Growth of the baby bump!

I was pretty good at documenting my growing belly this pregnancy, thanks to Instagram :)

Overall, it's been a great pregnancy.  We did have a scare last week.  I went in for my 37 week appointment and my belly hadn't grown at all since the previous week.  Dr. Gatherum ordered an Ultrasound and we found out that my amniotic fluid level (AFL) was low (a 7.5 out of 25).  The Dr. said that under a 10 is pretty low, but it's not necessarily dangerous unless the AFL gets below 5.  At my 38 week appointment, yesterday, my AFL was an 8, so just a teeny bit higher than last week.  Dr. Gatherum said he'd induce me next week, but to keep doing kick counts.  I still worry, since the AFL is so low (which is probably one of the reasons my belly hasn't been super huge).  I just want this baby to get here safe and sound!

The first belly shots - 3 weeks (I look so skinny!!!) and 12 weeks

16 weeks

20 weeks

24 weeks

28 weeks

32 weeks

36 weeks

38 weeks

Some things about this pregnancy:

- My face hasn't gotten all chubby!  This is a miracle, my face usually gets chubby, especially by the end.
- I've been able to wear my wedding ring the whole time.  My fingers usually swell, but not this pregnancy.
- I have had the worst heartburn/indigestion.  I can't eat any spicy foods, acidic foods (like anything with tomato sauce, which means no spaghetti or pizza), or anything with too many spices or garlic.  I love to cook, so it's been hard!  I can eat breakfast foods, though!  I could eat eggs, pancakes, german pancakes, etc, every night for dinner.  Oh, and cereal.  Those foods don't make me feel yucky!  And I've been making lots of green smoothies, full of fruits and veggies, so I can get my fruits and veggies in every day.
- I've been able to exercise the whole pregnancy, which has been nice.  I kept my workout routine the same at the beginning, and then had to slow it down towards the end.  I was doing spin, a weight lifting class and lifting weights/doing cardio on my own.  I did stop running at the beginning since I didn't feel great.  I lifted weights until a couple of weeks ago and now I just walk or do the eliptical.  Anything else hurts!  All those ligaments under my belly protest, even when I walk sometimes.
- I get comments all the time about how little my belly is.  At this point, it's not so little, but people still comment on how small it is for how far along I am.
- The girls have been so cute, kissing my belly and giving it hugs.  And telling the baby how much they love him.  I love it, it's so sweet.
- Jake has been such a huge help.  He cleans the floors (which is hard to do with a big belly!), does dishes, helps with the girls and lets me rest when I need to.  I don't know what I would do without him!

Happy New Year!

The past three New Year's Eves have been spent with the Coons at their house.  They are moving this summer.  What will we do next year???

This year, we decided to bring our kids and let them celebrate with us.  Plus, I wasn't up to staying up until midnight, so celebrating at 10:00 sounded pretty good to me :)

We ate yummy food, played some games and just had fun!

Jake with his Pepsi Throwback while Chad sets up and explains Texas Hold 'Em

My cute Katers!

Emmy, Kate and Addison, playing poker ;)

Our friends, Mary and Dave Armour, came this year, too.  It was a great New Years Eve with yummy food, great friends and lots of fun!

Christmas 2012

Christmas this year was interesting.  Not the best Christmas, at least for Jake and I.

The weekend before Christmas, Kate got sick and threw up, only once, and then she felt better.  Then, the night before Christmas Eve, Emmy got sick and was up half the night, which meant Jake and I were up half the night, too.  The next day she felt much better and so we went to St. George, to Lindsey's house, for our Christmas Eve festivities!  We've done this every year for the past 6 years.  We eat dinner, open PJs, read from the Bible and watch Mr. Kreuger's Christmas.

The girls opening up their PJs:

Cute Princess PJs!

Grammy and Papa w/ the grandkids and their PJs (minus Matt & his family):

Grammy wrote a story called, "The Christmas Key."  She thinks she finally wrote the final draft and read it to the grandkids.  We love this story and read it to the girls every year and then put our "Christmas Keys" on the tree to help unlock and remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.

I started feeling not so great on the way home.  We got the kids to bed and then I was done for.  I couldn't even really help Jake set up for Christmas.  I wrapped a present or two and then had to lay down.  It was not the best night of my life.  I was up every 30-45 minutes with the flu.  We'll leave it at that ...  Finally, around 3:00 am, it stopped and I was able to sleep (being pregnant, plus not really sleeping much for two nights in a row was not the best).

Shortly after I stopped, Jake started.  Now, I have to say that in 8 years of marriage, this is the first time Jake has been sick with the flu.  First time!  I get it at least once or twice a year.

The girls woke up around 6:45 and saw that Santa had come!  Jake and I tried to be really happy and excited for them, even though we were feeling so yucky.  I did manage to get a few pictures.

We decided to keep it simple this year.  The girls asked Santa for two things each (plus Santa fills their stockings) and then Jake and I got the girls just a couple of things.  With Santa gifts, gifts from mom and dad, Grammy and Papa and cousins, we decided keeping it simple would be best!  The girls already have so much, it was really nice just getting them the few things they asked for.

Kate was happy with this bubble gum from her stocking!  I'm pretty sure it was gone by the middle of the day ...

Emmy asked Santa for art supplies, and she got lots of them!  And the girls each got a movie in their stocking, which kind of saved us that day.  Jake and I could rest while they watched their new movies.

She got lots of markers, crayons, coloring and doodle books.  She also asked Santa for a "Sparkling star light" and he brought her the cutest string of glittery star lights that are now hanging up in the girls' room.

Kate asked Santa for "sparkly lip gloss" (this girl is OBSESSED with lip gloss!) and a "fishy game" (the one with the fishing poles).  She was so excited to get them!  She also got a couple of art supplies from Santa - I guess he didn't want her to feel left out :)  So she got paint (because she LOVES to paint) and some coloring books.

This was the damage after the presents were opened - not too bad!

Plus, I'm a little OCD and have to clean up the wrapping paper as it's getting ripped off the presents.

Our cutie pies!  They stayed in their PJs all day :)

The rest of the day was spent with the girls playing with their presents and Jake and I in bed, either at the same time or taking turns.  The girls did spend a little bit of time at Grammy and Papa's house, but Grammy and Papa started feeling not so great, too.  Whatever this little bug was, it made it's way through all of us!  We decided we need a re-do of Christmas!

Christmas fun!

There are always lots of fun activities to do in December.  I tried to do lots of fun things with the girls inside since it was so cold outside!!!  Here are some of the things we did that I took pictures of.

We made salt dough ornaments which I baked and then the girls painted (and the girls absolutely love to paint, especially Kate):

And the girls hung their ornaments on the tree in their room when they were done.

We also made Gingerbread Houses.

My gingerbread didn't bake as well as it should have, so the girls made graham cracker houses while the gingerbread continued to bake ... and their friends, Addison and Eli, came and made the Gingerbread Houses with us.  Kate and Eli pretty much just ate the candy, which is why I don't have any pics of them making houses.

 

Emmy loved making her house!

And here she is with her friend, Addison:

Emmy painted this picture of a nativity one day.  She came and showed it to me - I was so proud of her!  I love the star in the sky.  And the extra person?  The lady who helped Mary "pull the baby out".  So cute :)

And the girls helped me make a T-Shirt for Papa this year for Christmas.  I used their art to make a shirt.  They colored it on freezer paper, I cut it out with an exacto-knife and then painted it onto the shirt with fabric paint.  I love how it turned out!

Here's Emmy's "before" artwork - I forgot to take a pic before I cut out the letters ...

And Kate's "before" artwork (I had to pick just one of the pictures to use):

And here is the end result!

And the girls w/ their Papa!  They adore him.

Let it Snow!

When it finally snowed this year, the girls were so excited to play in the snow with Daddy!

I don't have any snow clothes, so I leave the playing in the snow stuff to Jake, which he loves doing anyways.

Here's Kate making a snow angel:

The snow was a little too powdery for a nice, round snowman, so they improvised ... here are the girls helping Jake roll the snow into balls!

Here's what they came up with for their snowman:

 

And Jake had lots of fun just playing with the girls in the snow.  He was throwing them down in the snow, and they kept going back for more!

Sonny, the elf

On December 1st, we get a visit from our elf, Sonny.  He stays with us until Christmas Eve, when he flies back to the North Pole with Santa.  He watches the girls and then reports back to Santa every night - this helps Santa make his Naughty or Nice list.  Sonny is in a new place every morning.  The first thing the girls would do when they woke up was see where Sonny was.  It was very exciting!

Here are some things we found Sonny doing ...

The first day, he was on our tree:

We also found him with Kate's tooth brush:

And Sonny found a new friend!  One of Emmy's Barbies:

 Here is Sonny, having a tea party with his favorite Barbie, Prince Naveen and Tinkerbell.

Plus, I spy a pregnant belly in this pic!

The girls were sad to say goodbye to Sonny on Christmas Eve, but they know he'll be back next year!

Random November Post

Here's my random post for November.

With Emmy's new bike, the girls spend lots of time riding their bikes.

Aren't they adorable???

Good thing it wasn't too cold to ride them (yet ... the super coldness didn't come until January).

With Kate finally on a big-girl bike, it was time to get her a bike helmet.  She wanted one before we bought one, so she used one of Papa's ATV helmets to protect her noggin.

And this is pretty much the only picture I took of Thanksgiving, which we had at Grammy and Papa's house this year.  The kid's table.  See how much food they ate?  Pretty much the littles just ate rolls ...

And we got the Christmas tree set up a couple days after Thanksgiving.

The girls decorated it themselves, at least the lower part of the tree.  They loved doing it!

And they each wanted to help daddy put the star on the top of the tree.

 

We set up a small tree in the girls' bedroom this year.  We put their homemade ornaments on it.  They loved having their own little tree!

The girls also got to sit on Santa's lap at the Dickens Festival (our yearly tradition).  Lindsey and I sang at the Festival again this year and the girls got their pictures with "the real Santa" in their Christmas dresses:

Adventures of a Snaggle Tooth {Part 2}

 

With Emmy's first front tooth gone, it left room for the other one, which was a little bit loose, to get very loose since there wasn't another tooth holding it in place.  Which resulted in another beautiful snaggle tooth (just look at that picture above)!  And, once again, she wouldn't let us get near it.

We tried to threaten her, which led to this:

She was so scared to have it pulled.  I'm not sure why because it didn't hurt the previous two times she had her teeth pulled.

But one night, she got brave and finally let Jake pull it!

And she became our toothless girl!

She was singing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" this year, minus a lisp.  Her front left tooth is coming in pretty fast, and the other one is starting to grow.

Losing her front teeth is just proof that our little girl is growing up!  Her big, adult teeth will grow in and she won't look like a little girl anymore.  Now we need a little break from losing teeth or else she won't be able to eat anything!  She already bites food from the side of her mouth, since she doesn't have her teeth there to bite for her :)