Cookie Exchange

Wow, have you even baked cookies for a cookie exchange? I just did last night, what a load of work. But the end result is kind of fun, you get to get a dozen of the cookies that the other people baked as well. The added advantage is that you get to taste everything before hand, so you will know if you ever what to make that cookie again. But then the downside is that your left with all these cookies to eat. Not exactly the best thing when you are trying to show the doctor that you are not really gaining a lot of weight around this very tricky holiday season. Oh well, it all comes off eventually right?

First Haircut

Isabelle finally had her first haircut. I know she is almost four and has never had it professionally cut. What do you mean by professionally you say, well her brother has taken a little off the top every now and then, which of course takes me forever to find out from where. All I know is that there is hair on the floor and he did the cutting. I guess their even, since early on Isabelle tried to cut his hair as well. Anyway, if you did not see it before you really would not know it had been cut. Ben walks in and his response if “. . . did you get her hair cut?” Well yes, we just trimmed it up a bit so that it might “look” thicker, with out the end being all straggly. She did a pretty good job of sitting still, I think she really enjoyed watching the movie while she had her hair done. The place we went is not as cool as Cookie Cutters but it helps to entertain the kids. The stylist even said that some parents come in with their kids to have their hair cut, while the kids play. Not a bad idea if you do not have the time to wait on hubby or other babysitting alternatives. Here she is in her new hair glory. Now I do not normally take pictures of the back of my children, but it worked the best to show how “different” her hair looked.

Are you a spelunker?

What is a spelunker you ask? Well I will tell you, it is a person who goes caving. Now why not just use the word caver or something else? Too simple I’m sure. Spelunker makes me think that someone decided one day to make up their own word for what they were doing and it just happened to catch on. Now you may also be wondering how I know this term. Just so you do not think I’m a crazy word person I happened to hear it today on NPR, and thought it was funny enough to mention here. I guess if you find yourself exploring caves you can therefore be called a spelunker, how cool would that be. And look this is what you could look like after a long day of exploration.

Santa Clause

Now I don’t usually support the commercialization of Christmas, by taking the kids to see Santa and take some pictures, and continuously talk about Santa and what he is going to bring for Christmas, but this year, family members have been a little crazy about that. Maybe it’s the age of the kids and now that they are getting older, they understand a little bit better, who knows. I just try to acknowledge the kids when they ask questions about Santa if they have any, or ignore the whole situation. After all, stores were putting out Christmas stuff in October, before Halloween was over, just a bit soon. I know the economy is not where everyone would like to see it but come on, wait just a bit. Don’t get me wrong we still put out a plate of cookies, carrots and milk, but I try not to make Santa into a big deal. I think from now on Santa is just bringing the stockings and all other gifts are going to be from Mom and Dad or relatives.

Enough about my Santa philosophy; basically I broke down today and took the kids to see Santa. I figured it would be a pretty easy trip, no lines, we would be in and out. A good plan, going in the middle of the week and the kids did not disappoint. Bear was pretty excited about the whole adventure, and Isabelle did really well too. I kept asking them what they were going to ask Santa for so that they would have it down and Santa would understand. Bear can be a little hard to understand some days. Since I did not want the people to think I was stealing their thunder I just took a picture of the kids before they went in, but their Santa picture was pretty cute. If only my printer was talking to my computer I could probably scan it in, right now you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Dad's Helpers

For Christmas we are building the kids a backyard play set. Ben has a whole design worked out in his head for how he wants it to go. So far the kids are very excited and can hardly wait until they can play. But before they can climb on anything they have to help Dad transfer the first “tower” out to the back yard so he can put it together. They were so cute being Dad’s little helpers. Bear was just big enough to carry some of the smaller pieces of wood but had some trouble with the ones that were a little bit bigger. I hope Ben is able to at least get the swings in before the New Year. The kids already want to climb on the one tower that’s up but there are no stairs yet. I think some stairs, the swings and maybe a little sand pit would be a great place to start. We’ll see how far Dad can get before Christmas.

Oh yea when Ben went up to go get concrete Home Depot was having a project day, and the kids made these really cute Art Easels and even go to get aprons and see Santa. I guess they were doing the project very close to the front door and they asked Ben if the kids wanted to participate, and of course he said “. . . why yes, yes we would.”

Thanksgiving

Once back out to the hinter lands, we had to wait four more days before any of the fun people would arrive. Mom and Dad are just not a cool as all of our cousins. But once they got there, the fun times were a rollin’. Crafts, playing, Wii, and so much food, were the staples of our long weekend. Thanksgiving was nice, the bird was a little fried, but I hear it tasted great, since I watched them cook it I had a hard time trying to eat it. Go figure, my food aversion during pregnancy are very strange. Then on Friday we did the traditional Christmas with the in-laws, which is always crazy and wild but I think that everyone had fun and was please with their gifts. We could not get a tree though it was raining all day long. Oh well, we went the next day to get the tree. That was pretty fun too, we let a three year old pick out the perfect tree, a little on the Charlie Brown side but not too bad once you got it in the room and up with some decorations. Somehow the tree was not decorated though the day it was brought home but instead at six in the morning before the first group left to go home. Pretty crazy stuff, the kids had tons of fun putting the ornaments on the tree. We even managed to get a round of bowling where the adults like to see who can best the next person. It took some a while to warm up but soon the games got a little bit better. I think the most entertaining bowler went to Isabelle who after a while did not want any help and instated on doing it herself, with a little twirl here and a twist there. Who knew you could dance and bowl at the same time. Overall our Thanksgiving weekend was pretty good. I only finished three books while I was out there and came home with two more to read, so that says a lot.

Swim Party

We started out Thanksgiving weekend a little early. Say about a week early, to go out and finish helping my MIL to ready her house. Sometime after she quit her job at the church she decided to clean out her house, I’m pretty sure she quit sometime in September but hey what ever. The kids and I went out early to help her finish out as much as possible before the rest of the family arrived. Fortunately for the kids we did get to take a break and come back to Dallas for a swim birthday party.

Isabelle says that we her favorite part of the holiday time. The swim party well before hand, too cute, and of course Bear says the same thing because Isabelle says it. Needless to say they had so much fun. We went to a local Dallas area swim school, which happens to be owned by my girlfriends Mother, who were there to see. My girlfriends son turned one last Saturday and to celebrate we had a swim. It was too much fun for the kids. Bear freaked out the lifeguards, with his antics and being the first one down the slide, but other than that he did pretty good. I think Isabelle had lots of fun playing in the water in November. Always a special treat, especially when it is cold outside. So Happy Birthday Joshua B, we really enjoyed our special time and hope to see you again soon

Survey

Ok, since I really have nothing to say, I know crazy right. I decided to put my baby survey up early. It is over on the right hand side at the top. I think I will leave it open until two weeks before baby is due and we can then go from there. I figure there will be a fabulous prize at the end, I just do not know what. To help you out with your decision making, here is some background information:

Isabelle was two weeks early and weighed in at 8 pounds 12 ounces. We did find out she was a girl all the rest was guess work.

Barrett was one week late, and we made him come out, but he weighed in at 9 pounds even.

I hope that helps I will probably take a couple more belly shots before it's all said and done, I'm not sure if you can change your answer but if you can why not. And as I think on it further I will let you know what wonderful prize I will be sending the winner. So make sure you get your votes in, and spread the word, everyone loves to win. If you have any questions please let me know. I think I will do two winners, unless someone gets every single question correct. The winners will have to have the sex and date correct or the sex and weight correct. Of course I will post who wins, unless you do not want other people to know. And if none of this makes sense please tell me, because after all my brain might not be working right because of the extra hormones.

The Baby

Ok so I don't usually post after I see the doctor but several people have asked how big the baby is. In reality there is no way to really tell, very accurately. But I asked today and Dr. A said that "normal" pregnancies at 29 weeks the baby weights 2.2 pounds. Now for me that means a little bit bigger, my tummy measured at 32 weeks so I would think somewhere around 3.5 pounds. Dr. A did not want to commit to a specific weight, because why get your hopes up. For all those people out there who think my belly is not very big, well I have news for you, it is. When I say that my belly measured 32 weeks, they take a tape measure and place it along your belly from the top of your uterus down to your pelvic bone and that is how big you are. I think those locations are correct, either way you get the idea. I hope that helps, we are right on track to having a good size new born.

Go Barack Obama

History was made last night with the election of the first African-American President in the United States. No matter who you voted for, this was an amazing night and something to go down in the history books. I thought it was very exciting to watch everything unfold before us as the states closed their polls across the country, and the electoral votes were tallied. I hope that everyone who wanted to vote had chance to vote, and show their support for their candidate of choice. For those who did not get a chance to vote, hopefully they will next time around. I feel that it is important for people to let their voice be heard and vote. There will always be something a person does not like about a candidate and their views but hopefully that issue will never come up. And if it does, maybe by showing support of your opinion in the form of a letter would help change the outcome based on what you believe. I am excitedly waiting to see what changes will be made in the coming years. This election year has been amazing and record-breaking all at the same time. I’m sure there will be good things to come from this election in the coming years.

Down hill from here

We are finally coming to the home stretch of the pregnancy! We could not be more excited. After going in for a routine blood test and having to go back for the long test, we found out that I am perfectly fine. Something I ate earlier in the day for the first test must have made it go a little off. At least we dodged a bullet there. After all who wants to be poked no less than four times all the while being starved just to find out that you were right all along, nothing was the matter? I’m sure nobody, but alas I had to do it. But at least this way we know things are in order and we can proceed like normal. I guess that means I’m in my seventh month, so here is a new picture. People I randomly meet are starting to guess what the sex of the baby is, which is kind of strange and I never know what to say. Oh well, I’m sure that is just what happens when you do not find out the sex before hand. It will be interesting to see what baby turns out to be. I guess either way we are slightly prepared, since we have one of each. Anyway, enjoy the pic, I’m sorry I’m not very consistent at taking them.

Blood suckers

Mosquitoes should all be killed as soon as possible. I figured, hey its November surly all these horrible insects have got to be gone by now. Well I was wrong. Out in the hinter lands of Texas, mosquitoes still have a small grasp on the world. And I’m pretty sure I just helped to extend their life for at least another month, or until a really good cold snap comes through. I think I walked away from my weekend in the country with no less than eight bug bites. All resulting from the dreaded mosquito, needless to say I hate with a passion mosquitoes. Hopefully when we venture down to San Antonio they won’t have any there. Other wise I think I’ll have to bring my bug spray.

Halloween Fun

Another Halloween has just zipped right on past. I can hardly believe it. Bear really got into this year and had so much fun knocking on doors and getting candy. That boy has a real sweet tooth. Isabelle was a little laid back but enjoyed herself a lot, especially since she was a mermaid. They both looked so cute if I do say so myself. The head scarf on Bear’s costume really made him look the part of a pirate. It was too cute! Yes for those of you who are wondering I did make their costumes, with a little bit of help on Isabelle’s. She is already talking about what she might want to be next year. I figure we have some time to figure that one out so we can wait just a little longer.

Our Halloween started out with a MOM’s Club party at the house and then we jetted off to Grandma Susie’s and Grandpa Bernie’s for trick or treating. Once we were cleared for trick or treating, we did the drive by houses first, for those we could not walk too, and then made our way around the neighborhood. You know how grandparents like to show off their grandkids. Anyway, the kids had lots of fun and collected tons of candy. We’re going to have to go through it all but I think they will survive.

Soccer Tots

I finally remembered to bring my camera for Soccer Tots. Although my pictures are not that great, you kind of get the idea. Both of the kids have so much fun playing and running around, even though it is a class just for Barrett. Coach Dawn is really nice and lets Isabelle play along. After all it’s pretty hard to make a 3 ½ year old sit and wait while her brother is having so much fun. What I really enjoy and like about this program is that they do use a soccer ball but a lot of the skill building is leading up to the fundamentals of the game. For example: heading the ball using balloons or really soft balls, or running after your “teammates” to pull their tails or even chasing down a rolling hoola-hoop. Plus the best part is the kids have so much fun. One hour of constant movement and skill building, what parent would not want that? I think that a couple more sessions of Soccer Tots and Bear will be ready to possibly play with a team or program similar to what Isabelle did.

Get out and VOTE

Ah, the democratic process. I feel as though this election has been going on for years. Now I know that is not the case but hey as much as Ben watches the various news channels, besides Fox, I’m sure I could report on the status of the election almost as good as Wolf. I am happy to report that we have completed out civic duty and voted early. I think that all of Texas has finally come into the 21st century with electronic voting machines even with their good and bad qualities. We use to have to draw a line to the candidate we were voting for. I did not think that was the best option but who knows. Ben’s comment was there really should be a paper trail, that way no one can come back and show “. . . that the all black district voted for the white supremacist.” And of course we hope that no little computer nerd could hack into the system and vote for Mickey Mouse. Either way, I will always vote and try to show my support for the candidates that I’m voting for. With that said be sure to get out and vote, early or on Election Day. The news media talks that this is going to be one of the largest election turn outs in history. Hopefully the weather will remain pleasant across the country, but if not never fear, for if you live in Virginia you could do a drive up to vote. That’s right apparently the state of Virginia wants to really make sure you do not have an excuse for not voting, and has set up at least one polling station where you can drive up to place your vote. I would possibly use that, since I have two small children I would be taking with me but really get out of your car and walk. Well as the saying goes Vote early and vote often. At least as often as legally allowed.

Country Critters

Down here in Texas country you get back yard petting zoos. I actually think it is pretty cute and the way they set it up makes pretty good business sense. (I thought my SIL and her husband could do it on their farm, but who knows.) No fancy concert walkways or milk production introduction here, just a good old Texas farm with a few added bonuses. After all it’s all about the kids enjoying themselves and getting to see farm animals away from the city. Which I still have a hard time with since I mostly grew up in the country and had some sort of livestock or other animal around all the time. The things we take for granted, when our jobs keep us city bound. Anyway back to the story. The kids and I went with a few moms from our new MOM’s club, to a place called Country Critters. They had a blast, so much to do and so many kids there. A really big school group was there, which was lucky for us we were able to piggy back on their day; usually you have to have reservations.
They had lots of fun activities for the kids to do, a bean bag toss, bounce houses, petting area, wooden maze, pumpkin decorating and so much more. I actually planned ahead and brought a sack lunch as well, which was a good thing because I always get hungry and so do the kids. Must be the fresh air and running around. Since there was a pretty big school group there, Isabelle tried to join at least two classes, by standing in line and being all ready to go. It was pretty cute! Bear is just excited to have fun and run around; it’s hard to say what he liked the best. I think had they been running the pony rides that would have been his top pick. I think it might be interesting to see what type of programs they do for the spring, but for right now we’ll just have to wait. Obviously for the fall they focused on the pumpkins and fall or Halloween stories. I would think that in the spring they might have lots to do with new animal babies and what not but who knows. Plus they have three of these great, big, beautiful dogs, Great Pyrenees, wonderful dogs, probablly not so good for the city, we had one when we were raising Emu's.

Twilight

I was too excited last night while Ben was flipping through the channels; I saw my first televised Twilight trailer. I can hardly wait to go see the movie. I think I’m going to make Ben go with me, since I don’t know of anybody here who would want to go see it. It’s getting so close to when the movie comes out I can hardly believe it. I hope they do a good job and keep pretty close to the story line. I hope all you Twilight fans out there enjoy the flick as well, we’ll have to give feedback once we all go and check it out.

A lot of Running

This morning before soccer we walked in a one mile family fun walk for cancer. Ben’s sister Penny works for a local hospital and they along with the Four Seasons put this walk together to help raise money for the fight against cancer. The kids just loved it. Isabelle ran pretty much the whole mile with Dad, she got a little distracted by some pine cones and walking on the “balance beam” but other wise she was off. I was pretty excited and wished that I could have run with her, but you know the belly makes that a little hard. Ben was very impressed with her and she had so much fun. Then after running her mile, she came back to the start area and proceeded to bounce for half an hour on one of the two bounce houses they had set up. Wouldn’t that be nice to have so much energy?

Bear of course was fascinated with everything. He started out running which is ok for me to keep up with since he has short legs and I can just walk a little bit faster, but then he lost interest in that and started to walk. Then jump over the road markers that help drivers know they are changing lanes. He also found some acorns to play with, but once he saw Isabelle he wanted to be with her but again lost interest in running and did the roadside “balance beam” just like Isa. It was pretty cute, until the end of the race started to catch up with us and we needed to move along before the 5K run started to pass us as well. He was too funny!


Plus today was Isabelle’s last soccer “game” and she had so much fun. They did the regular skill building before hand and then played against the other team for a while. She did a great job of helping her team out and she even scored a goal. She was very excited about that, especially since she really likes to have the ball in her possession. I think she will be a little bit competitive as she gets older. Hopeful will be put to good use and she won’t be overly crazy about winning, I guess we’ll have to teach her the right way to be competitive. I’m sad to see her first soccer season end, we’ll just have to pick it up in the spring again.

Less than 100

I can hardly believe that in less that 100 days we should have a healthy, happy, baby to bring home. Not that I actually think we will have a baby on my due date but I figure close enough. After all Isabelle came two weeks early and Bear was a week late. There is no telling when this one will come, unless I get very, very uncomfortable. Keep reading for a poll on date, size and sex to come soon. I just have to figure out how to put that all together and we'll be on a roll. I will of course post a recent picture before starting the poll since some people think they can tell by the way you are carrying the baby. Who knows, but I did have a woman accost me in Lowe's who thought I was going to have a girl. Crazy! Less than 100 days does not seem like a lot when you think about it that way, but other days it still seems a long time. Just my thoughts I hope all is well.

Pumpkin Pancakes, want one?

For breakfast this morning I did what some moms dread, I put food coloring in our food. Now you might be wondering why, since I try so hard to avoid coloring in all of the food I give my children. Well yesterday we were at JoAnn’s and Isabelle picked up one of their circulars to read as her “magazine.” In the circular was an ad for a Halloween cookie decorating kit. The cookies featured were pumpkins and she thought they were pancakes and not cookies. Straight away her request was to have pumpkin pancakes for breakfast the next day. Posed with the question this morning, the only thing I could come up with on short notice was to dye the mixture for our breakfast.



I’m sure had I more time and a few more resources on hand, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin puree I could have made a healthier option than dyed pancakes. Here's a like that looks pretty good and makes more than 8 pancakes. I'm sure you could use fresh pumpkin instead of canned.

Needless to say they were gone pretty quick. Ben did not even get to try one, I think I made my mix wrong, usually we have a few left over but there were no leftovers today and they were a little flat. Oh well, the kids still ate them and loved every bite. I think the most important part to them was to have the color. Isabelle even asked for green stems. That was not going to happen, I'm not that cool.