Our baby girl

Our baby girl is growing like a weed. I had my 28 week check up yesterday (along with my glucose test and Rogham shot, what fun!). We also had a sono to check on her growth and ensure she was growing normally. Everything checked out just fine and she's measuring a week ahead of schedule. Not sure what that means for delivery, but we finally decided to let God pick how she'd be delivered. I just couldn't do it. We're scheduling a C-Section around March 25th or so (just need to see what day that actually falls on first) and then if she decides to come earlier, we'll deliver naturally. That means I need to sign up for some birthing classes I guess. I never took any with the twins b/c I knew I was delivering via C-Section from the beginning. Here's one of her first pics. The tech loved this shot and said it was one of the best she's had in a while. She has her little hands under her chin thinking about something.

A few other updates, we (really John) has been busy working on the nursery this week. We've finished painting and now he's adding all the molding I wanted. I think we're supposed to get the furniture Wednesday next week and so we'll just be down to the decorating and small details. I'll take a few pics along the way and post some stuff next week after we get the furniture in. We also still haven't landed on a name so for now, she's just little girl. We still have a few months to get that down so we're not rushing.

A Visit From Santa (aka Grammie)

This weekend John's family came over for our last Christmas. And boy was it a full Christmas! Grammie went way overboard with gifts, but the kids had a blast seeing everyone, opening the gifts and playing with their cousins. Grammie was also very smart and got everyone the same thing so when the kids would open one gift they'd all have the same thing and no fights broke out. We had several big hits like the bouncing Rody's (my guys couldn't get enough of them and Abby had to "gather" them all together - they're the colorful horses in the slideshow), the ride-on's, the basketball goal (thanks Aunt Lisa & Uncle D!) and of course Uncle Dallas himself :-)
We also decided to do things a bit differently and had Mexican food for lunch vs. the traditional turkey or ham. Everything turned out great and we were all stuffed!
We had so many cute pics to choose from that I couldn't narrow them all down so here's a slideshow!

Our Little Cowgirl & Cowboy

Abby is obsessed with cows and Jake with tractors. They yell them out every time we see them in the car (which is often believe it or not, even up here in the metroplex). So, when we went to my parents for Christmas, we made it a point to take the kids down to our family farm. John loaded the carseats up in my dad's truck and away they went. The cows know my dad's truck so they immediately ran up to the pens and waited for him to feed them. John worked on getting the kids out of the car seats and then turned them loose. Abby immediately ran up to the pen yelling "COW!" at the top of her lungs. She terrified the cows and they all went running. My dad told John to take the kids behind the truck so the cows couldn't see them and he got them all back in the pen. He closed the pen and Abby and Jake then went up to the fence to see the cows. I'm not sure if they had more fun seeing the cows up close or climbing the fence, but they had a blast.
While they were down there, my dad ran the tractor a bit too. The kids were in the pen and my dad was circling the pen with the tractor. Jake kept "chasing" the tractor hoping for a ride. However, it was getting late and time to go so we'll have to save the tractor ride for another visit.

Christmas in S'ville

We went down to my parents on Christmas Eve and spent a few days there with the family. The kids had a great time visiting with their cousins and opening gifts. On Christmas morning, Whitney and the kids came over. We were still eating breakfast so the twins opened stockings and gifts in their PJs. We tried to get a few group shots, but Abby was going to have no part of it. We even bribed her with a giant snow globe, but she just took that and ran off on her own. Jake, Noah and Addy however, did great!

Jake was really into Noah this trip and wanted to do everything he did. Noah was fantastic and would set Jake up with his own train and tracks (or what ever he was doing at the moment) so Jake could play along side him without messing up his stuff. They were so cute together! Of course I didn't get any pics of this so you'll have to trust me that they were cute!

After stockings, we opened our gifts. Addy played "Santa"this year and helped pass out all the gifts to everyone. The twins got really anxious waiting for stuff to do and Jake really just wanted to go back and play with his train and hot wheels.

We finally opened everything and saved the big gifts for last. This year, my parents focused on riding toys for the kids. Noah and Jake got power wheels and the girls got tricycles. Everyone had a blast playing with the toys and we spent the rest of the morning outside playing.

Noah was the only designated driver for the Jeep so he gave rides to all. Jake liked it (at least I think he did, he never smiled, but wanted to ride again). Abby decided to get out as soon as Noah hit the gas!

Christmas with Grandpa John & Grandma BB

The Monday before Christmas John's dad and step-mom came into town to see the kids and drop off their presents. They came by bright and early while the kids and I were finishing up breakfast. They quickly gobbled up their oatmeal and then we changed into our clothes for the day. The kids were excited to see everyone and Abby starting waving and saying "hi" from her chair as everyone came in the door.

In the morning we mostly played around and finally opened gifts. Their big gift was a huge hit - a climber. They opened it up and then John and his dad quickly put it together. The kids immediately climbed on and started sliding. They loved it! I think we only used the door once or twice. They really preferred climbing over the edge to get inside and go down the slide. At one point though Abby became a little possessive and wouldn't let Jake up the climber. We then decided it was time for lunch.

We headed out and stopped at what was supposed to be a very kid friendly restaurant (according to Parenting magazine anyway), but had a horrible experience. The food was good, but the service was horribly SLOW! No good when you have two hungry tired kids. After lunch we were going to go to the arboretum, but it was a really chilly day, so we just headed back to the house and put the kids down for a nap. They napped till 3:30 or so and then we just hung out and talked the rest of the day. We had a great time and really enjoyed being with family!

Grandma BB decided to do her hair in pigtails too!!!

The wood floor "extended" the slide for the kids...they would continue sliding on the floor after the slide, especially Jake!

The Terrible Twos Already?!?!

What? We're already getting into the terrible two's? I do believe we are. The last couple of weeks the kids have been so exhausting! They are getting defiant, destructive and the "witching" hour has now become the hyper hour(s). We are now into breaking everything...pick item up , throw it down and watch it smash into a zillion pieces. We think this is fun now! The kids are also now running in circles (literally) and screaming, laughing and jumping from dinner to bedtime. At first I thought it was the colder weather (kinda like how dogs get hyper in cold weather), but I do believe we've entered the terrible two's now. Last week I called John at work a few minutes before 6 and said I needed him to come home and relieve me...the kids were pushing me to the limit. After I got off the phone, I took them back to their room for a quick diaper change. While changing diapers, I heard a pan crash to the floor. I knew it was the pan from the stove that had dinner in it for John. I yelled at the dogs then called John and said don't worry about coming home early...I packed the kids in the car and was heading out to just drive around for a while. I needed a break and luckily the kids do well in the car most of the time. He was already on his way and said he come home and clean the house before I got back. We drove around looking at Christmas lights for about 45 minutes then headed home. The kids were getting tired and it was almost bedtime. John was just about finished cleaning the den and kitchen and helped out with the kids until bedtime. I have been so tempted to buy a bounce house and set it up..that way when I have moments like that again, I can just put them in the bounce house, zip it shut and let them bounce till their hearts content. And I can have a little break knowing they're safe in a padded room! :-)

Boys and their Toys

Jake has become quite the car man. The obsession began a few months ago when we visited my moms and "borrowed" 4 hot wheel cars from my nephew. Jake loves the cars and plays with them every day. Since them I discovered 2 more cars here at the house that were my nephews in our back closet so he was up to 6 cars. Well within the last week or so we lost half the cars so the kids were constantly fighting over them (Abby loves to take them just to annoy Jake). So, I picked up a 5 pack of cars yesterday at Wal-Mart.
Jake woke up from his nap right on time at 3, but Abby was still sleeping so he got a good half hour of alone time (which he never gets!). I gave him his new shiny cars and he was so excited. I gave him the older cars too, but he threw those in a bucket and continued to play with the new cars.
Abby woke up at 3:30 and so I got her up and let her play with the old cars. She very quickly discovered Jake had new cars and wanted those. The fighting began. I saw him running back and forth from the sideboard to the coffee table and finally stopped to see what he was doing. He lined all the cars up, climbed up on his zebra and started playing (so Abby wouldn't take them). I had to grab a few pics. Too funny!
And yes, Murphy's law applied here too, I found the missing three cars yesterday evening. One was in the car under a seat, one under the dryer and the other buried in the pantry.

PAMOM Holiday Party

Saturday morning we had our PAMOM holiday party for the families, complete with Santa, bounce houses and more. I had volunteered to work the first shift so John brought the kids up a little late so I didn't miss out on any of the fun (and John didn't have to tote them around by himself! Although he did venture without the stroller which was huge for him, he hasn't done that before!). Our first stop was the bounce houses. They had 2 set up, one for the smaller kids and one for the bigger kids. It was great. We put the kids in the smaller one and they went wild. Abby really got into it running around, falling, jumping and laughing all over. She would even come over to the netting and play with John and I. Jake was very focused and didn't come over to say hi at all. He jumped in the middle watching all the other kids. I tried to get some good shots, but 1) it's tough when all your subjects are jumping, 2) for some reason, I couldn't not get a pic of Jake. Every time I tried, someone would step in front of him. I finally got a few shots, not the best, but a few anyway.

After jumping for a while, we got the kids out and went to see Santa. They did really good in line and then we had a few screamers in line ahead of us. I was worried the kids would start crying when we got to Santa since the other kids cried, but they didn't. Thank goodness. I was a little nervous though. When we got to Santa, Jake went on his lap right away and Abby held on to my neck for her life. She had a death grip on me and wasn't letting go. John helped peel her away and they both did really good. No smiles, but no tears either. That's a winner in my book.

(This was the first time Abby left her pigtails in! I put them in at home before I left for the party and when John brought the kids up, they were still in! She also left them in all day!)

Since we had to stand in line a bit, we let them jump some more to get the wiggles out before heading to the balloon animal line. That was a long, slow line, but we finally made it. Abby got a flower and Jake a sword. Within 10 seconds (literally), Abby had her flower disassembled. She still had fun though with her balloon.

Well, it was noon now and time to load the kids up. We got everyone in the car and headed for McDonald's for lunch. I wasn't thinking about going out to eat so I didn't bring sippys or anything, but I figured McD's was the place to try new things with the kids so we grabbed a booth and slid them in. No high chairs and no sippys (drank straight from their cups with a straw). They did much better than I imagined! I figured we'd have kids running under the booth and all over the place, but they sat there and ate. Very impressed!

Wrapped in Style

Yesterday the kids and I were out at Target getting milk and bananas (I think we're out at least every other day for this!) and I saw some cute bath robes. I decided to get the kids some b/c when we do baths, I'm usually on my own. So after bath time, I dry everyone off and we run to their bedroom to get diapers and PJs on. It's getting chili now so I thought it would be nice to wrap them up in a bath robe vs. letting them run around naked and cold.
Well last night was bath night and Abby was first to get her robe on. She laughed and kept looking at it. I got Jake out and wrapped him up too. They both liked the robes and thought they were silly I guess. They kept running around laughing and smiling. I tried to get a few pics, but when I'd say smile, Abby would crouch down, smile then spring towards the camera. Jake quickly got in on the action too and so the pics are a little wild.
This isn't a great shot, but I loved Abby in it. Crazy little girl!

It's a Girl!

I haven't blogged much about the new little one on the way, but this is dedicated to her. Yes it's a girl. We kept thinking my doc would have scheduled a sono by now, but he hadn't. I didn't really know what the schedule was with a singleton - I had sonos all the time with the twins. Once a week towards the end! Anyway, normally you only get two I guess. One at 12 weeks and one at 28 weeks. Well, the 28 week sono isn't until 12/30 and we really wanted to know if it was a girl or boy before then so we could do the nursery during the holidays. It's really the only good amount of time John will have off before this thing comes. He has to take 2 or 2-1/2 weeks off before the end of the year or he loses his vacation. Well, I can't let that happen so he's taking the time off! Anyway, we decided to pay for a gender check sono and had one yesterday. They confirmed, yes, it's a girl. John was hoping for another little girl and I have to admit, I was kinda hoping for another little boy. Since Abby can't be an only child, I really think she would have made a perfect "only girl". Plus, I had grand plans of putting bunk beds in the boys' room and we'd all live happily ever after. :-)
Now that we know what the sex is, John and I have to start thinking of names. We had our second pick the first time around that we were going to use, but John's rethinking that. So, the debates will soon start on a name. I've already got my list going, but I need John to start thinking about it. We also have to go pick out new furniture and get that ordered. Looks like we'll be picking out little girl furniture. I'm hoping to reuse the crib bedding, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. Abby loves her bumpers and we tried taking them out once before...it didn't go well at all. When we installed the crib tents we took 2 bumpers out and left two in as a test. Abby screamed for 3 days until I put them back in. Both the kids really sleep on them like pillows since they're so fat; except their pillows go all around their bed. How nice is that!
Everything has been going well so far with the baby. No issues with her; I've had some issues with my bladder this time around and so my OB has me also seeing my Urologist throughout the pregnancy just to make sure everything remains okay and no further complications arise.
I'm also still trying to decide if I want to deliver this baby naturally or via c-section. I like the predictability of the c-section, but I've heard the recovery is so much better when you deliver naturally. I really can't complain on the recovery of my c-section it actually went well, but since I'll have two two-year olds to chase after this time around, it would be nice if I could move around sooner. Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see I guess.