Surprise, surprise....

My husband has the day off tomorrow. Apparently he told me earlier in the week, but since I don't remember that, this is a huge surprise for me. I'm so glad. I have a cough that is sounding worse by the minute and I know better than to let a cough get out of control when you are pregnant and have asthma. I'm hoping for a doctor's appointment tomorrow (we'll see if they can fit me in). We also have a couple dozen people coming over tomorrow night. I LOVE entertaining, but I also think I'm a little crazy considering I also don't have my Sunday School lesson planned for Sunday.

Off to bed I go!! So happy Ryan will be home tomorrow :)

Christian's debut as "Joseph"

Joseph was not too excited when he found out his costume had a little pink in it, but I somehow convinced him that it was "the style back then" and he wore it anyway. He was so excited to play the part of Joseph in the preschool Christmas play.


He did a great job standing up there with Mary and Gabriel! He did have a little wardrobe malfunction with his "hat," but he just stood really still and didn't wiggle, so it didn't fall off. He was so cute standing up there smiling at all of us.

Make sure you notice the animals in front of the stable. Aren't they hilarious!?!

The whole cast.

I loved watching Christian this year because I could tell how much he's matured since last year. He paid close attention to his teacher during the song when he had to ring a bell. Last year he was too busy looking at us.

McKenna loved checking out Baby Jesus after the program. She is more than ready to be a big sister.

Christmas Morning Highlight :)

I hope you're able to watch this video (if you have dial-up internet, I'm sorry, you're probably not going to be able to see it). This was the highlight of Christmas morning for me. McKenna has been asking for a "car cart" for weeks now. For those of you who are not up on your 2 year old terminology, a "car cart" is a shopping cart with a car on the front of it for kids to ride in. We are always on the look out for "car carts" whenever we go shopping and McKenna has been wanting one for her babies. Oh-my-goodness she was excited to open one this morning :)

Where's baby Jesus?

(Cell phone pics again...sorry they're not so great)

On December 22nd we celebrated the one year anniversary of living in our "new" house and the eight year anniversary of our engagement. It was a big night. We never ever go out to dinner at restaurants that actually have waiters. The kids thought this was a big deal.
And they were fabulous. It made me think that we should do it more often and then I realized that we've only really got two more months before a booth for four won't fit us anymore.

Then we drove around and looked at Christmas lights and stopped by our favorite mega decked out house. They even have a little stable with sheep in it. This year there were four precious lambs snuggled down under the straw. As soon as we walked up to the stable McKenna said, "Where's baby Jesus??" She fully expected him to be there until I reminded her that he's in Heaven right now preparing a place for us.

And as we were driving home Christian said, "Can we go somewhere else?" and we told him we were just going to go home. And he said, "I wish we could keep driving for a whole hour. I like being in the car with my whole family."

Happy Birthday Jesus!

McKenna worked really hard on your cake Jesus. She asked me if I thought you would like it. I'm sure you did!
And then Christian and McKenna went full throttle with the decorating...just for you Jesus!

And we put a candle in your cake and sang to you! I'm sure you didn't miss it!

We love celebrating your birthday and it's our prayer that you were honored and blessed this month as we turned our hearts and attention towards you!
Thank you for coming to earth to be our Savior! Thank you for the hope that we can have in you! Thank you for preparing a place for us in Heaven! We can't wait to meet you there one day!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Gingerbread time

Oh yes...there's Christian's "new" smile again. But truthfully he loves making gingerbread houses and I'm so thankful his preschool teacher does it every year so I don't have to!
Christian is quite the artist. He loves this kind of stuff!

Daddy took a little break from work to help Christian build his house.

And it lasted 48 whole hours before it was all eaten :)

So proud of this guy....

He's done three big things this month which made him nervous, but he did them anyway. He's learning the difference between being scared and being nervous. We've had some good conversations about that and I've been trying to help him to articulate his feelings with words instead of acting out. It's been good. I feel like he and I are both getting one step closer to kindergarten.

I will say, that I do NOT regret for one second the decision we made to keep Christian home this year. I know he would have been fine in Kindergarten this year, but he is so much more prepared now in character and academics. And the biggest thing that has happened this school year is that Christian and McKenna have really become friends. They've had tons of time together, just the two of them. McKenna is old enough now to actually play and follow directions. And most days they spend a few hours of good quality time playing together and those are treasured moments that McKenna and I are both going to miss next year. I'm thankful that they've had this year together to grow in their love for each other and I'm praying that their friendship will last a lifetime.

Now don't get me wrong; Christian has the unique ability to make McKenna scream louder than you can even imagine. And McKenna pretty much knows exactly what she needs to do to annoy Christian to pieces. But they adore each other and genuinely care about each other. They look out for each other. They even get upset with me when I discipline one of them. McKenna has been known to end up in time out herself because she's yelled at me for "being mean to Christian."

Well, back to the point of this post. I'm proud of my son. He's growing up which is hard for me to accept, but I'm proud of the little man he's becoming!

So what do you think???

I think my kids really love their daddy!
This is not the only time I've noticed this scene. This just happened to be the one time I grabbed my camera.

They do this all the time and giggle their heads off. And Ryan just pretends he doesn't notice them! ha!

Great news!

I don't have gestational diabetes! WooHoo!! Now I can make my traditional cinnamon bread for Christmas morning. Yahoo!

The nurse told me I "passed with flying colors." And I asked if I was even close to failing and she said, "Not even close!"

8 Years Ago

December 22nd, eight years ago the evening ended with a diamond on my finger! I'm so glad I said "yes" and even happier that he finally decided to ask me to marry him! I was beginning to wonder.

Who would have ever dreamed our lives would be the fairy tale that they are today. It's only because of the grace of God! Thank you Jesus for blessing me with the husband of my dreams and three beautiful kids (yes, this little booger in my belly gets to count)!

Happy Engagement Anniversary Ryan!

Don't let his face fool you....

Christian just doesn't really smile in pictures anymore. He kind-of gives this awkward grimace that's supposed to look like a smile. We're hoping it's a stage. But anyway....Ryan took him snow tubing at the local ski resort and when Christian got home he informed me that it was the greatest night of his life.
Ryan took these pictures with his phone at the very end of their night, so the quality is not great, but they both had a ton of fun.

There's Christian with a giant snowball!! How fun is it that we live just 15 minutes away from such a unique place?? I have a feeling my kiddos are going to grow up with memories of snow tubing and skiing.

And all of you out-of-towners need to keep in mind that our guest room is always available (well at least until the end of February and then we'll be in baby mode around here) and I even offer babysitting services for adults who just might want to hit the slopes without their kids. Seriously, you should take me up on this offer!! You should come visit ASAP!!

Survived!!

I survived my mega glucose test this morning. Was up at 5:45am. At the hospital at 6:30am and then I waited an hour before they even saw me. Really??? They were running late already?? Oh gracious. So the three hour test actually took almost 5 hours, but whatever. I brought tons of stuff to do and planned on using my time wisely. But then I met Stephanie. She's prego like me and was there for the glucose test and she brought NOTHING to do. I guess her plan was to talk to me the whole time. About an hour into our conversation I decided that maybe that was God's plan for how he wanted me to spend my morning. So I got very little done that was planned, but instead I smiled and chatted and hopefully was a blessing to a stranger.

I have a feeling I have nothing to be worried about with this glucose test. I only failed the first one by one point and I have now heard from tons of different people telling me that it's really not a big deal. So I'm not too worried. I am trying to watch my sugar intake, but Ryan would tell you that I have very little will power. In my defense, it does NOT help when my mom sends all her leftover goodies to my house because she doesn't want to eat them. Who does she think is going to eat that cheesecake at my house?? Certainly not my extremely disciplined husband who wakes up every day at 4:45am just to work out and then skips most lunches so he can go running. Umm, yeah...he's not the cheese cake eater around here! Can you tell that cheese cake is just a huge weakness of mine?? I could let ice cream sit in the freezer for months, but I could never let a cheese cake go to waste :)

My arm is sore from getting pricked so much and I'm so sleepy, so I might try to take a little nap while McKenna is snoozing this afternoon. And speaking of naps....Christian just put McKenna down for her nap. He tucked her in, kissed her and prayed for her. And I'm not even kidding.

Merry Christmas

Christmas is here...

It's been a full day around here!!!
Nothing in the world makes McKenna happier than spending time with these girls! Each one is a best friend and a cousin. And for my little girl, life just doesn't get any better than this!

The two on the right bring out crazy wildness from my son. Tonight when I asked him what the best part of his day was, he said "everything." And that pretty much sums it up! Everything about this day was perfect!

And right now we have a few extra snuggly people sleeping in our house. Nothing makes me happier! Merry Christmas!

Oh What a Night!

I failed my one hour glucose test and had my first very real contraction (in the middle of the grocery store) all in the same night! Then I drove home going 25mph on an unplowed snowy road. Its been fun! So I'm heading to bed now and I'm going to figure out just exactly what gestational diabetics is tomorrow. I am not officially diagnosed. That will only happen if I fail the four hour test on Tuesday. But I do know that sugar is no longer my friend and I will definitely be missing orange juice, yogurt (my word did you know how much sugar that stuff has in it????) and of course my guilty pleasure...cheesecake for the next three months. Thankfully there are much worse things in life, but the week of Christmas just doesn't seem like the appropriate time to go on an Akins like diet.

On the up side; I've been worried about the lack of movement I feel with this baby boy and tonight I found out exactly why!!! The placenta is attached to the front of my uterus (sorry if that's TMI) so if you put your hand on the front of my belly you are not likely to feel a kick. That makes me feel so much better!!! Now I can just enjoy the occasional kick in the side and not worry about it anymore!

Good night!!!

4 Wheeling Fun!!!

Christian is having the time of his life right now. It's been snowing for a few hours. It's a soft, light snow so we don't have a ton of accumulation (fine with me), but it certainly is fun to have snow at Christmas time! I was nervous about Christian riding in the snow (this is a first). So I tested it out first and the driveway is slick (don't tell anyone....but this prego girl just might have done a donut :) Christian stayed in the backyard, away from the driveway, and was surprisingly safe. We have pretty much drilled it into his head how bad it would hurt if he ever fell off, so he's a timid driver. But he LOVES the snow. LOVES his 4 wheeler!!! And I LOVE him!!

The Binkie Saga

Everytime I try to take the binkie away from McKenna something happens! Grrr....
Today is day (5) with no binkie (don't get too excited...she still has it at night...I value my sleep big time these days). But now my sweet girl is sick. Cough, congestion and she just woke up from her nap with a fever. Sheesh...this is frustrating. She wants it so bad, but I haven't given in yet. Part of me just wants to throw in the towel and let her have it because in the grand scheme of life, it doesn't really matter.
But on the other hand, it's time for her to grow up. I know she can do this and I think we need to do it NOW while we have Christmas as a distraction and long before the new baby arrives.
What would you do??? I've never had to do a binkie battle before!

Dancing with Daddy

McKenna's daddy sure does love her! She loves to dance with him and she's been picking two songs lately that definitely shows me just how much Ryan must love her!
Destiny's Child "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" is one of their dancing songs. And the other one is "Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday" by NSync. Now before you criticize her secular choice you should know that it's really all my fault. You can find those songs "On Demand" and I harmlessly clicked on them one night never dreaming that we would have to listen to them dozens of times a day.

Thankfully McKenna's most favorite Christmas song is "Away in a Manger" and her tiny voice is absolutely precious as she walks around the house singing it all day long.