Wednesday, November 30, 2011

11/30/11: Ruby the Elf




Ruby is our Elf on the Shelf that comes and visits each year. Last year was our first year and this year Morgan is really into it.  Every morning she wakes up the first thing she looks for is Ruby.  We've gotten a little more creative in where she finds Ruby each morning and what mess Ruby has made.  Most of the time she keeps the girls in line with threats that she will go back and tell Santa if they misbehave.

You know?  They really need to come up with something that works all year round like this!

11/29/11: 38 Weeks!


How far along? 38 weeks 

Total weight gain/loss: 33 lbs.  

Maternity clothes? I hate dressing myself these days

Stretch marks? Same.

Sleep: Absolutely awful lately.  The kids are sick and Paul and I are starting to get it.

Best moment this week:  More progress!

Food cravings:  I'm just trying to eat things that don't reflux back up these days.

Labor Signs: 50% effaced and 2cm dilated


Belly Button in or out? On the verge

Movement:  Never a dull moment


What I miss:  Feeling comfortable.


What I am looking forward to:  Meeting my little girl soon!

Weekly WTF:  I can't believe I'm 2cm.  I didn't expect that at all.

Nesting madness:  Is there such a thing as nesting anxiety?!

Weekly Wisdom: Clear your schedule for the last month of pregnancy as you will  not feel like doing much of anything but sleeping...haha.



Milestones: Actual dilation PRE-LABOR!


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

11/28/11: It's official



I'm officially the Assistant Treasurer at Stow school district! This was such a great opportunity for our family and for me that I could not pass it up.  So far I have loved every minute of the people and the work and look forward to a successful career here!

Monday, November 28, 2011

11/27/11: Rylee Lou is 18 Months





This photo shoot went pretty much how I thought it might go. There comes an age in this monthly photo shoots where one just doesn't want to cooperate. We are at that age. As you can tell by the third picture one of the skills Rylee has pick up since 12 months is the ability to throw a temper tantrum. She's very good at it, it's very dramatic and if it wasn't so ridiculously fake, I might feel bad for her.

Ornery is a word we use to describe Rylee a lot.  I'm beginning to think that is an understatement. She finds everything she does hilarious and likes to scream a lot.  She loves to dance and will play with anything that plays music for hours. She wants anything her big sister has these days and wants to do anything she does.  We are in the monkey see, monkey do phase. Overall she is a pretty easygoing child. I'm not sure how well she will adapt at first to Tenley because she definitely enjoys being the baby of the family right now. We are also just beginning our "No!" phase these days which is getting old really fast.

It's hard to believe she's already 18 months and a full blown toddler these days. She is extremely independent and doesn't like anyone doing anything for her or trying to help her.  She is also quite the agitator. Many of these skills I assume she inherited from her Grandpa Ralph.

Happy 18 months Rylee Lou!


11/26/11: The Polar Express







This was right when they turned the lights out...haha









Today was the Polar Express ride to the North Pole. Morgan has been so excited for this for weeks.  We've watched the movie at least 10 times before today.  Morgan knows the words to all the songs and loves to sing them to (and with!) me. While we enjoyed our time this year, I think it was more organized and more enjoyable last year. 

The point is the girls enjoyed themselves. Morgan kept asking for the hot chocolate from the minute the train left the station. We got to hear the story read to us by the elves.  Shortly after they served us our cookies and hot chocolate. As much as she asked for it she didn't care that much for her hot chocolate.  Rylee on the other hand dove right in to hers. After that we were at the North Pole!  All the elves and reindeer were out waving at the kids and even Santa and Mrs. Claus drove by in their sleigh.

Santa even got on the Polar Express and took pictures with the kids and gave them each a bell.  I will say this particular Santa was not friendly by any means which is why the kids do not look thrilled to be sitting with him. I was a bit disappointed. After that we were on our way back but before we reached the station the kids got to put on a pajama fashion show.

As noted by our last picture the kids really enjoyed themselves..;)  In reality they did enjoy themselves but it was past bedtime at this point and they were ready to go.

Now that today is over we are free to have this baby at any time!

11/25/11: Deck the Halls






Today we got our living room and basement trees up.  The living room is always a bit of a process because it's so big in involved bringing in the ladder to set it up and decorate the top. Paul usually handles the tree duties while I hang the stockings and other decorations. Yes, each of our animals has a stocking that is why there are so many. The girls loved helping this year (well Rylee loved destroying more so than helping) and each got their first present, a personalized ornament.

We switched up the downstairs tree this year and converted it to an Ohio sports tree.  Indians, Browns, Cavs, and Buckeyes.  I've slowly been collecting new decorations this year and I really love how it turned out. There are some close ups of some of the ornaments we got over the year.  Hopefully we will be able to add some neat things to it over the next few years.


Sunday, November 27, 2011

11/24/11: Happy Thanksgiving!







Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  Our family has been truly blessed this year and have lots to be thankful for.  Hope everyone enjoyed their day with friends and family!

11/23/11: 6th Annual Friends Thanksgiving




I will start by apologizing.  I was totally remiss in getting any good pictures from this evening.  These are from the cleanup.  Today marks the 6th year we have held our Friends Potluck Thanksgiving. What started as a small gathering has turned into a guest list of sometimes over 60 people.  This is by far one of  my favorite days of the year. Paul and I make the turkey (or two!), mashed potatoes, dessert, rolls, and salad.  Everything else brings some sort of side dish or dessert to share.  It is such a nice time to get so spend with friends that we don't always get to see. What started with no kids, now has tons of kids running around playing and laughing.  What could be better than good food and good friends?  Looking forward to next year!

11/22/11: Thanksgiving Feast





Today was Morgan's Thanksgiving Feast at Preschool.  She was allowed to invite two guests which included myself and Grandma Kay. It was a breakfast feast and minus Morgan spilling her orange juice everything went smoothly.  There was lots of yummy breakfast food and we got to see some of the crafts Morgan made for Thanksgiving. A great to spend a morning with one of my favorite girls!

11/21/11: 36 Weeks 6 Days!




How far along? 37 weeks 

Total weight gain/loss: 31 lbs.  

Maternity clothes? It's hard to even find T-shirts these days that cover everything...oy.

Stretch marks? Same.

Sleep: I'm apparently going for a record number of times one uses the bathroom overnight. This week I hit 4 times!

Best moment this week:  Some time off to maybe relax?

Food cravings:  Turkey and mashed taters!  Who isn't craving that this week!?!

Labor Signs: 40% effaced and a fingertip dilated... more progress than was made with either girl until hours into labor

Belly Button in or out? In but dangerously close to out.

Movement:  You would think someone who is squished in someone's uterus wouldn't have a lot of room to ninja kick from the top of your stomach to your pelvis.  You would be wrong.



What I miss:  Non-swelled appendages.

What I am looking forward to:  Some good food this week!  Yummers!


Weekly WTF:  Full term and Thanksgiving already.  This pregnancy has really flown.

Nesting madness: Just some Christmas decorating these days!


Weekly Wisdom: Note to baby..you are free to make your appearance as of the 27th.



Milestones: Full-term!

11/20/11: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!



I decided to get a jump on the Christmas trees this year and put the ones up in the girls room. Morgan was dying to put it up and help decorate so we figured what the heck.  We have a total of 5 full sized Christmas trees that go up every year in our house.  One in each bedroom, the living room, and the basement.  Since Morgan and Rylee share a room, they also get to share the wonderful purple tree!  The blue tree is all ready for baby Tenley to come home to. Now if we could just keep Rylee (and Mackenzie) from ripping off ornaments we would be set!

11/19/11: November Birthdays!





Today we celebrated the Corey and Greg's birthdays with some Rocknes and cake.  The Big 2-4 and the Big 2-8.  The day started out with me having to run a ton of errands to get ready for Thanksgiving and this baby's impending arrival. After that I made a trip up to Pat Catan's in Strongsville to do some wedding dress shopping with Kelly. I got there a little late but I was there for the important part, she bought her dress!  If I could share it I would but you'll have to wait until next August, but it looks great on her!

After our busy day we all came back to our house for some good old fashioned birthday celebrating! The girls love it when everyone comes over and they especially love when there is cake involved. 

Happy Birthday Corey and Greg!

Friday, November 18, 2011

11/18/11: Another Pinterest Project!





Morgan's school papers are taking on a life of their own.  They are everywhere.  I had them in our family binder for a while but that thing is so full I can't spare the extra room.  I happen to find this project on Pinterest but I also follow her blog: iheartorganizing.blogspot.com. This blog makes me want to clean and organize the smallest of spaces.

One of her posts was about organizing kids school papers.  She offered some awesome free printables to go along with it. She set it up for K-12 but I also wanted to add some extra folders for Pre-K and younger. I bought myself these awesome file boxes with some hanging and tabbed folders for inside.  I just started and still need to print out some things but I imagine when I'm done it will be pretty spiffy!

Hooray for all things organization!