see your child growing up and having a spirit of generosity! I couldn't ask for more.

FREE Photobook

**UPDATE**They have extended the deadline to finish your book until NEXT Saturday, NOVEMBER 22nd!! Even more time for you to create!!

My aunt called the other day and said that you can get a FREE 20-pg. photobook from snapfish! I created one and it's totally legit! Just follow this link to the OPRAH WEBSITE, scroll down a bit and click on the "Get your free book!" link. Only catch is you have to click the link by 11:59PST FRIDAY, November 14th and you have to FINISH and ORDER your book by SUNDAY, November 16th at 11:59PST. Not much time, but it'll save you $30 if you are in need of a photobook. The shipping & handling is just $6.99, plus $1/pg. if you go over 20 pages. I think my total for a 22-pg. book was like $9.60. (There was AZ state sales tax too.)

OH--and don't get scared at checkout. It will look like you are being charged the whole amount. You have to enter all your c/c info and hit checkout. Once you can review your order, it will take OFF the $29.99 for the free book. As long as you've followed the links for Oprah's site, this coupon will be in your cart for checkout at the Snapfish site. :-)

Okay just thought I'd pass that bit of info. on. Happy creating if you decide to make one. I thought it was pretty fun!

22 weeks

I am now 22 weeks pregnant! YAY! I had an appt. today and it went well. I have officially GAINED 6 lbs over my starting weight!! I'm pretty pleased with that. They did a quick ultrasound and the babies heartrates are 152 and 161. Both are currently head-down and next to each other. In the picture I'm posting above, you can see both of their heads. The bright ring on the left and the right is each kids head outlined. You can even see the lobes of the brain if you look carefully. The little line squiggling above the baby on the left is the membrane that is separating the two babies.

I didn't get to pay to much attention to the ultrasound today, as I had Elliot destroying the room. She turned on some machine (I have no idea what it was) then decided to start playing with some expensive light thing. I don't know why I thought she was old enough to sit...next time she'll be in her stroller with a bunch of snacks! The same thing happened when I went into the room to talk to the doc. I saw a guy I hadn't seen before. He wasn't too bad. In fact, he was probably just honest about his policies. He won't deliver B breech for the simple fact that he doesn't have experience doing it. He said if you ask him if he's better at a breech delivery or a c-section, it's the surgery. He said Breech deliveries are becoming a lost artform. They just don't really practice them in med. school and don't want to use anyone as their guinea pig. I respect that this was an honest answer, it's just sad that our medical system is this way. You gotta start somewhere...someone is always going to be some doctors "first." We'd rather slice and dice a woman up because it's what is known?

Off my soap box now. At this point I'm just feeling confident that these 2 are going to be headdown and that they will be just fine at the birth. If not, I'll get some accupuncture & chiropractic work and they'll turn that way! :-) It's hard to believe we have 18 weeks until the due date. I'm constantly being kicked and one already likes being up near my ribs where I can hardly breathe. This is definitely going to get interesting as they get bigger and really start running out of room-hard to imagine!

Halloween/Beach Day

Elliot got to go trick-or-treating with her cousins this year. We actually met at Andrea's dad's house (dressed as Santa for the evening) and walked around and into our old neighborhood. It was nice to be with family and see some old neighbors.

Funny story: So, we've been calling this costume a "Bunny" costume since I was little. I just stuck with it, added a tail, and called El a bunny. Well, my cousin Maggie started talking about Elliot's kitty ears....and it dawned on me...oh my goodness---those are definitely NOT bunny ears!!! HAHAHA. All these years we've called it a bunny and I have NO idea why. My poor child was dressed like a kitty with a bunny tail! I should have just made her a long tail and called her a cat. Instead, she was a mix-bread. HAHA!

Don't the kids all looked whooped in the picture of all 4 of them? They were SOO tired.

Saturday, the day after Halloween, we tried going to the beach. It lasted like 30 minutes, then a big storm rolled in. It's pretty much been rainy OR cold since we got here--very weird for this time of year!

Here are some more pictures of the last few days!

Boat Ride

Today Uncle Kyle and I took Elliot out to Lake Washington for a little boat ride and playground time. She had a blast. We even had a little picnic while on the boat. Here's some PICTURES of the fun!

Fall Festival

Last Saturday we had the Fall Festival up at church. Elliot was super excited to wear her bunny costume (which was mine from a dance recital when I was 3 or 4). All we did was add a little tail to it (which she was rediculously proud of and wanting to show everyone). I almost cracked up because as we were walking through the parking lot when we first arrived there was a little girl walking behind us. She looked at Elliot and proclaimed, "She has a tail!" Kids must like tails! haha. OH, and before we left the house Elliot said, "Is it time to go to the bunny festival now?" HAHAHA. I think she thought everyone was going to be dressed up like rabbits!

She really did enjoy looking at everyone with their costumes on. Her great Nanny and Grandpa Bailey were here to see her, along with Kaitlin, Travis, Bailey, Aunt Donna...and she met her cousins and uncle/aunt up at the festival. We all came home afterwards and had fun going through all the candy! We sat in a big circle in the foyer and looked at it. It was hilarious.

More pictures are HERE.

Trash Pickin'

We found Elliot a little Dora bike in the trash the other day. It's pretty cute. She had fun washing it up with Uncle Kyle, and turns out it even has sound effects.

I gotta post these videos so Wes can see her, they aren't the most exciting b/c she was a little too enthralled with the sound effects to want to talk and ride her bike! haha

And, instead of making another post about nothing, here are more PICTURES of our Florida fun!